RUTHFULLY YOURS

In the topsy-turvy world as seen from the White House, Islamists such as Erdogan are regarded, incredibly, as the solution to extremist violence. Meanwhile, even as the US abets Shia militias in Iraq, those same fighters become US enemies if they venture into Syria
Last week, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan harangued Barack Obama in a very public tirade, warning that if America continued to support the Kurdish PYD-YPG in Syria it would be responsible for the creation of “a sea of blood”. Almost any president in the history of the United States could be guaranteed to recognise that Erdoğan’s millennialist ideology, not to mention megalomania, has transformed the fellow into a cross between Macbeth and King Lear. Almost any president apart from Obama, that is.

President Obama has, for years, consented to Turkey’s intervention in the Syrian civil war on the side of “moderate terrorists” — Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar ash-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam and so on. Erdoğan obviously desires Bashar al-Assad’s regime overthrown and replaced by radical Islamist outfits, à la Libya. How that might serve the interests of America and the rest of the world is another matter altogether. President Obama’s “special friendship” with the Muslim Brotherhood-associated Erdoğan leads some to infer that the current incumbent in the White House might himself be an MB man.

There is certainly a case that Barack Obama pandered to MB bigotry in his 2009 Cairo Speech and praised with faint damns Morsi’s MB government (2012-13). But it’s complicated. Barack Obama might have lamented the dawn of the post-MB era in Egypt, but Saudi Arabia actively embraced it, the Saudi Royal Family’s favoured Islamic fundamentalism, being Wahhabism rather than the Haraki (activist) Salafism of the MB. Nevertheless, President Obama has acquiesced to a very unsavoury alliance with the Saudis in Yemen’s civil war, which mostly involves hitting al-Qaeda units with drone strikes and defending a corrupt government against the Iranian-backed Houthi insurgency.

Yesterday, February 14, was Valentine’s Day, the sacred day that intimate companions mark to celebrate their love and affection for one another. If you’re thinking about making a study of how couples celebrate this day, the Muslim world and the milieus of the radical Left are not the places you should be spending your time. Indeed, it’s pretty hard to outdo jihadists and “progressives” when it comes to the hatred of Valentine’s Day. And this hatred is precisely the territory on which the contemporary romance between the Left and Islamic fanaticism is formed.

The train is never late: every year that Valentine’s comes around, the Muslim world erupts with ferocious rage, with its leaders doing everything in their power to suffocate the festivity that comes with the celebration of private romance. Imams around the world thunder against Valentine’s every year — and the celebration of the day itself is literally outlawed in Islamist states.

This year, for example, Pakistan banned Valentine’s Day as an “insult” to Islam and warned that “strict” action would be taken against anyone daring to celebrate the day in any part of Islamabad. While in the past, Valentine’s Day activities were disrupted by Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan’s main religious party, it was the first time this year that the state actually got involved to ban celebration of the day. In Iran, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia this year, and as always, Valentine’s Day was outlawed. Under the Islamic regime in Iran, for instance, any sale or promotion of Valentine’s Day related items, including the exchange of gifts, flowers and cards, was illegal. The Iranian police warned retailers, as they do every year, against the promotion of Valentine’s Day celebrations.

Very few Americans have ever heard of Avigdor “Yanush” Ben Gal, who died yesterday in Israel at age 79. But Ben Gal is an important figure in 20th-century history, who directly contributed to the end of the Cold War and fall of the Soviet Union, albeit in an indirect way.

Ben Gal was an officer in the Israel Defense Force (IDF) Armored Corps. Like many Israelis of his generation, he got to Israel in a roundabout way. As a boy, he fled Poland as a refugee with his parents into the Soviet Union at the start of World War II. His parents died along the way, but with his sister Ben Gal made it to the Palestine Mandate. He served in the IDF in the 1956 Suez Campaign, the Six-Day War of 1967 (in which he was badly wounded), and the War of Attrition that followed. He won his place in military history a few years later, during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Then, as commander of the IDF’s crack 7th Armored Brigade, he arguably saved the Jewish state from destruction, and both established and proved the tactical and operational concepts for defending the West against mass Soviet-style tank assaults.

At about 2 p.m. on October 6, 1973, Syria and Egypt launched a coordinated surprise assault on Israel. IDF forces faced overwhelming odds on both fronts, but Israel had some breathing room in Sinai against Egypt. Not so on the Golan Heights, where Ben Gal deployed with his brigade. There only a few scant kilometers separated the front line from Israel proper. The Syrians threw 30,000 troops and 1,500 tanks (supported by as many artillery pieces) at the Israeli line. That line was thinly held by the under-strength 188th Barak Armored Brigade in the southern Golan and by Ben Gal’s brigade to the north. Between the two units, the Israelis deployed 177 tanks, about 50 artillery pieces, and fewer than 3,000 infantrymen.

In three days of bloody fighting (in which the Barak Brigade was effectively wiped out, with both its commander and deputy commander killed in action), Ben Gal held the front together with surviving elements of the 188th and his own brigade. In this action, Ben Gal’s tanks savaged the Syrian assault, destroying 600-800 tanks (plus hundreds of other armored vehicles). Ultimately, the 7th Armored stopped the Syrian attack cold, though at the conclusion of the fight, fewer than a dozen IDF tanks were still runners, the rest destroyed, damaged, or broken down. A day after the defensive fight concluded, the surviving tanks of the 7th Armored, along with reserves, counter-attacked into Syria.

This review appeared in the Chicago Jewish Star

Nothing Abides: Perspectives on the Middle East and Islam, by Daniel Pipes. Transaction Publishers, 2015.
More doggedly than any other expert on Middle East affairs Daniel Pipes has riveted his attention upon the threat that radical Islam poses to civilized life in nearly every corner of the globe. The Boston Globe was not indulging in hyperbole when it stated that “If Pipes’ admonitions had been heeded, there might never have been a 9/11.” He is the polar opposite to the willfully blind politicians who, as if to prove that the greatest deceivers are the self-deceivers, refuse even to identify the enemy by name and even (in Europe) impugn any criticism of the world’s most intolerant religion as a violation of human rights. Faced by the naked aggression of a militant and aggressive form of Islam, our own president, secretary of state, and those who now aspire to perpetuate their policies in Washington keep insisting that “climate change” is our main national-security concern. (“Bernie” Sanders would go one step further and , according to the Wall Street Journal of January 20, 2016, open “criminal investigation of climate dissenters.”)

Pipes is president of the Middle East Forum, and has taught at several universities as well as the US Naval War College. He is a public speaker of prodigious energy and singular courage in the face of Islamist intimidation. He has also made a major contribution to the debate over American foreign policy about how to put an end to the 68-year old Arab war against Israel, which has forced its citizens to carry on their lives under a constant burden of peril such as no other nation has had to endure (unless we count the pre-Holocaust Jews of Eastern Europe as a nation without nationhood).

Nothing Abides is a compendium of essays published by Pipes between 1994 and 2014. The title alludes to the “instability, volatility, and perpetual motion [that] continue to characterize Muslim communities.” It also takes for granted Samuel Huntington’s definition of the borders of “the religion of peace” as the “ceaseless wars waged by Muslims against non-Muslims, from the Christians of Iberia to the Hindus of Bali.” The essays are grouped in five sections: The Arab-Israeli Conflict; Middle Eastern Politics; Islam in Modern Life; Islam in the West; Individuals and American Islam. (Lest there be any confusion about Pipes’ position with respect to Muslims, he has encapsulated it thus: “My slogan is that radical Islam is the problem and moderate Islam is the solution.”)
Section 1, “The Arab-Israeli Conflict,” is likely to be of most immediate interest to readers of the Chicago Jewish Star. One of its topics is the (interminable) “peace process,” the peace processors and promoters, whose careers, in journalism and politics, demonstrate that in this realm nothing succeeds like failure, and (so Pipes argues) that “what is called the ‘peace process’ should actually be called the ‘war process.’”

President Obama and Secretary Kerry intend to advance recognition of an independent Palestinian state by January 20, 2017, the end of Obama’s second term, irrespective of its adverse impact upon the national security and homeland security of the US. Therefore, the President turned down a request by the Senate Democratic Leader, Harry Reid, to make a commitment to veto any UN Security Council resolution, which calls for an independent Palestinian state. According to the President, and the US foreign policy establishment, a Palestinian state would enhance stability, moderation, peace, and democracy.

How credible and reality- based is this assessment/expectation?

In 1993, Senator John Kerry and the US foreign policy establishment were convinced that Arafat – a role model for international terrorism – would respond to Israel’s unprecedented Oslo Accords concessions by ”transforming himself from lawlessness to statesmanship.” However, their assessment was discredited by an unprecedented wave of Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas-engineered hate-education, incitement and (the resulting) terrorism, which still persists today.

In 2011, President Obama, Secretary Clinton and Senator Kerry believed that the eruption of turbulence on the Arab Street was an Arab Spring, youth revolution, Facebook revolution, transitioning the Arab World to democracy: “Through the moral force of nonviolence, the people of the [Middle East] have achieved more change in six months than terrorists have accomplished in decades….” However, their assessment has been disproved by the reality of an anti-US, anti-human rights, terror-driven and Islamic supremacy-inspired Arab Tsunami, led by ruthless minority regimes, followed/cheered by obedient and politically insignificant Muslim majority.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Reversing Alzheimer’s symptoms. (TY UWI) Israel’s Dr. Shira Knafo heads Spain’s Molecular Cognition Laboratory at BioCruces Health Research Institute. She has discovered a small protein, which inhibits the processes normally associated with impairment, including depression and Alzheimer’s disease.
http://www.algemeiner.com/2016/02/09/medical-breakthrough-israeli-scientist-heading-intl-research-team-reverses-alzheimers-symptoms-in-mice/ http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.4225.html

Sealing wounds without stitches, tape or bandage. Israel’s Vigor Medical Technologies won the Innovex Disrupt contest at Tel Aviv’s Innovex2016 conference. Vigor’s sealant system treats thoracic trauma, a chest injury that can cause the lungs to collapse. If treated within one hour, the patient has an 80% survival chance.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/start-ups-sealant-for-collapsed-lungs-nabs-prize-at-innovex/

Sensors to monitor the elderly. Kytera is another Israeli startup that has developed innovative sensor technology to keep a close eye on at-risk seniors. It also collects anonymous data that can be used to provide vital research on specific illnesses or medications. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOTn_rmJexc

Heart device saves more lives. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported on Israel’s V-Wave in May 2014 when it implanted its first heart shunt to treat congestive heart failure patients. It has since successfully treated over 30 patients. V-Wave has just raised $28 million to expand clinical evaluation, development and production.
http://vwavemedical.com/2016/01/20/v-wave-ltd-announces-28m-series-b-financing/

Portable ultrasound. Professor Yonina Eldar at Israel’s Technion is developing an innovative portable ultrasound system that transmits scans to the treating physician immediately. Scans can be performed in disaster areas, at road accidents, and in developing countries where the medical infrastructure is limited.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/technion-develops-small-portable-ultrasound/2016/02/09/

Socks to warn of foot ulcers. Another great innovation from Hadassah / Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s BioDesign students. Their SenseGo socks contain dozens of micro-fabricated pressure sensors that send warnings via smartphone of incorrect posture or ill-fitting shoes that may cause foot ulcers to develop.
http://new.huji.ac.il/en/article/28743 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drc7NpiiB74

Another app to cure stuttering. Israel’s Ninispeech enables people who stutter to take control over their speech, using unique mobile feedback technology. NiNiSpeech catalyzes assimilation of speech strategies, encourages communication, sharpens learning curve, and maximizes success rate. 3 top Israeli doctors are cofounders, including Dr Yoav Medan, ex-CTO of Israeli focused ultrasound specialists InSightec.
http://www.ninispeech.com/

Device to shakeup a snorer. (TY Dan) Israeli startup Nexense manufactures a device to treat snoring and sleep apnea. Worn as a chest strap or wristwatch, it detects snoring or sleep apnea and then vibrates to help the patient resume breathing or stop snoring, without waking him / her up. http://nexense.com/?page_id=87
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-sleep-apnea-treatment-co-nexense-raises-3m-1001099272
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cUgh38h8gI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrCod0AQgyw

Linked to Life. (TY Chani) Cancer charity Ezer Mizion has a unique WhatsApp Group. “Linked to Life” has about 4,000 volunteers who respond fast to (sometimes life-threatening) problems. Like forgotten medication or a premature baby who needs special formula. http://www.ezermizion.org/blog/whats-app-by-kobi-arieli/

Like clockwork, whenever anyone at National Review — including the editors — writes in opposition to opening all combat jobs to women or (even worse) drafting women into ground combat, there is predictable hue and cry from the Left. “But Israel! You conservatives couldn’t possibly be criticizing Israel, could you?” Perhaps the worst example comes from New York magazine, where writer Eric Levitz accuses NR of “anti-Jewish propaganda” and painting Israelis as “savagely cruel primitives” because our editors had the audacity to rightly label the proposal to draft mothers and daughters into ground combat “barbaric.”

Let’s be clear, National Review was decrying as “barbaric” the notion of drafting women into ground-combat roles. Drafting women into non-combat roles isn’t barbaric, it’s simply unnecessary. Against that backdrop, Levitz’s piece is sheer, unmitigated nonsense. It’s ahistorical idiocy.

When critics attempt to justify the Pentagon’s decision to open all combat jobs to women — or drafting women into those roles — by referring to the Israel Defense Forces, they’re betraying considerable ignorance. Israel’s history with women in combat is vastly overblown, its present policy is more restrictive than the Pentagon’s, and it’s in a fundamentally different strategic situation than the United States. To the extent there’s a valid comparison with the United States, Israel’s history should stand as a cautionary tale for American policy-makers.

It is true that women fought as part of the Haganah, the Jewish militia that defended Jewish settlements during the struggle for survival prior to and following World War II. But, as outlined in a comprehensive paper for the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, this policy — born of desperate necessity as Jewish citizens defended their homes and villages from genocidal assaults — also showed the limits of gender-integrated units. Mixed-gender units had higher casualty rates, and Haganah commanders stopped using women in assault forces because “physically girls could not run as well — and if they couldn’t run fast enough, they could endanger the whole unit, so they were put in other units.”

A fetish for de-honoring objectionable historical figures is sweeping American college campuses. Targets range from unrepentant bastards like Jeffery Amherst to imperfect great men like Thomas Jefferson. I wonder if America’s undergrads realize that imperfection, and bastardy, are surprisingly widespread conditions:

“The white race of South Africa should be the predominating race,” said Mahatma Gandhi. He also said, of himself and his followers, “We believe as much in the purity of race as” white South Africans. He called black South Africans “kaffirs,” which is South Africa’s equivalent of “niggers,” and objected to blacks living among South African Indians: “About this mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians, I must confess I feel strongly. I think it is very unfair to the Indian population.” He wrote that “Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilized. . . . The reader can easily imagine the plight of the poor Indian thrown into such company!”

There are dozens of such Gandhi quotes. Students at Oxford tried to tear down a statue of Cecil Rhodes — who endowed Oxford’s Rhodes Scholarship — after they found out he held comparable, Gandhi-esque views. Should we expect a “Gandhi Must Fall” campaign targeting the innumerable Gandhi statues worldwide? Like the one standing in London, in front of the Houses of Parliament?

“The black is indolent and a dreamer; spending his meager wage on frivolity or drink,” said Che Guevara. He added that members of the “African race” had “maintained their racial purity thanks to their lack of an affinity with bathing.” After the Cuban Communists took over, Che promised that they were “going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the revolution. By which I mean: nothing.”

On Thursday, Iran celebrated the 37th anniversary of its Islamic revolution with great fanfare. To ‎mark the success of the reign of the mullahs, which began in 1979 with the return of Ayatollah ‎Ruhollah Khomeini from exile, Iranians took to the streets to chant “Death to America, Death to ‎Israel,” while waving banners hailing the current despot-cleric, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.‎

Normally, this occasion involves a march to the defunct U.S. Embassy, the site of the hostage-‎taking of American diplomats, to bask in the defeat of the Great Satan at the hands of students ‎loyal to Khomeini.‎

This year, however, the regime in Tehran had additional and more recent reasons to gloat. The ‎first was the lifting of international sanctions, made possible by Iran’s intransigence during ‎nuclear negotiations. Understanding full well that U.S. President Barack Obama would stoop to ‎any low necessary to achieve a deal with the world’s greatest state sponsor of terrorism, the ‎Iranian hegemons got what they didn’t even have to bargain for.‎

The second was the January 12 detaining of U.S. sailors, whose boats had gone off course in the ‎Persian Gulf. Letting Washington grovel and beg to have the 10 Americans released unharmed — ‎and then thank the Iranians for being merciful — merely added honey to the baklava Khamenei ‎was nibbling with his afternoon tea at the time.‎

The latter event has provided much amusement for the supreme leader and his henchmen. It has ‎been the subject of speeches by top brass and the impetus for awards bestowed upon ‎Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps naval officers. Indeed, it is a story that Iran has been milking for all ‎its worth over the past month. Not a day has gone by without some new piece of “information” ‎about the incident. ‎

Southern Oregon University plastered its campus with posters asking students to check their privileges in various areas — including their “size privilege.”

The posters were placed “all over campus” by the school’s Bias Response Committee, according to an article in The Siskiyou​, the school’s newspaper.

The other privileges listed on the posters are: white, male, class, Christian, neuro-typical, cisgender, able-bodied, and heterosexual.

The school even hosted “public meetings for students to air their feelings” about the posters last week.

“[We wanted] to provide awareness that privilege does exist, and explain that privilege does not just pertain to race but that there are other forms of privilege, we wanted to start a dialogue . . . and I would say we succeeded,” said SOU Associate Director of Student Life – Diversity and Inclusion Marjorie Trueblood-Gamble.

Of course, not all of the “dialogue” has been happy.

“I believe they are segregating and dividing the population by targeting certain groups,” SOU student and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Tim Short told The Siskiyou.

Now, I have a problem with the posters, too, but for a different reason: They are very body negative. Seriously, just what in the hell is “size privilege” supposed to mean, anyway? Are they actually suggesting that some sizes of bodies are better than other sizes of bodies?

Get it together, SOU — it’s 2016, and and we are all supposed to know that bodies of all sizes are equally beautiful and special and deserving of the utmost praise and celebration for being just the way they are.