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January 2012

FRANK SALVATO: AN “AXELROD-ESQUE” MOMENT FOR GINGRICH

Related Link: http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4249

An ‘Axelrod-esque’ Moment for Gingrich By Frank Salvato

Almost on the eve of the South Carolina GOP Primary, ABC News is set to televise an interview with Newt Gingrich’s second wife, Marianne, where she claims the presidential contender asked her for an “open marriage” so that he could see the woman that would become his third wife, Callista. Truth be told, this is a re-hashed interview, the original having run in Esquire Magazine in 2010. Which leaves us this to consider: the execution and airing of this interview is either an attempt by a woman scorned to even the score, a politically motivated hit-piece, or both. Whichever it turns out to be, the one thing it won’t be is a game changer.

That Newt Gingrich has had marital issues in his past is common knowledge. Anyone shocked by this news should not consider themselves well-informed. Anyone offended by the marital transgressions of his past should heed the words from a follow-up Esquire Magazine article:

ISLAM COMMANDS INDIVIDUAL JIHAD: CLARE M. LOPEZ

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.11269/pub_detail.asp
Islam Commands Individual Jihad Clare M. Lopez
According to Islamic law, Jihad is warfare to spread the religion and is obligatory for all Muslims everywhere until such time as “there is no more Fitna [resistance to Islam] and the religion will all be for Allah alone.” (Q 8:39) Jihad against the infidel (kuffar) is of two types: offensive and defensive. The offensive kind, called “Fard Kifaya,” is conducted under the leadership of the Caliph and is for the purpose of defending the borders of Islam and sending out the armies of Islam at least once a year to terrorize the enemies of Allah. Offensive Jihad is a collective duty and when enough Muslim fighters respond to the call of the Caliph, the remainder of the Muslim population is relieved of this duty.

Defensive jihad is a compulsory duty upon all Muslims primarily when the kuffar enter Muslim lands. It is considered so critical to repulse the invader that Ibn Taymia even asserted it took precedence over making the hajj. This defensive jihad duty is called “Fard ‘Ayn” and means that there is a personal obligation for all Muslims in the land which has been attacked to join the fight. The scholars agree that children may march forth without permission of their parents, wives without permission of husbands, and slaves without permission of their masters. If the Muslims of the land attacked by the kuffar cannot expel the enemy for whatever reason, then the Fard ‘Ayn obligation expands outward to include other Muslims nearby and then at increasing distances from the center of the invasion. Eventually, Fard ‘Ayn can become obligatory across the entire world until the kuffar is expelled from Muslim land.

SARA DOGAN: THREE DAYS OF ANTI-ISRAEL VENOM AT U PENN

Three Days of Anti-Israel Venom at U Penn Posted By Sara Dogan

URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/01/20/three-days-of-hate-at-u-penn/

What do the administrators at the University of Pennsylvania know about the 2012 National Conference of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement about to take place at Penn and when did they know it?

“BDS,” as this virulent anti-Israeli hatefest is commonly called, is coming to the Penn campus on February 3-5, but university officials have hid from the implications of hosting such an event. They say that the university is on record as not supporting this movement, yet they let the event go forward, providing space and possibly funding, despite the fact that the sponsors may not meet school requirements as a recognized group and that their anti-Semitic message is deeply hostile to academic freedom and basic human decency. The university appears to be bending rules that would be rigidly enforced for sponsors of another cause.

U Penn’s willingness to enable the BDS conference is particularly inexplicable given the fact that this growing movement to boycott Israel and Israeli-produced goods, force divestment from any companies that do business with Israel, and establish sanctions against Israel due to its supposed violations of human rights, was created by nations and groups seeking to delegitimize and destabilize Israel such as the terrorist-sponsoring nation of Iran and the terrorist groups Hezbollah, and Hamas.

MARC THIESSEN: AL QAEDA TERROR TRAINING MANUAL FOUND AT GITMO

http://blog.american.com/2012/01/al-qaeda-terror-training-manual-found-at-gitmo/
Al Qaeda terror training manual found at Gitmo

Authorities at Guantanamo Bay recently began reading privileged attorney-client communications in an effort to prevent terrorists from passing messages and receiving unauthorized information from their brethren on the outside. Detainee advocates have responded with outrage, but we may now have learned what sparked the new procedures—an al Qaeda terrorist training manual has been found at Gitmo.

The Miami Herald reports this morning:

A copy of Al Qaida’s fiery magazine Inspire somehow got inside the prison camps at Guantánamo, a prosecutor disclosed at the war court Wednesday.

Navy Cmdr. Andrea Lockhart blurted out the embarrassing disclosure in defending the prison camp commander’s plan to give greater scrutiny to legal mail bound for alleged terrorists. She was discussing a system used by civilian lawyers to send materials to Guantánamo captives who are suing the U.S. for their freedom through habeas corpus petitions in Washington, D.C.

JONATHAN SPEYER: GAZA: BLUEPRINT FOR MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD RULE?

Gaza: Blueprint for Muslim Brotherhood Rule? Posted By Jonathan Spyer
URL to article: http://pjmedia.com/blog/gaza-blueprint-for-muslim-brotherhood-rule/

Mahmoud Abu Rahma, international director of the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in the Gaza Strip, was attacked outside his home in Tel el-Hawa in southern Gaza on January 13 by thugs almost certainly sent by the Hamas authorities. As they stabbed him, the attackers taunted Abu Rahma, calling him an “atheist” and a “collaborator.” In the Gaza Strip, “collaboration” is a crime punishable by death according to the law code used by Hamas.

This was the second time in the last month that Abu Rahma has been the victim of an assault. On January 3, he was attacked outside his apartment building. He has now been released from hospital — the stab wounds he received in his back, shoulder, and leg will take many months to heal.

This incident cast light on a disturbing picture. Hamas-controlled Gaza is a brutal, cruelly governed place. The authorities are in the process of introducing a draconian Islamic legal code, which will further codify the repression.

Gaza offers a sobering real-world lesson regarding the tendencies of the Muslim Brotherhood in government at a time when that movement is moving closer to power in a number of important Middle Eastern states.

TED BELMAN: WANT PEACE? DEMOCRATIZE JORDAN….SEE NOTE

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/01/want_peace_democratize_jordan.html

HELLO! I JUST LOVE THE IDEA BUT WILL MY E-PAL TED BELMAN NAME A SINGLE ARAB COUNTRY THAT IS A DEMOCRACY? RSK

I have not been a fan of the “Jordan is Palestine” option, however it was defined, because it required the consent of King Abdullah. I preferred a unilateral, made in Israel solution.

But that was then and this is now.

Mudar Zahran, a Jordanian Palestinian exiled in London, has been communicating with me about his desire and ability to form a secular democratic government in Jordan, should fair elections take place. He is seeking my help in getting the US government to influence King Abdullah to democratize and in getting Israel to embrace the change.

Why me, and how I plan to go about achieving this will be the subject of another article. But first I would like to say why I am so excited about this possibility.

Zahran advises that the Palestinians represent a large majority of all residents of Jordan and they are trending secular and are anti the Muslim Brotherhood, King Abdullah and Mahmud Abbas. They are tired of waiting for a peace deal to emerge from the process, isn’t waiting 60 years enough, and want to take their destiny in their own hands.

CALLING FOR MITT’S TAX RETURNS? WHAT ABOUT OBAMA’S TRANSCRIPTS…AND OTHER MEDIA NONSENSE: LAURI REGAN

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/01/a_gop_candidates_bitter_ex-wife_receives_more_coverage_than_a_video_of_obama_dining_with_terrorist_s.html
A GOP Candidate’s Bitter Ex-Wife Receives More Coverage Than a Video of Obama Dining with Terrorist-Supporters

As I watch the media circus surrounding Marianne Gingrich’s interview regarding her relationship with her ex-husband and GOP candidate, Newt Gingrich, I am once again reminded of the double standard afforded to the Democrats and Barack Obama in particular. Coming on the heels of the Herman Cain melee in which the press had a field day parading one accuser after another before video cameras, it is difficult not to repeat the question of why the Democrats get a free pass. Why are calls for Mitt Romney to release his tax return not met with calls for Barack Obama to release his college transcripts — something that is just as customary for presidential candidates?

TOM WILSON: THE U.K. GUARDIAN HAS BECOME A HUB OF UNRESTRAINED ANTI-AMERICANISM

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/810/the_guardian_has_turned_itself_into_a_hub_of_unrestrained_anti_americanism

The Guardian has turned itself into a hub of unrestrained anti-AmericanismThe anti-Americanism of liberals comes down to a clash of world views that fundamentally rejects the values on which American society is founded. Yet this opposition is increasingly disproportionate.
It had been suggested by some that with George Bush gone from office the levels of anti-Americanism witnessed in Britain and across Europe would subside. Yet no such transformation of attitude has occurred.

For as The Independent columnist, YasmineAlabai-Brown once remarked on Question Time, Obama, with whom she claimed to have fallen a little in love with, had now ‘shown himself to be the ugly American’. That comment came in relation to the killing of Bin Laden but what it betrays is not simply a total lack of moral clarity but also the hope that existed among Britain’s liberal establishment that Obama would somehow be an ‘un-American’ president. They will tell you how they have been sorely disappointed.

HADAR SELA: UK DIPLOMATS BEHAVING BADLY IN ISRAEL

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/815/british_diplomats_behaving_badly_in_israel
British diplomats behaving badly in Israel

If the British government hopes to salvage any credibility as an ‘honest broker’ in the Middle East, it must rein in the Foreign office strongly and immediately

In April 2011 the world celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and next year will also mark 50 years since the signing of the related Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Both these documents contain an identical clause (in the former, article 41 and in the latter, article 55) regarding “Respect for the laws and regulations of the receiving state”:

“Without prejudice to their privileges and immunities, it is the duty of all persons enjoying such privileges and immunities to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State.They also have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State.” (emphasis added)

SARAH HONIG: ZIVA FOR PRIME MINISTER?

http://sarahhonig.com/2012/01/19/another-tack-ziva-for-prime-minister/
When things get tough – or just seemingly tough – the not-so-tough invent an instant leader, another new, shining hope for the shallow masses yearning for magical interventions.

Existential dangers that can’t be eradicated in one simplistic swoop are a drag. Admitting that some problems are altogether intractable can be oppressive, especially to generations reared on the 45- minute TV plot where everything is fixable in a tight time frame. Life’s burdens would diminish if reality only conformed to Hollywood scripts.

Given that, there’s just no denying that the ultimate candidate for prime minister of Israel is none other than Ziva David – the boob tube’s outstanding Israeli patriot, a self-disciplined and self-reliant Zionist warrior, a virtual one-woman army and a sharpshooter guided by an unerring moral compass.

She’s quite possibly the only Jewish regular on American TV who’s unapologetic, complex-free and not comically dysfunctional. She’s surely the only full-time Israeli character on any mainstream network hit drama.