By Diana West on Friday, March 19, 2010 4:31 AM

Photo: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan flag over Marjah

From the AP:

MARJAH, Afghanistan — Crouched on packed earth at a barricaded Marine encampment, the village elders issued their complaint: U.S. troops had killed an innocent 14-year-old boy. Secretly, the Marines didn’t believe them. No matter. They apologized, called the death a tragedy and promised to offer a condolence payment to the boy’s family.

Here we see the act of assuaging "Arab anger" -- something of primary concern to Gen. Petraeus and the Obama administration -- in its wider Islamic context: Apologize for no reason and pay up. Or, in Islamic terms, prostrate one's self as befits an infidel and offer jizya-style protection money. Call it the COIN/sharia twofer.

It’s all part...

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By Diana West on Thursday, March 18, 2010 7:04 PM

There is an intensifying debate over how exactly Gen. David Petraeus regards Israel. (I have written about it here, here  and here.) On the one hand are the general's words -- first, as related in a blog posted at Foreign Policy, and, later, in the general's own written statement recently submitted to the US Senate Armed Services Committee. On the other hand are his supporters, who don't believe his words, either as reported in Foreign Policy (which they don't believe, either) or even...

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By Diana West on Thursday, March 18, 2010 2:54 PM

This week's column:

Phew. We can breathe easier now that the Obama administration has taken a tough-as-scimitars line with Israel, whose existentially threatening architectural blueprints for new housing, the administration says, pose a dire threat to U.S. troops and interests. Or, as Vice President Joseph Biden put it, referring to a new housing project in Jerusalem, as reported by Yedioth Ahronoth: "This is starting to get dangerous for us. What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan." In other words, maybe it's not the Muslim-made IED planted in the roads of Helmand Province that's the problem; maybe it's the Jewish-built condo in Jerusalem. Such is the babble of the jihad-blackmailed. And the problem with giving in to blackmail is that it never ends.

...

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By Diana West on Thursday, March 18, 2010 2:15 AM

Power clasp: Murdoch and Talal at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit last week.

I know the story of the day about Fox News is Brett Baier's interview with President Obama but this short American Thinker piece by Jed Gladstein shouldn't be missed:

"Is Fox News Tiling Toward the Arabs?" the title asks. The answer is yes -- although I would characterize it more precisely as a tilt toward Islam and its narratives (we have to start thinking macro, people) -- as I have   written here, here...

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By Diana West on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 11:11 AM

Here's corroboration of the report indicating a distinctly Arabist outlook on the part of  Gen. Petraeus, who seems to view Israel as a root cause of problems, even American problems, in the Islamic world. It comes from the CENTCOM chief's own testimony before the Senate yesterday. Setting up "a number of cross-cutting issues that serve as major drivers of instability, inter-state tensions, and conflict," factors that "can serve as root causes of instability or as obstacles to security," he began with Israel. He said in his prepared statement:

Insufficient progress toward a comprehensive Middle East peace. The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests in the AOR.

Does he mean by "enduring hostilities" the fact that the Islamic world wants to eradicate Israel?

Israeli-Palestinian tensions...

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