Brights News Feed

Less than a week after David Frum — who wrote the original “axis of evil” speech for President Bush in 2002 — said that “a speechwriter helps his principal make the best speech he can, even if he may not necessarily agree with all of it” (see Ynetnews) the “axis of evil” language has been co-opted by Iran.

Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said today that “America, Britain and the Zionist regime [Israel] are an axis of evil against the Islamic world and the whole of humanity. They are trying to make enmity among Islamic countries and to make divisions among Shi’ites and Sunnis.” (See Reuters.)

The Sunday Times (UK) this morning, cited “several Israeli military sources” as revealing that Israel has been training two airforce squadrons for specific nuclear missions. (Sunday Times: “Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran“.) The missions would target three out of four “critical” Iranian sites south of Tehran, all associated with the country’s nuclear program; in Natanz, near Isfahan, and at Arak. In the first attack:

conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout.

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Yuli Tamir, Israel’s Education minister, has provoked outrage by ordering a controversial change to childrens’ school textbooks; that they should show Israel’s borders as they were prior to the 1967 war, bringing them into line with international law, under which the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are regarded as illegally occupied territory.

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The latest round of Danish cartoons depicting Muslim prophet Mohammed has caused another torrent of dissent from Muslims, apparently (BBC: “Row over Danish cartoons escalates“).

Miraculously the reported thousands of protestors of generic Middle Eastern origin have quickly got hold of hundreds more Danish flags and started burning them.

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Today a statement issued by the Vatican has said sorry that the Pope’s speech to an academic audience at Regensburg University, in Germany on Tuesday, was “misinterpreted”. This is not an apology for the content, rather it is an expression of regret for the reception.

Reports of Muslim outrage are still flooding in. Media reports of “anger across the Muslim world” can appear distorted, however. For example, the number of demonstrators in Egypt numbered around a mere 100 people. 100 people only look like a baying mob of thousands if you film them from a certain angle (reports of Middle Eastern “anger” demonstrations are usually shot from low down, looking up into the most upset faces…!)

On the other hand, a number of Muslim scholars and spokespeople and political figures — most notably a unanimous Pakistani parliamentary condemnation of the speech — are very real. And yet this criticism seems to be a response to second-hand information (Turkey is even demanding that the Pope explain the speech). How many of the supposedly “furious” people have actually heard or read a good translation of the speech?

Various factions in Middle Eastern countries have doubtless stoked the fire. Some of these factions are media sources. Their partial translations of the speech will attribute the stand-out soundbite (Mohammad brought only “evil and inhuman things”) directly to the Pope. Meanwhile, many western media sources have focused solely on the fact that the infamous soundbite was from a quote, and have almost entirley ignored the rest of the speech. Now it’s certainly possible to quote another person without asserting the same propositions as the original speaker. But it is also possible to explicitly, or tacitly, agree with a passage that one is quoting.

So where does the truth lie in this instance?

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This morning the UN passed a resolution urging a “full cessation of hostilities”, after which both Hezbollah and Israel continued offensive action, Hezbollah firing more rockets into northern Israel and Israel carrying out further air strikes; Israel will vote on accepting the resolution tomorrow (BBC: “Fresh Israel raids after UN vote“).

Meanwhile, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) published a response to the Israel-Hezbollah crisis (IHEU: “Missiles? What missiles? Israel and the UN Human Rights Council“). The IHEU refer primarily to a separate resolution considered yesterday by the new UN Human Rights Council, saying that “During the debate, not one member state mentioned the avowed aim of Hezbollah and its sponsor, the Islamic Republic of Iran, to wipe Israel from the map. It was left to an NGO to remind the Human Rights Council of Hezbollah’s objectives”. They damned the Council as biased against Israel for failing to mention — let alone condemn — the role of Hezbollah.
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On 24th July this year, the President of the Reform Party of Syria, Farid Ghadry, responded (The Media Line: “Understand the Importance of Laylat al-Sira’a wa al-Miira’aj“) to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s last pronouncement on the subject of anti-nuclear incentives offered by the US.

Ahmadinejad had set the date of his response to the incentives as 22nd August (Rajab 27 in the Mulsim calendar). Knowing Ahmadinejad’s personal history of vitriolic anti-Israel rhetoric (Guardian), knowing his probable involvement with Hojjatieh (Asia Times) (a group that believes the return of the “Twelfth Imam” can be encouraged by actively bringing about the phophesized “chaos” that will precede his return), knowing that he may view himself as the Imam’s “deputy” (Ashbrook Center), and knowing the meaning of Rajab 27, Farid Ghadry argued that setting the date of reply as 22nd August amounted to a threat of the nuclear annihilation of Israel. This is because Rajab 27 is the traditional date for when Mohammed took his infamous and disputed supernatural night flight to Heaven via the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, “while a great light lit-up the night sky”.

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Complex geopolitical fragility? Israel as Western puppet, Hezbollah as Syrian-Iranian proxy? The epic religious tensions of millennia overspilling in response to Jewish nationalization, hostage-taking and indiscriminate missile fire?

No. The crisis in the Middle East is the fault of gay people marching in Jerusalem, according to Orthodox Jewish rabbi Yehuda Levin (US). Responding to the gay Pride events in Jerusalem this year (Agape Press: “Rabbi Concerned ‘WorldPride’ Event Might Bring God’s Judgement“) he said:

“The homosexualization of the Middle East, beginning with God’s backyard, is one of the end-day struggles that could literally lead to a spiritual and physical Armageddon in both Israel and spread back to America[…”]

The rabbi also notes that Israel’s prime minister and Hezbollah’s leader cannot explain why they have gone to war at this time. Levin believes they may have had no choice. “The answer may be because both Olmert and Nazrallah are literally puppets of Almighty God,” he shares.

According to Rabbi Levin, 24 hours before the hostilities began, an effort to get the government to rescind the permits for the week of pro-homosexual activities was rejected.

(Via Dispatches From the Culture Wars, via I’m A Bright.)

Jon Stewart and the Daily Show once again stick it to the man, showcasing a bizaree selection of Middle East-related “end times” stories from the US media.

On YouTube (via Thinking Aloud).