Oppenheim Arts & Letters

Y2K - An Israeli Policemen and Injured Jew On the Edge of an Arab Neighborhood

On first publication in September 2000, The New York Times played the above photo's caption this way: "An Israeli policeman and Palestinian on Temple Mount."

Call it a lie, a mistake, wishful thinking, whatever, the words were simply not true.  In fact, the IDF soldier had come to rescue the bloodied young man, a Jewish student then visiting Israel, from an Arab mob in a town north of the Old City known as Wadi al-Joz.

While the truth remained dark, other media picked up on the story and some Arab groups appropriated the photograph and its misrepresentation for their own purposes.  For example, it appeared in this advertisement calling for the boycott of Coca Cola:

After weathering a flurry of honest letters, The New York Times reportedly issued a retraction and, unusual for a major newspaper, republished the picture with a somewhat corrected caption and accompanying article.

This comes from Honest Reporting's account of the incident about a month after it occured:

In response, the New York Times published a half-hearted correction which identified Tuvia Grossman as "an American student in Israel" -- not as a Jew who was beaten by Arabs. The "correction" also noted that "Mr. Grossman was wounded" in "Jerusalem's Old City" -- although the beating actually occurred in the Arab neighborhood of Wadi al Joz, not in the Old City.

In response to public outrage at the original error and the inadequate correction, The New York Times reprinted Tuvia Grossman's picture -- this time with the proper caption -- along with a full article detailing his near-lynching at the hands of Palestinians rioters. [3]

All political and religious violence occuring within Islam and affecting its edges has been predicated on lying in its several forms: deceit and deception; fabrication; inversion, projection, and reflection; obfuscation; omission.

No Palestinian liberation movement can go forward without lies about Jews and the accompaniment of extensive deception and wrongdoing within its own camps; no violent Jihad effort has yet launched without casting aspersions on all who are not enfolded in its own cruel and dismal cloaks; even the complex anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist effluvia dribbling from errant Jewish pens belies numerous sins of omission, some starting with the denail of an ancient established Israel, others merely picking up with what might be called the "myth of 1948" that would establish the Middle East Conflict and regard all that precedes it as trivial.

So here is the above depicted "Arab victim of IDF aggression," that is, Tuvia Grossman, ten years ago a Jewish boy from Chicago, today an Israeli citizen and father, and he's about to meet the also depicted Israeli soldier that rescued him, Gidon Tzefadi, a Druze from up north in the country [4,5]

 

Source: YouTube poster "HonestReportingVideo".  "Exclusive Video: Tuvia Grossman Meets the Soldier Who Saved His Life."  Posted August 30, 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_6m06YoSaI [1]

How bad was it really?

Here is the start of the story as told by Tuvia Grossman ("with thanks to Shraga Simmons") in November 2000 [7]:

It was the eve of Rosh Hashana, and I hailed a taxi with two of my friends to go visit the Western Wall. Along the way, the driver took a shortcut through one of the Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem. We turned a corner and suddenly there were about 40 Palestinians surrounding the car. Before we knew it, huge rocks had smashed all the windows of the taxi.

Some of the Palestinians pulled open the door and dragged me from the vehicle. About 10 attackers jumped on top of me, punching and kicking me. I crouched to the ground, and tried to cover my face to protect myself as much as possible. All I could see were a flurry of sneakers kicking me in the face. [7]

The funny thing about the truth is that it doesn't change.

 Cited Reference

Notes: Perhaps sparing the rookie, perhaps not, sourcing the photograph back to the Associated Press and the photographer who took it may be more than a two-click job (and here I have already missed lunch, lol).   The Committee for Acuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) had this to say in its write-up at the time [6]:

Why the Associated Press failed to identify Tuvia accurately is not a mystery; they simply assumed any victim would be Arab. The likelihood is that in the wake of this fiasco, photographers and editors will now exercise more care.

Newspapers that rely on the AP cannot be faulted for trusting the wire service description of the image, but their action to redress the damage of the error often came only in the wake of intense public protest. Nevertheless, a number took unusual measures to try to offset the damage done and to respond to strong public concerns.

 " . . . Started it all" refers to the event providing the impetus for the development of the Honest Reporting organization and its mission. 

As expected, the retelling of Tuvia Grossman's story has been smoothed by time, but the same may be sourced on the web back to the immediate period in which it took place [7], and in the details of the early telling in print, it becomes what it really was and remains in essence: a personal war story.

1. Honest Reporting.  "Exclusive Video: Dramatic Reunion Ten Years After The Photo That Started It All."  Communique.  August 31, 2010: http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/EXCLUSIVE_VIDEO_Dramatic_Reunion_Ten_Years_After_The_Photo_That_Started_It_All.asp

2. Beeson, Patrick.  "Photojournalism."  In Sloan, William David and Jenn Burleson Mackay Media Bias: Finding It, Fixing It, McFarland & Co. and Portland, Oregon: Book News, 2007, pp. 184-185: http://books.google.com/books?id=Nddqn3nYIn4C&pg=PA184&lpg=PA184&dq=New+York+Times+%22An+Israeli+policeman+and+a+Palestinian+on+Temple+Mount%22&source=bl&ots=qSZr2OcEit&sig=EqPWraB60PvGbV3xq4y2hCNJvec&hl=en&ei=uft8TP6kO8P_lgfFkt2vCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=New%20York%20Times%20%22An%20Israeli%20policeman%20and%20a%20Palestinian%20on%20Temple%20Mount%22&f=false

3. Honest Reporting.  "The Photo that Started it All."  Communique.  October 20, 2000, updated August 2010: http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/reports/The_Photo_that_Started_it_All.asp

4. Amos, Daled.  "Video: Ten Years Later--Tuvia Grossman Reunited With Israeli Soldier Who Saved Him From The Arab Mob."  Daled Amos (blog), August 31, 2010: http://daledamos.blogspot.com/2010/08/video-ten-years-later-tuvia-grossman.html

5. Israel Matzov (blog).  "Video: A reunion of the picture that started it all."  August 31, 2010: http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2010/08/video-reunion-of-picture-that-started.html

6. CAMERA.  "Photo Falsehood and the Temple Mount Riots."  CAMERA, October 8, 2000: http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_article=120&x_context=2 

7.  Grossman, Tuvia.  "Victim of the Media War: Palestinians tried to lynch me, highlighting the power of the media to influence public opinion."  AISH, November 4, 2000: http://www.aish.com/jw/id/48890577.html

Other Reference

Academic dictionaries and encyclopedias.  "Tuvia Grossman": http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/291515

Robbins, Michael D.  "New York Times Media Fraud, Incompetence, and Bias."  Fraud Factor, February 9, 2001, last update June 19, 2001: http://www.fraudfactor.com/ffmediafraud9001.html

Wikipedia.  "Tuvia Grossman": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvia_Grossman

Tehran's Influence in Baghdad -- Worth a Second Look

 

Both the Iraqi government and the US military have stated that Iran has backed various Shia terror groups inside Iraq, including elements of the Mahdi Army. While the Iranian government has denied the charges, Iraqi and US forces have detained dozens of Iranian Qods Force officers and operatives, captured numerous Shia terrorist leaders under Iranian command, and found ample documentation as well as Iranian-made and Iranian-supplied weapons. [1]

Not only have I found my second row seat to history far removed from the bars and battlefields associated with conflicts of interest, but have also found it perhaps too omniscient a chair.  The web, from the murder of legistors in Somalia [2] to the encircling of Israel [3] may present it all, but one perhaps too average human blogger may not ingest, analyze, and report it all: it would seem to take some reinforcing combination of funding and social interaction to keep a focus narrowed (and I'm short on both).

At the moment, Iraq's ship of state may have a tiller but it remains uncertain whose hands are on it officially and how firmly. [4,5,6]  Urging the bickering politicians to settlement: Sayyid Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani.

I'm reluctant to throw the spotlight on Sistani and his obligations and enterprise involving Shiia worldwide, but this from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR, 2008) may underscore the danger inherent in overlooking the role an incursion piped through religion may be playing in Iraq's regional positioning:

Iran has sent more than two thousand religious students and scholars to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. One-third of them belong to Iranian intelligence (PDF) and some are operatives sent to Shiite shrines to influence voters ahead of elections, writes Mounir Elkhamri, a military analyst for the Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. There is also a booming cross-border religious tourism business. Tens of thousands of Iranians and Iraqis cross borders to visit holy sites each year; Iran is even building an airport in Najaf to facilitate this exchange of religious visitors. [7]

Dimensions covered by the CFR report include Iranian military, religious, economic, and social influence on the still battle scarred, suicide bombed, IED bombed, and altogether unstable state.

Here are two videos skirting the topic here.  In the first, we see former President Bush in 2006 comparing through implication Barack Obama to Neville Chamberlain, infamous for appeasement, prior to the election campaigns coming up; in the second, aired recently, an optimistic outlook sees democracy working in Iraq, albeit with its ends less considered.
 

YouTube Poster "Phreland".  "Bush Says Obama's Iran Diplomacy is Similar to Nazis."  Posted May 15, 2006: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW6LuYo-6Us

Hulu TV. "Iran, Iraq Loom Large Over Foreign Policy: The Obama Administration." Fmr. Rep. Rick Lazio (R-NY), Jeffrey Goldberg, Paul Gigot and Katty Kay discuss the president’s foreign policy strategy with NBC’s David Gregory on “Meet the Press.” August 2010: http://www.hulu.com/watch/172818/the-obama-administration-iran-iraq-loom-large-over-foreign-policy

Whatever the "tough approaches" taken by the Obama Administration toward Iran and Syria, the effort has turned out impotent with the Hezbollah-backed Blue Line incident [8]out of Lebanon and more recently Khaled Mashaal's bellicosity [9] underscoring the failure.

Cited Reference

1. Roggio, Bill.  "Iranian-backed Shia terror group remains a threat in Iraq: General Odierno."  The Long War Journal, July 13, 2010: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/07/iranianbacked_shia_t_1.php

2. VOA.  "More Than 30 Killed in Mogadishu Hotel Attack."  August 24, 2010: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/-Legislators-Feared-Dead-After-Somali-Militants-Storm-Hotel-101366024.html

3. Note: In Lebanon, factor in Hezbollah's incursion into General Suleiman's army and its acquisition of more than 40,000 rockets; in Turkey, it's hard to miss the state's realignment with Iran and the first more than noticeable signs of a thugocracy growing out of Prime Minister Erdogan's arrest-happy governance; in Syria, nothing new: it still believes it holds right sovereignty over Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel; from Gaza, Mashaal's bellicose mouth mirrors improvements in Iran's tactical position, which has been recently much improved by Putin's delivery of fuel to Iran's suspect nuclear program. 

4. Hendawi, Hamza.  "Allawi win could curb Iran's influence."  Associated Press via MSNBC, March 27, 2010: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36065638/

5. AFP.  "Iran meddling to fill void in Iraq government: poll."  August 7, 2010: http://www.france24.com/en/20100807-iran-meddling-fill-void-iraq-government-poll

6. Al-Ansary, Khalid, Serena Chaudhry, and Michael Christie.  "Iraq's rival parties resume government coalition talks."  Reuters, August 20, 2010: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67J2PY20100820

7. Beehner, Lionel.  "Iran's Involvement in Iraq."  Council on Foreign Relations.  Updated March 3, 2008: http://www.cfr.org/publication/12521/irans_involvement_in_iraq.html

8. IMRA.  "UNIFIL Confirms its Support of IDF Account of Lebanese Border Attack."  August 25, 2010: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=49152

9. AP.  "Khaled Mashaal: Talks are illegitimate."  The Jerusalem Post, August 24, 2010: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?ID=185844

 

Other Reference

 

Cochrane, Marisa.  "Asaib al-Haq and the Khazali Special Groups Network."  Institute for the Study of War, January 13, 2008: http://www.understandingwar.org/files/reports/Asaib%20Ahl%20al%20Haq%20and%20the%20Khazali%20Special%20Groups%20Network.pdf.  (Note: from the introduction, "This paper concludes that, based upon the body of evidence, the Khazali Special Groups Network and Asaib Ahl al-Haq are the same organization").

Christie, Michael and Ahmed Rasheed.  "Iraq group says it has kidnapped U.S. contractor."  Reuters, February 6, 2010: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61515Z20100206. (Note: the Iraqi group named, Asaib al-Haq, seems to have its genisis in Iran).

Foreign Affairs Committee, National Council of Resistance of Iran.  "Untold aspects of the Iranian regime's meddling in Iraq."  January 29, 2007: http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/2814/1/

Morford, Mark.  "America out of Iraq now!  Oh wait."  SFGate, August 25, 2010: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/08/25/notes082510.DTL

Parker, Ned and Saad Fakhrildeen.  "Iraq frees Shiite militant in exchange for Briton, followers say."  January 6, 2010: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/06/world/la-fg-iraq-release6-2010jan06

Roggio, Bill.  "Iran backs three Shia terror groups in Iraq: General Odierno."  The Long War Journal, July 22, 2010: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/07/iran_backs_three_shi.php

Starr, Barbara.  "U.S. official has new evidence of Iranian meddling in Iraq."  CNN, October 14, 2008: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/10/14/us.iran.iraq/index.html

Warner, Bill.  "Iraqi Shiite Terror Squads Receiving Training in Iran, 'Special group criminals' who took part in in the Karbala Raid of Jan 2007." August 15, 2008: http://www.billwarnerpi.com/2008/08/us-iraqi-shiite-terror-squads-receiving.html

Wehrey, Frederic, Jerrold D. Green, Brian Nichiporuk, Alireza Nader, Lydia Hansell, Rasool Nafisi, S.R. Bohandy.  The Rise of the Pasdaran: Assessing the Domestic Roles of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Gaurds Corps.  RAND National Defense Research Institute, 2009: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG821.pdf

Wikipedia.  "Ali al-Sistani": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_al-Sistani

Wikipedia.  "Greater Iran": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Iran

Wikipedia.  "Qais Khazali": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qais_Khazali

Not Tolerance: Trust -- Cordoba Initiative, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, and Primary Commentary

What schoolchild does not know this: "In public, say what you mean, mean what you say, and sustain the same in private"?

Corollary: Tell the truth.

In some quarters of Islam, perhaps under the guise of a greater goal--the pursuit of religious hegemony for instance--deceit and treachery may be lauded and in too many circumstance such concepts as "taysir" and "taqqiyah"--justified lying for comfort, for safety--may be invoked.

The one thing accomplished by deceitful and disingenuous speech from any quarter--I am non-denominational in this--is the preservation of the archaic, barbaric, and medieval in modern life.

We need to be done with it.

The Cordoba Initiative, which features a most progressive staff, may want to frame the issue it has stimulated as one essentially revolving around tolerance by claiming that it has essentially promoted a community center with an Islamic atmosphere that has drawn the opposition of bigots; however, in the larger scheme that clerics necessarily represent as signal of holy revelation and its injunctions, the inescapable and overarching issue has become in New York City what it has been elsewhere in the world where internecine Islamic violence has appeared, i.e., a matter of the cultivation of trust and confidence in leading clerical authorities and their minions.

In the following articles, look out, thematically, for the appearance of the dark mirrors of language--reflection of responsibility, projection of evil on to the good, omission of the discomfitting--and the double stories that contribute mightily to driving conflict at every appearance of the Islamic Small Wars.

Had the Cordoba Initiative been concieved and led by its lay constituency, the tolerance argument would hold, for we polyglot Americans have common vested interests that we defend for one another; however, the initiative seems to have stemmed from a cleric whose agenda has been clouded by his own words as well as fate.

Here then are leads to other and better writers on the Cordoba Initiative and the character in alliance, experience, history, and speech of its founder Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf.  I've included defenses as well, the better to separate the issue of tolerance, which I think a false wall or non-issue, from the true recurring and dismal impediment to producing enthusiasm for the Cordoba Initiative: public trust.

Note: I may update this page without noting the entry mark for added reference.

Reference

 

Adnan, Osman.  "A loyal Muslim American laments the mosque mess: In Middletown, N.J., we do bar mitzvahs, Christmas parties and 9/11 memorials as a community.  Am I now the enemy?"  Salon, August 19, 2010: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2010/08/19/patriotic_muslim_american_on_the_mosque_mess/index.html

Alfonsi, Sharyn and Enjoli Francis.  "N.Y> Mosque Imam's Words Get Closer Look by Critics: While Leader of Planned Center is in Mideast, Statements on Islam Probed."  ABC News, August 23, 2010: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/ny-mosque-imams-words-closer-examination/story?id=11460873

Catan, Thomas.  "Mosque Planner Says Opposition Goes 'Beyond Islamophobia'."  The Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2010: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703589804575445671238186074.html

Elhadj, Elie.  "Open letter to Imam Faisal regarding Ground Zero mosque."  Blitz, August 20, 2010: http://www.weeklyblitz.net/944/open-letter-to-imam-faisal-regarding-ground-zero

Friedman, Thomas L.  "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise."  Op-Ed.  The New York Times, August 21, 2010: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/opinion/22friedman.html

Goldberg, Jeffrey.  "If He Could, Bin Laden Would Bomb the Cordoba Initiative."  The Atlantic, August 3, 2010: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/08/if-he-could-bin-laden-would-bomb-the-cordoba-initiative/60833/

Hitchen, Christopher.  "A Test of Tolerance: The "Ground Zero mosque" debate is about tolerance--and a whole lot more." Slate, August 23, 2010: http://www.slate.com/id/2264770/

IPT News.  "Rauf Lecture Reveals Radicalism."  August 23, 2010: http://www.investigativeproject.org/2121/rauf-lecture-reveals-radicalism

IPT News.  "The Ground Zero Mosque's Muslim Opponents."  August 25, 2010: http://www.investigativeproject.org/2131/the-ground-zero-mosques-muslim-opponents

Lappen, Alyssa A.  "Rauf's Muslim Brotherhood Roads to Malaysia."  August 21, 2010: http://www.alyssaalappen.org/2010/08/21/raufs-muslim-brotherhood-roads-to-malaysia/

Mattera, Jason.  "Ground Zero Imam Says U.S. Worse than al-Qaeda."  Human Events, August 23, 2010: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38673

Manji, Irshad.  "A Muslim Reformer on the Mosque: The warriors for tolerance and the antimosque crusaders are both wrong."  The Wall Street Journal: August 26, 2010: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703632304575451433090488678.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Moore, Art.  "'Son of Hamas' warns U.S. fatally falling for lies: 'Peaceful' Muslims following Quran's dictate to establish 'global Islamic state."  World Net Daily, August 25, 2010: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=194989

Pareene, Alex.  "Heroes, villains and cowards of the so-called "ground zero mosque."  Salon, August 19, 2010: http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/index.html?story=%2Fpolitics%2Fwar_room%2F2010%2F08%2F19%2Fheroes_villains_ground_zero_mosque

Raw Story.  "Fox News shareholder funded 'Ground Zero mosque' imam: report."  August 21, 2010:  http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0821/fox-shareholder-funded-mosque-imam/

YouTube poster "atlasshrugs2000".  "EXCLUSIVE: Imam Rauf Exposed: "America Has Muslim Blood on Its Hands, N**word, Suicide Bombers."  Posted August 23, 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awISCKJzVtE

 

 

 

 

 

N-Word Metonymy - Richards, Schlessinger in Context

Nigger.

Want some more?

Kike.  Wop.  Spic.  Kraut.  Dink.  Jap.  Mick. Honkey.  Frog. Greaseball.

How's that?

Context and intent count.

Just so no English language speaker is caught short or left behind while trading the dozens, The Racial Slur Database lists some 2,649 of these pejoratives.

Contempt, which is what epithets express, contribute to our defensive arsenal in language: they are the weapons we reach for when we are done with words and reason and, overall, ready to rumble.

Sometimes they come out when rumbling.

Comedian Michael Richards, who had played Cosmo Kramer on television's Sienfeld, responded to hecklers while working a mike at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood with an out of control "N word" tirade.  According to one of the hecklers, Kyle Doss, Richards, responding to a loud group ordering drinks, had said, "Look at the stupid Mexicans and black being loud up there," before continuing his routine.  Doss, according to Doss, had moments later said to him, "My friend doesn't think you're funny." [1]

Richards then sunk his career while his hecklers made their fame calling him a cracker and a "fucking white boy" on their way away from the factory explosion.

It's true Richards went off, but the heckler reposte suggests we're all loaded with similar language and, most of the time, we're just holding our fire.

It turns out we're pretty good with one another and what goes on in the back of our head by way of examination, judgment, discrimination, and attitude -- this applies as much to husbands and wives as well as, say, believers and kaffir -- stays in the backs of our heads.  As much helps account for our civility: we're aware of our background static of mixed beliefs, emotions, and impulses, and, with rare exception, we not only contain ourselves but continuously work on ourselves, the better to live with ourselves as well as others.

Although I've stated this basis for fair transaction nicely, we may not have much choice about it, as we humans have going a naturally built-in and permanent encounter with conscience with an equally fierce taste for, oh, the horror, love and mutuality.

Last week, wildly popular talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger picked up on the term "nigger" after being fed it during this exchange with a caller:

Caller: I'm having an issue with my husband where I'm starting to grow very resentful of him.  I'm black, and he's white.  We've been around some of his friends and family members who start making racist comments as if I'm not there or if I'm not black, and my husband ignores those comments, and it hurts my feelings.  And he acts like --

Schlessinger: Well can you give me an example of a racist comment?  'Cause sometimes people are hypersensitive.  So tell me what's -- give me two good examples of racist comments.

Caller: Okay.  Last night -- good example -- we had a neighbor come over, and this neighbor -- when every time he comes over, it's always a black comment.  It's, "Oh, well, how do you black people like doing this?" And, "Do black people really like doing that?"  And for a long time, I would ignore it.  But last night, I got to the point where it -

Schlessinger: I don't think that's racist.

Caller: Well, the stereotype . . .

Schlessinger: I don't think that's racist.  No, I think that . . .

Caller: (unintelligible)

Schlessinger: No, no, no.  I think that's -- well, listen, without giving much thought, a lot of blacks voted for Obama simply 'cause he was half-black.  Didn't matter what he was gonna do in office, it was a black thing.  You gotta know that.  That's not a surprise.  Not everything that somebody says -- we had friends over the other day; we got about 35 people here -- the guys who were gonna start playing basketball.  I was going to go out and play basketball.  My bodyguard and my dear friend is a black man.  And I said, "White men can't jump; I want you on my team."  That was racist?  That was funny.

Caller: How about N-word?  So, the N-word's been thrown around . . .

Schlessinger: Black guys use it all the time.  Turn on HBO, listen to a black comic, and all you hear is nigger, nigger, nigger.

Caller: That isn't --

Schlessinger: I don't get it.  If anybody without enough melanin says it, it's a horrible thing, but when black people say it, it's affectionate.  It's very confusing.  Don't hang up.  I want to talk to you some more.  Don't go away.  I'm Dr. Laura Schlessinger, I'll be right back . . . .

Schlessinger: I'm Dr. Laura Schlessinger, talking to Jade.  What did you think about during the break, by the way?

Caller: I was a little caught back by the N-word that you spewed out, I have to be honest with you.  But my points is, race relations . . .

Schlessinger: Oh, then I guess you don't watch HBO or listen to any black comedians.

Caller: But that doesn't make it right.

Schlessinger: Yeah, I think you have too much sensitivity . . .

Caller: So it's okay to say "nigger"?

Schlessinger: and not enough sense of humor.

Caller: It's okay to say that word?

Schlessinger: It depends how it's said.

Caller: Is it okay to say that word?  Is it ever okay to say that word?

Schlessinger: It's -- it depends on how it's said.  Black guys talking to each other seem to think it's okay."

Caller: But you're not black.  They're not black.  My husband is white.

Schlessinger: Oh, I see.  So, a word is restricted to race.  Got it.  Can't do much about that.

Caller: I can't believe someone like you is on the radio spewing out the "nigger" word, and I hope everybody heard it.

Schlessinger: I didn't spew out the "nigger" word.

Caller: You said, "nigger," "nigger," "nigger."

Schlessinger: Right, I said that's what you hear.

Caller: Everybody heard it.

Schlessinger: Yes, they did.

Caller: I hope everybody heard it.

Schlessinger: They did, and I'll say it again --

Caller: So what makes it okay for you to say the word?

Schlessinger: And I'll say it again -- nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger is what you hear on HB -

Caller: So what makes it -

Schlessinger: Why don't you let me finish a sentence?

Caller: okay.

Schlessinger: Don't take things out of context.  Don't double N -- NAACP -- me.

I've transcribed from a CNN tape posted at Primewriter in a piece by Emma James [2] and will claim fair use, for understanding the character of the discussion, the initiation of the charge of racism, and reading within context fairly requires observation of how the talk really went down.

Schlessinger has apologized to the broadcasting universe, but I'm not sure for what, as the discussion seems to have been about an epithet, not any person, and as for group, the same term has long been incorporated into art (if we care to validate it as such -- click on the video "Eminem's a Bitch" included in the "Other Reference" section below).

This is all just one kike's opinion, of course.

For the record, rapper M&M's white, and he's got a successful song in "Nigga" [3] -- and 50 Cent approved [4].

Epithets are not evil in themselves.

Like knives, they're tools. 

In camp, we may use them affectionately ("You old son of a bitch, you"); under pressure and angered, "Why you swine" (or "dirty kaffir Zionazi Yankee pig"); and in combat, well, sticks and stones do break bones, but at that stage, words may be the least of anyone's problems.

 

Cited Reference

1. Wikipedia.  "Michael Richards": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Richards

2. James, Emma.  "Dr. Laura Schlessinger uses the N-word transcript of controversial call on race (video).  Primewriter, August 13, 2010: http://primewriter.com/news-1246-headlines/?p=8859

3. Eminem.  "Nigga."  Lyrics: http://www.lyricstime.com/eminem-nigga-lyrics.html

4. Youtube poster "maxamillionentco".  "50 Cent Approves of Eminem saying "Nigga."  Posted November 8, 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4mu_ip2maw

 

Other Reference

Garron, Barry.  "Dog used the N word? Here's What to Do."  Past Deadline, November 2, 2007: http://www.pastdeadline.com/michael_richards/

Marikar, Sheila.  "Critics: Dr. Laura's Rant Reiterates N-Word Is Never OK: First Gays, Now Blacks: Anti-Defamation League, Paul Mooney Slam Dr. Laura Schlessinger for N-Word-Laced Rant." ABC News, August 13, 2010: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/dr-laura-schlessinger-slammed-word-laced-rant/story?id=11394378

The Racial Slur Database: http://www.rsdb.org/

VerBruggen, Robert.  "'Cosmo Kramer' actor uses racial epithet."  Robert's Rationale, November 20, 2006: http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com/2006/11/cosmo-kramer-actor-uses-racial-epithet.html

Wikipedia.  "Epithet": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epithet

Wikipedia.  "List of ethnic slurs": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs

Youtube poster "mixedfeelins".  "Eminem's A Bitch."  Posted January 21, 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAadjZjk_Tg (love the last spoken words: "Don't be hatin'").

Youtube poster "meltdownvideo".  "Kramer Michael Richards Freaking Out Onstage."  Posted April 22, 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD9o52U4260

 

 

Take the Long View

. . . As for the Christians who carry on commerce with Jews who walk without this badge, remain in familial or friendly relations with Jews, or only live in one courtyard or house with them, they are prohibited from entering a church.  Whatever has been decided concerning the Jews, we order it also concerning the Saracens, Ishmaelites, and all kinds of infidels, except that where the Jews wear a red circle as a badge, the others mentioned above must year a yellow badge.

Since the council had to disband before finishing its work, however, the resolutions were not properly publicized and had little effect.  The king had neither sympathy for them nor interest in restricting the financial activities of Jews.  Only about a hundred years later did the provisions begin to penetrate the life of the country, and only then did the position of the Jews begin to deteriorate, and to resemble that of their coreligionists in other countries.  Still, the 1279 Council of Buda can be considered the beginning of the legal deprivation of the Hungarian Jews of the rights enjoyed by the Christian inhabitants of the country. [1]

Raphael Patai turns out a rich text, always, and this produced in his 80s, The Jews of Hungary: History, Culture, Psychology, proves no exception.  I am taking it in slowly and, uncharacteristically, with streaks of yellow highlighter and scribbles in black gel ink.

In the Romish persecution of the Jews, the edict requiring the same to wear red badges on their outer garment extended to Muslims (Ishamaelites) who were similarly ordered to wear yellow badges.  If that lends a new shade of meaning to the saying that "What starts with the Jews does not end with them," then good -- while the persecutors may change their masks, the true persecuted, which is all others, do not.

Hungary's king at the time, so notes Patai, had an interesting and nonviolent way of dealing with the impositions proposed by the emmisaries of then Pope Nicholas III:

In 1279 the bishop convened a church council in Buda that began to pass resolutions, some of which King Laszlo considered infringements upon the rights of the crown.  This intensified the king's anti-Church attitude, and he ordered the judge and citizens of Buda not to sell victuals to the assembled priests and their servants, forcing them by this simple and nonviolent method to leave the city [1, p. 52].

Would that more power-obsessed religious authorities be starved wherever they may be found, for even nulled resolutions once enabled seem to enjoy a wicked persistence and eventual uptake in bodies politic.  At any and every point in time, however small the threat of resurgent religious persecution in open societies, both the communications and the composers of them bear the scrutiny of more generous, humble, practical, and scrupulous minds.

I don't yet know how it turns out for the Hungarian Jews in the centuries preceding the Holocaust, which thoroughly destroyed them, but I have heard that the cafe society of Budapest artists and intellectuals, many among them Jews, were to disperse across Europe in the years prior to World War II and promote through their lives and works many facets integrated into the contemporary democratic and open societies of the world.

Cited Reference

1. Patai, Raphael.  The Jews of Hungary: History, Culture, Psychology.  52-53.  Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1996.

Other Reference

Hungary - A Love for Life!  "Cafe Society."  Promotion: http://www.hungary.com/food-wine/cafe-society

Idov, Michael.  "Bringing the Buzz Back to the Cafe."  The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2009: http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748704576204574529943328514078.html

Vienna Cafe.  Multifaceted cultural and historical project: http://viennacafe.rca.ac.uk/

# # #

Cordoba House Controversy Revisited

Bradley: And throughout the Muslim world, there is also strong opposition to America's foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East because of its support of Israel and economic sanctions against Iraq.

Faisal: it is a reaction against the US government politically, where we espouse principles of democracy and human rights, and where we ally ourselves with oppressive regimes in many of these countries.

Bradley: Are you in any way suggesting that we in the United States deserved what happened?

Faisal: I wouldn't say that the United States deserved what happened, but united states policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.

Bradley: You say that we're an accessory? How?

Faisal: Because we have been accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA. [1]

* * *

They recite the Quran and consider it in their favor but

it is against them

They transpose Quranic verses meant to refer to unbelievers and make them

refer to the believers

What I fear most for my Ummah is a man who interprets verses of the Quran out of context

They will pass through Islam as an arrow passes through its quarry.

Wherever you meet them, kill them!

The one who kills them or is killed by them is blessed

They are the dogs of the People of Hell

[Footnote]: The Prophet is referring to imposters who will commit destruction in the name of Islam.  He mentions the gravest enemies of Islam will emerge from within it. [2]

Osama Bin Ladin was not made in the U.S.A., but the would-be imam of New York City's controversial proposed Cordoba House project, Kuwait-born Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, educated in England, Malaysia, and the U.S., has been a part of the fabric of New York City, U.S.A. since at least as far back as 1983 in his role as Imam of the Masjid al-Farah mosque.

What to make of Imam Rauf's volunteered and hedging mea culpa?

Across Islam, politics and religion--more specifically, political systems and religious ones--have for centuries been inseparable; this day's snapshot, however, would show an Islam deeply involved in multiple civil wars both old, as with the Shia vs. Sunny rivalry, and new, for this age provokes Islamic medievalists to challenge contemporary consumerism, democracy, materialism, pluralism, and speech while asking Islamic moderns to choose, embrace, and stand visibly and vocally for a revolution in behavior, consciousness, and consience associated with all of mankind's better, more compassionate, and gentle angels.

The medieval in Islam wants for dominion, not co-existence.  Affronts to power and prestige may be met most harshly; impediments to expansion may be met with deceit.

Osama Bin Laden, who at the very least presumes to interpret Muhammad's scripture and behavior most strictly, has been quoted in the Middle East Forum as reducing Islam's political challenge to this:

There are only three choices in Islam: either submit [i.e., convert to Islam], or live under the suzerainty of Islam, or die. Such, then, is the basis and foundation of the relationship between the infidel and Muslim. Battle, animosity, and hatred—directed from the Muslim to the infidel—is the foundation of our religion.

Because Osama says it doesn't make it so; however, because Osama says it may indicate such a ceaseless quest for power sets well within the realm of Islamic aspiration, desire, and possibility, and the repeated observation of this theme in history and expression (i.e., statements and actions associated with the achievement of political and spiritual conquest and supremacy) has potential in the messages passed by imam to mosque congregants.

Not by sweet words alone do informed Americans, including Muslim Americans, form their judgments.

Far off on the pole opposite Bin Laden one may find such a voice as Dr. Qanta A. Ahmed, the second author quoted and representative of what may look today like a looming majority Muslim class alternative to what has been painted by the Jihadi-obsessed press.  

Witnessing the attack on the World Trade Center towers from an Intensive Care Unit in Riyadh, Ahmed noted as much about herself:

"What happened, Qanta?  You look terrible!" blurted out another Beiruti colleague who rarely entered conversation.  "Are you ill?  What's the matter?"  His face was genuinely blank.

"What do you mean?" I snapped.  "Didn't you see the news?  Don't you know how many Americans died yesterday?  Of course I look terrible.  I was trying to reach my friends all night on the phone.  It's just unbelievable."  I actually began to express some of the my mounting anger.  Imran laughed hollowly.

"Qanta, where have you been?  You are so naive.  We always thought that.  But we figured, she can't know because she doesn't follow politics, so we excused you.  It's time you realized, America has been doing this to people all over the planet.  Murder.  It was their turn.  They deserved this . . ."  I was already moving away, I didn't hear the rest.  I couldn't be around my colleagues, men whom I had considered friends.  My final distinctino from my surroundings had become clear.  I was not of these Muslims.  I was something other." [4]

Before my reader plays the exception to conclude that on the basis of the decency of one London-educated American Muslim feminist doctor one cannot generalize to American and other Muslims, Ahmed goes on to note the sobering effects of the Islamist bombing of Riyadh in 2003 [5] on the considerations of those who two years earlier gloated about the American tragedy.

In its own wickedly upside-down way, it may turn out that militant Islam has provided a stimulus to all of Islam not to rise against the so-called infidel (and destroy the Jews in the process), but rather to move beyond the archaic and inappropriate aspects of the faith or associated political cultures that have for decades proven most deleterious to Muslims themselves. 

In such an emerging context, the Cordoba House proposal crystallizes one of the issues driving civil war within Islam by cleaving authentic good sentiment and spirit, abundant in the literature, from the excessive taking of license that has proven most useful to unbridled and tyrannical evil. 

Another Muslim American doctor, M. Zuhdi Jasser, has been working tirelessly since 9/11 to defeat what he calls, "the ideology of political Islam."  For Jasser, Osama Bin Laden is a "theocratic fascist" and nothing else [6].

For flavor, here is a lead from a recent piece by Jasser, "Time to take sides" (July 27, 2010):

As a dedicated American Muslim activist, I have devoted my life to advocating for reforms against political Islam – the root cause of Islamist terrorism. To that end, I debated Bilal Kaleem, executive director of the Muslim American Society of Boston (MAS) at an April Ford Hall Forum in Boston. I focused on the threat of Islamism (political Islam and shar'iah) to the west, human rights, and freedom. When confronted, Mr. Kaleem feigned ignorance and dismissed the realities of political Islam staying lockstep with his employers. And why wouldn't he when a coalition of local faith and political leaders continue to blindly give him and his Islamist associates an ideological pass? [8]

What proportion of the American Muslim community falls in with Drs. Ahmed and Jasser may be anyone's guess, but the question is one that Americans, assailed in the conservative press by reports critical of other personalities and organizations representing Islam in America, have been asking for close to a decade.

Along with "political Islam" making its tragic statements in the news daily, it doesn't help that Islamic theology professes concepts validating dishonesty in various circumstances.  Although few Americans unconcerned with conservative-to-Islamophobic positions mull the nature of such terms as Taysir or Taqqiya (the link opens to a piece by the well known scholar Raymond Ibrahim [6]), the presence of such terms as positive ones seem indicative of a psychologically global outlook suspended in exclusively Islamic civilizational language in want of popular clarification (just in case Ibrahim and the speakers he cites have gotten it wrong), recontextualization, redefinition, or language renewing repudiation.

However the Cordoba House project proposal settles, it will do so with finality only when Americans, being American and undifferentiated in that alliance, may with confidence extend to the project's proponents their deepest trust.

Cited Reference

1. Bradley, Ed.  "Prominent American Muslims denounce terror committed in the name of Islam."  Interviewees: Shaykh Hamza Yusuf (California); Imam Siraj Wahaj (Brooklyn); Dr. Farid Esack, Visiting Professor in Religious Studies at the University of Hamburg; Imam Faisal Abdur Rauf (Lower Manhattan); Dr. Vali Nasir, Professor of Political Science at the University of San Diego. Transcript, "60 Minutes", CBS, September 30, 2001via Islam For Today: http://www.islamfortoday.com/60minutes.htm

2. Ahmed, Qanta A.  In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Jounrey in the Saudi Kingdom. P. 396.  Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, Inc., 2008.

3. Ibrahim, Raymond.  "Bin Laden's latest message."  Middle East Strategy at Harvard via Middle East Forum, December 26, 2007: http://www.meforum.org/2561/bin-ladens-latest-message-in-context

4. Ahmed, Qanta A.  In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Jounrey in the Saudi Kingdom. P. 400.  Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, Inc., 2008.

5. Wikipedia.  "Riyadh compound bombings": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riyadh_compound_bombings

6. YouTube poster "consciousgood": "The Third Jihad" posted October 8, 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeMld55avpkzzzzz

7. Ibrahim, Raymond.  "Top Muslim Cleric Qaradawi Urges Western Muslims to 'Liberalize': Outwardly, Anyway."  Raymond Ibrahim at Pundicity, co-posted at Pajamas Media, July 23, 2010: http://www.raymondibrahim.com/7749/top-muslim-cleric-qaradawi-urges-western-muslims

8.  Jasser, M. Zuhdi.  "Time to take sides."  Pundicity author's site, co-posted with The Daily Caller, July 27, 2010: http://www.mzuhdijasser.com/7758/time-to-take-sides

Other Reference

 Wikipedia: "Faisal Abdul Rauf": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feisal_Abdul_Rauf

Wikipedia.  "Islam and antisemitism": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_antisemitism

America's "Silent Majority" Islam - Speak Up, Stand Up, Stand Firm

Almost every day, a new atrocity is committed in the name of Islam.

One can understand why so-called "moderate" Muslims living under Arab and Islamic dictatorships are afraid to speak out. But what about those living in the West? What are they afraid of? [1]

* * *

And we wonder why the reformist Muslim voices appear so silent? Political correctness has made many blind. Muslims are not monolithic. The strong ‘horse’ of wealthy political Islam actually represents a minority of Muslims. Many American Muslims prefer more humble domestically funded American mosques and Muslim institutions based in the spiritual rather than a political transnational movement. [2]

* * *

Bihi, who has lived in Minneapolis since 1996, told the FBI that for years, Somalis were intimidated into silence about jihadist fundraising in local mosques. The questionable activity has been taking place since 2003, he said, so it predates the rise of al-Shabaab and the Islamic Courts Union, which dominated the Somali government in 2006. [3]

Khaled Abu Toameh, author of the first work cited here, and others have been harping about Islam's missing moderates for a while.

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, author of the second excerpt, has been working on the problem, striving to overcome it by engaging "political Islam" energetically and publically [4].

Abdirizak Bihi, subject of a recent story by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, stepped forward, volunteering helpful information to law enforcement and throwing light on the darker undercurrents of militant infiltration and exploitation of charitable, observant, and pious believers.

In that what happens on the street happens not by accident, aggregating an overwhelming majority reformation or alternative response to news-hogging Islamic militancy may require offering and promoting modalities and models in behavior and speech that permanently alter and disrupt source language as well as centuries of dogma focused on acquiring in the name of Islam global political, social, and spiritual supremacy, and that with the darkest agendas imaginable: destruction of the Jews; revival and licensing of 7th Century barbarity; perpetual internecine conflict; and the invasive and absolute control of human social and psychological behavior by invested potentates.

Of the Jews of the Holocaust it has been asked how they could have allowed themselves to have been led to slaughter, a mean question with many answers but among them must stand the lack of timely inclination, political wherewithal and muscle, and, most of all, language and training--intellectual and physical components--sufficient to throw a wrench into the juggernaut.

Then too it could be asked of the Germans, Poles, Russians, French and others of pre-WWII era how the development of the machinery of Nazism was abetted by disinterest, pacifism, and tolerance as well as varying degrees of political greed, lust, and narrowly expedient and unsurvivable compromise.

2010 is not 1933, but a ruthless few with a program (made each their own) and sufficient privacy and funding have had access to personal firepower and criminal impunity beyond the wildest dreams of the old brown shirts, and they too dare all others to meet them in numbers and with force across the broadest spectrum of intellectual and physical combat.

Reference

1. Toameh, Khaled Abu.  "Where Are the Voices of "Moderate" Muslims?"  Hudson New York, August 10, 2010: http://www.hudson-ny.org/1471/moderate-muslims

2. Jasser, M. Zuhdi.  "Time to take sides."  The Daily Caller, July 27, 2010: http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/27/time-to-take-sides/

3. IPT News.  "Minneapolis Somalis Played Key Role in al-Shabaab Investigation."  August 6, 2010: http://www.investigativeproject.org/2092/minneapolis-somalis-played-key-role-in-al-shabaab

4. American Islamic Forum for Democracy: http://www.aifdemocracy.org/

# # #

Hezbollah's Two Lovers

Damascus has a long and bloody history of intervention in Lebanon, and has made no secret of its hope to make its weaker neighbor part of Syria. Since the creation of contemporary Lebanon in 1920, most Syrians have never accepted modern Lebanon as a sovereign and independent state. The outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 gave Damascus the opportunity to act on its belief that Lebanon and Syria are one. [1]

April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Iran has provided weapons and as much as $200 million a year to help the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah re-arm itself to levels beyond those in 2006, when the group waged a war with Israel, the Pentagon said. [2]

In southern Lebanon, Hezbollah has courted two lovers, and soon both may be asking much of it. 

Call Hezbollah a blasting cap or powder keg, it has rebuilt its warmaking capability well enough to ignore the state interests of the rest of Lebanon and set itself off for Mssrs. Assad and Ahmadinejad, who having built their war boy toy may turn to fighting one another for control of it within the larger contexts or themes associated with the Islamic Small Wars in general and regional state politics in particular.

Left out in the cold: Druze leader and head of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt and Maronite leader Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, at least.

Credit Nadim Gemayel, a Christian member of Lebanon's Parliament, with the following statement.

"It's abiding to the rules of the Iranian revolution," Gemayel said of the gorup. "But moreover, I think that with the support, of course, of the Iranian arms and the money and the financing of the Iranians and from the facilities that Syria is providing to Hezbollah, we are having a party -- a military party -- growing day after day and year after year -- especially after the war of 2006." [3]

Lebanon may soon be made to face new agonies, not from tree trimming Jews (busy on their own property, no less [4]), but from the rogue shadow government occupying southern Lebanon and its two state patrons who continue to seek expansion and influence through proxied military threat and effort.

Cited Reference

1. Jewish Virtual Library.  "Syria's Role in Lebanon": http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Syria's_role_in_Leb.html

2. Gienger, Viola.  "Iran Gives Weapons to Re-Arm Hezbollah, Pentagon Says (Update2).  Bloomberg BusinessWeek, April 20, 2010: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-20/iran-gives-weapons-funds-to-help-lebanese-hezbollah-re-arm.html

3. Stakelbeck, Erick.  "Lebanese Christian Leader Takes on Hezbollah."  CBN, August 4, 2010: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2010/August/Source-Hezbollah-Party-a-Threat-to-Lebanon/

4. Israel Defense Force Spokesperson.  "Aerial Photograph of Location of Incident Along Lebanese Border."  August 3, 2010: http://idfspokesperson.com/2010/08/03/aerial-photograph-of-location-of-incident-along-lebanese-border-3-aug-2010/

Other Reference

Bejjani, Elias Youssef.  "Hezbollah is emptying south Lebanon from its Christian residents."  Analyst-Network, February 16, 2010: http://www.analyst-network.com/article.php?art_id=3364

Cohen, Ben S.  "A Deadly Game in Lebanon."  The Huffington Post, August 3, 2010: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-s-cohen/a-deadly-game-in-lebanon_b_669574.html

Honest Reporting.  "Special Alert: Media Collusion in Lebanon Ambush."  August 4, 2010:

Staff.  "Tensions rise between Hizbullah, Sfeir."  The Jerusalem Post, June 21, 2010: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=179044

# # #

Skirmish

Even in the smallest patch of war, may it be noted that fog comes with fire:

The Lebanese army said an Israeli patrol had crossed the technical line of the border even though U.N. peacekeepers in the area told it to stop.

"A Lebanese army force then repelled it using rocket propelled grenades. A clash happened in which the enemy forces used machine guns and tank fire targeting army posts and civilian houses," it said.

Major-General Gadi Eisenkot, head of Israel's northern command, said a Lebanese sniper squad fired at officers inside Israeli territory. He said an Israeli tank came under fire from a rocket-propelled grenade, and when it missed, the tank fired and killed the RPG squad. [1]

Rather amazing, considering the short "lead time", a Wikipedian has already posted a wrap in "2010 Adaisseh incident." 

The entry's pretty good and wouldn't leave much for me to say except that it underplays Hezbollah's substantial rearming for war with Israel, which is the only cause for military tension between the two states, discounting meddling by Syria within the darkening shadows cast across the region by Iran.

Hezbollah itself, however, has another chip on the table: indictment of several of its members in Lebanon for the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Although Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah has attempted to blame Hariri's murder on Israel, any who have followed the Hariri investigation over the years know that the "Special Tribunal for Lebanon" ranks among the most secured for integrity and physical safety.

Decisions to investigate, to prosecute and to bring an appeal are principled decisions that are predicated on sound legal criteria. These decisions are made based on the evidence available and exclude political or any other external considerations. Furthermore, no one may order the Prosecutor to file an indictment, to refrain from doing so or to file an appeal. In that respect, the Prosecutor is an independent officer: He is not influenced by any ulterior motive, predilection or prejudice and must be regarded as an independent officer carrying out his duties in a manner much similar to those of a judge. [3]

* * *

The UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon is reportedly set to announce that Mustafa Badr al-Din, a senior Hizbullah operative and close relative of the former Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh, is the main suspect in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

According to an Israel TV report on Thursday night, Hariri’s son, the current Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, asked the tribunal to postpone releasing Din’s name, because of the potentially incendiary implications for Lebanon of such an announcement. [4]

Those announcements, which would be most incendiary within the framework of Islamic rivalries, may come in September.  In the meantime, we may expect more such distractions, deflections, sparks, and brush fires, for here is something like conventional war in the making.

In a rare move declassifying confidential intelligence information, the Israel Defense Forces told reporters that Hezbollah has some 40,000 short-, medium- and long-range missiles, and a force of 20,000 guerrilla fighters based throughout southern Lebanon.

Many of the arms caches are stored in private homes, which in the event of war could turn into IDF military targets. Unlike the Second Lebanon War - in which most of the fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah militants took place in thickly forested rural areas - the past four years have seen the organization concentrate most of its fighting capacity in built-up areas.  [5]

It's not so hard angling around the news buttressed by historical and other data available on the web.

A picture forms, and one then asks, "where is it moving and how fast?"

Israel seized the German-owned freighter Francorp in international waters near Cyprus after it had departed Iran, transited the Suez Canal, and made a brief stop in Egypt. The Israeli navy said it found 500 tons of Katyusha rockets, mortars, bullets, and grenades in containers belonging to an Iranian shipping line, and said the ship's manifest indicated the cargo was destined for Syria. Both Iran and Syria have supplied arms to Hezbollah in the past. [6]

Writing for The Christian Science Monitor, Dan Murphy reported the above last November.

A skirmish, a loose fight between small units at the edges of armies, may be just a skirmish, but Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is a loaded gun beyond the control of its host state, and it has the ability at any given hour to bill itself Lebanon's defender and fire forward in a bid to prepare Israel for invasion and not by itself alone.

Cited Reference

1. MSNBC.  "4 killed in Lebanese-Israeli border clash: Most serious since two countries went to war in 2006."  August 3, 2010 (about 15:15 EDT): http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38534293/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

2. Mroue, Bassem.  "Hezbollah: Members to be indicted in Hariri death."  The Washington Post, July 22, 2010: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/22/AR2010072204296.html

3. Special Tribunal for Lebanon.  "Prosecution."  Tibunal web site.  http://www.stl-tsl.org/sid/27

4. Staff.  "Hariri hit suspect is Hibullah bigwig."  Jerusalem Post.com staff and AP, July 30, 2010: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=183090

5. Pfeffer, Anshel.  "IDF reveals intel on huge Hezbollah arms stockpile in southern Lebanon."  July 8, 2010: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-reveals-intel-on-huge-hezbollah-arms-stockpile-in-southern-lebanon-1.300656

6. Murphy, Dan.  "Israel says weapons shipment a war crime, Iran and Syria cry foul."  The Christian Science Monitor, November 5, 2009: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2009/1105/israel-says-weapons-shipment-a-war-crime-iran-and-syria-cry-foul

Other Reference

Charbonneau, Louis.  "U.N. found Hezbollah arms pits in Lebanon: Israel."  Reuters, January 7, 2010: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6065PQ20100107

Global Jihad.  "Mustafa Badr Aldin." July 30, 2010: http://www.globaljihad.net/view_page.asp?id=1940

IDF Spokesperson.  "LAF Opens Fire at IDF Force on Northern Border, 3 Aug 2010."  IDF Blog, August 3, 2010 (15:38): http://idfspokesperson.com/2010/08/03/laf-opens-fire-at-idf-force-on-northern-border-3-aug-2010/

Krieger.  Hilary Leila.  "Obama to Hariri: Hizbullah must be disarmed."  Jerusalem Post, May 26, 2010: http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=176529

Nash, Matt.  "Border spark not expected to ignite fires of war."  Now Lebanon.  August 3, 2010: http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=191308

Spyer, Jonathan.  "Illusion and reality clash in Lebanon."  Jerusalem Post, July 30, 2010: http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=183043

Staff.  "Assad wants Hariri tribunal closed."  Jerusalem Post, July 31, 2010: http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=183206

VOA News.  "Lebanon Arrests Alleged Israeli Spy."  August 2, 2010: http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Lebanon-Arrests-Alleged-Israeli-Spy-99762374.html

Wikipedia.  "Special Tribunal for Lebanon":  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Tribunal_for_Lebanon

Zuroff, Avraham.  "Lebanese Colonel Fled to Israel."  Arutz Sheva, August 3, 2010: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132278?sms_ss=facebook

Odds 'N' Ends

Knightly, Phillip.  The First Casualty.  New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975.

Wege, Carl Anthony.  "Iran's Terrorist Asset: A History of Imad Mugniyah."  Terrorism Monitor.  Jamestown Organization.  September 8, 2006: http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=895&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=181&no_cache=1

Yemen Times.  "Again, Senseless Fighting in Sa'ada!  Why?"  August 12, 2009: http://www.yementimes.com/DefaultDET.aspx?i=1021&p=opinion&a=1

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