NIGHTLINE UPDATE: Iranian-American blogger Pejman Yousefzadeh weighs in with his opinion on Nightline’s Iran program.

ARAFAT TO GAZA? This is Sharon’s suggestion. It would certainly facilitate a Jordanian takeover of the West Bank. . . .

READER WILL ALLEN WRITES:

Glenn, I raise a minor quibble with the term “peace movement”, for it implies the existence of a “war movement”, which is equally an empty phrase. To state that someone is for “peace” is to state exactly nothing, or worse, to state that the person is an idiot, mindlessly subscribing to “peace” regardless of the prevalent conditions. I wonder if there was an intelligent peace movement in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Well, actually, there was a peace movement in the Warsaw Ghetto. And most of them were sincere and well-meaning. But they weren’t “intelligent” and they weren’t heroes. They were part of the problem.

Of course, sometimes a peace movement can be right. But the thing is, I don’t think that most people in today’s “peace movement” are there because they want peace. If that were the case, they’d object to war in general. Most, however, only seem to mind war on behalf of civilization.

VANESSA LEGGETT UPDATE: I’ve got a column on the curious Vanessa Leggett case in today’s (Thursday’s) Wall Street Journal.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned when I posted the above last night — but I was too tired — that for reasons of length the WSJ cut a point that I think is worth making. In the Leggett case, the DOJ and FBI have acted like thugs, and incompetent thugs at that. This is always bad, but it’s especially bad when you’re fighting terrorists and the DOJ and FBI are the frontline troops in doing so domestically. They need to be trusted, and inspire confidence. Instead, they’ve shot themselves in the foot.

KAUS JOINS MARSHALL in believing Karen Hughes’ story about why she’s leaving the White House. But Kaus has the dirt on who wants the job.

PRINCE ABDULLAH is making desperate threats. I suspect this is a sign that the internal situation in Saudi-controlled Arabia may be much worse than is immediately apparent. We may be seeing regime change there in the near term, with or without U.S. assistance, rather than the medium term.

UPDATE: Zach Barbera writes

All that we have asked of them is to denounce, in no uncertain terms, suicide bombing and terror. In turn we get slapped in the face and threatened with an oil embargo and embrace of our enemies. Bush should say good riddance. And make very clear that his new friend Saddam will be hanging from a lamp post in Baghdad very soon.

READER SID SHARMA WRITES FROM ANN ARBOR:

Keep up the great work on Instapundit. Did you know, you are hated with a passion by a lot of academic leftists and their disciples in my town, looks like these folks are aghast that the conventional wisdom, as they see it, is being questioned by the whole Blogging movement. They are upset that folks like Chomsky and Fisk are analysed and exposed for the anti-American, pro Islamo-fascist, pro-terrorist idiots they are.

Hated? Me? How can you hate someone for a weblog? But then, hatred doesn’t come as easily to me as it does to so many who see themselves as part of the Forces of Good. Oh well. I’m tempted to say let them hate me, so long as they fear me. And there are more bloggers where I come from. . . . But really, it’s just plain sad if people are getting their panties in a wad over InstaPundit. It’s an admission that they don’t have much to bring to the debate besides tired old ideas that were mostly stupid when I first heard them (and they, or their parents, first uttered them) back in 1968. I was just a kid then. But even — or perhaps especially — to a kid, that stuff was obviously self-indulgent twaddle. And it hasn’t improved with age.

It’s too bad, too. An intelligent peace movement would be useful. But we don’t have one of those.

AMERICAN JEWS ARE THE PROBLEM says French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine. Ah, the sophisticated diplomacy of the smooth, suave French!

American Jews respond: “You’re a loser! Your boss lost to Le Pen! Loser! L-o-o-o-o-ser! Did we mention you’re a loser?” Uh, I’m just guessing about that part, actually. Er, excuse me: a la Alterman, I’m being “prophetic” about their views.

UPDATE: Read Jonah Goldberg’s take on this.

HARRY AND LOUISE will be starring in ads against the anti-cloning bill. No, really.

NIGHTLINE UPDATE: Reader Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom sends these thoughts:

I caught a few minutes of that, uh, footage of Bahman Farman Ara on last evening’s “Nightline.” It was shot almost as if it were an art house film — with odd cross-cuts and a mist filter, and with pregnant pauses between edits used to punctuate what the producers must’ve thought were Ara’s most trenchant “observations.”

Instead, it came across as a kind of Iranian-flavored This Is Spinal Tap. Honestly. I thought ABC New was kidding.

Reader Mazdak Atighi saw it this way:

I didn’t see the show, but read a transcript and I have to respond to Aaron Schatz’s interpretation. First of all, the point of the show, as Koppel’s intro makes clear, is to give an airing to a point of view we may not be hearing. That explains, I think, the lack of comments from Koppel while Farmanara speaks. As for what Farmanara has to say, he never blames 9/11 on U.S. foreign policy. He does say “We have to discuss, we have to communicate, you have to understand the hatred that is all over.” Particularly coming from an Iranian, who has a legitimate case to make against the U.S. for the CIA-led coup there in 1953, this strikes me as eminently reasonable. . . .I know several Iranians who grew up here (from early childhood, in large, cosmopolitan cities) who have gone to Iran and live there and love it. They don’t love the mullahs and just about all Iranians resent the stranglehold religious authorities have over the political/judicial apparatus of the state, but it’s not nearly as intrusive as Mr. Schatz may believe (and it’s not illegal for women’s heads to be uncovered in their own homes). In short, a little sanity, please.

Well, this BBC story about the popularity of mint-flavored condoms in Iran certainly suggests that Mr. Atighi has a point about, er, certain aspects of Iranian society at least. Meanwhile, reader Doug Allen writes:

I completely agree with what Aaron Schatz wrote to you. I missed the introduction but watched the final 20 minutes or so. I was appalled that Nightline, a show I used to regard highly, chose to present this man’s views in such a manner. I will be interested to see if an individual from a similar strata of Israeli society is given the same folksy platform to air her feelings about the Islamic world. I won’t be holding my breath.

The show reminded me of the days when Vladimir Posner used to be a guest, and they would discuss issues with the pretense/assumption that the Soviet Union was just like us. Ten years later we know what a pile of crap that turned out to be.

Yeah, whatever happened to Vlad, anyway? He had a talkshow for a while, but that cratered.

UPDATE: Reader Brian Miller writes:

I just read the comment written by Mazdak Atighi that you posted about last night’s Nightline program. He says:

He does say “We have to discuss, we have to communicate, you have to understand the hatred that is all over.” Particularly coming from an Iranian, who has a legitimate case to make against the U.S. for the CIA-led coup there in 1953, this strikes me as eminently reasonable. . . .I know several Iranians who grew up here (from early childhood, in large, cosmopolitan cities) who have gone to Iran and live there and love it.

While I don’t have a problem with the vast majority of what he says, this quote in particular belies (in my opinion at least) a serious bias that all to often goes unchallenged. I am so very tired of hearing that something the US did half a century ago needs to be taken into account when a person or a group needs cover for actions they are *currently* taking. If that is the best cover someone can come up with, it’s nothing more than a smoke screen. But now as I think about it, if this can reasonably held up as “the cause” of a nations current actions, why don’t we just back the hands of time up a decade further and use the actions of various Arab nations during WWII as justification for just about anything we damn well please with respect to the middle east today. Hmmmm… I’m guessing the apologists for the Arab tyrannies of the current middle east might just take exception to that.

Yeah, they got off pretty much scot-free for their support of the Nazis. That may have set a bad precedent.

MATT WELCH demonstrates one of the great virtues of having a blog: you can despin slanted interviews before they see the light of day! Tremble Old Media: we’re inside your decision loop. Buwhahaha!

CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON has merchandise with the new Saudi flag on it. Perhaps President Bush can present Prince Abdullah with one of these when he visits.

ON LE PEN, AND FASCISM DESCENDING ON EUROPE: Andrew Stuttaford reports.

RON ROSENBAUM has another excellent column on European anti-semitism.

WOBBLY WATCH UPDATE: Jim Dunnigan’s StrategyPage doesn’t think Bush is wobbly at all. And, I have to say, I trust Dunnigan more than Dick Morris on these matters.

NIGHTLINE UPDATE: I didn’t see Nightline last night — and the reason why nobody’s talking about this may be that nobody watches Nightline anymore — but I got this email from Aaron Schatz:

Perhaps it is due to the Blogspot problems today, but I am surprised nobody has mentioned last night’s odd Nightline.

The entire show was dedicated to an interview with Bahman Farman Ara, an Iranian film director who lived in the US for a long time before returning to Iran a few years ago. Well, interview is the wrong word – there was no questioner and no question. Ara was allowed to speak for 30 minutes with no response. I can’t imagine Nightline doing a similar show with an Israeli.

Ara is a quiet fellow who seems very thoughtful. His ideas were well-spoken rather than being angry rants. But he still seemed to blame September 11 on United States foreign policy and put forward the idea that if the Palestine problem was solved, nobody would hate the United States.

The most shocking part of the whole show was that Nightline presented this man’s life as if he lived in an Iran that was just like Albany or Sacramento, except it was Muslim. They showed people working, going about their daily business, except that in their cities the billboards contain grotesque anti-semitic cartoons instead of exhortations to buy shoes or see Spider-Man.

They showed Ara sitting around his house with female relatives who were not wearing head scarves, which I believe is illegal in Iran. I was totally amazed. Nightline didn’t even say anything about this.

Ara also had the temerity to say that he shutters whenever he hears the words of John Ashcroft. He believes that Ashcroft is seeking to bypass the constitution and do great damage to American civil liberties. These complaints from a man who lives in IRAN (!) went completely uncommented on by Koppel or anyone else.

All in all, it was one hell of a half hour of unedited, unabashed pro-Iran propaganda, broadcast by the same company that brings you Mickey Mouse, the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the Anaheim Angels. I was dumbfounded.

You really have to mention this.

Consider it mentioned. Did anyone else see this, or is Aaron the only Nightline viewer left in America?

BARRELFISHING: Ethan Brown disses Gore Vidal.

WOBBLY WATCH: Dick Morris says Bush has gone wobbly.

L.A. TIMES WATCH: Reader Curt Wilson writes:

A couple interesting tidbits with respect to the LA Times:

Sunday, there was an Israeli Independence Day rally/celebration in LA. Police estimate 60,000 people showed up (amazing for LA). Both Gov. Gray Davis and his challenger Bill Simon show up to speak, as well as Mayor Hahn. The LA Times prints NOT ONE WORD about it.

This morning, on page 3, the Times shows a picture of a dead Palestinian “collaborator” being dragged through the streets of the West Bank. The second sentence of the caption states that “a lack of security has led to an increase in vigilantism”. So, you see, these killings too are Israel’s fault…

Yeah, what Los Angeles needs is a new, competing newspaper to inject some competition and honesty into that market!

ROD DREHER QUOTES MARTIN NIEMOLLER (well, sort of):

First the Islamofascists came for Americans in the World Trade Center, and the Europeans didn’t speak up, not as they ought to have done, because their capitals were not attacked. Then the Islamofascists came for the Jews, and the Europeans didn’t speak up, because they were not Jewish, and besides, Israel is a sh**ty little country….” You know, reader, how the story ends.

Yeah, the story ends this way: we taught them that (in the horrified words of some Guardian type or other) “kill Americans, and you’re dead meat.”

At least, that’s the only ending I want to see. The only problem is that the Europeans kind of expect this ending too, and so feel relieved of any responsibility to do anything themselves.

NOAH MILLMAN says that Ponnuru is wrong and that Charles Krauthammer’s argument against cloning is stronger than Ponnuru gives it credit. I’m not convinced, but you can read the post and see if you are.

LE PEN UPDATE: Reader Rajat Datta writes:

Le Pen’s second place standing in the polls probably means very little, as many commentators have pointed out. But one thing I haven’t seen pointed out is that while there is so much outrage about him, there isn’t a sliver of similar outrage in France and Europe over the escalating anti-semitic acts taking place in their countries.

Yes, I’ve noticed that. I think that Le Pen is a threat to the political orthodoxies of Europe. Anti-semitism, sadly is a political orthodoxy of Europe.

MICHAEL BELLESILES UPDATE: Melissa Seckora is reporting that Bellesiles’ Bancroft Prize in history may be revoked.

RAMESH PONNURU says that Charles Krauthammer’s anticloning arguments are weak. (Here’s Krauthammer’s piece in The New Republic.)

I think that the only strong anti-cloning argument is Ponnuru’s — essentially a pro-life argument — and that argument is only strong if you hold certain essentially religious beliefs that I don’t share. Here’s a good piece by Nick Schulz making that point.

LEWIS LAPHAM SAYS he’s not unpatriotic, he’s just telling the truth. And the truth, as he sees it, is that America, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Evil Big Corporations, is pretty much always wrong. So there.

I don’t think the folks at SmarterHarpersIndex think he’s all that truthful, though.