The Middle East Media Sampler 5/20/2012: How Explicit Does Iran Have To Be About Destroying Israel?

From DG:

1) What part of "wipe off the map" don't you understand?

When Israel cites threats against its existence, there are many who tend to underplay these threats and suggest that Israel is exaggerating for one reason or another. An example of this, Glenn Kessler's "Did Ahmadinejad really say Israel should be ‘wiped off the map’?" Kessler, the Washington Post's "fact checker" concluded:

The following by Avital Chizhik is reposted with permission:

Jerusalem: Compass of the Diaspora Jew

By Avital Chizhik


We’re standing in a hall in downtown Manhattan, overlooking a dusky Liberty Harbor.

The girl standing next to me points to the river view: “Doesn’t it almost look like Jerusalem? That terrace over there and that tree? The way the sun is setting?”

I gaze for a minute at the view. We stand overlooking a dark Hudson River, a boat passing by, the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

No, it doesn’t look like Jerusalem in the least. Not here. This is most certainly New York. I muster a smile, trying to think of an agreeable response until I finally sigh and admit, “No, it doesn’t look like Jerusalem. Not at all.”

London Olympics: Munich Massacre By Palestinian Terrorists Down The Memory Hole

[T]he decision to ignore Munich is just the latest illustration of the moral bankruptcy of the Games.
Jonathan Tobin

In light of the fact that the International Olympic Committee has refused an remembrance of the Olympics Munich Massacre, Jonathan Tobin writes that Ignoring Munich Massacre Reminds Us Olympics Are Pure Baloney

In the history of the modern Olympic Games there have been many scandals but only one terrorist massacre.

The following by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is reposted with permission:

Watching the new state of South Sudan fall into chaos

by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
Ha'aretz
May 18, 2012

http://www.meforum.org/3234/south-sudan-chaos

When the state of South Sudan came into existence last July, with great fanfare, Israel was one of the first nations to recognize it, having provided support for South Sudanese leaders since the 1960s during the first civil war. Indeed, in late December, Salva Kiir Mayardit - the president of South Sudan - came to Jerusalem, where he discussed the unique prospect of locating the country's embassy there. It was therefore no surprise that President Shimon Peres spoke so enthusiastically of the visit as a "moving and historic moment" for him and Israel.

Now, less than a year later, in light of Israel's plans to deport South Sudanese refugees, it is worth taking a look at how the world's youngest nation is faring.

Video: Pastrami & Politics: Jews & Obama

From RabbiLive--
If you want to know how Jews feel about Obama--go to the nearest kosher deli:

The Middle East Media Sampler 5/18/2012: President Bush On The Arab Spring

From DG:

1) Former President Bush on the Arab spring

Former President, George W. Bush wrote The Arab Spring and American Ideals in the Wall Street Journal.

America does not get to choose if a freedom revolution should begin or end in the Middle East or elsewhere. It only gets to choose what side it is on.

The day when a dictator falls or yields to a democratic movement is glorious. The years of transition that follow can be difficult. People forget that this was true in Central Europe, where democratic institutions and attitudes did not spring up overnight. From time to time, there has been corruption, backsliding and nostalgia for the communist past. Essential economic reforms have sometimes proved painful and unpopular.

Video: Latma--The New French Anthem and The Israeli Plot To Have A Government

The latest Latma.
(Didn't you know the Palestinians own Mount Everest?)

Here's the video:

The following by Jonathan Rosenblum is reposted with permission.

Advice for Romney

by Jonathan Rosenblum
Yated Ne'eman
April 27, 2012

Having once written a column entitled, "Why Barack Obama will not be president," I am assiduously resisting any temptation to prognostication this electoral cycle. That is not to say, however, that I do not remain vitally interested in the outcome of the upcoming presidential election.

Sean Trende, one of America's leading electoral analysts, has written that few rules are as well established as the rule that elections involving an incumbent tend to be a referendum on the performance of the incumbent, so long as the challenger does not allow himself to be painted in an extreme light. If so, President Obama clearly faces a some significant hurdles ahead in his re-election bid.

Apparently the Obama election team agrees. Their strategy will clearly be to do everything possible to divert attention from the President's record in office to a host of peripheral issues: a thirty year-old incident involving Romney's dog: the "Buffet rule," which even under the most favorable assumptions would take 250 years to cover one year of the current national deficit, the GOP's alleged "war on women."

Thus, Romney's task will be to keep a relentless laser focus on Obama's record and to enunciate his own vision for handling the critical issues that the President has ignored or botched.

There Must Be Something About Israel Worth Criticizing!

Benjamin Weinthal describes how modern Jew-hatred and loathing of Israel is restrained in the US and Canada in way that it is not in Europe:

After my over 10 year presence in Europe, I appreciate that I may be stating the obvious for folks who have experienced the anti-Israel mini-movements that punctuate Europe. However, for those that thankfully lack this experience, it is worth stating very clearly: in the US and Canada, there are major countervailing forces that help stymie the kind of modern Jew-hatred—namely, the loathing of Israel—that contaminate broad swaths of Europe's populations.

Weinthal has a number of interesting insights into the difference between pro-Israel advocacy in Europe as opposed to how it manifests itself on the other side of the Atlantic in the US and Canada.

One particularly relevant, and enduring insight, is quoted from the Jewish social philosopher Theodor W. Adorno, who did research on anti-Semitism following WWII.

Negotiations With Iran Ignore How Highly Iran Relishes Nuclear Arms

The following by Jonathan Rosenblum is reposted with permission:

Negotiations to Nowhere

by Jonathan Rosenblum
Yated Ne'eman
May 10, 2012


When evaluating the latest rounds of negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany (P5 + 1) over Iran's nuclear program, there is one essential thing to know: Iran has no intention of giving up its pursuit of nuclear arms, or at least will not do so unless subjected to unbearable pressure. ( The Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, did drink, in his words, "the poison chalice" and call a halt to the eight year Iraq-Iran War, when it threatened to destroy the nascent Islamic Revolution.)

Harold Rhode, a former Defense Department analyst on Iran and leading disciple of Bernard Lewis, the dean of Middle East scholars, explained why in a piece for the Hudson Institute last December. Khomeini viewed the world in terms of an ongoing struggle with the non-Muslim nations that can only end when the non-Muslims convert to Islam. Nuclear weapons have been seen by the Iranian leadership since Khomeini's day as a prime tool in bringing about that submission of the non-Muslim world and of asserting Shiite supremacy over their Sunni co-religionists.