What a surprise!

As you all know, I spend a great deal of time reading the Arabic press. By definition, the press is more moderate and thoughtful than the Arabic message boards or social media. Even so, however, it truly is a different world out there - a different mindset, a different narrative, a different history - than how Westerners think.

There is some internal consistency in the narrative, although it is comical when it comes up against real facts, which the Arab media tends to dismiss as lies or as conspiracies.

The readers of that media know, for a fact, that terrorism is a Zionist attribute. There are some crazy Islamic extremists but they are a tiny minority. The major danger to the world at large is Israel. Yet when a Koran is allegedly desecrated, the billion peaceful Muslims who are exhorted to violently come to the defense of Islam in that same media. No contradiction there.

So we can expect to see massive amounts of cognitive dissonance in reaction to the news that the person who attempted to kill hundreds of people in Times Square, Faisal Shahzad, is a Muslim. It will end up, as always, being a Zionist plot.