FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

There are lots of angry Muslims in the UK as a result of Salman Rushdie’s knighthood. Did you expect anything different?

This has the potential to be as bad or worse than the Danish cartoons:

TEHRAN, Iran – An high-level Iranian cleric said Friday that the religious edict calling for the killing of Salman Rushdie cannot be revoked, and he warned Britain was defying the Islamic world by granting the author knighthood…

“Awarding him means confronting 1.5 billion Muslims around the world,” Khatami said. “In Islamic Iran, the revolutionary fatwa … is still alive and cannot be changed.” Then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa in 1989, calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie because his book “The Satanic Verses” was deemed insulting to Islam…

“Earlier they had published cartoons of our Prophet, and now they have given an award to someone who deserves to be killed,” Abdul Ghafoor Hayderi told a crowd of about 1,000 people in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city…

“Rushdie is a hate figure across the Muslim world because of his insults to Islam,” said Anjem Choudray, protest organizer. “This honor will have ramifications here and across the world.” — AP

Thanks to Cox & Forkum Editorial Cartoons

Technorati Tags: Rushdie

Iran has admitted that it is funding Hamas and Hizbullah (as if there were any doubt):

Ali Larijani, the chairman of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, denied in an interview with Newsweek that Iran was providing arms to the Hamas. He admitted, however, that his country was funneling finances to the Islamic group, as well as to Hizbullah.

“We do support Hizbullah and Hamas, that is right,” Larijani said. “But these two are not terrorist groups. These are the two groups that are defending their own land.” — Jerusalem Post

The soon-to-be-nuclear Iran is a potent force in the Mideast, one of the two oil superpowers (the other is Saudi Arabia). Both have large military establishments. These superpowers, Shiite and Sunni respectively, vying for control of the region, agree on almost nothing except of course the proposition that Israel should be replaced by an Arab state.

Their anti-Israel work is performed by non-state proxies, such as Hamas and Hizbullah, as well as the still-immoderate Fatah, by allies such as Syria, and by diplomatic and propaganda activities throughout the world. In the name of Islam, both countries have contributed to the establishment of mosques and other institutions in many nations, all of which incidentally promote the view that Israel is the devil. They also apply pressure to their various trading partners, particularly in Europe where most of their oil is sold, to adopt anti-Israel postures. And of course they finance the constant din of accusations and lies about Israel that reaches every spot on the globe, 24/7.

This is particularly effective with the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims, since it is often couched in religious terms, but also seems to be doing quite well in such places as the UK and Scandinavia.

The combined might of Arab armed forces that could be marshaled against Israel in a regional war runs into the millions, compared to Israel’s tiny standing army of 168,000 plus a few hundred thousand available as reserve soldiers for a limited time.

So the next time it’s suggested that Israel’s activities vs. Hamas and Hizbullah represent a mighty Goliath crushing a bunch of little Davids, remember this:

The terrorist militias are only the point of the spear.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria

Senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office said Jerusalem wanted to hear a formal announcement from the new Palestinian Authority government saying it accepted the Quartet’s three benchmarks before transferring frozen tax revenues to the PA.

The cabinet is expected to take up the issue of releasing the funds, believed to be more than a half billion dollars, at its upcoming meeting on Sunday. The Quartet’s three conditions are the recognition of Israel, the renouncement [sic] of terrorism, and the acceptance of previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements. — Jerusalem Post

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone would insist that the PA actually do something about corruption, about the criminal gangs that prey on the Palestinian population under its protection, and about the fact that so many of its ‘security’ officers are also members of terrorist groups?

If the idea is that ultimately the new Fayyad government will develop into more than just a shell to be used to fight Hamas and an excuse for the Quartet to force Israel to withdraw from the West Bank, and that ultimately it will be a vehicle for coexistence between Israel and at least the West Bank Palestinians — then it will need to be a real government that provides actual benefits, and not just a parasitic class that rules by force.

In order for this to happen, it will have to change drastically. It will have to provide openings for younger people (which means it will have to find younger Palestinians that still accept the idea of coexistence, possibly difficult today).

It will have to stop defining itself in terms of the struggle with Israel (as Fatah does by charter) and start defining itself in terms of service to its citizens. If it can’t do this, then it will never be able to get popular support, and in the long run even American arms and money will not save it — and West Bank Palestinians — from Hamas.

As I’ve said before, in order to survive, it will have to put helping Arabs above killing Jews.

Technorati Tags: Palestinians, Fayyad, Israel