NJ'S OBSCENE INVITATION

The New York Post, September 26, 2007

AS the father of a terror victim, I can no longer be shocked by much. And as a New Jerseyan, I'm used to strange goings-on in my state's government. But I was shocked and surprised to I learn that John L. Esposito will be a featured speaker at next week's state Department of Homeland Security confernce on counterterrorism.

Esposito teaches at Georgetown University in its His Royal Highness Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. To get a sense of the center's purpose, recall that bin Talal is the Saudi prince who shortly after 9/11 blamed the attacks on U.S. Mideast policy (prompting then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani to throw the prince's $10 million gift to the city back in his face).

Esposito finds time to appear around the country at events sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) - helping the group raise funds to explain that the real problem fronting us today is less a clash of cultures than a clash of Islam with American foreign policy. The Esposito-CAIR position is that Americans constantly ask Muslims to understand them without scrutinizing our own actions.

CAIR, by the way, is an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial against the Holy Land Foundation, which stands accused of diverting over $12 million of charitable contributions to the terrorist group Hamas. Esposito has spoken at fund-raisers for Holy Land's defense, and praised its work.

If we judge someone by the company he keeps, Esposito could do better - for at a CAIR gathering in Dallas, Esposito described Sami Al-Arian as "a very good friend of mine." Al-Arian is the Palestinian professor who pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to provide money to Palestinian Islamic Jihad - the group responsible for the 1995 bus-bombing murder of my daughter Alisa and seven others.

Just what is it that Esposito will say at this Homeland Security conference? Judging by his other speeches and writings, he'll say that America must promote broader self-determination in the Muslim world (whatever that means) and develop a "balanced" policy on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict - which clearly translates to "America must abandon Israel to its foes or face the consequences." (That's what his patron, Prince bin Talal, said when he blamed American support for Israel as being the cause of 9/11.)

Commenting on the U.S. government's revocation of a visa for Tariq Ramadan because of Ramadan's suspected terrorist ties, Esposito said the decision might have been influenced by Jewish groups that, he says, have waged a campaign against scholars and public intellectuals whose views on Islam and the Middle East conflict with their own.

It seems that Esposito blames everyone but those actually responsible for much of the mayhem in the world - Islamic extremists and those who support them.

Is this the kind of person we want to lecture about terrorism to New Jersey's first responders? I don't think so - and I hope the folks who invited him have second thoughts about that invitation.

New York Post

Nonsense and More Nonsense

In typical naïve American fashion, visitors to “Palestine” usually accept at face value the statements made to them by spokesmen for one Palestinian group or another. Typical of this is the tripe written by Eileen Fleming, in an article appearing on the web at The People's Voice

If there is to be understanding in the Middle East, it is first necessary that reports from the field be based on accuracy and not lies. Here are some examples taken from Fleming’s article:

The death of Abir Aramin, a Palestinian child killed in the course of a riot, was blamed on Israel’s use of rubber bullets to quell the riot. In fact, an autopsy disclosed that Aramin could have been killed by concussion from a shock grenade or by a thrown rock. However, the findings were inconsistent with her having been killed by a rubber bullet. The autopsy was performed with a pathologist hired by Aramin's family in attendance.

When asked where she was from Fleming writes she “cringed when I said [I was from] America, for I was ashamed that over one hundred billion USA tax dollars since 1948 have gone to Israel.” Foreign aid is a complicated issue; not a simple one as Fleming would have us believe.
Israel has received more direct aid from the United States since World War II than any other country, but the amounts for the first half of this period were relatively small. Between 1949 and 1973, the U.S. provided Israel with an average of about $122 million a year, a total of $3.1 billion (and actually more than $1 billion of that was loans for military equipment in 1971-73) . Prior to 1971, Israel received a total of only $277 million in military aid, all in the form of loans as credit sales. The bulk of the economic aid was also lent to Israel. By comparison, the Arab states received nearly three times as much aid before 1971, $4.4 billion, or $170 million per year. Moreover, unlike Israel, which receives nearly all its aid from the United States, Arab nations have gotten assistance from Asia, Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and the European Community. Congress first designated a specific amount of aid for Israel (an "earmark") in 1971.
For a clear breakdown of just what Israel gets from the United States, go to Jewish Virtual Library

A resident refugee informed Fleming that on a daily basis, "The Israeli Occupation Forces show up when the children gather in the morning or after classes. They throw percussion bombs or gas bombs into the school nearly every day! The world is sleeping; the world is hibernating and is allowing this misery to continue." Fleming, the reporter, fails to mention whether she witnessed any of these alleged attacks that happen “nearly every day.” That is the job of a reporter and Fleming fails miserably at it.

Sadly, these so-called friends of the Palestinians debase their own worth when they write silly essays. Peace will only come about when well-meaning people stop playing the fool.

CAIR in the Crosshairs

You have to give credit where credit is due, and for blurring the lines between terror's supporters and civil rights organizations, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) deserves such credit.
Here comes Daniel Pipes who rightfully takes aim at CAIR, again, but now for the "dirty tricks" they use to portray Dr. Pipes as a leading Muslim-hater.
Sorry to say that CAIR has lost its ability to blush.


CAIR's Dirty Tricks Against Me

Is that Knock-off Handbag a Ticking Bomb?

Did you know that the Chanel or Fendi handbag knock-off you bought from that street vendor in New York City or Los Angeles poses a threat to our security? Dana Thomas in a terrific New York Times Op-Ed, "Terror's Purse Strings," says they do.

Terror is funded, so it seems, in two ways. By direct appeal to its supporters for cash contributions and, according to Ms. Thomas's research, by unknowingly supporting terrorists through the purchase of counterfeit goods. As to the former, witness the current trial involving the Holy Land Foundation that is accused of being a Hamas supporter funneling cash to that terrorist organization. According to Interpol, the proceeds from the sale of counterfeit goods wind up in the hands of Hezbollah and other terrorists.

With apologies to J.P. Morgan, maybe we as a society should remember to stick with the real thing and that if have to ask how much something costs, we cannot afford it.

Terror’s Purse Strings by Dana Thomas

Most people think that buying an imitation handbag or wallet is harmless, a victimless crime. But the counterfeiting rackets are run by crime syndicates that also deal in narcotics, weapons, child prostitution, human trafficking and terrorism.

Terror's Purse Strings

Christiane Amanpour - Queen of Stereotypes

Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent for CNN, has come under withering fire for her series "Gods Warriors." Rightfully so, I say. Miss Amanpour is not a stranger to the fine lines of Middle Eastern thought and politics, but she cannot seem to help herself from blurring them over and over. Her latest report is more of the same old stuff.

Her series, supposedly an evenhanded treatment of fundamentalist driven terrorism in the Middle East, turned, instead, to a moral equivalence between Islamic, Christian and Jewish extremists.

As stated by Heather Robinson in the August 29, 2007 edition of The New York Sun

The moral equivalency begins with the opening sequence, in which an Orthodox Jewish woman appears on-screen saying, "God promised we would return to this land" and a Muslim woman appears saying, "This is the ultimate sacrifice, to give your soul as a gift to God the creator, and the country." Next comes a shot of Jerry Falwell saying, "I would like to see America become the nation under God again" and then Ms. Amanpour narrating, "They say, ‘God is the answer.' But their battle to save the world has caused anger, division, and fear."

Thus the message is that Jewish and Christian religious fundamentalism are as threatening to world peace as Muslim extremism of the variety voiced by the woman who romanticizes jihad martyrdom.

It is sad that a renowned journalist is trapped inside her own inability to issue a truly balanced report. We expect better from Christiane Amanpour, unfortunately, she does not deliver.

Queen of Stereotypes