| 38 of worst 50 countries persecuting Christians are Muslim Posted: 13 Jan 2012 12:30 PM PST Here are the countries ranked as the 50 worst in persecuting Christians during 2011: - North Korea
- Afghanistan
- Saudi Arabia
- Somalia
- Iran
- Maldives
- Uzbekistan
- Yemen
- Iraq
- Pakistan
- Eritrea
- Laos
- Northern Nigeria
- Mauritania
- Egypt
- Sudan
- Bhutan
- Turkmenistan
- Vietnam
- Chechnya
- China
- Qatar
- Algeria
- Comoros
- Azerbaijan
- Libya
- Oman
- Brunei
- Morocco
- Kuwait
- Turkey
- India
- Burma (Myanmar)
- Tajikistan
- Tunisia
- Syria
- United Arab Emirates
- Ethiopia
- Djibouti
- Jordan
- Cuba
- Belarus
- Indonesia
- Palestinian Territories
- Kazakhstan
- Bahrain
- Colombia
- Kyrgyzstan
- Bangladesh
- Malaysia
Nine of the top ten, and 38 of all 50, are Muslim countries. Given this list, UN Watch points out the irony that the Organization of the Islamic Conference sponsored a UN resolution entitled "Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping, stigmatization, discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons, based on religion or belief." 
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| Netanyahu: "For the first time I see Iran wobble." Posted: 13 Jan 2012 10:30 AM PST From The Australian (registration required):  Benjamin Netanyahu is cast as the ultimate "heavy" of the Middle East. But after a long discussion in this small office, a discussion sandwiched between meeting the Indian foreign minister in the morning and a delegation of powerful US congressmen in the afternoon, Netanyahu extends our time together for a few minutes because there's one thing he likes to show visitors.
He leads me over to his window.
"You see this," he points to a small collection of stones taken from an archeological dig. The stones are dated from nearly 3000 years ago. This is the signet ring of a Jewish official of that time. And the official's name was Netanyahu." The Israeli leader never misses an opportunity to emphasise the long, deep connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.
He is, I suspect, all the things he is said to be: tough, ruthless, determined, qualities it is hardly surprising that an Israeli Prime Minister will possess. But he is also intensely self-aware, full of irony and humour, constantly making jokes he then rules off the record.
He is, in his own words, committed to peace and a fair settlement with the Palestinian people. But, for the moment, he is most of all concerned with the threat from Iran. At last, he believes, international pressure is starting to bite.
"For the first time I see Iran wobble," he declares, in words that will surely shake the Middle East.
Tehran is wobbling, in Netanyahu's view, "under the sanctions that have been adopted and especially under the threat of strong sanctions on their central bank".
Netanyahu believes they just might work: "If these sanctions are coupled with a clear statement from the international community led by the US to act militarily to stop Iran if the sanctions fail, Iran may consider not going through the pain. There's no point in gritting your teeth if you're going to be stopped anyway. In any case, the Iranian economy is showing signs of strain."
A few days before we meet, Iran announces it is moving a big nuclear facility underground. This would make it harder to hit. Netanyahu is trenchant, but measured, in response: "Iran is brazenly violating international law and its own commitments. It's trying to sneak underground its nuclear weapons program.
"It's enriching uranium now in two facilities. I believe this is a great danger to the peace of the Middle East and the world as a whole."
Netanyahu wants to stress that it is not only Israel that would be endangered by an Iran with nuclear weapons: "The greatest threat facing humanity is that nuclear weapons will meet up with a radical Islamic regime, or that a radical Islamic regime may meet up with nuclear weapons. The first will happen if the Taliban takes over Pakistan. The second will happen if the ayatollah regime were to acquire nuclear weapons. Either one would be a catastrophic development for peace, for the supply of oil to the world, for the peace and safety of many countries, first of all my own, but also many others."
If Iran is the most acute issue Israel faces, the agonising effort to find a modus vivendi with the Palestinian populations in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem is the most chronic and pathological. Shortly after he became Prime Minister for the second time three years ago, Netanyahu surprised many by declaring his commitment to a Palestinian state.
"My vision of peace is a demilitarised Palestinian state that recognises the Jewish state of Israel," he said.
For much of the past three years the Palestinians have demanded that Israel stop all construction beyond the 1967 borders, that is, in the West Bank, and in the Jewish suburbs of East Jerusalem, and said it would not enter peace negotiations without that pre-condition being met. Israel responded that East Jerusalem occupied a different status from the West Bank and that within the West Bank it would not occupy any more land for Jewish settlements, but would not stop construction within existing settlements. This week, for the first time in a very long time, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in Jordan to talk directly. What does Netanyahu hope these talks can achieve?
"The most important thing to come out of them is a commitment to have continuing negotiations in order to achieve an agreement. We're prepared to do that, the Palestinians aren't. They keep piling on pre-conditions for the beginning of such negotiations. I think this is a mistake.
"Israel is prepared to sit down without pre-conditions, the Palestinians are not. There's a simple way to prove it. I'm willing to get in a car and travel the eight minutes, 10 minutes, from here to Ramallah and sit down to negotiations immediately with (Palestinian) President (Mahmoud) Abbas. He is not prepared to do the same thing with me. This may not be the fashionable international perception, but sometimes it's important to cut through the accepted perception and get to the truth."
But could a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians really be practical in today's environment?
"We can't know until we do it. Obviously much has changed in the last year with the convulsions that have rocked the Arab world. This increases our concerns for our security because we are concerned that any territory we vacate will be taken over by radical Islamic forces. That has happened already twice - Lebanon taken over by Iran's proxy, Hezbollah. And when we left Gaza and it was taken over by Iran's proxy, Hamas. We cannot let this happen a third time, to have the Judean and Samarian (West Bank) mountains taken over by Iran.
"Israel would be left in a tiny corridor - 10 miles wide by the sea, and have over 100,000 rockets targeting our cities, our air fields, our vital installations. So, naturally, we are concerned about having security safeguards."
When a nation is absorbed with as many immediate threats and issues as Israel is, it can be easy to lose sight of the longer term, the more fundamental questions. But Netanyahu is deeply absorbed in both Jewish tradition and the wider world of ideas. He recently read Gertrude Himelfarb's study, The People of the Book, which recounts the tale of pro-Jewish sentiment within British history, what Netanyahu calls "philo-Semitism". It is perhaps typical of Netanyahu's robust outlook that he likes to take consolation from the existence of philo-Semitism as much as he is sobered by the evidence and legacy of anti-Semitism. Nonetheless, I ask him why there is so much hostility to Israel in the world. "First of all, it's not so uniform as one might think. I just had breakfast with the Indian foreign minister. We talked about great projects of co-operation. It was a very positive conversation. We have similar experiences with China, which we feel has a desire for greater co-operation with Israel. Both countries express a real appreciation for Israeli technology. Israel has become a world power in technology: in agriculture, in medicine, in irrigation, in telecommunications, in IT, in cyber and in many other areas.
"Our president just went to Vietnam. Israel, I would say, is quite popular in Asia. People judge that it makes sense to have a close collaboration with Israel in the 21st century, the century of knowledge. I said in jest to the Indian foreign minister that together our two countries comprise about one sixth of humanity. We're small, but we punch above our weight."
Netanyahu is actually making a profound point here. Israel is making very big gains in Asia, which an Atlantic-centric Western media and the Arab world both tend to miss. Israel is making significant progress in Asia diplomatically, economically, in all measures of trade and in military-to-military exchanges. And it's not just in Asia that Netanyahu has something positive to talk about: "The same thing is happening in Africa. I'm going there soon, but I just had visits from the leaders of Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan. They're concerned with the Islamist tide above them.
"We have excellent relations with many countries of central Europe. They're concerned with the Islamist tide to the south. Canada is like the other Australia, or Australia is like the other Canada, an extraordinary country.
"I would also mention that small, little-known country called the United States of America. The support for Israel in the US has skyrocketed. It has always been high, but it has gone up year by year."
Netanyahu cites a plethora of polls to bolster this claim, and continues: "An overwhelming swath of the American public identifies with Israel because they view it as sharing the same values and ideals as the US.
"So the description of Israel as isolated in the world is not correct.
"I didn't even talk about certain connections we have in the Arab world where there is concern with the directions things might go."
Nonetheless, Netanyahu certainly acknowledges a deep hostility to Israel in parts of the Western press and in parts of the Arab world: "Where you have this antagonism to Israel, it is intensified in certain segments of Western European opinion, not necessarily European opinion as a whole, but Western European opinion.
"Obviously you have bastions of friendship there for Israel, but you also have an amalgam, a strange union between radical Islamists and radical people on the fringe of European politics.
"It's almost as if the Anarchists join the Islamists. These radicals speak often of being progressive, of being for gay rights, women's rights and so on. The only point of common cause they make with radical Islamists is animosity to Israel and to the US. Israel is seen as representing the US. It's the most anti-Western forces in the West that cause the problem. They can sometimes even shape the positions of some governments."
Is traditional anti-Semitism a part of this?
"There is traditional anti-Jewish feeling in the Islamist movements. That is different from traditional European anti-Semitism. There are two forces in the West - traditional anti-Semitism and philo-Semitism. In the 19th century philo-Semitism won. There was a shift in the inter-war years. The pendulum has swung from very strong support for Zionism in British intellectual circles to opposition.
"In general the European vision of Israel is different from the American. The formative European experience in foreign affairs was colonialism. The formative American experience was nation-building. Some Europeans wrongly conceive of Israel as a foreign implantation in someone else's land. We don't view ourselves as foreign interlopers in our own land."
The wearer of the signet ring, that earlier Netanyahu officiating in Jerusalem those millennia ago, no doubt felt the same. (h/t P) 
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| What does it mean to be pro-Israel today? Posted: 13 Jan 2012 08:47 AM PST Moment magazine has a very interesting (and somewhat puzzling) list of people answering the question "What does it mean to be pro-Israel today?" I would answer it a bit differently than the esteemed contributors. An important Jewish concept is to be " dan l'chaf zechut," to give the benefit of the doubt. And if there is a distinction to be made between the pro-Israel and the anti-Israel crowd, it is that the former practices this dictum with respect to Israel and the latter tramples upon it. When anything happens in Israel that looks bad on the surface, the vast majority of the time it can be shown to have been misunderstood or even fabricated. The psyche of Israelis is one of morality; while there might be exceptions one cannot fairly say that Israel is an immoral country. There is always another side to the story, one that sadly does not get the publicity of the seemingly bad one. To be pro-Israel is to start with the assumption that Israel is right, and to be skeptical when things look otherwise. In the end, perhaps the explanation will not be satisfactory, but one needs to make the effort to at least find out what it is. If you are truly pro-Israel you would first do everything possible to find out the truth. That is what support means. In short, being pro-Israel means treating it the way you would treat your own loving family. It is a shame that some people who call themselves "pro-Israel" do the exact opposite - they take every sensationalist story out of the region as a priori proof that Israel is in the wrong. That is not "pro-Israel" by any definition. The excuse that they are doing it "for Israel's good" rings hollow when their antipathy is so consistent. Being pro-Israel means that you are willing to be dan l'chaf zechut towards the Jewish nation. 
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| "Freedom Convoys" to Syria blocked in Turkey and Jordan Posted: 13 Jan 2012 07:20 AM PST From Gulf Daily News: Authorities prevented a convoy of 200 opposition activists yesterday from entering Syria via Turkey with medical aid for victims of the ongoing uprising.
Some of the activists said they had travelled from as far afield as the US and western Europe in order to join the so-called 'Freedom Convoy' which included five buses and several cars.
Brandishing Syrian flags, the convoy was initially stopped by Turkish police at a lay-by, 15km from Oncupinar customs gate in the southeastern Turkish town of Kilis.
And a delegation from the convoy which approached the border was later turned back by Syrian officials and returned empty-handed.
"Our delegation was denied entry and so we have decided to stay here until we reach a decision all together," said Dalati Bilal, a 42-year-old Syrian-American businessman who had travelled to Turkey from California.
"If the Syrians refuse (to let us in) then we will just camp here until they allow us to.
"The whole idea of the convoy is to support the Syrian people inside, to show that we are with them even if it's so little what we are doing. They are dying for freedom."
Zeyna Adi, one of the organisers, said a second "Freedom Convoy" which had been hoping to enter Syria via Jordan was cancelled at "the last minute" after being blocked by the authorities there. Curiously, no one seems to be blaming Turkey and Jordan for stopping them. 
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| Islamists tell us their plans, Westerners hope for the best Posted: 13 Jan 2012 06:00 AM PST From MEMRI: Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon delivered by Egyptian cleric Ali Abu Al-Hasan, which aired on Al-Hekma TV on January 6, 2012:
Ali Abu Al-Hasan: With the [Muslim] emigration [to Europe], and the unwillingness to get married and have children [among the Europeans]… A hundred of people there are succeeded by eighty, and ten years later, those eighty will be succeeded by sixty, and those sixty will later be succeeded by forty, and those forty will become ten a decade later, and twenty years later, not a single one of them will be left!
Europe has realized this. After a while, Europe will become a single Islamic state, which will know nothing but "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His Messenger." This will happen whether they like it or not. This is the decree of Allah. Islam is coming! But if this message gets you upset, please latch onto what British Foreign Secretary William Hague has to say about the Arab Spring: Electoral success by parties rooted in Islam has led some to fear that change may be for the worse. But to say that Arab Spring has turned into cold winter is wrong. Such pessimism misses the extraordinary opportunities that popular demand for freedom and dignity bring...[G]reater freedom and democracy in the Middle East is an idea whose time has come. It holds the greatest prospect for the enlargement of human freedom and dignity since the end of the Cold War.
It is true that parties drawing their inspiration from Islam have done better at the polls than secular parties and there are legitimate concerns about what this will mean. ...But these parties will be under pressure to stick by their pledges to share power and chart a moderate course.
Now is not the time to lose faith in the Arab awakening — but to show the same boldness in our thinking as the people of the region have shown in their actions. See? Now you can breathe easier again. Things will all work out great. As long as you have faith. (h/t Israelinurse) 
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| Salafi leader in Egypt: Forbidden to greet Christians on their holidays Posted: 13 Jan 2012 04:30 AM PST From Al Masry al Youm: Abdel Moneim al-Shahat, a senior figure in the Salafi-oriented Nour Party and the official spokesperson for the Salafi movement in Alexandria, said in a television interview on Wednesday that giving festive greetings to Copts on their occasions is forbidden under Islam.
Shahat is known for making controversial statements based on his extreme Salafi views, and some blame him for causing his party to lose seats during the recent parliamentary elections.
His comments on Wednesday came during an interview with Moataz al-Demerdash, the presenter of the "Masr el-Gededa" talk show on the privately owned on Al-Hayat satellite channel.
In the same interview, Shahat said: "The maximum tolerance for this belief [Christianity] is that I tell them: "You have your own religion, and I have my own religion."
He continued: "The Christian is a partner in my homeland, but this has nothing to do with greetings."
His stance contrasts with official views on the matter of greeting Copts during Christian holidays, with many Muslim establishment figures attending public occasions related to Christmas and Easter, and publicly greeting figures from Christian denominations. The Salafist Nour party has received roughly 25% of the vote in the parliamentary elections. You can read Shahat's opinion on Christmas in this article. 
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| Unity! Haniyeh says Abbas tried to stop leaders from meeting him Posted: 13 Jan 2012 02:48 AM PST Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh is accusing Mahmoud Abbas of attempting to prevent the leaders of Arab countries from meeting him on his recent mini-tour. Haniyeh said in a speech in Gaza City on Thursday, "I told by the brothers in Tunis, that Abbas sent a message to prevent the President of Tunisia from receiving me. "Tunisia is a country of law and it received Haniyeh as the legitimate Prime Minister according to the law." It appears that Haniyeh's charges are correct. There have been other reports of the PA being upset at his trip, acting like the Prime Minister of Palestine. Moreover, Fatah apparently planted a false story in the Palestinian Arab media about Meshal telling Arab leaders not to meet with Haniyeh. Another manifestation of Hamas/Fatah "unity" - scheming behind the scenes to take the other side down. (h/t CHA) 
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