Near East Pundit

Is this what Pelosi means by lameduck?

Found this on Opinion Journal today...

The Arabs and the Midterms
"Arab governments are looking for change in U.S. policy in the Middle East after the midterm elections," the Associated Press reports:

One thing they hope for is that a politically weakened President Bush would talk with Iran and Syria. They also hope he would show greater interest in the Palestinians and find a way out of the crisis in Iraq.

So if you want a politically weakened president cutting deals with terror-sponsoring dictatorships, vote Democratic on Nov. 7.

al Reuters - "Israel to bomb Egypt"

Israel may use precision guided bombs to destroy weapons smuggling tunnels dug by Palestinians.

And why exactly?  To protect its citizens (both Jew and Arab) through preventing Hamas from obtaining weaponry similar to that used by Hezbollah in Lebanon.

However, al Reuters would make its readership think Israel is getting ready to bomb Egypt and violate its peace treaty with Egypt it has held since 1979.   

The area in question includes the territory Israel withdrew from in August of 05 which includes the Philadelphi corridor along the Egyptian border in which the Palestinians have tunneled and smuggled weaponry to attack Israel with. 

The article says "Israel says it has been unable to control weapons smuggling into Gaza since it withdrew its forces from the coastal strip last year.  The decision to use "smart" bombs may be a substitute to reoccupying the entire region, the newspaper said."

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in an attempt to give the Palestinians control over their own territory and not use occupation as an excuse to justify attacks within Israel. 

The story says "Egyptian police recently seized 195 crates of automatic weapons and ammunition meant to be smuggled across the border."

The Israeli army is reported as saying they have found 15 tunnels in the last week alone.

In Reuterville, Israel cannot act in self-defence nor can they ever hold the Palestinians accountable for their actions no matter how egregious they may be.

The best hope for Palestinians is the West

One of the victims of the Hamas government amongst many others is the Palestinian youth. 

Whereas Israel has a large number of the world's geniuses due to immigration to Israel, the Christian Science Monitor reports of a desire by Palestinian youth to immigrate elsewhere to flee the crisis of Palestinian governance and to live in a world where might does not make right. 

To live in a world where the only people who walk the streets with guns are the police. 

Where a protester is not beaten or killed. 

Where journalists are free to criticize their governments and not beaten for telling the truth. 

According to Nader Said, a pollster at Birzeit University, the percentage of Palestinians willing to relocate was below 20 percent but has jumped to 32 percent in a September survey with the percentage rising to 44 percent among Palestinians in their 20s and 30s.

What's most telling is the number of visas Palestinians now request as opposed to seven months ago when Hamas took control of the government and hopes for change were high.  According to Malik Shawwa who specializes in obtaining visas to Canada said his workload has increased by two thirds in the last seven months saying "Palestinians are desperate to leave."

Shawwa said, "They come to me and cry.  We are doing a much better service for the Palestinian people than the people who are fighting. We are saving a lot of young people from being destroyed."

If only the U.S. would just go away!

Press Release

U.S. to blame for ALL of Islamic world's problems

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini calls Palestine number one problem in Islamic world

TEHRAN, IRAN Oct. 24, 2006 - The Islamic Republic News Agency has quoted the Iranian Supreme Leader saying "Palestine is the number one issue of the world of Islam and the international community today, the Supreme Leader held global arrogance, led by the US and Zionism, accountable for all problems in the world of Islam, especially in Palestine.

'In all issues concerning the world of Islam, especially in Palestine, the offender and guilty hand of global arrogance, led by the US and Zionism, is completely visible,' noted the Supreme Leader.

He said that for the US, no interest is today superior to that of Zionists and the Zionist Regime in the Middle East."

Pelosi and the Defeatocrats

Nancy Pelosi has gone on record saying she does not want to call for the President's impeachment, however, she does want to make President Bush a lameduck President.  According to Pelosi "making them [President Bush and Vice President Cheney] lameducks is good enough for me." 

Forget we have a war on jihadism, forget we need to continue what we're doing with our booming economy.  Forget that we have real issues.  Democrats want to focus on making sure if they can't succeed then neither will the Republicans, and ultimately, neither will America. 

France, an accomplice in terror

Since when does a country ensuring its self-defence become the story and not those who are violating international law and seeking to rearm? 

Why does France blame Israel for breaking 1701 when Hezbollah and Lebanon clearly have not fulfilled their obligations?

Lebanon's Grand Ayatollah, Mohammad Fadlallah has complained that UNIFIL has allowed Israel to fly into sovereign Lebanese airspace thus showing a bias in Israel's favor, however, UNIFIL chief Major General Alain Pellegrini of France has said they will down Israeli Air Force planes if they continue to fly over Lebanon.

Had Lebanon fulfilled their portion of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, Fadlallah would have cause to complain.  Since Lebanon has in fact not fulfilled their obligations, Fadlallah continues the Arab victim mentality so prevalent throughout all of the Arab world where everyone is to blame - the United Nations, the United States, and, of course, Israel, but never themselves.

1701 calls for Israel to stop all military offensives which it has.  The resolution says nothing of defensive measures.  Israel has flown into Lebanese airspace to ensure no arms supplies are shipped to Hezbollah so they can rearm in an effort to begin another offensive against Israel.  Preventing another war is and always will be defensive in nature, regardless of what Fadlallah or any other Arab leader says. 

As such, Lebanon's top Shia cleric is now complaining that Israel is violating 1701 when Hezbollah has broken 1701 by refusing to release the kidnapped soldiers, refusing to disarm, and not relinquishing their sovereignty to the Lebanese government. 

In addition, Lebanon has not secured their borders which has caused Israel to continue their flyovers into Lebanese airspace looking for anyone trying to rearm Hezbollah, something no responsible Israeli leader would allow to happen.

If only France and the rest of world had the fortitude to tell Fadlallah and others like him...no. 

Instead, France has become an accomplice.

The Future of Islam - an Islamic Reformation?

Last night at Phoenix College, I attended a lecture by Reza Aslan titled "The Future of Islam: Toward the Islamic Reformation."

Naturally, I went in skeptical, having heard of a call for an Islamic Reformation, but talk of an Islamic Reformation and a reformation in practice are worlds apart.

However,  I came away with a truly different perspective on the Islamic Reformation, which, for its differences does resemble in certain respects the Christian Reformation of the 16th century. 

I've transcribed the entire speech to the best of my ability as follows.  You be the judge...

"I want to focus on larger issues facing the Middle East and give a different perspective.  Five years post 9/11 it's important for us to step back and think not just about the attack and its causes but we still have a tough time defining who the enemy is. 

We still do not have a single term to define the enemy.  The term "war on terror" is problematic.  Islamo Fascism is a problematic term because Fascism is an ultra nationalist ideology where the nation state is at an almost religious level.  To al Qaeda the nation state is antithetical to everything they believe. 

This master narrative is being created that we're at war with a unified movement with the head as Osama bin Laden, a Hitlerian character. 

There are serious problems with this master narrative.

First, no such thing exists.  If you can't figure out who the enemy is, you can't win the war.

Second, the goals are vastly different.  Hamas, for example has no global ideals.  It's not just a misunderstanding of the enemy but of the conflict itself.  It's not a clash of civilizations but within Islam itself.  It's a conflict for the future of the faith.

We need to understand the rise of jihadism.

What is the Islamic Reformation?  It was and is today an argument over who has the authority to define faith. However, Islam has never had a centralized faith but is scattered among competing clerics and schools of law over the meaning of Islam.  Religious authority is not ordained by God.  The authority comes from his education. 

The reason these clerical institutions have had this monopoly is they have controlled the educational institutions.  Europe has instituted individualism, education and now with globalization these clerical institution's grip has loosened and their authority marginalized. 

There are profound developments pushing the Islamic Revolution forward:

First, the translation of Koran into local languages

Second, rapid influx of Muslim immigrants into the West

Third, the Internet.  For example, www.fatwa.com

Islam is not based on creed, but practice.  Orthopraxis versus orthodoxy.  What you do makes you Islamic.  Clerics define what is the correct practice. 

Osama bin Laden is a product of the Islamic Reformation, not the cause.  Osama Bin Laden wants to return Islam to an idealized, unadulterated and imaginary past.  Christians and Jews are a secondary target.  The primary target is Muslims who do not adhere to their version of Islam. 

What Osama bin Laden has most in common with Christian reformers is he has set himself up in direct contradiction to his authorities.  He continues to give fatwas, which only come from a learned cleric, yet over and over again, he issues fatwas. 

Those messages are not to the Muslim world but to the United States.  It's also meant to be a stick in the eye of institutions.  It'd be like an altar boy issuing papal bulls.  He's challenging institutions as the sole interpreter of Islam.  In Osama bin Laden's world, anyone can issue a fatwa or declare jihad.  Strip away the authority of Islam, then take it upon yourself.  This is appealing to downtrodden youth saying 'you don't have to listen to your clerical authorities anymore.'  Osama bin Laden is saying Muslims have been worshiping the clerics instead of Allah.

However, Osama bin Laden is not the primary voice of the Islamic Reformation.  The Reformation phenomenon is uncontrollable.  It allows for a host of competing ideologies.  Who's right and who's wrong often turns out to who shouts the loudest. 

We need to make sure the voices of moderation can overtake the voices of extremism.  If we are fighting Islamic violence and bigotry we need to promote Islamic peace, love and pluralism.  It exists in such a deafening roar.  That we don't hear it is not just media but political institutions.  We have a political interest in fostering this. 

The Islamic Reformation is already here, we have the honor of living through it."

UPDATE: I asked Reza afterwards if he was concerned about Iran acquiring nukes and what smart U.S. foreign policy towards Iran should be. 

First, he said Iran is going to acquire nuclear technology regardless of how much the U.S. does not want Iran to do so.  Whether it's to acquire nukes or to progress in nuclear technology is yet to be seen.  However, he said Iran has not broken any international laws or treaties, therefore, they cannot be penalized for their behavior up to this point.  His solution is to provide the nuclear technology to Iran, to build it for them, for a technology function and not a weapons function.  This would allow us to work with the decision makers in Iran. 

He also said a recent IAEA report demonstrated the Iranians are progressing in their nuclear technology at an extremely slow rate. 

Second, he said the U.S. should do everything it can to sideline and marginalize Ahmadinejad.

"Israel cannot survive" - Ahmadinejad

Israel is a "counterfeit and illegitimate regime that cannot survive," according to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad via a report by Breitbart.

Ahmadinejad said the Western powers created Israel to assure their interests in the region.  All of which is blatently false.

Whether Ahmadinejad is actually calling for Israel's destruction or saying Israel will somehow implode due to its "counterfeit nature and illegitimacy" remains unclear. 

What is clear is that Iran will continue to pursue nuclear enrichment regardless of Western threats or even sanctions if they can get them through the UN Security Council. 

The question the world needs to answer - Do we want the Iranians to have nuclear weapons given that Ahmadinejad has gone on record saying Israel cannot survive?  Should this cause fear for all countries, knowing such an attack will cause a counterattack and will perhaps draw more countries into a nuclear confrontation?

Kyl v. Pederson - the most important senate race in the nation

U.S. Senator from Arizona Jon Kyl squared off in a debate with his challenger, Jim Pederson, a former real estate developer and AZ Democratic Party Chairman Jim Pederson in the first of three debates yesterday. 

They have two follow up debates on Wednesday and Friday in Tucson and Flagstaff, respectively. 

Supporters of both Kyl and Pederson stood outside holding up their candidate's signs before the debate to show support, yours truly being one of them. 

The AP ran a story on the debate titled Candidates object to each other's nasty ads in first debate and closed with this - "Paul Boyer, who held a sign in support for Kyl, said he supports the senator because he has a proven track record.  "A guy like Pederson coming in, we don't know what he supports," Boyer said."

Egypt criticizes Hamas

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit criticized Hamas for their failure to come up with their own solution to their problem of statehood. 

Abul Gheit said: "There is an Arab initiative of land for peace, which the Palestinian prime minister rejects. So let him find a solution on his own. I say this with no equivocation."

Hamas continues to beg the Arab world for money and for the Arabs to "play their part," meanwhile Hamas continues to do the opposite of what their part is in regards to Palestinian statehood by rejecting previous agreements and their refusal to renounce violence in addition to any future agreements unless that agreement meant vanquishing Israel.

Abul Gheit said: "When the Palestinian prime minister says Arabs should play their part, we tell him that Arabs and Palestinians should do this together. 'The Arabs cannot play alone a part that you reject'." (bold mine)

Not even the Arabs can force the Palestinians to make peace. 

The Palestinians will have peace when they want peace.  Until then, the Hamas "leadership" will force their people to starve and will invest all their capital in guns and grenades versus infrastructure and salaries.