End of the West?: Reuel Marc Gerecht, Weekly Standard, Dec. 21, 2015 — Should the United States militarily defeat jihadist outfits in the Middle East?
2015 Top Ten Worst Anti-Semitic/Anti-Israel Incidents: Sam Sokol, Jerusalem Post, Dec. 29, 2015 —The Simon Wiesenthal Center ranked the European Union’s labeling of settlement products higher than incidents of Palestinian and Iranian incitement and threats against Israel in its annual 10 worst outbreaks of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism around the world in 2015.
The Top 10 Biggest Moments for UN Watch in 2015: UN Watch, Dec. 29, 2015— 10: Head of Gaza Inquiry forced to resign Celebrating Christmas in Israel: Bradley Martin, Observer, Dec. 25, 2015 — While Christians are being beheaded, tortured and forced to convert to Islam by ISIS, there is one Middle Eastern country where Christians can celebrate their holy day without fear.
Out with the Old Year!: Dry Bones Blog, Dec. 28, 2015
The Long War Continues: Stephen F. Hayes and Thomas Joscelyn, Weekly Standard, Nov. 30, 2015
Israeli Invention Takes Top Spot in Advocacy Group’s List of 2015’s Top 10 Most Viral Stories (VIDEO): Shiryn Ghermezian, Algemeiner, Dec. 27, 2015
Does the UN do any Good?: Terry Glavin, National Post, Dec. 31, 2015
Reuel Marc Gerecht
Weekly Standard, Dec. 21, 2015
Should the United States militarily defeat jihadist outfits in the Middle East? After 9/11 the answer seemed easy, but after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Barack Obama is not alone in arguing that large-scale offensive campaigns against radical Muslim movements aren't worth the cost. Even if the president's go-slow approach is actually more likely to provoke more terrorism, is it the sensible policy for America? And can Western governments actually defeat the Muslim radicals who live in the West and are a nightmare for domestic intelligence services to find, let alone stop? These questions are as much about Europe as the Middle East.
The United States could destroy the Islamic State militarily only to see Western-born or immigrant holy warriors continue to slaughter Americans and Europeans. What would be the point? A narrative is already developing—see last week's New York Times piece "U.S. Seeks to Avoid Ground War Welcomed by the Islamic State"—that questions whether the United States can and should destroy the Islamic State if doing so requires tens of thousands of American troops. Left unsaid but clearly implied: Better to have terrorist safe havens in the Middle East and absorb occasional terrorist attacks (especially if they are in Europe) than to risk a campaign that could generate thousands of new holy warriors and require America again to occupy Muslim lands.
And how connected to the Islamic State are the holy warriors who killed in Paris and San Bernardino? Could they survive, prosper, and replicate themselves even if ISIS were destroyed or collapsed? As the French scholars Olivier Roy and Farhad Khosrokhavar have written for years, this militant "globalized Islam" is as much about the radicalization that comes with Westernization—the violent anomie that springs forth as ancestral ethics die and personal freedom and individualism both empower and immiserate—as it is about a discovery of charismatic Islamic history, the fraternal, political power of the Muslim identity, and the appeal of the holy law.
It's already clear that Washington isn't going to rally to Europe unless all hell breaks loose. American armies will not march to save the European Union from the refugee crisis that has followed the Arab Spring, especially the savagery of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. The Europeans will have to summon the will and means to wall off the continent from the ever-growing flood of Muslim immigrants if they believe doing so is essential to save the EU or the health of national politics. It's possible to envision that America, after January 2017, might send its soldiers into the Middle East if European cities endured bloody terrorist strikes emanating from the Islamic State. Self-interest might spring from an understanding that, if Washington fails in the eyes of the Europeans even to try to protect the Old World under siege by Islamic terrorism, the West will fracture, and the United States will be alone in an increasingly chaotic, violent, and authoritarian age. A more aggressive America might also spring from the realization that an Islamic State that can organize or mobilize repeated strikes on European soil is just prepping for increased soft-target terrorism in the United States.
Unlike al Qaeda, which never managed to turn its anti-American cause into a mass movement capable of attracting tens of thousands of Muslims to its suicide-loving standard, the Islamic State has shown that its call reaches deep inside European Muslim communities. That call has been immeasurably aided by Syria's Alawite Shiite dictator. The Sunni-Shiite clash in the Levant and the establishment of the Islamic State have proven by far the most magnetic events in contemporary Islamic history—a much bigger holy-warrior draw than the Soviet-Afghan war or the Anglo-American war in Iraq. Arab rulers, secular Arab intellectuals, and even Arab fundamentalists ruminated little over Soviets slaughtering Afghans. ISIS and the Syrian war are different. For everybody.
At the heart of the post-World War II order is an unwritten constitutional amendment: The United States is a European power, and it has sworn to defend Europe as it would defend itself. An unspoken corollary is that Washington would overlook the imbalance of this alliance: Like parents with refractory children, the United States would endure the disrespect and parasitical behavior of the Europeans, to ensure the family stayed intact to face those who loathed Western civilization. United we are stronger than alone. As a democratic people with global responsibilities, Americans have been a bit nervous about the exercise of their power unless they received some European approbation. This is particularly true for the U.S. left, which, since Vietnam, has had an eye on European critiques of American hubris. Conversely, many U.S. conservatives have never particularly liked this transatlantic union, because it placed unfair demands on the United States. It infantilized (already condescending) Europeans. And it implied that American exceptionalism was tempered by American insecurity.
In 2011, when the revolt against Assad's tyranny started, no one in the West predicted it would produce the greatest threat to transatlantic bonds since World War II. Or that an American president, the most eagerly welcomed in Europe since John F. Kennedy, would be so nonchalant about Europe's Muslim problems. He is condign punishment for Europeans who took America for granted. The European left got what it said it wanted: a president who viewed himself as a "global citizen," averse to the wars that undergirded American hegemony and the liberal world order. President Obama radiates almost no warmth towards Europe and little interest. The president's awkward "pivot to Asia" was not just an attempt to run from the troubles of the Greater Middle East; it was also an attempt to distance the United States from Europe and scale down the the costs and responsibilities of the transatlantic partnership…
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]
WIESENTHAL CENTER RANKS TOP 10 WORST OUTBREAKS OF ANTI-SEMITISM IN 2015
Sam Sokol
Jerusalem Post, Dec. 29, 2015
The Simon Wiesenthal Center ranked the European Union’s labeling of settlement products higher than incidents of Palestinian and Iranian incitement and threats against Israel in its annual 10 worst outbreaks of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism around the world in 2015…
Leading the list at No. 1 was the hatred that inspired Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife to murder 14 people in a shooting rampage in San Bernardino, California, earlier this month. The center cited Farook’s father’s statement to Italian newspaper La Stampa that he had told his son that “he had to stay calm and be patient because in two years Israel will not exist anymore. Geopolitics is changing: Russia, China and America don’t want Jews there anymore. They are going to bring the Jews back to Ukraine.”
No. 2 on the list were a pair of videos released by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria threatening the imminent launching of a war against the Jews and promising that “soon, there will not be even a single Jew left in Jerusalem or the rest of the country. We will keep going until we eradicate this disease worldwide.”
No. 3 was the EU’s decision to label settlement products. “The European Union has chosen to label products from the Golan Heights and disputed territories in the West Bank alone, ignoring the products of other occupied and disputed territories in the world such as Western Sahara, Kashmir, Tibet and products from areas controlled by terrorists Hamas and Hezbollah,” the group stated, adding that “this use of double standards against Israel typifies modern anti-Israelism and has been at the core of anti-Semitism for many centuries.”
Citing a survey carried out by Trinity College and the Louis Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law showing that 50 percent of 1,157 self-identified Jewish students at 55 campuses reported having been subjected to or having witnessed anti-Semitism on their campuses, the center gave American college campuses fourth place on the list.
The group listed such incidents as a candidate for a position in student government at UCLA being asked, “Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community, how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view,” and graffiti calling for Jews to “be sent to the gas chamber” being scrawled on a sidewalk at UC Berkeley.
The Palestinian Authority and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees jointly took fifth place. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s statement “Al-Aksa is ours, and the [Church of the] Holy Sepulchre is ours, everything is ours, all ours. They [the Jews and Christians] have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet and we won’t allow them to,” was quoted as an example of Palestinian anti-Semitism.
Many Israelis have blamed such rhetoric from Abbas as contributing to the current “stabbing intifada.” Also quoted was Palestinian UN delegate Riyad Mansour, who engaged in a modern-day blood libel when he claimed that “Israelis harvest body parts by people killed by Israeli troops.” “The UN acknowledges that at least 22 Palestinian employees of UNRWA… including some UNRWA teachers, have openly encouraged and celebrated the knifing and shooting attacks against ‘Jewish apes and pigs,’” the center stated.
Iran’s eliminationist rhetoric and plans to hold another Holocaust cartoon contest in 2016 gave the Islamic Republic place No. 6 while Jewish reggae artist Matisyahu being booted from a music festival in Spain for refusing to sign a pledge supporting a Palestinian state bought European culture and sport spot No. 7.
The center also cited a Bosnian soccer match in which fans yelled “Kill, kill, kill the Jews” and a game in the Netherlands that featured the chant, “My father was in the commandos, my mother was in the SS. Together they burned Jews, because Jews burn best.”
British Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn’s statement that the "majority of the 'attempted stabbing' incidents are based on false claims," and that Israelis are "executing Palestinians on the streets" garnered him spot No. 8.
Meanwhile, Kuwait Airways’ decision to cease service between New York and London because the US was compelling it to sell tickets to Israelis on the route bought it No. 9.
Poland came in 10th on the strength of several incidents, including an anti-Syrian immigration rally in which a hassidic Jew was burned in effigy. Several incidents garnered dishonorable mentions by the center, including the city of Munich allowing a BDS event on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, a columnist at Germany’s Der Spiegel comparing the Likud government to France’s extreme Right anti-immigrant National Front party, and former Argentine president Christina Kirchner’s use of the of the Jewish moneylender from the Shakespearean play The Merchant of Venice, widely considered an anti-Semitic stereotype, to explain her country’s financial troubles to children.
The center said it "urges people of good faith everywhere to commit in 2015 to break the apathy and silence and to stand up and speak out against history’s oldest hate wherever it rears its ugly head."
THE TOP 10 BIGGEST MOMENTS FOR UN WATCH IN 2015
UN Watch, Dec. 29, 2015
10: Head of Gaza Inquiry forced to resign: On the same day that the UN appointed William Schabas to head its Gaza probe, UN Watch released videos of his anti-Israel statements—and led a 6-month campaign demanding his removal. “I have opinions like everybody else about the situation in Israel,” Schabas insisted to the media, only “they may not be the same as Hillel Neuer’s or Benjamin Netanyahu’s, that’s all.” Yet by February 2015——after his paid legal work for the PLO was exposed—Schabas resigned in disgrace.
9: Rights victims confront dictatorships: UN Watch’s 2015 Geneva Summit for Human Rights gave a platform to victims of Iran, North Korea, China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, Tibet, Turkey and Venezuela, as well as victims of Boko Haram and the Islamic State. Awards were bestowed upon jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, and to Masih Alinejad (photo above), who fights Iran’s compulsory hijab. Major media coverage included Le Monde, The Guardian, CNN, BBC, Deutsche Welle, Toronto Star, France 4 and Swiss TV.
8: Wife of Venezuela’s jailed opposition leader addresses UN: In June, UN Watch gave a UN platform to the courageous Lilian Tintori, wife of jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. Tintori urged the Council to “demand the liberation of all political prisoners in Venezuela.”
7” Wizo Award to UN Watch Director: Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer and other dignitaries gathered in Miami in February to pay tribute to the work of UN Watch at the annual gala of WIZO Florida, which presented the Guardian of Israel Award to UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer. Ambassador Dermer told the audience: “Like roses, the Jewish people need thorns to protect them. And Hillel has been a huge thorn in the side of Israel’s enemies. Because he speaks the truth, and he exposes their hypocrisy—day after day, month after month, year after year. So thank you, Hillel, for being one terrific thorn, and for tirelessly defending Israel, and defending the truth.”
6: Revealed: UK’s ‘horrid’ U.N. deal with Saudi Arabia: In September, UN Watch revealed evidence—based on secret Saudi diplomatic cables—that Britain made a deal to vote Saudi Arabia onto the UN Human Rights Council. UN Watch worked together with The Australian to produce an explosive report. This became a top story in the UK, reported by the Financial Times, The Daily Mail, the Independent, The Times of London and The Guardian. In a tense interview with Channel 4’s Jon Snow, British Prime Minister David Cameron was challenged on the “horrid” deal.
5: UN Watch opposes election of worst abusers: UN Watch led the opposition to the election of Venezuela, UAE, Burundi, and other regimes to the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council. Speakers at UN Watch’s October press conference at UN headquarters included Venezuela’s former UN ambassador Diego Arria and Dr. Qanta Ahmed, expert on women’s rights and Pakistan. Correspondents from CBS, New York Daily News, Fox News, were present along with media from France, Germany, and Norway. The event was reported worldwide.
4: UN Watch spearheads opposition to Maduro visit: When the UN agreed to hold a special assembly for Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in November, UN Watch led the counter-effort by organizing a joint appeal signed by 50 leading Venezuelan dissidents and human rights groups, holding a press conference with top activists, and leading a protest rally against the visit. Covered by NBC News, Reuters, and many more.
3: Under pressure UNRWA suspends employees for incitement. In an unprecedented acknowledgment of wrongdoing, UNRWA was recently forced to suspend several employees, after UN Watch published three reports documenting how UNRWA teachers regularly incite to racial hatred, anti-Semitism and terrorism on social media. UN Watch identified more than 30 perpetrators, and organized petitions to pressure key governments.
2: Top commanders refute U.N. Gaza Inquiry: When the UN inquiry into the 2014 Gaza war presented its biased report in June, UN Watch was there to respond with a counter-report, and gave a UN platform to top military experts. Major General Mike Jones and Lt. Col. Geoffrey Corn from the U.S. military, and British Colonel Richard Kemp, all took the floor in the UN debate. The distorted findings of the UN probe—falsely accusing Israel of war crimes—were contrasted with those of the experienced military officers, who explained how Israel acted in self-defense, and to minimize casualties.
1: Exposed: Saudi elected to chair UN panel: In September, UN Watch revealed that Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador Faisal bin Hassan Trad was elected Chair of the 5-person panel that chooses UN human rights experts. The story went completely viral, generating hundreds of news articles, editorials and cartoons. As a result, many around the world now understand who really decides things at the UNHRC.
CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS IN ISRAEL
Bradley Martin
Observer, Dec. 25, 2015
While Christians are being beheaded, tortured and forced to convert to Islam by ISIS, there is one Middle Eastern country where Christians can celebrate their holy day without fear. Israel is the only place in the entire Middle East where Christian practice has not only been tolerated, but flourished.
Christmas in Israel is unparalleled throughout the world, with Christians of every denomination coming together to celebrate in a variety of ways. Because of this, Christmas in Israel is not a one-day affair. Roman Catholics and Protestants celebrate on December 25, Orthodox Christians celebrate on January 6, and Armenian Christians celebrate on January 18. In fact, Jerusalem is known as “the city of three Christmases.”
Nazareth is home to Israel’s largest Christian Arab community. It recently held its annual Christmas market street fair, filled with arts and crafts as well as delicious traditional foods. Israeli singer Keren Hadar, along with the Upper Galilee Choir and Galilee Orchestra, performed at a combined Hannukah-Christmas concert on December 19. On December 24, the traditional parade through the main street of Nazareth drew an estimated 30,000 celebrants who made their way to the main plaza of the Basilica of the Annunciation. Later that day, observers were dazzled by the annual display of fireworks, sponsored by Israel’s Ministry of Tourism.
In Jerusalem, there are numerous Christmas festivities occurring throughout Israel’s capital city, from holiday-themed tours to caroling and lots of shopping. In the Old City of Jerusalem, Santa Claus beckons onlookers to buy a tree for the holiday, while the Jerusalem International YMCA hosted a Christmas Carols Concert and open-air bells concert.
The Christian population in Israel has grown five-fold, to about 158,000 Israeli citizens, since Israel’s independence in 1948. This growth of Christianity is unheard of anywhere else in the Middle East. Data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics reveal that 2 percent of Israel’s population is Christian. Christian Arabs fare the best in terms of education in comparison to any other religious group receiving an education in Israel. In 2011, the number of Arab Christian students eligible for a high-school diploma stood at 64 percent, compared to 48 percent for Muslim students, 55 percent among Druze and 59 percent in the Jewish education system in general.
While the Christian community flourishes in Israel, the complete opposite is happening elsewhere throughout the Middle East. In a study published by the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Christians face being wiped out from the Middle East within ten years as they are killed by ISIS or forced to flee persecution. Executive Vice President Elijah Brown told Fox News: “Last Christmas was the first time that bells did not ring out in the city of Mosul in 2,000 years.”
However, the persecution of Christians in the Middle East is not limited to those under the dominion of ISIS. In Saudi Arabia, Christians are barred from becoming citizens and it is illegal to own, print or import Christian religious materials. In Lebanon, a once majority-Christian nation, the Islamic radicalization of the government and Iranian sponsorship of Hezbollah has led to a large-scale exodus of Christians from the country over the years.
Then there are the Christians under Palestinian rule, whose numbers have dwindled from 15 percent of the population in 1950 to less than 2 percent today. Cities rich in Christian history, such as Bethlehem, are now under the control of Muslims and almost completely devoid of Christians. This Christmas in particular, the Palestinian Authority limited Christmas celebrations in the West Bank, much to the disappointment of the local Christian population.
Israel stands as a haven for Christians who seek to rejoice and observe their faith, in stark contrast to the rest of the Middle East. Perhaps this Christmas, we should not only celebrate this fact but not forget those other Middle Eastern Christians who are not fortunate to be living within Israel’s borders.
Out with the Old Year!: Dry Bones Blog, Dec. 28, 2015
The Long War Continues: Stephen F. Hayes and Thomas Joscelyn, Weekly Standard, Nov. 30, 2015— In many ways, the reaction to the horrific attacks in Paris has been familiar.
Israeli Invention Takes Top Spot in Advocacy Group’s List of 2015’s Top 10 Most Viral Stories (VIDEO): Shiryn Ghermezian, Algemeiner, Dec. 27, 2015—A number of stories about Israel and Jews set social media alight in 2015.
Does the UN do any Good?: Terry Glavin, National Post, Dec. 31, 2015—Is the United Nations still a force for good in the world? It’s a question doesn’t come up much in Canada, owing to this country’s weird habit of investing blue helmets with the totemic power of fetish objects. But as we head into 2016, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau having given every impression that Canada’s foreign policy exertions will be substantially redirected through the UN, it’s a question well worth asking.
