Roundup on Israel/Palestine
(1) There’s a certain inconsistency in the message the Biden administration is giving out regarding Israel. It’s almost certainly based on the fact that Democrat voters are split on the subject, and the administration is faced with the dilemma of trying to placate both the pro-Israel and pro-Hamas wing of the party in an election year.
The bobbing and weaving tends to take the general form of Blinken = somewhat good cop and Biden = somewhat bad cop, but each man also is inconsistent within his own utterances and moves back and forth between the two stances.
(2) The Times of Isreal has a heartbreaking series on each of the people who were murdered by Hamas on October 7. It reminds me somewhat of the series the NY Times had on the dead of 9/11. So many beautiful young people, seemingly with their lives ahead of them. In Israel, however, you have the added horror of instances of many members of families being killed, and it was done up close and personal with extreme savagery. On 9/11, a fairly small number of terrorists were able to kill large number of people en masse in four airplanes, but in Israel there were thousands of perpetrators who killed their victims one by one.
(3) Switzerland’s lower house of parliament has voted to cut off the country’s funding of UNRWA. Switzerland has been UNRWA’s ninth-largest donor. How about it, US?
(4) Speaking of Europe:
Several Hamas-linked terrorists were arrested in a series of raids in Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, the European media reported Thursday.
#Breaking Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) says they worked with law enforcement in Denmark, who arrested seven terrorists working with Hamas to plan a terrorist attack in Europe.
— Lahav Harkov ?? (@LahavHarkov) December 14, 2023
(5) As though things weren’t bad enough in crime-ridden Oakland, California, there’s this:
A large menorah erected at Lake Merritt’s amphitheater was torn apart and thrown into the water early this morning by vandals who, according to Jewish leaders, also spray painted anti-Israel and antisemitic graffiti on the sidewalk nearby.
This morning, a crew of city workers recovered the menorah’s metal parts while police waited nearby for local Jewish leaders to arrive.
“I feel afraid,” said Rabbi Dovid Labkowski, of the Chabad Center of Oakland, which set up the large outdoor display. “It makes me feel angry that this would happen in Oakland, a place with so much diversity.
That statement seems ironic to me, since “diversity” probably contributes to the problem.
For Oakland, diversity = black and anti-Semitism is near universal.
Agree, Mike K. One more of the many reasons I’m glad to have left Oakland four years ago. In many ways, Oakland was quite nice, until it wasn’t.
Dave Rubin interviews Caroline Glick about what life in Israel is like right now (22:47): https://youtu.be/U6LJNF-Aj_A?si=QNFKIS0c-yq0mVFt
#5
Megyn Kelly interviewed the head Rabbi of LA yesterday. One of his more interesting comments was how all those people “they marched in solidarity with have now turned against them.” He also said many Jews are now quite shocked and scared.
Out of the horror of Oct 7, maybe American Jews have finally taken a small dose of the red pill. While small in total number, their influence in academia and politics is large, especially for Democrats. The next year is shaping up to be one of those cracks in time.
Diversity [dogma] is a color judgment, class bigotry under the Pro-Choice [ethical] religion of progressive sects.
That said, diversity of individuals, minority of one.
The menorahs were trashed with the authority of liberal license and the Democratic statue precedents.
One step forward, two steps backward.
Maybe some discrete security cameras need to be set up. Video some of these people and prosecute them for a “Hate Crime”, what ever that is.
Re the Chabad rabbi’s daft remark about “diversity,” many Orthodox Jewish institutions, and particularly the very PR-oriented Chabad/Lubavitch, make an effort to pay lip-service to as much progressive buzz words and cant as they can without directly contradicting Jewish law. (See for example the knots that Yeshiva University pathetically twisted itself into, to avoid spelling out that Orthodox Judaism disapproves of homosexuality, when defending its policy of not giving gay groups official on-campus recognition.) Not that the Orthodox actually believe this crap, but it is an effort to maintain the good will of the powers that be. I predict that in the coming years this tactic will be less and less effective.
As for American Jews in general reconsidering their allegiance to the Left and the Democratic (sic) Party — forget about it. Sooner or later, the Gaza war and the pro-Hamas demonstrations will die down, and non-Orthodox Jews will accommodate themselves to their new seats at the back of the progressive bus.
Diversity doesn’t contribute to the problem; diversity IS the problem.
As to (4): Many European countries, especially Denmark and Sweden are reconsidering their immigration policies for Muslims. Too many have failed to integrate into their new societies.
Nations cannot be a polyglot of cultures, languages, and customs and expect to have much cohesio0n. A lesson we are beginning to see here.
The problem with Islam, as interpreted by the fundamentalists, is that it is both a religion and an authoritarian political system all rolled up in one. It is in opposition to separation of church and state, so devout Muslims will always be a problem for democratic secular governments. That’s not to say that some Muslims can separate their religion from their jobs, hobbies, charities, etc. A lot depends on what is being preached by the Imam at the local mosque.
There aren’t many Muslims who are openly for separation of church and state, but Zuhdi Jasser is one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuhdi_Jasser#Views_on_Islam
Too bad there are so few like him.
The only reason there is any ambiguity r.e.the Biden admin message on Israel is in his heart Biden is an ally of Iran. And consequently an ally of Iran’s agent, Hamas. But he knows America isn’t so for now he has to pretend to be a traditional President dutifully following established U.S. policy, but the first chance he thinks he has sufficient cover to do so he’ll stand Israel in the back.
It dawned on me when I heard Kamala “Clausewitz” Harris respond to a question from a reporter. She responded with Hamas talking points. She said the administration is reminding Israel to adhere to the Law Of Armed Conflict. As if Israel is the side deliberately targeting women for rape, mutilation, and murder, then taking cell phone video of their “trophies” followed by calls to their parents to brag about how many they killed with their bare hands. Then she said Israel must do more to prevent civilian casualties. Ok, Clausewitz, I thought; what more could Israel possibly do? They are doing more than Hamas which is trying to maximize civilian casualties by deliberately failing to distinguish themselves from non-combatants. OBTW that’s a war crime, so under the LOAC Hamas is responsible for those civilian casualties.
They’re painting Israel as the bad guy to try to prepare us to go along when when they switch sides; that siding with butchers and rapists is the reasonable thing to do. It didn’t work for Obama with Bo Bergdahl and it won’t work now. Recall how he broke the law to release five high value Taliban/Haqqani Network generals from GITMO (without giving Congress any notice though the law requires he must give 30 days) I’m exchange for one traitor. It was falling how they tried to justify their actions by claiming Bergdahl’s health was deteriorating so they had to act fast. As if anyone cared about him living or dying; he cost the lives of good men ordered to search for one worthless individual. Susan Rice insultingly but unsurprisingly added that Berghdal had served honorably. Yes, that crowd would have thought desertion constituted honorable service.
This is worse. Biden et al DON’T WANT Israel to destroy Hamas, a terrorist organization with American blood on it’s hands.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/iran-america-october-massacre
Tony Badran, Tablet Mag, “Iran Sponsored the October 7 Massacre. America Paid for It.”:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/iran-america-october-massacre
MIke, at our university in Iowa, diversity also = black. This was driven home to our PA program when our PA students have included Koreans, Indian Buddhists (Asian, not American Indian), Mexicans, a Persian (she didn’t like to be called Iranian), Japanese, Chinese, Jews, and an Afghan-American.
But no blacks and therefore we weren’t diverse. Go figure.
Academically, diversity is code for black, period. No matter what university so far as I’ve seen.
>>That statement seems ironic to me, since “diversity” probably contributes to the problem.<<
Exactly so!
Powerline Blog, Scott Johnson, “After the Atrocity Video”: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/12/after-the-atrocity-video.php
Perhaps Mr. Johnson ought not wonder that an enemy (ObamaMalleyBidenBlinkenSullivan) is determined to remain an enemy and to succeed in his selected perfidy?
Scott is a little slow on the ball personnel see that hamas fan gyrl at the cia is policy
J.J., the truth is Islam can be interpreted no other way but as an authoritarian political ideology with the promise of heaven or threat of hell grafted onto it.
In Sunni Islam, in descending order from most to least severe (although there is not much of any daylight between any of them), there are four extant schools of Sharia; Hanbali, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanafi. As you can see, as schools of Sharia (Fiqh) go the Shafi’i school is middle of the road. A manual of Shafi’i law is widely available. Search on: Reliance of the Traveler; Update as Salik. You can buy it on Amazon.
So you don’t have to take my word for it, nor for that matter Zuhdi Jasser’s.
It is currently 1445 AH; after hijra. Why does the Islamic calendar begin with the hijra, or Muhammad’s “exodus” from Mecca to Yathrib (now Medina)? After all, according to the standard Islamic narrative Muhammad became a prophet in 610 A.D. If Islam is purely a religion then the Islamic era began then. Why does the Islamic era only begin 12 years later when Muhammad and his few followers left Mecca for Medina?
Because it was in Medina Muhammad acquired political and military power. Without a Caliph who has a monopoly on political, military, and religious authority Islam is not Islam.
In 1928 Hasan al Banana founded the grandfather of all Islamic terrorist organizations. We are told by the America-hating left that all Islamic terrorism is due to American foreign policy. If only we’d change our evil imperialist colonialist ways it would just disappear. In 1928 we had no foreign policy toward the Islamic world. In the decades following WWI we were isolationist. So what tripped al Banna’s trigger?
Something that had nothing to do with the outside world. In 1924 Kemal Ataturk, a secularist along with his other young Turks, abolished the Caliphate. There was still something along the lines of a Grand Mufti who was the authority on religious matters (though under strict government control). But now it was the secular government that had political and military authority. Hence the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928.
I can understand Jasser. I like him. He remembers the Islam of his native Syria, which also was secular. But that isn’t orthodox Islam. From 622 until 1924 the supreme authority in Islam was the Caliph, the man (always a man) who held all political, military, and religious authority combined.
Islam without a Caliph modelled after Muhammad, who did not share power, is not Islam.
R.e. my earlier comment regarding the Shafi’i legal manual, it’s “Umdat as Salik.” Not “Update as Salik.” I hate autocorrect.
Switzerland has been UNWRA’s ninth-largest donor. How about it, US?
From your mouth to God’s ear. Defund UNWRA.
“It makes me feel angry that this would happen in Oakland, a place with so much diversity.
The word ‘diversity’ in its current abused form simply indicates the wishes of some minorities to participate in a low-level civil war, with the support of mindless progressives who feel atonement must be made for some misgovernance by past generations, at the expense of white male non-progressives. Trashing the menorah is just a small step in that atonement.
Some good news
“The IDF’s trial run of pumping seawater in Hamas’s tunnels in the Gaza Strip, as has been reported by foreign media in recent weeks, appears to have been successful, The Times of Israel has learned.
“Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the IDF had started pumping seawater into Hamas’s underground tunnel system, a move aimed at destroying the Palestinian terror group’s subterranean network of passages and hideaways and driving its operatives above ground.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said last week that flooding the tunnels is “a good idea, but I won’t comment on its specifics.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-trial-of-flooding-hamas-tunnels-with-seawater-was-successful-toi-told/
Republicans running for president are missing an opportunity by not explicitly calling out Hamas for their war crimes.
It’s like they assume that everybody knows Hamas is the baddies and they think it’s not necessary to be specific.
They should point out Hamas’ specific violations every chance and make the D’s silence more deafening (sometimes silence is violence).
When they are asked by MSM about all the poor dead Palestinians, they should explicitly put the blame on Hamas and quote the relevant Geneva Convention that puts the blame squarely on the ones who take hostages, hide among civilians, don’t wear uniforms, etc.
The Stupid Party.
Nations cannot be a polyglot of cultures, languages, and customs and expect to have much cohesio0n. A lesson we are beginning to see here.
The United States use to be pretty good at doing this.
Steve57, I agree with what you stated about Islam and the brief history you sketched.
But….”Islam without a Caliph modelled after Muhammad, who did not share power, is not Islam.”
And there was a time when it was stated that Christianity without a Pope was not Christianity. (And at the time, most kings wrapped themselves in the robes of religion. No separation of church and state.) It took a Thirty-Year War to dispel that idea. And today there are how many sects of Christianity? Six main traditions (“…the Church of the East, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Restorationism.”) And there are how many sects in the Protestant tradition? Many. See this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations_by_number_of_members
All based on the printing press making the Bible available to people to make up their minds about what was in it.
They tell me, (I’m not an expert on the Quran) that the only true Quran is written in the old Arabic, and that not many people are allowed or able to read and interpret it. So, they can claim a monopoly on what’s in the Quran. Pretty nice.
After the Ottoman Empire was falling apart in, as you mentioned, the 1920s, al Banna and Qutb breathed life back into the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. Qutb’s writings were very influential, and the two men founded the Muslim Brotherhood, the precursor of all Islamic terrorist organizations presently existing.
Most Muslims have never read the Quran – a large number of them are not literate. Therefore, the use of Islam as a religion and governing authority is perfect. Tell the people what to believe and keep them in poverty. Such a deal.
I believe Islam could evolve just like Christianity did. It will take something like a Thirty-Years War to do it. Maybe we’re in that war right now. But it can’t be won by sucking up to the Muslims who want us dead or converted.
Separation of church and state!!!! It’s the best way.
How can any sane, civilized person have anything but hate and contempt for Hamas?
Kill them all seems the only plan that can work.
For anyone a bit puzzled by why “Biden” has appeared to be so (relatively) supportive of Israel since October 7 (if with the expected caveats and double-faced messages), see the link to Tony Badran’s analysis in Table Magazine, linked to be sdferr at 7.03 pm…followed by his more down-to-earth “reality bites” link to Scott Johnson’s piece at 7:21 pm…(even if the good Mr. Johnson doesn’t seem to want to understand that “Biden” is no friend of Israel, no matter how nostalgiac he might want to be.)
IOW just another HUMUNGOUS “Biden” coverup—“Biden”‘s billion upon billion dollar bonanza to the Mullahs, which would “trickle down” to Iran’s proxies and friends (AND the Palestinians)—which has to be concealed by “his” professed concern for the welfare of the Jewish State.
Either that, or the “President” has gone perilously off-script…
…in which case a meta-coverup…though at this point everything “Biden” has done entails humungous meta-coverups….
“Separation of church and state!!!! It’s the best way.”
Except that the there’s a problem: “Biden” and the Church of Woke are currently joined at the hip…while the so-called leaders of the West, generally, seems to be hiding behind the skirts of His Holiness, Pope Schwab….
To be sure, voters have—FINALLY—begun to notice (but as we all know, the voters MUST be protected from themselves…and who best can “protect” them but Western “Leaders”/Followers—and Global institutions—i.e., Scwhabists).
SHIREHOME—Yes, the U.S. used to be pretty good at integrating and “Americanizing” new immigrants, and one of the chief ways this was done was through the old “Iron Triangle” of school, church, and family, which taught the aspiration to be and the subject of how to be an American, instead of a member of a separate racial, ethnic, or cultural tribe.
Since the elements of this triangle have been some of the major targets of Leftist infiltration, subversion, and parasitism, all of that integrative apparatus which taught and fostered patriotism, Americanism, and traditional American moral values has either been totally dismantled, or greatly weakened, especially in our schools.
The Left wants us to be a fragmented collection of separate and warring tribes, because this lack of unity, common moral values, trust, vision, and purpose greatly weakens us.
As I understand it, few in the Muslim world today can understand the form of Arabic used in the Qur’an as originally written (and, as well, there have been several ancient versions of the Qur’an found over the years which differ from one another) thus, most of the literate Muslims in the world are reading a modern translation, often the translation supplied for free by the Saudis.
This fact obliterates the excuse–often used by Muslim spokesmen/ideologues in debates–that anything other than the original version of the Qur’an, in it’s original Arabic of the time, is not really the authoritative Qur’an i.e. if you aren’t reading/can’t understand the Qur’an in its original language, and debating what that language says, you aren’t really dealing with the true Qur’an.
In my experience, most literate Muslims don’t actually read the Qur’an in any translation. There is no parallel to Christian Bible study groups. The devout rely upon the pronouncements of imams or Qur’anic scholars to tell them what they can and cannot do.
This would be like, because I can’t read Koine Greek, relying entirely upon my religious leader to tell me what the New Testament says, or what the Hebrew scriptures say, because I can’t read that either.
Kate, as you know, the issue becomes the “infallibility” of the Quran as the pure word of Allah, vs. growing Western scholarship showing the Quranic versions and fragments discovered so far do show changes and evolution, as human made efforts. I understand some of that would have been the improving maturity of written Arabic from its initial forms/ versions to later and more readable alphabets, etc. I would guess the variety of Islamic groups and sects also show the variety of interpretations possible even from some reasonably common version becoming more widely available after 850AD.
Even if you were an expert in Greek and Hebrew, and had complete and clean copies of the Torah from 600BC, 300BC, and 100AD; and of the Gospels etc. from 70AD, 100AD, and 200AD, you would find differences for various reasons, but attributable to human errors or bias. No claims that Logos was infallible as received by mankind.
J.J. I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you earlier. I hate to be the one to inform you, but this IS post reformaty Islam. in fact Islam had its reformation a couple of centuries before Christianity.
Ibn Taimiyya was Islam’s Martin Luther except he came along in the 13th century. He demanded what Luther would later demand: that Islam jettison everything not found in the authoritative texts. If Ibn Taimiyya spoke Latin he would have demanded Sola Scriptural.
Actually I did respond to you but I practically wrote a book and it was apparently rejected. My answer now may therefore appear incomplete. Bottom line: the Quran tells Muslims to obey and model themselves on the prophet. To know how to do that the Hadith collections are required. In the ahadith Muhammad tells Muslims to obey his successors, the Calipha. Unlike the papacy the Caliphate is actually in their texts. Islam without a Caliphate is disobedience to the prophet, therefore disobedience to Allah, the author of the Quran.
You simply can’t use the Protestant reformation as a model as the texts are wildly different.
Muhammad, as the “apostle of Allah,” had a monopoly on all religious, political, and military power. I don’t want to seem to be picking on you, J.J., but where do you see room for the separation of Mosque and state?
In the 1960s a reformer came to some game in Sudan. Mahmoud Muhammad Taha preached that while correct for their time, the more peaceful Meccan verses should now take precedence over the later, violent Medinan verses.
Since the Meccan verses were “handed down” while Muhammad was still only a prophet it effectively would have resulted in separation of Mosque and state in all but name. His problem (and I suppose all our problem, J.J.) is that the Quran contains instructions for its own interpretation. What comes later replaces what came earlier.
The government executed Taha as an apostate in, I believe, 1986. The only reason he lasted as long as he did is that nobody really wanted to hang him. They did want him to shut up. He didn’t. Finally the authorities felt they had no choice. Demanding separation of Mosque and state is even more radical.
Someone like Zuhdi Jasser wouldn’t last long in a Sharia-complaiant country. It’s simply a matter of orthodoxy not fundamentalism.
As Steve57 points out, Islamic teachers strongly reject the “Qur’an only” approach, and even if they didn’t, the Qur’an contains violent passages without the ahadith. The kind of “reformation” Western thinkers wish for would mean moving away from the foundational Islamic texts, not towards them, as happened with the Protestant Reformation and the foundational Christian texts.
A late answer to Steve57.
Obviously, you know much more about Islam in practice than I. If your knowledge is correct, there is no path forward between Islam and we infidels except war.
Then let us face that directly. Let us treat all Muslim nations as enemies because their beliefs place them directly in that sphere.
We didn’t do it and won’t do it because some of them are sitting vast reserves of oil and gas. The world need those reserves and will need them for many years. Also, there are many, like me, who believe that Islam can evolve.
However, if that belief is totally wrong, then we should face it and begin treating them as enemies. I would begin barring immigration form Muslim countries, I would do as little trade as possible with them. If mosques in this country will not renounce the political aspirations of Islam, I would put them on the terror watch list and ban their services.
Either they are a danger to our way life, or they aren’t. We can’t have it both ways.