HOURS:
Monday - Wednesday 10am - 6:30pm EST
Thursday 10am - 7pm
Friday 10am - 3pm
CLOSED SATURDAYS
OPEN Sundays Noon - 5pm
Email: larkstreet@gmail.com
HIT THE GUITAR 
ICON FOR PICTURES!
********Updated- Monday January 14th, 2019 **********
*FENDER Clapton Strat, made in Japan, Black, same features as the US model but no
Clapton signature, Maple neck, exc, ohsc....$895
*FENDER Clapton Strat, made in Japan, Pewter, same features as the US model but
this one had it's pickguard and pickups changed, Maple neck, exc, gigbag..$495
*FENDER Aerodyne Strat, '90s, made in Japan, metallic dark Blue with
matching peghead, single,single, Humbucker DiMarzio pickups, top binding,
Rosewood board, tremolo, exc, gigbag.....$595
*EPIPHONE Kent electric Archtop, 1951, 15 3/8" wide, non-cutaway,
1 pickup, vgc+, hsc..........$895
*YAMAHA SAS 1500, recent , made in Japan, Walnut sunburst, small ES-335 body,
24 3/4" scale, ebony board with split block pearl inlays,
2 humbuckers, gold plated hardware, near mint, hsc...............$1295
*COLLINGS City Limits Custom, 2015, sunburst, dot neck Rosewood
unbound board, 7.3 lbs, ThroBak humbuckers, near mint, ohsc...$3950
*CARSON HESS Broadcaster, recent, Black guard copy, 5.5 lbs, Butterscotch aged finish
tweed thermometer case, exc.......Hold
*EASTMAN Les Paul style, recent, aged Violin varnish finish, near mint, ohsc...$1450
*HOHNER Steinberger, '90s, Black, original Steinberger body with Steinberger
licensed bridge, vgc+, gigbag...............$495
*CORDOBA Fusion series Classical, Model 12 Natural, Mahogany back and sides,
cutaway Cedar top, pickup, gigbag, exc..........$475
(gbL) ********Updated- Friday January 10th, 2019 **********
*NATIONAL Triolian, 1930, steel body, flat ƒ-holes, body
stripped of the faux walnut finish to bare metal, National floating pickup,
*NATIONAL Tenor, 1929, steel body, flat ƒ holes, wood grain
Piano finish, 23" scale, original pickguard plays great, vgc+, hsc..$1495
*HOFNER Union Jack Beatle Bass, import model, exc, hsc.....$550
(gbL)
********Updated- Wednesday January 9th, 2019 **********
*TEISCO Silvertone, '60s, Blue, made in Japan, pointy, 2 pickups,
3 knobs, 3 rocker switches, striped aluminum pickguard, trem, exc...$450
*FENDER Stratocaster Deluxe, 2008, Sunburst like the SRV color,
black guard, rosewood board, push/push volume pot, near mint, ohsc......$895
*MARTIN OMC-1E, 2009, cutaway 000 with solid spruce top and solid Sapele
back and sides, Fishman side mounted pickupo system, exc, ohsc....$750
*GIBSON Les Paul Custom, 2001, Wine red, a little worming in the finish
genuine ebony fretboard, gold hardware, on the back otherwise excellent,
brown case.......$2100 hold
(gbL) ********Updated- Tuesday January 8th, 2019 **********
*FENDER Stratocaster, 1964, refinished Olympic white,
new guard, rewound neck pickup, plays great, looks great, sounds great,
ohsc......$7900
*Kelton Swade '55 Strat style, 2 tone sunburst, 1 piece Ash body, Maple neck,
7.3 lbs, exc, hsc.........$2750
*FENDER Jazz Bass, 1966, sunburst, with slab board '60 neck, body all original,
vgc++, ohsc....$6500
********Updated- Sunday January 6th, 2019 **********
(gbL)
*GIBSON Firebird I, 1964, sunburst, 1 mini-humbucker, all original, some corners
of the pickguard are broken off, dot inlays, light lacquer checking, vgc++, ohsc.$13,900
*GIBSON SG Junior, 1961, faded cherry, 1 P-90, no breaks,
vgc, ssc..$2395
*GIBSON Les Paul Deluxe Goldtop, c 1971, newer flat fingerboard, extra bezel
around the 2 mini humbuckers, bridge has been reset at an angle providing
longer scale for the bass strings, playing wear, hsc.......$2100
*DANOCASTER, 2015, Blackguard Tele style with Hershey Special Dark
finish, maple neck, Lollar & Dano pickup, 2 piece Ash body, 6.1 lbs,
Neck specs: .86C . 9.5 with 6125s, Spec Tag and gigbag.........$2500
*FENDER Custom Shop '60 Strat, NOS, light Blue, big neck
like a N0-Caster, near mint, cert, ohsc.....$2250
*GIBSON J-45 Banner, c 1946, Mahogany top, possible new fingerboard,
*MARTIN 000-42M, Eric Clapton Signature Model, 2007,
Madagascar Rosewood back and sides, pearl trimmed Carpathian spruce top,
(maintains the best features of Adirondack and Italian alpine spruce woods) ,
Alternative Torch inlay in peghead, nickel Waverly tuners with white ivoroid
butterbean knobs, label is signed by Eric Clapton, exc+, ohsc....$7750
*HUSS & DALTON TOM-R Custom, 2009-10, Bearclaw Spruce top- probably Adirondack,
African Blackwood back and sides, Ebony board and bridge, Waverly tuners,
Herringbone trim, 1 3/4" at nut, 25.4" OM scale, near mint, big sound, ohsc.......$4950
*HENRIKSEN 'BUD', NEW,The Bud is the without question the smallest, TRULY GIGABLE
guitar amplifier on the market. You won’t believe the tone coming from
either your electric or acoustic guitar, or any stringed instrument with a
pickup for that matter, not to mention the volume The Bud is capable
of cleanly producing. At 9x9x9 inches, 17 pounds and 120 watts of analog
power with a feature set that allows you the versatility to cover almost
any kind of gig, this is a MUST HAVE piece of gear for the
working musician, (WITH gig bag)......$1299 new, this one is used & mint..........$850
(GBL) ********Updated- Wednesday January 2nd, 2019 **********
*GIBSON L-4CES, 1995, Sunburst, sharp cutaway, carved Spruce top with
2 Humbuckers, Curly Maple back and sides, Ebony fingerboard with pearl
parallelogram inlays, L-5 style bridge and tailpiece, vgc+, ohsc...$3850
*MAGNATONE Super 15 Head, NEW, 15 watts, 2-EL-84 power tubes,
Speaker Emulation, headphone jack, effects loop, ..........$1795
*FENDER Stratocaster Standard, 2006, USA, light blue, large peghead,
maple neck, pearloid pick guard, exc.....$750
*DEERING Good Times open back Banjo with Electric option,
exc, no case.......$450
*FAIRBANKS Electric Special 5-String Banjo, 1900, fancy inlays in board, Whyte Laydie
tone ring, 27" x 11 1/8", Champion tuners, all original finish, tailpiece,
and armrest, vgc+, ssc........$2100
*YAMAHA FG-75, '80s, made in Japan, 00-size, vgc+.......$195
*TRUSSART Steel top-Caster RustOmatic, 2017, Driftwood body, Custom B-5 Bigsby,
chambered body, Rosewood neck, Humbucker at the neck and single
coil Tele Bridge pickup, G&G case with green lining, near mint......$2950
********Updated- Thursday December 27th, 2018 **********
(gbl)
*GIBSON Chet Atkins, 1992, Country Gentleman with Bigsby, Walnut,
Slimline semi-hollow body archtop, curly maple back, 25.4" scale, 16 3/4 wide,
red square fretboard edge markers, vgc++, ohsc...........$2450
* GIBSON J-45 Standard, 2017, sunburst, '50's style small pickguard, LR Baggs
pickup inside, pearl Gibson logo, near mint, ohsc...$1595
*MARTIN OM-21, 2017, 000 body with long 25.4" scale, Spruce top,
Rosewood back & sides, small teardrop pickguard, ebony board and bridge,
LR Baggs internal pickup w/ volume control, near mint, ohsc...$1950
(gbL) ********Updated- Monday December 17th, 2018 **********
*FENDER Vibro Champ, 1967, Black panel, newer Weber 8" speaker...$999
*DEL PILAR Classical, exc, ssc........$1850
*RICKENBACKER Model B Lap Steel Guitar, ca 1937, black bakelite
bod with chrome plates, repro tuners, Volume and Tone controls,
vgc++, ohsc....$1095
*MARTIN DXK2AE, NEW, Dreadnought with Koa looking back, Top and sides,
laminated neck,$799 list........$599
*MARTIN D-15, 2001, all Mahogany, all solid, gc, gigbag....$695
********Updated- Friday December 14th, 2018 **********
(gbL)
*TASCAM Porta Studio 414, '90s, mint in the box..........$250
*ZIMNICKI 7 String Nylon String guitar, cutaway, cedar top, Cocobolo
Rosewood back and sides, RMC pickup, 1 repaired back crack, exc, ohsc..$2900
*VOX Cambridge Reverb, c 1970, new grill cloth, period Fender
blue label 12" speaker, vgc++, sounds great.....$895
(gbL) ********Updated- Tuesday December 11th, 2018 **********
*EASTMAN AR 805-CE, recent, 16" cutaway Archtop, solid hand-carved Spruce top,
solid hand-carved curly Maple back & sides, ebony fretboard, bridge,
and tailpiece, Kent Armstrong pickups, Gotoh hardware, high-gloss
lacquer finish, Deluxe hardshell case included, exc+...........$1295
*MARTIN OMC-28M Laurence Juber, 2007, a cutaway OM-28 with Madagascar
Rosewood back and sides, smooth Venetian cutaway, resonant Adirondack
Spruce top with 1/4” scalloped Adirondack bracing, 1 3/4” at the nut,
1930s-style diamond volute and solid square tapered headstock, polished
headplate of Madagascar rosewood with traditional gold foil “C.F. Martin & Co.”
decal, Waverly nickel plated open geared tuners with “old style” nickel
butterbean knobs, fingerboard and belly bridge of premium black ebony, has
K&K pickup installed and Geib vintage series case, exc+.......$4150
*MARTIN 00-18C, 1963, Nylon strings, Spruce top,
Mahogany back & sides, Tortoise binding, 2" at the Ivory nut, Brazilian
board and peghead overlay, some playing wear, vgc+.....$1795
*SOLTON Artist 2000 Accordian, Acoustic/Electric. ca 1980, King of
all Accordians in tip-top tight shape, Black, with Midi Organ features, exc, ohsc..$1850
*STEW MAC 5-String Banjeurine, made from kit in the '80s,
flange and resonator, 21" scale, Mastertone style inlays, exc..............$375
*GRETSCH DuoJet, 1957, Black, single cutaway, DeArmond Pickups,
Melita Bridge, humped block inlays, the same model George Harrison
played- the one to own! exc, ohsc, $7500, reduced.......$7000
(gbL) ********Updated- Monday December 10th, 2018 **********
*B&G Guitars are back in stock, NEW, sunburst, black, P-90s, humbuckers,
cutaway and non-cutaway, only 4 in stock....$1450 each
*B&G Sunburst, P-90s
*AS IS- 19th Century Parlor guitar, solid curly maple back and sides, spruce top
with repaired cracks, ebony board , original tuners, pyramid bridge,
neck has moved and pushed fingerboard extension down
into the rosette..........$175
*GIBSON L-12, 1935, sunburst, 17" non-cutaway archtop, carved Spruce top,
X braced, figured maple back and sides, fancy peghead inlay,
changed tuners, otherwise original, exc, newer case........$4500
*GIBSON A-1 Mandolin, 1911, Black top, all original parts, sounds great,
vgc+, hsc...$1095
*MARTIN D-28 Aged and Authentic 1937 Model, NEW, Beautifully toned top,
Madagascar Rosewood back and sides, Adirondack Spruce top that
was dried with the torrification process- the Vintage Tone System (VTS)
that ages the wood to replicate the sound of a vintage Martin and this
one does not have the darkened center look, built by a small team at
Martin using Hide glue in construction, non-adjustable T-Bar
truss rod as was the practice back in the '30s, lightly aged finish,
exceptionally good D-28, 1 of 50 made this year, $9,999 list...$7,999
*MARTIN 00-17, 2001, special model with ebony fingerboard and bridge,
tortoise binding with white/black/white purfling, gold Martin tuners,
belly bridge, exc, ohsc.......$1695
*HAMER Slammer, used, made in Korea, red, 2 singles and a humbucker,
tremolo, maple neck, vgc....$195
*Palm Trees, Senoritas... and Rocket Ships" - the illustrated History of National, Dobro,
Supro, Valco and OMI Guitars
A 423 page tour-de-force that explores the
fascinating design world of the musical instruments produced by the Dopyera
Brothers from 1923 to 1993. Famous for their 'National' guitars, they went
on to pioneer electric pickups, fiberglass construction, amplifiers etc, and
influenced the sound of Country Music, Bluegrass, Blues and Hawaiian music
through most of the 20th Century.
Entirely and lavishly illustrated with over 1100 musical instruments and
amplifiers and more than 100 artists who used them - this is THE
DEFINITIVE COLLECTION of all the various developments, designs, colours
and engraving patterns of everything produced by the Dopyera Brothers
in their various companies throughout the 20th century - National, Dobro,
Supro, Valco, Mosrite, Regal and OMI. It has them ALL! It also features lap steels, amplifiers
and various National and Valco manufactured items for other Trade houses.
The book is concluded with an updated list of the serial numbers of known
and re-discovered instruments - now in excess of 4200. A MUST HAVE for
anyone interested in these guitars. Leaves other books on the subject in the dust....$140
Link for email weekly updates: SEE BELOW
Drop in your email for weekly updates:
In the 1/24/13 Bergen Record, nice article- http://snipurl.com/26aujli
*STORE PANORAMIC VIEW- OF SORTS
______________________________
Meet Ian Davlin, head of our repair crew-
1952 Les Paul that has a screw reinforcing a neck crack. When the customer originally
brought the guitar in it had putty over the screw and the crack repair was failing.
To see Lark Street Music's Wall click here
Duke Levine w/ the Roy Sludge Trio in the store the day between
the Bowery and the Bell House gigs in NY last week - click here for a clip.
Also check out
______________________________________________________________________
********* PICTURES from the EXHIBIT *************
These are fairly large prints and are here in the store for purchase, all signed by Jonathan Singer-
check his site www.botanicamagnifica for his story.
Prices were from $500-$1000. On sale, 30-40% off
SG and Marshall
Defying logic- 3 Explorers, courtesy J. Menza
Two '59 Les Pauls, courtesy J. Menza
Two Airlines
Three Strats, courtesy Lark Street Music
Old Golds-ES-295 & '54 Les Paul, courtesy Lark Street Music
The '60 Cherry Les Paul, courtesy J. Menza
Moserite Double & Selmer Zodiac, courtesy Lark Street Music
Bacon & Days anyday, courtesy Lark Street Music
Firebirds, courtesy Lark Street Music
EPI EMPEROR & AMP
2 Centuries of Progress!
more to come....
and introducing.........>>>>>>>>> *********** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The MAZEL TONE line of guitar effects pedals! Larkstreet Music's own line of vintage
tone producers, made right here designed by rabbi Shmuel Gold and hand wired
by the legendary guitar builder Dominic Ramos, and named by our favorite
Conan O'brien/ Fab Faux guitarist extrordinaire Jimmy Vivino,
the amazing DOUBLE FUZZ!!! Distortion with an option for adding an upper octave,
list price $229, street price............. $189
*AFTERWORD Delay pedal, by Mazeltone, The Afterword delay is a digital analog hybrid delay,
although employing digital circuitry the repeats are thick and warm with delay times
up to 600 ms it can cover everything from slap back to ambient moods.
The final word in delay, New...$189
OUR FIRST, AND SO FAR ONLY, TV COMMERCIAL----
featuring Buck Malen, Johnny Rabb, Kevin Maul, unknown banjo phenom & Frances
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1DrFtoJAe0
or
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Teaneck-NJ/Lark-Street-Music/46986714380
DUKE LEVINE's brand new "Beneath The Blue" CD, with Kevin Barry, Jay Bellerose,
Paul Bryan, Kenny White, Dan Reiser & Mike Rivard available here or by mail-- $12
---->>> or for you kids- dowloads availbale at dukelevine.com
-------------------------o-------------------------
Before After .....
We often get asked "where do these guitars come from" ??? or "who buys these things" ??
So here's an interesting picture of the quite rare White ES-345 (that we had for sale for about a year)
with both it's original ( c. 1964), and current (April'06) owners.
-------------------------o-------------------------
IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE VIEWING THESE PHOTOS, SEE BELOW
Some have complained about bad pictures. If this is happening to you or your PC, let me know. We have Macs
and the pictures are large and clear, so we'd like to know figure out why this problem is happening
An answer from my brother Rick-
By default, Internet Explorer will shrink pictures to fit onto one screen.
That's probably what people are complaining about. Usually, if they hold the
cursor over the picture for a few seconds, a button will appear and they can
click it to restore the pic to full size. I hate the feature, so I just turn
it off and always see the photos full-size:
From the IE menu bar, click Tools | Internet Options
Click the Advanced tab
Scroll down to the Multimedia section
Remove the check from "Enable Automatic Image Resizing"
Click OK to save settings
REPAIRS
For you who don't know, we do all manner of guitar repair and restoration. We do most of it here but
also give some work to Dom Ramos -repairing and building since working in Dan Armstrong's shop in
the '60s. We've also been a Martin Warrantee Center since 1985 before Martin closed down all 5 NJ Centers
because of a tax dispute between NJ and Martin
COMMENTARY-
DON'T SCROLL DOWN - Feelings below
Political sentiments
Turn back before it's too late!
May 29th-
Ambassador Nikki Haley's Remarks at an Emergency UN Security Council Briefing on Gaza
"Hamas' stated purpose is the destruction of Israel.
That is its purpose when it fires rockets into Israel.
That is its purpose when it builds terror tunnels underneath
Israeli territory. And that is its purpose when it orchestrates
violent protests and riots at the boundary fence calling for
a 'March for Return.' All of these acts are indivisible parts
of a single strategy. That strategy is to do as much damage
as possible to Israel and to provoke a response in self-defense
that will create international condemnation of Israeli actions.
"It is outrageous for the Security Council to fail to condemn
Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, while the
Human Rights Council approves sending a team to investigate
Israeli actions taken in self-defense.
"I urge the members of the Security Council to exercise at
least as much scrutiny of the actions of the Hamas terrorist
group as it does to Israel's legitimate right of self-defense.
To allow Hamas to continue to get away with its terrorist acts,
and to somehow expect Israel to sit on its hands when it is
attacked, is the height of hypocrisy. To continue to condemn
Israel without even acknowledging what is actually coming
from the leaders of Gaza makes me question who actually
cares about the welfare of the Palestinian people."
May 16th, 2018
David Keyes, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC on Tuesday:
"Hamas' interior minister said that 'children and women make the best human shields.'
That's not my words. It's an exact quote from Fathi Hamad,
Hamas' interior minister....What kind of people send women
and children into the frontlines, hoping that they die?"
"The same group which has been helping organize this
march - Hamas...openly calls not just for the death of
every Israeli soldier, but for the death of every Jew, and
not just every Jew - every American."
"This is what we're up against and it's a tragedy because
instead of investing in their own people, they're actually
telling their children to go and wage war against Israel. It's insanity."
"There are people who stayed very far away from Israel's
border and didn't try to infiltrate into Israel, and they can
protest as much as they want. But when we saw masses
of people gathering, with the express aim of infiltrating into
Israel, in order to kill women and children, we did what any
state in the world would have done, which is protect our people."
"Iran not only fired 20 missiles just a few days ago at Israel.
It also funded and armed Hizbullah and Hamas, who have
launched tens of thousands of missiles at Israel. It's blown
up Jews around the world. It's openly calling for our annihilation."
"Those are acts of war which Israel has been the recipient of
for far too long....Iran's aim is very clear - the total annihilation
of Israel. We cannot let that happen, and we will not let that happen."
3/5/18
The World Must Unite to Stop Iran - Jose Maria Aznar and Stephen Harper (Wall Street Journal)
The Israeli military was forced last month to engage an Iranian
drone launched into Israeli airspace from Syria. There will be
more such incidents if Tehran is permitted to continue projecting
force throughout the Middle East. North America and Europe
must join Israel in stopping Iran.
Iran is a revolutionary theocratic state committed to spreading
religious extremism throughout the Islamic world. It projects
political and military power from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean
and Red Seas. To support its ambition, Iran has illegally pursued
nuclear weapons and fought wars using terrorist proxies.
Iran's leaders have threatened Israel time and again with total
destruction, and now, Iranian power has arrived at Israel's border.
The first objective must be to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
The Friends of Israel Initiative, of which we are members,
has always maintained that, rather than preventing Iran's
nuclear ambitions, the 2015 nuclear agreement gave the regime
a road map to achieving them.
Predictions that the agreement would de-escalate tensions and
improve cooperation have proved wrong. Since signing the
agreement, Iran's aggression and hostility have increased.
But fixing the agreement and stopping Iran from going nuclear
would not eliminate the threat. The U.S. and its allies must also
roll back Iran's aggression and influence throughout the Middle East.
If left unchecked, Iran's aggression will ultimately threaten
Europe and North America as well.
Mr. Aznar is a former prime minister of Spain. Mr. Harper is a former prime minister of Canada.
2/9/18
Video: The Assault on the Jewish Connection to Jerusalem - Dore Gold (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
At a meeting of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation last
December, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian
Authority, said that Jews are really excellent at faking and
counterfeiting history and religion. I was struck by that because
I refuse to assault the principles of their faith. They can say
whatever they want about their faith as long as they don't try
and assault my faith. Part of the tragedy of the current period
is this overall assault on the connections between Israel, the
Jewish people, and Jerusalem.
In October 2016, UNESCO asserted that the Temple Mount was
connected to Islam, but it refused to acknowledge any Jewish
connection whatsoever - or for that matter any Christian connection
- to the Temple Mount. In the resolution adopted in Paris, it used
only the Islamic term for the Temple Mount - Haram al-Sharif, but
the actual terminology "Temple Mount," which had been used by
international organizations for years, suddenly vanished. A few
months later in December 2016, the UN Security Council adopted
Resolution 2334 which called the Old City of Jerusalem, the Western
Wall, and the Temple Mount "occupied Palestinian territory."
The entire international community met together after World War I and
said the Jews have a right to reconstitute their ancient homeland.
That ought to be worth something. Israel is the only country in the
international system whose historical rights were confirmed by both
the League of Nations and the United Nations. To completely dismiss
the rights of Israel is to dismiss how our rights have been understood
by the international community for more than a century.
The cardinal question is who is going to protect Jerusalem in the future.
Will it be national movements that doubt the legitimacy of various faiths'
connections to Jerusalem, or will it be national movements that
understand that there are other national groups that have connections
to Jerusalem. If Jerusalem is important to people, if freedom of
religious expression is important to people, then only a free and
democratic Israel will protect Jerusalem for all the great faiths.
JULY 25, 2017
The Argument Is About Jews, Not Metal Detectors - Jonathan S. Tobin (JNS.org)
How could putting metal detectors to protect a holy site
from a recurrence of murder provoke outrage, violence
and a promise of mass riots? The answer is that this isn't
about metal detectors. It's about the right of Jews to be
in Jerusalem.
Israel didn't change the status quo at the Temple Mount.
Jews are still denied the right to pray at the holiest place
in Judaism. The Islamic Waqf was left in charge of the
Temple Mount's Al-Aqsa mosque.
Nor was the new security measure discriminatory. Any
Jew or non-Jew who wishes to enter the Western Wall plaza
below the Temple Mount compound must also pass through
metal detectors.
For a century, Palestinian Arab leaders have been playing
the "Al-Aqsa is in danger" card. It was the supposedly moderate
Mahmoud Abbas who also claimed Jews were going to harm
the mosque. His rhetoric sought to remind Palestinians that
the conflict wasn't over borders or settlements, but something
far more basic: a religious war that mandates Arab opposition
to the Jewish presence.
The new security measures are merely the latest pretext for
Arab violence intended to make the point that Jews have no
right to be there at all.
The threats of violence are just one more power play intended
to remind the world that the only solution Palestinians will
ultimately accept is one in which the Jews are excluded.
So long as this is their goal, it isn't Al-Aqsa that is in danger,
but any hope for peace.
>>>> July 13, 2017
In New Low, Amnesty Stands Up for ISIS
A new report from the so-called human rights group argues a moral
equivalence between the Islamic State and the US-Led Coalition fighting to free Mosul
By Liel Leibovitz ·
Who’s to blame when a group of savages take innocent people hostage,
commit atrocities, and spur the forces of civilization to strike back,
sparking a conflict that, regrettably, claims the lives of more
innocent people? If you’ve followed the way the international
community—that mythical body of self-appointment bureaucrats
who see themselves as everyone’s moral betters—has dealt
with Israel, you know the answer by now. To organizations
like Amnesty International, the real culprits are never the
Palestinian terrorists who use human shields or launch missiles
at school children, always the Israeli army doing its best to defend
its citizens without causing unnecessary loss of life on the
other side. The term of art for this reprehensible approach
is moral equivalence. And you won’t be surprised to hear that,
having mastered the skill of both-sides-are-to-blame with
Hamas, Amnesty is now extending the same courtesy to ISIS.
In a new report, released earlier this week and entitled
“At Any Cost: The Civilian Catastrophe in West Mosul, Iraq,”
the organization paid lip service to the idea that the
Islamic State—purveyors of sexual slavery, beheadings,
and other brutalities—inflicted some suffering on Mosul’s
population before getting to the real culprit, the US-led coalition.
“Iraqi government and US-led coalition forces failed to
adequately adapt their tactics to these challenges—as
required by international humanitarian law—with disastrous
consequences for civilians,” thunders the report. Then, lest
you have any doubt what ought to be done next, the report
ends with a call to action. “Don’t Let These Crimes Be Buried,”
reads a bold headline, before making a list of demands,
including a public acknowledgment of “the scale and
gravity of the loss of civilian lives during the Mosul battle”
and reparations for the victims and their families.
As armies around the world continue to struggle with benighted
forces seizing cities and using civilians as human shields, there’s
certainly room for discussion about optimal tactics to minimize
collateral damage. But for a group purporting to fly the banner of
human rights to present both the barbarians who seized Mosul and
the imperfect soldiers who risked their lives to liberate it is a farce.
If Amnesty truly wants to be faithful to its mission statement of
protecting people “wherever justice, freedom, truth, and dignity
are denied,” it may start by taking the small but crucial step of
not defending ISIS.
Kerry's Rage Against Israel - Editorial
John Kerry delivered a marathon speech Wednesday excoriating Israel.
It's not for lack of U.S. diplomacy that there is no peace.
In 2000 then-President Bill Clinton brought Israeli and Palestinian
leaders to Camp David to negotiate a final peace agreement, only
to watch Palestinians walk away from an offer that would have
granted them a state on nearly all of Gaza and the West Bank.
That failure was followed by another Palestinian terror campaign.
Israelis remember that they elected leaders - Yitzhak Rabin in
1992, Ehud Barak in 1999, Ehud Olmert in 2006 - who made repeated
peace overtures to the Palestinians, only to be met with violence and
rejection. Israelis also remember that Netanyahu ordered a settlement
freeze, and that also brought peace no closer.
The lesson is that Jewish settlements are not the main obstacle to peace.
If they were, Gaza would be on its way to becoming the Costa Rica
of the Mediterranean. The obstacle is Palestinian rejection of Israel's
right to exist as a Jewish state in any borders. A Secretary of State who
wishes to resolve the conflict could have started from that premise,
while admonishing the Palestinians that they will never get a state so
long as its primary purpose is the destruction of its neighbor. (Wall Street Journal)
With New Resolution, the UN Drives Stake into Israeli-Palestinian Peace Hopes - Michael Oren
The UN Security Council resolution denouncing Israel's presence
in territories it captured in 1967 poses untold dangers not only
to Israel but to the Palestinians themselves, and greatly diminishes
the chances for peace. The resolution means the Western Wall and
other places sacred to Jews for 3,000 years are considered as illegally
occupied. It labels 600,000 Israelis as "flagrant violators of international law."
The goal of the initiators of the resolution was not to achieve a
better two-state solution, but to deny Israel the right to defend
itself and, ultimately, the right to exist as a sovereign Jewish state.
Israel will survive this legal onslaught and continue to thrive. The
Palestinians, by contrast, will remain stateless.
A strong Israel is virtually all that stands between the Sunni Arab
states and the radical jihadists in Iran and ISIS. The Security Council
vote will undoubtedly reinforce those radicals and embolden them to
mount further attacks not only against the Jewish State but also
against its Arab neighbors. And the long-tormented peoples of
the Middle East will receive an unequivocal message from the UN:
the massacre of more than half a million Arabs in Syria, Iraq, and
Yemen is unimportant. All that matters is Jews living and praying
in their homeland.
Finally, the resolution impairs American credibility, casting
doubts on the reliability of American commitments. By abstaining
on the resolution, and in effect abandoning its only democratic
Middle Eastern ally, the U.S. has called into question its dependability
to its other friends. No American ally should rest easily.
The writer, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., is deputy
minister for diplomacy in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office. (Newsweek)
How Did Israeli Settlements Become a Legally Contentious Issue at the UN? -
Dore Gold (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Right after World War II, the U.S. and its allies wanted to prevent a
repetition of the practice of the Axis powers who evicted the populations
from the areas that came under their control and forcibly transferred
their own populations into those very same territories. For this reason,
the Allies drafted the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention in the way that
they did. But this is not what is occurring with Israeli settlement activity,
as Israel has argued for decades.
There is one place, however, where this scenario is taking place right now -
and it is not in the West Bank. It is occurring in Syria, where Sunni Arabs
are being systematically replaced by Shiites from Iraq and other countries
in order to alter the demographic makeup of the Syrian state, in accordance
with the interests of Iran. Tehran wants a Shiite belt from its western border
to the Mediterranean in order to establish its hegemony in the Middle East.
And what is the UN doing about this? It is deliberating over a new draft
resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity, while ignoring the mass
transfer of populations transpiring across the entire Levant. As usual,
it is obsessed with Israel while ignoring the dangerous actions of Iran.
The Palestinians themselves agreed in the 1995 Interim Agreement that
the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank should be addressed as
an item for negotiation between the parties. It is not tenable for the
Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, to repeatedly refuse to negotiate
with Israel and then expect the UN Security Council to take up his concerns
in his place. The U.S., which signed the Interim Agreement as a witness,
should veto the proposed draft resolution on settlements.
The UN, for its part, should take measures to halt the ethnic cleansing of Sunni
populations across the Middle East that is occurring today. But that
would require standing up to Iran and its allies, which many states
sitting in the Security Council are plainly reluctant to do.
Israel Is a Model of Democracy and Multi-Ethnicity - Bernard-Henri Levy
interviewed by Ben Cohen (The Tower)
Israel is a model of democracy not only for the Middle East but for
the world. Since the very day of its birth, 69 years ago, Israel has
had an exemplary attitude, which is to deal with emergencies
without giving up on democratic values.
I don't see any other example in modern history of a country that
has had to face a constant state of war, a constant state of emergency,
having in its own space a very strong minority who might be
tempted to take the path of the adversary, and yet sticks so
firmly to its principles.
Never forget that you have in Israel a number of Arab parliamentarians,
which we in France don't have. Don't forget that the Arabic language
is an official language of Israel. And don't forget that even in the
moment when you have some Arab cities inside Israel demonstrating
against Israeli policy, as during the Gaza war, there was never any
step towards depriving this or that part of society of its democratic
and civil rights. It never happened.
Israel also can really be considered as a model of dealing with the
matter of multi-ethnicity. Because, at the end of the day, what is Israel?
Israel is people coming from the west, from the east, from the south.
People coming from Europe, people coming from Russia, people
coming from the Arab world. People of every different possible
ethnicity. And all of them made so quickly, nearly overnight, a nation.
I don't see any other examples of that.
I completely understand those who go in the streets in Europe
demonstrating for the memory of 2,000 or 3,000 Palestinian dead
during the war in Gaza. What I don't understand is that I never saw
them in the same streets when Bashar al-Assad kills not 2,000 or 3,000
but 300,000 or 400,000 of his own citizens. I never saw them in
the streets when a Muslim leader in Sudan killed, in South Sudan,
400,000 or 500,000 people. And the same for the victims of Saddam Hussein.
And the same for the Palestinians killed, tortured, by other Palestinians.
So it's more than strange that those who cannot accept Israel waging
a defensive war don't feel upset or uncomfortable when an Arab leader
kills one hundred times more Arab women and men.
There are some people in the West, and in America also, who care about
lives only when Jews and Israel are involved. If that's not the case, then
they don't give a damn, they don't demonstrate, they don't care.
What name do you give to that? For me, this way of saying that the
victim is interesting only if she had to deal with the Jews, this is anti-Semitism.
Bernard-Henri Levy is a French philosopher and author of more than 30 books, including The Genius of Judaism (Jan. 2017).
Israel Conducted No Ethnic Cleansing in 1948 - Benny Morris (Ha'aretz)
The Palestinians were the ones who started the 1948 war when
they rejected the UN compromise plan and embarked on hostile
acts in which 1,800 Jews were killed between November 1947
and mid-May 1948.
Concern for the welfare of the Arabs in prestate Israel was not the
main reason Arab leaders decided to invade Israel on the
eve of May 15. Jordan's King Abdullah wanted to expand his
country's borders, the Egyptian king wanted to deny the Jordanian
king major territorial achievements, and the leaders of Syria,
Iraq and Egypt feared the reaction at home if they did not invade.
At no stage of the 1948 war was there a decision by the political
or military leadership of the Jewish Yishuv or the state to expel
the Arabs. Nor did any important party in the Yishuv, including
the Revisionists, adopt such a policy in its platform.
On March 24, 1948, Israel Galili, Ben-Gurion's deputy and the head
of the Haganah, ordered all the Haganah brigades not to uproot
Arabs from the territory of the designated Jewish state. Things
did change in early April due to the Yishuv's shaky condition and
the impending Arab invasion. But there was no overall expulsion
policy and for the most part the Arabs simply fled. I don't accept
the definition "ethnic cleansing" for what the Jews in prestate
Israel did in 1948.
Incidentally, Arab countries carried out ethnic cleansing and uprooted
all the Jews, down to the last one, from any territory they captured
in 1948. The Jews, on the other hand, left Arabs in place in Haifa
and Jaffa, and in the villages along the country's main traffic arteries
- the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway and the Tel Aviv-Haifa highway -
a fact that does not conform with the claim of ethnic cleansing.
Unfortunately, Benjamin Netanyahu is right when he says the main
obstacle to peace is the unwillingness of the Arabs to agree to a
compromise based on two states for two peoples, and their
rejection of the legitimacy of the Zionist enterprise and the State of Israel.
The writer is a professor of history at Ben-Gurion University.
SEPTEMBER 11-
Today marks 15 years since Al-Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon, murdering 2, 977 people. Since that day, in 2001, at least
another 1,000 people have died from illnesses caused by exposure to debris
from the failing towers.
A US-led NATO taskforce invaded Afghanistan shortly afterwards to remove
the Taliban, and to find and capture Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden is now dead,
but Afghanistan is still at war. Al-Qaeda’s successor organization, the Islamic
State (ISIS, ISIL), has established a state of sorts across swathes of Syria and
Iraq. Al-Qaeda itself is an active participant in Syria’s increasingly complicated civil war.
Since the attack, efforts to defeat terrorism have eluded success.
Here are three things to bear in mind:
With the collapse of the USSR, Islamism is the only ideological alternative to Western hegemony
Islamism is a comprehensive political system that offers a total ideological
alternative to the mainstream Western consensus of democracies enforcing
liberal values, backed by American hard power. Since international communism
collapsed, those opposed to this system have been left without an
ideological home.
This fact puts into perspective the close relationship between sections of
the hard left, such as the UK’s Jeremy Corbyn or Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin,
with totalitarian Islamists such as Hamas or insurgents fighting American
forces in Iraq. Both Corbyn and Benjamin transitioned seamlessly from
traditional left-wing and socialist/communist alignment to apologism
for terrorist groups who were deemed to be oppressed, as part of a broader
strategy of defiance against American and Western power.
In 2009, Corbyn called Hamas a force for “social good” and his “friends,”
while in 2004, Benjamin collected $600,000 in medical supplies and cash
to deliver to the families of terrorist insurgents fighting the U.S. in Iraq.
Opposed to what they term “neo-liberalism” in principle, activists like these
will seek out any allies opposed to it which, in the current era, means Islamist
extremists, who have pretty much the only viable (albeit horrific) alternative
ideology to Western neo-liberalism.
Al-Qaeda Wanted to Provoke an Overreaction
As early as 2005, a book entitled This is How We See and Want Jihad was
circulating showing Al-Qaeda’s 20-year long game plan to defeat the
West and establish an Islamic Caliphate. This was further illuminated by
the groundbreaking work of Jordanian journalist Fouad Hussain. The
plan has seven phases. The first phase, between 2000 and 2003,
aimed to draw America into a war against Muslims and thus “crown al-Qaeda
as the leader of the nation.”
Later phases aimed to make the war intractable and thus gain support for
Al-Qaeda while demoralizing the West, and toppling Arab regimes allied to
America and Israel. The plan includes creating a jihadi army in Syria and Iraq,
and drawing in funding and recruits from outside.
Once U.S. power began to wane, after a decade of an expensive war of attrition,
a caliphate was to be declared at some point from 2013 to 2016. After 2016,
the phase of “total war” would begin, waging attacks against Western targets
around the world; the “beginning of the confrontation between faith and
disbelief, which would begin in earnest after the establishment of the Islamic
caliphate.”
Al-Qaeda and its successor the Islamic State seem remarkably on track with
this plan, especially considering the turmoil engulfing the region. It is also
very important to note that they see terrorism as a means of destabilizing
the West to further the establishment of a caliphate, rather than as an end in itself.
Ideology is the Key to Victory
Bearing in mind the first two points, we see that Al-Qaeda and other jihadi groups
see terrorism as a means to an end. To prevent another 9/11 from taking place,
therefore, we have to tackle their end goal and show the world precisely how
and why an Islamist caliphate is a bad idea.
When we can do that, young jihadis will not be motivated to sacrifice their lives
in an attempt to establish this caliphate, and idealistic activists will not make
excuses for people fighting for these goals.
Such clarity is needed now more than ever because, 15 years after the tragic
September 11th attacks, there is still no end in sight for the “War on Terror.”
Elliot Friedland is a research fellow at Clarion Project.
4/26/16
The World Dodged a Bullet in Syria - Thanks to Israel - John Hannah (Foreign Policy)
I well remember the day in spring 2007 when I got an urgent
call from Vice President Cheney. The head of Israel's Mossad,
the late Meir Dagan, had just been in to brief Cheney and
President Bush. He revealed compelling evidence that in the
Syrian desert east of Damascus, near the town of Al-Kibar,
North Korea was covertly building a plutonium-producing
nuclear reactor. It was more or less a replica of the North's
own reactor at Yongbyon.
Making matters worse, Al-Kibar was perilously close to completion.
Options for getting rid of it would narrow considerably once
operations began and the reactor went "hot." For its part,
the U.S. intelligence community had totally missed Al-Kibar.
The fact is that the U.S. dodged a bullet in Syria - and, it's worth
stressing, all courtesy of the Israelis. Not only did they discover
Al-Kibar in the nick of time. They also carried out the attack that
was almost certainly the only means of ensuring the reactor
never went hot.
Just imagine the nightmare that the world would have faced if,
on top of everything else in Syria, we were also dealing with
the nightmare of the Islamic State getting its hands on a
plutonium-producing nuclear reactor.
The writer, a senior counselor at the Foundation for Defense
of Democracies, was national security advisor to Vice President
Dick Cheney from 2005 to 2009.
Taking Sides in the War within Islam - Bernard-Henri Levy
Appeasement of violent radicalism only encourages more of the same.
We must acknowledge that two Islams are locked in a fight
to the death, and that because the battlefield is the planet
and the war threatens values that the West embraces, the fight
is not solely the Muslims' affair.
We must aid, encourage, and ideologically arm Muslims
who reject the Islam of hate in favor of an Islam respectful
of women, their faces, and their rights, as well as of human
rights in general. Genuine anti-racists, anti-imperialists,
and believers in republican democracy must take the side
of the Islam of moderation and peace in its war against the
criminal Islam of the Salafists. The writer is a French public
intellectual, media personality, and author. (Project Syndicate)
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