The nauseating (and somewhat cringeworthy) show of affection on Tuesday between Claudia Roth, the leader of the German Green Party, and Ali Reza Sheik Attar, the Iranian ambassador to Berlin, offered a glimpse into the seedy love-affair between an increasingly large portion of the European ‘liberal’ Left (and some of their counterparts across the Atlantic), and the distinctly illiberal forces of global Islamism.
Western journalists, funders and decision-makers need to know that there are many truths being hidden from their eyes and ears.
The truth sometimes hurts; that is why the Palestinian Authority has been working hard to prevent the outside world from hearing about many occurrences that reflect negatively on its leaders or people.
Dear Harriet,
I am sorry I have taken so long to respond to your request to meet. I have given the matter great thought and ultimately have decided against meeting. I have even surprised myself by this decision, as essentially I believe that meetings are opportunities to overcome alienation, enable mutual understanding and most significantly create a human connection between the parties. Accordingly I have participated in interfaith dialogue with Muslim leaders; meetings that often give me hope that one day there will be peace in the Holy land.
"A decade of war is ending", declared President Obama earlier this week. But that is only really true if you accept the notion that there is no longer a violent threat to Western interests, and Western allies, anywhere in the world. Flatly, it is a counter-factual notion.