Something good happened this past week in south Florida. After being briefed and educated by activists affiliated with the Middle East Forum (MEF)‚ a group of responsible public officials and business leaders prevailed upon a local hotel to refrain from hosting an Islamist-organized gathering of extremists slated to take place near Fort Lauderdale. The cancellation of the event‚ scheduled for the second weekend of January at the Marriot Hotel in Coral Springs‚ has prompted the all-too-predictable cries of bigotry and “Islamophobia” on the part of its organizer‚ the South Florida Muslim Federation (SFMF)‚ which is now scrambling for another venue to hold its gala. In light of this‚ it should come as no surprise that numerous Islamist Israel-haters were scheduled to speak at the convention. Floridians have every reason to be concerned about a local hotel chain hosting SFMF’s event‚ which would‚ by design‚ allow pro-Hamas activists who applauded the October 7 massacre in Israel to rub shoulders with service-minded Muslims and the organizations they lead. If it were allowed to proceed‚ the event would have given Hamas-aligned Islamist organizations a chance to portray themselves as something they are not — friends of the American republic and its way of life. (READ MORE from Dexter Van Zile: Not Another Dime to Pro-Hamas Charities in US) Founded in 2017‚ SFMF represents several of the state’s Islamist organizations which themselves promote the ideologies of movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood‚ its South Asian counterpart Jamaat-e-Islami‚ and Shiite extremists of Iran. One thing that unites these organizations is hostility toward Israel‚ which has manifested itself in one of SFMF’s high-profile members‚ the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)‚ notorious for its involvement in a 2007 terror finance trial involving Hamas. Late last year‚ the Biden Administration disavowed CAIR after a video emerged showing CAIR national director Nihad Awad celebrating the October 7 massacre and providing liberationist cover for the rape and murder of Israeli civilians‚ which he depicted as akin to Nazis by declaring‚ “The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on October 7.” SFMF itself has organized demonstrations alongside Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)‚ a student organization that has been prohibited in Florida universities due to support for Hamas. SFMF disseminated pictures from a “March for Palestine” held in Fort Lauderdale on October 29. The images revealed attendees carrying placards endorsing Palestinian “Resistance‚” a term synonymous with Hamas‚ advocating for the obliteration of Israel‚ and placards featuring Adolf Hitler. In light of this‚ it should come as no surprise that numerous Islamist Israel-haters were scheduled to speak at the convention‚ which was promoted as a “family” event where attendees would find hope during their current time of crisis by invoking the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem in the 630s. The irony is palpable. Islamist organizations and their allies on the left routinely invoke European conquests in the Western hemisphere to demonstrate the evils of Western civilization‚ but these same Islamist organizations invoke Islamic expansionism as a sign of hope for Muslims. And despite this‚ the conference organizers declared it was not a “pro-Hamas” event. Hamas is all about Islamic conquest that the event was going to celebrate. The decision by the Coral Springs Marriot to cancel the SFMF event comes on the heels of other Marriott-owned hotels in Virginia and Arizona canceling Islamist-organized events in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre. While these cancellations are good news‚ it would even better news if rank-and-file Muslims in Florida (and elsewhere) acknowledge that SFMF provides cover to Islamist hate groups and in so doing‚ brings legitimate Muslim organizations into disrepute. In its press release‚ the SFMF complained that the MEF’s efforts to educate local leaders about the event “smeared” 32 charities and thousands of Muslims in south Florida as “terrorists.” SFMF did that all by itself. To be sure‚ not every organization scheduled to take part in SFMF’s event is an Islamist organization intent on using the rights enjoyed by U.S. citizens to promote its hateful agenda‚ but enough of them were to make Marriot’s decision to cancel the conference an absolute necessity. (READ MORE: A Farrakhan Disciple Works for the Boston DA) It may not seem like it now‚ but the Marriot hotel in Coral Springs did Florida’s Muslim community a favor. It put Muslims who want to live in peace with their fellow citizens in the region on notice that their leaders are bringing them — and the faith they practice — into disrepute in the minds of their neighbors. If they want this process to end‚ American Muslims must wrest control of their institutions from the Islamist radicals who currently control them. Dexter Van Zile‚ Violin Family Research Fellow for the Middle East Forum‚ serves as managing editor of MEF’s publication Focus on Western Islamism. The post American Muslims Must Repudiate Pro-Hamas Charities appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

The Yemeni-based Houthi rebel attacks on global commerce and trade finally produced a response from the Biden administration (and the United Kingdom) in the form of targeted air strikes on Houthi military facilities‚ such as “command and control nodes‚ munitions‚ depots‚ launching systems‚ production facilities‚ and air defense radar systems‚” according to a CNN report. A Houthi spokesman said that the strikes killed five people and wounded six others. The same spokesman stated that the strikes “would not deter further … attacks on shipping.” On Sunday‚ U.S. warplanes targeted a radar site with strikes‚ which a Houthi spokesman described as causing no “material damages” and no injuries. And the “pinprick” strikes are surely not going to impress China’s leaders. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a press release that the strikes are “intended to disrupt and degrade the Houthi’s capabilities to endanger mariners and threaten global trade in one of the world’s most critical waterways.” Austin also claimed that the strikes will “send a clear message to the Houthis that they will bear further costs if they do not end their illegal attacks.” The Naval War College’s James Holmes‚ channeling the great strategic theorist Admiral J.C. Wylie‚ is skeptical of that approach. (READ MORE from Francis P. Sempa: The Arctic Thaw‚ Sino-Russian Partnership‚ and Control of the World-Island) Holmes distinguishes between “cumulative” operations and “sequential” operations. Cumulative operations — like those described by Secretary Austin — involve “wearing down an opponent through pinpricks” by “inflicting small-scale damage at many places on the map.” This kind of response‚ as Austin admitted‚ is designed to send “messages” instead of inflicting decisive punishment. It is what President Bill Clinton did in Serbia and Bosnia in the mid-1990s to little strategic effect. On a larger scale‚ it was what Robert McNamara and his “whiz kids” in the Pentagon did during much of the Vietnam War — bombing to “send signals” instead of “strategic bombing” once advocated by Giulio Douhet in The Command of the Air (1921) and practiced by General Curtis LeMay against Japan at the end of World War II. Douhet‚ a pioneer air power strategist‚ foresaw in 1921 that with the advent of long-range bombers “the battlefield will be limited only by the boundaries of the nations at war‚ and all of their citizens will become combatants‚ since all of them will be exposed to the aerial offensives of the enemy.” “No longer can areas exist in which life can be lived in safety and tranquility‚” Douhet wrote‚ “nor can the battlefield any longer be limited to actual combatants.” For this reason‚ Douhet suggested that “command of the air” was essential for winning future wars. Army Air Corps (and later Air Force) General Curtis LeMay was an intellectual disciple of Douhet‚ and near the end of World War II he put into practice Douhet’s theories with devastating results against the Japanese mainland. The firebombing of Tokyo and other Japanese cities combined with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki pummeled Japan into submission. LeMay later remarked that war was very simple — you kill enough of the enemy and they stop fighting. Thus far the strikes carried out by the Biden administration are cumulative operations — like McNamara’s bombing campaign in Vietnam or Clinton’s in the Balkans — intended to persuade the Houthis to stop attacking shipping near and around the Red Sea. They are “pinpricks” that are unlikely to deter the Houthis from future attacks. By contrast‚ Douhet advocated and LeMay practiced “sequential” operations where the enemy is pummeled into submission by repeated sequential strikes. Holmes suggests that we would improve our prospects of success against the Houthis by “go[ing] big‚ applying maximum violence at many key places on the map at the same time‚ and … keep the pressure over a sustained period of time.” Sending messages to the Houthis‚ Holmes writes‚ won’t work because they are “ideologues‚ not dispassionate accountants of costs‚ benefits‚ and risks.” (READ MORE: Terrorists Firing Missiles at Cargo Ships Are a Geopolitical Threat) The cumulative operation of the Biden administration that killed five Houthi rebels and wounded six others‚ and most recently targeted a radar site is not going to deter anyone‚ let alone the ideologues described by Holmes. And the “pinprick” strikes are surely not going to impress China’s leaders as they prepare to react to the “independence” candidate’s victory in Taiwan’s presidential election. The post Time to ‘Curtis LeMay’ the Houthis appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

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