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S U N D AY, A U G U S T 2 1 , 2 0 11

D ON AT E T H R OU GH PAY PA L

Glenn Beck is Correct on the Middle East; Lets Analyze Why Thats True
This article was published in the Jerusalem Post. I own the copyright and have made some additions in this text to provide some fuller explanation of several points so I ask that you read and link to this version. By Barry Rubin Having studied the Middle East professionally for 35 years, written or edited more than 40 books on the region, and having a PhD in Middle East history, let me make it perfectly clear: Glenn Beck, who is holding several rallies in Israel this week, has a better grasp of Middle East politics than most Western experts, not to mention Western leaders. Certainly, Beck makes silly mistakes on factual matters and details. Yet whats important is that he comprehends the big picture. I dont say this based on a superficial view or on his support for Israel. As part of the GLORIA Centers project on understanding current American politics and debates I have monitored virtually every television and radio show Beck has done over the last two years. When people voice absurd and slanderous stereotypes about Beck, it turns out they havent actually listened to what hes been saying. Why has Beck gotten things right that so many others have missed or distorted? There are five key reasons: Common sense; courage; knowing the difference between right and wrong, willingness to learn, and readiness to admit when one has been wrong. These are virtues often lacking among those with more elegant reputations and impressive diplomas. What has he gotten right? 1. The main threat in the Middle East is revolutionary Islamism and the United States must combat it.
To make a tax-deductible donation to the GLORIA Center/Rubin Reports from the UK, please inform us you are doing so at yaharoni@idc.ac.il , Then write check to: UK Friends of IDC (writing on it: for GLORIA Center); And mail to: Mr. Gordon Hausmann, CH. HAUSMANN & CO., 5 De Walden Court, 85 New Cavendish Street, W1W 6XD E-mail: mail@chhausmann.co.uk
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Revolutionary Islamism includes on its side: Iran, Syria, Hizballah (largely controlling Lebanon), Hamas (governing the Gaza Strip), and the Muslim Brotherhood as well as al-Qaida and, more subtly, the regime governing Turkey. It is an ideology innately hostile to the West, the United States, and Israel. It cannot be bought off or moderated. Revolutionary Islamists will either take over the Middle East or be defeated.

Tax-deductible donation through PayPal or credit card: click Donate button, upper-right hand corner of this page By check to: "American Friends of IDC. Write For GLORIA Center on memo line.

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RubinReports: Glenn Beck is Correct on the Middle East; Lets Analyze ...

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The problem is not Islam as a religion but revolutionary Islamism as a political ideology that draws on normative Islam to produce its own plausible interpretation.

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While falsely accused of Islamophobia, Beck has correctly drawn the distinction between Islam and revolutionary Islamism. Those claiming Islam is a religion of peace miss the radicalism easily drawn from its texts as well as the large and growing Islamist forces. Those claiming Islam is inherently extremist miss most of its actual history and the tremendous battle going on among Muslims, 3. The revolutionary Islamist side is winning.

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Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. See the GLORIA/MERIA site at www.gloria-center.org.
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In the last year, revolutionary Islamism has advanced in Egypt, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Turkey, and potentially Syria, Libya, and Tunisia. 4. The Arab Spring contains many dangers.
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The unqualified Western enthusiasm for the Arab Spring ignored the threat of growing Islamist power. Those of us who warned beginning in January about the Muslim Brotherhood radicalism and power were ridiculed, despite the fact that every statement it has made for decades has proven this point. Even now, many are in denial about the Brotherhood becoming Egypts strongest single party in parliament and in writing the countrys new constitution. The regime that emerges might not be Islamist but will be radical, anti-American, and dangerously hostile toward Israel. 5. Israel just happens to be largely right and deserves support

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Israel has been in a Twilight Zone situation. Eighteen years ago, Israel took a tremendous risk for peace by signing an agreement with the PLO, agreeing to establish an armed Palestinian Authority, and negotiating toward the creation of a Palestinian state, Not to mention later offering the Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for peace, withdrawing from south Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, and much of the West Bank. Yet the more risks for peace Israel took, the more concessions made, the more restraint shown, the more it was slandered and said not to want peace. The more Israel sought a two-state solution, the more people in the West advocated a no-Israelstate solution. Beck has cut through this nonsense to point out a simple fact: Israel wants a negotiated compromise and stable peace based on a two-state solution; the Palestinian Authoritynot to mention Hamasdoesnt. 6. One Mans TerroristIs Still a Terrorist

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There is no romanticism in the deliberate murder of civilians, systematic incitement of hatred, and goal of establishing a totalitarian society. Bad ends hardly justify bad means. 7. The Obama Administration has messed up the Middle East to a phenomenal extent.

For details you can read what Ive written about this since January 2009. 8. One should be fearless in facing intimidation and politically motivated ridicule.

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Yes, it gets tiring to be slandered and misquoted but a lot is at stake here. Popularity among current Western elites and career advancement cannot be the main priority at present. We live at a time when governments and intellectuals surrender at the merest hint of being called names or faced with threats of violence. 9. We must reevaluate friends and enemies in this new era of revolutionary Islamism and post-Marxist leftism.

Eyes Are Shut on Completely P... Breaking News: More Details on Terror Attack From ... Finally: Obama Administration Calls for End to Syr... News Flash: New Phase in War as Terrorists Cross E... Do Iraqi Documents Give Some Hints About the Irani... Radio Interview How Obama Administration's Ideological Obsessions ... Egypt's "Moderates" Unite? A Step Forward But Not ... Symbol of Egypt's Revolution On Trial For Advocati... Syrias Revolution: A Bloodbath the West Cannot (W... The Big Split in the Revolutionary Islamist Moveme... The Lefts Very Anti-PC Strategy: Hate, Fear, Ster... The Middle East Today: August 12, 2011 Terrorism Returns to Egypt, Will Sanity about Isla... This Is What Democracy Looks Like?: Hating America... Turkey: Two More Steps Toward Islamism The Campaign to Panic Israel Into a Bad Strategy Almost One Year After

In the past, Jews often saw conservatives and religious Christians as threats for good reasons. But were no longer in the nineteenth or even twentieth centuries. Conservatives and Christians arent drooling to convert, kill, or use Jews to bring on the apocalypse. Thats out-dated. While doing everything possible to work with liberals and social democrats, we must understandwhatever our personal political viewsthat Israel and the Jewish people have a new set of allies. Why have these groups changed their views on Jews? With religion imperiled in the West, they see Jews as fellow believers rather thanas in past antisemitismcorrosive atheists and Jesus-killers. They see Israel as an embodiment of the nation-state and admire its ability to defend itself, rather than considering Jews to be cosmopolitan subversives and cowardly pacifists. Rather than view Jews as imperiling Western civilization, they view Israel as facing the same enemies they believe to be doing so today. An important issuein fact, the key testwas how conservatives would deal with the presence of so many Jews among their opponents. Historically, that situation was a prime factor in an antisemitic narrative on the right. The solution has been to perceive leftist Jews as traitors to their own Jewish people rather than to consider Jews as a whole to be the villain. Whether or not you agree with that assessment isnt important in this context. Whats important is that this solves the political and religious rights past inclination toward antisemitism. 10. Whatever mistakes the United States has made it is a good country and is the hope of the world. Many countries and people everywhere yearn for America to revive itself, change the current administrations policies, properly define friends and enemies, and take leadership internationally once again. Any criticism one can make of Beck regarding Middle East issues rather pales in comparison to all of the above points on which he is quite correct. But then, as Jews, and Israelis most of all, should know, to be falsely reviled and have ones image smeared is not proof of being wrong or evil.
We need your contribution. Tax-deductible donation by PayPal or credit card: click Donate button: http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com. Checks: "American Friends of IDC. For GLORIA Center on memo line. Mail: American Friends of IDC, 116 East 16th St., 11th Fl., NY, NY 10003. Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal, and Middle East editor and featured columnist at PajamasMedia http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-

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Macmillan). GLORIA Center site is http://www.gloriacenter.org.His articles published originally outside of PajamasMedia are at <http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com>
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