Mideast Wars Heat Up

While Obama sees a sunny Arab Spring....

As Gaddafi makes, perhaps, a (gasp!) comeback, hark to the illiberal constitution being drafted by the rebels, that enshrines Islamic sharia law as supreme law of the land.  As to Gaddafi's (apparent) downfall Fouad Ajami is thrilled; this time, one hopes, events will bear him out.  But Bret Stephens warns about Islamist charmers who gull the West, like the still-at-large Seif al-Islam, Gaddafi's number one son.  Seif, it seems, made nice-nice with Stephens at a Davos confab.  Meanwhile, back at the (Islamist) ranch in Libya, dissidents were being hideously tortured.  Mike Ledeen warns that the war is regional, but we (just maybe) are slowly waking up.  Barry Rubin sees less freedom in Arab lands today than in the 1930s & 1940s.

And the Palestinians ratchet up their new, low-intensity war against Israel.  Jennifer Rubin at "Right Turn" had this exchange with an Israeli official:

I asked him why he thought Hamas had stepped up the violence beginning last Thursday. (An Israeli source confirms nine Israelis have been killed (including two soldiers), more than 100 have been wounded, more than 100 rockets have been launched from Gaza and 1 million Israelis have taken to shelters.) The official responded, “Terrorists are terrorists. They go for it if they see [an opportunity]. They don’t need an excuse.” He adds that the attacks should dispel the notion that Hamas is going to moderate itself or become a peaceful part of a unity government. There is Hamas, a terrorist group, and there is the PA, a more moderate political organization, he explains.

Israeli has, however, been fighting a largely unseen war against Arab terror: lawfare suits and/or threats to sue, which helped stop the Gaza Flotilla II.  Shurat HaDin, Israeli Law Center, has won over $1 billion in judgments in courts around the world since its founding in 2003.  Alana Goodman at Commentary Blog details the clever legal tactics that stopped Flotilla II.  Included, in an article well worth reading in full: (a) warning insurance companies of possible legal liability for insuring flotilla vessels; (b) warning GPS satellite firms they too might face liability for servicing the flotilla; (c) invoking the Neutrality Acts in America & Greece to warn activists planning to sail that they, too, could face legal liability for doing so.

Among those who helped the group was ... Texas Governor Rick Perry, a strong friend of Israel.  Come 2013, Perry might even be in a position to help Israel even more.

And whither the UN amidst all this?  Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon condemned Syrian thug-ruler Bashar al-Assad because Babyface Assad--I am NOT, per Dave Barry, making this up--"has not kept his word" as to ending violence against Syrian protesters.  The UN Human Rights Council may set up a commission to investigate the Syrian brutality that we have seen on our TV screens for six months.  That is the best Ban can muster, even after Syrian forces shot three dead Monday, during a visit by UN human rights monitors.  The death toll from Syria's crackdown is now pegged at 2,200.

Bottom Line.  The next Mideast wars are well underway.  Inveterate peace processors, take note, please.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, National Security, Terrorism, Foreign Policy, UN, Conservative Politics