Catholic turkeys voting for the arab islamic christmas

Throughout the middle-east and islamic world christians are being persecuted, attacked injured, killed and even executed for 'blasphemy'. This has everything to do with islamic intolerance and nothing to do with the arab-Israel conflict (the conflict between 'palestinians' and Israel is an artificial construct). Catholic clerics in their recent confab in the Vatican continue to betray their constituents by preferring to always direct the spotlight on the Arab-Israeli conflict rather than use their offices to publicise the woes of suffering christians. Indeed the only country that regularly gets lambasted by catholic news organs is Israel, the one place where christians have full rights. Christians in Israel are welcome and protected by discrimination laws, as are muslims, and all adherents of recognised religions, as being part of the religious fabric of the country. Israel has the only christian community in the region that is increasing in number.

 ........during a meeting of the Patriarchs, Cardinals and Bishops during the works of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization being held at the Vatican... attended, among others by Cardinals Timothy Dolan, Leonardo Sandri, Louis Tauran and Pèter Erdo ......stressed that, at the base of the tensions and divisions in the Middle East, there is “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Arab-Israeli conflict“, in relation to which the international community is called to favor the implementation of internationally legitimized resolutions."  (Agenzia Fides 18/10/2012)

 I find it difficult to understand how the Vatican can continue to sing from an arab hymnsheet devoted to the destruction of Israel and having no bearing on the problems of christians in the arab-islamic world. The clerics bring Israel into the equation when this old and worn equation is patently false, belied by current events. We have the examples of christian persecution in Gaza by the various factions under the leadership of Hamas, the current ethnic cleansing kidnappings and forced conversions of copts in Egypt, the all but complete expulsion of Iraq's christian community of around a million souls and now the beginnings of the ethnic cleansing of christians from Syria. The last few days have seen two terror attacks against christians in Syria :

 A car bomb exploded this morning in front of the only Syrian Orthodox Church in the town of Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, damaging it severely. According to local sources, the victims of the attack are five people who were in a restaurant near the church.

The body of the Greek-Orthodox priest Fr. Fadi Jamil Haddad, pastor of the church of St. Elias in Qatana, was found today in the Jaramana neighborhood (north of Damascus) not far from the place where he was kidnapped, on October 19, by unidentified armed group

The Vatican which still has possibly the best intelligence service in the world, with a priest in thousands of towns and villages throughout the middle-east reporting back to their superiors on unfolding events knows better than any just how bad the situation is becoming for christians in the region and sometimes reports about attacks on the official Vatican website Fides as above.

That only this week a priest was murdered in Syria and a church was bombed doesn't account for much in western media. No reports are seen in the media, no are any strong representations made by the Vatican to western governments or the USA who along with Qatar and Saudi Arabia are funding the islamist rebels. They are training and arming them through the good offices of islamist Turkey. There is much that could be done by christian representatives to bring western pressure to bear but isn't.

When all the christian communities are gone from the middle-east by the end of this century (bar that hated jewish State of Israel) the descendants of those christian communities forced into exile in the west will wonder how it could happen in almost total silence from the established Catholic and Protestant Churches.
Yet it happened in the 1950's to the jews of arab lands without so much as a peep from countries of the world or of any christian community. What was it that Pastor Niemoller said about 'first coming for the jews.......?' The Copts were only too happy to see the back of the jewish community in Egypt, and now it is happening to them, all whilst the world still applauds the 'moderate' Muslim Brotherhood.

Christians are fleeing arab countries yet the Patriarchs, Cardinals and Bishops of the 'New Evangelization' at the Vatican continue to focus on Israel.

Making Israel look blameworthy for arab missile attacks on it

You won't see it elsewhere, but 16 rockets fell overnight in Israel. The mass media only reports that rockets fell when Israel retaliates. So until Israel responds don't expect the likes of the BBC or Reuters to be interested in the regular rain of rockets on Israel.
When Israel responds we of course we get headlines such as the typical putting of the cart before the horse:

'Israeli airstrike kills Gaza militant'

AFP
Gaza City, Palestinian Territories, October 28, 2012

 

An Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip killed a Hamas militant and wounded another early on Sunday, after they fired mortar shells at Israeli tanks on an incursion near the southern town of Khan Younes, Palestinian medics and eyewitnesses told AFP.

 

The intention of course is to appear to show that AFP is being unbiased by reporting what happened whilst hiving off the blame onto Israel. The headline makes it look as if Israel is to blame by only mentioning initially that Israel killed a terrorist. It is only those readers who read beyond the headline will find out that Hamas fired first at Israel.

But most readers won't read beyond the initial headline so they will never know that Israel was only responding to another one of thousands of unprovoked and indiscriminate missile attacks on its towns and cities. In any case the initial impression is what counts. The western mass media is as much the problem as are muslim terrorists. They select and distort so that those who commit barbaric acts against the west are whitewashed and those such as Israel which is in the front line of defending western civilisation is maligned at every turn. No journalistic trick is missed in this effort to promote the lie of palestinian arabs being the victims rather than the aggressors in this conflict, part of the wider islamist attack against the West.

It's interesting that the Hindustan Times is always eager to promote anti-Israel stories. Hindus are themselves beset by militant muslims who would exterminate them almost as happily as they would jews. Yet this media outlet has no understanding of Israel's problems allying its editorial policy with Israel's enemies. This latest barbaric act of muslim arabs against Israel could not arouse any human sympathy with the indian editor, who inserted this AFP story without changing the headline to reflect the reality.

No mealy mouthed condemnation of 'occupation' or 'zionists'

It's so refreshing when those who hate you are honest enough to admit it. Unlike mealy mouthed Franciscan clerics and other assorted pro-palestinian arab 'peace' activists this muslim website is not abashed in naming those hated 'bloody jews'. 
No need here to talk euphemistically about 'zionists' and 'occupation' and rights for so-called 'palestinians'. This hatred for jews who won't accept conversion to christianity or islam is the basis of pro-palestinian arab activism. Were this not true, we would see flotillas to Syria to bring aid to the rebels, we would see headlines in Reuters and the BBC about the killing of women in arab countries such as Saudi Arabia. We would also find a little more interest in the western media about Russian forces' massacres in Ingushetia and Dagestan. The list is endless. When one house is built in Ir David (the city of David, the biblical term for ancient Jerusalem) the condemnations come from the White House, London and Europe. Whilst Darfurians, villagers in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan continue to die by the hundreds monthly at the hands of the Sudanese regime of Omar al Bashir, silence reigns.
We must remember that those who constantly single out the middle-east's only democracy (it still is after the rotten Arab 'Spring' that brought christian and women torturing islamists to power) have as their interest, the same old interest, to further blood libels against jews and the jewish state, to besmirch Israel, to bring it down.

Bloody Jews bombed factory in Sudan, killing two peaceful Muslims
 Publication time: 25 October 2012, 10:28

 Sudan has accused Jews from so-called "israel" of bombing a military arms factory, threatening retaliation after a resulting fire killed two Muslims and injured a third.

 "We think "israel" did the bombing", culture and information minister Ahmed Bilal Osman told a news conference.

 "We reserve the right to react at a place and time we choose".

 The minister said four radar-evading aircraft were involved in the attack, which occurred at about midnight (2100 GMT) on Tuesday at the Yarmouk military manufacturing facility in south Khartoum. It took troops several hours to contain the blaze.

 Evidence pointing to illegal Zionist enclave in Palestine was found among remnants of undetonated missiles, Mr Osman said.

 "The people have seen it with their eyes - four planes coming from the east, and we have no enemy other than "Israel"," he said.

 "The type of rockets which we have now - and some of them did not explode - we have the codes, we have seen the planes directly, this is recorded, and all this evidence we are going to take to the UN security council".

 As Sudan's cabinet met in an emergency session, about 300 protesters gathered nearby, denouncing "israel".

 "The army of Mohamed is returning," they reportedly chanted. [Ooops-this is a reference to the massacre of jews committed by the 'prophet' Muhammad wiping out Medina's whole jewish population. At rallies muslims often chant Khaybar al yahud...... reminding themselves in code of this massacre, i.e. that they will repeat it, will commit another Holocaust this time against the people of Israel]

 The information minister said that bloody illegal "israel" believed Sudan to be a threat, and was helping to arm opposition rebels.

 "They think that this factory supplies our army, and by attacking it, they are going to make it easier for the rebels to take over," Osman said. "Plus, they have accused us, saying that these arms would find their way to Hamas. These are allegations which are not correct."

 He also promised retribution, though ruled out any direct attack on so called "israel".

 There have been numerous reports from eyewitnesses, saying what initially many people thought was a plane passed over, and then there was a big, white explosion. These reports have come from many different sources.

 Fires flaring across a wide area, with heavy smoke and intermittent flashes of white light bursting above the state-owned factory, were seen from several kilometers away.

 Witnesses heard a sound like a plane in the sky, but didn't see any light from a plane. There were two explosions, and fire erupted in the compound.

 A woman living south of the compound also reported two initial blasts.

 The attack by murderous Jews destroyed part of the compound infrastructure, killed two people inside and injured another who is in serious condition.

 In 2009, a convoy carrying weapons in northeastern Sudan was targeted by bloody Jews from the air, killing dozens of Muslims. The Jews suspected it to be a weapons shipment heading for Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip.   

Source: Agencies

Kavkaz Center

Throwing Israel under a bus is easy when you place no value on your own ambassador and diplomats

Can there be any greater indictment of this Obama Administration than the ever increasing evidence that is emerging of just how far the rot has extended within the US military and government complex. CIA officers who were prepared to risk their lives to save their ambassador and his staff were ordered to stay away from the US consulate in Benghazi. The brave agents not only had to reckon with extreme danger in their task of saving american lives but with the consequences of disobeying direct and repeated orders not to intervene.
But even worse american assets, planes, gunships and special ops teams specialising in such rescues were within striking distance of the embassy and were at the most 1 - 2 hours distance away (possibly minutes away if american warships off the Libyan coast are taken into account).

And there was at least one drone over the US consulate the whole time of the attack  sending real time video of what was happening to US leaders and military. There was absolutely no need for an american ambassador or his staff to die. 

It is hard for credibility of the USA to sink much lower in the eyes of its allies, but this seems to be the clincher. Americans are shackled with rules of engagement in Afghanistan which guarantee the advantage stays with the taliban. 

The US military chief Dempsey along with the heads of US intelligence spend their time conspiring to thwart an Israeli attack on Iran (remember that National Intelligence Estimate in 2007 that said Iran had given up its nuclear weapons ambitions in 2003? ).

It is a sad state of affairs when the tail wags the dog, which is what happened when any hope of a US attack by Bush was stymied by the NIE. Things changed when Obama and Clinton  cam along in that presidential blessing was given to american defeatism in the face of determined enemies.

Rather than in defending western civilisation against islamist barbarism, Russian and Chinese aggression Obama has sought to press the 'reset' button, appeasing enemies which have no good will, only intention to supplant the american superpower, and in the case of islamic supremacists, to replace western civilisation with shariah law.

The USA is now a superpower in decline, possibly terminal. It is rotten at its very core unable to even mention the name of its enemy.  US security agencies are not even allowed to target islamic radicals, only 'terrorists', as if islam and terror were mutually incompatible rather than the reality which is often the opposite. Those islamists who conspire to attack the West have a book, the Koran which validates their hatred, is the justification for their wish to supplant western civilisation.

US enemies have already taken note of the unwillingness to stand up for it allies such as Israel. The drums of war are beating strongly with Egypt supporting Hamas albeit mutedly in its attacks on Israel. Hamas only last week fired 70 rockets into Israel a day after a visit by the Qatari leader to the terrorist enclave. South East Asian countries better also sit up and take note faced as they are with Chinese aggression over the Spratly and other island formations. China is acting to fill a vacuum. It has been testing the waters, literally, and the US has been found wanting.

But the USA is not only absent when its allies need it, but also when the US's most important symbols and citizens are under immediate and extreme threat.

Israel must belatedly learn the lesson. It has wasted too much time waiting for the world under US leadership to take down the Iranian nuclear menace. With the threats to exterminate Israel coming almost daily now from Iran, Israel must take its fate in its own hands and remove the Iranian threat before nuclear tipped missiles land on Tel-Aviv. Hopefully the uniting of Netanyahu's Likud and Lieberman's Israel Beiteynu parties this week is a sign that.

This time next year we will know whether Netanyahu was just so much hot air, or whether he really meant it when he said no country would ever be able to commit another Holocaust.

Fox News has learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that an urgent request from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. consulate and subsequent attack several hours later on the annex itself was denied by the CIA chain of command -- who also told the CIA operators twice to "stand down" rather than help the ambassador's team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.

Former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods was part of a small team who was at the CIA annex about a mile from the U.S. consulate where Ambassador Chris Stevens and his team came under attack. When he and others heard the shots fired, they informed their higher-ups at the annex to tell them what they were hearing and requested permission to go to the consulate and help out. They were told to "stand down," according to sources familiar with the exchange. Soon after, they were again told to "stand down."

Woods and at least two others ignored those orders and made their way to the consulate which at that point was on fire. Shots were exchanged. The rescue team from the CIA annex evacuated those who remained at the consulate and Sean Smith, who had been killed in the initial attack. They could not find the ambassador and returned to the CIA annex at about midnight.

At that point, they called again for military support and help because they were taking fire at the CIA safe house, or annex. The request was denied. There were no communications problems at the annex, according those present at the compound. The team was in constant radio contact with their headquarters. In fact, at least one member of the team was on the roof of the annex manning a heavy machine gun when mortars were fired at the CIA compound. The security officer had a laser on the target that was firing and repeatedly requested back-up support from a Spectre gunship, which is commonly used by U.S. Special Operations forces to provide support to Special Operations teams on the ground involved in intense firefights.

CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood, though, denied the claims that requests for support were turned down.

"We can say with confidence that the Agency reacted quickly to aid our colleagues during that terrible evening in Benghazi," she said. "Moreover, no one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need; claims to the contrary are simply inaccurate.  In fact, it is important to remember how many lives were saved by courageous Americans who put their own safety at risk that night-and that some of those selfless Americans gave their lives in the effort to rescue their comrades."

The fighting at the CIA annex went on for more than four hours -- enough time for any planes based in Sigonella Air base, just 480 miles away, to arrive. Fox News has also learned that two separate Tier One Special operations forces were told to wait, among them Delta Force operators.

Watch "Special Report Investigates: Benghazi -- New Revelations" on Fox News at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, 3 p.m. on Sunday and 10 p.m. on Sunday.

A Special Operations team, or CIF which stands for Commanders in Extremis Force, operating in Central Europe had been moved to Sigonella, Italy, but they were never told to deploy. In fact, a Pentagon official says there were never any requests to deploy assets from outside the country. A second force that specializes in counterterrorism rescues was on hand at Sigonella, according to senior military and intelligence sources. According to those sources, they could have flown to Benghazi in less than two hours. They were the same distance to Benghazi as those that were sent from Tripoli. Spectre gunships are commonly used by the Special Operations community to provide close air support.

According to sources on the ground during the attack, the special operator on the roof of the CIA annex had visual contact and a laser pointing at the Libyan mortar team that was targeting the CIA annex. The operators were calling in coordinates of where the Libyan forces were firing from.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday that there was not a clear enough picture of what was occurring on the ground in Benghazi to send help.

"There's a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking going on here," Panetta said Thursday. "But the basic principle here ... is that you don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on."

U.S. officials argue that there was a period of several hours when the fighting stopped before the mortars were fired at the annex, leading officials to believe the attack was over.

Fox News has learned that there were two military surveillance drones redirected to Benghazi shortly after the attack on the consulate began. They were already in the vicinity. The second surveillance craft was sent to relieve the first drone, perhaps due to fuel issues. Both were capable of sending real time visuals back to U.S. officials in Washington, D.C. Any U.S. official or agency with the proper clearance, including the White House Situation Room, State Department, CIA, Pentagon and others, could call up that video in real time on their computers.

Tyrone Woods was later joined at the scene by fellow former Navy SEAL Glen Doherty, who was sent in from Tripoli as part of a Global Response Staff or GRS that provides security to CIA case officers and provides countersurveillance and surveillance protection. They were killed by a mortar shell at 4 a.m. Libyan time, nearly seven hours after the attack on the consulate began -- a window that represented more than enough time for the U.S. military to send back-up from nearby bases in Europe, according to sources familiar with Special Operations. Four mortars were fired at the annex. The first one struck outside the annex. Three more hit the annex.

A motorcade of dozens of Libyan vehicles, some mounted with 50 caliber machine guns, belonging to the February 17th Brigades, a Libyan militia which is friendly to the U.S., finally showed up at the CIA annex at approximately 3 a.m. An American Quick Reaction Force sent from Tripoli had arrived at the Benghazi airport at 2 a.m. (four hours after the initial attack on the consulate) and was delayed for 45 minutes at the airport because they could not at first get transportation, allegedly due to confusion among Libyan militias who were supposed to escort them to the annex, according to Benghazi sources.

The American special operators, Woods, Doherty and at least two others were part of the Global Response Staff, a CIA element, based at the CIA annex and were protecting CIA operators who were part of a mission to track and repurchase arms in Benghazi that had proliferated in the wake of Muammar Qaddafi's fall. Part of their mission was to find the more than 20,000 missing MANPADS, or shoulder-held missiles capable of bringing down a commercial aircraft. According to a source on the ground at the time of the attack, the team inside the CIA annex had captured three Libyan attackers and was forced to hand them over to the Libyans. U.S. officials do not know what happened to those three attackers and whether they were released by the Libyan forces.

Fox News has also learned that Stevens was in Benghazi that day to be present at the opening of an English-language school being started by the Libyan farmer who helped save an American pilot who had been shot down by pro-Qaddafi forces during the initial war to overthrow the regime. That farmer saved the life of the American pilot and the ambassador wanted to be present to launch the Libyan rescuer's new school.

Don't just blame Obama, the sickness is pervasive

Until I read the below article I believed that the death of US ambassador Stephens in Libya was basically his own fault. This ambassador who gained his political awareness through the 'Peace Corps' and graduated fully identifying with palestinian aims to destroy the State of Israel, whose last post was as political officer in the rabidly anti-Israel environment of the US East Jerusalem consulate fully identified with arab and islamic culture and aims. Who better to represent the USA? Traitor to the USA, western civilisation and enemy of Israel Stephens might have been, but it seems he didn't have a death wish. 

The news reports most likely put out by Obama's damage limiting Clinton and the State Department said Stephens had rejected a strong US security team in favour of a Libyan one. Stephens was after all the arab friend, promoted islamist goals and hated Israel. What better credentials for an ambassador to Libya? Of course none of this washed with those who were after the head of a kuffr ambassador of the USA whose usefulness would be most expressed by his death.

It now seems that the USA had a drone in the air above the CIA hideout which was used as a fallback position once the americans were driven out of the embassy in Benghazi. Clinton and Obama very likely watched Stephen's murder along with other US citizens without lifting a finger. US ships with massive airpower were within striking distance only a few minutes away but no La Drang style 'broken arrow' operation was launched which could have saved the situation. The ambassador was sacrificed whilst his superiors went through the motions of doing something.  Many hours were wasted in bringing a special team over from the european mainland. By that time the ambassador and four innocent americans lay dead, their bodies mutilated.

The USA has lost the will to protect not only its allies but even its very most important symbols of state. It's ironic that the best friend the arab world had, a man who identified himself not with the USA but with the cause of its enemies was chosen to be Obama's gift in furtherance of the cause of arab and islamic radicalism. I hope eastern asian states have taken notice facing as they are a newly aggressive China. China which like radical islam and arabs has noticed that the USA nowadays has lost the will to support its own interests and those it used to call 'allies' is conducting provocations all around the China Sea region with little protest, warnings or signs of support to its allies from the USA.

The USA nowadays abandons its allies and funds its enemies such as with the case of Egypt. No enemy must be allowed to pay for its nefarious works, no enemy civilian may be hurt even inadvertently thus limiting the ability to protect even the most vital symbols of the US.
The USA has such reserves of strength, it can afford to have the odd Carter and Obama who love US enemies more than their own country and allies. But the damage to the US reputation takes decades to repair. Obama will not be forgotten by arab countries terrified of being overrun by Iran. Israel will not forget that a formerly peaceful Egypt was handed over to the Muslim Brotherhood by Obama, with Libya's weapons being  used to complicate an already serious situation in Israel's south. 

We must watch with baited breath whilst americans vote for a new president. I can't believe that the american people once burned are stupid enough to wish for a second helping of Obama but should the US president who hates his own adopted country be voted in again, it will be fascinating to see just how much western civilisation and peaceful norms of behaviour will be supplanted in favour of tyranny and barbarism.

'They Watched, and Our People Died' in Benghazi'

A US drone was hovering over the US Consulate in Benghazi last month as Al Qaeda-linked terrorists murdered Ambassador Chris Stevens.
By Chana Ya'ar

An American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was hovering over the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11 during the attack in which bloodthirsty Al Qaeda-linked terrorists murdered Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others.

The military backup that should have been racing to the scene, launched in response by those monitoring the Predator drone and other reconnaissance aircraft, moved too slowly and came too late, charged a former CIA commander.

Gary Berntsen told CBS News this week that the savage attack on the consulate was observed in detail by top officials at the U.S. Defense Department as it took place. Terrorists armed with AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) launched a full-scale attack on both the consulate building itself, and the “safe house” located a short distance away.

It was to the second building, which also allegedly housed CIA operations, that Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other American diplomats had been taken in the hopes of keeping them out of harm's way. But the effort failed, with the diplomats and their security guards overwhelmed by the numbers, weaponry and military nature of the attacking force.

American Defense Department officials were too slow to respond when they saw what was happening, charged Berntsen, and didn't send in the troops fast enough.

“They stood, and they watched, and our people died,” he raged. “They made zero adjustments in this. You find a way to make this happen. There isn't a plan for every single engagement. Sometimes you have to be able to make adjustments.”

Sources told CBS there were fighter jets and Specter AC-130 gunships stationed at three nearby bases. But Pentagon officials told reporters the military moved a special ops team from central Europe to Sigonella, Italy instead – an hour's flight from Libya – and refused to provide further details.

A White House source told the network that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey “looked at available options, and the ones we exercised had our military forces arrive in less than 24 hours, well ahead of timelines laid out in established policies.”

By then, the screaming mob of thousands of radical Islamists, whipped into a bloodthirsty frenzy, had torched the cars on the site, torn the building apart, and destroyed the consulate. And four American diplomats were dead.

According to a report published by The New York Times, witnesses have identified Ahmad Abu Khattala as the ringleader of the attack.

But Libyan authorities have not arrested him, nor has he been taken into custody. In fact, he gave the newspaper an interview as he sipped a milkshake on a hotel patio, mocking both the Libyan and U.S. governments.

“Here I am, sitting in a hotel with you,” he pointed out. “I'm even going to pick up my sister's kids from school soon.”

Ambassador Stevens repeatedly noted in communiques to Washington that weak security was an issue at the consulate. He noted in June there had been a spike in attacks against “international organizations and foreign interests,” ABC News reported. In August, he sent a cable warning of a series of violent incidents that “dominated the political landscape during the Ramadan holiday.”

The ambassador underscored to his superiors at the State Department  that the attacks were “organized” and that Libyan security personnel was not a “stabilizing force.” He also noted that the Libyan security force provided “little deterrence” – a major red flag that Washington apparently ignored.

Repeated requests to the Obama administration for additional security to the consulate in Benghazi were rejected.

Whatever the West does it will misinterpreted by islamic regimes and their peoples

Radical muslim 'grievances' are constant and limitless, whether over films or cartoons or of the western lifestyle or of actions of western leaning regimes. If we wish to assauge the grievances we need to convert to islam, adopt an islamic lifestyle and make sure we are the right brand of sunni/shia for that land (look forwards to a life of discrimination and much worse if you get it wrong). 
Moderate muslims exist, possibly in large numbers but outside of europe it is normally the radicals and those influenced by them who hold the reigns of power.
Barry Rubin reminds us that even those regimes outwardly friendly to the US (and non-islamic nations by extension) are subject to massive propaganda efforts undermining the attitudes and policies of muslim peoples and governments to the west. Unpopular regimes will always use the topics of palestinians and 'western colonialism' and 'imperialism' to further their own ends.
The best policy for nations which value their cultures and traditions are to take islamic 'grievances' with a large pinch of salt and realise that those making them are often interested less in resolving any grievance than in overthrowing tolerance and plurality where it exists. 
Needless to say, in islamic countries little tolerance for anything non islamic/not the right brand of islam ever exists so 'grievances' are usually just another weapon used by radicals in the war to introduce sharia.

They got it right: America is Their Enemy
by Barry Rubin

One of President Barack Obama’s main themes has been to convince Middle Eastern Islamists and Arabs generally that America is not their enemy. But the reason this strategy never works is that the radicals, be they Islamists or nationalists, know better. They see the United States as their enemy and they are right to do so.

No amount of sympathy, empathy, economic aid, apology, or appeasement will change this fact. Nor did such efforts succeed in making either Obama or the United States popular in such circles and the tens of millions of people influenced by them.  The only thing surprising about all of this is that so few “experts” and politicians seem to comprehend it.

There are a number of reasons why this is true, though many people mistakenly think they must find just one factor that explains this reality. The causes of this enmity include:

–American policies. True, the United States has supported Israel and also many Arab regimes over the years — including countries like Morocco, Tunisia, post-Qadhafi-Libya, Egypt, pre-Hizballah Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, post-Saddam Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates. The Islamists are equally unhappy with the U.S. support for the Palestinian Authority.

In short, U.S. support for any non-radical regime makes radicals angry and will always do so.

So what if the United States is nice to radical or Islamist regimes? Will that help?

No. The radicals still keep their goals — which include throwing U.S. influence out of the region and overthrowing its allies — no matter what Washington tries to do to please them. In the context of their ideology, they interpret U.S. concessions as signs of weakness which thus invite them to become even more militant and aggressive.

In Libya and Iraq, the governments have been pretty much directly installed by America. Thus, anyone who wants to overthrow those governments has a strong vested interest in hating and attacking Americans. The assassination of the ambassador to Libya wasn’t an accident or the result of a video but the inevitable and logical outcome of the political situation there.

As for Israel, giving that country less help would not change the radical view. Only if the United States had the same policy as Hamas, Hizballah, and the Muslim Brotherhood might it be forgiven. Merely putting more space between the United States and Israel, to paraphrase Obama’s stated intention, won’t do it. Even brokering a comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which isn’t going to happen of course, won’t help.

On the contrary, the radicals — especially Hamas, its Egyptian backers, Hizballah, and its Iranian backers — would go into a frenzy of denunciation and attempts to destroy the arrangements, which would be blamed on America. In the Middle East, peacemakers aren’t blessed, they’re assassinated.

The ultimate attempt to do away with these problems would be if U.S. policy would actually help Islamist regimes into power, give them money, and whitewash their extremism. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? And we can all see the results have not been good, neither in terms of U.S. interests nor even in terms of U.S. popularity.

–American values and culture. While the mere fact that a highly secular, largely hedonistic, and generally free lifestyle is practiced in the United States raises the Islamists’ ire, there is far more involved here.
continued

Netanyahu and defence minister Barak continue to erode Israel's ability to deter its enemies

Having fired around 80 missiles into Israel in the last day and critically wounded an Israeli officer along with 3 foreign workers, Hamas is letting it be known that it is prepared to allow itself be persuaded by Egyptian intermediaries to calm down and maybe stop firing.

This will be undoubtedly touted as a success by the 'moderate' Egyptian President Morsy who only the other day responded 'amen' to a call by the imam of the mosque he was praying in to 'destroy the jews'.

Others more cynical like myself might just see this as the usual arab ploy to attack Israel, and let Israel be lambasted internationally for undermining the peace when it responds, if it responds. Fearful of the international respons it usually won't.

Is there any other country in the world which allows thousands of rockets, nay tens of rockets, or even one rocket to come over the border without responding? Turkey pasted Syrian forces for a whole week recently when a Syrian mortar shell went astray. But Israel has to put up with thousands of rockets over the years fired indiscriminately with the purpose of killing Israelis. Over 12,000 have been fired at Israel since 2002.

Israel's response, is to threaten as it has been doing every time Hamas and its allied terror groups have fired large salvos of rockets into Israel. For months we've been hearing about what Israel will do, but it does nothing. Netanyahu has taken on the demeanour of his lacklustre and defense minister Ehud Barak in threatening and then doing little if anything. The same has been the case with Iran. Israel talks hard, and does little but encourage the Iranians to race for the bomb.

Netanyahu and those responsible for Israel's security are touting the 'success' of Israel's 'Iron Dome' anti-missile system having shot down 8 of the incoming missiles.  Those lethal Hamas missiles cost a few hundred dollars to make, and half a million dollars to shoot down. And even then, when Hamas fires its missiles in salvos Israel still has no answer. Hamas can still get through by firing many missiles at once.

Israel's answer to this problem is to announce the building of more defensive bunkers and shields for schools and important institutions as well as deploying even more hideously expensive anti-missile systems. A fully effective anti-missile system can not be built. A moderately effective one will bankrupt the state.

Israel has got it all wrong! It should not be investing so heavily in such systems but in deterrence. Israel's politicians should ask themselves why when Egypt and Syria both had missiles that could reach Israel's population centers from the 1950's onwards, they never used them? Because Israel had deterrence. Those countries knew that Israel would reply in kind, and then some.

Yet now Hamas can devastate Israel's towns in the south with impunity, with Netanyahu's refrain being that if this present wave of attacks doesn't stop Israel will have to act. Fool! Of course Hamas will stop, for a while before it starts up again. Now it has fired getting on for a hundred missiles, totally disrupted the lives of a million Israelis, forced those people to sleep in shelters and stopped the kids from going to school it has achieved its aim. A state of terror has been achieved at almost no cost, other than a few teenage terrorists who are not even the smallest loss to Hamas. These expendable jihadists are trained and deployed in their thousands.

Rather than deter by such statements, Netanyahu is actually encouraging future attacks. Hamas knows that to achieve maximum effect at no cost to itself all it needs to do is attack intensively for periods of no longer than a day or two. By the time Israel gets into gear Hamas 'allows' itself to be 'persuaded' to call a ceasefire. The UN and world governments then demand 'maximum restraint from both sides' and Israel has lost any justification to respond other than hit a tunnel or two, maybe.

When similarly faced by terror Ariel Sharon knew that the only effective response must be to enter the centers of terror, reach those responsible and make them pay dearly. Jordan was happy for arab terrorists to cross nightly over to Israel to kill and maim its civilians, to throw grenades into the bedrooms of sleeping infants. Sharon's Unit 101however made Jordan and the terrorists pay the price until eventually Jordan called a stop to the terror.

The British also knew well how to stop terror. When in 1936 arab terrorists killed British women and children and shot up the roads in Mandatory Palestine the villages from where the terrorists came from were blown up. Anyone found carrying a gun was summarily executed by british troops. Cruel it was, but village elders then thought very carefully before allowing terrorist bands to operate from their lands.Within three years arab terror in Mandatory Palestine had been totally crushed. Britain wasn't seen as being 'cruel' but as playing according to the rules well understood to this day in the bloodthirsty middle east. If jews want to live in the region they have to begin to understand who they are dealing with and the applicable customs. When you are attacked acting 'proportionately' means you have little chance of bringing peace to your people. And the US and Nato wonder why their campaigns in Iraq  and Afghanistan failed so miserably, why their forces had to withdraw from the former and will soon be gone from the latter. Nation building was a ridiculous concept unsuited to islamic countries. The only result was that money poured into corrupt leaders' pockets who never once have thanked their benefactors. Even that piffling potentate the so-called 'president' of Afghanistan Karzai will always condemn the allies at the drop of a hat.  He will soon be gone from Afghanistan into a well financed exile in  europe.

If Israel is to regain its deterrence it must stop threatening and act decisively, mercilessly those who attack it. It is outrageous that Israeli governments see Israel's border communities as expendable, that Netivot and Sderot can be shelled mercilessly without end, that their populations must suffer trauma from never knowing when the next attack must come.

It has got so far that Hamas and other jihadists islamists work according to the timetables of Israelis. When children are walking to or from  school they are attacked with missiles.  The sabbath morning will begin early with a rocket attack. This year as the children sat down to their first lesson on the first day of school the sirens in Sderot went off warning of a rocket attack. The children had 15 seconds to find shelter. This is intolerable. No society that cares for its fellow citizens can allow this.

All Israelis are valuable, not just those in Tel-Aviv and Herzliya. The time to act is when one rocket is fired, not whole salvos, not to wait ten years and still be discussing what to do. The enemy should know what will happen if only one rocket is fired. A new red line must be established, that any attacks over Israel's border will be met determinedly, at high cost to the aggressors, and without further deliberation.

In the middle east the price must be paid in blood not with bombed tunnels and empty security installations. Such 'reprisals' are ridiculous, only serving to encourage Israel's enemies. If Hamas is to decide to stop its attacks Israel must shed enemy blood each and every time it is attacked. Those who pay with their lives must not be only the cannon fodder, the islamists firing the missiles at Israel, but more importantly those who send them, those who train them. Anyone who serves Gazan security in any way must become a legitimate target.

That Israel does not do this sends a message that Israel is afraid, thus guaranteeing more and stronger attacks. Assassinations of terror leaders and leaders of their political branches must be brought back along with the bombing of terrorist training camps whilst in operation. The terrorists must not be allowed to train quietly but never know when they, just as the residents of Sderot will have a missile fly through the window. Why should Gazan terrorists be able to sleep soundly at night when children in Sderot can not? When gazan terrorists march along they should also be scanning the sky for a missile coming their way. Israel should no longer tolerate the training of islamist terrorists in Gaza.

Moreover, Israel should  retake Gaza bit by bit as and when needed. Each time there is an attack the Gazan enemy population must be moved that bit further away from Sderot and Netivot in a defensive measure designed to bring distance between those communities only a kilometer from the border. If this works then the border can remain as it was after the last Gazan attack. If not, then to improve Israel's security the fence must be moved ever further towards Rafah in the south. An artillery barrage should help clear the area of enemy terror apparatus once the civilian population has been informed. Israel unlike its enemy always wishes to spare the lives of civilians.

I have little belief that the above will happen any time soon. Unlike in the time of Ben-Gurion and Dayan, Israel's political echelons see the border towns as expendable. The islamist terrorists have seen that as a result of their efforts Israelis with the means have left those areas nearest Gaza. When the borders are not populated they become harder to defend thus handing a victory to the terrorists who will then move on to further targets. Islamists are patient. They see Israel as a rotten state that has no backbone, no courage to defend its interests. They take encouragement from Israel's weak response and will not stop until another Sharon or Rabin comes along.

When discussing anti-Christian sentiment, forget arab ethnic cleansing and lambast the Jews

Rimsha Masih arrested and her family along with 600 christians driven out of their village in Pakistan for 'blasphemy'

When Franciscans talk about their problems it makes them so much happier to identify the Jew as the cause of persecution of christians. As far as the muslim world goes these clerics neither hear, see or speak about the real crimes being committed against christians.

Of course in every country you have bigots who don't wish to see religious plurality. Thankfully in Israel religious toleration is ovewhelmingly the case and christians are made to feel welcome, especially when they come with love rather than hate in their hearts. In Israel the christian community is free and is increasing in number, the only such place anywhere in the middle east or the muslim world.

This interviewer a Christophe Lafontaine does not have any such love for jews or Israel. He unwittingly explains the anti-semitic mindset of his Catholic Order by the following:

“anti-Christian sentiment (the tearing of the New Testament by an Israeli governmental official, graffiti on your Monasteries, and arson at the Monastery of Latrun …)  has shaken the Christian community in the Holy Land”

The supposed "anti-christian" sentiment is juxtaposed with “Israeli”, and then with anti-christian actions that are attributed to israelis, or even better for haters of Israel, “settlers.” The blame for hatred of christians and attacks on them is placed foursquare on Israelis, as with the term 'zionist' the nowadays euphemism for jews. I have analysed thearson and the daubing and explained why there was a low possibility that an Israeli actually committed either outrage.

The interviewer does not mention that the tearing of a New Testament was done by one member of Knesset, not a government official. One amongst 120 members of the Israeli parliament who was sent unsolicited the text. It is not to defend the man's inexcusable actions, but those who condemn the making of a film which upset muslims, will never think about the upset caused to a religious jew, to receive the christian text that led to so much suffering of jews, of millions killed over the ages. Anyone who has read John or Mathew will understand that a religious jew will be upset to receive a text promoting the blaming of jews for killing the christian god which if it did not actually invent anti-semitism, was responsible for its propagation throughout the world. Priests of the Latin Patriarchate nowadays do their little bit to keep the fire of hatred alive.
So the MK was reprehensible, but no less was the group which provocatively sent this text unsolicited.

Even if jews did commit the attacks of arson and daubing, why among four non-violent examples of “anti-Christian sentiment” no violent attacks mentioned. Why indeed was the very violent attack, one in a series which hospitalised a christian recently not mentioned by the interviewer?
Of course it is because the violent attack was not committed by jews but muslims, a gang of 50 of them. It's so much more pleasant to self-censor regarding arab muslim outrages and atrocities towards christians and only lambast Jews.

Whatever well meaning popes might wish for, little changes in the Catholic Church when it comes to priests propagating the old hatreds for the Jewish People.

“The creation of an anti-blasphemy law is a good idea, but I ask that this be done at the international level through the United Nations. I think we need a clear law that requires respect for religions with sanctions against those who desecrate religious shrines and others that disrespect religious symbols. A law without sanctions is a law that is not enforced.”

It's interesting that Bishop William Shomali, Patriarchal Vicar for Jerusalem is in favour of blasphemy laws. One must ask oneself, has this catholic bishop not heard of what muslims do with blasphemy laws, that persecution of christians inevitably follows? Even young girls such as Rimsha Masih suffer. How lucky for the intolerant Bishop that he lives in the free society of Israel where priests can demonise jews and Israel at no cost whilst calling for the implementation of blasphemy laws.

The longer the Syrian Civil War goes on the less we understand

Whatever the case, no sides hold any love for Israel. Whoever wins this civil war will aim their guns at Israel should they get the opportunity. The only problem is that Syria is now the fault line for the Shia-Sunni conflict. The sunnis supported by the USA can not afford to lose this war, and neither can Iran supported by Iraq, Russia and China. The sides will fight to a bloody standstill. Lebanon will not remain inviolate. There is a reckoning to be had with Hezbollah which is shia and has actively interfered to prop up Assad.

 I also said that:

The sides will fight to a bloody standstill. Lebanon will not remain inviolate. There is a reckoning to be had with Hezbollah which is shia and has actively interfered to prop up Assad.

Little did I know a few weeks ago that Hezbollah is nightly pasting the sunni villages just over the border in Lebanon with hundreds of rockets. Who would have thought that all those iranian supplied rockets could have a purpose other than the indiscriminate murder of Israeli civilians in Israel's cities?

The most important things that Israel could have done, it has done. It has trained incessantly since 2006, has improved its positions where needed, has warned the warring parties in  no uncertain terms that if they attack Israel they will pay extremely heavily, and most importantly Israel has kept its fingers well clear of this poisoned chalice.

Those who like Jonathan Spyer and the Elder of Ziyon who have called for Israel or the West to invervene to support the FSA are wrong. There is nothing to be gained by actively intervening to helping one or other of the opposing sides, (even whilst Obama's USA is helping the islamists with training, funds and weapons via Turkey and Qatar).

The Elder says:

While defeating Iranian-backed Assad should still be the priority, the longer that his fall is delayed makes it more likely that the Syrian revolution will be completely hijacked by Islamists - and not even Muslim Brotherhood-type Islamists, but Al Qaeda terrorists.

And their goal is not just to take over Syria, but the entire Middle East.

The West has bungled Syria, badly, and things are only getting worse because of the endless foot-dragging. 

The West should keep out, must keep out, and whilst Russia is supporting Assad, can do no different, however much PM Erdogan wishes to drag Nato into doing his dirty work, have more kids from Estonia, Britain and Poland die in the cause of islamism.

If Turkey's hot headed islamist government allows itself to pitch its army into Syria, then all well and good. Erdogan has my vote, and i'll cheer him to the last dead Turkish soldier. But why should the West get involved? We saw what a disaster was Libya, and Afghanistan.

Spyer is worried;

Jonathan Spyer: My own view remains that the United States and its allies should engage closely with the rebels, identify deserving clients and begin to arm and support them. This has not yet happened to a significant degree and the result is the current stalemate. It’s understandable that many Westerners feel that given the rise of Sunni Islamism as a result of the downfall of secular Arab dictatorships over the last 18 months, the US interest is to stay out. Understandable, but wrong.

The US can either engage in the Middle East or disengage from it. The Obama administration appears to prefer the latter option. But disengagement doesn’t leave a vacuum. Rather, it leaves a space which is rapidly filled by advancing hostile interests – in the Syrian case Iran and Russia, with China as the silent additional partner.

These forces are currently backing the Assad dictatorship all the way. The Iranians, in particular, see the survival of the dictatorship as a cardinal interest. Should Assad or his regime survive in some form, this would represent a major strategic victory for the Iranians and their backers. It would keep alive the Iranian ambition of establishing a contiguous pro-Iran space from western Afghanistan to the Mediterranean Sea.

As I have said before Syria is now the fault line in the muslim world, between the utopian zealots of shia and the sunni caliphate aspiring fanatics. They both have an ideal, they both hate the other so deeply that since Sadam Hussein was overthrown they have been killing each other by the hundreds daily.

The fault line that was between Iraq and Iran has moved closer to Israel, but it has also moved closer to Israel's major enemies of Turkey and Egypt now. Both those countries wish to bring about Israel's destruction and have recently begun to collaborate militarily, but they must first defeat the shia enemy (they aren't above provoking Israel with naval exercises off Israel's coast  as a sequal to the Mavi Marmara stunt however). So the sunni world will fight the shia and keep fighting. They will fight themselves to a standstill, and if sunni jihadists wish to flood into Syria in ever greater numbers via Attaturk airport then all to the good. The more they come, the harder Hezbollah will fight, likewise Iran. 

Spyer believes that a stalemate is a bad thing, that "Should Assad or his regime survive in some form, this would represent a major strategic victory for the Iranians and their backers."
And he misses the point. Stalemate means that the West's enemies bleed, lose treasure and suffer. So long as Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon it is all to the good that it emerges with some 'gains'. After all if Iran was defeated the now almost wholly islamist sunni world would be free to turn its guns on Israel. Whilst Iran believes its winning or at least not losing the conflict it will expend ever greater resources to win this conflict with the sunni world. Iran is the underdog in the sunni world. Iran has less than 100 million people as opposed to hundreds of millions of sunnis, 1 1/2 billion throughout the islamic world. Pakistan and Indonesia alone have more people than Iran. There's plenty enough glory for both sides although Iran has much less scope to lose population with a smaller hinterland, and Spyer wishes to break the stalemate?



Sometimes just looking strong and keeping out of other people's squabbles is the wisest option. Obama's setting the USA to help the islamists win will not bring any dividends to the USA in the long run, just as helping secular elements of the FSA will likewise do little if any good, especially for Israel. There have not been any attempts by the FSA to show any lessening of animus for Israel. Were the secular FSA to win they would be just as hateful towards Israel as the Baathists were.

And of course, when the islamists win, of whatever flavour sunni or shia, the seculars in the FSA will be slaughtered. The facebook democrats in Egypt had their nose pushed out just as the secular Mujahideen were slaughtered in their thousands after they helped overthrow the Shah of Iran in 1979.

It is better to leave the different sides to fight this out in their own good time. As Spyer keeps saying, the FSA is gaining in strength all the time. There is no need to hurry the process but let things take their course. Syrians, Turks, the wider arab world and international jihadists need to bleed just as did NaziGermany. As with the germans, only once the horror of war has thoroughly wreaked its devastation on the region, will its peoples forswear jihad and the racist murders of christians and jews. Germany did not learn it in WWI, neither did muslims when fighting the humane opponent of Israel. Muslims will learn to abhor war whilst fighting each other, in the absence of the exercise of human rights or of any acts of human kindness.

As with Germany muslims and arabs sadly need to relearn the meaning of war so that there will be peace for a hundred years. Rather than being a quick war, it should be allowed to burn slowly and methodically, long enough for both shia and sunni to learn to understand that there is no glory in war, no god who wishes for people to kill each other, nothing to be gained through killing others purely on account of their ethnicity and religion.

The evil of the man who wrote a treatise extolling war, murder, killings and the forced conversion of others will become apparent in the coming years of war, where those who extol jihad will be caught up in its depradations and will along with their families suffer unspeakably.

  
I wish it could be otherwise, but unless those who wage the war are allowed to suffer the consequences, there will be no end of religious wars directed against Israel and the West. Let those who aspire to barbarity and war suffer the consequences rather than those who aspire to humanity and to live in a modern civilisation.

As often has been the case in the past, arabs and their friends the jihadists find the silver lining for Israel in the otherwise dark clouds of the islamic winter that is descending over most of the region.

Arabs who understand

Last year the Israeli Monalisa came to the notice of the israeli public, a young christian arab woman who not only wished to serve the state, but serve in a fighting unit. Her real name is Monalisa Abdo:

She describes the nasty comments some Arabs made to her and her family members when she signed up.  She dismisses them.  And her parents are squarely behind her.  “Israeli Arabs need to serve in the Israeli military,” she insists in the interview, “to give to the country and not just take.”  Israel is our country and we need to serve it, she believes.  And military service is beneficial for those who serve, she adds, teaching them discipline and responsibility.  Monalisa’s older sister Michelin, age 21, has also decided to enlist and will start her service in a few days.  In the same unit as Mona.
Monalisa not only asked to enlist in the Israeli Defense Forces but signed up for an elite combat unit named “Karkel,” in which both men and women serve side by side on the front lines.  Karkel is the name of a wild desert cat that lives in Israel’s south.  The unit is station in the Arava desert close to the border with Egypt.  Hunting down terrorist infiltrators is its specialty.

Now it seems our Monalisa has been so successful that she is to become the first female arab commander of an elite combat unit:

Israeli Monalisa Abdo the first female Arab combat commander

Abdo worked very hard throughout her training and was then chosen for the elite commander's course. "I'm very excited and I'm thinking about the fact that soon I'm going to get new troops who will be under my command. I hope to lead by personal example," she said.
Abdo received mixed reactions from the residents of her village and from the Jewish counterparts serving alongside her for her desire to join the IDF. "There were people who were very proud of me, but there were those [Arabs] on the street who saw me with the IDF uniform and the fighter pin and told me I was a traitor," she told News 2 online. "I'm very at peace with my decision and my parents are very supportive."

"There were soldiers who were originally in shock, those I met in the course and in the battalion, but they were very impressed with what I did. I was also approached by Arab women who told me they wanted to enlist, but that they were worried about what other Arabs in the village might think."

And Monalisa has now been joined by her younger sister in the same Caracal unit she is serving in. This is one christian family that really does understand who their friends and protectors really are, and are prepared to do something to pay back the debt to Israel.

It is not only christians who serve the state. The southern border is protected by the beduin muslim reconnaissance brigade. They stopped the recent incursion into Israel after terrorists killed sixteen egyptian border guards eating their Ramadan meal. This was after Israeli intelligence had warned the egyptians about the coming attack!

The muslims who serve Israel nearly always belong to communities that are minorities within the larger arab and muslim fold such as the druse.

Israeli druse muslims serve Israel for the most part loyally although the druse on the Golan heights are an exception to that.  The reason was not any love for Syria but that Israel has given mixed messages over the year about giving the Golan to Syria from which it was conquered in Israel's defensive war of 1967. Not wishing to have to explain to the Syrian Mukhabarat (secret service) why they served Israel in future the druse preferred to maintain links with Syria and rebuff Israel, whilst enjoying all the benefits of its democratic society. Things are however changing now and druse on the Golan are stampeding the Israeli interior ministry to claim israeli nationality. The druse see the writing on the wall, that they have a non too bright future in a sunni islamist ruled Syria. This is all to the good as a future Israeli government will find it all the more difficult to give the Golan over to Syria when most of the Golan's inhabitants are Israeli. Ironically Israel is now getting thousands more settlers who are muslim, but who will most likely be loyal citizens and a bulwark against any ridiculous future 'peace' deals handing back land.

 'Peace' up to now has meant Israel giving precious and strategic land away for a piece of paper to an arab leader who can be deposed tomorrow. As we now see with Egypt, pieces of paper have little meaning to the Muslim Brotherhood which sees a peace agreement as legitimate 'Taqiya' (deception of non-muslims in order to gain victory over them). Egyptian President Morsi has called a number of times for 're-negotiating' the Peace Agreement and more menacingly sent waves of tanks and armoured cars into Sinai thus breaking that Agreement.

Peace agreements between Israel and arab countries are based on strength and that alone. The day Israel seems weak it will be attacked. The stronger Israel is, the longer the peace will hold. Israel's defense minister Barak has still not understood this as regrettably some other of Israel's generals. They beat their breasts and believe that if only they were nicer to Israel's enemies, they would learn to love Israel.

Maybe our Monalisa will rise to become a senior general in Israel. She will then be in a position to share her knowledge of arab muslim hatreds towards Israel and how Israel should deal with it. I'm sure it won't involve giving away of territory or of being 'nice'.