MarkSilverberg

The following editorial is a formal response to the September 2007 visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to Columbia University.

Undoubtedly the Supreme Court’s decision in Boumediene v. Bush will be hailed in many quarters as a great victory for the rule of law. It is not. It represents the continuing trend in our society to convert every form of decision-making into a potential cause of action. For the first time in our history, the Supreme Court in Boumediene vs. Bush has rejected the judgment of both the Congress and the President on an issue of national security. The writ of habeas corpus has now been extended to foreign nationals whose only connection to the United States is their capture by our military in time of war.

"Tell you what, if you recognize Israel as a sovereign state in the Middle East, prove you are dismantling your terrorist infrastructures, stop sending your suicide bombers into our cities, towns and marketplaces, stop inciting hatred and spreading blood libels through your media, your mosques, your educational system and throughout your society, stop brainwashing your children into believing that the fast track to virgins in Paradise requires them to become human grenades, and stop firing missiles at us, we'll come to the table with a settlement offer that will bring both our societies peace and prosperity."

On April 3, 2009, the New York Times ran an anti-Israel op-ed by University of California Hastings College of Law professor George Bisharat titled “Israel on Trial”. The piece, false where it is not misleading, is a disgrace. It offers a sounding board for all those who believe that only Muslims have a right to self-determination, that Gaza remains “occupied” even though Israel disengaged in 2005, and that Israel - a sovereign and legitimate nation - doesn’t have the right to defend itself against attack.

If there is any lesson to be learned from the recent Russian-Georgian war, it is that Western security commitments should not to be made unless and until they can be enforced. The war was the by-product of a mismanaged American foreign policy in the region because it attempted to gain American influence against Russia without providing sufficient American power to sustain that policy when challenged by Russia. This does not excuse the brutal application of Russian power against a neighboring state, but it goes a long way in explaining why America responded as it did.

U.S. foreign policy in the Arab Middle East is now shifting from actively promoting democratic change to the previous policy of realpolitik - a policy based on the appeasement of dictators and despots that was discredited in the post 9/11 world because it had failed to secure American interests and security even in its heyday in the 1980s and early 1990s

“If they (the Jews) gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide." Lebanese Hezbollah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah (Beirut Daily Star)

“All the world is a battlefield open in front of us…..It is Jihad for sake of Allah and will last until our religion prevails from Spain to Iraq…. every participant in the crime will pay the price.” (filmed in front of a photo of the World Trade Center) Ayman al-Zawahiri ( al Qaeda), July 27, 2006

On September 11, 2001, this nation was attacked by an enemy whose vision of the future, whose culture and value system, and whose concepts of life and death are a universe apart from ours. In Gaza City recently, an Israeli air strike killed two Hamas terrorists who were about to launch missiles at the Israeli cities of Sderot and Ashkelon. One of those killed was a son of senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Haya. At the funeral of his son, al-Haya said, "I thank God for this gift. This is the 10th member of my family to be martyred". And in Pakistan, another Salafist wrapped a baby in an explosive belt and detonated it killing scores of Muslims.

Mark Silverberg lecture at the University of Florida: “Saudi Arabia and the War on Terror”.