The New Republic

Actually, almost no one should be surprised that a member in high standing of the “human rights internationale” and a Scandinavian besides resorts to such scummy language when talking about Israel. The London headquarters of the world-wide organization seemed to be in a panic, as reported by Benjamin Weinthal in yesterday’s Jerusalem Post. READ MORE >>

I apologize to my readers and to Liza Minnelli for quoting from Tunku Varadarajan's otherwise estimable column about John McCain a remark slighting to her and her gifts. Minnelli has been a talented singer and actress for several decades, and she still has the the warranted courage to perform. READ MORE >>

The folk who planned the mosque at the World Trade Center could not have expected but that their project would be much resented, not just in New York but across America. And so it happened: as soon as it became clear that the municipal elite, spearheaded by Mayor Bloomberg who hasn't a single democratic cell in his brain, would act as if a Muslim religious center in the very orbit of Ground Zero was an ordinary happening a groundswell of sensitive men and women -a large majority of Americans, actually- believe that it isn't. READ MORE >>

This column in this morning’s Daily Beast is by Tunku Varadarajan. READ MORE >>

I don't know whether this is George Will's title. But it certainly is his column, published in this morning's Washington Post. It doesn't need my commentary. But I can't resist one observation: it is devastating to all of those who try to be even-handed when even-handedness actually is a lie.   READ MORE >>

“Les guichets du Louvre” is a French film released in 1974 in America as “Black Thursday.”  I recall every scene: they were withering, all of them. The movie takes place within one 24 hour period on July 16, 1942 when 9,000 French policemen rounded up 14,000 Jews (including 4,500 children) in the 4th arrondisement of Paris and transported them to the Velodrome d’Hiver on their way to the death camps. READ MORE >>

This story is about Pakistan and the flood that has desolated so much of it. The headline appeared in this morning’s Times of London. The U.S. has pledged $62 million, Great Britain $26 million, Japan $13 million, which with the 18 other countries contributing lesser amounts, means that the United Nations has or will have in the next days a total of $204 million to use in Pakistan. READ MORE >>

There is no gloating in my finding Barack Obama's view of Islam more than a bit fatuous. Oh, how I wish it were true... READ MORE >>

Apparently, Muslims are also not particularly stirred by the president’s policies. They wanted him to be more forthright and more forthcoming on their issues as he had indicated he would be in his much-vaunted “new beginning” speech last year in Cairo. READ MORE >>

The triumph of Saudi science, as reported by the Telegraph: A standard time by which other clocks were set was needed to organise global travel and communications, but in the Islamic world the idea that it should be centred on a part of London is seen as a colonial anachronism. READ MORE >>