M E N O R A H

The Rise of Islamic No-Go Zones

Three and a half years ago, one of the Church of England’s most senior bishops, Pakistani-born Michael Nazir-Ali, warned that Islamic extremists had created “no-go”areas across Britain too dangerous for non-Muslims to enter. His politically incorrect concern sparked a firestorm of denial and criticism. The Muslim Council of Britain, for example, dismissed it as the Bishop’s “frantic scaremongering” and “intolerance,” and scoffed,

We wouldn’t allow “no-go” areas to happen. I smell extreme intolerance when people criticise multiculturalism without proper evidence of what has gone wrong.

Well, the evidence of how multiculturalism “has gone wrong” is in. This week Soeren Kern at the Hudson Institute documented the proliferation of such no-go zones throughout Europe – autonomous Islamic “microstates” under Sharia rule (having rejected their host countries’ legal systems), where non-Muslims must either conform to the cultural, legal, and religious norms of fundamentalist Islam or expect to be greeted with violence. As Daniel Pipes puts it, “a more precise name for these zones would be Dar al-Islam” – the House of Islam, or the place where Islam rules. More

Libya: Father slits throats of three daughters raped by Gadhafi's troops

As we noted in a prior report on the risk of honor killings and rape in Libya, this is the population from which a tolerant, pluralistic civil society is supposed to spring forth now that it's no longer hindered by a lone autocratic weirdo. A democracy is only as good as the values that inform its participants, and therein lies peril for human rights in Libya in the near future.

The National Transitional Council's draft constitution enshrines Sharia as the source of legislation. Despite the law's brutal and specific punishments for other acts it defines as criminal, a parent who kills a child may face no penalty at all under Sharia. More

The chairwoman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee proposes a clause blocking funds to UN members who back the PA's statehood bid

Florida's Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is determined to stop the Palestinian Authority from carrying out its statehood bid in the United Nations – or at least, from discouraging most of the international community from supporting it.

The chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee announced Tuesday she has advanced a measure to block U.S. funding to any U.N. member or group that supports an upgrade to the PA's diplomatic status in the international body next month. More

The West Bank distortions industry

This campaign of distortions, bias and, sometimes, outright lies is well documented by a host of bloggers and organizations – such as Honest Reporting and Camera.

One of the players in this campaign is the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), an organization that is supposed to be impartial and to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees.

Now UNRWA has apparently decided to interfere in the already explosive situation in the West Bank and joined the general disinformation campaign against Israel. More

Rep Allen West: "America is my physical homeland…. Israel, however, is my spiritual homeland"

Jordan closed Bethlehem to Christians from 1949 until Israel opened the gates. Now the PA bars a Jewish guide on Congressman’s tour.

After tracing the word from the Roman word Palestina under the Roman Empire, he wrote, “After World War I and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the British Mandate referred to the region in this term, Palestine. And all residents, Jews and Arabs, had passports declaring them from Palestine.

“Let us no longer operate under the misconceived notion that Palestine has anything to do with being Arab. For those who tout, “Free Palestine,” I agree, return it back to the inhabitants [Jews] who had the land taken from them back in the early 1st Century AD by the Romans.” More

Bringing Jihad TV to America

Leftists are pushing to make Al Jazeera’s English language channel widely available on college campuses and cable TV networks throughout America in order to undermine public support for Israel.

Radical activist Phyllis Bennis explained the importance of the TV channel at a recent “Campaign for Al Jazeera English” event in Washington, D.C., hosted by a group called Rethink Press.

She demands that U.S. aid to Israel be eliminated and accuses Israel of “crimes” and “apartheid.” Bennis condemned the Israeli navy’s interception of the pro-Palestinian flotilla last year that aimed to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip as a “pirate-style assault” and a “massacre at sea.” More

The Palin Doctrine: For Israel?

Palin's vision of US military policy: If we have to fight, we fight to win. To do that, we use overwhelming force.

In May, Governor Palin gave a speech at a “Tribute to the Troops” event at Colorado Christian University. As part of this speech, Governor Palin outlined a clear vision of American military policy, which has now become known as the Palin doctrine by many: More

Glenn Beck's visit to Israel this week revealed what it takes to be a friend of Israel

Beck came to Israel to launch a global movement of activists committed to supporting Israel, not in order to "rape" it, but in order to empower it to defeat its enemies and to stand up to an increasingly hostile world. In his speech under the Temple Mount, Beck roused his audience - which contrary to media reports was a mix of American Christians and American Jews joined by scores of Israelis - to action. With gripping prose, Beck told his audience to disregard the "convenient" lies about Israel and embrace the truth. More

Nigerian Pastor of Millions Visits Samaria

Nigerian Pastor Enoch Adeboye, in Samaria: "When you are special in the eyes of God, automatically people will dislike you."

Pastor Adeboye said: "I believe that the problems we see between Jews and the rest of the world are because they are God's chosen. When you are special in the eyes of God, automatically people will dislike you. I do not see why anyone should think that the Jews may not live in their homeland. I believe that no matter how hard they try, they will not be able to move the Nation of Israel from the place God gave their forefathers." More

With Glenn Beck by the Temple’s Walls

Glenn Beck’s program in Israel went off without a hitch, ending in a rally on the southern side of the Old City of Jerusalem. About 1000 people were in attendance, mostly Americans (contrary to the media coverage, a number of the Americans were Jews not Evangelicals) who’d come to Jerusalem at Beck’s urging, but with a sprinkling of Israelis, including a fair proportion of Orthodox Jews.

With the Old City walls to his right and in front of him, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque looming quite close, Beck handled himself with a mixture of audaciousness toward his enemies and sensitivity toward his friends. He announced a global movement, to be headquartered in Texas, to encourage average people to act against injustice, though the details of its scope and goals weren’t clear. Since you won’t get any real coverage in the media, here is the full text of the speech More