Saturday Links

From Ian:

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Caroline Glick: Column One: Thank you, Hafez Assad
In the face of American rank incompetence, Assad has already broken all the red lines he and his father followed for more than 40 years.

During the 1990s, the Israeli Left and the Clinton administration managed to convince the Rabin, Netanyahu and Barak governments to offer to surrender the Golan Heights to Syria.
The only reason that the initiative failed was because Assad Sr. rejected Israel’s repeated offers to surrender the strategic plateau in exchange for a piece of paper with a smiley face on it.

Barry Rubin: Obama's Head-in-the-Sand Speech About Terrorism

Of course, the United States is not at war with Muslims but not only al-Qaida but Hamas, Hizballah, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafists, the Taliban and dozens of other groups, ideologues, and militants know that America is their enemy. No matter what Obama does he will not persuade them and their millions of supporters that the United States is their ally. Even though Obama has often actually made America their ally.

London Police Source Cites Tactic ‘Employed by Palestinians in Israel’ in Explaining Woolich Killing Response

Commanders at Britain’s Scotland Yard defended their slow response time to the terror attack in Woolwich, England earlier this week as a preventative measure to save police lives, citing tactics used by Palestinians against Israel.
“Questions were immediately asked about why you would commit such an offense and wait for police. These are the kind of tactics seen employed by Palestinians in Israel.

Honorary Degree for ‘Pro-Terror’ Judith Butler Creates Controversy at Montreal University

In a letter to McGill Chancellor Arnold Steinberg, Hillel McGill and McGill Students for Israel (MSI)- which have encouraged students on campus to support their position with letters to Steinberg or principal Heather Munroe -Blum — said Butler’s “pro-terror, anti-Israel position” makes her a terrible role model for graduates.
“We consider the honour McGill is about to bestow on Professor Butler astounding and deeply offensive,” reads the letter. “We urge you to rethink this decision.”

The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald inadvertently argues that every Muslim in the west should be interred or deported

Greenwald's position only makes sense if one takes the position that the west is in a war against all Muslims and more to the point, that the reverse is also true.
And if that's the case, if Glenn Greenwald is correct, then every single Muslim in the west is an enemy soldier walking among us, which gives western countries the right to deport or inter them in prison camps until the war is over.

A lonely battle for the truth

The first to try to stem the flow of lies and ensuing bloodshed -- much like the Dutch boy who put his finger in the dike to stop the trickle that threatened to become a flood -- was physicist Nahum Shahaf of Ramat Gan. Almost everything Shahaf said at the time, when Yom-Tov Samia, then the head of the IDF Southern Command, appointed him as head of the IDF committee to investigate the incident, ultimately received the government's approval after a 13-year delay.(h/t EOL)

Richard Landes: Lethal Journalists React to the Al Durah Report: Insights Into the NGO-Journo Matrix

I have, in the past speculated on a kind of cowardly narcissism, in which they can’t admit to their readers that they’re intimidated because they’d lose their credibility, and they can’t admit to themselves that they’re doing that because they admire themselves too much, so they become advocates for the “weak,” they adhere to Underdogma.

Kerry: Israeli ‘prosperity’ prevents sense of urgency about peace

Israelis’ “sense of security” prevents them from feeling sufficient urgency to resume peace talks with the Palestinians, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Jerusalem Thursday, warning of fast-approaching “challenges” that required a change of approach for the Jewish State.
“I think there is an opportunity [for peace], but for many reasons it’s not on the tips of everyone’s tongue,” Kerry told reporters before entering a meeting with President Shimon Peres. “People in Israel aren’t waking up every day and wondering if tomorrow there will be peace because there is a sense of security and a sense of accomplishment and of prosperity.” (h/t Zvi)

Kerry goes for ‘inauthentic’ turkey

The Twitterverse was shocked Thursday by US Secretary of State John Kerry’s decision to snack while on a visit to Ramallah, not on the traditional chicken or lamb shwarma, but on turkey, a type of shwarma one Twitter user said was “probably an illusion, like the peace process.”

Hezbollah: EU terror label would be a ‘big mistake’

Deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem says threats ‘do not worry’ Shiite group in the slightest

'Assad has enough sarin to wipe out Damascus'

Exiled Syrian chemical arms scientist discusses Assad's arsenal, says he has used small quantities of sarin to stop rebel advances.

Turkey builds wall at Syria border crossing

Following death of 65 people in border town bombings, Ankara constructs 2.5km long twins walls, beefs up border security.

Barry Rubin: Egypt and Other Islamist Systems: Will Despair Bring Moderation?

Thus, while anger and despair are going to rise in Egypt these factors are not in themselves enough to bring down a regime. Unless the army is convinced that the country is going to fall apart--and perhaps not even then--the Brotherhood is going to be in power for a long time. And that also applies to everywhere else Islamists are ruling--in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkey, and perhaps soon Syria.

Egypt 3 women killed in suspected honor killing

Police believe the 10 men stormed the house of the women, strangling them and beating them with sharp tools, the official said, based on the alleged confession of one of the suspects. The men wrapped the women’s bodies in blankets, weighted them with stones and throw them in the river Nile, the official added.

New wave of cyber attacks on US ‘traced to Iran’

A new wave of cyber attacks on US companies have been traced to Iran, American officials told The New York Times.
Security experts said Friday they believed the main goal of the digital weapons, which targeted oil, gas and electricity companies, was sabotage, not espionage.

Congressman condemns Farrakhan anti-Semitic diatribe

“Last Friday, I attended a speech by Minister Louis Farrakhan at Fellowship Chapel in Detroit, Michigan,” Conyers, the longest-serving African American serving in Congress, said in his statement released Thursday. “During this speech, Minister Farrakhan made unacceptable racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic statements, which I condemn in the strongest possible terms.”

The fate of a Vilna Jewish cemetery

Respect for gravestones implies a measure of respect for the deceased persons they commemorate and, more generally, their people. In the case of Jewish lettering here in Eastern Europe, in view of the near complete “success” of the Holocaust, the converse is also particularly striking: to desecrate this one last authentic local relic of the annihilated people is to make a statement that they were rubbish or, perhaps even worse ― recyclable building material.

Israel Daily Picture: A Tailor Shop for Yemenite Jewish Embroidery

The picture above of the Yemenite embroidery and tailor shop from Otti Seidon's Cigarbox Collection was taken well before the large airlift of Yemenite Jews. These are the children of the olim. Note the men, including the hookah smoker, working on the embroidery which is not unlike the silver and gold filigree Yemenite Jewish jewelers were famous for.