Author: Maggie Haberman
Publ.Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:16:42 EST

As Israeli and Palestinian peace talks are scheduled to resume in Washington in a few days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that Palestinian recognition of Israel as the Jewish homeland is an essential condition for peace. Completely reasonable, yet don't keep your fingers crossed, especially with the Obama administration's attitude toward Israel.

In my new book, "Crimes Against Liberty" (I know, another shameless plug, but you'd do the same in my position), I dedicate an entire chapter to detailing the Obama administration's horrendous and unprecedented mistreatment of Israel. Can you believe we're even having a discussion about Israel's right to the land six-plus decades and numerous wars after the modern Israeli state was restored to the Jews?

It's bad enough when misfit countries oppose Israel's right to existence and always demonize Israel while downplaying the Palestinians' misdeeds, but it's shocking and disturbing when the president of the United States abuses our greatest ally in the Mideast.

It's mystifying to me that so many Jewish people in America have been so tolerant of Obama's behavior toward Israel, almost as if in denial, but what more evidence do we need?

During the campaign, it was widely suspected that Obama had strong ties with pro-Palestinian groups, not to mention his membership in the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church -- one that is known for its sympathy for the causes of certain terrorist organizations and the Palestinian position.

My new book, "Crimes Against Liberty," has just been released, and in many of my radio interviews, hosts have been asking me whether I believe Barack Obama is a Christian or a Muslim. Though I don't address that subject in my book, I'll take a stab at it here.

First, let me confess that we can't possibly know for sure whether someone is a Christian, in the sense that we can't read another person's soul. We can sometimes get a pretty good idea based on someone's statements, professions and actions, but ultimately, Christianity is about an individual's beliefs and his faith and personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

With that disclaimer and the further admission that I'm no expert on Islam, let me share with you some factors that I believe merit our consideration on the question of whether he is Muslim, Christian or neither.

In some ways, Obama exhibits a worldview that more closely resembles a secularist than it does either a Muslim or a Christian, especially in his views on social issues. Also, he seems to place a great deal of confidence in himself and in government to bring about transformational change. How many God-fearing people have you known who would say "we (meaning I) are the ones we've been waiting for" or "generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal"? The staggering conceit of these statements cannot be overstated.

Those who mocked George W. Bush for openly declaring his faith in God and sharing that he prays to God for strength squawked about the horrors in Bush's allowing his beliefs to influence his governance. Apart from the mockers' misunderstanding of the proper intersection of faith and governance, let me pose another question. Are you more comfortable with a chief executive who, along with the overwhelming majority of Am...
Publ.Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:45:58 -0500

The Judiciary's Culturally Sanctioned Allergy to Christianity Flourishes

Does anyone find it ironic that the very people who protest so loudly over supposed affronts to Islamic religious expression are often so hostile to the slightest Christian religious expressions -- even incidental expressions?

The left is going bonkers over opposition to the ground zero mosque in the name of religious freedom, but the left's assault on Christian liberties proceeds unabated. One very recent example is the ruling by a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that memorial crosses erected and displayed along Utah public roads to honor fallen state highway troopers must be removed as unconstitutional.

In case you are wondering how highway crosses could remotely be considered to have violated any constitutional provision, the court tells us: "We hold that these memorials have the impermissible effect of conveying to the reasonable observer the message that the state prefers or otherwise endorses a certain religion."

So here we go again. Our politically correct-intoxicated culture is so allergic to expressions and symbols of Christianity that our courts leap to absurd conclusions to cordon off the chief allergen: Christianity.

To fully appreciate the outrageousness of the court's decision, you must understand that the memorial crosses were placed along Utah public roads by a private -- not public -- organization, the Utah Highway Patrol Association, which also maintains the crosses.

A caller to my brother Rush's show suggested that we were making a mistake by opposing the ground zero mosque, because this was an opportunity to show Muslims that we are better than that and that our form of government is superior. This is more muddle-headed leftist thinking, even if it did come from a caller who thinks he's conservative.

It's an outgrowth of the liberal mindset that we need to prove our moral decency to Muslim people. Since the 9/11 attacks, it has been clear that many leftists believe that to some extent, America brought on itself the attacks. They can indignantly dispute this characterization, but we see too much evidence to dismiss it. No less a central figure than our own president's former pastor Jeremiah Wright took this position. Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam of the ground zero mosque, reportedly expressed that view, and, knowing that, Obama's State Department is making him a liaison to the Mideast.

Whether or not Obama believes we brought the attacks on ourselves, we can surely agree that he thinks, at the very least, that the United States has mistreated and antagonized the world's Muslims. His infamous Cairo speech (and countless other talks) was dripping with that message.

But on what do Obama and the left base the perverse conclusion that America has been less than gracious toward the Muslim world? We have provided bundles of foreign aid to Muslim nations and liberated millions of Muslim people. We guarantee Muslims the same First Amendment protections we do peoples of all faiths or non-faiths.

Where do they get this idea that we have given the impression that we are at war with Islam? It surely couldn't be from former President George W. Bush's frequent, adamant assertions that "we are not at war with Islam." It couldn't be from his taking great pains to describe Islam as a religion of peace. It couldn't be from Homeland Security's policy to go out of its way to profile Caucasi...
Publ.Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:48:01 -0500