PDavidHornik

If we don't do politics right...

everything else will go to hell, our music, our physics, our math, all our sublimity. So suggests Charles Krauthammer in this great and brilliant essay.

As acutely as anywhere, the Israeli variant of this is: security issues first. If we don't do those right, we lose everything else. Give me ten fascinating articles on various subjects and I read the ones on security first.

Israel takes on its own religious fanatics

As I outline today on Frontpage. For the international media it's been another opportunity to make Israel look bad. Actually, for those living here, it's been exhilarating to see the country unite effectively against the nastiness.

Hamas leader spells out Hamas goals

You can see it for yourself. Now that there is seemingly serious talk of some sort of Hamas-PLO merger, in Europe and elsewhere they're already saying--absolutely predictably--that Hamas has "moderated." The linked video constitutes proof (as if it were needed) that this isn't so; but, again, in this world those presenting mere factual evidence for their views are at a disadvantage. Anyone who has seriously paid attention to the Hamas phenomenon is incapable of saying they have any potential for moderation, unless that someone totally lacks backbone or has nefarious aims.

Egypt rapidly sinking into Islamist darkness

Powerfully described by Barry Rubin, including the naivete of relatively liberal Tahrir Square protesters who didn't see--and still don't see--that they were just laying the groundwork for the wolves.

Yaalon: U.S. now sees Palestinian issue more realistically

That's what Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon told a Jerusalem audience the other day, claiming the Netanyahu government had helped Washington see some of the light. It's an interesting disclosure but, given the Obama administration's history of Israel-abuse, one that awaits confirmation--as I discuss today on Frontpage.

Ibn Warraq gives us some truth--profound truth

Giulio Meotti reports on Ibn Warraq's new book, Why the West Is Best, and gives a series of terrific quotes any one of which would qualify for this blog's irregular "Quote of the Day" feature. Read and relish.

U.S. MUST attack Iran's nuke program--soon

Former Pentagon adviser Mark Kroenig told Israel Radio today why he's convinced that that's so (he also has a Foreign Policy article forthcoming on the subject). His observations are irrefutable. As for whether the U.S. or Israel should carry out this task, Kroenig said

Israel's limited capabilities would make it less likely to achieve success than the U.S. military. “Given Israel's limited capability to mitigate a potential battle and inflict lasting damage," he said, an Israeli strike "would likely result in far more devastating consequences and carry a far lower probability of success than a U.S. attack."

It will be a damn shame if the U.S. refrains from acting and Israel has to instead. But those are the only two options.

Quote of the day

Mark Steyn in an NRO blog post gets (as usual) some rank humor out of the awfulness in Egypt:

If you’re going to turn your country into a squat of theocratic totalitarianism, a stupid population is indispensable. Washington’s most basic problem in Afghanistan, for example, is that most of its upcountry villagers are too ill educated even to be aware of the existence of countries such as the United States. When, after 9/11, a bunch of guys in the full Robocop showed up and started blowing stuff up, your average rural Pushtun simply had no more idea who they were or where they came from than the Americans vis a vis the space aliens in Independence Day.

Egypt is now falling into the hands of men who revel in Taliban-scale parochial stupidity and are bent on imposing it. From 1922 to 2011, the country got worse. It’s now getting worser.

More info. and profound thoughts from Guy Bechor.

The Americans are always telling us in Israel to make peace

Easier said than done, isn't it?

Iraq's Christians in severe crisis

Under Saddam--who saw his enemies as Shiites and Kurds, but who, as a secular Muslim, had no special animus against Christians--they were relatively safe. Now, under U.S.-sponsored "democratization," all hell has broken loose for years and it keeps raging, with the community near extinction. Friday sermons in mosques spark brutal rampages. Something similar could emerge in Syria if Assad--an Alawite with, again, no animus toward Christians--is toppled, as looks increasingly likely. The Obama administration is indifferent as it encourages both what it calls "democratization" and Islamic radicalism. Raymond Ibrahim gives the grim facts in an article that, in a different world, would be a red-letter clarion call in the New York Times.