12/31/08

December 31, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Holidays | Leave a Comment 

Frank Loesser enjoyed a surprise success with the comedic “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”   His take on the thirty-first of December was, counterintuitively but effectively, more subdued and reflective.  Here’s his “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” by Mary Margaret O’Hara.  2008 was another year during which Ms. O’Hara remained a cult delight; maybe ‘09 will be the year in which she reemerges and adds to her oeuvre.

RN Wishes Old Friends A Happy New Year

December 31, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Nixon family, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

On 31 December 1971, RN was in the Lincoln Sitting Room working on the text of one of the most important —and still understudied— documents of his administration.  It was the strategic overview of his vision of foreign policy that would be sent to Congress on 9 February 1972 under the title U.S. Foreign Policy for the 1970s — The Emerging Structure of Peace.  

On major holidays, both in and out of office, RN placed calls to friends and colleagues and others.  Always high on that list were members of the inner circle —based on brains, accomplishment, loyalty, and character— that had surrounded him for many decades.  Among this group were Don Kendall, Hobe Lewis, Clem Stone, Billy Graham, Bob Abplanalp, Bebe Rebozo, and, perhaps primes inter pares, Elmer Bobst.  

Mrs. Mamdouha (Dodo) Bobst later described how she first met the Nixons:

it was shortly after I was in the United States that I met my late husband, Elmer Bobst, and a couple of months later he asked me if I would like to meet the Nixons in Washington. Of course I was naturally delighted, and we did go, and we spent a delightful afternoon with them. What impressed me most was their affection and how close they felt towards Elmer. When we were leaving, Pat threw her arms around me and gave me a huge — a big hug. All this time I had no inkling that it is the custom in the United States to take the one you intend to marry to meet your family and to get their approval. Well, I think I did pass that test — and I became a member of that wonderful family.

Elmer Bobst’s philanthropy included the Nixon Center, and at the dedication in 1995, Tricia Nixon Cox described the degree of personal warmth and mutual admiration that had long existed between the two families.  She said that Elmer Bobst’s “intelligence, character, loyalty, patriotism, courage and generosity in many areas, including education and cancer research, made him an embodiment of the American dream. A mentor and father-figure to my father in all seasons since 1953, Elmer Bobst, or Uncle Elmer as Julie and I called him, was also a singular friend, who with his wife Mamdouha shared my father’s vision of a more just and peaceful world.”

Thus it was that on the eve of 1971, RN placed a call to the Bobsts in Palm Beach.  It was, of course, characteristic of RN to be at work on New Year’s Eve; and connoisseurs may detect some well-masked incredulity on his part that anybody would rather be dancing and whooping it up at the Beach Club than putting in a few more solid and uninterrupted hours of thinking and writing.

Elmer Bobst was already in his 60s and at a pinnacle of a remarkable business career  — which had included strong support for Eisenhower’s presidential candidacy—  when he met the young Vice President Nixon in the early ’50s.    Mr. Bobst had been born in 1883 in Maryland.  His father had fought for the Union at Antietam and Chancelorsville and been imprisoned at Andersonville.  Young Elmer had hoped to become a doctor.  But he was only  able to finish one year at Franklin and Marshall —thanks to a baseball scholarship— before family financial problems required him to leave and go to work.

He got a job in a drug store in Philadelphia and taught himself pharmacology at night; he passed the state exams and became a registered pharmacist in 1905.  He also taught himself enough law to pass Pennsylvania’s preliminary bar exam in 1907.  Once again family responsibilities required him to postpone pursuit of his own goals.  

Starting out as a pharmaceutical salesman, Mr. Bobst ended up running two of the biggest and most important pharmaceutical companies in the world. He never forgot his early experiences, and the great philanthropist was also a model boss.  In his 1973 memoir (The Autobiography of a Pharmaceutical Pioneer) memoirs he  wrote that “I was so regularly underpaid and overworked that when I reached a position where I could do something about decent working conditions and generous employee benfits in the pharmaceutical industry, I did it.”  

No less a raker of muck and than columnist Jack Anderson called Elmer Bobst “a veritable saint among the robber barons of the drug industry,” who “steered clear of price-fixing and other scandals that have characterized the industry.”

Mr. Bobst advised RN on health issues.  He was very active in the work of the American Cancer  Society, which he later considered to be his most important contribution to humanity.

Mamdouha Bobst was born in Lebanon.  She studied at the American University of Beirut and did post-graduate work in England and America.  She worked for the World Health Organization, and she became the youngest delegate, and the first woman, ever to serve on Lebanon’s mission to the United Nations.

 

2500 Tons Of Humanitarian Aid Sent to Gaza

December 31, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Israel and Palestinians | Leave a Comment 

And 12 Palestinians have been transferred to Israeli hospitals.  This is what the Western media is calling disproportionality? Certainly a convenient fact to subdue in Middle Eastern coverage.

(Hat Tip: Andy McCarthy)

Obama, Nixonionan Pragmatism, And The BCS

December 31, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Barack Obama, Culture, Entertainment, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

William Mattox at USA Today says that the Pres-elect should recognize the brokeness of the BCS system and pick a winner the same way President Nixon did in 69´s College Bowl Championship debacle.

One Culprit, Equal Blame

December 31, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Israel and Palestinians | Leave a Comment 

James Robbins at National Review has more on the moral levelling between Hamas´s aggresion and Israel´s defensive measures and decisive security operations:

One would think that Hamas’s decision to resume large-scale armed conflict would place the burden of responsibility for what has followed on them. Instead, two alternative story lines have developed: One is that Hamas and Israel are equally to blame for the situation, and both must stand down immediately; the other that the crisis is Israel’s fault for responding to the Hamas’s provocations with “excessive force.”

The first story goes like this. Both sides use force. Both sides kill civilians. Both sides must cease this unacceptable behavior and sit down and negotiate. The first problem with this formulation is that Hamas will not ever truly talk to Israel, a state it does not recognize and seeks to destroy. With respect to civilians, when civilians die from Israeli bombs, it is an unintended and unwanted circumstance, whereas Hamas kills civilians by design. The only way for Hamas to “take all necessary measures to avoid civilian casualties,” as U.N. Gen. Sec. Ban Ki-Moon has directed both sides to do, is to stop, well, targeting civilians. (There’s a thought.)

Hamas supporters counter that the blockade Israel imposed on Gaza in 2007 is the equivalent of violence against civilians, since it is they who suffer. But the blockade is in fact an alternative to violence, the very kind of thing that those who object to the use of force suggest.

Ron Howard’s Excellent Questions

December 31, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Frost/Nixon, Richard Nixon, Watergate | 2 Comments 

An intriguing UPI interview with director Ron Howard. Reading Peter Morgan’s play “Frost/Nixon” and then seeing it on stage, he began to ask himself some good scholar’s questions about RN:

“I was rediscovering (the interviews by) watching the play, sort of realizing how brilliant a man Nixon really is,” the filmmaker said. “Realizing he had a lot of tough decisions to make. … (Going through in my mind:) ‘Did he step down because it was the politically expedient thing to do? Was he forced out by political enemies — the media. What really went on?’”

What About Sderot?

December 31, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Israel and Palestinians | Leave a Comment 

On Thursday I was listening to the Michael Medved show, and a caller commented about Israel´s strike on Gaza as disproportionate. Medved noted, and rightly so, that such editorial comments ignore and blame the real victims that are expected to absorb unwarranted and incessant rocket attacks. David Keyes has a more in depth narrative and analysis on the town that is experiencing the conflict on the front lines:

Less than twenty four hours before Israel unleashed its air-force on the Gaza Strip, I sat with four families in Sderot who have been injured and traumatized by Hamas rocket fire. In the hours before Israel ’s incursion, the mood was tense—even by Sderot standards. The streets were barren; everyone is bracing for new waves of rockets. 

Sderot has no shortage of children’s playgrounds—twisty blue and yellow slides, swings and handle-bars. But children are no where to be seen. I do see plenty of bomb shelters.  Every bus-stop in Sderot has been turned into a lime-colored enforced shelter with a single shrapnel-proof window. I enter one of these rooms to see what it is like inside. A car screeches to a halt and the driver dashes out to join me in the shelter. He is panicked and out of breath. Seeing me enter the shelter, he mistakenly thought a rocket was headed our way. I apologize sheepishly for the confusion as he returns to his car and speeds away.

I scan the looming gray clouds above for any indication of incoming rockets or mortars. A single fish-shaped white balloon sitting high off in the distance is my sole source of comfort. It is the Israeli army’s preferred method of identifying incoming rockets. It triggers an alarm which gives residents a few seconds to find shelter. I cannot shake the feeling that at any moment a rocket will fall from the sky and strike me directly. I note the location of every bomb shelter along the way in case I must make a mad dash to safety. 

 This feeling of unremitting and ubiquitous terror is the norm in a community of 20,000 residents.

Featured Articles — December 31, 2008

December 31, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles | Leave a Comment 

Interesting Takes from Home and Head:

Israel, Hamas, and moral idiocy By Alan M. Dershowitz
Much of the world’s response is a false moral equivalence that simply encourages the terrorists.

Fight Fire With a Cease-Fire By David Grossman
NOW, after the heavy blow that Israel has dealt to the Gaza Strip, we would do best to halt, turn to the leaders of Hamas and tell them: Until last Saturday, we restrained ourselves in responding to the thousands of Qassam rockets fired at us.

On Obama’s plate From The Economist
Soon Barack Obama will have to explain how he would tackle the problems of Israel and Palestine

Now Sits Expectation In the Air By Tony Blankley
As President-elect Obama vacations with his family in Hawaii and publicly complains about the intrusiveness of the press pool and the intense scrutiny of his Secret Service team, I suspect about now Obama may be recalling George Bernard Shaw’s heartless observation that: “There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.”

The ‘Market’ Isn’t So Wise After All By Thomas Frank
As I read the last tranche of disastrous news stories from this catastrophic year, I found myself thinking back to the old days when it all seemed to work, when everyone agreed what made an economy go and the stock market raced and the commentators and economists and politicians of the world stood as one under the boldly soaring banner of laissez-faire.

The Fraud of Government Intervention By Robert Tracinski
The top story of 2008 is undoubtedly the revival of the left. After nearly two decades on the defensive following the collapse of the Soviet empire–the definitive example of the failure of socialism–advocates of a government-controlled economy are trying to make a comeback.

Will 2009 Be Another Bad Year for Free Speech? By Janet Albrechtsen
THE media took great delight in reporting the encounter between US President George W. Bush and a pair of flying shoes during his final visit to Iraq two weeks ago. But the great bastions of free speech missed the true significance of an Arab reporter throwing his shoes during a press conference in Baghdad.

Don’t Do It; You’re Perfect Already By David Harsanyi
Each year, on or around Jan. 1, a substantial number of reasonable Americans embark on the futile task of pledging to eliminate one toxic activity or another from their lives. Don’t. You’re already perfect.

Neocons Waxing Neolib?

December 30, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under International Affairs, Nixon Center, Richard Nixon, The National Interest | Leave a Comment 

As historians get to work studying how foreign policy neoconservatives captured the heart and mind of the Bush administration, Jacob Heilbrunn argues that the neocons themselves may be getting set to run home to mamma — the Democratic Party in general and the interventionist secretary of state-designate, Hillary Clinton, in particular. According to Heilbrunn, who also writes for The Nixon Center’s “National Interest” (this article is in “The American Conservative”), the neocons never much liked Republicans:

There can be no doubt that as staunch cold warriors, or, if you prefer, liberal internationalists, the neocons viewed the Republican Party, which was led by Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, both realists and promoters of détente, with unease. The neocons, who had started out as Trotskyists, espoused a social-democratic program in domestic policy. Essentially, they were Hubert Humphrey Democrats. The neocons clustered around Sen. Scoop Jackson, whose adviser was Richard Perle. They didn’t want détente with the GOP itself; they beseeched Democrats to decry their opponents as selling out human rights and American ideals.

We And Ron Howard, Molding Young Minds

December 30, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Watergate | Leave a Comment 

Occasionally I get questions about President Nixon from middle- and high-school students. In the interests of transparency, and so people don’t think we’re too cravenly exploiting such access to impressionable young minds, here’s the latest exchange:

How did the complications after the burglary affect Nixon’s presidency? Please Explain.

The Watergate burglary on June 17, 1972, was solved pretty quickly. The burglars were arrested and put on trial. The problem for President Nixon was the appearance that he had participated in a cover-up of the degree to which people working at his re-election committee and in the White House itself were involved in the burglary by knowing about it in advance and even planning it. There is no evidence that President Nixon knew about the burglary ahead of time. Until his death in 1994, he never really understood why it had even taken place. But he did acknowledge after his resignation in 1974 that he had not worked hard enough to get to the bottom of it. On the White House tapes in June 1972 and again in March 1973, he is heard seeming to agree to a cover-up. I don’t believe that he had criminal intent. But many people believe he did.

If the Watergate never happened, how do you think history would have judged Nixon’s presidency?

Without Watergate, Richard Nixon’s Presidency would be remembered as a great success because of his opening to China, improved relations with the Soviet Union, nuclear arms limitations, ending U.S. involvement in Vietnam and return of our prisoners of war, and course-changing policies in the Middle East, plus his progressive domestic policies including the war on cancer, establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, and peaceful desegregation of public schools in the deep south.

How badly did Nixon damage the country? How long did the country take to heal?

The United States suffered because of President Nixon’s actions during Watergate as well as the severe cultural, social, and political strains placed on it during the late 1960s and early 1970s, especially our argument with ourselves about the Vietnam war, which he inherited from the Johnson and Kennedy administrations. In a way, the argument over Vietnam continues, as you perhaps have seen in the debate over the Iraq war.

What problems occurred in the economy after the burglary? How did they resolve the problem?

While Watergate had no direct economic consequences, the deteriorating economy in 1973-74, especially rising gasoline prices and a recession, made President Nixon more unpopular than he would have been if Watergate had unfolded in good economic times.

Blagojevich’s Choice

December 30, 2008 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under American Politics, Barack Obama, Congress, Democratic Party, Ethics, U.S. History | Leave a Comment 

During the last month we’ve heard a lot of talk about the stupidity of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich as illustrated in his musings as recorded by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office, and in his statements and actions since being arrested as a result of what those recordings captured for posterity.

But his selection of former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to replace President-elect Obama in the United States Senate is a very canny one, which forces his opponents to either reject his action and risk alienating an important segment of the Democratic electorate, or grudgingly accept it, which would, of course, strengthen his position overall.

Under normal circumstances, the Burris choice would be commended in all Democratic circles – a 71-year-old African-American, with a pretty presentable ethical record at least by Illinois standards, replacing another African-American in the Senate, for the first time in American history.

But, of course, the circumstances are far from normal. Senate majority leader Harry Reid is threatening not to seat Burris. It is still unclear just how this can be managed. I cannot recall an instance, from the last century at least, in which a sitting Senator, or one elected to the body or nominated to it by a governor or legislature, was not seated. Just over 40 years ago the House of Representatives refused to seat Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. until a committee’s investigation of his ethics as an officeholder was completed. In that case a special election was called, which Powell won, and he was seated anyway. But Burris has been charged with no offense.

(It is worth mentioning that when the House refused to seat Powell he challenged the action in court; in 1969 the Supreme Court, deciding Powell vs. McCormack, indicated that while Congress had the power to expel a member already sitting in the body, it might not have the power to peremptorily refuse to seat a person who had been elected or appointed to the House or Senate. But the point does not appear to be settled.)

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has said he will refuse the certification necessary in order to send Burris to Capitol Hill, but, again, no reason is being given other than that the person nominating Burris is under a criminal investigation.  The Illinois House has passed a resolution implementing proceedings to impeach Blagojevich, but until the governor actually is convicted and removed from office, it would seem no more impossible for him to nominate a person to serve in the Senate, pursuant to his constitutionally specified duties, than it is for him to sign bills into law – as he has been doing since his arrest, with no one arguing that such an action is null and void.

Although the President-elect made it clear that he was on the side of the Senate leadership in this matter, it may be a risky position for him to take. What reaction there has been so far from prominent African-American figures  suggests that at least some of them are reluctant to have Burris rejected point-blank. There is, after all, no guarantee that another African-American will be elected to the Senate in 2010 – and there have been only five to sit in that chamber in this country’s history. Future developments may take some unexpected turns.

For A Rising 2009

December 30, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Barack Obama, Music | 5 Comments 

The good people at “No Depression,” the best-titled magazine in the universe, are not unexpectedly exulting about the PE’s impending inauguration. All power to them and him. We are especially one nation under God at these times, and all Americans of good will wish our new President and his family Godspeed, just as they give thanks for the best efforts of President Bush.

“No Depression” also posted this Bruce Springsteen appearance at an Obama rally just before the election, a little speech followed by a solo accoustic performance of “The Rising.” The song doesn’t fit well with politics. It’s about the sacramental self-sacrifice of brave firefighters and police officers, both Democrats and Republicans, on Sept. 11. But it’s his song, and it’s a magnificent one, so here goes:

Castro/Nixon

December 30, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Cold War, Cuba, Richard Nixon | 3 Comments 

As the Cuban government celebrates the proud achievement of perpetuating Stalinism for 50 years, a reprise of a couple of my New Nixon blog entries from early 2008, as Fidel passed the fatigues to Raul. The first, posted on Feb. 23, was written after a distinguished journalist tried to lay what he characterized as the failure of U.S. policy at the feet of you-know-who:

In this NPR commentary, Daniel Schorr (a distinguished reporter and commentator and regular participant in Nixon Center programs in Washington) argues that 50 years of misguided U.S. policy toward Cuba began when Vice President Nixon, after meeting Fidel Castro, said he was “incredibly naive about communism.” Schorr implies that every misstep in U.S. Cuba policy, from the Bay of Pigs invasion to the Kennedy Administration’s assassination schemes, grew from RN’s observation. That’s hard to believe based on Mr. Nixon’s complete analysis, contained in a long memo he sent President Eisenhower after meeting alone with Castro for three hours in April 1959:

Whatever we may think of him he is going to be a great factor in the development of Cuba and very possibly in Latin American affairs generally. He seems to be sincere. He is either incredibly naive about communism or under Communist discipline — my guess is the former, and as I have already implied his ideas as to how to run a government or an economy are less developed that those of almost any world figure I have met in 50 countries. But because he has the power to lead to which I have referred, we have no choice but at least to try to orient him in the right direction.

When Castro argued that his people didn’t want free elections because they’d produced bad results in the past, Mr. Nixon replied that he should therefore hold elections as soon as possible “to restore the faith of the people in the democratic processes.” Castro soon demonstrated that he had no interest in redeeming Cuban democracy. As for the naive faith in communism Mr. Nixon identified, it laid waste to Cuba’s economy and turned it into Moscow’s pawn (and a potential ground zero) in the missile crisis of 1962.

Mr. Nixon acknowledged the force of Castro’s personality, predicted his regional influence, and tried to persuade him to serve his people. How could he have done better?

 Too late for W. An opportunity for O?

Like Marriages, U.S.-China Ties Strained By Money

December 30, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

AP’s survey of the approaching 30th anniversary of the establishment of U.S.-PRC relations, which began under Richard Nixon:

The countries have now developed a more “complex and mature” relationship — one that can withstand the inevitable frictions that will arise, said Zhu Feng, director of the Center for International and Strategic Studies at Peking University.But it is the level of economic interdependence that has become most striking. China now owns more than $500 billion in U.S. government bonds, more than any other nation. During the presidency of George W. Bush, as Chinese exports to America boomed, China’s trade surplus hit $163.3 billion in 2007.

The biggest challenge going forward will not be political so much as economic, experts say. With the countries’ economies so deeply linked, the continuing global financial crisis will take top priority for Barack Obama when he assumes the presidency Jan. 20.

“Both of us are feeling the pain of the economic slowdown. The question is whether we’re going to be able to find a way to work cooperatively or whether we fail and move toward blaming each other,” [veteran diplomat and China watcher J. Stapleton] Roy said. “If anything has been shown, it’s that our economies are so closely linked now, neither can punish the other economically without inflicting pain on itself.”

Stubborn Gov

December 30, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under American Politics, Congress | Leave a Comment 

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has made his choice for Obama’s Senate successor, and the Senate Democrats don’t want to seat him.

Featured Articles — December 30, 2008

December 30, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles | 1 Comment 

Interesting Takes from Home and Head:

Samuel Huntington’s Warning By Fouad Ajami
He predicted a ‘clash of civilizations,’ not the illusion of Davos Man.

Coming Soon: The 21st Century By E. J. Dionne
Social and political epochs rarely end precisely on schedules provided by calendars. Many historians date the end of Europe’s 19th century to 1914 and the outbreak of World War I. What we call “The Sixties” in the United States, with its ethos of reform and protest, ended with Richard Nixon’s landslide re-election in 1972 and the winding down of the Vietnam War.

Move On Up By Chris Smith
The case for having the inauguration right after New Year’s.

Hamas Knows One Big Thing By Bret Stephens
If only it were a parable, the endless confrontation between Israel and its enemies would be the case of the hedgehog and the fox. The fox, said the Greek poet Archilochus, knows many things, while the hedgehog knows one big thing.

Minnesota’s Recount Fiasco Needs New Solution By Kevin Hassett
The Minnesota Senate race between Democratic comedian Al Franken and Republican incumbent Norm Coleman has turned toward Franken.

Words That Matter By Anne Applebaum
On Christmas morning, my husband found a CD of “The Greatest Speeches of All Time” in his stocking. It was, if I may say so, an inspired gift. The title did prove somewhat misleading: Richard Nixon’s “I am not a crook” speech really didn’t belong in this august collection, and I might not have chosen Winston Churchill’s 1940 radio address as the sole example of his wartime rhetoric (“I have invincible confidence in the French army and its leaders”).

Not All Stimuli Are Created Equal By Lawrence B. Lindsey
The best plan is a cut in the payroll tax.

Cuba today, 50 years of Castro’s reign By Carlos Gutierrez
Fifty years ago on Jan 1, 1959, Fidel Castro’s rebels marched into Havana overthrowing the Batista dictatorship and promising the people of Cuba a revolution based on democracy, prosperity and social justice. Instead, the Cuban people have been abused and repressed for half a century.

Insight into Bush’s ‘promising’ Middle East By Daniel Pipes
In one, Bush himself offered a valedictory speech, declaring that “the Middle East in 2008 is a freer, more hopeful and more promising place than it was in 2001.” In the other, an Iraqi journalist, Muntadar al-Zaidi, expressed disrespect and rejection by hurling shoes at Bush as the US president spoke in Baghdad, yelling at him: “This is a farewell kiss! Dog! Dog!” Ironically, Zaidi’s very impudence confirmed Bush’s point about greater freedom; would he have dared to throw shoes at Saddam Hussein?

Why Israel Feels Threatened By Benny Morris
Iran’s nuclear threat, the rise of Hamas and Hezbollah and Israeli Arabs’ growing disaffection with the state offer challenges that Israel’s leaders and public find difficult to counter.

Je Ne Suis Pas Né Hier

December 29, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Israel and Palestinians, Media, Middle East | Leave a Comment 

Powerline’s John Hinderaker explains the deceptive news media bias which plagues and tilts world opinion against Israel on a daily basis. France’s Agence France-Presse (AFP) is the latest to conveniently leave out some very vital statistics.

How Dogma Changes

December 29, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under International Affairs, Iran | Leave a Comment 

Cliff May on the coarsening of culture in Iran since the Shahs overthrow in 1979:

Over the years since, anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans have become as ubiquitous in Iran as the easy-listening music pumped into shopping malls in the U.S. Maghen notes that these slogans are yelled by fans when goals are scored at soccer matches, and in response to bravura sitar solos in concert halls.

“Even during the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca,” he writes, “Iranian participants have replaced their traditionally pious ejaculations of ‘I am at your service, O Lord, there is none like unto You!’ with responsive Persian cursing sessions aimed at the Hebrew- and English-speaking enemies of everything that is holy. Like the daily ‘Two-Minutes Hate’ in George Orwell’s 1984, this venom-spewing is the mantra upon which an entire generation of Iranians has been raised.”

Conventional wisdom has held that such relentless repetition drains words of significance, and that most Iranians harbor no “heartfelt hatred” for Jews, Israelis, or Americans.

However, Maghen says, anyone familiar with mass psychology knows that “the truly horrific atrocities in human history — the enslavements, the inquisitions, the terrorisms, the genocides — have been perpetrated not in hot blood but in cold: not as a result of urgent and immanent feeling but in the name of a transcendent ideology and as a result of painstaking indoctrination.”

One Winner, One Loser

December 29, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under International Affairs, Iran, Islam and the West, Israel and Palestinians, Middle East, Terrorism | Leave a Comment 

Michael Ledeen on the looming Iranian threat, and how Israel should react to it:

Like the global totalitarian movements and regimes that threatened Western civilization in the last century, the Iranians come with a messianic ideology that admits no compromise with its enemies. This war will only end with a winner and a loser, not with two contented negotiators. We can win this war–we’ve delivered a stunning defeat to Iran and her proxies in Iraq, for example–and our most powerful weapons are political, not military. Had we taken the war to Tehran, the terror forces in Gaza would, at a minimum, be a lot weaker today, as they would be in Afghanistan and Lebanon. But we continue to dither, and the new American leaders are fooling themselves when they say that vigorous diplomacy can induce the mullahs to retreat. It won’t happen, any more than the Israelis got the terrorists to retreat from all-out war against the Jews when the Oslo Agreement was signed, or when Rabin shook hands with Arafat. It only delayed the days of reckoning, at the cost of many lives, mostly of innocents, on both sides.

No Just War For Israel

December 29, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Israel and Palestinians | Leave a Comment 

Noah Pollack explains that Israel’s armchair presidents, or Juice Box Mafia as he calls it, won’t endorse a prescription for peace in the Middle East.

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