Comments on Reads 7/26

David Goldman: Hopeless But Not Syri-us

No-one is going to push Basher Assad out of power, at least not out of his enclave, not while he’s got Russian support and chemical weapons.

The Russians aren’t going to give up on Assad, and give NATO a chance to attempt another Libyan-style intervention.

The Iranians aren’t going to go in, because the Turks won’t let them.

The Turks aren’t going to go in, because there is massive domestic opposition to going in, and because the Turkish army doesn’t want to expose its weaknesses, and because going into Syria would open up the whole Kurdish can of worms (and also because the Saudis don’t want Turkey to go in, and Saudi Arabia is financing Turkey’s massive balance of payments deficit).

The Sunnis aren’t going to get together because they hate each other too much and are financed by different people.

In a nutshell: Nobody is going to give ground, but no-one is going to take too great a risk to conquer the other fellow’s ground. So the civil war will go on indefinitely. And that’s not the worst thing that can happen as far as American security interests are concerned.

FP: Possible. Even likely. But in the ME there are too many interfering and too much instability and you never know where things will lead when somebody decides to take the situation get out of control for his benefit.

 

Bill Katz: OH HOW GENEROUS, MY GRACIOUS LEADER

An aide to the Obama campaign says the president will visit Israel...but only if he is re-elected.  How do you like that?  I mean, why waste time with an ally if you're going down the drain?  I don't think it's coincidental that the foreign minister of another close ally, Australia, just said, as we reported earlier today, that America is in decline.  Our allies are dismayed by this president.  And, oh, by the way, the president has made no commitment to go to the Olympics, being held in the capital city of our closest ally, Britain.  He may, we're told, condescend to go if the American basketball team is in contention for the gold.  Oh thank you, thank you so much.  We don't mean to intrude, sir.

…

We are in decline under Obama.  The Obama forces are already disparaging Romney's overseas trip.  Of course they are.  He's visiting American allies, those countries for which Obama has so little use.

One reason for our decline is Obama's breaking of faith with allies.  You will see little discussion of that in the media.

Australia has always been there for us.  When its foreign minister speaks of American decline, we should listen.

FP: I must reiterate: Obama’s election was in itself an indicator of American decline. He would have not been elected had that not already been the case.

As to Israel, by now everybody with half a brain has a pretty good idea what Obama thinks of Israel and what he will do if he gets reelected.Going there will not change the mind of pro-Israel supporters and it’ll only annoy the new Islamist allies. They may even reject US aid. (I doubt it; it’s much smarter to take it and raise a ruckus).

But it’s worse:

UPSETTING, TO SAY THE LEAST

Just when we thought Mitt Romney had gotten past his reputation for gaffes, he commits one that is world class, and can seriously damage his presidential prospects.

Ah, how we recall Romney's comment, during the primaries, that his wife drove "a couple of Cadillacs," and other gems that do not endear a candidate to voters.

Now Romney is on a foreign trip, meant to demonstrate that he can play in the big leagues, and restore America's relationship with its allies, marred by Obama's sneering attitude toward old friends.  And what does Romney do?  He puts his foot in it, big time.  As he travels to Britain, our closest friend, he openly casts doubt on whether the country is actually ready to host the Olympics, which start, er, tomorrow.  The British press is stunned.

Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, has questioned Britain's preparedness to host the London 2012 Olympics and asked whether the country is genuinely willing to "celebrate" the Games.

…

But he told US television there were "disconcerting" signs about Britain's readiness. "It's hard to know just how well it will turn out," he said. "There are a few things that were disconcerting: the stories about the private security firm not having enough people, supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging."

What?  This is what you say about Britain when you're trying to show that you want to restore the alliance?  Romney was promptly reprimanded, and publicly so, by British Prime Minister David Cameron.  Now Romney is backtracking:

However, Mr Romney later made a second gaffe when he referred to Mr Miliband as "Mr Leader".

“Like you Mr Leader I look forward to our conversations this morning and I have had a number of conversations with leaders both present and past and recongise of course the unique relationship that exists between our nations,” he said.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.  Thank you, Mitt, for blowing it on your first day abroad.  This gaffe will dominate political discussion of your trip, make you look like an amateur, and cost you. 

As I predicted from day one, Romney is probably not going to make it. It takes some real talent not to win hands down against Obama. But the fact that all that America could pit against Obama is Romney is an even clearer indicator of its decline.

 

Walter Russell Mead: Israeli Parliamentarian Shreds a New Testament. World Yawns

A far right member of the Israeli Knesset, Michael Ben-Ari, recently received a copy of the New Testament in his mailbox, a gift from local Christian missionaries. He was not enthused, reports the Associated Press:

Ben-Ari, an Orthodox Jew, was enraged to receive the book, in whose name he says millions of Jews were slaughtered. Ben-Ari tore it up, he said, then posed for photographs with the destroyed Bible.

What’s notable about this incident is that you probably haven’t heard about it. That’s because there were no riots of angry Christian mobs in the streets of Israel or anywhere else in its wake. And most of the outrage that followed came from Jewish groups and Israeli officials tripping over themselves to disavow the act. As Prime Minister Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev told the AP, “We totally deplore this behavior and condemn it outright. This action stands in complete contrast to our values and our traditions. Israel is a tolerant society, but we have zero tolerance for this despicable and hateful act.”

Gee: a hot-headed believer in a particular religious tradition does something tasteless to the holy book of another religion. No howling mobs rage through the streets, burning and lynching; no cells of deranged fanatics hatch terror plots. Instead, more emotionally balanced co-religionists of the original hothead distance their faith from the provocative act.

What’s so hard about that?

Here’s a wild and crazy suggestion: this is how all of us should try to act when faced with some kind of religious or political affront.

FP: By whitewashing or failing to report Muslim violence, while also failing to report the behavior of civilized people the mainstream media is promoting a picture of reality that is upside down and backwards.

 

RECOMMENDED READS

Khaled Abu Toameh: Arab Spring: A Blessing for Hamas

Comments on reads 7/18

Jonathan S. Tobin: Does the Levy Report Doom Israel?

While the concerns expressed in this letter are real, those who signed are mistaken not only about the impact of Levy’s report but also about how to build international support for Israel and the hope of peace. What the signers don’t understand is that it is the opposite tack — Israel’s abandonment of a position that would uphold its rights — that has done the most to convince the world the Jewish state is in the wrong and strengthened the resolve of the Palestinians to never accede to a compromise on territory and two states. While one document cannot undo the damage done by Oslo and 19 years of failed peace processing, the Levy report can at least begin to remind the world the Israeli-Arab conflict is not one of balancing Palestinian rights and Israeli security but the rights of two nations.

…

A generation of abdication of Jewish rights to the West Bank has not softened the hearts of the world or the Palestinians. If Israel is ever to negotiate a peace that will bring security, it must start by saying that it comes to the table not as a thief but as a party whose legal rights must be respected.

FP: Yesss! Exactly.

Which makes the following very logical, right?

Clinton pushes Netanyahu to apologize to Turkey, take steps to bring PA back to talks

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held talks Monday evening with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the end of a day of meetings with Israel’s leaders on Iran, Palestinian peacemaking and America’s desire to see Israel heal its ties with Turkey.

Clinton reportedly urged Netanyahu to mend ties with Turkey and make moves to jump start peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.

The US secretary of state, in Israel as the last leg of a tour through Asia, also told Netanyahu that Jerusalem should transfer small arms to the PA in order to help get the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, according to Ynet news. She also called on Netanyahu to release Palestinian prisoners. Both moves have been mentioned as Palestinian prerequisites for coming back to talks.

Negotiations with the PA have been frozen since 2010 as Ramallah has also demanded a freeze on settlement construction before returning to the table.

Clinton reportedly told Netanyahu he should hurry to achieve peace with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, since it was not clear who would replace them.

Here’s more Clintonian logic: Concede to Abbas/Fayyad, because we don’t know who is gonna replace them. Now, is it me, or is this imbecillic? And don’t be surprised if Netanyahu does it too.

 

JoshuaPundit: Egypt's New Industry - Sex Tourism Center For The Arab World

Egypt has become the hot new destination for Arab men, mostly from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates who are seeking a convenient, cheap, and sharia compliant sex tourism holiday.

All the ingredients are there.....a large population of vulnerable, underage girls with poverty stricken families, a conveniently close, Arabic speaking destination with a nearly bankrupt tourism industry desperate for business, and most of all, a culture that debases women anyway and allows and encourages it.

As Natasha Smith, Lara Logan and far too many others have found out to their horror, foreign, non-Muslim women come under the category of 'what thy right hand possesses'* and can simply be raped out of hand.

However, Muslim females already the chattel property of another Muslim male are a different matter. Especially if you're talking about the predator being an older Muslim male who's already married and looking for some young, nubile flesh as amusement.

So sharia provides for this trafficking and gives it a religious blessing with the practice of temporary 'marriages'…

FP: I guess the old Gulf pedophiles couldn’t agree more that there’s an “Arab spring”.

 

Project Veritas undercover video exposes shovel-ready jobs farce (via Legal Insurrection)

 

 

 

FP: No comment.

Comments on reads 7/17/12

JoshuaPundit: SecState Clinton Signals Support For Hamas, US Assent On Egypt's Abrogating Treaty With Israel

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Egypt today, talking to President Obama's Muslim Brotherhood friends. Aside from promising to open America's checkbook to the Islamists, there was also this fascinating exchange

…

Read between the lines. Secretary Clinton is telling the Islamists that America supports the union of the PA and Hamas as long as they make the appropriate noises and put on a suitable front - and she's saying this when Israel is still under attack from Gaza.

And when Egyptian foreign minister Amr adds linkage between the Camp David Accords and the total fulfillment of all Palestinian demands, something that was not even mentioned in the original treaty, she doesn't even make a pretense of challenging it.

…

If Egypt adhering to the treaty was as important as she claimed it was in her speech, you would expect a response. But she says nothing.Because when it comes down to it, the no question that the Obama Administration would fully support Egypt breaking their treaty with Israel on that basis.

FP: Just as I predicted that ultimtely it would happen. Quite early I predicted that instead of inducing Israel to make concessions by making it feel secure, Obama would do the opposite: it would try to force it into concessions by scaring it. I rest my case.

But I guess the Egyptians know how to appreciate it and enjoy their freedom:

Debbie Schlussel: Obamacracy in Egypt: Wealthy Arab Tourists Buy Under-Aged Egyptian Girls for Sex Slaves

I loved that Egyptians threw shoes and other items at Hillary Clinton (and shouted, “Monica! Monica!”), the mother of Muslim Brotherhood “democracy,” during her visit to Egypt. That’s how Muslims experess their “appreciation” to the Western liberator. We saw it in Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza/HAMASastan, etc. And we’ll continue to see it, even as America continues to shower billions on these America-hating ingrates while whining about Israel. These newly liberated Muslims–liberated to their savagery–just hate us more. And laugh at us . . . and throw shoes and shout the names of their Western liberator’s husband’s extramarital concubines. And now there’s yet another great development of Muslim “civilization” in newly-”democratized” Egypt.

Wealthy tourists from the Persian Gulf are paying to marry under-age Egyptian girls just for the summer, according to a report.

These temporary marriages are not legally binding and end when the men return to their homes in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

Martin Kramer

Barry Rubin: “The more I think about Israel’s security situation, the better it looks…. Internal battles will disrupt Arab armies and economies… The big Mideast conflict in future is not the Arab-Israeli but the Sunni-Shia one…. Of course, there are threats—Iran getting deliverable nuclear weapons; Egypt becoming belligerent—but both lie in the future and there are constraining factors” (http://goo.gl/y7MwE).

FP: My comment: This is a rational perspective, but the ME is not rational. One of the first things I learned in my courses about the ME was that not even Islam unifies Arabs as does hatred of Jews and Israel. It's about the only unifying factor for Arabs. Had it not been for Israel (and the West) they would all be at each other's throat. So given that most Arab states are failed states that cannot solve their problems, they will use Israel to distract. Leaders understand the risks from Sunni-Shia conflict and will try to deflect it via Jihad. And now that Israel has energy resources and has been abandoned by the West, the temptation will be immense. Their real problems will start when they dismantle Israel.

Hamas improves rocket range after succesful test launch

Egyptian media report that Hamas' military wing test fired a rocket into Sinai two weeks ago • Rocket, modeled after dismantled missiles smuggled into Gaza from Libya, can reportedly reach further distances than any other missile in Hamas' rocket arsenal.

FP: See what I mean? Suppose Hamas can’t resist the temptation and drags Islamists into war by forcing Israel to retaliate big in reaction to a rocket into the central area of Israel? Does anybody doubt that Islamist regimes will jump at the opportunity to distract and unify their streets? Is anybody under any illusion that the West will lift a finger to help, thinking “Better Israel than us”.

 

'Ultra-Orthodox draft will only succeed if carried out gradually'

PM Netanyahu says only gradual approach will result in higher haredi conscription, adds that drafting all18-year-olds "would make haredim more secluded, united in their opposition" • Kadima poised to leave coalition, could set in motion early elections.

FP: What did I tell ya?

 

Shop 'til your people drop

Syrian first lady Asma Assad spent more than 270,000 British pounds ($420,000) on chandeliers, carpets, sofas, tables and more last March, according to WikiLeaks • International Red Cross formally declares civil war status in Syria.

FP: Is she preparing a cozy new place? Where?

Comments on Reads 7/13

Steven Hayward: The Labor of LIBOR

With the exception of the specialty financial press and one or two general assignment journalists, the media are not making much of the LIBOR scandal.  Much easier, and more congruent with The Narrative, I suppose, for the media to continue to chase after the bane of Bain.  I mentioned here last week that the real story about LIBOR may well be the massive conflict of interest and collusion between the U.S. Treasury, the Fed, and the big banks to help prop up our massive and ever growing debt.

There’s a huge misdirection taking place.  The Obamanauts gave us as their solution to the financial crisis the Dodd-Frank bill, which was supposed to cure “too big to fail.”  And what’s one of the first things they do out of the box?  Hate on banks for overdraft fees.  Yeah—that’s really going to help alleviate financial vulnerability of the system.

So kudos for Charles Gasparino of the NY Post for noting the essence of the story a couple days ago:

But the dirty little secret on Wall Street is that the New York Fed is a horrible regulator: It sees its chief job as keeping the banking system intact. Since it needs its member banks to buy US government debt and to control the money supply, the last thing it wants to do is shed light on the banks’ shady practices.

Which is why the Wall Street power brokers loved Geithner so much: On his New York Fed watch, he basically let them get away with the financial equivalent of murder, letting them take on the astronomical amounts of risk that ultimately blew up the system in 2008.

As Glenn Reynolds likes to say, the country’s in the very best of hands.

FP: The corporate welfare state at its very best. I’ve posted on Matt Taibbi coverage of this story. The fact is that banks have been put in a position where they hold the government and the country by the balls. Because their fall bringd down the system, they are getting away with robbing the country blind.

 

Via Martin Kramer

 

 

FP: And this an Arab educated man. Any wonder they are such utter failures?

 

Scott Johnson: Annals of government medicine

The Daily Mail delivers the news of another inspirational example of government medicine in England, much of it packed into the headline: “Elderly patients are being ‘deprived of food and drink so they die quicker and free up bed space’, claim doctors.”

The practice in issue goes under the delicate name of a “care pathway.” Like the stairway in the Led Zeppelin song, it’s a pathway to heaven. The Daily Mail explains:

Thousands of terminally ill people are placed on a “care pathway” every year to hasten the ends of their lives.

But in a letter to the Daily Telegraph, six doctors who specialise in elderly care said hospitals across the UK could be using the controversial practice to ease the pressure on resources.

As you might guess, the doctors seem to know what they’re talking about.

FP: But you have to admit it is quite effective in cutting costs.

 

JoshuaPundit: Mitt Romney's New Ad: 'Obama Lied'

Speaking of outsourcing, anybody mention the jobs in coal or in oil production that have been lost under this administration - while our president gave $2 billion dollars of our tax money to Brazil to be used to develop their oil infrastructure and production, thus directly shipping American jobs overseas? Remember this one?

Oh, and the Brazilian oil we helped them develop? China got it. Well done, Mr. President!

FP: The Chinese probably have Obama’s number by now.

 

The public is smarter than its reporters

The myth currently being shoved down our throats is that Ehud Olmert was the best head of state since King Solomon.

FP: What did I tell you about the opportunistic shift of Olmert from right to left? The legal system and the media are on the left.

 

Hamas says Egypt's Mursi will defy Israel, end Gaza blockade

Leader of Gaza-based terror group Ismail Haniyeh says he is confident Egypt's new president will shield Palestinians from Israeli attack, fully open its borders to end trade blockade.

 

RECOMMENDED READS

Caroline Gick: Obama's spectacular failure

Comments on reads 7/11

Raymond Ibrahim: Calls to Destroy Egypt's Great Pyramids Begin

According to several reports in the Arabic media, prominent Muslim clerics have begun to call for the demolition of Egypt's Great Pyramids—or, in the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali bin Said al-Rabi'i, those "symbols of paganism," which Egypt's Salafi party has long planned to cover with wax. Most recently, Bahrain's "Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs" and President of National Unity, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud, called on Egypt's new president, Muhammad Morsi, to "destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what Amr bin al-As could not."

…

Nor is such a course of action implausible. History is laden with examples of Muslims destroying their own pre-Islamic heritage—starting with Muhammad himself, who ransacked Arabia's Ka'ba temple, transforming it into a mosque.

Asking "What is it about Islam that so often turns its adherents against their own patrimony?" Daniel Pipes provides several examples, from Medieval Muslims in India destroying their forefathers' temples, to contemporary Muslims destroying their ancestors' heritage in Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Malaysia, and Tunisia. Currently, in what the International Criminal Court is describing as a possible "war crime," Islamic fanatics are destroying the ancient legacy of the city of Timbuktu in Mali—all to Islam's triumphant war cry, "Allahu Akbar!"

…

Much of this hate for their own pre-Islamic heritage is tied to the fact that, traditionally, Muslims do not identify with this or that nation, culture, or language, but only with the Islamic nation—the Umma. Accordingly, while many Egyptians—Muslims and non-Muslims alike—see themselves first and foremost as Egyptians, Islamists have no national identity, identifying only with Islam's "culture," based on the "sunna" of the prophet and Islam's language, Arabic. This sentiment was clearly reflected when the former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Akef, recently declared "the hell with Egypt," indicating that the interests of his country are secondary to Islam's.

It is further telling that such calls are being made now—immediately after a Muslim Brotherhood member became Egypt's president. In fact, the same reports discussing the call to demolish the last of the Seven Wonders of the Word, also note that Egyptian Salafis are calling on Morsi to banish all Shias and Baha'is from Egypt.

In other words, Morsi's recent call to release the Blind Sheikh, a terrorist mastermind, from U.S. imprisonment, may be the tip of the iceberg in coming audacity. From calls to legalize Islamic sex-slave marriage to calls to institute "morality police" to calls to destroy Egypt's mountain-like monuments, under Muslim Brotherhood tutelage, the bottle has been uncorked, and the genie unleashed in Egypt.

Will all those international institutions, which make it a point to look the other way whenever human rights abuses are committed by Muslims, lest they appear "Islamophobic," at least take note now that the Great Pyramids appear to be next on Islam's hit list, or will the fact that Muslims are involved silence them once again—even as those most ancient symbols of human civilization are pummeled to the ground?

FP: Wanna bet? Islamists hate future progress and hate the past. Any wonder they are such a failure and practice the cult of death?

 

JoshuaPundit: U.S. State Department Deliberately Excludes Israel From Counterterrorism Forum

Hardly surprising, but worth noting, especially given the Obama Administration's embrace of Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood:

Despite pleas from Senators on Capitol Hill, the Obama administration excluded Israel from a new counterterrorism forum and neglected to mention its long and deadly struggle with terrorism during remarks presented yesterday in Spain.

…

Not only that, but Israel - again- was deliberately excluded from a list of nations recognized by the U.S. for counterterrorism efforts.

"When the administration promised to include Israel in the counterterrorism forum that the United States founded—after Jerusalem’s inexplicable exclusion from the initial meeting a month ago—one would think they would be true to their word,” said Josh Block, a Democratic strategist and former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “Clearly someone failed here. How Israel could be excluded from another meeting of an anti-terror forum that we chair is beyond comprehension, especially one that focuses on victims of terrorism.”

FP: Let me get this straight: America excludes Israel but cooperates with Islamists on anti-terrorism?

 

Bill Katz: INVESTIGATE, INVESTIGATE

Reader Christopher Murphy alerts us to a bit of bother involving federal "health care" spending.  This deserves a very careful congressional look.  From The Hill:

Federal healthcare grants might have been illegally used for political lobbying, according to the Health and Human Services Department’s inspector general.

The inspector general said grants administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) might have been used for lobbying efforts — and that the CDC might have led recipients to believe lobbying was appropriate, despite a federal ban on using grant money for political activism.

FP: This is what systemic senility is all about.

 

Political comeback for Olmert? Not so fast

Former PM still faces sentencing for breach of trust conviction, which may include moral turpitude, as well as serious charges in Holyland affair • Gal-On: The fact that Olmert was convicted of breach of trust should force him out of politics forever.

FP: Ah, but Olmert was shrewd. He moved from the extreme right to the extreme left in the direction of the legal system. And it has clearly worked. Given that the media and other state institutions are left, don’t be surprised if he’ll get back into politics. Besides, Israel has a record of reinstating failures: Peres, Barak, even Netanyahu.

 

Israel frees hunger-striking Palestinian soccer player

Mahmoud Sarsak, 25, staged a hunger strike for more than 90 days to press for his release, winning support from international sports organizations • Islamic Jihad leader praises the soccer player as "one of our noble members."

FP: Between Shalit deal and and hunger strike releases Israel will soon have no prisoners left.

 

'Mandatory draft for all at age 18 not feasible,' Ya'alon says

Proposal to replace the Tal Law, which grants blanket military deferment to ultra-Orthodox men, to be presented today • Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman hints at sabotaging national budget if draft law is passed.

FP: What did I tell you?

Ya'alon: Keshev C'tee on haredim would spell civil war

Likud representative in governmental talks to replace Tal Law slams Plesner for personal stubbornness, says Kadima MK is pursuing course bound to erase all inroads that have been made in integration of ultra-orthodox.

Where did you read this first?

Comments on reads 7/10

Netanyahu, Abbas negotiating prisoner release — report

Prime minister is prepared to release convicted murderers but Palestinian Authority president demands better conditions, according to Haaretz

FP: There’s no safer bet that continuous concessions by Israel in general and Netanyahu in particular. Abbas threatens UN state and intifada, Israel releases murderes. Where do you think this is going? Particularly when all released go back into terrorism.

 

Barak says Tel Aviv threatened by long-range Gazan rockets

Terrorists in the Strip can hit targets 70 kilometers away, defense minister tells Knesset committee

FP: Noooooo! Reaaaaaaaaally? Who could have predicted?

 

Bill Katz: GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DIN-DIN

I guess Obama just couldn't resist it.  A lot of foreign leaders are waiting for presidential invitations to visit the United States, but the president plays favorites.  And who has he chosen to visit, right in the middle of a presidential campaign?  Do we have any doubts?

CAIRO (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has invited Egypt's newly elected Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, to visit the United States in September, an Egyptian official said on Sunday, reflecting the new ties Washington is cultivating with the region's Islamists.

"President Obama extended an invitation to President Mursi to visit the United States when he attends the U.N. General Assembly in September," Egyptian aide, Yasser Ali, said after Mursi met U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns.

Burns did not mention the invitation at a news conference earlier.

Washington, long wary of Islamists and an ally of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, shifted policy last year to open formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood, the group behind Mursi's win. Mursi formally resigned from the group when he won the presidency.

COMMENT:  We'll be waiting to see if Obama gives Mursi a warmer greeting than he's given to American allies, like the prime ministers of Britain and Israel. 

These summits are largely staged.  The real diplomatic work goes on before the meeting, to increase the chances of the summit being a success.  I have no faith that the in-the-tank press will ask Obama any embarrassing questions at the usual post-summit press conference, but some American diplomat, who actually understands which country he's representing, should demand that Mursi acknowledge his past "misstatements" in which he expressed doubt that the attacks of 9-11 were carried out by Muslims, and suggesting that they were an inside job.  That's the least the man can do before meeting the president.

Why do I think we will make no such demand? 

Why do I think Mursi will get a warmer greeting than allied leaders?

I guess we learn by watching.

FP: Should be no surprise to readers of this blog. So how did I do when I made the early general prediction that Obama will realign the US with its enemies and the more specific one that he will appease the hell out of Morsi?

Spengler: The Obama Administration Is Setting up a Bloodbath in Egypt

Why, then, is Mohamed Morsi picking a fight with the military?

As Jackson Diehl put it in the Washington Post July 8, “Last month the administration leaned heavily on the ruling military council to recognize Morsi’s victory in a runoff election. Lobbying by [US Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta may have prevented the council from handing the presidency to its favored candidate, a former prime minister. But it infuriated the generals, Egyptian Christians and some US supporters of Israel, who fear the Islamists more than the old regime.”

With backing from the Obama administration, and enormous pressure from his political base, Morsi has rolled the dice with the military. The result is likely to blow up in his face as well as the Obama administration’s.

At best, international aid will allow the status quo to continue a while longer. But the status quo involves a barely-adequate supply of bread, a dreadfully inadequate supply of fuel, and no outlook for the future except poverty and insecurity. It seems most unlikely that a political or economic equilibrium can be established on such a wobbly base. The uneasy modus vivendi between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military most likely will fail, and probably sooner than later.

See what I mean? But in any case, hungry Islamists will be up to no good.

As to the military crushing the Islamists, I am not so sure.

JoshuaPundit: Breaking: Egyptian President Annuls Dissolution Of Islamist Parliament

Morsi's decree was explicit in saying that new elections would occur, in accordance with the court's ruling - but 60 days after the new constitution is put in place.

Presumably, that also means that the junta's naming of itself, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, as the chief legislative body is also null and void and that it is the Islamists who will write Egypt's new constitution.

More importantly, it means that the military has caved in and agreed to support the new Islamist revolution.

Egypt looks to be headed headed down a similar Iranian path. Some high ranking military officers with ties to the old regime will flee, like Morsi's political opponent Shafik. Others will be imprisoned or executed and still others will become part of a new Egyptian-style 'revolutionary guard' which will essentially become an institution in itself.

Another similarity..having enabled a takeover of a former U.S. ally by an Islamist regime, the Obama Administration is following in the Carter Administration's footsteps. As the Courier-Mail writes, 'The United States is reaching out carefully to Mr. Morsi as officials predict a more complicated and less predictable relationship with a key Arab nation.'

Change Morsi to 'Khomeini' and 'Arab' to 'Muslim' or 'Persian Gulf' and that could have been written in 1979.

Just like I predicted.

 

William A. Jacobson: If only the U.N. were merely useless

How long before the U.N. demands Bernie Madoff be appointed head of the Securities and Exchange Commission:

In what one critic called a move akin to placing Bernie Madoff in charge of thwarting fraud on the stock market, Iran has been elected as one of the 15 members of the United Nation’s Arms Trade Treaty conference….

The choice of Iran was condemned by UN Watch, a Geneva-based monitoring group. “Right after a UN Security Council report found Iran guilty of illegally transferring guns and bombs to Syria, which is now murdering thousands of its own people, it defies logic, morality and common sense for the UN to now elect this same regime to a global post in the regulation of arms transfers,” said Hillel Neuer, UN Watch’s executive director.

On Friday, a UN report written by members of the Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee found that “Iran has continued to defy the international community through illegal arms shipments.”

Meanwhile, back in the Twilight Zone, Syria looks likely to land a spot on the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2014:

Despite its poor record on human rights, Syria is on course to winning membership on the UN Human Rights Council, UN Watch reported on Thursday.

UN Watch, an NGO that monitors the international body’s activity, cited a draft resolution presented in Geneva in which the US opposed Syria’s candidacy for a Human Rights Council seat in 2014. The resolution, which is also supported by the European Union, said Damascus “fails to meet the standards” for Human Rights Council membership.

President Bashar Assad’s regime is, however, likely to get a spot on the 47-nation council “due to the prevalent system of fixed slates, whereby regional groups orchestrate uncontested elections, naming only as many candidates as allotted seats,” according to UN Watch.

Do you think taking off the top 10 floors is enough?

FP:  It’s not the barbarians at the gate that are the problem, it’s the defenders inside.

 

Bill Katz: ROMNEY-RICE?

No matter how much she denies being interested, Condi Rice's name continues to come up as a serious prospect for the Republican ticket.  Part of that has to do with the fact that she's female, part with her very high approval numbers.  Bill Kristol adds the fact that Ann Romney recently said that a female candidate is under careful consideration, and that she'd like to see it:

Ann Romney—who presumably is better informed about her husband's thinking than the rest of us—said this week, "We've been looking at [picking a woman], and I love that option as well."

Who's the woman? It could be Kelly Ayotte or New Mexico governor Susana Martinez. But as much as I like both of them, I suspect Mitt Romney will see them as risky picks, lacking sufficient high-level government experience to unequivocally answer the question of whether they'd be qualified to take over. No, the woman Ann Romney likely has in mind is Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state.

Rice wowed the crowd—and seemed to impress Mitt Romney, who was standing beside her—when she spoke in a featured role at a Romney campaign event two weeks ago in Park City, Utah. Rice is qualified, would be a poised (if novice) candidate, and would complement Romney in terms of area of expertise, gender (obviously!), and life experience. Rice offers an unusual combination of being at once a reassuring pick (she served at the highest levels of the federal government for eight years) and an exciting one.

What's more, while the other VP possibilities have decent but middling favorable/unfavorable ratings (and are mostly unknown), Rice's favorable/unfavorable, according to a Rasmussen poll a couple of months ago, is a pretty staggering 66-24. Rice has said she's not interested—but Dick Cheney said he wasn't interested at this point in 2000.

Let me be clear: I'm not advocating the selection of Rice. I'm just reading the tea leaves, and the biggest tea leaf out there right now is Ann Romney's comment. It makes sense to take Ann Romney seriously. Cherchez la femme!

Romney-Rice?

COMMENT:  Well, I don't know.  Rice brings some heavyweight credentials, but also some clear liabilities.  She has vast experience, far more than Barack Obama had when he ran for president in 2008.  She brings gender and racial diversity, although I really don't think that will cut into the black vote for Obama.  (Rice, as a Bush Republican, has never been that popular among blacks.) 

The problems:  She has never run for public office, and that's a learning curve in itself; her presence would allow Obama to run against the Bush administration; she has no track record of any kind in domestic policy; and her presence would inevitably invite comparisons with her successor as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who is also popular.   Would Rice want to to run against Hillary's record?

But it would be a different and exciting choice.  So was Sarah Palin.  That's part of the dilemma for Mitt.

FP: She’s an utter failure, both during 9/11 and with respect to ME. So it does not surprise me she’s popular and people think she’s credentialed. But hey, it’s not difficult to be so more than Obama.

 

JoshuaPundit: Palestinians' To Go To UN For Statehood Again In Spite Of Obama's Pressure

The 'Palestinian Authority' is threatening to go to the UN again this year in September to try getting statehood through the back door, and according to al-Arabiya, they have refused to back down even in the face of a number of threats by the president.

The last thing this president wants is to have to veto a 'Palestinian' state, particularly in the middle of his re-election campaign. He'd much rather the 'Palestinians' waited until the election was settled, when the misguided American Jews who support him would already have voted an dhe could simply order Susan Rice over at the UN to abstain and allow a 'Palestinian' reichlet to be proclaimed in defiance of Oslo and the Road Map treaties the U.S. signed.

Towards that end, the president is threatening to close the PLO embassy in Washington, and threatening to cut off all US aid. The president even sent emissaries to Ramallah last week to deliver that message in person.

According to my source, the problem is that after the president's failure to 'deliver' the Jews and get the 'Palestinians' everything they're demanding, he has little credibility with Abbas and the PLO. Nor do they believe his threats, after they suffered no penalty for defying him last year. They feel the only way to get what they want is to go to the UN and put the squeeze on someone they realize is an essentially weak man.

FP: The West never understood that appeasement and lack of credibility to Arabs is like a red sheet to a bull: it invites pouncing.

Muslim Brotherhood leader: Israelis are rapists of Jerusalem

Israelis are "rapists" and every Muslim needs to save Jerusalem from their clutches, Egypt's Muhammad Badi is reported to have said last Thursday • Iran’s Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani: Time has come for the disappearance of the West and the Zionist regime.

FP: See what I mean? Give them more money.

 

Paul Mirengoff: Barack Obama, outsourcer — Part Two

In a previous post, John correctly labeled President Obama an “outsourcer” because his campaign paid a call center in the Philippines $78,314.10 for telemarketing services and spent nearly $4,700 on telemarketing services from a Canadian company. Now, according to the Washington Post, the left is criticizing Obama’s record on outsourcing.

FP: The Americans who re-elect this abomination deserve everything they’ll get.

 

John Hinderaker: Annals of Governmen

A key rule in Great Britain’s socialist health care system is: don’t get sick on the weekend! Hundreds of people die or suffer serious disability unnecessarily every year because they suffer a stroke at a weekend when NHS care is poorer, a major study has found…. A team from Imperial College London and the National Audit Office has found 350 people die within seven days of their stroke unnecessarily…

FP: That’s OK, it only happens to the poor. The rich are OK. As it will be the case here too.

 

Dan Margalit: Draft in stages

It is abundantly clear that a comprehensive enlistment for all cannot happen immediately in one fell swoop.

FP: And it won’t happen in stages either.

Plesner, Ya'alon promise a balanced new draft law

Amid great consternation in the haredi community and political circles over the possibility of the draft, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's aides work to formulate new law acceptable to as many coalition partners as possible.

Uhuh. Good luck.

Shas: Netanyahu is on collision course against haredim

Shas and United Torah Judaism vow to unite against Tal Law alternative if it forces draft • Haredi representative: We will mount a protest like Israel has never seen before" • Shas: PM has been dragged off track by Kadima and seems to want bloodshed."

See what I mean?

 

Former PM Olmert acquitted on central corruption charges

Jerusalem District Court acquits former PM on Rishon Tours, Talansky affairs, finds Olmert guilty of breach of trust in Investment Center affair.

FP: I am beginning to understand why Olmert moved from extreme right to extreme left (the legal system in Israel is thoroughly left).

 

RECOMMENDED READS

Matt Taibbi: New York Times, Gretchen Morgenson Applaud British, Issue Challenge To American Regulators Over LIBOR Scandal

.

Comments on reads 7/7

Ahmad Khatib: Jordan courting Islamists after Morsi's victory

Jordan is trying to woo the powerful Muslim Brotherhood after it gained more ground following the election of Islamist Mohamed Morsi as Egypt's first civilian president, analysts said on Monday.

Urging opposition Islamists to take part in early elections this year, King Abdullah II on Thursday ordered parliament to amend a controversial electoral law after they threatened to boycott the polls.

On the same day, he hosted Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal on his second official visit this year since his expulsion in 1999.

"The turning point in Jordan's official position towards the Islamists following Morsi's victory is very obvious," Oreib Rintawi, who heads the Amman-based Al-Quds Centre for Political Studies, told AFP.

"Decision-makers here have realised that the region is now in the 'Brotherhood era.' The Islamists are already ruling in some Arab countries."

FP: Given their culture, I doubt that Arabs will be able to create a Caliphate, but whether they do or not, they have one unifying factor: hatred of Israel and Jews. If Jordan falls to Islamists, Israel will be entirely surrounded by them. And given the dismal economic state of Arab states (which Islam helped produce and prevents solutions to) the temptation for anti-Israel adventures will be extremely hard to resist, particularly in the context of a declining West that seems to have abandoned Israel and is appeasing them.

Consider what may happen as a consequence of the following if Israel were surrounded by Islamists:

'Hezbollah setting IDF up for another Goldstone'

Senior IDF officer says destruction in Lebanon will be extensive due to Hezbollah establishing command posts, bases in villages.

…

Halevy said that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities – no matter by whom – or the ongoing uprising in Syria could spark a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. In addition, increased tension between the IDF and the Lebanese Armed Forces could lead to a bigger conflict.

Last week, for example, a small force of soldiers from the Paratroop Brigade were patrolling the border when they spotted Lebanese troops standing 20 meters away and aiming their weapons –including a rocket-propelled grenade – at them. One of the Israeli soldiers, who speaks Arabic, heard the Lebanese commander dividing up targets for his men. The Israeli soldiers called in a backup force that quickly arrived at the scene, leading the Lebanese to withdraw.

“These type of incidents have the ability to turn into something larger,” a senior officer said.

Do you have any doubts that Hizb’allah understands the current Arab and Western context and will exploit it to drag the new Islamist regimes into a conflagration? Not to mention this: Arab World: Sunni Islamism stirs in Lebanon.

 

Elder of Ziyon: Juan Cole thinks Morsi is just like Jefferson

I really can't believe that people still take this joker seriously.

We should remember that the Thirteen Colonies that made the revolution starting in 1776 were religious societies. They had undergone the Evangelical Great Awakening, and millenarian and anti-papal movements were rife. Religious Americans fought the British for religious as well as material reasons.

...So if you are dismayed that the Muslim an-Nahda Party now dominates the Tunisian cabinet, you may as well be angry about bigotted Congregationaiists coming to power in some of the Thirteen colonies after 1776. (You could argue that the House of Representatives even today is highly religious; and the South Carolina state legislature is apparently a tailgate party for the Southern Baptist convention).

Yup, the Founding Fathers sounded just like this:

  

In Egypt, the MB said they wouldn't get involved in the protests - then they did.

They claimed they would not run for parliament - then they did.

They claimed they would not run for president - then they did.

But Cole believes them when they claim they will allow regular elections and listen to what the people want.

It is the "intellectual" equivalent of the mythical "law of averages," I guess.

FP: The problem is that Cole is not alone in this delusion. The entire Western establishment—governments, media, academia—and large portions of the populace fell under this spell. And with the likes of Cole teaching them, future generations of Western youth will fall under it. What do you think will happen, in this context, to current proposals by Muslim members of US Congress to introduce Islamic “education” in the American system?

 

US declares Afghanistan is newest ‘major non-NATO ally’

Clinton announces designation in Kabul, allowing for continued streamlined defense cooperation

FP: Don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

With Turkey and Afghanistan in and Israel being excluded, how long before NATO will be Islamized?

 

Hungary’s anti-Semitic wave

It begins with the routine comments regarding “rich, smelly Jews,” proceeds onto the vandalism of Jewish symbols, veers into public discussions over “which kind of rope is best suited for hanging Jews,” and warnings over “Jewish control of the homeland.”

Jewish teen beaten in France as anti-Semitism surges in Europe

North African youths attack Jewish Ozar Hatorah student on train • French Interior Ministry: Anti-Semitism "contradicts the values of the republic" • European Jewish Congress: “The period of tolerance for anti-Semitism needs to end now.”

FP: Just like always: Talk and no action.

 

Tens of thousands call for universal service in Tel Aviv

Protesters march from 'Camp Sucker' to Tel Aviv Museum Plaza in call for more equal distribution of service burden, chanting "One people, one draft!"; Diskin: "Something is rotten in Israeli politics."

Kadima's conundrum

But at the beginning of the week, things looked different. A week after the representatives of the National Religious Party and Yisrael Beytenu quit the committee, the unofficial representative of the haredi parties, attorney Jacob Weinroth, also announced his resignation. From that point forward it became clear that the committee was finished. It no longer represented the public, and it certainly didn't represent the coalition.

FP: I predicted that this issue is not solvable and we are beginning to see how right I was. Not only that, but by reading the whole article you also find how right I have been in losing confidence in Israel’s political establishment. It’s pathetic and existentially dangerous in the situation in which Israel finds itsel.

 

Matt Taibbi: A Huge Break in the LIBOR Banking Investigation

This is unbelievable, shocking stuff. A sizable chunk of the world’s adjustable-rate investment vehicles are pegged to Libor, and here we have evidence that banks were tweaking the rate downward to massage their own derivatives positions. The consequences for this boggle the mind. For instance, almost every city and town in America has investment holdings tied to Libor. If banks were artificially lowering the rates to beef up their trading profiles, that means communities all over the world were cheated out of ungodly amounts of money.

First there were huge bid-rigging settlements for Chase, UBS, Bank of America, GE and Wachovia. Now we’ve got a $450 million settlement for Barclays for Libor manipulation, and one imagines this won’t be the end of it. Anyway, more on this to come soon, and if you’re wondering, yes, there should be a lot more press on this.

…

Another one bites the dust. The Royal Bank of Scotland is about to be fined $233 million (£150 million pounds) for its role in the Libor-rigging scandal. It joins Barclays as the first banks to walk the plank in what should be, but so far is not, the most sensational financial corruption story since the crash of 2008.

…

The news that RBS is involved comes with a perverse twist. This is from the Times UK:

The bank, which is 82 per cent owned by the taxpayer, is preparing for a political firestorm over the affair because it believes that it has no power to claw back bonuses from the traders responsible. Instead, the expected fines would be borne by the shareholders — largely the Government.

Libor manipulation is a crime that already robs the public to create bonuses for bankers. By artificially lowering interest rates, the banks caused cities, towns, countries, and other public entities to receive smaller returns on their variable-rate investment holdings. If it turns out that taxpayers end up paying the fine for RBS's crime of robbing taxpayers, how perfect would that be?

 

     

 

FP: If not stopped—and who will stop them?--they will continue to rob the public blind until nothing is left.

 

While not the fathers, Israeli scientists were uncles in detection of that ‘Goddamn particle’ — the Higgs boson

A Weizmann team helped develop particle detectors, a Technion prof designed a key experiment, and several researchers were involved in building the accelerator

Israeli company offers first ‘medical smartphone’

LifeWatch Technologies has developed a device that essentially lets users get a full medical checkup just by picking up the phone

FP: Let Islam lead Arabs to do that.

 

RECOMMENDED READS

Martin Sherman: Into the Fray: The honorable thing to do (MUST READ)

CiF Watch: David Frost’s interviews with Benny Morris & Suhu Arafat: A stark contrast in political sympathy

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians' Islamist Spring

Mark Steyn: Lights out for U.S.-style Big Government

Matt Taibbi: LIBOR Banking Scandal Deepens; Barclays Releases Damning Email, Implicates British Government

Comments on reads 7/6

JoshuaPundit: It's Official - Libya To Be Ruled By The Muslim Brotherhood And Sharia

An adviser to Mr Jibril said the former prime minister was likely to take the post of figurehead president with Mustafa Abu Shagour, currently interim deputy prime minister of the Muslim Brotherhood, taking the prime minister's slot as head of government.

The Muslim Brotherhood would dominate the ministries. {...}

Any coalition government would grant a prominent place to the al-Watan party of Abdulhakim Belhaj, sources said. Mr Belhaj acknowledged that the talks were under way. He said: "I negotiate with anyone who cares about Libya and wants to unite it."

Belhaj was the commander of the former Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which had ties to al-Qaeda.

And of course, sharia rule:

The outgoing National Transitional Council, which has ruled Libya since Gaddafi's fall, announced yesterday that Islamic Sharia law should be the "main" source of legislation and that this principle should not be subject to a referendum.

Worth over a billion dollars of our money, wasn't it?

Here's another thing to think about, and those of you who visit this site regularly know I've been saying this for quite some time.

The Brotherhood ruled areas of Egypt and Gaza are economically dysfunctional, with large, mostly uneducated populations they can't feed and no oil money.

Just imagine a new, hardline Islamist Caliphate merging Libya's oil wealth with the territory and population of Egypt and Gaza, all under one banner. And it might even eventually include Tunisia, the Arab occupied areas of Judea and Samaria now ruled by the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, where King Abdullah is hanging on by a thread.

This is what the Brotherhood's founder, al-Banna dreamt about, and it has been handed to the Islamists on a silver platter. Not only that, but the American taxpayer paid for the platter.

The west is going to pay a large price in the near future for President Obama's enabling of the Muslim Brotherhood. Mark my words.

FP: The West has only itself to blame.

Daniel Greenfield quotes from Natasha Smith’s blog post describing her rape by thugs in Egypt and then comments:

I shouted “salam! Salam! Allah! Allah!”. In my desperate state I also shouted “ma’is salaama!” which actually means “goodbye” – just about the worst possible thing to say to a horde of men trying to ruin me. I might as well have yelled “goodbye cruel world! Down I go!”

...

Women were crying and telling me “this is not Egypt! This is not Islam! Please, please do not think this is what Egypt is!” I reassured her that I knew that was the case, that I loved Egypt and its culture and people, and the innate peacefulness of moderate Islam. She appeared stunned. But I’m not really a vengeful person and I could see through the situation. This vicious act was not representative of the place I had come to know and love.

....everything you need to know about the future of the free world is right here in those words.

The horde will rape Europe, Israel and America and we will go on shouting "Salam! Salam! Allah! Allah!" and assuring the few Muslims who do the decent thing that we are not vengeful people and we know better than to assume that what we are experiencing is representative of the people and their culture.

It’s not different than what I and others, including JoshuaPundit, have been arguing.

 

Barry Rubin: Extra! Extra! World Agrees on How to Solve Syrian Civil War!

Here it is at last. The perfect case study of the "international community's" diplomacy on the Middle East, as quoted from a Wall Street Journal article describing efforts to resolve the Syria conflict:

And the article has the perfect headline, too!"

"World Powers Reach Syria Compromise"

So the problem is solved, right? Scroll down for the stunning solution.

"‎An international meeting in Geneva on Saturday on Syria's crisis agreed, with support from Russia, to support a political transition. However, officials at the meeting said any chance for a political transition to succeed rests on the willingness of the Syrian regime to cooperate."

That's right! The powers have agreed to a transition to a new government which will go into effect as soon as the current dictatorship agrees to be overthrown and its rulers flee for their lives and watch their supporters probably be massacred. Perhaps the world will then install a new Islamist government in Syria, forcing it down the throats of the real democratic opposition, which will be dedicated to spreading revolution and striking against Western interests.

Isn't diplomacy wonderful?

FP: Can you imagine what would happen to Israel if she could not defend herself and was dependent on the “international community”

 

Daniel Greenfield: WILL OF THE PEOPLE, WHAT'S THAT?

Almost 100 Conservative MPs this week wrote to Mr Cameron demanding a legal commitment to hold a referendum on Britain’s relationship with the EU after the next election. Several ministers privately believe that leaving the union should not be ruled out.

Mr Cameron did not rule out some sort of vote on European issues eventually, but insisted that he would not give the British people the option of leaving the EU outright. "I completely understand why some people want an in/out referendum, why they wanted it yesterday, why they want it today, Some people just want to get out: I completely understand that but I don't share that view, I don't think that's the right thing to do.”

And if Cameron doesn't think that's the right thing to do, why bother consulting the people on it?

The Justice Secretary launched a sustained attack on advocates of a popular vote on Europe, which he described as “a total irrelevance” that would create turmoil and undermine Britain’s economic credibility.

"In the middle of a global financial crisis to start asking a yes/no question about whether or not we should stay in the biggest trading bloc in the global economy, I think would be a slightly foolish thing to do," Mr Clarke said. 

Some people might think that's the exact right time to ask the question, but that would just undermine confidence in the EUtanic, which is unsinkable, so long as people go on believing in it.

Also referendums are a very silly thing.

"I cannot think of anything sillier to do than hold a referendum. I’m not keen on referendums, I see no case for this referendum.”

And we're bound to win a referendum anyway, so there's no need to actually hold one.

There's growing referendum madness in Germany too, which is bearing the cost of this disaster.

The leader of Merkel's Bavarian allies in the CSU, Horst Seehofer, wrote in business daily Handelsblatt: "Politicians cannot simply impose more Europe on us from the top down ... That's why I'm pleading for our constitution to allow us to have referendums on all important European matters."

German voters will no doubt be thrilled by scenes such as this.

An acrimonious summit dragged on late into the night as Italian and Spanish leaders threatened to delay approval of a €120bn "compact for jobs and growth" unless they secured immediate help on their borrowing costs.

In a welfare state, the welfare recipients have to be talked into accepting their welfare.

FP: Europe has become borg an abomination and a laughing stock, which is a nontrivial act. These are the people to impose sanctions on Iran or contain the MB caliphate developing in the ME?

 

Bill Katz: ANOTHER BRILLIANT EDUCATIONAL IDEA

The Daily Caller reports that a video has surfaced of Democratic Representative Andre Carson of Indiana, one of two Muslims in the House, advocating that America adopt the Muslim approach to education. “America will never tap into educational innovation and ingenuity without looking at the model that we have in our madrassas, in our schools, where innovation is encouraged, where the foundation is the Quran,” Carson said in the speech.  Hmm.  I'm sure we all admire the educational innovation we see in places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, especially the love of the 10th-century political thinking.  I wonder if Carson would permit girls to partake of this brilliant intellectual adventure.

FP: We need more Muslims in Congress to come up with more areas where we can apply the Quran. And we’ll get them too.

 

RECOMMENDED READS

Mistress Power: What does Friedman mean? (MUST READ)

Daled Amos: The Middle East Media Sampler 7/4/2012: Tom Friedman Recycles A Column

David Schenker: Egypt's Islamist future

Comments on reads 7/3

Barry Rubin: Who Rules Egypt? The Battle Begins

Another such situation: economic issues. Al-Mursi’s spokesman says he will put the emphasis on making Egypt into a strong economy. Since this is impossible, al-Mursi is more likely to follow a populist approach: big promises, phony jobs, strong subsidies to keep consumer goods cheap. All of that spells more debt. And foreigners will be asked to pay the bills.

Lenin once reportedly said that he would get the capitalists to sell him the rope with which to hang them. But Egypt is a far clearer case of such a situation. Will the dhimmis finance the consolidation of the Muslim Brotherhood’s power in Egypt? It sure looks like that will happen, though they probably will be cheap about it.

Never forget that since any economic program in Egypt is doomed to fail, the ultimate outcome will probably be a government having to decide between repression at home, hysterical hatred and foreign adventures abroad, or both.

FP: Like I told you.

And in what should be a very important lesson and a huge media story, a Brotherhood leader has spilled the beans about Wael Ghonim. The Google executive was portrayed as the very model of a moderate liberal Egyptian during the “revolution.” Ghonim publicly announced that he voted for al-Mursi in the presidential election.

Now, veteran Egypt-watcher Raymond Stock points out that Essam el-Erian said Ghonim has been a Brotherhood member for a while. Equally significant, el-Erian added that Abdel-Rahman Mansour is still a Brotherhood member. As Stock explains:

These are reputedly the two most important figures behind the famous social media side of the revolt.

The Brotherhood has frequently praised both men, though it has made clear they should not be given any real authority or influence. Stock added:

This information completely destroys the fiction that there is a clear separation between the “secular-liberal youth” cadre and the Islamists. Essentially, El-Erian is bragging none too subtly that the Muslim Brotherhood played a key role in launching the uprising.

They did, however, leave the initial leadership and planning to others for the first few days.

Meanwhile, the third leading “secular” activist who led the revolution, Asma Mahfouz — who always wears a burqa — often sounds like an Islamist as well. In her latest interview — though the reporter and viewers are given no hint of this — she is standing in front of a poster that has a scorpion on it. The head is that of Ahmad Shafiq, the presidential candidate who opposed al-Mursi. Overthrown President Hosni Mubarak is the stinger. An Israeli Star of David is imposed on Shafiq to present him as the puppet of the evil Zionists.

Can you imagine what these people will do with the appeasing, clueless, wishful thinking, declining West?

 

Bill Katz: PATHETIC

In our post below we suggested the possibility that we could lose, and lose big, in the Iran negotiations, with Iran getting the bomb.  Speaking of losing, a comment by Hillary Clinton indicates just how much influence we've lost in the Mideast since Barack Obama came to office.  When is the last time you heard an American secretary of state say something like this?

Geneva, Switzerland (CNN) -- There is no guarantee that a sweeping new international agreement on Syria will succeed in ending the conflict there, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conceded, as opposition activists said the number of dead had skyrocketed in recent months.

"There is no guarantee that we are going to be successful. I just hate to say that," Clinton told CNN.

But she expressed optimism that a new agreement hammered out Saturday would help ease President Bashar al-Assad out of power.

There is no basis for her optimism.  This "agreement" is a watered-down joke with no teeth.

The first plan backed by Russia and China as well as the West, it calls for a transitional government as a step towards ending the 16-month uprising.

Opposition activists immediately criticized the deal as leaving open the possibility that al-Assad would remain in power.

"The new agreement provides vague language which is open to interpretation," the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said in a statement Sunday. "This provides yet another opportunity for the regime's thugs to play their favorite game in utilizing time in order to stop the popular Syrian Revolution and extinguish it with violence and massacres across Syria."

A spokesman for the Syrian National Council, a main political opposition group, similarly slammed the agreement.

"We are afraid that the decision of the Geneva convention might give signs and gestures to the Syrian regime that it is acceptable and a legitimate cover to continue killing the people, and committing more massacres," Muhammad Farmini told CNN.

COMMENT:  Once again, the key man is Barack Obama, because the president of the United States is always the key man.  And once again Obama is ducking.  He has no real policy in Syria, the Russians and Chinese will agree only to meaningless words, and the murders are continuing.

And this president has the nerve to go to the American people and boast of his "successes" in foreign policy.  Name one.

Oh yes, oh yes, he "got" bin Laden.  Strange, I thought it was the Navy SEALs who got bin Laden.  I guess, like Humphrey Bogart in "Casablanca," I was misinformed. 

Syria, like Iran, is at the end game, or at least approaching it.  If the killing goes on, and Assad stays in power, it will be a massive defeat for us, and a victory for both Russia and Iran, both of whom support the Assad regime.

FP: America has become irrelevant.

 

Martin Sherman: Barack Hussein Obama: A view from Israel

That said, I am convinced that his reelection for a second term is liable to be a disaster of epic proportions – with incalculable, probably irreversible, repercussions for both Israel and for US interests, at least as they have been commonly perceived.

His perception of the international role the US should play, the nature of its interests and the manner in which they should be pursued seems to be a dramatic departure from that of most of his predecessors, including a deepseated belief that Islam is not inherently inimical to American values.

There is, thus, a distinct possibility that Israel could face a second-term president who is fundamentally unmoored from America’s Judeo-Christian heritage, a heritage, which despite occasional periods of tensions, was for decades the elemental underpinning of the relationship between the two countries.

The prospect of a White House incumbent with an inherent affinity for Israel’s adversaries and unshackled by considerations of reelection is one that must be considered with the utmost seriousness.

How to contend with such a dire eventually will be taken up in a forthcoming column.

FP: A realignment with Islam, just as I argued.

 

Jonathan Tobin: Iran Worried? Obama Guts Sanctions

Three rounds of the P5+1 nuclear talks with Iran have proven President Obama’s “window of diplomacy” a colossal failure. But Secretary of State Clinton as well as various administration cheerleaders have been reminding us lately that the international sanctions on Tehran that have been belatedly put in place are just about to really bite. At the end of the month, the West will impose an oil embargo on Iran that could really hurt its economy and perhaps bring the regime to its knees if it is universally observed and vigorously enforced.

But today’s announcement that the Obama administration will grant China and Singapore a six-month exemption from the sanctions shows the confident manner the Iranians displayed at the nuclear talks was not a false front. Having forearmed themselves in the period leading up to the sanctions by securing more contracts with the Chinese, Iran dared the Americans to risk a confrontation with Beijing. The result is that Tehran’s belief President Obama and his Western allies are bluffing has been confirmed rather than debunked. This will act as a virtual green light for the Iranians to keep pushing ahead toward their nuclear goal while Western leaders posture but do little to stop them.

The dirty secret about the Western sanctions on Iran is that their leader advocate has never bothered to enforce them. The weak sanctions that were in place were selectively policed by the United States, with the Treasury Department granting exemptions to thousands of firms that allowed them to go on doing business there. But that is nothing when compared to giving China and Singapore, two of Iran’s major business partners, a free pass to conduct business as usual.

FP: The US has become almost irrelevant to international matters.

 

Rajan Menon: Libya in Chaos

The plight of Qaddafi fils won’t elicit much pity, certainly among Libyans, but it does illustrate postrevolutionary Libya’s principal problem: an ineffectual central government that has neither the power nor the legitimacy to rein in the country’s rampant localism. The localism pits militia against militia, East against West, tribe against tribe and ethnic group against ethnic group, giving a new, though pernicious, meaning to former House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s quip that “all politics is local.”

FP: Arabs in their natural state. Will the West understand why all Arab countries were dictatorships? I doubt it.

 

Morsi Says He Will Work for Release of Sheik Jailed in U.S.

President-elect Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood pre-empted the military's choreographed swearing-in ceremony by taking his oath of office a day early in a televised speech to hundreds of thousands of supporters in Tahrir Square on Friday. But his rousing tribute to Egyptian sovereignty may be overshadowed by a promise likely to complicate relations with the United States: to work for the release of the Egyptian-born Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, jailed for plotting to bomb a series of New York City landmarks.

The comments appeared to come almost offhandedly in the context of a vow to free Egyptian civilians imprisoned here after military trials during the transition after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.

"I see signs for Omar Abdel Rahman and detainees' pictures," he said, referring to placards held by the crowd. "It is my duty and I will make all efforts to have them free, including Omar Abdel Rahman."

FP: The other day I commented on a read that claimed the US wants to make a strong impression on Morsi. So why not release the sheik—that’ll make a strong impression: that Americans are fools.