RUTHFULLY YOURS

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.

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?

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.

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)

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.

http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/2007/When-Will-We-See-Red-Over-Green-on-Blue-Murder-in-Afghanistan.aspx This week’s syndicated column: Is there a single public official who is examining – who cares about – the murder spree by Afghan security forces against Western troops and security contractors in Afghanistan? I can list well over 40 such murders in the past two years. These incidents even have their own phrase in […]

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/korol/120118

Harvard’s mission statement contains words such as: open the minds, respect ideas, critical thought, productive cooperation, developing full intellectual and human potential — not to mention explore, advance knowledge and promote understanding.

Under the direction of anti-Semitic activist Paul Beran, a product of supercessionist Presbyterianism, Harvard has become a hotbed of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against one country in all the world, Israel — the one country in the Middle East that is actually the only voice of compassion and justice. The assigned readings and visiting speakers have been entirely pro-Palestinian (pro-totalitarianism and anti-democracy), such as Ilan Pappé, Noam Chomsky, and Richard Falk (among the most infamous in their demonic category), influenced by the works of no less than the epitome of evil, George Soros (a very disturbed but wealthy and influential man), with representatives from one of his many nefarious organizations, Jewish Voice for Peace.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=254400 Today’s anti-Semitism is predicated on preferring Palestinian and pan-Arab nationalism to Jewish nationalism. Anti-Semitism may not yet be a litmus test for social acceptability in the US, but it has certainly become acceptable. Proof of this dismal state of affairs came this week with the publication of a supportive profile of University of Chicago […]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rejecting-the-keystone-pipeline-is-an-act-of-insanity/2012/01/19/gIQAowG6AQ_story.html

Rejecting the Keystone pipeline is an act of insanity

President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is an act of national insanity. It isn’t often that a president makes a decision that has no redeeming virtues and — beyond the symbolism — won’t even advance the goals of the groups that demanded it. All it tells us is that Obama is so obsessed with his reelection that, through some sort of political calculus, he believes that placating his environmental supporters will improve his chances.

Aside from the political and public relations victory, environmentalists won’t get much. Stopping the pipeline won’t halt the development of tar sands, to which the Canadian government is committed; therefore, there will be little effect on global-warming emissions. Indeed, Obama’s decision might add to them. If Canada builds a pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific for export to Asia, moving all that oil across the ocean by tanker will create extra emissions. There will also be the risk of added spills.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/288483/eternal-peril-simple-answer-thomas-sowell

The Eternal Peril of the Simple Answer
History is harder to untangle than politicians would lead us to believe.

Anyone who has ever been in a Third World country, or even in a slum neighborhood at home, is likely to wonder why there can be such dire poverty among some people while others are prospering.
Both politicians and intellectuals have tended to have simple answers to that question, even if these simple answers have been different in different eras.