RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/20/bidens-taliban-buddies/

Vice President Joe Biden said the Taliban are not our enemy. If so, it makes one wonder what all the killing is about.

“Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy,” Mr. Biden stated in an interview last week. “That’s critical.” White House spokesman Jay Carney, in his customary role as clarifier of Mr. Biden’s statements, explained, “It is a simple fact that we went into Afghanistan because of the attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. We are there now to ultimately defeat al Qaeda, to stabilize Afghanistan and stabilize it in part so that al Qaeda or other terrorists who have as their aim attacks on the United States cannot establish a foothold again in that country.”

This rhetorical dance is true so far as it goes, but the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force defines the enemy as “those nations, organizations or persons [the president] determines planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations.” The Taliban were given an opportunity to hand over the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks but refused. That’s the simple fact of why America overthrew the regime, and that’s the root of the current spat with Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

http://www.steynonline.com/4698/false-fronts-at-home-and-abroad

A headline from the Daily Telegraph of London:

IMF Drawing Up £500bn Package to Save Italy, Spain and the Euro.

Insofar as most of us give any thought to the International Monetary Fund, we vaguely assume it’s there to help developing nations. But it’s now bailing out First World advanced economies. Indeed, Italy is a member of the G7, which is supposed to be the super elite of the developed world. But it’s angling for a 600 billion–euro rescue package.

So it’s a good thing we’ve got this IMF thingy to hand when we need someone flush enough to prop up soi-disant European economic powerhouses. But where exactly does the IMF get its money from? Ah, well. America provides 17.7 percent of the IMF’s funding, which is more than the next three biggest contributors (Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom) combined. So, in a 600 billion–euro bailout for Italy, 106.2 billion euros — or about $143 billion — will come from the United States. Which is to say, you.

http://bigpeace.com/

THE MISSION WAS TO OUST A MONSTER….BUT THEN IT DEVOLVED INTO NATION BUILDING AND WINNING THE “HEARTS AND MINDS” OF LOCALS INCLUDING THE TALIBAN AND ASSORTED TERRORISTS AND THAT’S WHERE IT WENT BAD….RSK

The persistent rewriting of our entry into and exit from Iraq, let alone the merits of the mission, is a cruel pill to swallow for those who fought there.

Just what did eight years of fighting in Iraq really accomplish? For the veteran, the answer clearly rises above the din of public fuss, political filtering and predictions of future.

On the question of Iraq, I am struck by America’s amnesia. There’s a prevalent theory that, like Mussolini, at least Hussein made the trains run on time and we had no business being there.

How soon we choose to forget. Since Saddam’s coming to power in 1979, Iraq attacked every neighboring country save Syria (which fought among the allies against Iraq in the Gulf War). Ponder Saddam’s 1980-88 war with Iran, his brutal conquering of Kuwait in 1990, his subsequent attacks on Saudi Arabia and Israel, his defeat in the Gulf War of 1990-91, his wholesale murder of Iraqi Shias in 1991-92, his decade-long defiance of every international mandate, and finally, his pushing the envelope to the point that most of the world had quite enough of him by 2003.

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/747/the_new_commandments
As Britain moves from the sacred to the secular a Government working group commissioned in 1999 has finally put forward its recommendations.

1. Thou shalt not eat crisps, nor sugar, nor chocolate, nor meat of artificial construct, and neither shall thee imbibe of carbonated drinks, lest it be Perrier, nor shalt thou let thy offspring consume such evil lest it affect their schooling; which the leaders are unable to improve with other measures.

2. Thou shalt measure everything and everything shalt thou measure. Every action, every deed, every thought shalst thou measure, and place against targets of academic construct so that the leaders of men can converse with truth, unless the measurements be not what the leaders wish to hear and thus can be mediated to form a better truth.

3. Thou shalt not smoke. Ever. Anywhere. Hear this well. Death is to be feared more than life is to be enjoyed. And that goes for any other pleasure which displeases the leaders of men, yea, and their quack focus groups. Particularly wine. Wine is very bad.

4. Thou shalt not hunt lest it be a cruelty to the hunted: thou dost not see the eagle, nor the wolf, nor the shark in the sea wearing pink and riding a horse, and so must it be with you. And that goes for any other pleasure which displeases the leaders of men, yea, and their focus groups.

5. Thou shalt recycle, even if it takest several hours to work out what goes where. All the earth and its living things canst be saved by thou living in darkness and cold and squalor.

6. Thou shalt surrender up half of your wealth, half of your possessions and half of your worldly goods, so that those leaders who create the statutes may prosper, and prosper well.

7. Thou shall not be elitist. Elitism is wrong. The child of great mind shall be schooled with the child of poor mind, and no school shall have a congregation of great minds nor success nor potential, unless it be of a sporting or artistic nature; in which case that sort of elitism is really quite OK but not the other sort. The other sort is elitist.

8. Thou shalt not glorify the massacre of the innocents within the last two score years unless the massacres were caused by people we now do business with. Thou cannot know which massacres were the good massacres and which were the bad massacres but the leaders will amend the chronicles accordingly.

9. Thou canst not be assumed to have the power of the mind to make decisions nor direct thy own way nor shield thyself nor thy family from the dangers of the world without a detailed risk assessment. Thy mind is simple and sparse. Listen to thy leaders, their wisdom is great and their desires are thy commands and thou must obey.

10. Thou canst covet thy neighbour’s ass and his goods and possessions; coveting is good. Coveting ensures a retail sector of much strength based on usury, which is also good.

Adrian Moss is a screenwriter and a chapter-contributor to “Prime Minister Boris and Other Things Which Never Happened…” He Tweets at @akmoss

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2678/spain-jew-hating “The levels of anti-Semitism in Spain are among the highest in Europe,” wrote the Spanish daily, El Pais. According to a poll, presented on November 30 during the Fourth International Seminary on Antisemitism hosted at the Caja Navarra Foundation in Madrid, 52% of Spanish students declared that they would not like to have a […]

http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2011/12/tom-friedmans-losing-battle.php
For decades New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman balanced his substantively anti-Israel positions with repeated protestations of love for Israel.

His balancing act ended last week when he employed traditional anti-Semitic slurs to dismiss the authenticity of substantive American support for Israel.

Channeling the longstanding anti-Semitic charge that Jewish money buys support for power-hungry Jews best expressed in the forged 19th century Protocols of the Elders of Zion and in John Mearshimer’s and Stephen Walt’s 2007 book The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, Friedman denied the significance of the US Congress’s overwhelming support for Israel.

As he put it, “I sure hope that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, understands that the standing ovation he got in Congress this year was not for his politics. That ovation was bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.”

It would be nice if Friedman is forced to pay some sort of price for finally coming out of the closet as a dyed-in-the-wool Israel hater. But he probably won’t. As he made clear in his column, he isn’t writing for the general public, but for a very small, select group of elitist leftists. These are the only people who matter to Friedman. And they matter to him because they share his opinions and his goal of indoctrinating young people to adopt his pathologically hostile views about Israel and his contempt for the American public that supports it.

JERUSALEM CONNECTION Speaker Gingrich’s “Newtonian” logic

http://www.thejerusalemconnection.us/blog/author/admin

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Nothing could attest to that fact more than the Israel-Arab conflict, which in reality is the Israel-Islamist conflict.

This is not a territorial dispute between Israel and those Arabs who call themselves Palestinians, though it is framed as such. No, the stark reality of the Muslim war against the Jewish state is rooted in one fundamental fact; namely the unchangeable refusal by Muslims to ever accept a non-Islamic nation in territory once conquered in the name of Allah, even if that nation – the Jewish nation – precedes Islam by millennia.

Peace overtures and endless territorial concessions by tiny Israel to the giant Muslim and Arab world have been, and are, as worthless as a thirsty soul in the desert staggering towards an inviting but delusional mirage.

Back in 1976, Prime Minister Golda Meir visited Britain and was asked what needed most to be done for her country in combatting the relentless challenge to Israel’ survival by a hostile media. Her answer was: “Tell the people the basic facts about Israel and Israel’s case over and over again.” She also said, “There are no such people as Palestinian Arabs.”

Speaker Newton “Newt” Gingrich bravely and forthrightly echoed Golda Meir’s words, albeit 35 years later; but better late than never. It was crucial in Golda Meir’s time to pronounce the truth about the invented Arab people who call themselves Palestinians, but even more vital today. The world must be told the facts – not the myths – for it is fast succumbing to a veritable anti-Israel propaganda blitzkrieg, believed in by legions of the confused and gullible who worship at the false altar of moral equivalence and liberal kumbaya.

The legacy of Chanukah – faith, patriotism, defiance of extreme odds and tenacity in the battle of liberty against tyranny – has underlined the American spirit since the early Pilgrims, enhancing the unique foundation of the US-Israel covenant: shared values.

For instance, the statue of Judah the Maccabee, the hero of the Jewish rebellion against the Syrian-Seleucid Empire, is displayed at the West Point Military Academy, the most prestigious US military academy, founded in 1802. The statue of Judah the Maccabee, known for his principle-driven leadership and daring battle tactics, is displayed along with the statues of Joshua, David, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Hector, King Arthur, Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon – “the Nine Worthies.”

George Washington became acquainted with the spirit of the Maccabees, upon settling, in December (Chanukah) 1777, at his new headquarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, with ill-equipped, weary troops. Faced with a super-power, George III of Britain, Washington concluded that only a dramatic change could avoid a defeat. According to the diary entries of Louisa Hart, Washington told the Harts about a Jewish solider at Valley Forge who lit a Chanukah candle and explained its significance. Washington’s reaction was: “Perhaps we are not as lost as our enemies would have us believe. I rejoice in the Maccabees’ success, though it is long past…It pleases me to think that miracles still happen.” Six months later, on June 19, 1778, the Continental Army implemented the battle tactics of Judah the Maccabee, leaving Valley Forge in pursuit of the British, who were moving towards New York. Although the war would linger for five more years, Washington won a decisive victory.

The Ugly War Against Israel on College Campuses
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/20/the-ugly-war-against-israel-on-college-campuses/print/
As Israel becomes increasingly isolated in the world, an organized propaganda war of hatred and incitement against Israel and Zionism is being conducted on college campuses today. Recently, on November 14, the aptly named event, “The Ugly War Against Israel on College Campuses” at Temple Beth Sholom in Roslyn Heights was an inspirational call to action to stand up for Israel with the faith and integrity of Abraham. Those students and alumni who speak out and fight on the battlefield of our college campuses will make all the difference.

The event was part of an ongoing lecture series sponsored by the Rabbi Herbert Tarr North Shore Institute for Adult Jewish Education. The house was packed with students and attendees from across the political spectrum. Supporters of AIPAC, StandWithUs, a pro-Israel advocacy organization, National Association of Scholars (NAS), and others were in attendance. Various members of the National Conference on Jewish Affairs (NCJA), a new pro-Israel, anti-Islamist umbrella organization of Jewish leaders and groups were handing out literature. They work closely with young Jewish students in the belly of the beast on campus.

US State Department True to Form on the Mount of Olives

URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/20/us-state-department-true-to-form-on-the-mount-of-olives/

Is the US State Department capable of getting it right when addressing deprivation of human rights endured by Jewish people? Its conduct with regard to the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem gives serious pause.

On the slopes of the Mount of Olives (Hebrew: Har Hazeitim), in eastern Jerusalem, lies a 2,500 year-old Jewish cemetery, bearing a legacy of enormous import and sanctity. Among those buried in its 1,500 Jewish graves are prophets, Zionist leaders, rabbis, writers, and an Israeli prime minister.

From 1948, when eastern Jerusalem was captured by Jordan, until its liberation by Israel in 1967, no Jews were permitted at the site; horrendous damage was done to the cemetery during those years. Although restoration has been taking place since 1967, until recently action to protect the site had been insufficient. That is now changing as the Israeli government has become more vigorously involved and the International Committee for the Preservation of Har HaZeitim has been established.