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May 9, 2012

Israel Needs Consensus in Response ‎to Apocalyptic Event Threatening its ‎Survival

Israel’s leaders must take into account the opinions of all its defense experts when making a ‎decision on whether to attack Iran, writes Ed Koch in Algemeiner. ‎

Israel has to be the final arbiter of any decision bearing on its survival.  It would obviously ‎be helpful beyond belief if the U.S. joined it in any attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, but ‎even if it is forced to go it alone, that should come as a result of a reasonable consensus of ‎opinion, arrived at by these people and others with expertise on the issue. The government ‎of Israel should take all reasonable measures to assemble a consensus of Israeli opinion ‎makers in and out of government to support the government in its response to an ‎apocalyptic event threatening Israel’s very survival.‎

Syria: Is This an Arab Spring or a ‎Balkan Winter?‎

Writing in Time, Tony Karon says that Assad’s response to the unrest ‎in his country is more akin to Milosevic than Mubarak. ‎

President Bashar Assad appears to have decided early in the Syria campaign that ‎he’d rather be Milosevic than Gaddafi, albeit with a different ending. And thus far ‎he’s doing a pretty effective job. Now that this has turned from protest movement ‎to sectarian civil war, he has managed to sidestep the demand that he should ‎step down. Instead, peace plans are now based on securing his agreement to stop ‎state violence. ‎

The spy who came in from the code

Matthieu Aikins of the Columbia Journalism Review describes how Syrian forces used a British ‎journalist’s digital notes against the people who talked to him, which could signal a ‎worrying new phenomenon for reporters in warzones. ‎

The Syrians had interrogated [Sean] McAllister about his activities, and seized his laptop, ‎mobile phone, camera, and footage. All of McAllister’s research was now at the disposal of ‎Syrian intelligence. When Kardokh heard that McAllister had been arrested, he didn’t ‎hesitate—he turned off his mobile phone, packed his bag, and fled Damascus, staying with ‎relatives in a nearby town before escaping to Lebanon. He said that other activists who ‎had been in touch with McAllister fled the country as well, and several of those who didn’t ‎were arrested. ‎

Obama Hits Syria With Brutal Blast of ‎Adverbs

Jeffrey Goldberg, writing in Bloomberg, takes the Obama administration to task ‎over its response to the ongoing violence in Syria. 

The Obama administration hasn’t helped to arm the rebels, nor has it created safe ‎havens for persecuted dissidents. But it has done something far more important: It ‎has provided the Syrian opposition with very strong language to describe Assad’s ‎various atrocities. The administration’s unprecedented verbal and written sorties ‎against the Assad regime have included some of the most powerful adjectives, ‎adjectival intensifiers and adverbs ever aimed at an American foe. This campaign has ‎helped Syrians understand, among other things, that the English language contains ‎many synonyms for “repulsive.”‎

The FBI’s Muslim Outreach Follies

The FBI has a habit of engaging with Muslim groups and activists who are ‎themselves engaging with terrorist organizations, writes Patrick Poole in PJ ‎Media. ‎

The FBI has a long history of partnering with groups accused of supporting Islamic ‎terrorism. Among the first groups appointed to the FBI’s Arab, Muslim, and Sikh ‎Advisory Council following the 9/11 attacks was the Council on American-Islamic ‎Relations (CAIR). After CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest ‎terrorism financing trial in American history, an FBI agent testified during that trial that ‎CAIR was a front for the terrorist group Hamas. Federal prosecutors also told a federal ‎court: “From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other ‎affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists.” The FBI was publicly forced ‎to sever ties with CAIR.‎

 

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