Contents: Media-ocrities of the Week | Weekly Quotes | Short Takes | On Topic
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Media-ocrities of the Week:
New York Times vs Israel
No Rush to War
“…Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is trying to browbeat President Obama into a pre-emptive strike. On Tuesday, he demanded that the United States set a red line for military action and said those who refuse ‘don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.’”
“Later, Mr. Obama telephoned him and rejected the appeal. On Friday, Mr. Netanyahu suggested in an interview that Israel cannot entirely rely on the United States to act against Iran’s program.
Leaders need flexibility and ambiguity, not just hard and fast red lines. And it is dangerous for Mr. Netanyahu to try to push the president into a corner publicly and raise questions about Washington. Is that really the message he wants to send to Tehran?….” (New York Times, September 15, 2012)
The Foreign Relations Fumbler
“Imagine a President Romney making a London trip and helpfully offering off-the-cuff advice on Northern Ireland, or breaking the ice in Parliament by telling jokes about Queen Elizabeth. The War of 1812 would resume, and the British would again be burning down the White House.
“Then there was the Romney trip to Israel, where he insulted Palestinians and left some Jews uncomfortable with stereotyping by praising Jewish culture in the context of making money. Hmm.
“Netanyahu recently tried to push the United States to adopt a nuclear red line that, if Iran crossed it, would lead us to go to war there. Obama was right to resist, and it has been unseemly for Romney to side with a foreign leader in spats with the United States.
[President] Obama should indeed set a red line – warning Netanyahu to stop interfering in American elections. (New York Times, September 16, 2012) (Top)
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“The very public display of the US and Israel undermining each other must cease. The only winner is Iran,” – Dr. Emily Landau, of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies speaking over the Rosh Hashana holidays. Responding to comments made by US President Barak Obama and senior administration officials, who said last week that states do not set red lines, and that red lines limit their freedom of action, Landau said, “States do set red lines, and Obama himself has done so twice over the past year.” She added that Washington effectively set red lines in response to Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, and, more recently, “to Assad about moving chemical weapons in Syria or to Lebanon. Red lines should be understood as a lever of pressure on Iran to get it to – finally – be serious about a negotiation. The responsibility for stopping Iran is on the shoulders of the P5, not Israel,” (Jerusalem Post, September 18, 2012)
“[Palestinians have] no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish… I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say there's just no way.” – Mitt Romney as quoted on a secretly taped video at private fundraiser held May 17. (Mother Jones, September 18, 2012)
"How often have I endured bizarre conversations with government officials who cling to the illusion that the threat is temporary or that it can be negotiated. And then there are the even more delusional positions staked out by some prominent intellectuals who blame the writer, the politician, the filmmaker, or the cartoonist for provoking the threat. In the days after [Theo] van Gogh was murdered, too many prominent Dutch individuals expressed precisely this position, declaring smugly, “Yes, of course killing is wrong, but Theo was a provocateur …” Will they never cease looking for ever more ingenious ways of apologizing for free speech?" Ayaan Hirsi Ali. (The Daily Beast, September 19, 2012)
“Look across that region today, and what do we see?” the GOP vice presidential nominee, Paul Ryan, asked a crowd of about 2,000 at the annual Values Voter Summit in [Washington] DC. “The slaughter of brave dissidents in Syria; mobs storming American embassies and consulates; Iran four years closer to gaining a nuclear weapon; Israel, our best ally in the region, treated with indifference bordering on contempt by the Obama administration,” Ryan declared, tearing apart Obama’s Middle East record and saying the US needs leadership with “moral clarity and firmness of purpose.” Romney also took aim at Obama’s strained relationship with Israel, saying it was “confusing and troubling” that Obama had snubbed an invitation to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week when he attends the opening of the UN General Assembly. (New York Post, September 19, 2012)
“The award of the Adorno prize to Judith Butler [a professor in the rhetoric and comparative literature departments at the University of California, Berkeley] is a moral travesty, and the Berlin Jewish Museum's decision to host her is an additional gross insult to the Jewish people. Butler espouses causes such as the BDS campaign, [erasing] (sic) mass terror (‘ her version of non-violence‘) and, like Hamas and Hizbollah, explicitly seeking Israel's destruction. This platform embodies the antithesis of the universal human rights principles adopted in the shadow of the Holocaust." – Professor Gerald Steinberg, who heads the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor. (Jerusalem Post, September 19, 2012)
“So long as free speech remains a fundamental human right, free people can and should say what they will about Islam. And until that faith’s most fervent adherents learn to count to 10 before commencing carnage, one objectionable YouTube video or bothersome charcoal sketch could sever America’s vital supplies of petroleum. Against this backdrop, the United States should end this dangerous game and move urgently to increase supplies of North American energy. We should capitalize on the vast hydrocarbon resources literally beneath our toes and under our oceans. Henceforth, “foreign oil” should refer to petroleum from our calm, peaceful and relaxed neighbors in Canada, a NATO ally.” (Deroy Murdock, New York Post, September 15, 2012)
"We are worried about violence" over the film, said Mina Thabet, an activist and founding member of Maspero Youth Union, a group of Coptic Christians." There will be more violence against us. There will be more discrimination. There will be more hate." (USA Today, September 17, 2012)
“After Obama’s success in killing Osama bin Laden, in killing [Col. Muammar el-] Qaddafi and in not blowing up Iraq, I think Obama and his aides figured, ‘We’ve got this box pretty well taken care of,’ ” said Michael Rubin, a Middle East scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “Now that gets thrown up into the air,” he said. “Instead of Obama being the successful guy that got Bin Laden, we’re talking about Obama as the second coming of Jimmy Carter…” (New York Times, September 16, 2012)
“The idea that this criminal and cowardly act was a spontaneous protest that just spun out of control is completely unfounded and preposterous. We firmly believe that this was a pre-calculated, preplanned attack that was carried out specifically to attack the U.S. Consulate.” – Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif . Diplomatic sources [speaking to The Independent]…said that the threat of an attack against US interests in the region was known to the US administration 48 hours before it took place. The alert was issued by the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, but not made public. A State Department spokesman maintained: "We are not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the US Mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent."(National Public Radio, Independent, September 16 & 18, 2012)
“I know the images on our televisions are disturbing, but let us never forget that for every angry mob, there are millions who yearn for the freedom and dignity and hope that our flag represents.” – [President] Obama referring to American anxieties about the [Muslim] unrest in his weekly radio address on Saturday. (New York Times, September 16, 2012) (Top)
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ISRAEL SEEKS COMPENSATION FOR REFUGEES – (Jerusalem) Jerusalem Israel has ruled out a peace deal with the Palestinians unless Arab states pay billions of dollars to compensate Jewish refugees who fled their territories after the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. Further complicating efforts to end the Middle East conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pictured, is to insist the fate of Jewish and Palestinian refugees be linked as a "core issue" in peace negotiations. (National Post, September 15, 2012)
REPORT: ABBAS INTENDS TO QUIT – (Bethlehem) [Palestinian] President Mahmoud Abbas has instructed officials to "look for a new president," a Palestinian official told Saudi newspaper al-Watan. Abbas reportedly made the announcement at a meeting of faction leaders in Ramallah. "You have 10 days until I come back from the United States, and you must look for a new president," Abbas said, according to an official who was at the meeting. The official told al-Watan that Abbas was frustrated by the frozen peace process with Israel and the impasse in national reconciliation. The president is also angry over the slogans chanted during recent protests across the West Bank against the rising cost of living, the official said. (Ma'an, September 18, 2012)
BERLIN JEWISH MUSEUM EVENT EVOKES CALLS FOR ISRAEL BOYCOTT – (Berlin) – The internationally renowned Jewish Museum in Berlin hosted a podium discussion on Saturday with US academic Judith Butler, who renewed her calls to boycott Israel. It appears to be the first anti-Israel event held in the Jewish museum since its opening in 2001 with the aim of exhibiting the 2,000- year history of Germany’s Jews. At least 700 people attended the event. The German taxpayer-funded museum’s decision to showcase the speaker Butler in the capital city, which during the Nazi period served as the launching pad for a boycott movement against German-Jewish businesses, has raised eyebrows about the management’s direction of the museum. In an email to The Jerusalem Post on Saturday, Professor Gerald Steinberg, who heads the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, termed the cultural institution the “Berlin anti-Jewish Museum.” (Jerusalem Post, September 16, 2012)
FRENCH JEWRY ALERTED TO WATCH OUT FOR ‘FAKE JEWS’ – (Paris) The security service of France’s Jewish communities has alerted French Jews to “individuals pretending to be Jewish to gain access to community facilities.” In a statement released Sept. 14, the Service de Protection de la Communauté Juive, or SPCJ, also declared a state of elevated alertness during the High Holidays. “This year we have noticed in France various suspected cases of intelligence gathering on Jewish targets,” the communiqué read. “The new [Jewish] year will be celebrated at a time when the threat from terrorist attacks is particularly high,” it added. SPCJ requested French Jews exercise vigilance at synagogue, at Jewish schools and at community gatherings. (Times of Israel, September 16, 2012)
SABOTEURS CUT POWER LINES TO NUCLEAR BUNKER – (Tehran) Explosives were used to cut the electricity power lines to Iran's Fordow underground enrichment plant last month in an apparent attempt to sabotage Tehran's atomic advances, its nuclear energy chief said on Monday. It was believed to be the first time Iran has mentioned the incident, which Iranian atomic energy organization chief Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani said took place on Aug. 17. He also told the annual member state gathering of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that "the same act" had been carried out on power lines to Iran's main enrichment plant near the central town of Natanz, without giving a date. (Jerusalem Post, September 17, 2012)
IRAN LAUNCHES SUBMARINE AS US NAVY CONDUCTS WAR DRILLS IN GULF – (Dubai) – Iran launched a submarine and a destroyer into the Gulf from Bandar Abbas port on Tuesday at the same time as US and allied navies held exercises in the same waters to practice keeping oil shipping lanes open. The United States, Britain, France and a number of Middle Eastern states are conducting a naval exercise in the Gulf this week, focusing on how to clear mines that Tehran or guerrilla groups might deploy to disrupt tanker traffic. Iran's refitted Tareq-901 submarine and Sahand-class destroyer were launched on the direct orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the official IRNA news agency reported. (Jerusalem Post, September 17, 2012)
US AID TO EGYPT BLOCKED BY CONGRESS FOLLOWING RIOTS –(Washington) …[as a result of] the violent rallies against the U.S. embassy in Cairo, in reaction to an anti-Islam video, and Egypt’s lackadaisical efforts to defend American assets, talks about $1 billion in debt relief and millions more in aid to Egypt are suspended, according to a U.S. officials who spoke to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity. There will not be new aid approved for Egypt until after the November elections, and talks intended to ease to payment of funds that have already been approved are stalled, the officials said. “Folks are going to wait and see how things materialize both with the protests and on Capitol Hill,” one congressional aide told the Post. The U.S. annual aid to Egypt comes to about $1.6 billion [of which] more than $1.3 billion goes to military aid. (Washington Post, September 18, 2012)
ATTACK ON CAMP BASTION IN HELMAND PROVINCE – (Kabul) The Taliban penetrated one of the largest international bases in Afghanistan in the early hours of [Saturday] morning…involving more than 12 Taliban fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades, small arms and explosives. The fighters managed to breach the base’s perimeter, reach the flight line, kill two American Marines, wound several others and “damage multiple aircraft [12 Harrier jets worth $30,000,000 each] and structures along the base’s flight line,” according to a statement from the military. (New York Times, September 15, 2012)
TOP IRANIAN OFFICIAL ACKNOWLEDGES SYRIA ROLE – (Tehran) The commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, [Maj. Gen. Mohamad Ali Jafari] became the highest-ranking official to acknowledge his country's involvement in Syria's civil war. "It is an honor for the Islamic Republic of Iran to share its experience and provide any kind of consultation to help defend Syria," Mr. Jafari said on Sunday, according to a text of his comments posted on official Iranian news agencies. "Syria has deteriorated into a regional proxy war, and Iran has firmly planted its flag with the ruling Assad regime. They're trying to keep the Assad 'Titanic' from sinking, and admitting they have troops on the ground is probably meant to deter others from entering the fray," said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. (Wall Street Journal, September 17, 2012)
MUSLIM MEN: STOP BLAMING WOMEN – (Cairo)In…premarital counseling classes offered by Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood…The participants are told – by a male botany professor – that women are erratic and emotional and can’t “take a decision and handle the consequences.” (Only men have this ability.) What’s a woman to do? According to the professor, “a woman takes pleasure in being a follower and finds ease in obeying a husband who loves her.” Her irrational nature, the professor says, disqualifies her from assuming leadership. Rather, subservience best suits her, as does motherhood. In the spirit of subservience, not a single participant (male or female) raised any objection to these teachings. (Globe and Mail, September 11, 2012) (Top)
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali
∙ Jerusalem Post, September 19, 2012
Sameer Khan
∙ Mother Jones, September 18, 2012
David Corn
∙ PJ MEDIA, September 18, 2012
Barry Rubin
The Syrian Tragedy: Is the Proposed Cure Worse Than the Status Quo?
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