For some reason, President Obama and his Administration have granted Turkey the power to make decisions like these.  This is probably because President Obama has developed such a good personal relationship with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  In fact, Obama went so far as to name Erdogan as one of the five world leaders with whom he has the closest personal ties.  President Obama has also gone to Erdogan again and again for help in formulating U.S. policies in the Middle East and elsewhere.  Indeed, President Obama is so close to Erdogan that he even goes to him for parenting advice.  This is a big problem, considering the Islamist background and tendencies of Erdogan and his political party, The Justice and Development Party – in Turkish: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP).

So what information do we have on President Obama’s New BFF (Best Friend Forever) and the regime he leads?  Erdogan is an authoritarian, democratically elected but non-democratic Islamist who is creating a religiously based totalitarian regime.  These days, Erdogan is increasingly cracking down on his domestic Turkish opponents.  Turkey has imprisoned at least 94 journalists for their reporting – the largest number of press imprisoned in the world even higher than communist China’s, which has a population over 17 times larger than Turkey.  The policies of the Islamist friendly government in Turkey have led to an explosion in honor killings of women.  In fact, once again, Turkey is number one worldwide when it comes to this dubious statistic.  The honor killing of gays, lesbians, etc. is also on the increase in the country.  Gay activists have complained that they get little sympathy from Erdogan’s AKP, “which has its roots in political Islam and is known for its socially conservative stance,” and that the police are disinclined to investigate these murders.  AKP-dominated Turkey continues to discriminate against religious minorities, both Muslim and non-Muslim alike.  This discrimination appears to be accelerating – in 2009, Turkey was placed on the “Watch List” of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, and it stayed there until 2012, when, in “an unprecedented move,” the bipartisan commission recommended that the State Department name Turkey to its annual list of “countries of particular concern,” marking “the first time a NATO ally has been designated as a nation whose government has engaged in, or tolerated, systematic and egregious violations of the universal right to freedom of religion and belief.”  Of course, there is also some anti-Semitism and violence towards religious Turkish minorities.  And, Turkey just wouldn’t be Turkey if there weren’t violence and discrimination against the ethnic minority group the Kurds.  Finally, the regime goes after its secular foes in the Turkish military.  The Turkish press has reported that one in five Turkish generals – who tend to be strong foes of political Islam and Erdogan – are currently serving jail sentences.

Even better than being an authoritarian, non-democratic Islamist , Prime Minister Erdogan is also openly hostile towards our interests and allies.  For example, in Syria, Turkey is currently directing our support to the radical Sunni fundamentalists within the opposition, rather than the more secular groups that we should wish to support.  In Cyprus, “Turkey continues its 40,000-strong troop occupation of a large part of the Republic of Cyprus — an EU and UN member state — despite numerous Security Council resolutions since its initial 1974 invasion calling for its immediate withdrawal.  Turkey does not comply with its legal obligations to Cyprus or to the EU and forcibly interferes with Cyprus’ rights in its exclusive economic zone of maritime jurisdiction.” In the Middle East, the Turkish AKP leadership is a recognized sponsor and enabler of terrorism. In Israel, the government is worried that the Turkish leadership might share Israeli intelligence secrets with the rogue and genocidal regime in Iran.  In the U.S. Congress, Turkey continues to whine and bluster about the U.S. recognizing the Ottoman Turkish genocide of Armenians in the early part of the 20^th century.  (It also does that internationally too.)    In Iraq, Turkey continues to threaten the Kurds, who just so happen to be the most pro-American group in that nation.

This is not a comprehensive list, of course.  In addition, I should add that over just the last year, “Turkey has sided with Iran on the nuclear issue, held secret air force war games with China without first informing the Pentagon or NATO, threatened to initiate military action against Israel and Cyprus, and made anti-American rhetoric a staple of the Turkish ruling party’s proxy press.”  And best of all, the Turks are now meddling in the Balkans, but as we all know there is really no downside to that (aside from the occasional World War).

So why not put Turkey in charge of who gets invited to NATO events?

Last week, the Obama administration freed up $192 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority that had been put on hold by the United States Congress’ Committee of Foreign Operations Appropriations, saying that this money had to be given to the P.A. “because of national security interests.”

The hold had been put on this aid because of the Palestinian Authority’s decision to go outside of the framework that had been agreed for Palestinian statehood, which was supposed to have been decided by direct face-to-face negotiations between the parties, themselves, and by incremental stages in which mutual trust was supposed to have been built up.

In all of the various agreements since the Oslo Accords had been signed on the White House Lawn on September 13, 1993, statehood was supposed to have been earned through a series of stages, rather than delivered on a silver platter, through an arbitrary time line. Fundamental to all of the agreements were that the disputes were to be resolves among the parties, themselves. Equally fundamental and predicating all agreements was the condition that there would be absolutely no incitement to violence or terror.

The last iteration of the peace agreements, The Roadmap for Peace, outlines, in Phase 1 as a condition for the Palestinians:

“Palestinian leadership issues unequivocal statement reiterating Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere. All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel.”

Being well aware of that, when asked in a White House Press Briefing about the freeing up of funds to the P.A., White House Spokesman Tommy Vietor said, that “The PA had fulfilled its major obligations, such as recognizing Israel’s right to exist, renouncing violence and accepting the Road Map for Peace.”

Unfortunately, not only do we, at EMET know this to be patently untrue, but we know as well, that Palestinian Media Watch, who has been monitoring Palestinian incitement in the newspapers, in textbooks, in Palestinian Authority controlled National Television, on the radio and in public speeches in town squares, but we know that White House officials know this to be untrue. Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch has been keeping the Obama administration regularly informed about the constant and steady diet of incitement to hate and to kill the Israeli, the Christian and the Jew; the constant campaign in P.A. sponsored “public service” advertisements and in the textbooks to reclaim all of Israel as “Palestine”, the glorification and ennoblement of suicide bombers and martyrs and the exhortation for children to follow along in that “noble” path.

The very same week Tommy Vietor made his statement, Palestinian Media Watch issued a bulletin describing how the Palestinian Authority commemorated the anniversary of the death of PLO arch terrorist Abu Jihad. Abu Jihad, (or Kahlil al Wazir), had been responsible for the death of 125 Israeli civilians, which were the result, among other acts. of his masterminding the attack on the Savoy Hotel in 195, which resulted in the death of 11 Israelis, and the coastal road attack which resulted in the killing of 35 Israelis, and an operation to attack scientists in the nuclear plant at Dimona, which resulted in the death of three Israelis and three Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority had named no fewer than six sporting events after this master-terrorist. In one of these events, on April 16, 2012, the PA TV broadcast the words of Abu Jihad speaking in the 1960′s and 1970′s saying “On one street, for example, we will hold 500 people (hostage) at any moment, he can blow up everyone; blow up their building, or the whole thing, no matter how many people are there…We want to turn the Tel Aviv day black. We want to turn the Tel Aviv day into destruction, Allah willing. We will turn the Tel Aviv day so it will be remembered in the history of Tel Aviv as black Saturday. Black Sunday. Tel Aviv will be closed that whole day with blood and destruction.”

The Palestinian Authority’s national news broadcast extolled Abu Jihad for attacking civilian targets, (notice inside “the Green Line), and depicts the killing of civilians as laudable achievements. In the Palestinian Authority controlled newspaper, Al Hayat , Al Jadida on April 12, 2012,  wrote, “The anniversary of the Martyrdom-death of our people’s legendary leader, Khalil Al Whazir, Abu Jihad, is approaching, and in its honor the sports organizations of Palestine are organizing many tournaments in diverse branches of many sports…”

Or what about this cartoon in the Palestinian Authority daily where a mother instructors her infant that all of Israel is “Palestine”?  Or perhaps the declaration of PA Social Minister Majida Al-Masri who called for unification with Hamas in order to secure “the liberation of Palestine-all of Palestine” meaning also all of Israel?

If glorification of violence and terrorism does not qualify as lack of compliance with the Roadmap, perhaps incitement to genocide does, such as when the Palestinian Authority’s Mufti, Mohammed Hussein, speaking at a Fatah conference cites Islamic hadiths calling for the extermination of the Jews.

Once ignorance might have been an excuse, with the Palestinian spokesmen saying all the right things in English, and then continuing on their jihad against the Jews in Arabic, but in these days of increasing globalization and the internet, it takes only a few minutes of “googling” to put the lie to claims of Palestinian moderation. With translations sites like Palestinian Media Watch and others there’s no escaping the realization that incitement to violence and the rejection of Israel’s right to exist remains the rule, not the exception among the Palestinian Authority.

Indeed, why should the Palestinians be expected to alter their behavior, when time and time again, administrations past and present, have made clear there will be no consequences for not doing so?

With President Obama’s waiver releasing $192 million to the Palestinian Authority, he has blatantly defied Congress’ desire for accountability and reform among the Palestinians. He has certified that by providing the Palestinians with the nearly $200 million for “Sesame Street”, the U.S. congress chose to freeze, is necessary for American national security. Doing so he has made clear, that far from being “the most pro-Israel President in history”, as New York Times columnist Tom Friedman managed to somehow assert without sarcasm, President Obama is a full-throated supporter of the Palestinian cause.

Even those who are passionate supporters of the peace process should be deeply disturbed by President Obama’s lack of neutrality on this issue. His administration ludicrous demands of the Israelis, including the freezing of settlement expansion anywhere beyond the 1967 line, including Jerusalem, have doomed negotiations.

The Palestinian Authority have made these Obama demands preconditions for direct talks. The Palestinians now remain comfortable with refusing even to begin discussions with the Israelis. They have in effect issued demands for unconditional surrender, knowing that the Obama Administration has repeatedly gone to bat for them, applying pressure, and shielding them from all accountability.  This latest decision to release Palestinian funds despite their clear failure to abide by agreements affirms once again that Obama will tolerate no efforts to apply any kind of pressure to the Palestinians.

Pressure is to be applied to the Israelis only.

It is perhaps a great irony that those who may suffer most from Obama’s one-sidedness are the Palestinian people themselves. Abbas’s U.S. funded security forces can continue to crack down on Palestinian freedom of expression without fear that the U.S. may rein them in. They continue to educate their people with a steady diet of incitement, knowing that U.S. executive branch will keep the money flowing, ignoring the will of the American people and their elected representatives who want to see Palestinian violent rhetoric come to an end.

As President John F. Kennedy once said, “Peace does not exist in signed documents and treaties alone, but in the hearts and minds of the people.”

Under the Obama administration,   America has clearly abdicated its role as “Honest Broker” or neutral referee, and has been a coach for one side. What is so nefarious is that the Palestinian Authority has gotten away with this constant and steady diet of incitement to hate and to kill, which has metastasized like a cancer among the body politic of the Palestinians.

It is very clear that the societal groundwork has not been laid for a true, lasting peace, among the Palestinian polity. While the United States looks the other way, or focuses on whether or not an apartment building might be going up in what might or might not be the disputed territories, this cancer of hatred continues to spread.

A complete and  total refraining from incitement is  truly the one most necessary and essential agreement for a long and lasting peace, or one that will last long after the White House lawn signing ceremony is over.

However, since the Palestinian Authority has been given a pass for such lethal words by the Obama Administration, we are enabling the hatred to continue and to thus poison the minds of countless Palestinian children, spoiling the prospects for a peace for generations to come.

In that way all of our children, both Palestinian and Israeli, are the true losers, here.

Over the years, I have gotten to know many of these people in a personal way. Their struggles have become my  own struggles. These are incredibly brave people such as Mosab Hassan Yousef, whose father had been a founder of Hamas, who had been raised on a steady diet of incitement to hate and to kill, who as a young man had an epiphany and could not stomach this, worked for the Shin Bet, (Israeli Intelligence), as a counter-terrorism agent, and saved thousands of lives,  both Israeli and Palestinian, in the process.  Mosab gave up extremist Islam to become a Christian, and wrote openly in his book that “I gave up the God of hate for the God of love.”

In what was patently going to have been one of the most lame-brain acts of the the United States government, someone in the  The Department of Immigration  had read Mosab’s book, excerpted isolated passages of it, and  was going to return Mosab to the West Bank, where he was sure to have shortly become a dead man. Mosab  would have had a double whammy placed on his back. Not only was he  a spy for Israel,  he had insulted Islam, and he had become an apostate, for which the punishment outlined within the Koran is death.

The reward for the tremendous idealism and courage of this reflective, sensitive young man would have been certain death.  I knew I had to work as hard as I possibly could, then, to ensure that our government would not make such an abominable mistake  and I did not hesitate to pull in every political favor I could to ensure that this man would get political asylum within the United States.

My Friday night table, where we celebrate traditional  Jewish Sabbath evening meals, has become, on occasion the gathering place of some of the most beautiful examples of what it means to be truly human. The lives of myself and of my family have been enriched considerable by the people who have crossed our thresh-hold.

Right now, many of these wonderful Muslim, Arab and Persian dissidents are seriously  depressed. How can my friend, Mohammad, from Damascus be anything other than depressed when he has seen over 10,000 of his own countrymen mercilessly slaughtered for over a year now,  while the Obama administration has done absolutely nothing but make a few toothless statements?

You can well imagine the outrage, when you know what my Syrian dissident friends know.  They know  that women were ripped from their beds and raped in the town square in front of their husbands,  and children are being  mercilessly slaughtered while sleeping in their beds,  in the city of Homs outrage.

On February 23, 2011, the President spoke about Libya, saying the words:

The American people extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of all who’ve been killed and injured. The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous and it is unacceptable. So are threats and orders to shoot peaceful protesters and further punish the people. These actions violate international norms and every standard of common decency. This violence must stop.

Why Libya and not Syria? Watching the daily slaughter in Syria, my Arab dissident friends are appalled about the inconsistency and hypocrisy of the Obama White House.

In terms of the blind, Chinese dissident, Chen Gaungcheng, fortunately for him ,there was great deal of media exposure and publicity. The drama of having a blind person escape the Chinese authorities when the Secretary of State was due to have arrived in China was not to be missed. He and his family might have just been given a “hail Mary Pass”, thanks to his opportunity to study in the United States.

The thousands of anonymous Syrians slaughtered at the hands of Bashir Assad were not so lucky. Bashir Assad is the only Iranian ally in the Sunni Arab world.  So the true winner in all of this is the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Their bodies were found brutally mangled in a cave outside of their parents’ community of Takoa, Israel. Their bodies had been so disfigured they had to be identified through dental records.

On the morning of May 9th, a mutual friend of ours called me and told me she was on her way to Koby’s funeral. I knew I had to call them while they were in their shiva, in their period of Jewish mourning right after the loss of a loved one. What does one say to parents who had just lost their first born son in the most brutal way possible?

I decided to tell them the truth. I  told them that I had been working on a piece of legislation to take the entire portfolio of Americans who had been maimed or killed by Palestinian terrorists out of the State Department, which, to be fair, is concerned primarily with diplomacy, and put it in the Justice Department, where the primary concern should be justice. I asked Sherri whether or not she would like this bill to be made in memory of Koby.

I will never forget Sherri’s response. In fact, the sound of her voice is still ringing in my ears, “I can just see Koby jumping up and down in heaven to have a law named after him”, she said.

I remember thinking to myself, “Sweetheart, it’s a long way before a bill becomes a law”. But because it gave this grieving mother, who had just lost her son some sense of relief, I made a vow to myself that I would not rest until this bill crossed the finish line, and was made US law.

To make a very long story very short, the Koby Mandell Act was signed into law by President George W, Bush, in December of 2004, as part of a State, Justice Commerce Appropriations Bill.

I immediately called Sherri and Seth to inform them. We were all ecstatic.

This law created the Office of Justice of Victims for Overseas Terrorism in the Department of Justice, whose job it was to ensure that all American citizens, irrespective of where they were killed or maimed would get the justice under American law that they deserve.

The office was opened in May of 2005. I naively thought that we had reached the finish line that all 54 American citizens who had been killed by Palestinian terrorists, and all 83 who had been wounded, would finally get a crack at the American justice they so richly deserved.

According to a 1991 Antiterrorism Act, whenever an American is killed or wounded around the globe, our government has the right to apprehend the suspect bring him to these shores, indict him, prosecute him, and ensure that he gets the full punishment that is coming to him under American law.

The Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism has been opened for seven years now. Unfortunately not one of these American families has seen their suspect apprehended and brought to these shores to stand justice.  I am glad to report that they did manage to find the murderer of one American missionary in Indonesia and bring him to justice, there.

This all hit home while I was in Israel, last October. It was during that time that the government of Israel had been pushed up against a wall and decided to exchange 1,027 terrorists, some of them with American blood on their hands, for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been captured by Hamas and imprisoned for five years,.

This was a very difficult decision for the Israeli government to have made. Israel is entirely a citizen army. Every person has a son or a daughter, a sister or a brother, a nice or a nephew in the IDF, (Israeli Defense Forces). It has always been a regnant part of the IDF’s code that no soldier is left alone on the battlefield.

When Gilad Shalit had been returned, on October 18, 2011, every Israeli was glued to their television sets. The busiest streets in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa were empty of cars. Ever family felt the pain and the subsequent astonishment, joy, and relief of Gilad’s parents, Noam and Aviva.

But there was also enormous joy in the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria, if you will, and Gaza. Every terrorists that was released was welcomed home as a hero.

One of these terrorists was Ahlam Tamimi. Ahlam Tamimi was the person who engineered the Sbarro Pizza bombing in the middle of downtown Jerusalem on August 9, 2001, in which 15 civilians were killed and 130 were wounded. Two of these civilians killed were American citizens, Malki Roth, 15, from New York and Judith Greenbaum, 31, from Pssaic New Jersey.

In a video made by a journalist while Ms. Tamimi was still in Israeli prison, she was asked if she knew how many children had been killed, Ms. Tamimi responded, “I don’t know…maybe four”. “No, said the journalist, “eight.” When Ms. Tamimi heard that her action resulted in the murder of eight Jewish children, the video records a look of total contentment and satisfaction crossing her face.

This woman is now in Jordan, where she has been celebrated as a hero, and has her own talk show. America has an extradition treaty with Jordan. We know where she is, we have the totally un-coerced evidence on tape, where she freely takes credit for masterminding the Sbarro Pizza bombing.

Why are we not extraditing her? Why are we not shackling her and bringing her to these shores to stand justice? Why are we not punishing her to the fullest extent of the law?

When I came back to the United States, I worked on a letter, which was sponsored by Ranking Minority Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Howard Berman, a Democrat from California, together with Rep. Joe Walsh, a Republican from Illinois, and signed by 52 members of Congress asking Attorney General Eric Holder precisely that question. The letter was sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on March 1, 2012.

We received a response to the congressional letter on April 5, 2012 by Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich, beginning with “The Department of Justice shares your commitment to pursuing those who have murdered or injured Americans in terrorist attacks, whether committed in the United State or overseas, and bringing them to justice.”

However, they then went through a litany of excuses as to why this is very difficult.

We know that this is difficult in some cases. In others, however, such as is the case with Ms. Tamimi, for example, it is extraordinarily easy. Ms. Tamim has confessed, several times, in un-coerced tapes.

Why is our nation, conceived in liberty and justice for all, in fact, covering up for terrorists? This paltry response by our own government just compounds the enormous grief that victims of terrorism are already suffering by a lack of justice. As a humanitarian issue, this is tremendously compelling. But as a foreign policy issue, it is equally significant. Why is it that our nation is covering up for these sorts of monsters who delight in the murder of children? What sort of message are we giving to would-be terrorists around the globe?

As the mother of Matthew Eisenfeld, a beautiful graduate of Yale, who was temporarily studying in Israel and who happened to have boarded the number 18 bus in February of 1996 in Jerusalem, a bus that was destined to have been blown up by Palestinian terrorists, once said to me, “It makes me feel that my son’s blood is less American.”

It is as though these are the invisible, disposable Americans.

Etched on the edifice of the Supreme Court are the words, “Equal Justice Under Law”.

Why is there no pursuit of equal justice under the law for these Americans whose lives were lost or maimed by Palestinian terrorists? Who exactly, are we covering up for here?

This is not what America is all about.  Not the America that I grew up believing in.

There is a very dangerous school of thought throughout the West that was succinctly expressed to me a few years back by a State Department official. “Talking,” he said with, “is always better than not talking. … After all, what harm can words do?”

Plenty. After the P5 plus 1 talks (The United States, the Russian Federation, China, Great Britain, France, plus Germany), adjourned in Istanbul last Sunday, European Union chief negotiator Catherine Ashton said, “The day-long talks at an Istanbul conference center did not yield an agreement on specific curbs to Iran’s nuclear program, but U.S. and European officials described the negotiations as ‘constructive and useful’ and said a second round had been set for May 23 in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.”

For those who believe in the wisdom of my State Department friend’s philosophy, the Istanbul talks were indeed “constructive and useful,” because it brought about their desired goal: More talks.

After all, according to this line of thinking, as long as the Iranians are talking, they aren’t fighting.

Dead wrong. The Iranians are preparing for war. This most recent round of talk has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a smokescreen of five more weeks to continue to enrich their uranium to the highly enriched level of more than 20 percent and to work on their delivery mechanism.

Time is not on our side. Both the Israelis and the Americans are in agreement on the time frame, and we are dangerously close to looking at the world with an Iranian nuclear bomb.

In fact, the most precious gift we can possibly give to the Iranians is time. We are playing right into their hands.

In March, the German newspaper, Die Welt, reported that Western intelligence agencies detected two nuclear weapon tests in North Korea, and one of them may have been conducted for Iran.

The Iranians also walked away from the Istanbul talks with the perception that these talks are a green light from the international community to continue its work on nuclear technology.

According to an article by the Iranian Fars News Agency, Hossein Salami, senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that as a result of the Istanbul Conference, “despite the efforts by the arrogant powers to prevent a nuclear Iran, you witnessed that all of them have accepted the right of Iran to access nuclear technology.”

“That”, added IRGC Commander Salami, “is a winning card in the glorious history of the sacred Islamic Republic System.”

Why do the Iranians believe that they have been given international consent to produce nuclear weaponry?

Listen carefully to the words of E.U. foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, “We have agreed that the Non-Proliferation Treaty forms a key basis for what must be serious engagement to ensure that all the obligations of the treaty are being met by Iran, while fully respecting Iran’s right for peaceful nuclear technology.”

As Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said, “We in the West make a great mistake when we transform our values onto the rest of the world.”

It is quite a leap of faith to assume that once the Iranians cross the nuclear threshold, they will abide by any Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

And we are again deluding ourselves if we think this is only about Israel. In March, Iranian Basij Commander, Mohammad Reza Naqi, threatened to “burn the White House as long as America exists” and that Iran would “create the environment for the destruction of America.”

He called America “among the weakest countries with a bankrupted economy and reduced military power. And the international public opinion despises it.” Adding, “It would be naive to show this kind of softness in the face of Satan.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran declared war on the United States as soon as it came to power in 1979, when it seized the U.S. Embassy, taking our officials hostage.

After our military engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan, we in the United States are exhausted and depleted, and are not in the mood for further military engagement.

But Iranian hegemonic and genocidal desires will not go away because we are not in the mood. Mutually Assured Destruction, which worked so well with the rational actors of Russia, does not work with a maniacal theocratic regime that believes that it will bring the “twelfth Imam” by destroying America or its ally, Israel, and ascend to the its rightful place as the leader of the factious Sunni and Shiite Muslim world.

If you would like to know what the world will be like after Iran reaches nuclear capability, think of all the unnamed protesters of June, 2009 who have disappeared from the streets, who have been raped and tortured and are rotting away in Iranian prisons.

In the words of Soviet dissident, Andrei Sakharov, “If you want to understand a nation’s foreign policy, look at the way they treat their own people.”

Turning our backs on the reality of evil does not make it go away. We tried that once, and the Jewish community just commemorated Yom Hashoah to teach us where this thinking can lead us.

They lied seamlessly for Western consumption, saying one thing in English while their less telegenic superiors back in Cairo said the opposite in Arabic. It’s an old Middle East trick from the days of the Oslo accords, and the usual suspects are still falling for it.

You really can fool some of the people all of the time.

But those who know the Muslim Brotherhood best aren’t fooled.  Throughout the Arab states, the remaining regimes are increasingly petrified of the possibility of the Muslim Brotherhood expanding its revolution, and they’re taking whatever steps they can to prevent it.  Consider that only one month after the beginning of the Tahrir square uprising, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia pulled all Muslim Brotherhood literature from their schools and libraries despite having permitted their presence in the Saudi educational system for over three decades. The United Arab Emirates revoked the citizenship of several Brotherhood operatives, claiming the men were involved in terror finance and a threat to the Emirate’s stability.  This sparked a war of words between Dubai’s chief of police and the Muslim Brotherhood with Dubai threatening to arrest the M.B.’s spiritual leader Yusef Al-Qaradawi. The feud even resulted in Arab League intervention.  In Jordan the parliament has taken under consideration a draft law which would effectively ban the Islamic Action Front, the political party of the Jordanian Brotherhood. Recently, the Egyptian election commission appointed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) banned a number of Presidential candidates, including Muslim Brotherhood leader and businessman Khariat Al-Shater, presumably because of   Al-Shater’s previous conviction for money-laundering under the Mubarak regime. While Al-Shater may yet appeal the ban, the implication is that SCAF, which has previously been accused of cutting a deal with the Muslim Brotherhood to split power, may now believe that the M.B. intends to seek complete control in Egypt, shunting the military to the side.

Of course the Arab regimes have no reason to be surprised by American naivety regarding the Muslim Brotherhood. For decades the Saudis and other Gulf states have spent millions to fund Muslim Brotherhood front groups in America which have orchestrated influence operations to numb the ability of U.S. political elites to speak intelligently about the Middle East and Islam, and millions more in academia to corrupt American scholarship.  The Muslim Brotherhood delegation was hosted by the Prince Alwaleed Bin-Talal Center for Christian-Muslim Understanding, at Georgetown University, the academic wellspring of American foreign policy bureaucrats. As Egyptian secular activist and scholar Essam Abdallah noted in February:

Why were the bureaucracies in Washington and in Brussels partnering with Islamists in the region and not with their natural allies the democracy promoting political forces?  (…)

One of the most powerful lobbies in America under the Obama Administration is the Muslim Brotherhood greater lobby, which has been in action for many years. This lobby has secured many operatives inside the Administration and has been successful in directing US policy towards the Arab world.

Not the words of an easily dismissed “right-wing Islamophobe,” but a voice from the region that understands the Muslim Brotherhood for what it is, and knows how it operates. Those who know the Brotherhood best understand that while it may attempt to change its tone for Western consumption, this leopard won’t change its spots. It remains the same organization founded by Hassan Al-Banna in 1928, guided by the same motto, “Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” As Irfan Al-Alawi of the Center for Islamic Pluralism points out:

But regardless of its honeyed words and the slick, updated, Westernized vocabulary of its travelling exponents, the Egyptian MB cannot, in its middle sectors, its base, and its fundamental outlook, change. It is a thoroughly Islamist party with a profoundly retrograde vision of a state based on religious dictates… [A]s soon as the Egyptian MB thinks it is strong enough to prevail, the mask will fall, and the promises it made in Washington and elsewhere in the West will be shrugged aside.

So, to answer the question, ‘Who’s Afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood?”

Those who know them best.

Amnesty International has compiled a grim catalogue of torture used by the regime in a widespread and systematic attempt to suppress dissent among the civilian population. The human rights abuses detailed within that report are nothing short of egregious, and almost too revolting for most people to read.

Hospitals and sources of medical supplies have been cut off. The government of Bashir al-Assad has savagely shelled out entire cities. Food and water are in short supply. The country has been closed off to journalists.  Just this past Saturday, March 31^st,  Ali Mahmoud Othman, a citizen journalist who had been covering the conflict in Homs and who had assisted in evacuating journalists out of the city had been seized by the government of Bashir Assad, and is most likely undergoing severe torture.

These human rights abuses against people who are demonstrating for their freedom, should, alone, be sufficient grounds for American involvement.

If America, which is still the world’s democratic leader, allows this sort of brutality to continue, without eliciting anything more than a few feeble protests from us, what sort of values do we represent? Are we abdicating our responsibilities as the leader of the free, Western world?

People have been speaking for some time now about an age of American decline.  If we behave in such a fashion, we are certainly going to help bring about such an age.

I am aware that identifying who the true, secular democrats are within the chaotic mix of opposition in present day Syria is no easy task, but it is not true to say that the opposition is inscrutable. For more on that, I would recommend “The Institute for the Study of War’s” excellent analysis on the subject.

I am also well aware that in this cynical age, of “realism” human rights and preventing a massacre do not seem to be sufficient motivation for meaningful American assistance. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the American populace is exhausted from two depleting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we have no appetite, what-so-ever, for further military intervention.

Equally unfortunate, Americans always tend to generalize from the last instance, “Fighting the last war,” as the saying goes.  Watching the images of celebrating Libyan jihadists, who now dominate Libya thanks to NATO air cover, or the overwhelming election wins for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the assumption is that Syria will be the same, a triumph for radical Islam. But the reality is that this outcome is not prevented by American inaction, but guaranteed by it.  And the choice in Syria is not between Al-Qaeda and a cowed dictator like Qaddafi, or between the revolutionary Muslim Brotherhood and an ageing authoritarian “ally” like Mubarak.

Syria is located in an extremely vital geostrategic region of the Middle East. It borders on Lebanon, which was once home to the proud Cedar revolution, but currently under the crushing foot of Hizballah, and it borders on Israel.

With Assad in power, Syria and Lebanon remain a vast plateau from which Hizballah and other jihadists take easy aim at Israel, from which they can launch thousands of rockets whenever their Iranian paymasters give the word.

We know that for approximately twenty years, Boeing 747’s have been landing in Damascus airport,  in direct flights from the Islamic Republic of Iran, filled with ammunition and equipment for the government of Bashir al-Assad, and before that his father Hafez al-Assad,  to hand directly over to Hizballah, which they supplement with military training.  The IEDs that wound and kill so many American GI’s on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan were made in Iran, and frequently detonated by jihadists transported through Syria.  The Syrian capital of Damascus houses the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PKK and practically every other terrorist group that is listed with the State Department. The Bekka Valley has been a haven for both the narcotics and counterfeiting industries for generations.

Syria is Iran’s only ally within the Sunni Arab world, and is its foothold in the fourteen-century old conflict that is now being played out between Shiites and Sunnis.

Because Iran is the most dangerous and reckless nations in the world today - anything that weakens the hand of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to the advantage of America’s national security. The toppling of Assad is in our national interest.

Syria is not a monolithic Islamic nation. Its people are a diverse mosaic of ethnic groups and political affiliations. Some of them are Salafists, and some are Muslim Brotherhood, that’s true. But other elements of the opposition are not.  It is these opposition elements which must be found and supported. Making that determination should be one of the primary goals of the U.S. intelligence community in this conflict.

If we do not act, there are many nefarious players on the world’s stage that are more than ready, willing and able to swoop in and to fill the void.  And it will be to the benefit of Assad, or the worst among the opposition.  The presence of Al Qaeda has already been noted on the Syrian battlefields.  The dictatorial regimes of Russia, China and North Korea have not been shy with providing Bashir Assad’s regime with weapons. The Sunni regimes of Saudi Arabia and Qatar can be expected to back Salafist elements with money and weapons.

Syria today is a vitally important battlefield in determining how the Middle East will emerge, not just in 2012, but for many decades to come.  Where goes Syria, there goes the rest of the Middle East.

It is my belief that without American involvement, we will almost certainly see the triumph of the radical Islamists.  And our involvement should be sooner, rather than later. Hardly a person in Syria is not related to, or knows of a friend or neighbor, who has not been slaughtered by the regime.  It has been over a year now since the uprising began.  After watching so many of one’s neighbors and family members  routinely and systematically tortured and killed, one is grateful for help, no matter where it comes from. And that gratitude would be much better directed towards America, rather than the radical Islamists, currently on the ascent throughout the rest of the Middle East.

While I am aware that The United States recently pledged $25 million dollars in aid, and offered communications equipment during the most recent “Friends of Syria” summit in Istanbul, what is lacking is American direction and leadership. And that may not be enough.

The window of opportunity to get assistance for the besieged Syrian dissidents is rapidly closing. I am certain that by now, watching all of the daily bloodshed and torture within their communities, and waiting patiently for the aid of the leader of the free, Western, democratic world, many of them are becoming soured at the United States.

As the Sage Hillel famously said, “If I am not for myself, who am I for? And if I am for myself alone, what am I?”

Or, as Walter Laquer has written in his wonderful article, “The Perils of Wishful Thinking”, “If there are no certainties in world politics, there remain possibilities that can be ignored at great peril.”

The International Global March to Jerusalem (GM2J) appears, at first glance, to be the usual collection of Palestinian activists and leftist useful idiots who typically gather on supposedly “symbolic days” (This Friday is “Land Day” which commemorates an Arab protest in 1976), in order to conduct so-called “humanitarian” missions or formal protests to publicly excoriate the Jewish State, if on a very large scale, featuring demonstrations on the Jordanian, Syrian, Lebanese borders and within the disputed territories and Gaza.

But as we learned from the Mavi Marmara incident, beneath the surface of such protests frequently lays the hard-edge of jihad. In the case of the Flotilla, it was the Turkish group IHH, with backing of the ruling Turkish AKP party, which sprang a trap which injured Israeli soldiers, and undermined Israel’s public relations campaign.

The Global March to Jerusalem is another ambush in waiting, although it’s an Iranian hand guiding the attempt.

According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Center, Iran is heavily invested in supporting the GM2J movement, using its propaganda outlets as well as supporting the movement through various proxies. An Iranian, Hossein Shaikhol-Eslam, senior advisor to the parliament speaker for international affairs of Iran, sits on the global coordinating board for the GM2J, as well as being head of the Iranian GM2J board established by the Iranian government. Other Iranian members on the global board include Seyed Saleem Ghafuri, the head of the executive board of the GM2J.

Internet Haganah, a internet forum maintained by American computer professionals who track Jihadist activity online, reported that the Global March website was hosted and maintained by an organization known as AhlulBayt Islamic Mission (AIM), a Shiite missionary organization in Britain, suspected of being an Iranian front organization. Internet Haganah postulated that the organization volunteered the use of their webspace during a GM2J planning session conducted in Beirut attended by Salim Ghafouri, and another Iranian Roohulla Rezvi. Roohulla Rezvi appears to maintain ties both with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Other Muslim Brotherhood activists are also tied to the GM2J at the International Advisory Committee level, according to the website CIFWatch. The British blog cites M.B. members involved in organizing GM2J as including

Maan Bashour who heads a Muslim Brotherhood organization in Lebanon, Mohammed Kassem Sawalha, with ties to the M.B. and the IHH responsible for the Flotilla incident. Saud Abu Mahfouz, is from the Islamic Action Front, the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood’s political party.

Other activists maintain ties to the IHH, Jaamat Islami, a Pakistani organization with M.B. links, and the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a leftist pro-Palestinian organization which maintains close ties with Palestinian terrorist organizations.

Iranian terror proxies Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas are also expected to take part, with their members participating in coordination meetings which took place in Beirut. The Israeli open sources intelligence website, DEBKA reported that Iranian Al Quds forces have been training demonstrators in tactics to breach the Israeli border, and arranged for “thousands” of demonstrators to take part along the Syrian border.

Indeed, the Global March to Jerusalem is evidently so infested with terror ties that the North American expedition GM2J-NA, established itself as a separate organization, and specifically notes on its websites that it did so to avoid legal repercussions.  Even Palestinian organizers are attempting to provide themselves with some degree of separation from the events to come, reporting to Haaretz and Al Arabiya that they expected violence on the Syrian and Lebanese borders because of Iranian involvement.

For their part, Israel remains publicly confident that it can handle this latest challenge to its sovereignty and security, by bolstering their border security and providing extra training in non-lethal crowd control, comparing it to previous attempts to breach the border which Israel has repulse. Given the cast of characters assembled however the probability of lethal violence from the GM2J side is high, and Israel must be prepared also to win the resulting public relations battle. So far they have downplayed the event publicly, with one Israeli government official suggesting that probably not many protestors would actually show up, “It’s going to be between 12 and a half and 100,000 — probably closer to 12 and a half.”

While there’s some advantage to attempting to depress turnout by proclaiming a lack of excitement (a common preemptive P.R. tactic), Israel would do well to publicly and repeatedly highlight the Iranian role, and the role of terrorists and extremist organizations involved in the event. This way, Israel has prepared the media for the possibility of violence, rather than scrambling to explain the terrorist ties of organizers after the event, as took place following the assault on Israeli naval commandos aboard the Mavi Marmara.

On a more global scale, the international community has allowed for an atmosphere which fosters this kind of violence, by pretending that the issue of Jerusalem is still open for negotiations and discussion. It results in the kind of embarrassing word play associated with discussing Jerusalem, evidenced in a State Department press briefing this week, where the State Department spokesperson was forced to jump through a series of verbal hurdles to avoid answering the question, “What does the U.S. consider to be the capital of Israel?”

This creates the impression that Jerusalem is a prize yet to be won, rather than recognizing the simple fact that it is, and will remain the Israeli capital, and that no negotiations can be expected to change that. The American people understand this fact, the American congress understands it, but the refusal of the State Department to recognize such a basic reality leaves room for exploitation by entities like the GM2J.   Thereby we leave Israel exposed to attacks and delegitimization, resulting in events like the upcoming Iranian “invasion”.

Update #1: Jerusalem Post reports of some clashes breaking out near Kalandiya with protestors throwing rocks and molotov cocktails. Several protestors “lightly injured” in Ramallah, according to Israel Radio.

Update #2: The United West.org reported an hour ago, of the security forces in Jordan are holding back protestors from approaching the border, and Iranian flags have been spotted in Lebanon.

Update #3: The IDF has published a video of Palestinians throwing rocks and fire bombs at an border watchtower in Bethlehem.  Israel Hayom reports that Lebanese security forces intend to keep protestors North of the Litani river, outside of the UNFIL operating area. However they report Lebanese media as indicating that  Iranian Revolutionary Guards were operating in the area, and expected to incite violence.

Update #4: Al Jazeera English reports (citing the AFP) that 15,000 protestors were conducting a “Sit-In” on the Jordanian border with Israel, consisting of Islamists and trade union members.  Israel National News cites Jordanian press putting the number at 20,000. One thing to keep an eye on, will be whether protestors attempt to establish “camps” along the border, in “Tahrir” protest fashion. This is expressly described as part of the plan in the Beirut GM2J planning meeting, according to the notes made available by Internet Haganah:

Thus let us not assume that we will be stopped, but we are prepared for contingency plans if we are. Also we need to plan & coordinate the mobilizations across all the four borders & each of the four countries will require a different plan due to the different & contrasting political realities in each of them. Thus each of the teams in these countries will have to prepare a feasibility study & submit the same within the next 2 weeks.

Thus we will proceed till we are asked to halt & our endeavour will always be to get as close to the borders & after that we will set up Camps, like little Tahrir’s to demand our right to go to occupied Jerusalem.

The number of days that we will continue to protest peacefully will be determined later & as per the existing political situation.

Update #5: While some media is reporting that PA parliament member Moustafa Barghouti was injured when struck by a tear gas canister, the IDF says that Barghouti was injured in a brawl between Palestinians over who would lead the protest.

Update #6: YNet News reports that Hamas forces violently disrupted protests using clubs, and one Palestinian protestor was killed in Gaza.

Consider for example what is happening with Egypt.  The Obama Administration announced that it plans to resume U.S. foreign aid to that nation, to the tune of $1.5 billion, of which $1.3 billion is military aid.  U.S. foreign assistance to Egypt averages just over $2 billion every year since 1979, when Egypt struck a peace treaty with Israel.  This resumption of aid is also partly a reward for Egypt’s military ruler’s decisions to free the American nonprofit workers it had held hostage for their “criminal actions,” including the son of an American Cabinet official, and allow them to flee the country.  Another reward would be the $300,000 per person bail that was paid to Egypt.  Of course, the hostages were not really guilty of any real criminal wrongdoing anyway, but were merely charged with operating without proper registration, which, in the U.S., would be labeled a regulatory infraction.  Even worse, their regulatory infraction was that they were promoting and supporting democracy, which the Egyptians found to be offensive.

This is only the most recent Egyptian “slap” to America.  Since Egyptian demonstrations led to the fall of the pro-American dictator Mubarak, the new Egyptian rulers – the Egyptian military and the anti-American Islamist parties – have been as busy as possible insulting or exhibiting bad behavior towards the U.S., its allies, and its human rights ideals.   The Egyptian leadership has beaten and abused pro-democracy Egyptian protestors and Egyptian civilians.  They have increasingly enforced blasphemy laws to reduce free speech.  They have promised to institute new rules based on Sharia to discriminate against women and Christians.  They have demanded that Western tourists cease and desist drinking alcohol, wearing bikinis, and cohabitating if they are unmarried couples.  They have used “virginity checkpoints” on those same women.  They have slaughtered many of those same Christians, using American supplied vehicles.  They oppose Western society, capitalism, and democracy.  They have insulted Western faiths.  They have declared the only democracy in their region, Israel, the “number one enemy” of the Egyptian people and expelled its Ambassador.

For the United States to support this Egyptian regime makes no sense.  Aside from rewarding the above mischief, U.S. aid accomplishes nothing of any real value.  The Egyptians still don’t like us.  In fact, the vast majority of them don’t even want U.S. aid.  Further, the Egyptian state is still living on borrowed time – its’ partly educated population is hugely expanding in size, even as its monies from tourism have plunged, and its government is having increasing trouble meeting its fiscal, caloric, or fuel needs.  In fact, any Egyptian with cash, including presumably many of the Egypt military leaders, secretly stash their funds in Europe, so as to prepare for their inevitable exile after the crash.  And, no matter what aid the U.S. sends to Egypt, it cannot provide enough money to make Egypt work.  We might as well be pouring the $1.5 billion down the drain.

Nevertheless, nothing seems to deter the Administration from wasting this U.S. money.  Now, I understand that President Obama believes that, because of his background, he uniquely understands and can influence the majority Muslim nations of the world.  And perhaps, there is some truth to that idea.  But, surely, in at least this one situation, someone in the Administration understands what a “sunk cost” is, and that Egypt meets its definition.

by Alex Traiman

The international community is focusing heavily on Israeli caution over Iran’s nuclear progress, political developments between the United States, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as well airstrikes in Gaza.  Fewer are taking notice of increased violence against Jews in Jerusalem and its northern and southern suburbs of Judea and Samaria.

A stabbing Thursday, the first major terrorist attack to take place on Jerusalem’s new 14-km $1.1 billion light rail, placed an off-duty female officer into the hospital in serious condition.

The attack has not been the only one in the surrounding region. Violent stoning, lynching and kidnapping attempts have been taking place along Route 60, Israel’s central north-south corridor—that links multiple Biblical Israeli communities, as well as outposts, along with major Palestinian population centers.

On late Wednesday evening a 35-year-old single mother and her 8 year-old sleeping daughter were returning to the large religious Jewish community of Beit El when their car was slowed by a luxury Palestinian automobile 1 km south of the northern entrance to Ramallah, usually reserved for diplomatic visitors and highly privileged residents and business owners in the city of Palestinian headquarters.

The luxury vehicle filled with young Arab males came to a halt along a sharp curve forcing the female to stop as well.  The Arabs jumped out of the car and tried to enter the Jewish vehicle.  Since the doors were locked, the perpetrators started to smash the car windows.

Approximately one minute later, a second Jewish car on the way to Beit El came toward the scene and the Arabs fled.  Miraculously the mother and daughter escaped unharmed.

Similarly, the town of Beit El was infiltrated several weeks ago when an Arab managed to drive through the front gate of the community at night.  The assailant entered into a private family home, while the residents were home.  The husband managed to scare and chase the Arab out of his home and he was apprehended.

More recently, a video circulated on YouTube (http://youtu.be/xg1Gv7WjSkM) of a potentially deadly stoning of an Israeli car along Route 60’s southern corridor.  The video of the stoning was taken with three cameras set up in advance specifically to document the attack.

A young female was driving a passenger vehicle that had been fitted with reinforced windows to withstand rock attacks.  She was able to proceed through the incident unharmed without stopping or losing control of her vehicle.

A similar incident with a very different outcome occurred less than one year ago, when a young father and his 10-month old son were killed after a stone crashed through the car window.  Like the majority of stoning attacks, the incident was not caught on camera.  The driver swerved and crashed the car killing both passengers.

These stonings took place on the southern route connecting the large consensus Jewish settlement block of Gush Etzion along with the Biblical city of Hebron—home to one of Judaism’s holiest sites, the large patriarchial tomb of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; a small Jewish community with an ancient synagogue and cemetary; and a large Palestinian city.

Yet the town to receive the most attention along Route 60 in recent weeks has been Migron, a small Jewish community that holds the distinction of being the largest outpost in the West Bank, with 50 families.  The caravan community was established over 10 years ago in 2001.

After receiving orders to demolish the town from Israel’s Supreme Court, following a disputed land ownership claim, the government reached an agreement to relocate the residents on lands under certain jurisdiction of the Israel Lands Authority by 2015.

Some critics of the signing point to the large amount of time before the full implementation of the plan, although infrastructures are expected to be laid down for the legalized community much sooner.  The agreement could provide a model for removing dozens of smaller outposts across Judea and Samaria.

The government is no doubt treading both security and political considerations very carefully.  Anti-Semitic activities are on the rise both internationally and at home.  And after being rebuffed thus far in their much-hyped run to unilaterally declare a Palestinian State via the United Nations, many local Palestinian leaders are pushing their constituents to resort to the tried and true methods of incitement and violence against Jewish civilians.

The renewed strategy became more evident as Arab militants fired over 300 mortars, rockets and missiles—many sophisticated—at Israeli cities this past week. Over eighty percent of the rockets were intercepted by the $205 million Iron Dome missile defense system.  Each anti-rocket missile fired costs Israel approximately $50 thousand.

While Israel responded with significant air strikes to root out terrorist infrastructure and leaders in Gaza, many are questioning whether the government may route out terror more forcefully by ordering a two-week ground invasion similar to Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 and Cast Lead in 2008.

Defensive Shield was launched to put an end to the months old second intifada in the West Bank, and Cast Lead to halt rocket fire from Gaza.

It may well be that at the current moment, the dangers of mounting violence from militant Arabs within Israel’s borders pose a much more imminent threat, than the date in which Iran may ultimately threaten Israel with a nuclear device,.

It may serve the Israeli government well to assert its military muscle—even in limited fashion—to demonstrate its strength and resolve to Jihadi groups in Israel and throughout the Middle East.  The government has a responsibility to protect its 5.5 million Jewish population by deterring and neutralizing terror attempts by a web of recently motivated Palestinian militants.