Did he forget he just said that? “Israel a “˜cancer” and “˜will be cut”: Iran,” from Zee News, February 3: Tehran: Iran’s Supreme Leader says his country will assist any nation or group that “confronts” Israel, describing it as a “cancer”. The remarks by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came during a Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran […]
Israeli general estimates that 200,000 missiles are pointed at the country at any moment
Not to mention “a more hostile, more Islamic, more sensitive Middle East, one more [attuned] to public sentiment, less controlled by the regimes, and less susceptible to international influence.” There is aid and investment. We have leverage in Egypt, for example, that we do not appear to be using on any number of issues. “Some […]
“Moderate” Palestinian Authority TV: Palestinian children created to fertilize the land with their blood
Now, remember, these are the “moderates.” That is, of course, unless they have been taken over by ancient Aztecs, as this rhetoric would tend to imply. “Palestinian kids created as ‘fertilizer,’ to saturate the land with blood,” by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik for Palestinian Media Watch, January 31: Dying for the sake of […]
Israel: 1 in 10 homes in southern Lebanon used to store weapons
Human shields, partly for strategic purposes, and partly for propaganda purposes. “Israel: 1 in 10 houses in south Lebanon used for arms storage,” from the Daily Star, February 2: BEIRUT: Israeli Intelligence estimates that one in every 10 houses in south Lebanon serves as a missile storage facility or a launch pad for destructive devices […]
Predictable: Calls in Indonesia to behead atheist arrested for blasphemy
This self-righteous instability will eventually impoverish the entire society, both materially, as angry mobs destroy what they will, and intellectually, as dissent becomes physically dangerous. An update on this story. “Calls to Behead Indonesian Atheist Alexander Aan,” by Presi Mandari for the Jakarta Globe, February 2 (thanks to The Religion of Peace): Jakarta. A defiant […]
Lebanon: Hizballah members indicted in Hariri assassination to be tried in absentia
Hizballah intends to ensure they serve their sentences in absentia as well, and there appears to be no political will in Lebanon to demand otherwise. One of those indicted has boasted that authorities know where he lives, but cannot arrest him. The track record so far calls into question whether “all reasonable steps” were really […]
Libya: Sufis face continuing persecution after revolution
Wherever Sharia experiences a resurgence, the observable effect is that tolerance decreases and harassment of all kinds increases. Muslims are certainly not immune, especially if they belong to sects at variance with the dominant practice of the country, such as Sufis, Ibadis (also facing persecution in Libya), Ahmadis, or Shi’ite minorities in Sunni countries and […]
Bridge for sale: Muslim Brotherhood assures German foreign minister it is committed to peace with Israel
The message changes with the audience. When the Brotherhood’s members are talking among themselves, or to Arab and Muslim audiences, there is a very firm, if not openly antisemitic, line against peace with Israel. It is plausible, though, as part of the Ikhwan’s gradualist approach, that the Camp David Accords will see an incremental erosion, […]
Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood stops protesters from marching to parliament
When the uprising was useful to them, they did not hinder it, and they supported it. Now they’ve got a good thing going and the usefulness of the revolution and of public dissent as a means to an end has run its course, unless the Ikhwan decides to leverage it against the military in its […]
NATO report adds to evidence of Pakistani support for Taliban
It seems all but miraculous that no one has claimed “Pakistanophobia” as the root of these reports of Pakistan’s double game. “Secret NATO Taliban report revives Pakistan fears,” by Nick Paton Walsh for CNN, February 1: Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — Pakistan continues to support the Taliban in Afghanistan, a secret NATO report says, according to […]