Polish Funeral Home Wants To Build Crematorium Near Majdanek Concentration Camp

Is there an algorithm for suffering? One that calibrates how much empathy we should feel for the victims of genocide? What degree of concern is “rational”? What degree is excessive, “obsessed”? Should the degree to which we grieve about, analyze—and react to the threat of—mass murders be calculable objectively?
Ron Rosenbaum, A New Slur: Calling people "Holocaust-obsessed" is the new holocaust denial.

On the flip side of being "Holocaust-obsessed" is there a problem of "Holocaust-apathy" as well?

YourJewishNews.com reports about a new crematory being built near a former Nazi death camp:

Muslim History Is The Key To Stopping American Deaths By Afghan Allies

The following by Mark Durie is reposted here with permission:

'Insider Killings' in Afghanistan

by Mark Durie
FrontPageMagazine.com
August 24, 2012

http://www.meforum.org/3328/afghanistan-insider-killings

In the past two weeks at least nine Americans have been killed by their Afghan allies in what is known to as "insider killings." Members of the Afghan army, having been trained and armed by NATO forces, are turning their weapons in increasing numbers against their foreign allies, killing at least 40 NATO troops this year so far.

These killings are demoralizing, not only for the troops, but also for the folks back home. They make people war-weary. Mrs. Marina Buckley, the mother of Lance Corporal Gregory Buckley who was killed by one of his Afghan allies just before he was due to return home, spoke for many when she said: "Our forces shouldn't be there. It should be over. It's done. No more."

These killings have been blamed on foreign spies and Taliban infiltrators, but such theories have been discounted by military investigators, who could only link one in ten killings to Taliban infiltration.

The generals seem to be mystified, for Colonel Lapan, spokesman for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff commented, "we don't know what's causing them, and we're looking at everything."

They could also look at Islam, and at history.

The Middle East Media Sampler 8/31/2012: Iran -- Whose Problem Is It?

From DG:

1) Whose problem is it?

The New York Times reports Report on Iran Nuclear Work Puts Israel in a Box:

For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday offered findings validating his longstanding position that while harsh economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation may have hurt Iran, they have failed to slow Tehran’s nuclear program. If anything, the program is speeding up.

Google vs Search Engine Optimization

Guest Post by Brandon Leibowitz

When it comes to Google and internet marketers, there has long been a battle over who would get the top position in the search engine.  Google wants to keep things their way by creating a top secret ranking algorithm that has become more and more advanced every day.  When looking at the search results on Google, you can expect the top positions to fluctuate constantly as they are all fighting for the top position.  This is something Google does not like.  Google wants stability in the search results, meaning no artificial inflation of the search results.

Arlene Kushner On Evacuation of Migron; Egypt Begins Withdrawal From Sinai

From Arlene Kushner

August 30, 2012

Not Pretty

Really ugly, if truth be told.  That's the situation in Migron.  The High Court released its decision yesterday:

The residents -- all of them, including the 17 who re-purchased the land on which their homes are sitting -- must be evacuated by next Tuesday.  By September 11, all buildings must be razed except for those on the plot of land that had been re-purchased.

Iran Slapped In The Face By Ban Ki-Moon And Egypt's Morsi

I wrote last week that the little get-together of the 120 members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Iran was a slap in the face for Obama, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's attending only made it worse.

Anne Bayefsky wrote similarly only yesterday that Ki-Moon's attendence of the Non-Aligned Movement meeting underscored Obama's failure.

But we can takes some small consolation in that the meeting will not be a total success for Iran.

Max Boot writes that Ban Ki-Moon and Morsi spoiled Iran's show:

Who Wants To Be A Gazan Tunnel Millionaire?

Khaled Abu Toameh reports on How Many Millionaires Live in the "Impoverished" Gaza Strip

The world often thinks of the Gaza Strip, home to 1.4 million Palestinians, as one of the poorest places on earth, where people live in misery and squalor.

But according to an investigative report published in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, there are at least 600 millionaires living in the Gaza Strip [Arabic]. The newspaper report also refutes the claim that the Gaza Strip has been facing a humanitarian crisis because of an Israeli blockade.

Video: Shia Muslims in Lebanon Criticize Hezbollah

From the YouTube page, Shia Muslims in Lebanon Criticize Hezbollah:

A large number of Lebenese citizens are speaking out against Hezbollah, the terrorist group that controls southern Lebanon and refuses to disarm. As Hezbollah continues to support the Assad regime's war crimes a short distance away in Syria, many Shi'a Muslims -- Hezbollah's base, that is -- are protesting Hassan Nasrallah's behavior.

So besides possibly losing its number one ally in Syria, Iran may have to contend with its fellow Shiites getting fed up with Hezbollah -- Iran's puppet in Lebanon.

It seems the Arab Spring isn't turning out the way Iran thought it would.

Here's the video:

The Middle East Media Sampler 8/30/2012: Is Iran Israel's Holocaust Obsession?

From DG:

1) Why Jeffrey Goldberg is so frustrating

I would prefer to ignore Jeffrey Goldberg. He, in many ways, is simply just another leftist writing about the Middle East. It took him a while before he took issue with J-Street. He believes that "settlers" represent the undoing of Israel. But every once in a while he writes an important column.

The focus of his latest is a Ron Rosenbaum essay, "Holocaust obsessed" It's the new Antisemitic slur. The central question of Rosenbaum's argument is:

Barry Rubin On Where Are the Muslim Anti-Islamists? They’re the People Battling and Being Murdered by the Islamists

         Where Are the Muslim Anti-Islamists? They’re the People Battling and Being Murdered by the Islamists

by Barry Rubin

A reader asks: where are all these tens and even hundreds of millions of Muslim anti-Islamists.

I wrote an entire book about the liberals and moderates called The Long War for Freedom. There are a number of scholars who have written such books as well as analogies of moderate Muslim writings. Oh, yes, and then there is every book and article written by non- and anti-Islamist Muslims over decades.

The problem today is that we are caught between two lies. The mainstream Western lie is that Islam is a religion of peace full stop. There is nothing at all militant in its texts. A small fringe of extremists have misinterpreted it or are even heretics. So all Muslims are moderates pretty much, either moderate moderates or moderate Islamists. And anyone who says otherwise is an Islamophobic racist.

That is a lie.

But then there are those—far smaller in number and lacking power in the mainstream media or universities but present in other places—who say Islam is the problem full stop. It is inevitably militant, extremist, and violence. There is no such thing as political Islamism because all Muslims want Sharia dictatorships. So the radicals are proper representatives and there are few or no moderates at all. And anyone who says otherwise is a wimpy apologist sell-out.

For Immediate Release: August 29, 2012 Follow us on Twitter

Contact:  Anne Bayefsky info@eyeontheun.org (917) 488-1558

Obama's Failed Iran policy on Full Display as UN Secretary General Visits Tehran This article by Anne Bayefsky appears today on Fox News. The visit of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Iran this week, as the country chairs a meeting of the so-called 120 member Non-Aligned Movement, says as much about the failure of President Obama’s Iran policy as it does about the UN’s abject lack of a moral compass. The Obama administration was instrumental in supporting Ban Ki-moon’s bid for a second term, fought back congressional attempts to subject American UN funding to greater controls, and has run its foreign policy through UN institutions from the outset. But when President Obama asked the SG not to go to Iran during an election cycle that spotlights Obama’s alleged ability to isolate the regime, he turned him down flat. The line of world leaders who don’t take this American president seriously just got longer.

The Violence Of The International Solidarity Movement And The Death Of Rachel Corrie

During the past few days she [Rachel Corrie] and the nine other ISM activists had become preoccupied with an anonymous letter circulating through Rafah that cast suspicion on the human shields. "Who are they? Why are they here? Who asked them to come here?" it asked. The letter referred to Corrie and the other expatriate women in Rafah as "nasty foreign bitches" whom "our Palestinian young men are following around." It was a sobering reminder that outsiders -- even international do-gooders -- were untrustworthy in the eyes of some Palestinians.

That morning, the ISM team tried to devise a strategy to counteract the letter's effects. "We all had a feeling that our role was too passive. We talked about how to engage the Israeli military," Richard "Fuzz" Purssell told me by phone from Great Britain...That morning, team members made a number of proposals that seemed designed only to aggravate the problem. Purssell, for instance, suggested marching on a checkpoint that had been the site of several suicide attacks. "The idea was to more directly challenge the Israeli military dominance using our international status," Purssell told me.
Joshua Hammer, The Death of Rachel Corrie, in Mother Jones

Left unsaid in the mindless rush to condemn the verdict in the Rachel Corrie death is that the pro-terrorist group International Solidarity Movement that encouraged Rachel Corrie and others to put themselves in harms way have acted, and will continue to act, with impunity -- never having to answer for the deaths and injuries they have caused to their members.

Is the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) really a non-violent group?

Here is the ISM in their own words:

BBC Today Uses Photoshopped Picture of Rachel Corrie Debunked in 2006

The less than objective BBC is also less than accurate, as they use a photoshopped picture that was already debunked 6 years ago.

Here is a secreenshot of the BBC online:

Just one problem: The BBC is using a faked photoshopped picture that was debunked in 2006:

Corrie Lawyer Hussein Abu Hussein Is As Filled With Hate As Rachel Corrie Was

"Nazi Germany was a state based on the rule of law for a short while... the State of Israel was founded from the start on robbery and theft...Israel is a "giant monster... we all want to step on its head, but talking is not enough"
Hussein Abu Hussein, lawyer for Corrie family on PA TV, July 2012

Yesterday, in response to the verdict of the Israeli court in the death of Rachel Corrie, the lawyer for the Corrie family, Hussein Abu Hussein, claimed the verdict was a defeat for peace activists:

"It's a black day for activists of human rights and people who believe in values of dignity. We believe this decision is a bad decision for all of us - civilians first of all, and peace activists."

Not surprisingly, contrary to what he said to the Western media, we can see the real values and dignity of Hussein Abu Hussein when he talks to the Arab media. Palestinian Media Watch has released a statement made by the Israeli Arab lawyer last month that shows his attitudes towards Israel in general.

The transcript of the interview follows the video:

The Mideast Media Sampler 8/29/2012: The Media And The Rachel Corrie Verdict

From DG:

The Corrie Verdict


The New York Times reported in Court Rules Israel Is Not at Fault in Death of American Activist:

Ms. Corrie, a student at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., joined the International Solidarity Movement in January, 2003, and spent the last weeks of her life in Rafah, the Gaza town that borders Egypt. In a Feb. 27, 2003, e-mail home, she wrote that 600 homes had been destroyed there since the start of the intifada. On March 16 she and seven other American and British activists acted as human shields, dropping to their knees between the bulldozers and a home they believed were marked for destruction. The verdict came more than a year after the last of 15 sessions of oral testimony, which began in March 2010. Some of the witnesses, including the drivers and commanders of two bulldozers that were operating in the area that day, testified from behind a screen to protect their identities. Ms. Corrie’s parents or sister attended every session of the trial, spending about $200,000 on travel, translating about 2,000 pages of documents, and other expenses. 

Brief Outline Of Key Findings Of The Verdict in the Corrie Case

Yesterday, I posted an English Summary of the Rachel Corrie Verdict.

Here is an outline of the points made by Judge Oded Gershon in the suit brought by the Corrie family against the government of Israel.

While the apologists for Palestinian terrorists and anti-Israel groups like the International Solidarity Movement have insisted that Israel acts with impunity -- when you take away the incendiary rhetoric with which these groups attack and demonize Israel, and look at the facts, it is clear that what happened was a tragedy that could easily have been averted.

And that Israel is not to blame.

Here is the outline of the English summary of the verdict:

Medicare Part D Premiums Expected to Remain Stable

A Guest Post by Betty Hill


Medicare average prescription drug premiums will not increase next year. That’s good news from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

“Smart seniors might even be able to lower their costs,” suggests Betty Hill, insurance broker at http://www.MedicareSupplementPlans.com, “by shopping around during open enrollment season this
fall.”

What You Might Expect for Medicare Part D in 2012

Arlene Kushner On Egypt President Morsi's Latest Assurances To Israel

From Arlene Kushner

August 28, 2012

On Hold

As this is written, nothing has transpired yet in Migron.  Nor has the Court delivered a finding on the matter.

~~~~~~~~~~

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, before going to the Non-Affiliated Movement conference in Iran, gave a press conference.  Not referring to Israel directly but clearly alluding to Israel, he said:

"Egypt is practicing its very normal role on its soil and does not threaten anyone and there should not be any kind of international or regional concerns at all from the presence of Egyptian security forces."

The military campaign, he declared, was in "full respect to international treaties."

The Myth of Rachel Corrie, "Peace Activist" Vs The Real Victims

“It was a war zone,” he told the court. The judge repeated that description in Tuesday’s decision, saying that from the outbreak of violence in September, 2000, and until the day of Corrie’s death Israeli forces counted some 6,000 hand grenades thrown at them in the area, as well as 1,400 shooting attacks, 150 explosive devices, 200 anti-tank rockets and more than 40 instances of mortar fire.
Israeli Commander, quoted in Times of Israel, Court dismisses damages claim in Rachel Corrie case

What indeed was Rachel Corrie doing near the Israel - Gaza border, a militarized area where Israel was trying to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks from Hamas?

Is The Abbas Regime Losing Its Touch?

Where is the leadership of the Palestinian Arabs?

While the world recognizes Abbas as President and Fayyad as Prime Minister, if one were to assume that the Palestinian constitution were binding, Abbas is no longer President and Fayyad is not the Prime Minister.

And that is the least of their problems.

Since much of the outcry against the verdict in the Rachel Corrie case will be based on emotional claims of Israeli "impunity," it might be useful to take a look at what the verdict was actually based on.

Just sayin'

English Summary of the Rachel Corrie Verdict

The following is a translation of the summary of the Verdict (T.A. 371/05)

Estate of the Late Rachel Corrie, etc.
v.
The State of Israel – Ministry of Defense

1. The decedent, Rachel Corrie, was born on April 10, 1979. She was an American citizen, residing in Olympia, Washington. On March 16, 2003, the decedent was killed during an incident which is the focus of this lawsuit. She was 24 years old.
   
   The decedent was an activist in the International Solidarity Movement (hereafter: "the Organization" or "the ISM").

ISM Sent Corrie To Her Death -- And Gets Others Injured -- With Impunity

"It's possible they [the protesters] were not as disciplined as we would have liked," Thom Saffold, a founder and organizer of the International Solidarity Movement, said in a telephone interview from the group's base in Ann Arbor, Mich. "But we're like a peace army. Generals send young men and women off to operations, and some die." [emphasis added]
Washington Post, American Is Killed By Israeli Bulldozer, March 17, 2003

----

For two hours we attempted at great risk to ourselves to obstruct and frustrate the bulldozers in their work.
Richard Purssell, ISM member

The problem is that the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) has a history of deliberately putting protesters in danger in Israel:

Arlene Kushner: Clarifying What Is Happening Between Egypt And Israel In The Sinai

From Arlene Kushner

August 27, 2012

The Handle on Sinai

I had hoped -- deeply hoped -- to be able to turn my attention to matters other than the situation in the Sinai.  But the news there has loomed so large and seemed so ominous, that it merits on-going attention.  And so, once again, I begin with this subject.

This time, however, I believe I will be able to provide a bit more clarity about what's happening.

Critics Of Israel On The Left Try To Dodge Accusations Of Antisemitism

Robert Wistrich, author of From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews, and Israel, has written an article on How the contemporary left can reclaim its moral authority.

Wistrich writes about a growing trend among those who demonize Israel to counter accusations of Antisemitism with the claim that such accusations are merely an attempt to stifle debate:

Will Israeli Verdict In Death Of Rachel Corrie Address Key Questions?

"It's possible they [the protesters] were not as disciplined as we would have liked," Thom Saffold, a founder and organizer of the International Solidarity Movement, said in a telephone interview from the group's base in Ann Arbor, Mich. "But we're like a peace army. Generals send young men and women off to operations, and some die." [emphasis added]
Washington Post, American Is Killed By Israeli Bulldozer, March 17, 2003

Tomorrow, the verdict will be delivered in Israel in in the civil court case brought by the parents of Rachel Corrie, in the death of their daughter. Not on trial is the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) that recklessly sent Corrie, along with others, into dangerous situations.

The following is an excerpt from a September 2010 post on I*Consult, Rachel Corrie Trial Restarts. Key Questions Need Repeating. Please see that post for the accompanying maps.

Indeed, those key questions still need repeating -- and answering:

PRESS RELEASE August 27, 2012  Contact: Yitzhak Santis NGO Monitor +972-52-253-4908 yitz.santis@ngo-monitor.org NGO Monitor: International Solidarity Movement Culpable in the Death of Rachel Corrie JERUSALEM - In anticipation of the expected verdict on Tuesday, August 28 in the civil court case brought by the parents of Rachel Corrie, Jerusalem based NGO Monitor released the following statement:

Video: Israeli's helping Palestinians - Aya on the Beach

From the YouTube page:

Israeli's helping Palestinians - Aya on the Beach

The tiny State of Israel can't catch a break. It doesn't matter how much good Israel does for the world, as it has become trendy (especially in liberal circles and Europe) to demonize Israel. The Arab nations call for the destruction of the State and the world ignores it. Jews are being targeted in hate crimes and the world ignores it. Syria are slaughtering each other and the world ignores it. Israel puts up a safety checkpoint and it becomes the primary concern and condemnation by the UN.

This video is just a minute example of what Israel does on a regular basis for its Palestinian neighbors. I would like to see a single Arab country report any sort of humane story about Israel. It just won't happen. The world is Upside-down.

Here is the video:

The Middle East Media Sampler 8/27/2012: Muslim Brotherhood Consolidates Power

From DG:

1) An emirate

The New York Times reported Egyptian President’s Move Ends Detention of Critic:

The controversy has sharpened Egypt’s political divides. His critics see Mr. Morsi’s treatment of the journalists as a broader test of the Islamists’ commitment to an inclusive state. At the same time, the Brotherhood has grown increasingly frustrated with the frequent attacks on the group in the news media, including wild distortions by some journalists. 

While Mr. Afifi’s release seemed likely to quiet some of the arguments, human rights advocates say Mr. Morsi’s new law does little to address the confusing, draconian nature of Egypt’s press laws. “Jail sentences for publishing crimes haven’t been abolished,” said Gamal Eid, a human rights lawyer. “What he did was deal with the detail and not the principle — the branch and not the root.”

Barry Rubin: Why Revolutionary Sunni Islamism is the World’s Greatest Strategic Threat and None of it is Moderate

         Why Revolutionary Sunni Islamism is the World’s Greatest Strategic Threat and None of it is Moderate

by Barry Rubin

No, it sure isn’t the age of Aquarius or of Multicultural, Politically Correct love-ins. It’s the age of revolutionary Islamism, especially Sunni Islamism. And you better learn to understand what this is all about real fast.

(Shia Islamism, important mainly because of Iran and especially due to its nuclear ambitions, is number two on the threat list. But that’s not our topic today.)

Focusing on the Sunni revolutionary Islamist tidal wave, the foundation of knowledge is that there are three types and they are all bad, very bad. A lot of people are going to be misinforming you about this and getting others—never themselves, of course—killed.

Sometimes people ask me why I use the phrase “revolutionary” Sunni Islamism. The reason is to remind everyone that this is a revolutionary movement like those of the past that seek to use a variety of strategies and tactics–of which violence might only be one–to seize, hold, and use state power to transform societies.

Some ask why I use the word “Islamism” and the reason is because this is a specific, conscious set of organized political movements. However theology is related to this issue the problem is political, not theological. If you saw as I did over decades how the radicals had to sell the idea that “jihad” today meant picking up guns, cutting off people’s heads, overthrowing governments, and assembling mobs of thousands screaming for death and destruction, you’d have no illusion that they had an easy time of it. This didn’t happen because somebody just pointed to some verses in the Koran and everyone said: Oh, now I get it! We must seize control of the world and kill everyone else. They murdered or intimidated into silence Muslims who disagreed with them. Even today hundreds of millions of Muslims oppose revolutionary Islamism. And if you don’t play it smart to have those people as allies–some out of mutually cynical self-interest and some as true brothers who want to live in freedom just like you do–and help them save their lives and countries you will never achieve anything.

Raymond Ibrahim: Ramadan: Islam's 'Holy Month' of Christian Oppression

The following from  Raymond Ibrahim  is reposted here with permission:

Ramadan: Islam's 'Holy Month' of Christian Oppression

by Raymond Ibrahim
Investigative Project on Terrorism
August 24, 2012

http://www.meforum.org/3313/ramadan-christian-oppression

The month of Ramadan, which ended earlier this week, proved to be a month of renewed Muslim piety on the one hand, and renewed oppression of non-Muslim minorities on the other. In Nigeria, for example, Islamic militants are living up to the assertion that "Ramadan is a month of jihad and death for Allah," proving that killing Christians is not only reserved for Christian holidays—like Christmas and Easter, when militants bombed churches killing dozens—but is especially applicable during Islam's Ramadan.

Looks Like Israel -- And The Arabs -- Were Right About Iran

Jonathan Tobin writes that IAEA Evidence Shows Israel, Not Obama, Talking Sense About Iran:

The latest report being prepared by the International Atomic Energy Agency about Iran appears to be a sobering retort to those who have spent the summer trying to claim that Israel’s warnings about the need to act should be ignored. The report, which has not yet been released but whose contents have been leaked, says that Iran has installed hundreds of new centrifuges in recent months and is devoting its efforts to refining uranium to a level of greater than 20 percent, a sign that it is working on a nuclear bomb and not, as it disingenuously contends, on medical research. Of equal concern is that all of this new equipment has been installed in facilities near the holy city of Qum and buried so far under underground that they may be invulnerable to attack.

Why Are Palestinian Leaders Condemning Israel For Decreasing Restrictions On Palestinians

For the first time in many years, in scenes reminiscent of the good old days before the peace process when Palestinians were able to enter Israel freely, the beaches of Tel Aviv and Jaffa were full of Palestinian Muslims who also converged on shopping malls and water parks in different parts of the country. [emphasis added]
Khaled Abu Toameh

NPR reports on the record number of Palestinians once again allowed into Israel:

Back in the 1990s, when Israelis and Palestinians were holding peace negotiations, more than 100,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip entered Israel every day. Most came to work, but also to shop, study, visit relatives or go to the beach.

The Middle East Media Sampler 8/26/2012: New York Times Defends Itself

From DG:

1) "political and cultural progressivism ... virtually bleeds through the fabric of The Times"

Arthur Brisbane's term as public editor of the New York Times is ending. My view of the public editors and ombudsmen who have become ubiquitous as newspapers in recent years is that they're useless ornaments. They accept all the premises of how the newsroom operates with the editors of the newspaper, so they rarely disagree with coverage of the news. They're job is less one of oversight but of describing to unsophisticated non-journalists the true wisdom of journalistic professionals. The dissents of public editors are so rare, that they make news. Brisbane, in his final column as public editor of the New York Times, Success and Risk as the Times transforms, therefore made news when he wrote (h/t Instapundit):

A Project That Explores The Life, Not Genocide, Of Forgotten European Jewish Communities

The following is an audio report on the Helix project led Rob Adler Peckerar, the executive director of Yiddishkayt, a non-profit Yiddish cultural organization.

Peckerar's project takes a unique approach in introducing Jews to pre-WWII Jewish communities, as described by Nina Porzucki in her article Jewish American Students Reimagine Yiddish Europe:

Instead of visiting concentration camps and mass graves like many conventional Jewish student tours this summer, Peckerar took eight students to the hometowns of Jewish poets and novelists. This was a tour more about life than genocide.

Here is the audio:

Arlene Kushner: Latest on Egypt In Sinai -- And Israel's Options

From Arlene Kushner

August 24, 2012

Where Are We Going?

As is often the case before Shabbat, this post will be brief -- primarily a follow-up on the Sinai situation that I have been watching to the best of my ability.

From Egyptian security agents has come the information that Cairo is asking Israel to hold off on demands regarding deployment of troops and introduction of tanks into the Sinai:

Barry Rubin: Wake Up, America, It Ain’t 1895

If you are looking for courageous “liberal” reformers, forget about this crew of poseurs and think of a couple of guys named Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. If you are a Democrat, if you are a liberal, if you really care about saving America from a long slow decline then think a moment: what’s needed is real change, not phony slogans. People who know how to get things done; not how to tell pretty lies.
Barry Rubin, Baltimore, Babylon, Babel

Barry Rubin responds to the feedback he received to the above paragraph in his post Wake Up, America, It Ain’t 1895

I had two interesting responses to my article on Baltimore and the decay of America and because my energy level is very low now as I begin treatment for cancer allow me to respond briefly.

Archaeology Is The Latest Tool For Revealing What Happened At Nazi Death Camps

"I think the use of archaeology offers the possibility of giving us information that we didn’t have before...It gives us another perspective when we are at the stage when we have very few people who can speak in the first person singular."
Deborah Lipstadt, a prominent American Holocaust historian from Emory University

The Washington Post has an article about Yoram Haimi, the Israeli archaeologist who has uncovered the secrets of Sobibor death camp the Nazis tried to hide. Haimi is motivated in part by the fact 2 of his uncles were killed at Sobibor.

Arab Media Furious Over Compensation For Jewish Refugees From Arab States

A Jewish immigrant, Ein Shemer immigrant's

 camp (1/9/1950). Credit: Facts of Israel

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has been pushing a plan for a September summit at the UN to address the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. In particular, the summit would bring up the question of property rights of those Jewish refugees who were forced to flee Arab countries following the re-establishment of Israel. Many see the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries as a bargaining chip to counter the Palestinian Arab demand for refugee compensation.

The Arab press has attacked the idea of compensating Jewish refugees:

The Issue Of Egyptian Tanks In The Sinai Appears To Only Get Murkier

The YnetNews article starts off promising enough with the headline Israel, Egypt reach understandings on Sinai:

Egypt's newly-appointed Defense Minister General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stressed Cairo's commitment to the 1979 peace treaty in a telephone call with his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Barak, the London-based al-Hayat newspaper reported Friday.

The Middle East Media Sampler 8/24/2012: New York Times Debate on Israel Attacking Iran

From DG:

1) Room for Debate -Supporting Israel

In its ongoing feature, Room for Debate, The New York Times now asks Has Support for Israel Hurt U.S. Credibility? 

The contributors are Aaron David Miller, Rashid Khalidi, Michell Dunn, Daoud Kuttab, Daniel Gordis, and Dylan Williams. For the full answers and association of the authors check out the links.

Video: This Isreal

Hat tip to Oy Va Goy on this video by Matthew Brown, who "made this stunning video, which captures the sights, sounds, people and animals of Israel."

See for yourself:

Arlene Kushner On The Increasingly Complex Situation Between Israel And Egypt In Sinai

From Arlene Kushner

August 23, 2012

Focused and Current

The focus is on the situation in the Sinai:

Amos Gilad, head of the Political Diplomatic Bureau at the Ministry of Defense, said yesterday that Israel is in constant contact with the Egyptians and that we are being heard.

Credit: Jpost

"When the Egyptians introduce weapons that are not included in the agreement we check it and we talk to the Egyptians about it. We have direct communication with the Egyptians and we have made it clear that we demand a complete adherence to the terms of the peace agreement.

Letter To Obama On Inclusion of Numerous Anti-Israel Activists In "Rabbis For Obama"

Following up on my last post How Many of the "Rabbis For Obama" Share Lynn Gottlieb's Anti-Israel Views? here is the text of a letter to President Obama that the Emergency Committee For Israel released today on the inclusion of numerous anti-Israel figures in his campaign's "Rabbis for Obama" group.

Letter from ECI Chairman William Kristol to President Obama

Dear Mr. President:

This week, your campaign launched a group called “Rabbis for Obama.” The "Rabbis for Obama," your campaign says, are "committed to re-electing" you due to your “policy agenda that represents the values of the overwhelming majority of the American Jewish community" and your “deep commitment to the security of the state of Israel.”

Though we have differed with you on many policy matters, we at the Emergency Committee for Israel have taken you at your word as to your basic commitment to Israel's security. Thus it was particularly shocking to see that your campaign had recruited, and was touting the support of, rabbis who have no commitment to Israel’s security, and whose values are representative of a small and extreme group of anti-Israel activists – and certainly not of the pro-Israel community.

How Many of the "Rabbis For Obama" Share Lynn Gottlieb's Anti-Israel Views?

Last week I wrote about a Tel Aviv poll that contradicted a NJDC video purporting that Israelis favor Obama over Romney. Contrary to the impression that the National Jewish Democratic Council video wanted to create, in fact Israelis believe by 39.9% to 18.6% that Romney "assigns more importance to defending Israel’s national interests" than Obama.

Now the Obama campaign has come out with a list of 613 Rabbis For Obama.

The obvious question is, who are these rabbis, and why do they support Obama?

Increasing Numbers Of Palestinians Working In Israel At Better Salaries

The Palestinian Authority estimated in 2009 that there were 12,000 Palestinian Arabs working in Yehudah and Shomron (West Bank).

By December 2010, Haaretz reported the Palestinian Authority was forced to reconsider its ban on Arab employment in Yehudah and Shomron because the number of Arabs working in Israeli settlements had ballooned from 12,000 to 35,000.

Today, that number is even bigger as Israel is becoming the largest employer of Palestinian Arabs:

Could Repercussions Of Sinai Terrorist Attack Make Gazan Tunnels Unnecessary?

Originally, the terrorist in Sinai not only appeared to put Morsi in hot water -- it also seemed to sour relations between Egypt and Hamas. There were stories that Egypt had forced Hamas to close its tunnels leading to Egypt and that Egypt had begun destroying the Gazan tunnels as well.

But now Maan is suggesting A tunnel-free future for Gaza, based on discussions Hamas is having with Egypt to open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt to commercial trade:

The Middle East Media Sampler 8/22/2012: Articles Answering Israel's Critics

From DG

1) Efraim squared

There are a couple of articles by two different Efraims worth noting. Efraim Karsh wrote The War against the Jews, which begins:

The sustained anti-Israel de-legitimization campaign is a corollary of the millenarian obsession with the Jews in the Christian and the Muslim worlds. Since Israel is the world's only Jewish state, and since Zionism is the Jewish people's national liberation movement, anti-Zionism—as opposed to criticism of specific Israeli policies or actions—means denial of the Jewish right to national self-determination. Such a discriminatory denial of this basic right to only one nation (and one of the few that can trace their corporate identity and territorial attachment to antiquity) while allowing it to all other groups and communities, however new and tenuous their claim to nationhood, is pure and unadulterated anti-Jewish racism, or anti-Semitism as it is commonly known. 

By any conceivable standard, Israel has been an extraordinary success story: national rebirth in the ancestral homeland after millennia of exile and dispersion; resuscitation of a dormant biblical language; the creation of a modern, highly educated, technologically advanced, and culturally and economically thriving society, as well as a vibrant liberal democracy in one of the world's least democratic areas. It is a world leader in agricultural, medical, military, and solar energy technologies, among others; a high-tech superpower attracting more venture capital investment per capita than the United States and Europe; home to one of the world's best health systems and philharmonic orchestras, as well as to ten Nobel Prize laureates. And so on and so forth. 

Why then is Israel the only state in the world whose right to exist is constantly debated and challenged while far less successful countries, including numerous "failed states," are considered legitimate and incontestable members of the international community? 

The answer offered by this article is that this pervasive prejudice against Israel, the only Jewish state to exist since biblical times, is a corollary of the millenarian obsession with the Jews in the Christian and the Muslim worlds.

The article is an extensive list of the hypocrisies evident in the arguments of Israel critics - or perhaps they should be called condemners.

A complementary article written by Shmuel Sandler and Efraim Inbar is The fading Left and Israel's flourishing democracy. The article is summarized:

Many of Israel's detractors on the left argue that Israel's democracy is in a state of decline. A closer look shows that Israeli democracy is thriving. A gradual decentralization of power since Likud's rise to the top in 1977 has given more political groups a chance to share power. The judicial system is strong and independent, and fearless in its prosecution of senior politicians. 

The end of party-affiliated journalism has allowed greater criticism of the government by the Israeli media. Minority groups enjoy greater rights than ever before. The army has become more professional and plays a smaller role in decision-making than before. When taking these factors into consideration, it is clear that Israeli democracy is doing quite well, despite the assertions of the fading left. 

The frustrated Israeli left that failed to garner support in recent elections has adopted a new strategy. Already before shrinking in the 2009 elections to only 16 Knesset members (represented by Labor and Meretz), several leftist figures decided to turn to external forces "to save Israel from itself" rather than struggle for the hearts and minds of the Israeli people. They argued that Israel's democracy is in danger and tried to mobilize European and American public opinion to pressure Israel in their desired direction. A recent example of this strategy is an opinion piece in The New York Times titled "Israel's Fading Democracy."

2) Mackey squared

In his entry about the attack of Arab teenagers by Israeli teenagers, Robert Mackey of the New York Times wrote:

Mairav Zonszein, an Israeli-American writer and translator, included a translation of the witness account in a post on the Israeli news blog +972.

Anyone familiar with +972 knows that it isn't a "news" site, but rather an anti-Israel site. By the way the term "anti-Israel" does not exist in Mackey's vocabulary.

Since then he's written about Pamela Geller's provocative ads on San Francisco's public transportation. He has no problem calling those ads "anti-Islam," though more accurately they should be called "anti-Islamic terror." Mackey also took pleasure in observing:

This week, some of the San Francisco ads were edited by Ms. Geller’s opponents to invert their message. An image posted on Facebook on Sunday by an Oakland blogger showed that text was added to the side of one bus so that the ad now reads: “In any war between the colonizer and the colonized, support the oppressed. Support the Palestinian right of return. Defeat racism.”

The irony of that sentiment escapes Mackey. Supporting the Palestinian right of return means supporting the destruction of Israel, which makes it anti-Israel, if not racist. Mackey left the implication unsaid, suggesting that he too supports the right of return.

Worse, later on he refers to the dishonest Metro North ads.

After that ad appeared in stations, a local CBS news reporter spoke to the man who paid it and to the editor of a Jewish newspaper in New York, The Algemeiner. The newspaper editor, Dovid Efune told CBS that the ad was anti-Semitic because “it paints Jews as aggressors, as imperialists — people that are stealing or taking land from others.”

Of course, what Mackey doesn't write is that the ads were knowingly deceptive.

Robert Mackey continues to pass off his work at the New York Times as news reporting though, when dealing with Israel, it is just crude anti-Israel propagandizing.

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Technorati Tag: Israel and Media Bias and Democracy and Efraim Karsh.

Romney May Be As Unlikely To Strike Iran As Obama -- But Will He Give Israel The Keys?

Lee Smith explains Why Romney Won’t Strike Iran:

A Republican president is no more likely than a Democrat to stage a pre-emptive attack on Iran, and American support for an Israeli attack is the very best that Israeli leaders can hope to expect from the White House, regardless of which party inhabits it.

Smith explains that the answer is three-fold, and it does not make a difference whether the president at the time is Obama or Romney:

Arlene Kushner on Israel to Egypt: Thanks, But No Tanks

From Arlene Kushner

August 22, 2012

Those Tanks

But before I speak about tanks, I want to share good news, as I had promised:

Many of you on this list have been following the situation of the nine-year old Noam Jay ben Inbar, who was found to have cancer growing in his heart and on his lung and was thought to be terminal.  About two months ago, an MRI that was done showed that since the last scan there had been no further growth of the large mass, which had been aggressively enlarging.  And so it was decided to start him on an experimental drug.  I understand that the form of cancer this boy has is so rare that a case is seen perhaps once in 20 years.

I learned yesterday that Noam has been permitted to come home, with the understanding that regular checks will be necessary.  His most recent MRI showed a modest decrease in the size of the tumor.  He's got a very long way to go, but this is the first sign of a reversal of a condition that the doctors not so long ago had thought was hopeless. 

And so, Baruch Hashem, may he continue to improve. And please, continue to pray for him.

~~~~~~~~~~

As to those tanks: PM Netanyahu is walking a tightrope. And the situation here is as filled with complexities and nuances as anything I've written about in my last few posts.

Abbas Recalls 1969 To Prevent Peace With Israel

Jonathan S. Tobin writes about the often ignored fact that Abbas has been the obstacle to peace for 4 years:

Abbas knows very well that Israel offered the Palestinians a state including a share of Jerusalem three times. The first two offers in 2000 and 2001 were made to Abbas’ predecessor Yasir Arafat but the latter was given to Abbas in 2008. While his apologists continue to insist he never formally turned it down, that was only because he never replied and shut down the talks with Israel as soon it was clear that he would be put on the spot and asked to choose between peace and continuing conflict.

Read the whole thing.

Abbas's latest ploy to prevent peace was to commemorate the attempt to burn down a mosque -- back in 1969 by a Christian who was found to be deranged and was sent back to Australia. This did not stop Abbas for throwing in wild accusations against his erstwhile peace-partners of plots to destroy mosques.

Abbas is now approaching the end of the 8th year of his 4 year term, but the West does not seem to mind saddling the Palestinian Arabs with the corrupt Abbas regime for another 8 years.

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Islamists Accuse 11 Year Old Muslim Boy Of Hate Crime!?

Daniel Greenfield writes about Bacon Hate Crimes and Islamophobia Witch-Hunts:

Calling for the murder of Jews falls under freedom of speech. Unlike bacon which is a hate crime. The NYPD is busy investigating bombs in synagogues, not bacon, because there really is a disturbing trend of anti-Semitic hate crimes. There aren't actually any bias crimes against Muslims to be found.

Among what passes for hate crimes in the eyes of Islamists:

o Bacon found on a football field being used as a Ramadan event

o A drunken man accidently urinating  on carpets outside a mosque

o An 11-year-old Muslim boy trying to pull off a girl's hijab in school

Read the whole thing.

That a Muslim boy can be accused of an anti-Muslim hate crime tends to confirm the true purpose of Islamists yelling "Hate Crime"!

Islamists are co-opting laws and agencies designed for real hate crimes, and are subjecting them to enforcing respect for Islam -- by both Muslims as well as non-Muslims.

Much in the way enforcement of Islam is done by Middle Eastern Islamic regimes.

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Israeli FM Lieberman's Letter To Catherine Ashton Gives The Facts

Elder of Ziyon has posted online the text of the letter from Israeli FM Lieberman to the EU's Catherine Ashton, where he gives some background and the expected whining from the Abbas regime.

The letter is noteworthy for the blunt statements of fact that are just not mentioned or outright ignored.

Baroness Ashton,

I appreciated the opportunity to meet with you July 24th in Brussels, on the occasion of the Israel-EU Association Council. We discussed many regional issues of importance; however, I would like to further share some key ideas with you, and hence, this letter.

I would like to update you regarding the current situation of Israel's relationship with the Palestinian Authority (PA). As a preamble, I would like to emphasize that the purpose of this letter is to demonstrate Israel's goodwill, desire to build trust and sincere desire to create a positive atmosphere vis a vis the PA, with the goal of bringing our neighbors back to the table of direct negotiations. Unfortunately, we have encountered repeated Palestinian patterns of refusal and consistent attempts to turn to pointless activity, counterproductive to any constructive efforts.

Israeli Teens Attack Arabs: Racism or Gang Violence?

The media, The New York Times' Isabel Kershner  is an example, counsels Israel on the need for self-reflection following the horrific attack on Arab teenagers by Israeli teenagers.

What remains to be seen is what was behind this inexcusable attack. With the arrest of a number of suspects, we hope the trial will bring the facts to light.

While the media wants to see the motives as nationalistic, there are other elements to take into account as well.

To what degee is teenage violence involved?

Areas of western Jerusalem are sites for turf battles between young Jews and Arabs. Jews who go there when there is no security have been harassed, robbed, intimidated and cursed. Some of those elements were present according to Kershner's account.

Indeed, one of the suspects is a girl who reportedly spurred on the teen boys reported to have been involved in the attack. Both the news reports and police statements include references to a alleged rape and a "previous crime event".

These are incendiary elements in any teen age street and gang scene, independent of the alleged factors of racism or nationalist hatreds at work.

In a comment left at a post by Jeffrey Goldberg, Yisrael Medad notes (to summarize):

o Israeli ministers have been referring to acts of Jewish violence for years, if not decades, as terror.

o The State Dept. report use of the term "terror" is old - it started in 2007 - and does not reflect what is being claimed for it.

o The background of the attack is still not clear. When everyone in the media yells "pogrom", "lynch", "racism" even the police and Prime Minister use those terms.

o At least AP is giving notice to a claim of a previous rape and that that girl set them off, meaning its more an issue of "honor" or violence based on previous Arab violence, suspected, I stress, rather than old plain hate just for being different.

So while the media jumps at the opportunity to manufacture a story of racial hate before the facts are in, cooler heads will wait for the truth to come out.

Hat tip: GS

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The Middle East Media Sampler 8/22/2012: Coverage of Israeli Teenager Attack

From DG:

1) An attack

The New York Times reported Israeli teenagers held

The police said that scores of Jewish youths were involved in the attack late Thursday in West Jerusalem’s Zion Square, leaving one 17-year-old unconscious and hospitalized. Hundreds of bystanders watched the mob beating, the police said — and no one intervened. 

Two of the suspects were girls, the youngest 13, adding to the soul-searching and acknowledgment that the poisoned political environment around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has affected the moral compass of youths growing up within it.

120 Nations Ready To Prove Obama's Iran Sanctions Are A Sham

The effectiveness of the sanctions spearheaded by the Obama administration against Iran are predicated on the idea of isolating Iran and forcing it to end its drive for nuclear capabilities.

David Goldman writes that contrary to protestations to the contrary, Obama's sanctions against Iran are a failure:

The problem is that American foreign policy faces catastrophic failure, or rather a comprehensive set of failures, bearing directly on Israeli security. Not only have sanctions failed to deter Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapons program, but the Islamic Republic has broken out of diplomatic isolation. Turkey, supposedly America's partner in regional diplomacy, has reached out to Russia and China. And Egypt has reached out to Iran while threatening Israel in the Sinai. China is hosting a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement at which Iran will assume the organization's three-year rotating chairmanship. Egyptian President Morsi will visit Tehran on Aug. 25 on his way back from the summit.

Jonathan Tobin picks up on that theme of the upcoming meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) when he writes Iran Isolated? Tell it to the UN:

It's Not Israel's Democracy That Is Fading, It's The Left!

The following by Shmuel Sandler and Efraim Inbar is reposted here with permission:

The Fading Left and Israel's Flourishing Democracy

by Shmuel Sandler and Efraim Inbar
BESA Center Perspectives Paper
August 16, 2012

http://www.meforum.org/3308/israel-democracy

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Many of Israel's detractors on the left argue that Israel's democracy is in a state of decline. A closer look shows that Israeli democracy is thriving. A gradual decentralization of power since Likud's rise to the top in 1977 has given more political groups a chance to share power.

Arlene Kushner On Egypt Bringing Weapons Into Sinai In Violation of Peace Treaty With Israel

From Arlene Kushner

August 21, 2012

Where to Begin?

And the corollary to this is, "What to Include?"  This part of the world is so turmoiled that it is impossible to write intelligently about more than a small portion of what is occurring.

But I would like to begin by turning back for just a moment to what I wrote about last with regard to nuances in the Egyptian situation.

In Germany, Rabbi Charged For Crime Of Performing Circumcision

Correction: The title of the post was incorrect and fixed. The rabbi was charged, not actually arrested.

[T]his episode unfolding in the one country where awareness of the consequences of anti-Semitism are so well known should send chills down the spine of Jews around the world.
Jonathan S. Tobin, German Circumcision Ban Bags First Victim

The Times of Israel reports on news of Criminal charges filed against German rabbi for performing circumcisions:

For the first time, criminal charges have been pressed against a German rabbi for performing circumcisions, a Jewish weekly reported on Tuesday.

Why Won't Obama Visit Israel To Prevent Iran Strike?

Jeffrey Goldberg writes today that An Obama Visit to Israel Could Stall Iran
Attack:

Yes, Obama is running for re-election, and it is hard to leave Ohio and Florida . But a trip to Israel -- a place he hasn’t visited as president -- would put Iran on notice that Obama is deadly serious about thwarting their plans. Combined with stops in Jordan and Saudi Arabia , such a visit would also allay the fears of our Arab allies. Most important, such a visit could prevent war. Which, of course, is a very presidential thing to do.

And Jonathan Tobin agrees--after all, it would steal all of the media attention away from Romney (without any risk of the media reporting any gaffes, real or manufactured). An additional campaign plus, of course, is that such a visit will give a much-needed boost to Obama's sagging support among Jewish voters.

Yet, with so much to gain, Tobin still finds it necessary to raise that nagging question and explore: Why Obama Still Won’t Go to Israel --

The only possible answer is the one we always are forced to return to when discussing the problematic relationship between the Obama administration and Israel: the president’s equivocal feelings about the Jewish state. As veteran diplomat Aaron David Miller memorably put it a few weeks ago, Barack Obama is the first president in a generation “not in love with the idea of Israel.” That’s compounded by his open and very public dislike of Benjamin Netanyahu.

While Obama’s defenders are right to note that there’s nothing all that unusual about the lack of a visit to Israel during a first term, this is a president who has gone out of his way to pick fights with Jerusalem and to avoid the country during trips to the region. It appears that if Obama is to go to Israel, as his campaign hinted earlier during this summer, it would only be as a re-elected president with the whip hand over Netanyahu and not as a candidate who has to show some deference to his ally.

So just how stubborn will Obama be in his refusal to visit Israel?

The determining factor will not be the increasingly heated rhetoric from Iran or the louder assurances of intent from Israel.

No, look at the polls.

If Obama does drag himself off to Israel, you can expect the smile on his face will be in reverse proportion to where the level of his Jewish support is at the time.

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Israel Tells Egypt To Remove Latest Weapons Out Of The Sinai

Apparently the latest episode in the drama that started with the August 5 terrorist attack in the Sinai, is the formal request from Israel for Egypt to remove the armaments it brought into the Sinai in violation of the peace treaty:

Israel tells Egypt to remove tanks from Sinai

According to a Maariv report this morning, Israel has told Egypt that it must remove its tanks from the Sinai Peninsula as their continued deployment is in contravention of the peace treaty between the two countries.

The Middle East Media Sampler 8/21/2012: Al Jazeera vs Baltimore, USA

From DG:

1) Al Jazeera on Baltimore

Walter Russell Mead in The Last Compromise

In some ways the City of Baltimore as depicted in The Wire is a disturbingly accurate picture of inner-city African-American life three decades into the post-civil rights era racial settlement. We see blacks represented in positions of authority in many though not all institutions; city government, the police and the schools have a particularly strong black presence. But we also see the projects, the prisons, the long-term unemployed and the hopeless. And dominating the picture is the decline in Baltimore’s economic situation: the port, the freight yards and manufacturing no longer provide steady work at middle- or lower-middle-class wages for Baltimoreans black or white. Baltimore has negotiated a careful and reasonably successful compromise that both races can live with, but the bottom has fallen out from under the city’s economy. The inner city’s social structure has imploded as a consequence, the political culture makes Tammany Hall look like Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, and thousands of young black children are growing up in a murderous and toxic—and almost totally segregated—world.

Will Collapse Of Assad Regime Cost More Lives Instead Of Saving Them?

The following by Daniel Pipes is reposted here with permission.

Wait Out the War in Syria

by Daniel Pipes
The Washington Times (WT title: "Stay Out of Syria: Intervention Is a Trap")
August 21, 2012

http://www.danielpipes.org/11843/syria-intervention

Bashar al-Assad's wretched presence in the Presidential Palace of Damascus may, contrary to Western assumptions, do more good than harm. His murderous, terroristic, and pro-Tehran regime is also non-ideological and relatively secular; it staves off anarchy, Islamist rule, genocide, and rogue control of Syria's chemical weapons.

How Far Will We Go To Save Archaeological Treasures From Islamists?

The following by Alexander H. Joffe is reposted here with permission:

Are We Willing to Die to Save the Past?

by Alexander H. Joffe
Spiked
August 15, 2012

http://www.meforum.org/3301/islamists-archaeology

Preserving the past has costs. Much of the world shares the belief that the past has intrinsic value, which is encoded into laws and regulations that imperfectly protect, preserve and study historical and archaeological remains.

Contributions, admission fees and taxes pay for the upkeep of monuments from the Parthenon to the Liberty Bell. When highways are constructed they are diverted around historical landmarks, or the landmarks are moved. Archaeological excavations slow construction everywhere. But are we willing to kill or die for the past?

Update Your Scorecard On Egypt -- Before Morsi And The Muslim Brotherhood's Next Power Grab

Barry Rubin writes about What Happened in Egypt, following the dizzying changes that have taken place in the past 12 months and the quantum changes in strategies, alliances and policies that have resulted.

Among just a few of the unpredictable zigzagging developments:

• In February 2011 the Mubarak regime fell. There was going to be a parliament elected in Egypt. The parliament was elected. Its election was invalidated. Today there is no parliament in Egypt.

Why Is Obama Administration Helping Egypt Break Treaty With Israel?

Shoshana Bryen, Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center, writes about the latest step Morsi is taking in violation of Egypt's peace treaty with Israel -- Egypt Fully Rearming Sinai - with US Help.

Egypt continues to push the limits after having originally received permission from Israel to bring troops into the Sinai under the pretense of going after nests of terrorists there.

Bryen writes about the Multinational Force & Observers (MFO) that has existed in the Sinai since 1981. Its mission is to:

After Holocaust Denial, Is Mocking The Holocaust Now Acceptable?

Holocaust, Holocaust, Holocaust

Rabbi Avi Shafran


When Palestinian Authority presidential adviser Ziad Al-Bandak paid his respects recently at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called the Palestinian’s visit there “a marketing of a false Zionist alleged tragedy.”

A newly appointed Romanian government official, Dan Sova, averred earlier this year that “No Jew suffered on Romanian territory” during World War II. (Tens of thousands of Romanian Jews were killed on Romanian territory, and hundreds of thousands others deported to their deaths. The historian Raul Hilberg concluded that “no country, besides Germany, was involved in massacres of Jews on such a scale.”)

We tend to get exercised by Holocaust denial, and for good reason.

The Middle East Media Sampler 8/20/2012: Europe Gives Hezbollah Terrorists Free Hand

From DG:

1) Nice continent you have there ... shame if anything happened to it

The New York Times reports Despite Alarm by U.S., Europe Lets Hezbollah Operate Openly. There's a lot of material in this article: some of it good and some of it disappointing spin. Notable though is the illustrative photograph of a crowd (apparently in Lebanon) giving full fisted salutes to Sheikh Nasrallah.

Washington and Jerusalem insist that Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed terrorist organization with bloody hands, and that it is working closely with Tehran to train, arm and finance the Syrian military’s lethal repression of the uprising there. Yet, the European Union continues to treat it foremost as a Lebanese political and social movement.

Intifada Infographic: Palestinian Arab Attacks Against Israel, January to June 2012

The media tends to not give much coverage of the different kinds of attacks Palestinian terrorists launch against Israel.

To get a better idea of the extent of Palestinian terrorism, here is from Elder of Ziyon: Infographic: PalArab attacks for first half of 2012:

It Is Becoming More Evident There Is No Future In France For Jews

The following by Michel Gurfinkiel is reposted here with permission:

No Future in France: Dire Times for French Jews

by Michel Gurfinkiel
PJ Media
August 12, 2012

http://www.meforum.org/3304/french-jews

"Any time young people approach me in order to get married, I ask them various questions about their future. Eighty percent of them say they do not envision any future in France." This is what one rabbi in Paris told me last week. I heard similar statements from other French rabbis and lay Jewish leaders: "We have a feeling the words are on the wall now," one leader in the Lyons area confided to me. "It is not just our situation in this country deteriorating; it is also that the process is much quicker than expected."

Video: Latma On The Cost Of Israel Attacking Iran

To finish off the day, if you have not seen this week's Latma yet, watch it now. A number of sharp jabs at a variety of political issues.

The Left Despairs Of Israeli Democracy While Doing Its Best To Destroy It

Joel Fishman, editor for Scholars for Peace in the Middle East writes about The Dangerous Link between Delegitimization and Sedition that is developing in Israel:

I am referring to the ongoing campaign to discredit the idea of the Jewish state and particularly its prime minister, Benyamin Netanyahu. Most recently, a group of agitators, prominent intellectuals, and fashionable authors have accused the Prime Minister of being a dictator, a megalomaniac, and war criminal. Moreover, they have claimed that the existing form of government is not a real democracy. According to them, the Prime Minister, the government, and the Jewish State lack legitimacy and virtue. They no longer deserve to hold office and even to exist.

As examples, Fishman lists:

Egypt Putting Missiles Along Israel's Border -- A Move That Led To War in 1973

Michael Widlanski, author of Battle for Our Minds: Western Elites and the Terror Threat, writes in the Algemeiner that Egypt Reportedly Sets up Anti-Aircraft Missiles in Sinai Desert:

Egypt has set up anti-aircraft missiles in the Sinai Desert, without notifying Israel and in violation of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, according to Israeli reports, even as Egypt’s new leader has seized control of Egypt’s vast bureaucracy.

Raymond Ibrahim: 'Rehabilitating' Jihadis with Cage-Fighting?

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission

'Rehabilitating' Jihadis with Cage-Fighting?

by Raymond Ibrahim
FrontPageMagazine.com
August 15, 2012

http://www.meforum.org/3303/jihadis-cage-fighting

UK officials have taken wishful thinking to a new level: not only are some of the most violent Islamic terrorists being released onto the streets; but in order to "rehabilitate" them, they are being trained by a former radical Muslim in one of the most violent forms of sports—cage-fighting, which even the Olympics refuses to acknowledge.

CNN's "Cagefighter 'cures' terrorists," by Nic Robertson and Paul Cruickshank, has the details. While the entire 2,300-word report is worth reading for its eye-opening (or eye-popping) qualities, the following excerpt summarizes: