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Ruth King

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Does a hijab come with the boy’s skirt? By Carol Brown

By on May 16th, 2017

One of the most prestigious private schools in the UK has made “boys” and “girls” uniforms interchangeable because gender is up for grabs these days. Breitbart reports:

One of Britain’s top private schools is bringing in ‘gender-neutral’ uniforms that would allow boys to wear skirts, as teachers report growing numbers of children ‘questioning their gender identity’.

The move by Highgate School in north London comes as activist pupils at schools across the country are demanding ‘gender-neutral’ bathroom facilities, a ban on terms they deem ‘sexist’, and for teachers to use gender-neutral pronouns such as “they”. [snip]

[Headmaster] Pettitt said some former pupils at the school, whose alumni include the cricketer Phil Tufnell and the poet T.S. Eliot, have opposed the changes.

“They write in and say if you left children to their own devices they would grow up differently and you are promoting the wrong ideas.”

But the headmaster added that if boys choose to wear skirts, then “if [as a result] they feel happier and more secure in who they are, it must be a good thing.”

Activist pupils are “demanding.” What’s new?

As to the observation that a growing number of students are questioning their gender identity, that wouldn’t be the case if we’d stop bombarding them with crazy messages that create confusion where there would otherwise be none. But we are bombarding them. And it’s criminal.

The Sunday Times reported figures show a surge in the number of children wanting to change gender, with more than 2,000 minors referred to north London’s Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust last year, compared to just 100 when it opened eight years ago.

But critics warn the rush by schools to implement gender-neutral policies being demanded by activists risked encouraging “copycat” behaviour amongst children, fuelled by social media and the internet.

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HOMELAND SECURITY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The New Stage of Cyber Warfare By Rachel Ehrenfeld

By on May 16th, 2017

The ongoing massive cyber hacking for ransom that at the time of this writing has reportedly affected 150 countries and at least 200,000 institutions was a disaster waiting to happen.

The July 2009 North Korean cyber-attacks on the United States and South Korea’s government and major business and public organizations in the form of denial of service, signaled that it was only a question of time before digital weapons are used as Weapon of Mass Effect (WME). It did not take long before service denial attacks escalated into cyber espionage, stealing data from government, public and private entities and academic institutions, causing untold economic damage. The weaponization of cyber soon followed; recall the Stuxnet, the first publicly known digital weapon that was said to cause physical damage to Iran uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, in 2010.

On July 9, 2012, former CIA and NSA director, Gen. Michael Hayden, speaking at the American Center for Democracy’s Economic Warfare Institute’s briefing on Capitol Hill, on Economic Warfare Subversions: Anticipating the Threats, said he was worried that it would not take long for “Hackers to acquire the skills and the tools we currently associate with nation states.”

As we have since seen, Gen. Hayden was right to worry. While not widely publicized, the scope of cyber-attacks by seemingly loosely affiliated hacking groups and the information they sell on the dark web has grown exponentially. Just one year later, two major attacks on the Internet hinted what to expect if/when our economic and financial infrastructures are hit by different attacks at once. Cyberbunker – not a Chinese – but a Dutch web hosting company generated the largest global distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the spam filtering company, Spamhouse. When that attack came to light, in 2013, this author has warned: “This new economic warfare presents a nascent threat in complex areas that challenge analysis and identification. While at first our streets will not be littered with bodies as with a nuclear attack, a stealth attack on our economic, financial and communication channels, could in short time destroy the U.S. economy and devastate its people. Perhaps it’s time to rethink our mostly digital dependent economy.”

Criminals, terrorists and rough nations operate under cover of the Dark Web, which masks their identities. It is too early to say who the alleged ‘hacking collective’ known as the ‘Shadow Brokers’ is affiliated with. This is the group that is said to have released the ransom malware that paralyzed hospitals in Britain, telecommunication and gas companies in Spain, and other government and public institutions in all over the world. The unprecedented global attack would yield at least $60 million to the hackers (200,000 victims paying $300 in ransom), though cyber experts claim only some $70K in Bitcoin were paid. Judging by previous reactions from cyber experts immediately after a major attack, I doubt this is accurate.Even if the ‘Shadow Brokers’ are not affiliated with Iran North Korea, China, Russia, al Qaeda, ISIS and their ilk, it is reasonable to assume the stolen data in their possession would generate much higher revenues. Upgrading computers and network security may safeguard new information, but not the valuable information that has been stolen.

Even if the ‘Shadow Brokers’ are not affiliated with Iran North Korea, China, Russia, al Qaeda, ISIS and their ilk, it is reasonable to assume the stolen data in their possession would generate much higher revenues. Upgrading computers and network security may safeguard new information, but not the valuable information that has been stolen.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Venezuela – Socialism’s Legacy by Sydney Williams

By on May 16th, 2017

“Venezuela has changed forever.”

Hugo Chavez (1954-2013)

President of Venezuela 1999-2013

As Mr. Chavez said, Venezuela has changed – from the richest country in South America to one of the poorest, from an economy based on abundant natural resources, including the largest oil reserves in the world[1], to one where people are starving, from a free country to a dictatorship.

Unlike many tragedies, the one in Venezuela is man-made. No natural storm or Biblical plague visited Venezuela. It was men – two in particular – who, in the pursuit of personal power and under the guise of socialism, destroyed the country and rendered its people impoverished. Venezuela, with a population of 31.2 million, is in north-eastern South America, with 1700 miles of coastline on the Caribbean and the Atlantic. Just north of the equator, it has a topography that ranges from rain forests in the Amazon basin to alpine glaciers in the Andes. The lushness of its forests prompted novelist Romulo Gallegos to write poetically of “the golden spring of the araguaneyes.” Venezuela is ranked 7th in the world, in number of plants – and now ranked near the bottom in terms of freedoms and wealth.

Besides oil, Venezuela had been an exporter of coffee, cocoa and manufactured products. Last year, the Frazier Institute’s “Economic Freedom of the world: 2016 Annual Report” ranked it dead last, as its citizens struggled to gain necessities, like food, water and even toilet paper. It has the weakest property rights in the world, according to the Heritage Foundation. How does Nicolas Maduro reward his loyalists, with oil revenues down more than 60% from their peak? Amanda Taub and Max Fisher of the New York Times recently suggested: “…the most valuable resource in Venezuela is access to favorable exchange rates. By leveraging official government rates, which value the bolivar considerably higher than the unofficial rate, someone with the proper connections can generate a small fortune out of thin air.”

There are those who blame Venezuela’s troubles on falling oil prices, or on a drought that effected hydro-electric power production, but other countries have dealt with such problems. Those industries, and many others, including agriculture and banking, were expropriated and nationalized by Chavez and his successor Mr. Maduro, which meant by-passing the inherent fairness and equality embedded in free markets.

It has been socialism that has brought this country to its knees – the arrogant belief that government can assume the means of production, dictate distribution methods and affix prices better than markets. The consequence of its failure can be seen in the starving faces of children and in the desperate countenances of demonstrators. Last year, CNBC reported that the economy shrank by 18.6 percent, with inflation at 800 percent. Official unemployment rates are around 7%, but unofficially rates are between 18 and 25 percent. Real numbers are certainly higher, probably much higher, with no relief on the horizon.

Margaret Thatcher warned: “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” Keep in mind, politics is about power. Governments control enormous budgets. According to the 2017 Index of Economic Freedom, Venezuela’s government accounted for 40.2% of GDP over the past three years, with deficits averaging 16.1% of GDP. Public debt is equivalent of 48.8% of GDP.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

How The War Against Israel Is Being Fought Alex Grobman, PhD

By on May 16th, 2017

The State of Israel,” declared David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, “will be judged not by its riches or military power, nor by its technical skills, but by its moral worth and human values.”1 Israel is engaged in a world-wide political war against a vast array of organizations seeking her demise. Attempts to dehumanize her through delegitimization continues unabated.

From debates in universities, among left-wing European movements, academics, church associations, unions, segments of the Western media, human rights groups, entertainers, a number of liberals and some Arab and Third World countries, Israel’s right to exist remains in dispute.2 British journalist Melanie Philips observed: “Israel inspires an obsessional hatred of a type and scale that is directed at no other country.”3

War of Analogy

The goal is to isolate Israel, criminalize her actions and expose her as an international war criminal, an occupier of Arab lands and a rightwing religious theocracy. They want to deny her the fundamental rights of self- defense and security in an asymmetric war, erode her stature, and turn her into a pariah state through lies, disinformation and double standards. To undermine the legal, political and moral justification for the Jewish state, Israel must be seen as the impediment to peace, and an oppressive government with no historic or legal claim to the land of Israel or to Jerusalem her capital. 4

This “War of Analogy,” a term coined by former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, describes the spurious analogies comparing Israel to the crusaders, colonialists and the former apartheid regime of South Africa. 5 The war is waged in the media and in cyberspace, with its websites, blogs, social networks and forums.6 The profusion of this technology allows hate speech, in the form of racist and vile comments by readers, to remain for days on respectable mainstream media websites. Access to hate literature and propaganda such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Hitler’s Mein Kampf can easily be purchased at Amazon or read on the Internet.

In response to cyber-attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu established the National Cyber Directorate to create a “digital Iron Dome” to protect the country, and the formation of a national program to train young people for cyber warfare.7

Nathan Sharansky, an Israeli politician, human rights activist and once a refusenik in the former Soviet Union, sees these new attacks as presenting a unique challenge. Traditional antisemitism threatened the Jewish people or the Jewish religion.8 Individual Jews were denied the right “to live as equal members in a society. The new anti-Jewishness denies the right of Jewish people to live as equal members in the family of nations…. All that has happened is that we’ve moved from discrimination against the Jews as individuals to the discrimination against the Jews as a people.9

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Juggernaut and the Jerks By Joan Swirsky —******

By on May 16th, 2017

Wanna see Democrats and media hacks weep? Hand them this list!

Since President Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017, a number of people have scrupulously monitored his accomplishments. They include Sean Hannity’s producer Sweet Baby James, Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft, conservative commentator and former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, and Jeff Dunetz, creator of the blog The Lid, among others. The listing below was compiled by the above-mentioned people and represents many but not all of the non-stop accomplishments of President Trump––the juggernaut––during his first three months in office.

But the list does not elaborate on the accomplishments of the first three weeks of the fourth month, which include, among other things, the completion of his cabinet appointments, signing a cybersecurity executive order for a sweeping review of the federal government’s digital vulnerabilities and the adoption of specific security practices; an unprecedented trade deal with China involving certain foods, natural gas, and biotech products; creating a voter-fraud commission to clean up the system; preparation for a devastating cyberattack against America’s electric grid; and the firing of FBI Director James Comey. Nor is there any mention of the hundreds if not thousands of personal phone calls the president has made to shakers and movers in the U.S. as well as world leaders.

If these accomplishments are not familiar, that’s because 99 percent of the media––the jerks––are a de facto arm of the Democratic National Committee and the far-left fringe, and are so terminally distressed by the fact that Mr. Trump won the presidency that they obstinately refuse to report what by any objective standards is the news. This is because:

They’ve been pushing leftist values for well over a half century and are unable to admit that their anti-Trump, pro-Hillary message was an utter and complete failure.
They are part and parcel of the vast, contaminated, rancid, crooked, pay-for-play, corrupt swamp that candidate Trump promised to drain, and President Trump is now draining.
The man they mock––for his syntax and phrasing, style of governing, unpredictability, and so-called contradictions––has both confounded and trumped them at every turn.

This is why they remain fixated on the fairy tale of a Trump-Russian connection. They have nothing else––as in nothing!
LIGHTNING

After Pres. Trump’s first month in office,

235,000 jobs were added to our economy in February, 100,000 more than expected;
40 percent fewer illegal immigrants crossed our border;
$3 trillion was added to the stock market;
Judge Gorsuch, a constitutionalist worthy of Justice Scalia’s seat, was nominated to the Supreme Court.

In his first 100 days:

appointments of Vice President Mike Pence, pro-life conservative;
Justice Neil Gorsuch, an originalist committed to the Constitution;
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, staunch conservative committed to the rule of law;
Defense Secretary James Mattis, a warrior committed to restoring America’s military;
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, a former general committed to border security;
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a former CEO who understands how the real world works;
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, a brain surgeon from a humble background;
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, a doctor who understands health care;
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, an advocate of school choice and educational reform;
Energy Secretary Rick Perry, former governor of Texas and expert on the energy industry;
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, former CEO who understands the business world;
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, a conservative committed to reining in big government;
U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, a fearless advocate for American values;
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, a true friend of Israel;
White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, a conservative warrior against crony capitalism and the left;
National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, an accomplished military commander;
and White House Counterterrorism Adviser Sebastian Gorka, committed to defeating radical Islam.

President Trump;

restored the U.S. alliance with Israel and welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House;
restored U.S. leadership in the world;
enforced red lines against the use of chemical weapons in Syria;
dropped the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB) on ISIS, sending a clear message to Iran and North Korea;
secured the Chinese cooperation in pressuring North Korea and the release of Aya Hijazi, American charity worker held in Egypt since 2014;
imposed a five-year ban on lobbying the government by former White House officials and a lifetime ban on lobbying for foreign governments by former White House officials;
repeatedly called out the liberal media for “fake news”;
repealed Obama mandate that forced states to fund Planned Parenthood;
signed executive order reinstating Reagan policy against taxpayer funding of overseas abortions;
stopped U.S. funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which promotes abortions;
signed the following Executive Orders
to mandate a comprehensive plan to defeat ISIS,
to begin construction of the border wall and hire additional 5,000 border agents,
to order the Justice Department to cut funding to sanctuary cities,
to institute a temporary federal hiring freeze,
to institute a travel ban on individuals from a select number of countries embroiled in terrorist atrocities;
to withdraw from the Transpacific Partnership trade deal,
to mandate that two regulations will be repealed for every new one issued,
to institute a comprehensive approach to illegal immigration and crime; et al.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Palestinians: The Threats Trump Needs to Hear by Bassam Tawil

By on May 16th, 2017

The warning by Hamas and Islamic Jihad is directed not only against Trump and his new administration, but also against Abbas and any Arab leader who dares to “collude” with the U.S.

A new policy document recently published by Hamas says that the Islamic terror movement accepts a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, but without recognizing Israel’s right to exist. Translation: Hamas seeks a Palestinian state that would be used as a launching pad to destroy Israel.

The electoral showing demonstrates with excruciating clarity that Hamas could easily take over any Palestinian state that the U.S. and the Europeans help create in the West Bank.

Abbas is a weak leader with precious little legitimacy among Palestinians. He would never survive any kind of real peace deal with Israel — a reality that, ironically, he has done his very best to create.

As U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to hold his second meeting with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem next week, two Palestinian terror groups have announced that the new U.S. administration is planning to “liquidate the Palestinian cause.” The warning by Hamas and Islamic Jihad is directed not only against Trump and his new administration, but also against Abbas and any Arab leader who dares to “collude” with the U.S.

The two Palestinian terror groups, which control the Gaza Strip and its two million residents, also renewed their pledge to pursue the armed fight against Israel; they said they would not give up one inch of Palestine, from the (Mediterranean) sea to the (Jordan) river.

Trump and his administration would do well to heed the warning issued by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, especially in the wake of Abbas’s recent statements concerning a two-state solution and peace with Israel. Abbas controls only parts of the West Bank, and how he intends to establish a Palestinian state when he cannot even set foot in the Gaza Strip is anyone’s guess. Recently, Hamas announced that if and when the 82-year-old Abbas shows up in the Gaza Strip, he will be hanged in a public square on charges of “high treason.”

The warning by the Palestinian terror groups was made during a joint rally in the Gaza Strip on May 14. Leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad vowed to “preserve the Palestinian rifle and Palestinian rights in the face of any schemes and attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause.”

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar stated that Palestinian “principles are part of our [Islamic] religion, and we cannot make any concessions on them. We will not give up one inch of our land and holy sites. We will continue to work until the liberation of each inch of Palestine.”

Zahar also warned Abbas against signing any agreement with Israel that includes relinquishing Palestinian rights. “Anyone who gives up our rights and holy sites will betray Allah and his Prophet Mohammed,” Zahar cautioned.

Notably, Zahar’s statement to “liberate every inch of Palestine” comes amid false claims in the Western media to the effect that Hamas has abandoned its dream of eliminating Israel.

The claims are based on a new policy document recently published by Hamas; it says that the Islamic terror movement accepts a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, but without recognizing Israel’s right to exist. Translation: Hamas seeks a Palestinian state that would be used as a launching pad to destroy Israel.

Zahar and other Hamas leaders have taken advantage of every available platform to clarify that their acceptance of a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 lines does not mean abandoning their plan to eliminate Israel.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

CONVICTED MURDERER OF SIX ISRAELIS ELECTED AS PALESTINIAN MAYOR OF HEBRON

By on May 16th, 2017

Abu Sneineh , one of four Palestinians behind the murder of six Israeli yeshiva students in 1980was reportedly elected mayor of the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday as head of the Fatah Party list.

The students, included two American citizens and a Canadian national, were part of a group that had danced from the Cave of the Patriarchs to Beit Hadassah in Hebron when Abu Sneineh and his terror cell opened fire. The six students were killed and 16 others were wounded.The students, included two American citizens and a Canadian national, were part of a group that had danced from the Cave of the Patriarchs to Beit Hadassah in Hebron when Abu Sneineh and his terror cell opened fire. The six students were killed and 16 others were wounded.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Yelping at Yale A college dean apologizes after removing offensive online posts. By James Freeman

By on May 16th, 2017

June Chu is the dean of a Yale University residential college called Pierson. Her official Yale biography says that throughout a career in higher education Ms. Chu “has sought to help students not only succeed academically but to support their holistic academic experience and multifaceted identities.” However, there seem to be some identities that Ms. Chu does not support. On Saturday the Yale Daily News reported:

Over the last year, Pierson College Dean June Chu published controversial reviews of local businesses on her personal Yelp account, on one occasion referring to clientele of a restaurant as “white trash” and “low class folks,” and on another praising a movie theater for its lack of “sketchy crowds” despite being located in New Haven.

On paper, Ms. Chu might appear to be among the most culturally sensitive people on the planet. She holds a Ph.D. in social psychology and previously directed the Pan Asian American Community House at the University of Pennsylvania. And according to Yale she’s not just deeply concerned about particular groups of students. Her bio reports that she’s also an “animal loving pescatarian.”

Fish have little standing to complain about their treatment at the hands of Dean Chu, but plenty of people do. The Yale Daily News was able to save screen shots of a number of Ms. Chu’s reviews of businesses near the school’s Connecticut campus, including her thoughts on a Japanese restaurant:

To put it quite simply: if you are white trash, this is the perfect night out for you! This establishment is definitely not authentic by any stretch of any imagination and perfect for those low class folks who believe this is a real night out.

The social psychologist wrote in her review of another purveyor of Japanese fare: “I guess if you were a white person who has no clue what mochi is, this would be fine for you.”

The Yale dean wrote of one local cinema, “I loved the small theater feel without sketchy crowds (despite it being in new haven) and the seats were roomy and comfortable.”

Another theater was staffed by “barely educated morons,” wrote Ms. Chu, who had a crude reference in another post and separately whined about the desk attendant at a local gym. She added that “seriously I don’t care if you would ‘lose your job’ (I am sure McDonalds would hire you).”

Dean Chu appears to be a classic progressive elitist, contemptuous of the deplorables—especially the white ones—who lack her academic credentials and income. This column tends to think that people should try to be forgiving when it comes to insensitive comments. Still, the double standard on the Yale campus is striking.

This is the same campus where within the last two years administrators stepped down from their posts in a residential college after they sparked student protests simply by urging people to be tolerant of Halloween costumes. Here we have a dean dismissing a large number of individual human beings as “white trash.”

The official response appears to be an emailed apology to students from Dean Chu and another email from the head of Pierson College, Stephen Davis, pronouncing:

I know her apology to you is genuine. CONTINUE AT SITE

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Trump Shared Intelligence Secrets With Russians in Oval Office Meeting Intelligence came from close U.S. ally and detailed Islamic State operations; national security adviser issues denial, says ‘I was in the room, it didn’t happen’ By Carol E. Lee and Shane Harris

By on May 16th, 2017

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump shared sensitive intelligence obtained from a close U.S. ally with Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador in a meeting last week, according to U.S. officials, potentially jeopardizing critical intelligence-sharing agreements in the fight against Islamic State.

Mr. Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak in the Oval Office the day after firing Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey.

During the meeting with the Russian officials, Mr. Trump mentioned details about Islamic State in a way that revealed enough information for the Russians to potentially compromise the source, according to the officials, who said the intelligence came from the U.S. ally.

According to one U.S. official, the information shared was highly sensitive and difficult to acquire and was considered extraordinarily valuable. The Wall Street Journal agreed not to identify the ally because another U.S. official said it could jeopardize the source.

The Washington Post reported Mr. Trump’s disclosure and said White House officials called the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency to warn of Mr. Trump’s disclosure and its possible consequences.

National Security Adviser Denies Trump Gave Russians Secrets

In a brief statement to reporters, National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster responded to a Washington Post article that claims President Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian officials during a meeting in the Oval Office last week. Photo: AP

The White House denied on Monday that Mr. Trump disclosed any sources and methods of U.S. intelligence services or those of U.S. allies.

“I was in the room. It didn’t happen,” National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster said in a statement outside the White House.CONTINUE AT SITE

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

There’s No Such Thing as the ‘Arab Street’ Suddenly, Middle Eastern intellectuals are coming to me for ‘ground truth.’ By Jonathan Schanzer

By on May 16th, 2017

Washington has stopped trying to figure out the “Arab Street.” From what I can tell it happened somewhere around Nov. 9, 2016. America is probably better off for it.

I’m not saying we should ignore public opinion in the Arab world. Nor should we ignore its politics. The Middle East, and what happens there, is of crucial concern to American policy makers and interests.

But at least since I arrived in Washington in 2002, the foreign-policy establishment has been on a quixotic quest to tap into the thoughts of an estimated 365 million people. Armed with language lessons, history books and advanced degrees, America’s Middle East analysts labored to understand why Arab populations cheered the 9/11 attacks, jeered the 2003 Iraq invasion, and brought down dictators during the Arab Spring. I was among them, taking trips to dangerous places in the hope that I could acquire “ground truth” that would help in America’s battle for hearts and minds.

The only “ground truth” I could ever discern was that the Arab world is a complex patchwork of national identities that are influenced heavily by clan, family, tribe and—of course—religion. The people speak different dialects and embrace different cultures. Sure, there are commonalities among Arabs, but the more you travel the region, the more you find yourself focusing on the differences.

There is not one Arab Street, in the same way that there is not one Main Street in America (consider the differences among New York City, Biloxi, Miss., Des Moines, Iowa, and Los Angeles). Numerous ideological currents run through our 50 states and 320 million residents. Just ask the pollsters who got it wrong in November.

In a rather poetic twist of fate, the Arabs are now sending delegations to Washington in their own quest to glean ground truth. Some have come to visit me. Others have popped in on other policy shops around town. The conversations vary, but the questions are basically the same. With the political sands shifting dramatically in Washington, the Arabs are desperately trying to understand the thinking of the new leadership, but also the thinking of Main Street Americans who were instrumental in bringing about this change.

Can I explain what’s happening in America right now? Probably about as well as the Arab intellectuals who tried to explain things to me over the years. Shifting demographics, economics and religion all play a role. But I have yet to read a compelling narrative that explains the changes that have taken place across diverse populations nationwide. There is no ground truth here, either.CONTINUE AT SITE

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