UCI NEWS SUMMARY

Column One: Ahmadinejad's overlooked message, Jerusalem Post, Caroline Glick Answering AJad: Disinvest, NY!, New York Post, Dick Morris & Eileen McGann VA. appointee resigns after videos, Associated Press, Bob Lewis Why We're Winning Now in Iraq, Opinion Journal, Frederick W. Kagan The West Bank operation - A reminder that can win battle against terror, Haaretz, Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff Appetite Versus Starvation...And Some Other Eternal Truths, Israel Hasbara Committee, Gerald A. Honigman Saudi Arabia: Friend Or Foe?, Investors Business Daily, Editorial The Big Lie and the Media War Against Israel: From Inversion of the Truth to Inversion of Reality, Freeman Center, Joel Fishman Welcoming Terrorism To Campus, Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, Cliff May Column One: Ahmadinejad's overlooked message Caroline GlickJerusalem Post, September 28, 2007 During his visit to New York this week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacked every basic assumption upon which Western civilization is predicated. Ahmadinejad offered up his attacks while extolling his vision of Islamic global domination. Refusing to note his existential challenge to the Free World, the Western media concentrated their coverage of his trip on his statements regarding specific Western policy goals. His rejection of the UN Security Council's authority to take action against Iran's illicit nuclear weapons program; his championing of the Palestinian cause and Israel's destruction; his denials of Iranian support for terrorism, and his attacks against the US were widely reported. So too, his insistence that Iranian women enjoy full rights and that there are no homosexuals in Iran received banner headlines.Ahmadinejad gave two major addresses this week - at Columbia University and at the UN General Assembly. He devoted both to putting forward his vision for global Islamic domination. And while the Western media sought hidden meanings and signals for peaceful intentions in his words, the fact is that on both occasions, Ahmadinejad made absolutely clear that his vision of Islamic domination cannot coexist in any manner with Western civilization. Consequently, Ahmadinejad's statements were not negotiating stances. They were the direct consequence of the world view he propounds. As such, they are non-negotiable. Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser: http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=1836 Answering AJad: Disinvest, NY! Dick Morris & Eileen McGannNew York Post, September 27, 2007 Columbia University this week managed to hand a PR victory to Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It's time for another New York institution - the state Office of the Comptroller - to join the drive to undermine this evil and dangerous regime. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to sign a new law aimed at banning Golden State public pension funds - which includes the two largest ones in America - from investing in companies that are involved in developing Iranian petroleum or natural-gas resources. Florida's public-employee-retirement fund is divesting nearly $1.3 billion invested with 21 companies doing business in Iran or Sudan. (California already hit Sudan's pocketbook last year.) Missouri and Louisiana have similar policies in place. The blow to Iran's rulers should be huge. The California system alone has assets totaling $350 billion - much of it invested in companies that do business with Iran such as Sieman's, Total, Respol and Shell. Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser: http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=1837 VA. appointee resigns after videos Bob LewisAssociated Press, September 27, 2007 RICHMOND, VA.  A member of the state's Commission of Immigration resigned Thursday, a few hours after Gov. Timothy M. Kaine was told about online videos showing the appointee condemning Israel and advocating "the jihad way. "Kaine issued a statement saying he had accepted the resignation of Dr. Esam S. Omeish. He said Omeish offered to resign because he didn't want anything to distract the work of the commission.In a video that appears on YouTube, Omeish, who is president of the Muslim American Society and chief of the division of general surgery at INOVA Alexandria Hospital, is shown at an August 2006 rally in Washington denouncing an invasion of Lebanon by the "Israeli war machine." Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser: http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=1838 Why We're Winning Now in Iraq Frederick W. Kagan Opinion Journal, September 29, 2007 Many politicians and pundits in Washington have ignored perhaps the most important point made by Gen. David Petraeus in his recent congressional testimony: The defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq requires a combination of conventional forces, special forces and local forces. This realization has profound implications not only for American strategy in Iraq, but also for the future of the war on terror. As Gen. Petraeus made clear, the adoption of a true counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq in January 2007 has led to unprecedented progress in the struggle against al Qaeda in Iraq, by protecting Sunni Arabs who reject the terrorists among them from the vicious retribution of those terrorists. In his address to the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also touted the effectiveness of this strategy while at the same time warning of al Qaeda in Iraq's continued threat to his government and indeed the entire region. Yet despite the undeniable successes the new strategy has achieved against al Qaeda in Iraq, many in Congress are still pushing to change the mission of U.S. forces back to a counterterrorism role relying on special forces and precision munitions to conduct targeted attacks on terrorist leaders. This change would bring us back to the traditional, consensus strategy for dealing with cellular terrorist groups like al Qaeda--a strategy that has consistently failed in Iraq. Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser: http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=1839 The West Bank operation - A reminder that can win battle against terror Amos Harel and Avi IssacharoffHaaretz, September 20, 2007 The death of a soldier from an elite unit yesterday in Nablus was a reminder of a forgotten war. The endless wait for the Winograd Committee report and the political capital the prime minister has received in opinion polls published in recent days - have drawn the attention of most Israelis away from the daily warfare that is taking place less than an hour from the center of the country. In recent months, the West Bank and Gaza Strip security forces have arrested hundreds of militants and foiled dozens of terrorist attacks. Only the fact that yesterday the IDF suffered its first fatality this year in the West Bank has returned the focus on what is taking place on that front.It's common to claim it is impossible to defeat terrorism. But over the years of combating Palestinian terrorism during the second intifada (this month marks the seventh anniversary), the IDF and the Shin Bet have reached the closest possible point to achieving a victory. Since the beginning of the year, two soldiers (one each in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) and six Israeli citizens (three in a suicide bombing in Eilat, two from Qassam rockets in Sderot, and one who was stabbed to death in the Etzion bloc in the West Bank) were killed as a result of terrorism. These are very minor figures, considering the number of attempts at carrying out attacks, and also when compared to the high point of the intifada, when 450 Israelis were killed in 2002. The last suicide bombing in central Israel occurred 18 months ago, in April 2006, in the old central bus station in Tel Aviv. The winning formula is a combination of aggressive intelligence gathering by the Shin Bet, the obstacle created by the separation fence and the complete freedom of operations granted to the IDF in the Palestinian cities. The army considers the continued arrests of militants and the main roadblocks as essential tools for successfully combating terrorism. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said yesterday that if he had to choose between easing restrictions on Palestinians and security considerations, he would opt for the latter. Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser: http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=1840 Appetite Versus Starvation...And Some Other Eternal Truths Gerald A. HonigmanIsrael Hasbara Committee, September 28, 2007 IHC Abstract - The nub of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is about appetite vs. starvation, declares the writer.In their attempt to create the 23rd Arab state and the second Palestinian state (Jordan being the first), the Arabs are trying to convince themselves and the entire world that they are both the old Jews and the new Jews. First they hijack Palestine as their historic country, when clear Jewish as well as Roman records of Jesus time make no mention of the land being Arab. Second they hijack the historic condition of Jewish statelessness as their own.History records that it was the Roman conqueror Hadrian who renamed Judea Syria Palaestina, after the Jews historical enemies the Philistines. This renaming was done in the aftermath of the Roman suppression of the revolt of Bar Kochva, in which 580,000 people perished. Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser: http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=1841 Saudi Arabia: Friend Or Foe? Editorial Investors Business Daily, September 26, 2007 War On Terror: A new movie called "The Kingdom" shows Saudis fighting terrorism alongside FBI agents. That's certainly what we'd like to see. But like the flick, it's pure fiction.There's new evidence the Saudis aren't cooperating in our battle to eradicate terrorists or those who bankroll them. Their negligence is shocking even to cynics. According to the Treasury Department's top anti-terror official, the kingdom has not prosecuted a single person named by the U.S. or the United Nations as a terror financier. Asked by ABC News how many Saudis have been charged with funding terror since 9/11, Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey said, "There have not been any." Not one? "No," he asserted. Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser: http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=1842 The Big Lie and the Media War Against Israel: From Inversion of the Truth to Inversion of Reality Joel FishmanFreeman Center, September 28, 2007 Woe unto them that call evil good, And good evil; That change darkness into light, And light into darkness; That change bitter into sweet, And sweet into bitter. ISAIAH 5:20 From the 1960s, inversion of truth and reality has been one the most favored propaganda methods of Israel's adversaries. One of its most frequent expressions has been the accusation that the Jewish people, victims of the Nazis, have now become the new Nazis, aggressors and oppressors of the Palestinian Arabs. Contemporary observers have identified this method and described it as an "inversion of reality," an "intellectual confidence trick," "reversing moral responsibility," or "twisted logic." Because Israel's enemies have, for nearly half a century, repeated such libels without being challenged, they have gradually gained credence. Since inversion of reality constitutes the basic principle of current anti-Israeli propaganda, it is important to understand what it is and how it works. This propaganda method is a product of Nazi Germany. It is totalitarian both in its methods, particularly the use of the paranoiac myth, and in the absolute solution it advocates. It totally denies all of Israel's claims and leaves no room for introspection and compromise.The Problem in Historical Perspective: Israel and the Media War>From the 1960s, inversion of truth and reality has been one the most favored propaganda methods of Israel's adversaries. One of its most frequent expressions has been the accusation that the Jewish people, victims of the Nazis, have now become the new Nazis, aggressors and oppressors of the Palestinian Arabs. Contemporary observers have identified this method and described it as an "inversion of reality," an "intellectual confidence trick," "reversing moral responsibility," or "twisted logic." Because Israel's enemies, for nearly half a century, have repeated such libels unchallenged, some people have begun to believe them. Since inversion of reality constitutes the basic principle of current anti-Israeli propaganda, it is important to understand what it is and how it works. Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser: http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=1843 Welcoming Terrorism To Campus Cliff MayFoundation for the Defense of Democracy, September 25, 2007 In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 atrocities -- when we could not erase the images of people diving from the Twin Towers, the sounds of mothers holding back tears as they phoned their children one last time -- it was possible to hope that terrorism would henceforth be seen as beyond the pale.But that hasn't happened -- certainly not on America's campuses, as illustrated by Columbia University's cordial invitation to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, spokesman for the world's leading terrorist-sponsors, the president of a regime actively working to kill American soldiers in order to transform Iraq into an Iranian colony, a regime that boasts of its genocidal intent. Gary Bauer writes: Columbia University has banned the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) from its campus since 1969, highlighting the fact that many universities treat America's enemies better than they do those who protect America. ...[I]n the hands of liberal academia tolerance is an elastic concept. Michael Rubin writes:[W]hile faculty members fall all over themselves to bring repressive dictators to campus, many dissidents from the same countries are ignored. Columbia has never invited chief Libyan democracy activist Fathi El-Jahmi, for example (his mailing address for the last two and a half years would be Libya's state prison system). Click here for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser: http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/article.php?id=1844