Tag: New York Times

Once upon a time it was the objective of the military to win wars. Now the objective of the military is to avoid incidents.

Hundreds of homes damaged beyond repair during Hurricane Sandy will be readied for demolition by New York City workers according to an article in the New York Times.

Petraeus seems to have resigned over marital infidelity. And if so, did he have to leave his position? Why, because he displayed personal weakness? But this was a public, as opposed to a private, position. And years of counseling unfaithful husbands and wives has taught me that private failings do not necessarily indicate public faithlessness.

The story was broken by Alex Fishman, defense correspondent of Yediot Aharnot, Israel’s largest newspaper. Fishman is considered to be a reliable reporter with good sources in the Israeli government.

"If Israel is attacked" is a phrase heard often by mostly well-meaning politicians from both American parties when they are out on the campaign trail, or even while holding office, to express their intent to come to the aid of the Jewish state. But as anyone who both follows current events and has any semblance of logic knows, not only is the phrase trite, but it reveals a certain unfamiliarity with the Middle East today and is even dangerous as pertains to Iran.

Remember how the New York Times lionized the anti-capitalist Occupy Wall Street vigilantes?

One of my most fun professional memories was when I walked endlessly, circling round and round and round that hall in Algeria in November 1988 with a burly, no-nonsense, and brilliant newspaper correspondent named Youssef Ibrahim, who was then working for the New York Times. Friendly, funny, sarcastic, and with absolutely no illusions or romanticism about the absurdities of Arab politics and the idiocies of Arab political ideology, Ibrahim’s only shortcoming is that there are not one thousand more exactly like him. If he was the kind of person leading Arab countries and people they would be far more prosperous, peaceful, happier and democratic.

“It’s not true that the United States and Iran have agreed to one-on-one talks or any meeting after the American elections a National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said following the publication of a New York Times report saying the White House and Iran agreed to hold direct negotiations over its nuclear program after election day.

In response to Pamela Geller's anti-Jihad ad campaign, The Muslim Public Affairs Council is joining with Columbia University's Muslim Students Association to launch its own ad campaign "to showcase the Islamic principle of 'repelling evil with what is better' (Koran, Ch. 23, Surah Muminoon, verse 96)." MPAC says its campaign will "call on New Yorkers to stand together in opposing bigotry and hatred," in its effort "HeArt Over Hate: Repelling Bigotry through Art & Music." It's a clever play on words, but while it looks to deliver on its promise to be repellent, what MPAC and the MSA will be showcasing is support for brutal hatred, torture and violence.

The short answer is: because he’s got nothing. There is no record to run on, no argument to make for four more years. The ideology that drives him is outdated and bankrupt. He has, in fact, implemented his policies – Republicans have had little means of stopping him – and those policies are the problem. But there’s a slightly longer answer too.

Despite Obama’s poor debate performance, Romney’s rising likability numbers and voters saying he would better handle the economy – and two more polls which give him a significant bump since the debate – there is reason to fear that voters will still not vote against the incumbent.

Last week's U.S. presidential debate was a victory for Romney on all accounts, especially if one judges by the closing statements, where Obama couldn't muster any specific reason why voters should re-elect him aside from the fact that he was trying really hard as president. Looking at polls on how people view the candidates, I’m beginning to wonder why it is that Obama leads Romney in national polls and whether that is going start to change in a big way.

On Monday, electric car company Better Place announced that Shai Agassi, up to now the face and driving force behind Better Place, was stepping back from his CEO rôle and would continue on as a member of the board and major shareholder. Evan Thornley, Better Place’s CEO in Australia, is stepping up to the global rôle. The news seemed to come out of the blue.

A third of a century ago Israel wanted peace with Egypt and Israel actually believed there could be peace with Egypt. But what a difference 33 years makes. We’ve discovered since then that we got a bum deal. Maybe it's time to correct the treaty with a new formula, but this time, one that involves tangible concessions on Egypt's part.

In the article on The New York Times interview with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, the Times wrote that the Camp David Accord "called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank and Gaza to make way for full Palestinian self-rule." this is quite false.

According to Franklin Lamb in the anti-Israel website Foreign Policy Journal, the pro-Israel Community is all hot and bothered by an alleged new study: It’s a paper...

Canada suspended diplomatic relations with Iran, closing down its embassy in Iran and giving Iranian diplomats in Canada five days to leave Canadian soil.

Somehow, even though it should be obvious to them that the U.S. is different, they have retained the mindset that it’s OK to cheat “the Goyim” - if they can get away with it. And that is what causes the kind of Chilul HaShem that is happening here. And when the criminal is someone who is otherwise a good person, the Chilul HaShem is even greater.

Do book sales reflect the general mood of the American electorate? If so, the current New York Times bestseller list does not carry good news for President Obama.

In tough economic times, you make tough economic decisions. Unless you're the Palestinian Authority. Palestinians receive the highest levels of aid per capita, use it to fund terrorists in prison and at the same time rack up high debts, such as their NIS 700 million debt to the Israel Electric Company. The bulk of the aid comes from the U.S. and Europe.

According to Dr. Eldad Pardo, a senior researcher at IMPACT-SE, (Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education) and a teacher at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, hateful language against Israel is characteristic of the themes taught in Palestinian Authority school textbooks. “Jewish holy places in Israel are not recognized. They are presented as Muslim holy sites taken over by Jews. There is no recognition of Jewish people as a nation. Israelis are depicted as criminals and thieves.”

Does the German government really want to get into a public battle over whether they are better guardians of the health and welfare of Jewish (and Muslim) children than their parents?

We were hardly surprised by the final column of New York Times departing public editor (as the Times refers to its in-house ombudsman) Arthur Brisbane, in which he acknowledged the paper harbors a liberal bias on public issues.

The real reason that the Village Voice is dead is because the alternative media is dead and the alternative media is dead because there is nothing for it to be an alternative to. New Yorkers can just as easily read shrill rants about the NYPD in the Daily News, pretentious movie reviews for artsy films at The Onion and leftist denunciations of the War on Terror in the New York Times.

We have searched and have not yet found a blog, article, published speech or op-ed in her language, Arabic, which criticizes proud terrorist Ahlam Tamimi or her views. So far, not one. If our readers can point us to exceptions, please do. This is deeply shocking. Tamimi's message resonates throughout the Arab and Islamic world. Her views don't even rise to the level of controversial. She's simply a hero, wall to wall.

I want to discuss three articles that I basically agree with to point out how they miss the key issue and thus are somewhat misleading. I’m glad to see these three articles being published but it’s a case of -to quote Lenin- two steps forward, one step back.

Donnelly: “It was actually an Israeli cartoonist, Nurit Karlin, who made me think that I could draw for The New Yorker. I saw her work published in the magazine in the early 1970s—she was the only woman working as a cartoonist at The New Yorker at the time.”

Tom Friedman’s pro-PLO stance dates back to his active involvement, while at Brandeis University, in the pro-Arafat radical-Left “Middle East Peace Group” and “Breirah” organizations. It was intensified during his role as the AP’s and NY Times’ reporter in Lebanon. There he played down Arafat’s and Abbas’ rape and plunder of Lebanon and their strong ties with international terrorism, while expressing his appreciation of the PLO’s protection of foreign media in Beirut.

As'ad Abu Khalil, tenured Professor of Political Science at California State University, Stanislaus: My favorite Zionist delusion is the notion that the Arab people don’t hate Israel but that the Arab governments incite the people to hate Israel, when it is the other way round.

If you buy into the concept that news is not news unless it is covered by the major media players, than I guess the fact that the Lebanese judo team refused to practice next to the Israeli team until the Olympic organizers erected barriers to divide the room and place the Israelis out of sight...wasn't news.