Tag Archives: Islamists

Applying Selma’s Moral Clarity To Iran

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President Obama's address on the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march contained moral clarity that is lacking in his negotiations with Tehran. [Credit: ABC News]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s address on the 50th anniver­sary of the Sel­ma to Mont­gomery march con­tained moral clar­i­ty that is miss­ing from his nego­ti­a­tions with Tehran. [Cred­it: ABC News]

Amer­i­ca is not some frag­ile thing.  We are large, in the words of Whit­man, con­tain­ing mul­ti­tudes.  We are bois­ter­ous and diverse and full of ener­gy, per­pet­u­al­ly young in spir­it. Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma, March 7, 2015, Sel­ma, Alabama

The days when the Jew­ish peo­ple remained pas­sive in the face of geno­ci­dal ene­mies, those days are over….Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand. Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu, March 3, 2015, Wash­ing­ton.

Two speech­es, deliv­ered just four days apart, remind­ed us how lead­ers can moti­vate and inspire, stir our pas­sions and call us to great things.  Most of all, they can bring moral clar­i­ty to the com­plex real­i­ties of a messy world. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Hamas And Progressivism

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Hamas fighters celebrated the arrival of Islamic law in Gaza in 2007. But the group, a darling of progressives, still has not succeeded in destroying Israel. [Credit: Telegraph.uk]

Hamas fight­ers cel­e­brat­ed the arrival of Islam­ic law in Gaza in 2007. But the group, a dar­ling of pro­gres­sives, still has not suc­ceed­ed in destroy­ing Israel. [Cred­it: Telegraph.uk]

“The time will not come until Mus­lims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Mus­lim! there is a Jew hid­ing behind me, come on and kill him!”  Hamas Char­ter, Arti­cle VII

“Under­stand­ing Hamas [and] Hezbol­lah as social move­ments that are pro­gres­sive, that are on the left, that are part of a glob­al left, is extreme­ly impor­tant.”  Berke­ley Pro­fes­sor Judith But­ler

The war that pits Israel against the pro­gres­sive social move­ment known as Hamas has returned to dor­man­cy.  The most recent out­break of blood­shed did not end with rocks and trees turn­ing Jews over to their Mus­lim pur­suers for exter­mi­na­tion.  The glob­al left will have to wait for his­to­ry to progress to that geno­ci­dal out­come. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Struggling to Make Sense of Syria and Egypt

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A man prepares the bodies of those killed in last Wednesday's attack east of Damascus, Syria. [Credit: NY Daily News]

A man pre­pares the bod­ies of those killed in last Wednes­day’s attack east of Dam­as­cus, Syr­ia. [Cred­it: NY Dai­ly News]

Sarin vic­tims often first feel its tox­ic effects in their eyes.  They water and ache. Vision is blurred. Pupils con­tract to a pin­point. The nox­ious gas also affects the lungs, with chest tight­ness, cough and rapid breath­ing among the com­mon symp­toms. Then there are the car­dio­vas­cu­lar effects. The heart may race or sud­den­ly slow down. Blood pres­sure can spike or pre­cip­i­tous­ly drop. Nau­sea, vom­it­ing and abdom­i­nal pain are among its gas­troin­testi­nal con­se­quences. Its effects on the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem include con­fu­sion, drowsi­ness and headache. Con­tin­ue read­ing →