Islam; Arabs; and US Foreign Policy.

I. More on the "peaceful" muslim world. 1. According to a recent Pew Research Center poll (as reported in the 12/6/10 LA Times) "majorities in Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Nigeria would favor changing current laws (in their countries) to allow stoning as a punishment for adultery, hand amputation for theft AND DEATH FOR THOSE WHO CONVERT FROM ISLAM TO ANOTHER RELIGION." (Emphasis added.) More than 3/4 of the respondents in Indonesia, Egypt, Nigeria and Jordan favor a greater role for Islam in politics. Ande 85% of Pakistani muslims favor a law requiring segregation of the sexes in the workplace. So, anybody think that the only problem is the violent jihadists? Or do you not see a clash of civilizations?

2. The Fifth Convention of the Fatah Revolutionary Council "declared its refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state." They also reiterated their stance against "the establishment of any racist state based on religion." Anybody see the irony? Much of the muslim world wants even MORE islam in their politics (see 1. above), but ANY Judaic influences in Israel are unacceptable. Got it. (As reported on the Jerusalem Post online 11/28/10.)

3. The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Information published an "official paper" concerning the Western Wall (known to Jews as the Kotel). According to the PA (as reported on JPost 11/22/10) "the Western Wall belongs to Muslims and is an integral part of the Al-Aksa Mosque and Haram al-Sharif (known to Jews as the Temple Mount). As a reminder, when Jordan controlled Jerusalem and the West Bank (1948-1967), Jewish holy sites were destroyed and the Jews were denied access to the Kotel. After the Jews captured that land in the 1967 war, Jews had access to the Kotel and GAVE the Arabs control of the Temple Mount with the the Al-Aksa Mosque. But the Jews are always the bad guys, right?

II. Wikileaks and the Arab world. So much for the anti-semitic rantings of Professor's Walt and Mearsheimer, author's of the book The Israel Lobby. Wasn't it the pressure from Israel and American Jews that was pushing the US into another war with another muslim country by trying to get the US to bomb Iranian nuclear sites?

As reported by JPost, 11/30/10, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia said to the US in 2008: cut off the head of the snake" (Iran) while there is still time. With the US Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain, the King of Bahrain had this to say: "The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it," referring to Iranian nukes. The defense chief of the United Arab Emirates said the time for the US to act against Iran is "this year or next." He referred to Ahmadinejad as Hitler. And Egyptian President Mubarek called the Iranians "big fat liars."

Besides the obvious (most Arab countries have no great love for Iran) what's the other message here? Israeli leaders tell their own people and leaders in the US that Iran is the biggest threat to Mideast stability and world peace. The Arab leaders tell their people that Israel is the biggest threat to peace in the Mideast, while privately acknowledging to US leaders that they recognize Iran is. This is a very common tactic of the Arab world. Arafat and now Abbas talk peace to the world, yet urge continued jihad against Israel to their own people. This duplicity and lack of courage of Arab leaders is the real impediment to ever achieving peace between Israel and the Arabs. You listening President Obama?

III. Obama's foreign policy - or lack thereof. 1. Brazil and Argentina (and now Ecuador) have now recognized an independent Palestinian state, with "East" Jerusalem as its capital. Other Latin American countries are expected to follow suit. Iran has been arranging with Venezuela to deploy intermediate range ballistic missiles there, which would be capable of reaching the US. (As reported by Caroline Glick on JPost,12/13/10.)

Glick notes that Obama sat still at the Summit of the Americas in April, 2009, while Daniel Ortega blasted the US. Obama then gave another appeasement speech, this time to Latin America, and had a photo-op with Hugo Chavez.

Obama's appeasement and inability to view the world accurately puts the US at greater risk. He tries to appease Chavez and his ilk, and they blast him and move closer to the Iranian axis. He tries to appease Iran, so the rest of the Middle East sees a weak US President and, publicly at least, moves closer to the Iranian axis. Weaker countries will seek alliances with countries they perceive as stronger - and that is not how the US is being perceived.

2. Aaron Klein reported in the 12/8/10 Jewish Press online, citing some of the Wikileaks material, that the US is worried that "Iranian backed militants may attempt to infiltrate the US or use Latin America as a staging ground for anti-American attacks." Well, not really a surprise given Obama's weakness and sucking up to dictators. In fact Klein reports that the US has "caught Iran shipping explosives and attempting to ship unmanned aerial vehicles to Venezuela." So while Obama dithers with dictators, he directs true pressure at Israel so that yet another dictatorship can be established in "Palestine."

Of course, some idiots on the left such as John Kerry think differently. Per Klein Kerry said "Yasser Arafat went from living as a terrorist to signing an agreement with Israel on the White House lawn" (referring to the peace accords of the early 1990's). So Arafat went straight from terrorist to peacemaker? What a moron. Just like The Nobel Committee giving that terrorist the Peace prize. The truth is that Arafat turned down a Palestinian state offered by Clinton and Barak, and then was behind the subsequent Second Intifada in 2000. The intifada which resulted in the death of over 1000 Israelis. So quite the peacemaker that Arafat. Unfortunately, our President has the same naive, foolish and misplaced trust in Abbas that Kerry had in Arafat.

3. I think former US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, may have said it best: "The President...just seems to view national security issues as a distraction from what his real priorities are." (I believe that would remaking the USA into a European style socialist democracy.) (Above and below quotes from Aaron Klein in the 12/1/10 Jewish Press online.) Bolton goes on: "The signal of weakness that (Obama's) policies send around the world only encourages our adversaries and increases the risk of trouble for ourselves and our allies."

Amen to that. Now let's elect a new president in 2012.