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Wednesday, January 08, 2020

01/08 Links Pt1: Col Kemp: Barbarous Iran is the real Great Satan, but the morally bankrupt Left is incapable of admitting it; NYTs Iran Coverage: ‘Mind-Boggling,’ ‘Impossible To Parody’

From Ian:

Col. Richard Kemp: Barbarous Iran is the real Great Satan, but the morally bankrupt Left is incapable of admitting it

Fortunately our prime minister and foreign secretary have not fallen into the trap of taking Tehran’s side. They recognise that Iran is as great a threat to the UK, sometimes branded by Tehran as the ‘little Satan’.

Soleimani’s Quds Force directed the killing of dozens of British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, alongside over 1,000 Americans. In 2015 Soleimani’s proxies set up a bomb factory with three tons of explosive materials in north London. Elsewhere in Europe, a Quds Force organised bombing attack in France was prevented in 2018 and two Dutch citizens were assassinated in Holland in 2015 and 2017.

Khamenei has said he will no longer adhere to the nuclear deal with the P5+1. Despite European leaders’ determination to cling to President Obama’s agreement, they know Tehran has been duping them since it was first put in place. In any case this flawed deal would have allowed Iran to legitimately develop material for nuclear weapons in a few years, threatening the whole world.

Rather than unintentionally encouraging Khamenei’s plans for violent retribution, European political leaders should be working towards the downfall of his vicious dictatorship or at least coercing him towards moderation. Already under severe threat from within, the regime has been seriously weakened by the killing of Soleimani which exposed to their own people Iranian vulnerability in the face of superior American power. EU governments should condemn Iran and its violent actions everywhere and support President Trump in re-imposing sanctions. No matter how bitter a pill for them, it is the right course for the decent people of Iran and the safety of others across the Middle East.

According to Sir Keir Starmer, current favourite to replace Corbyn: ‘We need to engage, not isolate Iran.’ He is precisely wrong, presumably unaware that decades of engagement and appeasement have led only to greater violence, never one inch closer to peace. The Government should ignore him and prepare to back America with diplomatic and military action if this situation escalates, making it clear to Tehran that they will do so.

Caroline Glick: Qassem Soleimani is dead. Who's next?

Political commentator, journalist and author Caroline Glick joins Eve Harow to explain – with her trademark directness – the huge importance and ramifications of the US killing of arch terrorist Qassem Soleimani.

A tremendous destabilizing force who was responsible for the murder of thousands in and out of the Middle East, this act has created an opportunity for regime change in Iran.

Caroline shares her opinion on the players in the region and how American strength is critical to ensure security for good people around the globe.

Iraq, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Europe, Egypt - get ready for an hour-long primer on the maelstrom surrounding little, stable Israel.

Lee Smith: Iran and America Are Suddenly Both Naked

By taking decisive action against Soleimani, Trump showed that Iran’s power is an illusion generated by D.C.’s willingness to look the other way

U.S. officials even had scholarly support to rationalize their failure to hold Iran accountable. During the 1990s, Middle East experts promoted a thesis holding that the clerical regime in fact had little to do with Hezbollah. According to the “Lebanonization” thesis, Hezbollah was a homegrown resistance movement that came into being as a local response to Israel’s 1982 occupation of Lebanon. In fact, as Tablet colleague Tony Badran has written, Hezbollah was seeded in Lebanon in the mid-’70s by “Iranian revolutionary factions opposed to the shah.” U.S. policymakers preferred the fiction that Hezbollah was a homegrown product because it supported both their emotional needs and their policy goals: The West had earned the righteous anger of the natives, and there was nothing to be done except atone by way of offering human sacrifices.

In 1996, Iran’s proxy in Saudi Arabia, Hezbollah al-Hijaz, bombed the Khobar Towers, killing 19 U.S. Air Force personnel. The Clinton administration’s hopes for rapprochement with Tehran under the leadership of so-called reformist President Mohammad Khatami required the U.S. to pretend Iran was not responsible.

Between 2003 and 2011, according to a State Department assessment, Iran and its Shiite allies were responsible for killing more than 600 U.S. servicemen in Iraq. The body count doesn’t include the U.S. servicemen killed by the Sunni fighters ushered from Damascus international airport to the Iraqi border by Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, Iran’s chief Arab ally. Yet George W. Bush reportedly passed up opportunities to kill Soleimani, deciding against opening a third front against Iranian terrorists that might endanger his doomed “Freedom Agenda.”

There was even less of a chance Obama would kill Soleimani, though his administration reportedly had him in the crosshairs, too. Soleimani was the key to the JCPOA, Obama’s crowning foreign policy achievement. He admired Soleimani, a hard man who got things done. Rather than stop the Quds Force commander, Obama told Arab allies that “they need to take a page out of the playbook of the Quds Force.”

The former president’s conviction was simply the result of what American officials had been saying since 1979. Therefore, Obama counted on Soleimani’s ability to control the ground in Syria and help America stabilize the region. Yet only weeks after Obama diplomats and Iran agreed to the JCPOA in July 2015, Soleimani was in Moscow petitioning Vladimir Putin for assistance in Syria. In spite of the billions of dollars in sanctions relief that Obama had granted Iran, and the $1.7 billion in cash the U.S. shipped directly to the IRGC, the Quds Force and the Shiite international were on the verge of losing the war to rebels in pick-up trucks.

Six U.S. administrations were complicit in turning Iran into a regional power. In that context, the Obama administration’s decision to flood Iranian war chests with cash and recognize its right to build a nuclear bomb was the logical culmination of the rot eating away at the Beltway for four decades. It was perhaps to be expected that an outsider who often doesn’t know when to keep quiet, and can’t stay off Twitter, would be the one to sing out like the boy in the fairy tale. It’s true, the emperor has no clothes. The rules have changed but that doesn’t mean the Iranians won’t be looking for revenge.

01/07 Links Pt2: Ilhan Omar Named 2019 Anti-Semite of the Year; A Model Response to BDS; AHA Rejects Anti-Israel Resolutions for Fourth Time; Beyond levity: ‘The New York Times’ 2019 ethical failures

From Ian:

Trump goes all out against congresswomen for being 'totally against Israel'

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib are not only anti-Israel but also anti-Semetic, US President Donald Trump claimed while doing a radio interview on Monday.

Speaking to conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, Trump said, “If you go back 10 years or eight years maybe even five years, Israel was the king of the Congress. Our Congress protected Israel and fought for Israel. You look at the way the Democrats in Congress are treating where you have AOC, and you have Tlaib, and you have Omar they are actually, you know, anti-Semitic.”

“They are totally against Israel,” he added. “The things they’ve said. You go back to the past. You look at the things that they’ve said about Israel and Jewish people. It’s incredible. Ten years ago, that would be unacceptable.”

Trump lamented that this was unfortunate because of Israel's importance to the administration. "I think they've lost their minds, to tell you the truth," he attacked.

Although Trump didn’t provide specific examples, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar and Tlaib critics slammed the two Congresswomen for recent anti-Israel comments.

Ocasio-Cortez is in favor of cutting military aid to Israel as long as it maintains its presence in disputed territories in Judea and Samaria and Israel barred both Tlaib and Omar from visiting Israel because of their pro-BDS convictions.

He continued: “I still can’t believe it. I’m a little bit old-fashioned in that sense. Because I’ve grown up and there was always great protection and reverence for Israel. Now it’s the opposite. In the Democrats, it’s almost a negative. They’re going out and what they do for Tlaib and what they do for Omar, Representative Omar of Minnesota and AOC —I think for incredible the way they talk about Israel. You know it just was unthinkable to do that ten years ago and sooner.”

Limbaugh then suggested that Trump’s pro-Israel legislation has helped drive the hypercritical Israel sentiment among progressives within the Democratic Party.

“I actually think you helped drive them even more insane than they were,” he said.

Ilhan Omar Named 2019 Anti-Semite of the Year

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) was named the 2019 anti-Semite of the year by an organization that seeks to combat the spread of anti-Jewish bias.

The organization StopAntiSemitism.org chose Omar, who has repeatedly spread anti-Israel and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, following a public nomination and voting period.

"Among Rep. Ilhan Omar's transgressions, she perpetuated anti-Semitic tropes on Twitter to nearly two million followers and introduced an anti-Semitic resolution in Congress that promoted boycotts of the State of Israel and likened them to boycotts of Nazi Germany," the group wrote in a press release Monday. "The public's vote highlights the growing concern among Americans about the Congresswomen's ability to use and abuse her position of power to propagate hatred in the U.S."

Liora Rez, a spokesperson for StopAntiSemitism.org, said in a statement that Omar's selection highlights the public's growing awareness of rising anti-Semitism in the United States.

"Anti-Semitism is plaguing our nation and it's about time we create real consequences for those spreading it," Rez said. "By exposing bigots like Rep. Ilhan Omar, we are ensuring that the public is alert and able to take action."

Congresswoman @ilhan, why would you attack @AlinejadMasih, the voice & inspiration for hundreds of thousands of oppressed women living in Iran who bravely defy the unjust Hijab law by filming themselves walking through Tehran with their hair uncovered? 🤔https://t.co/4kp0DoCb6J
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) January 7, 2020

AOC Likes Tweet From Russian State Media Claiming Iran Doesn’t Target Civilians

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) liked a tweet from a Russian-funded operative claiming that Iran, the world's most prolific state sponsor of terrorism, does not target civilians.

"A friend flying into the US says he hasn't seen so much security since 9/11," activist Rania Khalek said in a Sunday tweet liked by the Democratic congresswoman. "The US is terrified of how Iran will retaliate. Iran won't attack civilians, that's what al Qaeda does. But it shows this assassination did the opposite of making Americans safer and our leaders know it."

Khalek is a host for In the Now, a viral media company funded by the Russian government that was kicked off Facebook for its pro-Russia propaganda. She previously served as an editor for anti-Israel site The Electronic Intifada but resigned after speaking at a pro-Bashar al-Assad conference in Syria.

The extent of Khalek's pro-Iran advocacy was on full display in a recent YouTube livestream in which the activist claimed that "Iran is a country that mostly keeps to itself." She also said "it's a really brave country that's been essential to keeping the Middle East stable throughout the last several decades."

Contrary to Khalek's claims, Iran has been responsible for countless attacks on civilians carried out by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its funding of various terror organizations. Ocasio-Cortez's office did not respond to questions about Khalek's Russian state affiliation or her claims about Iran's targeting of civilians.

AOC liking a post written by a pro-Assad war crimes denier and Russian state media employee telling the lie that “Iran won’t attack civilians”, as if it doesn’t do so repeatedly and systematically, shows how endemic ignorance and propaganda are embedded within the left. pic.twitter.com/n70086Szwk
— Oz Katerji (@OzKaterji) January 6, 2020

10/29 Links Pt2: J Street, blank checks and putting the "squeeze" on Israel; Apologist for Terror: Hamas Suicide Bombings Were ‘Unwise Strategy’; Max Blumenthal: Tyranny’s Mouthpiece

From Ian:

J Street, blank checks and putting the "squeeze" on Israel

“Our aid is not intended to be a blank check,” J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami, stated on October 27, at the organization's annual conference.

This type of so-called "conditioning," "linking," and/or "squeezing" of Israel over US aid and support has an unfortunately long history in Washington and it is time for it to stop, once and for all. It's unseemly and the US - Israel relationship loses its value for both nations every single time this road is gone down.

Ben-Ami's proposed tactics seem very close to those actually employed by Henry Kissinger in the 1970s. Kissinger is due to speak at an upcoming Jewish conference in New York, and it’s worth considering the real cost of this type of rhetoric and strategy.

Distinguished Israeli diplomat Yehuda Avner (1928-2015) saw this close up in his role as a speechwriter, secretary, or adviser to five different Israeli prime ministers, from both sides of Israel's political spectrum—Golda Meir, Levi Eshkol, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, and Shimon Peres. He also served as Israel’s ambassador to both Britain and Australia, as well as in other senior diplomatic positions.

In his widely-acclaimed book, The Prime Ministers, Avner shared numerous remarkable anecdotes—including some troubling episodes involving Secretary of State Kissinger during both the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the 1974-1975 shuttle diplomacy between Egypt and Israel.

Avner bluntly refers to American officials—meaning Kissinger—who “tied” Golda’s hands on the eve of the Yom Kippur War, telling her “in no uncertain terms not to fire the first shot,” and even “warned” her “against full-scale mobilization” of Israel’s reserve forces. Over 2600 Israeli soldiers died as a result.

Kissinger did not want Israel to win a decisive victory because he thought that would make it hard to wring concessions out of the Israelis after the war.

Apologist for Terror: Hamas Suicide Bombings Were ‘Unwise Strategy’

It’s widely accepted that Israeli society has drifted to the political right since the breakdown of the Oslo process. Palestinian terrorism played a significant role in destroying faith in the peace process and the political left, and enabled the more risk-averse and security-minded Benjamin Netanyahu to become the dominant political figure of the age.

Outrageously however, for Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, an Israeli “peace activist” writing in The Independent, it’s not Palestinians who are responsible for terrorism but Israelis:

Although easier to paint “the other” as the guilty party, it’s more painfully honest, especially for promoting healing of that trauma, to acknowledge at least partial Israeli responsibility for those suicide bombings.

Yes, you read that correctly – Israel is partially responsible for the indiscriminate murder of hundreds of its own people in Palestinian suicide bombings.

This, Godfrey-Goldstein attributes to an environment of right-wing incitement, the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by Yigal Amir, the election of Benjamin Netanyahu and the appalling massacre of Palestinians at Hebron’s Cave of the Machpela by Baruch Goldstein in February 1994.

In Godfrey-Goldstein’s alternative reality, the absence of peace is not due to Palestinian violence but primarily the figures of Yigal Amir, Baruch Goldstein and Benjamin Netanyahu.

While it is legitimate to argue the impact these people and their actions have had on the peace process, treating Palestinians as incapable of taking responsibility for their own actions and blaming Israeli victims for terrorism is not.

Tyranny’s Mouthpiece

On September 8, 2019, Syria’s state news agency published an article about the beginning of the Third International Trade Union Forum in Damascus, which hosted “dozens of intellectuals, journalists, (and) political and social activists from Arab and foreign countries.” Among the attendees were the American journalists Max Blumenthal and Rania Khalek.

If you want to know why Blumenthal and Khalek were welcome at an event organized “under the auspices of Bashar al-Assad”—aside from the fact that they’re frequent contributors to the Russian propaganda outlets Sputnik and Russia Today—the rest of the article should give you an idea. It condemns the “aggressive terrorist war” launched against Syria, along with the “economic war that constitutes terror in and of itself” (a reference to U.S. sanctions). It calls for a media campaign to galvanize world public opinion in support of the Syrian government and “reveal the truth about the U.S. policy of besieging independent and free countries.” It points out that the “real goal of the war on Syria is to stop it from being a force that opposes U.S. and Israeli plots in the region.” And it emphasizes the importance of “exposing the practices of international imperialism.”

In other words, Syrian government propaganda is almost perfectly aligned with the arguments Blumenthal and Khalek have been making for years. Like the Syrian Ministry of Information, they present the Assad regime as an embattled and encircled victim of a jihadist-led coup backed by the United States and other Western powers.

For example, Blumenthal constantly emphasizes the atrocities of jihadist groups like Jaish al-Islam and al-Nusra because they give him moral and political cover for defending Assad, who has committed atrocities on a far greater scale. When he posted a picture of himself in a “neighborhood east of Damascus occupied by the Saudi-backed Jaish al-Islam until early last year,” he didn’t bother mentioning the fact that he was also surrounded by notorious government interrogation sites that are part of what Human Rights Watch describes as the regime’s “torture archipelago.” Nor did he mention that he was just down the road from the sites of the Ghouta chemical attacks in August 2013, which HRW reports “killed hundreds of civilians, including large numbers of children” and which can “almost certainly” be blamed on government forces.

White ( non Venezuelan) Cosplay socialists Max Blumenthal & Ben Rubenstein assaulted an older women who’s an actual Venezuelan and part of the altercation IS recorded... and now they’re upset that they’re being held accountable.. 🎻 pic.twitter.com/TXynY2a0ZK
— Naomi S. 🍑 the 🍊 #freesyria (@NomiBlockS) October 29, 2019

09/09 Links Pt2: Netanyahu reveals another Iranian nuclear weapons development site; Bari Weiss: Anti-Semites with PhDs are harder to fight; Max Blumenthal, anti-Israel activist, tours Syrian regime’s Damascus

From Ian:

Matti Friedman (NYTs): The One Thing No Israeli Wants to Discuss

The decisive factor in next week’s election — and the reason for Benjamin Netanyahu’s durability — is a repressed memory.

When trying to understand Israel’s election on Sept. 17, the second in the space of six months, you can easily get lost in the details — corruption charges, coalition wrangling, bickering between left and right. But the best explainer might be a small film that you’re unlikely to see about something that people here prefer not to discuss.

The opening scene of “Born in Jerusalem and Still Alive,” which just won the prize for best first feature at the Jerusalem Film Festival, catches the main character grimacing as he overhears a glib tour guide. When she describes downtown Jerusalem to her group as “beautiful,” the “center of night life and food for the young generation,” Ronen, an earnest man in his late 30s, interrupts.

“Don’t believe her,” he tells the tourists in Hebrew-accented English. “You see this market? Fifteen years ago it was a war zone. Next to my high school there was a terror attack. Next to the university there was a terror attack. First time I made sex — terror attack.” One of the tourists sidles over, interested. “Yes,” Ronen tells her, “we had to stop.”

No single episode has shaped Israel’s population and politics like the wave of suicide bombings perpetrated by Palestinians in the first years of the 21st century. Much of what you see here in 2019 is the aftermath of that time, and every election since has been held in its shadow. The attacks, which killed hundreds of Israeli civilians, ended hopes for a negotiated peace and destroyed the left, which was in power when the wave began. Any sympathy that the Israeli majority had toward Palestinians evaporated.

More than any other single development, that period explains the durability of Benjamin Netanyahu, which outsiders sometimes struggle to understand. Simply put, in the decade before Mr. Netanyahu came to power in 2009, the fear of death accompanied us in public places. There was a chance your child could be blown up on the bus home from school. In the decade since, that has ceased to be the case. Next to that fact, all other issues pale. Whatever credit the prime minister really deserves for the change, for many voters it’s a good enough reason to keep him in power on Sept. 17. (h/t Yerushalimey)

MK Ayman Odeh, Head of the Arab Joint List on official PA TV: "Bringing down this government together with Benjamin Netanyahu is a great [Palestinian] national goal." What do you think? https://t.co/mzhQ5QZ4Mc pic.twitter.com/EAvFFYBJbW
— Pal Media Watch (@palwatch) September 9, 2019

Bari Weiss: Anti-Semites with PhDs are harder to fight

In order to be welcomed as a Jew in a growing number of progressive groups, you have to disavow a list of things that grows longer every day. Whereas once it was enough to criticize Israeli government policy, specifically its treatment of Palestinians, now Israel’s very existence must be denounced. Whereas once it was enough to forswear the Jewish Defense League, now the very idea of Jewish power must be abjured. Whereas once Jewish success had to be explained, now it has to be apologized for. Whereas once only Israel’s government was demonized, now it is the Jewish movement for self-determination itself.

This bargain, which is really an ultimatum, explains so much.

It is why Jewish leaders of the Women’s March were subjected to anti-Semitic attacks and exclusion by the movement’s other leaders.

It is why at the University of Virginia, Jewish student activists were barred from a minority-student coalition to fight white supremacy.

It is why Manny’s, a popular café and event space in San Francisco, is being regularly protested. Its owner – a gay, progressive Mizrahi Jew – is, according to the protesters, “a Zionist and a gentrifier.”

And just as those on the far right have an out when accused of anti-Semitism – we like Jews just fine so long as they self-deport to Israel and keep our country unsullied – those on the far left have an out as well. We like Jews just fine, they say, as long as they shed their stubborn particularism and adhere, without fail, to our ever-shifting ideas of justice and equality. Jews are welcome so long as they undertake a kind of secular conversion by disavowing many or most of the things that actually make them Jewish. Whereas Jews once had to convert to Christianity, now they have to renounce Jewish power and convert to anti-Zionism.

Self-Mutilation as a Jewish Cultural Strategy and the Sad History of the Yevsektsiya

Of course, Judaism has always been uncool, going back to its origins as the planet’s only monotheism, featuring a bossy and unsexy invisible God. Uncoolness is pretty much Judaism’s brand, which is why cool people find it so threatening—and why Jews who are willing to become cool are absolutely necessary to Hanukkah-style anti-Semitism’s success. In the days of Antiochus, this type of anti-Semitism needed those boys who voluntarily underwent painful genital surgery to prove that Jews weren’t the problem—just the barbarity of Jewish law. During the Soviet era, it needed proud internationalists to prove that Jews weren’t the problem, just the repulsive chauvinism of Jewish national identity—including what we now call Zionism.

The Soviets actually went one better. In 1918, they created an entire branch of their government solely for cool Jews, whose paid job was to persecute the uncool ones. This was called the Yevsektsiya, or the Jewish Sections of the Communist Party, and in their brief and bloody lifespan, one finds the origins of today’s supposedly novel concept: Jews who are of course not anti-Semitic (how could they be? they’re Jews!), but simply anti-Zionist. In the course of not being anti-Semitic and being simply anti-Zionist, the Yevsektsiya managed to persecute, imprison, torture, and murder thousands of Jews, until their leaders were themselves purged.

Yevsektsiya-style anti-Semitism, or Hannukah-style anti-Semitism, always promises Jews a kind of nobility, offering them the opportunity to cleanse themselves of whatever the people around them happen to find revolting. The Jewish traits designated as repulsive vary by country and time period, but they invariably contradict the specific values that the surrounding culture has embraced as “universal.”

The reason for this is clear: There is actually nothing “universal” about those particular values, except the insecurity of the societies hoping to enforce them. Not everyone feels it is critical to a well-lived life to play sports in the nude; not everyone believes that Jesus is the son of God; not everyone agrees that authoritarian central planning is the solution to the world’s ills; not everyone thinks that denouncing one’s ties to an ancestral homeland is a sign of virtue. Jewish particularity exposes the arrogance of a society’s self-righteous leaders along with their profound insecurity, their deep fear of any suggestion that there are other ways to be. Those insecure leaders then enlist the help of Jews by promising them a merit badge of universal righteousness. Thanks to Judaism’s inherent uncoolness, there will never be a shortage of Jews willing to comply.

Ultra-Left bookstore cancels screening of film on Gaza because producer Max Blumenthal is such a pro-Syria turd

The uber-Left social media is in an uproar because one of their own has decided that supporting Syria's murderous regime is perhaps not very progressive.

Bluestockings is a bookstore in Manhattan that describes itself as "a volunteer-powered and collectively-owned radical bookstore, fair trade cafe, and activist center in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. We carry over 6,000 titles on topics such as feminism, queer and gender studies, global capitalism, climate & environment, political theory, police and prisons, race and black studies, radical education, plus many more! "

It was scheduled to screen an anti-Israel film called "Killing Gaza" and follow that with a discussion via Skype with Max Blumenthal who produced the film.

Then it realized that Blumenthal supports the murder of hundreds of thousands by Syrian president Assad, and decided that he is perhaps not as progressive as his anti-Israel credentials would indicate.

In a Twitter thread last night, the bookstore wrote:

We here at Bluestockings want to be very clear on our decision to cancel the Killing Gaza screening the @nycDSA set for March 16. All the love to the DSA, it's clear that there wasn't enough due diligence on both our parts in regards to the film's director, Max Blumenthal.

As has been pointed out to us over the past few days, Max Blumenthal and many in his camp regularly make a point of retweeting and sharing pro-Assad stances.

This goes from directly mocking Syrian refugees to suggesting that Assad's war crimes are completely fabricated. Which hurts not just the Syrian people but the sizeable Palestinian population within Syria.

The objection to this screening is entirely based on Max Blumenthal and we are in talks with the DSA to screen another film that is made by and centers Palestinian voices in the ongoing conflict against the Israeli army.

Bluestockings is a community space first and we want to make sure that our inclusivity does not come at the expense of Middle Eastern communities and activists.

The response has been pretty evenly split between those who love Blumenthal's hate for Israel above all, and those on the far-Left who still have some idea of the difference between right and wrong. (Not with Israel, of course, but I suppose we should praise those who actually agree that killing hundreds of thousands of Syrians is a bad thing.)

Here's a subthread where Lebanese journalist Rania Khalek and her friends explain why they are so upset, to a little pushback - but mostly support.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Holocaust cartoon competition winner Carlos Latuff disappoints some fans (Petra Marquardt-Bigman)

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman

As long as the Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff focused on bashing Israel, his fans could see nothing wrong with his participation in the “International Holocaust Cartoon Competition” organized by an Iranian newspaper in 2006. Latuff won the second prize with one of the countless images he produced on the antisemitic theme presenting Israel as today’s Nazi Germany, while the Palestinians appear as victims suffering like the Jews under the Nazis.

But the down-with-Israel camp that never had a problem with antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism is no longer one big happy family united in hate for the world’s only Jewish state. The horrors committed in Syria by Assad and his allies Iran and Russia have convinced some people that Assad’s ardent hatred of Israel isn’t quite enough to embrace him – though there are still many veteran Israel-haters like Max Blumenthal and his ilk who remain ardent defenders of Assad’s regime.

I wrote already in fall 2016 about the backlash against Blumenthal’s determined efforts to make butcher Assad and his allies look good; at around the same time, Blumenthal’s good friend and fellow-Israel-hater Rania Khalek also lost some of her erstwhile fans over her eagerness to embark on a career as an Assad apologist.

Now it seems that Holocaust cartoon competition winner Carlos Latuff has managed to alienate a few of his fans with a cartoon that smears Syria’s famous White Helmets – a volunteer rescue group that tries to help civilian war victims – as Islamist terrorists.

And just like with Max Blumenthal, erstwhile fans of Latuff are now disappointed that he “even glorified the Russian invasion and bombing of Syrian civilians as some fight against terrorism and imperialism.”

It’s welcome news that more people seem to realize that “Carlos Latuff is a fascist and a smear merchant. He is motivated by hate and resentment. He has no regard for truth or justice. If you use his crude and racist cartoons, you do your cause a great disservice.”

Arguably though, it’s a bit late to come to this conclusion more than ten years after Latuff got a prize at Iran’s “International Holocaust Cartoon Competition.”

And in any case, it seems that most so-called “pro-Palestinian” activists remain ardent fans of Latuff’s vile output.

The notorious “hate site” Mondoweiss features his cartoons regularly; one good example of Latuff’s endless recycling of the antisemitic meme presenting Israel as today’s Nazi Germany and the Palestinians as the Jews of Europe in the 1930s and 1940s is a cartoon Mondoweiss published last October “to celebrate the IDF’s 70th birthday.”

Here are some additional examples of Latuff’s largely undiminished popularity among those who think the slaughter that has been going on in Syria for years should not distract anyone from the urgent task of demonizing the world’s only Jewish state.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

01/24 Links Pt2: How Arafat Eluded Israel’s Assassination Machine; Saving the Syrian Jewish Brides; Why Do Western Gays Abandon Their Islamic Brothers?

From Ian:

NYTs: How Arafat Eluded Israel’s Assassination Machine

The choice facing Ivry on that day in October 1982 was only one example of a dilemma that has confronted many Israeli authorities over the course of the nation’s brief history — the violent and sometimes irreconcilable clash between the fundamental principles of democracy and a nation’s instinct to defend itself.

As a reporter in Israel, I have interviewed hundreds of people in its intelligence and defense establishments and studied thousands of classified documents that revealed a hidden history, surprising even in the context of Israel’s already fierce reputation. Many of the people I spoke to, in explaining why they did what they did, would simply cite the Babylonian Talmud: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” In my reporting, I found that since World War II, Israel has used assassination and targeted-killing more than any other country in the West, in many cases endangering the lives of civilians. But I also discovered a long history of profound — and often rancorous — internal debates over how the state should be preserved. Can a nation use the methods of terrorism? Can it harm innocent civilians in the process? What are the costs? Where is the line?

Increasingly, people want to talk. It was during a conversation in 2011 with a senior officer in a North Tel Aviv cafe that I heard for the first time about how Sharon had ordered that transport plane carrying Arafat to be shot down in 1982. He described everything in detail but set a stiff condition for publication of the story — another person had to describe the event on the record as well. Only by doing that could I publish the story. I went to see that person, knowing how difficult it would be to get him to speak about the episode. I approached in a roundabout manner before I touched on the relevant point. The man looked at me with his steely gaze, but then a softer and slightly sad expression came over his face. “For more than 30 years,” he said, “I have been waiting for someone to come and ask me about this story.”

No target thwarted, vexed and bedeviled the Israeli assassination apparatus more than Yasir Arafat, the charismatic P.L.O. leader who died in 2004. Sometimes he would simply escape, and sometimes the officials overseeing an effort would call it off because the target could not be confirmed or because the price in civilian lives was deemed too high. Time and again, the desire to kill Arafat placed Israel at the center of the ongoing debate about what a nation can and cannot do to survive. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

David Collier: Uni of Warwick – false accusations of aggressive & misogynistic behaviour

And it is important to remember that the issues mentioned are serious, but localised. After I released the last report, some press articles lost both perspective and context, painting Jewish existence at Warwick as an image of constant peril. Little could be further from the truth. As someone who constantly seeks context rather than headlines, and in support of Jewish students at Warwick, I need to address some of this here.

As a result of the exaggerated threat, Jewish students on Warwick released a statement that is worth reading. These students firmly believe that Warwick is one of the ‘greatest campuses’ in the UK for Jewish students. They remain proud of the growth and activity of the Warwick Jewish Israeli Society.

The facts speak in their favour. They firmly defeated the BDS motion, and passed a ‘Warwick Against Antisemitism’ motion in the students union, organising a ‘whole week celebrating the diversity in Israel and hosting holocaust survivors’. It was the BDS defeat that led to the small group of Faculty founding ‘Warwick for Justice in Palestine’ in the first place.

They accept they have issues with university support and individuals within the Student Union, but are insistent this does not reflect on their experience of Warwick as a whole. For them, most of the Faculty, and most of the student body are on-side and supportive. Anti-Israel activism is in general seen for what it is. Remember, only 10-15 students turned up for the event last Wednesday. On a campus that holds thousands.

This small group of activists are an issue, and whilst holding the greater picture in focus we must be allowed to deal with it. In context, and bearing in mind the real-life issues of the students. I am absolutely certain many of the Faculty on Warwick are appalled by the actions of the few. I am also certain over-exaggeration, confuses the issue, complicates life for all students on Warwick, and in many cases can be self -defeating.

What everyone deserves, is for the university to recognise the problem that does exist, and deal with it. The only question is – do they have the guts?

Abbas, May, Trump

Please join me here as I discuss with Avi Abelow of Israel Video Network the implications of Mahmoud Abbas ripping off his mask, as well as the pressure building for Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May to go and the May/Trump fiasco.

12/31 Links: Trump: Iranians tired of having wealth stolen, ‘squandered on terrorism’; OECD: Israel ranked 11th happiest country in the world

From Ian:

Trump says Iranians tired of having wealth stolen, ‘squandered on terrorism’

US President Donald Trump again encouraged the protesters in Iran on Sunday, saying that the Iranian people were no longer prepared to see the country’s resources “squandered on terrorism” as mass protests continued.

“The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism,” Trump tweeted, saying that it looks like the Iranians “will not take it any longer.”

“The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!” he said.

Trump’s tweets the previous day angered Iran’s government, leading the Foreign Ministry spokesman to say the “Iranian people give no credit to the deceitful and opportunist remarks of US officials or Mr. Trump.”

Trump’s remarks came with the Iranian interior minister cautioning that Israel, the US, and other regional powers do not understand the nature of the clashes and that their delight at anti-government demonstrations is misguided.

A third night of unrest in Iran overnight Saturday saw mass demonstrations across the country in which two people were killed, dozens arrested and public buildings attacked.

The entire world understands that the good people of Iran want change, and, other than the vast military power of the United States, that Iran’s people are what their leaders fear the most.... pic.twitter.com/W8rKN9B6RT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2017

Stephen L. Miller: Iran's protests are powerful and real. Why are mainstream media outlets so hesitant to report on them?

How will the Obama Presidential Library wing look celebrating a nuclear deal with an oppressive Iranian regime that could possibly be deposed by security forces and the military joining with protesters, thirsty for democracy and a return to an Iran before the 1979 revolution?

More to the point, how will it look if the Trump administration, of all things, facilitates and encourages such change in Iran?

The prospect of this is not lost on the self-styled resistance and anti-Trump media, all too anxious to witness the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Obama Library or hand a Nobel Prize to former Secretary of State John Kerry.

Overseeing the fall of an oppressive, hardline Iranian regime that sponsors terror all around the globe – followed by the rise of a democratic Iran not interested in aggression against its neighbors – would be a foreign policy victory for President Trump, one of the biggest for a president since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

If the Iranian regime is ousted, the move would neuter Hezbollah’s primary source of funding. It would diminish Hamas at a time when the United States rightfully is moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in defiance of the United Nations.

Replacement of the Iranian government could signal that Assad’s days in Syria are finally coming to an end, without powerful bullies to back him up. A new Iranian government would also no doubt give Russia pause about meddling in Middle East affairs – a hesitancy it did not have when the Obama administration gave Russian President Vladimir Putin “flexibility.”

Combative media reluctant to give President Trump credit for any policy victories – along with reluctance by anti-Trump analysts on the right (this one included) – should not divert our attention from Iranian citizens risking their lives to take to the streets. These Iranians hope the United States and the rest of the world do not ignore them again.

Why Can’t the American Media Cover the Protests in Iran?

Selling the protesters short is a mistake. For 38 years Iranian crowds have been gathered by regime minders to chant “Death to America, Death to Israel.” When their chant spontaneously changes to “Down with Hezbollah” and “Death to the Dictator” as it has now, something big is happening. The protests are fundamentally political in nature, even when the slogans are about bread. But Erdbrink can hardly bring himself to report the regime’s history of depredations since his job is to obscure them. He may have been a journalist at one point in time, but now he manages the Times portfolio in Tehran. The Times, as Tablet colleague James Kirchik reported for Foreign Policy in 2015, runs a travel business that sends Western tourists to Iran. “Travels to Persia,” the Times calls it. If you’re cynical, you probably believe that the Times has an interest in the protests subsiding and the regime surviving—because, after all, anyone can package tours to Paris or Rome.

Networks like like CNN and MSNBC which have gambled their remaining resources and prestige on a #Resist business model are in even deeper trouble. Providing media therapy for a relatively large audience apparently keen to waste hours staring at a white truck obscuring the country club where Donald Trump is playing golf is their entire business model—a Hail Mary pass from a business that had nearly been eaten alive by Facebook and Google. First down! So it doesn’t matter how many dumb Trump-Russia stories the networks, or the Washington Post, or the New Yorker get wrong, as long as viewership and subscriptions are up—right?

The problem, of course, is that the places that have obsessively run those stories for the past year aren’t really news outfits—not anymore. They are in the aromatherapy business. And the karmic sooth-sayers and yogic flyers and mid-level political operators they employ as “experts” and “reporters” simply aren’t capable of covering actual news stories, because that is not part of their skill-set.

The current media landscape was shaped by years of an Obama administration that made the nuclear deal its second-term priority. Talking points on Iran were fed to reporters by the White House—and those who veered outside government-approved lines could expect to be cut off by the administration’s ace press handlers, like active CIA officer Ned Price. It’s totally normal for American reporters to print talking points fed to them daily by a CIA officer who works for a guy with an MA in creative writing, right? But no one ever balked. The hive-mind of today’s media is fed by minders and validated by Twitter in a process that is entirely self-enclosed and circular; a “story” means that someone gave you “sources” who “validate” the agreed upon “story-line.” Someone has to feed these guys so they can write—which is tough to do when real events are unfolding hour by hour on the ground.

Faced With Accusations Of Focusing Only On Israel, BDS To Also Target Vulgaria (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

: Credit: Softeis via Wikimedia Commons

Durban, December 27 - Leaders of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement that singles out the world's only Jewish state have responded to criticism that their declared concern for human rights extends only to where Jews can be blamed, by announcing a campaign to call for political, economic, cultural, and diplomatic pressure on the European nation of Vulgaria, which also violates the rights of those under its dominion.

Mustafa Barghouti, Rania Khalek, and several other prominent BDS activists issued a joint statement this morning (Wednesday) to the effect that the movement seeks to dispel the false accusation of hypocrisy by highlighting at least one place other than Israel whose alleged misdeeds must be combated through BDS.

"We have in the past dismissed characterization of our emphasis on Israel's oppression of Palestinians as attempts to distract from the issue," the statement read. "However, following extensive consultations with many of our activists around the globe, we decided to make a good faith gesture to demonstrate our sensitivity to concerns that our actions match our rhetoric. We therefore call on all governments, companies, organizations, artists, academics, and institutions to cease all contacts with Vulgaria and its officials effective immediately."

The statement continued with a description of the Vulgarian regime's mistreatment of its indigenous population. "Baron and Baroness Bomburst must cease their depredations against their people," it declared. "Practices such as child-catching and a ban on producing or raising children carry ominous echoes of everything we accuse Israel of doing against Palestinians, and must stop."

BDS movement figures explained that Vulgaria represents a compromise. "The apparent hypocrisy of caring about human rights only where Israeli policies are concerned has taken a toll on our credibility," observed one activist who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for his safety. "So a small but vocal minority among us have been agitating for a visible expansion of our activities to encompass other places where human rights are egregiously violated - not to imply that Israel isn't the most evil, corrupt, oppressive, genocidal regime in existence, but to give some token acknowledgement that groups other than Palestinians under Israeli occupation might also have rights that are being denied or violated: Ukrainians, Rohingya, Sudanese, Uighurs, Tibetans, Syrians, even Palestinians not under Israeli occupation. But to the majority of us, such a change of direction would dilute the effectiveness, such as it is, of our focus on Israel. So we worked out an in-between proposal under which BDS calls for pressure on a country that doesn't exist, and that pleased everyone."

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

The blood libels of Passover 2017 (Petra Marquardt-Bigman)

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman

Some two weeks ago, Yair Rosenberg showed in a Tablet article how anti-Israel activists and Jew-haters used a tweet about a pre-Passover toast by Israel’s deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely to claim that “Israeli Foreign Ministry officials are literally toasting yesterday’s event [i.e. a chemical attack on civilians] in #Syria.” As Rosenberg noted, “this latest blood libel is a reminder, if one was needed, of the enduring nature of anti-Semitic tropes, which somehow find ways to adapt to new mediums and situations without shedding their essential characteristics.”

Even though many of the people who responded to the tweet pointed out that the toast was for the holiday, the tweet has remained up; other users tweeted similar versions and also left their tweets up despite being told that the toast was for Passover.

Unsurprisingly, among those who retweeted this new blood libel was Rania Khalek, though she quietly canceled her retweet after she was called out for it on Israellycool.

But Khalek couldn’t remain abstinent for long, and eventually she retweeted the view of notorious Assad apologist Sharmine Narwani that “Syria was targeted for destruction” so that Israel could push for a recognition of its annexation of part of the Golan Heights.

Khalek’s friends and former colleagues at the Electronic Intifada (EI) weren’t idle, either: they published a post by the vile David Sheen under the title “In Israel, the eliminationist camp is already in charge.”

Another EI tweet promoted Sheen’s post by insinuating that Israel was conducting a “campaign against African babies”.

In his relentless quest to demonize Israel, Sheen promotes in this post a video of a “lecture” in which he claims to present “some of the seediest scandals that plagued Israeli society in 2016.” As he notes: “Many of these were covered extensively by The Electronic Intifada and by this writer specifically, but otherwise received little attention from other media outlets.” Worried that promising coverage of Israel’s “seediest scandals” might not be enough to get EI fans to watch all of the video, Sheen urges his readers to really watch “the entire 90-minute lecture,” though he warns that doing so “all in one sitting can be somewhat exhausting and even deeply depressing as it contains a list of horrific crimes and the human suffering they cause.”

However, some of the almost 2000 people who did watch Sheen’s “examination of Israel’s state-sponsored race wars against indigenous Palestinians and African refugees” since it was posted on March 21 apparently felt it was a rather rewarding experience.

Commenter Khurram Aziz praised Sheen for his “excellent” work and promised to send his video “to all Dutch media outlets;” he also sympathized with Sheen’s complaint that the media were neglecting Israel’s evils, but had an explanation: “virtually all MSM news outlets including Reuters, and even Alt Media (Controlled Opposition) are under control of Rothschild Zionists and the partners in crime the Jesuits of the Vatican!”

Aziz also noted that as a musician, he observed “in the Jazz scene here in I💜AMSterdam and NY, a preponderance of Jewish musicians hogging the limelight […] admittedly very good in their own way, but clearly this is the result of the Hidden🔯Hand in the Music Industry.”

Aziz was so enthusiastic about Sheen’s work that he left several additional comments.

Sheen got some more comments from fans of his work.

Clearly, David Sheen’s most enthusiastic fans get his message. For the rest of us, anti-Israel activists like Sheen, Khalek and Abunimah as well as their fans are a reminder that the Jew-hatred that is reflected in the centuries-old blood libel still has plenty of proponents in the 21st century.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Max Blumenthal-fan Reza Aslan worries about Israel (Petra Marquardt-Bigman)

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman

Some two years ago, I wrote about Reza Aslan’s gushing praise for a book by Max Blumenthal under the title “No Truth in Advertising: Max Blumenthal’s New Book on Gaza.” But now Aslan is involved in a major project that has actually been advertised quite truthfully, because the way CNN has promoted their new series “Believer” reveals right away that it is just a sensational show intended to boost ratings: “In this new spiritual adventure series, renowned author and religious scholar Reza Aslan immerses himself in the world’s most fascinating faith-based groups to experience life as a true believer.” While I’m not religious, I don’t know any sincere “true believer” who would like to see his or her deeply-held faith presented in a “spiritual adventure series” featuring a “religious scholar” who “immerses himself” for every episode in another – preferably exotic – “faith-based group.” It’s a bit like making the now fashionable donning of a “hijab for a day” into a lavishly produced series, and the message is inevitably: just dress up appropriately and participate in some rituals, and voilà – you’ll “experience life as a true believer” of whatever beliefs are deemed telegenic enough to be featured by Reza Aslan on CNN.

An excellent critique under the very appropriate title “Reza Aslan’s Cynical Careerism and CNN’s ‘Believer’”, written after Aslan’s first (truly atrocious) episode on Hinduism, notes that “creating controversy seems to be all part of the plan too; during the premiere of Believer Aslan tweeted a link to an interview on the Huffington Post entitled ‘Every Episode of Reza Aslan’s ‘Believer’ Will Piss Somebody Off (And It’s Awesome).’ It is essentially click-bait for TV.”

However, originally Aslan apparently didn’t think that “every episode” will “piss somebody off,” because when he was busy filming the episodes some two years ago (i.e. not long after he had warmly endorsed Blumenthal’s glorification of Hamas), he tweeted: “Just wrapped episode 3 in LA (which everyone will love) and off to Israel for episode 4 (which everyone will hate).”

Apparently, Aslan still feels that this episode will be particularly controversial; his pinned tweet at the time of this writing reads: “No matter what I say, no matter what I do someone is going to get pissed off in this episode;” an embedded short clip shows him in Jerusalem with the same message.

I’m writing this before the episode is airing on Sunday evening (conveniently at a time when most Jews will be very busy preparing for Passover), but the promotional material shows already that, as usual, Reza Aslan will dress up to ‘immerse himself’ in Judaism…

But I’ll also admit that I don’t need to watch the episode to be pissed off – just reading the title of Aslan’s CNN article promoting this installment is enough for me: “Reza Aslan: Why I worry about Israel’s future.” Well, when people who cheer Blumenthal and other antisemitic Israel-haters profess “worry about Israel’s future,” it usually means they’re worried that Israel has a future.

To be sure, Aslan focuses on an issue that actually also worries me and many secular Israelis: fundamentalist tendencies among ultra-orthodox Jews and their political influence. But with his trademark superficiality, Aslan dramatizes what serves his agenda and ignores whatever doesn’t fit his desired “narrative” – after all, while he likes to describe himself as a “scholar of religions,” he is “a tenured Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside.” So it is hardly surprising that Aslan claims to have spoken “to a number of secular Jews in Israel who openly worried that the ultra-Orthodox are on the verge of turning Israel into a Jewish version of Iran;” but if he really found people who worry “that the ultra-Orthodox are on the verge of turning Israel into a Jewish version of Iran,” he perhaps mingled with the same people Max Blumenthal met with when he was in Israel.

From Aslan’s Twitter timeline, one can see that he greatly appreciates Ha’aretz as a source of material for denigrating Israel, but for once, I have good tidings from Ha’aretz for Reza Aslan: he doesn’t have to lose sleep over his worries for Israel’s future – as Anshel Pfeffer concluded in a recent article under the title “In Israel the Age of the Rabbis Is Ending”: “No, Israel isn’t becoming more religious. It’s actually becoming more flexible as the lines that used to divide among the secular, traditional, religious-Zionist and ultra-Orthodox − and clearly demarcate the sects and streams − have become blurred.” Pfeffer even threw in a line criticizing the media for overlooking the trends he described: “The media as usual is finding it hard to drop its old habits.” Looking at you, Reza Aslan…

So here’s how Aslan concludes his article:

“Whether the ultra-Orthodox are in fact able to one day transform Israel into a religious state remains to be seen. But what cannot be denied is that their influence over Israeli society and the Israeli government is only growing. And as someone who lost his own country to a small but powerful group of religious zealots, I genuinely worry about the future of Israel.”

But Aslan is genuinely lying when he claims to worry about the future of Israel, because he doesn’t want Israel to have any future. As he said in a Twitter exchange with notorious Israel-haters some two years ago, he rejects a two-state solution “as a fantasy;” at the same time, he indulges the fantasy that the Arab-Muslim majority state that should replace Israel can work out swell if there’s “1to1 interaction thru art/culture.”

Yeah, maybe Reza Aslan will do his part by teaching a free workshop on creative writing?

But the truth about Aslan is that he has for years promoted antisemitic Israel-haters. Here’s a selection of his relevant tweets and statements from the past few years.

In fall 2013, Aslan promoted Max Blumenthal’s antisemitic screed “Goliath.”

Less than two years later, Aslan endorsed Blumenthal’s next book, which glorified the Islamist terror group Hamas; Aslan’s praise is downright obscene: “Max Blumenthal has spent the last decade transforming himself into one of the most vital voices in journalism today, always speaking truth to power with fearlessness and integrity. As with his previous books, The 51 Day War is sure to be talked about for years to come.”

Astonishingly, Aslan didn’t think that, given his new role as a CNN star, it might be prudent to tone down his ardent support for the Israel-hating fringe. A few weeks ago, he backed Rania Khalek, who – just like Blumenthal – had come under severe criticism from erstwhile fans for her whitewashing of the murderous Assad regime. Together with notorious anti-Israel activists like Ali Abunimah and several other contributors to the Electronic Intifada and various other anti-Israel sites, Aslan even signed a statement in support of Khalek. Among several other notorious Israel- and Jew-haters, Aslan’s co-signatories also include the cartoonist Carlos Latuff, the proud winner of a prize in the 2006 International Holocaust Cartoon Competition sponsored by the Iranian regime, who is well known for using “’Judeophobic stereotypes’ in his attacks on Israel.”

That’s the kind of company Aslan chose when he endorsed Blumenthal a few years ago, and that’s the kind of company Aslan chose now when he backed the notorious Khalek. Apparently, CNN has no problem with that, but to provide a person with this record a prominent platform to claim that he worries about Israel’s future is utterly misleading: like the Israel-haters Aslan has repeatedly endorsed, his main worry about the world’s only Jewish state is clearly that Israel has a future.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

04/05 Links Pt1: Livingstone’s words have emboldened anti-Semites; A Nobel Prize for al-Qaeda?

From Ian:

UK’s Labour suspends Livingstone for year over Hitler-Zionism comments

The UK Labour Party on Tuesday suspended former London mayor and senior party official Ken Livingstone for one year for comments about Hitler supporting Zionism that a disciplinary committee found “grossly detrimental” to the party.
Jewish groups, who had been calling for Livingston to be expelled, called the move “deeply disappointing” and said it would erode the fractured trust between the party and its Jewish members.
“Given that Ken Livingstone has been found guilty, we are deeply disappointed at the decision not to expel him from the Labour Party. A temporary suspension is no more than a slap on the wrist,” the Jewish Leadership Council said in a statement.
“Livingstone’s antagonistic attitude towards the Jewish community has been longstanding and has had a huge impact on Jewish people,” the group said. “This decision makes us question if the Labour Party wanted to repair its historic and long-standing relationship with the Jewish community.”
Those sentiments were echoed by the Board of Deputies of British Jews. “Relations between the Labour Party and the Jewish community have reached a new all-time low,” said President Jonathan Arkush.

Ken Livingstone’s words have emboldened anti-Semites

A bottled punishment
The Labour National Constitutional Committee (NCC) panel that heard the case should at least be congratulated for the correct ruling, but predictably, they bottled the punishment. Livingstone has brought the party into disrepute and emphatically so, but it does not end there. He has continued, unapologetically, to dig himself into a further hole and in doing so is damaging the Labour party.
In the wake of this bottled decision, I have been receiving emails from those most emboldened by it. I have been asked how much the Jewish lobby will be remunerating me by, why Jewish votes are so priceless and congratulated for “not cringing to…subhumans”.
A cursory search of Twitter and one will find similar comments with Holocaust denial and other foul racism. One supposedly Labour-supporting group posted a message on Facebook stating the decision to further suspend Livingstone was “manufactured in Tel Aviv” a comment straight out of the far-right handbook. The Labour party should be a force for good but what happened yesterday has inspired racists and antisemites. We will have to act.
Gaslighting
This type of revisionism seeks to demean or undermine what happened to Jews and others at the hands of the Nazis. Decent people will rightly be horrified by it. Attempts by Livingstone or others to gaslight what he said must be resisted.
He said Hitler was supporting Zionism. Look up Zionist in the dictionary and you’ll find it explained as a supporter of Zionism. This claim is part of a pernicious form of anti-Jewish hatred. Antisemitism should not be treated differently to any other form of racism.
There is no choice. The leadership of the party must respond and review the decision. I call for anyone that has ever supported Labour to join, step forward and speak out in order to demand the quick change that we need.

Douglas Murray: In defence of Ken Livingstone

As the historian Paul Bogdanor showed in a scholarly article last year, Brenner imbibed his ideas from the well of Soviet propaganda. As opposed to far-right Holocaust fabrications (which either claim that it did not happen, or downplay the numbers), Soviet-inspired anti-Semites tend towards claims that the Jews were themselves involved. Brenner, who was involved in the 1980s with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), clearly helped dig this well, from which Livingstone drank deeply. In Livingstone’s own 2011 memoirs he credited Brenner’s books with having ‘helped form my view of Zionism and its history’.
On international affairs — an area in which he has mercifully never had a meaningful role — Livingstone’s views are a hodge-podge of learning from quacks. But all good quacks lean on nuggets of truth. In the case of Jews in the 1930s, it is true that a small number of Labour Zionists had meetings with Nazi officials in 1933 about helping German Jews emigrate to what was then Palestine. But these were not ‘clandestine’ meetings, as Brenner and Livingstone claim. And their aim was not to cooperate, much less find mutual interest in the creation of a Jewish state, but rather one small part of a desperate scramble to get some people and possessions out of Germany.
Brenner and Livingstone’s take is classic crackpot history. And like Livingstone’s frequent citings of Mosaddegh and the CIA in discussing the wider Middle East, it isn’t that what he’s saying didn’t in any way happen. It’s just that what happened doesn’t remotely support the conclusions he comes to.
Many observers, especially British Jews, wonder why Livingstone wants to keep raking over all this. Is it a demonstration of anti-Semitism? Or senility? Both seem possible. But it is also possible that, armed with his little learning, Livingstone has chosen his version of history, as many people do, and is sticking with it.
He is wildly wrong, of course. If he had any power, his proselytisation on behalf of his theory could be dangerous. But Ken has no power, and his crazy insistence on arguing every inch of ground has instead allowed a public debate about a corner of left-wing pseudo-history that might never otherwise have had a light shone on it to allow for such mainstream debunking.