Where was due diligence?

oldrightie

The honemoon looks as though it is to be short lived.

Jenny

Spot on, Mel. The last paragraph just sums up so much.

This is Mark Steyn over on National Review, writing a piece called "Freeman of Arabia", he refers us back to a piece he wrote for The Spectator a while ago. It deals with our ghastly new chum, Mr Freeman, and with Saudi Arabia (look away now, Peter Oborne. In journalism this is what we call telling the truth):

'Re Charles Freeman, a truly dreadful appointment, I wrote seven years ago in the British Spectator, in a piece headlined "Down With Saudi Arabia: It's time to destroy the Arab kingdom" (ah, happy days!):

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzI2ZjFlMTY3YzhlOGM0MjhhNTk1MDYxODY0MzBkNTk=

Go Mark!

Sir Arnold Ritchie III

Oh chill out Melanei. If you are concerned about foreign money maybe you should look into how much Israeli money is sloshing around Washington. I betchya it is way more than Saudi money.

Frank P

SAR III

Most antisemites who troll on this blog seem to complain about US Federal money sloshing around in Israel. Either way, so what? Israel is on the front line of the West's war with Islamic jihad. When did Israel last threaten Western Interests except as a notion in the eyes of the Arabist traitors among us; that's a necessary upshot of what they must do. If you don't get it you're wasting your time here; the other trolls are grist to the mill already and wasting their time too: just a bit more wear on the scroll wheel of the mouse; but with all that Israeli money sloshing around in the West, we can afford to buy a new mouse from time to time, so it doesn't matter, does it?

Meh

"and even appeared to justify the 9/11 attacks"

Time to go back to school and relearn that explanation/justification distinction.

Derek BLADES

Frank P makes the astonishing assertion that "Israel is on the front line of the West's war with Islamic jihad." I would rather think that Israel's brutal wars against its neighbours, seizure of Arab land in the West Bank and collective punishment against the Gazans are the root causes of the Islamic world's hostility to the West.
In his first video address after 9/11 Osama bin Laden spelled out his reasons for the attack on the Twin Towers. The first one was the Israel-Arab conflict. (The second was the stationing of infidel (i.e. American) soldiers in Saudi Arabia.) If the Clinton/Mitchell team achieves a fair two-state solution in the Middle East much – I would say even most – of the Moslem fury against the West will disappear overnight.

George Laird

Dear Melanie

Given that anyone appointed to a senior position in US government is investigated; you are over doing it here.

Didn't the former President Clinton get investigated before his wife was appointed?

And what happened there?

She got the job.

Investigation doesn't equal guilt.

Sorry just add his name to the 'disloyal list' and move on.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

stanley Jerusalem

Drek BLADES - "If the Clinton/Mitchell team achieves a fair two-state solution in the Middle East much – I would say even most – of the Moslem fury against the West will disappear overnight."
I see. Sri Lankan Cricketers, Mumbai, Bali, Darfur, Afghanistan.....
What time are visiting hours please?

John from Toronto

Funny that Walt and Mearsheimer have never written a book called "The Arab Petro-dollar Lobby". Well, I guess it's not so funny after all.

Mark Adrian Solomon

"If the Clinton/Mitchell team achieves a fair two-state solution in the Middle East much – I would say even most – of the Moslem fury against the West will disappear overnight."

Don't tell me you really believe that do you? Seriously? Don't you realise that for some people - particularly much of the Arab world - there is no such thing as a fair two-state solution, because they only believe in a one state solution. And their western apologists - George Galloway, the Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University et al - will always justify the inevitable rejection saying that the solution is not 'fair'.

You have the cart before the horse - the Palestine/Israel conflict is the excuse, not the cause of Islamic hostility towards the West. It has always been there, even when Israel did not exist. Read some history.

Simon

What exactly is the "threat" that China poses to the United States?

George Laird

Dear Melanie

Mark Adrian Solomon has come out and supported your daily Israeli PR campaign today.

Don't put his name on the list of the disloyal.

I wouldn't want the New Stasi to arrest the wrong man, woman and child because someone was slack with the paperwork.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

stanley Jerusalem

Sir Arnold Ritchie III
March 5th, 2009 2:10pm

"Oh chill out Melanie. If you are concerned about foreign money maybe you should look into how much Israeli money is sloshing around Washington. I betchya it is way more than Saudi money."

Sir Arnold. Are you acquainted with the story which was made into a film with the late Peter Sellers called "The Mouse that Roared?"
Our hero, seeing the effect of the Marshall Plan on postwar-torn bankrupt Europe decides to wage war on the USA in order to lose and thereby reap the benefits of Dollar Aid. Are you suggesting something along the same lines here or have you got the wealthiest nation in the World mixed up with a country the size of Wales at the eastern end of the Mediterranean?

Dixon

Meh
March 5th, 2009 3:34pm
"and even appeared to justify the 9/11 attacks"
Time to go back to school and relearn that explanation/justification distinction."

So pray tell us "MEH" ..WHO among the 9/11 mob had had their homeland attacked?

Then try to explain how what was said "explains" rather than ( putatively ) "justifies".

Not very good with chronology is he this "MEH".

Frank P

Derek Blather

"If the Clinton/Mitchell team achieves a fair two-state solution in the Middle East much – I would say even most – of the Moslem fury against the West will disappear overnight."

Bwaaaahahahahahah (recurring)! This bloke is better than Benylin (extra strength) for clearing a chesty cough.

Care in the Community has a lot to answer for. Someone make him take his medication FGS.

Juliana

The frightening thing always is that the left NEVER reads history. Any history. Aapart from anything else, if they did they wouldn`t believe in all that Climate Change nonsense.

Adam B.

Frank P, I would also like to add that our beloved derek Blades worked for the blood drenched tyrannical Chinese government, you know, the one that mowed down thousands of unarmed students in Tianenmen square - students who dared to ask for the right to freedom of speech, a right our friend puts to such excellent use.

Any "concern" for human rights he expresses is rank hypocrisy.

Michael B

The still burgeoning praxis of politics as Alinskian, multi-culti and pomo based tribalism being advanced by the U.S. administration/media alliance make it difficult to sustain a genuinely coherent conversation when it comes to this or any other issue, much less a more enlightening and probative set of critiques. Chas Freeman reflects a combination of intellectual and moral incomprehensions that rival those of Chief Justice Roger Taney, the U.S. Chief Justice who presided over the Dred Scott decision, c. 1858. There is no hyperbole invested in that statement. One may as well draft someone from the Bonanno or Lucchese crime families as mayor or police chief of NYC; after all, they should be able to bring a certain knowledge to bear, a certain "realism."

For Chas Freeman's dullity of conscience (receiving Saudi, CNOOC and related funds, the very funds used to obfuscate items such as this, graphically and more simply reflected here) to receive promotion to the very governing pulse of the U.S. administration is tantamount to a debauched, morally self-blinding act a la Caligula or Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. There is hyperbole invested in that latter statement, but it remains indicative nonetheless.

Gautam

There just can't be any debate on the question of Israel's existence. There have to be certain moral absolutes that govern our universe; their absence will only see the world slide into a hopeless chaos.

Israel's existence is justified for the following reasons: The Jews were the first to be driven out of their land. In time, they became the only people with a distinct culture, language and civilisation, without any connection with the land of their provenance. They got scattered and became this vast diaspora. They have been hated and reviled down the ages in both the Christian and Islamic worlds for hundreds of years. The culmination of this hatred was the holocaust in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 40s when 5.9 millions Jews perished.

The world owes much to the Jews. The Jews gave us the modern finance and banking system, two of the plinths on which human civilization is built. They have given us scientists, thinkers, doctors and statesmen. Writers, musicians, poets, entertainers and sportsmen. Until 1949, they did not have a land of their own, which was rightfully given to them after the holocaust.

The Arabs in general -- there are great many Arabs who will not figure in this category -- have no moral right to deny the Jews their homeland simply because the Jews lands were, after they were driven away, occupied by Arab Muslims. Indeed, the Arab Muslims should have welcomed the Jews to their land and holy places. Instead, they attacked Israel the very time it was born, creating distrust and conflict that continues until this day, and which is turning more and more grave as weeks and months pass by.

The Arab Muslims who have read the Quran would surely know that -- speaking for myself, I have this on the authority of Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, one of Islam's leading spiritual ambassadors living in Delhi -- that the Quran sanctions the right of the Jews to their land. If anybody wishes to enter into a debate on this, the person is welcome. Quran is done great disservice by its followers when they turn to violence, for Islam is essentially a religion of purity and peace. It is being stained with the blood of innocents for which Muslims are responsible because they have left behind Islam's true teachings. They have politicized their religion based on their historical experiences, but the contexts in which they had to politicize Islam no longer exist. Sense would lie in their acceptance of Israel's reality.

At the same time Israeli leadership must find more acceptable ways to deal with the problems in their neighborhood. They must make the Arab part of their population, and which must include the Palestinian Arabs, develop stakes in the success of Israel. This calls for involving the Arabs in every sphere of Israel's public life. They must work towards giving greater all-round representation to the Arabs. They must, if they believes in democracy.

Any alternative to this becomes a lose-lose proposition for both the Jews and the Arabs.

Raymond in DC

SAR III writes, "If you are concerned about foreign money maybe you should look into how much Israeli money is sloshing around Washington. I betchya it is way more than Saudi money."

Only someone who doesn't care about the facts could write something so ignorant. What money? Does Israel fund chairs and departments on college campuses? No, they're usually funded by local Jewish philanthropists and alumni. But Persian Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia do - big time! Does Israel fund political parties? No; that would be illegal. Does it fund advocacy groups like AIPAC? No, they are funded by American citizens. If such groups did accept Israeli money, they'd have to register as agents of a foreign country. Do they fund synagogues and Jewish centers? No. But Saudi Arabia sponsors mosques and Islamic centers through front groups like ISNA.

So, to echo the words of Jerry McGuire, SHOW ME THE MONEY! You can't. So take your bigotry elsewhere.

Derek BLADES

Sir Arnold Ritchie III; March 5th, 2009 2:10pm
If you are new to this blog site you may be as astonished as I was at the level of hatred and incoherent abuse that greets anyone who does not toe the party line as laid down by Ms Phillips. Her fans’ minds are closed to rational debate but I think it is nevertheless useful to expose them to rational views from time to time. Good luck - but don’t ever make the mistake of trying to answer “questions” posed by the likes of “Phil”, “Adam B”, “ Stanley jerusalem”, “Penny” et al. Just ignore them.

Kiwi

Gautam, nice piece overall, and you appear to be sincere. However, you correctly said, "the Quran sanctions the right of the Jews to their land.” Then, “If anybody wishes to enter into a debate on this, the person is welcome. Quran is done great disservice by its followers when they turn to violence, for Islam is essentially a religion of purity and peace. It is being stained with the blood of innocents for which Muslims are responsible because they have left behind Islam's true teachings..."
The problem is it is unclear on what Islam’s true teachings are. Unfortunately, the Qur'an is full of contradictions and ambiguities. For example, your reference to Sura 5:20 - "Remember Moses said to his people: O my people! Call in remembrance the favour of God unto you, when He produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave you what He had not given to any other among the peoples." Followed by Sura 5:21 - "O my people! Enter the holy land which God hath assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin." Is then contradicted by Sura 7:137 which says: "And We made a people, considered weak (and of no account), inheritors of lands in both east and west, - lands whereon We sent down Our blessings. The fair promise of thy Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel, because they had patience and constancy, and We levelled to the ground the great works and fine buildings which Pharaoh and his people erected (with such pride)." Clearly a reference to Egypt (East) and the area of Greater Syria (West).
Sadly, the same Qur'anic contradictions and ambiguities apply to your assertion that "Islam is essentially a religion of purity and peace..."

Adam B.

Yes "Sir" Arnold Richie III, don't answer any points put to you.

Because Derek Blades doesn't have the answers.

And that's the first time I've heard obsessive Jew hatred and one sided bias termed "rational debate."

Ken Kopke

Mr. BLADES: Right on! On this blog there is an extraordinary amount of "hatred and incoherent abuse" that is entirely absent on the well-reasoned, profanity-free, respectful, love-filled progressive blogs.

Original Tony

Gautam...a very good commentary..thank you.

Ronnie

Once more - THE BUSH FAMILY AND THE SAUDI ROYAL FAMILY!!!!

Penny

Oh Derek - you old charmer!

As you know, I have never replied to any of your posts - although you seem to know mine quite well.

I am flattered - as, I'm sure, are my fellow 'likes of' - to know that out of the many, many people who contribute to this blog, you have ignored us to such an extent that you appear able to single us out by name!

But it brings about a conundrum....

I am curious as to who the 'et al' are. Presumably, anyone who agrees with Melanie? Which, on this blog, must be a huge majority.

I admit to being rather puzzled at first; why would anyone want to spend so much time ignoring so many posts? It struck me as a rather pointless and lengthy exercise.

I then noted that you felt it incumbent upon you to point out the error of our irrational ways. However, I am still at a loss to understand quite how this can be achieved if you are ignoring almost all of us.

I'm sure you will appreciate the conundrum...... Is the answer "Ignore everybody...especially Phil, Stanley, Adam and Penny"?

But bless you, though, Derek. You have quite made my day!

PS I trust you will ignore this post.

Jane

Derek BLADES says: “I would rather think that Israel's brutal wars against its neighbours, seizure of Arab land in the West Bank and collective punishment against the Gazans are the root causes of the Islamic world's hostility to the West.” Derek, we know that you would rather think that, but because Islam has been waging war against the West ever since it was invented and because its holy books contain teachings like this, we all think you’re this week’s winner of the Here We Go Looby Loo Award:

2:65 And you know well the story of those among you who broke Sabbath. We said to them: 'Be apes - despised and hated by all [that‘s the Jews, Derek. I thought I‘d explain that as you seem never to have read The Koran].'

2:66 Thus We made their end a warning to the people of their time and succeeding generation, and an admonition for God-fearing people.

4:56 "Those who have disbelieved our signs, we shall roast them in fire. Whenever their skins are cooked to a turn, we shall substitute new skins for them, that they may feel the punishment; verily, Allah is sublime and wise."

47:4 "Therefore, when ye meet the unbelievers, smite at their necks and when you have caused a bloodbath among them, bind a bond firmly on them."

4:89 "They but wish that ye should reject faith as they do, and thus be on the same footing as they, so take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah. But if they turn renegades, seize them and kill them wherever ye find them, and take no friends or helpers from their ranks."

5:51 "Believers, take neither Jews nor Christians for your friends."

5:60 Say: 'Shall I tell you [People of the Book] who will receive a worse reward from God? Those whom God has cursed and with whom He has been angry, transforming them into apes and swine [that‘s the Jews again, Derek], and those who serve the devil. Worse is the plight of these, and they have strayed farther from the right path.'

7:166 But when even after this they disdainfully persisted in that from which they were forbidden, We said to them, 'Become apes - despised and disgraced!'

8:39 "Fight them until there is no dissension and the religion is entirely Allah's."

8:60 "Prepare for them whatever force and cavalry ye are able of gathering to strike terror, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies, of Allah and your enemies."

9:30 "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him." (Hamas liked that one so much they even put it into their charter!)

Gautam

Kiwi refers to one Quranic verse (7:137) without explaining why he feels that there is a contradiction with verses 5:20 & 21. I'm afraid simply claiming isn't enough to establish contradiction and ambiguity in the Quran. If the two verses of the Quran are read carefully, it's clear that these verses refer to two different periods of Israeli history. Chapter five refers to pre-Moses period of Israel and chapter seven refers to post-Moses period of Israel. The point is that according to the verse 21 of chapter five, the Holy Land (Palestine) is a promised land for Jewish people. This promise is for those Jews who are living in diaspora. In other words they have Quranic sanction to their original homeland.

phil

So sad that the idiots amongst us cannot see that the Israel/Arab conflict is a sideshow-within the last few months we have seen what militant Islam is doing to its own people -Mumbai.Lahore.Darfur previously Bali .need I go on -These fools like the blade and the self appointed laird come her to either annoy or get off for some unfathomable reason ,disgorging nonsense by the ton -I really wonder whether they think in the paradise that they want to go to that they would be allowed such freedom .I would be happy to send them a packet with 72 sultanas to help them on their way and thus save us hours more in every day to do something useful .
I note with joy that the blade doesnt like me, Adam ,Penny OR Stanley it would have been a worry if he had .

phil

stanley Jerusalem- sir arnie might like to rent "being there " .he seems to have the wit of chancey the gardener -great film and very illustrative of the likes of arnie ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

phil

Ken Kopke-right on kenny boy -why do you all do it ?

phil

Penny sorry I did not mean to duplicate your post to the blade :)I did it before seeing your,s but he is great sport isnt he?