http://www.think-israel.org/index.html THINK-ISRAEL features essays and commentaries that provide context for the continuing crisis in Israel. We report on global anti-Semitism. The war Islam is waging against Israel and the West is our top priority. We aim to make sense of what's going on. en-us http://www.think-israel.org/index.html http://www.think-israel.org/BILLYE/logothinkisrael.gif Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:42:04 -0800 http://www.think-israel.org/kedar.survivalguide.html Mordechai Kedar has a prescription on how to survive in the Middle East: The patience to outwait and outwit resurgent Islam; an ideology that bolsters our faith in what we need to do and makes us confident as we struggle; and endurance — staying in for the long haul, not quitting at the first sign of trouble. Is it any different for us in America? Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:40:47 -0800 RSSPECT-00591994 http://www.think-israel.org/rubin.unrwarefuge.html This report, recently released by the GLORIA Center, details how UNRWA, nominally a humanitarian effort to help Palestinian refugees, uses its huge budget to hamper resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and blocks the resettlement of its ever-growing number of charges. Oh, and it also furnishes finances, facilities, and recruits for terrorist groups — but that it does for free. Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:40:46 -0800 RSSPECT-00591992 http://www.think-israel.org/oboler.antiisraelgoogle.html Andre Oboler writes on Google Earth, which allows pro-Palestinians to post glaringly incorrect "information" on putative Arab pre-ownership of current Israeli towns (they call it "user-generated content"), yet Google claims to "provide critical tools for understanding a story." They are saying "trust me" but they knowing let users post falsehoods under their imprimatur — they don't withdraw the patently false information. It is true that they allow separate user-created overlays from many different sources; it is equally true that the default overlay is Arab propaganda. Moreover, if it continues to take time and legal effort to force Google to make individual changes in an error-riddled map, how can we ever feel secure in what is still displayed? What a shame it is to lose confidence in a once well-regarded information-gathering resource! Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:40:46 -0800 RSSPECT-00591990 http://www.think-israel.org/maceoin.tacticalhudna.html In analyzing the historic context that anchors the meaning of the term hudna — whose surface meaning is cease fire during a jihad — Denis MacEoin makes us understand that jihad itself must be continuous because it is designed to spread Islam, which "... holds that a set of rules exists, eternal, divinely ordained, and independent of the will of man, which defines the proper ordering of society. ..." These rules are intended to apply to all governments in the world and they are of course to be defined and controlled by Muslims. All Muslims can agree that Muslims must rule over infidels and this has given motive power for yet another jihad. History also demonstrates the instability and chronic internal war in Muslim governance. The various factions waged war against each other one. Generally the more barbaric ones would take power, only to lose it as another group grew strong and nasty enough to win the people's admiration. Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:40:46 -0800 RSSPECT-00591989 http://www.think-israel.org/mandel.warraqonorientalism.html Professor Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University has received recent media attention because of his association with President Elect Obama. His hatred of Jews has long been known on his home campus, where he is considered heir to the late Edward Said, the linguist. Said almost single-handedly set the assumptions and presumptions underlying Middle Eastern studies across the country. He was the giver of the received wisdom that the exploitative, racist West could not really understand the Middle East. His influence was strong and, for the most part, inhibited critical assessment of his proclamations. In this essay, Daniel Mandel reviews Ibn Warraq's critique of Said's influential book, Orientalism. As Mandel writes, "Said's theories laid the groundwork for 'post-colonial studies,' the academic discipline whose founding principle is the belief that the West — and everything identified with its intellectual and cultural traditions — is guilty of oppressing and exploiting those foreign cultures that came under its power and influence at one time or another." Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:36:23 -0700 RSSPECT-00659817 http://www.think-israel.org/frantzman.islamsaveswhites.html Call this essay by Seth Frantzman ironic. Call it sarcasm. But it expresses the great truth that what is denigrated by us in our society is admired in Other societies. We compare ourselves to Others and find ourselves lacking in .. (whatever is the fad of the moment). Frantzman uses as paradigm the redneck versus Muslim culture. We've allowed ourselves to be psyched out. It's time to rethink. Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:36:23 -0700 RSSPECT-00659816 http://www.think-israel.org/ibrahim.muslimpriorities.html Muslims are becoming more vocal in demanding that their environment and working conditions be reconstructed to suit their religious requirements. Raymond Ibrahim wonders why they voluntarily left Muslim countries very much in harmony with their lifestyle to "surround themselves with wine-imbibing, swine-eating libertines. Why?" He suggests they choose — either to stay in "sharia friendly" countries or "prepare to assimilate ½ that is, compromise ½ to some degree. It's a simple question of priorities." Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:36:23 -0700 RSSPECT-00659815 http://www.think-israel.org/malone.mediabias.html Michael Malone has observed that over the years, some of the country's major papers have let "opinion pieces creep into the news section, and from there onto the front page." The networks are no better. "But," he points out, "nothing I've seen has matched the media bias on display in the current presidential campaign." The media attack dogs are all on the side of the Democrats. Malone puts the blame on the news editors, the people who assign to the reporters and lay out the news and editorial pages. The reasons for their bias for Obama will surprise you. Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:36:23 -0700 RSSPECT-00659814 http://www.think-israel.org/feder.mediaasenemy.html The New York Times rightfully identified Sarah Palin as a danger to Barack Obama's campaign. It went after her and John McCain with ruthless determination, while airbrushing negative information about Obama. As Don Feder points out, "The Gray Lady set the tone for the rest of the press." It taught the wolf pack of newpapers — most of the Press was campaigning for Obama — how to attack the Republican candidates. In becoming a partisan, its tactics ranged from ruminating about Sarah Palin's clothes to promulgating rumors about her family inventive enough to make the National Inquirer proud. To get Barack Obama elected, the Times was willing to shed its integrity. What is ludicrous, it yelps that it knows about the separation of news and opinion. As Feder puts it, "For sheer hypocrisy, this is hard to beat. In the real world, The New York Times is to objectivity what Jack the Ripper was to women's rights." Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:36:23 -0700 RSSPECT-00659813 http://www.think-israel.org/rachel.amygoodman.html This is broad satire — you might think you were watching Saturday Night Live (SNL), except, of course, SNL would never tackle this subject. Rachel Golem gives us interviews with some well-known figures on the Extreme Left, as they might be done by Amy Goodman, another well-known Marxist. Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:36:23 -0700 RSSPECT-00659812 http://www.think-israel.org/imm.relativistenemy.html As Jeffrey Imm writes, "In today's America, we now have those who call for relativism regarding the ideology of Islamic supremacy and those organizations supporting Islamic supremacism. Such relativists ask: who are we to challenge other ideas and values? They ask: why should Americans confront such an ideology, instead of engaging with it?" The answer is, of course, we have no choice, no choice that is, if we wish to preserve America's freedom. Resurgent Islam declared war on us, and unless we fight back they will win. That's why "...shrug-shoulder relativism towards the survival of America and defense of its values" is dangerous. "Relativism towards America's values goes from the decadence that such values aren't worth fighting over and ultimately leads to the nihilistic view that our very existence is not worth fighting over." We need to realize this is unacceptable behavior. Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:36:22 -0700 RSSPECT-00667146 http://www.think-israel.org/wikipedia.arabismracism.html By now, it's fairly common knowledge that Wikipedia is fine for some subjects — maybe 'some parts of a subject' would be more accurate — and not for others. As a rule of thumb, distortions will increase the more the subject is politicized. In this case an article in Wikipedia was challenged by an unknown reader and the Wikipedia Editor was taken to task. Another reader supplied reliable references that would counteract the initial Wiki assertions. Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:36:22 -0700 RSSPECT-00667145 http://www.think-israel.org/landes.enderlin.html The Al-Dura Hoax has become the morality play of our time. For years, it was assumed that Israeli soldiers had killed the boy, Muhammad. His death instantly became justification for Arab violence. When it was finally demonstrated that the bullet couldn't have been fired by the soldiers — the geometry precluded such an explanation — the hoax began to fall apart. And became more complex. The photographer, his boss at the TV station, the newpaper managers stonewalled. The mainstream media mostly ignored the significance of the new evidence presented in the court. Richard Landes reviews the story and provides more information on those that started the lie and those who insisted that the lie was true and whose who used the lie to castigate the Jews for their own purposes. Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:36:22 -0700 RSSPECT-00667144 http://www.think-israel.org/phillips.forward.html The Forward started as a socialist paper, but with the intelligence to translate classics into Yiddish and in other ways teach immigrants how to live as participants in America. After it needed to be written in English to maintain a readership, thanks to poor leadership, it soon coued as anti-Semitic. Moshe Phillips provides us with some essential information and suggests some changes that would put the Forward on the right track. Between the lines, we can also read the hostility of Leftist ideologues to Judaism. Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:36:22 -0700 RSSPECT-00667143 http://www.think-israel.org/singer.buyup.html The peace process has died many times and has been put back on artificial respirators whenever foreign politicians saw some advantage in it for them. David Singer takes a nibble out of the problem by suggesting Israel buy up the tract of land still designated as "no man's land." He points out that "Israel has now been given a very real window of opportunity to buy up tracts of West Bank land occupied by Arab residents; rather than being forced to sell out Israel's heritage by compensating 700,000 Jewish residents to vacate their West Bank homes to enable the creation of President Bush's new Arabs-only State in the West Bank. Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:12:27 -0800 RSSPECT-00667149