I hadnt planned to remit another Blast e-mail today, but a few points centering on the Middle East

merit scrutiny, mostly inspired by review of todays Daily Alert; definable critique and action-items are
easily deduced therefrom, enhanced by awareness that prior essays published with Dr. Sherkoh Abbas
are consistently corroborated [Kurdistan is More Like Israel, Less Like Iraq].
In follow-up of the prior colloquy, it was argued that Rapprochement with Cuba makes
sense; my view remains that [just as occurred with DeSean Jackson], America got
nothing for having provided multiple irreversible/visceral concessions. And, as this
relates to GitMo, those who wish to release prisoners-of-war must confront the fact
that 30 PERCENT OF TERRORISTS RELEASED GO BACK INTO FIGHT. {Also, U.S. Paid $3.2
Million to American Alan Gross Held Five Years by Cuba as settlement of a contractual
claim for $7 million filed by his firm [DAI] against USAID for incurred expenses.}
Regarding POTUS-16, the following constitutes a set of excerpts from Politico {plus annotation}:
The Bush-Clinton concept is being promoted [despite the claim that Americans profess
to reject dynasties] for, in politics it is argued they're quite comfortable with familiar
names which suggest competence at a time of dysfunction [which can then bring a
candidate instant brand recognition, important fund-raising connections and a ready
network of political contacts]. {This is the lib-line, as Rush predicted.}
Political Manifestos Coming in 2015: Marco Rubio, "American Dreams: Restoring
Economic Opportunity for Everyone," Jan. 15 ... Mike Huckabee, "God, Guns, Grits and
Gravy," Jan. 20 ... Ben Carson, "You Have a Brain: A Teen's Guide to THINK BIG," Feb. 3 ...
Carly Fiorina, "Times of Challenge, Moments of Grace," May 5 ... Ted Cruz (untitled),
May 12 ... Rand Paul, "Taking A Stand: Moving Beyond Partisan Politics to Unite
America," June 2 ... Jeb Bush (e-book), early 2015. {All quite trite.}
RICK PERRY HINTED AT 2016 RUN. {This will not survive the Cruz-Missile directed @
anti-Semites [vide infra].}
Jeb may not be ready for a rapid-response, Twitter-driven modern campaign. {So much
the better.}
Splintering of white evangelical Christians may provide an opening for a more centrist
candidate to win the Republican nomination. {This is why I hope Cruz can solidify their
support early, for they have professed a desire to endorse early to avoid the very
eventuality sketched-out in this piece.}
OBAMA visited a patchwork of congregations 19 times since taking office [6% of the
Sundays of his presidency]. {Provided in the holiday spirit.}
{If GOP N.Y. Rep. Michael Grimm is expelled for having been convicted [sentencing isnt
for -year, for some reason], a Special Election would be held; with a scandal damaging
the GOP incumbent, Democrats are drooling over the prospect of picking up the seat.}
In follow-up of the Iggles-loss, note the column/comments [including mine] in todays Inqy. [Three days
that shaped Eagles season] are consistent with sentiments compiled yesterday. {Anyone who played
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Chinese Checkers [a half-century ago, as I did] will want to sample [and become enlightened by] how the
puter has dramatically altered the dynamics of the game [allowing for symmetrical-jumps rather than
merely contiguous ones]; this expands the conceptualization of the playing-field.}
EU rejected setting up task force on anti-Semitism because it knows what the problem is
and who is causing it; the last thing it wants to do is to deal with it [such as to recognize
the correlation of Frances disastrous Anti-Semitic Nightmare with the rise in Muslim
immigration.
Again, the Daily Alert eschews discussion of politics, so it should be recognized that, although he has
dropped-out of the race, MK Moshe Feiglin has compiled his Knesset Record in preparation for being on
the list for re-election; meanwhile, noting the shocking-risk that BB may not be its leader, the
possibility has been raised that Right-Wingers [specifically, it seems, Danny Danon] will find it easier to
Come Home to the [traditional] Likud. What must be factored-in, here, is the degree to which BB had
to bend to accommodate the outer-reaches of BHOs private mandates and, thus, I hope that Israelis will
support BB; nevertheless, it is predictable that articles such as that to-follow will be published in an
effort to sway voters against his being provided the mandate to form a conservative coalition
government.
According to Leftie-Haaretz, Benjamin Netanyahu is [allegedly] already reconciled to a
divided Jerusalem. Five Jerusalem neighborhoods remained on the other side of the
fence the Shoafat refugee camp, the neighborhoods of Ras Khamis, Ras Shehadeh,
Hashalom neighborhood and Kafr Akeb that are homes to tens of thousands,
between one-quarter and one-third of all Palestinian residents of the city. They were
left in a no-mans land in which the Israeli authorities, chief among them the
municipality and the police, do not set foot. Anarchy reigns, and the only Israelis who
enter do so in armored jeeps and wearing full body armor. Even the most basic services
are not provided to this area, from regular running water and garbage collection to law
enforcement.
THE ISLAMIC STATE Prepares to Attack Israel in North and South Pincer Movement - With THE ISLAMIC
STATE continuing to hold the upper hand in Syria and Iraq, it appears that the terrorist network is
planning what military strategists call a pincer movement to attack the Israeli homeland from the north
and south. Three Syrian rebel groups switched loyalties to gain THE ISLAMIC STATE support for attacks
on the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, according to a report by the Fiscal Times. THE ISLAMIC STATE is
now able to coordinate with Egyptian THE ISLAMIC STATE-aligned terror group Ansar Bait al-Maqdis in
Sinai to simultaneously pressure Israels northern and southern borders.
A Western [German] Journalist Embedded With THE ISLAMIC STATE Said 14 Americans
[both American-born and Arab-Americans as well as white] are the strongest group I
ever met [and I have seen many wars]; they are very clever, very enthusiastic, and
extremely brutal. Not just head-cutting. I'm talking about the strategy of religious
cleansing. That's their official philosophy. They are talking about 500 million people who
have to die. The guy from New Jersey. This surprised me. You don't expect someone
from N.J. going to join the Islamic State.'
Iran:

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Iran Army Staged a Massive Military Drill [code-named "Mohammad, the Messenger of God"] to
display the country's military prowess. The exercises will cover an area of 2.2 million square km.,
stretching from east of the Strait of Hormuz to north of the Indian Ocean. Participating in the drill, the
largest of its kind, are different ground units, fighter jets and air defense systems, as well as surface and
submarine vessels deployed in the Sea of Oman. Brig.-Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi said the army wants to
convey a message of peace and friendship to neighboring states through this military drill.
Iranian Conspiracy Theory: Israeli Settlements in Iraq? - In a conspiracy theory fit for the
Ayatollah, Iran's Fars News Agency reported that Israeli businessmen are buying properties in Islamic
State-held areas of northern Iraq for eventual Jewish settlement. Fars claimed that more than 2000 Jews
have already settled in Iraq's Kurdistan region.
The Islamic State:
The Caliphate in the Eyes of Islam
The Islamic State is implementing sharia (Islamic law) to the letter - the same sharia which is taught in
schools and academic institutions throughout the Muslim world.

The harsh penalties inflicted on sinners, from stoning women to crucifying and beheading infidels, are
part of that teaching.
For example, sharia-based textbooks tell of the revered military commander Khaled Ben Walid, who
killed the leader of a tribe which had renounced Islam, cut off his head, threw it in a boiling cauldron
and ate it.
Surveys in Saudi Arabia showed that 92% of Saudis approved the way of IS. This is what they were
taught at school and this is what they hear in the Friday sermons from the mosques.

In Egypt, President Sisi has declared that the more extreme expressions of the sharia should be amended.
Acting upon his instructions, in June the Egyptian Education Ministry canceled the course of Islamic
education being taught in schools; moral values were added to a new textbook. This important step did
not receive the recognition it deserved in the West.
Islamic State Recruits Entire Families - Siddhartha Dhar's
he, his wife, and their children have arrived in Syria to live in
have encouraged doctors, nurses, lawyers, engineers, and
institutions of a new nation ruled by Islamic sharia law. Entire
that have surprised and alarmed analysts.

first four children were born in London. Now

an Islamic caliphate. Islamic State's leaders
accountants to join them in building the
families have answered that call in numbers

"These families believe they are doing the right thing for their children," said Melanie Smith, a research
associate at the King's College International Center for the Study of Radicalization in London. "They think
they are taking them to a kind of utopia." Analysts estimate that at least 15,000 people have moved to
the Islamic State, including several thousand from Western countries.
Islamic State uses family imagery in its highly polished online recruiting, including videos showing
fighters pushing children on swings and passing out toys. However, recent reports from Syria and Iraq
suggest that in Islamic State areas, people are enduring painful shortages of electricity, food, medicine
and clean water.
Hamas/Gaza:
Hamas is Rebuilding Military Positions and forward command posts in northern Gaza, since the end of
the Gaza war. Israelis in Netiv HaAsara have spotted newly-built dirt hills, fortifications, and ramps
adorned with green Hamas flags several hundred meters from their homes in the area of the former
Israeli settlement of Nisanit, which was dismantled in 2005.
Hamas Knows that Gazans Do Not Want Another War - Despite occasional statements to the media
that war is preferable to the current stalemate, Gazans cannot bear the thought of another round of
warfare. Hamas authorities are well aware of this, so they have no current political or tactical interest in
war. Contrary to the statements of high-ranking Hamas officials, they do not have enough weaponry to
face off against Israel's army. Moreover, they cannot afford to act in complete opposition to the will of the

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vast majority in Gaza. After their dismal failure to make any political gains at all via the last war (or during
the talks for its conclusion), they will have difficulty promising that another war will lead to political and
economic improvement and lifting the embargo - things that the previous war did not accomplish.
Judea/Samaria:
IDF Seized Guns [automatic weapons and handguns] and Pipe Bombs in Nablus [Samaria] and
Four Palestinian Arabs Carrying Pipe Bombs were Arrested near Jenin.
"The PA Has Money. Look at the Fancy Cars They Drive to the Villas They Build" - Mariam
Barghouti, 20, is a Palestinian American studying at Bir-Zeit University. Last April she spent a day in jail
after throwing stones at Israeli soldiers during a violent demonstration at the village of Nebi Saleh. Last
week, the New York Times published an op-ed by Barghouti, who tells us that "the West Bank has seen a
steep rise in economic growth since 2010....There is prosperity - for some....[B]ut for most, the struggle
to make ends meet has become more and more arduous." She quotes a Ramallah cab-driver who tells
her: "The PA has money. Look around you, it's everywhere: the fancy cars they drive to the villas they
build." Lest we forget, it was Mahmoud Abbas who fired the one man who might have put things right in
the economic sphere, former Palestinian prime minister and U.S.-trained economist Salam Fayyad.
Palestinian Christmas Lies - Middle East Christians have been largely portrayed as caught in the middle
of a bitter war between Jews and Arabs over the Holy Land. But this is a profound misunderstanding of the
reality of the conflict. Though many Christians have been prominent Arab nationalists, their effort to
identify with the struggle against Zionism has not led to greater acceptance for Christians within
Palestinian society or the Arab and Muslim world in general. To the contrary, over the decades, the
Palestinian national movement has taken an increasingly Islamist tone. Today, an Islamist tide that has
swept through the region has made Christians an endangered minority.
The same dynamic has led to a massive exodus of Palestinian Christians from the territories. Life in
many traditionally Christian towns like Bethlehem has been made increasingly untenable for non-Muslims.
By contrast, Israel remains the one nation in the region where Christian rights and those of all religions
are respected.
[Related: Do Middle Eastern Christians Have Any Chance of Survival?]
Israel:
Israeli Photographer "Horrified" at Use of [a small child's] Bloody Shoe Photo that was widely
shared [on Twitter and Facebook] in the wake of a Taliban attack on a school in Pakistan; it is not recent,
for Israeli photographer Edi Israel took the photo in Ashkelon in May 2008 after a rocket fired by
Palestinians in Gaza struck a shopping mall, injuring dozens.
Operation in the Field Saved Wounded Soldier's Life - IDF doctors and medics saved the life of a
Bedouin reconnaissance battalion soldier who was seriously wounded by Palestinian sniper fire on
Wednesday at the Gaza border. The bullet penetrated the soldier's upper body from the side and caused
severe bleeding in his chest cavity. When the brigade doctor realized that only immediate treatment in the
field could help regularize the soldier's pulse, he decided to perform surgery on the spot and drain the
blood that accumulated in his chest.
The surgery was done while IDF tanks and Air Force aircraft were returning fire at the source of the
sniper fire. An IAF rescue helicopter landed at the scene of the shooting and the soldier was evacuated to
Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. Officers in the Medical Corps said the doctor "made the right
decisions on the spot that unequivocally saved the soldier's life."
Israel to Halt Gas-Mask Production Due to Decline in Chemical Weapon Threat
Intel to Produce Next-Generation Computer Chips in Israel, having promised to spend at least $550
million in Israel in the next five years, part of a commitment by the company to spend $6 billion to
upgrade its Kiryat Gat plant for the manufacture of new advanced chips for its next generation devices.

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While Israel is providing the company with grants of $600 million over the next five years as well as a
major tax break through 2023, Intel committed to hiring at least 1000 new employees.
"This arrangement will have a very positive effect on hundreds of small businesses and suppliers," said
Ziva Eiger, director of investments at the ministry's Industrial Cooperation Authority. "As a result of this
agreement, Israelis can look forward to thousands of more jobs being available."
Intel Israel CEO Mooly Eden said, "Last year, Intel Israel was responsible for more than 9% of Israel's
tech exports." Intel already employs 10,000 workers in Israel, with over 30,000 Israelis working at
companies that provide products and services to Intel.

Note this reaction to Gazas Doctor Mads Gilbert being Named Norways Person of the Year:
December 24, 2014
To:
Cc:

Hans.petter.sjoli@vg.no
Torry.pedersen@vg.no

Editor,
As medical doctors, we note with dismay the recognition by your newspaper of Dr.
Mads Gilbert as "person of the year" for 2014. The description of Dr. Gilbert's activities
is dangerously distorted, making the award highly problematic.
In particular we are concerned about his exploitation of medical frameworks for
promoting a personal political agenda. As doctors, we are profoundly aware of the
fundamental principle of medicine to "first do no harm," but Dr. Gilbert violates this
obligation on many occasions.
In July 2014, Dr. Gilbert co-authored a highly disturbing "Open Letter for the People
in Gaza" in The Lancet medical journal. Published during a very difficult war for both
sides, this letter sought to legitimize aggression by the Hamas terror group, called for
boycotts against Israel, and presented a highly distorted version of events, including
erasing 4560 rockets and mortars launched against Israelis each a war crime. The
language of this letter can be seen as constituting incitement and support for violence,
and was denounced by numerous physicians who opposed this exploitation of the
medical profession by Dr. Gilbert and his colleagues.
Furthermore, two of Gilbert's co-authors (Paola Manduca and Swee Ang Chai) were
revealed to be promoting a viciously anti-Semitic video by American neo-Nazi David
Duke. The Lancets editor, Richard Horton, belatedly declared that he was horrified to
discover that two co-authors of the letter had forwarded a vile and offensive video. The
clearly anti-Semitic worldview expressed in that video is abhorrent and deserves
universal condemnation. Yet, Gilbert has remained silent. For a man intensely vocal in
support of his opinions on politics and morality, this silence in the face of ugly hate and
racism among his colleagues speaks volumes.
Gilberts selective morality is further seen in his activities in Gaza during the war,
when he acted, in effect, as a visible spokesperson for Hamas. In his own words, Dr.
Gilbert makes it very clear that he is primarily a radical political activist, rather than a
medical one. In 2009, he told the Haaretz newspaper that We are not neutral. We
chose medical work in Gaza, not Sderot.
He used the premises of the al Shifa hospital for numerous media interviews while
terror rockets were launched at Israeli civilians from nearby. According to many sources,
this facility was also the headquarters of the Hamas leadership directing attacks against
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Israeli civilians, in blatant violation of international law. Yet, in all his political
pronouncements, Gilbert has never referred to these highly visible illegal and immoral
activities taking place in the same hospital.
These radical views supporting terrorism come as no surprise, bearing in mind
Gilberts declarations justifying the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and
Washington, D.C. that murdered over 3,000 people. Justification of such inhuman acts
of violence, clearly war crimes as intentional attacks on civilians, in contrast to
accidental damage from attacks on military targets, is entirely inconsistent with the
moral obligations of a doctor.
Like any other citizen, Dr. Gilbert is free to voice his opinions, however extreme and
disturbing they may be. But, in these and other examples, when he exploits the medical
profession to justify terrible violence, this becomes a serious moral problem. And since
funding for these campaigns is provided by Norwegian taxpayers, through NORWAC
the Norwegian Aid Committee -- they are indirectly contributing to the destructive
exploitation of medical and humanitarian frameworks.
We are also aware of publicly available reports regarding manipulation of the selection
process for the award, though we cannot confirm this.
With all this information made available here to your readers, reconsideration of the
award would send a powerful moral message.
Signatories (e-mail addresses can be provided for verification):
John R. Cohn, M.D.
Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics
Sidney Kimmel School of Medicine of Thomas Jefferson University
Philadelphia, PA, USA
David Katz
Emeritus Professor of Immunopathology,
University College London, UK
Professor Paul Zimmet, AO, MD PhD, FRACP, FRCP, FTSE
Diabetologist
Melbourne, Australia
Sir Mark Pepys MD PhD FRCP FRCPath FRS FMedSci
Director, Wolfson Drug Discovery Unit
University College London
Honorary Consultant Physician, Royal Free Hospital
Emeritus Professor and Head of Medicine, Royal Free Campus, UCL
Honorary Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge, UK
Rhona H. Fink MAS MD
9850 Genesee Avenue #370
La Jolla, CA, USA
Stuart M. Sprague, DO, FACP, FASN, FNKF
Clinical Professor of Medicine
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University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine

and Chairperson, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension
NorthShore University HealthSystem
Evanston, IL, USA
Philip Greenland, MD
Harry W. Dingman Professor
Departments of Preventive Medicine and Medicine
Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
Chicago, IL USA
David Stone
Emeritus Professor of Paediatric Epidemiology
University of Glasgow, UK
Dr Simon Cohen FRCP
Consultant Physician, University College Hospital, London, UK

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