Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish Articles at DanielGreenfield.org

There is a particular bitter irony to the West's preoccupation with extinction among animals even as the West itself is slowly becoming extinct. The animal lowers and the conservationists of America and Europe build habitats for endangered creatures, monitor their numbers, worry over their low birth rates and never give a thought to the fact that some higher being might well look down on the men and women of the West and see no more than endangered animals, eagles, bears, badgers and wolves in business suits with headphones on their ears and low birth rates shrinking away into the darkness of final extinction. On that note is an entertaining little article in the New York Times called The Squirrel Wars about the struggle England and the rest of the UK is having with the extinction of the red squirrel because of the invasion of the gray squirrel. The British are of course upset. Generally though not upset enough to do anything useful about the problem. The article follows a Liberal

The game is a masquerade. In the masquerade everyone dons their masks. The peasants may become lords and the lords, peasants. The sheep may dress as wolves and the wolves as sheep. The cowards will roar like lions and the traitors will puff out their chests like the noblest of patriots. The name of the masquerade is politics of course. Just in time for a major peace conference and a proposed laundry list of concessions that will move Israel one dangerous step closer to oblivion, Olmert and Barak suddenly appear to have found their cojones. Olmert approved an attack on Syria which if true, sounds as if it should rank among Israel's most daring operations. Barak meanwhile is busy playing the hawk, mustering out his most militant rhetoric, blustering that there is no Palestinian partner in peace... even as his own government prepares to make massive concessions to the terrorists. There is a reason why politicians hate extremists and why to a politician the worst curse word, the worst

In 1920, as Secretary for War and Air, Churchill had responsibility for quelling the rebellion of Kurds and Arabs in British-occupied Iraq, which he achieved by authorising the use of poison gas. At the time he wrote, "I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilised tribes" - The development of the battle tank was financed from naval research funds via the Landships Committee , and, although a decade later development of the battle tank would be seen as a stroke of genius, at the time it was seen as misappropriation of funds. The tank was deployed too early and in too few numbers, much to Churchill's annoyance. He wanted a fleet of tanks used to surprise the Germans under cover of smoke, and to open a large section of the trenches by crushing barbed wire and creating a breakthrough sector. In 1910, Churchill was promoted to Home Secretary , where he was to prove somewhat controversial. A famous photograph from the time shows the impetuous Churchill taking

If there is anything to be said for the mainstream media it's that New York based media organizations, that is the tabloids like the New York Post and the Daily News unleashed their hammer blows on that little man from Iran in a way that harkens back to the way the WW2 press treated Mussolini or Hitler. It was a refreshing reminder of what the American press can be and can do when the forces of political correctness and appeasement don't tie their hands. As a sample here's a Daily News article Grinning madman Ahmadinejad squirms at Columbia Unused to dissent at home, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad squirmed uncomfortably for some 90 minutes while trying to put a loving face on a message of hate. In a day of pure New York drama at Columbia University yesterday, Ahmadinejad expressed skepticism of the Holocaust, questioned "who truly was involved" in the Sept. 11 attacks, denied oppressing women and claimed there are no gays in Iran. Ahmadinejad also used his

All politics is local and in the splits among Frum Jews, the arguments are often very much local too. If there is one thing that explains the splits between sub-denominations of Torah Jews in Israel, it is that "Unzer Yidden", the interests of a specific community takes precedence over the feelings and needs and even physical survival of our brothers and even the land of Israel. That is why this will not be a popular post. Heter Mechira like Gush Katif is little more than another rehearsal of "Unzer Yidden". Had there been a large Haredi farming industry, we know full well that Heter Mechira would as accepted as the sale of Chametz. And conversely if there wasn't a large Religious Zionist farming industry, Heter Mechira might well not exist. That is the nature of the Halacha of convenience. The reality is that Heter Mechira is as legitimate as Heter Iska or the sale of Chametz on Pesach or Pruzbul or many other things I could name. The question to be asked of al

Says it in a single image doesn't it? Realistically which of these women is more likely to be plotting to hijack or blow up a United States jet? The one doing the examining or the one being examined? If this country was at all determined to exercise a sane response to the threat of Islamic terrorism, we wouldn't be seeing scenes like this. We certainly would not be seeing a security guard so religious she's wearing Muslim headgear working as security against Muslim terrorists. This is simply common sense. I would say the same exact thing if the terrorists we were looking for were devout Catholics and the security consisted of devout Catholics or if the terrorists were Orthodox Jews and your security consisted of a bunch of Chassidim. It is nothing short of insane and defies all sanity, logic and common sense. Instead we surrendered to political correctness and we surrendered to terrorism. The best explanation for the scene above is that the airport was trying to be sensitiv

Ivan Safronov, a retired colonel and military correspondent for the Kommersant newspaper was murdered. Ivan Safronov had been investigating covert Russian arms shipments to Syria and Iran. He had been warned repeatedly by the authorities that there would be consequences if his investigation continued. Now he was murdered. Ivan Safronov is the 212th journalist to be murdered under Putin. The Putin regime is of course calling it a suicide and claiming that he jumped out of a window. On the floor the oranges he had just returned from buying still lay, untouched. Before his death Safronov had extensively reported on Russia's military push into the middle east, including the creation of a future base for the Black Fleet in Syria and the plan to base a permanent fleet in the area. This will include the addition of troops and air defense systems. Safronov had also extensively reported on the Putin's regime's plans for a new generation of missiles and nuclear weapons in its escalat

In Israel the violence continues against the opposition with the arrests of Nadia Matar as well as Limor HarHamelech. Meanwhile Niso Shaham who was caught on video calling for the beating of unarmed and non-violent protesters has been approved by the Fatah Suprem... I mean Israel Supreme Court to become the Jerusalem District Chief. In the words of Supreme Court Judge Ayala Procaccia, "a candidate's failure in the line of the duty does not necessarily disqualify him from promotion on the count of breaching the public's trust. Public trust is a term that also recognizes penitence, asking forgiveness and seeking answers." Of course had Niso Shaham been responsible for attacks on Arabs rather than Jews, the same Supreme Court would of course have decided that he was quite unfit, regardless of whatever regrets he might have expressed. As a limited victory, the Supreme Court has agreed to bar David Edri, who trampled Yehuda Etzion, from dispersing demonstrators. Of cours

The world was created in Tishrei, all of it from pole to pole and continent to continent, land and sea, mountain and sky formed in this month of Tishrei. On Rosh Hashana Adam and Chava were created and their descendants spread across the whole earth. This Rosh Hashana finds the men and women of the US army and navy and air force stationed across the world and those of whom are Jewish will be celebrating Rosh Hashana in all the scattered places across the world that they are, from the land to the sea and the wide oceans and even the air. From America to Europe and the Middle East and even the Pacific and asia where Jews traditionally have not gone. In the Pacific at the US bases in Japan and South Korea, from the US Navy's Yokosuka Naval Base to Okinawa, to Guam in the Philipines and Kobe in Japan, Rosh Hashana services will be taking places. Guam and Kobe have Jewish communities with their own services which personnel will be able to join. At the Yokosuka Naval Base and Marine Corp

We go now briefly from contemplating earthly matters to looking up at the sky and contemplating heavenly ones. Not perhaps the distant heavens but our nearby neighbor, the moon. It is interesting to note that two Rishonim, R. Avraham Ibn Ezra and R. Levi Ben Gershon, the Ralbag both have lunar craters named after them. The Rabbi Levi Crater can be seen here, the result of an impact crater by a heavenly body whose brilliant impact produced a crater marking the surface of the moon for longer than human memory endures. Beyond being a brilliant scholar and innovative philosopher, the Ralbag or "Gersonides" was an astronomer responsible for inventing the Jacob's Staff, a tool used for centuries by sailing ships to navigate by the stars. In the dead of night I spread it out like a tent And a thousand stars pierce it with their gleams. Sitting inside, I see the moon and the Pleiades And on a good night, the great Orion himself R. Avraham Ibn Ezra The Ibn Ezra or Abenezra Crater