The Circumcision Debate in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Posted on: July 30th, 2012

Legal obligations and guarantees of human rights should be universally applied – but these should include mutual respect between religious and non-religious people, and members of differing religious communities. Germany would do well to examine thoroughly, respectfully and seriously, the beliefs of its Jewish and Muslim citizens about the circumcision of their sons, not to mention the unquestionable medical advantages.

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Mordechai Kedar: The Arab World on the Precipice

Posted on: July 30th, 2012

The situation in Syria is deteriorating quickly, and the state is literally disintegrating. The cracks in the government are widening; ambassadors, generals and soldiers are deserting, some branches of the Ba'ath party are announcing their secession from the regime, the Russian advisers are fleeing for their lives and the feeling that the end is near is taking hold more and more. Not the end of Asad, but of Syria. Not the regime, but the system.

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Rubin Reports: Mitt Romney Captures Jerusalem

Posted on: July 30th, 2012

Speaking to an often-cheering group of about 400 people in Jerusalem, Governor Mitt Romney gave a speech less notable for what he said than for the fact that the audience believed he was sincere in saying it.

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Alan Dershowitz: No “Buyer’s Remorse” For Voting For Obama

Posted on: July 29th, 2012

Republicans are trying to woo away Jews who voted for Barack Obama in 2008, hoping they have experienced "buyer's remorse." I, for one, have experienced no such remorse. I have gotten from President Obama pretty much what I expected when I voted for him.

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Olympic Opening Ceremonies and the Death Throes of a Civilization

Posted on: July 29th, 2012

Watching the ceremony last night, I had a profound sense of sadness for the hollow revelry. There was no dignified memorializing of the greatness, uniqueness, and courage of Britain’s past. There was “irreverent, idiosyncratic” entertainment, and a very long segment of writhing self-abasement before the shibboleth of socialized medicine.

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Is Syria Falling into the Hands of Al-Qaeda?

Posted on: July 29th, 2012

Palestinians who fled the fighting in Syria this week said that the some suburbs of Damascus were full of Al-Qaeda militiamen from a number of Arab countries. Others said that many fighters belonged to radical Salafi groups.

Alger Hiss, The “Loss” of China, and the Obama Administration’s Blindspot Toward The Islamist Threat

Posted on: July 29th, 2012

When Andrew McCarthy drew a parallel between the treatment of State Department official (and Soviet spy) Alger Hiss in the 1940s and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin Weiner today it reminded me of an interesting discovery from my own research, as documented in my history of the State Department, Secrets of State.

The Levy Report: Reinvigorating the Discussion of Israel’s Rights in the West Bank

Posted on: July 27th, 2012

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was presented with the report of the Commission to Examine the Status of Building in Judea and Samaria, headed by former Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy (the “Levy report”). The report has drawn a flurry of overwrought criticism due to its inclusion of a section concerning the lawfulness of Israeli settlement activity.

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The Arab Spring: A Blessing for Hamas

Posted on: July 25th, 2012

By meeting separately with Khaled Mashaal and Mahmoud Abbas, Mursi has created the impression that the Palestinians have two legitimate leaders. Even more, Mursi has put Mashaal on an equal footing with heads of state, thus granting legitimacy not only to the Hamas leader, but to his entire movement.

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Rubin Report: The True Lesson of a Tragedy in Colorado Film Theater

Posted on: July 25th, 2012

There is no political ideology, government program, or redistribution of wealth that is going to cure humanity’s ills. In today’s secular, even anti-religious, Western society, religious people are seen as aggressive, intolerant, and foolish. But there are two things a decent religious person possesses that others don’t: A belief that there is a divine judge, which may make them curb their behavior; and a desire for self-improvement, to reduce their sins and strive for something higher.

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Flight of Christians from Mid-East Reaches Syria

Posted on: July 24th, 2012

A mass exodus of Christians, including a group evacuated from the besieged city of Homs, have been fleeing Syrian cities for safety. Caught in the middle of a showdown between opposition forces and the Syrian army, many Christians fear the prospect of an Islamist-led government if President Bashar al-Assad is deposed.

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Germans Do Not Favor Male Circumcision

Posted on: July 24th, 2012

An opinion poll indicates that, despite the political initiative to have the Cologne verdict overruled by a law later this year, a majority of Germans favor a ban of male circumcision. In a Europe that is becoming ever more secular, there is a real danger that religious practices will gradually be pushed aside in order to assure that the impression is not given that little children and -in ritual slaughter- animals are made to suffer.

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Israeli Settlements an ‘Obstacle to Peace’?

Posted on: July 24th, 2012

The 4th Geneva Convention does forbid government deportation or "individual or mass forcible transfers" of population into territory it occupies. But neither the Geneva Convention nor any other law prevents the establishment of voluntary settlements on an individual basis if the underlying purpose is security, public order or safety, and as long as the settlements do not involve taking private property. It is absurd to suggest that Israel "deported" its own citizens to the territories.

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On Academia, Politics and Survival in the Middle East

Posted on: July 20th, 2012

All of the universities in Israel are political, and moreover, all of the colleges, yeshivas, hospitals, prisons, factories, homes, roads, trees - everything that we have established, built, and planted in Israel - everything, but everything, is political. The whole Zionist enterprise is a political project because it is the political and nationalistic manifestation of the desire of the Jewish people to return to its land and to renew within it its national life, its independence and its sovereignty.

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The New Mega-Mosque in Paris: ‘Building a French Islam’

Posted on: July 20th, 2012

The Socialist government in France has inaugurated a new mega-mosque in Paris as a first step towards "progressively building a French Islam." It is not only vast in its dimensions, but is also highly visible and symbolic: its towering minaret, which has purposely been designed to change the suburb's skyline by being taller than any church steeple in the neighborhood, is supposed to become the "new symbol of Islam in France."

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Rubin Reports: Islamists Are Generally Winning But Not Everywhere and Not Inevitably

Posted on: July 20th, 2012

The next era in the Middle East will be dominated by the debate over whether Islamism is the way to go. Islamists will radicalize the regional scene, carry out terrorism at home and abroad, and inflict repression on their own people wherever they get power.

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Who Will Save the Christians in the Gaza Strip?

Posted on: July 20th, 2012

According to the Greek Orthodox Church in the Gaza Strip, at least five Christians have been kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam in recent weeks. In a rare public protest, leaders and members of the 2,000-strong Christian community in the Gaza Strip staged a sit-in strike in the Gaza Strip this week to condemn the abductions and forced conversions in particular, and persecution at the hands of radical Muslims in general.

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Monetizing Debt: A Historically Disastrous Policy

Posted on: July 19th, 2012

Few understand better than the Germans how economic self-destruction can bring a nation and the world to the edge of abyss. The crushing debt imposed on them at the end of World War I led to unprecedented hyperinflation as they monetized their obligations, running their printing presses to create millions of worthless marks.

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The Holders of Absolute Truth

Posted on: July 19th, 2012

A few days ago, en route to the south of Italy, there was a heated exchange between an Italian chief steward and two Egyptian sheikhs wearing the robes of the Egyptian religious university, Al-Azhar. The dispute erupted over where the sheikhs were to sit on the plane: the steward insisted they sit in their assigned seats in economy class, while they insisted on moving to business class. They relayed their extreme displeasure at what they called European arrogance & inflexibility.

Rubin Reports: Yankee Go Home! Saith the Good Guys

Posted on: July 19th, 2012

The interesting news was not that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was pelted with stuff while visiting Cairo, the important issue was who was doing the pelting. Once upon a time, anti-American radicals threw things at U.S. leaders. But now….the hurlers of objects were people from the Free Egyptians Party and other Egyptian liberals. At the same time, leading Christians refused to meet with Hillary.

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