RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/

The lawyer has more in common with the prosecutor than he does with his clients and Republican and Democratic politicians have more in common with each other than they do with the people who come out to support them and vote for them. The hopes of ordinary people for the future, their ability to earn a living and their fears are only a job to the politician.

This doesn’t mean that politicians are villains, only that like the police officer and the ER nurse, other people’s urgent calls are just another day at work for them. Mediating them and dealing with them day in and day out gives them a different perspective that is detached from the present and rooted in the realities of their profession.

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/why-invent-the-palestinians
This month, in Amman, Jordan, Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators met for their first time in 15 months to try to restart the “peace process.” Meanwhile, the Palestinian group that rules in Gaza, Hamas, has repeated its declaration: “The battle for the liberation of Jerusalem is closer than ever and, God willing, we will win.” Which is it to be, peace or war?

Perhaps this question should be considered against the background of the recent ruckus Newt Gingrich caused in December by saying, “Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. We have invented the Palestinian people, who are, in fact, Arabs and are historically part of the Arab people. . .” The entire political spectrum took umbrage. A critique from the right came from Elliott Abrams, a former Bush deputy national security adviser, who said: “There was no Jordan or Syria or Iraq, either, so perhaps he would say they are all invented people as well, and also have no right to statehood. Whatever was true then, Palestinian nationalism has grown since 1948, and whether we like it or not, it exists.”

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/01/18/united-nations-anti-israel-spectacle/

If you were concerned that the United Nations is spending too much time on the massacres of civilians in Syria, or on the ongoing arrests of journalists in Turkey, or on the repression of women in Egypt, or on the persecution and murder of Christians in Nigeria and across the Arab Spring countries – you can set your mind at ease. Today, the UN Security Council will be focused on Israel:

The UN Security Council will on Wednesday hear a briefing on the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territories which the United States had opposed… Valerie Amos, the UN humanitarian coordinator, will give details on the impact of Israeli settlements at the UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday morning as part of discussions on the Middle East, diplomats said. Morocco officially made the request for the briefing as the Arab representative on the 15-member council. The briefing would be “useful,” said Morocco’s UN ambassador Mohammed Loulichki.

The AFP description that Morocco “officially made the request” is a little muted. What actually happened is that Morocco replaced Lebanon on the Security Council – yes, Iran’s Hezbollah-controlled proxy state has just now stepped down – and immediately hijacked a session on Children and Armed Conflict to demand time to talk about Israeli settlements.

http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/18994-FLASH!-Prosecution-For-The-Defense-Wuterich-Haditha-Court-Martial.html FLASH! Prosecution For The Defense: Wuterich Haditha Court Martial After last week’s prosecution witnesses in the court martial of Frank Wuterich finished up, I was ready to write that they sounded more like prosecution witnesses testifying for the defense. It appears that the prosecution seeing its case collapse, as it has against the other […]

How Israel’s Gaza Pullout Radicalized Sinai

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/01/16/israel-gaza-pullout-radicalized-sinai/#more-780752

Anyone who still thinks more Israel territorial withdrawals are a good idea should carefully study Ehud Yaari’s chilling new report for The Washington Institute on “Sinai: A New Front.” To anyone who has been following the situation, Yaari’s bottom line – that Sinai-based terrorism “could break a fragile bilateral peace [with Egypt] that is already challenged by growing post-Mubarak demands to abrogate, review, or amend the treaty” – isn’t new; I’ve been warning of this for months. Where the veteran Israeli journalist and Arabist makes a real contribution is his analysis of how Israel’s 2005 pullout from Gaza contributed to Sinai’s radicalization. And while he doesn’t say so, the implication of his research is obvious: An Israeli pullout from the West Bank could similarly radicalize and destabilize Jordan.

http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2012/01/islamist-stops-university-debate-with-threats-of-violence?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nssnews+%28NSS+News%29
http://www.secularism.org.uk/blog/2012/01/freedom-of-expression-under-threat-by-violent-extremists

A talk on sharia and human rights by NSS Council Member Anne Marie Waters’ at Queen Mary College, London was cancelled at the last moment because of an Islamist who made serious threats against everyone there.

The talk was due to take place on 16 January but before it started, a man entered the lecture theatre, stood at the front with a camera and filmed the audience. He then said that he knew who everyone was, where they lived and if he heard anything negative about the Prophet, he would track them down.

The man also filmed students in the foyer and threatened to murder them and their families. On leaving the building, he joined a large group of men, apparently there to support him. Students were told by security to stay in the lecture theatre for their own safety.

Jews Are in Palestine as of Right http://www.mythsandfacts.com/conflict/mandate_for_palestine/mandate_for_palestine.htm Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister of Britain, called Israeli settlements “deliberate vandalism” at a press conference Tuesday, January 10, 2012. Nick Clegg is turning international law on its head – attempting to rewrite history. The quotes below reflect the current degree of ignorance and occasional just plain […]

http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/288392 Honest reflection on the past twelve months of discontent, as manifested in various forms of revolutionary zeal, rhetoric, and violence, exposes a solitary thread weaving through all the demonstrations and “rebel” and “opposition” movements that cycloned through the Middle East and North Africa: In each case, local issues were the engines of public mobilization. […]

For Santorum, Even After New Hampshire By Lisa Schiffren http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/287933/santorum-even-after-new-hampshire-lisa-schiffren I want to be okay with Mitt Romney. And really, I am. I will vote for him. He’ll be fine. He’ll be good on the budget. He won’t cut enough, but no one does. He’ll be better than Dole or McCain would have been had they […]

http://www.jeffjacoby.com/11034/burning-with-despair

NEAR THE KIRTI MONASTERY in a Tibetan area of China’s Sichuan province, 21-year-old Lobsang Jamyang publicly set himself on fire last Saturday. It was the fourth time this month that a Tibetan protesting Chinese repression had resorted to self-immolation. When local residents attempted to retrieve his body from the police, Chinese security forces fired into the crowd, reportedly wounding two.

So far little is known about this latest Tibetan to burn himself alive. A few days earlier, however, a 42-year-old “Living Buddha” — a prominent Tibetan monk named Sonam Wangyal — swallowed and doused himself with kerosene, then set himself aflame in the western province of Quinghai. Sonam was an admired spiritual leader who had run an orphanage and a home for the elderly, and was regarded as the reincarnation of a high-ranking lama. Radio Free Asia reported that before immolating himself, he prayed and burned incense on a hilltop, and distributed leaflets calling his death a protest “for Tibet and the happiness of Tibetans.”