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Insider Report: Mel's Wife, Kissinger, CNN Scolded, Clinton's Birthday Special From NewsMax's Most Informed Sources Insider Report from NewsMax.com Headlines (scroll down for complete stories): 1. Israeli Columnist: New War After Cease-fire A United Nations cease-fire resolution to halt the fighting in Lebanon will only guarantee that there will be another war, a columnist for the Jerusalem Post predicts. "This is the case because none of the moves being considered involve the one action that would prevent the next war," writes columnist Caroline Glick. "That action is an Israeli victory against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and an Israeli and allied strike against Hezbollah's state sponsors Syria and Iran, which promote Hezbollah's wanton aggression against Israel as a central campaign in their global jihad aimed at annihilating the Jewish state and defeating Western civilization."
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Israeli acceptance of a Security Council resolution before Hezbollah is utterly crushed would enable "the advance guard of the Iranian army of jihad" not only to survive as a fighting force, but also to declare victory against Israel, Glick maintains. The only way for Israel to end the threat from Hezbollah is to seize enough territory in Lebanon to take Israel out of the terrorist group's missile range, and to kill Hezbollah operative and destroy their arsenals, according to Glick, who complains: "Yet today ground operations center on retaking the former security zone – a tiny foothold, control of which makes no impact on Hezbollah's continued ability to rain missiles on sovereign Israeli territory and render a quarter of the population internal refugees or relegated to hiding in bomb shelters for weeks upon weeks." The war in Lebanon has not only disrupted Israeli society, but led to the galvanizing of support for jihad in Iraq and the "scapegoating of Israel again" by Western leftists as the aggressor in the conflict, Glick writes, adding: "Many commentators who understand what a Hezbollah victory will mean for international security rightly argue that the international community today is repeating the mistakes of the 1930s, when it refused to contend with the growing dangers emanating from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan." 2. Mel Gibson: My Wife a ‘Saint' Two blonde women who were with Mel Gibson before his DUI arrest and anti-semitic remarks said he spent an hour talking to them about his family and declared that his wife Robyn was a "saint." Julie Smith, 27, and Kimberley Lesak, 29, said they were at Moonshadows bar in Malibu when an intoxicated Gibson entered. The women befriended him and asked him to pose with them for a photograph. "He stopped off to sober up – he was probably terrified about what his wife would say if he arrived home in that state," Levak told the Daily Telegraph in Australia, where Gibson was raised. "He floated around talking to everyone. We know now he was over the legal limit – but at that point he was not stumbling drunk." Said Smith: "He wasn't an angry drunk saying anti-Jewish things when we saw him." Levak said she was standing with Gibson at the back of the bar when he began talking about his family. "He had his head in his hands and he was running his fingers through his hair saying, 'Oh no.' "It was probably because he was thinking to himself, 'What am I doing here?' "Earlier I was talking with him about his family and his kids, not in detail, but he did say his wife was a saint." The women said several people offered him a lift home. Gibson opted to drive, and was pulled over for speeding with an open bottle of tequila on the back seat about 30 minutes after he left the bar. He reportedly told the arresting officer: "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." He later issued an apology. 3. Media ‘Played Down' Muslim Killing of Jew in Seattle While the press was going to town with story upon story about Mel Gibson's arrest and disparaging remarks about Jews, a far more egregious act of anti-Semitism that occurred on the same day received far less media attention. On July 28, several hours after Gibson's arrest, Naveed Haq – who holds an engineering degree from Washington State University – barged into the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, announced "I am a Muslim American angry at Israel," and shot a 58-year-old woman to death. Five other women, one of them pregnant, were also shot. In the first six days after the two events, the media database Nexis showed 888 stories mentioning "Mel Gibson" and "Jews," but only 236 mentioning the Seattle shooting. Calling that coverage "only modest," Jeff Jacoby asks on the Web site Townhall.com "why the Seattle bloodshed was played down," noting that Haq is not the first seemingly non-violent Muslim to erupt in a violent rampage this year. In March, Iranian-born Mohammed Taheri-azar, a psychology major at the University of North Carolina, intentionally rammed a car into a crowd of students, hitting nine of them. He said he wanted to "avenge the death of Muslims around the world." In June, Michael Julius Ford killed one person and injured five when he opened fire at a Denver warehouse, before he was shot dead by a SWAT officer. His sister told the Denver Post: "He told me that Allah was going to make a choice and it was going to be good and told me people at his job [were] making fun of his religion." If Mel Gibson's nonviolent outburst is "a legitimate subject of media scrutiny, all the more so is the animus that has spurred Muslims like Naveed Haq to jihadist murder," says Jaboby, an Op Ed writer for the Boston Globe. "How many more Haqs must erupt in a homicidal rage … before we stop assuming that these are merely random incidents?" Instead, the New York Sun noted, Americans need to open their eyes "to the possibility that they are part of a war in which understanding the enemy is a prerequisite for victory." 4. CNN Scolded for Hiring Castro's Daughter The hiring of Fidel Castro's daughter by CNN was "a doozy of a gimmick," says online commentator Jon Friedman, who calls it the network's "latest stretch for publicity." CNN announced in early August that it had hired Castro's daughter Alina Fernandez as a contributor, "just as the Cuban dictator's health became the island's biggest news story since the heady days of Elian Gonzalez, the bewildered little boy who found himself at the center of a media storm in 2000," Friedman writes for Marketwatch.com. "Maybe CNN had to settle for Castro's daughter because Elian … wasn't available for the gig." Fernandez is the host of a radio program in Miami and author of the book "Castro's Daughter: An Exile's Memoir of Cuba." But Fernandez was a toddler when Castro came to power, and she has had only "sporadic contact" with him over the years, USA Today reports. Friedman notes: "CNN wants the public to believe that Fernandez has unique insights about her homeland and her father, even though she left the country in 1993 – disguised as a Spanish tourist, no less." He adds: "My biggest problem with CNN is that it has been known to pander for viewers as a way to try to keep up with cable news leader Fox." 5. Iraq War Could Boost GOP Candidates While some Republican candidates fear that the war in Iraq will hurt them in November, a new GOP strategy memo maintains that the opposite could be true. Despite voter discontent with the war, the memo argues that the conflict is one of the most effective issues to motivate the party base in the upcoming elections. The memo, based on a Republican National Committee poll of GOP voters and obtained by the Los Angeles Times, cites Bush's handling of "foreign threats" as the No. 1 motivator of the Republican base, and specifically points to his leadership on Iraq. "The memo underscores the belief among top White House and GOP strategists that the war, despite the rising death toll and mounting public anxiety, could be the party's biggest advantage in the fight to retain control of Congress in the November elections," the Times reports. According to the memo sent to Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman from GOP pollster Fred Steeper, "Large majorities report satisfaction with the president's commitment to defeat the terrorists in Iraq and his leadership in the war on terror in general… "A huge 87 percent of the base expresses extremely strong feelings" about national security issues. Mehlman told the Times that Republicans view Democratic proposals to withdraw troops from Iraq as policies of "isolationism and defeatism. He compared war critic Ned Lamont, who defeated Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman in the race for the Democratic nomination for the Senate, to antiwar activists like George McGovern, who failed to win the general election. He said that when the Democratic Party "became a doctrinaire, anti-use-of-American-force party as it did in 1972, it didn't do well. "A lot of Americans may have disagreed with a lot of aspects of the Vietnam War, but in 1972 they were not willing to support a candidate for president who said: 'Come home, America' at a time that they knew there were serious challenges in the world. "A party that becomes even more McGovernic" than the 1972 Democratic Party, he added, "is not one in my judgment that is likely to appeal to voters." 6. Kerry Still Has $14 Million for '08 Campaign Sen. John Kerry has nearly $14 million left over from his 2004 presidential bid and can use it in a fight with Sen. Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president. Kerry has $8.2 million in his John Kerry for President account and $5.4 million in his Kerry-Edwards 2004 Inc. General Election Legal and Accounting Compliance Fund, Alexander Bolton reports in the influential Washington publication The Hill. "His 2004 nest egg has given Kerry the luxury of focusing his efforts on raising money for Democratic candidates rather than worrying about money for his own 2008 Senate re-election race or about courting donors for another presidential run," Bolton writes. Clinton has raised $44 million for her Senate re-election race and has $22 million in her Senate campaign's bank account, which will most likely give her a large lead over other presidential candidates heading into the 2008 presidential primaries. Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana is also in a strong financial position if he vies for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008. As of mid-July, he had $10.4 million in his personal campaign account, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission. Bayh doesn't face re-election until 2010 and could use all his money in a run for the White House. Kerry has focused his efforts on helping other Democratic candidates during this election cycle. Since his 2004 loss to George Bush, he has raised $13.5 million through his leadership committees – from 215,000 contributions, aides say – and given nearly $10 million to Democratic candidates in 40 states. He has also given $1 million from his presidential campaign war chest to the Democratic National Committee, $1 million to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $500,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. If Kerry were to use the unspent funds from his 2004 presidential campaign in his Democratic primary race in 2008, it would be "certain to spark criticism from Democrats still angry that Kerry didn't spend all of his available resources to defeat Bush," Bolton notes. Michael Bauer, a prominent Democratic fundraiser, said Kerry's unspent war chest "is still an issue with so many Democrats around the country. "I can't tell you how often this comes up this long after the election." There are no legal restrictions on Kerry that would prevent him from transferring the $14 million to a presidential primary campaign. Bauer said Kerry was raising money up until Election Day 2004, even though he would finish the race with nearly $14 million in unspent cash. "I think he was hedging his bets," Bauer said. "I think he decided to hold on to a chunk of money so he would have a good strong head start on the 2008 election." 7. Bill Clinton Plans Huge Birthday Bash Former President Bill Clinton turns 60 on August 17, and the celebrations won't end until he attends a private Rolling Stones concert on October 29 – three days after Hillary's 59th birthday. A series of events for the 42nd president – dubbed "42 at 60" – will be held in New York and Toronto and will raise money for the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation. Clinton will be in Toronto during the Toronto Film Festival, when the city will be packed with celebrities. The main Clinton event in Toronto will be a September 9 gala at the Fairmont Royal York hotel, the New York Post reports. Clinton festivities will also include a golf outing in Westchester in October and a dinner at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. The Rolling Stones concert will take place at the Beacon Theater and be filmed by Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese – just nine days before New Yorkers cast their ballots in Hillary's Senate re-election race. "It's timed so that the Clintons will be all over the news just before voters go to the polls," one Democrat told the Post. "And every extra point she gets in victory will help her in her race for president in 2008." 8. We Heard… THAT a NewsMax friend sat next to former Sec. of State Henry Kissinger at a dinner recently. When the conversation turned to the North Korean threat, Dr. Kissinger down played it. For example, Kissinger claimed that Japan already has a stockpile of nuclear weapons. Japan has repeatedly stated it does not have nuclear weapons – but admits it could become a major nuclear player in a matter of months. THAT Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist has won the endorsement of the National Rifle Association in his bid to capture the Republican nomination for governor in the Sunshine State. "No one has been stronger in support of Second Amendment, self-defense and anti-crime issues than Charlie Crist and we sincerely appreciate your solid pro-sportsmen, pro-Second Amendment, pro-freedom record," wrote Marion Hammer, past president of the NRA – and executive director of Unified Sportsmen of Florida – in a letter to Crist informing him of the endorsement. Most polls have Crist leading his GOP rival Tom Gallagher, the state's chief financial officer, by a significant margin. THAT a billboard company has rebuffed efforts by a group in Los Angeles to erect a sign on Sunset Boulevard showing Mel Gibson's face with the international sign for "no" over it.
"We wanted to make a statement that anti-Semitism is not okay in Hollywood – or anywhere else," the group's leader, publicist Andy Behrman, told MSNBC's The Scoop. He said his group made a $40,000 deal with a Regency Outdoor salesman to put up the billboard on August 15, but the salesman later contacted him and said "my boss doesn't want to touch this Mel Gibson thing." Behrman said he was told that billboard companies in Los Angeles fear alienating movie studios that may work with Gibson in the future. Studios are big billboard advertisers. THAT Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain are both coming to Virginia later this month to campaign for another possible Republican candidate for president in 2008 – Sen. George Allen. McCain will join Allen in Norfolk for the August 16 announcement of the formation of a statewide veterans' group backing Allen's re-election to the Senate. Former New York City Mayor Giuliani will host a public fund-raiser for the Virginia senator in the Norfolk area two weeks later, the Virginian-Pilot reports. President Bush has also planned to attend a fund-raiser for Allen, to be held on August 23 at the Virginia home of Ed Gillespie, former chairman of the Republican National Committee. In a recent poll, Sen. Allen held a lead of 16 percentage points over his Democratic opponent Jim Webb, a former Navy secretary. Editor's Notes:
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