Free Republic

A good field strategist might retreat and reposition his troops in order to win the battle - such moves are understandable. But an ideology-based political struggle is different. Giving up political turf without reciprocity is tantamount to unconditional surrender, which can never end in victory. Ideology-driven political conflicts are wrought with symbols. Israeli unconditional retreat under fire symbolizes for the Muslims the stereotypical terrified Jew runs away like a dog with his tail between his hind-legs. "The Jews are our dogs" is a classical Arab anti-Jewish saying. Israeli unconditional retreat must "prove" to the Arabs that the Israelis lost their...

The Bush administration's agreement for Lakhdar Brahimi, U.N. special envoy to Iraq, to choose the next interim Iraqi government could signal the end of U.S. efforts to establish democracy in Iraq, says Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service. The appointment appears to be part of a scenario in which the United States plans to order troops home after a general election in Iraq by the end of the year. Under this scenario, Iraq will have had its election, the United States will have declared victory and the only losers may be those who hope for Iraqi and Arab democracy. "The...

Journalist Dmitry Radyshevsky, Executive-Director of the Michael Cherney Foundation, chaired the First Annual Jerusalem Summit last autumn, which was co-sponsored by Israel's Tourism Ministry and the National Unity Coalition for Israel, among others. Its stated goals were to convene "outstanding political and academic leaders to develop a joint strategy against the Totalitarianism of the East represented by radical Islam, as well as against Moral Relativism of the West." Radyshevsky told the participants that he recently "had an in-depth conversation with a very influential Palestinian Arab. Since he no longer resides in the territories, he can afford the luxury to think...

The surprising popularity and success the Fox News Channel is experiencing today is causing panic with great consternation among the left in this country, as they contemplate the future impact the innovative news network will have on the news industry. What makes FNC so popular and so successful is you get "both sides" of the story; they report, you decide; fair and balanced. The time was ripe for someone to come along and break the monopoly of liberalism that had a strangle hold on the industry. The left counters that FNC is ultra-conservative and radical right wing reporting, but it...