Right Truth

Barry Rubin Analysis Called "Hate Speech"

Barry Rubin explains the situation in his article "Goodbye Democracy: My Political Analysis is Banned by a European Government As "Hate Speech"".  Rubin today, could be anybody tomorrow:

I have just been informed that my article published here and at PJ Media, "Egypt: As Grim Islamists March Toward Power, The Naïve Dance in Tahrir Square" has been barred on sites used by officials of a European government--hint, they speak English there and it is the birthplace of modern democracy and free speech--on the grounds that this article is "hate speech." What this means is that if you work for any institution that is part of this government--including the Foreign or Defense ministries--you cannot read this PJ Media column on your computer that's part of such a server.

The message reads: Access denied -- reason given : hate speech. 

My reader asks sarcastically if complaining about this action would constitute a "thought crime" on his part.

Even rejecting this kind of nonsense when applied to contemporary writing on the Middle East or things connected to Islam, this specific article is so ridiculously distant from such a claim as to be even more ridiculous. (Take a look if you wish by clicking on the link, above.) Indeed, my article doesn't even deal with Islam as a religion or anything that could be construed even by a raving maniac radical leftist as hateful or offensive.  (continue reading)

As Rubin concludes:  "Western democracies have finally accepted censorship based on the clever lie that they are only protecting people from racism and those who want to incite violence and murder."  

US Military On The Ground In Israel

 A report out this week that United States military troops are headed to Israel have some concerned.  But this isn't something new.  Through the  years of 1979 - 1982 the United States Army Corps of Engineers built bases on the ground in the Negev in Israel.  Military training, exchanges of equipment, intelligence and more continued through the years.

In 2008 the US military opened a radar facility, the top-secret X-band radar, on a mountain top in the Negev desert which would provide an early warning system if Iran launches a missile attack on Israel and for the first time in its 60-year history Israel had a permanent foreign military base on its soil.  Not all Israelis were happy.

Israeli military sources say that [Ehud] Barak requested the radar from U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in July, after U.S. requests to station such a system in Turkey and Jordan were rejected. Barak was eager to acquire the advantage of the early warning that the system would provide in the event of a possible Iranian attack.

(Image:  Cheyenne Mountain's NORAD, the central collection and coordination center for a worldwide system of satellites, radars, and other early warning systems watching for threats to North American security from both aircraft and ballistic missiles.   George Steinmetz / Corbi) (Time)

This Week:

... right now, the US military is preparing to send thousands of US troops, along with US Naval anti-missile ships and accompanying support personnel, to Israel. It took forever to find a second source for confirmation of this story and both relatively mainstream media outlets are in Israel. With one source saying the military deployment and corresponding exercises are to occur in January, the source providing most of the details suggests it will occur later this spring.

Calling it not just an “exercise”, but a “deployment”, the Jerusalem Post quotes US Lt.-Gen Frank Gorenc, Commander of the US Third Air Force based in Germany. The US Commander visited Israel two weeks ago to confirm details for “the deployment of several thousand American soldiers to Israel.” In an effort to respond to recent Iranian threats and counter-threats, Israel announced the largest ever missile defense exercise in its history. Now, it’s reported that the US military, including the US Navy, will be stationed throughout Israel, also taking part.

Also confirming the upcoming US-Israeli military missile exercises is JTA.org - 'global news service of the Jewish people'. In their account, they report, 'Last week, plans for Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, to visit Israel in January were leaked to Israeli media; his visit likely will coincide with the largest-ever joint U.S.-Israel anti-missile exercise'.

 

While American troops will be stationed in Israel for an unspecified amount of time, Israeli military personnel will be added to EUCOM in Germany. EUCOM stands for United States European Command.

In preparation for anticipated Iranian missile attacks upon Israel, the US is reportedly bringing its THAAD, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, and ship-based Aegis ballistic missile systems to Israel. The US forces will join Israeli missile defense systems like the Patriot and Arrow. The deployment comes with “the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces in the event of a large-scale conflict in the Middle East”.  (continue reading at WhiteOut Press)

 

 

The Mughrabi Bridge to Nowhere

By Alex Joffe

From the southern end of the plaza in front of Jerusalem's Western Wall, a temporary wooden bridge ascends eastward to the Mughrabi Gate, the only one of the 11 gates into the Temple Mount area that is accessible to non-Muslims.  Millions of tourists and pilgrims use the bridge and the gate every year.  In early December, Jerusalem's municipal engineer warned, yet again, that the wooden Mughrabi Bridge posed an imminent danger of fire and collapse.  Municipal authorities ordered it closed.  In a normal city this would have been government doing what it should do—protecting the public.

But this is Jerusalem, where every action begets an unequal reaction and no deed, good or bad, goes unpunished.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly intervened to re-open the bridge and postpone its demolition in favor of a permanent structure.  Jerusalem's mayor reacted angrily, decrying the government's "helplessness in dealing with this hazardous and dilapidated nuisance at the heart of the Western Wall."  A Hamas spokesman called the bridge closure "a violent act that amounts to a declaration of religious war on the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem."  Sheikh Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, made the bridge an issue in Egypt's parliamentary elections. In Jerusalem, municipal affairs regularly beget international crises.

Watcher’s Council Nominations – Post Hawkeye Head To Head Edition

Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the ‘sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday.

Council News:

This week, The Independent Sentinel, The Grouch,Crazy Bald Guy, Knowledge Creates Power and Capitalist Preservation took advantage of my generous offer of link whorage and earned honorable mention status.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

Simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address ( which won’t be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category, and return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week.

It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let’s see what we have this week….

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – 2011 – Turning Our Backs on the Gods of the Copybook Headings
• Simply Jews – Hugo Chavez Reflects
• The Right Planet – Agony In The Garden
• Joshuapundit-A Bridge Too Far: CAIR Versus Bare Naked Islam
• The Political Commentator – Is it the Obama administration or Iran in charge of U.S. foreign policy?
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Civilization Continues to Crumble
• Bookworm Room – A tour de force post taking us from Google interviews, to self-esteem, to dancing men
• Rhymes With Right – Where Non-Discrimination Principles And Aiding Students Conflict
• The Glittering Eye -The American Ant Tribe
• VA Right - Why the Iowa Caucus Is (Almost!) Irrelevant
• The Razor – Israelis Stand Up to the Haredi
• The Mellow Jihadi – I Gotta Move to Texas
• Right Truth – Taliban to Gitmo: Bye-Bye!
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Kick It
• New Zeal – Communist Party Targets Veterans for Recruitment: How Will Their Skills be Used?

Honorable Mentions

• The Grouch – A Caucus? A Primary? A Mess?
• Crazy Bald Guy – The Idiocy of Iowa
• Knowledge Creates Power – The Race for the White House 2012… Perhaps Not All Horses to the Gates
• The Independent Sentinel/strong> – How An Online University Pays For A Football Bowl & Scams Vets With Federal Dollars

 

• Capitalist Preservation – The fallacy of the minimum wage: Part One

 

Non-Council Submissions

• Daily Mail/Dominic Sandbrook –The spectre of 1932: How a loss of faith in politicians and democracy could make 2012 the most frightening year in living memory submitted by The Noisy Room
• Confessions of a Closet Republican – After Christmas Day Bombings Boko Haram Tells Nigerian Christians They Have 3 Days To Get Out submitted by Simply Jews
• Palestinian Media Watch – In newest Zayzafuna, “Palestine” still replaces all of Israel submitted by The Right Planet
• Gates Of Vienna – Driving Out The Infidel submitted by Joshuapundit
• Sultan Knish -The Year We Lost Afghanistan, Etc. submitted by The Political Commentator
• The First Street Journal The Muslim Brotherhood Wins With an Assist submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Jon’s Deep Thoughts-Military Intelligence is an oxymoron? I think not. submitted by Bookworm Room
• Wolf Howling – Obama Signs On To Silencing Criticism Of Islam submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Alex Knapp/Outside The Beltway – Ron Paul Versus The Fourteenth Amendment submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Pajamas Media – Video: #OWS Loons Try to Disrupt Romney Speech in Iowa, and Fail submitted by VA Right
• National Review Online –Repo Men submitted by The Razor
• Seraphic Secret –Rise of the Killer Drone submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Small Wars Journal – Thinking the Unthinkable about Napalm and Flamethrowers submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Liberty’s Spirit -Big Tent Mythos submitted by Right Truth
• Powerline – Keynes Was Right–About the Jews? submitted by The Watcher
• Jay Cost – Still Romney’s Race To Lose submitted by The Watcher

Enjoy! And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that!

Taliban to Gitmo: Bye-Bye!

The United States government has been begging the Afghanistan Taliban for years, and I do mean years not months, to pweese o pwritty pweese be fwriends with us!   Now the US has promised to release all Taliban terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay prison if the Taliban will agree to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar.  The news media report this as something new, as if contact with and negotiations with Taliban leaders is a news flash, which it is not.  

We reported in September 2011 about plans to build a Taliban Embassy in Qatar, a prelude to peace talks, according to Wired's Danger Room.   The news became public later that the Obama administration was considering releasing Taliban members from Gitmo.

According to sources familiar with the talks in the US and in Afghanistan, the handful of Taliban figures will include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, and Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan.

More controversially, the Taliban are demanding the release of the former army commander Mullah Fazl Akhund....

The Taliban are holding just one American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, a 25-year-old sergeant captured in June 2009, but it is not clear whether he would be freed as part of the deal. (The Guardian UK)

 

All the negotiations over the past years between the US and the Taliban have failed, as they were intended to do by the Taliban who play the current gullible administration like a violin.  It was reported that the reason all the talks failed is because those negotiations were leaked to the media and the Taliban got their itty bitty feelings hurt. 

The U.S. government not only  approved of the new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, they insisted.  Just call it a peace offering from the U.S. to the Taliban...

It seems that the Taliban has not had any official diplomatic representation for 10 years and their new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan ... will be just one of many embassies in Doha Qatar.

A little history:

Prior to the Afghan invasion:

On the eve of the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Secretary of State Colin Powell instructed his ambassador in Islamabad, Wendy Chamberlin, to get a message to [Mullah] Omar through Pakistani intermediaries. It was neither a lengthy nor complicated communication. Nor was it an invitation to further dialogue.

“It is in your interest and in the interest of your survival to hand over all al-Qaida leaders, to close the terrorists’ camps and allow the U.S. access to terrorist facilities,” reads Powell’s message, prompted by suspicions of a 9/11 follow-up attack and unearthed by the National Security Archive. “We will hold leaders of the Taliban personally responsible for any such actions. Every pillar of the Taliban regime will be destroyed.” (Photo: ISAF,  Danger Room)

After the Afghan invasion:  

As I've said before, "Why should anyone be surprised at this idea of an embassy for the Taliban in Doha Qatar, when again and again since 9/11, the U.S. Government has engaged in "outreach" with Islamic supremacists and jihadists."

 ... in 2007 we reported on previous failed talks with Taliban leaders that took place in 2005.

In 2009 we reported that cooperation with the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar could lead to help in locating Osama bin Laden if the Taliban had assurances they could return to power in Afghanistan.

In January 2010 we confirmed with sources that the talks were underway.  In October 2010 we reported that Pakistan had freed the supreme commander of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, so that he can play a pivotal role with Mullah Mohammed Omar in backchannel talks through the Pakistani army with Washington. Also here.

February 2011 we reported:

The United States is now negotiating with the Taliban in Afghanistan.  Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef, who was previously blacklisted by Western nations and the United Nations and  spent four years in Guantanamo Bay, charged with co-ordinating Taliban and al-Qaeda forces around Kabul, is now in a London hotel.  Zaeef is now in secret negotiations between Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and the Taliban's Pakistan-based supreme commander, Mullah Muhammad Omar.  

Apparently the United States and coalition partners trust Zaeef when he says the Taliban has learned it's lesson, and apparently we still trust Karzai and even Mullah Muhammad Omar.  It boggles the mind.  If negotiations work out here's the deal:  in return for power in parts of southern Afghanistan, the Taliban would accept the authority of the Kabul government and expel al-Qaeda and its jihadist affiliates. 

In June of 2011 Hamid Karzai himself confirmed the negotiations and we reported of direct contact with Mullah Mohammed Omar, NATO forces and Washington.

 

And here we are today, planning to release terrorists.  Shameful.

 

 

That Magic Moment

You know it when it comes, that magic moment when you get in your car, pull out of the driveway, head toward blue skies and warm weather on vacation.  The car starts forward, you close your eyes quickly, take a deep cleansing breath and blow out all the stress in your system as you look forward to your destination.  That moment when you wonder what you forgot to pack and pray you don't get sick over the next two weeks.  All the months of planning, the reservations, the packing, all coming together in this one glorious moment. 

I'm counting down to that magic moment.  No cooking, no cleaning, no washing, no shopping, no politics, no work, no meetings, ... only sun, sand, good food, and all the site seeing we can fit into our schedule.  Plays, concerts, exhibits, festivals, tour of historic homes and garden tour, wine and food festival, craft show, annual Master Chef's competition, Iron Chef's presentation, and so much more. 

Or, ... we may just sit in the sand with a cool drink in our hands and enjoy the sunshine.

Whatever we do, sweet hubby and I will be together, and that's all that matters.

Oh that magic moment.

..

 

 

J Street – for the Jewish Jihadist

By Tabitha Korol

The Washington Post recently ran an opinion by J Street’s founder, Jeremy Ben-Ami "What pro-Israel should mean,"whose fervor to destabilize Israel continues unabated.  He insists on the Green Line, a cease-fire designation that would leave Israel defenseless within a nine-mile strip of land, and avoids the history of Israel’s land grant by the Balfour Declaration and Mandate in Palestine, not to mention centuries of history.  He also ignores the most important factor, that the Palestinians have refused peace with Israel and will not recognize her sovereignty.  Without these two factors, there can be no peace, and it would be foolhardy for Israel to continue ceding land to those who would turn that land into battlefields.  Additionally, no country has ever made peace with Islamists whose agenda is conquest; Spain was the only one to reconquer its own land after 781 years of oppressive rule. 

Ben-Ami ignores 14 centuries of Islam’s violent history of conquest over Jews, Christians, and other civilizations in the Middle East.  Beginning with Muhammad’s rejection as prophet by Jews and Christians in Mecca and Medinah, the “religion of peace” changed to one of uncompromising hostility and justification for brutality. Since there is nothing in the Koran to suggest otherwise, why would Ben-Ami assume that Israel would be looked upon with favor by Muslims if Israel were to cede more land?  Why does Ben-Ami imagine that Mahmoud Abbas’s declaration to never accept the sovereign Jewish Nation in the region isn’t valid?  And why would Ben-Ami expect that Abbas’s vow to use a new Palestinian state to wage war against the diminished Israeli state was just rhetoric?     

 

The answer is simple.  He doesn’t assume; he doesn’t imagine, and he doesn’t expect.  He knows his stance is antithetical to peace between the Arabs and the Jews, but he is a Jewish stealth jihadist.  Whatever his motive, he knows his words and actions could cost the Jews their lives and their homeland. 

 

One glance at the map and he knows a two-state solution isn’t viable, with Israel having to further diminish her one/one-thousandth fraction of the Middle East to the Muslims who occupy the remaining 999.  Each day brings more threats and plans for Israel’s destruction, and a planned march of jihadists into Jerusalem, while Ben-Ami would gladly cede all of the 4,000-year-old capital to those who are destroying Jewish and Christian artifacts to erase centuries of history.        

 

Arabs have always wrought violence against the Jewish and Christian people.  Jihad is a permanent state of war to globalize Islam.  Beginning with religious zeal, it became a necessity for profit and a defensive-offensive culture that permanently declared war against the world.  It became a politico-religious mission that conditioned the Islamic attitude as a conquering nation, with a demand for perseverance, endurance, and steadfastness, until “the vanquished become brethren of their conquerors.” 

 

The day after Israel became a Jewish State, seven Arab armies declared war and fought the fledgling state as their permanent obligation to impose its rule upon the non-believers.  There was violence before the state and after the state; violence before the “settlements” and after the “settlements.”  There is always Islamic usurpation and violence – not only in Israel, but in Europe, and in the Americas.  If Ben-Ami does not recognize this, then it is due to his agenda. 

He is disingenuous or oblivious to the Koran’s directives for worldwide Islam.  Ben-Ami is a turncoat, in its simplest analysis. 

 

Always critical of actions by Israel, never by Palestinians, despite thousands of rockets fired into Israel, bombings, and wanton bloodshed. Ben-Ami's every suggestion puts Israel into the path of Palestinian destruction.  What is his reply to Abbas’s open statement that he wants all of Israel?

 

Ben-Ami’s diversity of opinions is driven by anti-democratic radicals, from Ayers to Wright.  J Street receives financial support from one of these anti-Israel and anti-democratic radicals, George Soros.  It is not unjust that Ben-Ami be judged by his own actions and those of his evil associates.

 

Most Obnoxious Quotes 2011

John Hawkins has the 50 Most Obnoxious Quotes of 2011 here.  I was particularly appalled at the following quote by Larry Flynt which came in at number 3:

 (Palin) did a disservice to every woman in America. She knew from the first month of pregnancy that kid was going to be Down’s Syndrome. It’s brain dead. A virtual vegetable. She carries it to all these different political events against abortion, she did it just because she didn’t want to say she’d had an abortion. How long is it going to live? Another 12, 15 years? Doesn’t even know it’s in this world. So what kind of compassionate conservative is she? I don’t think anybody will want her near the White House. — Larry Flynt

Read them all here at Right Wing News, hat tip Patterico's Pontifications.

 

Words that drive you nuts!

Are there certain words or phrases you hear over and over that grate on your nerves?  Think about the over use of "ya' know"; "and ah".  More recently with networking sites like Facebook the use of shorthand terms like "LOL" etc. rather than actually typing full words should drive us all a little crazy. 

On New Year's day in 1976, Lake Superior State University in Michigan released its first "List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness". Every year since then, it has taken nominations for words and phrases we should quit using in the coming year. Last year's list included such anti-favorites as "viral," "epic" and "refudiate."

In Washington, D.C., pedestrians nominated "ping me", "literally" used incorrectly, "bro," "hater," "hating," "totes" and "amazing." [snip]

Other words that made the list were man cave and ginormous.

"Two weeks ago, we didn't have any notion at all that [man cave] would show up," Shibley said. "And I always like the dark horse words that float to the top and surprise us."

The First List

At a New Year's Eve party in 1975, Bill Rabe, the former college relations director, made a bet with the faculty that he could go home and type up five words and phrases that they talked about that they felt were overused. The 1976 list  (continue reading at NPR)

So, what words drive you nuts?

13,000 PEOPLE ATTEND THE 32nd ANNUAL SOUTH FLORIDA CHANUKAH FESTIVAL

By Fern Sidman

Chanukah was celebrated in grand style in the Sunshine State, as a veritable panoply of community leaders, an array of top tier Jewish performers and 13,000 people gathered for the 32nd annual South Florida Chanukah Festival. Sponsored by Chabad-Lubavitch of South Broward County, the event which was held on the 7th night of Chanukah, featured the very best in Jewish music, food and cultural traditions.

 

Organizers termed this year's event as "bigger and better than ever", since more than 10,000 people have attended annually since the event was moved to Florida's Gulfstream Park racetrack in 2007. Prior to the commencement of the festival a 100 car menorah parade, sponsored by the Florida Friends of Lubavitch, was held; starting out at the Yeshivah Gedolah of Greater Miami.

 

The festival which is always free to the public featured a very special concert featuring renowned Jewish singer Benny Friedman, whose debut album "Taamu" was released in 2009. Also appearing was Nosson Zand, whose hard-hitting blend of hip hop and pop has been a favorite amongst teens across the US, Europe and Israel. The twin Chasidic acrobats from France were also on hand as they pleased the crowd with their extraordinary acts of physical dexterity.