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DECEMBER 2011 OUTPOST
We wish all our friends and subscribers very Happy Holidays and a New Year that brings peace and prosperity to America and Israel and good people all over the word.
Rael Jean Isaac and Ruth King
CODE RED IRAN: WILLIAM MEHLMAN
http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/code-red-iran-william-mehlman.html
“The era of procrastination, half measures , soothing and baffling expediency delays is coming to a close,” Winston Churchill wrote in witness to Adolf Hitler’s brazen 1936 remilitarization of the Rhineland. “In its place, we are entering a period of consequences.”
With the release of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency’s umptieth report on Iran’s passionate pursuit of an atomic bomb––a 1,000-page indictment replete with everything from satellite footage of the steel containers required for nuclear explosives testing to interviews with renegade scientists employed in transitioning Teheran from uranium enrichment to bomb assembly––Western civilization has clearly arrived at another “period of consequences.”
The 1936 response to those consequences – “soothing and baffling expediency delays” ending in 30 million deaths, a fifth of them Jewish, and the devastation of a continent––is being replicated 75 years later, with the Jews, this time in the person of Israel, reprising their roles as coal mine canaries.
FROM THE EDITOR: RAEL JEAN ISAAC
http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/from-the-editor-rael-jean-isaac-15.html
Israel Develops Cancer Vaccine
In a breakthrough development, Israeli company Vaxil BioTherapeutics has come up with a cancer vaccine, now in clinical trials at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem. While it is being tested against a specific cancer––multiple myeloma––if it works, its technology could be applied to 90% of all cancers, including prostate and breast cancer, solid and non-solid tumors. Julian Levy, the company’s CFO, explains that in cancer the immune system doesn’t know how to protect itself, as it does against an infection or virus. That’s because cancer cells are the body’s own cells gone wrong. In addition, a cancer patient has a depressed immune system, caused both by the illness and the treatment. The trick is to activate the compromised immune system to mobilize against the threat.
Harassing Israeli Patriots
Israeli authorities have adopted a sickening double standard in which they tolerate incitement (and worse) against Israel but not legitimate protests by patriotic Israelis. Two recent examples:
Rabbi David Druckman, chief rabbi of the city of Kiryat Motzkin north of Haifa, was hauled in for questioning by police over a letter he, and a number of other rabbis, signed over three years ago opposing employment of Arabs. It was written in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 massacre in the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in Jerusalem when an Arab terrorist, who had worked as a driver at the yeshiva, murdered eight students and seriously injured many more. Druckman told Arutz Sheva that questioning a rabbi for signing a letter is “unreal,” and that he told his police would-be interrogators that he would only cooperate if the police also questioned former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy who recently said Israel’s hareidi-religious Jews are “a bigger existential threat to Israel than Iran and Ahmadinejad” and also questioned “those academics who incite against the State of Israel and against the Jews.”
Blood Oil
There has been a successful campaign in the West against the sale of “blood diamonds,” those that are mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency. EthicalOil.org, a grassroots advocacy organization, has seized upon this principle to advocate the use of “ethical oil” from Canada’s oil sands in place of conflict oil from the world’s most oppressive regimes. This is an especially adroit strategy given the moral posturing of assorted global warming fanatics who denounce oil sands for their evil “emissions” without paying any mind to the fact that the alternative is oil with equally wicked “emissions” from oppressive societies whose behavior the West enables by its purchase of that oil.
“Secular” Tunisia
Tunisia was supposed to be the success story of the Arab spring, with its reportedly secular, relatively well educated population and largely peaceful revolution. Even the victory in the elections of the Islamist party Ennahda scarcely disturbed Western complacency: it was pronounced a “moderate” Islamic party.
It’s looking less moderate by the day. In November Ennahda invited Houda Naim, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza, to speak at a rally in Sousse, a coastal Tunisian city––the first time a member of Hamas had addressed the Tunisian public. Ennahda’s general secretary Hammadi Jebali, expected to become Tunisia’s next Prime Minister, declared the occasion “a divine moment in a new state, and in, hopefully, a sixth Caliphate.” Jabali also echoed Naim’s words, declaring “The liberation of Tunisia will, God willing, bring about the liberation of Jerusalem.”
A THIRD MIRACLE: RITA KRAMER
http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/a-third-miracle-rita-kramer.html
At sunset on the evening of December 20 Jews everywhere will light the first candle of Chanukah, the festival that commemorates two miracles––and may perhaps foresee a third. The first was the victory of a small band of Jews, led by Judah Maccabee and his brothers, over an army of Hellenists that vastly outnumbered them.
The attempt to replace the monotheistic religion of the Jews with the pagan rites of the Greeks had been defeated by a small guerilla army willing to face death rather than abandon their faith. The second miracle took place when the victorious Judeans set about rededicating the temple, which had been defiled by their enemies. They found only one small jug of ritually pure oil, just enough to keep the menorah alight for a single day. Yet the candles burned for the entire eight days until more consecrated oil could be found.
A VIEW FROM THE ARAB SPRING, TOWARDS THE FOLLOWING SUMMER: HAIM HARIRI
http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/a-view-from-the-arab-spring-towards-the-following-summer-haim-hariri.html
The phrase “Arab Spring” is a surprisingly appropriate description of current events in the Arab world. It relates not only to the awakening of anger and to the desire for change by the Arab masses, but also to the lack of understanding of the circumstances, by most European and American observers. Winter in New York, London or Berlin is often accompanied by a mild depression. It is a period when nothing blooms, very little remains green, sunshine is rare and most birds are gone. And then comes the spring, when everything begins to blossom, warmth returns, birds are chirping and life restarts. Alas, in most of the Arab world, winter is a pleasant period relative to what comes next. The winter temperature is quite comfortable and the sun often shines. When spring arrives, the heat returns, heralding an unbearable summer, without one drop of water and a harsh and dry brown-yellow land. The little that was partly green, during the winter, is gone. Indeed, “The Arab Spring” inevitably leads to a difficult and unpleasant summer. The metaphor reflects not only what it purports to describe, but also the mentality gap between its Western authors and the real situation.
CONDEMNED BY THEIR OWN PRESS RELEASES: CHARLES JACOBS vs ADL: RAEL JEAN ISAAC
http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/condemned-by-their-own-press-releases-charles-jabocs-vs-adl.html
For many years, AFSI has been a sharp critic of the ADL under the leadership of Abraham Foxman, an unworthy replacement of Nathan Perlmutter, who provided the ADL with fine leadership until his untimely death in 1987. For example, in From the Editor, September 2010, we noted: “Unfortunately, the ADL shows no sign of withdrawal […]
NORWAY EMBRACES ISLAMIST TYRANNY: BRUCE BAWER
http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/norway-embraces-islamist-tyranny-bruce-bawer.html
Anti-Semitism in Norway, where I have lived for twelve years, is over the top. I have never quite gotten used to it. Every now and then I hear or read something that reminds me that I am living in Europe, in a country that was occupied by the Nazis, and where a lot of people were perfectly okay with that. I think it is fair to say that anti-Semitism in Norway is most virulent among the cultural elite–the academics, intellectuals, writers, journalists, politicians, and technocrats–although thanks to the media and schools, it has trickled down to many ordinary Norwegians, some of whom may never even have met a Jewish person.
MORE ON AFSI APATE AWARDS 2011: STEVEN PLAUT
http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/more-on-afsi-apate-awards-2011.html
In the November 2011 Outpost, AFSI announced a new program to grant “Apate” awards to professors, reporters, columnists and commentators who have willfully vilified, libeled, and endangered Israel. The award is named “Apate” after the spirit of deceit, fraud and guile in Greek mythology. In general, Apate Winners are not only collaborators in […]
IT’S HIGHLY DEBATABLE: RUTH KING
http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/its-highly-debatable-ruth-king.html
A debate should be a formal discussion in which arguments are put forward and each participant presents his reasons for or against a proposition or policy. It can be the basis for judging and evaluating candidates. However, the recent televised debates among the candidates seeking the Republican nomination for the Presidential elections of 2012 fell […]
Outpost
Editor: Rael Jean Isaac
Editorial Board: Ruth King, Rita Kramer
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