IRIS Blog

Here is an absolute must-read editorial from the Investor's Business Daily:

The Islamist Head Fake

When dealing with Muslim leaders, Washington should borrow a page from Ronald Reagan’s Soviet playbook: Trust, but verify. Many aim to deceive us, court evidence shows.

The article is about to give shocking wolf-in-sheep's-clothing revelations regarding Muslim leaders. Yet, in order to maintain their own "moderate" image, the editorialists still call for the benefit of the doubt to be given them until law enforcement can catch them in secret discussing their plans for jihad.

It’s now believed that several leaders of the Muslim establishment in America last decade conspired to infiltrate the U.S. political system, change Middle East policy and gradually Islamize America. At the same time, they hatched a plot to fund overseas terrorists.

Of course, they couldn’t do this out in the open. So they set up benign-sounding nonprofits and charities to “camouflage” their traitorous activities, say U.S. prosecutors who cite wiretap transcripts and other documents uncovered in a criminal probe of the Holy Land Foundation, the largest Muslim charity in America.

During a secret meeting at a Philadelphia hotel, the charity’s president and other prominent Muslim leaders were recorded allegedly plotting ways to disguise payments to Hamas terrorists as charity.

“I swear by Allah that war is deception,” said Shukri Abu-Baker, now on trial in the federal terror-funding case. “We are fighting our enemy with a kind heart. . . . Deceive, camouflage, pretend that you’re leaving while you’re walking that way. Deceive your enemy.”

Another participant at the Hamas summit was the founder of the Council on American Islamic-Relations, or CAIR, the largest Muslim civil-rights group in the country and an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror-funding case.

Adding to Abu-Baker’s point, Omar Ahmad compared the deception needed to fool the infidels with the head fake in basketball. “He makes a player believe that he is doing this while he does something else,” Ahmad said. “I agree with you. . . . Politics is a completion of war.”

The Islamist head fake has worked all too well over the past decade. Blind acceptance and validation of Muslim leaders with questionable loyalties hardly missed a beat in Washington even after 9/11.

Many were invited to the White House and Congress. The head of the FBI spoke at their conferences, calling them “mainstream” and “moderate.” Many naive officials still confer legitimacy on them.

But what Muslim leaders tell us and what they tell Muslim audiences are often two entirely different things. The deception is astonishing. They’ve really played us for suckers.

Okay, the Investor's Business Daily isn't so mainstream, given that it is conservative-leaning. But it's one bright spot.

That alleged anti-Muslim backlash against terror attacks hasn't seemed to have materialized yet, but these stories continue to accrue:

So long, Halloween parade. Farewell, Santa’s gift shop.

The holiday traditions are facing elimination in some Oak Lawn schools this year after complaints that the activities are offensive, particularly to Muslim students.

Final decisions on which of the festivities will be axed will fall to the principals at each of Ridgeland School District 122’s five schools, Supt. Tom Smyth said.

Parents expect that the announcement is going to add to the tension that has been building since officials agreed earlier this month to change the lunch menu to exclude items containing pork to accommodate Muslim students. News that Jell-O was struck from the menu caused such a stir that officials have agreed to bring it back. Gelatin is often made with tissue or bones of pigs or other animals.

That controversy now appears to have been been dwarfed by the holiday debate, which became so acrimonious Wednesday that police were called to Columbus Manor School to intervene in a shouting match among parents.

“It’s difficult when you change the school’s culture,” said Columbus Manor Principal Sandy Robertson.

Via: Little Green Footballs

How is this good news possible? The IDF has an independent mandate to defend the country, despite being undermined by the Olmert regime:

The mantra "there is no military solution to terrorism" is so rarely challenged these days that it was shocking to see the following commentary last Wednesday on the front page of Haaretz, a leading bastion of the "no military solution" theory.

"It's common to claim it is impossible to defeat terrorism," the analysis stated. But in the seven years since the intifada began, "the IDF and Shin Bet have come as close as possible to achieving victory. Since the beginning of the year, two soldiers (one each in the West Bank and Gaza) and six civilians (three in a suicide bombing in Eilat, two from Kassam rockets in Sderot and one who was stabbed to death in Gush Etzion) have been killed by terrorism. This is a very small number, considering the number of attempted attacks, and also compared to the high point of the intifada, when 450 Israelis were killed in 2002. The last suicide bombing in central Israel occurred 18 months ago, in April 2006.

"The formula that produced this achievement is known," it continued: aggressive intelligence gathering, the security fence and "the IDF's complete freedom of action in West Bank cities."

If this is not victory, it is a close enough approximation that most Israelis would happily settle for it.

Read the whole article...

Here is a nugget from an editorial on the recent wave of factory pollution scandals that shines light on Israel's protexia (nepotism) racket. While most Western countries have environmental regulations that apply to all companies, this is the situation in Israel:

At present, each plant operates according to deals it reached with the authorities.

Who does a manufacturer hire to receive a license to dump toxic waste in a residential area? A protexia guy, of course. This is the whole point of creating byzantine government regulations in most industries, which mysteriously end up getting overlooked if a company only hires a talented "fixer." Here, for example, is the situation in just one industry:

The Israeli construction industry has been hampered by a maze of building regulations, standards and guidelines, many of which contradict each other. According to a recent report published by a commission charged with investigating the safety of public buildings, Israel has over 10,000 pages of building code. The commission also found that 12 government ministries were involved in setting construction guidelines and regulations.

Eventually, the stakes are raised so that the sweetest deals are given to the company headed by a protexia wielder, who then hires his friends. The end result is lousy management of Israeli companies, who produce low-quality goods at high prices. They do manage to erect tariff walls to prevent competitive imports, while they endanger the public with rivers of toxic waste and new bridges that collapse. In some cases, the new bridges collapse over rivers of toxic waste.

A Saudi man divorced his wife for watching alone a television programme presented by a male, an act he deemed immoral, the Al Shams newspaper reported on Saturday.

The man, whom the paper did not identify, ended his marriage on the grounds his wife was effectively alone with an unrelated man, which is forbidden under the strict Islamic law enforced in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the paper said.

Men in Saudi Arabia have the authority to divorce their wives without resort to the courts.

This is the case in mainstream Muslim Law (sharia), which surveys show that the majority of Muslims worldwide support.

Thought my comments yesterday were too cynical? Let's review:

Here's what I wrote yesterday:

Yom Kippur Terrorists Arrested; 90 Others Approved for Release

Fortunately for the terrorists, they qualify under Olmert's strict catch-and-release program for terrorists, which requires a strict check of their hands. If no blood is found, they qualify for release after the emotions of the news of the latest near-miss attack die down.

Here's today's news:

A review of the file listing the 87 Palestinian prisoners slated for release posted on the Israel Prison Service finds that 47 of them were convicted for attempting to kill, planting or throwing bombs of fire bombs or shooting.

The good news is that I apparently exaggerated. Israel doesn't consider shooting and bombing civilians an attempt at murder. Perhaps it is a form of performance art.

Meanwhile, Israeli hostages languish in the hands of the Palestinians, with many more to come (God forbid).

Westerners are familiar with Holocaust deniers, but Israel is blessed with those who deny reality completely. They are known as the governing coalition. Here, the relatively popular Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, has decided to ignore every public utterance of Palestinian leaders in Arabic and deigns to tell them what their "true interests" must theoretically be, as she continues her furious global campaign for a Palestinian state:

"Israel's security must be in the interest of Palestinians and on the foundation of that security, a Palestinian state will be established," said Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni on Tuesday at the UN headquarters in New York City.

"Just as a strong Palestinian economy is in Israel's interests, so should Israel's safety be in the Palestinian's interests," reiterated Livni during a joint press conference with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

This Muslim demonstrator in New York City today, celebrating the arrival of Ahmadinejad) seems to disagree:

Another major find connected to the Temple has been uncovered:

The Antiquities Authority announced today that it has found the quarry that supplied the giant stones for the building of the Temple Mount. The quarry is located in what is now one of Jerusalem's newest neighborhoods, Ramat Shlomo (also known as Reches Shuafat), between Ramot and French Hill. The quarry was found in the course of an archaeological rescue dig prior to the construction of a neighborhood school.

The ancient quarry is spread out over at least five dunams (1.25 acres), with rocks between three and eight meters long - the size of those that can still be seen today at the foundations of the Temple Mount and in the Western Wall - hewn out of the ground.

Here are pictures.

Two weeks after Abbas presided over the annual 9/11 celebrations, Bush throatily embraced the fantasy of a "moderate Abbas":

US President George W. Bush reaffirmed his support for a Palestinian state at a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in New York City on Monday....

Bush also praised Abbas for his performance in the face of daunting hurdles.

"I appreciate the fact that you're fighting the extremists who don't share the same kind of view," Bush said.

Fortunately the leading Republican candidates for President, particularly Rudy Giuliani, differ sharply.

A Yom Kippur suicide bomb attack was foiled in Tel Aviv and the apparent bomber (who worked in Tel Aviv) was arrested along with two others from his cell:

A four day long operation by Israeli security forces against a terror cell based in Shechem, in Samaria, ended with the successful prevention of a suicide terror attack Saturday morning. The operation culminated in a raid on an apartment in southern Tel Aviv by SHABAK (General Security Service) agents and YASAM (special reconnaissance unit) police, who found the suicide belt prepared by the terrorists and blew it up in a controlled fashion.

The operation was mounted by a brigade-sized IDF force in the neighborhood of Ein Beit Ilma in Shechem. The information that led to the location of the belt was acquired following the arrest of terrorist Mahdi Ashur, a resident of Shechem who is employed in Tel Aviv.

Security forces had been looking for the suicide belt from the start of the operation, early Tuesday morning. Paratroopers and Haruv battalion fighters arrested the would-be suicide bomber, his recruiter and the person who was to lead him to the intended target. The three were interrogated by the SHABAK but apparently did not lead the interrogators to the suicide belt. 36 other people suspected of belonging to the joint Hamas-PFLP terror cell were arrested as well. Staff Sgt. Ben-Zion Haneman was killed during this part of the operation, and his comrades killed the terrorist who had killed him.

Fortunately for the terrorists, they qualify under Olmert's strict catch-and-release program for terrorists, which requires a strict check of their hands. If no blood is found, they qualify for release after the emotions of the news of the latest near-miss attack die down.

Ninety more imprisoned terrorists who fit that profile were approved for release today:

The cabinet approved on Sunday morning the release of 90 Palestinian prisoners ahead of Ramadan.

As expected, all the Shas ministers, as well as Tourism Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich and Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, opposed the release.

The proposal topped the cabinet agenda, and if the process goes ahead without any major legal challenges, the prisoners could be freed by Tuesday evening, a government spokeswoman said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the cabinet that the prisoner release would not affect a deal for the release of kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Schalit. "This is a gesture that has been accepted in the past. The prisoners will be freed according to criteria that already exist," he said.

Olmert has declared his willingness to release a limited number of the roughly 11,000 Palestinian prisoners Israel holds, in an effort to shore up the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in his power struggle with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, who opposed the prisoner release, said that "[Israel] is working against terror, paying the price for terror, and nevertheless making a gesture towards the Palestinians."

Mofaz said that the step "showed weakness."

"[We] didn't get anything for releasing 256 prisoners [in July], and we won't get anything this time," he said....

Israel last released more than 250 prisoners in July. Olmert proposed the current release - timed to coincide with Ramadan - in his most recent meeting with Abbas two weeks ago.

Last week, Olmert told Kadima members that he intended to propose releasing prisoners who are not serving time for wounding or killing Israelis, who identify with Abbas's government and would renounce violence. "That is the only way to signal to Palestinian society that peacemaking and its culmination will yield results," he said.

A Fatah official claims that they are essentially pretending to be mortal enemies with Hamas until the Israeli land concessions roll in. Implausible? It's happened before:

Fatah plans to wait until after the Washington DC Olmert-Abbas-Bush conference in November – and then reconcile with Hamas.

"I believe the dialogue between the two movements is a certain choice, but I think it will be delayed until after the conference in the fall," Fatah central command member Kadora Fares was quoted by Haaretz as saying.

Fares later qualified his statement as more of a threat: If Israel did not make enough concessions, Fatah would choose the path of Hamas. "But if a breakthrough is achieved, then Hamas has to revise itself and be more realistic in dealing with the political development,” he said.

Ever since the 1993 Oslo Accords, Fatah has received various aid packages, arms, training and funding from both Israel and the United States. When Hamas took over in Gaza earlier this year, the Islamist group inherited sophisticated weaponry as well as surveillance equipment and training facilities. Hamas officials have expressed confidence that they will also inherit whatever concessions Fatah manages to extract from Israel in Judea and Samaria.

U.S. Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said last month that both Mahmoud Abbas and Salem Fayyad promised him that there would be no reconciliation or power-sharing agreement with Hamas. Other American officials were promised the same thing by the Fatah chiefs.

Bad news for the Axis of Evil's WMD programs from the respected Jane's Defence Weekly:

Dozens of Syrian military officers and Iranian engineers were killed on July 26 in Halab, Syria, as they were attempting to mount a chemical warhead with mustard gas on a Scud-C missile, Jane's Defence Weekly reported Monday.

An explosion spread lethal chemical agents, including mustard gas, VX gas and sarin nerve gas, killing 15 Syrian officers and dozens of Iranian engineers who were in the facility. Dozens of people were injured.

Jimmy Carter's main contribution as President was the apparently permanent banishment of inflation from the Western world via the counter-reaction to his disastrous Leftist policies he inspired. Inflation, like most public policy problems, was entirely a government creation.

Daniel Doron argues that the Olmert debacles have resulted in a key prerequisite to effective reform--the increasing realization that more often than not, government is the problem and not, as Leftists assert, society's salvation:

If, in the wake of the Second Lebanon War, there is a silver lining in the political cloud enveloping us, it is that people have learned not to blindly trust the government or its politicians.

The war finally revealed - and at what terrible cost - that our politicians are neither saints nor even caring "parents," whose chief concern is the welfare of their children, the citizens. Government was exposed for what it usually becomes, when left unchecked: an unstable and harmful institution, a coalition of convenience among quarrelsome self-serving cynics, some corrupt. They exploited our childlike trust in their ability to deliver on pre-election promises, instead wasting our hard-earned (and heavily-taxed) money to bolster their power and privilege, sometimes at the cost of our ruin.

SHOULD THIS sea change in public perception and expectations of government gain strength it might finally liberate us from years of indoctrination in our universities by post-modernist and neo-Marxist professors. They made our elites believe in ill-defined and ill-conceived utopian ideals, and inculcated them with intolerance for alternative views. Consciously and subliminally our elites were made to believe that government is the sole vehicle for messianic social transformation, for the attainment of "social justice" and the quick elimination of poverty.

Perhaps the deflation of such false expectations will make us wary when types like Ehud Olmert, Haim Ramon or Ronnie Bar-On, with their facilitators and spin-doctors, try to sell us peace plans or welfare programs whose consequences can prove as dangerous as their past records indicate.

Read the whole thing...

Little Green Footballs noticed this bit of political correctness taken to a comical extreme:

A Queens teen was arrested yesterday after placing fliers in his teachers’ mailboxes asking them to convert to Islam - then made threats once he was caught, authorities said.

Yaseen Chowdhury, 17, of Woodside, wrote the fliers himself and put them in the mailboxes at the Renaissance Charter School in Jackson Heights, sources said. When confronted there about the fliers, he made unspecified verbal threats, according to the sources. Chowdhury was charged with aggravated harassment as a hate crime.

A Department of Education spokesman did not return a call seeking comment.

The student’s religion was not immediately known.