Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish Articles at DanielGreenfield.org

There is one thing that the Jihad has reliably depended on in the late 20th century, it isn't a technological or a strategic factor, but us. Because the Jihad could not be what it is without the passive collaboration and active cooperation of the civilized world. When the West left the Middle East it left behind the tools of its own undoing, the oil industry that would funnel untold billions into the Jihadi war chest, the engineering and military training to wage war and the open borders that permit the terrorists easy access and even residency in our countries, but worst of all was what the West took along, guilt. When the Arab world got done rummaging through ash heaps of Nazism and Communism for ideologies their dictators could adapt to suit their needs, the old way of Mohammed was still waiting there ready to be embraced. And they embraced it with a vengeance even as the West had come down with a fever that was one part Rousseau, one part Marx and one part Gandhi, rolling t

By making a move toward general elections in Israel, Kadima's Livni is taking a big gamble. The basic gamble is that either voter fraud or general political inertia will not only keep the situation stable but will give Kadima an advantage in the election. Livni does have a few things going for her. Having just gotten on the job she's actually in the best position to gamble on new elections that she will ever be in, because the general public has yet to be disgusted by her. Backed by a heavy PR campaign focusing on accentuating her positive image, Livni is hoping to ride her new position to an election victory. With Kadima's approval ratings in the toilet, this may be her only chance to secure Kadima's survival. Naturally the usual way the left prepares for elections is by crying about right wing extremism and arresting a few people for supposedly plotting to commit something that usually falls apart at the trial level. Lately they've raised the bar to actually c

Among conservatives democracy is the watchword of the day, Bush fastened on the idea of promoting democracy worldwide and McCain has even proposed a League of Democracies. This is ironic at a time when their Democratic party opponents are busy building a cult of personality and employing voter fraud to undermine the very idea of Democracy. But what is so special about Democracy anyway? America is a democracy, but more to the point America is a Democratic Republic and one half of that word has been forgotten in a rush to embrace the idea that selling populist elections abroad can end tyranny and ugly belief systems that require mass subjugation. Popular elections however are not a one step way to terminate tyranny, they were always understood as being a check on tyrants, rather than an absolute barrier. During the 20th century Communists and Nazis both participated in democratic elections while openly stating their goal of ending democracy. This is no paradox because many political

It has been a short few weeks, blogwise, due to the proximity of so many holidays which has cut down on posts and articles, but next week Sultan Knish will be getting back to normal. Or as normal as it ever is. Tableclothes are being lifted off, furniture is being set down and regular blogging will resume. The world though is not standing still. The election showdown is drawing near in America that will serve as the anchor point for elections across the world. A major reason so much money from abroad is being used to influence the American election is because American policy translates into policy for any number of countries, including across Europe and in Israel. The more Obama and his supporters talk about changing the world, the more this hits home. Europeans who are not paying much attention to the US election and think that it doesn't involve them, might want to imagine an American administration that employs punitive measures, including boycotts, against European governments

Everyone knows that Obama can't win on his merits. Bluntly put, he has none. He isn't running on the issues, since he's demonstrated that he'll switch positions at the drop of a hat. What he's running on is a cult of personality, his own charisma and celebrity. Imagine JFK with no platform but a youthful smile and some vaguely optimistic rhetoric and that is the Obama platform in a nutshell. Beyond the cult of personality, his real power comes from being treated as the inevitable winner. As far as the press is concerned, Obama is the incumbent, the election is nothing more than a formality and these next few months are a celebration of his victory. Too many people, even those who hate Obama, see his victory as inevitable. That's not because of the poll numbers, but the perception created by the media with its constant coverage of the Messiah from Chicago and its determination to create the perception that you can't fight the future and that the election

Using a government bailout to boost the market is a lot like giving a junkie enough money to pay for another fix. It might fix the short term problem of him passing out on your couch, but it doesn't fix the long term problem created by his addiction. It just enables it. Wall Street habitually creates its own problems by tying its fate and fortunes to bogus investments and whether it's dot com companies with no business plan or bad mortgages, the bubble sooner or later bursts. Greed builds the sand castle but plastered sand can't hold back the tide of economic reality. And like all forms of irresponsible behavior, it creates the justification for overreaching government regulation and intervention, in other words socialism. The last stock market crash created the virtual dictatorship of FDR which ended the Second American Republic (1865-1933. This one may well do the same for the reign of Obama that will bring an end to America altogether. The real problem is the extent

As we all know Barack Obama isn't just a candidate, he's an icon, a messiah and a mass movement that is making a difference in the lives of millions of Americans. Barack Obama's confident willingness to run for a job for which he is completely unqualified for based on a platform of insipid slogans has similarly given people who should otherwise be locked in small tiny cages the confidence to pursue their dreams. Here are their simple but eloquent testimonies. "Barack Obama gave me the confidence to murder anyone I want." Phil Spector "Barack Obama and ACORN have given me the confidence to register 76 times to vote in both Ohio and Pennsylvania" Walter G. Grizzus "Barack Obama gave me the confidence to fight for my rights" O.J. Simpson "Barack Obama gave me the confidence to wreck the entire American economy because I knew the Federal government would be there to bail me out." Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae "Barack Obama gave me the

Joe the Plumber is important. Not simply because he represents the defense of middle class aspirations against a socialist system designed to create a wide gap between the dependent ranks of the working class and the upper classes safely ensconced and managing the socialist bureaucracy... but because his case demonstrates quite well the fate of those who criticize an Obama administration. Even without government control, Obama's backers are using the weapon of media intimidation to silence and suppress critics and clear his way to the top job. The media has managed to turn up more negative material on Joe the Plumber in a day than they have on Barack Hussein Obama in a year. The latter is running for President, the former was an ordinary man who asked him a question. This is the way things are supposed to work in a dictatorship, not in the United States. Here the critical eye is supposed to be on the politician, not on the American who asks him a critical question. Yet t

We're in the middle of a big election, an election that may well help decide the future of America. Which is why we all need to calm down a whole lot. That may sound paradoxical but it isn't. The crucial thing in any fight is to keep a clear head. By contrast an emotional seesaw does nothing but wastefully drain your energy while cultivating chaos. Which means that declaring that the battle is already lost, haranguing the McCain campaign and behaving hysterically is the worst possible thing to do. The left went into this election with a plan and they are close to achieving their goals. The right went into this election haphazardly and has just barely managed to sort of unite around the nominated candidate. Up until the convention too many conservatives seemed ready to peg McCain as doomed, then with the convention slash Palin bounce they seemed ready to proclaim that New York would be won, now it's back to doom and gloom. And that kind of attitude and behavior is self

This week the Washington Post had the upbeat story of how a bunch of Democratic activists in Prince George's County used a combination of racial victimization and straight up threats of boycotts to intimidate a hotel into removing a McCain marquee. Had it been a bunch of Republican activists forcing a black hotel owner to remove an Obama for President sign, we can be sure that the Washington Post would have covered it in entirely different tones. We can also be sure that someone would have turned up a noose somewhere even if they had to buy it on eBay and Jesse Jackson would be leading a march down there chanting, "We Will Overcome." But since it's a McCain sign, there was a sense of entitlement by black Democratic activists in getting it taken down. A sense of entitlement that the Washington Post article implicitly supports. Apparently supporting the candidate of your choice, if he isn't Obama, is "disrespect" which is next door to "intolerance