Lisa Goldman Travels to Lebanon

I have read of Lisa Goldman's amazing adventures in Lebanon, and I must say, please take a look! She wrote it about here and here. This is an independent blogger who is connected to Sandmonkey, a personal friend of mine. I am rather positive she is no "Mossad agent," but of course that was Hezby's spin on this.

Speaking of Hezby...France, under Sarkozy, is acting rather France-like towards them. They want to have direct talks with Hizballah. Somehow this escaped the radar of the news AND the blogs...but it is distressing. I was so excited about Sarkozy, but then this.

With that said...can you blame France? Olmert wants to have direct talks with Syria (ostensibly to give away the Golan Heights), and announced it on the same day that Syria invaded Lebanon!

It seems there is simply a general tenor of defeat and surrender. People just do not seem to care that Hizballah is an organization designed to destroy Lebanon. It hopes to turn it into an Islamic fundie state! Moreover, Hizballah/Syria are behind the murders of any and all politicians who actually seek to better the lives of the Lebanese. Just in the last few years, Rafik Harriri was killed. Pierre Gemayyel was killed. Walid Eido was killed just a few weeks ago. Walid Jumblatt lives with round the clock bodyguards, fully aware of the assassination plots on his life.

And what is this for? To those who support Hizballah, I ask you...what do you hope to accomplish? Do you really believe your problems will be solved if Lebanon becomes a Judenrein state? (yes, Lebanon has Jews, yes a goal of Hizballah is to kill EVERY SINGLE LAST JEW IN LEBANON!) Why do you believe the Lebanese should be held hostage to a brutal dictatorship (Syria - the nation that ultimately calls Hizballah's shots) that is totally cool with mass butchery OF THEIR OWN PEOPLE? Do you just enjoy savagery? Do you enjoy blood letting? Do you believe human life is worthless? Or are you going to tell me that this is really the work of the Zionazis? Are you really going to sell that bill of goods to me, someone who has a Lebanese Jew as a friend, and whose friend witnessed Syrian agents torturing his cousin to death? Who personally had to flee Lebanon because he is on Nasrallah's death list?

Is this your grand vision of Lebanon? Totalitarian Islamic dictatorship, Judenrein, women in burqas, constant prayer, no human rights, and no joy.

Seems pretty grim to me.

EDIT: I would like to add that Bush's stance on this is rather hypocritical. His administration castigated Pelosi's trip to Syria, and rightly so. But I ask: Why is there a U.S. Embassy in Damascus, and none in Jerusalem? Bush has had more than six years to correct this, and has done nothing. This stasis has gone on long enough. Bush is part of the problem...

...But with Olmert seeking direct talks with Assad...can you blame him? Shouldn't Jews take the lead in vigilance against monsters such as Assad? And when Jews DON'T take the lead (and decide defeat and surrender is the ideal policy)...it seems natural to me that others would agree and follow suit.

My meeting with Elliott Abrams

As mentioned previously, I met with the Deputy National Security Advisor to the United States, Elliott Abrams, a few weeks ago. He was at a local area synagogue, and spoke after Friday night services. The main subject of his talk was Jews in government. Essentially, his claim was that from the 1960s-1990s, it was basically a nonissue to see a Jew in government. However, with the Walt and Mersheimer paper, suddenly, the outside community (not the Bush administration) sees it as a problem that Jews are in government. He said that there are now college courses at elite universities that look at whether the "Israel lobby" and AIPAC control US foreign policy. The Walt/Mersheimer paper is read, and then the Dershowitz response paper is read. Both are 'debated,' to determine the 'truth' of whether AIPAC and the "Israel lobby" control foreign policy. Imagine that. Imagine if there was a class where Holocaust denial literature was read on par with Elie Wiesel's books, and the "truth" of it were debated. Such is the state of modern American academia. Truly frightening. Abrams said that he feared for the future generations, saying he saw antisemitism on the rise not just abroad, but here on American soil, in American academia.

After his talk, there were many questions and answers posed. I raised my hand and asked the first question. My question was: "In light of the fact that Yassir Arafat's uncle was a Nazi who was an architect of the Final Solution, and that Fatah's roots are indeed in Nazism (and there is no indication that Abbas/Abu Mazen thinks any differently)...why is Israel and the US fooling itself by pretending that somehow Abu Mazen is 'moderate' and should be 'negotiated with'?"

Abrams's response was very instructive. He said that Abu Mazen may not be a moderate by "our standards," but he was someone who at least "wanted to talk." However, Abu Mazen has little power, and so it's basically pointless to speak to him until and unless he does have power. He then went on a long sidenote about how moderates rarely do end up in power in these sorts of nations. According to this 'logic,' then it would be up to the US and Israel to do all that is possible to empower Abu Mazen.

But here is where you kind folks will be enlightened. After the talk, a little birdie told me that some people close to Elliott Abrams completely disagree with his characterization of Abu Mazen as "someone who wants to talk," and a "relative moderate," but could not say so publicly. This little birdie also thanked me for saying what I said publicly.

Interesting, no?

Other tidbits from Abrams...

He spoke of Iran and its nuclear threat, and then said that the Democrats wanted to put language into a bill that would take the military option OFF the table for Iran. He said (and I agree with him) that the only way to be effective with Iran is to keep the military option on the table, and he admonished many Jewish organizations who remain silent about this. He also spoke support of the democracy project in these Muslim nations. He believes that democracy is ultimately the answer, since no democracy is a threat to the world.

Afterwards, I privately approached Mr. Abrams. I said to him "Mr. Abrams, respectfully, how can you say that democracy is the answer, when in Egypt, if there were fair elections, the Muslim Brotherhood would be elected TOMORROW? And the same is true in most of the Muslim world. Democracy? What about Indonesia, where the "democratically" elected president said the Holocaust never happened? What about Iraq, where it looks likely that there will be sharia law? Islam itself is both a political system and a religion. Isn't THAT the problem?"

His response was basically that Egypt is in the state it is in because Mubarak (president of Egypt) has suppressed all opposition parties, and hence the ONLY choice now is the Muslim Brotherhood. He said democracy is a long term, not immediate solution there. Then he said that the Indonesian PM who denied the Holocaust was, after all, voted OUT. He spoke ultimately a line about optimism. And he did so privately - with no one else nearby to even listen in. In short, this is what he really believes. I also mentioned Sandmonkey (with regards to democracy in Egypt) - and yes, Mr. Abrams has heard of him.

There you have it, folks. An inside track into the mind of a top official in the Bush administration, and my interaction with him. I hope you enjoy this read.

I should say that after the talk with Mr. Abrams, I spoke with a director from the Obsession movie (who attended this event), about radical Islam and the like. It was interesting that he did not know much to anything about India. He also thought Robert Spencer's words were "extremist," but he has read his books.

My next post will be a detailed rendering of my attendance at the US-Indian-Israeli relations event.

Blogger Abdel Kareem in Egypt jailed for insulting Islam and President Mubarak

Abdel Kareem, a blogger in Egypt, was sentenced to FOUR YEARS in prison for insulting Islam and Mubarak. You can read about it here. Very troubling to think of the implications this verdict has on people like Sandmonkey. This is extra troubling:

Seconds after he was loaded into the truck and the door closed, an Associated Press reporter heard the sound of a slap from inside the vehicle and a shriek of pain from Nabil.

You know what that will mean for Kareem. He will be tortured in prison. He likely already is being tortured. If you would like to do something about this, I suggest writing to the Egyptian Embassy. The link is here. Maybe together, we can make a small difference.

A message from the Sandmonkey!

Are you plagued by a world of uncertainity? Do you read the news everyday and you are horrofied by what you read? Do you want to do your part in the good fight, but don't know how or why, and feel helpless for it? Do you sometimes feel that evil is winning the world over, and you can't do anything about it? Well, now you can, by voting for Rantings of a Sandmonkey in the weblog awards Linkie linkie! It's the only way to be sure! I want you to do it everyday. I want you to dream about it! I want u to wake up in the morning and ask urself, did I do my part to ensure a better world for my kids? did I vote for the monkey today? Is it true that his opponents said bad things about my Mama? Am I just gonna let this slide? Or am I gonna do something about it? Stand up for your mama, and the world, and vote for Rantings of a Sandmonkey! You know she would want you to do that! See you at the polls, The Sandmonkey