The Goodfriend File

Mark E. Goodfriend, LAW OFFICES OF MARK E. GOODFRIEND, 16255 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 1008, Encino, California 91436-2317; Tel: (818) 783-8866, Fax: (818) 783-5445, Email: markgoodfriend@yahoo.com

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Is "Islamic fascism" an oxymoron?

Not according to Emanuele Ottolenghi:

Radical Islam has been rightly labelled as fascist, not only because much of its roots lie in the West, but also because it acts like a totalitarian ideology, whose main aim is to create a new world order based on an Idea, the triumph of which justifies the murder of anyone who stands in the way


Characteristics of traditional Fascism which do not seem to fit include "right-wing" and the supremacy of political/secular ideology and the nation-state, but "experts" asked by The National Review mostly agree that the term is appropriate. Although not as mellifluous as "Islamofascism," how about "fascistic Islam," in contradistinction to "tolerant Islam", with the emphasis on the type of Islam rather than the type of terrorism (especially since all or virtually all terrorism is reprehensible, and substantially all terrorists today are Muslim) ? As usual, one of the best discussions is by Daniel Pipes, who concludes that:

The use of Islamic fascists should be seen as part of a decades-long search for the right term to name a form of Islam that is recognizably political, extreme, and often violent. I have already confessed ... that I am on my fifth term (having previously used neo-orthodox, fundamentalist, and militant, and now using radical and Islamist). While Islamic fascists beats terrorists, let’s hope that a better consensus term soon emerges. My vote is for Islamists.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Bone-Chilling Bernard Lewis

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Lewis, arguably the smartest guy in the world on these sorts of things, predicts that, if not stopped, when it is technologically able to do so, pursuant to its "apocalyptic worldview," Iran will seek to obliterate Israel with a nuclear attack, regardless of the facts that the Palestinians of the area would also be obliterated and Israel would retaliate with even greater force:

The phrase 'Allah will know his own' is usually used to explain such apparently callous unconcern; it means that while infidel, i.e., non-Muslim, victims will go to a well-deserved punishment in hell, Muslims will be sent straight to heaven.

* * *
For people with this mindset, MAD [the logic of deterrence of Mutual Assured Destruction] is not a constraint; it is an inducement.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Don't You Love It When Some Of The Clearest Solutions To Israel's Predicament Are Prescribed By Guys With Names Like 'Mohamed' And 'Mario'?

As Mohamed Eljahmi, a Boston-based Libyan American activist whose brother, Fathi Eljahmi, is imprisoned in Libya for speaking out for political reform, said recently, in calling for a "permanent solution," which at present can only be a military one, not political or diplomatic, because:

"Refusal to accept Israel’s right to exist is the root of conflict in the Middle East."


And:

"On the Arab side there are no legitimate and visionary leaders who are willing to take the risk [for peace]."


Meanwhile, Mario Loyola, a former DOD official, states that the only way to stop the missile terrorism, the purpose of which is to "depopulate Israel," is by requiring (e.g., through a Security Council resolution, authorizing "all necessary means, including the use of force") Iran and Syria to stop supplying Hezbollah. Loyola then makes this observation:

In the meantime, the world must recognize something about the innocent civilians in Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon whose homes and lives have been devastated by this war. Over a third of Lebanon’s population voted for Hezbollah in the last elections. They did not cast their votes for peace. What they voted for was war, and war is what they got.

Ralph Peters capturing the essence of Israel and its enemies

Ralph Peters is as pungent as ever:

Eight hundred years after a blood-spattered English king swung his sword by Jaffa's walls, ... the enemy remain[s] the same ... The struggle may never end.


* * *

the settlers and their children who built Israel did more than [make 'the desert bloom' and] irrigate orange groves. They built a civilization where there had been [and in places like Gaza, still is] only neglect, decay and oppression.