How many times have we heard Bibi or some other right-wing flunky declare, in a passionate voice, that the bond between Israel and the US is unbreakable. Bibi sounds like a broken record here, and this is not the first time he has peppered his speech with the cute catchphrase: “…our bond with the US is unbreakable”.

The gulf between Obama’s vision for a peaceful Middle East and Israel’s vision of maintaining strategic control over what it deems as Greater Israel is widening, not lessening. The wider the gulf, the more frequently US and Israeli officials have to remind us that their “bond is unbreakable”. It is nothing less than a public relations ploy to discourage ‘trouble-makers’ from making too much a fuss over the disagreements, or to take some kind of gleeful pleasure from it.

Nevertheless, we should not underestimate what Netanyahu, Lieberman and the whole right-wing gang have brought to the international arena- which is greater clarity to Israel-Palestine equation. Daniel Pipes had ruminated that the re-election of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a good thing because it was better to have a bellicose, apocalyptic, in-your-face Ahmadinejad who scares the world than a sweet-talking Mousavi who again lulls it to sleep, even as thousands of centrifuges whir away. The same logic can be applied to the right-wing dominance of Israeli politics. Already, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has earned all kinds of horrified accolades for his highly-publicized agenda against the Arab minority living in Israel. Recently, French Prime Minister Sarkozy privately advised Netanyahu to replace Lieberman.

I would not recommend replacing anyone. I think both Netanyahu and Lieberman should remain in power, because the ideological gap between a liberal-leaning US Administration and conservative-leaning Knesset might prove to be the only hope that the beleaguered Palestinians have for ever receiving a country of their own.

Filed in: Israel, Lieberman, Palestine, US Foreign Policy

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BBC: Israel sets terms for Palestinian state

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced he will back a Palestinian state – but only if it is completely demilitarised.

He said a Palestinian state must have no army, no control of its air space and no way of smuggling in weapons.

I’ve been wanting to write more about the current Israeli-Palestinian-US impasse, but fresh (and unexpected) developments have come hard and fast. Bibi’s latest speech, for example, shows how desperate he has become.

By imposing ridiculous conditions on the creation of a Palestinian state, he intends his peace overtures to be rejected, and proceed to put the blame of the failure of peace talks on the Palestinians.

In this new era of straight-talking, however, it’s not likely that his schemes will bear fruit. The Israeli-Palestinian issue has been thrown into clear relief, and everyone knows the stakes.

Bibi, you either want peace or you do not. It cannot get any simpler than that.

Filed in: Israel, News, Palestine, US Foreign Policy

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Haaretz: Israel is controlled by religious fanaticism

Not very long ago, during Rabbi Meir Kahane’s racist rantings, the late writer and journalist Amos Elon gave me a copy of a letter Lord Rothschild sent to Herzl in August 1902. In the letter, Rothschild explains why he refuses to support the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel. He writes that he “should view with horror the establishment of a Jewish colony pure and simple; such a colony would be Imperium Imperio; it would be a Ghetto with the prejudice of the Ghetto; it would be a small petty Jewish state, orthodox and illiberal, excluding the Gentile and the Christian.”

Filed in: Israel, News, Zionism

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The time has come for me to see after the darkness of ignorance.
My old age is a morning that calls me to its dawning rays.
The night of youth is short, so proceed deliberately.
The morning is the end of the road for the night traveler.
How have I been deceived by the world and its adornment,
building my home on the crumbling ground, at the edge of a precipice?
A home whose transgressions remain, but whose delights perish:
How wretched is such a home!
The happy one is not one who is delighted by his worldly trinkets.
Rather, the happy one is saved from the torment of Hell.

I was awakened from my wickedness, fearful and trembling,
for Allah knows my deeds, open and secret.
If I hold my sins to be grave and they fill me with despair,
I can only hope that they will be eradicated,
by the One who alone can do so…
The All-Forgiving ¹.

Filed in: Knowledge, Poem, Scholars, Sufism

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Haaretz: New York rabbi, imam denounce violence after bomb plot exposed

New York-area religious leaders, Muslim cleric Shamsi Ali and Orthodox Rabbi Marc Schneier held a press conference Thursday, issuing a joint condemnation of the recently uncovered plot to bomb New York Jewish centers.

Two New York-area religious leaders, Muslim cleric Shamsi Ali and Orthodox Rabbi Marc Schneier, issued a joint condemnation of violence Thursday after authorities arrested four men over a plot to bomb local Jewish centers.

If the bomb plot is true, then this press conference is a positive thing. Plus, one of my readers highlighted to me that Imam Shamsi Ali is regularly condemned by Salafist circles. Such condemnation is almost always a badge of honor, in my books.

I particularly like his stance on a pet interest of mine:

“Wahhabism and Salafism are often intolerant of other religions, even of other sects of Islam they don’t agree with, I interpret Islam as being open to many interpretations.”

What about you, dear reader? Do you know him personally? Have you visited his mosque? Talk to me…

Filed in: News, Salafism, Wahhab

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