Displaying posts published in

April 2013

STILL HARBORING ILLUSIONS ABOUT SYRIA’S REBELS? EVEN THE NYTIMES KNOWS BETTER….

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/world/middleeast/islamist-rebels-gains-in-syria-create-dilemma-for-us.xml;jsessionid=8AF35751CFB10888183E65532767B26A?f=19

Islamist Rebels Create Dilemma on Syria Policy BEN HUBBARD

CAIRO – In Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, rebels aligned with Al Qaeda control the power plant, run the bakeries and head a court that applies Islamic law. Elsewhere, they have seized government oil fields, put employees back to work and now profit from the crude they produce.

Across Syria, rebel-held areas are dotted with Islamic courts staffed by lawyers and clerics, and by fighting brigades led by extremists. Even the Supreme Military Council, the umbrella rebel organization whose formation the West had hoped would sideline radical groups, is stocked with commanders who want to infuse Islamic law into a future Syrian government.
Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.

This is the landscape President Obama confronts as he considers how to respond to growing evidence that Syrian officials have used chemical weapons, crossing a “red line” he had set. More than two years of violence have radicalized the armed opposition fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad, leaving few groups that both share the political vision of the United States and have the military might to push it forward.

Among the most extreme groups is the notorious Al Nusra Front, the Qaeda-aligned force declared a terrorist organization by the United States, but other groups share aspects of its Islamist ideology in varying degrees.

“Some of the more extremist opposition is very scary from an American perspective, and that presents us with all sorts of problems,” said Ari Ratner, a fellow at the Truman National Security Project and former Middle East adviser in the Obama State Department. “We have no illusions about the prospect of engaging with the Assad regime – it must still go – but we are also very reticent to support the more hard-line rebels.”

Syrian officials recognize that the United States is worried that it has few natural allies in the armed opposition and have tried to exploit that with a public campaign to convince, or frighten, Washington into staying out of the fight. At every turn they promote the notion that the alternative to Mr. Assad is an extremist Islamic state.

The Islamist character of the opposition reflects the main constituency of the rebellion, which has been led since its start by Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority, mostly in conservative, marginalized areas. The descent into brutal civil war has hardened sectarian differences, and the failure of more mainstream rebel groups to secure regular arms supplies has allowed Islamists to fill the void and win supporters.

Germans Fascinated by Nazi Era Eight Decades Later By Gareth Jones

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/germans-fascinated-nazi-era-eight-decades-later-104844726.html

BERLIN (Reuters) – An exhibition chronicling the Nazi party’s rise to power draws tens of thousands of visitors. Millions of TV viewers tune in to watch a drama about the Third Reich. A satirical novel in which Hitler pops up in modern Berlin becomes an overnight bestseller.

German interest in the darkest chapter of their history seems stronger than it has ever been as the country marks several key anniversaries this year linked to the Nazi era.

On TV talk shows, in newspapers and online, people endlessly debate the Nazi era – from what their own grandparents did and saw, to how the regime’s legacy constrains German peacekeepers on overseas missions today, or why unemployed Greek and Spanish protesters lampoon Chancellor Angela Merkel as a new Hitler.

Next month, Germans will also be painfully reminded that the Nazis can still pose a threat today, when a young woman allegedly inspired by Hitler’s ideology goes on trial over a spate of racist murders committed since 2000.

“The interest (in the Nazis) is especially visible just now because of the anniversaries,” said historian Arnd Bauerkaemper.

January marked 80 years since Hitler became chancellor, May will see the 80th anniversary of the Nazis’ symbolic burning of books they considered “un-German” and November the 75th anniversary of the ‘Kristallnacht’ pogrom against German Jews.

Adding urgency to the commemorations is the realization that the war generation is dying off and young people interested in what happened often have to seek information from other sources.

“Like the undead the demons keep coming back to life from the darkness of abstract history,” said the Spiegel weekly in one of its numerous recent articles on the Nazi era.

“It’s never over,” was the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’s headline on an interview with Nico Hofmann, producer of a three-part TV drama about five young Germans in 1941-45, “Unsere Muetter, unsere Vaeter” (Our Mothers, Our Fathers). The film drew more than seven million viewers when it aired in March.

IT’S BEEN A BUSY, BUSY MONTH FOR JIHADISTS

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/index.html#Attacks

List of Islamic Terror Attacks For the Past 30 Days

Call It What It Is: Islamic Terrorism by Christine Williams

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3685/islamic-terrorism Despite these recent attacks on innocent civilians, excuses were made that blamed the victims and exonerated the perpetrators. A growing problem, the radicalization of Muslim youth, all too often gets brushed off as a Western problem: specifically, being racist toward Muslims, and making them feel alienated and angry . Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police […]

Morocco Fatwa Demands Death Sentence For Christian Converts

http://www.bosnewslife.com/28041-morocco-fatwa-demands-death-sentence-for-christian-converts

RABAT,MOROCCO (BosNewsLife)– Christian converts in Morocco feared for their future Thursday, April 25, after the country’s highest Islamic institute issued a fatwa demanding the death penalty for Muslims who renounce their religion.

The Supreme Ulema Council of Morocco (CSO), a body of Islamic scholars headed by King Mohammed VI, said that Muslims who reject their faith “should be condemned to death.” CSO is the only institution entitled to issue ‘fatwas’, or religious decrees, in Morocco.

The ministry of Islamic affairs declined to comment on the issue.

The fatwa dates back to April 2012 when a legal report was prepared by the government, but it wasn’t published at the time, according to local media.

Mahjoub El Hiba, a senior human rights official in the Moroccan government, denied to reporters that the government received a fatwa on “apostasy” — the word used for abandoning Islam — as the Arabic-language daily Akhbar al-Youm had claimed.

CRACKDOWN FEARED

German Jihadists: Officials Fear Return of Syrian War Veterans By Matthias Gebauer and Raniah Salloum

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/german-officials-fear-return-of-islamist-fighters-in-syria-a-896745.html German security officials believe that a number of Germans have teamed up with radical Islamists on the frontlines in Syria. What worries them most are the training and ties they’ve gained abroad — and whether they’ll continue the jihad once home. The trail of Ibrahim R. ran cold in March 2013. The young man […]

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com
http://blogs.jpost.com/users/just-look-us-now
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

The best vaccine against Hepatitis B Virus. (Thanks to Israel21c) Although nearly all babies are vaccinated against HBV, the virus still kills 1.2 million people every year – mainly immune-suppressed, gluten intolerant and diabetics. Israeli biotech SciGen’s Sci-B-Vac is the only third-generation HBV vaccine, given to almost all Israelis and has reduced HBV deaths in Israel significantly. It will soon be available in most countries.
http://israel21c.org/health/hepatitis-b-no-match-for-scigens-new-vaccine/

US funds Israeli university to research measles virus. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has received a two-year UN National Institutes of Health grant to investigate why the measles virus persists in its target cells and establishes chronic infection, long after resolution of its acute phase.
http://www.aabgu.org/media-center/news-releases/bgu-and-fox-chase-nih.html

Praise from World Health Org chief. World Health Organization director general Margaret Chan praised Israel’s national health infrastructure on her first visit to Israel. She said, “I’ve come here to learn from your excellent health system”. She also visited Gaza children at Tel Aviv’s Dana-Dwek Children’s Hospital.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/who-head-visits-israel-praises-health-infrastructure/

Early cancer detection saves lives. Here is a report on the cancer-screening program conducted at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center. Its Integrated Cancer Prevention Center program is considered to be unique in the World. In a few hours you get examined for early detection of at least 11 most common cancers.
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/tag/tel-aviv-sourasky-medical-center/

Keeping your strength up. Israel’s Health Ministry has for the first time issued standards for food served in Israeli hospitals, aiming to guarantee that patients receive more wholesome and tastier meals. Changes include less salt, wholegrain bread, menu choice, low fat poultry and fish and dairy products with up to 5 percent fat.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4349637,00.html

Medical cooperation with Maryland. The Governor of the US State of Maryland and the President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore visited the Hebrew University Hadassah School of Medicine in Jerusalem. They pledged increased collaboration in research and academia.
http://www.hadassah.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=keJNIWOvElH&b=8414647&ct=13091351&notoc=1

A nose test for schizophrenia. A Tel Aviv University team says they can diagnose the psychiatric disease of schizophrenia at an early stage. They take samples of nerve cells from the upper internal part of the nose and test for a specific molecule of micro-RNA that has high levels in schizophrenia patients. Previous tests could only be performed post-mortem on the brain.
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=310874

THE FIRE BURNS: DANIEL GREENFIELD ON LAG BaOMER

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/ The circle of men whirls around the fire, hand in hand, hand catching hand, drawing in newcomers into the ring that races around and around in the growing darkness. A melody thumps through the speakers teetering unevenly with the bass, the sound is both old and new, a mix of the past and the […]

Royce: Time to Review Administration-Picked Review Board that Found No Benghazi Conspiracy Posted By Bridget Johnson

http://pjmedia.com/blog/royce-time-to-review-administration-picked-review-board-that-found-no-benghazi-conspiracy/?print=1 The Obama administration has leaned on the findings of its handpicked Accountability Review Board for its go-to explanation of all things Benghazi. Lawmakers still delving into the consulate attack that killed four Americans say it’s time to review the ARB. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton convened the ARB to delve into the Sept. 11 […]

Which Ideology Can Lead Black Americans to Happiness and Wealth? Posted By Bruce Bawer

http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2013/04/26/which-ideology-can-lead-black-americans-to-happiness-and-wealth/?print=1 Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson appearing on MSNBC to equate the significance of the Boston bombers’ religion with their musical tastes: While some black studies professors are busy indoctrinating students in strident anticapitalism and racial supremacism, and other inhabitants of the Ebony Tower are preaching only some­what less extreme versions of the same […]