WORLD NEWS TREND

Michael Rubin
Forbes

As markets floundered amid the credit crunch, Iran’s leadership celebrated the West’s economic crisis. On Oct. 11, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared, “The claim that the free market manages all things is a huge lie and benefits only thieves and criminals.” Two days later, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei decreed that the West’s financial crisis was a sign of “the ineffectiveness of liberal democracy-based policies.” The Iranian leadership may rue their words. Ahmadinejad has run Iran’s economy into the ground. On Oct. 11, just a day after Ahmadinejad declared prices in decline, the Central Bank reported inflation above 30%. Such figures are still likely low. Both Shahab News and Aftab-e Yazd have noted the tendency of Iranian officials to pull numbers from thin air.

Parliamentarians and journalists might complain but, as the Islamic Republic reverts to a Soviet-style command economy, regime intolerance toward technocratic expertise grows. Hojjat al-Eslam Ha’eri Shirazi, the Supreme Leader’s personal representative in the city of Shiraz, explained, “The banking system wants to demand interest rates in exchange for loans to the people. We will not let them do so. And should a couple of banks go bankrupt as a result, so what? What is worse anyway, closure of factories or banks?”

Non-oil sector production is stagnant. Factories may remain open but many do not pay workers. On Oct. 2, for example, tire factory workers staged a protest in front of the Ministry of Labor seeking six months’ unpaid wages. In recent weeks, wild cat strikes have occurred in Tehran, Isfahan, Qazvin and Sanandaj. Purchasing power has plummeted.

To mitigate such trends, the government has imposed price controls. On June 11, the daily Resalat reported that the paramilitary Basij, a subdivision of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, would enforce low prices. Over subsequent days, the Iranian press featured photos of Basij beating merchants whose prices were too high.

The combination of high liquidity, sparked by Ahmadinejad’s arbitrary decree lowering interest rates to single digits, no-interest banking and inflation has led wealthy Iranians to pour money into real estate. Housing costs have skyrocketed; Tehran real estate prices rival New York’s. The average Iranian family now pays 60% of its income for rent, while the Ministry of Housing estimates 1.5 million Iranians are homeless.

To fight economic malaise, Ahmadinejad has raided Iran’s foreign reserves. In the past two months alone, Iranian papers have reported more than $15 billion in withdrawals from the reserves to import refined gas and several additional billion dollars to subsidize industrial schemes. Ahmadinejad’s reinstatement of subsidies has meant Iran once again must import 40% of its refined petroleum needs.

He will need to continue spending. Last winter, Iran ran out of gas. Food prices more than doubled and the Revolutionary Guards had to deploy on the streets of towns and cities to keep order. On Oct. 1, the Parliament’s Energy Commission predicted another “severe gas shortage” again within months.

As oil prices plummet, Iranian pessimism grows. In 2006, Tehran planned its budget assuming an oil price of $60/barrel. High oil prices masked Ahmadinejad’s incompetence. While Iran’s budgetary process has grown more opaque, it appears that Ahmadinejad constructed his budget with the assumption of oil price stability. Now that oil has plummeted, the Islamic Republic is in trouble.

On Oct. 7, Asr-e Iran asked, “How much did we save from the period when oil price was up to $130 per barrel? Did we build up a foreign exchange reserve? The authorities don’t provide us with a clear and official answer about the foreign currency reserve???and there is some fear that the entire reserve has gone to imports of junk.” The paper’s fear is justified.

While Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait now boast Sovereign Wealth Funds worth hundreds of billions of dollars, on Sept. 15 an unreleased Central Bank report leaked by an Iranian parliamentarian estimated the Islamic Republic’s own future fund to be only $7 billion.

Iran’s strategic challenge and nuclear ambitions will be the most immediate foreign policy challenge facing the new administration. The National Iranian American Council, Tehran’s de facto lobby in Washington, urges a relaxation of sanctions. So too does the Council on Foreign Relations. Condoleezza Rice offers a defiant Tehran financial incentives.

Such strategies are wrong. Throwing an economic lifeline to a terror-sponsoring regime dedicated to the acquisition of nuclear weapons capability would be nothing short of diplomatic malpractice on a Carter-esque scale. Not only has the Islamic Republic squandered billions on nuclear weapons, destabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan, and sponsoring terrorism, but it has also pitched itself to countries like Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Sudan and Senegal as a pillar of an ideology that will defeat liberal Western democracy. Nothing would be a more powerful signal to those applauding Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric than watching the Islamic Republic collapse under the weight of its own follies.

Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute

Hillel Fendel

In light of reports that outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is trying to reach an agreement with Syria before he leaves office, a party colleague, MK David Tal, says: “Hands off the Golan.”

MK Tal, who heads the Knesset House Committee, is a leader of the campaign demanding a popular referendum to approve or reject any agreement to give away the Golan Heights. These efforts are taking on added urgency in light of reports from Russia and Mahmoud Abbas [see below] that a Golan giveaway may be agreed upon sooner than expected. Syria has refused any form of direct contacts with Israel unless Israel relinquishes all rights to the Golan. It is thus considered axiomatic that no peace agreement can be reached with Syria unless the Golan Heights are given up - something that most of the Israeli populace has consistently objected to for years.

Olmert Seeking Agreement
Now, once again, outgoing PM Olmert is attempting to sign a peace agrement with Syria, and has even succeeded in initiating indirect contacts with Syria. It was widely reported a half-year ago that this was because Olmert had given his full consent to cede the entire Golan.

MK Tal, capitalizing on the grassroots love and support for the Golan, continues to promote his idea of a referendum. “The referendum law has passed its first reading in the Knesset,” Tal said on Monday. “I have agreed to delay its progress in the House Committee [which must prepare it for final-readings presentation in the Knesset], at the request of government representatives so that they can ’study it.’ I agreed to postpone it for a month, but it would be appropriate for the government to express its official position as soon as possible.”

Tal: Let the Nation Decide!
Tal is apprehensive over Olmert’s latest moves, and warns him not to rush into an agreement: “We have waited 41 years since the Six Day War, so he can wait another few months so that we can hold a referendum. Let the nation decide this critical issue!”

Israeli Public Objects
Governmental talk of giving away the Golan in 1996 and 1999-2000 was repressed by widespread popular national campaigns opposing Golan withdrawals. In the mid-90’s, thousands of banners and a million stickers reading “HaAm Im HaGolan” (The Nation is With the Golan) graced porches, billboards and cars throughout the country. In January 2000, some 300,000 people took part in one of the largest demonstrations in Israeli history, calling on then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak not to give away the Golan.

News from Russia and the PA
The Maariv newspaper reported on Monday that in his visit to Russia two weeks ago, Olmert asked Russian President Medvedev to act to convince Syria to renew stalled contacts with Israel. Syria reportedly wishes to wait for a new U.S. government to be elected, but Olmert says there is no need to delay and that an Israeli-Syrian agreement can be reached even now.

Lame-Duck Olmert Forging Ahead
Maariv’s Ben Caspit writes that the reports indicate that Olmert sees no problem with forging ahead with critical agreements that will obligate Israel for decades to come. This, despite the fact that Olmert is essentially a lame-duck leader forced out of office because of criminal investigations against him. Olmert has said privately that his positions in favor of an agreement with Syria have long been public.

Another indication that a Golan giveaway may be near comes from Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The successor to Yasser Arafat told reporters in Ramallah on Sunday night that Syria is interested in renewing direct talks with Israel.

Abbas, however, denied Kuwaiti newspaper reports that said he had delivered a hand-written message from U.S. President Bush to Syrian President Assad. The message purportedly said that Bush would ensure that Israel gives over the Golan Heights if Syria breaks ties with Iran. Israeli sources also denied any knowledge of such a message from Bush to Assad.

Syria Used Golan to Attack Israel
Between 1946 and 1967, the Golan was a part of Syria, which used it for years to systematically shell and attack Israel’s eastern Galilee towns below. Some 140 Israelis were killed in these attacks, many more were injured, and heavy property damage was also inflicted. In the Six Day War of 1967, Israel succeeded in liberating the area, thus freeing northern Israel of the Syrian threat - and recovering an area rich in Jewish history. Israel officially annexed the Golan in 1981, and over the years, built 33 Jewish communities, including the full-fledged town of Katzrin.

According to the Conservative-affiliated Kayhan daily, Japan’s selection over Iran for a non-permanent Asian seat on the UN Security Council is an unfair decision made under instruction from and with the support of the United States. The newspaper also writes that Tzipi Livni, “the foreign minister of the Zionist regime, arrogantly declared” that Japan’s selection had spared the UN the disgrace of accepting Iran’s candidacy. Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani’s trip to Qom to meet with senior members of the religious establishment has been indefinitely postponed. Iranian websites are carrying reports meanwhile about Larijani’s upcoming trip to Iraq to meet with senior Shia religious figure Ayatollah Sistani. Larijani, the Majlis member for Qom, is travelling to Iraq to convey a message to Sistani on behalf of the Shia sources of emulation in the city with regard to the security agreement between Iraq and the United States. According to the websites, following his Iraq visit, Larijani will go to Lebanon for talks with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.

3. The Conservative-affiliated Fars News website is quoting “an Israeli website of dubious credibility” vis-à-vis an attempt on the life of the head of the Israeli Mossad, Meir Dagan, during his visit to Amman. According to Fars News, there have been conflicting reports on the outcome of the assassination attempt.

4. According to an announcement by the director-general of Iran’s Management and Construction of Nuclear Plants Company, a number of Western countries are ready and willing to participate in the construction of the nuclear power station in Darkhovin. The director-general did not name the countries, but noted that the facility in Darkhovin, along the banks of the Karun River, would be a light-water nuclear power plant with a capacity of 360 megawatts.

5. The secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Abdul Rahman al-Attiyah, has announced that he will visit Tehran this month as a guest of the Iranian foreign minister to hold talks on the Iranian nuclear issue.

6. Former Iranian defense minister Ali Shamkhani, who now heads the Center for Strategic and Defensive Studies: “Israel is a camp made of glass and will certainly not be able to withstand Iran’s crushing responses.” Shakhani declared that Iran would not initiate any attack, but had the necessary means to respond to any treacherous and aggressive act on the part of Israel. Iran, he added, would leave Israel defenseless. Iran’s chief of staff, meanwhile, made similar statements, commenting: “Mistakes can be rectified, but an attack on Iran would be an irreversible mistake; and we will not rest until we have totally destroyed anyone who tries to do so.”

7. According to a Majlis member for Tehran, the parliament must require the government to prevent the sale in Iran of goods made by “Zionist” companies. The Majlis member said that some “Zionist” companies, such as Nokia, were currently doing well in the Iranian market and that the parliament must make plans to restrict their operations in the country.

8. Speaking at an officers’ graduation ceremony, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the Iranian people firmly supported the army and armed forces, and viewed them as an integral part of the nation. Commenting on what he defined as “the victory of the faith of the young Hezbollah Lebanon heroes over the armed Zionist army,” Khamenei said that the victory was proof of the supremacy of the spirit over the body and that the young people of Iran should appreciate and value the strength of the Hezbollah fighters’ faith and spirit.

9. Iranian President Ahmadi-Nejad’s advisor has sent an open letter to Mohammad Khatami, harshly criticizing the former president for statements he has made and viewpoints he has expressed in recent weeks. Meanwhile, official Iranian websites are reporting that Khatami is set to announce shortly that he will not participate in next year’s presidential election. According to the websites, Khatami’s decision comes in the wake of charges by the former president that the post affords limited powers.

10. The president of the Kurdish autonomy in Iraq, Massoud Barazani, is expected in Tehran on Wednesday.

11. More governorship reshuffling: The governor of the Zanjan Province has been replaced, with Mohammad Raoufi-Zadeh named in his stead.

1. Yesterday saw the second phase of the “Lovers of the Homeland’s Skies” aerial drill, which included testing of the newest methods of in-flight refueling in the dark.

2. Azeri minoriry websites are reporting that in the wake of increased activity on the part of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, the Party for the Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK, has also upped its activity in the area of western Azerbaijan. The websites are carrying reports on sabotage operations that are being carried out by the group, including attacks on Iranian vehicles and soldiers.

3. Quoting informed sources, the Jahan News website, considered the mouthpiece of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, is carrying a report on the capture of a number of birds carrying spying equipment in the skies over the city of Natanz.

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1. Iran’s OPEC representative has submitted a request to reduce oil production by 1-3 million barrels a day, citing the global economic crisis and drastic fall-off in the demand for oil as the reasons for his request. According to assessments by economists, in order for Iran to balance its budget, the oil price must stand at $70-75 a barrel at least.

2. According to an announcement from the director-general of Iran’s Central Bank, the ongoing fall in oil prices will lead to a drop of some $54 billion in the country’s foreign currency revenues. To overcome this problem, the director-general says, there is a need to encourage and boost exports of non-oil products; furthermore, he says, oil profits should go towards the field of financial infrastructure and not routine, day-to-day national operations and activities.

3. The National Iranian Gas Export Company has emphasized the need for the establishment of a joint Iranian-Bahraini investment company for the purpose of expanding cooperation in the field of the gas exports to Bahrain

4. Iran’s deputy energy minister has warned that the supply of fuel to power stations during the winter is expected to encounter numerous problems. According to the deputy minister, Iran’s lack of hydro-electrical power stations makes it very dependent on diesel and gasoline to produce electricity.

5. Iran’s energy minister has expressed grave concerns regarding the water situation in the country, commenting that aside from Iran’s northern regions, the country is in the throes of a serious water crisis. The minister said his office was looking for appropriate sites for the setting up of cloud-seeding stations.

6. The head of Iran’s Privatization Organization has announced that the process of preparing the banks and insurance companies for privatization is in its final stages. He added that the process had run for longer than usual because of the special circumstances of these institutions.

7. The Roozna daily, which belongs to the Reformist National Trust Party, is carrying a report on a sharp increase in the cost of medicines in Iran. According to the newspaper, the prices of some medicines have risen recently by 50 percent, and the government insurance companies are not providing assistance to the needy as is required.

8. According to an announcement from the Central Bank, meat prices in Iran have risen 7 percent in the past two weeks. The Cattle Farmers Union says that the price hike is a result of the current drought and the increase in the cost of the feed for the livestock.

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1. The Office of the General Prosecutor has confirmed the directive from the Judicial Authority with regard to not imposing the death penalty on minors, clarifying, however, that it does not include murderers, who will face capital punishment unless the victim’s family agrees to a prison sentence.

2. Radical Sunni groups have intensified their anti-Shia activities in the Bushehr Province, according to reports on Conservative-affiliated and religious websites. According to the websites, discs distributed recently throughout the province by the Sunni groups contain video clips and anti-Shia content designed to undermine the image of the Shia faith and present it as a violent and non-humanitarian religion.

3. The representative of Iran’s supreme leader in the Hamedan Province has harshly criticized what he defined as “too much freedom” for the Iranian women, commenting: “The women enjoy too much freedom and this creates many social problems.” He called on the women of Iran to take an example from Islam’s holy women and not to lose their values.

4. In an open letter to Iran’s spiritual leader from his jail cell, opposition religious figure Ayatollah Broujerdi tells of the harsh torture that he and his people are being subjected to, charging also that the Islamic revolution is no different to the Iranian monarchy that oppressed its opponents and turned the country into one big graveyard.

5. Political prisoner Dr. Saeid Maouri, whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, has been transferred from Tehran’s Evin Prison to Gohardasht Prison in the city of Karaj. The Gohardasht facility is used to hold dangerous convicts.

6. Although Iranian authorities arrested Asha Momeni, an activist in the “One Million Signatures” campaign for women’s rights, some five days, her family was informed only yesterday that she is being held in Wing 209 of the Evin Prison.

7. Hoseyn Rahim, a blogger and Azeri rights activist, has been released on bail following his arrest approximately month ago during an Iftar meal held by Azeri activists in Tehran. Four other Azeri activists remain in detention.

8. During the course of a four-hour meeting, President Ahmadi-Nejad promised Iranian directors and filmmakers to take action to solve the problems facing the Iranian film industry. Ahmadi-Nejad also promised to continue meeting with the filmmakers in order to discuss their problems and understand the difficulties they face.

9. Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami has announced a plan to establish a satellite television network designed to support inter-cultural dialogue. Khatami said that the only obstacle in the way of the plan was the financial cost and that he was working legally to obtain the required donations and funding.

10. According to the head of the Health Department at the Faculty of Medicine in Tehran, “Based on assessments, some 10-20 percent of Iran’s population suffer from mental problems of varying degrees.” A failure to fulfill the public’s greatest wishes and social restrictions are major causes of depression and unhappiness in Iran, the department head says.

Steven Shamrak

Irrespective of the severe leadership crisis, which has plagued Israel since the departure of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, the People of the Jewish State have displayed systematic resilience and optimism, in defiance of Palestinian terrorism, political uncertainly and occasional economic downturns. According to the 2008 Survey of Patriotism among Israeli Jews (so-called Israeli Palestinians are different story), published by the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Herzliya Inter-disciplinary Center:

1. 92% are proud to be Jewish (70% - very much, 22% - substantially).

2. 90% consider themselves patriotic (36% - very, 32% - substantially, 22% - somewhat).

3. For Israeli Jews patriotism is: Jewish legacy (93%), Love of the Homeland (92%), Hebrew language (89%), Jerusalem (88%), Jewish Ingathering (82%), Zionism (81%), etc.

4. 85% oppose the repartitioning of Jerusalem in return for peace.

5. 92% would actively engage in a military battle for the country (69% - absolutely, 23% - probably).

Selling off Israel for a Temporary Political Gain. The U.S. President George W. Bush offered Syrian President Bashar Assad a secret deal to pull Israel out of the Golan Heights (Jewish land) in exchange for Damascus breaking off ties with Tehran.

Food for Thought: Two-thirds of the Gaza strip is on Egypt’s side of the border and 60% of the population of Jordan are so-called Palestinians. Why is Israel only pressured to sacrifice Jewish land in order to create another Muslim terror state, populated by fake nation? - Steven Shamrak

We Must Let Them Go. 40 percent of Gaza’s residents would leave Gaza if they were only given the opportunity to do so, according to an Arab poll. 62 percent said they have not enjoyed freedom of speech in the past year. (So-called Palestinians are the only ‘refugees’ in the world who are not allowed to resettle and start new life, in order to keep Arab-Israel conflict inflamed. The UN and international hypocrisies are quite happy to pay for this discriminatory practice, keeping generations of ‘Palestinians’ as political hostages, as long as there is a chance to destroy Israel!)

Offence is the Best Defence. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awasat, that Israel is uninterested in attaining real peace. (During the entire Arab-Israel conflict, on which issue - Jerusalem, Golan’s, refugees, Judea and Samaria, access to Jewish holy places – have the enemies of Israel made any compromise? And I am not talking about ‘getting everything for nothing’, like the Camp David agreement! So, who is not ready for peace?)

Online Jihad Training. Hamas has initiated an online course in explosives, military weapons and tactics for would-be jihad fighters. The course is called “Get Ready” and is designed to prepare the population for war with Israel. Students also learn about such things as the manufacture and detonation of explosives. (I wonder how many students are in Europe and the US?)

Blame Jews for Everything. Anti-Semites had a field day, blaming Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency for the traffic accident in which Austria’s Nazi sympathizer leader Joerg Haider was killed. (Hate is blind! The fact that he was driving at breakneck speed after visiting a nightclub has nothing to do with the accident?)

‘Poor Palestinians’. The campaign fund for U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama was forced to return $33,000 to two Arab brothers in Gaza. They had bulk-ordered Obama campaign T-shirts. The Republican Party had requested that the Federal Election Commission investigate whether thousands of small donations made to Obama’s campaign came from overseas, which is illegal.

Quote of the Week: “Stable and independent Lebanon will frustrate all the plots of the Zionist regime.” - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Please, frustrate the “Zionist regime” and its plots; make Lebanon “stable and independent”!

Re-Naming Parties Won’t Help. MK Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Yisrael Beiteinu faction, suggested that the Labour, Shas and Kadima parties change their names: Shas should be renamed Mas (”tax” in Hebrew). Avoda (”Labor” in Hebrew) should change its name to the Party of Crawlers, and Kadima (”forward” in Hebrew) should be renamed Achora (”Backwards”) (Yes, voters must know the essence of a party they intent to vote for! Wasn’t Lieberman prepared to swap land of Israel for the Jewish land in Judea and Samaria? Israel needs fewer ‘pragmatists’ and more patriots in the government!)

Must Israel Care? Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair called on Israel to pump $28 million a month into Gaza banks to save the financial system from collapse. Blair wrote that the money is needed to cover salaries that are paid for by the Palestinian Authority (PA). (Aren’t they seeking independence from Israel? They terrorize Jews, but we must pay to save their rotten and corrupt terror infested system!)

Excavating the Philistine. In 2006 The University of Melbourne became involved with the ongoing Bar-Ilan University excavations at Tel es-Safi, ancient Gath, the largest of five cities of the Philistines, located mid-way between Jerusalem and Ashkelon. Among the key discoveries is the earliest Philistine inscription, twice mentioning the name “Goliath.” Gath has architecture, pottery and dining habits attested in Greece and Cyprus. (Maybe all residents of Gaza will learn the ancient Philistine language, which was a dialect of Greek, in order to give to their claim on land some appearance of legitimacy!)

Egypt Used Honesty as Self-protection. Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit has accused Hamas of exploiting the Gilad Shalit negotiations for political manipulations. Interviewed by the BBC, he said: ”Those people trying to obtain the opening of the Rafah terminal are not looking to serve the interests of the Palestinian people, but rather to appear more legitimate.” (In order to keep the residents of Gaza out of Egypt, Mr. Gheit gave an honest assessment of Hamas. Who else but Egypt knows the true nature, ideology and conduct of Hamas, which is part of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood?)

Are You Ready for the Taste of Islamic Justice? 1. In Amman, Jordan, a 60-year-old Palestinian man killed his 17-year-old daughter ”to save the honour of the family”. Every year, some 20 women in Jordan are victims of ”honour killings.” An autopsy of the girl showed she was still a virgin. 2. In Saudi Arabia, a man convicted of theft and murder was decapitated by sabre on Thursday. According to Associated Press, 73 people in Saudi Arabia have had their heads sliced off in 2008.
Europe Died in Auschwitz.

by Sebastian Vivar Rodriguez, November, 2004.

I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth – Europe died in Auschwitz. We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims.

In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world. The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.

And under the pretence of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride. They have turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.

Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naïve hosts. And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for hoping for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs. What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.

* The author’s name apparently a pseudonym, used in fear of Islamic reprisal.

Defense minister Ehud Barak has proposed in coalition talks with Kadima leader, foreign minister Tzipi Livni, that serious consideration be given to the 2002 Saudi plan which offered pan-Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for full Israeli withdrawal from all lands captured during the 1967 war: the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem and the Golan. “There is definitely room to introduce a comprehensive Israeli plan to counter the Saudi plan,” after individual negotiations with Syria and the Palestinians proved unproductive, said Barak, who heads the Labor party, to Israel Army radio Sunday.

Livni refuses to comment on her talks with Barak.

After failing to form a government in her first round of coalition talks, the Kadima leader must ask the president for another 14 days’ grace from Monday or face the prospect of a snap election.

The Labor leader said in his interview that “moderate Arab leaders” shared an interest in containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, limiting Hizballah’s influence in Lebanon and bringing the Palestinian Hamas under control in the Gaza Strip. He also reproved the demonstrators protesting the government’s failure to secure the release of Gilead Shalit in two-and-a-half years, saying their protest only raised Hamas’ price for the captive soldier’s freedom.

These comments, DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources stress, show how completely the defense minister is out of touch with the emerging dynamic of the contemporary Middle East. The Saudi peace plan is a dead letter for the Arab world, overtaken by tempestuous change. Gone are the days when the Saudis and Egypt, the so-called moderate Arab nations, set the pace in the Middle East, although Israelis in power still cling to them as key trendsetters.

Today, the Saudis are fighting to dislodge Lebanon’s takeover by Iran and Syria and Shiite expansion through the Sunni Arab world.

Many observers view the Syrian troop concentrations poised on the Lebanese border, backed by Iran and Hizballah, against the Saudi-backed and armed Islamic militias led by Lebanese majority leader Saad Hariri in North Lebanon, as the first round in an epic Saudi-Iranian confrontation. Some observers see the coming of Lebanon War No. 2 two years after Israel failed to defeat the Hizballah in 2006. This one, pitting Sunni Muslims against Shiite powers, already dominates the region’s political and military dynamic, relegating the Saudi peace plan to an irrelevant past.

Much water has run under Middle East bridges since 2000 when Barak as prime minister engineered Israel’s pullout from its south Lebanese security zone, and 2005, when his successor Ariel Sharon ordered Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip, making way for Hamas to move in. This move was actively supported by Livni. Summer 2006 saw Ehud Olmert’s botched management of the Lebanon War followed by his failure to arrest Iran’s progress toward a nuclear bomb.

The forces dominating regional affairs today are no longer “moderates” but a radical coalition of Iran, Syria, Hizballah and the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami. Their pre-eminence makes it pointless for the defense minister to try to administer the kiss of death to the Saudi peace plan as a strategic guideline for a potential government he may share with Tzipi Livni.

Barry Rubin , THE JERUSALEM POST
Once I was in India all set to take a local flight. But when everyone had sat on the plane for a while in the sweltering sun, an engine wasn’t working right so we all got off again. Then I stood in front of the windowed wall watching the technicians take apart the motor. When they put it back again, there were still extra parts sitting on the runway. That’s when I knew it was a good idea to travel by car instead.

It was one of the most amazing hours I’ve ever spent, in the backseat of an Indian-made Ambassador zigzagging amongst a colorful parade of pedestrians, tractors, three-wheeled vehicles, carts, bullocks, the occasional elephant, and ordinary cars and trucks. So I’m glad, in retrospect, that they didn’t get the plane fixed.

But that’s not my point today. Rather, I want to use my Indian airport experience to paraphrase lawyer Johnnie Cochran’s famous line about O.J. Simpson trying on the glove used at the murder scene and found by his house. My version goes: If the parts don’t fit, you can’t predict!
UNDERSTANDING A political issue or a regime or the likelihood of a success for a diplomatic strategy depends on fitting all the pieces together. You can’t just throw some aside and ignore them. If Palestinian leadership is too weak and too radical to make peace, it doesn’t do to fantasize over these obstacles. If the Syrian regime’s survival depends on maintaining confrontation and keeping its alliance with Iran, no amount of honeyed words (in English only, of course) by its dictator should mislead anyone.

Why, then, are so many leaders, politicians, academics, and journalists fooled?

Not long ago, I was at a hotel in the Golan Heights and spotted a slogan on a man’s T-shirt stopped me dead in my tracks. “There is no logic whatsoever in human behavior.” Did this fellow know he was discussing - next to religious issues - the most basic, central question of life on earth?

I happen to believe that there is logic in human behavior. It is not always apparent on the surface, yet it is there. Don’t listen just to what people say, look at what they do. And when people are in large groups, in the context of ideologies, movements, and countries, we call this activity: politics. If you look to the structure of regimes, ideologies, and movements - their needs, true goals, and interest - then you will understand.

But there’s a trap: the apparent, first impression; the official story; the easy answer based on one’s own worldview or wishful thinking. And so here is my counter-slogan: There is no logic whatsoever in the human examination of human behavior.

CONSIDER THE following issues where parts are left out on the runway:

Assuming the Palestinian leadership wants peace despite its total failure to prepare its people for compromise and instead encouraging and apologizing for terrorism.

Expecting Hamas to moderate despite every statement it makes in Arabic and action it takes in Gaza.

Thinking Syria will split from Iran or make peace with Israel when its regime’s interest and all the things it says to its people in their own language is the opposite.

Believing that Iran can be talked out of going for nuclear weapons and being extremist, especially when sanctions are limited and those campaigning for high office make clear their eagerness to give ground.

Bashing the United States which remains the great hope for liberty in the world and the real defense of those in democratic countries who are doing the bashing.

Demonizing Israel despite its many concessions both territorial and in its negotiating position.

Minimizing the radical Islamist threat when it is far higher than ever before. (What matters is not al-Qaida’s sporadic terror attacks but other radical Islamist groups’ abilities to take over countries.)

Thinking that our era is one of the End of Power Politics while Middle East regimes and Russia behave like traditional great powers. Knowing that power works and the West is weak-willed, if not necessarily materially weak, spurs them to a more aggressive policy.

Expecting that if you elect someone president of the United States who has no relevant experience, a left-wing ideology, a belief he can befriend political serial murderers, and proven bad judgment that this Pied Piper will ever decide or be able to stand up to dictators and terrorists.

Fantasizing that a media which misrepresents reality to push a political and ideological cause is going to serve society better than one that makes a real attempt to be honest and accurate.

Arguing that Western civilization, which has created more freedom and prosperity than any other system ever, is at fault for the world’s problems.

Misunderstanding that Israel-Palestinian or Israel-Syria peace is achievable; that this wild goose chase be the world’s main diplomatic priority; or that if this goal is achieved it would reduce other Middle East crises, defuse radical Islamism, or make the region love the West.
THESE CLAIMS cannot explain existing situations or predict the future. They are theories that don’t work, though failures don’t seem to reduce belief in them very much. The reason is that many people in elite positions - due to cultural misunderstanding, abandonment of the scientific method for ideology, and fear of facing conflicts - accept interpretations that have nothing to do with reality. A state or society that does this too often doesn’t survive.

In all of these cases, there are parts-left-out facts, experiences, events - obviously strewn messily all over the runway. Yet without them, the motors won’t function; the policy won’t go anywhere. I’m not going up in any planes whose mechanics or pilots think like those who misdiagnose the Middle East.

Don’t worry, though. Some day I honestly and firmly believe that there will be peace between Israel and the Palestinians, good relations between Israel and Syria, a moderate Iran, an end to Islamist radicalism, and democracy everywhere from Morocco to Afghanistan. And when that great day comes, world leaders will climb aboard their spaceships, travel at warp speed into orbit, and step into transporters so they can be beamed down to a great celebration which will be held in a neutral location: the largest convention hall on the Federation’s Mars colony.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017575763&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
.

David Shamah October 19, 2008

You won’t find many professionals in the field admitting it, but the awful truth is that pathology is not an exact science, and mistakes are made - too many mistakes, according to Limor Shiposh, CEO of Migdal Ha’emek’s Applied Spectral Imaging (ASI). That’s why pathologists need a “second opinion,” and ASI wants to help them, with a groundbreaking product that applies the techniques of advanced genetic study to the examination of cells for cancer or other diseases.

ASI, a privately held company founded in 1993, has been in the medical imaging business for over 12 years, pioneering the area of advanced imaging in cytogenetic research, the science of chromosomes and cell division.

ASI’s highly acclaimed innovation in this area, SpectraCube, is a light-related spectral imaging platform technology used in a variety of the company’s products. It allows researchers to distinguish between different materials on a chromosome by highlighting its features with unique colors, instead of the black dye that had been used previously.

Better identification

Using the SpectraCube family of products, researchers find it far easier to identify minutiae of chromosomes and cells, as well as to build a database of information based on their findings.

By now, there are a number of advanced imaging techniques in the area of cytogenetic research - thanks in no small part to the innovations by ASI. But while spectral imaging has done wonders for cytogenetics, Shiposh tells ISRAEL21c, ASI realized that nobody was doing anything for pathologists - and the tools developed by the company were just what they needed to do their job more efficiently and accurately.

“Hard as it is to believe in 2008, pathology is still largely a ‘manual art’ instead of a digitized science,” Shiposh explains. “The pathologist takes a slide with blood or other material and examines it, running tests that are decades old and often looking at a tiny dot that indicates a problem on a cell. It’s a high stress job, and it’s an open secret that there are many mistakes and misdiagnoses, although many of them are not documented.”

Based on a pathologist’s readings, surgeons and specialists like oncologists make specific decisions on the method of dealing with tumors, for example - and in some cases a misdiagnosis can prove life threatening.

So what’s the holdup? Why haven’t modern imaging methods been widely implemented for pathologists?

“Because pathologists are used to working in a specific way, centered on their microscopes,” says Shiposh. “Our research has found that other companies that have tried to implement changes in pathologists’ work routines have met with sharp resistance.” And while the older generation of pathologists has been especially reluctant to adopt computerized techniques, younger pathologists, many of whom have grown up with computers, “understand how imaging can help them in their work, and are ready to adopt new systems,” says Shiposh.

A check on suspicious findings

With this in mind, ASI is applying its expertise in cytogenetics to develop products to help pathologists deal with their thorniest dilemmas. Among the first products launched this year aimed at pathologists, for example, is ASI’s TB Finder, to aid in the diagnosis of tuberculosis. “Tuberculosis is often especially difficult to find, and is one of the more misdiagnosed diseases. According to regulations, pathologists are supposed to spend as much as 30 minutes checking samples, but many don’t because they’re short on time,” says Shiposh.

Instead of taking a chance, pathologists can run their samples through TB Finder, which will highlight the various elements with different colors. “The pathologist can run the usual tests on samples and work in the usual manner, but as backup - as a second opinion, to check out a suspicious sign - he or she can run their findings in the TB Finder to ensure quality work,” Shiposh says.

In addition to TB Finder, ASI is already selling or planning to market additional tools for pathologists, including PathEx, as well as for morphologists, who examine protein structures and alterations in cell structures.

ASI, which employs 33 and has subsidiaries in California and Germany, isn’t the only company promoting digital pathological examination methods, but it is among the more successful, Shiposh says. That’s not surprising, given the billions of dollars in billing for pathology work annually, just in the US.

“Our imaging systems are modular, meaning they can be implemented to the extent the pathologist feels comfortable with. If he or she prefers traditional methods, they can use our tools to supplement their work,” Shiposh says, or use the ASI tools more extensively.

“We realize that one size doesn’t fit all, especially for pathologists,” says Shiposh. “The main thing is to promote better work habits in the profession.” And, maybe, save some lives while they’re at it.

© 2001-2004 ISRAEL21c.org. All rights reserved.

Omri Ceren
http://www.mererhetoric.com/archives/11274950.html

Barack Obama’s campaign has decided advisers and representatives of the Democratic nominee for president will no longer debate officials from the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC). This prohibition led Wednesday to the canceling of a debate scheduled for Sunday at Valley Cities Jewish Community Center in Van Nuys organized by the Council of Israeli Community in Los Angeles [CIC]. Larry Greenfield, California director of the RJC, said he still plans to show up. His counterpart, former Rep. Mel Levine, who is a Middle East adviser for Obama, will not participate in what would have been his fourth debate with Greenfield.

That’s the nice way to describe it. What actually happened is that the Obama campaign demanded that the CIC ban Greenfield from the debate as a condition for their participation. They’re doing the same thing all over the country: no preconditions for meeting Iran but thuggish demands before they’ll sit down with American Jews. And they’re getting really good at this game: have someone spend months organizing a non-partisan event, pull their people out right at the end, and then shriek about partisanship. The only thing left is for them to threaten legal action. Then it would be a perfect replay of how they detonated the anti-Ahmadinejad rally. The CIC, for its part, is pissed:

“It will be perceived as they are chickening out from a debate and they are ignoring the Israeli community and don’t want to face the truth that the McCain campaign is putting out,” Linder said. “You are leaving Larry on a stage to put out the information he wants without being rebutted. The Israeli community needs to hear, face to face, both sides, so that people can decide who they want to vote for.”

The Obama campaign is saying that they won’t debate because of the RJC’s “continual dishonesty.” Which would already be incoherent if the RJC was actually being dishonest - in democracies, debates are exactly how we settle these things. But it’s an especially disingenuous move given how the RJC’s accusations are demonstrably true:

“My appearing with him gives him a prominence that he doesn’t deserve,” Levine said when asked about the cancellation Wednesday afternoon by the Journal. “The RJC’s tactics have been continually dishonest, and the campaign has made a decision to not keep getting on the same stage with them.” Levine pointed specifically to the RJC’s constant attacks on Israel-critic Zbigniew Brzezinski, who is an Obama foreign policy adviser but not concerning Obama’s Israel policy, and its claims that Obama would meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions. Indeed, Obama has said he would meet with leaders of rogue nations, but Ahmadinejad, a rabid anti-Semite, isn’t the head of Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei is.

Two things going on here. One, the Obama campaign is embarrassingly pathetic when it comes to addressing the valid concerns of American Jews. Two, they seem hell-bent on using their political power to prevent anyone from pointing that out.

Nice to see Obama finally claiming Brzezinski. Last time the campaign got pushed on it, they trotted out Wexler to say that Brzezinski was “not an adviser to the campaign and has done no work for the campaign.” So either they’re lying now or they were lying then (hint: they were lying then - and they knew just who to go to). But being almost honest doesn’t make this argument any less asinine. Brzezinski believes that US tensions with Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are caused by US support of Israel. So when Obama asks him how the US can repair relations with Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia - what exactly do you think he’s going to tell him?

I’m also glad that Obama is finally admitting that he’d meet Iran without preconditions. For a while the campaign was claiming the opposite. So either they’re lying now or they were lying then (hint: they were lying then). But that doesn’t make this version of the argument any more true. For the record: Levine is stealing this argument from Joe Klein, although Klein may have gotten a little help from elsewhere. It was a dumb argument then - but now? Come on. I know that the Obama campaign is using the Big Lie strategy to deal with Biden’s anti-Israel record. But there’s actual video and photographic proof that Obama promised to meet with Ahmadinejad. That’s why Richardson - among others - explicitly criticized him for… wait for it… wanting to meet with Ahmadinejad.

And if he did mean that he’d meet Khamenei without preconditions? That’s somehow better? Khamenei has repeatedly declared that Iran is trying to wipe out Israel. He openly supports Ahmadinejad as the President of Iran. He’s trying to make sure that Ahmadinejad stays the President of Iran. This is the “dishonesty” that justifies banning conservative Jewish Americans from democratic forums?

It’d be nice if the Obama campaign’s attempted thuggish ban was just because they were afraid to defend their awful arguments. But this is more basic: the Obama campaign is silencing opponents because it can. They’ve been using legal threats to shut down events and kill political messages that they don’t like. They’re not even in power yet and they’re already threatening political opponents with jail time. They brag about the organized mobs that they activate to “fight the good fight” and prevent critics from speaking out. In the meantime they are quite literally blackmailing political opponents into silence. Across the country, Obama’s more enthusiastic partisans have taken to violently intimidating conservatives and destroying their property. Just yesterday they demanded an FBI investigation into the FBI investigation of their ACORN allies. This is not a campaign that takes criticism well.

So who knows - maybe Greenfield is lucky. The last citizen who had the temerity to publicly question the purity of The One was savagely destroyed by the press after Obama and Biden repeatedly stocked the fire by mocking him on globally-broadcast news stations. Little 12 year old girls are being viciously smeared for daring to look up to America’s most successful female politician.

From textbooks instructing students about Obama’s “life of service” to illustrated children’s books about “the name the whole world knows” to Obama Youth chanting and marching in lockstep to beatific children singing hymns about their Leader - let’s just build a giant statue of him on a horse and get it over with. This election isn’t about winning. As Obama’s more honest supporters boast, they’re in it to “crush the spirits” of social conservatives and foreign policy “neo-conservatives.” Luckily “neo-conservative” is in no way a leftist code word for “pro-Israel Jew.” So no cause for alarm.

Memo to ostensibly pro-Israel Obama supporters: circa 2010 there are going to be headlines about the “severe crisis in US-Israel relations.” You’re not going to be able to say that you didn’t know.

References:
* Mel Levine’s Defense Of Obama: He’ll Make Obsessed Anti-Israel Lunatics Love The US. Presumably By Magic. [MR]
* Biden Now Actively Channeling Rabid Anti-Israel Partisans, Adopting Their Barely-Veiled Anti-Israel Euphemisms [MR]
* Obama campaign halts debates with RJC [Jewish Journal]
* Obama Won’t Meet with Jews *even with preconditons [Atlas]
* Palin Speech Now Online, Liberal Jewish Groups Reach New Heights Of Pro-Obama Denials, Fabrications, And Smears [MR]
* Obama Defenders: What Brzezinski Guy? (Plus: That’s Not Even Their Worst Argument) [MR]
* New Leftist Meme: Palin “Solved Jewish Problem” That Obama Never Really Had (Plus: Anti-Palin “Buchanan Endorsement” Meme Also A Lie) [MR]
* History re-written: Obama never said he would meet personally with Iran without precondition, says advisor; Update: Website excerpt added [Hot Air]
* I wonder where he got that idea? Oh, yeah! [Hot Air]
* Weak: Obama ducks question on whether he’ll meet with Ahmadinejad [Hot Air]
* Inevitable - Little Girl Sells Cookies To Buy Anti-McCain Attack Ad [MR]
* Did Obama Say He Would Meet with Ahmedinejad? Absolutely [Verum Serum]
* Richardson: “You don’t talk to Ahmadinejad” [Hot Air]
* Iranian Regime Unleashes Cacophony Of Genocidal Threats Against Israel [MR]
* Diplomatic Sophistication Heartbreak: Tension Between Iranian Political Factions A Little Exaggerated [MR]
* Iran’s New Moderate Cleric Not A Moderate, Will Lose Anyway (Plus: Even The French Are Laughing At Obama’s Idiotic Iran Policy) [MR]
* Obama Campaign Cripples Anti-Ahmadinejad Rally, Neatly Crystallizes Thuggish Liberal Fascism [MR]
* Ho hum: Obama’s lawyer threatens TV stations that run NRA ad [Hot Air]
* Obama threatens TV stations airing Ayers ad [Michelle Malkin]
* Gov. Blunt Statement on Obama Campaign’s Abusive Use of Missouri Law Enforcement [Matt Blunt]
* EDITORIAL: The new ‘digital brownshirts’ [Wash Times]
* Obama’s character assassins target another National Review journalist [Hot Air]
* Free Speech for Me, Not for Thee [Rich Lowry]
* The Loneliness of the Blue-State Conservative [American Thinker]
* Obama Lawyer Asks for Probe Into Vote-Fraud Claims (Update1) [Bloomberg]
* The Left Declares War on Joe the Plumber [Malkin]
* Nice. Obama & Biden Mock “Joe the Plumber” (Video) [Gateway Pundit]
* Biden: I don’t know Joe the Plumber [Hot Air]
* Video: Obama hits McCain over Joe the Plumber [Hot Air]
* Video: 12-year-old called racist for wearing Palin t-shirt [Hot Air]
* Textbooks About Obama’s “Life Of Service” To The People Already Being Used To Indoctrinate Youth [MR]
* Obama Children’s Book Instructs Youth About The “Name The Whole World Knows” [MR]
* Video: Obama Youth March In Lockstep, Chant About Inspirational Leader Who Will Guide Them Into Glorious Future [MR]
* Smith College Student: Obama Is My “Personal Jesus” (Plus: Children Now Singing Choral Hymns To Obama) [MR]
* Kos: We Must Crush Their Spirits [Ace]
* Joe Klein Enters the Fever Swamp [TNR]

Previously:
* Guy Who Smeared “Pro-Likud Approach To Israel”: “US-Israeli Relationship Transcends Parties”
* Jesse Jackson: Obama Will End “Zionist Control Of American Policy.”
* Moronic Hollywood Nutjob: Palin Too Stupid To Understand The “Complicated Dialogue” In “W”

Obama shill Mel Levine has never been shy about throwing around his AIPAC credentials. That’s a good strategy given how his pro-Obama arguments are mindbogglingly stupid, but it does beg a question: given how the Obama campaign is on the attack against AIPAC, aren’t Levine’s credentials kind of a bad thing? Maybe someone should ask him about that. Not a Republican though, because they’re not allowed: Barack Obama’s campaign has decided advisers and representatives of the Democratic nominee for president will no longer debate officials from the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC). This prohibition led Wednesday to the canceling of a debate scheduled for Sunday at Valley Cities Jewish Community Center in Van Nuys organized by the Council of Israeli Community in Los Angeles [CIC]. Larry Greenfield, California director of the RJC, said he still plans to show up. His counterpart, former Rep. Mel Levine, who is a Middle East adviser for Obama, will not participate in what would have been his fourth debate with Greenfield.

That’s the nice way to describe it. What actually happened is that the Obama campaign demanded that the CIC ban Greenfield from the debate as a condition for their participation. They’re doing the same thing all over the country: no preconditions for meeting Iran but thuggish demands before they’ll sit down with American Jews. And they’re getting really good at this game: have someone spend months organizing a non-partisan event, pull their people out right at the end, and then shriek about partisanship. The only thing left is for them to threaten legal action. Then it would be a perfect replay of how they detonated the anti-Ahmadinejad rally. The CIC, for its part, is pissed:

“It will be perceived as they are chickening out from a debate and they are ignoring the Israeli community and don’t want to face the truth that the McCain campaign is putting out,” Linder said. “You are leaving Larry on a stage to put out the information he wants without being rebutted. The Israeli community needs to hear, face to face, both sides, so that people can decide who they want to vote for.”

The Obama campaign is saying that they won’t debate because of the RJC’s “continual dishonesty.” Which would already be incoherent if the RJC was actually being dishonest - in democracies, debates are exactly how we settle these things. But it’s an especially disingenuous move given how the RJC’s accusations are demonstrably true:

“My appearing with him gives him a prominence that he doesn’t deserve,” Levine said when asked about the cancellation Wednesday afternoon by the Journal. “The RJC’s tactics have been continually dishonest, and the campaign has made a decision to not keep getting on the same stage with them.” Levine pointed specifically to the RJC’s constant attacks on Israel-critic Zbigniew Brzezinski, who is an Obama foreign policy adviser but not concerning Obama’s Israel policy, and its claims that Obama would meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions. Indeed, Obama has said he would meet with leaders of rogue nations, but Ahmadinejad, a rabid anti-Semite, isn’t the head of Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei is.

Two things going on here. One, the Obama campaign is embarrassingly pathetic when it comes to addressing the valid concerns of American Jews. Two, they seem hell-bent on using their political power to prevent anyone from pointing that out.

Nice to see Obama finally claiming Brzezinski. Last time the campaign got pushed on it, they trotted out Wexler to say that Brzezinski was “not an adviser to the campaign and has done no work for the campaign.” So either they’re lying now or they were lying then (hint: they were lying then - and they knew just who to go to). But being almost honest doesn’t make this argument any less asinine. Brzezinski believes that US tensions with Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are caused by US support of Israel. So when Obama asks him how the US can repair relations with Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia - what exactly do you think he’s going to tell him?

I’m also glad that Obama is finally admitting that he’d meet Iran without preconditions. For a while the campaign was claiming the opposite. So either they’re lying now or they were lying then (hint: they were lying then). But that doesn’t make this version of the argument any more true. For the record: Levine is stealing this argument from Joe Klein, although Klein may have gotten a little help from elsewhere. It was a dumb argument then - but now? Come on. I know that the Obama campaign is using the Big Lie strategy to deal with Biden’s anti-Israel record. But there’s actual video and photographic proof that Obama promised to meet with Ahmadinejad. That’s why Richardson - among others - explicitly criticized him for… wait for it… wanting to meet with Ahmadinejad.

And if he did mean that he’d meet Khamenei without preconditions? That’s somehow better? Khamenei has repeatedly declared that Iran is trying to wipe out Israel. He openly supports Ahmadinejad as the President of Iran. He’s trying to make sure that Ahmadinejad stays the President of Iran. This is the “dishonesty” that justifies banning conservative Jewish Americans from democratic forums?

It’d be nice if the Obama campaign’s attempted thuggish ban was just because they were afraid to defend their awful arguments. But this is more basic: the Obama campaign is silencing opponents because it can. They’ve been using legal threats to shut down events and kill political messages that they don’t like. They’re not even in power yet and they’re already threatening political opponents with jail time. They brag about the organized mobs that they activate to “fight the good fight” and prevent critics from speaking out. In the meantime they are quite literally blackmailing political opponents into silence. Across the country, Obama’s more enthusiastic partisans have taken to violently intimidating conservatives and destroying their property. Just yesterday they demanded an FBI investigation into the FBI investigation of their ACORN allies. This is not a campaign that takes criticism well.

So who knows - maybe Greenfield is lucky. The last citizen who had the temerity to publicly question the purity of The One was savagely destroyed by the press after Obama and Biden repeatedly stocked the fire by mocking him on globally-broadcast news stations. Little 12 year old girls are being viciously smeared for daring to look up to America’s most successful female politician.

From textbooks instructing students about Obama’s “life of service” to illustrated children’s books about “the name the whole world knows” to Obama Youth chanting and marching in lockstep to beatific children singing hymns about their Leader - let’s just build a giant statue of him on a horse and get it over with. This election isn’t about winning. As Obama’s more honest supporters boast, they’re in it to “crush the spirits” of social conservatives and foreign policy “neo-conservatives.” Luckily “neo-conservative” is in no way a leftist code word for “pro-Israel Jew.” So no cause for alarm.

Memo to ostensibly pro-Israel Obama supporters: circa 2010 there are going to be headlines about the “severe crisis in US-Israel relations.” You’re not going to be able to say that you didn’t know.

References:
* Mel Levine’s Defense Of Obama: He’ll Make Obsessed Anti-Israel Lunatics Love The US. Presumably By Magic. [MR]
* Biden Now Actively Channeling Rabid Anti-Israel Partisans, Adopting Their Barely-Veiled Anti-Israel Euphemisms [MR]
* Obama campaign halts debates with RJC [Jewish Journal]
* Obama Won’t Meet with Jews *even with preconditons [Atlas]
* Palin Speech Now Online, Liberal Jewish Groups Reach New Heights Of Pro-Obama Denials, Fabrications, And Smears [MR]
* Obama Defenders: What Brzezinski Guy? (Plus: That’s Not Even Their Worst Argument) [MR]
* New Leftist Meme: Palin “Solved Jewish Problem” That Obama Never Really Had (Plus: Anti-Palin “Buchanan Endorsement” Meme Also A Lie) [MR]
* History re-written: Obama never said he would meet personally with Iran without precondition, says advisor; Update: Website excerpt added [Hot Air]
* I wonder where he got that idea? Oh, yeah! [Hot Air]
* Weak: Obama ducks question on whether he’ll meet with Ahmadinejad [Hot Air]
* Inevitable - Little Girl Sells Cookies To Buy Anti-McCain Attack Ad [MR]
* Did Obama Say He Would Meet with Ahmedinejad? Absolutely [Verum Serum]
* Richardson: “You don’t talk to Ahmadinejad” [Hot Air]
* Iranian Regime Unleashes Cacophony Of Genocidal Threats Against Israel [MR]
* Diplomatic Sophistication Heartbreak: Tension Between Iranian Political Factions A Little Exaggerated [MR]
* Iran’s New Moderate Cleric Not A Moderate, Will Lose Anyway (Plus: Even The French Are Laughing At Obama’s Idiotic Iran Policy) [MR]
* Obama Campaign Cripples Anti-Ahmadinejad Rally, Neatly Crystallizes Thuggish Liberal Fascism [MR]
* Ho hum: Obama’s lawyer threatens TV stations that run NRA ad [Hot Air]
* Obama threatens TV stations airing Ayers ad [Michelle Malkin]
* Gov. Blunt Statement on Obama Campaign’s Abusive Use of Missouri Law Enforcement [Matt Blunt]
* EDITORIAL: The new ‘digital brownshirts’ [Wash Times]
* Obama’s character assassins target another National Review journalist [Hot Air]
* Free Speech for Me, Not for Thee [Rich Lowry]
* The Loneliness of the Blue-State Conservative [American Thinker]
* Obama Lawyer Asks for Probe Into Vote-Fraud Claims (Update1) [Bloomberg]
* The Left Declares War on Joe the Plumber [Malkin]
* Nice. Obama & Biden Mock “Joe the Plumber” (Video) [Gateway Pundit]
* Biden: I don’t know Joe the Plumber [Hot Air]
* Video: Obama hits McCain over Joe the Plumber [Hot Air]
* Video: 12-year-old called racist for wearing Palin t-shirt [Hot Air]
* Textbooks About Obama’s “Life Of Service” To The People Already Being Used To Indoctrinate Youth [MR]
* Obama Children’s Book Instructs Youth About The “Name The Whole World Knows” [MR]
* Video: Obama Youth March In Lockstep, Chant About Inspirational Leader Who Will Guide Them Into Glorious Future [MR]
* Smith College Student: Obama Is My “Personal Jesus” (Plus: Children Now Singing Choral Hymns To Obama) [MR]
* Kos: We Must Crush Their Spirits [Ace]
* Joe Klein Enters the Fever Swamp [TNR]

Previously:
* Guy Who Smeared “Pro-Likud Approach To Israel”: “US-Israeli Relationship Transcends Parties”
* Jesse Jackson: Obama Will End “Zionist Control Of American Policy.”
* Moronic Hollywood Nutjob: Palin Too Stupid To Understand The “Complicated Dialogue” In “W”

More myopia in Europe, via the Brussels Journal, October 18 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Jacques Barrot is the European Commissioner for Justice. In an interview at Café Babel [in French] he gives some revealing answers which indicate that the European suicide is underway. He calls immigration an economic and moral necessity, adding that Islam is welcome in Europe. Mr Barrot is a former deputy in the French National Assembly, from 1967 to 2004. He was one of the founders of today’s UMP party, an institution that claims to be conservative. UMP is the party of Nicolas Sarkozy, who is known to the media and the world as a politician of the “Right.” Barrot had previously supported Jacques Chirac, and before that had been a leader of the centrist movement. In 2000 he was convicted in a French court of “abuse of confidence”. The case involved the diverting of government money to his party. He received an eight month suspended prison sentence but was pardoned by Jacques Chirac. Since 2004, Barrot has been a European Commissioner. He is also a Vice President of the European Commission.

Below are excerpts from the Barrot interview:

Does Europe need immigration? Barrot: Yes. The demographic situation of Europe requires a migration that must be concerted. Europe’s mission is also a desire to facilitate exchanges between countries. Immigration is both an economic and a moral necessity. […] Islam is perceived by some as incompatible with European values of democracy, peace and equality of the sexes. What is the EU’s position with regard to this problematical situation? B: This way of looking at Islam as antagonistic to European values is a totally partial and erroneous view. Islam is a monotheistic religion that seems to me to be compatible with our principles of laïcité. What is not compatible, are all the fundamentalists, not only Islamic, who wish to segregate and exclude other religions.

But is this really true? Christian fundamentalists are routinely equated with Islamic jihadists, and in reality it is an extraordinarily unfair comparison. Christian fundamentalists are not blowing anything up. Christian fundamentalists are not crowing about how they will soon take power and replace Constitutional rule with religious law. Christian fundamentalists are not preaching that non-Christians must accept a second-class status and pay a special tax for the privilege of not being robbed from and killed.

As soon as pluralism is accepted by Islam, in any case in Europe, Islam is welcome. What IS true is that we will always fight against the fact that in the Islamic milieu Christian communities are not always respected as they should be. But that is characteristic of a certain number of Islamic States, it is not characteristic of Europe. Europe favors religious pluralism and it is obvious that if Islam wants to exist in Europe, it must accept this pluralism.

Here Barrot seems to be setting clear conditions for a large-scale presence of Muslims in Europe. Yet what apparatus is he setting in place, or advocating be set in place, to make sure that “pluralism” is or will be “accepted by Islam”? He seems to realize that it isn’t accepted by many Muslims now. What is he doing to change that? Or is he simply favoring massive immigration of non-pluralist Muslims into Europe, and hoping for the best?

Thanks Dhimmi Watch

Delusions of grandeur. But also a revelation of aspirations, just in case anyone still doesn’t have a clue (and many, of course, don’t). “Islamist group claims responsibility of US financial meltdown,” by Mustafa Amarah at Fact International, October 16 (thanks to Gates of Vienna): CAIRO- Members of the Egyptian Jihad group have declared that Islamic Jihad groups are responsible for the financial meltdown in the US as they distributed hundred of millions of US dollars in the world stock markets.

Fact International (FI), received a copy of the statement made by members of the Jihad Group in Abu Zabal Prison in Egypt, which said that the Jihad groups distributed the millions of dollars in the world’s stock exchanges, to hit the US economy, which resulted in the global financial crisis.

This issue is related to the collapse of the US Empire, after the main banks in the world collapsed and the world stock markets lost billions of US dollars.

The statement which was signed by prisoners who will not be mentioned by FI, said that, “the US failed in the war on Iraq and Afghanistan and had massive military, human and economic casualties.”

The statement also mentioned that a plant had to be set up for producing artificial limbs in the Occupied Palestine to overcome the loss. Another plant was established for producing the tyres of the US military Bradley as they had been damaged by the resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan.