Arlene Kushner on Obama's Amateurish Approach To Bombing Syria

From Arlene Kushner:
August 29, 2013

Unreal!

I thought perhaps I would not post again about Syria until something actually happened, or until the whole shebang was called off.

But I've thrown up my hands with incredulity. And now I've decided to make a few comments.

What I find most incredible is how President Obama is behaving.  Since when is it proper form for a head of state to go on television and discuss a hostile military action he's thinking of taking, complete with multiple details?

David P. Goldman: The Pros and Cons of Attacking Syria

The following by David P. Goldman is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

The Pros and Cons of Attacking Syria
A Symposium

by David P. Goldman
PJ Media
August 28, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3599/attacking-syria

David P. Goldman

Go after the dog's master, not the dog.

Kudos to Michael Ledeen for explaining that the road to Damascus starts in Tehran. As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu explained on Aug. 25, "Assad's regime isn't acting alone. Iran, and Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, are there on the ground playing an active role assisting Syria. In fact, Assad's regime has become a full Iranian client and Syria has become Iran's testing ground. … Iran is watching and it wants to see what will be the reaction to the use of chemical weapons."

We are at war with Iran, and I have little to add to Michael's excellent summary. As he reiterates, we have been at war with Iran for decades. The only distinction is that Iran knows this and the Obama administration pretends it's not happening. Because the American public is disgusted with the miserable return on our investment of 5,000 lives, 50,000 casualties, and $1 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan, Republicans are too timid to push for decisive military action to stop Iran's nuclear program — although air strikes rather than ground troops would be required.

The "Arab Spring" Has Turned Into An "Israeli Spring" -- Now Go Solve The Middle East's Real Problems

In short, the more violent and chaotic the Middle East becomes, the more secure and exceptional Israel appears.
Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson writes that thanks to 'The Israeli Spring,' Israel’s enemies are doing more damage to each other than Israel ever could:

In terms of realpolitik, anti-Israeli authoritarians are fighting to the death against anti-Israeli insurgents and terrorists. Each is doing more damage to the other than Israel ever could — and in an unprecedented, grotesque fashion. Who now is gassing Arab innocents? Shooting Arab civilians in the streets? Rounding up and executing Arab civilians? Blowing up Arab houses? Answer: either Arab dictators or radical Islamists.

Arlene Kushner: Does Obama Really Have A Choice In Attacking Syria?

From Arlene Kushner:
August 28, 2013

No Choice?

Dear friends, I can do no more than write in response to the moment. The situation with regard to Syria is so fluid, that by the time you receive this, it may have shifted.  Accept my apologies in advance if that occurs.

~~~~~~~~~~

As to choice: More and more it's looking as if there are no alternative options for Obama with regard to whether the US hits Syria.  He is being squeezed into something that he might have otherwise passed on.

Obama's Limited Strike on Syria: To Win, Place -- or Show?

Daniel Pipes has a blog post today, Arguing against "Limited" Strikes on the Assad Regime:

Warfare is a very serious business whose first imperative is to deploy force to win – rather than to punish, make a statement, establish a symbolic point, or preen about one's morality.

Pipes warns of the dangers of Assad's multiple possible responses:

Mideast Media Sampler 8/26/13: Could The US Have Pre-empted The Deadly Syrian Chemical Attack?

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

I was skeptical at first about the claims of a chemical attack in Syria. Something didn’t seem right with the photographs. Additionally, it was reported that the United Nations already had an inspection team in Syria. But then it didn’t take long for Israeli intelligence to determine that chemical weapons had been used.

Anne Bayefsky: Can Obama Act on Syria Without Appearing to be a Hypocrite or a Fraud?

For Immediate Release: August 26, 2013

Contact: info@humanrightsvoices.org Follow us on Twitter

Can Obama Act on Syria Without Appearing to be a Hypocrite or a Fraud? This article by Anne Bayefsky originally appeared on FOX News. The Syrian problem threatens the very core of the Obama doctrine. Bashing President Bush for doing an end run around the U.N. Security Council over Iraq was Obama’s nom de guerre. With Russia's leaders making it clear that they are not going to approve a Council resolution authorizing the use of force against Syria, how can the president act without appearing to be a hypocrite or a fraud? The answer is: he can’t.

Arlene Kushner: Will Obama Bomb Syria -- Pros and Cons

From Arlene Kushner:
August 26, 2013

THE Question of the Moment

Is Obama going to give the word to bomb Syria? 

The parameters of the situation are not simple.

~~~~~~~~~~

An exceedingly strong case can be made for the fact that he must at this point.  For deterrence matters, and threats made must be acted upon. 

Raymond Ibrahim on The Muslim Brotherhood: Origins, Efficacy, and Reach

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

The Muslim Brotherhood: Origins, Efficacy, and Reach

by Raymond Ibrahim
World Watch Monitor
July 4, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3596/muslim-brotherhood-origins

Note: The following essay, commissioned and written nearly a year ago but only recently published, has, in light of the June 30 Revolution and ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, been slightly updated with additional bracketed text.

Raymond Ibrahim

The Muslim Brotherhood is the most important Islamic organization in the world, with tentacles of influence everywhere, both in the Islamic world but also in the West, wherever its purpose—the establishment of a Sharia-enforcing caliphate—can be achieved. The efficacy of this group can be seen in the fact that, less than a century ago, when it was founded, it consisted of very few members; it was violent and eventually crushed and outlawed; today in Egypt, a MB leader, Muhammad Morsi, sits on the throne of the Middle East's most strategic nation, ironically in the name of democracy, where he is trying to enable the totality of Sharia law in Egypt, even as many resist.

MEQ Summer 2011: Shari'a and Violence in American Mosques

The following by Mordechai Kedar and David Yerushalmi is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Shari'a and Violence in American Mosques

by Mordechai Kedar and David Yerushalmi
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2011, pp. 59-72 (view PDF)

How great is the danger of extremist violence in the name of Islam in the United States? Recent congressional hearings into this question by Rep. Peter King (Republican of New York), chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, have generated a firestorm of controversy among his colleagues, the press, and the general public. Though similar hearings have taken place at least fourteen times since 2001,[1] King was labeled a latter-day Joe McCarthy and the hearings called an assault on civil liberties and a contemporary witch-hunt. Yet the larger dilemmas outlined by both the congressman and some of his witnesses remain: To what extent are American Muslims, native-born as well as naturalized, being radicalized by Islamists? And what steps can those who are sworn to the protection of American citizenry take that will uncover and disrupt the plots of those willing to take up arms against others for the sake of jihad?

MEQ Summer 2013: Writing the bin Laden Story

The following by A.J. Caschetta is resposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Writing the bin Laden Story

by A.J. Caschetta
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2013, pp. 77-85 (view PDF)

Great, definitive biographies are rarely written by their subjects' contemporaries. Generations often pass before sufficient evidence can be amassed, analyzed, and written into a narrative by a skilled and dispassionate biographer. The biographies of Osama bin Laden currently in print are all flawed but necessary steps in the path leading to the definitive bin Laden biography. The magnitude and trauma of al-Qaeda's September 11 attacks are so profound and far-reaching that it will likely take a biographer for whom the event is itself history to write the definitive bin Laden biography.

Still, the two-year anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden presents an opportune moment to review the biographies of America's late enemy number one—with a focus on the more recent works written while he was still hiding in Pakistan—while anticipating a flurry of postmortem biographies sure to come.

Mideast Media Sampler 8/25/13: Is Obama Getting Ready To Act On Syria -- Or Is He Just Posturing?

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

“It was quiet in Washington—it had been a summer busy with dispatches on the golf game of President Obama, and on the new first puppy, Sunny, the Portuguese water dog, the newest addition to the White House. Bashar al-Assad had taken the full measure of powers beyond.”
The Shame of Syria by Fouad Ajami

According to the latest reports (via memeorandum) David Cameron of Britian is following up on France’s determination to consider military action against Syria.

Mideast Media Sampler 8/24/13: Three Examples of New York Times "Standards" When Reporting on Israel

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

In the little town of Candor in the last year of my youth I learned the final lesson of the levels to the truth – The Mayor of Candor Lied
– Harry Chapin

There was a line in a recent New York Times report that made me think about how the New York Times shades the truth. The report was about the increasingly contentious relationship between Egypt’s interim government and the international media.

Officials now charge, without evidence, that many protesters are Syrian or Palestinian.

Apparently that’s the standard of the New York Times. To be true, an assertion must be supported with evidence. Or does it?

David P. Goldman: The World Learns to Manage Without the US

The following by David P. Goldman is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

World learns to manage without the US

by David P. Goldman
Asia Times
August 19, 2013http://www.meforum.org/3590/manage-without-us

David P. Goldman

The giant sucking sound you here, I said on August 15 on CNBC's The Kudlow Report, is the implosion of America's influence in the Middle East. Vladimir Putin's August 17 offer of Russian military assistance to the Egyptian army after US President Barack Obama cancelled joint exercises with the Egyptians denotes a post-Cold-War low point in America's standing. Along with Russia, Saudi Arabia and China are collaborating to contain the damage left by American blundering. They have being doing this quietly for more than a year.

The pipe-dream has popped of Egyptian democracy led by a Muslim Brotherhood weaned from its wicked past, but official Washington has not woken up. Egypt was on the verge of starvation when military pushed out Mohammed Morsi. Most of the Egyptian poor had been living on nothing but state-subsidized bread for months, and even bread supplies were at risk. The military brought in US$12 billion of aid from the Gulf States, enough to avert a humanitarian catastrophe. That's the reality. It's the one thing that Russia, Saudi Arabia and Israel agree about.

Fort Hood Trial of Nidal Hasan: Justice Cannot Be Served If The Truth Cannot Be Told

The following by Deborah Weiss is reposted here with permission of The Legal Project -- it was posted before the verdict was announced.

Fort Hood Trial: Don't Say the "T" Word

by Deborah Weiss
FrontPage Magazine
August 22, 2013

http://www.legal-project.org/4176/fort-hood-trial-dont-say-the-t-word

The Fort Hood shootings constituted the largest massacre on a military base in the history of the United States. There is overwhelming evidence that the defendant's motivations were religious in nature. But as the trial ensues, the US government continues to bend over backwards to avoid calling the massacre an act of Islamic terrorism, consistent with Islamist demands not to associate Islam with terrorism.

Mideast Media Sampler 8/23/13: After Use Of Poison Gas, Can Situation in Syria Get Even Worse?

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

The big news Wednesday was the reported chemical attack on the eastern outskirts of Damascus that may have killed more than 1000 people.

While a number of experts have expressed doubts about the details of the accounts of the attack, international opinion is coalescing that there was indeed a chemical weapons attack perpetrated by the government of Bashar Assad against rebel strongholds.

From Spring 2002 -- Jonathan Schanzer: A Short History of Radical Islam

The following by Jonathan Schanzer is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

At War With Whom?
A Short History of Radical Islam

by Jonathan Schanzer
Doublethink
Spring 2002
http://www.meforum.org/168/at-war-with-whom

Jonathan
Schanzer

There's a "War on Terror" going on, says President George W. Bush. Sometimes we're even told it's a war against "evil." But regardless of nomenclature, the Bush administration takes great pains to emphasize that this is most certainly not a war on Islam. Is it?

The short answer is "no." We're not battling Islam, because there is no such thing as one Islam. One Islam cannot be extracted from the numerous offshoots, branches, and sects that make the world's 1.3 billion Muslims as ideologically, religiously, and politically fractured as the other two monotheistic faiths, Christianity and Judaism.

Still, all of the 19 hijackers on September 11 were Muslims. Every one of the FBI's 22 most wanted terrorists are Muslims. Nearly all the groups and individuals listed in President Bush's executive order blocking terrorist funds were Muslims, too. So how is this not a war on Islam?

Arlene Kushner on Failure of the West to Respond to Deaths of Syrians in Gas Attacks

From Arlene Kushner:
August 23, 2013

No End

Or so it seems, with the obscenities in Syria growing ever greater.  Reports -- as yet not fully confirmed -- have surfaced that Assad used gas against people -- sleeping people including children -- in the rebel-held area of Ghouta, killing over 1,000.  This is the most horrendous charge against him yet. Previously reports were of perhaps 40 killed in any given attack.

And the world? The world, disinclined to be involved, will do nothing.

If You Want To Safely Support The Muslim Brotherhood, Your Best Bet Is Israel

Today it has become evident that leaders and members of the Islamic Movement in Israel enjoy more freedom and rights than the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Jordan and even -- under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank -- Hamas.
Khaled Abu Toameh

Khaled Abu Toameh writes that Israel is the only place Where Muslims Can Speak Freely in the Middle East:

Arab journalists and columnists in Israel have been expressing their views about the Egyptian crisis without fear, while their colleagues in Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority are afraid to speak their mind.

Israel, for example, is one of the few countries in the Middle East where Muslims are permitted to demonstrate in favor of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood organization.

Dore Gold: Have the Fundamentals of Israel's Strategic Environment Inextricably Changed?

Have the Fundamentals of Israel's Strategic Environment Inextricably Changed?

Dore Gold, President Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

Dore Gold

Here is the executive summary of the complete article:

• There is a view that developments since the advent of the Arab Spring have completely altered the way Israel should look at its national security needs for many decades to come. The old strategic assumptions that guided Israeli thinking, according to this thesis, are not going to become relevant again. In order to evaluate this idea, it is necessary to keep in mind that there are certain constants in Israel's security predicament that are not going to be altered even with the developments the Middle East is witnessing.

Daniel Pipes on Obama's Foreign Policy Fiasco

The followinb by Daniel Pipes is reposted here with permission:

Obama's Foreign Fiasco

by Daniel Pipes
The Washington Times
August 21, 2013
http://www.danielpipes.org/13286/obama-foreign-policy

It's a privilege to be an American who works on foreign policy, as I have done since the late 1970s, participating in a small way in the grand project of finding my country's place in the world. But now, under Barack Obama, decisions made in Washington have dramatically shrunk in importance. It's unsettling and dismaying. And no longer a privilege.

Video: Best of Latma, Part 2

Here is the 2nd of 2 parts of the Best of Latma, as Latma now goes into hiatus and an uncertain future.

Latma will be sorely missed.

Here is the video:

Egyptian Head of Muslim Brotherhood is Arrested -- Obedient New York Times Cries Foul

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

A Terror Leader Behind Bars in Egypt

by Raymond Ibrahim
FrontPageMagazine.com
August 20, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3589/muhammad-badie-egypt

Raymond Ibrahim

The supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the head of the Islamist snake, Muhammad Badie—who had slipped security forces by traveling in and out of the Brotherhood torture camps (known as "peaceful sits ins" by the mainstream media")—has finally been arrested in Egypt and is awaiting trial. Not only was he the leader of the Brotherhood, but, according to Brotherhood members themselves, he was giving orders to his underling, Muhammad Morsi, the now ousted Egyptian president.

Among other serious accusations, Badie is being charged with inciting widespread terrorism and murder and playing a key role in the current violence and unrest in Egypt—also known as "the jihad"—which has led to the destruction of some 80 Christian churches and monasteries, the violent slaughters of Egyptian police, and any number of other criminal activities.

If Badie, as a Brotherhood member on live TV slipped into saying, used to order president Morsi around, surely his authority over the average Brotherhood member—the very fellows now burning and slaughtering—was ironclad.

The Bloody "Arab Spring" in Egypt and How Obama Brought Us To This Point

The following by Raymond Stock is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Morsi detained, bloodbath in Egypt
Whatever happened to the Arab Spring?

by Raymond Stock
Fox News
August 15, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3588/morsi-detained-bloodbath-egypt

Raymond Stock

As Egypt explodes in what could be civil war, with a reported death toll of at least 628 dead and rising in clashes between security forces and Islamists that began August 14, many are wondering, whatever happened to the Arab Spring? That is, to the wave of popular uprisings against the long-lasting dictatorships of the Middle East and North Africa that began nearly three years ago in Tunisia, and brought the promise of democracy to the region at last?

And what should the U.S. do now that the Muslim Brotherhood--President Obama's chosen horse in the race for control of the largest Arab state and our most important Arab ally—has apparently lost?

To answer the first question, the Arab Spring never happened as advertised. Rather than a series of straightforward, largely peaceful popular risings led by social-media savvy youth that swept decades-old repressive regimes into the dustbin of history, as first portrayed by the media, something else occurred.

Pink Floyd's Roger Waters' Crass Antisemitism Ranges From Pigs With Jewish Stars To Boycotting Israel

Pink Floyd's Roger Waters was last seen with his flying pig, complete with a Jewish star, as The Algemeiner reported: Pig Balloon at Roger Waters Concert Features Star of David; Wiesenthal Center Calls Him ‘Open Hater of Jews’:

Rogers Waters has a thing for flying pigs with Jewish stars. Credit: The Algemeiner

At the time, Waters promptly sought a fig leaf of legitimacy by gushing with the obligatory "some of my best friends are Jewish."

Mideast Media Sampler 8/20/13: Hezbollah Targeted by (Other) Terrorists -- But That Won't Stop Them In Syria

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

Why Hezbollah takes a shine to the shrine

It took a while but a few weeks ago the European Union designated Hezbollah’s “military wing” to be a terrorist organization. There is some speculation as to why the EU took the action, but it seems likely that Hezbollah’s support of Assad was a major factor.

Logic-chopping EU may believe Hezbollah political wing distanced from terrorism but Hezbollah itself begs to differ. http://t.co/vTncBOk7fQ
— Melanie Phillips (@MelanieLatest) July 28, 2013

Arlene Kushner on the Degree to Which the Obama Administration Shields Islamist Extremists

From Arlene Kushner:
August 20, 2013

Horrific

Tearing my hair out is not constructive.  It's even worse than banging my head against the wall.  And so, I must resist all such impulses. 

Please see this article -- "BLIND TO TERROR: The US Government's Disastrous Muslim Outreach Efforts and the Impact on US Middle East Policy."  This is from the Gloria Center, headed by Barry Rubin, and is written by counterterrorism consultant Patrick S. Poole (emphasis added):

"The aftermath of the April 15, 2013 bombings in Boston, Massachusetts, has focused attention on the failure of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to carry out an adequate investigation of the suspected bombers despite warnings from Russian authorities. This failure has partially been attributed to a full scale campaign of political correctness waged inside the bureau and throughout the U.S. government under the Obama administration against any attempt to link jihadi terrorism with anything remotely connected to Islam of any variety (the most radical versions included). This has extended into other segments of the government as well, particularly the Department of Defense.

How Did Charles de Gaulle Decry Muslim Immigration and Still End Up As Time Magazine Man of the Year?

The following by Daniel Pipes is reposted here with permission:

Why Was Enoch Powell Condemned as a Racist and Not Charles de Gaulle?

by Daniel Pipes
History News Network
August 19, 2013
http://www.danielpipes.org/13279/enoch-powell-charles-de-gaulle

The French and British empires historically had different premises, with the former (in the Roman tradition) focused more on culture and the latter more on race, hierarchy, and family. This difference took many forms: one finds meals of bifteck-frites in tiny towns in the former French colony of Niger but little English food even in the cities of neighboring Nigeria. Léopold Senghor of Senegal became a significant French poet and cultural figure whereas Rabindranath Tagore of Bengal could never transcend his Indian origins.

Mideast Media Sampler 8/19/13: New York Times Blames Israel For Obama's Wavering on Egypt

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

The New York Times faults Israel for looking out for its own interests

It wasn’t just one article over the weekend. No fewer than four articles in the New York Times over the past few days have made the case that Israel values its security more than it does freedom for Egyptians. While any country would reasonably put the safety of its own citizens ahead of other concerns, the New York Times makes it appear unseemly. At a time when the United States is uncertain what approach to take, the reports present a selfish Israel attempting to impose its preferences on those who are struggling to do the right thing.

Israel Escalating Efforts re Egypt, unlike Obama, does not have "any illusions" about democracy in Egypt http://t.co/MpWGUOJcXj
— David D. Kirkpatrick (@ddknyt) August 19, 2013

Raymond Ibrahim on Mubarak's Muslim Brotherhood Prophecy

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Mubarak's Muslim Brotherhood Prophecy

by Raymond Ibrahim
Gatestone Institute
August 15, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3586/mubarak-muslim-brotherhood

Raymond Ibrahim

In a video of Hosni Mubarak when he was still Egypt's president, the strategies of which he accuses the Muslim Brotherhood have come to pass. What follows are Mubarak's words from a conference in Egypt (date unknown; author's translation):

So they [Brotherhood and affiliates] took advantage of the economic situation by handing out money, to one man 100 Egyptian pounds, or about $30 dollars, [saying,] "Here take this bag of glycerin and throw it here," or do this or that—to create a state of instability in Egypt. And these groups—don't ever believe that they want democracy or anything like that. They are exploiting democracy in order to eliminate democracy. And if they ever do govern, it will be an ugly dictatorship. ….

Arlene Kushner on Abbas and Palestinian Arabs Looking For Excuse To Backtrack On Peace Talks

From Arlene Kushner:
August 19, 2013

Ironies

Right now we are encountering ironies in a variety of situations, both predictable and unexpected. 

Among the predictable we have the behavior of the Palestinian Authority/PLO.  Once negotiations, which were supposed to be conducted under cover of a media blackout, started, I guessed that we'd be hearing from the Palestinian Arabs before long.  It took about 24 hours before Abbas announced at a press conference with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon in Ramallah that the first session had addressed all key issues, including Jerusalem, refugees, borders, settlements, security and prisoners. 

That was quick. It seems rather surprising that all these issues could have been addressed in just one session. But never mind.  The Palestinian Arabs were off to a start, with regard to talking publicly about the talks.  This is their style:  Not quiet, steady sustentative negotiations, but negotiations via public opinion.

~~~~~~~~~~

Daniel Pipes: Evidence that Morsi Actually Lost the Egyptian Presidency

The following by Daniel Pipes is reposted here with permission:

Evidence that Morsi Actually Lost the Egyptian Presidency

by Daniel Pipes
August 18, 2013
Cross-posted from National Review Online, The Corner

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2013/08/evidence-that-morsi-actually-lost-the-egyptian

Just days after his apparent victory, Cynthia Farahat and I expressed our skepticism about the validity of these election returns:

SCAF exploits the Muslim Brotherhood and other proxies as its civilian fronts, a role they are happy to play, by permitting Islamists to garner an outsized percentage of the parliamentary vote, then to win the presidency. During the suspicious week-long delay before the presidential votes were announced, SCAF met with the Muslim Brotherhood's real leader, Khairat El-Shater, and reached a deal whereby Morsi became president but SCAF still governs.

Earlier, we had doubted two earlier rounds of elections (see "Egypt's Sham Election" and "Don't Ignore Electoral Fraud in Egypt.")

Though few analysts have embraced this version, there have been recent hints of it:

Raymond Ibrahim: Behind Benghazi: Muslim Brotherhood and Obama Administration

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Behind Benghazi: Muslim Brotherhood and Obama Administration

by Raymond Ibrahim
CBN News
August 14, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3585/benghazi-muslim-brotherhood

Raymond Ibrahim

Evidence that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood was directly involved in the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, where Americans including U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens were killed, continues to mount.

First, on June 26, 2013, I produced and partially translated what purported to be an internal Libyan governmental memo which was leaked and picked up by many Arabic websites. According to this document, the Muslim Brotherhood, including now ousted President Morsi, played a direct role in the Benghazi consulate attack. "Based on confessions derived from some of those arrested at the scene," asserted the report, six people, "all of them Egyptians" from the jihad group Ansar al-Sharia (Supporters of Islamic Law), were arrested. During interrogations, these Egyptian jihadi cell members:

Video: South African Dr. Kenneth Meshoe and His Daughter Debunk The Slander That Israel Is An Apartheid State

There are politicians who find lying to be a normal way of doing politics. Many of them know that they are lying. And they just continue lying in order to please people who hate Israel and in order to please people who they believe have money and oil; in order to do so they make blatant lies.
Dr. Kenneth Meshoe, Interview with South African MP Kenneth Meshoe

Esther Meshoe, the daughter of conservative South African parliamentarian, Dr. Kenneth Meshoe, refutes the claim that Israel is an Apartheid state.

Here is the video:

Arms For Peace: Obama Administration Arguments For Arming Syrian Insurgents Just Don't Work

The following by Gary C. Gambill is reposted with permission of Middle East Forum:

Arms for Peace in Syria?

by Gary C. Gambill
Foreign Policy Research Institute
August 16, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3584/syria-arms

Gary C. Gambill

As the Syrian civil war rages on with no end in sight, many advocates of U.S. intervention are claiming that an infusion of Western arms to carefully vetted rebel factions will help bring about a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Though hardly the first time that tools of war have been recast as instruments of peace, this curious proposition has gained unprecedented currency across the ideological spectrum, from liberal internationalists to conservative hawks.

Unfortunately, the magic bullets theory doesn't hold much water.

If You Think Middle East Is Unstable Now, Now The Kurds Are Making Their Move in Syria

The Kurdish Awakening in Syria:
Could It Lead to Regional War?

Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah

Here is the executive summary of the original aricle:

• After largely sitting on the sidelines of the Syrian revolution, political groups from Syria's Kurdish minority have moved decisively to claim control of Kurdish-populated areas.
  
  
• For the first time in modern Syrian Kurdish history, Kurds have created an exclusively Kurdish-controlled enclave. Kurdish spokesmen have indicated that they are planning to form a provisional Kurdish government due to the absence of any central authority.

MEQ December 1997: Can Arabs Buy Land in Israel?

The following by Alexander Safian is resposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Can Arabs Buy Land in Israel?

by Alexander Safian
Middle East Quarterly
December 1997, pp. 11-16

Alexander Safian is associate director and research director of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), a Boston-based media-watch organization


The Palestinian Authority's justice minister, Freih Abu Meddein, announced in early May 1997 that Palestinians who sell land to Jews will face the death penalty¹ and over the next few weeks, at least four Palestinians said to have been involved in such sales were in fact murdered.² In addition, Israeli forces rescued a fifth land dealer as he was being spirited from his home near Jerusalem to Ramallah, presumably to be killed.³ Evidence, both circumstantial and otherwise, pointed to direct PA involvement in each of these murders; indeed, Yasir Arafat himself justified the executions:

Mideast Media Sampler 8/16/13: Like Obama, The Media Also Has Focus Issues With Israel

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

Attention Deficit Peace Process Disorder

Last week Thomas Friedman wrote a paean to John Kerry's peacemaking, Daring to fail. In the middle of the article he presented the same sort of "concern" for Israel that Secretary of State Kerry did.

Let’s start with a small item in Britain’s Independent newspaper on July 24, which began: “He once sang, ‘You Gotta Get Outta This Place,’ but now Eric Burdon is not even turning up at all having deciding to withdraw from a planned concert in Israel. ... The Animals frontman, whose hits include ‘House of the Rising Sun,’ and ‘San Franciscan Nights,’ had been due to perform alongside local Israeli bands in Binyamina. ... However, in a statement, Mr. Burdon’s management, said: ‘We’ve been receiving mounting pressure, including numerous threatening e-mails, daily. ...’” Burdon was just the latest of a rising number of artists and intellectuals who have started boycotting Israel over the occupation issue.

First of all as even Friedman acknowledged, Burdon's cancellation was due to "threatening e-mails." This wasn't an example of protesting Israeli policies. Second of all the stated purpose of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement isn't co-existence; it's no Israel. In one paragraph, while professing his concern for Israel, Friedman accepted threats as an acceptable way to oppose Israeli policies and validated those seeking to destroy Israel as legitimate.

Oh, and Friedman didn't even bother to keep up with the news. Burdon, in the end, reversed himself, ignored the threats and played in Israel. In other words Friedman's argument was obsolete before his fingers hit the keyboard. Wasn't he paying attention?

MEQ Winter 2005: Putin's Pro-Israel Policy

The following by Mark N. Katz is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Putin's Pro-Israel Policy

by Mark N. Katz
Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2005, pp. 51-59

The Russian government remains the greatest facilitator for Iranian nuclear ambitions. It has had close ties to terror-sponsoring regimes such as Syria and Saddam's Iraq. Russian president Vladimir Putin has not hesitated to oppose U.S. foreign policy. Washington and Moscow have clashed frequently over the Iraq war and its aftermath. But, mostly unnoticed by foreign policy pundits and Middle East watchers, Russia's policy toward Israel has undergone a steady shift.

Under Putin, Russia has not only declined to adopt Western Europe's increasingly shrill anti-Israel posture, but in many ways he has actually tilted Russian policy in Israel's favor, at least with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It would be a mistake, however, to interpret recent Russian shifts as due to a fundamental ideological shift. Putin neither seeks to please Washington nor to accommodate any domestic political imperative. Rather, Moscow's new Middle East policy results from Putin's personal calculation of Russian interests, one that does not find many other takers in his own government.

Arlene Kushner on How The West Mistakenly Fuels The Violence In Egypt by Backing Muslim Brotherhood

From Arlene Kushner:
August 15, 2013

Egypt

I tabled discussion about Egypt for some days, as I considered the release of terrorists from Israeli prison and related events here.  And in the course of those days, the situation in Egypt has escalated -- in some ways, inevitably, in some ways not.

The military regime of General al-Sisi had been threatening to take out encampments of Muslim Brotherhood resistance, if the people demonstrating for the return of Morsi did not disband.  Finally, Sisi acted.  As I write, some 500 people have died and the Islamists are not pulling back but rather responding with violence.

~~~~~~~~~~

Mideast Media Sampler – 8/15/13: Media Targets Egypt Military, Ignores Muslim Brotherhood Attempted Power Grab

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

What should the American response to the latest outbreak of violence in Egypt be?

U.S. Pulls Out of Egypt’s Bright Star War Game “Cairo’s brutality highlights U.S. fecklessness despite billions… http://t.co/COLolJDG5o
— Michael Yon (@Michael_Yon) August 15, 2013

Not entirely surprisingly, the editors in the New York Times call for a complete cutoff of aid in Military Madness in Cairo:

But the major blame rests with General Sisi. He seized power from a democratically elected government. He controls the security forces that have persecuted and brutalized political opponents. And he approved orders for heavily armed forces to use deadly force against peaceful protesters with a very legitimate political grievance — the ouster and secret detention of Egypt’s first democratically elected president.

David P. Goldman: America's Problems in the Middle East are Just Beginning

The following by David P. Goldman is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

America's Problems in the Middle East are Just Beginning

by David P. Goldman
PJ Media
August 15, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3583/america-problems-middle-east

David P. Goldman

It's 2015, and there is a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas), financed by Iran, wins an election on a platform demanding the expulsion of the Jews from Israel. Iran meanwhile smuggles shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to terrorist cells in Palestine that can take down civilian airlines at Ben-Gurion airport. With backing from the Egyptian military, Fatah throws out the elected Hamas government and kills larger number of Hamas supporters. What will Washington do? Given the track record of both the Obama administration and the Republican mainstream, one would expect America to denounce the use of violence against a democratically-elected government.

Such is the absurdity of both parties' stance towards Egypt: the Egyptian military is doing America's dirty work, suppressing a virulently anti-modern, anti-Semitic and anti-Western Islamist movement whose leader, Mohammed Morsi, famously referred to Israelis as "apes and pigs." It did so with the enthusiastic support of tens of millions of Egyptians who rallied in the streets in support of the military. And the American mainstream reacted with an ideological knee jerk. America's presence in the Middle East has imploded.

MEQ Winter 2012: Oren Kessler on The Two Faces of Al Jazeera

The following by Oren Kessler is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

The Two Faces of Al Jazeera

by Oren Kessler
Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2012, pp. 47-56 (view PDF)

One of the principal beneficiaries of the Arab uprisings has been Al Jazeera television. Viewers are praising the English and Arabic channels' comprehensive coverage of the revolts while the Obama administration continues to court the network as part of its signature foreign policy goal of improving ties with the Arab and Muslim worlds.

On August 1, 2011, Al Jazeera English (AJE) began broadcasting to two million cable subscribers in New York—the third major U.S. city to carry the station after Houston and Washington, D.C.[1] AJE's gutsy, driven reporting—one commentator aptly commended its "hustle"[2]—has won it friends in high places: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lauded the channel as "real news,"[3] and Sen. John McCain (Republican, Ariz.) said he was "very proud" of its handling of the so-called Arab Spring.[4]

Lost in the exuberance is the fact that a vast gulf still separates the channel's English iteration from the original Arabic, which fifteen years after its birth continues to inflame Arab resentments in its promotion of anti-Americanism, Sunni sectarianism and, in recent years, Islamism.

As AJE debuts in New York, many viewers who do not speak Arabic will presume the station to be a direct or approximate translation of its parent network in Qatar.[5] But to appreciate what Al Jazeera English is, it is critical to remember just what it is not—even a remote likeness of its Arabic-speaking progenitor.

Arlene Kushner on Palestinian Terrorist Release and Hamas Response

From Arlene Kushner:
August 14, 2013

Demented

That's the current state of affairs.

Yesterday, the High Court -- totally as expected -- rejected the appeals of families of terror victims and said that the State had the right, for diplomatic reasons, to effect the release of the first 26 Palestinian Arab terrorists.

And so, after midnight last night (the wee hours of Wednesday, the 14th) the arrangements were carried out by Prison Services, with some being bused to Ramallah and others to the Erez Crossing into Gaza.

Mideast Media Sampler 8/14/13: Is Kerry Really As Concerned For Israel As He Claims To Be?

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

For the third time in two weeks we have a report about Secretary of State Kerry’s concern for Israel.

First in the New York Times:

With the Palestinians poised to take their claim for statehood to the International Criminal Court and United Nations bodies, American officials say the two sides were facing a downward spiral in which the Israelis would respond by cutting off financing to the Palestinian territories and European nations might curtail their investment in Israel, further isolating the Israelis.

Then it was in the Times of Israel:

An optimistic-sounding Kerry asked the Jewish leaders for their help in supporting the newly restarted talks, The Times of Israel learned, saying that he feared for Israel’s future if a peace deal is not reached.

Yesterday it was Jeffrey Goldberg:

Kerry, capitalizing on this anxiety, has warned Netanyahu in recent weeks that if the current peace talks bear no fruit, Israel may soon be facing an international delegitimization campaign — in his words — “on steroids.”

Bereaved Families of Victims of Palestinian Terrorists Send Open Letter to US Secretary of State Kerry on Their Release

Here is the letter Bereaved Families for Peace and Justice sent to the media -- followed by the open letter they sent to Secretary of State John Kerry:

To members of the media

Bereaved Families for Peace and Justice, an Israel-based grass-roots group opposed to the release of convicted terrorists and murderers from the Israeli prisons where they are serving often-lengthy terms for appalling crimes, yesterday delivered a letter to the office of US Secretary of State John Kerry. It calls upon him to meet with representatives of the group as soon as possible, and to hear why such releases contradict the peace process.

MEQ Spring 2011: Abbas vs. Obama (Maybe It Really Is Abbas Who's Calling The Shots)

The following by Steven J. Rosen is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Abbas vs. Obama

by Steven J. Rosen
Middle East Quarterly
Spring 2011, pp. 53-58 (view PDF)

Having sidelined Barack Obama's peace initiative by refusing to return to the negotiations table without apriori Israeli concessions, the Palestinian leadership seeks to secure an international declaration of statehood at the next U.N. General Assembly session in September 2011. This "date certain" strategy, whereby its entitlement to a state will be fulfilled by the world powers, has long been preferred by the Palestinian leadership to any arduous, bilateral negotiation with Israel, which would require painful concessions. The Palestinians enjoy wide support in many European capitals, and they know that the Obama administration is close to their positions on many of the core issues. So forcing the statehood demand into a multilateral forum can entice governments into satisfying the Palestinian aspirations by a fixed date.

Video: Best of Latma Part 1 -- And What The Future Holds For Latma

Last week and this week Latma is posting 2 videos with highlights of the best of Latma over the past 4 years.

Take a look:

Cynthia Farahat: Is Muslim Brotherhood Working Together With Ambassador Chris Stevens' Assassin?

The following by Cynthia Farahat is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Is Muslim Brotherhood Working Together With Ambassador Chris Stevens' Assassin?

by Cynthia Farahat
Fox News
August 12, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3580/muslim-brotherhood-chris-stevens

Cynthia Farahat

Ahmed Moussa, a prominent Egyptian television personality on the Tahrir TV channel as well as a former officer in Egyptian State Security Intelligence (SSI), went public on July 30 with a remarkable piece of information.

Moussa said, addressing U.S. ambassador Anne Patterson (in absentia) on his show:

Ambassador Stevens was killed in Benghazi, and you know who killed him, the U.S. administration knows who killed him, and you know how he was killed and it was a major strike against the U.S. administration, and all of you. 

The assassin is now present at Rabia Al-Adawiya [mosque protest] His name is, do you know it or you would like me to inform you? He's affiliated with Al Qaeda in Libya, his name is Mohsen Al-Azazi, his passport was found in the house of Khairat El-Shater. 

That killer is in Rabia Al-Adawiya now, with Safwat Hegazy and Mohammed El-Beltagy, whom you and your administration support and aid. Your administration aids terrorism.

In the course of this statement, Moussa announced three facts:

Mideast Media Sampler 8/13/13: Why Isn't Kerry Concerned About A Terrorist Palestinian State?

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

Terrorism is Diplomacy by Other Means

Yesterday I wondered Does John Kerry worry about a Palestine that reveres such monsters as the murderer of Nissim Toledano? The impetus for my curiosity was Secretary of State John Kerry's remarks last week in front of a number Jewish American leaders as reported by the Times of Israel:

An optimistic-sounding Kerry asked the Jewish leaders for their help in supporting the newly restarted talks, The Times of Israel learned, saying that he feared for Israel’s future if a peace deal is not reached.

If he worried about Israel's future, did he worry about a state that was based of violence and terror?

MEQ Spring 2008: Fatah's Embrace of Islamism

The following by Ido Zelkovitz is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Fatah's Embrace of Islamism

by Ido Zelkovitz
Middle East Quarterly
Spring 2008, pp. 19-26

Many U.S. and European diplomats contrast Fatah's Palestinian nationalism with Hamas's Islamism. At a November 28, 2007 press conference, U.S. national security advisor Stephen Hadley praised Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and cited President George W. Bush's argument that "Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al-Qaeda [are] different faces of the same evil: a radical ideology seeking to impose its world-view throughout the Middle East and beyond."[1] But, while Fatah, the core of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), may have its roots in the revolutionary, secular-oriented ideologies of the 1960s and 1970s,[2] Islamist discourse is also integral to the movement.[3] Indeed, even as Western diplomats seek to bolster Fatah's Abbas as an alternative to Hamas, they underestimate the degree to which Palestinian nationalism now intertwines itself with Islam.[4] Since the 2000 Palestinian uprising, Fatah has fused national and religious symbols in order to use Islam as an instrument of mobilization.[5]

Hilal Khashan: The Political Isolation of Lebanese Sunnis

The following by Hilal Khashan is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

The Political Isolation of Lebanese Sunnis

by Hilal Khashan
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2013, pp. 69-75 (view PDF)

The delicate fabric that is the Lebanon polity, only recently rewoven after decades of civil war, is once again on the verge of unraveling. Recent events—between the ascendance of Shiite groups through the February 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri to the current Syrian civil war—have caught one of the most prominent sectarian groups, the Sunnis, unprepared. How this has come about is a convoluted tale of jockeying for power between rival politicians and ethnicities.

Arlene Kushner on Israel's Release of Palestinian Terrorists -- And The Attempt To Depict Them As Something Else

From Arlene Kushner:
August 12, 2013

A Time of National Pain

And humiliation, as far as I am concerned. We have handed a victory to the bad guys just in order to bend over backwards, like a contortionist, a pretzel, to show the world how "eager" we are to bring the Palestinian Arabs to the table.

What I see is that chances that the government will reverse itself with regard to the 26 terrorists prisoners that are to be released tomorrow is almost non-existent. They are standing by their decision and the court is standing by their right to make that political decision, grief of families notwithstanding.

~~~~~~~~~~

I cringe at what's coming tomorrow, with the celebrations as they are released.  (Photo is of a previous such occasion.)

Credit: CAMERA

But I believe we must keep our eye on the way to be most productive in fighting the current situation. 

Jonathan Rosenblum on the Israel-Palestinian "Peace Talks," and Implications of US Pressure on Netanyahu

The following by Jonathan Rosenblum is reposted here with permission:

Israel Sues for Peace

by Jonathan Rosenblum
Jerusalem Post, Yated Ne'eman
August 9, 2013


We can safely stipulate that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did not happily agree to release 104 savage Palestinian murderers as the prize for Palestinian agreement to once again sit at the negotiating table. In so doing, he damaged not just his political standing, but whatever remains of his moral authority and reputation for strategic thinking.

Not too many readers outside of Israel will be exposed to a full catalogue of the deeds perpetrated by those to be released. But Israelis were, and they were revolted.

Raymond Ibrahim: Egyptians Enraged by U.S. Outreach to Muslim Brotherhood

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Egyptians Enraged by U.S. Outreach to Muslim Brotherhood

by Raymond Ibrahim
PJ Media
August 9, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3578/us-outreach-egypt-muslim-brotherhood

Raymond Ibrahim

In the eyes of tens of millions of Egyptians, Senators John McCain's and Lindsey Graham's recent words and deeds in Egypt—which have the "blessing" of President Obama—have unequivocally proven that U.S. leadership is aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian media is awash with stories of the growing anger regarding this policy.

A top advisor to Egypt's Interim President Adly Mansour formally accused McCain of distorting facts to the benefit of the Brotherhood, dismissing the senator's remarks as "irrational"—or, more colloquially, "moronic." Ahmed al-Zind, head of the Egyptian Judge Club, called for the arrest and trial of McCain for "trying to destroy Egypt." The leader of the youth movement, Tamarod (or "Rebellion" against the Brotherhood) which played a major role in mobilizing the June 30 Revolution, said "We reject John McCain and call on the international community to let the [Egyptian] people decide their own fate." Another incensed secular political commentator, Ahmed Musa, asserted that "These two men have made more shameless demands than the Brotherhood themselves would dare," adding:

Arlene Kushner: Kerry Wants To Exploit American Jews To Pressure Netanyahu To Ignore Israeli Voters

From Arlene Kushner:
August 11, 2013:

Despicable and Dangerous

Last Thursday night, Secretary of State Kerry met for 90 minutes with a select group of heads of Jewish American organizations to speak about the "peace process."  Standing with him at this "briefing" were National Security Advisor Susan Rice and special envoy (Middle East "mediator?") Martin Indyk.

Present were representatives of AIPAC, J Street, the ADL, the American Jewish Committee, the Conservative movement (the Rabbinic Assembly according to the JPost, and perhaps also the United Synagogue), the Orthodox Union, American Friends of Lubavitch, B’nai B’rith International, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Jewish Federations of North America, Hadassah, the National Jewish Democratic Council, the National Council of Jewish Women and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.