Atlas Shrugs

PART II: ALYSSA LAPPEN INTERVIEWS ATLAS: ISLAM'S WAR ON WOMEN

Here's part II of journalist Alyssa Lappen over at Right Side News -- it's lengthy; what follows is a small excerpt. If you missed part one, go here.

The Evils of Islamic Political Ideology, Suppression of Women

Part Two: How Muslim Theory Suppresses Women By Alyssa A. Lappen

U.S. women received universal suffrage in 1920 with passage of the 19th Constitutional Amendment, avowing that neither the federal government nor any state could deny or abridge the right of U.S. citizens "to vote ... on account of sex." Article II granted Congress the right to enforce the amendment legislatively.

Long before the U.S. declared itself a nation, however, America gave women at large great respect. The Uxbridge, Mass. town fathers in 1756 granted the young widow Lydia Taft the right to vote in local matters, for example. America again showed its respect for women in 1789 when the states ratified the U.S. Constitution, inferring rights to women amongst "We the people of the United States," when early 19th century suffragette Abby Kelley Foster first sought votes for women, and in 1869 when Susan B. Anthony's formed the National Woman Suffrage Association.

Voting rights would never have accrued to American women, moreover, without their basic and universal right to free speech and their right "peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances," as guaranteed in the First Amendment, drafted and ratified in 1791.

Nowhere in the world, by contrast, does Islam grant such rights to women, either political or religious. Far from it. Current Islamic teaching more or less parallels that of the 7th century original. In October 2006, for example, former Australian Mufti Sheikh Taj Aldin al-Hilali described women as "uncovered meat" in a sermon at Sydney's Lakemba mosque. Similarly, Muslim Brotherhood spiritual chief Yusuf Qaradawi, widely recognized as Islam's "greatest" living scholar, in the Status of Women in Islam derides any woman having "free rein to assert herself, promote her personality, enjoy her life and her femininity... mix with men freely, experience them closely where they would be together and alone, travel with them, go to cinemas or dance till midnight together."

Moreover that theme---of women as not only chattel, but actually meat---is embedded in Islamic tradition, as stated by Second Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab (634-644). Umar stated, "innamaa al-nisaa' laHm `alaa waDam illaa maa dhubba `anhu" (Women are only meat on the butcher's block, except for any parts that have dried up), according to a medieval Arabic text cited in 1937 by the great Islamic scholar, Georges Vajda. [1]

This might be unbelievable but for the fact that Islamic law, as cited in the Hadith (traditions of Mohammed) ascribes to women's testimony just half the value given to that of men. Muslims consider the accounts of Sahih al-Bukhari unassailable. And according to Sahih al-Bukhari (3:48:826), Mohammed said, "This is because of the deficiency of the women's mind." Presumably for the same reason, Islamic law historically accepts accusations of rape only when there are four witnesses (not including the victim), an intentionally impossible benchmark. Three quarters of women imprisoned under Pakistan's hudud laws, not surprisingly, are reported to be rape victims.

The global Muslim war on free speech is best exemplified by verbal and legal attacks on Dutch freedom fighter and Member of Parliament Geert Wilders, who has for years required non-stop personal security protection, now faces trial at home for his truthful statements quoting the Qur'an, and was recently barred entry to the U.K. This is all the work of advocates for global shari'a rule.

As we've previously noted at Right Side News, several large North American Muslim organizations also advocate global imposition of Islamic law, which prohibits "defamation" of Islam and Mohammed. For Muslims who leave the faith or "blaspheme" against Islam or Mohammed, the punishment is death, a statute on the books in several Muslim states, and widely enforced by mob rule in others. Non-Muslims may not criticize Islam or Mohammed, either. Pakistan's hudud code enforces shari'a laws on everyone, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan also enforce hudud laws. According to Islamic scholars, these statutes apply to all of mankind.

"Shari'a is barbaric, hateful, imperialistic, and unjust," says ex-Muslim Abul Kasem, who no doubt voices the thoughts of tens of thousands of former Muslims. But the situation in which shari'a places women, both in Islamic countries and the West, is by far one of most intolerable created by the code. In Women in Islam: an Exegesis Kasem, a contributor to Leaving Islam, Ibn Warraq's superb collection of essays by a host of former Muslims, challenges readers to imagine their mothers and sisters imprisoned under such shari'a.

"Men are in charge of women," asserts the Qur'an in Chapter 4, verse 34. Other Qur'anic edicts concerning women are also especially harsh, and they are all based on the Qur'an, as well as other traditional Islamic sources. Kasem also asks readers to find a single Western law as misogynist as the following two Haditha, which equate a woman with a rib, and therefore crookedness.

From Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 113, as narrated by Abu Huraira:

"Allah's Apostle said, 'The woman is like a rib; if you try to straighten her, she will break. So if you want to get benefit from her, do so while she still has some crookedness'."

From Shahih Muslim, also narrated by Abu Huraira Volume 8, Number 3467,

"Women were created crooked; if you try to straighten her you will break her and breaking her is divorcing her..."

One of the foremost U.S. advocates of equal rights for Muslim women, in North America and worldwide, is AtlasShrugs.com editor and publisher Pamela Geller.

Here, in the second installment of an exclusive four-part Right Side News series on the Evils of Islamic Political Ideology, investigative journalist Alyssa A. Lappen focuses the discussion on the plight of Muslim women worldwide.

AAL: Why do you consider the situation of women so important within the Muslim war upon Western freedoms?

Atlas: This war is for women, and about women, and the ownership of women. You can judge the health of any society by how they treat women. And obviously in Islam, women are chattel.

I grew up in the Golden Age. I grew up in post World War II America. I was a post-boomer, what they called the generation Joneses. I grew up watching Andy Griffiths and I Love Lucy --- mindless, carefree, free. Freedoms were like the air I breathe. It was not until those freedoms were threatened that I realized how privileged I was and am and how I must do everything in my power to save it. No one stomps on my neck because I wear high heal shoes and low necked sweaters.

And now, the key to our freedom, believe it or not, is the freedom of women in the Muslim world.

AAL: Changing the situation for them seems like a very tall order, almost an impossibility.

Atlas: Women in the Muslim world have to be part of the effort, although they know nothing else and they live under fear and oppression. They have no one fighting for freedom. Their situation is like that of people who've had Stockholm syndrome for 1,400 years.

If you throw a frog in boiling water, he will jump out. But if you put a frog into warm water and turn up the heat until it gets hotter and hotter, that frog will be toast. That is what has happened to Muslim women, and it's why we have to work for them. We have to stop that, because it is already happening here.

People are auto-censoring themselves. There is double speak. People say what seems correct because they are afraid of the truth. Where you are not free to speak we are all in trouble. And the battle line in North America, first and foremost, is for Muslim women.

AAL: How can we show skeptics how difficult things have already grown in the West.

Atlas: Look, all you have to to is going onto YouTube to see videos on how to beat your wife without leaving marks, what tools to use, like they would beat a dog. There are Islamic clerics who teach men to beat their wives "gently."

The long and short of it is, in Islamic countries, women are slaves. And there is still slavery in these countries. They have human trafficking. It is not part of our culture; it is not part of our rules. Of course there is illegal human trafficking here, but it is not systemic. It is against the law. Slavery was abolished with the emancipation proclamation. Slavery is still very much a part of Islamic societies.

They consider it perfectly normal.

But we currently have a United Nations that has paid no attention to the millions of people murdered in the southern Sudan and Darfur genocides. These atrocities are of no consequence to them. So women's rights are certainly not even on the playing field.

AAL: How much of this happens in the West. Do we now have an epidemic in North America, too?

Atlas: So many people ask me how many women in the West are murdered in honor killings. I can't give them an answer. Part of the problem is that even when there's unquestionably been an honor killing, officials do not want to label it. This was the case when Yaser Abdel Said murdered his daughters Amina Said, 18, and Sarah Said, 17 on New Year's Day in 2008. They were gorgeous, vibrant, quintessential girls. But they were too Western and they were dating non-Muslims. They spoke to a teacher at school. They called social services. They totally invested themselves in the West. They took honors and advanced placement classes. None of that mattered. No one helped them. Finally they ran away. The West could not save them. Their mother Patricia and brother, Islam, lured them back to Texas, to be murdered on New Year's Day. Their father Yaser fled the country, probably to Egypt and the FBI issued a wanted poster. Their great aunt, Gail Gartrell, lobbied officials to designate the crimes honor killings, which they were.

Their mother, father and brother are still at large. And it took the FBI 10 months to add the words "honor killing" to the wanted poster. I called it a pig-flying moment, when the FBI finally acted, it was so rare. They called a spade a spade. But within days, the FBI caved in to pressure from the Muslim Brotherhood and revised the wanted poster, to exclude the truth. 

AAL: That's horrible. But this is anecdotal. To play the devil's advocate, how do we know the problem is so huge, even in the U.S.

Atlas: For one thing, there is a fear of labeling. It took the FBI 10 months to call those murders honor killings. After 10 months, the wanted poster finally said:

Yaser Abdel Said is wanted for murder. On January 1, 2008, Said took his two teen-aged daughters for a ride in his taxi cab, under the guise of taking them to get something to eat. He drove them to a secluded park in Irving, Texas, where he allegedly shot both girls to death. They died of multiple gunshot wounds. The 17- and 18-year-old girls were dating American boys, which was contrary to their father's rules of not dating non-Muslim boys. Reportedly, the girls were murdered due to an "Honor Killing." Said may have fled to New York or Egypt."

But the FBI redacted that language very quickly. I called them on it. I called the agent and the man in charge. And he said, look we do not want to get involved in labeling. So there is real fear. It's fear, or dhimmitude.

Go: there's more.

BLOGGER CONFERENCE CALL: GENERAL EITAM AT THE BATTLEFIELD

General Effi Eitam is an Israeli war hero, a foreign cabinet minister, and a senior member of the security and foreign affairs committee in the Knesset. I had the honor to interview him with other bloggers on a conference call earlier today. One Jerusalem.org put together this critical opportunity to cut through the media's anti-Israel campaign and get to the facts.

General Eitam receives regular updates and participates in frequent meetings with Israel's minister of defense and the defense forces chief of staff. He has two sons fighting in Gaza and  has just returned from an official visit to the front lines.

It was magnificent to hear a great warrior speak unapologetically of defending the Jewish people. He was clear and concise. It is comforting to know that men of his caliber, fortitude and clarity are helping drive the bus. He gave a brief overview of the millions of Israel under siege for years - suffering the relentless rain of rockets from Gaza. He said Hamas' military infrastructure was targeted and destroyed with very few civilian casualities. Hamas has been beaten and has suffered a lot of damage - their physical infrastructure and their will to fight have been melted. He thinks the population has turned his back on this brutal, irresponsible leadership. They are captives now of this irresponsibility of government.

He discussed the depravity of the Hamas thugs, their use of human shields and residential homes as firing bases. Shockingly, he revealed that Hamas was shooting civilians in the feet to stop them from running away.

I asked Eitam if the massive anti-Israel, Jew hating rallies across the world had effected Israeli resolve. Was it affecting popular opinion or was Israel focused on her objective? Eitam said Israel was somewhat surprised - not by the reaction in the Arab world. It's to be expected in Islamic countries. But the rallies in Europe and the US were troubling and the result of large Arab immigration.

Other bloggers on the call were Omri from Mere Rhetoric, Anne from Boker Tov, Jerry Gordan of Iconoclast, among others -- including Ted Belman of Israpundit, who noted these points:

1. Israel will continue with its assault for another two weeks. Rather than enter into to Gaza City and fight street by street, Israel will invite the Gazans to leave the city and go to the sand dunes of Gush Katif where a temporary city will be set up for their care. Then Israel will pulverize Gaza City from the air until Hamas surrenders.

2. Israel, even then, won’t rush into a ceasefire agreement but will manage the aftermath carefully. Ultimately IDF will return to Israel.

3.  Israel will insist in any settlement that Corporal Shalit be returned.

4.  There will be no more smuggling of arms. Period.

5. The Defeat of Hamas will not move the peace process forward. There is no peace process. The Arabs have to choose between the status quo or a fate similar to the fate of Gazans. The Arabs prefer Israel protection to having their own state. Everything is improving in Judea and Samaria and the Arabs know it.

6. Israel is unified and committed to preventing Iran from getting the bomb. From what he said I got the impression that the attack on Iran is not far away hopefully with international support.

Eitam was asked about the breaking news that Israel accepted a truce.

He was... highly skeptical. The fact that Israel has just dropped leaflets over the Gaza-Egypt border - signs of an impending operation to dismantle the smuggling tunnels one by one - lends something above an iota of credibility to his intuition.

 

He said point in fact that he did not believe it.

He said that he has never seen the people of Israel so strong in their resolve. They are unwavering. Eitam said the lessons of the Lebanon Hezbo war were well learned. Israel learned well from her mistakes.

The audio will be up shortly - please listen to it. It's the real news in real time.

UPDATE: The Audio is up. LISTEN NOW!

ISRAEL BLOGGER CONFERENCE CALL BRIGADIER SHAFIR: GAZA DEFENSIVE

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Israeli Consulate of New York, invited me to participate in a briefing on the current situation in Gaza --  I just got off the phone, liveblogging it.

Ambassador Jeremy Issacharoff (Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy) and Brigadier General in Reserve Relik Shafir of the Israeli Air Force, briefed bloggers and broadcasters on the latest developments regarding Israel's response to continued rocket and mortar fire from Gaza.

Much discussion of what precipitated this military option -  the tens of thousands of rockets fired into Southern Israel, with intense escalation last week.

"Israeli wanted to exhaust the diplomatic option..... military option was the last resort. Hamas always  chooses the military option first."

"Hamas wanted to escalate the conflict" to undermine Fatah ....they felt much more isolated. This puts them center stage

Israel two objectives to cripple the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas - the military primary purpose we are focused what they are using all their air force assets

Military capabilities is the target. Disarm Hamas. Their military infrastructure is the target.

Up to yesterday 89 trucks of humanitarian aid.....

93 additional trucks went through the south of Gaza today Five ambulances (provided by Turkey) went through ....all humanitarian efforts are being made while the guns are firing

"We do not want a return from the status quo". "This is the key"

General Shafir conferences in from the field in Ashkelon where it has taken 30 hits from rockets and kassams - sirens going off - and you can hear in the air the sounds of war.

"We have tried to minimize collateral damage because we know it is going to be a long battle"....

My question was what is the objective of the war - to disarm Hamas or to take take out Hamas? If Hamas's objective is to destroy Israel, disarming is not enough - this is just more foreplay ....

"We need goals we can measure"

The objective is to "defend our citizens".

General said, we are in for the long haul this kind of power game is something we cannot shouldn't tolerate. This conflict will end will power or fire power

"we are not willing to fore go our ethics ...... we will not change who we are.

we will not target civilians

we will not fire into civilian areas

we will take out one by one - so course this will take longer. so it will probably take longer, but this is who we are."

They have destroyed three major weapon smuggling tunnels - they cannot guarantee a complete stop of shooting. Now its a hunt - taking out the targets.

"We could have stopped a lot more firing but will not bomb places where uninvolved civilians will be hurt"

"We have warned citizens in homes with factory making facilities. We have dropped leaflets, made phone calls - we see them moving out of their homes and then we remove the target ...."

"This is why you see a minimum of casualties" .... it's going to take a little while.

UPDATE: Rick Richman has more here.

The bloggers that participated on the call included Anne Lieberman of Boker tov, Boulder!, Carl in Jerusalem of Israel Matzav, Omri Ceren of Mere Rhetoric, Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, Bennett Ruda of Daled Amos, Jerry Gordon of Israpundit, and Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit.

ATLAS INTERVIEW: LARS HEDEGAARD, PRESIDENT FREE PRESS SOCIETY, DENMARK 'WEEKLY GUN BATTLES IN COPENHAGEN" "AMERICA IS IN FOR IT"

I spent some time with Lars Hedegaard, President of the Free Press Society and Executive Editor, The Free Press Society and quintessential Dane.

The Fragility of Freedom: The Danish Example
First of all I was struck by how fragile the entire democratic edifice appears to be and how little it would take to demolish it. As has actually happened several times over the course of the first 150 years of our democratizing process that lasted from approximately 1770 until 1915.

Hedegaard's Free Press Society was the first to step up and offer to publish the Random House banned book, The Jewel of Medina. The book's agent went a different way, and I hear the new publisher is soiling his pants.

Watch the interview. I was flabbergasted by his reports of the bi-weekly gun battles between Muslims and Hells Angels in Copenhagen. Grenades, serious weapons .......... the whole thing. And no media coverage.

Hedegaard says the population changes in Europe are irreversible, that nation states will be an empty shell ....

If you think of Europe's future, "Europe is forever changed".

Pamela: "How does this relate to America?

The Bravest Man in Europe

I spent some insanely quality time with Geert Wilders, Parliament member of his own party, the Party of Freedom and film producer FITNA. If you missed it - deprive yourself no more. Whole post and more vid here.

   

 

UPDATE: The wonderful  KGS at Tundra Tabloids is transcribing this for us:

   

 

Jihadilicious

Spencer highly recommends the wine :)

Sitting with "the Pope" .....Bat Yeor

The Global Politician is running my Bat Yeor interview - all of it here. How cool is that? Here's video of the first half hour. hat tip wolf

Diana West Grills Buchanan

MUST SEE TV. Diana West, my favorite columnist, interviews my least favorite antisemite, Pat Buchanan on CSPAN tonight on Book TV here.

After Words: Patrick Buchanan author of "Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart " interviewed by Diana West

Upcoming Schedule

	Saturday, December 15, at 9:00 PM
	Sunday, December 16, at 6:00 PM
	Sunday, December 16, at 9:00 PM
	Monday, December 17, at 12:00 AM
	Monday, December 17, at 3:00 A

About the Program

In "Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart," Patrick Buchanan says that America is facing a crisis from which it may not survive.  He argues that the effects of mass immigration, ineffective foreign policy, an overextended military, and the worship of "free trade" are leading the country on a path of destruction.  Mr. Buchanan offers recommendations on these and other issues that he says would rescue America from itself.  Patrick Buchanan discusses his book with Diana West, syndicated columnist for the Washington Times and author of "The Death of the Grown-Up: How America's Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization."

 

Dr. Aryeh Eldad, Israel's Next Prime Minister on Atlas Radio, 3 PM

***************************CONFIRMED**************************

I am honored to have Dr. Aryeh Eldad, MK Knesset and Israel's best hope  in his candidacy for Prime Minister of Israel on the Hatikvah ticket as my guest on Atlas on the Air today at 3pm. Listen live here. We will be talking about Annapolis, and the future of Jerusalem, and his candidacy.

TEMPLE MOUNT DESTRUCTION Dr. Eldad Calls out Muslim Israeli Minister ...

Atlas Shrugs: ELDAD FOR PRIME MINISTER

Atlas Shrugs: The Answer -Better later than Never

Israpundit » Aryeh Eldad to start new Party in Israel

MK Eldad Drafts Law for Toppling ‘Gov’t of Disgrace’

Watch Dr. Eldad where he joined me and esteemed members of the counter jihad movement to fight the islamisation of Europe and the world.

UPDATE: Here's the Podcast.

True Patriot: Ambassador Bolton

Once again those newsmakers over at One Jerusalem.org hosted a wonderful bloggers roundtable.  I was honored to have been asked to join them in the interview with with the singular master statesman, Ambassador John Bolton.

One Jerusalem is proud to have hosted an exclusive bloggers conference call with Ambassador John Bolton.

Ambassador Bolton is the author of the recently published memoir Surrender Is Not An Option.

It's a great historical tome. One for the ages. Buy it. Jerry Gordan has a great post on the interview here.

Ambassador John Bolton, Condi’s “Legacy project is delusional”  ACT Blog

Bolton considers himself to be a “partisan member of the GOP”. A number of us consider him an American who has enormous moral courage to speak out on critical issues concerning its enemies-both internal and external.

Amen baby.

While notably “broken heartened’ about leaving the Bush Administration, he felt compelled to do so to be free to criticize the UN, our State department and Intelligence Community on important national security issues. These include WMD in Iraq, Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear development programs. He had very strong criticisms of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s current Middle East initiatives and the careerist environment at both the State Department and the CIA.

Regarding the looming Annapolis Middle East conference, Bolton calls it one of Condi’s “delusional legacy projects”. Her other “projects” include Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs. He contended that the Intelligence community “refused to believe evidence” that Syria was building a nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance. He further stated that Condi Rice and State were in denial about it, because they desperately wanted to conclude a “nuclear free” deal with Pyongyang.

Bolton contends that the Annapolis conference is misguided and will put the U.S. in a “far worse position” and could very well result in a “decline in American influence”.

He suggested that instead, Rice and State should have concentrated more efforts on resolving the Lebanese/Syrian impasse and regime change in Iran. Asked what the problems were within the Bush Administration he pointed to the “huge cultural problems” at both State and the CIA. He suggested that they suffered from “clientitis” and “moral equivalency.” When the careworn word “unacceptable” in Bush pronouncements on the runaway Iran nuclear weapons development program was raised, Bolton suggested that the Administration will “leave things undone”. The Administration, according to him, didn’t pursue pro-active Iranian regime change and strong economic sanctions. The exception being Treasury efforts to put a corral around Iran’s international financial dealings. That left only the military option on the table. However, Bolton pointed out that State is saying “don’t do it”. So that leaves a disastrous heritage for whoever succeeds Bush.

When I pressed John Bolton about what the US should do with the proposed $1 billion World Bank loan to Iran,

......he suggested that the U.S. use it’s ‘veto power’ and tighten the financial noose around Iran-a terror sponsoring state. Bolton thought that taking North Korea “off the official terrorist list”, given the latter’s evident co-operation with Syria and Iran on WMD development, was mistaken. He views this as “an insult’ to our Japanese allies, given North Korea’s kidnapping of Japanese nationals and long range missile testing. When questioned further on the Annapolis Arab - Israeli peace conference, Bolton said that there was “no real Palestinian interlocutor.” That neither Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, currently under indictment, nor PA President Abbas can lead. On the spurious argument bubbling up in the world press that the Annapolis forum was intended to build Sunni opposition to Iran, Bolton noted that “there was no substance at the core of the Annapolis agenda”. In effect, the conference had “a hollow center”. He noted that there was no difference between Sunni versus Shia extremism - they both supported terrorism. He said that talk of concessions was” wrong at both ends”.

When queried about whether there was any change in European attitudes towards the US given the recent Sarkozy rapprochement, Bolton told the classic tale about former French President Chirac, “that anything America proposed - he opposed”. Sarkozy, according to Bolton, is “not the same”, nor is German Chancellor Merkel. He noted, however, “they failed to gain stronger sanctions” against Iran for its relentless drive towards nuclear weapons development.

Click here to listen to the conference call. In it Bolton shares his views of current foreign policy matters and he discusses why the upcoming Annapolis meeting is bad for the United States and Israel.

The bloggers on the call included Jerry Gordon from Israpundit, Omri from Mere Rhetoric, Rick Richman from Jewish Current Issues, Avi Green from Tel-chai Nation, Tigerhawk, Pamela from Atlas Shrugs, Anne from Boker Tov Boulder, Don at Liberally Conservative, Carl at Israel Matzav, and Daled Amos.

Blogger Roundtable:DoD Asst Secretary McHale

On the heels of claims that "half the equipment" the military needed to fight the fires in California is tied up in Iraq - and the rest of the assorted assertions that Iraq/Bush/DoD is to blame - it is nice to see that the Pentagon made available Mr. Paul McHale,  Asst Secretary of Defense McHale. to directly address precisely what the DoD has been doing to assist firefighters in the effort.

Once again the leftists Democrats take a tragedy and attempt to exploit for their own ends. They even hate the fact that those in charge want to keep us informed. Moral illness I tell ya.

McHale: No one has criticized the DoD on the speed in which we deployed our aircraft.

Blogger: The aircraft and copters were deployed far quicker than anyone expected...

McHale: The delay occurred when spotters were not available. There is a requirement that a spotter be on a helicopter before it can be deployed to fight fires. The civilian orgs are responsible for providing the spotters. As soon as the spotters were available they took off.

Wasn't a lack of coordination - simply weren't spotters.

The military response in Calif were not inhibited to any degree by our activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. As of this morning, appr oximately 2,500 National Guardsman were deployed in fire fighting mission 350 civilian

There were 17,000 available National Guardsman who could have and could have been activated if needed.

No degradation of firefighting response. WE had considerable capability

Atlas: Arson has been cited as the behind the fires are we any closer to knowing who set them?

McHale: We are fighting the fire not the investigation. Not the DoD.

Steve (ThreatsWatch): Military reserve readiness: expanding the civilian

McHale: To better integrate federal, state, civilian planning response to catastrophic events
I think there should be a task force for emergency response on every state. The model should be based on TFER (task force on emergency response)

Guardsmen that have been trained as planners - integrated planning at the state level ..

Feds plans, state's plans, local plans integrated - at the heart  of this integration are the civilian employees  that are currently being trained by National Guardsman on the weekends. During the week, civilians take off their uniforms and  are employees of the DHS.

Citizen soldiers ---> first responders.

Closing remarks:

Awe inspiring is to see the civilian first responders, National Guardsman .....  no one is doing what they are doing for a paycheck. Seeing these  self less  acts ... this sense of purpose is  inspiring.

 

The most interesting portion was dealing with emergency response to catastrophic events. Listen to the whole interview here.

Download mchale.mp3

Listen to Diana West Podcast:War Question

"Peace in Iraq has to be built on a Shiite-Sunni consensus, not a constant balancing act by us," Thomas Friedman writes. This begs the question: Should we stand on one foot until Iraq finds equilibrium? Surge architect Frederick Kagan apparently thinks so. The United States, he writes, should continue to serve as "the bridge between Sunni and Shia" in Iraq. Why? "If we remove this bridge now, it is unlikely that the Iraqis will be able to continue on a path to real reconciliation." Maybe the U.S. needs to get out of the real reconciliation business, and fast. There's a world of trouble outside Iraq. At the very least, it's debatable whether building bridges between Sunnis and Shi'ites inside Iraq should remain American Priority No. 1. So let's debate it.

Must read Diana West column today in the Washington Times: War Question:

Yesterday's radio was incredible. Diana West, author of The Death of the Grown-up: How America's Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization 
was my guest.

Reader and blogger extraordinaire Jeremayakovka wrote;

Interview really took off here:
(Mins. 35-36):
MSM can't handle warrior-heroes.
Shock that firefighter, police heroism existed.

(37) Sheehan mother of Iraq war
Only POW heroism seen, acknowledged

(40) Agenda, Herd, Fear of standing out
Abu Ghraib: aside, Rory Kennedy (yes, a Kennedy, an RFK daughter), dir. of "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" called for a 9/11 Commission-style investigation
that's how much the Left dares to demand

(46-47) inverted morality of leaving men in the field with no clear goal, no clear rules of engagements
you start to wonder Are we up to it? And should we do this?
(48) a pretend kind of war ... something synthetic about it ... the serious topics of What is our purpose in Iraq? We have this tunnel vision on Iraq.

(50) crusade - [nice to hear. Anita Bryant didn't shy away from using it in 1977 too] crusade literally means bearing a cross -- *that* cross -- into battle
Money quote: "These things are part of who we are. And when you can't be who you are you are going to be overtaken by someone stronger."
If they know who they are, they clearly are going to win.

(54) The party that gets it wrong, and the party that doesn't get it.

(1:00) need for "reconciliation" , la-la delusional accord in the sky reminds of "peace process"
Also: it smacks of one-worldism re post-apartheid South Africa, "truth andreconciliation"

The West show is a must listen. She is brilliant. The podcast is here.

Blogger Interview with Tony Snow: Iraq

Joining me this afternoon to discuss the facts on the ground in Iraq was was Paul Mirengoff at Powerline, Lorrie Byrd over at Wizbang , NZ Bear Truth Laid Bear Ben from The Hill, Fausta,  National Review, Tom Bevan over at  Real Clear Politics, Rob over at Red State, Brian Weekly Standard for all.
Clearly the biggest problem the White House faces is communicating to the American people the advances and headway we are making in Iraq despite a mainstream media aligned with the terrorist force. But Snow made it clear we were in it to win and that was a mighty great thing to hear.

Listen to the audio here (run time 40 minutes): Download tonysnow712.mp3

The White House  received the interim report looking at the state of affairs in Iraq."The whole purpose of the surge on the military side is to create enough stability and security so that there will be maneuvering room for the Iraqi government to be able to deal with sectarian tensions and regional tensions so that they can get about the business of doing political reconciliation and accommodation and passing a whole series of laws that not only going to build confidence but capability in the Iraqi government. But the military piece comes first....... Once you've done that you have the prospect of doing political success.

"Today's report indicates that the has been significant progress on the military front.
Military piece comes from first, you have got to go after the source of violence and military instability................. In this particular surge Political progress is not the leading indicator it is the  lagging indicator............. today's report indicates that the has been significant progress on the military front..3 brigades into Baghdad. Significant  decreases in violence............ Fairly remarkable turnaround in Anbar." Tribal chiefs had to make a choice  - alqaeda or the allied forces.     And so al qaeda has suffered significant damage.
"The purpose of benchmarks is not to find some political reason  for leaving Iraq it is trying to come up with a framework for seceding in Iraq." Today the good news is on the security front there is significant progress, on the political front it's a mixed bag."

On the economic side, the  Iraqis are stepping up..........

Ward asks, why is the motivation for Republicans that are  defecting. Is it a framework for re-election. Tony was not going to try to interpret the motives of members of Congress.

Snow: "What is necessary in the next few months is a surge of facts ." (Yeah that's me in the background going yay!) A surge of true events on what is going on in Iraq today.

Snow: We will present good news and bad news but all that's been presented is bad news , it's a miracle that anybody supports the war based on the characterizations have been painted."
There's some real evil going on there. Americans need  to get a sense of the kind of evil going on there. Humiliating Arabs and Muslims ...........slaughtering men women and children." Michael Yon's work bears hat out.

The concern is getting the word out to the American people so I asked why they didn't have bloggers at the White House press conferences and help to build this alternative highway to new media. In short, Snow said, because there are exactly 49 seats in the White House press room and the people that have those seats paid  two million dollars for them.  NEXT!

Tony Snow was emphatic that bloggers were very important in this fight. I followed up the question asking why the war was positioned as a separate issue when in fact it was very much a piece of the war on the global jihad.

He said, we need to plant a seed of freedom, it can have a profound effect. If we leave, al qaeda moves right in and has access to Iraq's wealth. It immediately becomes a destabilizing factor in the region. Surrounding nations will recalibrate their security plans ......  probably minimizing Americans role and maximizing dealing with al qaeda and iran. That is not good. Then it starts to emanate outward to Afghanistan, Pakistan ..........India. The thought that you walk away and the world suddenly becomes peaceful is wrong.

Snow said the only image Americans have of the war are caskets or people getting shot on the street.
Iraqis are taking 3 to 4 amount of casualties are we are.
Wizbang discussed politicians hedging and
Tom RCP - political poll on the party.

I did ask  if the Navy pulling back in Persian Gulf emboldened Iran and decreased the pressure on them to stop interfering (and killing our soldiers.). He stated emphatically now, that "there were other means to pressuring Iran" but he was not at liberty to say.

I also asked him why Al Sadr was still alive (which met with knowing laughter) and Snow said we do not engage in assassinations. (If  Al Sadr doesn't deserve a bullt, then who in my humble estimatiion.)

There's a lot to listen to, download it.

Fausta has a good recap here. Here's the Initial Benchmark Assessment Report on the surge, and the transcript of the President's press conference this morning.

Others in the call:
Lori Byrd of Wizbang, Red State, Rob Bluey, Military.com , ThreatsWatch, The Hill Congress Blog
The Weekly Standard's blog.

UPDATE: House Republicans remained united on the Iraq vote today – with MORE Democrats voting against than Republicans voting FOR. 

Even Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) admitted that the Democrats’ bill was a political charade, telling reporters yesterday that Democrats had to bring the bill to the floor to pacify antiwar groups:  “If we don't do anything, these groups will feel like we haven't done anything.

Several key facts:

• The bill passed by a vote of 223-201.
• More Democrats voted AGAINST the bill than Republicans voted FOR it.
• 10 Democrats voted against the measure; just 4 Republicans voted for it.

5 of the Democrats who voted against the bill are from Chairman Skelton’s own committee – the House Armed Services Committee (Reps. Boren, Ellsworth, Marshall, and two subcommittee chairs, Reps. Snyder & Taylor)

ATLAS INTERVIEW: Bat Yeor Interview

My Bat Yeor transcript is up here. I cannot thank Pim's Ghost enough for doing  yeoman's work in transcribing the interview. I am forever in her debt. Video, audio and transcript.

The Atlas Interview: Bat Yeor

JULY 6TH***UPDATED TRANSCRIPT*** MORE TO FOLLOW***

I spent the most extraordinary afternoon with Bat Yeor. I am overwhelmed. Much love and thanks to Andrew Bostom for suggesting it.

Diminutive. powerful, clear - I hold Yeor most dear. Her bravery is daunting. The difficulty she faced from "our" side is difficult to grasp. Listen to this brief conversation about the opposition sher faced and the boycotts. Download batyeor_chat.mp3 (Any transcribers out there?))

The Baron transcribed Bat Yeor's speech in Toronto here,

I am loading, compressing the video now. The bad news? I lost half the video file (don't ask - I am not tech girl!) I am crestfallen but I do have 40 minutes of video.
The good news? I have all the audio (just call me back up girl.) I will convert the hour into an MP3 file.   So not one word was lost. All  of the intel is here. Listen to every critical word.

I have a lot to say on this subject - stay tuned. Meanwhile don't miss the  speech she gave in Toronto yesterday. BUY HER BOOKS.

Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis
The Dhimmi: Jews & Christians Under Islam
Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide      

On dhimmitude, the Palestinization of Europe,  Sarkozy, Bush, Olmert, Nazis, Moderate Muslims, the weakening of Bush  and the failures of the people of Israel .........all of it

Download the interview on my radio show here.

Terrorism must be seen as the ultimate attack on the human being, on human rights and freedom, as a modern expression of physical and intellectual enslavement.

If anyone wants to help transcribe Yeor's interview with me, please email AtlasShrugs2000 at aol.com.

"The Western media is aligned with the terrorist force"

"The BBC is an enemy of peace"

"The media is responsible for our defeat if there is still a defeat it too early to say...."

"we are in a new age....we are new an age of Global jihad"

POSTED JULY 1, 2007 5:03 pm. UPDATED Transcript JULY 6th

UPDATE: Magnus transcribes the video! Pims Ghost does the really heavy lifting on the audio.
CLICK BELOW FOR FULL TRANCRIPT.

Lunch with Itamar MarcusPalestinian Media Watch

LIVEBLOGGING: The Middle East Forum put together a small lunch with Itamar Marcus, counter terrorism analyst and the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, which studies Palestinian society from a broad range of perspectives by monitoring and analyzing the Palestinian Authority through its media and schoolbooks. The PMW exposes the death culture in Palestinian "society."

Photographer: Ted Belman, Israpundit

What separates Marcus from other Middle Eastern Arabic translating organizations (ie MEMRI) is  Palestinian society is all they do. What is going on in Palestinian society and only Palestinian society. They were the first to report that Yasser Arafat was saying one thing to English speaking audiences and a completely different thing to the Arab world.

It began in a quest to learn what the Palestinians were saying to their people and more specifically, their children. The Palestinian media is PMW's window to the Palestinian society because it is state controlled so you can determine what the objective is by the propaganda being

Its many reports and studies on summer camps, poetry, schoolbooks, crossword puzzles, religious ideology, women and mothers, children's video clips, and inciting children to 'Shahada" -Martyrdom', have brought the world's attention to many aspects of Palestinian society hidden from the non-Arabic speaking world.d conferences world wide.

In the case of a crossword puzzle, a clue would be  "sea port in Palestine" --  Haifa. The implication that all of Israel is occupied.

Schools reflect a religious battle, an Islamic battle - a battle that will go  on forever

The subject of Marcus's talk was

FROM THE PLO TO HAMAS: IS PALESTINIAN SOCIETY BECOMING ISLAMIST?

In reading the HAMAS CHARTER - it is an Islamic covenant. The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is a Palestine (waft) land. Hamas in its own words.

They see blowing Jews up, killing the Jews as a service to humanity.

The differences between Hamas and Fatah could not be more clear.

The Hamas charter has 105 references to  Allah, Fatah none

The Hamas charter has 33 references to the Koran, Fatah none

The Hamas charter has 7 references to Koran , Fatah none

The Hamas charter has 33 quotews from the Koran , Fatah none.

Check out the Palestinian schoolbook. Check out the Palestinian narrative.

Marcus is now showing  video of Abbas saying one to the Palestinian people (we do not and will not recognize Israel) and saying the complete opposite to the English media the same day - with Condi Rice in the region.

Marcus  is showing Palestinian video of their version on official  Palestinian televison that the Jews "created the ovens of the Holocaust." That the Jews "baked the humans. The Jews had blood on his hands."

This package of "killing the Jews" is the same package that Hitler put forth in Mein Kamp.

Hitler packaged it as self defense. Creating a situation that it is self defense to kill Jews.

This exact message of Hitler was put forth today in the  Hamas newspaper "The extermination is good for the benefit of all mankind. Don't blame us - it's our Lord."

Like the Nazis said "we were just taking orders." Hamas too is saying don't blame us, "we are following the Lord's orders."

Suicide terror is  not an act of desperation it is an aspiration.

They still use the blood libel of Al Dura to seduce their children. They have a music video of the small boy running, laughing, going on ferris wheels (there are no ferris wheels in Pali territories) and he is shouting happily, waving to the children calling to them, "I am waving at you not to say goodbye but to follow me."

The Palestinian media run music videos for years , every day glorifying death, and glowingly depicting 72 virgins in white, dancing and prancing in the water waiting for the shaheed.

We, in America, tend to separate Hams and Fatah but they overlap. They are a global Islamic force. They are calling for death to America, death to Israel on both Hamas and Fatah Israel, more here. Marcus said the biggest the west makes is separating Hamas and Fatah. Their goals are the same and they work together. The Islamic brotherhood.

There is a new program on they have starting showing  :mickey Mouse type character to pass on these messages of hate. They use poetry readings to chant death, "Oh Jerusalem we are coming.. "This is a new program - FOX News will be showing portions of it on Sunday, May 6th.

Gotta run to liveblog a UN conference, do me a favor and send PMW a donation now.

UPDATE: From today's PMW:

Hamas: “The extermination of the Jews is good for the inhabitants of the worlds.”
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook - May 3, 2007

The extermination of Jews is Allah’s will and is for the benefit of all humanity, according to an article in the Hamas paper, Al-Risalah. The author of the article, Kan'an Ubayd, explains that the suicide operations carried out by Hamas are being committed solely to fulfill Allah’s wishes. Furthermore, Allah demanded this action, because “the extermination of the Jews is good for the inhabitants of the worlds.”

The killing of innocent Jews by terrorist attacks is portrayed as Allah’s plan for the benefit of humanity.

It should be noted that Hamas’s justification for the extermination of Jews, both as God's will and for the benefit of humanity, echoes Hitler's words in Mein Kampf:

“In this case the only salvation remaining was war… If the Jew with the help of his Marxist creed is victorious over the peoples of this world, then his crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity… Thus I believe today that I am acting according to the will of the almighty Creator: when I defend myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” (Mein Kampf)

In another parallel to the Nazi genocide of Jews, the writer says he wants to be sure that “everyone will know” that these murderous actions are “not of [Hamas’s] own accord” – an echo of the Nazi war criminals’ repeated justification of their actions with the defense that they were only following orders.

The fact that these orders are said to be divine in nature makes Hamas’s justification for the murder of Jews even more ominous.

Following is the excerpt from the Hamas article:

"We find more than once condemnation and denunciation to the resistance operations and bombings [suicide attacks], carried out by Hamas and the Palestinian resistance branches. There is no other choice but to use restraint regarding the condemnation, the attaching of the label of terror [to "resistance"], and the assembling of conferences [for] condemnation [of the attacks]. [This] so that everyone will know, that we did this only because our lord commanded so, “I did it not of my own accord” [*] and so that people will know that the extermination of Jews is good for the inhabitants of the worlds on a land, to which Allah gave his blessing for the sake of the inhabitants of the worlds.”
[Al-Risalah, April 23, 2007]

[*] Translation of Quranic verse taken from USC Compendium of Muslim Texts.

Interview:Israeli MK Dr. Aryeh Eldad

The Israeli opposition speaks and no soon or loud enough.

I participated in an insightful and frank discussion with Israeli MK Dr. Eldad

Click here to listen.

"Israel needs effective and competent government leaders to address the matter of Arab Muslim citizens who actively subvert the Jewish State and join terror groups fighting both the State of Israel and our ally, the U.S. in Iraq. To have enemies within is cause for grave concern and the ineffectiveness of Israel's governmental leadership to confront this menace places Israel in double jeopardy." -- M.K., Dr.  Arieh Eldad   

Leading Israeli Opposition leader, M.K. Prof. Arieh Eldad of the National Union Party, states "that Israeli Arabs citizens who are fundamentalist Muslims are increasingly disloyal.  They constitute a menace that could destroy the State given current multicultural treatment of privileged Muslim minorities." said Eldad.

Dr. Eldad is a reserve Brigadier General and was Surgeon General of the IDF Medical Corps. He is an internationally recognized burn wound specialist and plastic surgeon.  Dr. Eldad headed the IDF Medical contingent in Rwanda in the wake of the genocide and cholera epidemic in 1994. 

Dr. Eldad will focused on:
-the current round of Kadimah government U.S. -Saudi peace plan discussions;
-his views on annexation of Judea and Samaria and comnsideration of Jordan as the 'real Palestinian state;
-the threat of radical Islam to Israel and the West;
-prospects for any imminent change in government in Israel.

As a physician Dr. Eldad said "the diagnosis is wrong" and so "the wrong medication prescribed." The two state solution is not the answer. The war is against western civilization.
"We can not intervene in the internal war of Islam. Eventually the moderate Sunnis will turn to al qaeda."

Jery Gordon aked what is your opinion of shuttle diplomacy Riyadh, Jerusalem, and Gaza?

"Just another experiment  in the huge dimension of human life......Once again we are trying to empower Abbas"

"All for dismantling Israel"......."right of return. Even if we wanted to go with Abu Mazen, it's the same old story.  We try to appease by giving land for peace, but once they are engaged in any kind of agreement .......eventually --- we will be helping them to build a terror state in Judea in Samaria."

"Olmert 's approval rating is lower than 3%.  His plan lost  ground. The fact that he was elected on convergence........ He abandoned it after the war"

"The tragedy of Israseli history trying to find an Arab moderate --since the 1920s."

"Abbas is not a moderate at all. He preaches for the right of return. Even when we try ...........history is dictated by the radicals, by Hamas."

I asked Dr Eldad what he and  the people of Israel thought  of John Bolton recent remarks that the U.S. blocked an Israel truce and that the United States resisted calls for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon last summer.

Eldad said he had no problem with the international commmunity at the time.

"The problem was with Israel leaderhip. Their failure in the war was another terrible example of their incompetence and corruption. "

The indispensible OneJerusalem.Org put this call together here;

In a wide-ranging discussion with bloggers, Dr. Arieh Eldad a member of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) and reserve Brigadier General discusses the serious challenges facing the State of Israel in the near term.

He shares his views on the so-called “moderate” Muslims, including Abu Mazen. He dissects the Saudi “peace plan” and he answers the question of what went wrong in the battle with Hezbollah.

Dr. Eldad expresses his heartfelt belief that Israel must reject the two-state solution that every diplomat seems wedded to and the dire need to educate its young in the principals of Zionism.

Even though he is a member, Dr. Eldad is very clear about the shortcomings of the leadership of the Right wing camp in Israel.

This interview/discussion offers many insights into the political, security, and international challenges facing the State of Israel. It is worth spending some time with an articulate defender of the Jewish state.

Ted Belman and Jerry Gordon of Israpundit were among the bloggers on the call.

What did I come away with. That a two state solution is suicide for Israel and  America.

UPDATE: Kenneth Timmerman speaks with Dr. Eldad in his latest piece over at Front Page mag, The Last War;

Arieh Eldad, a leader of the opposition National Union Party in Israel’s Knesset, or Parliament, told me this week while on a trip to the United States that he is convinced there is “no way to avoid the next war” in Lebanon.

He sees the massive rearmament of Hezbollah by Iran, with Syrian assistance, as clear evidence of Iran’s strategy to launch another war against Israel. “Hezbollah is becoming stronger every day,” he said.

Eldad believes Israel must “neutralize Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria as a preliminary step, or we will not be able to engage Iran.”

By “engaging” Iran he does not mean economic or diplomatic “engagement,” as the State Department might use the term. He is talking about having Israel’s military take out Iranian nuclear and missile sites.

Now that’s engagement.

Dr. Eldad is a plastic surgeon who headed the burns unit at Hadassah hospital for twenty years. He has personally treated Palestinian suicide bombers, only to see them come back after their treatment with bombs strapped to their chests to blow themselves up in the very hospital that saved their lives.

The foes that oppose Israel and America do not reason as we do, he says. “When states have missions that are bigger than life, they are not obeying the basic rules of logic that Western civilization obeys.”

He believes the Islamic Republic of Iran, as a state,  is following the same logic as a suicide bomber. “If the goal is to kill the Big Satan [America] or the Small Satan [Israel], then your own life is not to be considered under their logic,” he told me. “The Iranian regime is willing to sacrifice millions and millions of their own people to defeat the  Big Satan and the Small Satan.”

Because of this, we need to understand that Tehran regime will not comply with sanctions, and does not care about sanctions. “It’s just not the same logic,” he said.

Dr. Eldad’s fear is that Israel will be “left alone” and have to confront a nuclear Iran. And if that day arrives, he warns, “the world should know that we will be ready to destroy the nuclear infrastructure of Iran at whatever the cost it takes.”

“That means we will be ready to use unconventional weapons, because conventional weapons will not be enough,” he added.

 

Tom Delay Talks to Blogs

On my little rant vlog last night I discussed the left's tactic of destroying and eliminating every effective Republican. Clearly a critical victory for the hate America crowd was eliminating Delay from the House Republican leadership. I can not,  for the life of me, understand why the Republicans passed a law that said if any of the members of the House Republican leadership are ever indicted, they are to resign immediately. The Democrats would never agree to or  enact such a rule. Think about it. All the Democrats have to do is  get you indicted (in Delay's case with some hack Democrat prosecutor) and you must resign. Talk about giving the enemy the weapon in which to kill you.

I am reading Delay's new book No Retreat, No Surrender. Considering the stakes, I wish there had been more politics and less personal stuff but I gotta tell you I really like this guy. Always have. I backed him during the worst of the smear merchants' campaign here and here  (and still more here)  and the leftards went berserk on me .  They can stand behind a crooked thief that hides 90g in his freezer, but I am impugned because I back up an honorable, decent guy. That's America!

One Jerusalem.Org put together a blogger interview an.d it was riveting

Delay: We are at a critical crossroads in the 2008 Presidential election.....It frightens me to think of it everyday.

When I heard Delay say that, I said he totally  gets it. You must listen to this download of Delay. It is compelling. Download delay322-0001.mp3  

I am going to have Delay on my radio show Atlas on the Air - date to be determined.  But it sickens me that this man was removed from the fight.

Certain things he said stuck in my head;

He criticizes Israel for not cleaning out "that rats nest called Hezb'Allah."

Amen.

It's critical ......The opposition is more powerful than I have ever witnessed in my lifetime -- in my career. They have put together then most powerful political coalition, more powerful, that I have ever seen --- well financed well coordinated . For the first time in my career coordinated with the media whether directly or indirectly.

Read that again

And this coalition is available to Hilary Clinton because it was basically put together by the Clintonistas........It's an awesome machine we have to defeat.

You gotta listen to Delay.

If we don't come together and come together note, I hope it's already not to late, Hillary Clinton is going to be the next President of the United States.

The whole thing is riveting. I expect his appearance on my radio show to be explosive. He ias organizing a number of real grass roots organizations

We desperately need a national communication strategy that is comprehensive can stand toe to toe to the opposition media. My participation in that is I started a new blog Tom Delay.com ..... We need more movies with our world view, we need documentaries with our world view, we need to bring the radio talk show hosts together, we need to be on the cutting ege of the blogosphere. There is so much we need to be doing that we are not doing.

I asked Delay how Evan Coyne Maloney gets publicity for his movie Indoctrinate U, click here.. He said he had just met with "this billionaire that started doing movies (Narnia and the Ray Charles story)  Philip Anschutz and we'd have to put them together.." Evan are you listening?

[...] The conservatives need to unite.

More to come. But check out www.ccmajority.org and learn more about Delay's new effort to put together a Coalition for a Conservative Majority. Sign up.

The current fight over the firing of those 8 US Attorneys is very important. If the president looks weak he will have the worst two years of his life. We have a scandal that is not real. And, today the media is taking Schumer's lead. Reid made several accusations and has absolutely no proof. The president looked weak when he let Rumsfeld go. If Bush doesn't stand up to the democrats... Its over

This is the most emboldened democratic onslaught I have seen. It is different than the onslaught during Clinton years. Democrats "Win Without War" is a good example. Here you have abortionists and unionists and others working hard together against the war. They all are working together. The best we have is a Grover Norquist luncheon. When the Clintonistas left the White House, they started organizing. The democrats are organized. We Republicans have nothing like that.

I called him out on Norquist and said Norquist was the enemy.

UPDATE: Jim at Gateway has a great post on the interview here

UPDATE:TEL CHAI NATION:  Participated in bloggers conference with Tom...

Others on the call Anne Lieberman (Boker Tov, Boulder),  and Daled Amos (Daled Amos). One Jerusalem.org covers it here.

 

So my VALENSTEYN

Listen to MARK STEYN AND I GO AT IT! Click to play.

What a delicious guy. Great news, Great show. Great guy. Honestly, I could have chatted on that man until 4:30am only to break for a coffee and a post. The bad news? Tech difficulties.  As the flurries of emails started to alert me - the show went down 34 minutes in  just as Mark was getting juicy on Joe Wilson. Loyal Atlasites got creative and called into the show and hear the rest via phone. I love ingenuity!  Fingers are crossed that the podcast caught it all - it has not been uploaded yet. UGH. But at the last minute I grabbed my trusty microcassette recorder and captured the closing few minutes of Steyn discussing  who he likes for president.  The last whispered expletive is mine (sorry about that, didn't realize I was on and I was pissed.)

Lets hope the Alan, the master builder of internet radio captured the whole broadcast  for podcast or heads are gonna roll (whoops, there it is.)

UPDATE: The podcast caught the whole show. Whew! Click on the black arrow on the left.

My past shows can be heard here.

UPDATE: Blog Talk Radio says it was my fault. Apparently I didn't schedule the time. YIKES!

Whatever. The podcast has it all. The birth of the future is never smooth.

Talking Iran with Netanyahu

I had the extraordinary opportunity to talk with Benjamin Netanyahu this afternoon. Thanks yet again, to Alan over at One Jerusalem.org.

He spoke immediately of Iran's race to nuclear weapons race.

Netanyahu: "Iran could be the first non-deterable nuclear power. Fueled and motivated by a hate filled ideology, a satanic apocalyptic cult that is willing to sacrifice millions of its own people for the bad, twisted vision of a reconstituted Islamic empire under Iranian rule."

For this purpose they want to get nuclear weapons that will help them complete what they are already doing which is seeking to topple Lebanon and turn it into a shite republic. They've already taken control of the Palestinian regime with their Hamas proxies. They are seeking to throw out the United States out of Iraq and make it part of the Shite crescent.

But if they get nuclear weapons they would get control of the oil supplies and the Arabian Peninsula and topple many other regimes and then be armed in such a way that they could foster terror on an unimaginable scale.

But equally what they seek to do as they openly say is to destroy my country  while denying one holocaust  as they are preparing another....If they start with Israel they'll only start with Israel. Because Just like the [unintelligible] apocalyptic creed, it's starts with Jew hatred then it spreads like wildfire to the rest of humanity. Stopping Iran is in the interest of civilization.

UN has passed mild sanctions - not sharp enough. Those that say we shouldn't go to a military option. Fine. Then let's do something. He believes Iran and Ahmadinjad are vulnerable. Ahmadinejad lost this last election.Netanyahi proposes  put greater pressure is put on Iran.   Large financial insitututions must divest from Iran He spoke to Schwartzneggar about moving the state pension funds out of Iranian holdings just to get the ball rolling.

On the Q&A Gary over at Regime Change Iran asked the Prime Minister what he thought of regime change in Iran and what the blogosphere could do to help. He believe regime change would be the best case. In a conversation Netanyahu had with Bernard Lewis earlier today Lewis said we ought to be talking directly to the Iranian people. They must know there is an alternative to what they are living. The weapon of truth is the best, the only weapon against lie.

Barak over at the IRIS blog cut right to the matter of Netanyahu's abandonment of the policies outlined in his bookwhen gave land away. Brak laced into him, how could he go against his every principle? Netanyahu said he never abandoned his policy in the land for peace deal. When he was negotiating with the Palestinians and the White House, he wrote a point by point list of conditions the Palestinians had to meet.  Some of which was met. When these conditions were not met -- Netanyahu stopped the bloodletting while trying to make the best of a bad agreement that he inherited. He stopped the runaway process of Oslo.

Rickman of Jewish Current Issues asked about the upcoming talks. Netanyahu said as long as Hamas is in charge, and they are - you can not make a deal -- the only thing you are doing is making concessions to Iran's proxy. All you would be doing is moving the missile launchers closer to the people of Israel. He said we must bring down the Hamas government - remove the head of the octopus.  When you bring down Hamas you will see if you really have a partner.

Wow, he's still talking "partner."

UPDATE: Rick Richman over at Jewish Current Issues has  a comprehensive post on today's call while tying together our previous  previous blogger calls with Netanyahu here;

Obviously if we could get the ball rolling to get all these state pension funds to divest from Iraq -- this in addition to what the U.S. Treasury is doing in curtailing banking activity with Iran -- it puts formidable pressure on the regime. And one of two things will happen -- either it will work and obviate the need for stiffer action, or it will pave the way for stiffer action.

It has to come under the rubric of divesting from genocide. And I know such resolutions have been fielded in the case of Darfur against the Sudan. I suggest a coalition of liberals and conservatives across the political band in the United States, divesting against genocide -- that is, the one that is being perpetrated, the one that is being denied, and the one that is being planned.

I can think of no better purpose, no better moral purpose, no better purpose period. This is what can differentiate our period from the 1930s, by actually doing something. So let’s do it.

We’ve been warned now, twice, and given a road map to peace -- a way possibly to avoid the Hobson’s choice of a pre-emptive strike against Iran or an eventual nuclear war that would start with Israel but not stop there. We need to do it before time runs out.

Richard Baehr asked Netanyahu to predict Iran’s response, assuming non-military options failed and some military response becomes required, and Netanyahu answered as follows:

"I can posit many, many responses -- those that are mentioned and some that are not, on the part of Iran. But none of them involve the risk, none of them begin to measure up to the horrible -- not risk, horrible certainty -- certain horrors I should say -- that await if Iran gets nuclear weapons. So at the end of the day, we have to prevent them from getting those weapons. Period."

Essential reports on the Netanyahu call include those by Atlas Shrugs (who also summarizes the Q&As following Netanyahu’s remarks), Gateway Pundit (an “incredible talk . . . an exceptional call”), Mere Rhetoric (with Omri’s usual stellar analysis) and The Hedgehog Blog (with an insightful comment on divestment). Other bloggers whose reports will undoubtedly follow include Boker tov, Boulder! and American Thinker. The extended list of bloggers on the call is here, where you should listen to the entire 25-minute call.

 

Lunch and more, Avigdor Lieberman

The unfaithful cannot be citizens. Avigdor Lieberman

Daniel Pipes hosted a Middle East Forum lunch earlier today in NYC with Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Avignor Lieberman which I was most privileged to attend.  Founder of the Yisrael Beiteinu, holding 11 of the 120 seats in the Israeli Parliment, it is the 5th largest party in Israel. Second most popular  political figure (Bibi Netanyahu leads), he is right of center -- the opposite of the weak, appeaser Olmert. More curious than anything else was I of how Lieberman  could sanction the policies of the feckless  Olmert government by being a part of it? Photo right: Avignor and Atlas

I respect Lieberman. Canceling a planned appearance at the Public Relations Council in New York because Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had spoken there two months before was righteous indeed. I respect such action.

Lieberman's ministerial position deals primarily with the threat of Iran's developing nuclear program.  And he insists that this is why he joined Olmert 's government --  to address the greatest threat confronting Israel.

“Ahmadinejad is not a rational player,”  “Any attempt to pacify him is like before the second World War in Europe.”

Iran president: Israel will be wiped out

He began his remarks by saying that those who are not faithful to Israel cannot expect to have full rights. He would have  Israelis to sign a commitment to loyalty to the Israeli flag and to its national anthem, and of requiring service in the army or other national service. Citizens who wouldn't  sign the declaration could continue to live in Israel, working, studying, and getting health care benefits, but they could not vote in national elections or be elected to national office.

“It’s not racism. The test is loyalty, not their religion.”

He said he would also deny Israeli citizenship to extreme anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish groups, specifically pointing to Neturei Karta, which sent representatives to this week’s Holocaust denial conference in Tehran. 

Lieberman presented his solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict

"Israel has the right to demand full allegiance from all its citizens. He who is not ready to recognize Israel as a Jewish and Zionist state, cannot be a citizen in the country. Of course, this is TREASON This applies to extremists of the Neturei Karta [anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews -Atlas] as well as to extremist factions of the Islamic Movement."

(Photo:This is Achmaninejad greeting Neturei Karta rep at his evil  Holocaust denial conference of the 70 in Teheran the last two days. hat tip Mark G)

Israeli Arabs should be made to take a loyalty oath.

An oath of loyalty to the country, not a religion. We have the right to demand loyalty from all of our citizens......loyalty is the key to the problem

He railed against the  Israeli Arab MKs for meeting Syrian and Lebanese officials and expressing their support for Hizbullah .  

"It is unacceptable that a senator or a representative in the American house of representatives assist Afghanistan during the war and meet with Bin-Laden and al-Qaeda leaders, express his support for their war against the US and be allowed to return to serve in Congress," 

He has a vision for Israel. His plan for the peace process, referring to it as the "Oslo process",  is based on "three false basic assumptions, that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the cause of instability in the Middle East, that the conflict is territorial and not ideological, and that the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders will end the conflict."

“The conflict includes not only the Arabs in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, but Israeli Arabs also,” Mr. Lieberman said. “The linkage between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli Arab population — it will destroy us, it is impossible. What is the logic of creating one and a half country for one people and a half country for the Jewish people.

To say that the conflict is based on territories is "nonsense." This is a "worldwide collusion" of civilization and Israel represents the the free world. Israel, 9/11, London, Madrid, Bali, ...... it is about values. Values based on  human rights, women's rights..........why did no one  in the Arab world speak out against the fatwa on Salman Rushdie?

"Phenomenon of the Minorities"

Lieberman contends that wherever there is conflict between two peoples E.G.  Quebec vs Canada, Catholics vs Protestants (Ireland), etc...the best solution is separation. Separation between two nations. The best example being Cyprus. There was terrible friction, blood between the Greeks and the Turks before they separated in '74 and moved to opposing parts of the island. There was no peace agreement .......but the separation lead to stability.

The main issue for Palestinians is economy.

The main issue for Israel is security.  "Without resolving this, we are destined to failed. Providing jobs is critical."

Now we take money from the poor people of rich countries and give to the rich people of poor countries.

He believes Israel should exchange territory for population. And does not believe that Abu Mazen is the right partner.

“I don’t think that Abu Mazen is the right partner. I think that he is the biggest obstacle,”. Lieberman said. “Abu Mazen, he is excellent for declaration, but when he must deliver the goods, he is incompetent.”

He correctly posits the Arab world exploits the conflicts within Israel and Israel should do the same

"Why don't we use the conflicts existing between the Palestinians?"

Our biggest problems are Jews, not Arabs [laughter from the table]

"Every light in the Muslim world has been killed extinguished [IE Sadat] time and time again."

Lieberman says Iran is not Israel's problem (but if no one does anything is is invariably Israel's problem IMAO.) The world is embarking on the biggest nuclear Arab arms race. (Photo:  Lieberman left, Pipes right)

Pacifying Iran will not work. Like Chamberlain.......everyone paid a terribly high price.  Israel has the terrible location of being on the front lines of the collision.

Here is the audio for his full remarks:
Download avignor.wav

Here is the question and answer:
Download avignorqa.wav

UPDATE:

CLICK HERE TONIGHT'S ATLAS  PODCAST: CAROLINE GLICK . We discuss Lieberman and all of it. All of it.

The NY Sun has more: Israel's Lieberman Calls for Tougher Stance on Israeli Arabs

Click below for the VLOG of Lieberman's remarks on Iran

UPDATE: Obviously, Lieberman is onto something;

Increasingly radical, Israeli Arabs want end to Zionist vision of state JTA        

JERUSALEM, Dec. 11 (JTA) — Increasingly alienated from the Jewish state in the wake of the recent Lebanon war, Israeli Arabs have produced a radical document demanding cultural autonomy and the right to veto government decisions that concern them. The document, titled “The Future Vision of Palestinian Arabs in Israel,” could prove to be a watershed.

Drafted by representative mainstream organizations and not by extremists, it constitutes an unqualified rejection of the Zionist model of Israel as a Jewish state in which Israeli Arabs are integrated as equal citizens with full rights.

[...]

Instead, the document proposes a model of Israel as “the state of all its citizens,” in which two ethnic groups, Jews and Arabs, both enjoy a degree of autonomy in a binational state. That would be next to a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that would be entirely Arab.

The rift between the Jewish majority and Arab minority in Israel has been widening steadily for years. Pre-existing tensions between the two communities were exacerbated by the Oslo process, the lethal clashes between Israeli Arabs and police in October 2000 and, most recently, by the second Lebanon war.

A last-ditch attempt by moderates on both sides to draft a conciliatory Jewish-Arab covenant collapsed in 2001. The protocols of their meetings, released recently, show that the main sticking point was the Arab side’s refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

The new document takes this rejection further. It has eight chapters dealing with sensitive issues like land policy, economic development, education and the nature of the Israeli state. The drafters do not recognize Israel’s essential Jewishness, and see it instead as a “joint homeland” for Jews and Arabs. That paves the way for the Arab side to demand not only individual rights but rights as a group.

From this basic position, the drafters derive their insistence on cultural, religious and educational autonomy. It also underpins their demands for separate representation in international forums and a veto right on domestic issues that concern them as a group.

The significance is far reaching: Israel would forfeit its Jewish character. Indeed, the drafters of the document urge Israel to forego its Jewish symbols of state — for example, the flag with the Star of David and the“Hatikvah” anthem, which expresses the Jewish yearning through the ages for a return to Zion.

 

ATLAS ON THE AIR SAVE CHOUDHURY TONIGHT

UPDATE: LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE, click the icon on the right

CHOUDURY

Politics

Oct 5, 9:00PM

Dr. Benkin's Website

ATLAS ON THE AIR TONIGHT TO DISCUSS HOW WE,THE PEOPLE, CAN SAVE CHOUDHURY

SPECIAL GUESTS:YEHUDIT BARSKY and DR. RICHARD BENKIN, THE TIRELESS ADVOCATES WHO STRUGGLED TO SECURE THE RELEASE OF CHOUDHURY, PENDING HIS TRIAL ON OCTOBER 12th

CHOUDHURY WAS RELIEVED OF HIS SECURITY DETAIL YESTERDAY AND VICIOUSLY  ATTACKED BY THUGS TODAY.

Click on this icon to listen

TONIGHT 9pm EST CALL IN:(347) 996-3944

Joining me will be tireless fighter Yehudit Barsky,  Jerry Gordon, Israpundit and other freedom fighters to secure this man's release. Choudhury is in the fight for his life.

Choudhury is a Bangladeshi journalist who is going on trial on October 12 for the bogus crime of sedition - punishable by death. In fact, Choudhury's only crime is believing that Muslims, Jews and Christians could get along.  

ACTION ITEMS:

1.  Contact the Bangladeshi Ambassador to the U.S. Shamsher M. Choudhury at bdootwash@bangladoot.org or at 202-244-0183 and let him know that such behavior is unacceptable from "an ally of the U.S. in the war on terror."  Bangladesh is currently the recipient of U.S. aid dollars and the government of Bangladesh needs to know that U.S. citizens will not stand for such behavior. 

2.  Contact Congressman Mark Kirk of Illinois to thank him for championing the cause of Mr. Choudhury. Congressman Kirk was able to secure Mr. Choudhury's release from prison once before after threatening to withhold U.S. aid to Bangladesh and his efforts to stop this severe human rights abuse should be encouraged.

UPDATE: CHOUDHURY BEATING

Soaib Chourdhury, courageous Bengali journalist attacked by 'hooligans' in Dhaka, the Bangladesh capitol , today.

by Jerry Gordon and Dr. Richard Benkin

Dr. Richard Benkin, human rights advocate received a phone call from besieged Bengali journalist, Shoaib Chourdhury.  At  approximately 1:00PM, Dhaka time today, Mr. Choudhury was viciously attacked at his newspaper by what he termed 'hooligans,' including open Islamic radicals and members of the ruling Bangladesh National Party (BNP).  He identified one of his attackers as Helal Khan, International Affairs Secretary, Cultural Wing of the BNP.  As they were beating him, his attackers called Mr. Choudhury an "agent of Jews."  He has received treatment for his injuries, but security for both he and his family has not be renewed. It was withdrawn this week after Deputy Commissioner Shafiqul Islam received an anonymous letter complaining about the protection provided Mr. Choudhury after a bomb attack on his paper this past summer was deemed 'false.'  This vicious attack on Mr. Choudhury comes just days before his scheduled appearance before an acknowledged Islamist judge (a member of the radical Jamaat ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh) in a Dhaka courtroom October 12th.  Mr. Choudhury, an anti-terrorist Muslim and interfaith advocate, faces sedition charges and a possible death sentence for his efforts.  Yesterday, Mr. Chourdhury was 'cut off' in mid conversation during a radio interview on the ZOA Middle east report ion WNWR.com that originates out of Philadelphia with both he and Dr. Benkin and program co-hosts, Lori Lowenthal Marcus and Steve Feldman. 

Atlas Interview: Dick Morris on the Clintons

How rich that after my Clinton VLOG FLOG I would have the opportunity to interview Dick Morris.  If anyone knows Clinton it's Morris.
One Jerusalem. org once again sets up the penultimate Clinton interview with Ann, Boker tov, Boulder, John, Gateway Pundit Alan, One Jerusalem Jerry, Israpundit, Broadsword,  Liberally Conservative.

Here is the audio, it runs about 25 minutes. Download dick_morris_92706.wav

Mr. Morris has had a varied public career. He has earned a reputation for being one of America's leading political commentators and experts in the art of politics. Mr. Morris is best known as a central strategist in Bill Clinton's re-election campaign for President of the United States.

Last week, Mr. Morris and Eileen McGann published a critical article about the Clinton's that the Main Stream Media largely ignored. Entitled "Emir's A Gusher for Bill and Hillary" the op-ed charges that Bill Clinton and those in the inner circle of both Clintons have enjoyed large financial benefits from Clinton's relationship with Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. This story involves the controversial Dubai ports deal. NY POST OpEd here

Since publication of this largely ignored column the news media has been hotly debating President Clinton's handling of   the hunt for Osama bin-Ladin. Did he do enough or didn't he? Did Senator Clinton know that her campaign consultants were on the payroll of the Sheik?

Today on ABC News— - Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich believes former President Clinton's blow up during an interview on "Fox News Sunday" -- and the escalating war of words over whether he or President Bush mishandled opportunities to catch or kill Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks -- was premeditated to shore up support for Democrats ahead of the November midterm elections.

"I think that as the most experienced professional in the Democratic Party, he didn't walk onto that set and suddenly get upset," Gingrich said. "He probably decided in advance he was going to pick a fight with Chris Wallace."

This, Gingrich said, may have been a good strategy.

"I think as a calculated political decision, it's reasonably smart," he said.

Dick Morris is a blog reader. And so he spoke effusively of the participants  conducting the interview. He digs my blog - "nice site"

Hillary of course is running for reelection in New York and while I doubt she can be defeated but it will be terribly important in her presidential race f she does better or worse than she did against Lasio 4 years ago. If she wins by more than 12 points than I think it's going to be a huge ratification on her Senate career  that really does not deserve ratification on the other hand if she wins by 5 or 6 7 or 7 % I think she is going to have a lot of explaining to do as to why she get elected by 12 and the reelected by only 5 or 6.

I think the relationship between the Clintons and the Emir of Dubai really is going to be the dominant scandal of the 08 election when Hillary runs. I think the rapport and this relationship really is in a sense the new Whitewater  or the new Watergate of their careers.

[...]

 

Clearly we can infer that Clinton had a big role in bringing the Emir in and then the other question was we don't know how Clinton is being compensated for this. We do know he was being paid a flat fee plus a percent of the commission on the investments. We don't know how much that is. The disclosure form that Hillary filed and the Senate only requires that she indicate whether or not he is being paid more than a thousand dollars a year, and of course he is. But there is a substantial basis for believing that this could be a very large sum that he receives annually and an even larger sum after 5 years.

[..]

The flip side of this is that their is an increasing close political relationship between the Emir and his political interests and the Clintons.

Morris thinks should point our lasers on this scandal and stay tuned;

It's very significant. Obviously the public policy issues are that you have this foreign head of state paying conceivably an enormous amount of money to the husband of a United States Senator and conceivably the husband of a President or at least a Presidential candidate.

The implications  for influence peddling and all of that are very severe.

And this Emir is a barbarian. He has been indicted in the Miami courts of kidnapping two and three year old boys from Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc brought to Dubai for camel jockeying. The lawsuit was brought by the parents of kidnapped children. And of course Dubai has been cited for human rights violations particularly in its abuse/treatment of women by the US State department.

When Jerry asked Morris about the Clinton relationship with the current Saudi Ambassador to the US (Clinton classmates at the University of Georgetown) - Morris didn't know that. Further he asked about Clinton's special visas to issued to characters with ties to terrorism and again, Morris was unaware - but thought it needed investigating, researching and suggested Jerry follow up with the former Governor of  Tennessee Ray Nabus (Clinton's former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia - not a Clinton loyalist).

I asked Dick why he jumped to the other side and come out blasting.

I did not jump to the other side. I strongly supported his welfare reform.

I said that was Republican.

His work on crime, balanced budget......[...]

Yes, but I have always been more of a Republican

And he outlined his history of working for and with Republicans

......but there were really three points of departure. I really hated how Hillary would have these secret police go out and investigate the women he [Bill] was involved with. Not to reform to him or divorce him but simply to cow the women into silence so that he could get elected

Strongly disapproved her running for Senator from New York. I am New Yorker and the last thing she is a New Yorker.

And then finally after 9/11. Anyone looking at that and reading the  9/11 report has to understand on terrorism Clinton was a dismal failure.

[..] It's not Bill Clinton I am opposing so strongly it's Hillary Clinton because she'd be a terrible, rotten President. She is a European Socialist, with that kind of view that we have to increase taxes not to pay for programs but to redistribute income. She would very much like to see 40 45% of our economy going taxes like they do in Sweden, France and Germany with staggering effects on the economy.

I followed up with the Chris Wallace meltdown. I thought it was deliberate, that Clinton is calculated but with the internet and blogs he could never get away with those lies. What was he thinking.?And while he didn't think the rage was planned, he did agree with me that there is nothing that Clinton ever does that is not calculated.

Clinton's no more in control of himself as when he is going through a rage.  His "rages" are not flying off the handle, not losing control, they are the ultimate form of control.
[...]
The closer you get to the truth the more vociferous he is in his indignation

Listen to it all.............good stuff on Sandy Berger.

And the dialogue gets better. The Weekly Standard reports;

Warning Signs
Hillary Clinton attempts to rewrite history.
by Thomas Joscelyn

YESTERDAY, in the wake of President Clinton's interview on Fox News, Senator Hillary Clinton defended her husband's counterterrorism track record. Reacting to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's assertion that the Bush administration "was at least as aggressive" in the eight months preceding September 11, 2001 as the Clinton administration was in the years prior, the former first lady remarked:

"I'm certain that if my husband and his national security team had been shown a classified report entitled 'Bin Laden Determined To Attack Inside the United States' he would have taken it more seriously than history suggests it was taken by our current president and his national security team."

Apparently referring to the August 6, 2001 presidential daily briefing, which was entitled "bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US," Senator Clinton suggested that her husband did not receive the same type of warnings that President Bush did.

In fact, President Clinton signed a similar classified document--which contained an explicit warning from the U.S. Intelligence Community that bin Laden intended to strike inside the United States, more than two years prior to leaving office. And the U.S. intelligence community collected numerous pieces of intelligence concerning bin Laden's determination to strike inside the United States during President Clinton's tenure. In addition to the failed plot against the World Trade Center in 1993 and the failed al Qaeda plot against LAX airport in 1999, there were clear indications that bin Laden's terror empire intended to strike targets in the continental United States.

 

The Atlas Interview Senator Coleman: UN Reform, the Essential John Bolton

Senator Coleman has been the outspoken voice (along with Senator Colburn) in the Senate on the UN reform and the dire need for change in so important a world body rife with well documented corruption, graft, abuse etc. Senator Norm Coleman has been appointed a member of the U.S.'s United Nations delegation by President Bush. A brilliant appointment I might add.

His remarks at the Hudson Institute Symposium for UN reform were sharp, incisive and ought to be the clarion call for Congress to start pulling our considerable financial weight in the UN.

Senator Coleman thought the oil for food scandal would be a mirror in the face of the UN and yet nothing has been accomplished since the conclusion of the permanent subcommittee. Despite the UN having signed on to the UN reform document.

"The original human rights was so outrageous, so egregious it seemed like low hanging fruit. Change that, reform that. That should have been easy. But the UN has tried to make this a left right issue. Blaming the United States and in the case of Malloch Brown, even FOX NEWS."

Joining me was Claudia Rosett, John at Powerline, Tom at Real Clear Politics, Ann Bayefsky of Eye on the UN to discuss the absence of any real movement on UN reform.

Here is the audio of the interview
Download SenatorColemanUN915.wav

Senator Coleman said;

"We need to continue push the reform agenda. It's dead in its tracks right now. The minimal reform by the Secretary General was cast aside by the G77 in a very telling vote Those 50 nations that paid close to 90% of their dues all voted to keep reform moving forward and  those 50 nations that paid under 15% all voted to block reform.

We are making little or no movement on mandate review."

Keep in ind that there are over 9,000 (!) mandates.

I made the point after our investigation on oil-for-food that the Secretary General is incapable of pursuing and delivering a reform agenda. Time has proven that correct. That is the reality.

He [Kofi}was so damaged by oil-for-food and damaged by the structural infirmities of the UN there was no capacity, no ability to change the UN. History has proven that prognostication correct.

We need to be looking for the next Secretary General and have on the table one of the things we need to look at is a commitment to reform.

If another oil for food scandal were to  happen again, the UN could not handle it [without change, without reform]

The world is a dangerous place. [Lebanon, Darfur, Iran, North Korea]When you have an organization that is weak and rotting on the inside it is not going to have the strength to do what has to be done .

It was interesting that before Senator Coleman opened it up to our questions he said he thought it was very important to have this conversation with bloggers

Coleman: "It was very hard in dealing with the mainstream media to get out this message of reform. Folks didn't want to hear about it. Here we've got an organization that .....21 billion dollar fraud...the numbers are overwhelming..........the bloggers can raise the level of consciousness."

"I do not want the reform agenda to die"

Thank Gd for folks like Coleman. Those billions of dollars are ours. Raise your voices people.

Anne Bayefsky asked about the financial leverage and why it was given up........will we revisit using financial leverage?

Coleman: Absolutely .........and I hope that the President raises that issues.

Ambassador Bolton has said we need to use that leverage to effect change. When we used our budget to effect change, what happens is you get a New UN human rights council that's just as bad as the one before it -- the only permanent item on their agenda is Israel --you have Cuba on it, Saudi Arabia ---
 

You have an infirm human rights council  ........... and then you get close to June and there has been no reform, its been thrown out, and then instead of using the leverage to put in place a budget and saying you guys have to got to move forward.  instead you get Malloch Brown blaming FOX news or US legislators aren't supporting the United Nations.

Any leverage there was cast aside. I think the political calculation has been made that the will doesn't exist in the Congress to use that. I think if there is continued failure of reform that will will become apparent.

Claudia Rosett noted that the last time the US tried to use financial leverage, Ted Turner gave 31 million to the UN to cover the back dues. Is it appropriate for any party to step in that way and interfere in foreign policy. Would be you condone such a thing again?

Coleman: I am not against a private fund to pay for buy-outs of some of the [deadwood] Personnel reform is a major issue. Using private funds to clear out some of those people...........

Coleman is not against public/private partnership but I can't imagine having private citizens like a mentally unstable Turner or a hate America Soros undermining our foreign policy efforts by shtuping the UN under the table -- but Coleman did not address that.

Rosett: Turner's money was to pay the Secretariat salaries staff. And should we tolerate Kofi's stonewalling on financial disclosure?

Coleman: One of the things I was hoping for reform was the kind of disclosure US Senators have, members of Congress have, and that Secretary Generals should have. It's outrageous. Financial closure. The Secretary General must disclose.......first and foremost. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

He would be in favor of a public private partnership

John, Tom and I asked about the status of the Bolton nomination...........

Coleman: The most significant thing that we could do to insure that reform happens is to confirm John Bolton, the most significant steps that we can take right now is to confirm John Bolton as Ambassador.

We have two weeks left to achieve that goal. It is my hope we will get there.

It is my hope we will get a recommendation out of committee that will get it to the floor whether its a positive recommendation or whether its moving to the floor without recommendation. It's got to be done. I am also hopeful that it will move forward without a filibuster. Not in the Democrats best interest, not in the best interest of the country.

This is beyond just the reform issue, this goes to the ability in these very difficult times in which we  are worried about Iran getting a nuclear weapon, we have seen the reality of Iran interfering and supporting terrorists groups like Hezbollah who have unleashed death and destruction in the Middle East and have destabilized an already fragile region, we have Jong Il and North Korea's nuclear weapons, Darfur on and on. These are difficult times.

Without the President's chosen Ambassador.........Voinovich said he observed Bolton and he is doing a god job.

I hope enough of Dodd's colleagues tell Dodd he's wrong [about a filibuster].

I asked about the WaPo here article yesterday and the Republican officials remarks about it dead as far as the Senate is concerned, 

Coleman: Don't believe everything you read in the Washington Post. [clearly]

That article was way off base. I had a conversation with the committee administrator and my colleagues at a coffee yesterday morning said that article was way off base, that was the phrase way off base.

How do you get it out of committee?

Coleman: There are two ways. In the past Chafee did vote to move it forward.  To get an affirmative vote. He has concerns about foreign policy particularly US foreign policy in the Middle East. He has a different perspective. He has a different perspective on foreign policy than I do but Secretary Rice as going to answer and I think he did receive a response yesterday.

He can get out without recommendation. Thats how it went to the floor last time.

No one has mad a public statement that they are going to kill it.

[...]

Coleman wished he could address the hecklers and demonstrators that were escorted out during  Bolton's hearings. He said he was sure they could not articulate a single quote from John Bolton that they'd have trouble with.

They are angry at George Bush. They angry at President 's policy on Iraq. Barbara Boxer when she was questioning Bolton spoke her entire time talking about Iraq and said this is not about you John.

The President gets to make that choice. We get to confirm based on integrity, credibility, experience, performance which we've seen.

Is there a way to get him out, yes. We are not at that point right now but we are certainly going to take a run at it next week. The article in the Washington Post is way off base.

We want to act on it before we leave September 30th.

I see a path to his confirmation and I am going to pursue it as vigorously as I can.

We need Democratic votes for a filibuster. In this we need to put partisan stuff aside. We have more thn 50 votes to confirm him. Frankly I think the Jewish community should be doing more to get Bolton confirmed. Where is UJA, JCPA, AIPAC...............these guys aren't doing anything. Bolton was responsible for getting rid of the odious "zionism is racism."

Coleman represents whats best in government. If you are interested in hearing his speech at the UN reform Symposium on September 11 th - go here and scroll down.

It seems clear to me that without Bolton there will be no UN reform, and without UN reform the goals of US foreign policy of truth, justice, freedom and the American way is nothing short of a historical footnote. The bad guys win.

We must let our lawmakers know how fed up we are as evidenced here. First and foremost we must raise our voices and get Ambassador Bolton confirmed, I am sure those fat bureaucrats at the UN are rubbng their hands in abject glee at the thought of his absence. Power without law is unacceptable, it breeds the absolute worst behavior as we have so witnessed.  I ask every reader here, every person that cares, that wants to do something, to go here, Blogging for Bolton.

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ATLAS AND BOSTOM TONIGHT 9PM EST

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ANDREW BOSTOM WILL BE LIVE ON MY RADIO SHOW TONIGHT  TO ANSWER PETERS' IRRESPONSIBLE INSINUATIONS. ATLAS ON THE AIR 9pm EST- 10pm EST Listen live here. Bostom's book, The Legacy of Jihad, provides a comprehensive, meticulously documented corrective to the genre of ahistorical assessments decried by Ellul.

Israpundit will be joining us to weigh in on the Peters punking out.

Next week's special guest: Nidra Poller! Did you miss me and Brigitte Gabriel go at it last week? Go here to listen, the podcast is archived!

UPDATE: Listen to the podcast here and read Jerry at Israpundit's take on crashing  radioblogging

On the Phone With Senator Rick Santorum

Fighting the great fight. Rick Santorum is a champion of individual rights, the will of man -- freedom.

One of a  rare breed. Rick Santorum is straight, blunt, ethical, brave. Out there in the battle against militant Islam and wrestling with an out of control, nuclear armed Islamic Republic of Iran, his courage to take a firm stand has left him vulnerable in his upcoming Senatorial race.

He is a thorn in the eye of the far left and has been targeted by George Soros and his Shadow-party-usurp-American sovereignty machine.  He’s facing an uphill race for re-election in 2006 against Democrat Bob Casey Jr and frankly I don't know how Santorum battles a guy who doesn't show up. Casey hides - thats his strategy. That  and the Democratic smear machine.

Santorum is not afraid to take a hard stand against evil. He has taken a harder line on Iran only to have one of his pieces of legislation killed by Hadley and Rice.
Several lawmakers, including Santorum (R-Pa.) called Khatami "one of the chief propagandists of the Islamic fascist regime"--expressed outrage that the Bush administration had granted the Iranian a visa.
Mr. Santorum is the sponsor of the Senate version of the Iran Freedom and Support Act, a bill that, among its many provisions, would toughen sanctions against the Iranian regime, provide “financial and political” assistance to civil society organizations, and help fund the broadcast of free television and radio into Iran. We the people must get this passed.

Alan Roth of OneJerusalem.Org put together another blogger interview with Anne of Boker Tov, Ed Lasky of American Thinker, Jerry of Israpundit, Omri over at Mere Rhetoric,  Tel Chai Nation, Jim at  Gateway Pundit, Rick of Jewish Current Issues, Broad Sword, Gary Regime Change Iran, and Liberally Conservative.

Here is the audio. It's 15 minutes listen to it.
Download Santorum91406.wav

Rick Santorum kicked off with  two comments.

This war is not going to be won or lost in the streets of Baghdad or Kandahar, this war is going to be won or lost in the streets of America and America's willingness to continue to recognize the enemy that we are facing. To recognize the lethality and the dangerousness of this enemy ....and to have the courage to be able to confront it despite what are obviously difficult circumstances........ Vitally important that policymakers, the President leading the charge,   better explain the the complexity of the enemy and the seriousness of this enemy.

I remember when the President first started talking about these people, he referred to them as terrorists. He called them cowards, you notice after about a year or so he stopped calling them coward because I think he was misinforming the public.

These people are not cowards. These people are incredibly misguided and I would even say sick in their interpretation of Islam but they are not cowards. They are a serious enemy . They have enormous conviction and they want to die for their god or at least what they believe is their god.

They a "very effective tactic, terror.It fits their ideology. It's a tactic of death. Civilian death, indiscriminate death.........."

Resources. They have resources. Particularly Iran. The resources behind the Shia extremists far outweigh the resources available to  the Sunni extremists (al qaeda types.)

Next and most truly frightening aspect of the Islamic fascism is the weapon of mass destruction (nuclear). Their rhetoric is just as frightening is you ask me, AHMADINEJAD: WE CAN BETTER LEAD THE WORLD

I asked him about the UN. How much longer would we hand over our ability to take decisive action on Iran to the UN, could the UN be reformed, and when could we pull out of the UN.

Santorum emphatically stated that he was not in support of administration's discussions with the  Iranians.He remained quiet and hope of course that some good would come of it but  he was not consulted before that decision was made.

It was a bad decision. Sends a very mixed message.
It sounds a message to those in Iran with who we have enormous support and Muslims who are not fanatics.  There are many Iranians who support moderate Islam and a free and democratic government. They need to hear from us on a consistent basis that the regime that is oppressing them is corrupt and  needs to be changed so that they might have the freedom that they deserve. When we negotiate with these folks  we prop them up world stage.

I agree with you, that if I thought there was any positive result that would come from these negotiations but of course there won't be because the Iranians are clear that they want to develop these nuclear weapons and they are not going to do anything to be deterred except to try to drag us along in endless negotiations while they continue to develop this capability. We have to face this reality......... they are going to proceed. And we have to do something other than talk.

The UN is a feckless organization that is not going to be at all helpful [in regards to international security] in containing the Iranian nuclear threat .

Alan asked about the confirmation of John Bolton. Santorum hoped to get the nomination to the floor but Chafee has not made a  statement. Voinovich was the lynch pin.
We need to get the vote to the floor.

Santorum: "Bolton's performance has been stellar. Hopefully not just Republicans will take a second look at John Bolton but Democrats will be a little bit more reasonable."

Oh and btw, go over to blogging for Bolton,it's an excellent site. All of the names and numbers of people to contact are there.

Jerry over at Israpundit asked about the regime change in Iran and asked why the State dept had not been supportive of it and the Iran Freedom and Support act.
Santorum said plainly;

With respect to the State Department has been uniformly uncooperative in any efforts to recognize the threat that Iran poses.
Iran has not been a rational player in negotiating any kind of an acceptable outcome. That's just not a possibility. . And the  State department comes with this incredible bias that everything is negotiable and  believes that everyone will negotiate and that everyone thinks like they do well they don't. And they are being played for a song and will continue being to be played for a song.

Generally speaking when it comes to Iran if the State department feels one way, I am pretty convinced the other way is the way to go.

I gotta tell you folks, I love this guy. L-O-V-E

Santorum says;

We need to be more aggressive promoting pro-Democracy groups in Iran. We need  to be much more effective. We need to stop sending bad messages in over the Voice of America.

IMAO, Karen Hughes has fumbled badly in her role Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the U.S. Department of State with the rank of ambassador.It's time to  bring Karen Hughes back into domestic campaign affairs, please. She is completely out of her league

Santorum is  hoping that reality will sink it and that the Iran Freedom and Support act will be voted on and passed.

He said our intelligence is bad.  Trying to make decisions on information that is faulty is a real problem. We must be very cautious.

PEOPLE! We must put pressure on the Senate pass the This should have been done years ago. Right now VOA does not make that clear.

We have to make it clear to the Iranian people that we are on their side against the mullahs.

WRITE YOUR SENATORS. We are under mortal threat. We must create divisions in Iran. The mullahs are afraid of their people.
WRITE YOUR SENATORS!

Gary over at Regime Change called me after the phone call and said the most important thing we can do is get this bill passed. We must support the Iranians protesting in the streets.

America loses its wars at home. We must put pressure on our Senators - write to the Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee. HOLD A HEARING ON THESE DAMN BILLS! Lugar is waiting on the Europeans? He is delusional. It ain't gonna happen. Europe is basically a prisoner of war.

Here are the members of the Senate Foreign Relations committee. Go to work.
Chairman Richard G. Lugar  he needs to hear from you.

Ranking Member Joseph R. Biden

Chuck Hagel Nebraska

Lincoln Chafee Rhode Island

George Allen Virginia

Norm Coleman Minnesota

George V. Voinovich Ohio

Lamar Alexander Tennessee

John E. Sununu New Hampshire

Lisa Murkowski Alaska

Mel Martinez Florida

Paul S. Sarbanes Maryland

Christopher J. Dodd Connecticut

John F. KerryMassachusetts

Russell D. Feingold Wisconsin

Barbara Boxer California

Bill Nelson Florida

Barack Obama Illinois

Powerline has a great piece on the enormous heavy lifting Santorum's stand on Iran;

Here is a list of legislation sponsored and/or developed by Senator Santorum in the 109th Congress:
• S. 333 - Iran Freedom and Support Act of 2005.  Introduced on 2/9/05.  Referred to Committee on Foreign Relations. Sponsor

• S. 1737 - Iranian Nuclear Trade Prohibition Act of 2005. Introduced on 9/20/05. Referred to Committee on Foreign Relations. Sponsor

• S. Res. 349 – A resolution condemning the Government of Iran for violating the terms of the 2004 Paris Agreement, and expressing support for efforts to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council for its noncompliance with International Atomic Energy Agency obligations. Introduced 1/20/06. Referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. Sponsor

• S.Con.Res. 78 – A Senate concurrent resolution condemning the Government of Iran for violating its international nuclear nonproliferation obligations and expressing support for efforts to report Iran to the United Nations Security Council. Introduced and passed1/27/06. Sponsor: Senator Bill Frist. Referred to the House Committee on International Relations. The resolution condemns the government of Iran's many failures to comply with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, including its obligations under the Safeguards Agreement, its suspension commitments under the Paris Agreement, and prior commitments to the EU-3 to suspend all enrichment- and reprocessing-related activities. Commends the efforts of the governments of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom to seek a credible suspension of Iran's enrichment- and reprocessing-related activities and to find a diplomatic means to address Iran's noncompliance with such obligations. Urges the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors at its February 2006 special meeting to order that Iran's noncompliance be reported to the U.N. Security Council. Calls on Security Council members, in particular the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China, to consider any report of Iran's noncompliance in fulfillment of the Security Council's mandate to respond to situations bearing on international peace and security. Original cosponsor.

• S. 2657 - Iran Sanctions Extension Act of 2006. Introduced: 4/26/06. Referred to the Senate Committee on Banking. This bill reauthorizes the sanctions (contained in Public Law 104-172; 50 U.S.C. 1701 note) against Iran for another five years. The bill is an ILSA reauthorization bill. Sponsor.

• SA 3640 to H.R. 4939 - To increase by $12,500,000 the amount appropriated for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, to increase by $12,500,000 the amount appropriated for the Department of State for the Democracy Fund, to provide that such funds shall be made available for democracy programs and activities in Iran, and to provide an offset. Sponsor: Senator Santorum. Status: Ruled out of order by the Chair. Sponsor.

• SA 4234 to S. 2766 - To authorize, with an offset, assistance for pro-democracy programs and activities inside and outside Iran, to make clear that the United States supports the ability of the people of Iran to exercise self-determination over their form of government, and to make enhancements to the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act of 1996. Sponsor: Senator Santorum. Status: Not agreed to in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 45 - 54. Sponsor.

digg this

LIVE AT NYU: NETANYAHU!

Heckler: "Netanyahu, you're a war criminal!"
Netanyahu: "Now that's chutzpah"

Former PM Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a group of young earnest students today at NYU. Not surprisingly this was not an NYU event, you would  hardly expect the morally confused dhimmi leadership (remember the cartoon-less cartoon panel discussion at NYU?) to bring Netanyahu's powerful, moral understanding to their campus.

No, this dynamic and compelling afternoon was put together by the fledgling new group Caravan for Democracy to help students refute the lies and blood libel infecting college campuses nationwide.

Netanyahu is commanding, impressive. forceful -- I can't help but lick my wounds (still) from his illogical loss in the elections. Bibi belonged in that gallery (Olmert looked so out of his league, not worthy - and he proved he was not worthy.) Of course if I had had my way......amd of course I was right.

Remarkable speech.

HERE IS THE FULL AUDIO, Download NetanyahuNYU.wav, a full transcription will follow shortly. He describes the "laws of war." Netanyahu insisted that we not allow lies to permeate.

"Throughout antiquity, the rise of antisemitism which began about 2,500 years ago, through the medieval period, the modern period, all the assaults on the Jews were preceded by the vilification of the Jewish people, by distortions upon distortions, upon distortions, and protecting ourselves is also defending ourselves against lies. And if I had to say one thing one thing on the college campus I'd say fight this battle. STAND UP, DON'T BE AFRAID Be armed with the facts. Be armed with truth."

"This is the most important thing we can do. And you now have ways of doing it because each one of you is a publishing house. You can educate, you can act, you can fight."

A great speech............here Netanyahu speaks of the "war criminal" canard

Re: Iran's nukes weapons

They are not like the Soviets, not like the communists. The Soviet Union did not put its zealotry above its survival."

"Every hear of a Soviet suicide bomber?" Militant Islam produces hordes of them and they smash into the towers in Manhattan and they smash into the Pentagon and they were going to now, with their own children, aircraft coming out of Heathrow. With their own children - this is pathological."

"A suicide regime may not be deter able. We can not bet the future of the world on the conception of deterrence."

"It's very dangerous. YOU DON'T BET THE STORE ON DETERENCE. YOU MAKE SURE THAT THEY DON'T HAVE IT. And this should unite everybody."

I just went through a war with a proxy. We were fighting a proxy of Iran. I am the opposition leader, I supported my government. I supported the goals shared by the people of  Israel. You should support the goals set forth the goals by President Bush vis a vis Iran .  Everybody, I don't care who you are. And you know why? Because it's not a question of Iraq -- it's a question of whether this latter day Hitler has nuclear weapons and that is no longer a partisan issue. "

"Think of the consequences of Iran having nuclear weapons. What happens to Iraq? Do you think you can stabilize it? Regimes in the Middle East will fall one after the other. The oil supply will be controlled by Iran. That's the easy part.

It is the severe danger. The real possibility, almost a certainty that they will use these weapons for the first time since Hiroshima."

Netanyahu chided us to come together to fight the gathering nuclear storm.

In speaking of the Jewish struggle, he spoke of the Jews' place in history as powerless.

"The [historical] Jew shifting from powerlessness to power. But I refuse to go back to powerlessness. I'd rather repel the slanders than go back  and become the victim and I'd rather fight  the slander as we fight the other attacks on us."

The crowd disperses after the former PM spoke. The sidewalk is full of this colored chalk ravings.

There were a couple of screaming moonbats but the crowd was hugely supportive. I would have followed the speech with the Netanyahu dinner uptown to finish my previous interview but had to get back for my show . I am sure that Rick at Jewish Current Issues will  post on the dinner shortly.

I will have a full transcript of his remarks a/s/a/p. Every word ws brilliant. Not admonishing, cautionary.

"Repel the lies. I will not go back to those gas chambers. Not those physical ones, not those of the poisoned wells and slanders but the only way that a free society can defend itself  aside from taking up arms is also to light those candles for truth.

What I ask of you tonight is for each of you to light the candle of truth. You know how you do it .....flip on the internet and light many many candles of truth."

Amen.

See also NETNYAHU: NO ROOM FOR PARTIZANSHIP IN JUST WAR

UPDAYE: Click below for complete transcript

**TONIGHT** TONIGHT** TONIGHT** DEBUT OF ATLAS ON THE AIR SPECIAL GUEST BRIGITTE GABRIEL

               My new show ATLAS ON THE AIR is debuting
THURSDAY SEPT.7th  on BlogTalkRadio  9pm EST -10pmEST
pcoming shows on my own host channel at blogtalkradio .

During my shows call me live, yes that’s right live, (347) 996-3444.

I will be chattin' on Brigitte Gabriel, my sistuh! I love Brigitte. Strong, brave, truth teller. She is extraordinary. Her book is out September 5th.
Brigitte's new book, Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America, (great title right?) describes how she lost her childhood to militant Islam. In 1975 she was ten years old and living in Southern Lebanon when militant Muslims from throughout the Middle East poured into her country and declared jihad against the Lebanese Christians. . For seven years, Brigitte and her parents lived in an underground bomb shelter. They had no running water or electricity and very little food; at times they were reduced to boiling grass to survive.
atlas shrugs.

My Conversation with General Moshe Yaalon "The West is Sleeping"

Yaalon: I expect resignations without committee

Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.” —Winston Churchill ht CPO

And so it is with General Ya'alon.

Allan Roth of One Jerusalem.Org put together another extraordinary opportunity to speak with an important figure on the world stage.  Mere Rhetoric, IsraPundit, Boker Tov Boulder, Jewish Current Issues, Tel Chai Nation, and Publius Pundit joined me in asking the General the questions that tear to heart of geopolitcs and world affairs.

General Ya'alon is, IMAO, Israel's best shot for the right leadership. While we wait for Olmert to do the right thing (is he capable?) and resign, Ya'alon represents Israel's best hope for navigating that country through an foreboding future
Continuing on the last conversation we had here, Yaalon is the voice of reason and strength, a rare quality in today's geopolitical landscape of appeasement.
Yaalon's editorial THE RULES OF WAR is a must read - a primer to where Israel has gone wrong.
Here is the audio on the Q&A, Download Yaalon830.wav
the full audio (briefing included) will be up at One Jerusalem shortly.

When I asked Yaalon how long Israel would have to live with the current leadership, Yaalon told me that it is "up to the Israeli democracy now to deal with the challenge." He said "the  last war in Lebanon was a failure in terms of mismanagement at the political level and the senior military level. The best way for those that are responsible is to resign and not go through a long process-- it might be a longer process using the democratic means to deal with this kind of failure and responsibility. But Israel should be strong, Actually one of the positive outcomes of this conflict is the perseverance and endurance of Israeli society."

Question: A unilateral retreat here from Judea and Samaria, that would be harmful, wouldn't it? It could lead to the Hamas setting up mortar attacks within Judea and Samaria, just like in Gaza too, right?

Yaalon: It is another example of our culture of ... The Israel public was manipulated and deceived by calling the disengagement from Gaza something, we have to take our destiny in our hands because we don't have a Palestinian partner, and to take the initiative and disengage from the Palestinians, and it seems like creating a new hope from the Israeli public, and I call it many times, that by using ... we create hawks which at the end appears to be illusion, and it's very clear like it was very clear to myself that the disengagement from Gaza would be perceived by the terrorists as a victory for them. I wasn't surprised by the Hamas victory in the elections, and I said from the very beginning that the outcome of the disengagement should be Hamasstan and Al-Qaidastan and Hezbollahstan, and today it is not just Hezbollahstan, it is Hezbollahstan with Iranian influence because of the Hamas government's decision to cooperate with the Iranian regime in the Gaza Strip. So to think now that this kind of ... regarding the West Bank is like to be blind, not to see the outcome of this kind of decision in the Gaza Strip.

[...]

Pamela: Sure. Okay, yes. It's Pamela from Atlas Shrugs. I wanted to ask how long the Israelis would have to live with the current leadership and how long General Ayalon thought he would have between now and the next onset of hostilities, because frankly this is a hudna, having delegated its sovereignty over to the UN, and I'm sure you saw Kofi Annan, everything that's come out of his mouth is a refutation of 1701, and also today I'm sure you saw that Siniora, the Lebanese Prime Minister said he refused to have direct contact with Israel, and Lebanon would be the country to ever sign a peace deal with the Jewish state. My question is, I know there's a lot of things here but, what can the Israeli people do? Do they have a choice? It's not one man, one state, one man, one vote. What can they do? Must they live with the current leadership, because there will be another onset of hostilities?

Yaalon: It is up to the Israeli democracy now to deal with the challenge, and as I said I see the last war in Lebanon as a failure in terms of mismanagement in the political level and the senior military level. The best way for those who are responsible is to resign and not to go to a long process, but it might be a longer process using the democratic means to deal with this kind of failure and responsibility, but Israel should be strong. Israel should be able to stand, and we are able to stand. Actually, one of the positive outcomes of this conflict is the civilians and the endurance of the Israeli society. Although the Israeli people in the North were attacked for about 33 days, in the end Israel is flourishing ..., economically. You can go now to the north. There is a lot of reconstruction, but the damage is not so significant like in Lebanon and we will be able to deal with it and to go now with our economical and civilian life, but at the end our ability to stand should consist of what I said in terms of what I said in term of understanding the situation, I call it clarity. In the last decade, I believe that we were confused, we were deluded by our leadership, by our media. We were deceived, we were manipulated, and we should understand, this is a challenge, we shouldn't be afraid of it, but in order to have the right solution we should agree about what is a problem and we need some clarity regarding understanding this challenge, and I believe that at the end-- we are actually-- At the end, we are a healthy, democratic society, and we will find a way to cope with it, to deal with it. I might be a longer process because of the political difficulties, but I believe in our strength and our ability to cope with it.

Question: Can I just follow up on one of the points that Pamela made? Do you feel that there's an inevitability that there is going to be a round two with Hezbollah, in terms of military action, or military ...?

Yaalon: I believe that the Iranian regime's interest is to initiate any kind of armed conflict as soon as possible. For them now if they have the capability to do it with the Palestinians, probably we would have been facing it already. The problem with the Palestinian-- the problem, it's to our benefit-- is that they are not able to do it in the West Bank, because we control the West Bank in terms of security, and they might decide to do it from the Gaza Strip, but as I said we have intensified our activities and we are doing it quite well. So in the Palestinian society, it's a problem of capability. Of course they can exploit the current situation to rearm themselves, to get more armaments, and this a fact that Yuval Diskin warned about yesterday, and we have to deal with it. Regarding Hezbollah, now it depends on the Iranian and Syrian ability to rearm Hezbollah. Hezbollah suffered from a lot of damage in term of casualties. We are not sure about the numbers, but it is between 500-600 Hezbollah terrorists, but the best of the best. We fought the special unit of Hezbollah and the best terrorists of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. It's a huge amount for an organization which is based on 1,000 of the best of the best, and ..., and of course they lost almost all of their long-rang and medium-range rockets. The Zelzals, the Fajrs. What they have, they have some more thousands of Katyushas, and now they are trying to be rearmed by the Syrians and the Palestinians and the Iranians, and now the question is the effectiveness of any kind of this deployment of the Lebanese armed forces or the international force not to allow them to be rearmed. I would say that I am skeptical about the implementation of Resolution 1701 and we should be ready to deal with it, but so far Hassan Nasrallah said that he doesn't have interest to renew the hostilities because he doesn't have the capability, actually, to renew it. Otherwise he is going to lose all his Katyushas. So it will take time for them to be ready for a second round of hostilities. When they are ready, of course they will do it.

Question: Hi I'm in a noisy public place but I'll be brief. I also think that the search for moderates, it's probably a bit amiss, in that I think that the core of what ... is not a moderate thing. I think that the moderate ... understand that ... But what we aren't doing is explaining tot he general population and to the people what ... that they're facing, and even Israelis don't ... much about the land, and certainly in Europe, I'm sitting here outside the new Scotland Yard ..., it's a tiny minority of people who understand what we're facing. What can be done to educate our side, which we know they've ... to educate their side?

Allen: Can I just jump in and very quickly a make a point that is slightly different from your assessment. There have two recent polls actually in Great Britain that show that the British people have moved from not understanding to understanding that a majority now understands about the threat of the radical Muslims. I'm not sure that's true in other European countries, although I'm told that in

France there's polling information along the same lines, but still you have an important point. How do we educate, both in Europe and in the United States I think as well. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Pamela: Allen, can I just add one thing to that question of yours? Does General Yaalon see the West's reluctance to even name the enemy as a problem? I mean, did he see Van Susteren's show last night with Centanni and Wiig who were kidnapped? They never mentioned the forced conversion at gunpoint. They never mentioned Islamic Jihad, but this is indicative of a bigger picture. Does he see this as a problem, the fear of even naming the enemy?

Yaalon: Yes, this is the main challenge I believe, to create what I call an awakening in the West. The West is sleeping. In many terms it reminds of the situation before World War II. It's very clear, the threat is very clear. You just have to listen to them. You have just to read the textbooks, and Westerners prefer to ignore it because of many reasons, to postpone for tomorrow, for the next week, for the next year, for the next generation, not to confront it. So we need an awakening. Yes, it is part of what I call the need for educating our people, ... case in Israel, and I believe that in Israel we are in the process of awakening. You can find it in the Israeli ..., but it is needed in Europe as well as in the United States. Regarding to Arab and Muslim moderates, I do not agree with it. There are few of them, but there are. They don't have the political power. I can't say that at the end they are going to win. I am not sure about it, but I am sure that there are, and we should approach them, and we should encourage them, we should support them, and not to be afraid, not in Iran, not in Iraq, not in Syria, not in Lebanon, not in the Palestinian Authority, not even in Egypt. There are. I met many of them. They do not sanctify death, they appreciate Western values, and they should be empowered.

Question: Okay. General Yaalon, you have repeated throughout this Q-and-A and your presentation about the bedrock issue of political and military mismanagement. There a number of observers on the Israeli scene that say that it's even more fundamental, and the word in English is corruption. What is it that you as a long-term observer, both of the military scene, and also presumably the political scene, have to say about, one, its existence, and two, how you eliminate it?

Yaalon: Yeah, it's another conference call to deal with it. (laughter) But I would take it this way. I worry from this phenomenon more than from the Iranian threat, and we have to deal with it. We have to deal with it. That's what I found and I wrote about it. I believe that the decision to go to the disengagement plan was because of corruption, and understanding that by going to this kind of plan our prime minister would save himself from the investigations and unfortunately it still exists, and I would say this is the most important challenge to deal with, because I believe that the mismanagement of the leadership and the incompetence of the leadership is the outcome of the corruption

Click below for the comlete Q & A, it's fascinating.

BIG DAY IN ATLAS SPHERE CONVERSATIONS WITH LT GEN.MOSHE YA'ALOM AND MAJ-GENERAL YAAKOV AMIDOR

I just finished two interviews and briefings with Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon AND  Maj-General (res) Yaakov Amidror. So much was covered, I must get my thoughts, audio and observations together. The audio links will be up at Pajamas Media. I will post the links as soon as they are up.

Recently retired as Israel's top military official, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon has spent nearly four decades on the front line of the Jewish state's fight for survival.

Ya'alon was a paratrooper in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the third Arab attempt to destroy Israel. In the early 1980s, he commanded a battalion during Israel's efforts to defend its citizens from Lebanon-based terrorists. He oversaw the IDF as chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, years that saw Palestinian terror groups target Israeli civilians in malls, restaurants and night clubs

General Amidror is a Fellow at the Jerusalem Center of Public Affairs.

He has authored several papers on Israel’s current security challenges – the most recent being on an international force in Lebanon.

General Amidror served as Commander of the Israel Defense Forces National Defense College and the IDF Staff and Command College.

He also headed the IDF’s research and Assessment Division, with special responsibility for preparing the national Intelligence Assessment. In addition he served as military secretary of the Minister of Defense.

On the Phone With Benjamin Netanyahu

***TOP THREAD** SCROLL FOR NEW POSTS AND UPDATES**
  ******FULL TRANSCRIPT IN THE EXTENDED POST*****
As Syrian President Assad calls President Bush's plan for democracy a joke, I finish a blogger interview with  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the man I campaigned for earnestly in the past Israeli election (but I am American and can't vote.) The Prime Minister was good enough to answer questions from me and  my esteemed colleagues from the blogosphere including . Let me thank Rick for putting this altogether.

LISTEN TO IT ALL HERE
PM Netanyahu Interview 8-15-2006

Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke first. He explained the conflict as the 

"first salvo in the free world's battles against Sunni/Shia fundamentalism. This war was foisted upon us We don't want it. Nobody would believe  the 21st century we would be fighting these religious wars?  Something we though was a  relic of history that disappeared 700 years ago but it hasn't. There is now fervent competition between Sunni and Shia fund in Islam. Both want to rule the resurrected Muslim  empire which they intend to assert with the force of arms and the force of terror including nuclear terror. But they both agree it should be an Islamic empire And western countries like  Israel should have no place in it. They should be destroyed or subjugated. Israel is merely the front line position.

For Iran who is leading the charge, Israel has to be wiped away. He is arming himself for this purpose. Ahmadinejad openly says it. He is arming himself for that purpose, with atomic weapons. He will undoubtedly seek ti  use them and threaten to use them if given the chance. And that is why President  Bush commitment to prevent Iran from with nuclear weapons is the most important decision of our time. And support it obviously and we believe the President will live up to that commitment. Until Ahmadinejad has nuclear weapons it will use the  two tentacles of the Iranian octopus the foreign the Southern tentacle, though Sunni nonetheless subservient to Hamas to attack Israel   and  Northern tentacle, Hezbollah  which is part of the Shia arc spanning from Tehran to Lebanon. It will use that as the to attack Israel.
The ceasefire is merely an interlude because from their point of view the war has to continue first to achieve their goal in the destruction of Israel and the second to achieve their harder goal, the subjugation and ultimately the defeat of the West.

We are in a protracted battle. We have to prepare our force to overcome them There ought to be a division of labor.....we must destroy their missile arsenal; this has not been achieved. ...........equally the US should leave it's own or an international effort to disarm Iran of its nuclear weapons.
This was the agenda before this war began and it is still the agenda until this war has ended or after this round of this war has ended.
"Bush should disarm Iran from nuclear weapons"

Here are excerpts from the conversation. Please listen to the Audio:

Ed Lasky, American Thinker, asked about further  missile attacks from Lebanon, Gaza ...... Weren't the missiles hitting civilian areas a strategic success any plans to address this new form of enhanced missile?  Take notes of the IDF was involved in tactical high energy laser system  -project canceled 7 months ago? Any thoughts to reactivating this project?

Netanyahu: Don't know about any project and if I did, don't know if it would be wise to comment.
Undergo fundamental revision in analyzing the deficiencies in or defenses and offensive capabilities . These things will happen and are happening now and that will require learn all the lessons of the past 5  weeks.......The new military doctrine in Lebanon ..a foreign legion --- a well trained infantry,  very sophisticated missiles, and it has to be dealt with next time because I do think they will force a next time on us.
As far as Hamas.........our withdrawal appeared like retreat under fire. They employed same tactic of terror attack. The concept of unilateral withdrawal has proven its bankruptcy........

I asked why Israel would entrust its safety to France when on the 14th of July, Chirac accused Israel of intending to destroy Lebanon and what of the meeting of FMA Douste-Blazy with his Iranian counterpart in Beirut declaring  praise for Iran, “a stabilizing country in the region.”
The French shun military action unless it is undertaken by underdogs in civilian clothes using underhanded techniques.  The French government is presenting its army as a humanitarian force that will dash into Lebanon, rebuild roads and bridges, help NGOs bring supplies to suffering civilians.   Will Israel fire on these soldiers if fired upon? Will Israel risk killing French soldiers? Israel is so exposed on this. Can you help us understand the thinking of this ceasefire?

Netanyahu: I am not sure I can. I think are many improbable....many objectives have not been met. I don't think putting in UNIFIL will in any way be helpful n dealing with Hezb'Allah...... It's a real concern that we all share. They will not disarm Herzb'Allah. Lets hope it doesn't stand in the way of what we have to do.

Secondly on France: that particular  statement by the French Foreign Minister was remarkable in  saying that Iran is a stabilizing force in the Middle East.  I don't know if he is referring to the same Middle East we are living in and I'm not sure he is living on the   the same planet we are living in.

Iran is the single greatest threat to our civilization Professing a millennial suicide Apocalypse. In which  millions are supposed to die on both sides and they are quite content with the possibility with their own people that will die because they will all reach Islamic heaven. That is why they are  building atomic bombs.

The French government ought to know that those missiles reach Paris. This is not a local conflict. Not anymore than  Hitler's decision to kill the Jews ended with the Jews. The entire world gets consumed by their madness.
Our world will be in terrible jeopardy
Little Satan, America is the Great Satan  Europe is the middle Satan, not a good spot to be in.
It's about time they got it.

Ann Lieberman- Boker Tov Boulder, heard that from the bereaved family of a dead Israeli soldier that commanding officer said it was a french missile that had hit the slain soldiers tank;

Netanyahu: Does not know of French missiles only Iranian and Syrian.

Lynn In Context,  Hezbollah will not be  handing over their weapons?

Netanyahu: I had no allusions that Hezb'Allah will be handing over it's weapons. I never believed Not only will they keep their present weapons they will feverishly rearm themselves
We must be prepared to win this next round decisively

Rick Richman - Jewish Current Issues, what of the calls in the Knesset for a new unity government?

Netanyahu: Too early to say the only one who can call for a new unity government and that is the Prime Minister and he is not calling for it. e are acting as the loyal opposition
Many other issue like the disengagement. Wont go beyond that. It's premature and not wise

Omri Cere Mere Rhetoric, asked about Olmert's perplexing policies. Could you offer thoughts on OLmert's hesitancy to unleash IDF in Lebanon;

Netanyahu: I don't know

Paul Mirengoff of  Powerline- Is Israel free to act if Hezb'Allah does not disarm?

Netanyahu: Israel can act in her self defense. No resolution has any teeth to it unless its backed with teeth on the ground. We had a better resolution that Hezb'Allah must be disarmed [11559] but it came to nothing. The main int actors are not going to carry out the stipulations in the resolution because they are not willing to fight and die because Hezb'Allah is willing to fight and die.

David Gerstman - Soccer dad, Which is the most important, arguing for medias legitimacy, fighting media bias, or emphasizing Israel's alliance with the United States, or Israel's contributions to the world (science and medicine)

Netanyahu: Number three: America knows who the good guys and the bad guys are. America needs to know this is not a fight between two tribes. The important thing is mobilize the American people to understand -- This is  the opening salve. They will use nuclear weapons. This is not Israel's war (our house against their house) - It is the house of freedom democratic societies, democratic values,

At this moment, the line was cut, but clearly he was differentiating between Dar al Islam and Dar al Harb.
It also is painfully clear to me that there is enormous disappointment in the Olmert's lack of backbone but a great reluctance to show terrrble cracks in Israel's unity. Moreverm the is real concern that the world has no idea who the enemy is and what it is they reallly want.
Listen to the audio.
I promise to furnish a complete transcript as soon as possible, in the  meantime read Ed Lasky's post on this call, it's the best.

toon hat tip GBS
UPDATE: CLICK BELOW FOR FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Atlas Interview on EVM Radio Network

I know what you're thinking, Atlas STFU already, but hey..........I was interviewed last night by Rabbi Spivak on on the EVM Radio Network.
Rabbi Spivak  had me and Chaim Schmidt of the blog, Freedom's Cost and we discussed everything. The  truth behind the reported news, the dangerous Israeli government capitulation to a "hudna," Hezb'Allah, Ahmadinnerjacket,.......... bottom line, it's a conversation between two informed people who care desperately about the state of the free world
Listen to the interview Download chaim_pamela.mp3

WAR Blogger LIVE Interview: Natan Sharansky

Alan Roth of One Jerusalem.Org has put together another groundbreaking, no holds barred blogger interview with kep players in the sphere during this critical time in human history.

Much kudos to Alan for this and last w eek's interview with Dore Gold, LIVE IN JERUSALEM. Taking down the Jihad media one blow to the keppe at a time.
Click here: Ann, Boker tov, Boulder!

Click here: John, Gateway Pundit

Click here: Jack, TigerHawk

Click here: Rich, Jewish Current Issues (my buddy in Israel, and to whom I owe countless thanks.)

Click here: John, Right Wing News (Conservative News and Views)

Click here: Allen, One Jerusalem – Blog – Help Keep Jerusalem United!

Click here: Jerry, Israpundit

Click here: Tel-Chai Nation

and my own badself.

Natan Sharansky spoke of the constant rain of rockets. Jews, Christians, and Muslims are being killed. But Nasarallah says the Muslims will die martyrs so they should not worry. Thousands fleeing from the North. Daily, daily daily......this is their life.

Download the audi file here:
Download Sharanskyinterview810.wav

Here are abrreviated snippets, but they are just a glimpse. Listen to the audio.

Allan Roth, One Jerusalem.Org asks about the mood of the people. Do the Israelis want more diplomacy.

Sharansky says he has never seen the Israelis so united. We wiill not be blackmailed, Will not be held hostage. The people understand. They are living for a month in shelters. 2 million pople are in shelters........

Rick Richman asked about the mood on the Israelis. Did they want a diplomatic solution or do they believe the military has to handle it?

Sharansky: We have a very hestitant leadership We have no choice, we have to fight. Hezbollah must beaten. We must have a clear military victory. We have no choice.

I asked him about the Iranian crisis. Had  his position on Iran had changed from our last phone call. I wanted to know if he still thought Iran should be handled diplomatically....through regime change or should it be handled militarily;

Iranian crisis:  He believes the time is not long and did Sharanskystill beleive Iran should be handled diplomatically "regime change" in the

I also asked him about Government and the IDF - Government and IDF racked by unprecedented leadership crisis

Sharansky: We have a very hestitant leadership. Excellent people were removed from important positions in the past year for political reasons. This is a problem and we are suffering for it.

Jerry Gordon, Israpundit: What is the effect of the change in military leadership?  Will that action provide some military victory and will decisive action be taken?

Sharansky: I am not a military expert and can't really speak to it.

Ann of Boker Tov. Boulder spoke of ethics and morals. The thought of these
young Jewish soldiers having to fight hezbos door to door .......... is this concern for civilian life?

Sharansky doesn't know why it took so long to undergo a ground offensive.. You can't win the war from the air.

Tigerhawk wanted to know if Sharansky's position on democracy was viable after the election of Hamas, Hezbollah ............ if it was viable in Arab countries.

Gateway Pundit asked about Saudi Arabia meeting with Turkey.

Sharansky:  Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations are afraid of this acendency of Shia power in that region.

Should Lipi be replaced;

Sharansky: Government is hesitant. Personell changes not the answer. We will discuss these questions after the war.

I asked how the Israeli people could elect Abu Dana (Olmert) a political hack with such far left familial connections after Hamas was elected and  Sharon went into a coma.  Why would voter turnout be the lowest in Israeli history? And why would they capitulate to Condi? Israel determines her future. It's Israel survival at stake, why would they relinguish control?

Sharansky: Israelis had big allusions to peace. Sharon's presence loomed large over the election.

Listen to the call, this is an abbreviation. I am traveling.

My Observation? Sharansky and the great majority of Israelis are most unhappy with the current administration's inability to act and take decisive action. The Israeli people are of one mind. Hezbollah must be beaten or Israel's future is in question.

I am blogging from the car so I will transcribe and update later. I will tell you there were excellent questions from the bloggers, better than the answers in some instances. Issues you'll never hear discussed by jihad journalists.

THE ATLAS INTERVIEW: CAROLINE GLICK

The most informative interview I conducted in Israel belonged to the brilliant writer, journalist, intellectual, Israel's national treasure, Caroline Glick.

Download CarolineGlick1.wav Part 1, Download caroline_glick_2.wav Part 2

Some of her sagacious remarks;

"All the missiles are Iranian. " [referring to the constant rain of rockets and mssile activity - Atlas]

"We have to be looking at it as the Iranian Foreign Legion . Hezb’Allah was  created by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in 1982. And  ever since, it has been an Iranian organization."

"Iran does this a lot. They outsource their war against the world. They created the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in 1988.

Hamas now is also an Iranian organization and they also receive Iranian, guidance and Iranian doctrine and Iranian weapons and Iranian money.

The Palestinian Authority itself is now being financed by Iran. Just a couple of months ago the head of Hamas  [..] together with the Hamas foreign minister went inside of Tehran and met with Ahmadinejad and met with Khameini and they were touring Revolutionary guards bases outside of Tehran and Iran pledged to them 50 million dollars on the spot and ever since them these Hamas ministers have been found in all sorts of places carrying hundreds of millions of dollars"

"What are we looking at here? And what we are looking at here is a system that is Iranian."

"And that is what is fighting Israel and of course that is what is fighting the US in Iraq. [..] Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army that’s fighting US and coalition forces and killing of thousands of innocent civilians. Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army is also a Hizb’Allah organization.

Muqtada al-Sadr is very close with Nasrallah, the head of Hezb’Allah in Lebanon. In Southern Iraq in the Shia area [...] immediately after US forces liberated the country from Saddam Hussein, Hezb’Allah set up shop in the south, in Nasariah and in other towns and started indoctrinating, inciting  and funding shite violence. Again at the direction of Iran. And so we have to be very clear about this. If, in Iraq, one of the problems with the Americans’ conceptualization of the war, when they were going in is that they were fighting against a government, a regular army………..[..] and they were wrong because they missed the terrorist component. and they were not fully cognizant of just how large the terrorist danger was going to become over time.

So when people look at the system that Israel is fighting, we look only at the terrorist aspect and we ignore the state aspect of it and the state aspect is the central aspect of it and if you want to try to conceptualize a way through this, a way to victory in all this, you have to be very clear about the centrality of Iran, and also BTW the centrality of the Lebanese government in this quite frankly."

If you listened to this Glick interview, listen to it again. If you haven’t heard it NOW NOW NOW. You will be tested.

Hamas Military Leader Says Palestinian Arab Combatants May Join Israel-Lebanon Conflict

RUSSIA HELPING IRAN WITH NUKES

Tehran is continuing its research into a uranium enrichment program with the help of Russian laser know-how, according to new allegations.

Live in Person DORE GOLD in Jerusalem

IDF military intel got every phone number in South Lebanon and they are working the phones. Paraphrasing, "we know Hezb'Allah is in your home. We know Katuyshas are  in your home and unless they are moved your home will become a target!"

When are I asked Mr. Gold if the reason the Lebanese were not never leaving their homes after the warnings and the leaflets was the Hezb'Allah were holding them hostage or threatening them he said he did not know.

A wonderful bloggers' interview with Former UN Ambassador Dore Gold, 1997-1999. Rick of Jewish Current Issues and I were there LIVE, and in person. The spectacular Ann of Boker Tov, John Right Wing News, Allan Roth of One Jerusalem.Org and Gateway Pundit has the best recap here;

Ambassador Dore Gold is Israel’s former Ambassador to the UN and two-time NY Times bestselling author of Hatred’s Kingdom and Tower of Babble - How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos. Ambassador Gold talked today on a blogger conference from Jerusalem to update bloggers on what is happening in Israel.

Ambassador Gold addressed a wide range of issues including the recent incident in Kfar Qana, an alternative to a cease-fire, and the role of the UN.

WWW.ONEJERUSALEM.ORG sponsored the event.

Ambassador Dore Gold:

First of all a bit on Hezbollah-
- Israel withdrew from Lebanon completely fulfilling UN resolutions even garnisheing the blessing of the UN at the time of withdrawal.
- Kofi Annan only elevated Nasrallah when he met with him after Israel left Lebanon in June, 2000.
- Nasrallah has preached that the US is the principle enemy, not Israel.
- As a result of Israel departing from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah was strengthened with help from Iran.
- UN Resolution 1559 attempted to disarm the militias in Lebanon. If the militias would have been disarmed the current crisis would not be happening. Israel by disarming Hezbollah is restoring security. By disarming Hezbollah, Irael is helping the democratic movement of the Cedar Revolution and Israel is also helping to fulfill UN resolution 1559.

On Iran-
- Iran's aim is to dominate Iraq and the region. Iran has an ally in Syria.
- Israel's strategy includes isolating Hezbollah from its Irainian suppliers.
- This is the only way to beat the Hezbollah insurgency.

On Syria-
- It was Syrian agents who assassinated the Lebanese Prime Minister in 2005.
- Syria has been the pivital country supporting the insurgency in Iraq.
- Somehow, those who propose that Syria become a major player are suffering from amnesia.

What to do:
- This is such a clearcut war.
- Syria and Lebanon are clearly trying to expand their domain.
- The media is trying to portray Israel as the criminal in this war.
- "Civilian casualties" is one area that the media is exploiting.
- Hezbollah is the clear party that is responsible.
- Most people in the world do not realize the extent that Israel is going to to avoid civilian casualties.
- In Qana leaflets dropped in June asking the people to leave.

Read it all.

 

Allan of One Jerusalem.Org will have the transcript up tomorrow. And the excellent Q & A. This was a particularly good blogger call.

UPDATE: Rick over at the erudite bur racy Jewish Current Issues has his take here

UPDATE: HERE IS THE LIVE AUDIO DOWNLOAD Download DoreGold801Israel.wav

Failing IRAN and the WEST: Hanging on the Telephone with Natan Sharansky

UPDATED  JUNE 16TH - *SCROLL* DOWN
Tim of The Heritage Foundation put together a bloggers' conference call with Natan Sharansky (clearly a man with an eye on the future.)  He addressed the  Western strategy of engaging the Iranian regime as well as the systematic destruction of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim artifacts on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem by the Muslim authority that has jurisdiction over the area.

I dug chattin' on the fellow bloggers pre-showtime. Having never met or spoken, there was little awkwardness. Then again .... maybe there was I wasn't on to it. But we all agreed this was an excellent opportunity to reach out (no layers) and get direct answers from a great lover of freedom.

These were Sharansky’s views  not necessarily be construed as Heritage policy.  Sharansky expressed genuine awe at the power of the net and bloggers and how significantly it could effect change. How different it all might have been when he was a dissident and meeting a journalist was taking one's life in one's hands. It was a  great and terrible risk to try to get the truth out.

Participating blogs: Bozer Tov, Hugh Hewitt (Mary Katharine Ham) , Gateway Pundit  Powerline, Publius Pundit, Red State, Right Wing News Regime Change Iran

Live blogging ... will upload the audio when I can. Sharansky is speaking of Iran;

Bush did a great thing bringing democracy to the Middle East . But the US has begun to backpedal. You speak of giving nukes to Iran. This is the policy of Clinton/Carter. And it failed horribly. It didn't work for North Korea it won't work now.We must actively support Iranian opposition

Regime Change Iran asks how to effect change;

Bush is so lonely. Lonely in the international community but so few allies in Washington.

I asked Sharansky  if he was familiar with the Muslim conception of "hurriyya", "freedom", which is "freedom as perfect slavery"...Bostom wrote of hurriya here.

Key excerpts from Bostom: “Hurriyya”, Arabic for freedom, and the uniquely Western concept of freedom are completely at odds. Hurriyya “freedom”,  as Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) the  lionized “Greatest Sufi Master”, expressed it, “being perfect slavery”. And this conception is not merely confined to the Sufis perhaps metaphorical understanding of the relationship between Allah the “master” and his human “slaves.”

Sharansky really believes that people want to live  free.  He cited Mulsims that he knows that pray five times a day and live in free societies and are happy. He said we should not "create demons, we have enough demons." He has complete faith in the individual's desire to be free. He didn't answer the question. Citing  Japan and other oppressed societies that have completely adjusted their thinking is all well and good but it doesn't take the "religion" factor into account IMAO.

I have to run, will transcribe and give my take later. Anyone want to convert to MP3 - yeah yeah I know I gotta figure that out. Must run now.

UPDATE: Kenneth rocks. Thanks for the MP3 Download NatanSharansky.mp3

JUNE 16:  FAILING IRAN

It's extraordinary that a man of Sharansky's stature would reach out to the blogs and an indication of the direction the world is going. When Sharansky began speaking of this"press conference of this type" - he said

I understand the great power which all of you  have in your hands. In fact I think how different our world [would have been] when he was a dissident in the communist world, if there was an internet.

For you from your own own home can have free access to people behind the iron curtain ...... it's a great great power.

First on to Iran. It seems Sharansky is very disappointed in the  the US approach to handling Iran. Sharansky acknowledges the numerous skeptics (again) in a democratic agenda in Iran, but before we start saying a democratic agenda won't work - "let's try it." He felt quite strongly that before we start diminishing it, that we ought  to try it.

The problem is we're not really consistent in trying. President Bush did a fantastic job in bringing back a Democratic agenda to international relations. But here the problem is if you don't stay the course, if you are not insistent, if you are not consistent in this policy it won't work.

Dissidents must be your partners. The Free World must be behind the dissidents. The challenge for the free world is to encourage the people to cross the line from double thinkers to dissidents.

Double thinkers is a Sharansky-ism. If you haven't read The Case for Democracy (and you should should, a true dissident's bible, a must read), he describes the mechanics of fear societies, focusing on three basic groups: true believers, doublethinkers, and dissidents. Sharansky uses these terms to help readers who have lived only in free societies understand the experience of living in a fear society. He too, like most Soviets was a doublethinker, constantly performing a balancing act between his true feelings and his public feelings.

In his book Sharansky warns,"Only those adept at reading these mechanics can tell the true believers from the doublethinkers . . . . The failure to see the difference between the two, however, is not just a question of political acumen, it is a question of moral clarity."

Take this country Iran. A unique challenge to the free world.The US, the world is being blackmailed by nuclear weapons development by the Iranian regime. Unique country were most are double thinkers. There are trade unions and student unions that are very powerful in Iran. I can think of one other country like this.
Poland-  The union Solidarity -- huge trade unions of solidarity. The unions became so powerful, the darlings of the free world. They were the biggest heros of their time. All the free world was watching what was happening to them.

At the same time look at the oppositon in Iran, they get no support. On the one hand America has madevery strong statements in support of the opposition, on the other hand, the same American administration has made it very clear that they intend to come to an agreement with the Ayatollahs.

The moment the US began negotiating with the Ayatallohs the power, the influence of the opposition went down.

The Bush administration has taken revolutionary steps to bring democracy to the world. OTOH, that same administration now has adopted a similar policy to Iran as Clinton had towards North Korea. Agreeing - If only you promise 1,2,3 - we will build you for you nuclear reactor. And you see what happened to North Korea. NORTH KOREA HAS NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

I asked John Bolton about this very thing later in the afternoon. How could we stop Iran from becoming another North Korea (who BTW is preparing a missile test - not good. Think delivery system.)

Bolton said, "It is impart with the Korean experience in mind that we have said  on the precondition of suspension of the enrichment  of the reprocessing enrichment activities by Iran, it has to be verifiable. By that we mean, not just through IAEA inspectors, but through what also what we euphemistically call national and technical means. I mean our own ability for verificationand that is going to be important. It will be intrusive verification. It has to be to give us confidence. That is something the Iranians will have to take into account. And if we can get those preconditions verified. Then the prospect of Iran cheating as the North Koreans did will be reduced."

Frankly, this is not believable (at least not to me.)

It is very important that the opposition in Iran feel it has the support of the free world.  People who have internet on their hands can do alot.  They can express to millions their solidarity. They can build the links with this opposition.  They must support the opposition. The can reach out. If of course the worse will happen and Iran gets nuclear weapons then the free world will have to fight. But it's much better, instead of fighting, to help the people around the world to change - to bring this change.

Sharansky was agitated by this. I don't think he beleives we have given the "freedom project" enough time. Iran was clearly the impetus behind the call.

He continued on to Jerusalem. the fatwa that has been issued to destroy religious sites. First directing us to his site, One Jerusalem. Go over there and sign the petition.

For a number of years already, there is the selected destruction of Christian/Jewish artifacts which is of course the center for Jewish/Christian religion. On the temple mount, King Solomon stables up to the cruaders on...........when the taliban destroyed the buddas in Afghanistan all the world was corrextly enraged. Here we see the systematic, the biggest maybe in the history of geology/archeology, destruction of the most important artifacts  for Christianity and Judaism. And the world knows nothing of this.

Nobody is permitted to go and see and watch whats happening. Excavators are working there. They are taking thousands and thousands of pounds and thousands of artifacts and simply thrown out. It is perhaps one the largest archeological catastrophes in history.

The world is sick .......... read that again. And send that petition to your friends.

It is not accidental that Arafat said to Clinton at Camp David that the history of the Temple Mount is something made up by the Jews.

Sharansky reached out to bloggers in an act of desperation - I think .
He sees terrible consequences of the action and inactions on Iran and on the desecration of these most sacred religious sites. It's a call to arms (for bloggers)

Pamela

 

MY NEW FAVORITE VIDEO AND THE BEST ATLAS PODCAST!

  BUSH WAS RIGHT here ! Rock on, my soul.

Watch the video now,  it's not Costello's Pump it Up vid but it's damn good. Hat tip  Bob V, thanks

Even better is this piece from my most adored rock n roll band of my youth, The Ramones hat tip deb

AND THE LAST in the series OF THE ATLAS PODCASTS! Frankly, it's my most  favorite one. It gives you a real look into how your blogeditrix thinks. Yowser.
PaPundits concludes his interview with moi here. Mike writes;

This is the final segment of our interview. I finally figured out  what I was doing with these damn MP3s so the quality has gotten  better. I think this one turned out great. [me too-Atlas]

He even made a special graphic and everything. awwwwwwwww

Download here and their their podcast page is here.

Other great stuff: The Big Apple Festival is up. Chow down  here

Atlas Podcast at PaPundits

PODCAST: Mike at PaPundits interviews Atlas, here, yowser. Sizzzzzzzzzzzzzlin' view.

With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments, where they will certainly be lost. -- William Lloyd Garrison

The Atlas Interview: Phyllis Chesler, "Daring Lover of the Truth"

Ex-left wing goddess, one time Muslim bride, anti-cultural relativist, and as Bat Ye'or called her "daring lover of the truth". I was unfamiliar with Phyllis Chesler until I heard her speak at The The Middle East & Academic Integrity on the American Campus Conference At Columbia University over a year ago. Her remarks blew me away and  the more she revealed the louder she was heckled by Pro-Palestinian inciters in the room. Inciters, thugs  - these fools had their phones play loud music, their walkie talkies go off , but Chesler never flinched, stumbled or faltered. She gave it right back and made sure her story was told. I subsequently have written about her numerous times and strongly recommend you review her extensive body of work. Brave, brilliant, and sagacious, I jumped at the chance to interview her.

in The Death of Feminism : What's Next in the Struggle for Women's Freedom, the level of anti-American and anti-Israeli propaganda and intolerance towards all those who do not kow-tow to it is fairly monumental on many feminist list-serv groups. If one does not believe that America "deserved" 9/11; if one does not view America as the true "terrorist"; if one does not believe that Arabs and Muslims are being persecuted in America for "racist" reasons; and if one does not simultaneously believe that the Jews are "imagining" or "exaggerating" anti-Semitism — then one is not welcome on such list-serv groups. In fact, I was literally "purged," Stalinist-style from one such group for my various pro-America and pro-Israel "Thought Crimes." It was a most instructive experience.

[...]"right" and "left" are no longer useful. I write about this at length in The Death of Feminism : What's Next in the Struggle for Women's Freedom. On the other hand, the "Left" is aggressively secular and anti-religious; considers pornography to be "protected" hate speech; considers prostitution and trafficking to be forms of "sex work" which should be de-criminalized or legalized; views paternal sole-custody of children as the feminist solution to the problems that mothers have when they juggle child care and career responsibilities; believes that men and women are actually the "same"; has absolutely no foreign policy except that of opposing whatever President Bush and America do or ever have done — they really might as well be French; and has no universal feminist policy vis-à-vis jihadic Islam and its Muslim victims. The "right" has opposite views on these subjects. Although some "right-wingers" have diverse views on abortion, civil rights for gay people, the role of multi-national corporations in a time of war, the importance of intellectual and ideological diversity; the dangers of appeasing the Islam, etc. there are few "left wingers" who are at all diverse on their issues.

Brave, brilliant, and sagacious, I jumped at the chance to interview her. Share the interview with your peers [hence the Johnny Appleseed reference], get the word out of this woman. I have downloaded the interview in its entirety. Anybody wanna convert it to an MP3 file for me?
Download DW_S0036.wav

Download Chesler_Interview.mp3 Del, my free speech man, you rock!

Mike and PaPundits  writes "I've got plenty of bandwidth if you don't, click here. Yup Mighty Mike, mighty man indeed.

Jody sent me this alternative to the above wav file here

It runs a little under an hour, first half focuses on Chesler's background and history (not to be missed), second half addresses how the left destroys this nation, destroyed academia, and enables the Islamofascists to commit the  worst acts of barbarism against women (and the West).

Phyllis did BOOK TV for CPAN last night at Barnes and Noble in Madhattan, I will let you know when they broadcast it as soon as CSPAN releases their schedule.

UPDATE: A huge part of my discussion with Phyllis centered on the hijacking of our universities by the Radical left and the Radical Islamists. This bill is critical to addressing, in some small part, this enormous front on the war on terror. Write your government officials NOW  House Republicans Fight for Academic Bill of Rights

Dream Ticket 2008 for a Saturday Afteroon

So whaddaya think? It's a red hot ticket eh?  Actually Vice-President Cheney is my pic to top the 2008 ticket.
(I can't stop talking even for a second, poor Mr. Cheney)

er.......caption anyone?

A Conversation with Paul Bremer

Paul and Atlas (yo, that's me)

Saw Paul Bremer at the Essex House tonight. A mighty mighty man, what a fine man. The depth and breath of what the US accomplished in his short but action packed stint at the OK Corral is grossly underplayed in the press and by and large never discussed. I think he is a great man. I know all the garbage that has been thrown at him but the guy delivered. He said they had to have a constitution on deadline, they had it on deadline (took America 7 years to write our constitution). Said Iraq would be sovereign by June 30th, and so it was. This from a people that were kept in the dark under the boot of Saddam for 30 years and then overnight were suddenly wildly free. When Bremmer recounted to me the first mass grave he saw, one that covered three football fields, I had no idea it held 20,000 to 30,000 bodies. BTW one of hundreds of these graves. When Bremer said they couldnt put a figure on how many people Saddam murdered because one and a half million people were still missing, I shook my head. When Bremer told me that woman would sift through bones on top of bones looking for any clue. anything that might identify a loved one, I held myself. When Bremmer explained how every police station, every last one, had a torture room and a rape room.............I held my breath. There is no doubt in his mind that Saddam had to go. Saddam was a primary source of revenue and assistance to terrorists. And even now in Iraq, the terrorists are either one of two groups. First the murdering Baathists from the old party of Saddam that want the country back to the way it was, the second group of terrorists -foreign, al qaeda. The enemy. Our enemy and enemy of the Iraqi people too. They mean to see that democracy never takes shape in Iraq but the Iraqis intend to have it. Most of the deaths due to terrorism in Iraq have been the Iraqi people ............people trying to get democracy off the ground. Listening to the nightmare that was Iraq I am astounded at how much we were able to accomplish in so short a period of time. Bremer and his team of 3,000 volunteers from 25 different countries paint a far different picture than was ever offered by the MSM. Nothing I heard from Bremer was recounted to me previously and I am a news junkie. The massive debt, the crumbling infrastructure, the out of control inflation (when Saddam was out of money, what did he do? Why he printed more Saddam dinars of course!), the complete lack of a financial system. We would truck the pay to the workers all throught the country until we could get some semblance of a structure in place. The Iraqis are taking over the security of their land, and while Bremer admits to their secuity being an army of "variable" soldiers, he is confident that given more time, experience and training that they will hold their own country. The benefits of such a historical transformation will yield unto America great rewards in the mid and long term. This guy Bremer is a mighty good man  that did an outstanding job in an environment of chaos, hopelessness, and intermitted violence. Bremer, another unsung hero of the war to end all wars.

Natan Sharansky Gets it, Do you? READ IT

When this man, Natan Sharansky, speaks prick up your ears....................read it all
Seize the Opportunity for Palestinian Democratic Reforms - Interview with Natan Sharansky - Sam Ser (Jerusalem Post)
Q: What approach did you suggest the U.S. take on new PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas?Sharansky: If the U.S., Israel, and Europe say, "We will embrace you only if you embrace democratic reforms" - then you have a unique chance. But if the message will be, "Give us stability and then we'll talk," then I think it will be very difficult for him to bring about reforms.    If he does [institute reforms], he will have to fight terror, because the terrorists will resist all of it. But if he delays reform in order to fight terror, then he can have a cease-fire one day and allow terror the next.
Q: If the Palestinians were to create a liberal democracy, what concessions would you be willing to make?Sharansky: I think we have to start [to make concessions] long before they become a completely liberal democracy. But as of today, I think it would be a big mistake to dismantle even one settlement. We gave them Arafat's autonomy for free. We gave them recognition of a Palestinian state for free. And now we are giving them the disengagement for free.
As for my views on a Palestinian state, I'm still saying what I've said all along...that I'm willing to give the Palestinians every right except for the right to destroy me. And what's the only way to ensure that that won't happen? To demand that their state will be a democratic state, a state whose leaders are subject to the will of its citizens. Since 1993, we've gone further and further from that dream by endorsing a [Palestinian] fear society.
Now, we have a golden opportunity to bring about democratic reform because the one man who believes in that just happens to be the leader of the most powerful nation in the world. So I say, let's seize that opportunity. ...................................................Atlas says AMEN!

What for Lunch? Inhaling DANIEL PIPE'S Pearls of Wisdom

I inhaled brilliance for lunch. One of those rare extraordianary moments when truth walks in the room. As with LOVE, when truth walks in the room, everybody stand up.

I must say that Dr Pipe's methodical pragmatic approach to addressing those maniacal mullahs is awe inspiring.
His platform is simple............moderate Islam must triumph over radical fundamentalism.
And we must help facilitate that change.
Iran is burning to be free, disenchanted with 25 years of totalitarianism. We must be a part of the solution.
We must address immigration. Put an end to islamic fundamentalists from entering the country. Sounds simple? Not if it'c called racial profiling
Here are excerpts from an Australian interview Pipes conducted with Tony Jones, Lateline

DANIEL PIPES: Well, I certainly welcome the so-called cease-fire. I like the idea that everybody's saying the violence has to stop. But there are two significant impediments. The first is that, as you noted earlier, there are important elements on the Palestinian side who don't want this, who want the fighting to go on, and so one has to doubt whether it's going to actually take place. Secondly, and perhaps more profoundly, Mahmoud Abbas has made it clear, now for two and half years, that he thinks that Palestinian violence against Israelis is counterproductive and he wants it stopped, but he doesn't want to stop it because he wants to end the war against Israel, because he has given up the goal of destroying Israel. It's because he sees that tactically at this time, violence is counterproductive. TONY JONES: Would you agree, though, that if Ariel Sharon took the same view as you, that Mahmoud Abbas has ulterior motives and is still bent on eliminating Israel, he wouldn't be shaking his hand, he wouldn't be offering him a truce? DANIEL PIPES: I would agree with you that the Israeli Government and particularly the prime minister doesn't agree with me. But I've often disagreed with Israeli prime ministers. TONY JONES: Seriously, wouldn't they be in a much better position than you to judge him? DANIEL PIPES: They've made mistakes before. The whole of the Oslo diplomacy, which lasted for seven years from 1993 to 2000, was something I was skeptical about. They went full speed ahead, and they were wrong and I was right. I'm modest in my self-appraisal, but there are times when one can be at a distance and see things which somebody who's right there doesn't see. TONY JONES: What is it exactly that you are seeing that the Israeli Government is not? DANIEL PIPES: The consensus - Israeli Government, Australian Government, virtually every government, most annotators, commentators and academics, journalists – believe that in September 1993, the Palestinians, on the White House lawn at the Oslo accord signing, gave up the desire to destroy Israel. I don't believe that happened. I believe that has yet to happen, and I base that conclusion on a huge amount of material coming out of the Palestinian Authority areas - political speeches, religious sermons, schoolbooks, just all parts of life, and one sees it in surveys, research; one sees it in elections in so far as they take place, that there is an intent to destroy Israel. TONY JONES: But they hardly have the means to do that, do they, whereas Israel certainly has the means to destroy the Palestinian Authority, should it choose to. DANIEL PIPES: Israel certainly could, but the Palestinians, because they don't have a grand arsenal and a great economy, are doing it through violence, through terrorism, through debilitation of the Israeli will, and that was working quite well, and the Israelis are prone to despair that "this will never end; let's give them something more." TONY JONES: But you say this as if all Palestinians were the same. DANIEL PIPES: No, of course not. Eighty per cent, I'd say, of Palestinians believe that the destruction of Israel is a worthy goal. Some 20 per cent say, "No, let's just live our own lives apart." What we need to do is focus on getting that 20 per cent to be 30, 40, 50 and 60 per cent, rather than focusing on negotiations. TONY JONES: Point to us, if you can, where Mahmoud Abbas has made any public statement to his own people suggesting that Israel should still be eliminated. DANIEL PIPES: He has done so in a variety of ways. He has celebrated the elements in, for example, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade who have clearly called for the destruction of Israel and he has associated with them. He has used terms like "the Zionist enemy". He has notably been unwilling to say that the war is over; he has simply said violence has to cease. His record as an aide to Yasser Arafat for 40 years. I need to ask you: what evidence do you have that he has actually given this up, because everything, I think, points to his still holding onto this goal. TONY JONES: (Laughs) It would be possible if you were the interviewer. Under these circumstances, I must ask you the questions. Don't you believe it's possible that Mahmoud Abbas, as many other men faced with the option of having either permanent war or peace for their people, could change fundamentally? DANIEL PIPES: It is conceivably possible. I see no reason to think that has happened. TONY JONES: All right. We have heard tonight that spokesmen for Hamas and Islamic Jihad have claimed their members are not bound by this truce. What will happen if they continue - those two groups of militants continue to take action in Israel? DANIEL PIPES: What we've seen over the last year, really specifically since February 2004, is growing anarchy in the Palestinian Authority areas - criminal gangs, warlords, extremist elements, security services - and the PA authority has eroded as a result. So, not only is Mahmoud Abbas not as powerful a figure as Yasser Arafat but also he has a greater problem of chaos on his hands. With the best of intentions, it's going to be very hard for him to control Hamas, Islamic Jihad and all these other elements from engaging in violence. It's going to be a real, real challenge. I have to say that I'll be surprised if he manages it. TONY JONES: But if he can't, will he be held to account for the violence of others? That's the point. Because they're not under his control, as you've just pointed out. DANIEL PIPES: But what's the point in making an agreement with someone who can't control the forces that operate from his territory? TONY JONES: But what would be expected of him? What would Israel expect him to do in order to prove that he's at least holding up his side of the bargain, because otherwise, the whole process will be in the hands of a very small group - potentially, a very small group of terrorists. DANIEL PIPES: What you're pointing to is a debate within Israel, whether they're looking for 100 per cent results or 100 per cent intention - or, anyway, intention versus results - and one finds Israelis arguing that out very intensely, for the reasons you've suggested. TONY JONES: What do you think they'll decide, though, because intention versus results are pretty critical when there are groups, as you pointed out, outside of his control. DANIEL PIPES: I suspect they'll go for intention. TONY JONES: So the peace process may still hold, even if there are suicide bombings by Hamas or Islamic Jihad? DANIEL PIPES: I'd prefer to say diplomacy will still hold. Whether it actually leads to peace or not is an open question. TONY JONES: The question, though, is whether Israel would continue to cease all military activity against all Palestinians, which are the terms of the truce. DANIEL PIPES: But we've seen in the past, for example, in the Oslo diplomacy, that a lot of diplomacy took place but in fact in 2000, they were further from peace than in 1993. Diplomacy in itself is not a guarantee of success, of leading to harmony and goodwill. TONY JONES: Let's talk about the other debate that's going on between diplomacy and action, and that is in Iran. What do you think should happen if Iran continues with its program, its secret program, to develop nuclear weapons? Do you believe the United States could or will take military action against Iran, or that Israel may? DANIEL PIPES: I don't think the Israelis have the capabilities. The Iranians have learned the lesson of Osirak in 1981 when the Israelis came in and bombed the one installation, and that was that for the Iraqi nuclear weapons program; and the Iraqis and then the Iranians and others have learned that you put it all around and put it underground. So it would be much more difficult. I don't think at this point the Israelis could do it. The United States Air Force could do it, and the goal of the US government these days is, in conjunction with the Europeans, to send a signal to the Iranians: "Don't do this." It's an attempt to establish a deterrent: "Please don't do this. You won't like the results. We don't want to do this." The Iranians appear not to be listening, but that could be a bluff. I'm not on the inside; I don't know actually what's going on, but from what we can tell from that side, US and European efforts have so far not had great success. TONY JONES: But could the US threats also be a bluff? I mean, do you believe the United States would be willing to take this tremendous risk, and consider the potential results of that risk on a Shi'ite-controlled government in Iraq which America is relying on, which has close links to Iran? DANIEL PIPES: There are many, many implications of taking out the Irani nuclear facilities. It would be a dangerous act. But I do think that the Bush administration has kept that as a possibility, and I would not be shocked if things came to that. TONY JONES: Very briefly, on another matter: Kim Beazley, the leader of the federal Opposition, is calling for debate in this country on whether the US troops in Iraq should withdraw from Sunni areas, potentially to western enclaves, to avoid being drawn inevitably into the vortex of civil war. What do you think of that idea? DANIEL PIPES: I'm sympathetic to it. Since April 2003 I've been calling for foreign troops, coalition troops, to be outside the cities, not have boots on the ground; be in the desert, keep an eye on the borders, keep an eye on the oil and gas, make sure there are no humanitarian disasters, but not be there in the cities, not be putting together electricity grids, not be keeping control of streets. So I'm sympathetic. TONY JONES: There's merit to the idea? DANIEL PIPES: I believe so.