Dr. Mordechai Kedar

Jordan has managed until now to remain untouched by these problems, and King Abdullah II knew how to navigate matters of the kingdom in a way that the waves of the revolution washing over the rest of the Arab world did not yet wash over his kingdom. But in the past few weeks - mainly since the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco - a different sort of problem is now becoming apparent: the problem of radical political Islam.

The visit of the Emir of Qatar to the Gaza Strip is certainly an important landmark on the course that the Hamas movement has been advancing since it took over the Strip in June of 2007. Hamas is trying its utmost to establish the independence of the Gaza Strip, vis à vis the PLO, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Egypt, the Arab world and everyplace else as well.

Visits of Western leaders complicate old problems and create new ones, and moreover, the chances that these visits will yield a positive effect or result in a real solution to any problem, is quite low.

Recently, on this stage we have dealt with the increasing tension between the Sunnis and the Shi'ites in the Middle East. The coalitions, which are hostile to each other, reflect this inter-ethnic tension: on one side is the Shi'ite coalition that comprises Iran, Iraq and Hizb'Allah, which support the bloody, Shi'a-aligned Alawite regime, and on the other side is the Sunni coalition whose members are Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as a few other countries who offer background support, principally Jordan and Egypt. The war of Gog the Shi'ite against Magog the Sunni has been in progress since March 2011 on the soil of Assyria, modern Syria. Today we will focus on the Turkish-Kurdish-Egyptian triangle.

This year six Arab countries experienced severe shocks that brought about the fall of some rulers or serious threat to their rule. The process began at the end of 2010, and continues until today.

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.

Any real and workable solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict must be based upon this sociological fact: tribalism and loyalty to traditional religious and sectarian frameworks are the prevailing cultural and political framework of the Middle East.

From the tragedy of Tripoli and Lebanon we can draw several conclusions: in the Middle East it is not possible to establish a state with an Arab society and Western political characteristics; Iranian involvement - even the economic and cultural – will ultimately undermine Western cultural and political influence in the Middle East; and whoever legitimizes jihad against Israel receives terror in his own streets in return.

Europe, reeling from successive waves of refugees and migrants, desperately needs the end of the Syrian civil war, which for the first time seems in the offing. But the emerging peace will only increase the emigration.

Iran is waiting for the United States to flee from Afghanistan in order to take control of it and its resources.

The question that confronts us today is whether Judaism and Christianity will submit to the Islamic religious narrative, which invalidates Judaism and Christianity, and appropriates their holiness, their prophets and their "founding fathers" unto itself.

The Gaza Strip is no different from the rest of the Arab world, so tribal culture is alive and kicking there. Ever since the Hamas movement took control of Gaza trip in 2007, it has transformed itself from a gang of jihadists into a ruling government, a standard Arab state. The minor movements - Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Resistance Committeess - function like tribes, challenging the authority of the state. Today, these groups are doing to Hamas what Hamas did to the PLO twenty years ago when it was in power.

The slogan of the Muslim Brotherhood is "God is our objective, the Qur'an is our law, the prophet is our leader, jihad is our way and death in the name of Allah is our supreme aspiration." Their symbol expresses this ideology well: the color green represents Paradise, two swords in the center express the two avowals of Islam - there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger - and one word, which appears in the Qur'an just once: "Wa-aidu" - "and prepare."

{Reposted from the BESA website} On January 20, 2021, President Donald Trump is slated to exit the scene and perhaps even the stage of history—but...

It took the Europeans more than thirty years to understand that the Hizb'Allah organization, founded in 1982, is a terror organization. Good Morning, Europe!

Today's anti-democratic glue is apparently better than the glue of Slavic identity that formed the "Warsaw Pact" because it is a world view and a cultural perspective.

Expand Jerusalem to the Jordan Valley

Whoever wants to bring Iran down must support those rebelling against Asad. The leaders in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan understand this, and their support for the rebels may save them and the Gulf from the Iranian octopus. The question is how much time will it take for the sleeping Europeans and the dreamers in the White House to understand the complicated Middle East reality, and when will they begin to take action in order to bring Iran down?

Democracy does not have to allow jihad to be waged against it, even if this jihad uses means that appear to be legal.

In light of the situation in which the kingdom must stand up to external challenges - principally an Iranian threat to the territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia - it is not clear whether the population of the kingdom will indeed lend strong support to the leadership of the ruling family.

Egypt seems today like a rickety cart that strong, immense horses are pulling in different directions.

The "Christian West" is perceived by traditional Islam as responsible for all of the ills of the region: the establishment of the State of Israel, its arming and its reinforcement, are perceived as a "Western" project and therefore also as a "Christian plot" and "modern crusade."

Lately, the pro-Western coalition has begun to crumble, and two key countries - Saudi Arabia and Egypt - are searching for a new political crutch.

Netanyahu's Bar Ilan Speech was not an attempt to emulate Obama by spreading false hope of an agreement with the Iranians.

The Islamic Movement in Israel is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the ideological hothouse that spawned such organizations as Hamas, al-Qaeda, ISIS, and various other Sunni jihadist groups that reject Israel’s right to exist. Giving the Islamic Movement a kosher stamp of approval sets Israel on the same destructive path trod by Lebanon ever since Hezbollah became part of that country.

In Washington there are deep differences of opinion as to how to address the growing jihadi influence in Africa.

Egyptian intellectual Tariq Hagi speaks frankly and openly about the many deep flaws that exist in Arab cultures. His message is different from that of most Arab spokesmen, because most Arab spokesmen strive to cover up the flaws in their societies, to conceal them and repress them - mainly because of the shame and the feeling of inferiority that these flaws arouse in them.

If chemical weapons had not been used, Damascus would have been overcome by the rebels.

Politicians and European public figures, who have no desire to open the wounds of the past and stand in front of the mirror of history that will reveal their great wealth from Africa and their ethical nakedness, searched out a scapegoat, onto whom it would be possible to place all of the sins of their colonialism. Together with Arabs -themselves descendants of slave traders- they found the sacrificial victim: Israel

The crowds in the streets of Egypt will increase during the month of Ramadan, which begins on July 9, and religious sensitivities will be heightened as well.