Editor's Note: In the wake of the barbaric desecration of Second World War graves of Commonwealth soldiers by jihadis in Libya, Ahmed Shebani, founder of the Democratic Party in Libya, issued a press release condemning the action; "Certainly, the dark forces of Wahabism have no place in democratic Libya." That message was encouraging. Unfortunately, most of Mr. Shebani's statement centered around an implausible conspiracy by Saudi intelligence which seemed to at least partly absolve Libyans of guilt for the atrocity -- falling into the timeless trap of blaming foreigners for their own failings. As Jewish Libyan refugee Gina Waldman's response shows, the desecration of the graves was not an isolated incident, but simply another example of Libyans' deep-seated intolerance for religious minorities that predates the Ghadafi era. Below, read Ms. Waldman's response:
Dear Mr. Shebani:
Although I applaud you for being the founder of the Democratic Party in Libya, as a Libyan Jew I add my voice to calls that you take responsibility for the actions of your people. The Libyan people need to confront the blatant violations of human rights which they have perpetrated against their own Jewish population. They have humiliated us, confiscated our properties and all...More >>
The dominant assessment in Washington and Europe since the beginning of the Libyan uprising has been that “we don’t know the rebels,” and thus can’t predict their future moves.”
In fact, we do know who the rebels are and can somewhat anticipate their next major moves: The Transitional National Council (TNC) was formed in Benghazi at the onset of the upheaval by almost all the organized Qaddafi political opposition forces. The TNC includes former diplomats, bureaucrats, military officers from the old regime. It also includes politicians and leaders from movements and groups from the political left, Marxists, Socialists, Arab Nationalists, liberals and Islamists.
The TNC’s real composition can be viewed as secularist and Islamist, the latter being the largest organized group — read militia — across the country. Tribal affiliations are important in the build-up of the new government, but the ideological divide will also be a determinant in projecting the future of the country.
Over the past months, we’ve seen the chief mentor of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Jazeera ideologue, Sheikh Yusuf al Qardawi blessing the “rebels,”
There is something deeply, deeply wrong with Libyan President – or, perhaps one should say, ex-President – Muammar Gadhafi.
But in reality, it isn’t just him. It’s his entire family.
For evidence of this, one needs look no further than his daughter, Aisha Gadhafi. In what she must have imagined to be a heart wrenching interview on French television, Gadhafi spoke about the inhuman havoc allegedly being wreaked by NATO forces in Libya.
“I've already lost one of my children and my brother in the bombings,” she remarked. “Every day there are members of my people who die. Civilians. Anyone who has a heart can understand what I feel."
Certainly, to lose a child or other family members is a terrible thing, something that someone should not wish on most people. However, personally I can’t help but wish that the astoundingly disingenuous Aisha Gadhafi loses one more family member: her father.
After all, the civilian casualties sustained during the NATO campaign in Libya pale by comparison to the civilian casualties sustained prior to the intervention, when her father ordered Libyan fighter jets to strife unarmed civilian protesters from the sky with machine gun fire.
Why isn't Moammar Gaddafi dead yet? That's the question political leaders, hopeful rebels and disgruntled NATO commanders must be asking themselves by now. Seal Team 6, where are you?
Libyan Mad Dog Mu'aumer Qaddaffi (at least, that's the way he spells it) has written a letter to US President Barack Obama reproduced below. It's not quite a letter of surrender. But in atypical fashion, the dictator seems to acknowledge the USA's vast military superiority, its pragmatism and capacity for mercy -- no part of which has ever made it into a previous speech by regimes throughout the Middle East, who often rail against a decaying and corrupt United States that kills at will.
If Obama chooses to respond, perhaps it could go something like this:
Dear Mad Dog,
It is time for change in Libya. You had your chance. Actually, you had infinite chances over your decades of rule. Since you're not stepping down, you are going to die. Whether by a bomb dropped from a French jet or the blade of one of your personal guard, your end is coming soon.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama President of the United Staes of America
PS: I'm not your son. But I guess the letter you wrote makes you my bitch. Suck on that.
Not that we're complaining, mind you. Until the Mad Dog of the Middle East is a bullet-ridden corpse, we can't really take any pressure off.
As an aside, here's hoping that in the course of the fighting, all of the Al Queda-inspired rebels get decimated as cannon fodder while our, um, liberal democratic comrades get to mop up the last dregs of Gaddafi's goons. More >>
When considering the adopted standards of the so-called academic discipline of “Globalization Studies”, it’s not only fair to wonder what, precisely, passes for research in this obscure corner of academia. It’s actually becoming deeply necessary.
In the days following a weeks-overdue military intervention in Libya – Canada has joined a coalition of countries imposing a UN-mandated no-fly zone – the usual suspects have come out to denounce the action. Operation Odyssey Dawn’s detractors declare it, as usual, to be an act of imperialism, and rush to report the unfolding atrocities.
Cue the Centre for Research on Globalization’s Madi Darius Nazemroaya. A self-described “multidisciplinary sociologist”, and former Ombudsman for the University of Ottawa’s Fulcrum newspaper.
To date, Nazemroaya has reported that French fighters jets – as many as five – have been shot down over Libya, that an Italian naval vessel has been sunk and sailors captured, and that the coalition has attacked Libyan hospitals.
His source for all of this? “Libyan sources”. Roughly translated, this basically means Libyan government sources.
I left Libya over 42 years ago when the mobs were roaming the streets. They were not chanting for democracy or yearning for freedom they were looking for Jews. I am a Libyan Jew. I have now lived in the Bay Area for forty years. The upheavals sweeping Libya open old wounds. Violent political culture has often been part of Libyan society, especially towards its Jews.
There was a Jewish presence in the region since the 3rd century BCE – one millennium prior to the advent of Islam. We were "tolerated" to varying degrees by successive rulers and continued to be part of a rich and ongoing thread in the fabric of Libyan society.
During WWII, when the Germans invaded North Africa, there were 36,000 Jews living in Libya, mostly residing in Tripoli and Benghazi.
In 1942, over 2,000 Jews were deported to Nazi labor camps. More than 500 perished. Members of my family died in the Giado Labor Camp in Libya.
After WWII, Arab nationalism spread throughout the Middle East and...More >>
In 1996, at the very tail end of the grunge era, Illinois rockers Local H released a song entitled “Bound For the Floor”. It’s hard to think of a better musical metaphor for the far-left’s response to the crisis in Libya.
“And you just don’t get it/ Keep it copacetic/ And you learn to accept it/ You know/ You’re so pathetic.”
With talk of a humanitarian intervention in Libya, the self-appointed spokesmen of the hard Left have very rarely shown their inability to learn anything as they are now.
Perusing some of the reactions from Rabble.ca, Canada’s far left has decided – quelle suprise! –they oppose a NATO military intervention in Libya. Their solution? Soldarity.
That’s precisely the theme of a StopWar.ca statement published on Rabble.ca by Derrick O’Keefe and written by the Canadian Peace Alliance.
“The Government of Canada has announced that it will send HMCS Charlottetown to Libya to join the US aircraft carrier fleet led by the USS Enterprise,” the CPA writes. “This is part of a much larger NATO led buildup in the area. The Canadian Peace Alliance is opposed to any military intervention in Libya or in the region as...More >>
How covert is it? Well, over 
When considering the adopted standards of the so-called academic discipline of “Globalization Studies”, it’s not only fair to wonder what, precisely, passes for research in this obscure corner of academia. It’s actually becoming deeply necessary.
I left Libya over 42 years ago when the mobs were roaming the streets. They were not chanting for democracy or yearning for freedom they were looking for Jews. I am a Libyan Jew. I have now lived in the Bay Area for forty years. The upheavals sweeping Libya open old wounds. Violent political culture has often been part of Libyan society, especially towards its Jews.
