Rubin Reports: Why Isn’t Obama Visiting Israel?

Posted on: June 11th, 2012

By now it's clear that President Obama isn’t going to visit Israel in his term of office. And yet that’s pretty curious, isn’t it? After all, American politicians who seek Jewish support usually find a trip to Israel a pretty good way to claim pro-Israel credentials. And Obama has been desperate to do so, especially this year. Why, then, isn’t Obama going to visit Israel? Of course, we cannot definitively answer that question but here are some thoughts.

Rubin Reports: Egypt’s Presidential Election – Moderate Establishment vs. Totalitarian Revolutionaries

Posted on: June 5th, 2012

Egypt’s fate, I think, will not be settled by the June 16-17 presidential election. It has already been set by the parliamentary election which has given a large majority to the Islamists as well as the ability to write the constitution. If Ahmad Shafiq defeats the Brotherhood candidate, Muhammad al-Mursi, the only way out would be a Shafiq-army alliance, giving the president — who has no political party and no organized base of support in parliament — some muscle.

Rubin Reports: Where Did All the Billions of Dollars Given to the Palestinian Authority Go?

Posted on: June 4th, 2012

The Palestinian Authority has received more aid money per person than anyone else in history and yet the results have been remarkably unimpressive. The Western taxpayers give the money, the PA leaders steal or use the money for political purposes, and the average Palestinian suffers more from this situation than from the largely extinct "Israeli occupation."

Rubin Reports: What to Say When You’re Handed the ‘Obama is Good for Israel’ Talking Points

Posted on: June 3rd, 2012

Many Americans, and particularly Jews, are starting to receive mailings encouraging them to vote for or donate to the reelection campaign of President Barack Obama by arguing that he is pro-Israel. Several readers have asked me to provide them with responses. Here is a brief answer.

Rubin Reports: How Can Obama’s Middle East Policy Possibly Get Worse? Answer – Look at Syria

Posted on: May 30th, 2012

Obama's policy shows three characteristics that have wider implications for the president’s strategies: It favors Islamist enemies; it “leads from behind” by giving the initiative to those who wish America no good; and it shows no interest in helping genuinely pro-American moderates who are fighting for their lives.

Rubin Reports: Bush and Obama Together At Last – In Misunderstanding the Middle East

Posted on: May 29th, 2012

When the Obama Administration, to quote Bush's phrase, gets "to choose what side we are on," it picks the wrong one. It argues, again to quote Bush, that Ameica "should be content with supporting...flawed leaders...in the name of stability.” But these new Islamist dictators would deliver internal stability only at the price of freedom and will dismantle regional stability altogether.

Rubin Reports: Egypt’s (First-Round) Presidential Election is a Defeat (Perhaps Temporary) for the Islamists

Posted on: May 28th, 2012

Let’s remember that the Islamists are still headed for control of Egypt. They might win the presidency in the second round. The parliament, which they run, is going to make the rules and write the constitution. If they don’t like who becomes president, they will reduce his powers.

Rubin Reports: Egypt – If There’s No Danger of Radicalism and Islamism Why Can’t You Provide Evidence?

Posted on: May 24th, 2012

In an interview on an Egyptian television station, "moderate" Egyptian Presidential candidate Abul Fotouh said he was against “terrorism” but then explained that Usama bin Ladin was not a terrorist, that the United States only called him one in order to “hit Muslim interests,” and that the killing of bin Ladin was an “act of state terrorism.” In other words, he’s saying September 11 wasn't an act of terrorism but that Obama’s policy is anti-Muslim and terrorist.

Rubin Reports: President Obama Demands a Meeting to Discuss His Grade

Posted on: May 23rd, 2012

Janice Fiamengo’s brilliant article, “The Unteachables: A Generation that Cannot Learn,” fits my past experience teaching at American universities. But I realized that her account applied perfectly to…something else.

Rubin Reports: A Sentence by the State Department Sentences The World to Disaster

Posted on: May 22nd, 2012

If ever I've seen a single sentence that spells disaster in the Middle East, this is it:“`People say things in a campaign and then when they get elected they actually have to govern,’ [U.S. State Department] spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.”

Rubin Reports: The Middle East – Brave New World or Scary New Master?

Posted on: May 20th, 2012

Why would a leading figure in Turkey's ruling Islamist party identify the era of rising Islamism as a “great shame…[in which the Middle East ] fell prey to the thirst of barbarian bloodshed”?

Rubin Reports: Turkey’s Gobble, Gobble Middle East Policy Makes Enemies of Everyone

Posted on: May 17th, 2012

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan once said that democracy was like a trolley. You ride it until you get to your destination and then get off. Presumably that’s at the point where you have consolidated power to the point you can do whatever you want and have turned Turkey into an Islamist state.

Rubin Reports: Obama Gov’t Backs Atrocity-Producing Forces; How Will it Stop Them?

Posted on: May 14th, 2012

In his recent speech in Afghanistan Obama made the deadly error of claiming that, in effect, al-Qaida is America's only real enemy in the world. Even the Taliban is redeemable, though it answered him with a suicide attack in Kabul. As for Obama's other claims, he can't even get Pakistan to stop supporting the Taliban and concealing al-Qaida leaders. And India has been treated by Obama in a manner reminiscent of his policy toward Israel.

Rubin Reports: What Do Egyptians Want? A Democratically Elected Islamist Dictatorship

Posted on: May 13th, 2012

When asked whether they preferred to model Egypt on Saudi Arabia or Turkey regarding religion’s role in government, thy chose Saudi Arabia by a 61 to 17 percent margin. Note that Western pundits and experts keep insisting that there is some kind of Turkish model of moderate Islamism. Aside from the fact that Turks aren’t Arabs, this is a sign of the base of support for a fully sharia state.

Rubin Reports: American History Distorted – How Lawrence O’Donnell Unintentionally Shows Why Contemporary Leftist-Style “Liberalism” Is Wrong

Posted on: May 10th, 2012

O’Donnell says that “liberal” should not be a dirty word but a badge of honor. I agree. It should be, but it has been tarnished far less by conservatives’ attacks than by radicals who have hijacked that word and use it for an agenda that is bankrupting the United States, reducing liberties, and making a mess of U.S. foreign policy.

Rubin Reports: Western Civilization Faces the Big Test – Citizens! Heal Your Societies or Go Over the Cliff

Posted on: May 8th, 2012

People don’t want to be told to sacrifice, especially because they suspect that the elite isn’t doing so and that this same elite is responsible for the mess. So they can be—easily?—manipulated into voting for those who tell them to eat, drink and be merry, with a minimal tax on billionaires and millionaires paying off the caterer.

Rubin Reports: Is Islam Innately Evil? Is Islam Innately Good? Why This Debate is A Waste of Time

Posted on: May 8th, 2012

The 'Islam-is-good school' makes the West defenseless to understand and deal with the threat. The 'Islam-is-bad' school discredits serious critiques of Islamism and honest analysis of Islam, thus letting their opponents win the debates and blind the West to the best strategy and potential allies.

Rubin Reports: U.S. Syrian Policy – A Massacre in Progress, A Disgrace in the Making

Posted on: May 7th, 2012

The Obama Administration's policy toward Syria is turning into a scandal on both strategic and humanitarian grounds.

Rubin Reports: New York Times Coverage of Israel: What Comes After Ridiculously Biased?

Posted on: May 6th, 2012

At times we seem to be living in the updated version of Ignazio Silone’s remark, “The final conflict will be between the Communists and the ex-Communists.” All too often, we cannot depend on Western-trained intellectuals in positions of power who either buy into leftist ideology or tremble in fear of being called racists or Islamophobes.

Rubin Reports: Why Occupy Wall Street Is a Disaster for the Obama Administration

Posted on: May 4th, 2012

The great advantage of the Obama administration and the far left has been concealment and deniability. They deny their extremism and sugar-coat their message, helped by the mass media and other institutions. But the Occupy Wall Street movement isn’t this sophisticated “New New Left” but instead is like the Old Left and 1960s’ New Left in its rhetoric, methods, and symbols. It openly talks about anarchism, Communism, Marxism, and overthrowing capitalism.