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Jan. 9, 2009
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Martin Peretz: At War, Not at War
Charles Krauthammer: Will Olmert screw it up yet again?
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Larry Elder: Israelis and Palestinians: Who's David, Who's Goliath?
Jeff Jacoby: Yes, it's anti-Semitism
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Jonah Goldberg: Who are the real Nazis?
Anne Applebaum: Pointless Peace Proposals
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Caroline B. Glick: Iran's Gazan diversion?
Dennis Prager: Dissecting Dershowitz
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Mark Steyn: Gaza has its version of rocket scientists
Mona Charen: The So-called International Community
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Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Having a holy tongue
Caroline B. Glick : Hamas' march to victory
Dec. 31, 2008
Dore Gold: Is Israel Using 'Disproportionate Force'?
Renee Enna:: Succulent 'stewp' is quick, easy fix
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Jonathan Mark: Israel's Response Is Disproportionate
Wesley Pruden: It's time once more to blame the Jews
Dec. 29, 2008
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Chanukah: 'Give me Judaism or give me death'
Michael B. Oren: A crisis and an opportunity
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Rabbi Yonason Goldson: When the past meets the future
Caroline B. Glick: Iran and Hamas do Christmas
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Rabbi Dovid Zauderer: Judaism's Santa problem
The Kosher Gourmet by Ethel G. Hofman CHANUKAH FORK-FINGER FOOD FEAST
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Caroline B. Glick: Repeating failure in Gaza
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Rabbi Boruch Leff: Too many Jews today are missing the intended purpose of one of Judaism's most beloved holidays
Barry Rubin: Liar, liar, pants on cease-fire
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Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Final Battlefield
Caroline B. Glick: Betting on a dead horse
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The Kosher Gourmet
by Steve Petusevsky: Juicy Chef's hella top, hella bottom, hallelujah in the middle
Craig Crossman : More gifts for geeks --- and those who love them
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Dion Nissenbaum: Israel kicks out outrageously biased UN official
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Jonathan Rosenblum: The Gift of Joy
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Uncle Shariah
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The Jewish Ethicist
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Barry Rubin: What they say isn't what you hear
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Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Can the Bible be a secular language?
Caroline B. Glick: What a PM Netanyahu faces from Washington
Dec. 11, 2008
Rabbi Leiby Burnham: Our role in the Divine's global corporation, World Inc.
The Kosher Gourmet
by Steve Petusevsky: A retro-tasting pareve pot pie made with a light hand
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Rabbi Paysach J. Krohn: Groom admits he was caught "red handed"
Kara McGuire: No money for gifts? No problem
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The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Can I make my boss treat me fairly?
Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report: Next Steps in the Indo-Pakistani Crisis
Dec. 8, 2008
Rabbi Avi Shafran: 'Chanukah Bush' flap and graciousness
Mark Steyn: Jews get killed, but Muslims feel vulnerable
Dec. 5, 2008
Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Truth --- The Key to Gratitude
Jeff Jacoby: UN's obsession is grotesque and Orwellian
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)
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Jewish World Review
May 3, 2005
/ 24 Nissan, 5765
With White House warming-up to Hamas, are we pushing a little too hard, fast for Arab democracy?
By
Daniel Pipes
Some very disturbing facts
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The Bush administration's push for quick democracy in the Middle East has an increasingly clear implication: if Islamist organizations such as Hamas are to be likely electoral winners, Western powers should stop classifying them as terrorists and instead come to terms with them.
|  Will our speeding to save the Arab world from itself wind up with us paying a terrible toll? |
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| This conclusion follows from such efforts as those led by Alastair Crooke and his Conflicts Forum; the European Union's exploration of opening a dialogue with the Islamists; and an astonishing statement in which the White House spokesman referred to Hamas members as "business professionals."
Before this whitewashing of Hamas proceeds too far ahead, it bears noting that the organization has not just murdered over four hundred Israelis but also prepared itself for war with the United States.
The ideological justification for war is in place. In 2003, Hamas declared President George W. Bush "Islam's biggest enemy" and in 2004 it called him "the enemy of G-d, the enemy of Islam and Muslims." A 2004 press release announced that "Hamas considers the U.S as an enemy and as an accomplice to the Israeli enemy aggression against the Palestinians. … The U.S will face responsibility for its position as an accomplice with Israel."
Hamas logistical cells could be quickly turned operational. By early 2002, Eli Lake has revealed in the New York Sun, the FBI concluded that 50 to 100 trained Hamas and Hezbollah agents "had already infiltrated America" where they worked "on fundraising and logistics," but Dennis Lormel, formerly in FBI counterterrorism, notes that these cells "have the potential of being operational."
FBI director Robert Mueller reaffirmed the threat in February 2005: "Although it would be a major strategic shift for Hamas, its United States network is theoretically capable of facilitating acts of terrorism in the United States." According to a senior government counterterrorism official, Hamas could be merging with elements of Osama bin Laden's "all inclusive military arm" and the two together then "carry out military strikes" against the United States. "They have operations planned for here, they have the capabilities to strike at will and when the time is right they will do it."
Counterterrorism specialist Boaz Ganor notes that "Hamas formally does not engage, and does not intend to engage, in a terrorist attack on American soil. But I think it is not inconceivable that Hamas would change its strategies, and they would like to be ready for that option."
Hamas has gone global. Reports indicate it is active, planning attacks against American forces, in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kuwait. Of particular note, it was a Palestinian with possible ties to Hamas, Ahmed Mustafa Ibrahim Ali, who shot three American corrections officers at a prison in Kosovo in April 2004.
Palestinian anger could prompt violence in the United States. Ken Piernick, who had headed the FBI counterterrorism efforts against Hamas, told the New York Sun: "In time, a very volatile and vitriolic hostility brewing in Gaza in particular will slowly suffuse itself to Hamas and Hezbollah cells in America. In the past couple of years we have already seen inflammatory rhetoric from their supporters in the United States. At some point in time it's like the glass rod will snap."
Potentially violent Hamas operatives in the United States have already turned up.
- In November 2003, the Israelis arrested Jamal Akkal, 23, a Canadian immigrant of Palestinian origins and a year later, he pleaded guilty to planning to kill Israeli officials traveling in the United States as well as leaders of the American and Canadian Jewish communities.
- In August 2004, Ismail Selim Elbarasse, a long-time Hamas money man, was arrested for videotaping the details of Maryland's Bay Bridge. This "set off alarms among U.S. counterterrorism investigators," the Baltimore Sun reports. They treated the incident as a Hamas reconnaissance of the bridge and "as a potential link between Hamas and al-Qaida." In court papers, authorities alleged that the images Elbarasse's shot of the bridge included close-ups of features "integral to the structural integrity of the bridge."
Hamas, in short, can at will attack the United States, something that should not be forgotten.
President Bush stated in June 2003 that "the free world, those who love freedom and peace, must deal harshly with Hamas" and that "Hamas must be dismantled." That approach should remain U.S. policy.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading."
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JWR contributor Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum.
© 2005, Daniel Pipes
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