Latest Article from Jonathan Schanzer

When Palestinian Politics Get Personal

January 26, 2012  •  Weekly Standard Blog

Mohammed Dahlan, the former security official for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the Gaza Strip, is in a lot of trouble. On January 9, at the behest of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, Jordan's Central Bank reportedly seized Dahlan's assets, only days after Palestinian Authority anti-corruption commission head Rafiq al-Natsheh announced he would pursue corruption suspects living abroad. Reports suggest that Dahlan's assets in Jordan could amount to 10 million Jordanian dinars ($14.1 million) or more.

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Latest Article from Clifford May

The Haqqani Test

January 26, 2012  •  Scripps Howard News Service

For 65 years Pakistanis have been conducting one of modern history's great experiments: Can a nation conceived as Islamic be free and democratic — the vision of Pakistan's founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah? Or will Pakistan's identity be defined by "forces that want us to live in fear — fear of external and internal enemies."

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Latest Article from Michael Freund

Stop blurring Holocaust memory

January 26, 2012  •  The Jerusalem Post

Tomorrow marks the 67th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by the 322nd Rifle Division of the Red Army in the waning days of World War II.

That epic event provided the world with a glimpse into the potential darkness of the human soul, as stunned Soviet soldiers came face to face with the irrefutable depravity of the German genocide against the Jewish people.

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Latest Article from Jeff Jacoby

Shut up, they explained

January 25, 2012  •  The Boston Globe

FOR SHEER ANTIDEMOCRATIC GALL, it is hard to top the so-called "People's Pledge" signed on Monday by US Senator Scott Brown and Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren. The agreement is designed to keep third-party advertising from playing a role in their closely-watched race for the seat that Brown won in a special election in 2010. Of course there is not the slightest chance the deal will actually keep independent ads off the airwaves or the internet between now and November's election. Yet Brown and Warren claim to be sincere in their determination to keep third parties from trying to influence this year's campaign.

If so, shame on them.

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Latest Article from Ilan Berman

Iraq Is Still A Work In Progress

January 23, 2012  •  U.S. News & World Report

Nearly nine years after the start of military operations in Iraq, the prudence of America's intervention remains a hotly-debated topic. What should not be is that, having spent nearly a trillion taxpayer dollars and forfeited thousands of American lives, the United States now has an enormous stake in post-Saddam Iraq, and a vested interest in its long-term success.

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Latest Article from Judith Miller

The State of the NYPD

January 18, 2012  •  City Journal

Less is more. That was the message that New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly gave the Police Foundation Tuesday morning as he offered an upbeat report on the department's accomplishments and innovations over the past year.

In a speech billed as his annual "state of the NYPD" assessment, Kelly touted crime statistics showing not only that the city was the safest it has been since 1963, but also that his department was operating at its leanest. Despite having 6,000 fewer cops on the street than six years ago, the NYPD has continued, Kelly said, working to reduce crime, combat terrorism, and improve community relations—the NYPD's three top priorities.

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Latest Article from Raymond Ibrahim

Christmas Under Islam
Hardly a Season to be Jolly

January 17, 2012  •  PJ Media

Earlier I discussed how mosques, some of which breed radicalization and serve as terrorist bases, flourish in America, while churches are increasingly targeted and destroyed in the Muslim world, especially the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity.

This pattern—religious appeasement of Muslim minorities in the West, religious hostility for Christian minorities under Islam—continues and manifests itself in other ways.

Consider Christmas. The same appeasement that allows a "victory mosque" to be erected near Ground Zero, where jihadists killed some 3,000 Americans, compromises one of Christianity's most important events.

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Latest Article from Mark Dubowitz

Economic Regime-Change Can Stop Iran Bomb

January 17, 2012  •  Bloomberg

Iran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, the choke-point for Persian Gulf oil shipments, reveals how deeply the latest Western sanctions -- and the threat of even tougher measures -- have spooked the clerical regime.

Yet, as the U.S. and its allies aim to tighten the noose, they have to consider two new realities. First, given the progress we now know Iran has made on its atomic-weapons programs, there is little reason to think the leadership will voluntarily disarm. (Unfortunately, if a nuclear-armed Iran is truly unacceptable, military action is the most likely route to success -- and the window for that option is closing fast.)

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Latest Article from Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi

The Dead Man and His Long Shadow

January 16, 2012  •  The American Spectator

Muammar Gaddafi was certainly more than prophetic during the summit of the Arab League (AL) in 2008 when he inquired about the fate of his Iraqi predecessor for Western military interventions: Saddam Hussein. "The ruler and head of an AL member has been hanged. Why?" he asked. "In the future it's going to be your turn. Even you, the friends of America," he told the Arab leaders present as the audience was rolling on the floor laughing. "Friends of America… No, I say," said Gaddafi, "We are friends of America, but America can approve of our hanging one day."

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Latest Article from Michael Rubin

Dire Straits Iran's navy plays a dangerous game

January 16, 2012  •  The Weekly Standard

Tension between Iran and the United States flared on December 28, 2011, when Habibollah Sayyari, commander of Iran's navy, threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, the 34-mile-wide passage through which more than one-third of the world's oil tanker traffic travels. His televised statement that "closing the Strait of Hormuz is very easy for Iranian naval forces .  .  . easier than drinking a glass of water" came against the backdrop of naval war games, the third major Iranian naval demonstration in recent years. The Iranian military ended its exercise five days later with a barrage of missile tests signaling the peril facing warships and tankers alike.

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Latest Article from Soeren Kern

Muslims Converting Empty European Churches into Mosques

January 16, 2012  •  Stonegate Institute

Muslims in Europe are increasingly converting empty Christian churches into mosques.

The proliferation of mosques housed in former churches reflects the rise of Islam as the fastest growing religion in post-Christian Europe.

There are now more practicing Muslims than practicing Christians in many parts of Europe, not only in large urban centers, but also in smaller towns and cities across the continent.

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Latest Article from Soner Cagaptay

Turkey's Kurdish Weltschmerz

January 16, 2012  •  Hurriyet Daily News

Until a few years ago, tensions between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and its opponents dominated the headlines in Ankara, and some even worried about a confrontation with the military. Today, though, Turkish domestic politics are tranquil, except for the brewing Kurdish issue.

This issue is Turkey's key challenge in 2012. Lately, tensions have been rising in the country. The police have arrested thousands of Kurdish nationalists. Some of these people are perhaps connected to the outlawed and violent Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Yet, others represent the Kurdish nationalist Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), a legal force in the Turkish legislature that, nevertheless, refuses to condemn the PKK.

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