By Barry Rubin
When one talks to supporters of President Barack Obama, one quickly learns that his actual policies and their relative success or failure are of no importance for, say, 30 to 40 percent of Americans in general and about 50 to 60 percent of Jews. (I’d be happy to hear others’ evaluations of those numbers.)
The significant factor shaping their views is one of self-image. That’s why evidence and events have relatively little influence on them unless--which may be precisely what happens in America between now and November 2012--these things become too big to ignore. "Too big to ignore!" Perhaps that should be a counter-slogan against, "Too big to fail."
To support Obama makes them smart, sophisticated, anti-racist, modern, members of an intellectual and social elite standing against the yahoos with the pitchforks out in the provinces. From the defenders of the downtrodden, the left has transformed itself into the well-financed aristocracy sneering at the peasantry.
Read it all:
http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/08/13/the-left%e2%80%99s-very-anti-pc-strategy-hate-fear-stereotype-and-treat-diversity-as-evil/
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
The Middle East Today: August 12, 2011
Summary: Turkey moves toward Islamism; Syria heads toward bloodbath; Egypt strides toward anti-Americanism, Afghanistan heads toward a Taliban comeback. Palestinian leader threatens to murder Americans if they don’t get everything they want. Obama Administration continues to be clueless. The good news? You’re among the first to hear about it!
By Barry Rubin
http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/08/12/the-middle-east-today-august-12-2011/
All of these are “little stories” that reflect wider trends.
Read it all
By Barry Rubin
http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/08/12/the-middle-east-today-august-12-2011/
All of these are “little stories” that reflect wider trends.
Read it all
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Terrorism Returns to Egypt, Will Sanity about Islamism Arrive in the West?
Summary: We see the beginnings of terrorist Islamist groups in Egypt again, with a government unable or unwilling to stop them. The violence will grow. At the same time, this development teaches us about the nature of Islam and Islamism, disproving both sides in the dominant Western debate.
By Barry Rubin
As I've predicted since February, a major consequence of the Egyptian revolution and the rise of radical Islamism there will be a return to the terrorism of the 1990s which destroyed the tourism industry; targeted Christians; murdered moderates and secularists; and killed government officials and bystanders.
Now a group has attacked two police stations in el-Arish. They:
"`Stormed in by the hundreds mounted on pickup trucks and motorcycles waving black flags, a symbol of Jihad,'" said local resident Mohamed Mahmoud. `The militants were heavily armed with machine guns, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades.'"
Where are these weapons going to be coming from? Arms' smugglers allowed to operate without the restrictions of the old regime; politically sympathetic or well-bribed soldiers turning over equipment.
But, of course, CNN misses the point. Those responsible, it reports, are, "Takfir-wal Higra, a group sympathetic to al Qaeda's goal of establishing an Islamic Caliphate." Actually, that group originated in Egypt long before Usama bin-Ladin began his political activity. And in Egypt, terrorist Islamists come out of the Muslim Brotherhood, demanding faster and more extreme tactics. We will be seeing a lot of such people in the coming months and years.
Read it all
By Barry Rubin
As I've predicted since February, a major consequence of the Egyptian revolution and the rise of radical Islamism there will be a return to the terrorism of the 1990s which destroyed the tourism industry; targeted Christians; murdered moderates and secularists; and killed government officials and bystanders.
Now a group has attacked two police stations in el-Arish. They:
"`Stormed in by the hundreds mounted on pickup trucks and motorcycles waving black flags, a symbol of Jihad,'" said local resident Mohamed Mahmoud. `The militants were heavily armed with machine guns, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades.'"
Where are these weapons going to be coming from? Arms' smugglers allowed to operate without the restrictions of the old regime; politically sympathetic or well-bribed soldiers turning over equipment.
But, of course, CNN misses the point. Those responsible, it reports, are, "Takfir-wal Higra, a group sympathetic to al Qaeda's goal of establishing an Islamic Caliphate." Actually, that group originated in Egypt long before Usama bin-Ladin began his political activity. And in Egypt, terrorist Islamists come out of the Muslim Brotherhood, demanding faster and more extreme tactics. We will be seeing a lot of such people in the coming months and years.
Read it all
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
This Is What Democracy Looks Like?: Hating America and Rejecting Peace with Israel Portrayed as Virtuous
Summary:
Wow! The New York Times tells us that by rejecting peace with Israel the Arab revolts PROVE they are moderate!
Mubarak was a sell-out to Zionism and imperialism!
And continuing to fight the Arab-Israeli conflict will bring stable democracy!
Meanwhile, nobody notices or understands that this is not reporting but propaganda pushing the Islamist and radical nationalist program.
By Barry Rubin
It’s fascinating to see not only the Middle East going backward but Western analysts and officials cheering on a return to even more war and terrorism. A good example is, “In Tumult, New Hope for Palestinian Cause,”by Anthony Shadid and David D. Kirkpatrick in the New York Times.
Let’s take one sentence at a time and see what it tells us:
“In all the tumult of the Arab revolts, one of the most striking manifestations of change is a rejuvenated embrace of the Palestinian cause.”
Wasn’t it a few weeks ago that the alleged lack of obsession with the Arab-Israeli conflict was a sign of progress toward moderation and democracy? Now we are told the exact opposite! And nobody in the mass media even notes that this is a contradiction!
Read it all
Wow! The New York Times tells us that by rejecting peace with Israel the Arab revolts PROVE they are moderate!
Mubarak was a sell-out to Zionism and imperialism!
And continuing to fight the Arab-Israeli conflict will bring stable democracy!
Meanwhile, nobody notices or understands that this is not reporting but propaganda pushing the Islamist and radical nationalist program.
By Barry Rubin
It’s fascinating to see not only the Middle East going backward but Western analysts and officials cheering on a return to even more war and terrorism. A good example is, “In Tumult, New Hope for Palestinian Cause,”by Anthony Shadid and David D. Kirkpatrick in the New York Times.
Let’s take one sentence at a time and see what it tells us:
“In all the tumult of the Arab revolts, one of the most striking manifestations of change is a rejuvenated embrace of the Palestinian cause.”
Wasn’t it a few weeks ago that the alleged lack of obsession with the Arab-Israeli conflict was a sign of progress toward moderation and democracy? Now we are told the exact opposite! And nobody in the mass media even notes that this is a contradiction!
Read it all
Turkey: Two More Steps Toward Islamism
By Barry Rubin
In Washington DC they are still ridiculing the idea that Turkey’s government is Islamist, is working step by step to transform fundamentally that country’s state and society, or that it is closer to Tehran than to the United States nowadays or more friendly to Hamas and Hizballah than to Israel.
Yet anyone who actually talks to Turks or looks at daily life there—and that includes the U.S. embassy in Ankara—knew better.
First, a bombshell. No sooner have the heads of the armed forces resigned than the regime issues an arrest warrent for seven senior officers. The Turkish army is finished as a political force--partly thanks to the European Union insisting that it withdraw from a political role--while the courts are being neutralized and the media is being bought up. There is no institution left to prevent the current regime from Islamizing Turkey and fundamentally transforming its society.
Read it all
In Washington DC they are still ridiculing the idea that Turkey’s government is Islamist, is working step by step to transform fundamentally that country’s state and society, or that it is closer to Tehran than to the United States nowadays or more friendly to Hamas and Hizballah than to Israel.
Yet anyone who actually talks to Turks or looks at daily life there—and that includes the U.S. embassy in Ankara—knew better.
First, a bombshell. No sooner have the heads of the armed forces resigned than the regime issues an arrest warrent for seven senior officers. The Turkish army is finished as a political force--partly thanks to the European Union insisting that it withdraw from a political role--while the courts are being neutralized and the media is being bought up. There is no institution left to prevent the current regime from Islamizing Turkey and fundamentally transforming its society.
Read it all
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
