Month: August 2006

Gays are being dragged out and murdered; women are under new Islamist scrutiny; the government itself is fast becoming a Hezbollah-like entity. From the Riverbend blog:

Residents of Baghdad are systematically being pushed out of the city. Some families are waking up to find a Klashnikov bullet and a letter in an envelope with the words "Leave your area or else." The culprits behind these attacks and threats are Sadr‚Äôs followers ‚Äî Mahdi Army. It’s general knowledge, although no one dares say it out loud. In the last month we’ve had two different families staying with us in our house, after having to leave their neighborhoods due to death threats and attacks. It‚Äôs not just Sunnis ‚Äî it’s Shia, Arabs, Kurds ‚Äî most of the middle-class areas are being targeted by militias.

Other areas are being overrun by armed Islamists. The Americans have absolutely no control in these areas. Or maybe they simply don’t want to control the areas because when there’s a clash between Sadr‚Äôs militia and another militia in a residential neighborhood, they surround the area and watch things happen.

Since the beginning of July, the men in our area have been patrolling the streets. Some of them patrol the rooftops and others sit quietly by the homemade road blocks we have on the major roads leading into the area. You cannot in any way rely on Americans or the government. You can only hope your family and friends will remain alive — not safe, not secure — just alive. That’s good enough.

For me, June marked the first month I don‚Äô’t dare leave the house without a hijab, or headscarf. I don’t wear a hijab usually, but it’s no longer possible to drive around Baghdad without one. It‚Äôs just not a good idea. (Take note that when I say ‘drive’ I actually mean ‘sit in the back seat of the car’ ‚Äî I haven’t driven for the longest time.) Going around bare-headed in a car or in the street also puts the family members with you in danger. You risk hearing something you don‚Äôt want to hear and then the father or the brother or cousin or uncle can’t just sit by and let it happen. I haven’t driven for the longest time. If you’re a female, you risk being attacked.

This is the face of "liberation." Stuff happens, I guess.

(Photo: Kareem Raheem/Reuters.)

"They count their dead in dozens. We count ours in hundreds." —a civilian Iraqi talking about the civil war now raging in his country, compared with the relative skirmishes in Lebanon and Israel.

The current war in Iraq is far deadlier than in Lebanon and Israel. And the United States is ultimately responsible for its security. A brutal first-person account of the hell that is now much of Iraq can be read here.

(Photo: Franco Pagetti for Time.)

More evidence about the hero of the American Christianist movement:

Mel Gibson once had close links to the Australian League of Rights, a Far Right group notorious for its anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial.
The league claims the world is run by a secret society of Jews.
The Hollywood star’s foray into Far Right activist politics in Australia occurred in 1987 when he campaigned for a friend, Rob Taylor, who stood unsuccessfully for the northern Victorian federal seat of Indi.
Charles Pinwill, a former Queensland state director of the League of Rights, said he knew Gibson’s father, Hutton, and said Gibson was interested in the league’s ideas.
"They were never members of the league, no. But we never really recruited members, just support. (Mel and Hutton) were interested in some of our ideas," Mr Pinwill said.
"His dad had politically similar ideas to me. His dad had a well-considered philosophy, he thought things through.
"I knew (Mr Taylor) was a friend of Mel’s. Mel’s not really a political animal, he’s interested in spiritual things."

Rocky Mount, North Carolina, 10 am.

"A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
The prophets prophesy falsely; and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so.
And what will ye do in the end thereof?" – Jeremiah, 30 -31.

(Photo of Christianists Tim and Beverly LaHaye by Thomas Michael Alleman for Time.)

Coulter strikes again. Can her anti-anti-homophobic friend, Mickey, be far behind?

Will Lieberman’s impending defeat lay the foundations for a Gore nomination? The ironies mount. My own view is that Gore is the only Democratic candidate for president who could conceivably mount a credible challenge to McCain.

What the Arab world really wants.

This leaked version of the Security Council resolution makes a great deal of sense to me, which is why Lebanon and Hezbollah will reject it. Fine. Diplomatic foot-dragging from Hezbollah will only enable Israel to continue its task of degrading their military infrastructure. Money quote:

    Calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution based on the following principles and elements:

        * strict respect by all parties for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Israel and Lebanon;
        * full respect for the Blue Line by both parties;
        * delineation of the international borders of Lebanon, especially in those areas where the border is disputed or uncertain, including in the Shebaa farms area;
        * security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Lebanese armed and security forces and of UN mandated international forces deployed in this area;
        * full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006) that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of July 27, 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state;
        * deployment of an international force in Lebanon, consistent with paragraph 10 below;
        * establishment of an international embargo on the sale or supply of arms and related material to Lebanon except as authorized by its government;
        * elimination of foreign forces in Lebanon without the consent of its government;
        * provision to the United Nations of remaining maps of land mines in Lebanon in Israel’s possession.

A sane response, and it’s very encouraging the French signed off.

The current war is not only bringing out the Jew-haters in America, like Mel Gibson, but also in Europe. Yesterday, one of Norway’s leading writers, Jostein Gaarder, author of best-seller "Sophie’s World," with 26 million copies in print, wrote an astonishing op-ed in Aftenposten, Norway’s leading paper. It’s called "God’s Chosen People." My friend Bruce Bawer has translated parts of it:

ISRAEL IS HISTORY. We no longer recognize the State of Israel. There is no way back. The State of Israel has raped the world‚Äôs recognition and will not receive peace before it lays down its weapons …

NO WAY BACK … We don’t believe in the concept of God’s chosen people. We laugh at this people’s fancies and weep over their misdeeds. To present themselves as God’s chosen people is not just stupid and arrogant, but a crime against humanity.  We call it racism …

There are limits to our patience, and there are limits to our tolerance …The State of Israel has raped the world‚Äôs recognition …

We do not believe that Israel mourns forty killed Lebanese children more than they have lamented for over three thousand years the forty years in the desert.  We note that many Israelis celebrate such triumphs just as they once exulted over the Lord‚Äôs scourges as ‘appropriate punishment’ for the Egyptian people … We ask ourselves whether most Israelis think that one Israeli life is worth more than forty Palestinian or Lebanese lives.

Get the gist? Very few Arabs believe Israel deserves to exist in any form. And far more Europeans hold this view than will publicly say so. I think we are in the beginnings of an existential war to destroy the Jewish state. And this much I fear: it will not end, sooner or later, in a ceasefire.