RUTHFULLY YOURS

How Israel’s Gaza Pullout Radicalized Sinai

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/01/16/israel-gaza-pullout-radicalized-sinai/#more-780752

Anyone who still thinks more Israel territorial withdrawals are a good idea should carefully study Ehud Yaari’s chilling new report for The Washington Institute on “Sinai: A New Front.” To anyone who has been following the situation, Yaari’s bottom line – that Sinai-based terrorism “could break a fragile bilateral peace [with Egypt] that is already challenged by growing post-Mubarak demands to abrogate, review, or amend the treaty” – isn’t new; I’ve been warning of this for months. Where the veteran Israeli journalist and Arabist makes a real contribution is his analysis of how Israel’s 2005 pullout from Gaza contributed to Sinai’s radicalization. And while he doesn’t say so, the implication of his research is obvious: An Israeli pullout from the West Bank could similarly radicalize and destabilize Jordan.

http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2012/01/islamist-stops-university-debate-with-threats-of-violence?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nssnews+%28NSS+News%29
http://www.secularism.org.uk/blog/2012/01/freedom-of-expression-under-threat-by-violent-extremists

A talk on sharia and human rights by NSS Council Member Anne Marie Waters’ at Queen Mary College, London was cancelled at the last moment because of an Islamist who made serious threats against everyone there.

The talk was due to take place on 16 January but before it started, a man entered the lecture theatre, stood at the front with a camera and filmed the audience. He then said that he knew who everyone was, where they lived and if he heard anything negative about the Prophet, he would track them down.

The man also filmed students in the foyer and threatened to murder them and their families. On leaving the building, he joined a large group of men, apparently there to support him. Students were told by security to stay in the lecture theatre for their own safety.

Jews Are in Palestine as of Right http://www.mythsandfacts.com/conflict/mandate_for_palestine/mandate_for_palestine.htm Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister of Britain, called Israeli settlements “deliberate vandalism” at a press conference Tuesday, January 10, 2012. Nick Clegg is turning international law on its head – attempting to rewrite history. The quotes below reflect the current degree of ignorance and occasional just plain […]

http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/288392 Honest reflection on the past twelve months of discontent, as manifested in various forms of revolutionary zeal, rhetoric, and violence, exposes a solitary thread weaving through all the demonstrations and “rebel” and “opposition” movements that cycloned through the Middle East and North Africa: In each case, local issues were the engines of public mobilization. […]

For Santorum, Even After New Hampshire By Lisa Schiffren http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/287933/santorum-even-after-new-hampshire-lisa-schiffren I want to be okay with Mitt Romney. And really, I am. I will vote for him. He’ll be fine. He’ll be good on the budget. He won’t cut enough, but no one does. He’ll be better than Dole or McCain would have been had they […]

http://www.jeffjacoby.com/11034/burning-with-despair

NEAR THE KIRTI MONASTERY in a Tibetan area of China’s Sichuan province, 21-year-old Lobsang Jamyang publicly set himself on fire last Saturday. It was the fourth time this month that a Tibetan protesting Chinese repression had resorted to self-immolation. When local residents attempted to retrieve his body from the police, Chinese security forces fired into the crowd, reportedly wounding two.

So far little is known about this latest Tibetan to burn himself alive. A few days earlier, however, a 42-year-old “Living Buddha” — a prominent Tibetan monk named Sonam Wangyal — swallowed and doused himself with kerosene, then set himself aflame in the western province of Quinghai. Sonam was an admired spiritual leader who had run an orphanage and a home for the elderly, and was regarded as the reincarnation of a high-ranking lama. Radio Free Asia reported that before immolating himself, he prayed and burned incense on a hilltop, and distributed leaflets calling his death a protest “for Tibet and the happiness of Tibetans.”

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?ID=253911&R=R1 In hiding the controversy surrounding the ‘constitutional revolution,’ the textbook denies students the ability to understand current events. One of the declared goals of the Netanyahu government is to ensure that Israeli schoolchildren receive a strong Zionist education. To this end, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed Gideon Sa’ar as his education minister. Sa’ar has […]

http://www.rightsidenews.com/2012011715407/editorial/world-opinion-and-editorial/the-palestinian-big-lie-revisited.html The Palestinian Big Lie Revisited By: Yedidya Atlas As the US presidential elections draw closer, support for Israel becomes a mantra for every potential candidate. Republicans wave their pro-Israel flag to satisfy the significant majority of pro-Israel Republican voters (non-Jews). While President Obama renews efforts to prove to the left-liberal Jewish Democratic donors and […]

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/

Fact checkers and truth squads are the media’s latest tool for blurring the line between the editorial page and the new page. The ubiquitous fact checks are editorializing dressed up as verification. While on some occasions there are actual facts to verify, for the most part the fact checks defend a partisan liberal viewpoint on a particular issue.

So no sooner did Rick Perry suggest that Turkey had no place in NATO and that some perceive its government to be run by Islamic terrorists than the media rolled out its fact checks. In the spirit of fact checking the fact checkers, let’s have a fact check of our own.

CNN Statement: “Turkey is not ruled by Islamic terrorists. It is led by a party with Islamist roots, the Justice and Freedom Party, or AKP.”

Those are the facts according to CNN’s Truth Squad, which took its name from a certain book by George Orwell. But let’s look at the actual facts.

The Facts: The AKP emerged out of a series of banned Islamist political movements. CNN’s Lie Squad mentions that the AKP’s current leader of Turkey Erdogan was banned for reading an Islamic poem in public. It neglects to mention the content of the poem.

“The minarets are our bayonets; the domes are our helmets. Mosques are our barracks, the believers are soldiers. This holy army guards my religion. Almighty, Our journey is our destiny, the end is martyrdom.”

The Mortal Threat From Iran
“Iran can sea-launch from off our coasts. Germany planned this in World War II. If cocaine can be smuggled into the U.S. without interdiction, we cannot dismiss the possibility of an Iranian nuke ending up in Manhattan.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203518404577096851732704524.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
To assume that Iran will not close the Strait of Hormuz is to assume that primitive religious fanatics will perform cost-benefit analyses the way they are done at Wharton. They won’t, especially if the oil that is their life’s blood is threatened. If Iran does close the strait, we will fight an air and naval war derivative of and yet peripheral to the Iranian nuclear program, a mortal threat the president of the United States has inadequately addressed.
A mortal threat when Iran is not yet in possession of a nuclear arsenal? Yes, because immediately upon possession all remedies are severely restricted. Without doubt, Iran has long wanted nuclear weapons—to deter American intervention in its and neighboring territories; to threaten Europe and thereby cleave it from American interests in the Middle East; to respond to the former Iraqi nuclear effort; to counter the contiguous nuclear presences in Pakistan, Russia and the U.S. in the Gulf; to neutralize Israel’s nuclear deterrent so as to limit it to the attrition of conventional battle, or to destroy it with one lucky shot; to lead the Islamic world; to correct the security imbalance with Saudi Arabia, which aided by geography and American arms now outclasses it; and to threaten the U.S. directly.
In the absence of measures beyond pinpoint sanctions and unenforceable resolutions, Iran will get nuclear weapons, which in its eyes are an existential necessity. We have long known and done nothing about this, preferring to dance with the absurd Iranian claim that it is seeking electricity. With rampant inflation and unemployment, a housing crisis, and gasoline rationing, why spend $1,000-$2,000 per kilowatt to build nuclear plants instead of $400-$800 for gas, when you possess the second largest gas reserves in the world? In 2005, Iran consumed 3.6 trillion cubic feet of its 974 trillion cubic feet of proven reserves, which are enough to last 270 years. We know that in 2006—generation exceeding consumption by 10%—Iran exported electricity and planned a high-tension line to Russia to export more.