Checking In With Dr. Ronen Bergman Part II

Here's Part I.

At the NYT blog, "Room for Debate," they asked several "Middle East experts" for their opinion on the happenings in Iran. Dr. Bergman was one of those they asked.

In Tehran the earth is shaking, but in the Arab world there has been no public official response to the post-elections riots. Bernard Lewis, the renowned orientalist, told me on Monday that this is because Arab governments are concerned about backing the wrong horse.

By contrast, debate is lively in the Arab media and on Arab-language Web sites. But there is one exception: the Palestinians seem almost indifferent to what is going on in Iran. This may seem surprising. After all, the Iranian regime is a major supporter of Palestinian hardliners, providing funding, training and weapons, particularly to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both of whom owe their ability to confront Israel to direct Iranian support. But surfing the major Palestinian Web sites at noon today (Tuesday, Tel Aviv time), reveals very little interest in what is happening in the streets of Tehran.

The most prominent Palestinian to have publicly expressed an opinion on the events is a former Israeli Knesset member, Azmi Bishara, who fled Israel and is wanted for questioning for allegedly spying for Hezbollah.

In an op-ed piece earlier this week in Al Jazeera, Bishara concluded that the events in Iran reflect the views of middle-class Iranians, not those of the majority of the population. And to the extent that Iran becomes more westernized, he stated, this process will result from an ideological clash within the regime itself.

Bishara did not say a word about how all of this might affect the Palestinians. Even when his piece was copied to Hamas’s most active forum, Paldf, it did not give rise to a discussion on what the impact on the Palestinians would be.

Perhaps this is because the Palestinians realize that what happens in Iran — short of a complete overhaul of the regime, which is highly unlikely — is not going to have an effect on the support they receive from the Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Intelligence. This is contrary to the view of much the Western media, which sees the events in Iran as a sign of an impending regime change.

The turmoil in Tehran, as far as the Palestinians are concerned, is a dispute between rival political factions; it does not concern them, and it does not interest them.

The Iranian governmental entities in charge of exporting the Islamic revolution will continue to do so under a reformist government just as they do now and just as they did in the past when the reformist Mohammad Khatami was in office. One way or another, the Iranian regime will keep stoking the flames of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Click the link to read the rest as the rest of the experts hold forth on all things Iranian.

If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

'Pressuring Israel, While Wooing Iran'

To my mind, John Bolton is the smartest, most astute foreign policy commentator. His recent article in the NY Post reminds those who forgot.

All the other regional problems would still exist even if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got his fondest wish and Israel disappeared from the map: Iran's nuclear-weapons program, its role as the world's central banker for terrorism, the Sunni-Shiite conflict within Islam, Sunni terrorist groups like al Qaeda and other regional ethnic, national and political animosities would continue as threats and risks for decades to come.

Instead, the US focus should be on Iran and the manifold threats it poses to Israel, to Arab states friendly to Washington and to the United States itself - but that is not to be.

President Obama argues that he will deal comprehensively with the entire region. Rhetoric is certainly his specialty, but in the Middle East rhetoric only lasts so long. Performance is the real measure - and the administration's performance to date points in only one direction: pressuring Israel while wooing Iran.

In this article, Bolton points out the obvious: Obama & Europe pressure Israel because they are the most reasonable party in this debate. I mean, they could try and put the screws to Hamas & Hezbollah, but those guys only respond to one type of pressure--the type of pressure they then artfully manipulate to make themselves appear to be the injured party (read: placing military/missile installations under & near schools & hospitals; wait for Israel to do something about it; cry "civilian massacre" and "humanitarian crisis"; watch as the liberal mainstream media & useful idiots in the US & Europe dutifully repeat this manufactured & farcical reality).

The other point I want to draw out is this: Just because the aggressor repeats their rationale for wanting to exterminate a country lots and lots of times does not make what they say true. Whatever their imagined insult emanating from the existence of Israel, rest assured that this is pure pretext.

That's not to say that the average Arab-on-the-street doesn't believe it to be so--in fact, I know they do--their mind-slave-masters in control of Iran, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, etc., count on it.

So long as these grievance groups (they operate from basically the same public relations play book as Al Sharpton & Jesse Jackson--only with violence added to the mix) can keep the focus on Israel, the United States, & (insert latest conspiracy involving Western powers), the oppressed populace will continue to ignore the fact that their "leaders" pocket all the "aid" (see Yasser Arafat) that comes from the West they are supposed to hate so much. Meanwhile, for them, everything remains the same--no peace, no prosperity, no democracy, no nothing.

These conflicts and imagined grievances are not for the benefit of the average Palestinian, they are to keep tyrants in charge and money in their pockets.

Want to know why there's no peace in the Middle East?

Ask yourself: Who has the most to lose were peace to break out between Israel and her neighbors?

Now you know why.


If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

'Good Guys' Don't Do This

From Ace:

Hamas Declares "Day of Wrath:" The Day of Wrath will join the other days of the Hamas week, Day of Vengeance, Day of Massacre, Day of Murder, Day of Senseless Bloodletting, Day of Explosively-Expressed Grievances, and of course Day of Intense Cultural Inferiority Complex and Extreme Sexual Confusion which Leads to Outbursts of Psychopathic Violence.

Day of Wrath. Also known as "Friday."

srael is on heightened security alert today after Hamas declared a "day of wrath" after the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Gaza.

Thousands of security personnel were on alert after the Islamists called for "massive marches" after the main weekly Muslim prayers, starting off from the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem and from all other mosques in the West Bank.

Witnesses said that violent scenes had been reported in east Jerusalem, with protesters throwing rocks at soldiers. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that thousands of extra officers had been deployed to deal with the ongoing clashes.

You know who gets my sympathy & wrath? The Palestinian people get my sympathy. For the most part, they do not deserve to be ruled by a bunch of Iran-proxy, terrorist thugs. Hamas and the people who put them in power (some of the former) get my wrath.

Israel is doing about what you would expect of any country who has received over 3000 rocket/mortar attacks in the last year and, you know, believes strongly in self-preservation.


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Don't Blame Israel

Palestine, whatever that is, is ruled by a terrorist-cum-political party, Hamas. They launch attack after attack on Israel and usually, Israel doesn't respond. Mostly, they do this, because the world sympathizes with the Palestinians and hates Israel.

When Israel does respond, we get the usual. And by usual, I mean Israel is condemned, by everyone, for violating cease fires which had already been violated hundreds, if not thousands of times by Hamas.

And Hamas is just like their terrorist friends to the north (Hezbollah) and throughout the world: They use civilians as human shields and political tools. They hide their missile launch sites & HQs and whatnot in hospitals and schools and when Israel takes those launch sites out, some innocents die. It sucks.

They aren't ignorant about this. They know that pictures of hurt Palestinian children on the interweb will get them sympathy and credibility and a soapbox and probably most important, more funding, strike that--"humanitarian aid"-- (I wish I knew how to do the strikethrough) from Europe & the Muslim world and out and out support from Jimmy effing Carter.

Because Israel isn't willing to use its citizens as political props, they have to do whatever they can do to defend themselves. Look folks, if you think Israel is at fault here, you need to study a little history. Sure, they haven't always acted in good faith, but they are not the ones seeking the annihilation of another nation/people like many of their close-border enemies--including the ruling Palestinian political party.

In fact, I think it's written into Hamas's party platform--"Running water, Electricity, and above all else, death to every Israeli man, woman, & child." It's why they're friends with and effectively the proxy for Iran & Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Remember all that "stinking corpse" nuke-'em-off-the-face-of-the-earth rhetoric? Yeah.

But where was the outrage when "Palestinian militants" launched a rocket the day before that killed, rather than just wounding, two Israeli schoolgirls?

Do you think Israel would ever attack Hamas if not for the incessant bombing and rocketing and terrorizing of Israel by Hamas and their agents? Exactly.

According to this report, "Palestinian militants" have rained down more than 3000 rockets and mortars on Israel in 2008--during the supposed cease fire.

All the criticism of Israel? Pure moral equivalence and in some cases, blatant anti-semitism.

Blame Hamas for using kids as shields and props, not Israel for killing the bad guys.

(h/t Mr. Ace-O-Spades)


If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.