Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, August 20, 2017

08/20 Links: Why Anti-Zionism Is Anti-Semitism; When Feminists Join Islamist Terrorists;

From Ian:

Dr. Mordechai Kedar: The Hajj and the struggle for Islamic leadership

What can we look forward to this year when the Hajj to Mecca approaches? I do not know, but I will not be surprised if the political tension between the Saudis and Iran, particularly after the Sunni ISIS defeats, Shiite Hezbollah victories and Iran's moving into Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, finds an outlet during the Hajj. It could be in the form of a Shiite boycott of Mecca or Saudi violence against any Shiites who attempt the pilgrimage to Mecca.
In June, Jerusalem became the site of the struggle ("Ribat") between Islam, the religion that expects to take the place of Judaism and Christianity, and Judaism, which is in the midst of a return to its former status as a living, worthy religion. The background of the struggle is the renewal of Jewish sovereignty on the Temple Mount. During the short period of Muslim demonstrations for the right to enter the Al Aqsa Mosque without "Jewish" security checks, Saudi Arabia's voice was conspicuously absent.
The reason for the Saudi silence was the fear that the Muslim Brotherhood and those over whom they hold sway would raise the Al Aqsa Mosque to a level of importance that could contest the centrality of Mecca in Islam.
This plan was heard in Muslim Brotherhood media pronouncements. In 2012, for example, Safwat Higazi, the Muslim Brotherhood's chief spokesman in Egypt, said that the capital of the Islamic Caliphate that can unite all the Arab nations "is not Mecca, not Medina, not Cairo, but Jerusalem. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Why Anti-Zionism Is Anti-Semitism

One in Three British Jews Consider Leaving UK, Majority Thinks Labour Party Harbours Anti-Semites

In interviews with thousands of British Jews, almost a third of them said they have considered leaving the United Kingdom over the past two years due to antisemitism.
The findings are part of a report published Sunday by the Campaign Against Antisemitism watchdog group, which conducted since 2015 interviews with more than 10,000 British Jews together with the YouGov market research company.
In interviews conducted in 2016 and 2017 with a combined sample population of 7,156 respondents, 37 percent of them said they have been concealing in public signs that would indicate that they are Jewish.
Only 59 percent of the respondents since 2015 said they feel welcome in the United Kingdom and 17 percent said they feel unwelcome.
Only 39 percent of respondents from 2015 onward said they trust justice authorities to prosecute perpetrators of antisemitic hate crimes.
Three-quarters of the people interviewed said they feel that recent political events have resulted in increased hostility towards Jews. Since 2015, 80 percent of respondents said they believe that the Labour Party is harboring antisemites in its ranks.
In 2015, Jeremy Corbyn, a far-left politician who in 2009 called Hezbollah and Hamas his “friends,” was elected to lead Labour. Corbyn said last year that he regrets calling the terrorists his friends but Jewish groups in the United Kingdom and beyond have accused him of whitewashing antisemitism and allowing it to grow among the many thousands of supporters who joined Labour in support of his policies.

2015: JC poll reveals 88 per cent of British Jews have not considered leaving UK

The vast majority of Britain’s Jews have no intention of packing their bags despite rising concern about safety after the Paris attacks, according to an authoritative new poll for the JC.
Almost nine out of 10 – 88 per cent - say that they have not considered quitting the UK since last week’s atrocities, compared to just 11 per cent who have thought of leaving.
Among 18-34 year olds, however, the percentage of those who say they have considered leaving jumps to over 17 per cent.
Considering overall safety in the wake of the murders in Paris, nearly a third report feeling “much more concerned”.
When asked about their personal safety, three-quarters still feel secure – over three times more than those who do not.
Seventeen per cent feel “very safe and 58 per cent “quite safe”, compared to 19 per cent who feel “quite unsafe” and only three per cent “very unsafe”. The remaining three per cent are undecided.

According to Palestinian media, a man who moved from Gaza to Sweden was murdered yesterday.

Reports say that Mohammed al-Bazem, 28, was shot in the head and neck as he opened his door yesterday.

Original reports said that he was a former prisoner in Israeli prisons, but his father denies that. He says that he moved to Sweden in 2008 after his brother was killed in the first Gaza War (which seems unlikely since that war ended in 2009 and chances are Israel didn't allow anyone to emigrate during the war).

According to his father, al-Bazem complained about a loud party that was happening on the apartment above his about an hour before his death. The father, seemingly knowing lots of details from thousands of miles away, says that the party featured alcohol and drug abuse.

And one of the residents in that apartment is a Jew.

What more evidence do you need?

Ma'an is now reporting as fact "A Jewish man shot Mohammed from close range, killing him with two bullets in the head and neck" even though its headline says that there is still ambiguity surrounding the case.

Police in are saying nothing beyond that a young man was shot to death in his apartment.

UPDATE: Palestine Today say it was two Jews who killed him.

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I missed this: Rasmea Odeh admitted role in terror in 1980 interview

Supporters of terrorist Rasmea Odeh are upset that the judge in her sentencing hearing didn't allow her to finish reading her long statement that had little to do with her actual case and was simply an anti-Israel polemic.

Odeh did not get very far before Judge Drain interrupted her the first time. “This case is about you making false statements in immigration applications.”

Odeh interjected saying “This is my first and last chance to speak. Palestinians are not terrorists” and then continued with her prepared statement.

Odeh continued to tell the history of the UN conventions that say Palestinians have the right to resist occupation, questioning why like the early Americans, Palestinians are not given the right to fight for their independence, and that the US government has supported the Israeli occupation of Palestine by selling arms illegally to the Israeli government to use against the Palestinians. Judge Drain interrupted two more times saying “This is not important. This is not the place to talk about that.”

After Odeh said “This government must be held responsible for the Palestine occupation and the colonization of our country. Israel has no right to exist as an apartheid state,” Judge Drain interrupted the last time with a threat. “If you continue, I fill find you in contempt and you will find yourself locked up.”

Undeterred by this direct threat by the judge, Odeh concluded, “It was unjust they locked me in jail, tortured me, raped me and destroyed my house. I will raise my voice to say we have the right to struggle for our country.”

Like many terrorists, Odeh has intended to use the US court system as a platform to push propaganda. The judge pointed out that this all has nothing to do with her lying on her immigration application and stopped her. (Odeh still got her full statement published in anti-Israel media.)

What I hadn't noticed until now (although of course Legal Insurrection noticed this in 2014) was that Odeh had directly admitted to a role in British Consulate bombing in 1969 that her supporters claim she was tortured into confessing. I have already shown that her friend admitted on video Rasmea's involvement specifically in the supermarket bombing, but Rasmea herself admitted that she was involved in the attempted British Consulate bombing a few days later in a long interview published in the Journal for Palestine Studies in 1980:

I returned to the West Bank in early 1969 and was arrested on February
28 and accused of involvement in the supermarket explosion in West
Jerusalem and another in the British Consulate. We had placed a bomb there
to protest Britain's decision to furnish arms to Israel. Actually we placed two
bombs, the first was found before it went off so we placed another.

Later, she claims that Israeli prison authorities showed her other people being tortured, and she says:

They showed me all these things so that I would confess to things I didn't know of, but I didn't confess what I did know.

This is besides her detailed confession, which can be seen in Arabic (Odeh falsely claims that she was forced to sign a Hebrew confession that she did not understand,) where she describes her roles in both the Supersol bombing and the failed British Consulate bombing.

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Clashes at Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon kill at least three

At least one person was killed and several others were injured on Saturday – the third day of clashes between Palestinian security forces and militant group Badr in Ain el Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon, Lebanon, local sources said

Saturday's clashes broke out after fighters belonging to the mainstream Palestinian group Fatah, led by the West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, fired at a district where the leader of the armed group was believed to be taking cover.

Scores of families were forced to flee the area.

The fighting began on Thursday after armed men – allegedly sympathetic to Bilal Badr, a militant wanted in connection with “terrorism” – fired at the headquarters of a joint security force, comprising the main Palestinian factions of Fatah and Hamas, inside the camp. Two people were killed in that fighting.

The clashes eased on Friday before intensifying again on Saturday, forcing dozens of families to flee the camp and seek shelter in Sidon mosques.

The sound of fierce gunfire and rocket fire could be heard outside the camp as black smoke billowed over Ain al Hilweh.

The fighting shook the Al Tiri district a few metres (yards) away from a Lebanese army position.

By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army does not enter Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, leaving the factions themselves to handle security.

Ein al Hilweh is the crowded "refugee" camp that the Lebanese built a wall around, complete with watchtowers. It is a real prison for Palestinians so they can kill each other without Lebanese police bothering to worry about it.

The Arab world loves Palestinians so much, don't they?

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08/19 Links: Well-intentioned antisemitism; Hamas summer camp teaches youths to ‘liberate Palestine’

From Ian:

Well-intentioned antisemitism

As long as Europeans continue to turn a blind eye to the egregious antisemitism that saturates Palestinian society – such as the Palestinian Authority’s payment of stipends to terrorists who murder civilians and their families – its explicitly antisemitic teachings proliferate.
These include gems such as that Jews are descendants of “apes and pigs” that is ingrained in young Palestinian children from birth, the public embrace and praise of terrorists, the purposeful misinformation campaigns aimed at inciting violence against Jews, (note, not Israelis, but “Yahood”). As long as this continues and Europe ignores it, what evidence do we have that they’ve learned anything at all from the Holocaust? Many Germans, at least initially, wanted to see their country rise again after the disaster of WWI, possibly motivated not as much by racism as by the well-being of their country. They felt they had been given unfair treatment following the Treaty of Versailles and were taught the Jews were to blame. How is this different from what Palestinians teach their children? European governments continue to fund the PA, which utilizes many of the same dehumanizing tactics that the Nazis used.
It is these same tactics which made it far too easy for an entire country to ignore the murder of an ethnic group of six million people.
Why then should a Palestinian terrorist, who was raised to hate the same dehumanized group, have any hesitation about murdering them? Why shouldn’t he or she, when taught from birth that the Jews are to blame for all the terrible problems in Palestine? In German eyes, the country was unfairly treated following WWI and merely wanted to restore the “greatness” of Germany. How is that different from the mantra of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free?” Why on Earth should Palestinians make peace with Israel when this is what they’re taught? The hypocrisy when it comes to condemning the only Jewish state is no different from the well-intentioned antisemitism that led to the Holocaust. Europeans ought to be the first to condemn Palestinian antisemitism and the last to provide international and political support as it follows the path of repeating the sins of Europe’s past.

Palestinian killed trying to stab Israeli officer in West Bank

Border Police officers shot and killed a Palestinian as he tried to stab one of them at a flashpoint West Bank junction on Saturday, police and medics said. One officer was lightly wounded in the incident.
The Palestinian approached the officers standing at the Tapuah Junction in the northern West Bank. When they called on him to halt, he pulled out a knife and tried to attack them. He was shot and killed, police said.
One officer was lightly wounded in the leg and was being treated by IDF medics and the Magen David Adom rescue service, the MDA said.
Medics initially said the officer, 21, had been stabbed, but later said it appeared that he was wounded by shrapnel from the shots fired. He was taken to the Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah for further treatment.
The Tapuah Junction has been a frequent site of stabbing attacks in recent months.
Police said the attacker was a 17-year-old from the West Bank city of Tul Karem.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified him as Qutaiba Zahran. Channel 2 reported that he had left a note for his parents, saying that he had gone out to carry out a “revenge attack” and not to mourn him because he was now a “martyr”

Israel’s former counter terrorism chief warns: IS will carry out chemical attack

Islamic State is in its death throes but the worst is yet to come, the former head of Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau, Brigadier General Nitzan Nuriel, said Friday, warning that the terror group could carry out a chemical attack.
“Western society must get used to the fact that terrorism is part of our life,” Nuriel said, speaking to Israel’s Army Radio. “We must get used to this, not in the sense of sitting around waiting for the next attack, and not in the sense of stopping to go abroad or to stop living, but in the sense of seeing who can improve the actions or processes that may help push back the next attack and make it an attack that will not claim large numbers of casualties.”
Nuriel, a 30-year IDF veteran, was speaking in the wake of the Barcelona and Cambrils terror attacks. At least 14 people were killed and some 130 were wounded in the two attacks. Islamic State claimed responsibility.
Nuriel said that even though the group was in steep decline, it still had the ability to inflict great harm
“I, sadly, was among those who said, ‘I told you so,’ those who said that 2017 will be a bloody year in Europe,” he said.
“I think the worst is yet to come. What we are witnessing is the death throes of death of the physical infrastructure of Islamic State in the region, and these will regrettably be accompanied by many incidents of this kind and worse. I, for one, believe that a chemical terror attack is ahead of us,” he said, adding that “Islamic State has the knowledge, the capabilities and the means. I think they have already made the decision. All that remains is the operation in which this will happen.”

08/18 Links Pt2: Leftists Cheer Murderer Rasmea Odeh; Chloe Valdary: My Journey to Zionism

From Ian:

IsraellyCool: Message to Richard Spencer, Racist

Not-so dear Richard Spencer,
I am sure you are as surprised as most of us that you got your say on Israeli television (the one place in the world the Jews really do control the media). Not only that, but the anchor was way too polite to you, considering your detestable views on Jews and other groups.
But I want to specifically address your calling yourself a White Zionist during that interview in the sense of claiming you care about “your people” (i.e. Whites) and want a secure homeland for yourselves.
Sure, there are those who think you have a point – even some fellow Jews. But I hate to break it to you – they don’t understand what Zionism – or even Judaism – is truly about.
As someone who does, allow me to educate you.
Zionism is nothing more than the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. You see, since we were exiled thousands of years ago, we never gave up hope of returning. This is expressed in our Jewish prayers and religious observance.
Zionism is not about racial superiority or making life hell for others – despite the claims of your fellow antisemites and ignoramuses (including some of my fellow Jews). It is about our history, our religion, our beliefs. We are taught not to “oppress a stranger” – we are to live in peace with our fellow non-Jewish citizens. Except those who try to kill us – the Torah also gives us the mandate to defend ourselves. After all, the 10 Commandments say “Do Not Murder”, not “Do Not Kill” – an acknowledgement of killing in self-defense.

Judean Peoples Front: Berl Katznelson On Self-Hating Jews

There is a movement among Zionists on the Left in Israel to commemorate Labor Zionist leader Berl Katznelson with his own day of remembrance, in the same way that Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky is. While I am firmly in the Revisionist camp, I recognize that Israel would not have been reestablished without the hard work, steadfastness and vision of many pioneering Zionist leftists like Katznelson and he is surely worthy of a day in his honor.
We were again reminded of the clarity of thinking when we saw the latest article by Naomi Dann of Jewish Voice for ~~Peace~~ Palestine in the Forward.

We won’t link to it because we don’t want to drive traffic to such a disgusting screed. But you can find it here:
http://forward.com/opinion/380384/richard-spencer-might-be-the-worst-person-in-america-but-hes-right-about-is/
Suffice it to say that Dann has decided that she does in fact agree with Alt-White leader Richard Spencer on one thing: anti-Zionism. Rather than engage in serious introspection at the fact that the core of her identity is shared by a rabid racist & Jew-hater, Dann instead argues that in just this one instance, Spencer is correct.
I have already explained why Zionism is in no way comparable to white nationalism, but am not surprised Dann hasn’t read it. Jew-hatred, like all forms of bigotry, clouds the mind and blinds one’s vision to anything that contradicts it. JVP’s entire reason for being is to act as a blue-and-whitewashing shield for Jew-haters and after defending Jihadists for years, it is not surprising they are now doing so for Nazis as well.
Sadly Dann and JVP are not special or new as Jewish Jew-haters have been around as long as Jews have.

Caroline Glick: Trump and the Jews

In other words, for the Forward, pro-Israel American Jews of the type assaulted by antifa and its comrades, and pro-Israel presidential advisers are more dangerous to the community than Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and of course, Sarsour herself who embraces Jew-killing terrorists and says that Jewish Israel-supporters must be shunned.
Trump’s electoral victory was a revolutionary event in US history. Tens of millions of American voters supported Trump because he promised to “drain the swamp,” in Washington and serve the needs of the people who the swamp cast asunder.
A big part of that swamp is the Left that insists it is above criticism while its opponents on the Right are deplorable racists unworthy of consideration. When Trump called out the far Left along with the neo-Nazis for their violence at Charlottesville, he was keeping his pledge to his voters and upending one of the most cherished myths of the hated “establishment.”
Given that the white supremacists and radical leftists converge in their hatred of Jews, it is important for the American Jewish community and for America as a whole to embrace Trump’s actions. He is not engaging in moral equivalence between good and evil. He is exercising moral clarity. Without such clarity, the forces of Jew-hatred in the US will never be defeated. Without such clarity, the political position, security and freedom of American Jews will grow increasingly imperiled.
Israel’s job, to the extent it has one in the current fight plaguing the US, is to point out this truth, not join the bandwagon in obfuscating it. Trump is far from a perfect mouthpiece for this essential battle against Jew-haters on the Right and the Left.
But at least he is using his mouth to sound the battle cry. For this he should be applauded by Israelis and American Jews alike.

Ramallah amusement park ride collapse injures 21 children (video)

Palestinian officials have closed the Sky Land amusement park a week after a ride collapsed.

There is some dramatic video of the incident (starting around 0:35):

An entire week later, Palestinian officials decided that maybe they should check the other rides there.

In other news...the poor oppressed Palestinians have amusement parks.

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11 years after the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah is again threatening Israel. Their latest is a Hebrew language campaign: “What to take with you when Hezbollah strikes Israel”: Flashlight because they are going to attack the power stations, pills to ease the anxiety, sneakers to run fast, and a gas mask for when they attack the ammonia storage tanks.

Hezbollah, backed by Iran, (empowered by the Iran deal and the vacuum left in the areas where ISIS has been defeated) is waiting for the right time to attack Israel. Their war against us never ended. It was temporarily paused 11 years ago.

This is what I wrote on August 28, 2006:

Friends from overseas have written congratulating me on the cease-fire. Now, they assume, everything is ok again. Others asked why I haven’t written any articles or personal letters in these last few days. The two are connected.

Everything is not ok. This “cease-fire” is a joke. A practical joke. Like pushing someone down a flight of stairs, watching them break their neck and then laughing.

I can go outside again. I can go to work, go shopping, visit with family and friends. That is wonderful. The problem is why I am able to do these things -for the same reason I could do them for the past six years – not because there is peace but because Hezbollah decided it was not to their benefit to attack. Yet.

Last month Hezbollah decided it was time to attack Israel. On July 12th they infiltrated our country, crossing our sovereign borders, killed people, took hostages and simultaneously launched a full-blown attack on our cities (a point that many conveniently forget or ignore). Israel fought back. She had no other choice.

We had missiles raining down on our heads. Some four thousand missiles. Friends and family were in constant danger. Businesses were ruined. Our loved ones died and others became scarred for life. We had so many people killed here it was comparable to having 9/11 happen twice in a single month.

Now people assume that we Israelis are happy that this horrible time is over.

That’s just the problem – it’s not over.

I look at the faces of the people around me and I see no happiness. No calm. Everyone is tense. Everyone knows the next war is around the corner.

Cease-fire?

Our soldiers are still in Lebanon, still in danger, still fighting Hezbollah. This is being done on a “low flame”, one the world feels able to ignore. Our soldiers are uncovering weapons caches, destroying Hezbollah bunkers, trying to get as much done as possible before UNIFIL deploys and becomes Hezbollah’s new human shields.

We have already gotten wind of something very serious: UN soldiers being warned by Hezbollah not to enter certain towns and areas in southern Lebanon, orders with which the soldiers, of course, comply. Their personal safety is, of course, more important to them then preventing Hezbollah rearming. The UN soldiers aren’t fighting for the existence of their country.

Cease-fire? A cease-fire isn’t peace. It isn’t even a truce. A cease-fire is simply an agreement to take a break in the fighting. In this case, even that modest goal has not been achieved in its totality. Hezbollah is still shooting at Israeli soldiers, they have not ceased to fire.

So now we get to why I haven’t written. The answer is simple. I’m angry. In fact, I am seething.

There is good reason to be angry at the current Israeli government for their many failures in managing this war. Many things were done poorly, to the detriment of us all. It is correct to say that Israel’s acceptance of a cease-fire agreement which does not achieve any of the goals in fighting a war in the first place namely – eliminating the terrorist threat on our border and retrieving our hostages – is caving into terrorism. The cease fire sends a terrible message to the Jihadists – terrorism is an effective strategy.

There is good reason to be angry at Hezbollah and yet I am not angry at them. I do not hate my would-be killers. I understand them. They were taking action congruent to their ideals and goals.

There is one thing that angers me more than the viciousness of Hezbollah or the incompetence of the current Israeli government. America. I am revolted by America.

I was born in America and taught to love America. I grew up on the values of life, liberty and justice for all. I was taught that these are the core values of the good old US of A.

My family moved to Israel when I was 13. I didn’t want to leave America. In my new room in Israel I bought a poster of an American flag so I could see it every day. Sometimes I recited the Pledge of Allegiance, just to make sure I remembered it.

That is the person who is now telling you that she is disgusted with America.

After 9/11 America spoke up and announced “we will lead the war on terrorism!” Never mind that Israel has been fighting that war for years. America said that those who are friends with terrorists are no friend of America; that people must not be allowed to terrorize others, that everyone has the right to life, liberty and justice. That America would help those in need attain those goals.

Then Israel was attacked. We were fighting for our very existence. America said to the world “leave Israel alone, what they are doing is necessary for Israel AND for Lebanon” which was true. And then someone in the American government came up with the brilliant idea of a cease-fire.

The editor of the Wall Street Journal wrote an article (that frankly shocked me), the premise being – Condoleezza Rice was hoodwinked into agreeing to support a cease-fire that isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, convinced Israel to go along with it and now the poor misguided woman feels like the international community lied to her (or at least should feel that way). It seems the writer of this article believes Ms. Rice to be both stupid and ignorant. I don’t believe that for one moment and that is why I am angry.

Condoleezza Rice knows that the UN will not protect Israel. Since when has the UN taken steps to stop terrorism, slaughter and genocide of innocents – in any country? Condoleezza Rice knows that UNIFIL soldiers will not fight Hezbollah. No one will disarm the terrorist organization. No one will enforce a weapons embargo on Hezbollah. No one will force Hezbollah to give us back our hostages. She knows all these things and even so she, and the president that she represents, were eager to shove a cease-fire down Israel’s throat.

Why were they so eager? Are they stupid? Naive? I certainly don’t think so. There is only one reason I can think of – polls.

Support for the fight against terrorism dropped in the polls. Consensus that America should back her ally Israel in her battle for survival evaporated, so the American government decided to preserve what power it has left and cave into terrorism. They decided to throw Israel to the crocodiles in the hope that America would be eaten last.

The America I was raised to love was a sanctuary. A strong fortress of freedom that would protect those who were being persecuted. Years later here I am, an American, living in a different country, one that America professes to be friends with and America says what amounts to: “lay down and die because it is not convenient for me to look out for you. It is too much trouble for me to allow you to look out for yourself so – don’t.”

America professes wonderful values, principles and ideals but does not live by them. America knows what is right but does not follow through when the correct path becomes uncomfortable.

Hezbollah live and die by their values and principles.

Who am I supposed to respect more?

This cease-fire is no prize. The only group that benefits from the cease-fire is Hezbollah and possibly, in the short term, the American government benefits in the polls a bit. In the long term this cease-fire endangers Israel, America and all western countries. It reinforces the knowledge that Jihadists already have – terrorism is a very effective political strategy. The west obviously would rather stick its head in the sand then look the threat in the face. This is the reaction the terrorists hope for, it is easy to achieve their goals when no one is watching (not to mention blocking!) them. The cease–fire is no prize for Lebanon either. They will continue to be held hostage by Hezbollah.

I still believe that life, liberty and justice for all are magnificent values. I believe the Lebanese deserve to experience them. I believe Israel deserves them as well. All the Israelis I know hold these same beliefs.

Even our weak, incompetent government tried to create the situation where we could live according to the ideals I was once taught America considered to be everyone’s basic rights. They tried. They failed. Why? Because America stopped them.

Israel is a country bruised and battered. We weep and we wait for the next round of fighting. Sooner or later Israel, Lebanon and the rest of the world will have to deal with the consequences of this “cease-fire” that isn’t. When it comes, the people of Israel will fight.

We, at least, know what we are fighting for.

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08/18 Links Pt1: 13 Dead, 80 Wounded in Barcelona Day Of Terror; Iran’s great game

From Ian:

13 Dead, More Than 80 Wounded, As ISIS Claims Responsibility For Barcelona Day Of Terror

At least 13 people have been murdered and over 80 wounded in a vehicular-ramming attack along the famous Las Ramblas thoroughfare in the Catalan city of Barcelona on Thursday. Hours after the atrocity, reports emerged of a second attack in the city, as two men opened fire on police manning a checkpoint.
The Sunni Islamist terror organization ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement released by the Amaq news agency, but there has been no independent verification of the group’s claim. Catalan President Carles Puigdemon said on Thursday evening that two suspects had been arrested.
Initial photos of the attack showed debris outside the kosher “Maccabi” Restaurant on Las Ramblas. However, a local journalist reached by The Algemeiner on Thursday afternoon said that the restaurant was not the target, an assessment later confirmed by the Barcelona Jewish community. Video footage of the attack indicated that the terrorists plowed their van into a crowd along the sidewalk, causing horrific injuries and fatalities. Las Ramblas is Barcelona’s most famous street, hosting crowds of locals and tourists and

Following attack, Barcelona’s chief rabbi says his community is doomed

The Jewish community in Barcelona is “doomed,” because authorities in Spain do not want to confront radical Islam, the chief rabbi of Barcelona warned on Friday, a day after the deadly car-ramming attack in the city.
Rabbi Meir Bar-Hen has been encouraging his congregants to leave Spain, which he called during an interview with JTA a “hub of Islamist terror for all of Europe,” for years before the attacks Thursday and Friday, he said. At least 14 victims and five suspected terrorists were killed in Barcelona and the resort town of Cambrils, 75 miles south of the city.
To Bar-Hen, whose community on Friday resumed activities that it had suspended briefly following the Barcelona attack, “Jews are not here permanently,” he said of the city and region. “I tell my congregants: Don’t think we’re here for good. And I encourage them to buy property in Israel. This place is lost. Don’t repeat the mistake of Algerian Jews, of Venezuelan Jews. Better [get out] early than late.”

Barcelona Attack Hits near Kosher Restaurant, Keeping Israel on Edge

With thousands of Israelis currently on vacation in Barcelona at the height of the summer tourism season, Jerusalem carefully monitored the situation there following Thursday’s terrorist attack, trying to track down all Israelis believed to be in the area.
As of 9:30 p.m. Israeli time, the Foreign Ministry put the number of Israelis who had not yet made contact with relatives in Israel at 31, and said there was no immediate indication that any Israelis were injured in the attack, which took place in the vicinity of the Maccabi kosher restaurant.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also the country’s foreign minister, went to the ministry’s situation room soon after the attack to monitor developments and speak by video conference with Israel’s ambassador in Madrid, Daniel Kutner.
Netanyahu “strongly condemned” the attack, saying that “tonight we saw again that terrorism strikes everywhere, and the civilized world must fight it together to defeat it.”
The Israeli Embassy dispatched a delegation of three diplomats to Barcelona in case any of the Israelis there were in need of assistance.
Chief Rabbi of Barcelona Meir Bar-Hen said that all community events would be canceled, and that he was headed to the scene of the attack to offer his services. Bar- Hen said that it did not appear that Jews were targeted.

Mincha prayers as kosher restaurant put on lockdown

Barcelona Synagogue, Jewish Institutions Protectively Shuttered Following Terrorist Atrocity

Barcelona’s main synagogue will be closed for a minimum of 24 hours following Thursday’s deadly terrorist attack in the city, in which at least thirteen people were murdered and upwards of 100 wounded.
Barcelona Rabbi Meir Bar Chen said that all “community institutions” had been closed in the immediate aftermath of the atrocity. Bar Chen confirmed that “this was not a terrorist attack directed against Jews,” following initial reports that a kosher restaurant on the Las Ramblas thoroughfare along the path of the terrorists’ van had been their primary target.
In an interview with The Algemeiner on Thursday, a prominent Catalan journalist highlighted the vulnerabilities facing the Spanish authorities in confronting terrorism both regionally and nationally, as more details of the attack poured in.
“Measures against terrorism have been implemented, but there has been little cooperation between state and regional authorities, especially with the separatist issue in the frame,” Borja Vilallonga — editor-in-chief of the influential Catalan weekly El Temps — told The Algemeiner on Thursday afternoon.

I admit that I had never read Mein Kampf. So after this morning's story about the book being on the summer reading list of the Galloway School in Atlanta (and this is apparently not the first time this has happened in the US), I figured we should see some selections from the book itself so we can understand exactly what the students will be reading.

The blurb describing the book that claims that only 6% of Mein Kampf is about Jews is a lie. In fact, in the 736 pages, Jews are mentioned 579 times, and the word is distributed throughout the book, which you can see graphically here, each mention being a yellow line.

This comes from the official Nazi translation of the book into English.

As in all good propaganda, Hitler starts off saying that he grew up sympathetic to Jews, and only later he became aware of their essential evil. By the end of the book the evil of the Jews is a given. To imagine that high school students could read this critically without a good teacher's supervision is naive at best, and dangerous at worst.

What soon gave me food for serious thought was the
insight which I gradually gained into the activities of the
Jews in certain walks of life. Was there any shady under-
taking, any form of foulness, especially in cultural life, in
which at least one Jew did not participate? On probing to
the heart of this kind of abomination, one discovered, like
a maggot in a rotten body, a tiny Jew, who was apt to be
blinded when thus exposed to the light of day.

In my eyes the charge against Judaism became a grave
one the moment I discovered the scope of Jewish activities
in the press, in art, in literature and in the theatre. All
unctuous protests were now more or less futile. One needed
only to look at the posters and to study the names of the
authors of the appalling productions advertised as being
performed in the cinemas and theatres, in order to become
hardened against the Jews. Here was a pestilence, a moral
pestilence, with which the public was being infected. It was
worse than the black plague of long ago. And in what doses
this poison was manufactured and distributed! Naturally, the
lower the moral and intellectual level of such an author
of ‘artistic’ products, the more inexhaustible his fecundity,
and at times it even seemed as though these creatures turned
out their stuff like machines and hurled it at the public. In
this connection we must remember there is no limit to the
number of such writers. One ought to realize that for one
Goethe, Nature may bring into existence ten thousand such
scribblers who act as the worst kind of germ-carriers in
poisoning human souls. It was a terrible thought, and yet one
which could not be overlooked, that the greater number of
the Jews seemed specially destined by Nature to play this
shameful part.

Was it for this reason that they were called the chosen
people?

...In the business world the situation was even worse.
Here the Jews had actually become ‘indispensable.’ Like
leeches, they were slowly sucking the blood from the pores
of the national body.

...Emperor Wilhelm II was the first German Emperor to
offer the hand of friendship to the Marxist leaders, not
suspecting that they were scoundrels without any sense of
honour. While they held the imperial hand in one of theirs,
the other was already feeling for the dagger. There is no
such thing as coming to an understanding with the Jews.
It must be a hard-and-fast ‘Either — Or.’

For my part I then decided that I would take up
political work.

...From time immemorial, however, the Jews have known
better than any others how falsehood and calumny can be
exploited. Is not their very existence founded on one great
lie, namely, that they are a religious community, whereas
in reality they are a race? And what a race! One of the
greatest thinkers that mankind has produced has branded
the Jews for all time with a statement which is profoundly
and exactly true. He called the Jew “the great master of
lies.” Those who do not realize the truth of that state-
ment, or do not wish to believe it, will never be able to
lend a hand in helping truth to prevail.

...If the Jews were the only people in the world they would
be wallowing in filth and mire and would exploit one another
and try to exterminate one another in a bitter struggle, except
in so far as their utter lack of the ideal of sacrifice, which
shows itself in their cowardly spirit, would prevent this
struggle from developing. It would, therefore, be a complete
mistake to interpret the mutual help, which the Jews render
one another when they have to fight — or, to put it more
accurately, to exploit — their fellow-beings, as the expression
of a certain idealistic spirit of sacrifice.

Here again, the Jew merely follows the call of his
individual egotism. That is why the Jewish State, which
ought to be a vital organization to serve the purpose of
preserving or increasing the race, has absolutely no territorial
boundaries, for the territorial delimitation of a State always
demands a certain idealism of spirit on the part of the > race
which forms that State, and especially a proper acceptance
of the idea of work. A State which is territorially delimited
cannot be established or maintained, unless the general
attitude towards work is a positive one. If this attitude is
lacking, then the necessary basis of a civilization is also
lacking. That is why the Jewish people, despite the intellectual
powers with which they are apparently endowed, have not
i culture, certainly not a culture of their own. The culture
which the Jew enjoys to-day is the product of the work of
others and this product is debased in the hands of the Jew.

In order to form a correct judgment of the place which
the Jew holds in relation to the whole problem of human
civilization, we must bear in mind the essential fact that there
never has been any Jewish art, and consequently that nothing
of this kind exists to-day. We must realize that, especially in
the two royal domains of art, namely, architecture and
music, the Jew has done no original creative work. When
the Jew comes to producing something in the field of art he
merely ‘borrows’ from something already in existence, or
simply steals the intellectual work of others. The Jew
essentially lacks the qualities which are characteristic of those
creative races that are the founders of civilization.

To what extent the Jew appropriates the civilization built
up by others — or to speak more accurately, corrupts it,
— is indicated by the fact that he cultivates chiefly the art
which calls for the smallest amount of original invention,
namely, the dramatic art, and even here, he is nothing
better than a kind of juggler or, perhaps more correctly,
a kind of monkey imitator, for in this domain also
he lacks the creative elan which is necessary for the pro-
duction of all really great work. Even here, therefore, he is
not a creative genius, but rather a superficial imitator who, in
spite of all his retouching and tricks, cannot disguise the fact
that there is no inner vitality in the shape he gives his
products. At this juncture, the Jewish press comes in and
renders friendly assistance by shouting hosannas over the
head of even the most ordinary bungler of a Jew, until the rest
of the world is persuaded into thinking that the object of so
much praise must really be an artist, whereas in reality, he
may be nothing more than a low-class mimic.

...The domination of the Jew in the State seems now
so fully assured that not only can he afford to call himself a
Jew once again, but he even acknowledges freely and openly
his ideas on racial and political questions. A section of the
Jews avows itself quite openly as an alien people, but even
here there is another falsehood. When the Zionists try to
make the rest of the world believe that the new national
consciousness of the Jews will be satisfied by the
establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine, the Jews
thereby adopt another means to dupe the simple-minded
Aryan. They have not the slightest intention of building
up a Jewish State in Palestine so as to live in it. What they
are really aiming at is to establish a central organization
for their international swindling and cheating. As a
sovereign State, this cannot be controlled by any of the
other States. Therefore, it can serve as a refuge for swindlers
who have been found out, and at the same time, a high
school for the training of other swindlers.

...The black-haired Jewish youth lies in wait for hours on

end, satanically glaring at and spying on the unsuspicious

girl whom he plans to seduce, adulterating her blood and

removing her from the bosom of her own people. The Jew

uses every possible means to undermine the racial foundations

of a people to be subjugated. In his systematic efforts to

ruin girls and women he strives to break down the last

harriers of racial discrimination. The Jews were responsible

for bringing negroes into the Rhineland, with the ultimate

idea of bastardizing the white race which they hate, and

thus lowering its cultural and political level so that the Jew

might dominate. As long as a people remains racially pure

and race-conscious, it can never be overcome by the Jew.

Never in this world can the Jew become master of any

people except a bastardized people. That is why the Jew

systematically endeavours to lower the racial quality of a

people by permanently adulterating the blood of the

individuals who make up that people.

...The destructive activities of Judaism in different

parts of the national body can be ascribed fundamentally to

the persistent Jewish efforts at undermining the importance

of personality among the nations that are their hosts and, in

place of personality, substituting the domination of the

masses. The constructive principle of Aryan humanity is

thus displaced by the destructive principle of the Jews.

They are the ‘ferment of decomposition’ among nations

and races and, in a broad sense, the wreckers of human

civilization.

This is what this progressive school wants their children to read.

They are pretending that children can ingest poison and then tell adults what the ingredients are.

The sad thing is that if someone would publish the relatively small number of statements that Hitler wrote against black people, the community would rise up in horror. So maybe instead of the passages I mentioned, some outraged parent should point this one out:

The French nation, which is
becoming more and more polluted by negro blood, represents
a menace, to the existence of the white race in Europe,
because it is bound up with the Jewish campaign for world-
domination. The contamination caused by the influx of
negroid blood on the Rhine, in the very heart of Europe, is
in accord with the sadistic and perverse lust for vengeance on
the part of the hereditary enemy of our people, just as it
suits the purpose of the cool, calculating Jew who would use
this means of beginning a process of bastardization in the
very centre of the European continent and, by infecting the
white race with the blood of an inferior stock, destroy the
foundations of its independent existence.

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CNN analysis only counts vehicle ramming attacks "in the West" - so Israeli victims don't count (update)

From CNN:

The attack on one of Barcelona's historic streets Thursday is the latest in a series of vehicle ramming incidents in the West that have killed 128 people since 2014.
At least 13 people were killed and 80 injured when a van, which witnesses said was traveling at a high speed through the tourist area, mowed down people in Barcelona.
Since 2014 there have been 14 vehicle ramming attacks in the West, according to a count by New America, a nonpartisan think tank.
Like school shooters, terrorists learn from other attacks. Vehicle attacks have become a method of choice for terrorists in the past three years since they require no training or expertise and they inflict just as much terror as more conventional tactics such as bombings.

The author, Peter Bergen, is CNN's national security analyst and a vice president at the New America thinktank that he quotes.

Indeed, there have been exactly 14 car ramming attacks (more if you count non-terror attacks) aimed at people (as opposed to buildings) since 2014 in the West.

But if you count all the terrorist vehicle attacks against people listed by Wikipedia, you see that a significant percentage were in Israel:

2006 UNC SUV attack, University of North Carolina, United States (ramming people)
2008 Jerusalem vehicular attack, Israel (ramming people)2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, Israel (ramming people)2011 Tel Aviv nightclub attack, Israel (ramming + stabbing)May 2013 Murder of Lee Rigby, London, England (ramming + stabbing)
2013 Tiananmen Square attack, China (ramming people + bursting into flames)
2014 Jerusalem tractor attack, Israel (ramming people + bus)2014 Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu ramming attack, Canada (ramming)
October 2014 Jerusalem vehicular attack, Israel (ramming people)November 2014 Jerusalem vehicular attack, Israel (ramming + hitting with a metal crowbar)2014 Alon Shvut stabbing attack, West Bank (failed ramming + stabbing)2014 Dijon attack, France (ramming people)
2014 Nantes attack, France (ramming people)
2016 Nice attack, France (ramming people + gunfire)
2016 Ohio State University attack, United States (ramming + stabbing)
2016 Berlin attack, Germany (shooting truck driver + ramming people)
2017 Jerusalem truck attack, Israel (ramming people)2017 Westminster attack, London, England (ramming + stabbing; some victims were thrown off Westminster Bridge by the ramming)
2017 Stockholm attack, Sweden (ramming people)
June 2017 London Bridge attack, England (ramming + stabbing).[29]
2017 Finsbury Park attack, London, England (ramming people)
June 2017 Champs-Élysées car ramming attack, Paris, France (ramming a police car)
2017 Levallois-Perret attack, Levallois-Perret, France (ramming soldiers)
2017 Charlottesville attack, during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States (ramming people)
2017 Barcelona attack (ramming people)

8 out of 23 recorded vehicular terror attacks - 34% - were in Israel, with 13 murdered (plus one stabbed to death after a failed car ramming.)

The deliberate attempt to minimize the ramming attacks in Israel continued at CNN, with a list of notable attacks since 2006 including only one attack in Israel even as it highlights non-fatal attacks in the US.

The New York Times has an analysis on why car-ramming attacks are such effective terror weapons - but the implication in that article is that it makes people fearful only if it happens in the West. There is a clear implication that most of these stories have: Those Israelis who suffered from such attacks since 2008 are not considered one of us, and their fears don't count. But European attacks are the ones that make us fearful. Europeans are more like Americans than a Israelis are.

And one reason for that is because the New York Times and other media treat Israelis as a separate category of terror victims to begin with. To an extent, those Israelis deserve it more than innocent Europeans. To an extent, Palestinian terrorists are more justified in their murder of Israeli civilians than ISIS is in their murder of Europeans.

These attempts to minimize Palestinian innovation in car ramming terrorism become even more obvious when you read this 2008 Stratfor analysis that essentially predicted this trend:

Israel has seen three attacks in three months in which Arab Israelis from East Jerusalem used vehicles as weapons. No single group has claimed responsibility for all three attacks, but their similarities suggest that Palestinian militants have discovered a new tactic that, while not thus far as deadly as suicide bombing, could prove more difficult to prevent.

The casualty rate for these most recent attacks appears to be lower than suicide-bomber attacks, but as militants carry out more of these attacks, they could learn, improve their tactics and indeed increase casualties.

Palestinians are the first to use this tactic more than once as a means of terror (there were some isolated vehicle attacks beforehand.) There can be no doubt that ISIS learned this method from the Palestinian terrorists. To write an analysis about vehicle attacks without mentioning this history of Palestinian vehicle attacks is simply dishonest.

But the Western media is loath to put Palestinian Islamic terrorists on the same level as ISIS.

So we see whitewashing instead of actual analysis.

Deep down, reporters and analysts and politicians want to believe Palestinian terror is anomalous - and at least partially justified - which is why we see such a consistent pattern of bad reporting and bad analysis.

UPDATE: There have actually been 60 vehicular terror attacks in Israel! (h/t Irene)

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The Galloway School is an exclusive and pricey (up to $27,000 tuition) school in Atlanta.

In its summer book club we see this:

Mein Kampf - Abridged VersionISBN: 0984158421
Publication Date: 2009-01-01

For the first time in 65 years, a modern, easy to understand, truly complete and uncensored edition of Mein Kampf has been released which reveals more than any past translation. This hardcover book is also the first translation available in an English language audio format. Older translations altered passages, omitted passages, mistranslated Hitler's words, made some parts more sensational while concealing the true meaning in other parts of the book. If you have read one of these older translations of Mein Kampf, then you have not read the REAL Mein Kampf which is found only in the Ford Translation. Mein Kampf is often portrayed as nothing more than an Anti-Semitic work, however only 6% of it even talks about the Jews. The rest contains Hitler's ideas and beliefs for a greater nation plus his plan on how to accomplish that goal.

He outlines his plans for not only world conquest, but the conquest of the universe. The majority of the work involves Hitler's discussion of the German people's difficult times after the First World War, his political theories and his organization of the Nazi Party, as well as many attacks against his enemies which makes it a very interesting and moving story. Mein Kampf offers an interesting interpretation of politics, people, and foreign policy matters. To characterize it as simply a racist work is to oversimplify its message. Germany did not follow Hitler because he was a racist, they followed him because he promised a great future, and Mein Kampf is where he promised that great future. This edition is the only accurate and complete English translation of Mein Kampf ever made. This Ford Translation offers:

* The most accurate translation ever produced.

* Phrases that are translated with precision and with no translator's bias.

* Uncommon words are replaced with more common and more meaningful terms.

* Any references to unfamiliar people, or places are explained in the text.

* This version is complete with all original passages and references restored, including passages omitted from other popular versions.

This translation has corrected over 1000 errors which were present in past translations. No English reader has been able to appreciate these subtleties in any previous English translation, not until the Ford Translation. Includes Photos and Illustrations of events and people in Mein Kampf Volume I and II Click the order button to receive the book so many people wish to disparage and see why they will do anything to have the printing of this book outlawed. ...

Read the hardback version, then decide for yourself if he was a mad-man or a genius.

The description is copied and pasted from the book's Amazon page.

The librarian who chose the book writes:

For those of you who may not know, Mein Kampf is Hitler's autobiography.
I chose this book because I wanted a better understanding of political systems and of the world before WWII. Like many, I am a firm believer in preventing history from repeating itself. I was also intrigued when students had questions about WWII and how it could happen. Those are difficult questions to answer. In our discussion, I would like to examine organizations today that combat hate and how youth can become involved in such efforts.

Even if she has the best of intentions for a critical reading of Mein Kampf, this is not the way to go about it. The description of the book itself on the school site is nothing if not a tribute to Hitler as a genius, and she has no problem with this.

Does she think that students can read this bile over an entire summer and then, after it enters their subconscious thinking, they can then evaluate it fairly in class discussions? To read it before a thorough understanding of what a monster Hitler was is an invitation to create a new generation of marchers in Charlottesville.

And it is beyond imagination that it is acceptable to give kids summer reading that is "only 6%" pure Jew-hatred, with weeks before a teacher can discuss it with them.

UPDATE 2: The translation is apparently not even a good one. The translator wrote a book praising his own translation and then quotes it to prove how great the translation is. Given that this blurb was written by him, it appears that this translation is not academic, but written by a fan of Hitler's, making the choice of this version of Mein Kampf by a high school librarian even more curious.

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Suddenly, Mahmoud Abbas calls vehicle ramming "terrorism" (when the victims aren't Israelis)

Ma'an Arabic reports:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed his condolences to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy for the victims of Thursday's terrorist attack in the city of Barcelona, in which several people were killed and wounded.
In his condolences, he expressed his condemnation of this terrorist act, stressing his rejection of all forms of terrorism and the need to confront all terrorist organizations around the world.
He declared the sovereignty of the State of Palestine, the leadership, the government and the people, alongside its friends in Spain in the face of these terrorist incident.

How much hypocrisy can we find in this short news item?

Abbas hasn't condemned fatal car ramming attacks in Israel , as far as I can tell, in nearly ten years. He does not consider them terror. He celebrates the murderers and pays them and their families salaries for life. Despite his antipathy towards Hamas, he has never called it a terror group. Same with the other terror groups in Gaza. In fact, Abbas is the apparent head of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a US designated terror group.

That's just for starters.

Because the statement here is not meant to express real condolences. It is a political statement to enhance Abbas' and his fake government's prestige. He is acting like a head of state. The last paragraph shows that the attack is merely an excuse to act "presidential" and to push the idea of a "State of Palestine".

And, finally, he claims that "Palestine' is against terrorism when in fact the entire entity names schools and roads after terrorists, Abbas honors them by visiting their families' houses, and they spend a huge amount of time trying to get Israel to free terrorists from prison.

This is nothing by a cynical press release to whitewash Palestinian support for terror. It is not a message of condolence at all. Abbas has far more in common with the Barcelona terrorists than with the victims.

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08/17 Links Pt2: Phillips: How totalitarianism is winning in the West; Weimar America

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: How totalitarianism is winning in the West

Credit to the left-leaning Atlantic magazine for running a piece by Peter Beinart, who has actually looked at what is happening in American society and reached an uncomfortable conclusion which would be hard to find elsewhere in the media – and which is all-too pertinent in the wake of Charlottesville.
For Beinart warns that the left is lurching into totalitarianism and violence. “Antifa” purport to be anti-fascist. But they define as fascist anyone they disagree with including mainstream conservatives. Hence their violent suppression of commentators and scholars such as the conservative columnist Ann Coulter, the Breitbart controversialist Milo Yiannopoulos and the political scientist Charles Murray.
What Antifa most certainly do not do is defend democracy, freedom and liberal values. As Beinart observes:
“Since antifa is heavily composed of anarchists, its activists place little faith in the state, which they consider complicit in fascism and racism. They prefer direct action: They pressure venues to deny white supremacists space to meet. They pressure employers to fire them and landlords to evict them. And when people they deem racists and fascists manage to assemble, antifa’s partisans try to break up their gatherings, including by force.”
If this was just a bunch of anarchists, the problem wouldn’t be so bad. What takes this onto a different level altogether is the fact that the mainstream left does not disavow Antifa but tolerates, sanitises and condones it. Referring specifically to the assault last January on the white supremacist Richard Spencer, Beinart continues:
“Such tactics have elicited substantial support from the mainstream left. When the masked antifa activist was filmed assaulting Spencer on Inauguration Day, another piece in The Nation described his punch as an act of ‘kinetic beauty.’ Slate ran an approving article about a humorous piano ballad that glorified the assault. Twitter was inundated with viral versions of the video set to different songs, prompting the former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau to tweet, ‘I don’t care how many different songs you set Richard Spencer being punched to, I’ll laugh at every one.’
“The violence is not directed only at avowed racists like Spencer: In June of last year, demonstrators – at least some of whom were associated with antifa – punched and threw eggs at people exiting a Trump rally in San Jose, California. An article in It’s Going Down celebrated the ‘righteous beatings.’”
As I wrote in The Times (£) yesterday, this has produced an unholy alliance between the left and the far right:

Ben Shapiro: Trump Isn’t The Only One Lying About What Happened In Charlottesville

After alt-right demonstrations in Charlottesville turned into clashes led by Antifa, leading to an alt-right Nazi sympathizer driving a car into a group of counter-protesters, things were bad enough.
As always, both sides of the political aisle have determined to make an awful situation worse.
The big problem is that both Left and right now use President Trump as a cognitive shortcut. The Left sees everything Trump says as antithetical to truth and decency; the right sees everything the Left says as motivated by animus and untruth. This means that no matter what Trump says, either Left or right will be wrong, since the truth of his statements has no bearing on this cognitive shortcut.
This has particularly dire ramifications for Charlottesville.
The Left has determined that everything President Trump says is wildly horrifying, no matter what the content. If Trump says that Antifa is a violent group, then the Left must declare that Antifa are equivalent to the allied soldiers of World War II.
That’s absurd, but that’s the case actively being made by journalists like Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, who tweeted: “Watching Saving Private Ryan, a movie about a group of very aggressive alt-left protesters invading a beach without a permit”, and Hillary Clinton spokesperson Brian Fallon, who posted a picture of Normandy with the caption, “Also confronted the Nazis without a permit”). In the pages of The Washington Post, historian Mark Bray defended Antifa as a necessary countermovement to stop neo-Nazism, gushing, “their willingness to physically defend themselves and others from white supremacist violence and preemptively shut down fascist organizing efforts before they turn deadly distinguishes from liberal anti-racists.”
The problem is that Antifa isn’t merely anti-fascist – it’s fascist in its own right. It’s a communist and anarchist movement dedicated to the use of violence against anyone they deem worthy – up to and including normal Trump voters and conservative Republicans. By allying with Antifa, the Left lends credence to the alt-right’s claim that they are victims of violence rather than perpetrators of it.

Weimar America

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to cheer on Communists and Nazis punching each other in major American cities while civil society disintegrates around them.
In Dallas, a black nationalist activist shot and killed 5 police officers at a Black Lives Matter anti-police rally. Instead of condemning BLM, Barack Obama defended a racist hate group whose role model is Assata Shakur, a wanted black nationalist cop killer, at the funerals of the murdered officers.
The left killed civil rights and replaced it with black nationalism. The racial supremacism of black nationalism that killed those officers is everywhere. Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ibram X. Kendi are lionized as brilliant thinkers instead of hateful racists, Amazon has ordered a black nationalist secessionist fantasy from Aaron McGruder and Showtime aired ‘Guerilla,’ a miniseries glamorizing Black Panther terrorism.
But racism is a two-way street. So is violence. Extremists feed into each other.
You can’t legitimize one form of racism without legitimizing all of them. The media may advance this hypocritical position. Obama used the shameful “reverse racism” euphemism that distinguishes between black and white racism. But propaganda and spin don’t change the physics of human nature.
Either all racism is bad. Or all racism is acceptable.

"I am a Zionist' video by a New Zealand woman is going viral

From Scoop World:

The Auckland-based star of a video entitled “I am a Zionist”, which has been viewed by more than six hundred thousand people on social media, has admitted she is surprised by the reach.
“I didn’t expect the message to touch so many people. The responses have been overwhelmingly supportive”, said Juliet Moses, “and showed that many identified with the views I expressed. It seems most Kiwis are probably also Zionists, without knowing it”.
Produced by the Israel Institute of New Zealand, the video has been shared by more than 7,390 people. It presents a brief history of the Jewish homeland, affirms the indigeneity of the Jewish people and outlines the involvement of the United Nations in Israel’s establishment.

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