Just in case you missed these on the website this week, here are a few items of particular interest:
The West's preoccupation with its own moral scruples over Syria is a great way to keep itself from noticing Iran's "whirring centifuges," Douglas Murray notes. Russia's new Bear Hug of the Middle East -- accompanied by an offer to supply Iran with a second nuclear reactor, and a letter to the New York Times admonishing the U.S. not even to think of moving against Syria without the approval of the UN Security Council, where Russia can continue to veto even the most watered-down plans -- also seem just about perfect bids to establish total U.S. impotence.
Hamas may have to "initiate a new confrontation with Israel" to create international pressure on Egypt to stop an undeclared, but all-out, war on it, according to Khaled Abu Toameh. Or else Hamas might "join with jihadi forces in the Sinai " to engage in a direct military confrontation with the Egyptian army. Hamas, Abu Toameh relates, is now portrayed by the state-controlled Egyptian media as the country's "number one enemy."
Alan Dershowitz warns of efforts to discourage Western countries from protecting themselves by deploying the "dead baby" strategy: "Force[s] the U.S. (or Israel) to kill as many civilians as possible by deliberately moving legitimate military targets into civilian areas, or by moving civilians into military areas" – followed by hours of shattering TV footage.
