Two opinions: Phyllis Chesler and Salim Mansur

Phyllis Chesler writing at Arutz Sheva:  Will Obama Stop the Bomb. ...This was the first time that Dr. Small spoke about this publicly.

He is Canadian and grew up in Montreal. Therefore, Dr. Small speaks in a restrained and reasonable way about outrages and injustices. He is a gentleman and a scholar.

I was privileged to have met him in 2003 and to have worked with him while he was at Yale. I have also written about his work and its tragic demise at Yale.

This time, Dr. Small named names.

But, he first wondered whether “Israel,” which is being blamed by everyone for every conceivable wrong, is really also to blame for whatever problems American Jews are having in terms of communal identity or “renewal.” He also wondered how different American Jews and Jewish leaders are today when compared to the American Jewish leaders in the 1920s and 1930s, as economic problems worsened and a virulent anti-Semitism arose. Sound familiar? He asked:

“Were the American Holocaust-era leaders trying to save European Jews? Or were they nervous about bringing over shtetl, Yiddish-speaking people who might increase anti-Semitism in America?” Were their efforts too little and too late and were their efforts also met with great resistance?.........


Salim Mansur's latest column: .... The inaction of the Obama administration is a reflection of American opinion to stay distant from the interminable conflicts of the Middle East.

American opinion is right on Syria. This is the natural and logical response of a people after having reflected on the lesson learned from their involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Saddam Hussein was worse, if this could now be imagined or explained, than the Syrian despot. His removal was earnestly desired by most Iraqis.

Yet when Saddam Hussein was removed, the Arab-Muslim world in unison denounced the American liberators of Iraq for meddling in Arab affairs, and then held them responsible for the terror unleashed by Islamists against Iraqis.

It was an Orwellian turn of logic. American soldiers were turned into criminals while criminal thugs from across the Arab world, swarming into a post-Saddam, free Iraq to cripple it with their wanton and indiscriminate terror, were turned into freedom fighters.

It was even worse to follow the liberal-left opinion in the West – led by such disgusting demagogues as George Galloway, Noam Chomsky, the late Edward Said, and including then senator Obama, all posing as men of virtue — piling up on George W. Bush, while Arabs murdered Arabs in the manner in which they have done such killing going all the way back to the massacre of the Prophet’s family.............

h/t: Pam