“Killing Jews is worship that brings us closer to Allah” Add Campaign

Controversial posters that state “Killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah” will be allowed to appear on public buses and trains in New York City. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Koeltl ruled against the city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which had tried to reject the advertisements on the grounds that they might incite violence against Jews.

MTA staff “underestimate the tolerant quality of New Yorkers and overestimate the potential impact of these fleeting advertisements,” wrote Judge Koeltl in his decision. “Moreover, there is no evidence that seeing one of these advertisements on the back of a bus would be sufficient to trigger a violent reaction. Therefore, these ads—offensive as they may be—are still entitled to First Amendment protection.”

Pamela Geller, president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), called the ruling “a triumph for liberty and free speech.” AFDI, a pro-Israel advocacy group, is behind both the MTA lawsuit and the posters, which feature a young Muslim man in a headscarf (ostensibly) expressing the murdering-Jews-pleases-Allah sentiment. “That’s His Jihad,” the ads read. “What’s yours?”

AFDI claims its goal is to criticize Hamas and radical Islam. But in creating anti-Semitic, pro-violence ads that can easily be read as created by Muslims, it seems the group—which has routinely described Muslims as “savages”—may have another agenda, as well.

“Whatever you make of the group, AFDI has been remarkably successful in bringing its message to America,” notes Michael E. Miller at The Washington Post. “AFDI has filed at least nine lawsuits across the country, often against cities or their contractors that refuse to display their messages,” which also include a depiction of Muslim leaders meeting with Adolf Hitler.

While private transit companies could reject such messages, ad space on public transportation is subject to the First Amendment. Perhaps people should rethink their support for government-run transit—not free speech—if this situation bothers them. Another way around the issue without infringing on constitutional rights would be for MTA to ban all advertisements or at least all non-commercial advertisements (something it won’t do because it needs that revenue). As long as buses and subways are government run, however, and as long as they allow political messaging of some sort, we simply can’t have city officials judging which political messages deserve broadcast and which do not.

MTA at least knew that it couldn’t make arbitrary, content-based distinctions on which political ads it would allow, which is why it tried to claim the AFDI ad goes beyond being offensive to actuallyinciting violence—an assertion Judge Koeltl wholly rejected. “The defendants contend that the advertisement could be read as urging a subset of Islamic extremists to follow Hamas’s command, but if that group is as violent and radicalized as the defendants contend, presumably they would not need a bus advertisement to remind them of Hamas’s interpretation of the Quran,” he wrote.

As to MTA’s claim that allowing the ad would run counter to public interest? “Securing First Amendment rights,” wrote Koeltl (quoting an earlier case), “is in the public interest.”

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Netanyahu to Palestinians: When you want peace, let us know

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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu criticized the Palestinian Authority on Monday, saying that its threat to dissolve and the ruling Fatah faction’s efforts to forge unity with Hamas indicate a lack of desire for peace.

“Today, we saw the Palestinian Authority speak of dismantling itself and also talking about unity with Hamas,” the premier told revelers at a Mimuna celebration in Or Akiva. “They should decide – either dissolve, or enter into a union with Hamas. When they want peace, they should let us know. Because we want a genuine peace.”

Palestinian officials in Ramallah on Monday denied that the Palestinian Authority has been considering dissolving itself if the peace talks with Israel fail.

Some officials were quoted over the past few days as saying that President Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to dismantle the PA in protest against the lack of progress in the negotiations.

The reported threat, which comes as the April 29 deadline for the end of the peace talks approaches, is seen as an attempt to exert pressure on the US and Israel to comply with Palestinian demands, especially regarding the release of prisoners.

Members of the Fatah Central Committee who met in Ramallah on Monday night to discuss the crisis in the peace talks did not have the issue of dissolving the PA on their agenda, according to a senior Fatah official.

Gen. Adnan Dmeiri, spokesman for the PA security establishment, dismissed the talk about dissolving the PA as an “Israeli invention.” Israel was trying to create frustration among Palestinians by spreading such reports, he claimed.

The PLO Central Council, which is expected to meet later this week, does not plan to discuss the dismantlement of the PA, said Wasel Abu Yusef, a top PLO official.

The council would discuss the situation in Jerusalem, the prisoner release and efforts to establish a Palestinian unity government headed by Abbas, Abu Yusef said.

“No one is talking about the option of dissolving the Palestinian Authority,” he said.

“Rather, we are talking about international recognition of a Palestinian state and our efforts to join international treaties and organizations.”

Another PLO official, Qais Abu Laila, also ruled out the possibility that the PA might be dismantled. He said that this was “unrealistic” option and would not be on the agenda of the PLO council meeting. “I don’t believe that dismantling the Palestinian Authority is a healthy and right measure,” he said. “This would be suicidal.”

PLO Executive Committee member Tayseer Khaled said the dismantlement of the PA was not on the table. The Palestinians should instead reconsider their relations with Israel if the peace talks fail, especially with regards to economic and security cooperation, he said.

“If Israel does not abide by the agreements, the Palestinians also won’t adhere to them,” Khaled said.

However, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency quoted unnamed sources in the PA leadership as saying that the PA might be dissolved as a result of Israeli “intransigence.”

The sources said that the PLO’s Negotiating Department has begun studying ways of dissolving the PA and the repercussions of such a move.

The threat to solve the PA was not an “exercise,” the sources said. This option is on the table, they added.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, meanwhile, said the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority would constitute an “extreme step” that would “obviously have grave implications.”

“We, the United States, have put millions of dollars into this effort. It would obviously have very serious implications for our relationship, including our assistance going forward,” she warned at her daily press briefing in Washington.

“A great deal of effort has gone into building Palestinian institutions, by Palestinians, as well as by the international community,” she said. “It would certainly not be in the interest of the Palestinian people for all of that to be lost.”

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In Britain, Police Arrest Twitter And Facebook Users If They Make Anti-Muslim Statements

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British police are arresting people in the middle of the night if they have made racist or anti-Muslim comments on Twitter following the murder of a soldier by two Muslims in Woolwich, London.

Three men have so far been taken into custody for using Twitter and Facebook to criticise Muslims.

In the Woolwich attack, Lee Rigby, a drummer in the Royal Regiment of Fusliers, was run down in a car and then hacked and stabbed to death by two men with knives and a cleaver. They told a man video recording the scene that it was vengeance for the killings of Muslims by the British Army.

One man has been charged with “malicious communications” on Facebook, the Daily Mail reports.

Two others have been arrested under the Public Order Act on suspicion of inciting racial or religious hatred. The police are now arresting people based on mere speech in social media, a detective said in a statement to the press:

‘The men were arrested under the Public Order Act on suspicion of inciting racial or religious hatred. Our inquiries into these comments continue.

‘These comments were directed against a section of our community. Comments such as these are completely unacceptable and only cause more harm to our community in Bristol.

‘People should stop and think about what they say on social media before making statements as the consequences could be serious.’

The arrests come at the behest of British Muslims, who fear a backlash against them following the death of Rigby, the New York Times says:

The police and Muslim groups have said that there have been anti-Muslim episodes in many parts of the country, the most common involving derogatory messages on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

A number of arrests have been made, with criminal charges being leveled in some cases under laws against inciting racial or religious hatred, and Muslim community leaders have reported rising concern among the estimated 2.5 million Muslims in Britain.

Two men were detained in the middle of the night after they expressed anger at Muslims on Twitter, the Independent quotes police as saying:

“We began inquiries into the comments and at around 3.20am two men, aged 23 and 22, were detained at two addresses in Bristol.

“The men were arrested under the Public Order Act on suspicion of inciting racial or religious hatred. Our inquiries into these comments continue.”

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Muslim anti-Semitism is only decades old, Obama claims

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Experts are scoffing at President Barack Obama’s apparent belief that widespread Muslim hatred of Jews is only decades old.

“Obama reveals that he has no idea, or doesn’t want to give the impression that he has any idea, about the reality of Islamic anti-Semitism,” said Robert Spencer, the author of many books on Islamic ideas and director of Jihad Watch.

“Anti-Semitism is hard-wired into Islam,” from its origins before 700, said Andrew Bostom, author of three books about Islam, including “The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism,” which lists centuries of anti-Semitic hatred, murders, pogroms and apartheid-like discrimination.

Intellectuals, politicians and diplomats are loath to admit the centrality of anti-Semitism in Islamic beliefs, because it fuels conflict with Israel and the West and it can’t be fixed by Westerners, Bostom said. ”You’re dealing with an intractable situation, and people hate intractable situations,” he said, adding “diplomats are the worst.”

In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Obama described the Muslim hatred of Israel as byproduct of recent fights, not as a consequence of Islam’s doctrinal objection to any Jewish government.

“With respect to Israel, the interests of Israel in stability and security are actually very closely aligned with the interests of the Sunni states,” Obama said.

The “Sunni states” are nations populated by Arabs who believe in the mainstream Sunni version of Islam. In contrast, Iran advocates the Shia version of Islam, which is endorsed by roughly 10 percent of Muslims.

“What’s preventing them from entering into even an informal alliance [against Shia-run Iran] with at least normalized diplomatic relations is not that their interests are profoundly in conflict but the Palestinian issue, as well as a long history of anti-Semitism that’s developed over the course of decades there, and anti-Arab sentiment that’s increased inside of Israel based on seeing [Jewish] buses being blown up,” Obama said.

“If you can start unwinding some of that, that creates a new equilibrium,” he said.

“The Palestinian issue,” is the refusal by Muslims to recognize the right of Jews to have a Jewish government in the historically Jewish homeland around Jerusalem.

However, the refusal to recognize Israel is entwined with Islamic anti-Semitism, which Obama claimed “has developed over the course of decades there.”

Obama’s “course of decades” comment “ignores the numerous anti-Semitic teachings of the Quran and other Islamic texts — most notably the Quran’s designation of the Jews as the worst enemies of the believers,” Spencer said.

For example, Spencer cited the fifth chapter of the Quran, which declares that “If [Jews] believed in Allah and the Prophet and that which is revealed unto him, they would not choose them for their friends. But many of them are of evil conduct. Thou wilt find the most vehement of mankind in hostility to those who believe (to be) the Jews and the idolaters.”

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Arkansas: More Creeping Sharia In Public Schools; Teacher Attempts To Sneak Muslim Speaker To Class On 9/11

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Liberal Academia pushing Islam on the children. In case you missed this one, there was a report at JihadWatch and numerous other sources that a Boston school (Concord-Carlisle High) replaced the Pledge of Allegiance with a Muslim poem on the anniversary of 9/11.

Now if that isn’t infuriating enough, there is another report out of Arkansas in which a school attempted to sneak in a Muslim speaker to proselytize on the 9/11 anniversary.

Parents weren’t told and Liberal media was surprised that parents would have a problem with this. Notice in the video report below, how the media managed to find the one parent and one student to push the “diversity” meme. Interestingly, the school canceled it due to a multitude of outrage, yet the media was at a loss to find at least one parent to represent the opposing opinion voice?

Hat Tip to RightScoop and CreepingSharia who reports the following:

Again, note the sneaky manner in which a teacher invites a Muslim to proselytize impressionable young kids ON 9/11! Without even telling the parents! And note how the media focus on those who sympathize with Muslims.

Contrary to the grandmother’s opinion, she should preach her understanding meme to Muslims and see how that works out.

It was only 30-some miles away in 2009 that another Muslim waged jihad in Little Rock, Arkansas shooting up an Army recruiting base killing one and wounding another. The Sister of professed jihadi says he changed after converting to Islam. Another foreign-funded Muslim group in Little Rock was planning a Muslim-only enclave in the area back in 2006. But we should just understand them and let them preach to our children?

So who was the Muslim speaker? What Islamic group(s) is he a member of? What mosque does he attend? Has the school vetted him and his level of adherence to sharia law? Is he part of the separatist group mentioned above?

Despite the cancellation, it appears only temporary. That’s right, the Muslim dawah has been RESCHEDULED.

Read more here to get the school contact info.

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Thousands Flee In S Philippines As Islamic Violence Spreads

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Philippine President Benigno Aquino said he would deploy the “full force of the state” if needed to protect civilians as a standoff between troops and Muslim rebels dragged on for the fifth day in the restive south.

“There’s a thin line that can’t be crossed, putting civilians’ lives at risk,” Aquino said in a televised briefing yesterday from Zamboanga city, occupied in parts by rebels since Sept. 9. “When that line is crossed, I will be forced to not only show, but use the full force of the state,” he said.

 Philippine soldiers look at enemy positions as they try to protect residents putting out fires in their homes during a fire fight with Muslim rebels in Zamboanga City, Mindanao island on Sept. 12, 2013. Photograph: AP/Getty Images

The rebel Moro National Liberation Front “will be starting war” if its forces are attacked, Emmanuel Fontanilla, a spokesman for the group’s leader Nur Misuari, told ABS-CBN by phone yesterday.

The violence is complicating efforts to end four decades of insurgency on the island of Mindanao. Nearly 30,000 people are displaced, Adriano Fuego, a regional spokesman for the Office of Civil Defense, said by phone yesterday. At least 22 people have been killed, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala said in a mobile phone message, while about 100 members of a separate rebel group tried to enter nearby Lamitan city yesterday and a two-hour firefight wounded six soldiers.

Aquino needs to reach out to Misuari and ask his men to stop the attacks, Rommel Banlaoi, executive director of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research said by phone. “Without opening the channels of communication, there’s no other direction but continuing violence, which can spill over to other areas,” he said.

‘Strategic Advantage’

A prolonged standoff in Zamboanga would give the MNLF a “strategic advantage” and highlight Aquino’s difficulty in bringing peace to the area, Banlaoi said. “People are clamoring for decisive action,” he said.

Escalating violence could be “very damaging” to the business and investment climate in Mindanao, which accounted for 15 percent of the Philippine gross domestic product last year, IHS Global Insight Asia-Pacific Chief Economist Rajiv Biswas said in a note yesterday.

The fighting coincides with the resumption of peace negotiations with a separate rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, threatening government efforts to end an insurgency that has killed about 200,000 people and stifled development in Mindanao.

The violence “is a reflection of the inability of the Aquino administration to come up with a much more inclusive approach to creating peace in Mindanao,” said Richard Javad Heydarian, a political science lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University. “What is needed is an expanded table of negotiation.” The MNLF and founder Misuari are not involved in the peace talks which resumed this week.

Meeting Delay

At Misuari’s request, Indonesia postponed a meeting between the MNLF and Philippine government representatives on a review of their 1996 peace deal, Aquino’s peace adviser, Teresita Deles, told ABS-CBN by phone yesterday. Misuari was head of the MNLF when the accord was signed and later served as governor of the autonomous Muslim region in the south.

Soldiers are keeping a tight cordon around areas in Zamboanga, Zagala told ABS-CBN by phone yesterday. The military supports negotiations with rebels loyal to Misuari, Zagala said.

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‘EITHER YOU CONVERT TO ISLAM, OR YOU WILL BE BEHEADED’

Scenes in Darkoush, Syria - 21 Apr 2013

The village of Maaloula has been taken over by Syrian rebels associated with al Qaeda, who have stormed the Christian center and offered local Christians a choice: conversion or death. A resident of the town said the rebels shouted “Allahu Akhbar” as they moved through the village, and proceeded to assault Christian homes and churches.

“They shot and killed people,” he said. “I heard gunshots and then I saw three bodies lying in the middle of a street in the old quarters of the village. Where is President Obama to see what has befallen us?” Another witness stated, “I saw the militants grabbing five villagers and threatening them and saying, ‘Either you convert to Islam, or you will be beheaded.’”

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The village is located just 25 miles from Damascus, and sites within the village are dedicated as United Nations world heritage sites. Residents still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. The rebels who took over the city are associated with the al Nusra Front, an al Qaeda-associated Islamist group. Villagers reported foreign dialects ranging from Tunisian to Libyan, from Moroccan to Chechen.

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Tens of thousands of Tunisians march against Islamist-led govt one of largest protests to date

Supporters of the Islamist Ennahda movement light flares and wave flags during a rally in Tunis

Tens of thousands of Tunisians have marched on the seat of the elected assembly demanding the government resign in one of the largest opposition protests to date.

Saturday marked 40 days since the assassination of opposition politician Mohammed Brahmi, whose killing has plunged the country into a political crisis.

Dozens of opposition members of the assembly withdrew from the body, paralyzing its work of writing the country’s new constitution. Weeks of mediation between the government and the opposition by the main labor union have not borne fruit.

The opposition is demanding the Islamist-led government resign for what they say is its failure to ensure security or manage the economy in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

“We are determined to continue the struggle to extract the country from the disastrous situation it finds itself in because of those in power,” said Beji Caid Essebsi, leader of the right-of-center Nida Tunis (Tunis Calls) party, one of the main opposition groups.

“After the blood, Ennahda has no legitimacy,” chanted demonstrators who came from all over the country to answer the opposition call for the march.

When Tunisians overthrew their decades-old authoritarian government in January 2011, it sparked a wave of pro-democracy uprisings across the region, but the transition to democracy has been rocky since.

“Leave! The dictator understood, but you still don’t understand,” chanted the marchers, referring to how Tunisia’s president fled for Saudi Arabia in the face of popular demonstrations.

The opposition is demanding the Islamist-led government resign immediately for what they say is its failure to ensure security or manage the economy. The latest standoff is the greatest crisis of the transition and a solution acceptable to both sides appears to still be distant.

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Putin’s Love Letter To America

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How do I put this politely? You Americans are dumb. Today, Russia and America are fighting each other over fighting the Muslim radicals. Instead, we should be uniting to crush these violent Islamists, once and for all.

You Americans want to remove my ally, the Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad. To borrow a phrase from your John F. Kennedy, Assad may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s my son-of-a-bitch.

So if you want to destroy him, what are you going to give me in return? If your answer is, “We will give you nothing,” well, why would I ever agree to that? That’s not negotiation, that’s dictation; it’s a return to the bad Yeltsin days, when Holy Mother Russia was pushed into the mud like a used whore.

Look, I’ll be the first to say that Obama’s “red line” comment was dumb. It’s obvious he hadn’t thought it through; one can see it in the words he used to express his policy. He said that the “red line” would be crossed if “a whole bunch” of chemical weapons were used. What kind of language is that? How does one quantify a “whole bunch”? This is the President of the High-and-Mighty United States, and he’s talking like a schoolboy? All for this silliness over sarin in Syria?

Do I think that Assad did it? Gassed those people? I don’t know; I’ve never asked him. He’s certainly capable of it, and yet only the Americans think that the case against Assad is a “slam dunk.” Everyone else agrees that the case is murky. Everyone else follows the first rule of intelligence-gathering: Consider the source–namely, the pro-rebel media. In this instance, the rebels were losing, and then they got “gassed”–and now Uncle Sam is rushing to their side. How convenient.

The Romans, who knew something about both imperialism and trickery, always asked, cui bono–who benefits? Well, the beneficiaries in this episode are the rebels–also known as Al Qaeda. Way to go, Americans!

So let’s check some other news items: Here’s a June 6 item from a Turkish newspaperreporting on “the case of Syrian rebels who were seized on the Turkish-Syrian border with two kilograms of sarin.” And it’s not just the Turks: Carla Del Ponte, the Swiss-born former UN Prosecutor for War Crime Tribunals, has echoed those same charges against the rebels. They’re the bad guys!

Yet could this evidence against the rebels all be Russian disinformation? Hey, we’re good, but not that good.

Meanwhile, go ahead: Look for this information in your mainstream American media–your so-called “free press.” You can barely find it. Yankee lapdog reporters will cover everything that Obama says, and everything that John McCain says, but they won’t send reporters to warzones to go and actually figure out what happened.

Nor will American “presstitutes” remind their people of their own country’s history of helping the Iraqis use poison gas, all the time, in the 80s.

Yes, American reporters are sheep. They try to figure out what Obama wants them to write, and then they write it. Or if Obama doesn’t have a clear line on some topic–which is often–they look over the shoulder of the reporter next to them and copy that. Like I said, sheep.

The result is a herd mentality, showing no understanding of what true necessity truly looks like.

Here’s an example of a real “red line”: It’s June 24, 1812, and Napoleon Bonaparte, having conquered all of continental Europe, is now leading a half-million soldiers across the Neman River, invading Russia, heading straight for Moscow. Six months later, Napoleon retreats in disastrous defeat, but only after he burns our sacred capital and leaves 200,000 Russians dead in battle. Now that’s a red-line situation.

But even the Czars, those blockheads, weren’t dumb enough to send Russian forces halfway around the world because someone wasn’t being nice to someone else.

So in my time, I can hardly get worked up over Assad using poison gas–if he did. Dead is dead, I say. In any case, Assad is adhering to the first rule of a leader: Stay in power. And so you do what it takes.

In fact, I’m not against gas warfare; I’m for gas warfare, if that’s what it takes. For example, I would love to gas the Chechens–all 1.2 million of them. They are like cockroaches, murderous Muslim cockroaches, and if the Chechens had done to Americans what they have done to Russians, maybe the US public would want to join with us. Oh wait, they have: The Boston Bombers, those Tsarnaev brothers, were Chechens. You took them in–against our advice. You put them on welfare for a decade, ignored our intelligence warnings, and then they terror-bomb you. The Chechens deserve to be fumigated. As an aside, what’s wrong with your media? They seem like “useful idiots”–to borrow Lenin’s phrase–for the terrorists. That Rolling Stone cover? Really? That would never happen in Russia.

In addition, there are another billion or more Muslims to the south of Russia–and a lot of them are trouble, too. Indeed, Russia has been fighting Muslims all across Central Asia for centuries. It’s not easy.

But the American leaders don’t seem to understand any of this. They are lost in their silly theories about liberation, human rights–all that nonsense. They don’t see that the struggle with radical Islam is a war, pure and simple. It’s a war that should unite all the civilized countries of the world. I didn’t say “democratic,” I said “civilized.”

One Western journalist who at least begins to understand where I’m coming from is The New York Times’ Steven Lee Myers. In his report of August 28, Myers accurately describes the Putin view of what’s been going on in the Middle East:

“In his view, the United States and its partners have unleashed the forces of extremism in country after country in the Middle East by forcing or advocating change in leadership — from Iraq to Libya, Egypt to Syria.”

That’s right. Over the last 15 years, from Clinton to Bush 43 to Obama, America has stirred up all the hornet-nests in the Middle East. For the most part, those angry hornets are far away from the US, but those insects are on Russia’s southern border–starting with those lousy Chechens.

And it’s not just the Americans stirring things up; it’s flunky-countries, too. It still kills me to think back to what British Prime Minister Tony Blair said just a few weeks after 9-11. In a speech that made the Americans swoon, Blair chose to regard all the coming wars as a great opportunity for international do-gooding.

After talking up the importance of “freedom,” Blair cited all needy peoples of the Muslim world and declared, “They, too, are our cause.” What kind of bull is that? Radical Muslims kill you, and so you want to go help them? Put them on welfare? America put its blacks on welfare, and were they grateful? Did they become less violent? Yet in Blair’s mind, these same Muslims were supposed to be grateful for all this “help.” That was the theory.

Then Blair concluded with these lines:

“This is a moment to seize. The kaleidoscope has been shaken. The pieces are in flux. Soon they will settle again. Before they do, let us re-order this world around us.”

And of course, that’s what Blair and Bush did–they reordered the Muslim world. But not in a good way. They made it much worse!

Look, I’m a conservative. I have my imperial ambitions, to be sure, but the last thing I want to do is send all the pieces of the world-kaleidoscope fluxing around. We’ve had enough gratuitous messing things up in our own history, whether by Ivan the Terrible or Comrade Stalin. I want order–Russian Orthodox order.

So I’ve been predicting, all along, that the Bush-Blair crusade wouldn’t work–and I’ve been right, all along. A Reuters reporter quoted me as saying on September 1:

“We need to remember what’s happened in the last decade, the number of times the United States has initiated armed conflicts in various parts of the world. Has it solved a single problem?” 

And the answer, of course, is “no.” The US made things worse. Today, look at Syria.

Indeed, by my count, the US has led six major interventions in the Muslim Asia and Africa over the last 30 years: Reagan in Lebanon, Bush 41 and Clinton in Somalia, Bush 43 in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Obama in Libya and Egypt. None of them have worked out well. And so now, Syria!

Needless to say, I’m happy to see the Americans make fools of themselves once again. Anything that weakens Uncle Sam helps Mother Russia.

Yet even so, after all this, I could be persuaded to make a deal with Obama on Syria. Other US presidents have done just that; they have gone over the heads of the crummy little countries they were fighting in some benighted corner of the world, and reached a war-ending agreement with us Russians.

That’s what Nixon did with Brezhnev in May 1972, as Vietnam was still raging. He said, in effect, I need to get out of this stupid war, but I must look tough so I get re-elected. So you Russians, pretty please, look the other way while I bomb the crap out of the North Vietnamese. So the US can stand tall on its way out of Vietnam, secure a “decent interval,” and not obviously lose our honor. And then we’ll owe you one. 

Brezhnev went along, Nixon bombed and then got out, and the result was “detente,” a notable warming of US-Soviet relations in the 1970s.

So that’s the kind of deal that Obama could make with me today on Syria. Coincidentally, he’s coming this week to St. Petersburg for the G-20 Summit; we could easily peel off some time and figure out how to solve the Syria question.

Yet once again, Obama would have to give me something in return. What would it be? A free rein in Chechyna? A blind eye toward the incremental reclaiming of lost Soviet territories, back into the Russian Motherland? Or just a simple bribe? Who knows. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

But that rendezvous at the bridge almost certainly won’t happen, because Obama doesn’t seem to think he needs me for anything.

Indeed, he is going out of his way to stick his finger in my eye: Just on Monday, we learned that the President is going to be meeting with “gay” groups while in Russia, as a not-so-subtle statement against recent Russia’s anti-homosexuality crackdown. He is meeting with my enemies! Right in my own country! I don’t do that to him. I don’t come to America to meet with, say, the National Rifle Association.

Yes, Obama would rather cultivate the worldwide “gay” constituency than work with me to solve Syria. The Americans still think they can have it all: They think they can clobber Assad in Damascus, snub me here in Russia, and pander to their liberal sexual constituencies.

In other words, they get everything, and we get nothing. The Americans have had it so good for so long that it just doesn’t occur to them that they might have to make some tradeoffs.

We Russians know about tradeoffs. Back during the Great Patriotic War, in ’42, the Nazis were besieging both Leningrad and Stalingrad. The Red Army had to manage its resources: Do we seek to relieve Leningrad in the north and keep a million people from starving, or do we relieve Stalingrad in the south and keep the Hitlerites from capturing our oil resources? We did the latter, of course, and not only did we save the Hero City of Stalingrad, but we wiped out the entire German Sixth Army.

So yes, it was a tough tradeoff, the kind you have to make when you need to win. Hundreds of thousands in Leningrad died–including my uncle–but the tide of the war was shifted, and the USSR was saved.

Today, of course, I will make it my business to see to it that Obama gets none of what he wants. I will help Assad, I will subdue the homosexuals here in Russia, and I will be still be in power when Obama is laughed off the world stage.

Yet while I will savor the prospect of humiliating Obama, I still lament the lost opportunity–the lost opportunity to focus on the real enemy, which is Islamic radicalism. We can deal with Saudi Arabia, that’s for sure–but even they have trouble with the crazies. They would be glad to have our help. But we should do it together, so that one party doesn’t come to dominate.

The Americans, the Europeans, the Israelis, the Christian Africans, the Chinese, and the Indians all have something in common with us: The jihadis are our collective enemy. From Nigeria to Libya, from Syria to Chechnya, we see terrorism and strife.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that we can manage this problem–again, if we work together. Let’s look at the globe. The truth is that we have Islam surrounded: east, west, south and north. So we, the civilized people, should make a deal.

For starters, let Russia reoccupy the Central Asian states–the five “Stans”–that broke away during Russia’s most recent time of troubles, in the early 90s.

In return, I will turn Assad over to his fate, and so will the Chinese. Why? Because the Chinese are cursed with 50 million or so Muslims in their westernmost province, Xinjiang, which is right next to Russia. So as part of the same deal, the Chinese get to suppress–I guess that’s the nice way of putting it–their restive Muslims.

Wait, there’s more. Under this new deal, the Israelis can do what they want with the Palestinians. My fellow ex-Soviet citizen, Avigdor Lieberman, the former foreign minister of Israel–he gets this. And he’s still close to Bibi.

And together, we can all deal with those two most troublesome nations: Iran and Pakistan.

Iran is a lot closer to Russia than it is to America–I don’t want those nuts to have nuclear weapons! But I have defended Iran to keep the Americans from filling the space instead. I’d rather have the ayatollahs in Tehran than a hostile US Army, bent on still more “liberation.”

As for Pakistan, the Americans are only beginning to figure out how badly they have been played by those guys. All along, the Pakistanis have using all their US foreign-aid money to boost the Taliban.

Those Americans–they thought they were so cool for helping to push the Red Army out of Afghanistan in the 80s. And look what they got after that–Osama Bin Laden in his new home.

Now, 25 years later, the Americans are finally giving up on their missionary work in Afghanistan. If we ever have to go back to bring order there, it will be no more Mr. Nice Guy! But Pakistan is the real problem–they make Afghanistan possible.

So those are the real evil empires: Iran and Pakistan. Bringing them to heel won’t be easy, of course, but we Russians have never shied away from strong measures. The Americans could learn a lot from us.

So that’s my vision. Let’s stop worrying about silly little niceties about the right and the wrong way to fight a war. Let’s stop trying to bring democracy to barbarians. Instead, let’s bring them the only thing they understand–force.

Let’s all of us–Moscow, Washington, London, Paris, Brussels, Jerusalem, Lagos, Addis Ababa, Beijing, New Delhi–come together in a new Holy Alliance, similar to that which kept Europe safe from radicalism in the early 19th century. Let’s join one another to crush the unholy, unruly, jihadi Muslims. The good Muslims will thank us for it. And if they don’t–too bad.

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DEVELOPING ALERT: Major Threats Force Closure Of All U.S. Embassies In Muslim World

USEmbassyBaghdad

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is shuttering its embassies and consulates throughout the Muslim world on Sunday after receiving an unspecified threat, officials said.

State Department officials said Thursday that they were taking action out of an “abundance of caution.”

Spokeswoman Marie Harf cited information indicating a threat to U.S. facilities overseas and said some diplomatic offices may stay closed for more than a day.

Other U.S. officials said the threat was in the Muslim world, where Sunday is a workday. American diplomatic missions in Europe, Latin America and many other places are closed on Sunday.

Those officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The State Department issued a major warning last year informing American diplomatic facilities across the Muslim world about potential violence connected to the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

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