The common cause between the international “alt-right” movement and the Israeli government is not difficult to understand.
The specter of a growing far-right nationalism anywhere, but particularly in Central Europe, immediately — and for good and obvious reasons — raises fears of an anti-Semitism revival. But at least thus far, the leaders of most of these nationalistic parties — increasingly inspired and fueled by one another’s success — have showcased dangerous animosity toward Muslims, accompanied by strong policy support for Israel and a rhetorical repudiation of anti-Semitism.
Whether from cynical tactical considerations or actual conviction, the most successful leaders of this emerging movement — while unrestrained with their reckless anti-Muslim fearmongering — not only repudiate anti-Semitism in words but are incorporating steadfast support for Israel as part of their policy agenda. And in many cases, the Israeli government — which itself exhibits many of the same far-right attributes as these movements — is expressing support in return.
Austria is the latest example of a far-right xenophobic party on the verge of obtaining what was, until quite recently, unthinkable power. Because the country is the birthplace of Hitler, with a not-so-distant past of electing Nazi-connected leaders, it is perhaps the most viscerally alarming yet. Today’s New York Times describes with overt concern the very real possibility that the Freedom Party’s Norbert Hofer (pictured above) will defeat his Green Party opponent in this weekend’s election and become Austria’s president. It quotes a prominent columnist with the liberal daily Der Standard as saying that “Austria will not be recognizable” if the Freedom Party ascends to power. The party’s leaders, quite reasonably, credit Trump’s election and the approval of Brexit with increasing their own chances of success.
The Freedom Party “was created by a group of former Nazis in the 1950s,” and its rise in the 1990s created global controversy under the charismatic extremist, Hitler-admiring Jörg Haider. Today, Hofer demagogues animosity toward Muslims in all the standard ways: equating migrants with “jihadists,” warning of the “Islamification” of Europe, and pronouncing that “Islam is not a part of Austria.”
But not only does Hofer repudiate all anti-Semitism and insist it has no place in his party — he made news earlier this year by calling for the demolition of Hitler’s childhood home and his party sponsored “a New Anti-Semitism Conference” starring the Israeli spy who captured Adolf Eichmann — but the Freedom Party has, in the words of an expert cited by the NYT, “made it part of their strategy to draw closer to Israel.” In 2014, Hofer made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, laying a wreath at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, and has touted his trip to Israel so flamboyantly in his campaign that he caused a mini-scandal for himself by embellishing a “terrorist” shooting he witnessed at Temple Mount. He vowed to make a trip to Israel an early priority if he’s elected.
Israeli officials have noticed the pro-Israel bent of Hofer’s posture and some have returned the sentiments of support. “They are one of the most pro-Israel parties in Europe,” proclaimed former Knesset member Michael Kleiner, who spoke on a panel at the Freedom Party’s anti-Semitism conference. The Freedom Party’s leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, visited Israel on the invitation of Prime Minister Netanyahu, and he spent his time meeting with settlement leaders, planning how to oppose a movement in the EU to label goods from illegal Israeli settlements, vowing to do everything he could to oppose all boycotts aimed at Israel. A settlement leader gushed: “He supports Israel, he is against labeling and against the boycott. I didn’t hear that from anyone in the U.K.”
The same dynamic is seen even more remarkably in France, where Marine Le Pen’s National Front Party — founded by her Holocaust-minimizing father and long filled with overt Nazi sympathizers — has not only purged anti-Semites from its ranks but declared itself steadfastly pro-Israel. For years she has been re-casting her far-right party as pro-Israel based on shared antipathy toward “Muslim extremists,” and news reports in both Israeli and Jewish journals are increasingly describing the receptiveness of French Jews toward voting for her, in large part due to their shared fear of, and animosity toward, French Muslims. These far-right parties are uniformly opposed to any boycott movement aimed at ending Israeli settlements.
One of the most significant anti-Semitism controversies in recent history in the U.S. also vividly underscores the dynamic. When Donald Trump named Steve Bannon as his White House chief strategist, some American Jewish groups (such as the Anti-Defamation League) objected by pointing to his flirtation with if not outright endorsement of anti-Semitic themes, but the most important U.S. group — AIPAC — has to this day not uttered a public word about Bannon. While Trump early on in his campaign made waves by suggesting that the U.S. would be “neutral” in the Israel-Palestine conflict, his speech to AIPAC — reportedly written by his very pro-Israel and now very influential son-in-law Jared Kushner — was full of all the standard pro-Israel bromides, and beyond.
Even more notable, many Israeli officials have not only defended Bannon from such charges but heaped praise on him. The Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, addressed the Bannon controversy by saying he “has no doubt that President-elect Trump is a true friend of Israel” and looks forward to working with Bannon to make “the U.S.-Israel alliance stronger than ever.” Israel’s agriculture minister, Uri Ariel, went even further, writing, “Dear Mr. Bannon, I wanted to express my support and thanks for your friendship with Israel,” and specifically thanking him for “opening of a Jerusalem bureau in Israel while head of Breitbart in order to promote Israeli point of view in the media.”
One of the most prominent American supporters of Israel, Alan Dershowitz, aggressively defended Bannon, arguing, “I haven’t seen any evidence of personal anti-Semitism on the part of Bannon” and “the evidence certainly suggests that Mr. Bannon has very good relationships with individual Jews” (Dershowitz subsequently condemned Bannon for bigotry against Muslims and women). Breitbart editor Joel Pollak defended Bannon this way: “I can say, without hesitation, that Steve is a friend of the Jewish people and a defender of Israel, as well as being a passionate American patriot and a great leader.” Also on the Breitbart site, the notorious Muslim-hater Pam Geller declared Bannon an “honorary Jew.” Indeed, Breitbart’s coverage over the years, while often viciously anti-Muslim under Bannon, has been steadfastly pro-Israel, employing writers such as Pollak and Ben Shapiro who are vocal supporters of far-right Israeli policies. One of Breitbart’s founders, the Jewish lawyer Larry Solov, vowed early on that the site “would be unapologetically pro-freedom and pro-Israel.”
The same dynamic can be seen with growing far-right, uber-nationalist movements outside of the West, which often copy the West’s right-wing extremists. In Brazil — which arguably has the most unhinged and unstable right-wing flank, complete with overt support for restoration of military dictatorship — the most extreme right-wing leaders are overwhelmingly pro-Israel. When the far-right, evangelical candidate in Rio de Janeiro’s mayoral race won last month, he immediately went to Israel, where he said he met with Israeli officials to learn more about “security.” The leader of the pro-dictatorship movement, Jair Bolsonaro, went to Israel to be baptized and features vehement pro-Israel rhetoric as part of his worldview. It is common for Brazilian critics of Israel to be smeared as anti-Semites by the Brazilian far right.
Moreover, it is certainly possible for a group or individual to be simultaneously pro-Israel and anti-Semitic. The cynical, grotesque alliance between pro-Israel Americans such as Joe Lieberman, and Jews-are-going-to-hell-once-the-Rapture-comes evangelicals such as the vehemently pro-Israel John Hagee, highlights that paradox. In the wake of the Bannon controversy, The Forward’s Naomi Zeveloff examined this increasingly common dynamic, arguing that “Breitbart News isn’t the only place where anti-Semitism and Zionism go hand in hand. Anti-Semitic attitudes abound in Poland, for example, even as Poland has a strong diplomatic relationship with Israel.” Some Israel defenders are willing to make common cause with potential or even clear-cut anti-Semites if they are also — for geopolitical, religious, or political reasons — pro-Israel.
But what is clear is that these far-right parties are embracing Israel and are often being embraced back. And that’s not hard to understand. Any party driven by antipathy toward Muslims will obviously find common cause with an Israeli government that has spent decades occupying, bombing, and denying basic political rights to Muslims. At least as important, the Israeli government itself is part of this far-right resurgence; several of Netanyahu’s ministers, including the next-generation ones who explicitly renounce a two-state solution, are so extremist that they actually make him look moderate.
In sum, the Israeli government is led by a mix of uber-nationalist far-right militarists and anti-Muslim religious fanatics, so it’s the opposite of surprising that it would forge alliances with parties around Europe and other parts of the world, including in the U.S., composed of similar core political attributes. As Todd Gitlin told The Forward:
Anti-Semitism and right-wing Zionism are varieties of ultra nationalism, or, to put it more pejoratively (as it deserves to be put) tribalism. They both presume that the embattled righteous ones need to bristle at, wall off, and punish the damned outsiders. They hate and fear cosmopolitan mixtures. They make a fetish of purity. They have the same soul. They rhyme.
That common “rhyme” is creating strange bedfellows indeed. Or, if one looks at the actual behavior and character of the dominant political factions in Israel, one finds that the bedfellows are not so strange at all.
It is always important to remain vigilant about anti-Semitism in Europe and other places and to take the threat seriously. But when it comes to these emerging “alt-right” and xenophobic movements that bear obvious similarities to their mid-20th-century predecessors, it is Muslims who are in the role previously occupied by Jews, and at least at the moment, Israel (if not Jews generally) are regarded as an ally and a faction worthy of loyal support.
Note: The article was edited to include Alan Dershowitz’s subsequent comments about Steve Bannon.
Top photo: Heinz-Christian Strache, head of Austria’s Freedom Party, left, congratulates Norbert Hofer, candidate for Austria’s presidency, during an after-election party in Vienna, Austria, May 22, 2016.
OMG!!!!!!!!! You mean that these far right parties support Israel?!?!? We can’t have that!!!! This support of Israel has to stop!!!!! How DARE they!?!?!???!
Thank you for keeping democracy and freedom alive by informing the people, and speaking truth to power.
@Chris
1-800-621-HOPE
Anger Management Hotline
This article can be summed up in a quick dialogue:
“Self-hating Jew”
“I know you are but what am I?”
Back when I was naive, I thought leftists paid attention to Israel because they cared about human rights, cared about how Israel’s relationship with the US affected US foreign policy. That and not virtue signalling. Can you believe that?
How silly of me.
A right wing populist who puts America First? You don’t say. Who could have seen this coming?
I told you this was going to happen years ago and you all laughed.
Well, fuck you, I couldn’t be happier about it and hope you drown in your progressive tears.
Kiss my ass.
No surprise that nut bar neo-Nazis in the west choose to align themselves with well documented racist, fascistic Israel. Birds of a feather do flock together.
“But when it comes to these emerging “alt-right” and xenophobic movements that bear obvious similarities to their mid-20th-century predecessors, it is Muslims who are in the role previously occupied by Jews, and at least at the moment, Israel (if not Jews generally) are regarded as an ally and a faction worthy of loyal support.”
Glenn Greenwald
Leaders regard it that way for now but their history and followers shows otherwise.
But anyway if you take the antiSemitic label off of the new US gov and their budding allies with some ‘I luv Israel’ PR you simply cannot make any connection to the similarity of the antiSemitic history, methods of rising to power, global objectives, beliefs about ethnic superiority, plans for ‘protecting’ their people and the Nazi regime.
Regrettably we aren’t out to win hearts and minds anymore or create beacons of democracy so be sure you don’t reach out to any Muslims out there and get yourself put on a list. Oppressing and killing Muslims is just practical for the safety of the people and just because “white” people don’t have enough kids ok.
It also has an added bonus of sending Muslims to conservatives in the Middle East and away from the immoral influence of the west and be more willing to fight the west. You can’t have a religious war if there isn’t enough people that fight back.
Saudi Arabia supports Islamophobia, Israel supports antiSemitism and America takes care of them both.
@Mona
I have considerable (though tragically unreciprocated) respect for rrheard’s intellect, eloquence, and general righteous indignation. He’s great in a lot of ways. But I don’t like seeing lawyers try to bully laypersons with unfounded threats of adverse legal consequences merely because the lawyer has been annoyed or offended in some interaction. It reflects poorly on the profession. RR has done it before in GG’s forum, not only with Craig. And even Craig, his misguided political views notwithstanding, is a member of the public to whom RR — as an attorney and thus an officer of any court in which he is licensed to practice — has a certain responsibility.
I’ve also seen RR threaten to discover and publicize an anonymous commenter’s identity (I believe the kids call it “doxing”). Double plus uncool, IMHO.
Well, I’m not familiar with any of these episodes you refer to, so I really couldn’t comment. Of course I totally oppose doxing, and *if* anyone did that, that is very wrong.
Now obviously it would not be a good idea to report to various copyright holders purported copyright violations in The Intercept’s comments section, for all kinds of reasons. I made a point of this last nite on Twitter. But neither Craig nor rr are going to show up at each other’s homes and beat each other up or whatever. This is all just a silly flame war, albeit one I find entertaining.
p`ska..
Cheers, girlfriend.. Saw that bahammad` (aka ‘the Appalachian Flash’) is still contributing his ‘pearls of wiz’ within these threads..
Take Care..
ps.. my ‘repy’ icon seems to be off-kilter.
The reply issue seems to happen to people regularly and no one’s quite figured out why. Maybe a browser issue? I’m certainly the last person to try to figure it out with my tech-challenged ass. LOL.
Yes, bah’s still rambling the woods of the Gorgeous Gorge as well as the nooks and crannies of TI. I hope we continue to see you as well. :-)
I commented on a Guardian article recently. It had over 2000 comments.
Remarkably, with the click of my mouse I could see several replies to my comment … and I could even reply to a reply.
Astonishing, huh?
You might think I’m making it up, but it’s true. No science fiction, no fantasy, no fuss.
I don’t know how they do it.
Maybe with alchemists.
@Jspicoli
If you look below, you will see that rrheard specifically threatened to personally take actions that would, according to rrheard, result in Craig Summers being exposed to potential legal liability.
@Craig Summers
I don’t know if you have any legal experience, but if you don’t and RR has you at all worried, just google “fair use doctrine.” Even you, with your unparalleled history of pigheaded wrongness, should have little trouble discerning the hollowness of his threat as a legal matter.
Gator
I honestly could care less what he says regarding any legal matters. As long as he posts on this thread, he is fair game for anyone to respond – me included (doubly so now). He might consider joining Mona on the new “one viewpoint site”.
Thanks by the way. Pigheaded wrongness? You must have me confused with someone else……
Gator, I have it on good authority that friendly parties have suggested rr not do that stuff intended to catalyze legal action. As for the rest, who could take it seriously from either guy?
Agree entirely. Catalyzing legal action is utterly destructive to free=flowing forum as we have here.
gator`..
re: rr` – “.. like threatening people”
With what, a pint of ‘PBR’ some verbal reality dosage?
suave`
Good to see you again suave.
Ah, I missed that that’s suave. Yes, nice to see you around these parts again.
A UK Professor, Jonathan Rosenhead on Antisemitism within the UK Labour Party said…
“In response to a moral panic about Left antisemitism seemingly expanding without limit, the group Free Speech on Israel coalesced in April out of a loosely-knit band of Jewish Labour Party supporters. Some 15 of us got together at a couple of days’ notice for the inaugural gathering. We found that over our lifetimes we could muster only a handful of antisemitic experiences between us. And, crucially, although in aggregate we had hundreds of years of Labour Party membership, no single one of us had ever experienced an incident of antisemitism in the Party.
Some time in May the ex-Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks was interviewed on Radio 4 about the antisemitism ‘crisis’ by now gripping the nation. Helpfully his interviewer invited him to share some of his own personal experiences of antisemitism. His response, from memory ran rather like this: “Well….actually I have never experienced antisemitism myself. Which is odd, because most people know that the Chief Rabbi is Jewish”. https://www.opendemocracy.net/jonathan-rosenhead/jackie-walker-suspense-mystery
@RRHeard
Why do you like threatening people on the internet? I’ve seen you do it repeatedly over the years.
Does it make you feel like a big man?
I’ve never advocated that any commenter be banned, but this forum is literally not a safe place for people who have the temerity to disagree with you.
And I say this quite sincerely as someone who has often found value in your commentary when you aren’t issuing threats.
I guess because it’s Craig he’s after, and because Craig is also over-the-top so often, I merely find the whole thing funny.
Yes, you would… and I suspect that you would find the gang rape of a child funny as well.
Israel is a terrorist state much the same as North Korea with the exception that Israel is controlled by international Jews who are a danger to all humanity.
Where are the Muslim commenters on the Intercept. How come so many defenders of the Jewish and Christian faiths speak openly here, but there is no comparable Muslim presence. Just look at this thread for instance.
I am sure there might be unidentified Muslim commenters here who speak up without identifying themselves as Muslim.
And before I get attacked, I know there are many Muslim writers on the Intercept.
But where is the Muslim lobby in the comments section.
I have come across only a very few Muslim names in the comments sections.
I have some Muslim friends and they’re scarred shitless and go out of their way not to rock the boat. Many that I’ve meet are already in passive state of fear.
Meh.
If you have to make a choice w/a gun to your head, then it’s pretty clearly Israel. I firmly believe in a 2-State solution, but only one side has proven over the years to be open to such an inevitability and that’s Israel (even if the current stance is less than warm).
Incidentally, I have yet to hear a reasonable argument as to why Palestine should be considered the aggrieved party here. Keep in mind, once you aggressively and enthusiastically side with Hitler and the Nazi party, you lose any moral high ground.
“I firmly believe in a 2-State solution, but only one side has proven over the years to be open to such an inevitability and that’s Israel…|
Reality:
In 1988, the PLO recognized Israel as a sovereign state within the borders of the 1947 recommendatory only UNGA Partition Plan, Res. 181 (which, for the record, violated the terms of the Class A British Mandate for Palestine and the Atlantic Charter, was never adopted by the UNSC and was grossly unfair to the indigenous Palestinian Arab inhabitants.)
By signing the 1993 Oslo Accords, the PLO accepted UNSC Res. 242 and thereby agreed to recognize a sovereign Israel within the 1949 armistice lines, i.e., as of 4 June 1967 – 78% of mandated Palestine.
The PLO also agreed to the US/EU/UN supported 2002 Arab League Beirut Summit Peace Initiative, which offers Israel full recognition as a sovereign state (per UNSC Res. 242, i.e., within its June 4/67 boundaries with possible minor and mutually agreed land swaps), exchange of ambassadors, trade, tourism, etc., if Israel complies with international law and its previous commitments. Fully aware of Israel’s demographic concerns, the Beirut initiative does not demand the return of all Palestinian refugees. In accordance with Israel’s pledge given to the UNGA in 1949 and by signing the 1949 Lausanne Peace Conference Protocol to abide by UNGA Res. 194 regarding the then 800,000 Palestinian refugees as a precondition for admittance to the UN (after being rejected twice), the Arab League’s Initiative “calls upon Israel to affirm” that it agrees to help pursue the “achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem…”
Along with all Arab states and the PLO, Hezbollah and Iran have also accepted the Arab League’s 2002 Beirut Summit Peace Initiative. Hamas has also indicated its acceptance subject to a Palestinian plebiscite and a corridor connecting the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Regrettably, then Israeli PM Ariel Sharon summarily dismissed the Arab League’s peace overture, as did Israel in 2008 and thereafter.
For the record, other peace initiatives that Israeli governments have rebuffed include: U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers’ The Rogers Plan (1969); The Scranton Mission on behalf of President Nixon (1970); Egyptian President Sadat’s land for peace and mutual recognition proposal (1971); U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s call for a Geneva international conference (1977); Saudi Arabian King Fahd’s peace offer (1981); U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s Reagan Plan (1982); U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz’s Schultz Plan (1988); U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s Baker Plan (1989); and the previously noted 1993 Oslo accords signed by Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that unravelled following the latter’s assassination and subsequent return to power of the Likud party from 1996-1999 under Benjamin Netanyahu; continuation of the Taba II negotiations (2001); the unofficial Geneva Peace Initiative of November/December 2003; and the 2014 Kerry Initiative.
BTW, As for the much touted 2000 Camp David Summit, working in tandem, Barak and Clinton tried to shove a very bad deal down Arafat’s throat. It could only be rejected. Suffice to quote Shlomo Ben-Ami, then Israel’s foreign minister and lead negotiator at Camp David: “Camp David was not the missed opportunity for the Palestinians, and if I were a Palestinian I would have rejected Camp David, as well.” (National Public Radio, 14 February 2006.)
The “offer” made in 2008 by then Israeli PM Ehud Olmert was never seen as serious because it lacked cabinet approval, he was under indictment with only a few weeks left in office, had a 6% favorable rating, and, therefore, couldn’t have closed the deal, even if the Palestinians had accepted it. (Olmert is now imprisoned.)
Unfortunately, Israel’s response to every peace overture from the Palestinians and Arab states, has been an escalation of illegal settlement construction in belligerently/illegally/brutally occupied Palestinian and other Arab lands.
“Keep in mind, once you aggressively and enthusiastically side with Hitler and the Nazi party, you lose any moral high ground…”
It seems you are not aware of the following:
After WWII, a memorandum dated January 11, 1941, was discovered in Ankara. Prepared by the German Naval Attaché in Turkey, it revealed that Naftali Lubentschik, a representative of the Stern Gang (one of the Yishuv’s terrorist organizations) led by Avraham Stern, had met with German Nazis, Otto Von Hentig and Rudolph Rosen in Vichy controlled Beirut and proposed that in exchange for military aid and freedom to recruit European Jews for Palestine, the Sternists were prepared “…to take an active part in the war on Germany’s side…and [this cooperation] would also be in line with one [of Hitler’s recent speeches which] stressed that any alliance would be entered into in order to isolate England and defeat it.”
The proposition presented to the Nazis pointed out that “the establishment of the historical Jewish state on a national and totalitarian basis and bound by a treaty with the German Reich would be in the interest of maintaining and strengthening the future German position of power in the Near East.” (Quoted by Klaus Polkehn, “The Secret Contacts: Zionist-Nazi Relations, 1933-1941″ as well as Lenny Brenner, Zionism in the Age of Dictators, Westport, Conn., Lawrence Hill & Co., 1983, p. 267 and Yediot Aharnot, February 4/1983). Fortunately, the Nazis considered the Sternist’s proposal to be sheer lunacy and rejected it out of hand.
Following Stern’s death at the hands of the British in 1942, three of his lieutenants (one of whom was Yitzhak Shamir) took over leadership of the Gang. It is revealing to note that despite Avraham Stern’s ignominious record and his flirtation with the Nazis, Ben-Gurion later referred to him as “one of the finest and most outstanding figures of the era.”
For the record:
“Adolf Hitler, who took his racism seriously, applied it to all Semites. He could not stand Arabs either. Contrary to legend, he disliked the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who had fled to Germany. After meeting him once for a photo-opportunity arranged by the Nazi propaganda machine, he never agreed to meet him again.” (Uri Avnery – http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1424446157)
Glenn, I am a staunch progressive and a former supporter of yours (I still have a lot of respect for your integrity).
But, let’s face the stark reality on Islam (that I came to understand only in the recent years): Islam is one of the most regressive ideologies that ever existed. Further, Islam and Jihad are inseparable, since Islam’s founder Muhammad was himself a violent thug who had scores of people killed in the pursuit of spreading his cult. Therefore, Muhammad was the world’s first Islamic Jihadi terrorist. There is almost no chance of seeing Islam reform itself and get rid of the militant Jihadi component baked right into it by Muhammad.
The above has brought me to the realization that, for our civilization to survive and further evolve in all desirable and progressive ways, it is necessary that Islam be completely eradicated from our planet, of course using as nonviolent means as necessary.
Yes, I supported Trump, as the left refuses to be honest about Islam, and it is treading a dangerous path of aiding and abetting rise of Islam, Islamism and Jihad in the west at an alarming pace. Hope Trump comes through on stemming that tide and saving the West, and with it, the liberties/civilization that we currently have. I will continue supporting candidates and parties anywhere on the planet that are willing to stand up and oppose Islamic Jihad, for as long as that threat looms large.
I should add that, I would extend my support to someone only if they do not stand against the idea of the universality of human rights. For example, it’s perfectly legitimate for someone to be opposed to excessive immigation, potentially dangerous immigrants, and to want immigration laws to be enforced in their own country, but it is not OK to intend to cause harm to innocent human beings.
Utter drivel. Your ignorance of Islam and its founder is utterly astounding.
To be brief:
Rabbi Sassoon Kehdouri, Iraq’s Chief Rabbi for 48 years, speaking before the 1946 Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry on Palestine: “Iraqi Jews will be forever against Zionism. Jews and Arabs have enjoyed the same rights and privileges for a thousand years and do not regard themselves as a distinctive separate part of this nation.”
Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first president, also addressing the 1946 Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry: “I would not like to do any injustice. The Muslim world has treated the Jews with considerable tolerance. The Ottoman Empire [of which the Arabs were a major part] received the Jews with open arms when they were driven out of Spain and Europe, and the Jews should never forget that.”
Albert Einstein, 1939: “There could be no greater calamity than a permanent discord between us and the Arab people. Despite the great wrong that has been done us [in the western Christian world], we must strive for a just and lasting compromise with the Arab people…. Let us recall that in former times no people lived in greater friendship with us.”
Are they anti-Muslim or anti-refugee? In either case, since the MSM reports not at all on the vast amounts of rapes and beatings issued on their own citizens, you can call it ‘alt-right,’ I prefer to think of it as, a, common sense. It’s really the left who are the real racists. And the anti-Semitism reports are vastly overstated by the MSM who offer no proof but some scribblings. Where they do have proof, they find it’s all hoaxes perpetrated by the left which has gone totally Marxist Communist. Radical, murdering, bolshevists who think they are in the right and so all the shit they dump on you is justified. If any leftist had a little bit of common sense in their feeble brains, they’d know all these 3rd world invasions into Europe & the US are to lower standards for everyone, not raise them up here, and definitely not to raise them anywhere else. Wake the hell up!
I have to say, the flame war here is vastly entertaining. rr is wining it by leaps and bounds, but I did giggle seeing a prig like Craig Summers actually post the phrase “candy ass.”
@ Craig Summers
I’ve given you fair warning Mr. 6th Grade Simpleton. Whether or not you take that advice is totally up to you.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy getting your copyright violation notices from all the writers and publishers you are refusing to link to and blockquote when you exceed fair use of their work.
As far as the negative attention you’ll receive from me if you continue to engage me means I guess we’ll find out who is a “candy ass” and who isn’t until I get us both banned.
*** Again, I will not engage you on the substance of your “Hezbollah” musings absent links and blockquotes to your source factual claims.
Mona
“……..(This was a public service break from my usual habit of ignoring Craig Summers.)…..”
This is a total fabrication – and you know it Mona. You indirectly responded to my earlier post on “apartheid Israel” by posting at the top of the thread above mine. You did this for two reasons:
1. You took the top spot of the thread to deny my post that spot – something you accused me of doing earlier and (apparently) complained and had some of my posts deleted. This has been a common tactic of yours.
2. You wanted to make it look like you didn’t respond to me which you did, of course.
These are totally childish ploys by you Mona – but par for the course.
The FRA may have shelved the 2005 definition, but they never replaced it with anything – so unless you believe there is no such thing as antisemitism then it logically follows that the EU definition from 2005 is at least a starting point toward defining antisemitism. The primary reason I brought it up was to suggest that the law passed by the US Senate was clearly derived from the 2005 EU working definition. Some of their points I agree with. I also agree with rrheard that it crosses paths with the first amendment.
READERS: Craig is right about one thing. I did post a comment that provides access to sound and copious information documenting why Israel is an apartheid state.
Sure Israel is an apartheid state. Sure Israel acts like Nazi Germany. Sure Israel is a classic colonial state. Sure Israel is not a democracy. Sure Israel planned to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians and expand the size of Israel. Sure Israel runs the US Congress. Sure Israel runs the US government. Sure Israel sent our sons and daughters to die on their behalf in Iraq. Sure Israel controls the financial markets and banks. Sure, sure, sure.
Thanks Mona.
Communete ? Jose
> “If you don’t understand that Obamacare is a gift to the insurance companies, you’re too hopeless to engage in rational debate. It’s true that liberals pay lip service to some progressive social causes (immigration reform, gay rights, and so forth) but those are basically easy pretenses with an ulterior political motive. Where you can really determine their ideological bent is in how they behave in relation to corporate power and imperialism.”
You’re clueless, and your “gift to the insurance companies” is illustrative of how superficial your thoughts are, and how gullible you are to SJW patter. Obamacare is a guaranteed income stream: for hospital corporations, practice partnerships, drug companies, device manufacturers; insurers only pass those provider billing increases on to you–or to what’s left of your increasingly besieged employers.
Elizabeth Warren’s and Bernie Sanders’s endorsements of GS Hillary only prove the progressive left is all about corporate power.
And imperialism? The progressive left is the movement of raised fists, urban camo fashion, boundary transgression–both transnational and personal–globalist “nation building”….
Your judgment is superb, as demonstrated by the intellectual excellence of one of your favorite authors.
You’re confusing progressive leftists with neoliberals. I can’t tell if that’s intentionally dishonest (that is, a way to discredit by association.) Perhaps you’re just dumb and don’t know any better.
@ Craig Summers
Oh and just to add a little insult to injury, I’m going to start taking all our non-blockquoted and non-linked sources you like to so voluminously quote from, and when I find the source material, and if it exceeds “fair use” or if unlinked and unsourced going to start filling up the publishers inboxes alerting them of possible copyright violations of their materials.
Or you could learn how to do what every 6th grader understands and start linking to and blockquoting the sources you so fondly love to quote.
Or not. Either way your not going to enjoy just simply ignoring and not engaging me one way or the other, slick.
Are you really this dense? If you write something I disagree with, you are going to hear about it. If you can’t handle that, remove your candy ass from this thread, OK?
@ Craig Summers
How’s about I do you one better.
How’s about I make it my personal mission to fuck with you and mock your simplistic unlinked propaganda, so long and so hard, in every thread you appear in and engage me after I’ve asked you to politely refrain from doing so, such that I so destroy the commenting experience for everybody that both you and I get banned?
I’d actually consider that a public service to this place.
Or we could consider a détente of sorts–you don’t ever respond to anything I write, and I won’t ever respond to anything you write, from here forward. That way you can have your say, I can have my say, and we’ll let our fellow commenters decide whose posts are worth reading and whose are not, and they can give them whatever relative weight they like.
Otherwise, you are about to get a big fat dose of some very negative scrutiny of your word salads the likes of which you’ve never ever experienced from someone like Mona, and it will ultimately result in both of us getting banned.
Up to you, but I’m asking you to consider the very reasonable alternative that we ignore each other.
Oh and by the by–fuck you, you immoral torture supporting backwater fuck stick who doesn’t have the intellectual gas or chops to do what the most underachieving 6th grader in America can do which is blockquote and link.
Now I know why you don’t make that effort to learn those basic 6th grade level computer skills, it is because it would give everyone here the opportunity to see how intellectually and morally bankrupt is your reliance on your purported “source” materials or “evidence” for your supposed deep deep “opinions,” which really are rank propaganda “sourced” to decontextualize or cherry picked segments of some shit you’ve read somewhere that you are incapable of reading for comprehension. Or that you’re probably being paid to comment here to disseminate and plaster this site with your disruptive shit.
Or we could do what I’ve offered many times over the years, which is to exchange names and addresses (I comment under my real name and am easy to identify through various public records) and the next time you’re in Oregon you can stop by my home and we can hash this all out face to face and see if you’ve got the sack to talk your shit and catapult or BS propaganda to another man’s face while not hiding behind internet anonymity.
It’s an offer I’ve made many times to people like you on the internet and nobody has ever taken me up on it. And that tells me all I need to know about people like you. At base–disruptive intellectually and morally bankrupt cowards, with nothing meaningful or substantive to add to any discussion on any topic, and nothing more.
And say or think what you want about Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (and yes she’s a mixed bag for a Dem) but at least she’s willing to put her money where her mouth is and going to stand with the Standing Rock Sioux and other veterans to protest the DAPL, and hopefully stop the horrific abuses and unlawful actions by police and others against the protesters and press there.
https://www.thenation.com/article/tulsi-gabbard-will-deploy-with-fellow-vets-to-stand-with-standing-rock/
And here’s another good one on why it will take a miracle and/or a ridiculous amount of organizing from the bottom up to throw off the remnants of Clintonian Centrism from the Democratic party (hint–people like David Brock):
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/11/david-brock-clinton-sanders-donald-trump/
And if anyone is interested, and this is totally off-topic, but here is a well written piece on Hezbollah and “class politics” in Lebanon (hint why it is interesting–Hezbollah doesn’t appear so “radical” when it comes to its present positions on “class” and labor rights).
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/12/hezbollah-lebanon-iran-islamic-revolution-labor/
“………Hezbollah doesn’t appear so “radical” when it comes to its present positions on “class” and labor rights)…….”
But you agree that they are currently fighting in Syria to prop up one of the worst dictators on the planet. Additionally, two Hezbollah operatives (clearly not acting alone) murdered the former Prime Minister of Lebanon – Rafik Hariri, a Sunni Arab. Additionally, they initiated the war against Israel in 2006. They do this while participating in the Lebanese government despite operating a militia outside of the Lebanese government army. They are rightly recognized by the US government as a terrorist organization.
@ Craig Summers
As I’ve told you now for about the 32nd time, I do not respond to the substance of anything you write here until such time as you learn to blockquote and link to your sources. Period.
And then I’m happy to debunk your inane deep deep thoughts on topics you know next to nothing about. But not until then.
And best to ignore my comments, and I yours, and best to continue to be content letting the meager fulminations emanating from your tiny blinkered pea brain spill out freely onto these comments sections without our mutual engagement of each other.
Have a good evening.
I tell you what rr. You continue to ignore me and I will do what the fuck I want, OK?
“This website is a blog dedicated to bullying Jewish people and excusing Muslim crimes.”
Let’s see… Global warming, the Standing Rock siege, Sanctuary cities in Texas, Medicare, the Church Committee, Kirstin Lobato, etc. are all about “bullying Jewish people and excusing Muslim crimes”?
Count up the amount of articles published by the Intercept on the largest humanitarian disaster in the world (Syria) versus the articles on Israel. The Intercept like all far left publications is obsessed with Israel. There is no getting around that fact.
You’re the one who’s obsessed with Israel, it’s the continuous focus of your comments
Hey Glenn Greenwald,
You hate Jewish settlements in the West Bank, yet you are SILENT about the fact that the entire rest of that region is “NO JEWS ALLOWED” Arab-only neighborhoods that are just as hateful and bigoted as you insist Jewish neighborhoods are.
You hate Israel’s security barrier, yet you seem to have NO CRITICISM towards Palestinian wars/attacks against Israel that came before the security barrier existed and caused the need for the security barrier.
You hate Israeli checkpoints, yet you say NOTHING about the MASSIVE WAVES of suicide-bombings and terrorism that were killing Jews on a weekly basis for YEARS AT A TIME before those checkpoints even existed.
You hate Netanyahu, yet you refuse to criticize Palestinians for supporting Jew-hating psychopaths like Hamas who are a thousand times worse than Netanyahu.
You criticize every military action that Israel takes, yet you IGNORE the fact that every Hamas rocket fired at Israel is an ATTEMPT to kill Jews. THEY ARE TRYING to kill Jews. Hamas firing 10,000 rockets into Israel, THEY TRIED TO KILL TEN THOUSAND Jews. That’s LITERALLY what that was. Ten THOUSAND attempts. Hamas’ FACTUAL GOAL was hoping to make 10 THOUSAND Jews die. Yet you shrug your shoulders and ONLY scream hate at Israel and at people like me who merely recognize that no matter what you think of Israel’s actions THEY ARE DIRECTLY RELATED to the crazy actions of the giant sea of irrational wackjobs who surround Israel.
You put no pressure on Palestinians. You treat them like children. Palestinians can scream all they want about how badly they want Israel dead/gone, and you just laugh and then you mock all normal Jews who LISTEN to Palestinians, HEAR them talk about how badly they want Israel dead ,and act on that info.
Go on and publish this comment if you respect free speech. Do it.
You seem to just have a pathological need to promote hate of Israel and Israelis.
When you ask Glenn Greenwald to criticize anti-Jewish bigotry from Arabs, Muslims, Palestinians, from dozens of Arab countries, from dozens of Muslim countries, etc. then Greenwald just goes silent.
If you ask Glenn Greenwald to confirm anything positive about Israel, he goes silent.
If you ask Glenn Greenwald to hatefully demonize Israel, he will speak loudly and proudly.
Glenn Greenwald won’t respond to this, because he only speaks hatefully about Israel and only speaks positively about the Palestinians. Now, consider this:
Israel has 1.5 million Arab citizens. They live better than any minority citizens in any MidEast country.
The Palestinians demand that zero Jews live in Palestinian areas. Which is why Gaza has erased its Jews, and any Jew who lives in the West Bank is declared “illegal.”
The Israeli side wants to find a way to live in peace with Palestinians, and has repeatedly offered land for peace but gets rejected. The goal if Israelis is that if a Palestinian state forms, that it be a peaceful state that agrees to peace with Israel.
The Palestinian side rejects the very existence of Israel as a Jewish state. And “pro-Palestinian” and pro-BDS activists also reject and demonize Israel being a Jewish state, yet they accept Arab states, Muslim states, a Palestinian state, etc.
The Palestinian side and BDS activists demonize Jewish nationalism, yet they support Arab nationalism, Muslim nationalism and Palestinian nationalism.
The pro-Palestinian and pro-BDS side aren’t “peace” or “justice” activists. They’re just antisemitic hypocrites who want the world’s only Jewish state to be erased or destroyed specifically so it can be turned an Arab/Muslim state, which would make Jews a minority in their only state, which would allow Palestinians to mass-murder Jews. That’s literally what the BDS side promotes a path to.
People who promote Max Blumenthal, Electronic Intifada and the hate group dishonestly known as “Jewish Voice For Peace” in regard to Israel aren’t “peace activists” and aren’t merely “criticizing” Israel. They are bigots who want the world’s only Jewish state eliminated so yet another Arab and Muslim state can form in its place.
“Pro-Palestinian” activists don’t care about helping Palestinians. They don’t want peace with Palestinians and Israel. They just want Israel dead or erased.
They will never accept peace with a Jewish state.
They will only propose “solutions” that erase the world’s only Jewish state.
They pretend to do this in the name of “democracy,” but only if it’s a Muslim majority. Israel is a Jewish majority, so they reject Israel’s democracy. They demand Israel merge with millions of Jew-hating Muslims, just enough to make Muslims a majority and Jews a minority, and then suddenly the “pro-Palestinian” activists accept democracy. Because their only goal is erasing the Jewish homeland to make a 23rd Arab state.
“Pro-Palestinian” activists demonize Jewish nationalism (zionism) as something evil, yet they accept Arab nationalism, Muslim nationalism and Palestinian nationalism.
“Pro-Palestinian” activists demonize the world’s only Jewish-majority state for being Jewish, yet they openly accept Arab-majority states being Arab and Muslim-majority states being Muslim.
They use one standard against Jews, and a second standard for everybody else. That’s called “anti-semitism.”
Why does Glenn Greenwald pretend he’s merely “criticizing” Israel when what he blatantly does is OBSESSIVELY *DEMONIZE* Israel in almost every mention?
And why does Glenn Greenwald pretend that Israel is trying to outlaw “criticism” of Israel? Israel is trying to outlaw the DESTRUCTION (or helping to aid the destruction) of Israel.
@ Pedinska
If these following three provisions are passed into law, I’d wager it will fail on its face (under one of two or both doctrines (or others)–(“vagueness” or “overbroad” as it relates to First Amendment) the first time it is challenged by the ACLU or some other group. It could also easily fail “as applied” tests in the law:
This one of course doesn’t appear to prohibit any individual from “accusing” (that’s assuming you can define “accusing” narrowly enough (i.e.”vague” and/or “overbroad”)) any other individual (whether Jewish or not) for claiming that the Holocaust was “invented” or “exaggerated”. It only prohibits and invidual from claiming “Jews as a people” or the “State of Israel” invented or exaggerated the Holocaust.
This one again is going to have a big problem with being “vague” or “overbroad” in what constitutes “demonizing”, or “blaming”, and “tensions” and/or what is “political”.
Same problem with this one. What is to “judge” and “what is a double standard” and then it’s got a problem with who it applies to by definition (which “nations” are by definition “democratic nations” . . . Russia, China and Saudi Arabia all hold elections and some or all citizens have a right to vote in them, does that make them “democratic nations” (i.e. and who gets to decide and define which nations qualify as “democratic nations”).
So I’m actually looking forward to being able to “judge” Israel, not by a double standard of a “democratic nation” whatever that means, but being able to “judge” them by the standards of anti-democratic ones like South Africa, North Korea, or Russia, or China or Saudi Arabia or any of a long line of nations nobody will likely with a straight face be able to claim are “democratic nations”.
Israel and its backers who push this kind of legislation should be very careful about what they wish for, because so long as the First Amendment isn’t repealed it’s going to push people to start criticizing Israel and its actions in novel and potentially very damaging ways.
And that’ s all assuming this little legislative gem can pass whatever standard is/could apply to it in analyzing its Constitutionality i.e. “rational basis” is it “narrowly tailored enough to achieve a compelling government purpose” for its very existence.
I mean for those that are in favor of something like this, the “conservatives” and “liberals” on the Supreme Court (whatever its composition in the future may be) generally strike these sorts of things down for the same reasons or for reasons that overlap. I mean I’d be real surprised if the Supremes even if heavily tilted “conservative” in the coming years is going to trample all over and redefine its entire 250 + years of First Amendment jurisprudence to give its imprimatur of Constitutionality to this hot steaming pile of legislative shit.
Assuming Pres. Obama doesn’t veto it if it gets to his desk before he’s out of office.
“……..A recent FBI crime report notes that 58.2 percent of religiously-motivated hate crimes were due to the offender’s anti-Jewish leanings, and the Anti-Defamation League found that the number of anti-Semitic attacks at colleges and universities doubled in 2015. Currently, the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights has stated they will not tolerate incidents such as these, but has not issued firm guidance on what constitutes anti-Semitism. The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act would codify the definition as one adopted by the U.S. State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism…….” – statement on Bob Corker’s website
According to UK Media Watch (everything that follows):
Though the manifestation of antisemitism takes many forms, the most widely used definition of contemporary antisemitism is the Working Definition produced in 2005 by the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), an EU body which monitors racism and antisemitism in EU Member States (the EUMC has since been succeeded by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)):
According to the EUMC,
Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities. In addition, such manifestations could also target the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for ‘why things go wrong’.
The EUMC then goes on to cite specific examples of antisemitism including:
• Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.
• Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.
• Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.
• Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).
• Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
• Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
Specifically with respect to Israel, taking into account the overall context, the EUMC gave the followingexamples:
• Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
• Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
• Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
• Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
I believe you are aware, Craig, how misleading your quote and citation of the EUMC (via UKMediaWatch) is. You are omitting something quite critical. I have repeatedly pointed out the following and believe you are quite aware of it — the bolded bit, btw, describes both UKMediaWatch and you:
(This was a public service break from my usual habit of ignoring Craig Summers.)
Thanks for the analysis. At the time I posted that tweet here, I couldn’t find the text of the proposed law. Looks like you managed to dig it up and it’s as full of generalities and garbage as I thought it would be. The First Amendment issues alone make me wonder if some sort of Constitutional courses shouldn’t be required (with a level of comprehension mandated and passed) before our Senators and Representatives are ever seated. The level of ignorance and wishful thinking is astonishing. :-s
The Media Coordinator at Jewish Voice for Peace, Naomi Dann, tweets that the Senate just passed a bill codifying criticism of Israel as anti-semitic. This was done by unanimous consent and without public debate.
https://twitter.com/naomi_dann/status/804461300243906560
Israel is too hot in August.
Moreover, Israeli hummus is not the best.
Who is this “Einstein” character? Sounds like a real idiot.
Speaking of which, I wonder if Craig Summers has any theories regarding why Palestinians might tend to think poorly of Jews. Or regarding which of the other two great monotheistic faiths has historically accorded Jews harsher treatment.
“…….I wonder if Craig Summers has any theories regarding why Palestinians might tend to think poorly of Jews……..”
I have theories alright. The article covers the far right movement in the west and especially in Europe which is what my comment you are referring to discusses. Collective punishment of Jews for the actions of Israel is no less racist than collective punishment of Muslims for the actions of Islamic terrorist, right? How many articles has the Intercept covered regarding Islamaphobia versus the number of articles which the Intercept has covered regarding Antisemitism – either from the far right (including Islamists) or the far left?
The Intercept never even acknowledged that Jews were targeted after the Charlie Hebdo massacre. It’s embarrassingly obvious that the Intercept considers the collective punishment of Jews fair game as a natural response to Jewish “terrorism” in Palestine.
Thanks Gator.
You and many others throw this out like it’s actually a thing, when in fact you ignore a central tenet in determining whether something is collective punishment or not, to wit:
Israel, as far as I know, is still considered a democracy. Given that is true, it’s citizens do have direct control over its actions, and thus far, especially regarding the Palestinians, choose to allow the ongoing violation of the rights of self-determination of individual citizens Palestine and their government.
sillyputty
“……….“The punished group [Israelis] may often have no direct association with the other individuals or groups, or direct control over their actions……..”
The punished group are European Jews.
“……..Collective punishment is a form of retaliation whereby a suspected perpetrator’s family members, friends, acquaintances, sect, neighbors or entire ethnic group is targeted. The punished group may often have no direct association with the other individuals or groups, or direct control over their actions…….”
In this case, European Jews have no control over the actions of Israel, but are targeted because they are Jews (like the attack of the Kosher grocery store directly after the Charlie Hebdo massacre).
“……..Israel, as far as I know, is still considered a democracy. Given that is true, it’s citizens do have direct control over its actions, and thus far, especially regarding the Palestinians, choose to allow the ongoing violation of the rights of self-determination of individual citizens Palestine and their government…….”
I didn’t really discuss Palestinian self-determination, but I agree with you: Israel is preventing Palestinian self determination, but I didn’t say anything about the collective punishment of Israelis.
Glenn nailed it in this article. Although the alliance of Zionist Trotskyites and the far right emerged awhile ago, which led to the creation of neoconservatives. Gore Vidal warned that an eventual disaster would emerge from Zionists working with far right which harbored anti-Semitic sentiments. Now we are seeing the doubling down on this political alliance, yet the warnings of this politically expedient union appear to be absent from Jewish community at large. For Jews that are open minded and reasonable, realize that Christian Evangelicals believe that Jews will be banished to hell because of Israel’s transgressions.
So let me lay out a plausible future scenario for some readers out there. It’s not long before some Palestinians wise up and realize that the way to halt their genocide is by naming their kids “Jesus.” The IDF and/or Israeli settlers will inevitably kill some of these Palestianians named Jesus. That along with changes in weather patterns due to climate change will be enough for many that are coming into power, due to this alliance, to believe that the prophesies of the book of revelations are transpiring. That would not be good for Jews in general, Zionist or not. So instead of Zionists zealously attacking Mr. Greenwald for speaking the truth, they should think about what he’s saying and change the disastrous political course that they’re charting.
What genocide?
gen-o-cide: the systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic group.
Jack Green, as an adamant genocide denier it’s ironic that only genocide with a capital H will arouse your sense of moral indignation
Please don’t put words in my mouth.
Again, what genocide?
The genocide that Israel is carrying out against Palestianians
What genocide is Israel carrying out against Palestinians? Why hasn’t it been in the news?
“Why hasn’t it been in the news?”
It has, you’re just willfully blind to any wrong doings of Israel.
https://youtu.be/LsG32fkm6sE
Jack, as a devout genocide denier, with exception of the holocaust, your Prime Minister would be proud of the hasbara you disseminate to our American public on behalf of Israel.
Because the news is run by the Jews?Holy shite.
Israel is a far-right nationalist state. Birds of a feather.
See how far sickeningly, disgusting, pathetic, elitists will stoop to describe their useless asses as useful. That’s our problem to overcome. People are more and more connected and reject this manipulation more and more. It’s our world and if we want to be different from each other because we know it’s healthy and at the same time don’t want to be pitted against each other.. Well, that’s our responsibility with our enhanced connectivity!
A commenter, nuf said, has repeatedly insisted that I am posting under multiple accounts, which is utterly false. He seems unaware that Glenn Greenwald posted this to him earlier today:
Anything else that individual, nuf said, says to or about me is likely just as false.
Mr. Greenwald
“………None of this is to suggest that there is no threat of a re-emergence of anti-Semitism, either from these parties specifically or in the West generally…….”
That certainly does not tell the whole story about anti-Semitism in Europe. The Intercept ignored the attack on the Kosher grocery market a couple of days after the murder of the staff at Charlie Hebdo. The attack was conducted by an Islamic terrorist that targeted Jews for murder. In fact, polls show a high degree of anti-Semitism among European Muslims – especially those with strong religious values. According to a 2009 Pew poll, Jews received remarkably high unfavorable opinions in Muslim majority countries across the Middle East and even as far away as Indonesia. Many Muslims immigrate to the west harboring cultural-wide anti-Semitic values which threaten Jews – like at the kosher market. These are reflected in anti-Semitic incidents principally across Europe. It’s not surprising that the Intercept ignores this obvious threat and source of anti-Jewish bigotry.
In a 2015 poll conducted by the ADL across 19 European countries, anti-Semitic attitudes varied from previous studies, increasing or decreasing, depending on the country surveyed. In the six European countries surveyed for Muslim attitudes toward Jews, anti-Semitism among Muslims was much higher than the general population (“New ADL Poll Finds Dramatic Decline in Anti-Semitic Attitudes in France” http://www.adl.org/press-center/press-releases/anti-semitism-international/new-adl-poll-anti-semitic-attitudes-19-countries.html?). The percentage of Muslims who exhibited anti-Semitic attitudes varied from 49% in France to 68% in Belgium (based on criteria developed by the ADL).
In a separate poll conducted in Muslim-majority countries between May and June, 2009 by Pew, extremely high unfavorable opinions of Jews were surveyed (Pew poll; Jerusalem Post, 2010):
“…….Nearly all in Jordan (97 percent), the Palestinian territories (97%) and Egypt (95%) held an unfavorable view [of Jews]. Similarly, 98% of Lebanese expressed an unfavorable opinion of Jews, including 98% among both Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims, as well as 97% of Lebanese Christians………More than seven-in-ten in Pakistan (78%) and Indonesia (74%) expressed unfavorable opinions [of Jews]……… In Turkey……….the number of people who said they had a “very unfavorable” attitude towards Jews jumped from 32% in 2004 to 73% in the spring of 2009……..” my inserts in brackets
According to researcher, Günther Jikeli (“Antisemitic Attitudes among Muslims in Europe: A Survey Review”, May 2015):
“………a review of the available surveys shows a clear tendency: antisemitic attitudes are significantly more widespread among Muslims than among other segments of European societies. What is more, the interpretation of Islam seems to be highly relevant. Antisemitic attitudes are particularly strong among believing and practicing Muslims and correlate with authoritarian, “fundamentalist” interpretations of Islam…….”
All the above polls and surveys indicate the same trends among Muslims in Europe and elsewhere. Muslim immigrants more than likely harbor ill will toward Jews. The large influx of Muslims to Europe who harbor anti-Jewish sentiments threaten Jews (in particular).
The nub of the observation is simply that fear of Muslim extremism is great–both among many Americans, Europeans, and certainly Israeli Jews. The fear is so great that groups, some of whose ideology falls within the pantheon of Nazi ideology find that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. This is altogether common.
Is this a strategic alliance of strange bedfellows? I’m not sure what that would mean, but I don’t think so, but it is certainly logical.
When/if Muslim extremism wanes, the alliance of convenience will diminish.
As to accusations of Israeli extremism–these are in the eye of the beholder. There is really nothing to discuss here, just two opposing views of what constitutes extremism and the what is appropriate response.
It’s important to take the emotion of argumentation and just put the facts on the line.
–BJay
Craig (apparently not “Summers”) claims apropos of nothing:
And your mother wears army boots while you father smells of elderberries. See how productive that sort of “argument” is?
Whether Glenn is all that you describe or not (and that is separate discussion), does not and cannot detract from the reality and fact-base set forth in this article.
Are you the latest hasbara-ist assigned here? Either way, you should know that posting the sort of inanity you spew virtually always has the effect of causing myself and knowledgeable others to post well-reasoned and factual material that reflects very poorly on Zionists and Zionism. You might wish to consider that before proceeding .
There is no reality in the article except for Greenwald’s bigotry driven agenda and self-hating defeatism.
This website is a blog dedicated to bullying Jewish people and excusing Muslim crimes.
Why else would Greenwald ignore the plethora of Muslim attacks on Jews or human rights violations of non-Muslims perpetrated by Muslims?
Why does Grenwald hide the Muslim destruction of Jewish religious sites in Israel? The synagogues and homes destroyed by Arab Muslims in Jerusalem were intended to destroy the indigenous connection to the land (the Jordanian commander even states this)
Why does Greenwald ignore the fact that most “Palestinian refugees” are natives of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Morocco who illegally squatted on Jewish property after invading Israel in 1948?
Greenwald will never have the courage to report on the Muslims that ethnically cleansed Jerusalem’s indigenous Jewish population. Some of these Jordanian illegals are still squatting on Jewish owned property.
Again, there is almost no factual basis for your many assertions. I will rebut them only if another, whom I deem to be asking in good faith, asks that I do so.
In the meantime, consider thatAlbert Einstein correctly denounced the political Zionism that prevailed and the sordid and horrible words and deeds Zionists committed to found Israel:
Einstein was in many ways also a moral genius. He knew what Max Blumenthal would state decades later; Zionism kills Palestinian bodies and Jewish souls.
(Above quote excerpted from Kindle Magazine’s EINSTEIN’S PROMISED LAND.)
Don’t know where to begin, Mona. You’re a treasure. Don’t make yourself scarce.
Right on comment!
If there had been an Israel in 1938 instead of 1948, the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust would not have been murdered.
Remember why Zionism was created:
Jews had been persecuted for centuries in majority-gentile countries. Even when not actively persecuting the Jews, the majority-gentile countries refused to give refuge to the Jews when they needed it. There would have been no Holocaust if majority-gentile countries would have allowed in Jewish refugees who were escaping from the Nazis. The idea of Zionism was that Jews would return to their homeland & have a majority-Jewish country because majority-gentile countries had failed to provide safety for the Jews.
If Zionism is bad, what would be a better way to provide safety for the Jews?
Bro,this is the problem with lefty loonies.they never write about Muslims atrocities on nonbelievers.look in France,Muslims bullying Jews and Christians.they attacking Jew shops.these lefty destroyed everything now ppl stand against these lefties.that why these ppl are writing stupid articles
Fascinating article. Thanks for posting the link. It definitely ties directly into Glenn’s reporting and conclusions here. Personally, I had always suspected the Evangelical Christian sects’ alignment with Zionists to be more of a modern phenomenon. From what I read, it seems this can actually be traced back hundreds of years!
It really is. I had known that Einstein was deeply antagonistic to political Zionism and that he (rightly) denounced Menachem Begin as a fascist and terrorist. But before I encountered that article I hadn’t realized the depth and extent of his opposition to political Zionism and the morally sound reasons for it.
Arab Muslims have murdered 99% of the 11 million Muslims killed in the Middle east and Northern Africa in the past 50 years. So why are the Jews of Israel the only people criticized by Glenn “the traitor” Greenwald?
So you admit that Jews murder innocent Muslims; just not as many as the other guy.
How exceptional. but then I repeat myself …
No, you should be asking yourself why Garbage greenwald is so obsessed with scapegoating, bullying and blaming Jews for everything that Muslims do. Arabs who died trying to murder indigenous Jews in Israel are never innocent.
Arabs that were killed attacked Jews in the 1929 Hebron massacre are not innocent.
Jordanian Arabs that invaded Jerusalem in 1948, ethnically cleansed the native Jewish population and squatted in Jewish owned homes are not “innocent”.
Could you list three things Zionists did to Palestinian Arabs in establishing Israel — or in pre-Israel Mandate Palestine — that were wrong?
What is your moral and political assessment of Jabotinsky?
Greenwald doesn’t blame Jews. If you re-read carefully, you’ll find that he only blames assholes and Israeli govt officials. These are not one and the same. Pay attention to what you read.
Craig, you’ll have to raise your game a little, if you want to be a really effective troll. I would suggest reading some Tablet, Liel Liebowitz, Yair Rosenberg and Jamie Kirchick, for starters. Then move on to some Algemeiner and Mosaic. It won’t help you much though, around here. You’ll still get your ass kicked.
More fact free opinions from Glenn “garbage in, garbage out” Greenwald. If only Greenwald put as much effort into loving fellow Jews as he did insulting and bullying them, this world might be a better place. Greenwald reminds me of those coward collaborators who helped the Nazis in the Holocaust.
“If only Greenwald put as much effort into loving fellow Jews as he did insulting and bullying them, this world might be a better place.”
if only Jews would quit claiming they’re any different from the rest of us the world WOULD be a better place.
If only bigots like you and Greenwald stopped making up false claims and focused on the fact that 99% of the 11 million murdered Middle East Muslims in the past 50 years were killed by Muslims, not Jews.
“If only bigots like you ”
Your ancient religious ways do not belong in the 21st century.
Your anti-Jewish bullying and bigotry do not belong in the 21st century or developed countries. Take it back to the cave.
“Take it back to the cave.”
Dude, you are the one believing in millennia-old fairy tales.
-Mona-‘s excellent post of Einstein’s view of Israel ends the discussion.
You forget the Americans. The Americans surely killed some of the 11 million Muslims too.
After casting aspersions, claiming I’m actually a second representation of the same person (Mona), you almost seem to be comprised of two personalities under the same name. In one context, you’re a strident, prickly troll; in another, you post a genuine opinion which is…reasonable.
I would only revise your statement to apply to ALL people. …Because, ultimately, we aren’t a world of different “peoples”: we’re all just people.
Actually -Mona-, I offered an olive branch to the board.
You still get the butt of it.
Deservedly. The only reason your post was reasonable was that it was a quote …
I don’t need to run a menagerie of handles talking to myself. You always have.
At least Doug moves through his without a pat on the back. Or should I say, knife in the back.
Your denunciation of the site and promise to vacate lifted many a heart … sigh.
I hadn’t know he claimed you are me. There’s nothing I can do about that and won’t be engaging him.
I can appreciate that. But, yes, in an earlier post I was accused of being one of your supposedly legion “sock puppets”. Glenn himself replied, in a surprising turn of events, solely to tell this ignoramus that he’s barking up the wrong tree.
Guess it wasn’t even worthwhile to try burying the hatchet, going so far as to offer a compliment… Still, I’m admittedly bothered, left to wonder what I allegedly quoted.
Yes, I just saw that. I posted it at the top of the thread with a link.
I don’t know how long you’ve been here but he’s negatively obsessed with me and long has been because I’ve agreed that he crosses into antisemitic commentary (the real thing, not the bullshit Zionists often shriek about). My approach is to generally ignore him which I intend to continue.
And if Jews loved each other,the world might be a better place also.
They hate each other more than they hate the goyim,it seems sometimes.
Weird people.
What you wish is for Glenn to be a tribalist, which he never has been and is never likely to be. He doesn’t think that way.
As for what Glenn purportedly “reminds” you of where Nazis are concerned, you might want to see my comment in this thread, posted here.
Greenwald is a bigot and a bully. He is single-handedly fomenting more hatred against Jewish people than any other extremist propaganda outlet, except maybe for Electronic intifada.
” fomenting more hatred against Jewish people ”
That’s all Israel.
You speak like a nazi, bigot or islamic supremacist. Your hate makes us stronger. When you and yours are dust, Israel will still exist, stronger than ever.
“You speak like a nazi, bigot or islamic supremacist. Your hate makes us stronger. When you and yours are dust, Israel will still exist, stronger than ever.”
Wow, the 1000 year Reich story-line …
You need to be hated more than we actually hate you.
Perhaps the word of Jesus would soften your heart …
nah, been there, done that.
Israel is an apartheid state
Any readers interested in the many compelling reasons why Israel is properly designated as an apartheid state could read my comments in the entire thread containing this comment. I traffic in reliable documentation. Simply use Ctrl F and search my name.
Glad you are back. Missed you. Yes, Israel is, indeed, an apartheid state. A visit to Israel years ago convinced me.
Been busy with something you’ll hear more about in due course. But I’ll never be entirely gone from here.
BTW, if you don’t mind answering, have you been posting in Glenn’s space since Salon, or when?
Come on. -Mona-, Remember Bucky1 and his ‘announced death’, then it was Heru …
you are better than that.
Apartheid? Spoken like a true idiot that has never visited Israel.
Mona
Your attempt to initiate a site with only agreeable viewpoints was hardly surprising. You never have tolerated opposing political points of view. Can you imagine if Greenwald decided to wall off opposing opinions? This was noted by Nate in 2014. Nate writes:
“…….Perhaps TI should add a “mute” button so that people like Mona who have no intent to actually discuss issues, can just mute all those who have disagreeable viewpoints. This would ensure she only encounters like-minded people……”
By the way, the comment section seems to be better without your constant attempts to control the flow of the conversation. The discussions are actually more civil. No one is telling your (idiotic) readers who they should or should not read as if they are too dense to have an opinion of their own, or might be contaminated.
Welcome back (not).
Craig, as you are well aware, 95% of the time I substantively ignore you. I simply wish to state that you are grossly mischaracterizing something that is not yet ready for public discussion or availability. When it is it will not be as you have misrepresented it and it is not “my” project.
I now revert to substantively ignoring you.
“…….I simply wish to state that you are grossly mischaracterizing something that is not yet ready for public discussion or availability…….”
Fair enough. I await my invitation.
“By the way, the comment section seems to be better without your constant attempts to control the flow of the conversation. The discussions are actually more civil.”
It was the most varied comment I’ve seen in years, literally.
-Mona- dominates Glenn’s coattails.
Her wait wut? handle is the latest in a string of puppets going back some 10 years.
The occasional puppeteering done artfully is great but atta-boys to yourself, not so much.
And if she had waited a bit longer she would have received genuine praise for Einstein’s letter on Israel. (she still got it but she had to shit on it because she is -Mona-)
Mona is simply over the top – and has been for a long time.
And they all are surprisingly well dressed. Nobody gets photographed in a t-shirt or with a bad hair-do. I have noticed it too.
Mr. Greenwald
In a previous article, you wrote (“U.S. Admits Israel Is Building Permanent Apartheid Regime — Weeks After Giving It $38 Billion”, Oct. 6, 2016)
“…………Honest observers on both sides of the conflict have long acknowledged that the prospects for a two-state solution are virtually non-existent: another way of saying that Israel’s status as a permanent apartheid regime is inevitable………So Israel — in the words of its most loyal benefactor — is moving inexorably “towards cementing a one-state reality of perpetual occupation” that is anti-democratic: i.e., the equivalent of apartheid.…….U.S. political orthodoxy has not only funded, fueled, and protected this apartheid state……….”
As a follow-up to mainstreaming the idea that Israel is an “apartheid” regime in the worst traditions of apartheid South Africa, you write in your article today:
“…….Any party driven by antipathy toward Muslims will obviously find common cause with an Israeli government that has spent decades occupying, bombing, and denying basic political rights to Muslims……”
Very subtle, Mr. Greenwald, but – none the less – completely false. Israeli Arabs enjoy all the political rights of Jewish Israelis including their own political parties and serving as elected members of the Knesset. Israeli Arabs have served on the highest Israeli Court so your racist inference (“Muslims”) falls flat. The “Muslims” in the West Bank and Gaza are not Israeli citizens which is why they don’t enjoy the same political rights as Israeli Arabs (i.e., “Muslims”).
The (West Bank and Gaza) Palestinians do hold elections when Hamas and Fatah can agree to stop their infighting long enough to hold elections. That has not happened for some time. Remember, Hamas won the elections in 2005 which led to the predictable death and destruction coming from three wars with Israel (with more certainly to come). No one is to blame, but the Palestinians who chose to elect an internationally recognized terrorist organization to lead in Gaza. The Palestinians chose to reject a Jewish state when they voted for Hamas. The Palestinians chose an anti-Semitic charter over tolerance. They chose war over peace. They certainly had political rights in 2005 – and used them to ensure their own economic ruin and destruction.
There are a couple problems with this view. First, which country are they citizens of? According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, citizenship is a human right, and it seems that Israel is the only state with responsibility and means to grant citizenship in this case.
Second, while a state doesn’t have to grant all political rights to non-citizens (like voting), it should uphold some basic civil/human rights for all (regardless of where they are). Again, I’d refer you to the UDHR.
There is no Palestinian state although about 130 countries recognize Palestine (plus or minus). That is what the two state solution is supposed to produce. As far as the UDHR goes, citizenship is a complex issue; for example, illegal immigration to the US and Europe. Just look at some of the problems associated with a large influx of refugees or migrants in Europe and the US. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not going to solve those problems. At any rate, there are far bigger priorities for the UDHR than citizenship.
Israel – like every other country – holds the right to grant people citizenship. They intend to maintain a Jewish majority in Israel so the primary problem is that Israel is preventing the Palestinians their right to self-determination while settling on Palestinian land including some private land. That’s why some people support the single state solution.
“…….Second, while a state doesn’t have to grant all political rights to non-citizens (like voting), it should uphold some basic civil/human rights for all (regardless of where they are). Again, I’d refer you to the UDHR…….”
They have been at war for a long time so I think it is easier said than done. Terrorism is still common. Personally, I think it all starts with recognizing a Palestinian state (which Obama could do before he leaves office). The first order of business in that case is getting rid of Netanyahu and electing a leader that can negotiate a solution (again, easier said than done).
A look at the last names of many “palestinian refugees” causes us to quickly realize that many are from Egypt, Morocco and elsewhere (not Israel or palestine). Between 1922 and 1946, more than 500,000 Arab immigrants came into Israel seeking work and a better quality of life.
They came from all surrounding Arab territories and the U.N. declared them to be “Palestinian” if they resided in the region for only 2 years prior to 1946. In other words, an Egyptian born and raised in Cairo, Egypt is considered to be “Palestinian” despite having absolutely no connection to the land except as a seasonal migrant worker.
When Jordan illegally invaded and occupied Jerusalem, they brought in more sqautters and foreigners with no connection to the land. Many Jordanians still reside in areas on Jerusalem and Judea. In contrast, Jewish people are indigenous to the area as shown by archaeological evidence.
I don’t know what year you think you live in or if you know about the Internet, but people can look up your bullshit about 500,000 Arab immigrants and know you’re lying.
Your old, unoriginal and overused methods of misinformation are frankly impotent nowadays when people can look everything up. You guys need to come up with a better strategy of misinformation or everybody’s going to call you on your bullshit, and nobody will take you seriously.
Come up with a better strategy. Learn to lie effectively because your old ways are not working anymore. When you’re dealing in lies, the bigger the lie, the more effective it is. This 500,000 nonsense won’t cut it.
Come up with a better lie. Talk to your buddies at the Netanyahoo Center for Palestinian Immigration Information. Come up with a better lie or f off.
AtheistinChief
There certainly is some information out there to back your argument. How about just get off your ass and look…….
I got off my ass and looked. No Arabs fucking moved into Israel where they were slaughtering Palestinians and raising their villages.
How about you come up with better lies or shut up.
I didn’t make the original statement so I don’t need to look up anything. I don’t need to lie so I don’t (however, that doesn’t preclude me from making mistakes which I do often enough).
Thanks.
The amount of support right-wing Israelis have thrown behind Trump leads one to have to draw one of three assumptions, each a bit more paranoid than the previous. The first assumption would be that they are simply in complete denial or work overtime to maintain ignorance about the level of anti-Semitism among the American alt-right. Anyone can go on Twitter and find a pocket of Trump supporters that joke about “warming up the ovens” in the least subtle manner possible. David Duke has been a vocal supporter of Trump and he’s not particularly fond of Israel. However, if mainstream American conservatives could manage to convince themselves that these links were all liberal propaganda (and that anti-Semites and white supremacists were either figments of the imagination or somehow supportive of the Democrats), Israeli conservatives could easily do it as well.
The second assumption would be that they are fully aware of the hostility towards not just Israel, but all Jews, from some of his most unfiltered supporters, but that they know more about Trump’s future plans than his base does, so they’re not worried that these opinions translate into any legitimate political action. It’s a smorgasbord of intolerance and in some cases other demographics are perceived as more threatening, depending on the individual, so targeting Mexicans or Muslims while still maintaining status quo relations with Israel can easily keep them appeased. I also suppose that if Trump is able to win enough of the NeverTrump establishment over to his side with policies that they favor (to offset the amount of votes he’ll lose from the alt-right), then the alt-right returns to the forgotten gutters that they’ve dwelled in for decades.
The most paranoid assumption would be that these individuals are fully aware of the frequency and intensity of the anti-Semitism among alt-right forums and that it’s in Israel’s best interest to let it expand and become more prominent, in order to increase Jewish repatriation to Israel amidst a rise in proliferation of Neo-Nazis, punish American Jews for not toeing every line, or both.
I mean, to me, it seems like flippant Holocaust denial and blatant hate speech from the American far right is what they classically target when they discuss anti-Semitism, but BDS support from segments of the American left is probably the more direct threat to Israel. Anti-Zionists on the right seem to support BDS just as frequently (if only because they’ve given up hope of ever having a say in American foreign policy negotiations to directly eliminate aid to Israel), but I suppose the Christian Zionist movement is far more visible.
This is certainly an issue of strange bedfellows, though.
Mr. Greenwald
There is a lot of different reasons for the success of this new “far” right movement. First and foremost, it’s a rejection of the left and multiculturalism. Left wing leadership is collapsing in the west under the weight of liberal ideas born during the civil rights movements in the 60s. At the same time, this represents a “clash of civilizations” (or cultures); a rejection of globalization (and the natural mass movement of people who seek a better economic or political opportunity); an attempt by westerners to pin their economic plight on neoliberalism and free trade; and an attempt to main stream the far right political movement by rejecting anti-Semitism. This is just a continuation of the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump as President. The speed of change in the west is breathtaking to say the least, but coincides (not by chance) with the rise of Islamic terrorism – a world-wide movement which employs many of the same tactics and complaints which draw people to their cause.
The far right has been a fringe political movement in Europe and the US since the end of WWII. Their ideas of white supremacism, racism and anti-Jewish bigotry were rejected by the mainstream. As a result, far right political parties remained on the fringe. In the meantime, liberals presented a more balanced view of the world rejecting the idea of cultural superiority while encouraging immigrants to the west to retain their cultural values. Today Toronto remains a model city for the success of multiculturalism – but far more importantly – a model for controlled immigration policies.
Wars, poverty and political instability in the third world have produced a mass movement of people to the west setting up the current clash. The large influx of people has occurred far too quickly to assimilate in the west. Thus very poor, mostly uneducated people with completely different cultural values (in Europe mainly) settled in poor immigrant enclaves (ghettos). Many were unable to find work. Accordingly, these areas have become fertile breeding grounds for homegrown Islamic terrorism and support for sharia law – an absolute rejection of the dominant culture. In the US, immigration of people has mainly come from Mexico while in Europe migration mostly originates from North Africa and the Middle East.
The current refugee crisis has brought matters to a boil. The left has (long) marginalized voices from the far right (and center-right) on immigration while the far right has mainstreamed their message by rejecting anti-Jewish bigotry deftly focusing on the failures of multiculturalism. The message has resonated with political centrist; thus, far right parties are making gains in Europe while in the US, Trump’s election victory can be attributed, in part, to the same strategy.
And yet, when you actually study what people are thinking, you find that they tend to become less religious, less racist, and more progressive over time. Notice, for example, how support for gay marriage evolved.
A different read is necessary. What we’re witnessing is the collapse of the global capitalist system. It’s had a 300 year run, and it has produced some results, but like all economic systems before it, it can’t last forever. What we’re seeing with Trump and Brexit is nothing more than a rejection of the failed established order. Of course, many would prefer not to consider that the problem is the global economic system and the structure of corporations, which is why they find scapegoats: multiculturalism, immigration, etc. Indeed, even terrorism is arguably the result of the same economic system and the way corporate power functions.
I think you are right to a certain extent, but I think it’s much more complex than just capitalism and neoliberal policies. By the way, any attempt to reject capitalism and neoliberalism (entirely) will make things much worse in my opinion.
The world’s greatest whistle-blower seems to have disappeared.
Where is Julian Assange?
Every paragraph of this article screams for a reference to Lenni Brenner’s book, Zionism in the Age of the Dictators. There is nothing “remarkable” about Zionists and fascists working together- on the contrary, it is tradition!
Hitler’s decree banning marriage between Germans and Jews was applauded by Zionists; the founders of the Israeli navy were trained by Mussolini’s men at Civita Vecchia… There are many similar examples in Brenner’s excellent book, which is out of print but can be accessed at the link below posted by “Gert.”
‘Austria is the latest example of a far-right xenophobic party on the verge of obtaining what was, until quite recently, unthinkable power’
The power might be unthinkable in the sense that Hofer becoming President is a shock, but you should clarify in the article that unlike the French or the US President, the Austrian President, is a largely ceremonial role.
Israel is 1/33 the size of Texas.
Israel is less than 1% of the Middle East.
Yet Israel is the most democratic country in the region BY FAR.
Israeli minority citizens, while not living a perfect life, are doctors, lawyers, judges, professors, scientists, business owners, etc in Israel and BY FAR live better lives than any minorities in that region.
Israel is also the only Jewish state in the world. There are over 20 Arab states and over 50 Muslim countries, and just one tiny Jewish state.
And yet Israel receives a THOUSAND TIMES MORE HATE than the rest of that entire region combined.
And the world’s only tiny little Jewish state is the only country in the world that seems to be on constant TRIAL for its very existence, let alone its right to defend itself from the jihadist psychopaths that surround the country and dominate that entire region.
We’re supposed to pretend that the pathological obsession with promoting rabid, one-sided hate against the world’s only Jewish state (while giving a free pass to blatantly worse Arab and Muslim states) isn’t fueled by anti-semitism?
Why is every Glenn Greenwald article about Israel seemingly written for the purpose of promoting hate of Israel?
Has anyone seen Greenwald write anything positive about Israel, or anything negative about the irrational, jihadist, dictatorship, fascist people and countries that surround Israel and dominate 99% of that region?
Why does every Glenn Greenwald article that mentions Israel seem INTENT on TRYING to provoke hatred against Israel?
That seems to be Glenn Greenwald’s actual intention. It seems like his SPECIFIC GOAL is to try to make his readers hate Israel more and more.
Has anyone ever seen Glenn Greenwald write a single positive word about Israel, or a single negative word about the jihadists, fascists and dictatorships of the people or countries that surround Israel?
Why is every single Glenn Greenwald article about Israel always hateful of Israel?
The “alt-right” is pro-Israel? That’s one of the most insane claims I’ve ever seen.
What if the attack on the WTC was an attempt to spark a war against the muslim world? Was it just some radical crazies lashing out at “the west” without realistic support of the muslim world or was it a “follow the money” operation by worshippers of profits-from-wars by those who would benefit the most? How is it that Building 7 was wired to implode long prior to the WTC hits and without public filings, awareness and admission?
Muslim activist groups have been profiting handsomely since 9/11. CAIR, SJP and all those receiving money from George Soros have been making out like bandits over the past 15 years.
Of course,and the right wing and Israelis find common cause in radical Islam,created by Israel and American actions,but of course there,their interests diverge,as the right(and intelligent left) wants American sovereignty,while the Israelis love the current bondage.
communete
Not sure what your question is, but here let me fix your post.
In Austria, about 7.0% of the population are Muslim, while only 0.1% of the population are Jewish:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Austria
This means that Muslims are 70 times more common in Austria than Jews, and their share of the population has been rapidly growing.
This is one of the reasons the Ultra-nationalist party in Austria has been hostile to Muslims, but not Jews: many people in Austria feel threatened by Muslims because their population is rapidly growing and they are far more common than Jews, while the Jewish population is insignificant. In many other areas of Europe, the Jewish population is also insignificant because of the holocaust, so the Jews are not being attacked by ultra-nationalist leaders in these other areas either, even though I suspect many rank-and-file members of these ultra-nationalist parties have anti-semitic attitudes.
The reason for the hostility has more to do with the behavior of the Muslims than it does their population. Muslims are assaulting, raping and murdering European women and men. Every major city in Europe now has soldiers armed with fully-automatic machine guns, on display in public places. Jewish Europeans never brought crime and fear to their neighbors.
Europe is realizing that Jews are better neighbors than Muslims. Israelis have known this for decades, ever since the 1929 Hebron massacre in which the entire native Jewish population was ethnically cleansed (raped, murdered, assaulted by Muslim Arabs) from Hebron, Israel.
”it is Muslims who are in the role previously occupied by Jews”
This is clear to see for those who look at world events with an unbiased critical mind.
The unfortunate thing about history is that it repeats itself.
censored
> “THE SPECTER OF a growing far-right nationalism anywhere, but particularly in Central Europe, immediately — and for good and obvious reasons — raises fears….”
Yeah? Of what? “Nationalism?”
As in NPR? As in NARAL? As in NOW? As in NSDAP? They’re all “national.” They’re all socialist. Who shows up on the doorstop of a National (as in NPR) Socialist Workers Party function? (Hint: the progressive left.)
Nationalism only means you’ve formed an effective defense against world government. Nationalism is the opposite of globalism.
Is NPR “progressive left”? (Hint: no.)
Also, I’m pretty sure that none of them are/were socialist in any way, with the exception of Nazi’s using the term in their party name by an ironic twist.
So your theory is – let me get this straight – any use of a word with the sub-string “national” in it necessarily implies a socialist agenda?! When do this years “genius grants” get handed out ‘cuz I think we got a contender on our hands.
Keep trying to convince yourself an embarrassed, chastened progressive left didn’t try to foist the National (as in NPR) Socialist Workers Party onto “centrists” after Nuremberg in exactly the same manner that their successors tried in vain to portray Obama as “centrist” after he later failed to pass muster with the population at large.–same playbook, chapter and verse.
Nobody rings a Socialist. Workers. Party doorbell in the last 150 years, with craft beer in hand, other than the progressive left.
> “So your theory is – let me get this straight – any use of a word with the sub-string “national” in it necessarily implies a socialist agenda?!”
Except I said nothing of the kind. I’m conveying that “national” can’t be bent by the progressive left into some negative canard called “nationalism.”
My recommendation is that neither you nor anyone else waste your time engaging this particular, unusual person. He’s been in and out of Greenwald’s comment space for some five years and believes, among other things, that Adolph Hitler was a leftist and that a guy who writes about Satanic mind-control turning women into “sex kittens” is a genius.
Wait, what? I thought that you (and yours) were setting up your own little mirrored clubhouse wherein you could echo the opinions of one another until the cows come home? How did that work out?
What the hell are you babbling about?
Apparently a wet dream he had having to do with cows and mirrors.
The idjits seem to think some things can be set up in an hour. We’re prolly gonna have to put up with this nonsense when commenting here until, well, it’s all finished tech, design, software and policy-wise.
I knew that wouldn’t last a week.
… world government… really, dude? With shape-shifting reptillians and everthang?
NATIONALISM EMBRACES STABILITY.
I am baffled. My dad is an undocumented Mexican, born in 1940 somewhere in Texas. He served Army 1958-1961. He met my mom , German person, 1961. They fell in love, had my sister 1962 then me 1963. My mom was from Koenigsberg, East Prussia, a war refugee in Denmark, I do know history. So should my mom and dad, respectively 78 and 76 years old , be tossed out ? And I have two adult children, both born in Milwaukee Wi. Should we be disqualified from being here?
If he was born in Texas he wasn’t undocumented dude. That makes him America.
@Pedinska
You appropriately asked for some documentation of another commenter’s claim that:
That is probably an overstatement. It is true that in the first half of the 20th century Zionists enthusiastically sought out antisemitic leaders, organisations and countries to gain support for the Zionist project, and altho Zionists like Theodor Herzl ardently believed that antisemitism was the Zionist’s friend, I’ve not seen evidence that they specifically worked in support of putting German Nazis in power.
They did enter into agreements with the Nazis *once they were in power. In the early to mid 30s the Nazis thought getting German Jews all dispatched to Palestine was a terrific idea.
The best source on all of this is Joseph Massad, a professor at Columbia. A few years ago Al Jazeera English published his piece on the long Zionist history of supporting antisemites and vice versa (AJE briefly took it down when the Zionists went batshit). An excerpt:
Amazing how by changing just a few words, the quote above could have been just as well about contemporary Islamophobia…
Nice reminder of an article I read long ago, thanks…
So, another case of strange bedfellows in pursuit of a common “racial purity” goal.
Thanks for the link and information. A bit of history of which I was unaware.
Yup. Well stated.
Your “best source on all of this is Joseph Massad”, a known anti-Jewish bigot. Nice try, but no falafel. A Judeophobic racist bastard like Massad would make up anything to insult the Jewishpeople.
Perhaps you could, rather than engaging in the ad hominem fallacy, specify what Massad cites that is inaccurate? If you can.
And Jesus H. Christ, I’ve been saying precisely this thing since the election results came in:
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/30/growing-far-right-nationalistic-movements-are-dangerously-anti-muslim-and-pro-israel/?comments=1#comments
First and foremost Chait and Bouie are either morons, purposely obtuse, like David Brooks practitioners of a “centrism” politics that cannot and does not exist, or they are propagandist moron centrists.
This is the problem with the Democratic party–nobody but the “centrists” trusts them. Their pre-capitulating neoliberal do-nothing for unions or working class people, get retraining, and your jobs aren’t coming back bullshit–people have had enough of.
Either fight for some consistent principles up and down the platform, all across the country, and stop sucking the asses and hobnobbing with the ultra wealthy (and I don’t care if those Wall Street Hollywood “ultra-wealthy” want what the working class wants, and don’t mind taxing themselves more or whatever, we don’t need their money, and taking it only confuses what the Democratic party stands for and what it will fight for over the long-term even if it loses some battles in the short term.)
I’ve been making this point for years, people aren’t all together stupid when it comes to politics. They listen less to what you say, and more what you do, and the effect of what you do has on them and their lives.
Bernie Sanders understood this. If you don’t stand for coherent principles–you fucking stand for nothing. That’s why his message has been the same for 30 years.
Sometimes in life you have to make compromises. But you better sure as fuck fight for the very best deal you can get, and play some hardball doing it, before you simply capitulate and compromise–just so you can say like every Clintonite in the world “at least I did something”. If that “something” doesn’t put food on the table or pay the mortgage, 95% of the people in the US could give a fuck, when push comes to shove between protecting each other’s “civil rights” or fucking paying your mortgage.
And that’s not mutually exclusive with standing up for everyone’s civil and economic rights.
This is what the centrist Clintonite academic bean counting polling fucksticks don’t or won’t grasp, because their livelihoods depending on them not wanting to understand and work on a political/economic platform that recognizes the reality of an ongoing eternal class struggle in this and every other country.
Centrist? Hillarycare, Obamacare, gun control, immigration reform, Equality, NYTimes/WaPo reading, is centrist?!
A Sanders endorsement is centrist? Who do you think you’re fooling?
If you don’t understand that Obamacare is a gift to the insurance companies, you’re too hopeless to engage in rational debate. It’s true that liberals pay lip service to some progressive social causes (immigration reform, gay rights, and so forth) but those are basically easy pretenses with an ulterior political motive. Where you can really determine their ideological bent is in how they behave in relation to corporate power and imperialism.
1. nothing new; herzl and weizman found common ground with nazis and their ilk back when that was still a “thing”. sacrificial lambs have been considered kosher since the supposed days of exodus.
2. muslims are to modern times what jews were to WWI/WWII days. also, israelis tend to be russian and european (when we’re talking actual ethnicity and not made up cultural identity) whereas muslims tend to be varying shades of brown. given that most modern right wingers (and left wingers for that matter) are simplistic materialists that simple signifier provides a convincing and easy “threat” that can be exploited as it was (and is) with black folks in the US. black muslims? “totes horrify” as the kids today would put it.
3. israelis are far right nationalists and – as far as the ones with any power – range from light olive to lily white. some are even blonde with blue eyes. go figure. most importantly, though – they are quite western and modernist.
4. bannon made quite a bit of his money from rerun rights for seinfeld. not quite the recipe for “jew hatred”. and as you pointed out, breitbart is the typical muslim bashing yellow “journalism” you’d expect from a daniel pipes or a pam gellar.
5. if there is a chance at renewed “anti-semitism” it will probably be aimed at most jews but especially – as historically – at the middle class and below as well as the less “assimilated” folks. the lloyd blankfeins of the world will be fine whereas the nice old neighbors down the street might have some broken windows to deal with. i’d say chances are slim but then i recall certain (understood if not condoned) responses to israel’s last genocidal spasm in gaza. if anyone can stoke anti-jewish sentiment it’s the psychopaths running that “country” so maybe everyone should keep an eye on them and stop whining and bitching about somali immigrants.
6. if we’re talking cynicism let’s mention the “enemy of my enemy” view of ISIS shared among many top israeli officials including several in the military and knesset. a kid throwing a rock is a “jihadi extremist” but takfiri decapitators are useful (idiot or not). none of these pricks – christian, jew or salafist – have any actual deep seated ideology other than their greed and ethnic mythologies.
the pair: Without commenting on the substance of your post, I must correct you in your statement that most Israeli Jews are ethnically light-skinned Russians/Europeans. In fact, approximately half of the Jews in Israel have a Sephardic/Mizrachi heritage, i.e., from Arab countries, Turkey, Iran and Central Asia. I will assume you have never been to Israel because if you had, you would see many dark-skinned Jewish Israelis and to the untrained eye, it is often difficult to tell an Arab Muslim from a Sephardic Jew. And to your point, generally speaking, the Israeli Jews whose heritage is from Muslim lands (again ~50%) are far more hostile towards Muslims than are the Ashkenazi Jews (those with European background).
Well, Lisa, while it is true that the Jewish population in Israel does have basically the full range of skin tones, shadism means that the Jews most visible to the deplorables of America and Europe have similar skin tones to the deplorables. While the Israeli Apartheid regime hasn’t formalized the skin tones/opportunities-rights spectrum the way the South African Apartheid regime did, the effect is pretty much the same. And, for the deplorables, the facts don’t matter, just their perceptions. So yes, white racists look at the Israeli regime, see that the whitest folks are in charge, and find in the Israeli Apartheid regime kindred spirits, just like their fathers found kindred spirits in the South African Apartheid regime.
The majority of Israelis are Middle East natives and their descendants, not European. Anyone that has been to Israel would know this fact. I laugh when I read comments by naive bigoted people who think Israeli Jews are mostly “European” or “white”.
That’s a laugh,as most American Jews consider themselves white,and most look it,a very very strange phenomena when they consider themselves Semites,rather than Caucasian.
Their Northern European sojourn must of had a lot of screwing with the locals.
Muslim type people should ask themselves how they behave with those who are non-Muslims before they question how they are treated. Maybe all the Pakis can help themselves by being more neighbor friendly.
could it be possible that you are the unfriendly one? I probably wouldn’t be friendly to my shade-throwing, shifty-eyed, prejudiced neighbor/neighborhood either.
I have this greedy Paki retired army major general as my neighbor. His lawyer is Khizar Khan. I know he came here with the money and protection he got as a fake al-Q bounty-hunter. The innocent fellow he handed over I believe has finally left Gitmo.
I just hope that you Muslim folks grow up to be better people for your own sake and your own neighborhoods. There is no need for you guys to come and settle here. Just stay put and pray ten times a day so that the Great Alla and Muhammad Hebdo give you some lesson in self-preservation instead of suicide-bombing.
I wonder at which point will regular posters here at thentercept start finding out about their illusions of privacy and “reputation” being tarnished by USG or the Israeli government, courtesy of the NSA
https://canarymission.org
https://canarymission.org/individuals/
Most of those folks seem to be Muslim and/or Israelis
There is something, which coming from Peled, I find unbelievably shaky in that interview, namely; when they were talking about the so-called “canary mission”:
// __ On Contact: The BDS Movement with Miko Peled
youtube.com/watch?v=VTepqDOMdZw&t=1165
~
which the Israeli government is using to supposedly (they think through their twisted minds (even the name they picked for that PR operation, which they apparently got from the “canary in coal mines” metaphor, I find self ridiculing)) discredit people, destroy their “reputation” (as Glenn Greenwald would say), deprive them of their own illusions about privacy.
Peled said that he doesn’t know from where they get so much personal information about regular people. Really?!? Perhaps as a courtesy of the NSA, (5+1) eyes? I am amazed to hear Peled wondering about such things! Yet, I see the silver lining in their ways of harassing, trying to blackmail people. The Israeli government doesn’t seem to realize how much damage they are doing to their own credit once they can’t help but do such thing.
Imagine one of the very few journos in extinction with some spine and brain still sporting their morally grounded minds like Village Voice’s Nick Pinto or theintercept’s Jamie Kalven:
// __ Village Voice: 2016-06-28 NYPD Watchdog Shatters Bratton’s ‘Broken Windows’ — Now What?, by NICK PINTO
villagevoice.com/news/nypd-watchdog-shatters-brattons-broken-windows-now-what-8796746
~
// __ Watch Your Back: Chicago Police Bosses Targeted Cops Who Exposed Corruption
https://theintercept.com/2016/10/06/chicago-police-bosses-targeted-cops-who-exposed-corruption/
~
writing pieces with some teeth about such issues!!!
I have been questioning Glenn but I haven’t been successful at all:
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/14/in-the-trump-era-leaking-and-whistleblowing-are-more-urgent-and-more-noble-than-ever/?comments=1#comment-309989
Now, it is actually the Israeli government “exposing” regular folks out there courtesy of the NSA and making US Academia team up with their sugar daddies while harassing their students and faculty!
Why is theIntercept effectively protecting high ranking US officials boasting about torture and genocide is way beyond comprehension to me. Why is it that governments are using all that supposedly “private” information to mess with you and me even associating us (again through their twisted minds) with “terrorism”, when all we are doing is opposing the occupation on moral grounds, that is opposing their state terrorism?
RCL
First off, there are far, FAR more antisemites that are pro-Palestine/anti-Israel than the opposite. Not once has The Intercept highlighted this huge racist segment of Palestinian support. Funny how that works, eh?
The reason for increasing hostility towards Muslims is simple – they (most Muslims) refuse to accept their scripture is the root cause of Islamic violence (in fact, most refuse to accept it plays ANY part), while these Islamic verses are being used on a virtual daily basis by jihadists/Islamists the world over to oppress and kill innocent Muslim and non-Muslim alike, across multiple continents.
While the overwhelming majority of Muslims don’t support terrorism, the overwhelming majority also believe the Quran is perfect and that their religion is in no need of reformation. The Quran contains numerous verses that literally command its adherents to enslave and murder non-Muslims who refuse to submit to Islam.
And yet there’s nothing wrong with these?? Sorry, that’s no longer acceptable. Not when they’re being used to justify violence to the extent we see today.
Unprovoked violence towards innocent Muslims is never acceptable, but any Muslims that continue to promote the myth that their Quran/Hadith/etc. plays no part in terrorism are part of the problem and will be the ones most responsible for any increase in anti-Muslim hostility.
When we start seeing “moderate” Muslims getting as outraged over the violence being committed in the name of their religion as we do over the inevitable “Islamophobic” backlash that results because of it, we will finally be getting somewhere.
This is an undemonstrated and false assertion, aka bullshit:
Your “analysis” of Muslims is equally as flawed. It literally is a pile of hot air with no support in logic or fact.
Islaist violence is no more rooted in the Q’uran than Zionist violence towards the Palestinians/dispossession of said Palestinians is rooted in the Talmud.
You’re an idiot who landed at the wrong site.
The rest of your comment isn’t worth the bandwidth needed to refute it.
Please tell me why innocent Muslims need to get outraged over any Islamist violence. Do you get outraged about crimes commited by the crime syndicates (GOP and DNC) that run the US? Should you, even?
Many Americans get outraged when American forces commit some perceived crime. I never voted for bush, yet protested his wars. I felt responsible for our crimes, because I was a part of our society.
The root cause of Islamic violence is the violence given to them by Israel,the US and Europe.
If they’d only knuckle under.sheesh.
Yankee come home,and there will be no more violence,refugees and war of error.
Historically, Jews have always suffered when Christians launch Crusades against Muslims. Christians seemed to, invariably, get sidetracked on their way to the “Holy Land” raping, pillaging and murdering every Jewish community along the way. That is why Israel exists and needs to be strong. Germans were only the most efficient Christians in solving the “Jewish Problem,” not the actual cause of the eventual holocaust. This virulent anti- Israeli sentiment that has grown on the Left is but a vestigial remnant of Christian antisemitism ingrained in Christian the theological myth. Israel is the “neighborhood bully though he’s outnumbered about a million to one.” Bob Dylan
Is the Jewish theological myth as bogus as the Christian?Or the Muslim,Buddhist or Hindu?
And that quote by Dylan;What a wanker.I’ve lost all respect for silent Bob,and all the celebrity losers for the Hell Bitch.(no,I didn’t see Dylan come out for her,but it wouldn’t surprise me.)
It’s not hard to understand. Religious Jews are openly attacked in Europe and it’s not by the right. Areas that have seen large Muslim immigration have been openly hostile to Jews and Israel. See incidents in France, Manchester, etc
The European Far Right (and the US alt-right) are fomenting hatred towards Muslims on a par with pre-WW II antisemitism.
The alt-righters admire the worst part of Israel – it’s establishment as a Jewish ethnostate. Their Basic Law establishes Israel as “Jewish and Democratic” – this has been interpreted as Jewish first, then democratic. It’s sort of like when I look at a double whopper and want to puke, they start drooling.
Hillaryous,the MSM throughout the campaign calls Trumps supporters anti semites,but now post election they are pro semites.
Someones being played,as usual,by the ZNN.
Trump and America First is fundamentally anti Israeli,as putting America first,precludes sucking Israeli dick.
Are some knuckleheaded Trump supporters more pro Israel than pro Muslim?Well,current events where Muslims kill Americans for being American might have something to do with that,as did 9-11,but the intelligent Trump supporters know none of that would have happened wo Israel in the first place.
Yankee come home.
@ Maisie
That’s a great observation and point. Couldn’t agree more.
Thanks. It’s a tangled web the establishment are weaving, and all I know for sure is that they’ll use any means necessary to maintain and further entrench the elites’ power. This pretense that alt-right is anti-establishment has to be one of the most amazingly successful false memes I’ve seen since the charlatan Obama was portrayed as (similarly) a challenge to the worsening status quo.
@ Jose
Then I apologize for misunderstanding your point based on how it was written.
We are agreed that “bigotry” as a function of social and/or biological construct(s) is without merit or legitimacy on any or either grounds.
Again, I’d point out for all, to me “bigotry” should be re-defined only as “discrimination based on immutable traits” (i.e. gender, gender identity, “race”, national origin, sexual orientation, ethnicity . . . ) I don’t believe “bigotry” should be defined as being in opposition to any human’s “beliefs” whether they be religious or a belief that gnomes run the world or that “economics” is a “science” like physics or chemistry.
And to clarify, I think it should be prohibited “discrimination” (even if not “bigotry” by lexicographic definition) to judge or want to treat others differently (particularly under the law) simply by being a person of faith, or simply on the basis of self-identifying with one religious sect or another (or none).
That is not, and should not, from my perspective be properly identified as “bigotry” notwithstanding very common usages and definitions of the word. For the very simple reason that I find nothing wrong or immoral with challenging any “belief” of any person on the substance of those “beliefs” nor do I believe it should be normatively wrong, nor is it immoral, to “discriminate” against others on the basis of their beliefs.
As an example, I don’t believe I normatively or morally should be obligated to refrain from “discriminating” in my voluntary choices (nor should anyone else) with re: to people who espouse Nazi beliefs in white supremacy or white separatism, or the religious belief that LGBT members of society shouldn’t be entitled to the same legal rights as straight heterosexual people of one faith or another, or that the earth is flat or that gnomes run the world secretly from beneath ground. Now the latter two are “harmless beliefs” for the most part, but the former two should not be anything I should have to tolerate in my personal and voluntary business relationships.
Now my views alter slightly when it comes to choosing to be a for-profit business open to all customers, in which case there should be no discrimination on any basis (other than disrupting the business or upsetting fellow customers) in the sale or provision of those for-profit good or services. With some very narrow exceptions (like I don’t believe a lawyer should be forced to defend an overt white supremacists rhetoric if he/she does not want to, but that hopefully all lawyers would be inclined to do so on the strict principle of the free speech “right” to espouse that rhetoric free from government suppression–private rejection or suppression of that rhetoric I’m fine with).
By the same token I don’t believe anyone should be voluntarily compelled for any reason to buy or sell to/from any for-profit business (i.e choose to boycott that business) that makes it a point to disclose a religious viewpoint or one that is discriminatory in any way against the immutable traits of others, or their religious beliefs (soley on the self-identification with that faith–and that’s for the simply reason that not all people who self-identify with a particular faith are monolithic in their beliefs or adhere to every official tenent or dogma of that faith, and should be evaluated only on those they voluntarily do).
Granted I’m well aware I’m in the minority in my beliefs about religion being treated legally akin to an immutable trait. And I’m also aware that given the prevalence of people of faith in the world, that there’s no legal standard other than treating it like an immutable trait that wouldn’t cause more problems than simply treating it as if it was an immutable trait under the law.
So not really sure how I’d fix that one.
Zionism and the alt-right do not seem to be anti-Muslim in any consistent sense, although much of their pronouncements are indeed vile insults toward Islam’s adherents generally. What I mean is how come Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Emirates are regarded as “allies” whereas Syria and Iran are seen as threats? The obvious answer is that certain Muslims and Muslim nations are seen as complimentary to the Western establishments and the elites they serve, and so no military or harsh verbal attacks are to be directed at those particular “Islamists” even by conservative reactionaries. There is also a bias toward Sunni Islam over Shia Islam in this apparent inconsistency of Islamophobia, as Syria, Iran are predominantly Shi’ite (Gadaffi tried to go beyond the Sunni/Shia sectarianism, interestingly enough). This bias toward Saudi-Arabia-influenced Sunnis (even vicious Salafists) can be seen even in the works of certain writers for the Intercept, and is just as disgusting as the typical knee-jerk bigotry toward all Muslims that is all too common in the West.
My point is there is a great degree of deception about all this anti-immigrant hatred of Islam; it is being used perhaps just as cynically as the other manipulations you highlight here. The many establishments of the West are using all these religious and political ideologies not in any sincere fashion, but to firmly entrench the corruption of the multinational corporatist, militarist and imperialist elite in the halls of power everywhere possible. Rousing fascist tendencies in the populations is useful but not central to this deception, just like the establishment’s pathetic appeal to “centrism” meant to offset the carefully crafted, encouraged and advertised bigotry.
Adding further intrigue is this:
Wahhabis are Sunni Muslims who believe in an ultraconservative interpretation of Islam. They consider non Muslims and less radical Muslims as infidels. This form of Islam is most common in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. It is also the brand of Islam followed by several terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and the Taliban.
A Wahabbi Egyptian cleric, Tala’at Zahran, calls on Egyptians not to support Palestinians against Israel. He claims “most Gazans are Shias and communists.”
Zahran, who is also the representative of Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), in response to the question of whether Egypt should help the people of Gaza against Israeli military strikes, said, “They are Shia and using missiles against the innocent people of Israel, so Israel is forced to retaliate by bombing Gaza.”
Although Zahran and others are factually incorrect about Palestinians being Shia and about who instigated the latest round of fighting in Gaza, he has made his point clear that Wahhabism prefers to defend Israel over Shia.
Shi’ite, Sunni, Wahhabi and the Israel/Gaza conflict
A minor correction. Syria is overwhelmingly Sunnis too. Al-Assad family is from a very tiny sect of Islam known as Alawites. His current alliance with Iran and hezbollah is not based on religious beliefs. In fact, there was a time when his father Hafez Al-Assad was a sworn enemy of hezbollah, and there was spelled blood between the two.
Having said that, you’re spot on about everything else (including your remark about the bias toward Saudi brand of Islam by certain Intercept writers). Thanks.
A minor correction. Syria is overwhelmingly Sunnis too. Al-Assad family is from a very tiny sect of Islam known as Alawites. His current alliance with Iran and hezbollah is not based on religious beliefs. In fact, there was a time when his father Hafez Al-Assad was a sworn enemy of hezbollah, and there was spelled blood between the two.
Having said that, you’re spot on about everything else (including your remark about the bias toward Saudi brand of Islam by certain Intercept writers). Thanks.
A minor correction. Syria is overwhelmingly Sunnis too. Al-Assad family is from a very tiny sect of Islam known as Alawites. Bshar’s current alliance with Iran and hezbollah is not based on religious beliefs. In fact, there was a time when his father Hafez Al-Assad was a sworn enemy of hezbollah, and there was spelled blood between the two.
Having said that, you’re spot on about everything else (including your remark about the bias toward Saudi brand of Islam by certain Intercept writers). Thanks.
Thanks for the correction and the further details. There is even extra complication in the fact that the Wahhabis of ISIS deny that Muhammad ibn ?Abd al-Wahhab’s doctrine of “One Ruler, One Authority, One Mosque” should be understood to refer to the Saudi king – and former MI6 agent Alistair Crooke points out that “It is this rift — the ISIS denial of these three pillars on which the whole of Sunni authority presently rests — that makes ISIS, which in all other respects conforms to Wahhabism, a deep threat to Saudi Arabia.” It’s evident that in the West we’re getting just establishment-serving propaganda, not the real picture nor a remotely honest sense of the actual agendas currently in play. The fact that such horrible Wahhabi atrocities can be ignored by the West and its allies in one instant and condemned in another not due to ethics but merely because of aligned corporate and strategic interests is a hideous example of the sort of malevolence the ruling class embodies.
The only people who see the Saudis and Gulf states as friends and allies are the zionists,who control the medium,and their political whores.
And why,because they help zion.When it is expedient to throw them under the bus,it will be done with alacrity.
This alt right stuff is nonsense.Nationalism in this modern age of American disaster,is neither right nor left,its just patriotism,and I am neither right or left,as ideology is a prison of the mind.
Do some embrace the alt right moniker?Some,but they limit themselves,and give the zionist MSM bloviators something to chew on in divide and conquer,their main purpose in America.
Like hitler said, if there were no jews, you would have to invent them.
It’s all about scapegoating, spreading fear and hate against minorities, it just so happens that the most opportune targets at the moment are muslims, the etablishment, brussels, the media etc.
I am from austria myself, the presidental election is in 3 days.
Many factors played into the rise of the far right (we are in a economic slump since 2008, high unemployment low wage/low investment.
Austria is a small country, only about 8mio inhabitants, last year during the peak of the refugee crisis more then 1mio refugees ran over our borders (about 100 000 stayed to claim asylum ) because they wanted to germany and sweden.
The media showed these masses 24/7 , those pictures changed how people think.
I am housing 2 syrian refugee families, but they, like most others, can’t get a job in our modern high competitive labour market (there are barly any low paid manufacturing jobs left that would give them a opportunity to get into the labor force), they completly rely on the public welfare system.
There is currently a race to the bottom, social benefits are getting cut because the costs are rising.
There are many other reasons for the rise of the right wing party in austria.
It seems inevitable for now.
Will vote green on the presidential race, but everyone i talked to “feels” that this time the rightwing candidate will win.
And this is only the beginning, next year we will elect a new parliament, and in all likelyhood the right wing party will win a landslide…
Sheesh I’m sorry. The first sentence ending in ellipsis should have been blockquoted.
And sorry for putting these at the top, but this stupid commenting system keeps being hit or miss for me depending on who posts the piece as far as the “reply” function being functional.
@ Jose
My point stands. Whether race is a social construct (which it is) or a biological reality, is immaterial to bigotry. That’s kind of a tangential academic debate. Bigotry is not justifiable regardless of what race is or the nature of racial differences.
And for those interested, here is someone who understands what the “working class” all over the globe is up against:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/30/donald-trump-george-monbiot-misinformation
Look, the sooner the working class understands one thing the sooner a viable resistance/reformation movement that cuts across nation-state lines, and across intra-nation cultural divisions, and that’s this–the working class isn’t going to be able to vote or protest its way out of transnational neoliberal globalism that seeks nothing more than the return to a state of what I like to call corporate “neo-feudalism”.
Unless and until the working classes are prepared to organize, plan effectively in solidarity and “mutual economic reinforcement/self-sufficiency” and survive 1-3 months at a time without consumer consumption and while withholding all labor to any corporate entity that employs more than 100 people (i.e. mass rolling cross-industry strikes, or sick-outs, or theoretically labor slow-downs possibly), the working classes will never wield enough power (political or economic) to stop the descent into corporate neo-feudalism. Moreover, unless and until they can figure out how to organize and engage in that type of non-consumption and withholding of labor, they will never be able to pit the forces of global corporate neo-feudalism against each other in the same “divide and conquer” tactic that is used against the working classes.
The working classes will never “incrementally” turn this tide. It has to be all or nothing. The working class has to have enough conviction, solidarity and willingness over a long-enough period of time to demonstrate to the globes corporate elites, that they prepared to bring down the entire neoliberal corporatist global system around everyone, that they will ever get those elites to blink and change enough to save themselves.
And here’s another reality that I don’t think people understand. They think “well that’s the most idiotic idea [above] I’ve ever heard of because the ‘elites’ have all the money and can outlast mass rolling strikes.”
But that’s wrong. The elites can’t in fact outlast much of anything. Their “wealth” isn’t in the form of cash, or ability to grow their own food, or service all their own needs–their “wealth” is tied up in fictional wealth that is tied up in their “investment portfolios” (stock ownership, bonds, real property et al). All of that “wealth” is directly tied up in the continued functioning of “global markets” that rely on “consumer demand” for everything from bananas to petroleum to everything in between, and the “labor” that shows up every day to perpetuate the functioning of those “global markets” and the “wealth” they purportedly generate.
Unless and until the vast majority of working class, globally, is prepared to attack the “system” on the twin pillars of its own weaknesses, the two powers left to the working class (the power and ability to consume enough to perpetuate the global “demand based economy” AND the “labor” that makes all of that function on a day to day basis) then the working class better get itself prepared to survive on an ever diminishing supply of crumb sandwiches, poverty and war in service of a system that cares nothing about whether they live or die, so long as they continue to “consume” and “labor” on behalf of that “consumption”.
And that system and its benefactors will do and say anything to perpetuate their status atop that house of cards, unless and until the working class is prepared to bring it down right around their ears.
That’s the scope and magnitude of what the globe is dealing with. Capitalism is an immoral human organizing system/paradigm and until the working class is prepared to demonstrate that if it doesn’t change consistent with all humans’ rights to the basics (decent access to food, health care, child care, education, housing, infrastructure including green and clean energy and water, job opportunities, and safety nets for those who are unable to work) then the working class will destroy the system right along with all the elites who benefit from it. That’s the alternative as I see it.
The other alternative is to let those very same elites slowly destroy and use the vast majority of the working classes labors and consumption, to slowly depopulate and destroy the planet by pitting the vast majority of the world’s populations against each other in a false fight (to the death) for artificially scarce “resources”.
This is a game to them, and they think you’ll be to dumb to figure out the one solution available to you to win or change the rules of the game. And the longer people think they can vote their way out of this situation, the longer it will take to face and organize properly to fight this fight.
There doesn’t need to be violence or protesting–that’s what they want. They like it when they can paint people as “violent radicals” hell bent on destroying the status quo for the “good people” who just want to “go to work” and “provide for their kids” doing whatever labor is left to those lucky enough to be selected to labor on behalf of the elites.
I say don’t play their game. Be prepared to flip over the board and refuse to play any more and see how long the status quo remains. I’m thinking no longer than about 60-90 days if enough solidarity is built globally among the working class.
Not saying it won’t be difficult to accomplish, but I honest don’t see anything remotely plausible that is going to change the trajectory we are on as a species.
Just my $0.02.
“There doesn’t need to be violence or protesting–that’s what they want. They like it when they can paint people as “violent radicals” hell bent on destroying the status quo for the “good people” who just want to “go to work” and “provide for their kids” doing whatever labor is left to those lucky enough to be selected to labor on behalf of the elites.”
I’m positive the ghost of Tsar Nicholas ll is shaking his head in agreement while visions of another 300 yrs of autocratic rule swirl in his imagination.
Get this straight schmuck. The working class are too fucking dumb to organize at the level you are suggesting, nor will they give up what little comfort they have..like natural gas in the middle of dead winter. However, when push really comes to shove.. like when they’re starving, the only thing that will unite them is their guns. THAT is the only thing the elites are afraid of. Even Piketty warned them. But yeah..by all means..ask those millions of Americans who are barely feeding their families to quit their THREE jobs to strike for 60-90 days.. in solidarity. Right. I’m sure the Ghost of Tom Joad will be on the picket line. Meanwhile, the elites will be rolling on the floor in gut splitting laughter. ..at least till those millions have lost everything and decide the only power they have left is to drag these sonsabitches from their ivory towers and burn them alive in the streets.. along with the politicians.
Flip over the board. Globally. right. Time to take your meds.
In comments below, Wnt referenced the young man who attacked people at Ohio State University earlier this week. Here are some excerpts from an interview with him that happened in August, just as the school year was beginning:
All of the above makes the statements of Professor Clark even more poignant and relevant,
Link to Professor Clark’s comments:
http://www.floridanewsgrio.com/news/world/142328-ohio-state-professor-william-clark-reserves-judgement-on-abdul-artan-after-isis-attack.html
I’ll quote the author of that article from a spot later down you didn’t quote: “But what he said about his wishes for open-mindedness and unity make little sense now given what happened on Monday…”
The actual “Humans of Ohio State” profile was basically him bitching that Ohio State didn’t have special prayer rooms for Muslims unlike the last university he had transferred from. As if universities don’t have better things to build than sectarian worship facilities! I was never very comfortable about having universities running Christian chapels, even when their heritage traced back to explicitly Christian organizations, but I’ll be damned if a public university run by the state of Ohio builds a room formalizing the worship of Islam rather than some more spiritual or at least visually appealing religion like, say, Tantra.
So no. Last week, as far as I’m concerned, Abdul Razak Ali Artan could take his requests for state-sponsored religion and his overblown fears of being attacked in America after he claimed the right to stay here as a safe refuge from Somalia and he could pack them right up his keester and take them back to Africa with him. And once he started attacking us, things got even simpler to figure out.
Of course they make little sense to the author. He wasn’t privy to the facebook posts where Artan talks about how sick he is of Muslims being killed and tortured and asks America to stop interfering in Muslim countries.
And he wasn’t bitching about OSU not having prayer rooms, he was saying that the university was such a big place that he hadn’t yet found a place where he could pray comfortably. He was, understandably, concerned about doing it in public. You have completely misrepresented what was written.
There was no request for state-sponsored religion, that’s just a twisted lie you made up. Whether or not his fears of being attacked were overblown is likely very much a function of one’s perspective and exposure to increasing violence.
I am agnostic, so my preference would be to not have religions involved on campuses anywhere either. However, the fact is that Ohio State, like universities everywhere have groups on campus that are Christian, Jewish and Muslim. And all of them get university support in terms of spaces they can use. That’s how the university works.
I don’t condone what this young man did. But understanding what motivated it, and mitigating those circumstances if possible, would seem to be critical steps if we want to avoid future attacks like this. Of course, as a bigot, YMMV.
In fairness, I should acknowledge that searching I see that there is a distinction to be made between the sort of dedicated Muslim prayer rooms being put up by a few overly accommodating private universities which are not bound by the Establishment Clause ( see https://www.universitybusiness.com/article/accommodations-muslim-students-universities ) and what are generally more impartial arrangements at some public universities that simply allow Muslim student organizations the same power to reserve rooms and schedule events that other student organizations have. I do not oppose allowing student groups to meet because they are religious or due to the identity of their religion. I assumed that the terrorist in this case had been demanding the sort of prayer room installed by the private universities, but I don’t actually know if he was simply asking for the non-dedicated public university practice.
Glenn,
I identify and understand your disgust completely with the Netanyahu administration, the Likud Party, and with the ultra-Orthodox Zionist agenda toward destructive settlement building in the Occupied Territories. It is a road to nowhere but endless war, bloated military budgets, ultrawealthy weapons maker CEOs, and the dehumanization and subjugation of the Palestinian people.
However, as I am sure you know already, there are many terms that are a lot more thoughtful and a lot less incendiary than “pro-Israel”. Pro-Settlements, Pro-Likud, Pro-Netanyahu, pro-Zionist…when you say pro-Israel, it is really no different than when American far right nationalists resort through cynicism and intellectual slovenliness to calling any dissent against the Republican Party’s agenda “un or anti-American.”
Remember there is such thing as a left in Israel. I know I don’t really have to tell you this. There are many, many organizations in Israel and many people in Israel that fight for Palestinian liberation against settlement building, for human rights, against endless war. A government is not all of its constituency. I have many friends in Israel, as I am sure you have some friends in Israel, who are just as concerned and frustrated as you are about the current administration’s horrible record. When you say “Pro-Israel” and you take these rhetorical shortcuts, you invalidate and ignore those people and inflame a situation that is already blazing out of control.
When Glenn uses the term “pro-Israel” I’m very certain he does so knowingly and intentionally. He is right to employ that term.
There is no left to speak of with any power in Israel, and such as there is is under fierce attack and is deeply unpopular in that country. Those considered leftists in Israel often hire security, and are constantly threatened and maligned. Young Israelis are trekking out of Israel for this reason, often to, of all places, Berlin.
Israel is one large settlement. Zionism is settler colonialism. I can and have documented this many times with citations to Zionist founders, both their words and deeds.
Zionism is also ethno-religious supremacy, and as such, completely of a piece with the far-right nationalists now lavishing it with praise and support.
“When you say “Pro-Israel” and you take these rhetorical shortcuts, you invalidate and ignore those people and inflame a situation that is already blazing out of control.”
There were many good Germans, too.
Israel has never been anything other than an occupying force. It is defined by the aggression on full display in 2014.
@ Bill
Even easier, would be for everybody on the planet to be required to have a DNA test analyzing their “genetic makeup and history” to understand that there is no such thing as “race” as a biological matter except the “human race” of which all humans are a part of. And that nobody on this planet is of “pure” genetic “race” or anything else.
“Race” is the silliest and most destructive cultural/social construct human beings have ever devised. And that’s with “religion” giving “race” a very close run for its money.
That the vast majority of human beings don’t even understand the basic biological genetic concepts of genotype and phenotype, and why some human beings have different “phenotypical” traits as a function of isolation, adaptation and environment is incredibly sad and just demonstrates how poorly educated human beings are about the most fundamental biological conditions of their shared existence.
Well more tragic than sad. That any human being judges another on the relative quantity of melanin in their skin, the color of their eyes, the texture of their hair, the general shape of their face or nose or eyes or anything like that–is quite frankly just a reflection of how fundamentally stupid and barbaric the human “race” actually is. Stupid naked unreasoning fearful apes with jobs and hobbies.
I don’t see that changing any time soon unless aliens come into earth’s orbit looking to destroy all of humanity and the “human race” finally wises up to how stupid and silly they’ve been in factionalizing themselves based on stupid “non-differences” in the human race.
But see, the main problem with bigotry is not that it lacks a biological justification (and I agree race is a construct no one can objectively define.) If race could be objectively defined, and statistical differences between races were proven to be 100% biological in nature, would that justify bigotry? Only to a primitive mind. It’s not like it’s OK to oppress the disabled or the elderly, for example, because of their innate biological differences.
In Haiti,light skinned blacks like the Duvaliers ruled for years as some type of nobility there.
Prejudice is found everywhere,in China,in America,in Israel,in Europe in Africa.
As you say,its a human condition,and yes, sad.
I knew a few “white supremacists” in the early 1990s back when I lived in Lousyana. They were affiliated mostly with the “Christian Identity” brand of fascism, but they weren’t restricted to certain militant Christian groups. One had an arsenal in his shack which I had seen — not just guns but grenades and other weapons.
Anyway, one thing that stuck out in my mind about them is they rejected the term “white supremacist” but preferred “white separatist” instead. Just like what I heard 25 years ago, and now with Mr. Spencer and his ilk today, the common theme (stated anyway) is not to eliminate those of other races, but that they should not be allowed to intermingle with white people and should be shipped “back” to the places they were from.
And, if I recall correctly, the Nazis’ original plan was to ship Jews to Palestine, just to get them out of Europe. Of course this didn’t happen, and again, I don’t know if this was just pretense to normalize the idea of rounding up Jews for other purposes later.
The labels change, the scapegoats change, but the same old oppression keeps rearing its ugly head.
“All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it’s up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences. That may sound simple to the point of childishness; I can’t judge if it’s simple, but I know it’s true.” (Albert Camus)
We are all born naked without the slightest hint of ism, race, religion or flag. All this shit is learned and taught by indoctrination, fear, compulsion. Yes we must live with the legacy of human history and there are riches to be drawn from that living legacy, but we must also separate ourselves from a great deal of that legacy because a great deal of it is cancerous. The only cure for this disease grows in mother earth’s soil. You can find it in your brain, in love, in plants, in fungus, in music, in humor, in dance, in beauty, in complexity, in connectedness. So many humans are settling for less than the delights of human freedom. Nationalism, fundamentalism, materialism, moneyism, are all pathetic excuses for the riches of transcendent inner freedom, a wise/playful/and skeptical mind, and a friendly heart.
@ Pauldia
Um have you ever heard of Israel and Palestine? Genocide, persecution, enslavement–check all three.
Or how about, and more every day, the entire Western world’s “persecution” of Muslims in their countries, spying on them, wanting to deport all of them even if citizens, legal residents, or asylum seekers. Absolute ban on immigration from majority Muslim nations (except Gulf monarchies given American politicians would hate to interrupt their campaign/think tanks/charitable foundation/endowed chairs at universities and new buildings/ gravy trains.)
How about kidnapping, detaining and torturing significant numbers of them all over the globe (the majority of whom turned out to be innocent of any “terrorism” or “crimes”), much less drone assassinating Muslims all over the globe without legal due process, all since 9-11?
Ever heard of any of those things? Or do you think those “Western nations” aren’t being run primarily by Christians and Jews?
Or does that not count as “persecution” by definition under whatever dictionary you like to use to populate your nonsensical counterfactual word salads?
@ Tsomv
He has. Five of them. Three of the 5 being best-sellers. Pretty sure nobody but you has ever made the claim or proved he wrote them with any “double standards, empty assertions, red herrings, label mongering or straw men” included. But feel free to read them for comprehension and fact check them and get back to us all. Thanks in advance:
We’ll wait.
Unfortunately Zionist/pro-Israel types have had a long history consorting with and supporting fascist movements. The World Zionist Organization supported Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s in part due to the Nazis’ racial supremacist ideology which paralleled Zionist ideology. Many Jewish leaders saw Nazism as a vehicle for the creation of Israel, hence the Transfer Agreement of 1933. It was Zionist leaders that fought the world-wide boycott against Hitler’s Germany in 1933, and fast forward to today we have fascist/far right political groups and figures calling to end the BDS movement against Israel!! You can’t make this stuff up.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Really? Because without links to factual accounts of all that I’m going to have to assume that you did, in fact, just make that up. #AssPuffs
” Many Jewish leaders saw Nazism as a vehicle for the creation of Israel, hence the Transfer Agreement of 1933.”
This tactic has a long history. You will be attacked if you don’t come home.
As proof, you are attacked by your own tribe. Better get back home where it’s safe …
Zionists worked with Nazis in Lebanon during WWII, fighting against the British. The Zionists continued their attacks on the British after the war. My uncle witnessed RAF Sargents hanged from lampposts in Tel Aviv ca. 1946.
This is the bit, in particular, that I would appreciate a link in support of,
The World Zionist Organization supported Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s in part due to the Nazis’ racial supremacist ideology which paralleled Zionist ideology.
I am aware of the subsequent issues wrt Zionist acts against the British. If you have a link to information on the bit I am ignorant of, it would serve me better than an anecdote – however truthful – about something I already know.
Thanks.
I don’t have a specific link.
If I come across an link or two to relevant statements regarding Zionist/Nazi collaboration I’ll email you …
My view is based on comments attributed to Goebbels, among others, as a method of cleansing the German gene pool. Zionists were only too happy to have Jews flood Palestine. The Zionists needed support and the Jewish cult is all about each other.
Why, after millennia, are there only ~14 million Jews worldwide? Assimilation is anathema to Jews.
I didn’t intend to bore you with my anecdote regarding Jews and hanged RAF airmen. Such behavior is an extension of the idea that Jews were going to target any and all to achieve the Jewish-only homeland.
It was a British force that saved the Jews from annihilation. If Britain had not stopped Hitler at the Battle of Britain there would not have been a D-Day invasion. The camps would have had several more years, at least, of killing.
Many camps were liberated by the British and not a year later Jews were killing the British.
Brits will never forget.
Please consider the heavily referenced “Zionism in the Age of the Dictators” by Lenny Brenner:
http://vho.org/aaargh/fran/livres/LBzad.pdf
Mr. Greenwald I recommend you write a book. Your skills in Leftist Propaganda are masterful: double standard, negative insinuation, empty assertion, red herring, label mongering, straw man. I bow to your superiority!
Hey Tsomv,
Two question.
FACTS: ARPANET was funded by DARPA and INQTEL (the CIAs Venture Capital Arm) Funded Google and Facebook as well (Real News). Vladimir Putin said in early 2014 that the “Internet originally was a CIA project” and “is still developing as such.” Putin comments on disclosures eventually conceded by the US intelligence agencies themselves…
PropOrNot?
FACTS: Today Wikileaks published in searchable format more than 60 thousand emails from private intelligence firm HBGary. As Wikileaks reported on its website, “the publication today marks the early release of US political prisoner Barrett Brown, who was detained in 2012 and sentenced to 63 months in prison in connection with his journalism on Stratfor and HBGary. Coinciding with Mr Brown’s release from prison WikiLeaks is publishing a searchable index of the HBGary emails. WikiLeaks published the Stratfor emails in 2012.”
For those who missed it five years ago (Hillary Supporters) we have to ask…
PropOrNot ?
These don’t look like questions. What are you trying to say?
Ok. Lets simplify this even further. Propaganda as defined by PropOrNot
FACTS: ARPANET was funded by DARPA and INQTEL (the CIAs Venture Capital Arm) Funded Google and Facebook as well (Real News). Vladimir Putin said in early 2014 that the “Internet originally was a CIA project” in and “is still developing as such.” PUTIN COMMENTED (to both the American and Russian press) on the disclosures eventually conceded by the US intelligence agencies themselves…
PUTIN QUOTED COMMENTING ON UNFLATTERING US NEWS TO THE NEW YORK TIMES AND RUSSIA TODAY. PROPORNOT?
FACTS: Today Wikileaks published in searchable format more than 60 thousand emails from private intelligence firm HBGary. As Wikileaks reported on its website FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD TO SEE, “the publication today marks the early release of US political prisoner Barrett Brown, who was detained in 2012 and sentenced to 63 months in prison in connection with his journalism on Stratfor and HBGary. Coinciding with Mr Brown’s release from prison WikiLeaks is publishing a searchable index of the HBGary emails. WikiLeaks published the Stratfor emails in 2012.”
WIKILEAKS QUOTED COMMENTING TO THE ENTIRE WORLD ON UNFLATTERING US NEWS. PROPORNOT?
My belief is that this is absolutely true. From DARPAnet through the first public uses of google this has been a spy machine from the getgo. Oracle software was originally a search engine to search through CIA and NSA databases, before the CEO brought the worlds largest yacht. Google has black SUVs with government plates driving on their campus constantly, spooks and their security.
The idea America didn’t create the surveillance state is absurd, and its obvious that it’s extremely profitable. Many of the worlds richest people are the ones selling your privacy.
Everything you wrote about Greenwald’s piece is wrong (which is why you fling accusations of committing fallacies without citing any actual examples). Moreover, Greenwald has, in fact, written many books, one of them them a bestseller all over the world.
Other than that, great comment.
Interesting ,the Left’s anti-antisemitism problem seems a far greater threat to Jews than the Alt-Right is to Muslims.
The Holocaust, the Left, and the Return of Hate
http://www.thetower.org/article/the-holocaust-the-left-and-the-return-of-hate/
Ach, phooey. Spewings by “Gerasite” Jamie Palmer isn ‘t worth an intelligent person’s time. All that hooha about the UK’s purported leftist antisemitism has been debunked well and often. Frequently by Jews, as in my link.
Actually, my link goes to a Jews Sans Frontieres piece that addresses the general inanity of people like Jamie Palmer, not the “left antisemtism” nonsense per se. For that specifically, see Max Blumenthal’s How Opponents of U.K. Labour Leader Corbyn Advanced a Political Coup With Antisemitism Smears
Talk about scraping the barrel… Jamie Palmer:
‘Nuff said, really…
Most people around the world simply want to live in communities where they share a great deal in common with their neighbors, common values, shared history, etc. You know at minimum a common language. If you try to force diversity and cosmopolitan values on them they will resent it and it will provoke backlash. Doesn’t matter where you are, this is pretty much a universal law. Obviously there are exceptions, people who seek out variety and multiculturalism, but they are the minority
If I were king of the world I’d force everyone to have at least one baby with someone totally outside their race/culture. Then this disgraceful human fear & aggression would be gone in one generation.
Humanity will always disappoint you. Brazil has had considerable amount of miscegenation but it doesn’t mean race is less of an issue or that there aren’t other pertinent divisions. People are naturally tribal
Because well-intentioned force, no matter how heavy-handed, never creates a backlash.
The world turns, and Zionists get into bed with Nazis.
Fascists of a feather kill together.
Same shite,different day.Without the Nazis there would be no Israel.
In 2016, the Muslims are the new Jews and the stage is not Europe alone, but Europe, the US and Israel plus some other States.
That’s what the article is in a nut-shell.
Just serves as more evidence that identity politics and racial pride holds us back as a species. The idea that birthright is a better measure of self-worth than personal accomplishment. Left and Right, both sides use the indiscretions of the other to justify their own indiscretions, painting themselves as the “true underdogs” of society. Facts are inconveniences to be discarded. It never ends.
It is sad, terrifying, and disheartening to see how readily humans target those different from them. This kind of “othering” is always in search of a scapegoat, always looking to find a new group to suppress, demonize, destroy. And at the root of such behavior? Impotence, self-hatred, arrested development on the part of the group doing the demonizing. When will we learn to accept those different from us? When will we learn to work toward compromise?
Also, this article needs editing. There are at least four glaring proofreading errors. Greenwald is an excellent writer, but the quality of his ideas are severely diminished by the lack of sufficient editing.
This political tactic — scapegoating — is as old as politics itself.
It often accompanies a turbulent or stressful political environment as “leaders” (the establishment) attempt to shift responsibility for their failures upon the weakest segments of society. Nero blamed Christians for the Roman fire. Or, to pick a genocide at random:
While it should be obvious, Trump’s election — far from being a critique of the “establishment” (whatever that might be) — actually reinforces the establishment. This is why Trump appointees (Republicans all) will be State-affirming reactionaries rather than pragmatic revolutionaries or problem solving democrats (small d); Trump appointees will defend the status quo while sloganeering revolutionary antipathy towards the establishment and writing reactionary antipathy towards minorities.
Mexicans and Muslims are not responsible for an ineffective American government — they aren’t even symptoms.
They have become targets.
This should be obvious when displaying an apparent paradox Netanyehu addressing a Republican Congress (for his own reactionary purposes, to be sure).
Why you might ask? Why does an Israeli prime minister make common cause with a political faction not quite as extremely conservative as the Nazis who targeted Jewish people? One would expect just the opposite, right?
Because they have affiliated political problems that they cannot solve without a tempting scapegoat — like “radical Muslims” or “criminal Mexicans” — to blame for their own incompetence and/or ineffectiveness.
Trump wasn’t ever running against the establishment nor will he govern in a non-establishment way. The rich will be rewarded, the poor will be scapegoated. Since Nixon, the Republican brand has relied upon (and unofficially encouraged) this sort of scapegoating. (See Lee Atwater for example.)
This is why Bannon can get away defending the alt-right. He has worked in finance and movies. Therefore he isn’t antisemitic. In other words, it’s not bigotry when it’s politics … it’s politics.
There’s nothing new here — no new solutions, no new ideas, not even fresh slogans. There is just a bunch of old, privileged white men protecting their economic interests.
In other words, America.
The only difference this time is they needed Russia’s help.
FACTS: ARPANET was funded by DARPA and INQTEL (the CIAs Venture Capital Arm) Funded Google and Facebook as well (Real News). Vladimir Putin said in early 2014 that the “Internet originally was a CIA project” and “is still developing as such.” Putin comments on disclosures eventually conceded by the US intelligence agencies themselves…
PropOrNot?
FACTS: Today Wikileaks published in searchable format more than 60 thousand emails from private intelligence firm HBGary. As Wikileaks reported on its website, “the publication today marks the early release of US political prisoner Barrett Brown, who was detained in 2012 and sentenced to 63 months in prison in connection with his journalism on Stratfor and HBGary. Coinciding with Mr Brown’s release from prison WikiLeaks is publishing a searchable index of the HBGary emails. WikiLeaks published the Stratfor emails in 2012.”
For those who missed it five years ago (Hillary Supporters) we have to ask…
PropOrNot ?
Glenn proffers a false didactic. It is not pro Israel vs pro Muslim. The Nationalist movements are reactions to failure. In America Muslims are a great contributing ingredient to the American diversity soup. Most are assimilated and highly value education ,family and community. Especially the second generation of Pakistanis and Indians now inhabiting hospitals and laboratories and business’s of America.
These Nationalist political and populist movements did not occur in a vacuum,and it is failure of people like Merkel,Hollande and Obama who should take responsibility. Blaming a cable news outlet ,or people clinging to bibles and guns,or racism is an abdication of personal responsibility. Admitting failure is a sign of strength. I have yet to witness such strength.
One can be pro Israel and Pro Muslim. It is a dangerous game to make this a zero sum game. In Europe Muslims have not for the most part assimilated, living in segregated communities with hostility toward their new countries. It is not anti Muslim to watch Jewish Day schools in Belgium attacked or fearing for personal safety wearing Orthodox Jewish garb in Paris, to choose to leave. Jews are leaving France,and it makes sense. That is not anti Muslim it is survival.
It is not anti Muslim to want “extreme vetting” of young refugees from Somalia or Syria or Afghanistan. It is common sense. And it is not an initiative it is again a reaction to failed policies.
“It is always important to remain vigilant about anti-antisemitism in Europe and other places and to take the threat seriously. But when it comes to these emerging “alt-right” and xenophobic movements that bare obvious similarities with their mid-20th-Century predecessors, it is Muslims who are in the role previously occupied by Jews, …”
This is a false analysis. The Jews were persecuted by Cossack’s,and partisans,and Nazis etc. Muslims are mostly murdered by other Muslims. Shiite vs Sunni, Pakistani vs Indian, etc. No equivalency Glenn.
The victims of failure more than any other is the Muslim. From Yassir Arafat to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to the Royal Families to Assad. Muslims are told that Jews are the devil and the West is evil. Now, those deranged, indoctrinated young minds are refugees of war and Western political failed policy. Political Islam is the real issue,please do not frame the tragedy into the very simplistic ‘Israel vs Islam”.
That’s an impressive stew of fallacies you’ve got going there: strawmen, misdirection, non sequiturs and all kinds of fallacious stuff. You don’t address — much less rebut — the points Greenwald actually makes in his excellent piece.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/jim-bakker-is-excited-for-donald-trump-to-usher-in-the-end-times/
Pauldia, your didactic is summed up in the last paragraph. You’re still blaming the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. The Christian Evangelicals, the right in the U.S. and the blood and soil populist movements in Europe are all intertwined, and have been, for some time. I’ve been seeing Israeli flags at UKIP and Pegida rallies for some time, not to forget those Star of David tattoos at Abu Ghraib.
I’ve included the Bakker article to underscore the flaky beliefs that Evangelicals hold dear. And most right-wingers interpret the bible literally. The blood and soil stormfront fits right in with the Zionist world view. Keep an eye out for that red heifer. The Muslims are just a convenient scapegoat.
//www.rightwingwatch.org/post/jim-bakker-is-excited-for-donald-trump-to-usher-in-the-end-times/
Lots of words there, pauldia, but you say it all in the last paragraph. The populist/nationalist movements in Eastern Europe all have a version of blood and soil at their base, very like Zionism. In the US, the Evangelical Christians, the far right, or even the moderate right, have always been intertwined. 81% of the Evangelicals voted for Trump.
Take a look at what Jimmy Bakker believes. 99% of Evangelicals in the US believe the same. The blood and soil nonsense of Zionism fits right in. Keep an eye open for the red heifer.
“Muslims are mostly murdered by other Muslims. Shiite vs Sunni, Pakistani vs Indian, etc.”
Do you even know what you are saying. So Pakistani Muslims are killing Indian Muslims? In which world? Americans persist in their fantasy stereotyping of India and Pakistan.
India -Pakistan was bad example., was referring to the historical conflict over Kashmir. Two wars fought over it in 19467 & 1965 and very close in 1999. Yes not a true Muslim vs Muslim conflict. But where are Muslims in danger of genocide, persecution,or enslavement from Christians or Jews? That’s where the statement “it is Muslims who are in the role previously occupied by Jews”, falls short. Vetting of refugees is not persecution.Knowing who is in your country is not racism. And voting to change leadership which will stop the madness is not genocide. There is no equivalency by comparing the genocide &persecution of Jews to the electorates of Europe and the US voting for sanity.
Who are you, Stece Emerson?
Again, “Jews are leaving France”, where the hell have you read this crapola? A few have, yes, but it hardly constitutes an exodus! Considering also how hard Israel tries to realise the ‘ingathering of all Jews’, some French Aliyah’s shouldn’t come as a surprise either…
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2016/01/22/middleeast/france-israel-jews-immigration/index.html
Here is a question I have, and have had for years:
Why do we need to entirely negate the the real dangers of anti-Semitism in Europe, or anywhere else, in order to acknowledge the very terrible, horrible realities for millions of Islamic people, especially for those who have been driven from their own lands by proxy wars between countries who have no business waging wars there in the first place? And who likewise have been denied the right and ability to create their own governments by a bunch of oil-greedy, weapons greedy corporatocracies?
Also: Evangelical Christians are usually the most Pro-Israel and they are the Christians who hate Jews the most (I know this from personal and traumatic experience). They’re only pro-Israel because Jesus is supposed to return to Israel and then all non-Christians will become Christians. To say that Far Right Christians are pro-Israel simply because they admire fascism is wrong: it has a lot to do with the writings of the New Testament. And, of course, their agenda is to rid Europe and the rest of the world of Jews and Israel is a great place to send them. And yes, they want to buy war technologies from Israel and Netanyahu is evil and stupid enough to let them buy anything they want. But then again, the United States and Europe sell tons of weapons to Saudi Arabia even though Saudi Arabia is the biggest purveyor of global terror in the world and has a dreadful human rights record (ISIS is the the same type of Sunni as Saudia Arabia is: Wahabi and practices the same barbaric forms of punishment and torture).
That being said:
Recently the entire leadership of Europe’s Jewish community went to the EU and begged for their help. Between the Nationalists and the Islamic Fundamentalists, the Jews live in terror and physical danger (this goes back to, for some reason, 9/11).
Mr. Greenwald, Can you please explain the following few facts (of which there are many many more in the same category and if you’d like I will gladly provide you with them):
1. The Russian ice skating team’s wearing of Holocaust death camp uniforms on stage.
2. Marine Le Pen’s attending the annual “New Horizons” conference of Holocaust Deniers.
3. Marine Le Pen’s ongoing use of Dieudonne as a performer at her private parties (the comedian who specializes in terrible anti-semitic humor like the “Pineapple Jew” song–the same man who says that to kill the West, kill a Jew).
4. The London coffee shop that, until today, sold coffees called “Nutzis” which were labeled with Swastikas?
5. The desecration of cemeteries, concentration camps, etc. all over Europe.
6. It was my understanding the destruction of Hitler monuments was done out of a necessity to stop the HUGE number of Nazis who made so-called pilgrimages there.
6. David Irving and his constant speaking events across Europe.
7. The song with the chorus “Hamas Hamas, Jews to the Gas.” etc.
Or, better yet, ALL THE JEWS who have been fleeing Europe for over a decade, like my stepmother’s family, and my best friend’s family, etc.
7. All the Anti-Semitism I have personally experienced all my life in the United States? Like when the KKK drove my family out of New Mexico when I was a baby? Or when I was brutally raped (still have scars) by a Syrian because he found out I was Jewish? Or when I was four and didn’t even know what Jewish meant, and the Palestinian neighbors smashed my brand new mini-bike with a baseball bat and then beat up my older brother when he tried to stop them just because we were Jewish, even though my mother sympathized with the Palestinians? Or when Syrian and Christian white neighbors threw bricks into our windows and spray painted Swastikas on our driveway? Or when I was beaten up after my job as a nurse’s aide because a co-worker found out I was Jewish, etc. Or all the other countless terrible experiences I have had just because I am Jewish (and I don’t even practice the religion!).
Perhaps when you write another article with this topic, you could actually publish interviews with Far Right Nationalists, aka Nazis who like Jews, rather than a few quotes and a lot of your own often factless rantings.
The more nonsense I hear from so-called humanitarian people like yourself, the more strongly I feel that Jews need a homeland. If it is isn’t in Israel, I don’t know where it will be, since although you and your kind pretend Jews have no enemies, no one will or does want us.
I would seriously consider conversion to either Christianity or Islam,and voila,all scars and pain removed.:)
Total propaganda,probably from an Israeli settler.
The irony of Trump’s administration is that it will likely lay bare the dirty little truth that, while there are a few antiSemites calling getting a thrill from the millions of antiracists, human rights activists, and just outright moral people calling for the end of the Apartheid regime, there are a lot more antiSemites among supporters of said regime. After all, it’s a lot more thrilling, and easier, for a racist to be openly racist and only having to be quiet about one of his hatreds than it is for a racist to have to hide his racism and be satisfied with channeling all his hatred down to a single target, and then having to be confine himself to the secret thrill of having vile reasons for saying the right things.
The irony is right there in the words of alt-right membership – we hate Jews running our country, we don’t mind you running your own. I’m pretty sure Richard Spencer – MSM strawman-elect of the movement – has said as much and I’ve read it elsewhere. It’s a bizarre irony because they are practically defined by their hatred of Jews. But they like the example of an ethno-state that Israel represents.
In the words of Norman Finklestein, I feel bad for Alan Dershowitz, I really do.
There are some obvious differences though – the Jews in Weimar Germany weren’t exactly known for driving into crowds and knifing people at random. I don’t think, anyway. And the Nazi plan for the Jews never involved actually sending them back to where they came from while they begged to stay! And the Jews who were killed, were not killed by some Head SuperJew back in the homeland because they were apostates on account of eating some cheese matzos on Passover or whatever (disclaimer: I don’t actually know Judaism, and whenever I guess at something like that I’m always wrong). But apart from that, maybe you’re on to something.
What a disgusting attempt to blame Muslims for the widespread bigotry and hatred being stoked against them.
With due respect, I think you’re reading a bit much into the OP’s comment. I don’t agree with everything he said, but what I read was that Muslims are – as a whole – responsible for more terrorist acts than other groups. It may not *feel* politically correct, and it’s a bit uncomfortable to admit as a worldly-minded progressive, but can you deny its truth? He certainly didn’t make the point that they (all) deserve hatred for the misdeeds of a few bad apples.
His later response indicated more strongly that he would rather not risk bringing more into our country, lest we see even more attacks on home soil. I’m not sure I agree with that sentiment myself. I do, however, have sympathy for the line of reasoning: not bigotry but, rather, a pragmatic calculation of more Muslims = greater likelihood of attacks.
So, c’mon, Glenn. No need to label the guy (or gal’s) ideas as “disgusting”. Save your strong words for those more strongly stirring the hate-pot.
Jesus -Mona-, how many sockpuppets are you running?
Did you really just call me “Mona”? I once wrote a long post directly addressing Mona. (Or was I talking to myself?) But even aside from that, I cannot wrap my brain around how one might even conceive such baseless, accusative speculation as that.
You have always treated this place as your sandbox.
From Humanitarian Intervention to Anti-Semite labels to Charlie; kitty roca.
No, guy. You got the wrong guy. But I just remembered who you are (took me a second). I’m pretty sure you’re just here to disrupt, so I’m over it. Bye, Felicia.
That comment wasn’t from Mona, so you shouldn’t claim it was.
Well, your ignorance, or your willingness to rewrite reality to fit your needs is showing. The Jews of the Weimar had the sorts of rights that Black Americans had in the 90’s, and Hitler’s first plan (the one he stuck to until his ‘settlements’ kept outrunning his expulsions) was the denial of citizenship and residency rights to Jews. The most direct analogy for things like the few knifing and driving attacks in the Apartheid era Palestine/Israel/Holy Land is the attacks by Bantus on Afrikaaners in Apartheid era South Africa.
“the Jews in Weimar Germany weren’t exactly known for driving into crowds and knifing people at random”
Neither are 99.9999% of Muslims, dipstick.
the Jews in Weimar Germany weren’t exactly known for driving into crowds and knifing people at random.
If you are going to reference the attack at Ohio State University, a place I attended as a student and worked at my entire career, then maybe you ought to do your homework first.
What is known about the attacker – besides his name, nationality and obviously heinous actions – were his own words written prior to his attack:
I am agnostic but even I understand the concept behind biblical verses such as,
Welp. My blockquotes got a little crazy there, but I think people can sort out the gist of what I meant and which bits were written by me. :-s
To begin with, since this article was about Europe I was thinking at least as much of the Nice attack as this one.
Now is the professor’s attitude correct? Well, yes – it is in accord both with what a legal proceeding would do, were the attacker alive, and with a proper Christian attitude. Nonetheless, my original post did not specifically comment on the guilt or innocence of that attacker, and as such, I don’t think I have committed a full transgression on that point. Maybe I was thinking of Mohamed Barry who chopped restaurant patrons in Columbus with a machete, or Faisal Mohammad at the University of California. There are so many of these incidents, they can all sort of run together in your mind…
The fact is, the person whose decision mattered had to make it very quickly – in less than two minutes after the attack started, an OSU security guard had to make the decision to shoot. He didn’t wait for a jury trial or to hear about the guy’s injustices – he saved the lives of the innocent people who had been herded out into the path of terrorist traffic by the phony fluorine leak report.
Now, I know that liberals are supposed to empathize with everybody but empathizing with the terrorist who cuts our throats seems a little overboard to me, especially when it means we end up with champion crooks like Donald Trump in office because the rest of the country thinks we’re dangerously insane. We don’t have to invite people from Somalia to come here; we don’t have to give them a refugee status that means that they’re celebrating their business degree from an American college by driving over our faces. Somalia is desperately poor, and they have a federal government that recognizes something like six different autonomous regions. Am I supposed to believe we can’t safely resettle somebody from the Islamic Courts Union in Puntland or Somaliland if we offer them a buttload of money, in their terms, which is to say on the cheap for us? (I understand there would be some resistance – who wants to take in a bunch of dangerous terrorists….) Donald Trump is saying that this person didn’t need to be in the U.S. and the New York Times complains he doesn’t say why. Seriously??? Look, we gotta cut our losses here, and the Somalians look like good candidates for first under the bus.
Sounds a lot like victim-blaming to me. I strongly doubt that any of the wounded in Columbus had anything to do with “human rights abuses in Myanmar”.
Every murderer has an excuse for their actions, and many go much deeper than reading things that upset them on the internet. If you want to make an argument for more Muslims infesting our countries, giving an example about how even the seemingly innocuous ones can go zero-to-batshit in the name of Allah might not be the brightest tactic.
You’re mistaken. Jews did resist German oppression. There were about a hundred armed uprisings. Of course, it wasn’t easy because they didn’t have access to weapons.
If you’re wondering about what most people would consider organized “terrorism”, there are some examples. Look up, for example, the bombing of the King David hotel.
” I don’t think, anyway.”
We know.
There is a logical explanation for the apparent paradox of ultra right wing support for Israel being used to demonstrate an ostensible lack of antisemitism. Although one is tempted to use the “Enemy of my enemy” routine, the more correct explanation is in the distinction between antisemitism and antizionism. Zionism is itself an ultranationalistic movement and so it is natural that nationalists worldwide would be sympathetic to the desires of the Zionists to relocate all Jews to Israel. Certainly it is perfectly consistent for people like Jean-Marie Le Pen and Viktor Orban to promote antisemitic behavior in their home countries so as to encourage their Jews to emigrate.
It is in this regard that American Jews who support Israeli policies are playing a very dangerous game. The Zionists withhold their criticism of people like Steve Bannon because his encouragement of the notion of a White-Christian-Only America plays to their goals of solving the demographic equation in Israel and supporting its expansionist policies. But it can backfire on those US Jews who see themselves as Americans as opposed to Israeli Americans. After all, the original Nazis were initially supportive of German Jews moving to Palestine. And we know how that worked out in the end.
I have to give Israel credit for finding allies in unexpected places. First it was the Christian Zionists, who wanted Israel preserved so it could be destroyed in the Rapture. Now it is the far right, who possibly wish to expel Jews from their own countries and want Israel preserved as the chosen destination. Or maybe they just wish to use Israel to justify their attacks on their own Muslim populations.
In either case, these alliances of convenience have potential downsides, so Israel should tread carefully.
Posturing for electoral success in Europe where the zionist inspired refugee crisis has created a disaster.
I guarantee almost every MSM outlet in Europe(as here)is zionist controlled.And its not Jews or Israelis invading Europe,so yes,its possible some Europeans see Islam as the greater danger,but intelligent humans can figure out motivations of criminals better than pols looking for support and power.
As far as Trump,its no secret the zionists have opposed him from day one,and that his election has forced a new attempt at sucking his dick.
Unless one thinks Trump is an idiot,he knows who his enemy,and ours,are.
“. . . its no secret the zionists have opposed him from day one”: So how do you account for the large donations of Sheldon Adelson? http://fortune.com/2016/09/20/donald-trump-donation/
No, the only group the Israeli officials fear is true leftists whether at home or abroad. If anything Trump can be inconsistent or say things like “I will be neutral” which they don’t like, but he’s also opportunistic and that’s all they need to know to keep him happy.
Trump is alpha supremo;Yahoo is now on his knees.
Will he work with Israel to promote Americas interests?Very possible.Will he work with Israel against our interests?No way.
Adelson also was a top donor to HRC,and no one ever said Adelson was stupid.His tea leaves also might have been as good as mine.:)
Appears the U.S. election lessons and concerns regarding effectively confronting Islamist extremists and immigration are still being learned. Far too much race and religious hucksters dominating the discussion in post Trump world. Painting significantly large sectors of European voters (or voters in MI) with the dark ugly brush of xenophobes and extremist nationalists does very little to address the obvious and serious inherent problems of the non secular ideology of Islam which is completely regressive and barbaric in its treatment of women and the lgtbq community. Mr. Greenwald divisive rhetoric obscures, as he prefers to take the morally easy low ground whenever he defends Islam against concerned voters by solely making this an argument of intolerance and Islama FEAR when it is much more complicated and difficult to address the very serious issues of Islam’s failure to adopt a more moderate interpretation for assimilating into compatible Western secular societies. Of course when you live in Brazil with a tiny Muslim population of 35,000 (wiki as of 2010) it is quite easy to admonish other countries security concerns as fear based intolerance racism when Catholicism dominates. Maybe if he lived in the heart of a Muslim concentrated small town in England or France he would have a different perspective of what “moderate” Islam is.
As always, I appreciate Mr. Greenwald’s thorough reporting – but what’s the point here, really? Nationalist leaders in Europe are stirring the anger and passions of their citizens because of massive immigration into their countries. Match that with sluggish economic growth and you have your stew.
What is the relevance as to whether these renewed passions retain the anti-semitic flavors of their past, or if they’re now just anti-immigrant? Is the point that Israel should remain wary of these leaders, despite this new support? Tribalism is on the march (literally) all over the industrialized planet – it’s the product of scared and ignorant thinking. The object of ire is rarely relevant, and often changing. The antidote isn’t going to be found in a poltician’s speech or policy.
The point is that it’s often suggested that the rise of the extreme right in Europe risks a resurgence of anti-semitism, but the much more immediate risk is similar levels of threats being directed instead at Muslims. That point was expressly made in the article on a few occasions.
I understood and respect that point – my issue is that I’m not sure voicing Israel as a new benefactor of this re-directed ignorance makes your thrust any stronger.
In any event I think you’re a brilliant reporter and The Intercept is maybe the best journalism available anywhere. I’d love to discuss an internship or employment with someone in your NYC office if possible. Thanks much…
Hey Josh – Thanks. Feel free to contact me at the email address listed at the end of each article.
it’s complicated.
My father was a friend of Werner Von Braun. What does that make him? I met Werner, nice chap. It’s better to relate one on one than member to member. This groupy thing is the nemesis of individuality. Zionists marriage to Nazis? A trojan horse in a trojan horse? Or some clever sorts looking to stoke conflict and war against the muslim world for a little armagetiton?
Hello Mr. Greenwald,
Thank you for you detailed analysis. Particularly the clarification that these far right movements in Europe and the US can be Pro-Israel and anti-Semitic at the same time. For myself as an American, I do worry about one of the later points you brought up about Muslims taking the place of Jewish people, as you put it “mid-century predecessors” clearly influence xenophobic rhetoric presently here in the US and in Europe in places like Austria and France as you touched on.
One issue I have is, why bring up Pro-Israel writer Ben Shapiro without mentioning how vocally against Bannon he has been.
An article by Ben Shapiro stating thing in August: http://www.dailywire.com/news/8441/i-know-trumps-new-campaign-chairman-steve-bannon-ben-shapiro
Also one from just 7 days ago: http://www.dailywire.com/news/8441/i-know-trumps-new-campaign-chairman-steve-bannon-ben-shapiro <<< seems less damning than the one I read before from August but not surprising considering the political climate.
I don't like Ben Shapiro, but he did leave Breitbart when one of their female reporters left in protest after not being defended by here news organization after being grabbed by a campaign staff member of Donald trump.
Here is video and transcript of Michelle fields and Ben Shapiro talking about her experience with what happened: http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/03/14/reporter-assaulted-by-trump-campaign-my-bosses/209254
He is actively warning people about the alt-right and telling conservatives to stand up to them hijacking the policies of their Party via trumps election.
Sorry this was typed on my phone but this man needs to be stood up to. I wonder if it's going to take republicans standing up to him because at this point it looks like they are kissing his ring. I hope I'm wrong.
Michelle fields was one of the most obvious attempts at a political hatchet job I’ve ever seen. She has ruined her credibility forever.
I actually felt bad for the trump team because it was such a slimy attack by Fields.
To say that Shapiro is anti trump because of his “standards” is also a stretch. He’s just loyal to the Bush/ Clinton foreign policy of nation building. He will say anything to keep that in place.
If only there were a country for the poor Muslims… oh wait there’s 49! Now I’m sure they’re all very welcoming and hospitable to Jews, Christians and secularists alike, but I have no plans to relocate. Despite all this talk of globalization it really only seems like the Western nation who are having “cosmopolitan mixtures” rammed down our throats.
You’re bringing up a tangential issue. The reason the alt-right is pro-Israel is not because of immigration. What does one have to do with the other? Clearly, Nazis are not only against immigration (and any country is entitled to have any immigration policy it wants). They also like using their power for submission and conquest. That’s why Nazis supported Apartheid South Africa. That’s why they support Apartheid Israel today, despite the cognitive dissonance about their historical animosity toward Jews.
I recall hearing Rabbi Kahane answer a phone-in question on Larry King back in the day.. the caller was from Israel ( I think ) and believe the caller stated very similar to your comment… Kahane or the caller said that the Arabs have 49 countries and that Jews and Arabs should go for an exchange and that there was no need for a Palestinian state.
The zionists don’t make enough babies?
Then they can have all 50.
Uh-Oh You made the Muslim=Arab fallacy. I’m not saying the Arabs don’t have a reason to be anti-Israel. Israel is an alien state that was imposed on them by foreign powers to make up for their own mistakes. But Europeans aren’t obligated to take in massive numbers of Muslims to make up for the mistakes of the Arab world (and the US of course).
The issue is not whether the Jews have the right to aspire to a nation “of their own”, but rather whether they have the right to establish such a nation by displacing other people from their homes. The number of Arab nations is completely immaterial to that question.
I think that the right thing to have done would have been to give the Zionists a piece of land somewhere in the US – not Native American land, by the way – and generously compensate the former residents by their own measure. Then we could have moved the Wailing Wall and other holy sites to that territory so the Jews would have no need to go to the Middle East. Or, otherwise, to have enforced those provisions of the Balfour Memorandum that stipulated that Israel should be a secular state in which all citizens were equal and free to both participate in all aspects of national life (like serving in the military) and practice their own religions, or not.
Well,they already own DC and Wall Street ,what’s Arizona but desert like Israel?
Grand Canyon admission rights?
There were a few supporters of the South African Apartheid regime who suggested that the problem was he unwillingness of folks like Mandela and Tutu to move to the numerous African states, or the unwillingness of those said states to allow such a resettlement. But whether the unpopularity of that particular method of blaming the victim was due to the Nazi use of that sort of lie being recent enough that most people had a knee jerk revulsion reaction on hearing that variation, or that the ridiculousness of it was doubly exposed is unclear.
Are Nazis and South Africa your only frame of reference? So who are the European nationalists in this analogy?
It is a mistake to accept the notion that these are
“Nationalistic” movements. All of the examples presented here
and the smarmy elephant in the room – the faking U$A –
and their target du jour are primarily worshipers of the same religion.
Self-centered Capitalist Greed.
They all USE nationalism as their preferred way of manipulating others
to fall in and help spur on the degradation. Each of these predatory,
self centered, money lusting fake nations depend upon
keeping patriotic fervor burning a bigger hole in the global environment.
Every person on this planet has descended (and is descending faster
and faster) from the same ancestry in Africa.
Nationalisms and religions generally are profitable fakery for
these fascists, whether in Israel, Austria, or anywhere else.
The illusion of contradiction is of no importance to them because
they have no consciousness beyond themselves and what tools
they can use for their own power-grabbing vanity.
Glenn, spot on as always. You just left out two bits.
First, as the West grows more authoritarian and more Russophobic, we can see the world growing more and more in favor of Nazism. (Due to the one link policy, I can’t really link to the recent UN vote in which many European nations refused to condemn Nazism- and the US voted AGAINST condemning Nazism, and I can’t link to the people who consider Communism to be the equivalent of (or worse than) Nazism.)
I CAN link to an article from Haaretz on how German neo-Nazis are embracing Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/german-neo-nazis-we-re-pro-israel-condemn-anti-semitism-1.247193
Foa and Mounk declare a crisis of “democracy” in the “Journal of Democracy”, July 2015. The veneer of “democracy” on Western political structures wears thin, which might threaten their traditional stakeholders. (Referenced in “The Slow Asphyxiation of Western Democracy…”, businessinsider.com.)
To quote a quote by Scott Stevens, “It’s not the voting that makes a democracy–it’s the counting.”
George Mason we need you:
I think he ^ would disagree w/ the idea of testing Muslims.
On Nationalism: did the US get involved in the Boxer Rebellion because China wanted us outta there? The Boxers reportedly beheaded Christians or tortured them, attacked various legations, etc..
Did the Boxers give rise to Mao?
Sadly, a lot of Americans from various religious traditions have abandoned the desire for freedom of worship and religious neutrality. (One of them is likely to run the Department of Education.)
http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.755957
I have tried to be free of religion for decades, but
like flies and ants at a lousy picnic,
religions keep swarming around me and ruining everything.
George Mason would likely be down w/ that too; I get the whole “US founded as a xtian nation thing” but I sorta doubt it.
Behold I set before you both good and evil and they’re wrapped up in a single entity called religion — rusty bible quote
Enter that the Israeli government implements eugenic measures on African immigrants by forcibly injecting them with birth control.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/eliseknutsen/2013/01/28/israel-foribly-injected-african-immigrant-women-with-birth-control/#6b070f5d2880
This Catholic News Agency 2016 article “France might not have any Jews in the future – and here’s why” point to evidence of a rise in antisemitism as well as other forms of xenephobia in France over the last decade and show how the same dynamic Glenn Greenwald describes in here in Austria play out in the population of France. “The number of French Jews emigrating to Israel spiked to 3,295 in 2013 and more than doubled to 7,230 in 2014, according to the Jewish Agency for Israel which monitors the numbers of Jewish immigrants from France. Previously the annual figure was around one to two thousand”. The article quotes from a 2014 survey by a French think tank FONDAPOL “Twenty-two percent of practicing Catholics surveyed said there too many Jews in France, while 16 percent of all those surveyed answered that way.” And, “[Jewish] Parents are transferring their children from public schools to private schools to escape discrimination and harassment, and many teachers have reported critical or outright anti-Semitic responses from students when they teach about the Holocaust or Jewish history”…
…”The decline of the situation is largely due to two major factors: the rise of the far-right National Front political party, and the resentment of disenfranchised immigrant and minority groups, the report said.”… “The National Front has soared into the mainstream of French politics recently, winning first place in the 2014 elections and the first round of the 2015 regional elections in November. The party “rallies its supporters around animosity towards Muslims, Roma, foreigners, and migrants,” the report stated, and although leaders have tried to cleanse it of anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying rhetoric, its platform “still contains positions on ritual animal slaughter and public subsidies that are discriminatory against Jews as well as Muslims.”… “Outside of the party, many immigrants and descendants of immigrants have been unable to assimilate into the societal mainstream and may harbor resentment toward Jews who they mistakenly see as controlling wealth and power.”…
…”According to the report, the U.S. must speak out against the rise of anti-Semitism but should also refrain from aggravating the marginalization that many groups currently experience in France. In part, “official statements should avoid fueling a ‘clash of civilizations’ narrative between Jewish and Muslim communities and instead urge tolerance and inclusion,” the report recommended
I note for myself the Catholic broadcaster EWTN (I happen to see a lot of their programming!) don’t in any way avoid feuling clashes of civilisations’ narratives. They seem to be becoming increasingly apocalyptic in tone. And, they pretty much, as far as I’ve seen, flat out failed to even mention, never mind examine or condemn in any way Trump’s links with the Alt Right. Trump was lauded in an interview just before the election, where his claim that a personal experience leading to a change of position around abortion was taken completely at face value, as were his minimising of his controversial behaviours towards women. I also pick up on tensions between the Catholic broadcaster and Pope Francis. Their ‘news’ reporter once commented unjournalistically that Francis had put on a lot of weight since becoming pontiff!
Pro-Israel because Israeli’s are nothing more than caucasians occupying/living in the middle-east. And notice how netanyahu has had nothing to say about the recent anti-semitism going on here in the US, yet criticized Obama for every little “perceived” slight. Anybody claiming otherwise is full of sh!t, and they know it.
Israel is very efficient at killing brown people en masse, and they love that. Nazis revere power and oppression of the weak.
Trumps first quote which distinguished him from the rest of the rethug zionist puppets was “I’ll be evenhanded between Israel and the Palestinians.”
I guarantee that statement was the impetus of his whole successful candidacy.
Believe what you will.No decent human thought Israels assault on defenseless Gaza was good.
But if Muslims here think randomly murdering Americans for being Americans is going to win them friends in high places(outside of traitors like HRC),I would think again,though.It won’t help at all,and maybe this is just a reflection of that rational response,anger, by Americans?
The day that changed everything.I love how someone said we are in a post 9-11 world.sheesh.