Deja vu - Judith Apter Klinghoffer
Dr. Judith Apter Klinghoffer taught history and International relations at Rowan University, Rutgers University, the Foreign Affairs College in Beijing as well as at Aarhus University in Denmark where she was a senior Fulbright professor. She is an affiliate professor at Haifa University. Her books include Israel and the Soviet Union, Vietnam, Jews and the Middle East: Unintended Consequences and , International Citizens' Tribunals: Mobilizing Public Opinion to Advance Human Rights
Alex Joffe summarizes the Archeology War on Jerusalem's Jewish origins
thus:
When Jordan or the Ottoman empire controlled Jerusalem, the attention paid by the outside world, even to well-documented instances of anti-Christian persecution, was intermittent at best. Now, thanks to the city's elevation as the Muslim cause célèbre, nothing goes unnoticed. And therein may lie the explanation for the latest, unrestrained alarm of ISESCO and its scholars.As recent archeological expeditions in Jerusalem expose more and more evidence of an ancient Jewish presence in the city, the worst fears of these...
Obama loyalist Tom Friedman looks at the upheaval in the Middle East, listens to his president and feels he must resort to prayer. I suspects he prays with his eyes closed.
The reality frightens him too face with open eyes. He is not the only one. The witches brew that is the Middle East has began smoking, seeping and exploding in a manner best compared to the Japanese damaged nuclear facilities. In neither case do we posses well tested strategies to deal with the unfolding threats. Its improvisation time.
Improvisation is hard especially when the whole frightened world is watching. It is a small wonder...
In war speed is of the essence as the enemy always develops counter measures. So, while the world is pontificating about the amazing power of"social media" Evgeny Morozov explains dictators develop not only increasingly effective counter measures but new sophisticated ways to distribute their own propaganda:
The internet’s contribution to the uprisings in the Middle East has been the subject of vehement (and mostly futile) debate. Ultimately, this argument will be settled by historians, not by technology gurus with half-baked theories. Instead we would all be far better off trying to understand how developments in the Middle East will soon reshape the internet itself.Even in the face of growing protests, Syria has opted for a carrot-and-stick approach: long-running...
Last Saturday, I spent a day examining the archeological discoveries displayed in the University of Pennsylvania exhibit Secrets of the Silk Road and listening to an analysis in the accompanying symposium Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity. It was a controversial exhibit. The Chinese government almost canceled it shortly before it opened and then curtailed its duration. The speakers were careful not to say anything that could annoy the Chinese or hurt their own and their Chinese collaborators' future work....
Just as importantly, the Chinese news agency reported about it. How long until the Chinese will be too ashamed to continue their non-elections?
I went to cast my vote. First, I went for my voting card and I found three individuals each sitting in front of a computer, all wearing Mubarak t-shirts. I got my card and went to the voting committees but found that there was an error in my number. A man told me that...
Few analysts remember that the enemy also has a hand to play. Bob Kagan certainly does not seem to while Congresswoman Jane Harman does. Note the following exchange:
HARMAN: And I totally agree with that and would point out that both the African Union and the Arab League, who were, according to President Obama, some of the initial input that justified the action we took in support of a no-fly zone, are not really participating in the no-fly zone.The UAE and Qatar are now going to provide fighter jets, but there's no major buy-in by either of these organizations, and it is yet unclear what tomorrow, Monday's, action is going to be in terms of a more robust NATO presence. We don't really know yet what the NATO objectives will be, although we know that NATO is taking over command...
There is a level of absurdity in current complaints that the failure to significantly amend the old constitution, the one used under Mubarak, will benefit the Muslim Brotherhood and entrench Shariah law. Jonathan Tobin is not alone to worry that The Arab Spring Has Gone Straight to Winter
Why complain now and not when the constitution passed?
Because constitutions matter little in autocracies. Now, the assumption it that it will start to make a difference.
Unfortunately, it has always mattered. It was there to be used and abused.
Barack Hussein Obama finally sent an encouraging message to the Iranian dissidents, WSJ editors note:
Monday was Nowruz, the Persian New Year, and hundreds of Iranian political prisoners again spent the holiday behind bars. The difference this year is that President Obama mentioned some of those prisoners by name. That's a welcome first.
(Suslikova) Medvedev has not currently ruled out the possibility of the war transitioning to a ground phase. Do you believe that the Western leaders are discussing this possibility with Russia; are they consulting with Medvedev on such an important issue?(Pavlovskiy) The Western leaders' behavior is so egoistic and incompetent that their explanations are of no value. They cannot be believed. Having driven themselves into a trap through their extremely hard-line position with respect to the Libyan leader, they are now compelled to urgently try to save face. I would not...
Who's in charge? Germans pull forces out of NATO as Libyan coalition falls apart As predicted, UN and Arab League mandates may bring joy to the heart of president of the world wannabe Barack Hussein Obama and empower his
How could the world be aflame without Jews being murdered?
John Rosenthal keeps exposing a very inconvenient Libyan reality. We are busy saving the Libyan Islamists. Qaddafi, mad dog or not, is telling the truth. Libya may become a Sunni Iran:
The analysts of the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy at West Point have as well. The findings of the latter are based on the so-called Sinjar Records: captured personnel records identifying foreign combatants who joined al-Qaeda in Iraq between August 2006 and August 2007. . . .The West Point analysts’ statistical study of the al-Qaeda personnel records comes to the conclusion that one country provided “far more” foreign fighters in per capita terms than any other: namely, Libya. Furthermore, the records show that the “vast majority of Libyan fighters that included their hometown...
Transcript of Phone Interview with Sergeant Edi (Edward) Itelman 22.03.11Edi: I'm a paramedic in the army. My base is located 10 minutes from Itamar. So, Friday night, approx. 1:00 AM, I get a call that there has been a terrorist penetration in Itamar and I should come there because there are wounded. There's a special code in the army, it was used and it meant someone's in the village in Itamar and there's a terrorist attack right this moment. So I take my crew, me, another medic and our driver, and we take the ambulance to Itamar.
When we reached the house, we were careful, of course, because we weren't sure whether the terrorists were still in the house or not. There could be a situation. So we entered the house carefully – gun first and all that – and we made sure no one is there, and then we tended to the wounded. At the far end of the first room I see...
NYT defines a holocaust denier as a MODERATE Muslim!
Israeli Navy: Anti-ship missiles, Farsi manual found on seized vessel and more recent IDF video Prevention is always the better answer.
The Elder of Tsziyon designed a series of posters demonstrating the absurdity of the notion. They went viral and for good reason. They are just what Israel defenders needed.
Also see, 
The administration disagrees publicly and unjustifiably with the Japanese reading of the numbers and the instructions its gives its own people.
"There's a big difference between Americans in Japan and Japanese in Japan right now. And that's that the Americans in Japan can go...
