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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Rubin: The Danger of Revolutionary Islamism

Scholar and political analyst Barry Rubin provides some useful information and offers some advice, in his latest article, about what he terms Revolutionary Islamism:

The Obama Administration should acknowledge that the United States confronts a huge—but not united--revolutionary movement [Revolutionary Islamism] which has major assets. Elements control Iran, Syria (not Islamist but allied with it), Sudan, the Gaza Strip, and now in part Lebanon, too. There are major elements in the Pakistani and Turkish governments that lend it aid and comfort. It is also fueled by Saudi Wahabi Islam and money.

[Revolutionary Islamism] is fighting in two dozen countries, from Indonesia, the Philippines, China, and Thailand in the east, to Morocco and even within Europe on the western flank. That movement is also challenging for authority in every Arabic-speaking country and trying to destroy Israel.

The following should be instructive to those who (a) want  either to blame all Muslims or Islam itself for the behavior of  jihadi Islamists; or (b) who chose to believe that the concept of military jihad is not present in the sacred Islamic texts. -- MF

[T]raditional Islam in most places was socially reactionary but also relatively moderate. While jihad was part of the sacred texts, no one was advocating that it be carried out. Suicide attacks were viewed as a heretical activity. ... [R]evolutionary Islamism reinterpreted conservative traditional Islam. ...[Revolutionary Islamism] used deep-seated beliefs and values ...[and] made them into something quite different.
JPost: Netanyahu has good meeting with Mubarak

1. Egypt's Foreign Minister: Netanyahu  seems to genuinely want to try to resume negotiations with the Palestinians.

2. US envoy George Mitchell expected to  bring documents setting the basis for restarting diplomatic discussions.

3. Netanyahu, in a speech Monday to 140 Israeli ambassadors and heads of delegations currently in Jerusalem for a series of high-level briefings, emphasized the importance in his mind of Palestinian acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state, and said that demilitarization was Israel's key security requirement for any future Palestinian state.

Recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, Netanyahu said, was necessary for any agreement with the Palestinians that would lead to an end to the conflict.

"We want an end to the conflict," he said. "That means the Palestinians must stop attempts to use a Palestinian state as jumping-off point for further claims against Israel. No claim to flood Israel with refugees, which would mean the end of theJewish state; and no irredentist claims to the Negev, Galilee or Israeli citizens, which would mean the dissolution of the Jewish state."

Regarding Israel's demands that any future Palestinian state be demilitarized, Netanyahu said this would necessitate preventing the import of rockets and missiles that could be fired into Israel, as was currently the situation in Gaza and Lebanon.

He said the situation in Lebanon, and the rearming of Hizbullah despite Security Council Resolution 1701 prohibiting just that, proved that agreements on paper were ineffective.

"I am doubtful that anyone can do this except a real Israeli presence, Israeli forces," he said, intimating that in any future agreement with the Palestinians, Israeli forces - not international ones - would have to be on the eastern border of a future Palestinian state to prevent it from importing arms and staging attacks against Israel.