Such a massive common effort devoted to accomplishing one thing - Vic Rosenthal

...Has the world ever worked together so well for a cause? Such a massive common effort devoted to trying to accomplish one thing (in this case, our destruction)? Would they cooperate this well if an asteroid were heading for the earth? Think what the resources devoted to us could do if applied to problems like hunger, climate change, illiteracy or disease!

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
03 June '16..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2016/06/the-case-for-paranoia/

I am sitting at my desk on a quiet day. There are no screaming sirens. Hezbollah isn’t bombarding us with its tens of thousands of missiles, and Hamas tunnels aren’t disgorging terrorists near kibbutz dining halls. Nobody has been stabbed yet today (as far as I know) by an Arab teenager. Iran’s nuclear project is not yet complete and the Islamic State is occupied with devising more ingenious ways to kill people. Bashar al-Assad is bombing hospitals, but they are in Syria, not here.

Nevertheless we are at war.

Israel is under severe and sustained bombardment from its enemies in the Muslim world and also Europe, the UK and the US, in two main non-physical spheres of combat.

One is the propaganda war, in which the world is saturation bombed with lies about how we are the vilest imaginable creatures who are constantly committing the most sadistic atrocities, particularly against angelic Palestinian children who only want to grow into peace-loving Palestinian adults.

The world is told that we entered this land that wasn’t ours and viciously dispossessed those aforementioned peace-lovers, punishing them for the sins of Hitler, which actually weren’t sins since we ourselves are worse than Hitler and deserved everything we got. Justice, it is told, requires that 11 million ‘Palestinians’ be allowed to come ‘back’ to the land they never saw and take our nice cars and buildings and rape our women, because everything belongs to them.

People hear that our communities are illegal (according to laws and interpretations they invent as they go along) and we are white Ashkenazi racist colonialist exploiters whom it is acceptable – obligatory – to ‘resist’ violently. Not only that, but we have hooked noses and are descended from apes and pigs.

Any means of resistance is legitimate, but anything we do to defend ourselves is illegal, because it is European white colonialism. Even if some of our skins are black and most of us are not from Europe.

There is also the BDS movement, which tries to weaken the state economically while at the same time driving home the lesson that we are so depraved, so subhuman, that civilized people mustn’t engage in any kind of intercourse with us, not in commerce, sport, academics, the arts or anything else. BDS is presented as a grass-roots movement, but it is organized with the support of the usual suspects, mostly European.

Somewhat more subtly, almost all of the American ‘mainstream’ media push a line according to which Israel is intransigent, its government is extremely right-wing and it has no interest in peace. It is suggested that our PM is afraid to take risks for peace and needs to be pushed. This is despite the fact that the government is precisely in the center of the Israeli political spectrum, and has made concessions to the Arabs more or less continuously since the Oslo accords were signed, including a total withdrawal from the Gaza strip. At the same time, the Palestinians have barely altered their positions – in some ways they have hardened them – and at present refuse to sit down with us at all.

All of these propaganda themes can be shown to be false, irrational or both. But it doesn’t matter. Other ‘occupations’ throughout the world, as well as actual genocides, sieges and horribly bloody wars get little or no attention. Only Israel is singled out. Accusations against Israel are often believed with no proof, but when Israel establishes that they are false, it is ignored.

The function of this assault of lies is to prepare the people of the world for the ultimate violent destruction of the Jewish people and their state, to make it understandable, even welcome, to them.

Perhaps It's Time to Apply 'Physicians Heal Thyself" and End Your Anti-Israeli Hysteria

...The Hands off the Lancet group asked for determination of who was responsible in Gaza for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. They need look no further. The United Nations report of April 27, 2015 makes clear that the violations were committed by Palestinians, specifically by Hamas that used UN buildings and schools as launching sites to fire rockets at Israeli civilians during the Gaza operation.

Dr. Michael Curtis..
American Thinker..
05 May '15..

Dr. Seuss, the world’s favorite physician, once explained “I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells.” Unfortunately, their own nonsensical behavior did not awaken a number of doctors and medical practitioners, mostly in Britain, when they published an immoderate and fallacious political diatribe against Israel in the British medical journal, The Lancet.

To the contrary, they have dishonored their professional code of conduct, betrayed the norms of medical science, and the understood ethics of impartial analysis. Dr. Richard Horton, editor in chief since 1995 of The Lancet, also ignored the code of conduct and the responsibilities of journal editors in publishing the diatribe.

What a difference a day makes! Dr. Horton, confessed his critical opinions of Israel had been shaped by pro-Palestinian friends and by the Western media, but after his one-day tour of the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa on September 29, 2014, he said he had completely changed his view of Israel.

Nevertheless despite his new enlightenment, Horton refused to retract or to apologize for the controversial “Open Letter for the People in Gaza” he had published on July 23, 2014 that rebuked Israel in inflammatory language for its “ruthless assault of unlimited duration, extent, and intensity” on Gaza in the summer conflict in 2014 in the Gaza Strip. The letter concluded, “we as scientists and doctors cannot keep silent while this crime against humanity continues.” They did, however, keep silent about the crimes against humanity, crimes that the United Nations has recently publicly revealed, committed by Palestinians during the conflict in Gaza.

The Open Letter asserted that Israel’s IDF reaction to the incessant rocket attacks by Hamas in Gaza in summer of 2014 was in fact “the creation of an emergency to masquerade a massacre.” The authors charged that only 5% of Israeli academics appealed to the Israel government to stop the military operation. The Open Letter was almost completely devoid of any reference to medical issues, the supposed concern of the practitioners of the medical profession.

Horton considered that the letter, condemning Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, was a cry of anguish, but also that it did not convey the highly complex reality of Israel’s situation that he now understands, or pretends to understand, is the reality in Israel. He also expressed his realization that what he witnessed during his visit to Israel contradicted some of the claims of the Open Letter. However, he did not retract the letter, as critics suggested, or disparage its extreme egregious nature.

Noha Hashad not only escaped Egypt, but sought Jerusalem

...Looking out at the Mediterranean Sea from her Haifa balcony, far away from her family, Hashad is living in self-imposed exile. She fled Egypt by the skin of her teeth thanks to the Arab Spring and the subsequent fall of Mubarak. She has had to contend with constant threats from Islamic elements. "Israel is a jewel," she said, gently caressing her physical scars. "Israel is a diamond, and I'm lucky to be here."

Emily Amrousi..
Israel Hayom..
03 April '15..

The biblical proverb commands human beings of each generation to view themselves as if they had fled Egypt. Here, sitting right in front of me, is a real-life Egyptian refugee, a woman whose escape was very recent. Her wounds are still fresh, and hallmarks of the arduous journey could be visible on her face.

Not only did Noha Hashad flee Egypt, but she chose Jerusalem as her safe haven. Perhaps she is worthy of consideration for the title of Righteous Among the Nations. In championing for Israel's cause in her homeland, she paid (and is paying) a dear price. When she openly sided with Israel, she was arrested by the Hosni Mubarak regime, suffering beatings and torture at the hands of the authorities. As a result of her ordeal, she was left disabled.

Looking out at the Mediterranean Sea from her Haifa balcony, far away from her family, Hashad is living in self-imposed exile. She fled Egypt by the skin of her teeth thanks to the Arab Spring and the subsequent fall of Mubarak. She has had to contend with constant threats from Islamic elements.

"Israel is a jewel," she said, gently caressing her physical scars. "Israel is a diamond, and I'm lucky to be here."

"No fear gene"

Now 51 years of age, Hashad was born and raised in Muslim Cairo. As a young girl, she was sent to a private school in Saudi Arabia, where she underwent instruction on the Quran and Islam. On her mother's side, she is a direct descendant of Hussein Bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and the founder of Shia Islam. On her father's side, she is certain that there is a connection to Judaism. It is believed that her father is a descendant of the Baal Shem Tov.

"Apparently, my last name, Hashad, is derived from the Hebrew word Hassid," she said.

An educated woman, Hashad speaks fluent English. She declines the opportunity to discuss her family for fear that they could be subject to harm in Egypt. She took an interest in the Israeli-Arab conflict just as she was in the process of completing her doctorate in nuclear physics from Beni-Suef University. She also taught nuclear physics at both Beni-Suef and Cairo University. On top of that, she oversaw her own research laboratory.

From her new home in Haifa 500 kilometers away, Hashad is now in the process of founding a center to promote peace in the Middle East. She is currently working on translating Mahmoud Abbas' first book into English. Hashad must still face down threats to her life which are posted on Facebook and expressed in letters and phone calls.

"I'm not afraid," she said. "I don't know why. I don't have the gene of fear."

Her curiosity about Egypt's neighbor to the northeast began to percolate in 1999. This was when Hashad was hard at work on her master's thesis which focused on molecular physics. Her expertise was considered so vast that she was offered an opportunity to work for the Egyptian government in the area of radioactive safety.

The miracle of freedom. Noha Hashad's exodus from Egypt

...They say every generation one must see themselves as if they themselves made the exodus from Egypt. Egyptian nuclear physicist Noha Hashad not only escaped Egypt, but sought Jerusalem.

"Israel is like a jewel, a diamond, I am very 
fortunate to be here." Egyptian nuclear 
physicist Noha Hashad fled to Israel in 2011 
Photo credit: Michel Dot Com

Emily Amrousi..
Israel Hayom..
01 April '15..

They say every generation one must see themselves as if they themselves made the exodus from Egypt. Egyptian nuclear physicist Noha Hashad not only escaped Egypt, but sought Jerusalem. The 51-year-old native Egyptian Muslim was an accomplished academic who lectured at many universities when she began identifying with Israel.

Noha was arrested by security forces belonging to Hosni Mubarak's regime. Her crime? Looking for proof of the Jews' rights to the land of Israel in the Quran. She was jailed for 12 years. Noha was interrogated and tortured under suspicion of spying for Israel. Her interrogations left her handicapped. She managed to escape Egypt during the Arab Spring protests and the fall of the Mubarak regime in 2011, fleeing to Jordan and then coming to Israel as a refugee.

This is the first time Noha Hashad's story is coming to light.

"Israel is like a jewel, a diamond, I am very fortunate to be here," she said, sitting near the beach in Haifa. Noha founded a center for peace in the Middle East, with respected scholars of Middle East studies, and is working on the English translation of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' first book, "The Beginning and End of Zionism."

The book is being translated to "expose his [Abbas'] true face -- not Holocaust denial like in his known doctoral work," Noha said. "But Israel denial."

The 14th century lives on in 21st century Washington

...In essence, blaming the blameless for what they have no involvement in, is as morally reprehensible as the mid-14th century scapegoating of Europe’s Jews during the Black Death. Right across the continent, the recommended remedy was to accuse Jews of poisoning the wells. With adaptations, this still remains the undisputed conventional wisdom.

Medieval manuscript showing Jews burned
at the stake in Flanders according to the
popular antidote to the Black Death

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
23 October '14..

In all fairness, it’s not just the Obama Administration which is fond of insinuating that somehow Israel is to blame for all that ails the Mideast. This has been the underlying theme of the US State Department since Israel’s birth in 1948.

The variations in the stance vis-à-vis Israel derive from the intensity of antipathy – the subtlety and sophistication of the tone in which it’s expressed. Given its strident hectoring, the Obama Administration is doubtless America’s least-subtle and least-sophisticated ever.

While past presidents and their secretaries of state took greater pains to pretend not to side with glaring Arab anti-Israel falsehoods, such niceties are all but absent from Barack Obama’s and John Kerry’s rhetoric. Anti-Israel idioms and calumnies are repeated by them as an obvious and infallible politically-correct gospel.

And thus Kerry had the colossal gall last week – significantly at a White House ceremony for the Muslim fest of Eid al-Adha – to claim no less that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (i.e. the Jewish state’s struggle for survival) bolsters the mass appeal of Islamic State radicalism.

Hardly knocking Israelis for a loop, the State Department’s spokeswoman later accused us of getting it all wrong. In deadpan delivery she insisted that Kerry “did not make a linkage between Israel and the growth of ISIL [Islamic State]. Period.”

But her boss’s words speak for themselves and belie her assertion.

Here, verbatim, is Kerry’s syntax-defying wisdom: “As I went around and met with people in the course of our discussions about the ISIL coalition, the truth is we – there wasn’t a leader I met with in the region who didn’t raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation.”

Translation: “peace between Israel and the Palestinians” means Israeli concessions of the sort that will critically compromise Israel’s self-preservation prospects. Only that and that alone will satisfy the “leaders” with whom the insightful Kerry met “in the region.” These were all Arab and/or Muslim and obviously they “spontaneously” gave voice to their enmity toward Israel – enmity which supersedes any discomfort arising from the hideous internecine Arab feuds.

These non-too-objective leaders are chronically prone to blaming any and all misfortunes on Israel (including the polio epidemic back in the day, followed by cancer, later by AIDS and most recently we’re told that Israel deliberately spreads Ebola). Is it then really any wonder that they would blame Israel for the Islamic fanaticism that overruns Iraq, Syria and threatens other domains?

Once again the tedious ritual of international condemnation and outcry of the Left

...The laymen of the greatest power in the world have found the time to highlight Israel's natural process of declaring 4,000 dunams -- which don't belong to any private interest -- as state land. And in the theater of the absurd, Great Britain has made the noise of the White Papers and Russia has issued a condemnation bemoaning the annexation. It is experienced in that. The Islamic State (ISIS) has seized tens of thousands of square kilometers from Iraq and Syria, and yet the international community is barely moved. Good for them they aren't Jews.

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
02 September '14..

It has become a common and tedious ritual: the international condemnation and the outcry of the Left. There is nothing to get excited about here. The Jews began the process, which could bring about the day when sovereignty is held over at least part of the ancient Jewish homeland. Good grief. There are two things forbidden to Jews: materializing any sort of sovereignty over the land of Israel, and defending themselves against the Arabs with arms. Too bad we have fallen back to history.

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has been silent regarding almost every international front that had at one time been integral to U.S. interests, all but one: Israel. The laymen of the greatest power in the world have found the time to highlight Israel's natural process of declaring 4,000 dunams -- which don't belong to any private interest -- as state land. And in the theater of the absurd, Great Britain has made the noise of the White Papers and Russia has issued a condemnation bemoaning the annexation. It is experienced in that. The Islamic State (ISIS) has seized tens of thousands of square kilometers from Iraq and Syria, and yet the international community is barely moved. Good for them they aren't Jews.

Despite the propaganda of lies, let us go back to the basics: Judea and Samaria are not Palestinian lands, not even by international law. Moreover, these are disputed territories. From our perspective, these are Jewish lands that were stolen from us during the Muslim occupation, which began in the seventh century and continues till this very day. Despite all of that, the Palestinians continue to practice unilateral annexation all over the place, without meeting protest. While the Palestinians are subject to "the laws of nature," the Jews must oblige international law. If Israel wants to protect its control over the state -- not just in Judea and Samaria -- it must take the same actions in order to step up the application of its sovereignty; it is the natural behavior of the locals.

Nagaura, Vicious Leftists and the Ancient Blood Libel Against the Jews

...Nagaura presumably thinks that the Jews of Israel just choose houses at random to hit because Arabs live in them. This is false. In fact, the very notion is an insult to all Jews, everywhere. Due to the fact that the Arabs of the Middle East are conducting an ongoing war against the Jewish people, we sometimes blow sh*t up in our own self-defense. Such is the nature of war, but it is not a war that we ever wanted.

Michael Lumish..
Israel Thrives..
19 July '14..

One of the things that is fascinating about this particular political moment is watching the revival of the kind of medieval slander against the Jewish people which sometimes led Christians in Europe to fling Jewish families down wells.

In every generation we are told just why it is that we deserve a good beating. Before Germans came into my family's village in the Ukraine and killed them, they told one another just why it is that Jews are in need of murder.

Today the enlightened west acknowledges that our past persecution was unjust. Your average good-hearted, left-leaning westerner agrees that the persecution of Jews for all those centuries for the alleged killing of a Jewish rabbi in Israel a long time ago was wrong and they will not hesitate to tell you so.

They will also likely agree that blaming capitalism on Jews is probably not fair and that any pogroms or violence due to this particular slander in the past was unjust. They will also agree that blaming Jews for the rise of socialism was not entirely fair, either.

We all agree, for the most part, that the Jews in the past were largely innocent of the malicious allegations against them and we almost kind of feel bad, maybe, about the historical persecution of the Jewish people.

Today, however, things are different.

As it turns out - Surprise! Suprise! - in this generation the Jews actually do have it coming due their mistreatment of the innocent, indigenous Ewoks who live around them.

This is what our friend Nagaura says in a comment on this blog:

Don't worry the IDF will shell hospitals,schools and homes all in the name of protecting Israel. It won't matter to you or any other pro Israel supporter how many innocents are killed they are after all the enemy population.

You'll come back with they are warned by the IDF to evacuate but where are they to evacuate to? The Mediterranean sea or perhaps they can be beamed up by the Starship Enterprise.
It is always important not just to spit back at hatred, but to look at it and discuss it.

I actually like Nagaura because she has the guts to step into what she presumably considers to be enemy territory. It takes a certain degree of steel in the spine, I suppose, to walk onto unfriendly ground and insist upon your say.

Let us now dissect:

Don't worry the IDF will shell hospitals,schools and homes all in the name of protecting Israel.

I like this kind of thing because it neatly demonstrates the anti-Semitic anti-Zionist bias embedded tightly within the discourse.

The first thing to notice is Nagaura's malicious assumption that the IDF acts merely in the name of protecting Israel. The obvious implication, of course, is that the IDF does not actually act in a manner to protect Israel, but only seems to do so "in name" as an insidious pretense for persecuting Arabs... simply for the hell of it.

Also notice the blood libel embedded in the sentence.

Can one imagine? A world gone mad — about Jews

...Imagine if the energy that went into hating and trying to destroy Israel could be used for productive purposes. It’s crazy, obsessive, psychotic behavior, and it drains the material and spiritual resources of a world which needs them badly.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
29 June '14..

There are numerous international conflicts in play all the time. There are struggles over borders and resources, ethnic and religious intolerance, persecuted minorities and ones that are not persecuted but would like to be persecutors. There are conflicts pursued by military means, by terrorism, by diplomacy and propaganda, and by a combination of all of these. Some of these have been simmering for hundreds of years.

But if we consider the number of players, the different arenas in which it is played out, the absolutely enormous amount of resources dedicated to it, its worldwide scope, the way generations have had their lives entirely circumscribed and defined by it, the fact that it has permeated every aspect of international relations and affected virtually every human on the planet — and if we compare this to the remarkably tiny sliver of land and people at its center — then it’s impossible to see the Muslim/Arab / European war against the Jewish state as anything but completely sui generis (one of a kind). To borrow a phrase from Victor Davis Hanson, it is a war like no other.

Am I exaggerating? Several destructive regional wars have already taken place, another is brewing, and unless Israel is overrun, there will be more after that. Terrorist organizations like the PLO, Hizballah and others which were created as part and parcel of the conflict have defined and developed international terrorism, legitimized it and served as paradigms for conflict by proxy. They have destabilized regimes and caused untold misery for the civilians unlucky enough to reside where they base themselves.

The United Nations, an institution whose charter is to prevent war and help improve the condition of humanity has been infiltrated by the cancer of this conflict, with unnatural organs created at huge expense just for the purpose of assisting one side in the struggle. Institutions of international law and organizations intended to improve health, protect human rights, preserve culture, advance science, provide educational opportunities — all have been grotesquely perverted and twisted in the service of it.

Educational institutions, labor unions, charities, religious groups in every part of the globe have become obsessed with it.

An entire nation has been created — the ‘Palestinians’ — from a disparate group of Arabs that happened to live in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1948, to oppose the Jewish nation’s sovereignty in the tiny state now called Israel. Some Palestinians and their descendents have been kept in the limbo of a unique refugee status for 66 years. Most of them have been systematically indoctrinated into an unprecedented culture of hate, desiring only revenge and to shed the blood of their enemies. A detailed historical narrative has been fabricated to justify this.

Hatred, Israel and the Rest of the World

...What the destroyers of Israel would do is negate every one of Israel's achievements and more, and leave a hole in the world, in their own world. What, after all, would take the place of Israel? Another failed state, riven by strife, characterized by failure, poverty-stricken, dependent, just another victim of the authoritarian Arab way of governing? Is that something that will set civilization towards new horizons? It is up to us to keep the lights on, to place civilization against barbarism, to put our minds and bodies between Israel and all who mean her ill.

Dennis MacEoin..
Gatestone Institute..
05 March '14..

Everybody hates Israel. That is not just accepted wisdom, it is a reality that chokes all rational debate on the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. There are exceptions, of course, such as Canada, but most of Western Europe has slipped from support for Israel to support for the Palestinian cause, as if both sides might not have valid claims to the disputed land.

Most Americans are enthusiastic about Israel, but the U.S. government under Barack Obama, has, in recent years, shown increasing antagonism. Unsurprisingly, not a single Muslim nation likes Israel at all.

Many hate the Jewish state precisely because it is a Jewish state -- there seems no other reason why they might hate it. Many, in a display of true prejudice, have never even visited it.

In the world in general, and Europe in particular, anti-Semitism is growing at a rate not unlike the 1930s. It does not take much mental grip to see the link between that escalation of the "oldest hatred" and the refined political and religious rejection of Israel as the one and only state in the world that deserves to be abolished. Or, as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once put it in Farsi, "exterminated" (Umam-e Eslami bayad Isra'il-ra qal' o qam' kard: The nations of Islam must exterminate Israel.)

In a Friday sermon, former Iranian President Rafsanjani also made the statement, "If one day, a very important day of course, the Islamic world will also be equipped with the weapons available to Israel now, the imperialist strategy will reach an impasse, because the employment of even one atomic bomb inside Israel will wipe it off the face of the earth, but would only do damage to the Islamic world."[1]

But then, one might surely ask, if everyone hates Israel, will it make the slightest difference if it actually is wiped off the face of the earth? Will it matter if another six million Jews are gassed or driven into the Mediterranean? If most of the people on the planet hate Israel and want to see a massive Palestinian state take its place, then who will weep if the Jews go and the Arabs come and take over, as so many people now say they have every right to do? Would it not be a blow for humanity, justice and people everywhere if the oppressive, violent, and apartheid Jewish state were to be removed from the earth?

Are you starting to feel a bit uneasy about this?

Some might hold back from wishing death on the Jews, but would not hesitate if someone else were to kill them. Or force them to pack their bags and leave their homes to make room for an army of Palestinian "refugees." If you hate Jews enough, nothing may seem too bad for them, and no history of pogroms and the Holocaust will be enough to dissuade you and your friends from doing it all over again, or rejoicing that someone else is doing it for you.

The treatment—or rather, mistreatment—of the Jews stands out in the modern era as the single greatest emblem of man's inhumanity to man. From the Christian (and post-Christian) West to the Islamic East, hatred of Jews has led to unfettered cruelty, and a continuing refusal to accept any form of moral or ethical constraint. However much Jews suffer, anti-Semites want them to suffer more. However far Jews might try to run, their self-appointed overlords will try to hunt them down and start the process of hate and persecution all over again. However much Jews contribute to human civilization, win Nobel prizes, develop cures for illness, create remarkable films, set up hospital units worldwide to treat the sick, irrigate the fields of the poorest farmers and change our lives for the better — the haters sneer and lie and kill Jews with the same knives; and every time a Jew is killed or wounded, dance on the same floors.

And what have the Jews ever done to deserve any of this? Are the Jews really the masterminds behind every war, every revolution, every economic disaster, every plot, even the Holocaust itself? Yes, according to anti-Semites, either the Holocaust never happened and was made up to secure Israel as a country for the Jews; or else the Jews instigated it to force other Jews to flee Europe to Mandatory Palestine, to take it over. Just read a few comments on YouTube as a measuring stick for this mental illness.

When racism raises its head as perhaps the last gasp of an entitled “progressive” elite

...Just what is this global Left? It ostensibly includes labor and social democratic parties in Europe – as well the fascistic, thuggish murderers running Venezuela. It takes in Hezbollah, Hamas and the communist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The same movement that stones women and throws acid in their face is taken in, alongside a movement championing Arab women as dancers, singers and performers. It is the same “progressive values” that allows Silverstain to castigate as “negro” any black person whose ideas threaten his worldview.

Mr. "Tikun Olam" Silverstein

Seth J. Frantzman..
Terra Incognito/JPost..
25 February '14..

"They finally did it: found a Negro Zionist: Uncle Tom is dancing for joy!” tweeted extremist Richard Silverstein, who maintains the Tikun Olam blog. He explained in a follow-up: “when I call @cvaldary ‘Negro Uncle Tom’ it reflects on her betrayal of progressive values respected by most African-Americans.” The decision by Silverstein to label those who support Israel “negroes” is the latest in a long line of recent racially- tinged assaults by the radical Left. Recall for example Israeli writer Gideon Levy claiming that Russians have “crime in their blood.”

Racism is raising its head as perhaps the last gasp of an entitled “progressive” elite. It leads us to wonder, what fuels the rage? One of the greatest achievements of the Left and its radical fringe was simply establishing “Left” as a positive value in itself. This occurred largely due to the rise of Fascism and Nazism; the horrific evils of the Axis regimes gave the Left an imprimatur of being on the side of right.

And in many ways it made sense: The original progressives fought for what were undeniably good causes: the reduction of working hours for menial laborers; stricter safety conditions in mines; the end of child labor; women’s rights.

However, many of these campaigns were paired with other, more obscure activism that was by no stretch of the imagination positive, at least according to most people, and to which not enough attention was paid. For example, eugenics was one aspect of the progressive manifesto.

In the progressive vision of utopia, working hours would be reduced (good), but people would be herded into collectives and forced to work certain jobs with meaningless pay and no chance of social mobility (bad). The utopianists and futurists sought the perfect ordering of society along strict lines; a top-down organization in which dictatorial “parties” would organize things for the “betterment of man.” Prophets of the Left described the evils this could entail in works like 1984 or Brave New World.

Moreover, as the ancient regime was washed away and conservative and classical liberal voices proved incapable of controlling the emerging extremisms, many turned, W.B. Yeats-like, to the answers traditionally associated with the Right: Nationalism and order. Thus the more obscure evils of extreme progressivism and the obvious evils of the fascist Right were all combined under the progressive banner.

We have suffered under 100 years of this leftist-progressive hegemony, during which time the “progressive” brand has come to dictate the normative worldview of Western society – regardless of what the brand actually represents. Consider the case of Judith Butler recently deciding to cancel a presentation on author Franz Kafka at the Jewish Museum in New York City. She withdrew, claiming victimhood, due to an “uproar over my political views.” Let’s recap her political views: During a 2006 “teach in” at UC Berkeley she was asked, “Since the Left hesitates to support Hamas and Hezbollah ‘just’ because of their use of violence, does this hurt Palestinian solidarity?” She responded, “I think yes; understanding Hamas, Hezbollah as social movements that are progressive, that are on the Left, that are part of a global Left, is extremely important.” We have here a clear example of the absurdity of the “Left good” construct. The Left is perceived as moral precisely because in its initial form, it abhorred violence; the normative leftist “peace” position.

But here is Butler arguing that we should define these radical, violent, religious fundamentalist movements as “progressive” and part of a “global Left.” Why? Because they oppose an enemy of this self-defined global Left: Israel.

The media, threats of violence and the Temple Mount

...As long as the media depict Muslim violence in the name of Islam as an inevitable reaction to any perceived provocation and give a free pass to the Muslim leaders who never tire to threaten such violence, we can regard the OIC definition of “Islamophobia” as no more than a cynical political tool that allows Muslim leaders to incite violence with impunity – and we can expect that the Temple Mount will remain a dangerous symbol of Muslim fanaticism.

Petra Marquadt-Bigman..
The Warped Mirror..
21 December 13..

In recent weeks, there have been numerous media reports warning about escalating tensions and possible violence on the Temple Mount. Even if you just read the headlines and leads, the situation sounds pretty dire, as this selection from Al Monitor, Sky News and the Washington Post illustrates:

“Israeli Restrictions at Al-Aqsa Mosque Could Spark Violence: Israel is imposing tighter restrictions on Palestinian Muslims wishing to access Al-Aqsa Mosque while allowing more Jewish visits that disrespect Islamic customs.”

“Sacred Shrines Become ‘Ticking Time Bomb: ‘The chief cleric at one of the world’s holiest mosques tells Sky News that acts of Jewish prayer could spark a regional war.”

“Jewish activists want to pray on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, raising alarm in Muslim world.”

These headlines and leads also tell us already who is to blame for this potentially explosive situation: Jews who want to visit the Temple Mount and maybe even pray there. Well, who could imagine a greater outrage than Jews wanting to visit and perhaps pray at the historic site of the Jewish Temples? And who would dispute that followers of the “religion of peace” have every right to react to such an outrage with threats of massive violence? After all, Muslims are used to having their holiest sites off-limits to “infidels.” True, frustrated journalists who don’t make it into Mecca and Medina may point out that “You don’t have to be a Catholic to go to the Vatican. You don’t have to be Jewish to go to the Western Wall… You don’t have to be Buddhist to hear the Dalai Lama speak” – but there is obviously no reason to expect similar openness from Islam. Indeed, as a Guardian contributor casually remarked: “a billion Muslims worldwide would go ballistic” if Jews were allowed to freely visit the Temple Mount and pray there. And of course, in the Guardian as elsewhere, it’s the Jews who are the extremists.

However, this kind of reporting and commentary isn’t as biased as it may seem, because it unfortunately reflects the view of the Israeli authorities. As a recent Jerusalem Post report about violent attacks by Muslims explains:

“Although the [Israeli] Supreme Court has upheld Jewish prayer rights at the Temple Mount – which is overseen by the Wakf Muslim religious trust – the court also allows police to prevent any form of worship there if they believe such activities will incite a ‘disturbance to the public order.’ […] Asked what has precipitated the pronounced uptick in violence, Police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said Arabs are growing increasingly incensed by religious Jews who increasingly illegally pray there in an act of civil disobedience. ‘The Arabs don’t like Jews coming there to pray, and an extreme group of Jews is going there to provoke them,’ he said.”

In other words, Israel’s Supreme Court has acknowledged that Jews have the right to pray on the Temple Mount, but it has also given Muslims a veto right: if they don’t like it and become violent, then they’ll get their way and Jews who exercise their supposed right are accused of engaging in a provocative “act of civil disobedience.” In practice that means that the Saudi policy of treating “infidels” like dogs who have to be kept off Muslim holy grounds is all too often also enforced on the Temple Mount.

The entire world erupts into a frenzy about ...

Ilya Meyer..
ilyameyer.com..
12 February '13..





Let’s see now:

The mad-dog regime of North Korea detonates an underground nuclear device in direct contravention of global opinion – while extorting food aid from the nations of the world. Yawn from the UN and EU.

The brutal regime of Assad has breached the 100,000 mark in the number of Syrian citizens murdered by the Syrian government, and a million Syrians are now refugees. Yawn from the UN and EU.

The murderous regime of the Iranian ayatollahs routinely hangs pickpockets, thieves, gays and political opponents from construction cranes in Tehran city centre. Yawn from the UN and EU.

The racist government of Lebanon continues to deny Palestinian Arabs citizenship or even the right to own property or engage in certain professions (now why do these draconian measures sound so very familiar from, let’s say Nazi-era Germany?). Yawn from the UN and EU.

An American Jew in Damascus

Bataween
Point of No Return
24 May '10

(Even though I'm not Jewish, reading this by an American Jew who spent eight months in Syria makes me glad I chose to study the Middle East in Beirut, in Jerusalem, and even in Baghdad. Michael J. Totten)

Awash with conspiracy theories about Zionist power, Syria is not a comfortable place to be a Jew. Any mention of the suffering of Syrian Jews is met with blank stares. But in this fascinating account of his eight months in Damascus, specially written for Point of No Return, this young student of Arabic from Denver, Colorado found empathy from oppressed Kurds and other minorities:

"Most young American Jews that I know have chosen to visit or live in Israel at some point in their lives, not only as a way of familiarizing themselves with Eretz Yisrael or Judaism, but as an introduction to the broader Middle East. I too just finished living in the region for eight months, although my country of choice was not Israel, it was Syria.

"This was a shocking choice for family and friends. Even my Arabic professor, who is an Armenian Christian from Syria, gravely warned me to never mention my religion or any prior travel to Israel, let alone his name in case the secret police are watching me. His admonitions were not at all surprising given his recollections of growing up in Aleppo and on class trips with his school to watch the authorities hang Jews.

"My experiences in Syria, as well as my travel throughout Lebanon, Jordan, and Kurdish Iraq, ranged from the absurdly predictable to the wonderfully unexpected and surprising. My first observation upon arriving in Damascus was how Palestinian flags almost outnumber Syrian flags across the country. At the government subsidized Arabic language center, uncritically profiled by the New York Times, there is a map in every classroom of Palestine (without Israel, although Tel-Abeeb is on the map), some making dubious land claims to Lebanon and Turkey as well, while many teachers teach propaganda to students from all over the world. This can range from learning Palestinian resistance songs to learning about IDF 'massacres' and teaching the students about their perspectives on Zionism. This is done while extolling the Arab armies for their superior ethics in battle, which Judaism does not have, according to my teacher, and their "meticulous" distinctions between Jew, Israeli and Zionist.

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We Do Not Live in Normal Times: Britain's Best and Brightest Stage a Pogrom

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
25 May '10

Although two stories—the first regarding the U.S. policy handling of Turkey and Brazil’s relationship with Iran; the second, this one, on anti-Israel hysteria in the United Kingdom—are totally different, they reflect the two parts of our current crisis.

These are the ideological and policy derailment of Western governments, on the one hand and, on the other hand, the collapse of the fail-safe systems for key public institutions, especially academia and media. To understand the crisis in both sectors—the greatest perhaps since the end of World War Two—these two halves of the puzzle must be assembled.

Regarding anti-Israel hysteria, it can only be called—in spirit and worldview—Medieval in the worst sense of that world. Two British newspapers, the Guardian and Independent, are accusing Israel—on the basis of a new book—of offering to sell nuclear weapons to apartheid South Africa.

When you get through all the passionate hatred, distortion, and incited hysteria what is the basis for this accusation? There is a South African document saying that the government would like to buy missiles from Israel. There is a discussion between the South African Defense Minister P.W. Botha and Israel’s then Defense Minister Shimon Peres on the topic. Peres says that Israel has large, medium, and small warheads.

That’s it. There’s no mention of nuclear weapons. No evidence that Israel ever even sold missiles to South Africa. No evidence even that the South African government ever began negotiations to buy missiles.

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We Do Not Live in Normal Times: A Small Case Study of Incompetence and Ideological Insanity

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
25 May '10

Although these two stories—the first regarding Turkey and Brazil’s relationship with Iran; the second (covered in another article), anti-Israel hysteria in the United Kingdom—are totally different, they reflect the two parts of our current crisis.

These are the ideological and policy derailment of Western governments, on the one hand and, on the other hand, the collapse of the fail-safe systems for key public institutions, especially academia and media. To understand the crisis in both sectors—the greatest perhaps since the end of World War Two—these two halves of the puzzle must be assembled.

The first story relates to a detail in the recent engineering by Turkey and Brazil of a deal with Iran to try to slow or even stop the effort to put sanctions on Iran regarding its nuclear weapons program. This plan is basically a retread of something that failed more than six months ago. Iran would send out a portion of its potential material for making bombs but keep the rest. It was an obvious trick and quickly rejected as such by the United States and other leading powers.

A friend, however, was deeply puzzled by one detail of this situation. It was widely reported that the Turkish and Brazilian governments consulted with the United States prior to making this farcical arrangement with Tehran and got a green light to go ahead. How, my friend asked, could the U.S. government give the okay to actions that would clearly destroy one of its main policies?

Another element in the story is the defection of two historically reliable allies of the United States to the other side. There’s no sense concealing the fact that Turkey and Brazil are friendlier to Iranian interests than to American ones. And this is with the allegedly internationally beloved Barack Obama in the White House!

But the mistake and defection only seem inexplicable because of a failure to face two facts.

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