scaramouche

...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.

The implacable spirit of jihad: It’s them vs. us, and it looks like they just may have the will to defeat us. By Kenneth Blackwell in the New York Sun:

"There are two powers in this world, the sword and the spirit. Over time the spirit will always prevail."
— Napoleon

The merciless monsters who constitute Al Qaeda and its terrorist movement are equal opportunity killers.

They will use anyone — man, woman, pregnant mother, child — in acts of suicide to kill anyone: Spanish commuters, Sudanese Christians, Indian train travelers, London Tube-riders and tourists, or Americans working at their desks on a clear September morning.

They will kill by any means: videotaped beheadings, homemade bombs packed with nails, explosive chlorine tanks, and, of course, jetliners loaded with fuel — and people. Their terrorism is an asymmetric form of warfare that seeks to attack the human spirit.

In their minds and through their methods, evil has assumed a hideous new shape. The human spirit reels at such enormities, because the boundaries the jihadists cross are the bare minimums of civilization. It's difficult for us to conceive of such hatred. That may be one reason why we are so ready to believe such hatred has faded, or will soon fade, from the scene. But this battle will be long and, much of it, spiritual in nature.

For now, it appears Congress has given up on the plan for a legislatively imposed timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, but there is the sense that what the liberal majority really yearns for is a holiday from history. Facing the immensity and durability of the jihadist threat, a threat that has raged now for decades, the congressional majority pins its hopes on a change in us rather than the decisive defeat of those who attack us. The political games in Washington are weakening the will of the nation.

In psychological terms, the political Left is like the battered spouse picking through her own faults to find the reason why she is being terrorized. America is being attacked for the values we hold and the freedom to which we are so dedicated. We didn't provoke the attack of 9/11, the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the 1998 bombing of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, or the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. The problem is not American imperialist greed, but a transnational movement of extremist organizations, networks, and their state sponsors that is determined to steal our freedom and dominate us.

The answer to the Left's enabling is realism: America did not cause radical Islam. Smiling more and meeting with dictators will not cure it. The jihadists are zealots filled with equal-opportunity hatred for both the best and the worst of Western civilization…

You mean Nancy Pelosi’s shmatta-wearing exercise in Syria was a complete waste of time and, more to the point, was counter-productive because it lent credibility to a regime that is chin (or, in this case, chin-less) deep in the promotion of regional terrorism?

I’m not surprised. The fact of the matter is that anyone who expects “realism” to seep into the consciousness of the American Left is at best a cockeyed optimist and at worst a total lunatic.

posted by: scaramouche at 22:44 | link | comments |

What are the odds?: Another bizarre and ironic co-incidence—and on the same day as the Norwegian one.

Honest Reporting’s Media Backspin notes that “On the same week that British University and College Union voted to boycott Israeli academic institutions, students at Sderot’s Sapir College were cleared to resume classes—in fortified classrooms.”

An irony that is no doubt lost on the British boycotters.

posted by: scaramouche at 22:22 | link | comments |

Quel surprise!: Syria, Hezbollah condemn UN vote to establish Hariri tribunal.

posted by: scaramouche at 22:12 | link | comments |

Bizarre—and ironic—co-incidence of the day: On the same day that Norway resumes sending direct aid—10 million smackeroos—to a regime led by Hamas, it is announced that the Norway has been designated the most peaceful nation in the world. 

So, if I have this straight, Norway is an exceptionally peaceful nation that has absolutely no qualms about funding a bunch of genocidal terrorists.

 

I’m sure somewhere down in Hades Vidkun Quisling is shepping naches.

posted by: scaramouche at 21:41 | link | comments |

Harpoon uncoils his latest attack: The Toronto Star features a particularly nasty piece of venom by that old Islamism snake-oil salesman, Harpoon Siddiqui. Today’s hiss-y fit deals with all the dirt the infidels are doing to the true believers (specifically, in Gaza, Lebanon and Afghanistan), and how it has chased them into the arms of extremist militias.

Yeah, it’s all our fault.

 

Harpoon waxes especially eloquent about Israel’s iniquity in, well, in continuing to insist on its right to exist as a sovereign Jewish state when such existence keeps the Palestinians, poor dears, isolated in separate “cantons.”

 

I suppose we should be thankful he didn’t call them “Bantulands”:

The crises in Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon and Afghanistan are the inevitable outcome of treating the symptoms rather than the disease.

Gaza: Israeli bombing won't bring peace any more than previous military crackdowns. American-Israeli help to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas' security forces won't stop Hamas from acquiring more rockets to hurl at Israel. The Saudi-sponsored unity government between Fatah and Hamas won't end their internecine warfare.

"The problem is Gaza itself," writes Fawaz Turki, author of The Disinherited: Journal of a Palestinian Exile, who lives in Washington.

"Israel may have evacuated its miserable colonists and soldiers from Gaza but it continues to control its airspace, offshore maritime access and its borders, determining the flow of goods, produce and people ...

"The cumulative impact of sustained economic hardship, coupled with living under the thumb of a foreign occupier can be devastating to an individual's psychological, even cognitive and social functioning ...

"Communities made inert by repression, social immobility or economic deprivation, will build up an inescapable drive towards war, towards an assertion of identity at the cost of mutual destruction."

The World Bank, too, recently criticized the Israeli stranglehold on Gaza and the West Bank, the latter cut up into "ever smaller and disconnected cantons."

Neither the Palestinian civil war nor the breakdown of the months-long ceasefire with Israel should have come as a surprise…

No surprise to me, Harpoon. I knew that, stuck as they are in the rut of Judenhass and victimhood, there was no way the Palestinians could get their shite together.

 

Here’s the letter I sent the Star:

 

It’s remarkable that those “miserable colonists”—author Fawaz Turkis’s description of the Israelis who were forced to vacate Gaza when the Israeli government voluntarily disengaged from the area—were able to make a go of things. During their relatively brief time in the area, they transformed the land on which they lived into a rich agricultural sector which produced a wide array of fruits and vegetables, and which had been serving as Israel’s breadbasket. One of the first actions the Palestinians took after the Israelis departed was to smash all the greenhouses—greenhouses they could have used to feed their own people.

 

But then, Israelis have a lot of experience at taking a small piece of desolate land and making it bloom. The Palestinians—not so much.

 

Instead of complaining about the “miserable colonists,” perhaps the Palestinians should realize it’s in their best interest to take a cue from them.

 

Then again, they may hesitate to do so if their real intention is to not actually build a state of their own, but to tear down the flourishing Jewish one next door.

 

Gee, you think the Star will print it?

posted by: scaramouche at 14:45 | link | comments (2) |

Buying into sharia law: Not long ago an alliance of Muslim women, non-Muslim feminists and secular Muslims successfully turned aside an effort to bring sharia tribunals into Ontario. These tribunals would have been legally empowered to adjudicate family and some other civil issues for Muslims in the province. A great victory, indeed, for those who believe in keeping the religious and the legal domains separate, and who know that sharia law, with its Eighth Century mindset and repressive strictures, has absolutely no place in 21^st Century Canada.

Well, it seems that when one door closes, another one opens. While sharia law as it pertains to family matters is a non-starter for the time being, sharia law for financial matters may be about to become a fait accompli.

 

Money talks, as they say.

 

For those who’d like to learn more about the exciting and lucrative world of sharia banking, the Globe and Mail invites you to submit questions to an attorney who’s an expert in the field:

Islamic finance is one of the fastest-growing areas of financial services in the world. Global banks are scrambling to start offering products that conform to sharia law, just as billions of dollars from oil-rich countries in the Middle East look for places to invest.

Canada's not immune to the trend. Most of the big banks are contemplating offering sharia-compliant products to expand their reach among Canada's fastest-growing immigrant population. Products range from mortgages to mutual funds, car financings and bonds.

Sharia-compliant services are similar to any other type of so-called socially responsible investing. In this case, they tend to meet three criteria: no explicit interest; transactions can't be in such areas such as gambling, pork or pornography; and can't be deemed too high risk.

Several articles written in the Globe and Mail have sparked a lively online debate over the growth in such services, the line between faith and finance and what it means to be Canadian.

Walied Soliman, a lawyer at Ogilvy Renault, will join us to take your questions. He acts for clients in a wide range of industries, including mining, energy and pharma and has also helped develop numerous Islamic-finance structured products. He's been seconded to the legal group of CIBC and to the Ontario Securities Commission's enforcement branch.

He'll be online on Thursday at noon EDT to discuss the demand and potential for sharia-compliant financial services in Canada and its rise around the world.

You can join the conversation by submitting a question ahead of time by clicking here.

My question for Mr. Soliman: Since we aren’t prepared to make room for sharia law in the area of family law (because, clearly, such law is not a good fit with our own), why should we be prepared to make accommodations for sharia law in the financial sector? And, once we’ve allowed it into this area, won’t it be more difficult to argue that it should be kept out of other areas—like family law?

posted by: scaramouche at 13:21 | link | comments (1) |

Celebrating Dossa: In the letters section of today’s Globe and Mail, a St. Francis Xavier University student named Miles Tompkins rushes to defend the institution’s most notorious academic:

Antigonish, N.S. -- I take exception with Ed Morgan, Irving Abella and Abraham Foxman (The Professor And The Critics - letters, May 30). Denying the Holocaust deniers the publicity they crave seems to be the crux of the issue. We should be exposing and challenging the David Dukes, David Irvings and Avigdor Liebermans of the world with all the knowledge we have in our possession. If universities can't dig down to the roots of misconceptions, we can hardly expect it to occur in the political arena. We will find ourselves led by those who have their own agenda, be it neo-Nazis, revisionist Zionists or Islamic extremists.

I want wisdom from my university, not oracles. St. Francis Xavier himself, and the founders of the Nova Scotia university, never sat idly by waiting for wisdom to be served to them on a white tablecloth.

Mr. Foxman says Shiraz Dossa was the only scholar from a mainstream Western university to attend. The fact that he went that distance to come away calling the deniers the idiots they are should be something to celebrate, not condemn.

A most “nuanced” missive, I’d say. So nuanced that it hardly makes any sense at all. (He wants wisdom and not oracles but doesn’t want this wisdom served on a white tablecloth? What the heck does that mean?)

My response, on the other hand—not so nuanced:

Miles Tompkins has apparently bought Professor Shiraz Dossa’s claim that he had little in common with the unsavoury types who attended a Holocaust denial conference in Iran, and urges us to “celebrate” him for traveling this vast distance in order to expose the other attendees for being the “idiots that they are.”

 

He’s kidding, right? I know that, having been caught in such disreputable company, Professor Dossa has felt compelled to do some serious back peddling. But it should be clear to anyone who has read his writings, which are vituperatively anti-Zionist and which obsessively explore the link between the Holocaust and the founding of Israel with the aim of undermining the Jewish state, that the Professor was not the odd man out at the conference; in fact, he was right at home.

 

Given that, I suggest we hold off on any “celebration” for the moment.

posted by: scaramouche at 12:20 | link | comments (1) |

World War Four, encore: Norman Podhoretz has been saying for some time that, whether or not we’re prepared to admit it, we’re at war with Islamic fascism—a war he calls WW4 (WW3 being the Cold War). He repeats this assertion in Opinion Journal, and says that unless we acknowledge the reality of Ahamdiejad’s seemingly loopy plans and take steps to derail them, it’s game over for Israel and perhaps the entire West:

Although many persist in denying it, I continue to believe that what Sept 11, 2001, did was to plunge us headlong into nothing less than another world war. I call this new war World War IV, because I also believe that what is generally known as the Cold War was actually World War III, and that this one bears a closer resemblance to that great conflict than it does to World War II. Like the Cold War, as the military historian Eliot Cohen was the first to recognize, the one we are now in has ideological roots, pitting us against Islamofascism, yet another mutation of the totalitarian disease we defeated first in the shape of Nazism and fascism and then in the shape of communism; it is global in scope; it is being fought with a variety of weapons, not all of them military; and it is likely to go on for decades.

What follows from this way of looking at the last five years is that the military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq cannot be understood if they are regarded as self-contained wars in their own right. Instead we have to see them as fronts or theaters that have been opened up in the early stages of a protracted global struggle. The same thing is true of Iran. As the currently main center of the Islamofascist ideology against which we have been fighting since 9/11, and as (according to the State Department's latest annual report on the subject) the main sponsor of the terrorism that is Islamofascism's weapon of choice, Iran too is a front in World War IV. Moreover, its effort to build a nuclear arsenal makes it the potentially most dangerous one of all.

The Iranians, of course, never cease denying that they intend to build a nuclear arsenal, and yet in the same breath they openly tell us what they intend to do with it. Their first priority, as repeatedly and unequivocally announced by their president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is to "wipe Israel off the map"--a feat that could not be accomplished by conventional weapons alone.

But Ahmadinejad's ambitions are not confined to the destruction of Israel. He also wishes to dominate the greater Middle East, and thereby to control the oilfields of the region and the flow of oil out of it through the Persian Gulf. If he acquired a nuclear capability, he would not even have to use it in order to put all this within his reach. Intimidation and blackmail by themselves would do the trick.

Nor are Ahmadinejad's ambitions merely regional in scope. He has a larger dream of extending the power and influence of Islam throughout Europe, and this too he hopes to accomplish by playing on the fear that resistance to Iran would lead to a nuclear war. And then, finally, comes the largest dream of all: what Ahmadinejad does not shrink from describing as "a world without America." Demented though he may be, I doubt that Ahmadinejad is so crazy as to imagine that he could wipe America off the map even if he had nuclear weapons. But what he probably does envisage is a diminution of the American will to oppose him: that is, if not a world without America, he will settle, at least in the short run, for a world without much American influence.

Not surprisingly, the old American foreign-policy establishment and many others say that these dreams are nothing more than the fantasies of a madman. They also dismiss those who think otherwise as neoconservative alarmists trying to drag this country into another senseless war that is in the interest not of the United States but only of Israel. But the irony is that Ahmadinejad's dreams are more realistic than the dismissal of those dreams as merely insane delusions…

posted by: scaramouche at 13:54 | link | comments |

And speaking of dizzy…: My head is spinning after reading this piece in the Tehran Times which claims that the U.S.—and more specifically, the CIA—is behind Fatah al-Islam, the nutso Islamist outfit battling Lebanese authorities at that “refugee camp” in Lebanon:

…The Fatah al-Islam movement was founded last year by Shaker al-Abssi, a Jordanian born in Palestine who has Salafist leanings and is close to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network.

With the help of Al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Abssi assassinated U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley in Amman, Jordan in 2002.

Later a Jordanian court tried him in absentia and sentenced him to death, but U.S. and Jordanian forces never attempted to apprehend al-Abssi.

He was then arrested in Syria and spent one year in prison, but after the downfall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, he headed to Iraq together with al-Zarqawi and organized Al-Qaeda of Iraq.

Assassinating prominent Iraqi Shia figures and carrying out suicide bombings at Shia shrines are some of the goals of the organization.

After al-Zarqawi was killed in 2006, al-Abssi, along with his 140 troops, entered Lebanon through Jordan and then Syria’s borders and took up residence in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.

Of course, al-Abssi should have been arrested and punished by U.S. and Jordanian forces, but he managed to freely enter Lebanon through Jordan and Syria with all his military equipment.

The series of bombings in Beirut’s Ashrafieh and Ein Alaq districts that killed many Lebanese civilians were carried out by the Fatah al-Islam terrorist group.

Documents obtained by the Lebanese security services that were later publicized show that Fatah al-Islam planned to assassinate 36 prominent Shia leaders in Lebanon.

Honest analyses show that the movement was established by the CIA with the objective of confronting the Lebanese Hezbollah and preparing the ground for the disarming of the group.

Most of the accounts of Fatah al-Islam, which receives financial support from a group of rich Arab Salafists, are in U.S. banks. Yet, how is it that the U.S. freezes the bank accounts of many Islamic movements, but does not freeze bank accounts of Fatah al-Islam?

Moreover, when al-Abssi quit the Fatah al-Intifada movement, which is led by Colonel Abu Musa, and founded the Fatah al-Islam organization, the New York Times printed a detailed interview with him and the U.S. media extensively focused on him.

Other measures by the United States, including recent shipments of weapons to resupply the Lebanese Army, are part of the new U.S. plot to reenter the stage in Lebanon in order to eliminate Hezbollah.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s illegitimate government has become extremely shaky since the publication of the Vinograd report, and this new plot has been devised to help it regain its former standing.

Hence, through attempts to create tension in Lebanon and clash with Hezbollah, Fatah al-Islam is trying to prepare the ground for the U.S. Marines to return to Lebanon. But will the U.S. succeed? Surely not!...

To review: The U.S. is backing a terrorist organization associated with al Qaeda, meanwhile shipping arms to the Lebanese Army so it can fight the terrorists, in order to bolster the Olmert government and provide a pretext for the American army to invade Lebanon and wipe out Hezbollah.

 

What evil genius! No wonder they call it Great Satan.

posted by: scaramouche at 12:46 | link | comments |

Dubad: In the topsy-turvy world of Human Rights and its dizziest practitioner, the UN Human Rights Council, bad is good, there’s no jihad, and granting recognition to a genocidal terrorist outfit is an essential component of “peace.” From the International Herald Tribune:

GENEVA: An independent human rights expert called Tuesday for the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union to fully recognize the Palestinian government — including Hamas members — as an "indispensable requirement" to peace.

John Dugard, the U.N. Human Rights Council's investigator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said the Mideast Quartet has to treat both sides equally if it wants to broker a successful peace agreement.

Israel has consistently rejected Dugard's reports and statements as one-sided. In March he compared the Jewish state's treatment of Palestinians to apartheid — comments that drew strong criticism from Israeli officials, who called them "inflammatory and inciteful."

"In order to prevent another season of violence and to protect human rights in the region, the Quartet must intervene immediately in a fair and evenhanded manner," said Dugard, a South African lawyer. "This means the recognition of both Hamas and non-Hamas members of the Palestinian Government of National Unity."…

So Dugard wants the Quartet to treat both sides equally, yet he himself displays a marked preference for the Palestinian side.

 

Dugard as he says and not as he does?

posted by: scaramouche at 12:18 | link | comments |

Laggardly UN: President Bush took a bold step today in announcing sanctions against the genocide-promoting regime of Sudan.

Not surprisingly, in the face of such boldness the UN reiterated its utter fecklessness. From AP via the Houston Chronicle:

KHARTOUM, Sudan — The Sudanese government condemned a new set of U.S. economic sanctions aimed at pressuring it to halt the bloodshed in Darfur, describing them Tuesday as "unfair and untimely" and calling on the rest of the world to ignore them.

President Bush announced the United States was enforcing sanctions that bar 31 Sudanese companies owned or controlled by Sudan's government from the U.S. banking system. The sanctions also prevent three Sudanese individuals from doing business with U.S. companies or banks.

"We believe this decision is unfair and untimely," Sudan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ali Sadiq, told The Associated Press.

His call found support in China, Khartoum's top diplomatic ally and a key business partner, which defended its investment in Sudan. Trade and investment are "helpful for the development of Sudan's economy and will fundamentally help Sudan to address the conflicts and wars in Sudan," China's envoy, Liu Guijin, told reporters in Beijing.

However, the European Union said it was prepared to consider tougher measures to push Sudan to finally allow a large U.N. peacekeeping mission into Darfur. "In principle, we are open to consider that," Javier Solana told the AP.

Sadiq defending Sudan, saying it accepted a first batch of 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers in April to reinforce the overwhelmed African Union force already deployed in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have fled their homes in four years of fighting between Sudanese forces and rebels.

"These American measures come at a time when Sudan is actively discussing peace in Darfur and working on the hybrid force," of U.N. and African Union peacekeepers, Sadiq said. "We invite the international community to ignore and condemn these sanctions."

Officials said Chris Hill, the U.S. nuclear negotiator with North Korea, was heading to China on Wednesday and planned to raise Darfur with the Chinese.

The U.S. mission to the United Nations has been drafting a resolution for broader U.N. sanctions against Sudan that is expected to face resistance in the Security Council because of China's opposition and questions over its timing.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he needs more time to promote negotiations and persuade the Sudanese government to accept more peacekeepers.

Asked whether the U.S. sanctions would complicate his job of getting Sudan to agree to a larger U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force, Ban said: "We will have to see."…

Yeah, no point in rushing into things while some Darfurians are still alive.

posted by: scaramouche at 22:40 | link | comments |

Islam makes inroads in Germany: Violent jihad is only one prong of the Islamic onslaught. The others include the money weapon (always highly persuasive), demographics (i.e., overwhelming the infidels through sheer numbers) and Dawa— proselytizing in an effort to persuade kafirs to “revert” to the one true faith.

The German school system seems to be in the grip of a major Dawa effort. In the name of integration and inter-cultural harmony, of course. From the Muslim News:

 

German politicians often raise the issue of Islam in the educational system when they discuss the integration of migrant youths. Now, there may be progress in making Islam a regular course in German schools.

More than 700,000 Muslim students attend school in Germany, but nowhere does the religious curriculum deal with Islam in the same way as Christianity.

The problem is that most schools rely on their local mosque for guidance, which means there can be large discrepancies in the content and quality of instruction.

That is why German state governments and Muslim organizations alike are looking to create a more standardized approach to teaching Islam.

It is not an easy task, however.

About two-and-a-half million of Germany's Muslims belong to the Sunni denomination of Islam. But the rest are mainly Shiites, Alevis or followers of the south Asian Ahmaddiyya movement.

With such a broad spectrum of beliefs among them, Islam expert Michael Kiefer said creating a single combined course would be difficult.

"We've seen in Austria, for example, that the concept of one course for all Muslims is controversial, because the smaller denominations are left out," he said.

That is why authorities in the German state of Baden-Württemberg have decided to offer with two courses: one for Sunni and Shia students, and another for Alevis. So far, it looks like a number of other states will base their systems on this model as well, he said.

The states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Lower Saxony, however, are still looking for ways to create one standard curriculum with the help of various Muslim groups.

In Lower Saxony, for example, a number of Muslim organizations have come together to form a "shura," or council, to help authorities define the fundamental principles to be included in courses on Islam.

State education minister Heidemarie Ballasch says the body's recommendations have been put to the test in a pilot project at 21 schools since 2003.

"One of the political goals of the trial is to promote integration instead of parallel social structures," Ballasch said.

"Another is to help school students learn about their Islam and other religions, so that when the time comes, they're in a position to declare their faith," she added...

 

When the time comes? Exactly when might that be? When the demographics are such that it looks like a better bet for the majority to make common cause with the burgeoning minority?

 

I don’t know about you, but that’s the scariest thing I’ve read all day.

posted by: scaramouche at 22:09 | link | comments |

Wonders never cease: Be still my beating heart—a piece in the moonbat Mothership, the New York Times, that actually seems to “get it” about the malign mullahs and their nuclear intentions:

IN the United States and in Europe, there is a widespread belief that the Bush administration has failed to engage Iran diplomatically. Among the advisers to the Iraq Study Group, of which I was one, most believed that the Bush administration, not the mullahs’ regime, was the most culpable party in foreclosing dialogue between Washington and Tehran after 9/11.

Iran’s American-educated longtime ambassador to the United Nations, Javad Zarif, has tirelessly suggested that the administration missed opportunities for improving relations and is tone-deaf to his country’s peaceful intentions.

Yet it ought to be clear that just the opposite is the case. The clerical regime today is no more interested in reaching a peaceful modus vivendi with the United States than it was in the 1990s, when President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright all but begged President Mohammad Khatami of Iran to just talk to them.

Case in point: Haleh Esfandiari, an American citizen and the director of the Middle Eastern program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, has been jailed in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since May 8. For years, she has been an articulate and determined advocate of better relations between her homeland, Iran, and her adopted country.

Just as the former Representative Lee Hamilton, the head of the Wilson Center and the co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, has advocated a “diplomatic offensive” toward Tehran, Mrs. Esfandiari has assiduously practiced micro-diplomatic soft power, using the Wilson Center as a bully pulpit for reconciliation. Suspicious, cynical, hawkish and religiously oriented analyses of the Islamic Republic — my school of thought — have not been commonly heard at the Wilson Center under Mrs. Esfandiari and Mr. Hamilton.

In Iran, too, Mr. Hamilton and his Iraq Study Group co-chairman, James Baker, are seen as America’s über-engagement proponents. Mrs. Esfandiari had traveled to Iran frequently in recent years and was, on a smaller scale, viewed in a similar way. By arresting her during a visit to her 93-year-old mother, the clerical regime sent a blatant message to Mr. Hamilton about the effectiveness of engagement. He responded with a private letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, asking him to allow her to leave the country. Instead, she is behind bars, described by Tehran as an agent of regime change, an “American-Zionist” spy.

It is undoubtedly the Hamilton connection and her marriage with an Iranian-born Jew — a sin under Islamic law for a Muslim woman — that made Mrs. Esfandiari such an irresistible target for a regime fond of taking hostages to intimidate its enemies…

You know the world is seriously askew when the New York Times seems to “get it” and the Bush administration seems to be seriously at sea.

posted by: scaramouche at 21:52 | link | comments |

Moo’s mephitic metaphors: A few days before the U.S. and Iran held official talks for the first time since the cranky Shia with the eyebrows took over, the lit’ler Hitler prophesized what he sees in store for Great Satan. From MEMRI blog (metaphors highlighted, just for fun):

Ahmadinejad: "Let me tell you that with the help of God, they are done for. Like a battery about to run out, they muster the remainder of their power but Allah willing, nothing will happen. We've passed that. Wait one month, two months, three months... Allah willing, as soon as possible, we will pass that. Their situation is much worse than one can imagine. Their foundations are shaking."

A worn-out battery and a shaky foundation. Sheesh. Great Satan better get a tune up—fast.

posted by: scaramouche at 19:32 | link | comments |

Vomitous biopic: Move over Farfur. It seems Palestinian TV is getting set to bring another rodent to life. From Al Bawaba:

Palestine's Ma'an News Agency (MNA) is reportedly in the process of producing a TV drama series on Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader.  The drama will be directed by Feisal Az-Zobi and focus on the different stages of the Palestinian struggle and Arafat's contributions to it, recent press reports have indicated. MNA believes that the drama will be ready in time for Ramadan 2008, the hottest season for TV ratings. 

 

Quoted by an Arabic newspaper, Feisal Az-Zobi said: "This is a huge job and it is an ethical one before it is an artistic job. Through it, we will show the [future] generations the suffering of the Palestinian people and their struggle in all forms against the Israeli occupation.  The Israeli occupation has become a real genocide act against the Palestinian people.  Arafat was an inspiration his people and the Arab people in general.  He was something unique in history."

 

Many Arab and foreign channels have started to make contacts that would allow them to broadcast the drama, in which many Arab actors will participate.  The drama has an unprecedented budget and will be made as perfect as possible, the reports suggest.

Nearly two years after his death, Arafat's spirit remains alive.  He is a glorious banner and inspiration to the Palestinian people.  Arafat embodied their hopes and dreams for the achievement of an independent Palestinian state. So the interest in the new TV production is understandable.

 

In any case, like during his life, controversy surrounds Arafat even after his demise. Asked to comment on the news about the expected TV drama, senior Fatah officials – the movement Arafat established and led until his last day – were surprised and claimed they know nothing on the issue.

 

It seems that we should all wait for next Ramadan…. 

 

Can’t hardly wait. One question, though. If Israel has been perpetrating a “genocide” of the Palestinians, why has their population been going up, up, up instead of down, down, down?

 

Looks like the Jews haven’t quite mastered the nuances of being on the giving end of genocide.