RUTHFULLY YOURS

Every week another lad or lass from St. Louis, Toronto or Sydney makes the trip through Turkey to the Islamic State. A reporter dispatched by a local paper to talk to the neighbors scribbles down the same recollections about how nice and normal Jihad Joe or Jihad Jane was.

Classmates remember a loud partier or a shy student. Neighbors mention that everything seemed normal until those last few years when he began wearing a robe and she began wearing a burka.

The Somali and Algerian immigrants, the German and American converts, the black burkas and dyed beards, headed into the dying summer to kill Christians and Kurds, Turkmen and Shiites, to behead babies and crucify critics, don’t seem like monsters.

They loved their parents. They posed for jokey snapshots on Facebook. They had dreams of becoming biologists or boxers. Until they began killing people, they seemed just like the rest of us.

And with one difference, they were.

The forensic examinations of their lives rarely reveal anything of significance. The extensive digging into the lives of the Boston bombers told us nothing about why they would plant a bomb near a little boy.

The answer lay in the topic that the media carefully avoided. As with the other Muslim terrorists, the meaning of their motives was in the little black book of their religion which commanded them to kill.

The Jihadist isn’t a serial killer. While there are some converts attracted to Islam for its violence, the Muslim convert usually doesn’t convert for the killing, he kills because he converted. Likewise the nice Muslim Jihadist next door might well be moderate by inclination and immoderate by faith.

IDF Saves Irish Troops from Jihadists

Ireland is one of the most consistently anti-Israel countries in Europe. So it was interesting to read in Ireland’s Sunday Independent yesterday that Israeli troops were instrumental in saving the lives of Irish peacekeepers on the Golan Heights last week. Citing “senior sources,” the newspaper reported that after the peacekeepers were attacked by a Syrian rebel group, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, “Irish soldiers would have been killed or taken hostage by Islamist extremists if it wasn’t for the military intervention of the Israeli army … The Israeli assistance was described as ‘decisive’ in the success of the mission.”

Specifically, the Israel Defense Forces used its precise intelligence about the area to guide the troops to safety along a route that avoided Nusra fighters. Additionally, there were “unconfirmed reports that the Israelis directed fire at the Islamists to stop them from attacking the Filipino and Irish soldiers.”

There’s nothing surprising about the IDF’s intervention. After all, Israel has consistently intervened to save Syrian lives even though it’s formally at war with Syria, providing food and other humanitarian assistance to besieged Syrian villages and offering medical care to everyone from wounded fighters to mothers in labor. (Safed’s Rebecca Sieff Hospital delivered its seventh Syrian baby earlier this month.) So intervening to save the nationals of a country it’s not at war with is a no-brainer.

What is surprising, however, is what this says about Ireland, and by extension, about Europe as a whole. For here you have the difference between Israel and its enemies in the starkest form: on one hand, radical jihadists who sought to kill or kidnap Irish soldiers; on the other, a stable country that intervened to save their lives. The choice between the two would seem self-evident. But in fact, Ireland has consistently chosen the jihadists.

As the media continues to pounce on the story of Ray Rice’s elevator assault on his fiancee last February, I wonder why there is no background story on who this woman is and why she married Rice after that knockout punch and rag doll drag that has the rest of us so appalled. It turns out that both Janay Palmer and Ray Rice were arrested on Feb 15, 2014 and charged with mutual assault at the Revel Casino. A month later, Rice alone was indicted by a grand jury for 3rd degree aggravated assault, the penalty for which is a possible 3-5 years in jail and a fine of $15,000. Janay Palmer married her assailant one day after this indictment.

The couple first met when Janay was 16 but started dating seriously in 2008, becoming engaged in 2012, months before their daughter Rayven was born. But Back in 2010, Janay was arrested for stealing a dress from a shopping center – a puzzling event given that she was already living with a star football player. Most of us assume that battered women are people without agency, women whose domestic lives are so complicated and fragile that they see no other options open to them. This case seems to fall into another category – a young woman whose batterer was her live-in multi-millionaire fiance and the father of her child. Had she decided to walk out after the knockout, she and her child would undoubtedly have remained financially secure for the foreseeable future. On the other hand, had she testified against Rice, he might have gone to jail or had his contract terminated even sooner than it eventually was. Marrying Rice was clearly a hedge against a possible big financial loss. Was Palmer given or promised a large monetary inducement to marry Rice immediately? Does that in any way color the way we consider her decision to marry the man who not only brutalized her but displayed no concern for her medical condition after she was unconscious?

Is the story of Ray Rice just one of another thuggish athlete who beats up on women? Or are the larger issues the huge amounts of money paid to athletes who live outside the moral constraints of most of us; the huge amounts of money made by owners of teams who try their best to ignore the players’ behavior; the refusal of fans to boycott over-priced athletic events and their concomitant merchandising; our squeamishness at criticizing women who have the wherewithal to make other choices but prefer to live and procreate with violent men whose actions are clearly mitigated by their enormous wealth. In the elevator incident, Rice’s casual indifference to his prostrate fiancee suggests that the odds are great that Janay had been punched or otherwise abused before and that neither she nor Rice was as shocked as we are. Though her sin of venality is not as great as the crime of assault, knowingly choosing to marry a wife-beater makes her complicit when she once again becomes his victim.

A leading human rights advocate accused the United Nations and its member nations of being “the leading global purveyor of anti-Semitism” and “inciting murderous intolerance towards” Jewish people during an unprecedented speech Monday at the international body’s headquarters in New York City.

Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust (IHRH), stood before the U.N. and lambasted it for fanning the flames of global anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel, according to a copy of her remarks.

Bayefsky delivered her rebuke during an informal briefing on the threat anti-Semitism poses to international peace and security that was organized on the sidelines of the U.N. by the permanent mission of Palau.

While the briefing took place within the U.N.’s walls—and was attended mainly by members of the public and outside organizations—it was not formally sponsored by the international organization, leading Bayefsky to launch a scathing criticism.

“The U.N. is not having a conference on the threat that global anti-Semitism poses to international peace and security,” she said. “This is lunch-time. The courageous organizer, assisted by the principled representatives of the small state of Palau, is independent of the U.N. The facilities are not free.”

“But why couldn’t the U.N., founded on the ashes of the Jewish people, and presently witnessing a widespread resurgence in anti-Semitism, sponsor a conference on combating global anti-Semitism?” Bayefsky asked. “The answer is clear: Because the United Nations itself is the leading global purveyor of anti-Semitism.”

Bayefsky went on to criticize top U.N. officials and the organization for “mass produci[ing] inequality for Jews and the Jewish nation.”

“Photo-ops of the U.N. secretary-general and the U.N. high commissioner for human rights at the gates of Auschwitz are not an alibi,” she said, dubbing these worthless public relations moves.

No authoritative system of law can allow or encourage accommodation between a proper national government and an unambiguously criminal organization. By definition, under pertinent rules, Hamas is an illegal organization.

Even if an insurgent group claims the legal right to wage violent conflict for “self-determination” — Hamas’s argument — the group does not have the right to use force against the innocent.

In no circumstances, under international law, are states permitted to characterize terrorists as “freedom fighters.”

Once again, Israel and Hamas have agreed upon a so-called “cease fire.” Once again, as Hamas regards all of Israel as “Occupied Palestine,” the agreement will inevitably fail. And once again, for Israel and the wider “international community,” there will be significantly dark consequences for international justice.

In specifically jurisprudential terms, the immediate effect of this latest cease-fire will be wrongfully to bestow upon the leading Palestinian terror organization (1) a generally enhanced position under international law; and (2) a status of formal legal equivalence with Israel, its beleaguered terror target.

The longer-term effect will be seriously to undermine the legitimacy and effectiveness of international law itself.

No authoritative system of law can allow or encourage accommodation between a proper national government and an unambiguously criminal organization. In this connection, however unintentionally, Israel should not further support its relentless terrorist adversary in Gaza by agreeing to any temporary cessation of hostilities. Instead, it should continue to do whatever is needed in tactical or operational terms, while reminding the world that the core conflict here is between an imperiled sovereign state (one that meets all codified criteria of legitimacy of the Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, 1934) and an insurgent organization that (a) meets none of these criteria, and (b) systematically violates all binding expectations of international humanitarian law.

By definition, under pertinent rules, Hamas is an illegal organization. This inherent illegality is readily deducible from the far-reaching criminalization of terrorism under authoritative international law; hence, it can never be correctly challenged by well-intentioned third parties (e.g., the United States), even in the presumably overriding interests of peace.

President Obama continues to dawdle in staking out a strategy to deal with the threat from ISIS which has been readily apparent for at least a year. Some attribute his resistance to incompetence and/or a complete misunderstanding of the workings of the region and Islamic based terror; others to a lack of interest in foreign affairs generally. Some suggest he is waiting for his administration to give him options to choose from (and George W. Bush was derided for declaring himself “the decider”).Perhaps Obama’s need to blame everyone but himself is causing him to take extra time to work out a strategy that will take years to implement- transferring responsibility for any failure onto the next president.

Is it at all possible, however, that Obama’s foot-dragging is, at least in some small part, shaped by the possible collateral effect any strategy might have on his policy toward Israel? Could he be concerned about the potential loss of his self-proclaimed high ground with respect to Israel? Throughout his presidency, Obama and his two Secretaries of State have treated Israel with a puzzling particularity, or perhaps more accurately, disdain. Over simplified, America is entitled to defend itself in a multitude of ways but Israel, because it is deemed the “cause” of all discord in the Middle East, must change itself rather than forcibly change its Arab and Palestinian neighbors. Likely, Obama formed most of his approach to the Jewish state from the Israel hating academia, “clergy,” and Muslim Brotherhood associates he has surrounded himself with; polished by a corrupt elite media that for decades can only paint one picture of Israel- that of the oppressive “occupier” engaged in apartheid over innocent Palestinian victims whose natural homeland was illegally taken. Obama, heralded for his unmatched IQ which would finally restore the world to an intelligent footing, should, of course, know that each word in this description is patently false.

Apparently not, as his relationship with Israel and its Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, has reflected a deep hatred, Obama’s rhetoric notwithstanding. Having shown his obsessive preoccupation with defanging Israel while keeping up appearances that he is a “friend,” Obama may be limiting his potential responses to ISIS to those he is comfortable approving for Israel. And that leaves him with little.

ISIS, for these purposes, is no different from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic Republic of Iran or any number of other local Arab states that seek Israel’s destruction. (Even the supposed “secular” PLO/Fatah/Palestinian Authority that Western elites delude themselves are motivated not by Islamic supremacism and Jew hatred but by mere Western notions of money and corruption, are fully in line with the ultimate elimination of any Jewish state. One need only look at the media the PA for decades foisted upon Palestinian children to realize that generations will have to be rehabilitated if any notion resembling Western “peace” is to become acceptable). If Obama is to seek to destroy ISIS, can he really demand that Netanyahu act differently? If Obama is to arm the Kurds and others to fight ISIS, what right does he have to withhold arms and supplies from Israel to fight their Jihadic enemies? If he is trying to develop any nuanced differences between his policies for the US and Israel, time is surely required to bend common sense so far.

http://vimeo.com/54400569

NO DOUBT “MESA” ONCE DUBBED “MESA NOSTRA” BY HUGH FITZGERALD HAS MUCH TO DO WITH THIS….”MESA” IS FUNDED WITH ARAB MONEY AND TOES THE LINE OF EDWARD SAID/RASHID KHALIDI WHICH IS RABIDLY ANTI-ISRAEL….AND HERE IS THE CATCH…YOU CAN’T TEACH MIDDLE STUDIES WITHOUT BELONGING TO “MESA”….THIS IS FROM AUGUST 2014.RSK

“We, the undersigned scholars and librarians working on the Middle East, hold that silence about the latest humanitarian catastrophe caused by Israel’s new military assault on the Gaza Strip—the third and most devastating in six years—constitutes complicity. World governments and mainstream media do not hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law. We, however, as a community of scholars engaged with the Middle East, have a moral responsibility to do so.

Neither the violation of international law nor the destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza, however, began or will end with the current war. Israel has maintained an illegal siege on the Gaza Strip for seven years. It has limited the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, rationing Palestinian calorie intake at just above subsistence levels.[1] Moreover, the suffering of Palestinians is not limited to Gaza: the occupation and dispossession in East Jerusalem, the Naqab (Negev), and the West Bank; the construction of walls and fences around the Palestinian population, the curtailment of Palestinian freedom of movement and education, and the house demolitions, all have long histories and no apparent end in sight. They will continue unless people around the world act where their governments have failed.

As employees in institutes of higher learning from around the world, we have a particular interest in and responsibility to respond to the obstacles to the right to higher education that the Israeli state has created for Palestinians both inside Israel and in the occupied territories. In the past two months alone, Israeli forces have raided Al Quds University in Jerusalem, the Arab American University in Jenin, and Birzeit University near Ramallah.[2] In the current attacks, Israeli aerial bombardment has destroyed the Islamic University of Gaza. More generally, the Israeli state discriminates against Palestinian students in Israeli universities;[3] and it isolates Palestinian academia by, among other tactics, preventing foreign academics from visiting Palestinian institutions in Gaza and the West Bank.[4] We are also alarmed by the long history of confiscations of Palestinian archives and the destruction of libraries and research centers.[5]

The ongoing Israeli massacres in Gaza have been ghastly reminders of the complicity of Israeli academic institutions in the occupation and oppression of Palestinians. Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bar Ilan University, Haifa University, Technion, and Ben Gurion University have publicly declared their unconditional support for the Israeli military.[6] More generally, there are intimate connections between Israeli academic institutions and the military, security, and political establishments in Israel.[7] To take but one example: Tel Aviv University is directly implicated, through its Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), in developing the Dahiya Doctrine,[8] adopted by the Israeli military in its assaults on Lebanon in 2006 and on Gaza today. The Dahiya Doctrine advocates the extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure and “intense suffering” among the civilian population as an “effective” means to subdue any resistance.[9]

Who buys influence in the US?
In 2006, Harvard Professor Steven Walt, and University of Chicago Professor John ‎Mearsheimer published a long article in the London Review of Books on the “Israel ‎Lobby,” a preview of a much longer book by the same name the two professors co‎authored two years later. The highlycontroversial book ‎ ‎alleged that U.S. Middle East policy had gone off the rails because of the power of ‎the domestic Israel lobby, which had inordinate influence on American foreign ‎policy, particularly in Congress. The bogeyman for Walt and ‎Mearsheimer was of course the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. ‎The authors went further than that, though, effectively blaming the Iraq War in ‎‎2003 on a collection of pro-Israel Jewish neocons who were all but accused of ‎working for Israel by beating the drums for that war. Of course Israelis officials ‎were highly skeptical about the Iraq invasion, but why let facts interfere with ‎conclusions? ‎

The idea that somehow President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Secretary of State Colin Powell, ‎had no policy of their own on Iraq, and hence were easy prey to become the tools ‎of a few Jewish writers — Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle among them, was absurd on ‎its face. But the argument was manna from heaven for every anti-Semite who has ‎always believed in Jewish conspiracy theories, and now could hang onto one ‎tossed out by two well-known professors from very distinguished universities. ‎

The Walt-Mearsheimer article and book were filled with factual errors, and ‎nonsensical arguments that led others to advance even more absurd accusations — ‎such as the charge that the long dead political philosopher Leo Strauss was really ‎responsible for the Iraq War, since some of his students were neocons and ‎supported the war (along, of course, with 85 percent of the American population ‎and a heavy majority in Congress at the time). ‎

Regardless of its merits, the Walt-Mearsheimer thesis was believed by its ‎proponents and supporters to have been a courageous attempt to tell the truth ‎about something supposedly everyone else was fearful of discussing. What brave ‎men! With Israel in complete control of the U.S. Congress, it was clear that ‎members of the Senate and the House understood that to oppose Israel meant ‎certain death at the next election as a result of a shift in campaign funds, or maybe ‎Hamas-style public execution for violating a curfew. ‎

Over the last eight years, the Walt-Mearsheimer argument has become conventional ‎wisdom, since conventional wisdom means the wisdom of the Left on foreign policy, ‎and bashing Israel has become a litmus test for full-fledged membership in what ‎Professor Judith Butler calls “the global Left.” ‎

In a long article in The New Yorker, Connie Bruck rehashes all ‎the old Walt-Mearsheimer arguments about AIPAC power, while acknowledging ‎that the group’s influence may be declining, due to unease among younger and ‎more liberal Jews about Israeli policies which are supposedly fraying the ties ‎between AIPAC and members of the Democratic Party. The reality is that AIPAC ‎decided to pull its punches the last few years and not challenge President Barack Obama ‎for fear of angering a man who seemed to be easily enraged by the actions of ‎Israel, most recently for defending itself against Hamas terror attacks. ‎The president’s anger against the Islamic State group for chopping off the heads of American ‎journalists seemed to be somewhat more moderated (except for some displeasure ‎with the brief interference they caused with his golfing holiday). ‎

What has happened with AIPAC is a lowering of the bar of what it means to be ‎considered pro-Israel in Congress. If a foreign aid bill is the measure of Israel’s ‎power, it is easy to be pro-Israel, and everyone can be judged a friend, even ‎Obama.‎

Aqsa Mahmood is young woman from Scotland. The daughter of Pakistani-born parents who built a successful business in the U.K., she grew up with all the benefits of an affluent and educated British girl. She lived in a posh suburb, where she attended a costly, prestigious school.

Like her friends, Aqsa loved Harry Potter books and bought lip gloss and giggled about boys. After high school, she went on to study radiography at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Her life was clearly on the track that her mother and father had dreamed about when they decided to raise their family in Britain, with all the opportunities that a Western democracy has to offer, and the freedom to take advantage of them.

This would have been a simple success story about upwardly mobile immigrants, hardly worth mentioning, if not for the fact that Aqsa, now 20, took her upbringing in a direction altogether different from that which her parents had intended or peers anticipated.

In November, she suddenly picked herself up and went to Syria to join the Islamic State terrorists — one of whom she married — and became a leading member of a religious police force, the Al-Khanssaa brigade. The purpose of this female militia, purported to be dominated by British-born jihadists, is to punish women for “un-Islamic behavior.”

Its mission is to search the streets of Raqqa (the de facto capital of the self-proclaimed Islamic State) to make sure that women are appropriately clad from head to toe; to look under burqas to snuff out any enemy men in disguise; and to prevent men and women from mingling, among other forbidden displays of “Western behavior.”

Hailing from the West, these Jihadi Janes are best equipped to detect it, after all.

According to the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, some 60 British women are now in Syria with ISIS. And since the decapitation of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff at the hands of a British national, many more are taking steps to travel there to join the estimated 500 other British men in their jihad.

Aqsa Mahmood is believed to be instrumental in encouraging other young women in the U.K. to follow her lead. Active on social media, she posts anti-Western messages and promotes actions like the beheadings of Foley and Sotloff. Last week, she tweeted a photo of a baby holding a Kalashnikov and an IS flag.