Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish Articles at DanielGreenfield.org

The debt ceiling debate is less about spending than it is about the purpose of government. Under the impact of an economic recession, the train of the Great Society is approaching the edge of the New Frontier. Both sides are still trying to work out a New Deal, but another cuts and spending formula is not the solution. What we need is a serious and earnest discussion about why we are compulsively spending money. A cocaine addict who runs out of money doesn't have a spending problem, he has a drug problem. Telling him to cut back on how much money he spends on cocaine, or to shop around for cheaper cocaine isn't the solution. It's not about how much he's spending, but about why. The problem isn't in the math, it's in the mindset. Our cocaine is social justice. Like most junkies who are willing to sell anything and everything to keep the supply coming, Obama's position in the budget debate is take everything-- especially the military, but leave th

The Gaza flotilla and the flytilla may have been failures, but they were also missed opportunities for Israel. It's no secret that a portion of Israel's tourist trade comes from "Protest Tourism." From philosophy students and poetry PhD's who want a chance to visit the Holy Land, throw some rocks at a soldier and have their pictures taken with AK-47 wielding terrorists. And it's time that the Israeli tourist industry took their business seriously. Rather than profiling them and giving them the heave ho at the airport, why not develop special tourism packages catering to their needs. Happily one company, Outraged Protest Tours is already on it. By the first quarter of 2012, Outraged Protest Tours expects to be able to offer angry entitled brats a choice of three tour packages in Israel. 1. The Rachel Corrie You're angry at your parents. You're angry at the world. You're still angry at Bush. One time you saw a PBS documentary on Gaza and

It's no coincidence that some of the most explosive Taliban violence coincides with the first phase of withdrawal from Afghanistan. The successful attacks on top Afghan officials are about more than just Taliban boldness and their need to establish credit for driving us out, but also about changing loyalties. Obama has made it clear that Karzai has no future, and that means that a growing realignment is happening in Afghanistan. With two sides to choose from, one that is on the way out, and one that is on the way in, a new tide of support is flowing away from the American backed government and to the Taliban. Much the same thing happened in the early days when the Allied assault smashed the Taliban and made it clear that they had no future. As the war dragged on, warlords and tribal leaders changed sides, and collected money and weapons from both sides. Now that we are preparing to leave, they are going to be lining up on the winning side. Afghanistan is the Muslim worl

He was a youthful leader with a law degree elected on the promise of reforms that would revitalize a world power trapped in the economic doldrums by its bureaucracy and huge debt. His approach of international engagement attempted to break through his country's global isolation by forging new ties and treaties with old enemies. And faced with a troubled war in Afghanistan, he authorized a temporary troop surge and counterinsurgency strategy, followed by a phased withdrawal shortly thereafter. Who was he? The answer of course is Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev. The man with the red spot on his head. Also the leader who presided over the dismantling of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. On June 22nd, Obama delivered his final phase of the Gorbachev Afghanistan strategy, the reversal of the surge followed by a handover of responsibility to the Afghan national forces. The numbers are different. Gorbachev's surge took place in 1985. Obama's in 2009. But both Gorbachev and Ob

Every society has its red lines. Areas that are off limits. Behaviors that are unacceptable. Lines that should not be crossed. And the left has progressively dismantled the red lines that constrain it, while seizing control of the infrastructure that marks out a society's red lines. By controlling that cultural infrastructure, the left can insure that all of a society's remaining standards are double standards. The inability to hold the left accountable for its actions is traceable back to this lack of standards. How does one call for accountability when there is no objective standard to measure the wrongness of an action against? Without it, every argument turns into a war of values. And even the mildest issues usher in another culture war. The left constantly sets red lines for the right, but any attempt to set red lines for it leads to cries of McCarthyism. The party that fifteen years earlier had rounded up people into detention camps for the crime of being Ja

Belgium's Burqa Ban kicks off on July 23rd. July 4th would have been nice, but you can't expect the Belgians to observe an American holiday. Australia might be next. The Pastafarians of Australia have been making their voices heard. They are still only a minority, but their souffle is rising. Of course the warnings are coming that there will be violence. Islamic leaders call a Burqa Ban "Un-Australian". Because what's more Australian than a Burqa, except maybe Mexican food or drowning witches . However Assisting Shift in Multicultural Australia director Janine Evans, who is a Muslim, said it was too simplistic to say that burqas did not fit into Australian society. "To say it doesn't fit with our way of life and culture shuts the door to (Muslim) women becoming active members of society," she said. But doesn't the Burqa do that? How can women who cover their faces become active members of society? This is a point that I made in my Front Page art

What the misreading of the Arab Spring as a revolutionary wave of democracy, rather than an explosion of existing tensions and longstanding civil wars, points to most is how thoroughly the 21st century Middle East expert has unlearned everything that his 19th century predecessor knew about the Muslim world. The 19th century expert understood the Muslim world as essentially unchanging, seething with revolts and dynastic struggles, but still shackled to the chains of its cultural and moral limitations. But the 21st century expert insists on a progressive version of history, in which humanity is always moving upward. Where each event, good or bad, is a phase in historical development. A 150 years ago, a Western observer reporting on a Muslim ruler being driven out of power by an alliance of oligarchies and an angry mob would have said that it was the same sort of thing that had been going on in the region forever. His conclusion might have been cynical, even bigoted, but it

There are two visions for Israel now. One is the old vision, the one that the left and the right once agreed upon. A nation with agriculture and industry, its capital in Jerusalem, its army and a new generation of settlers standing watch on the frontier. Then there's the vision of a "New Israel". Like Tony Blair's "New Britain", this technocratic plan has nothing in common with a workable country. The left's version of Israel concentrates on the Gush Dan metropolitan region as the overcrowded heart of a secular state, with a high tech economy and hardly any religion. Tel Aviv and its dingy satellite cities would become a new Singapore. All Dot Coms and cheap labor. Judea and Samaria would go the way of Gaza. And Jerusalem would be internationalized. The Golan Heights would be given back, the Galilee would become an autonomous territory like Cyprus, so likely would the Negev. Deals might be reached to keep major cities operating under Israeli law. Th

Even as Australia was banning the veil, New Zealand was caught in a scandal over the veil after the Saudi consulate complained when two of their masked slaves were refused access to a Kiwi bus. But the two bus drivers dodged accusations of Islamophobia by claiming that they instead suffer from Maskphobia . Maskphobia being the fear of people wearing masks. While liberal New Zealand newspaper writers are ridiculing it as a dodge, it's actually a far more honest position than condemning every concern about Islam as Islamophobia. Few people are concerned about Islam because it is a five letter word or foreign. They are concerned about it, because it has a habit of murdering their kind of people. The kind who don't attend mosques, wear veils or bow to a desert deity who commanded his followers to subjugate all infidels. The proper term for this concern is Murderphobia. Some people riding on a bus are concerned that Muslims will follow their habit of detonating buses in the name