Twenty Facts about Israel and the Middle East (Jewish World Review)
The world's attention has been focused on the Middle East. We are confronted daily with scenes of carnage and destruction. Can we understand such violence? Yes, but only if we come to the situation with a solid grounding in the facts of the matter—facts that too often are forgotten, if ever they were learned. Below are twenty facts that we think are useful in understanding the current situation, how we arrived here, and how we might eventually arrive at a solution.

Arafat’s Purse What it funds. (NR)
At least $4.5 billion in international aid has been given to the Palestinian Authority since 1994. According to the March World Bank study, the lion's share, $1.1 billion, was given by the U.S. to help build a civil society, establish the necessary infrastructures, and provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people. Had all the aid money reached the Palestinian people as originally planned, every Palestinian could be living in his own little villa with at least a Ford in his garage. Instead, the PA leadership got richer even as the rest of the Palestinians remained poor — or became poorer — and terror became the law of the land.

Beyond KowtowingThe future of American foreign and energy policy. (NR)
There is no one birthplace for terrorism, but there are places where extreme ideologies flourish. In Saudi Arabia, the Wahhabi clerics have a strangle-hold on freedom. The institutions of Church and State are one entity. Women live as third-class citizens. Textbooks teach hatred and disdain for the United States. Young men genuflect to jihad as they are indoctrinated into a bastardized religion of terror. The result is a absence of democracy. The result is 15 of 19 September 11 hijackers were from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Revenge and Competition Why the Palestinians keep terrorizing. (NR)
In this atmosphere, the main sources of continuing terror attacks are emotional and irrational demands for revenge and competition for leadership and power. The vengeance resulting from deep hatred and anger cannot be eliminated through negotiated agreements, but requires intensive security measures to destroy the explosives and unravel all of the terror networks. Arafat has never moved in this direction, and the competition between Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other militias is likely to grow until all these groups are dismantled by Israeli security.

Iraqi Interrogatories The usual questions about Iraq. (NR)

Balancing the AcademyThe West stakes a claim on campus. (NR)

Won’t Get Fooled Again Same story. Different season. (Some) much wiser. (NR)