Rael Isaac

THE ROT GOES DEEPER

The rot in American policy goes even deeper than that described in Herbert Zweibon’s editorial. Olivier Guitta reports that the Arab media have been buzzing with the revelation that the Bush administration is engaging in open talks with Islamists, including Islamic terror groups. For example, in Beirut on March 22 U.S. officials met with representatives from Hamas, Hezbollah, and (the Lebanese and Pakistan-based) Gamaa Islamiya. Azzam Al-Tanimi, head of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought in London, who took part in the meeting, explained the U.S. about-face as a new realism: Americans know that in a democratic process, the Islamists will win.

Both Israel and the U.S. sooner or later will pay the bitter price for appeasement. Israel has yet to fully pay for its helter skelter flight from southern Lebanon five years ago; that payment will come when northern Israel comes under the rain of the 12,000 rockets which Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah openly boasts it has installed along the border, capable of attacking all of northern Israel. Part of the price of that same exercise in terrorist-appeasement has already been paid: it has been the encouragement of terrorism in Judea, Samaria and Gaza -- of which the euphemistically styled "disengagement" from Gaza is the most recent achievement.

And the aftermath of the eviction of Jewish communities will make the effect of the Lebanon collapse seem trivial. Already Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has warned the cabinet that Palestinian security forces have smuggled into Gaza, from Egypt, Strella anti-aircraft missiles capable of shooting down both commercial and military aircraft. In January Israeli intelligence chief Avi Dichter told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that if Israel relinquishes control over the Philadelphi Corridor linking Gaza to the Sinai (which Israel has since announced it is doing) the current “trickle” of arms coming into Gaza from Egypt will become a “river.”

MISTREATING THE KORAN

Nothing better illustrates Moslem arrogance than the riots over the alleged flushing of the Koran down a toilet at Guantanamo. The story turned out to be untrue (as one pundit observed, it should never have passed Newsweek's initial smell test, given the obvious impossibility of flushing that lengthy volume down an environmentally correct toilet that has problems accommodating a modest dose of human waste). But apart from Newsweek's folly, what business do Moslems have being outraged? Saudis routinely shred Bibles, as well as Korans printed outside the kingdom, confiscating them on entry into the country; Moslems have no hesitation in destroying Jewish cemeteries -- after 1949, the Jordanians used Jewish headstones for latrines; suicide bombers expect a divine reward for blowing up churches (and churchgoers) in Iraq. Moslems seem to have no problem desecrating the Koran when it will discomfit Westerners. It emerges what really did happen at Guantanamo was that a Moslem used pages of the Koran to stuff up a toilet to annoy his guards.
What is most disturbing is the U.S. response: we act like Eurabians when we let these morally infantile people get away with their shamelessness. Thus Condoleeza Rice waxes indignant about the very thought of disrespect to "the Holy Koran." She could have said we respect the fact that the Koran is holy to a large segment of the world's population. But the Holy Koran? It is not holy to Christians like Ms. Rice and it is dhimmitude to use that phrase. If she had referred to "the Holy Bible" the ACLU would probably have forced her to apologize.

CRITICIZING ISLAM OUTLAWED

In what has rightly been called an act of total insanity, at the urging of Turkey, the Council of Europe has decided to ban criticism of Islam, equating it with anti-Semitism.

But as Moslem-born dissident Ali Sina observes on his website www.faithfreedom.org, anti-Islamism is not the same as anti-Semitism. People, not doctrines, must be protected. Prohibiting criticism of Islam is like prohibiting criticism of Judaism or Christianity. "Only during the Inquisition was criticism of Christianity against the law. Are we trying to introduce an Islamic inquisition to appease Muslims? Are we trying to institute the blasphemy law that is practiced in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran to make Muslims happy?" Al Sina notes that the Quran itself calls those who are not Muslims najis, which means filthy, untouchable impure. Should we then ban the Quran? How can we condemn anti-Semitism if we are not allowed to criticize Islam that incites hatred of the Jews and says God transformed them into swine and apes?

Nonetheless, on May 25 an Italian judge in Bergamo ordered journalist Oriana Fallaci to stand trial in her native Italy on charges she defamed Islam in her book La Forza della Ragione (The Force of Reason). The president of the Muslim Union of Italy sued Fallaci, claiming her book is offensive to Muslims.

As Ali Sina sees it, Europe treads a dangerous path, with two likely undesirable outcomes: 1. Islam is left alone to grow unchecked, which means Europe will succumb to Islamism before the end of this century or 2) The Europeans sense the danger too late, panic and give birth to Eurofascism to counter Islamofascism.

EGYPT'S NOOSE TIGHTENS

As Jerusalem-based writer P. David Hornik points out: "To cap off the unfolding security nightmare [following "disengagement"], Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that “Israel is willing to gradually give up control of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip (the Philadelphi corridor), handing it over to the Egyptians within a few months of...disengagement."
Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, compares this most recent folly of the Sharon government to the decision of the ancient Greeks to allow the Trojan horse to enter their city. “The strategic blindness of both decisions is equally complete” says Steinitz.
Egypt's Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit has already said Egypt plans to deploy 1,500 to 2000 troops along its border with Israel. Hornik sums up: "According to the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, Egypt was only allowed to deploy lightly-armed civilian police along its border with Israel. The newly planned contingent, however, is supposed to consist of border guards or, as Gheit put it, 'strong enough forces to control that part of the border.' In other words, it sounds as if the sole lasting achievement of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty -- the demilitarization of Sinai -- is well on the way to unraveling. It sounds, that is, like territorial continuity for jihad from Cairo to the Negev."

HATS OFF TO DOV HIKIND

In solidarity with the communities of Gush Katif, New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, whom we honored at AFSI’s national conference several years ago, has gone to Gaza to remain with the embattled communities there through their forcible expulsion by the Sharon government.

CLEAR THINKING WOMEN

It is striking the extent to which the most eloquent and clear-thinking champions of Israel, within Israel, are women. Caroline Glick is perhaps the best known outside Israel but there are the intellectually equally formidable Sarah Honig, Evelyn Gordon, Ruthie Blum and Naomi Ragen. Their contribution is the more striking given the mental collapse of so many of Israel’s most gifted male defenders in this country. People like Norman Podhoretz, Charles Krauthammer and William Safire have (we hope only temporarily) abjured thinking altogether, in favor of a blind belief in President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon.