Weekly Briefing, February 8-13, 2015

Deterring ISIL is Not Enough – Rachel Ehrenfeld – “Muslims need to change the religious discourse and remove from it things that have led to violence and extremism.”… President Obama’s requested Congressional authorization to indefinitely use U.S. military forces in “systematic campaign of airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq and Syria” to “degrade and defeat” it. While ISIL may be degraded in that limited area, it will not be defeated in the rearguard war fought by the United States in the Middle East, because the organization’s core jihadist ideology cannot be defeated by non-Muslims…In the meantime, Shiite Iran, whose theocracy is similar to ISIL’s, is doing its best to fill the vacuum created by failing Sunni regimes in the region.…more…

Bad Iran Deal in the Offing – Norman A. Bailey – The US looks set to present its allies with a dangerous fait accompli on Iran’s nuclear program: The joint statement by Secretary of State Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif that there will be no extension of the talks between the six powers and Iran past the most recent deadline of March 24th means only one thing: a deal has been reached between the U.S. and Iran, which will be announced to the other five participants when the Obama Administration decides it is convenient to do so. This is the way this Administration operates… When the French foreign minister stormed out of the initial meeting of the two sides proclaiming “This is a fool’s deal”, he was subsequently informed that the deal was already sealed by the U.S…more…

The History of History – Sol W. Sanders – Historians cheat. Mostly, they reconstruct the story of our past as a straightforward narrative with a beginning, middle, and sometimes even an end. What they don’t usually tell us is that a great deal more was going on than that single narrative of events–and, sometimes they have to flip back and pick up another strand instead to straighten it out. That’s why, at the moment, there is little that the historians can do to help us sort out the enormous chain of events that is deciding the future of the world and of the U.S. For the world is in the throes of vast developments, as perhaps it always is, which will profoundly affect the future of all of us. About all we can do is to be as clearheaded as possible about the various candidate strands for our attention. So here goes:…more…

Dumping Riyadh For Tehran – Rachel Ehrenfeld – The Oscar worth direction of Iran’s image-laundering campaign is drowning, as hoped by the Obama administration and Tehran, in media headlines about the “new” evidence of Saudi funding of al Qaeda. Documentation of the Desert Kingdom and its royals’ support of al Qaeda have been evident for years. However, Moussaoui allegations that the Saudi Royals funded al Qaeda, have “shocked shocked” the American media…In October 2014, the Justice Department granted a team of lawyers for the 9/11 victims the unusual access to Moussaoui who is held at the country’s the most secure prison in Florence, Colo. And last December, the Second Circuit effectively reversed itself and reinstated the kingdom as a defendant. Despite the Obama administration’s claim it wants to reset relations with the Royal Family, the timing couldn’t be better..…more…

Southeast Asian Islam, gentle and ungentle – Clive Kessler – A “rage against history”: a bewildered and at times visceral sense, a disquiet in the soul and gut, that “history has gone wrong”, departed from its divinely ordained path. Religious “supersessionism”: or, underlying that sense of historical bewilderment, the conviction and doctrinal assertion that Islam completes and perfects —— but also shows up and casts off, incorporates yet negates —— the earlier Abrahamic revelations and faith communities of Judaism and Christianity with all their (or so it is claimed) vitiating defects and limitations. What has all this to do, I hear people asking, with today’s on-the-ground sociocultural dynamics and current political realities in Southeast Asia? And in Malaysia specifically? Well, quite a lot really..…more…

Christians in China – J. Millard Burr – In 1979 I spent some months prowling the State Department library in search of material for a study on the history of The United States’ concern with the narcotics trade in China. The final result, some 50,000 words, was submitted to Mathea Falco, the first U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. For reasons perhaps akin to mine — China in all its facets is after all a fascinating study — she enjoyed the report. She would later say that it was a valuable tool as she succeeded in arranging the first US Drug Enforcement Agency alliance with People’s Republic of China. Two elements of the paper I still recall, and I admit I recall with regret:…more…

News & Analysis

America’s Strategic Trap: Increasing the Risk of Nuclear War, Farsnews

Netanyahu Must Absolutely Make that Speech – Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer

Why are They Converting to Islam? – Dr. Mordechai Kedar

At Minsk, Putin got ‘Everything He Wanted’ and Took No Responsibility for the Future, Illarionov and Piontkovsky Say – Paul Goble

Why the White House is Getting Lonelier on Iran – Walter Russell Mead

Nigerian President Gambles on War Against Boko Haram – Benny Avni

The Sad Death of Kayla Mueller: A ‘Useful Idiot’ of Hamas – Ron Radosh

From Munich to Munich: How Germany chooses to remember its past has always been crucial to Europe’s future. – Bret Stephens

The Last Trial – Elizabeth Kolbert

UN Targets ISIL Funding – Kylie Bull

German Court Rules Synagogue Firebombing an ‘Act of Protest’ – James Kirchick,