"This is the way a civilisation dies"

Melanie Phillips, author of Londonistan, is sometimes exhausting, and very often dramatic. However, it is worth wading through the drama to get to heart of her arguments. In her diary post, "The media war against Israel, she writes,

"Certain conclusions are now inescapable. First, hatred of Israel and the irrationality associated with that hatred have now reached unprecedented proportions within Britain and the west. Second, with a few honourable exceptions the mainstream media are no longer to be believed in anything they transmit, either in words or pictures, about the Middle East. It is only the blogosphere which is now performing the most elementary disciplines of journalism: to aspire to objectivity, to separate facts from prejudices, to apply basic checks to claims being made by partisans to a conflict, and to be particularly wary of those with a proven track record of lying."

The full story is here.

"Bacteria of stupidity"

It is hard to believe that they said it, and maybe harder to believe that we read it in the UK's Telegraph, but here it is:

Ghazi Hamad, the Hamas government's official spokesman, said Palestinians had been "attacked by the bacteria of stupidity".

"The anarchy, chaos, pointless murders, the plundering of lands, family feuds … what do all of these have to do with the occupation?"


Read the full story here.

"National Fragility and Homeland Security"

In "National Fragility and Homeland Security," Christian Beckner makes an interesting point that none of these failures would be tolerated if they were the work of terrorists. Very much worth reading. Article link.

Chasm of perception

It is now becoming apparent that the problems posed by terrorism are being viewed very differently by "right" and "left." We contend that dealing others' desire to engage in terrorism should not be political - as the Talmud in the Tractate Sanhedrin (72a) commands, "if they try to kill you, kill them first."

However, we cannot help but be struck by the reaction from some "left" commentators doubting the reality of terror plots.

The charges look pretty comprehensive. Is it really so hard to believe?

Muslim Musings on British Muslims

Ali Eteraz gives the most compelling refutation that we have ever seen, of the idea that British Muslim anger is caused by British foreign policy. This is an article very much worth reading:

"For you see, Palestine, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq are just proxies for the fanatic. If all of those places were at peace he would find new reasons for legitimizing his killing. He would target Western “materialism.” He would target Western “hedonism.” He would target Western “secularism.” Just as a fanatic can look to the television and see dead Muslim children around the world to fuel his rancor, he would be able to find on the television any number of other “catalysts” to fuel his behavior.... No, it is not the foreign policy that is the problem; it the fanatic that is the issue."

His article is here.

The end of "their favorite fantasy"

Jonathan Rosenblum over at Cross-Currents makes an important contribution to the discussion of the conflict between the West and certain forms of Islam, and the challenges to many intellectuals:

"QUITE SIMPLY, ISRAEL AND THE WARS THAT IT MUST CONTINUALLY FIGHT against those who have vowed to wipe it off the map, prevent Western intellectuals from engaging in their favorite fantasy: the belief in a completely rational world, in which men of good will can iron out their differences over the conference table without resort to violence. It is a worldview that denies the existence of irreconcilable goals, and sees all conflict in terms of interests that can be compromised ....

It is far more comforting to imagine that Islamic anger is fueled solely by the Israeli “occupation” than to confront the worldwide scope of the jihadists’ ambitions and the non-negotiability of their demands. If only the historical mistake of creating Israel in the first place, and the “anachronism” of a state based on religious identity – or at least one based on Jewish identity – removed, then the rest of the world could simply sit down and discuss things rationally.

Israel’s crime is that it will not go along with the plan as peacefully as Czechoslovakia did."

Read his article here

Not "just for right-wingers anymore"

Lanny Davis writes in the Wall Street Journal about his encounters in working on the Lieberman campaign, and his encounters with anti-Semitism:

"I came to believe that we liberals couldn't possibly be so intolerant and hateful, because our ideology was famous for ACLU-type commitments to free speech, dissent and, especially, tolerance for those who differed with us. And in recent years--with the deadly combination of sanctimony and vitriol displayed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Michael Savage--I held on to the view that the left was inherently more tolerant and less hateful than the right.

Now, in the closing days of the Lieberman primary campaign, I have reluctantly concluded that I was wrong. The far right does not have a monopoly on bigotry and hatred and sanctimony."

His article is here.