Ernie Moore

THE WEST AND THE REST

ernmoore@barnabuspress.com — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:19:00 GMT

Every now and then there is a news piece that grabs me. This is about one of those.

A couple of things in addition before I discuss the interview.

Harvard Professors: There is an almost visceral distaste for Harvard Professors by a segment of people who don’t trust the liberal Eastern society.

Not all professors at Harvard fit this class. I’m reminded of Dr. Paul Conn who was a visiting professor at Harvard when we first met. He is a far cry from the norm.

THE US IS ALWAYS RIGHT Syndrome: Among Americans there are two wings: The US is always wrong and the US is always right. Both sides are wrong.

In fact it’s interesting that we can criticize our country but when and outsider does it we get our hackles up. A long time ago I was taught that there is often a grain of truth in even the worst criticism and we do well to seek that out and fix it.

Our advice on this discussion is don’t disregard what is said and don’t accept it. In other words, this is not a puff piece and it is has things that need fixing in the US. Maybe you cannot “fix” them personally but you can be more involved in discussions, in voting, in seeking out even school board candidates. That can be part of a repair job on America too.

If you haven’t done so yet, you might want to view the video and then read on.

1. Competition – Between nations and within nations.

How often have you heard about schools that no longer allow competition? Games where everyone gets a trophy. Stop it! At least speak up about it and get your kids – or yourselves out of that environment. Losing is the first step to getting stronger, wiser and more competitive. Get a grip.

2. Scientific Revolution – We all hear about how the school system is top-heavy, loaded with idiots who think they know everything, and who want to keep education out of the hands of parents and local communities.

Here’s the question: How’s that working out so far. Grades and test results are tanking. Maybe it’s time we stopped the National Education Association and the Department of Education. Politicians talk about it in election years but the job never gets done.

3. Property Rights – A parcel of land is taken away from the rightful owner by a city, state or federal government and nothing is done to stop it. Why? So another individual or corporation can build something on it that will increase tax income. OR, so that greeners can feel good.

We watched a National Geographical show here in Jerusalem where two – 2 – beavers dammed up a stream that ended up flooding a man’s whole yard. He could do nothing about it. No more yard, no dry basement, no property rights. My idea would be that if the state wildlife people wouldn’t relocate them, shoot them! It’s my property and two furry interlopers won’t change that.

4. Medical production – You already know that as our educational system slides down into the lower and lower ranking worldwide so does out medicine and science competition.

And now President Obama wants us to copy the European model. Fewer doctors, longer waits for treatment, and – HARK – higher costs. Oh, socialized medicine if free. IS IT? When you consider the taxes that go into it and the fact that those who live under that system often either come to the US for treatment at their own expense or must purchase outside insurance in their own land, it is NOT CHEAPER.

5. Consumer society – Part of this argument is that more of the world is becoming a consumer society. They are earning more wages and buying more products.

Let me ask you a question: do you see any correlation between the fact that those foreign nations are manufacturing products and their wages are a result of that? While in America our jobs are disappearing overseas. A large part, though certainly not all, is due to the fact that Unions are forcing companies to move away. WAIT A MINUTE – that is not all Obama’s fault. I remind you that NAFTA under Clinton and over-regulation – a Bush failing too – are part of the whole program that is driving jobs away. The Republicans are just as guilty here as the Dems. It was all a part of who can get the best legislators money can buy!

6. Western Work Ethic – Interestingly the author says this point in the US was rooted in Protestantism. In other the Biblical work ethic. If one won’t work they won’t eat. That has certainly turned to ash in the mouth of Americans who vote for longer and longer unemployment benefits and more welfare, food stamp programs, etc.

You can talk about a work ethic but many people don’t work for an opportunity to get ahead, they work for “what’s in it for me” without expecting to have to stretch, grow in the job or even to learn how to get into something for themselves.

We can know what’s right, but do we always do what is right?

Maybe this Harvard Professor with the funny accent has a point worth considering.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1324572637001/sun-setting-on-western-dominance

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A SPEECH WORTH READING AGAIN.

ernmoore@barnabuspress.com — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 23:28:00 GMT

Governor Mitch Daniels is either showing how large the catfish grow in Indiana or how far off the mark Obama is.

Either way, his speech following the State of the Union was totally remarkable.

Charles Krauthammer said that if Romney could memorize it and give it in every state, he’d be President.

We offer the text for your repeat perusal:

January 24, 2012

Text of the Republican Response to the State of the Union

Following is the full text of Gov. Mitch Daniels’s Republican Address to the Nation, as prepared for delivery:

“The status of ‘loyal opposition’ imposes on those out of power some serious responsibilities: to show respect for the Presidency and its occupant, to express agreement where it exists. Republicans tonight salute our President, for instance, for his aggressive pursuit of the murderers of 9/11, and for bravely backing long overdue changes in public education. I personally would add to that list admiration for the strong family commitment that he and the First Lady have displayed to a nation sorely needing such examples.

“On these evenings, Presidents naturally seek to find the sunny side of our national condition. But when President Obama claims that the state of our union is anything but grave, he must know in his heart that this is not true.

“The President did not cause the economic and fiscal crises that continue in America tonight. But he was elected on a promise to fix them, and he cannot claim that the last three years have made things anything but worse: the percentage of Americans with a job is at the lowest in decades. One in five men of prime working age, and nearly half of all persons under 30, did not go to work today.

“In three short years, an unprecedented explosion of spending, with borrowed money, has added trillions to an already unaffordable national debt. And yet, the President has put us on a course to make it radically worse in the years ahead. The federal government now spends one of every four dollars in the entire economy; it borrows one of every three dollars it spends. No nation, no entity, large or small, public or private, can thrive, or survive intact, with debts as huge as ours.

“The President’s grand experiment in trickle-down government has held back rather than sped economic recovery. He seems to sincerely believe we can build a middle class out of government jobs paid for with borrowed dollars. In fact, it works the other way: a government as big and bossy as this one is maintained on the backs of the middle class, and those who hope to join it.

“Those punished most by the wrong turns of the last three years are those unemployed or underemployed tonight, and those so discouraged that they have abandoned the search for work altogether. And no one has been more tragically harmed than the young people of this country, the first generation in memory to face a future less promising than their parents did.

“As Republicans our first concern is for those waiting tonight to begin or resume the climb up life’s ladder. We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon to haves.

“In our economic stagnation and indebtedness, we are only a short distance behind Greece, Spain, and other European countries now facing economic catastrophe. But ours is a fortunate land. Because the world uses our dollar for trade, we have a short grace period to deal with our dangers. But time is running out, if we are to avoid the fate of Europe, and those once-great nations of history that fell from the position of world leadership.

“So 2012 is a year of true opportunity, maybe our last, to restore an America of hope and upward mobility, and greater equality. The challenges aren’t matters of ideology, or party preference; the problems are simply mathematical, and the answers are purely practical.

“An opposition that would earn its way back to leadership must offer not just criticism of failures that anyone can see, but a positive and credible plan to make life better, particularly for those aspiring to make a better life for themselves. Republicans accept this duty, gratefully.

“The routes back to an America of promise, and to a solvent America that can pay its bills and protect its vulnerable, start in the same place. The only way up for those suffering tonight, and the only way out of the dead end of debt into which we have driven, is a private economy that begins to grow and create jobs, real jobs, at a much faster rate than today.

“Contrary to the President’s constant disparagement of people in business, it’s one of the noblest of human pursuits. The late Steve Jobs — what a fitting name he had — created more of them than all those stimulus dollars the President borrowed and blew. Out here in Indiana, when a businessperson asks me what he can do for our state, I say ‘First, make money. Be successful. If you make a profit, you’ll have something left to hire someone else, and some to donate to the good causes we love.’

“The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy. It must be replaced by a passionate pro-growth approach that breaks all ties and calls all close ones in favor of private sector jobs that restore opportunity for all and generate the public revenues to pay our bills.

“That means a dramatically simpler tax system of fewer loopholes and lower rates. A pause in the mindless piling on of expensive new regulations that devour dollars that otherwise could be used to hire somebody. It means maximizing on the new domestic energy technologies that are the best break our economy has gotten in years.

“There is a second item on our national must-do list: we must unite to save the safety net. Medicare and Social Security have served us well, and that must continue. But after half and three quarters of a century respectively, it’s not surprising that they need some repairs. We can preserve them unchanged and untouched for those now in or near retirement, but we must fashion a new, affordable safety net so future Americans are protected, too.

“Decades ago, for instance, we could afford to send millionaires pension checks and pay medical bills for even the wealthiest among us. Now, we can’t, so the dollars we have should be devoted to those who need them most.

“The mortal enemies of Social Security and Medicare are those who, in contempt of the plain arithmetic, continue to mislead Americans that we should change nothing. Listening to them much longer will mean that these proud programs implode, and take the American economy with them. It will mean that coming generations are denied the jobs they need in their youth and the protection they deserve in their later years.

“It’s absolutely so that everyone should contribute to our national recovery, including of course the most affluent among us. There are smart ways and dumb ways to do this: the dumb way is to raise rates in a broken, grossly complex tax system, choking off growth without bringing in the revenues we need to meet our debts. The better course is to stop sending the wealthy benefits they do not need, and stop providing them so many tax preferences that distort our economy and do little or nothing to foster growth.

“It’s not fair and it’s not true for the President to attack Republicans in Congress as obstacles on these questions. They and they alone have passed bills to reduce borrowing, reform entitlements, and encourage new job creation, only to be shot down time and time again by the President and his DemocraticSenate allies.

“This year, it falls to Republicans to level with our fellow citizens about this reality: if we fail to act to grow the private sector and save the safety net, nothing else will matter much. But to make such action happen, we also must work, in ways we Republicans have not always practiced, to bring Americans together.

“No feature of the Obama Presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others. As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat. If we drift, quarreling and paralyzed, over a Niagara of debt, we will all suffer, regardless of income, race, gender, or other category. If we fail to shift to a pro-jobs, pro-growth economic policy, there will never be enough public revenue to pay for our safety net, national security, or whatever size government we decide to have.

“As a loyal opposition, who put patriotism and national success ahead of party or ideology or any self-interest, we say that anyone who will join us in the cause of growth and solvency is our ally, and our friend. We will speak the language of unity. Let us rebuild our finances, and the safety net, and reopen the door to the stairway upward; any other disagreements we may have can wait.

“You know, the most troubling contention in our national life these days isn’t about economics, or policy at all. It’s about us, as a free people. In two alarming ways, that contention is that we Americans just can’t cut it anymore.

“In word and deed, the President and his allies tell us that we just cannot handle ourselves in this complex, perilous world without their benevolent protection. Left to ourselves, we might pick the wrong health insurance, the wrong mortgage, the wrong school for our kids; why, unless they stop us, we might pick the wrong light bulb!

“A second view, which I admit some Republicans also seem to hold, is that we Americans are no longer up to the job of self-government. We can’t do the simple math that proves the unaffordability of today’s safety net programs, or all the government we now have. We will fall for the con job that says we can just plow ahead and someone else will pick up the tab. We will allow ourselves to be pitted one against the other, blaming our neighbor for troubles worldwide trends or our own government has caused.

“2012 must be the year we prove the doubters wrong. The year we strike out boldly not merely to avert national bankruptcy but to say to a new generation that America is still the world’s premier land of opportunity. Republicans will speak for those who believe in the dignity and capacity of the individual citizen; who believe that government is meant to serve the people rather than supervise them; who trust Americans enough to tell them the plain truth about the fix we are in, and to lay before them a specific, credible program of change big enough to meet the emergency we are facing.

“We will advance our positive suggestions with confidence, because we know that Americans are still a people born to liberty. There is nothing wrong with the state of our Union that the American people, addressed as free-born, mature citizens, cannot set right. Republicans in 2012 welcome all our countrymen to a program of renewal that rebuilds the dream for all, and makes our ‘city on a hill’ shine once again.”

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ACCIDENT PRONE?

ernmoore@barnabuspress.com — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:27:00 GMT

If you are insuring Iranians today you may want to pursue another occupation. Now it’s not just nuclear scientists that are going down, and arms depots that are going up in explosions. Their jets are crashing.

Read on:

Iranian military plane mysteriously crashes near Bushehr

Iran's semi-official news agency Fars reports that an F-14 jet crashed 3 minutes after takeoff, no reason given • Incident joins list of mysterious and deadly mishaps to shake the country in recent months.

From Israel Hayom

An Iranian military plane crashed early Thursday near the Gulf coast, the country's semi-official Fars news agency reported, saying no reason had yet been given for the incident.

"An F-14 crashed three minutes after take-off at 4:30 a.m. near the city of Bushehr," near one of Iran's nuclear facilities, Fars reported, citing a local government official.

The incident joins a series of mysterious mishaps reported in Iran in recent months. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinjead recently stepped up the security protecting the country's top nuclear scientists, several of whom have been victims of assassinations, following the most recent assassination earlier this month.

The assassination was preceded by a series of mysterious explosions at or near Iranian military facilities, including one in the city of Bushehr.

Bushehr province governor Mohammad Hossein Jahanbakhsh said that both the pilot and the co-pilot were killed in the crash.

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POSSIBLE GOOD NEWS IF ASSAD FALLS

ernmoore@barnabuspress.com — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:31:00 GMT

Predicting events in the Middle East is no activity for the faint-hearted, or for that matter for anyone who is afraid of being wrong. (smile)

The only people who have had a worse record of guessing what will happen next seems to be the US CIA. They were out to lunch on the Arab Spring and Egypt’s Islamic revolution (still in progress).

Now former Israeli Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin says that Assad’s ruin could be a run of good fortune for Israel.

I’ll add some comments in brackets as usual “[ ]”

Changes in Syria will benefit Israel'
Former MI Chief Amos Yadlin says unrest in Syria may push it out of radical axis naturally
Shiri Hadar
"The changes in Syria bear strategic benefits for Israel," former Military Intelligence Chief and Head of the Institute for National Security Studies Amos Yadlin said [a week ago] Thursday, at a seminar held at Tel Aviv University.

Yadlin said that "For many years defense and political officials recommended that Israel strike a peace deal with Syria, even if it entailed paying a heavy price. The justification was to pull it out of the radical Syria-Iran axis.

[EDM: the heavy price is another way of saying turning over the Golan Heights.]

"This could happen today naturally, without us paying that price. Peace with Syria is needed regardless of recent events, but the process is positive," he said.

Yadlin further predicted that the Syrian economy is heading for tough times: "There's no tourism to speak of, investors are fleeing, there's a big public deficit – the situation is unstable and the only thing that can make Syria bounce back is a fat Iranian check, something in the neighborhood of $3-$5 billion. But even if they get that and even if Assad falls – Syria will never be the same."

[EDM: Mr. Yadlin is being kind when he speaks of “heading for tough times.” Too late – they’re already in tough times. He’s also wrong about Syria never being the same in one way. They may not have another dictator like Assad (though they just might, too, depending on who takes his place.

[But Syria could well come back if they choose the right – peaceful – way and kick out the Allawites who are in the Assad camp.

[In a recent Barnabus Briefing we sent out we discussed the fact that the people will probably kill Assad if he refuses to take him billions and get out of Dodge, er a Damascus. Removing Assad either way won’t guarantee a benevolent new government, but if they can keep the Iranians out, work hard to invite foreign investment and grow their tourism industry they could prosper.

[We have friends who have spend time in Syria before all this began and they returned with glowing reports on the graciousness of the people, the rich history in the form of archeology and culture.]

Speaking of the Arab Spring, the former MI chief expressed hope that Iran will become part of the process: "The Arab Spring is cause for concern in Israel and we are willing to face the risks alongside the hope it arises.

"If the revolution finds its way to Tehran it could save Israel the huge dilemma of choosing between two alternatives – a viable nuclear Iran or preventing a nuclear Iran."

[EDM: Iran’s current government is walking on egg shells. They never believed that Europe would cross them, but so far it looks like the EU is going to move up the force of sanctions. So far it’s only talk, but already the mullahs in Teheran can smell revolution – inside their own nation for a change.

[That, by the way, could buy some time for Iraq to choose wisely and not go with Teheran. It wasn’t looking too good for a while, but we can have a bit of hope that they don’t join the mullahs and try – genuinely try – to build their nation up rather than surrender to Iran.

[EDM: Israel would far rather have a real peace partner on their northern border than a supply depot for Hezbollah. It could be just vain hopefulness, but then, it may be a chance for Syria to prosper, too.]

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HOW DO YOU SAY SOLYNDRA IN HEBREW?

ernmoore@barnabuspress.com — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:22:00 GMT

In the past three weeks there have been three more “Obama Follies” in the form of green energy companies folding. Yes, all were funded with US taxpayer dollars.

Israel government officials are not reading the US papers, apparently. They are preparing to sink Ten Million Shekels into a new solar plant.

The difference in this is that they are using tried and trusted technology and not trying invent some new and un-appreciated consumer idea.

Read on:

Gov't invests NIS 10 million in solar plant

By SHARON UDASIN
22/01/2012

Energy and Water Ministry attempts to encourage green energy entrepreneurship, minimize bureaucracy.

The Energy and Water Ministry has allocated NIS 10 million for planning up to 2,000 hectares of future solar-power plants in an attempt to encourage green energy entrepreneurship and minimize bureaucratic barriers.
The ministry will be employing a company called Geo-Prospect to help pinpoint and plan sites for future facilities, conduct feasibility studies for the prospective power plants with 50-megawatt capacities and promote detailed national master plans for their construction, the office said on Sunday.
The goal, according to the ministry, is to provide “fertile ground” for entrepreneurs in the field of renewable energy and arranging the necessary statutory measures, which are typically obstacles to efficient progress in Israel’s renewable sector.

Simultaneously, the ministry will continue to put pressure on the Israel Lands Authority to approve permits for the construction of the facilities, the office explained.
“An extensive subject that the ministry is dealing with is removing the obstacles and barriers faced by entrepreneurs and their difficulties moving forward,” Environment and Water Minister Uzi Landau said in a statement released by his office.
In conjunction with the ministry, Geo-Prospect will be responsible for helping entrepreneurs overcome statutory barriers that often stand in their way and will meanwhile ensure that the absolute best locations are chosen for future solar sites – places that encourage entrepreneurs “to realize their full potential,” according to Landau.
Some sites that are specifically under consideration include a 600-hectare area in Dimona; a 200-hectare area west of Dimona’s southern industrial zone; a 500-hectare space within a railway loop east of Dimona; a 600-hectare area southwest of Rotem Park; and a 250-hectare area in the southern Timna industrial area.
“The narrow borders of the State of Israel require us to make sure that plants are situated in such a way that they only occupy a necessary amount of space, with an optimal use of system capabilities,” Landau said. “This way, clean electricity will benefit everyone, while upholding the values of land, scenery and nature.”

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POSSIBLE GOOD NEWS IF ASSAD FALLS

ernmoore@barnabuspress.com — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:16:00 GMT

Predicting events in the Middle East is no activity for the faint-hearted, or for that matter for anyone who is afraid of being wrong. (smile)

The only people who have had a worse record of guessing what will happen next seems to be the US CIA. They were out to lunch on the Arab Spring and Egypt’s Islamic revolution (still in progress).

Now former Israeli Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin says that Assad’s ruin could be a run of good fortune for Israel.

I’ll add some comments in brackets as usual “[ ]”

[EDM: the heavy price is another way of saying turning over the Golan Heights.]

"This could happen today naturally, without us paying that price. Peace with Syria is needed regardless of recent events, but the process is positive," he said.

[But Syria could well come back if they choose the right – peaceful – way and kick out the Allawites who are in the Assad camp.

[We have friends who have spend time in Syria before all this began and they returned with glowing reports on the graciousness of the people, the rich history in the form of archeology and culture.]

"If the revolution finds its way to Tehran it could save Israel the huge dilemma of choosing between two alternatives – a viable nuclear Iran or preventing a nuclear Iran."

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INVESTIGATING THE PSYCHE

ernmoore@barnabuspress.com — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:56:00 GMT

DO NOT PASS THIS UP BECAUSE OF THE TITLE!! IN FACT WRITE TO ME.

Last month Ray Hanania wrote an article for Israel HaYom (Israel Today) newspaper. He makes the argument that the Palestinians are their own worst enemies. There is a load of great information in the piece, including some facts about one of the money people behind Newt Gingrich. (They also own the Israel HaYom paper.)

As I read the article I was reminded of another piece I’d read back in December, 2003 on the American Enterprise Online site by David Gutman.

I quickly admit that these articles are not for snappy reading, but there is so much here about what is happening in the Middle East today AND about American Foreign Policy and where it is currently taking the US that we felt it was worth running.

My first idea was to make my own comments and arguments in both pieces, but I resisted that impulse and felt that they should stand on their own without me clouding them or distracting from their points.

THEREFORE, I am going to provide them and let you send me any emails of your thoughts.

I WILL ANSWER THEM AS SOON AS I CAN. Send your opinions to Ernmoore@Barnabuspress.com

Enjoy.

Yalla Peace: Palestinians’ worst enemy – themselves

By RAY HANANIA
24/01/2012

If Palestinian groups would band together, perhaps they would achieve something- after 100 years of failure.

If the Israelis wanted to defeat the Palestinians, Israel would immediately recognize a Palestinian State in Gaza, the West Bank and even east Jerusalem rather than embrace policies that push Palestinians to unite. If they did that, all the Israelis would have to do is sit back and watch as the Palestinians tear themselves apart.

Yes, the tragedy of the Palestinians isn’t that they are victims of injustice at the hands of the Israelis. It is their own tendency to destroy themselves from within.

The most powerful factor keeping Palestinians together as a people is the anger they share in response to injustices by Israel. But that’s a pathetic reason for unity. Worse, anger easily turns into hatred and hatred easily turns into violence, terrorism and killings. And violence undermines even the most just of causes.

Palestinians hate Israelis but they hate themselves even more.

Palestinian activists spend as much time bashing their own people as they do bashing Israel. The truth is that for the Palestinians, bashing Israel results in nothing but more defeats and losses. Bashing other Palestinians makes them feel better, and serves to distract their community from their inherent leadership failures.

Yes, it’s true. The Palestinian leadership is a failure, and the activists who lead the hatred, for example against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate Palestinian like myself, and against anyone who dares to challenge their fanaticism, are the primary cause.

Let’s define failure. In nearly 100 years of battling Jewish immigrants and then the Israeli people, the Palestinians have failed to establish sovereignty over one inch of historic Palestine.

THE DIFFERENCES between Israelis and Jews on one side and the Palestinians and the Arab World on the other is striking.

For example, Israelis and Jews recognize that the American public is the single most important public constituency in the world. The Arab World marginalizes the American public, brushing them off as “ignorant” and “uneducated.”

That may be. But there’s a reason the most powerful lobbying group in the world, AIPAC, operates out of Washington, DC, not London, Paris or the Hague.

And recognizing the importance of the American public means recognition of the significance of American politics. Some of the wealthiest people funding the presidential candidates in the United States are not Arabs who have billions at their disposal, but Jews.

Newt Gingrich this week pulled to the front of the Republican field of candidates seeking to unseat Democrat President Barack Obama in November’s presidential election.

Gingrich did that with the backing of one of the wealthiest people in the world, Sheldon Adelson.

Adelson is the publisher of an Israeli newspaper, Israel Hayom, and the owner of lucrative casinos in Las Vegas. He put up more than $5 million to fund a “Super Pac” that has been bashing Mitt Romney and that is helping Gingrich.

Although Arabs hate Gingrich because he called the Palestinians an “invented people,” the fact is that Gingrich has very moderate views on Israel and Palestine. In interviews with my journalist colleague Ali Younes, who covered the South Carolina Republican primaries, Gingrich explained that he would recognize and support a Palestinian state if Hamas and the Palestinians recognized Israel and renounced violence.

Forget about the politics of Gingrich’s words. Mainstream Palestinians renounced violence years ago and continue to live in the limbo of occupation, while Hamas goes back and forth, one day pretending to be moderate and the next vowing retaliation for brutal Israeli air strikes.

But as a veteran journalist and now columnist, I know presidential candidates will say anything to win elections. In other words, that Gingrich called Palestinians an “invented people” is meaningless in terms of what he might do to bring about compromise if elected president.

The bigger question, though, is where is the Palestinian or Arab version of Sheldon Adelson who is willing to put up much of his wealth to support the interests of his people? Arabs do not own newspapers, television stations or put any real money into the Palestinian lobbying. Pro-Israel groups have donated more than $51 million to candidates, according to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. In contrast, Arabs have only donated $61,000.

The Arabs, though some may be talented, have a lot of loud-mouthed activists who scream and spew hatred. There’s the great jazz musician whose hatred of Israel borders on anti-Semitism. There’s the talented writer at the Electronic Intifada whose words are driven by hatred of Jews.

These hate-driven activists have compromised mainstream Arabs, putting them in a headlock of oppression. Moderate Arabs are discouraged from expressing their views or espousing moderation in the face of the bullying and threats from the fanatics who spend more time and energy beating up their own people than turning legal claims against Israel into meaningful reality.

I was sitting with a group of Arab journalist friends recently at al-Manar restaurant outside of Chicago in Bridgeview, which is the hub of the local Palestinian Muslim community.

What struck me as odd was the restaurant was empty, save for our group. It was lunchtime on a Sunday. Down the street, Arabs were standing in line at two American restaurants owned by Greek Americans.

The real secret is that the Israelis don’t have to work hard at defeating the Palestinians. All they have to do is let Palestinians undermine themselves.

The writer is an award winning columnist and radio talk show host. He can be reached at www.RadioChicagoland.com

‡

Only U.S. Strength Can Defeat Islamism
By David Gutmann

Military commanders from Julius Caesar to Norman Schwarzkopf have paid as much attention to the group psychology of their opponents as to the quality and quantity of their arms. National character and shared temperament, after all, bear directly on a population’s fighting spirit.

Such moral and psychological judgments of our Islamist enemies are currently off limits to our strategists and commentators, however; whether accurate or not, they are considered to smack of ethnic profiling, a contemporary sin. But in wartime, hard-won street smarts about national character are a military resource that should not be ignored, and at present we keenly need intimate knowledge of Islamist radicalism.

Human societies can be loosely divided into two groups: those governed by shame and those governed by guilt. Though often conflicting, guilt and shame are both normal functions of the human psyche. In different individuals and societies, how-ever, one or the other may predominate.

Guilt-dominant individuals tend to mistrust their own native aggression, and they will act to protect others from it.

When they are in the majority, they tend to maintain societies that will go to war only after they have been attacked. Tolerance, moderation, and charity are the official virtues of “guilt” societies, and play a part in shaping their educational practice, legislation, and foreign policy.

By contrast, shame-vulnerable individuals are constantly vigilant toward aggressions of others against their sense of honor. If insulted, they feel humiliation and rage. The shame-prone willingly submit only when the external power appears so invincible that there is no alternative but surrender. Beneath their outward defiance, the shame-prone often hold unconscious yearnings to be submissive; the seemingly omnipotent conqueror allows them to be passive without shame.

The cultivation of victim-hood is common in shame societies. Shame-prone men will look for malign external agents to rationalize any humiliation, for the victim is, by definition, not responsible for his own troubles. And the claims of victimhood eliminate any guilty inhibitions against aggression, and unlock the fury that drives the terrorist legions of shame-based societies. …

The most extreme shame-based societies have always been associated with ruthless warfare.

At present, the Islamic Middle East is where we see shame-based cultures in their purest form. The war against terror puts us in conflict with the most militant factions of highly shame-avoidant societies. While we are told much about the economic, ethnic, and sectarian influences that motivate these opponents of America, psycho-cultural elements of their radicalism have been neglected.

In this essay I will use my knowledge as a clinical psychologist and my own experience in Middle Eastern war (as an ex-member of the Israeli Hagana) to consider some of the ways in which these shame-avoidant societies may wage battle against us. Bear in mind that I am not describing all Middle Easterners, but only group tendencies that are prevalent there today.

Middle Eastern Arabs in particular are currently suffering from a deep crisis of shame. Their physical, scientific, and economic backwardness in relation to the West is mortifyingly evident. Their military defeats at the hands of the Israelis and of the various coalition forces in Kuwait and now Iraq are plain to see. Throughout history, when Arabs have gone to war, it has not primarily been for strategic or economic reasons but rather to escape the stigma of shame. By prevailing in battle, they export shame to the defeated enemy. Today, Arab agitators insist that their honor has been taken from them and replaced by shame. They call for whatever means will get honor back.

Shame societies are most likely to attack an enemy who appears weak, rather than strong and threatening. The weak enemy is corrupt, effeminate, and ready to surrender his honor. The enemy’s perceived weakness is like catnip to shame-mongers, as they fantasize about the foe’s humiliation. Since 1947, Israeli-Palestinian relations have oscillated between war and peace, depending on whether the Arabs saw the Jews as shamefully weak or as intimidatingly strong. A brief history of that conflict tells us much about Arab management of shame.

Prior to the 1947-48 Israeli War of Independence, the Palestinian leadership viewed the Israelis as terminally puny--“Children of Death”--and rejected a U.N. plan that would have divided the Holy Land into Arab and Jewish states. Believing that they, aided by the surrounding Arab armies, could easily drive 650,000 poorly armed Hebrews “into the sea,” the Palestinians refused partition, and initiated a war of extermination. But while the Hebrews stood their ground, paid their heavy butcher’s bill, and prevailed, most Palestinians fled, to become homeless refugees. They have never recovered from the shame of that flight from the despised Yahud.

Churchill once remarked of the Germans--another shame-prone people--that “The Hun is either at your throat or at your feet,” referring to their tendency to fight … until soundly defeated, and then to vegetate torpidly under the conqueror’s heel.

Similarly with the Palestinians: From 1949 until 1987 there was no significant Intifada. As long as the Israelis had the reputation of military supermen that they earned in the Six Days War, the Palestinians could tolerate a relatively peaceful co-existence under Jewish dominion.

After almost 40 years of relative Palestinian quiescence, however, profound degenerative changes in Israeli society shook up the relationship. The decline of the Labor party, the unpopular Lebanese war, and the growing political clout of the Orthodox led to social disunity and a decline in the military effectiveness of the once mighty Israeli Defense Force. An emerging anti-war movement preaching “Land for Peace” added to the impression of Israeli decadence. The pacifism shown by guilt-prone Israeli peaceniks was not read as morality by the shame-haunted Palestinians, but as evidence of weakness and lack of resolve: The Jews are fed up with war; kill some of them and they will plead for terms. The first Intifada of 1987 was thus not in response (as is endlessly claimed) to Jewish settlements and brutality, but to perceived Jewish weakness.

The precipitate Israeli retreat from Lebanon in 2000 probably gave the real coup de grace to the Oslo peace process. “The Women in Black”--mothers of Israeli boys who had died in Lebanon--ululated on the border, demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal. Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak complied, pulling out his forces so quickly that they dishonored themselves, abandoning equipment to Hezbollah and putting Israel’s Lebanese Christian allies at grave risk.

Arafat seems to have drawn the predictable conclusions from this debacle. The Jews could not tolerate casualties, weepy women set their military policies, and determined guerillas could make them run. Arafat brought these conclusions to the Camp David meetings with Clinton and Barak in the summer of 2000. The Jews offered hitherto unthinkable concessions: a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, control of the Temple Mount and 95 percent of the West Bank territories. Yet Arafat remained rigid. Each Israeli concession seemed a further sign that the Jews were begging for terms. If he turned up the heat, he might get even more.

In addition, the residue of Palestinian shame from 1948 would not let Arafat passively accept a state handed to him by the Americans. The Palestinians should not only gain their state, but shed their historic shame. They would win Palestine as the Jews had won Israel--through an ordeal of blood and fire that this time around would leave the Zionists shamed and dispossessed.

But Arafat had mistakenly confounded the Peace Now crowd with the entire Israeli population. Not all Hebrews were fearful and guilty; some were angry … about being terrorized. Ariel Sharon, the hawk from Israel’s own “shame” party, Likud, was elected by a large majority to replace Barak, the dove from the Labor Party “guilt” faction. Soon after, the IDF went back into the West Bank in force to root out the jihadi nests.

The decisive battle was fought in the Jenin refugee camp, where the Israelis negated their own shame by dispensing with their advantage in heavy weapons and fighting a man-to-man infantry battle with the dug-in Palestinians. Despite taking heavy losses, the Israelis broke the back of the resistance in Jenin and other West Bank cities. They also dispatched the illusion that fuels much of the Intifada--that the Israelis are cowards who hide behind their tanks and cry for their mothers. Since Jenin, a new note, less delusional, less boastful, and more introspective, has appeared in the Palestinian rank and file, and among some of the leadership.

According to the Israeli and American doves, all-out military action would only accelerate the cycle of violence. They were wrong. While suicide bombings do continue (at a reduced rate), there are finally open expressions of discontent with Arafat. The post-Jenin Palestinians are finally admitting that some of their own leaders, not just the Jews, are corrupt and wrong. There are open attempts to replace Arafat, though he has so far beaten these back with support from the Palestinian terror factions and the Europeans. …

When we fought Germany, Italy, and Japan in World War II--all of them flagrant shame societies--we again had to put aside the pieties of our own guilt society and wage utterly bloody war.

The militaristic, authoritarian Germans and Japanese would not give up their fantasies of global conquest until the “decadent” democracies destroyed their armies, burned and atomized their cities, and sunk their fleets. Their arrogant, shame-obsessed rulers had to be jailed, or hung, before more sensible leaders could be installed.

Paradoxically, these total wars did not lead to a cycle of violence and enduring hate, but to lasting peace. After waging pitiless war, we showed great mercy to the former Axis powers and helped rebuild them from a rubbly waste into our major economic competitors. But in order to win their hearts and minds, mercy had to follow might, not precede it. When mercy shows first, the shame-prone will view it as a sign of guilt and weakness; but when generosity follows total war, it is like Allah’s mercy, a blessing from a power of unquestioned omnipotence.

Unless we use the leverage of the Arab shame dynamic, we are not likely to impose the Pax Americana on the terrorist states. Terror--the one form of war in which they outdo the West--is the default military option for Islamic militants, and one which they eagerly take up after their regular armies have been humiliated. Terrorism can be, after all, a more efficient means of shedding and exporting shame than outright war. In the shame calculus, the guerilla is like David talking on Goliath: Morally speaking, he never loses. Thus, defeatist reporters document a “quagmire,” and driven by unmanly fear, the enemy’s civilians may begin to demand an end to the costly struggle. Like the French in Algeria, the Soviets in Afghanistan, and the Israelis in Lebanon, the humiliated enemy, defeated by a numerically inferior but spiritually superior force, will carry the weight of Arab shame with him as he slinks away.

America cannot allow such a show of weakness in Iraq. The terrorist organizations must be smashed, and their sponsoring nations made to pay the price. If we withdraw in feebleness, triumphant Islamic terrorism will increase catastrophically.

Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and their clones will never completely disappear, but like the Afghan Taliban, they can be suppressed long enough for democratically inclined rulers to surface. Secured against the traditional Middle Eastern politics of assassination, more rational leaders could consolidate military power and popular support to the point where they are able to prevail against extremists. The example set by such new Iraqi leadership could spread rapidly across this troubled region.

But only American forces unhampered by guilt and refusing to be shamed can bring Allah’s mercy to the Middle East.

Published in The View from Abroad December 2003

http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleID.17754/article_detail.asp

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ISRAEL’S FOUR THREATS

ernmoore@barnabuspress.com — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:22:00 GMT

In a recent editorial Yediot Aharonot, not famous for its conservative views, stated that Israel is facing four real threats.

Let’s look at each in order:

“(1) The Bomb. Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak are correct when they claim that the State of Israel cannot allow itself to live in the shadow of the threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb. Meir Dagan, Gaby Ashkenazi, Yuval Diskin and others are also correct that an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities must be the very last option…”

[EDM: Yes and no. Naming the leaders who are from various political persuasions, and who agree that “the State of Israel cannot allow itself to live in the shadow of the threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb,” does not mean that Israel has to act.

[Most of the world, including the United States, has lived under nuclear threat for decades. The difference in this situation is that Iran has repeatedly stated that they want to blow Israel off the map, but of course they don’t have the means.

[That could be similar to President Obama pre-swearing in ranting about Guantanamo, etc. and then doing the same as George Bush was doing after Obama was elected. It’s different when you have the power to do something but finally come to realize that the ramifications might not be exactly what you want.

[Having said that, I think the current leaders in Iran are exactly looney and self-destructive to try to nuke Israel. Perhaps a change in governments is in order.]

“(2) The USA. Those who ceaselessly, shout that we must guard to the very end our special relation with the USA, even if it is one of total dependence, are right. Those who contend that Israel is a democratic and sovereign state, and that only we will decide on tough questions regarding our existence are also right…”

[EDM: I remind you that the YA editorial was about Israel’s 4 major problems. The USA is ranked right after Iran and their nukes. So what’s the problem/benefit in their statement?

[One word: Obama. His policy toward Israel are similar to someone with manic-depressive syndrome. Or perhaps like the Arafat year where he said whatever pleased his audience at the time.

[YA is right that Israel has a right to stand on its own are right, but when a nation takes Yankee dollars they should expect to put up with US ‘interference’ in their affairs. We don’t like the Obama treatment of Israel, but regardless of who is in power in DC, there will be times when allies bump into one another. Live with it or give up the foreign aid.

[But… I also hasten to add that the US should reevaluate which nations get aid. What are we giving China aid for?, as one silly example.]

“(3) The Jews. Those who say that the gap is dangerously widening between Jews in the Diaspora, especially in the US and Europe, and Israel are correct…”

[EDM: YA is right on target with their statement that, as Pogo said, ‘We have met the enemy and he is us.’

[I am forever amazed at how the rabbis in Israel bear so much power in a society and in government when over 45% of Israelis are secular – not religious at all – and another 30% are not Hassidic, or Ultra Orthodox.

[As one example of swatting a gnat and swallowing a camel, this past week a rabbi decreed that religious Jews should not run a water tap because somewhere in the water system it caused an electric switch to be thrown and electricity to flow to run the pump. That is utter nonsense to us.

[All over the world there are Shabbat elevators that run during Saturdays. Orthodox people get in them and a switch is thrown and the elevator moves to the next floor. Of course they will argue correctly that they didn’t throw the switch. Enter the gnat and camel.]

“(4) Tribes. Those who assert that the Israel's "existential forge" never existed and wasn't even a fable – that Israeli society was, and is, frayed – are correct. But to those who jeer at such an assertion are also correct: Israel has made great achievements due to this existential forge…"

[EDM: When it comes to peering into one’s navel and constantly re-examining the roots, and trying to separate fact from fable or arguing those who want to diminish someone, no one exceeds the Jews.

[Don’t misunderstand me. There is so much diversity, so much history, and so much proof of the Jewish people that it doesn’t need defended.

[“On the other hand, today’s Jews and in particular, Israelis, are becoming, in my opinion, so divided and antagonistic toward one another that the paper used the correct work – “tribes.” With regard to Israel there have always been tribes, as Ben Gurion learned in trying to get everyone to unite in forming the nation, and in fighting the Arabs. Even during the war there was great animosity. Enough!]

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NOBODY EVER EXPLAINED IT THAT WAY BEFORE!

ernmoore@barnabuspress.com — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:06:00 GMT

I’m reminded of the old story about the guy who was mouthing off about something and the person he was insulting overheard him.

The man grabbed the loud mouth and really whaled him.

He then grabbed the front of the fellow’s shirt, and, getting down in his face asked, “You want to say anything else?” whereupon the beat up loudmouth said, “Yeah, no body never ‘splained it to like that before.”

That’s like Iran after their bellicose remarks about the Arabian Gulf when the carrier group USS John C. Stennis showed up.

Iran decided they weren’t so outraged after all.

As Lior Jacoby reported it, “Iran toned down its threats against U.S. and Western naval activity in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday and said that a U.S. naval presence in the Persian Gulf is routine.

“In an interview with the Iranian IRNA news agency, the Deputy Commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, said, "U.S. warships and military forces have been in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East region for many years and their decision in relation to the dispatch of a new warship is not a new issue and it should be interpreted as part of their permanent presence."

Ah, perhaps they just needed it explained more clearly. Obviously Salami didn’t want to get all sliced up. (Forgive me.)

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IRAN: A DANGEROUS PLACE

ernmoore@barnabuspress.com — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:52:00 GMT

In the US when there is a shooting the lefties want to outlaw guns.

In Iran there have been two killings in as many weeks. The most recent was when two assailants on motorcycles killed an Iranian military officer.

Apparently the two motorcyclists rode up and opened fire as a group of military officers were entering an Iranian air force base wounding one and killing one.

The previous death was of a nuclear scientist when two men rode up on a motor scooter and plastered a bomb on the side of his car.

Maybe the Iranians should outlaw two wheeled vehicles.

As Israel Ha Yom reported, “Iran's deputy U.N. ambassador Eshagh Al Habib said there was a "high suspicion that ... terrorist circles used the intelligence obtained from U.N. bodies, including the sanctions list of the Security Council and interviews carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency with our nuclear scientists, to identify and carry out their malicious acts."

Interestingly he did not – this time – say that it was US or Israelis who did the killing.

We believe that there is an active underground that wants the Mullahs out of power and a more democratic form of government in place.

The current outlaw government’s policies are causing the normal Iranian to suffer in many ways including a poor economy, food shortages in some places, and a dearth of gasoline.

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