Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Elder of ZiyonIn response to the new fashion of Holocaust denial sweeping the world, I have here a tiny article buried in the September 3, 1943 Palestine Post, one of hundreds of contemporaneous articles that documented the methodical murder of European Jewry.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Elder of Ziyon
Now that the world is looking at the Munich terror attack again thanks to Steven Spielberg, this Sports Illustrated article from 2002 has some details that are relevant today.
Dead Jews - to the Palestinians, it is both a strategy and a tactic!
Another detail about the moderate Palestinian leader:
Following the Oslo Accords of 1993, the mastermind of Black September's Munich attack enjoyed a certain respectability. Mohammed Daoud Oudeh, a.k.a. Abu Daoud, sat on the Palestinian National Council, where in 1996 he joined a majority in voting to revoke the clause in the PLO charter calling for Israel's destruction. Though Israel had long known of his role at Munich -- Mossad was believed to have been involved in a 1981 assassination attempt in which he was shot six times -- he even carried an Israeli-issued VIP pass that allowed him to shuttle between his home in Amman, Jordan, and the occupied territories.
All that changed in 1999 after Abu Daoud openly acknowledged his role in the Olympic attack, both in his memoir, Palestine: From Jerusalem to Munich, published in Paris, and in an interview with the Arab TV network al-Jazeera. Germany issued an international arrest warrant on Abu Daoud, and Israel canceled his travel credentials, barring him from the Palestinian lands he had spent his adult life trying to liberate....
"At the time, it was the correct thing to do for our cause," Abu Daoud told SI. AP
In late July, SI's Don Yaeger went to the Middle East to find the 72-year-old Abu Daoud. After five days in Syria, where he met with leaders of several Palestinian groups, including the Palestinian Authority, PA president Yasir Arafat's Fatah faction and the militant Hamas, Yaeger received a call from Abu Daoud, who said he was in Cyprus. Abu Daoud, who would not reveal where he resides -- saying only that he lives with his wife on a pension provided by the PA -- agreed to answer written questions. Among his claims, in his memoir and to SI, are these:
# Though he wasn't involved in conceiving or implementing it, "the [Munich] operation had the endorsement of Arafat." Arafat is not known to have responded to the allegations in Abu Daoud's book. In May 1972 four Black Septembrists hijacked a Sabena flight from Brussels to Tel Aviv, hoping to free comrades from Israeli jails. But Israeli special forces stormed the plane, killing or capturing all the terrorists and freeing every passenger, leaving Arafat, by Abu Daoud's account, desperate to boost morale in the refugee camps by showing that Israel was vulnerable.
# Though he didn't know what the money was being spent for, longtime Fatah official Mahmoud Abbas, a.k.a. Abu Mazen, was responsible for the financing of the Munich attack. Abu Mazen could not be reached for comment regarding Abu Daoud's allegation. After Oslo in 1993, Abu Mazen went to the White House Rose Garden for a photo op with Arafat, President Bill Clinton and Israel's Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. "Do you think that ... would have been possible if the Israelis had known that Abu Mazen was the financier of our operation?" Abu Daoud writes. "I doubt it." Today the Bush Administration seeks a Palestinian negotiating partner "uncompromised by terror," yet last year Abu Mazen met in Washington with Secretary of State Colin Powell.
[...]
# While he doesn't regret his role in the operation, Abu Daoud told SI, "I would be against any operation like Munich ever again. At the time, it was the correct thing to do for our cause. ... The operation brought the Palestinian issue into the homes of 500 million people who never previously cared about Palestinian victims at the hands of the Israelis." Today, he says, an attack on an event like the Olympics would only damage the Palestinians' image.
Dead Jews - to the Palestinians, it is both a strategy and a tactic!
Another detail about the moderate Palestinian leader:
Daoud also was interviewed about the Munich massacre for a film called "One Day in September," produced by John Battsek and Arthur Cohn for Sony Pictures Classics. Director Kevin Macdonald said Abu Daoud admitted Black September was merely the cover name adopted by Fatah members when they wanted to carry out terrorist attacks.
The PLO operative recalled how Arafat and Abu Mazen both wished him luck and kissed him when he set about organizing the Munich attack.
- Tuesday, December 27, 2005
- Elder of Ziyon
Hamas has a children's newspaper that describes the Spanish city of Seville, calling on Muslims to liberate it as well as the rest of Spain.
This is not surprising; Bin Laden himself mentioned "the tragedy of Andalusia" in his videotaped message right after 9/11, referring to the Muslim loss of sovreignty over Spain in the 15th century. And the phrase "tragedy of Andalusia" is not particular to Bin Laden; other Islamist websites use it freely, sometimes as veiled threats.
Here is an excellent Muslim analysis of how mainstream Muslims think of "al-Andalus." Many feel that Madrid was the target of Islamic terror more because of Andalusia rather than Iraq.
It seems that most Muslims feel that once some territory is Muslim, it is Muslim forever and needs to be taken back forcefully. In other words, there is no difference between the West Bank, Israel and Spain; it is more a matter of where to focus first.
And it is instructive that Muslims are teaching this to their children, today.
This is not surprising; Bin Laden himself mentioned "the tragedy of Andalusia" in his videotaped message right after 9/11, referring to the Muslim loss of sovreignty over Spain in the 15th century. And the phrase "tragedy of Andalusia" is not particular to Bin Laden; other Islamist websites use it freely, sometimes as veiled threats.
Here is an excellent Muslim analysis of how mainstream Muslims think of "al-Andalus." Many feel that Madrid was the target of Islamic terror more because of Andalusia rather than Iraq.
It seems that most Muslims feel that once some territory is Muslim, it is Muslim forever and needs to be taken back forcefully. In other words, there is no difference between the West Bank, Israel and Spain; it is more a matter of where to focus first.
And it is instructive that Muslims are teaching this to their children, today.
- Tuesday, December 27, 2005
- Elder of Ziyon
A month ago, there were headlines trumpeting the "fact" that Saudi Arabia dropped its long-standing economic boycott of Israel as a pre-condition to joining the World Trade Organization.
Unfortunately, the Saudis deny it:
Whether the WTO will still allow Saudi Arabia to join even though it is explicitly breaking the rules remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, AP reports that Israel has a healthy underground trade with Arab countries anyway:
This naturally upsets the Arab "intelligentsia" who bemoan the fact that Israel gets any recognition whatsoever from anyone.
As was the case in 1946, the Arab boycott against Israel is an ineffective weapon that hurts the Arab people more than it hurts Israel. One would think that after 60 years it would be obvious that Israel's economy is the strongest in the Middle East despite the official boycott, and that the Arab nations that trade with Israel are benefitting. It is also obvious that the entire reason that the Palestinian economy is in a shambles is because of the intifada, the Palestinians lost their jobs in Israel.
Arab pigheadedness once again hurts Arabs while trying vainly to hurt Israel.
"The Society for Resisting Normalization with the Zionist Enemy" was not available for comment.
Unfortunately, the Saudis deny it:
JEDDAH, 22 December 2005 — Saudi Arabia announced yesterday that it would maintain its first-degree boycott of Israeli products despite joining the World Trade Organization (WTO).
An official at the Commerce and Industry Ministry denied reports that the Kingdom had lifted the boycott. “The Kingdom has lifted only the second and third degree boycott of Israel in accordance with a decision taken by the GCC summit 10 years ago,” the official said, adding that the Saudi accession to WTO was not linked to the lifting of the boycott.
Whether the WTO will still allow Saudi Arabia to join even though it is explicitly breaking the rules remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, AP reports that Israel has a healthy underground trade with Arab countries anyway:
CAIRO, Egypt Dec 26, 2005 — Staff members at a Riyadh hospital got a surprise when they looked at the fine print on the paper cups they were using. Workers in a storeroom at a Dubai hospital were similarly shocked when they took a close look at the tags on a large shipment of uniforms, towels and sheets.
The labels said 'Made in Israel,' according to recent newspaper reports from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both of which have laws that ban imports from the Jewish state.
Experts say the camouflaged trade, with just a small portion receiving publicity, has been going on for years between Israel and its officially hostile Arab neighbors.
The hidden trade is worth about $400 million a year about two and a half times what Israel sold to its official Arab trading partners, Egypt and Jordan, in 2004 said Gil Feiler, the director of Info-Prod Research, a Tel Aviv consultancy specializing in Arab markets, and an economic professor at Bar Ilan University.
Others say such estimates are significantly inflated.
'All the figures are very sexy for the press, but the reality is much less than what is written,' said Dan Catarivas, foreign trade director at the Israeli Manufacturers' Association.
The true amount of Arab imports from Israel is impossible to establish because neither side makes it public, with Israeli-made goods moving to Arab customers through third countries Cyprus or the Netherlands, for example, which list the shipments as local exports.
This naturally upsets the Arab "intelligentsia" who bemoan the fact that Israel gets any recognition whatsoever from anyone.
As was the case in 1946, the Arab boycott against Israel is an ineffective weapon that hurts the Arab people more than it hurts Israel. One would think that after 60 years it would be obvious that Israel's economy is the strongest in the Middle East despite the official boycott, and that the Arab nations that trade with Israel are benefitting. It is also obvious that the entire reason that the Palestinian economy is in a shambles is because of the intifada, the Palestinians lost their jobs in Israel.
Arab pigheadedness once again hurts Arabs while trying vainly to hurt Israel.
"The Society for Resisting Normalization with the Zionist Enemy" was not available for comment.
Monday, December 26, 2005
- Monday, December 26, 2005
- Elder of Ziyon
AbbaGav, in fine form, displays the trademark black Israeli humor with his solution to Israeli aggression: Proportionality Packs. One size fits all!
I actually have a very proportionate solution of my own to the problem of Palestinian Arab terror, and it is all based on the famous "land-for-peace" formula. Since the entire world seems to accept the concept of Israel ceding land for peace, it stands to reason that the converse should be true as well: if there is no peace, Israel should take more land!
Every terror attack should have a response from Knesset: one square kilometer of "Palestinian" territory will be irrevocably annexed by Israel for every dead Israeli, and it will be named for the victim. All the rest of the land will remain up for negotiation but the Palestinian Arabs would see their dream of a terror statelet dry up in direct response to every terror attack.
Israel can start with unpopulated areas, but it should be methodical and planned, one square kilometer at a time. The night of an attack, the fence goes up and the guards move over.
Given the Pavlovian nature of Palestinian Arabs, this would train the people very quickly not to support the terrorists whose actions are resulting in the exact opposite result than they planned for.
This would stop terror faster than any other "proportionate" response.
I actually have a very proportionate solution of my own to the problem of Palestinian Arab terror, and it is all based on the famous "land-for-peace" formula. Since the entire world seems to accept the concept of Israel ceding land for peace, it stands to reason that the converse should be true as well: if there is no peace, Israel should take more land!
Every terror attack should have a response from Knesset: one square kilometer of "Palestinian" territory will be irrevocably annexed by Israel for every dead Israeli, and it will be named for the victim. All the rest of the land will remain up for negotiation but the Palestinian Arabs would see their dream of a terror statelet dry up in direct response to every terror attack.
Israel can start with unpopulated areas, but it should be methodical and planned, one square kilometer at a time. The night of an attack, the fence goes up and the guards move over.
Given the Pavlovian nature of Palestinian Arabs, this would train the people very quickly not to support the terrorists whose actions are resulting in the exact opposite result than they planned for.
This would stop terror faster than any other "proportionate" response.
- Monday, December 26, 2005
- Elder of Ziyon
Here, in a nutshell, is why peace will forever be elusive beween Israel and Arabs.
In this article, the writer says that Israel is practicing genocide against Palestinian Arabs, that Israel acts like Nazis, and that Auschwitz is comparable to Sabra and Shatilla.
But he does not deny that the Holocaust happened.
Which means that in any other universe, he would be denounced as an extremist with no concept of history and proportion, as a historical illiterate and as a person who cynically uses the Holocaust to prop up Palestinian Arab pseudo-cause.
But since he is an Arab, he must be a moderate.
The Arab world is utterly bereft of people who can actually speak to these sorts of issues in a reasonable way, so by the fact that his unreasonableness does not extend to advocating genocide, he sounds reasonable by comparison.
These are the sorts of people Israel has to deal with.
UPDATE: Judeopundit found an Arab-penned article in Lebanon that did not have the same problems as this one. So the tiny sliver of hope that Israel always clings to, that there might be Arabs who can make sense, has not been completely extinguished.
In this article, the writer says that Israel is practicing genocide against Palestinian Arabs, that Israel acts like Nazis, and that Auschwitz is comparable to Sabra and Shatilla.
But he does not deny that the Holocaust happened.
Which means that in any other universe, he would be denounced as an extremist with no concept of history and proportion, as a historical illiterate and as a person who cynically uses the Holocaust to prop up Palestinian Arab pseudo-cause.
But since he is an Arab, he must be a moderate.
The Arab world is utterly bereft of people who can actually speak to these sorts of issues in a reasonable way, so by the fact that his unreasonableness does not extend to advocating genocide, he sounds reasonable by comparison.
These are the sorts of people Israel has to deal with.
Three leading figures of the Middle East have rushed to revise and re-read the Holocaust from a completely immoral and inhumane perspective. Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad began by denying the massacre against Jews ever took place. Soon after, leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, reiterated the same ideas to be followed by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mahdi Akef.
The denial of the Holocaust equates the clearance of Adolf Hitler, with which Islamists should not associate. Such denial is like dissociating Sharon from Sabra and Shatila, Begin from Deir Yassin, the Turks from the massacring of Armenians and Saddam Hussein of his mass murders.
We must draw a line between the fact of the torture of innocent Jews in concentration camps and the Zionist exploitation of the Holocaust with its aim of maintaining a Zionist state that practices the same methods of the Nazis but against Palestinians. For our own sake, we must acknowledge that Zionists cunningly used the genocide of the Jews for political blackmail, whereas no Arab or Muslim organizations have yet documented professionally the genocide of Palestinians to present to the world. Meanwhile, some Arab political parties still insist upon denying the annihilation against the Kurdish village Halabjah and the mass graves perpetrated by Saddam Hussein's regime, however, will seek to justify such horrendous acts!
UPDATE: Judeopundit found an Arab-penned article in Lebanon that did not have the same problems as this one. So the tiny sliver of hope that Israel always clings to, that there might be Arabs who can make sense, has not been completely extinguished.
- Monday, December 26, 2005
- Elder of Ziyon
The Jerusalem Post is getting ready for the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards, with what appears to be a beta test page of the nominations. Not all the categories are there yet but it is looking good! It is also a great page to check out the entire JBlogosphere from.
I also failed to extend my hakoras hatov to those who nominated me (besides the self-nominations, I admit I was weak): Soccer Dad nominated this blog for Best Designed Blog (where most of the credit goes to Daughter of Ziyon) and Judeopundit nominated it for Best Israel Advocacy Blog. Thank you! (I had nominated myself for Israel Advocacy and I nominated the Palestine Post-ings sister blog for Best Series. Part of me hopes that the editors of the Jerusalem Post won't be able to resist the nomination of a blog dedicated to their early years!)
The first round of voting starts next week. Congratulations to the entire J-Blogosphere for some outstanding blogs and articles, and thanks to Israellycool for doing the hard work behind this event!
UPDATE: The voting has been pushed back a week. Check here for details.
I also failed to extend my hakoras hatov to those who nominated me (besides the self-nominations, I admit I was weak): Soccer Dad nominated this blog for Best Designed Blog (where most of the credit goes to Daughter of Ziyon) and Judeopundit nominated it for Best Israel Advocacy Blog. Thank you! (I had nominated myself for Israel Advocacy and I nominated the Palestine Post-ings sister blog for Best Series. Part of me hopes that the editors of the Jerusalem Post won't be able to resist the nomination of a blog dedicated to their early years!)
The first round of voting starts next week. Congratulations to the entire J-Blogosphere for some outstanding blogs and articles, and thanks to Israellycool for doing the hard work behind this event!
UPDATE: The voting has been pushed back a week. Check here for details.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
- Sunday, December 25, 2005
- Elder of Ziyon
Daled Amos hosts this week's Haveil Havalim, in which I embarrassingly nominated three articles (two of them at Soccer Dad's request) and all three ended up making it in. So for a brief time I can fool myself into thinking that I am a major star in the JBlog universe.
The three articles are my Chanukah gift to the blogosphere, my comparison of the news coverage of the same event from two very different sources, and my historical posting from 1949 of a very relevant analysis of the Palestinian Arab refugee problem.
Daled Amos himself is too modest to refer to his own great observation about Reuters.
As usual, a great collection of articles and links!
The three articles are my Chanukah gift to the blogosphere, my comparison of the news coverage of the same event from two very different sources, and my historical posting from 1949 of a very relevant analysis of the Palestinian Arab refugee problem.
Daled Amos himself is too modest to refer to his own great observation about Reuters.
As usual, a great collection of articles and links!
Saturday, December 24, 2005
- Saturday, December 24, 2005
- Elder of Ziyon
If this is the kind of "research" that we can expect from the Iranian world, then we don't have to worry much about Iranian nukes.
This is followed by quotes from well-known Holocaust deniers and a smattering of emails from first-name-only correspondents.
And yet, Google still considers Mehr a "news" source.
TEHRAN, Dec. 24 (MNA) -- Following the statement by President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who on December 14 called the Holocaust a myth, the Mehr News Agency contacted a number of leading independent historians and scholars from different parts of the world to ask them their views on the idea.
This is followed by quotes from well-known Holocaust deniers and a smattering of emails from first-name-only correspondents.
And yet, Google still considers Mehr a "news" source.
Friday, December 23, 2005
- Friday, December 23, 2005
- Elder of Ziyon
Over a year ago I came up with an interesting idea.
I am not nearly as fluent in modern Hebrew as I should be, but I thought that since Arabic and Hebrew are so similar, if I could create an Arabic font that used corresponding Hebrew characters, people who were very familiar with Hebrew but who didn't know Arabic letters could read and begin to understand Arabic newspapers. All you have to do is configure your browser to use this font for Arabic, or cut and paste the Arabic to a word processor and then change the font to this HebArabic font.
In other words, change this:
Into this:
With only a limited amount of Hebrew knowledge you can pick out the words "Palestinian" and "Mahmoud Abbas", and you see many words beginning with the "al-" prefix.
Here is possibly a shortcut way for Hebrew speakers to learn Arabic.
So I commissioned someone to create the font to my specs, and they did.
It isn't perfect: there seem to be different Arabic standards, right-to-left sometimes gets messed up, and altogether it is not a plug-and-play type thing. I am not doing technical support for this! But it is a fun tool to play with.
It works under Windows but I see no reason it shouldn't work on Macs as well.
Here is the font in ZIP format. Enjoy, and Chag Sameach!
I am not nearly as fluent in modern Hebrew as I should be, but I thought that since Arabic and Hebrew are so similar, if I could create an Arabic font that used corresponding Hebrew characters, people who were very familiar with Hebrew but who didn't know Arabic letters could read and begin to understand Arabic newspapers. All you have to do is configure your browser to use this font for Arabic, or cut and paste the Arabic to a word processor and then change the font to this HebArabic font.
In other words, change this:
قال مسؤولون فلسطينيون يوم الجمعة ان رئيس وزراء السلطة أحمد قريع الذي استقال من منصبه الاسبوع الماضي ليترشح على قائمة حركة فتح للانتخابات التشريعية سحب ترشيحه. وأضاف المسؤولون أن قريع اتخذ هذه الخطوة احتجاجا على عدم قيام الرئيس الفلسطيني محمود عباس بتأجيل الانتخابات وبسبب دمج قائمتين متنازعتين لفتح ... التفاصيل |
Into this:
With only a limited amount of Hebrew knowledge you can pick out the words "Palestinian" and "Mahmoud Abbas", and you see many words beginning with the "al-" prefix.
Here is possibly a shortcut way for Hebrew speakers to learn Arabic.
So I commissioned someone to create the font to my specs, and they did.
It isn't perfect: there seem to be different Arabic standards, right-to-left sometimes gets messed up, and altogether it is not a plug-and-play type thing. I am not doing technical support for this! But it is a fun tool to play with.
It works under Windows but I see no reason it shouldn't work on Macs as well.
Here is the font in ZIP format. Enjoy, and Chag Sameach!
- Friday, December 23, 2005
- Elder of Ziyon
Israeli creates popular diet with lots of bread
Petah Tikva scientist find gene that causes mental retardation
Copper oxide in textiles keeps bacteria away
Israel lends billions more than it borrows
New high-tech boom in Israel
Petah Tikva scientist find gene that causes mental retardation
Copper oxide in textiles keeps bacteria away
Israel lends billions more than it borrows
New high-tech boom in Israel
Thursday, December 22, 2005
- Thursday, December 22, 2005
- Elder of Ziyon
Which one makes more sense?
| | |
| Israeli occupation troops on Wednesday murdered a Palestinian activist in the northern West Bank town of The troops reportedly arrested and then killed Ziyad Mousa whom the occupation authorities accuse of having killed an Israeli occupation soldier earlier this year. According to eyewitnesses, Israeli troops stormed a building in downtown Jenin where they killed Mousa. The eyewitnesses said Mousa was only armed with a pistol and didn't resist arrest. "Despite this, the troops killed him in cold blood rather than arresting him." "Where is the international community which cries out whenever a Zionist is killed or injured?" said one Hamas spokesman in the northern | An elite Border Guard unit shot and killed one of Hamas’ commanders in the West Bank town of Ziad Suleiman Khalil Moussa, 28, of Marka near Jenin, was located in Jenin Wednesday afternoon and killed in exchanges of fire between Border Guard policemen and Palestinian gunmen in the Moussa was responsible for the killing of IDF Sergeant Yonatan Evron, 20, near Jenin last month. A trained police dog was killed and a policeman was lightly wounded during the operation. The policeman was treated at the scene and then taken to Afula’s Emek hospital. Two Palestinian gunmen were also injured and taken to a Jenin hospital in Palestinian ambulances. Palestinian Authority officials said Moussa’s killing will draw Hamas back into the cycle of violence, after a long period of commitment to a truce with Israel. |
- Thursday, December 22, 2005
- Elder of Ziyon
When even a computerized test cannot categorize me, I know I'm doing something right.
(from Lamed Zayin, via Elie, via OrthoMom, via Town Crier....)
- Thursday, December 22, 2005
- Elder of Ziyon
It is not easy to understand the motivations behind Iran's Ahmadenijad (see "Towards a psychoanalysis of Iran" and "Media analyzes Ahmadinejad - and gets it wrong"). It is tempting to denounce Ahmadenijad as a madman, or to come up with explanations that are incomplete.
The real explanation is surprisingly simple: Ahmadenijad is positioning Iran to become a world superpower, and to a great extent he has already succeeded.
What makes a superpower? Part of it is military might, to be sure, but a more important component is the ability to lead. Ahmadenijad's rhetoric is not aimed at his people; rather he is stepping into the vacuum that the Islamic world has had for decades - trying to become a leader in the war against Islam's enemies.
There is a strong religious component to this desire, as I have mentioned before and as this article spells out very well, but it appears that Iran's president is aiming not only to make Iran the religious center of Islam, but the political center as well.
How does one assert political leadership of the Muslim world?
Looking at the world map with this perspective, Iran's "bloc" already includes essentially the entire Arab world, much of Africa, Pakistan, North Korea and probably Indonesia. Russia and China are pretty much neutral, although some former Soviet republics are solidly in the Islamic camp. India may not be Islamic but it has more Muslims than any Muslim country.
And as European countries becomes more Islamic and remain dependent on Islamic oil, it is not entirely clear that they are solidly in the US camp in this battle - a significant part of their population is very sympathetic to an anti-Western viewpoint. Iran is not only aiming at increasing its power, but in isolating the US as well.
Nuclear capabilities, along with missile technology, will cement Iran's leadership status as the world's second superpower. And the Iranians have already noted that North Korea became a nuclear power without the West stopping them, and they fully expect that while the protests will be noisier, things will end up exactly the same for them.
From all appearances, it looks like they are right.
The real explanation is surprisingly simple: Ahmadenijad is positioning Iran to become a world superpower, and to a great extent he has already succeeded.
What makes a superpower? Part of it is military might, to be sure, but a more important component is the ability to lead. Ahmadenijad's rhetoric is not aimed at his people; rather he is stepping into the vacuum that the Islamic world has had for decades - trying to become a leader in the war against Islam's enemies.
There is a strong religious component to this desire, as I have mentioned before and as this article spells out very well, but it appears that Iran's president is aiming not only to make Iran the religious center of Islam, but the political center as well.
How does one assert political leadership of the Muslim world?
- Take the one issue that all Muslims agree on (the destruction of Israel) and outdo all of the others.
- Take on the undisputed existing world leader, showing bravery where everyone else is frightened.
- Create the most powerful military in the Islamic world, one that now threatens the West.
- Strengthen industry and scientific R&D to become technologically independent of the enemy:
The Supreme Leader pointed to the threat posed by the global arrogance led by US against different nations and said that under such circumstances, there is not way but, to get stronger, rely upon Almighty God and bolster self-confidence to make use of domestic potentials.Ayatollah Khamenei said that nations should get stronger in the field of economy, science and politics, adding that reinforcing military and defensive capability is a major need for the nations.
- Act as a leader, speaking for other countries (notice the use of the plural "nations" in the quote above)
- Improve economic and political ties with more neutral countries. (A significant percentage of the Iranian news agency's stories are about economic initiatives with Europe, Asia and Africa - Iran hardly feels isolated even after its verbal provocations.)
- Attack the enemy militarily (Hezbollah, Iraq)
Looking at the world map with this perspective, Iran's "bloc" already includes essentially the entire Arab world, much of Africa, Pakistan, North Korea and probably Indonesia. Russia and China are pretty much neutral, although some former Soviet republics are solidly in the Islamic camp. India may not be Islamic but it has more Muslims than any Muslim country.
And as European countries becomes more Islamic and remain dependent on Islamic oil, it is not entirely clear that they are solidly in the US camp in this battle - a significant part of their population is very sympathetic to an anti-Western viewpoint. Iran is not only aiming at increasing its power, but in isolating the US as well.
Nuclear capabilities, along with missile technology, will cement Iran's leadership status as the world's second superpower. And the Iranians have already noted that North Korea became a nuclear power without the West stopping them, and they fully expect that while the protests will be noisier, things will end up exactly the same for them.
From all appearances, it looks like they are right.
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