By Ted Belman

Strange as it may seem, some people on the left want Israel to reconquer Gaza while many on the right like myself are not in favour of it. What motivates these people on the left is the prospect of turning over Gaza to Fatah once Hamas is defeated, so that a “peace” agreement can be concluded.

“It would be very hard to reach an agreement,” Peres said, “due to the Hamas-Fatah split.” This split is even preventing a shelf agreement. This thinking presupposes with Fatah in charge they would be more flexible but why would that be so.

Ami Isseroff adds his pessimism in an excellent review titled Gaza: how peace is lulled to eternal sleep. He argues that the lull ended the peace process.

For my part I see the existence of Hamas as ensuring that such a deal won’t be concluded and that makes me happy..

That is not to say that I think there should be a “lull”. Far from it. I strongly support increased pressure on Gaza and the assassination of its leaders until the rockets stop.
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by Bill Levinson

We reported on July 3 that Barack Obama’s official campaign site, which is under the editorial control of the Obama campaign, contained libelous material in the form of a false accusation of criminal behavior by an identifiable person (individual or corporate, we are not going to give the libel “legs” by going into specifics even for the purpose of condemnation). Further investigation through keyword searches shows the widespread presence of libelous blog entries and commentary in the form of false accusations of crimes that are directed against corporate and individual persons. Some of them are even directed at individuals or entities we dislike, but this does not make them any less libelous.

In some cases, the targets of the libels are public figures, but this does not mean the libel is not actionable. It is harder to (legally) libel a public figure, but it is not impossible. As an example, a false accusation of being a quack (incompetent in one’s profession) would be automatically libel if directed at a physician (private individual) but politicians are denounced as incompetent all the time. On the other hand, it is probably libel to falsely accuse even a member of Congress or the President of a crime–and such accusations pervade my.barackobama.com. We are not qualified to give legal advice, but we would welcome opinions from attorneys as to the point at which Barack Obama’s official campaign–which has sufficiently deep pockets to interest plaintiffs and attorneys–becomes responsible for the material it welcomes on a site under its editorial control.

Again, we are not going to give libelous remarks further circulation by quoting them, even for the purpose of condemnation, although we have brought at least one such remark to the attention of its target.

Bernie “Burny” Farber converts to Islam

By Ezra Levant

Bernie “Burny” Farber, the executive director of the Canadian Jewish Congress, has converted to Islam. I think it’s a wonderful symbol of tolerance on the part of the Official Jews of the CJC that they let Burny continue in his post.

Othen than a conversion, how else can you explain Burny’s behaviour?

I first detected that something was up when Burny came out in solidarity with Mohamed Elmasry, the anti-Semitic president-for-life of the Canadian Islamic Congress, giving an intimate interview to the Toronto Star’s resident anti-Israel pundit, Haroon Siddiqui, in which Burny accused anyone who criticized Elmasry’s complaint against Maclean’s of being an “Islamophobe”.
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By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

Election ‘08: The word is that Barack Obama is a mainstream politician who sometimes attracts fringe leftists. The record tells a different story - that he has sought out radicals. What does that say of his agenda?

It’s natural to be skeptical of excessive claims about Obama’s radical associations. After all, there are so many. But one bears attention - because it helped him get his start in politics. In 1996, he won an Illinois state senate seat on a “fusion” ticket of the Democratic Party and leftist group called the “New Party.”

The New Party, founded in 1992 with 7,000 members at its peak, had been an explicitly anti-capitalist party of ex-Communists, socialists and activists from ACORN, the hard-left group that’s constantly in trouble over voter fraud. The New Party didn’t ask for Obama’s association; he asked for the New Party’s endorsement.
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By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, July 03, 2008

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Abul Kasem, an ex-Muslim who is the author of hundreds of articles and several books on Islam including, Women in Islam. He was a contributor to the book Leaving Islam – Apostates Speak Out as well as to Beyond Jihad: Critical Views From Inside Islam. He writes from Sydney, Australia and can be reached at nirribilli@gmail.com.

FP: Abul Kasem, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Kasem: Thank you.

FP: We are here today to discuss how Islam views non-Muslims. What is the best way to start this discussion?

Kasem: Those who have not read the Qur’an in detail have very little idea about the unremitting hatred Allah has for the non-Muslims. One striking aspect of Islam’s unbound rage and hatred for the unbelievers is that Allah is obsessed with tagging the unbelievers with animals—various types, such as dogs, camels, cows, pigs, apes, goat and so on.

FP: Can you share some verses from the Qur’an, ahadith, and other important sources in Islam on this theme?

Kasem: Sure. Allah sees unbelievers as worse than animals. Let us start with verse 8:55 of the Qur’an. In essence this verse says: the unbelievers are the worst beasts (or worst animals) in the eyes of Allah.
CONNECTED

Ted Belman

When Israel announced it was in negotiations with Syria, Abbas countered with his intended talks with Abbas. Neither the US or Israel objected.

A week ago, Israel agreed to a “lull” with Hamas for stated reasons which were incomprehensible. Perhaps the real reason was to enable the reconciliation between them.

Two days ago I reported that Shlomo Brom who is very connected to leftist government circles argued that because of the split, Israel must negotiate with Hamas. Even more telling, Peres recently said at an official dinner

“”There is no chance of reaching an agreement between Israel and the PA,” He said Abbas had no support among his people, no power to carry out security agreements and that any agreement Israel and the PA made crumbled a day later due to the PA’s weakness. Therefore there is no chance of agreement, he summed.

(Read more…)

In the wake of Jordan charging Geert Wilders with blasphemy, Diana West asks him about multiculturalism.

[..] I recently asked the 44-year-old Dutchman what was stronger in his country: Islam or multiculturalism.

“Unfortunately, they are both strong,” he replied, seated in his lightly furnished but heavily guarded office. “But cultural relativism is the biggest problem.” He went on to explain: “Multicultural society would not be that bad — I don’t really believe in it — but it would not be that bad if, at least, we would be strong enough to say that our culture is better and dominant. But when you combine multicultural society with a dominant sense of cultural relativism, you are heading in the wrong direction. You are committing suicide when it comes to your own culture.”

He continued: “I am not advocating a monocultural society. I just want what the Germans call leitkultur (leading culture). I want our own culture to be dominant — not the only one, but to be dominant. I have a big problem with the cultural relativists who say every culture is equal. I don’t believe every culture is equal.”
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By Ted Belman

Stand with Us published an article by Roberta Seid PhD entitled “Presbyterian Dissonance. In it she covers the recent Presbyterian General Assembly which passed a good resolution and a horrible one. The latter contradicted the former and strangely both were approved overwhelmingly.

At this GA many Jewish organization address the members to make sure they heard Israel’s side. To no avail.

[..] How can this apparent contradiction be explained, and what does it bode for the future?

The fact is that the Church is deeply divided about Israeli-Palestinian issues. Anti-Israel forces dominate the Church bureaucracy and leadership, the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), and the various Middle East related organs, from the Church’s Office of the Middle East and Europe headed by Victor Makari to the IPMN and the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. But Presbyterian pews around the country tend to be sympathetic to Israel, and were caught by surprise with the 2004 divestment resolution. Presbyterian leaders have emerged who are dedicated to reversing the anti-Israel positions, from Reverends William Harter and Jim Cushman to Jim Roberts and Gary Green. They have been struggling to counter the anti-Israel positions of the entrenched bureaucracy. They have an uphill battle.

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by Bill Levinson

It has been established that Barack Obama’s official campaign site exercises editorial control over the content of my.barackobama.com, and is capable of finding and removing “offensive” and “disrespectful” material within two days. Does this exercise of editorial control create not only a moral duty to remove the anti-Semitic, racist, and misogynist hate speech that pervades my.barackobama.com, but also a legal duty to remove libelous material? We phrase this as a question because we are not qualified to give legal advice. Suffice to say, however, that numerous comments at my.barackobama.com libel an identifiable entity with false accusations of criminal activity–and we have E-mailed the page in question to the organization in question for review by its attorneys. [We are not, by the way, going to give the libel any “legs” by quoting it here even for the purpose of condemnation.]

We cite the example of Stratton Oakmont, Inc. v. Prodigy Services Co., a libel suit in which the plaintiff sued Prodigy over defamatory material that appeared on one of its bulletin boards.

Hon. Stuart L. Ain, Justice

[I]t is ordered that this motion by Plaintiffs for partial summary judgment against Defendant PRODIGY SERVICE COMPANY (”PRODIGY”) is granted and this Court determines, as a matter of law, the following two disputed issues as follows:

(i) that PRODIGY was a “publisher” of statements concerning Plaintiffs on its “Money Talk” computer bulletin board for the purposes of Plaintiffs’ libel claims…

(Read more…)

Milena Uhlmann:

Conversion to Islam among native Europeans is on the rise. Many converts live at peace within their native societies; some convert only for marriage, and reject neither contemporary culture nor Europe’s Judeo-Christian values. A minority, however, embraces radical interpretations of Islam and can pose a security risk. The involvement of Muslim converts in recent terrorist attacks has raised concern in Europe about these “converts to terrorism.” While intelligence agencies and security services track international communications and guard borders, such homegrown terrorists pose just as potent a threat to the security of Western democracies. European security services and politicians remain unprepared to handle this growing phenomenon. …

Continue reading…

Cross-posted at netwmd.com and IsraPundit

By Stephen Brown
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, July 03, 2008

In a brazen attempt to stifle free speech in the West, a Jordanian court recently summoned twelve European citizens to answer criminal charges of blasphemy and inciting hatred.

Among those sought by the court is Geert Wilders, the Dutch liberal politician who made the anti-Islamist film, Fitna. Released last March, the Dutch MP’s production caused an uproar in Islamic countries, since it equated Islam with violence. Now a Middle Eastern court would like to prosecute Wilders for the “crime.” (Ironically, a Dutch court dropped charges against him for inciting hatred against Muslims with his film the day before the Jordanian court issued its subpoena.)

[Look what liberal or moderate Jordan is doing.]
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71% of US wants neutrality in conflict

By STEPHANIE RUBENSTEIN, JPOST

Most people in 14 of 18 countries polled recently want their governments to refrain from choosing sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including in the United States (71 percent).

WorldPublicOpinion. org, managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, polled 18,792 people with a margin of error range of 2% to 4% for the survey released on Tuesday.

Questionnaires were distributed from January to May, and the responses represent 59% of the world population.
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by Jerry Gordon

A teen age IDF soldier and hero yesterday in Jerusalem snatched a pistol from the same incompetent police who beat him unconscious at a Gush Katif protest in 2005 to kill the tractor terrorist!!. What is that biblical curse that I used for an Israpundit post at the time of the Amona attack in early 2006: ‘you have begun eating your young’. Both Moishe and his relative involved in the March yeshiva massacre are local heroes despised by secular leftist Jews for saving their own people. Their actions should have reclaimed a moral compass, but have not. Moishe deserves a medal for his quick witted actions. But will IDF COS Gabi Ashkenazi award it? Remember that Gush Katif occurred in August 2005 because the living dead Sharon and his evil acolyte Olmert wanted to cover up another campaign finance scandal, leaving the expelees abandoned and a creating a vacuum that Hamas in Gaza ‘filled’ to send killer rockets and missiles against Sderot and Ashkelon while failing to vanquish Hizbullah and allowing the snatching of hapless IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit to occur two years ago. Is there something wrong with all this? You bet. Israel needs a purge of its spineless leaders and a much needed return to the Zionist shtarkers exemplified by young Moishe, before the Jihadis close in for the kill.

(IsraelNN.com) The off-duty soldier who killed the bulldozer terrorist Wednesday was an anti-expulsion activist who had to fight the IDF in order to join the army. The IDF acted to bar from the army hundreds of youth who actively opposed the Disengagement program that ended up with the expulsion of thousands of Jews from their Gaza and northern Samaria homes, which later were destroyed.

The soldier’s name was published after the attack, but a gag order on publishing his name later was issued in Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Wednesday night. One court source told Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA), “I thought I have seen everything, but this is the most absurd thing that has ever happened.”

Killer Of Terrorist Was Beaten Unconscious By Police At Anti-Disengagement Protest
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 3 July, 2008
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By Ted Belman

Yesterday, I attended, along with a few dozen international journalists at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), a debate on alternate solutions to the two state plan. It held great promise but failed to deliver.

Giora Eiland stated off by advising why the Two-state Plan could not work. Moshe Dann who was also present, covered Eiland’s position in an earlier article of his “Is the Two-state Solution realistic?” . What Eiland proposed was a regional solution.

A way had to be found to enable Israel to keep about 13% of Judea and Samaria, he said. This would move Israel’s border to the east thereby including in Israel a higher percentage of Jews living there. He was quite prepared to have 50,000 left behind to be evacuated later and made no argument for defensible borders. Jerusalem wasn’t worth a mention.
(Read more…)

The Erosion of Free Speech

By Janet Levy, FrontPageMagazine.com | 7/3/2008

Although the headline of the June 8th article in the Daily Times of Pakistan read “Pakistan to ask EU to amend laws on freedom of expression,” the request from high-level government officials was in reality a threat. The six-person Pakistani delegation was set to deliver a warning that unless blasphemy against Islam stopped, terrorist attacks against European assets could escalate. Their cited example was the suicide bomb attack this June 2 on the Danish Embassy in Pakistan in which eight people died and 27 were injured as a result of possible renewed backlash to the 2005 publication of 12 editorial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammed.
(Read more…)

by Emanuel A. Winston, a Middle East Analyst & Commentator

By now you would have likely seen TV coverage of a scene in Jerusalem at noon July 2nd on Jaffa Street right outside the CNN studios - showing an enormous large rubber-tired Caterpillar bulldozer smashing through and crushing cars, flipping over one bus and crashing another. (1)

Eyewitness: Woman Died Because Cops Didn’t Shoot

As recorded by Dr. Yitzak Noy, Israel Radio Reshet Bet at 12:20 pm: “[..]. Police there did NOT fire.

Building security guard who had an UZI who did NOT fire. The one who killed the Terrorist took the gun from the Police Officer who was NOT shooting and shot. This person (an off duty security officer) was a relative of the person who shot the Terrorist at Mercaz HaRav in March. Live on Israel Radio 12:20 PM by Dr. Yitzak Noy.”

Terror Attack Hero was Anti-Disengagement Activist

(IsraelNN.com) Moshe Plesser, the soldier who shot and killed the tractor terrorist in Jerusalem Wednesday, was among the youths who protested the Disengagement and faced criminal charges for his actions.

“Plesser was beaten unconscious by policemen [during the Disengagement], was arrested and even had to fight to enlist in a combat unit,” Yesha Civil Rights Organization Chairman Orit Struck told Israel National News. “Today he saved the lives of many and these days, when there is talk of pardoning the anti-Disengagement activists, this should be taken into account,” she added.

The terrorist was 30-year old Hosam Dwayyat, father of two, a Palestinian from Tsur Bachar, one of the Arab villages of Jerusalem, who served a 2 year sentence for rape and assault. In today’s attack,4 Israelis were murdered and 70 injured by a Muslim Arab Palestinian Terrorist who could have possibly been stopped by and alert and willing civilians with their legal guns. The Police finally arrived and shot the driver but that was of no help to the dead and injured. A mother, killed in the car crushed by the bulldozer, had to throw her 6 month old baby out of the window to save its life. (2)
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comment by Jerry Gordon, American Congress for Truth

A hero teenage Israeli soldier finally brought down the Palestinian terrorist who drove a giant bulldozer on a rampage in a main street in West Jerusalem smashing cars , toppling a bus and murdering three persons, and wounding others including an infant. Watch this Ha’aretz video as 18 year old Moishe Klessner grabs a police revolver, climbs into the tractor cab and shoots dead the perpetrator, 30 year old Jabr Duwait, a resident of east Jerusalem with a criminal record. Klessner’s relative ironically did the same in March when another Palestinian terrorist massacred eight Yeshiva students in Jerusalem, a story we posted on,

In this WorldNetDaily report by Jerusalem Bureau chief, Aaron Klein, he notes that an Israeli Arab group calling itself the Freedom Brigade took responsibility and alleges connections to Hizbullah. (Read more…)

by Jerry Gordon, American Congress for Truth

When we posted on former US UN Ambassador John Bolton’s prediction that Israel would take out critical Iranian nuclear facilities sometime after the fall US elections and a Presidential inauguration next January, the world was atwitter. Oil futures prices spiked. Gholam Hossein Nozari, Iran’s oil minister at a World Petroleum conference in Spain according to AP said: “any attack would provoke fierce reaction”. Manouchehr Mottaki Iran’s foreign minister at the UN in New York says that an Israeli attack is unlikely:
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By JENNIFER RUBIN, JPOST

Defenders of Barack Obama, and sometimes Obama himself, seem frustrated that some American Jews refuse to assume their traditional role of support for the Democratic presidential nominee. The Obama defenders are irked that not all Jews accept at face value Obama’s expressions of devotion to Israel and commitment to her security.

Why can’t these contrarians just take Obama at his word (he is a Zionist, he really is, they insist)? The answer is “1973.”

But the explanation starts in 2008. Many Jewish Obama doubters are convinced that Israel faces a true existential threat unlike any in 35 years. From nation states like Iran, which threaten to destroy Israel, to Hizbullah and Hamas terrorists, Israel may in the next decade be pushed to the brink of its existence. Israel’s failure to defeat Hizbullah in 2006 demonstrated the limits of Israel’s historic military advantage.
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