21 Comments
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Terry Freeman's avatar

I wonder how many of these people have any idea what they are protesting for. I think most are just there because they got an invitation on social media to go have some fun being a huge pain in the butt to everyone else and they had nothing better to do. They might even get a few bucks apiece for their effort.

Thomas M Gregg's avatar

Oh, I think most of them believe what they're saying. But you're probably right that some are just tagging along. Back in the Vietnam War era, the joke was that a lot of guys hooked up with the antiwar movement in hopes of getting laid...

Ali Mostafa's avatar

Have you read Timothy Mitchell? The reason for dictatorship and terrorism in the region is Western imperialism starting from Iran to Iraq to Afghanistan to Egypt

Thomas M Gregg's avatar

Oh, b.s. People like you make the situation worse by finding excuses for the bad behavior of the Arab and Iranian regimes. How is "Western imperialism" responsible for the genocidal antisemitism of the Iranian ayatollahs?

Ali Mostafa's avatar

First, I am anti-zionist and support Palestine cause (so I am clear), if you want to have nuanced opinion, please read political thought of the people you criticize and read history from various sources and then decide. My history: First, there was an alliance between islamists and communists in 1950s to 1970s they produced three regimes: Nasser's regime pan-Arabism, Islamists regime in Iran, Algeria's decolonization team. Meanwhile, Jews started coming in 1917 while they remained minority. Nakba happened in 1948 and then Nasser who was politically ambitious after 1952 tried to nationalize suez canal (was saved by US because US wanted to undermine Britian's sterling and start an era of petrodollar) in the same veins Iranians nationalized their oil company after which CIA brought Shah into power. Back then, the military weapons of Israel came predominantly from France. Nasser was politically ambitious he said he is gonna to liberate everyone and make pan-Arab empire however like any dictator he crushed the islamists radicalizing them and some traveled to saudi and gulf countries after oil discovery [biggest thinker Sayyid Qutb who was critical of American empire]. Nasser supported Algerian guerilla warfare (against the French) [biggest thinker Frantz Fanon]. Nasser Lost in 1967 and Israel expanded massively. After that, Egypt managed to push Israelis a bit and started peace process. Arafat spoke in the UN in 1974 comparing Palestine to Algeria. Egypt normalized in 1978 (along with economic liberalization which deteriorated the country's economy) and Sadat peace-maker was killed. After that, in 1979, Iranian revolution happened, Khomeni came from France [who pitted jews against Algerians] (ending dictatorship and establishing religious rule quasi democracy; unlike Nasser he crushed communists not the islamists). After that, US supported Militants in Afghanistan against Soviets (the weapons were used later in 2001 supposedly). Meanwhile in Lebanon, Israeli carried massacre in 1982 (which radicalized bin Laden who dissatisfied with how royal family abandon true islamic teachings). For the divisions of Syria and Lebanon from ottoman times to Britian and France and why they were bad (read Andrew Delatolla’s work). After 1991, 9/11 happened and then war on terror started by US. Hamas was propped by Netanyhu government to divide Palestinians in 2006. Meanwhile, Arab Spring happened in 2011 and then US made humanitarian campaign in Libya. In Egypt for example, the Egyptian regime in 2012 tried to integrate Gaza and expand to Libya and Sudan, however, because of 2013 situation (how regimes crushed revolutions in Syria and Egypt) and then the now autocratic regimes like Assad and Sisi used “war on terror” campaign to crush opponents (read Macro pinfari’s work and Sean Lee’s work). Now regarding the constitution of Iran and Hamas, Iran for example use the term “weakened” must be helped and the regime tries to liberate Al-Quds not genocide and push US away from the region. For Hamas, the “Death to Jews” must be treated in similar fashion to US constitution in which the word “God” is used, is US really a Christian nation?

Ali Mostafa's avatar

Well, they had agency in 2011, but your US because of its support to Israel and wanted to keep oil circulating in global economy installed counter revolutionary regimes in every arab country and ethnicized christians, shia and minority countries across the the region (review your officials' statement about christians in Egypt for example), made people fear Iran and of course gulf monarchies wanted to keep their power. Now UAE and Israel are pushing all humanitarian causes aside for profiteering in the region.

Thomas M Gregg's avatar

Why is it that where Arabs and Muslims in general are concerned, all their bad behavior is held to be somebody else’s fault. Have they no agency? Are they really nothing more than the powerless, pathetic pawns of the sinister forces of Western imperialism and Zionism?

Eric Coppala's avatar

The problem I see with Palestine is that 50% or so of their population is teens and young adults. They’ve likely been indoctrinated since toddlers that the west, Christianity, Israel and Judaism are the enemies. Some of those young people don’t toe the line but how do we deal with brainwashed young people with high unemployment, low standard of existence and minimal eduction?

Thomas M Gregg's avatar

That's a good point, and we see something of the same thing in America, where young people in universities have been indoctrinated with postmodern theories of "settler-colonialism" & etc.

Deep Turning's avatar

Great article, just nails it.

Tanto Minchiata's avatar

The Nazis ultimately got what they deserved. They were destroyed. The Hamas islamonazis are getting what they deserve and will get some more shortly. These are not people to reason with. They are murderous cretins and the people who support them are sick losers.

The West is committing suicide by letting this garbage ideology proliferate. It won’t stop with Israel. These assholes are not interested in peaceful coexistence. They understand one thing - overwhelming force. God Bless America. Am Yisrael Chai.

Mcferic's avatar

“The last thing this world needs is one more dictatorial terrorist state whose founding principle is genocidal slaughter.”

Bingo!

I saw the typical adjacent type in the Whole Foods parking lot with the standard “Free Palestine” sticker on her Prius, and I thought “free to do what?” March in Pride parades? Reach Net Zero? Etc. I doubt it.

Your statement quoted above sums it up. “Free” to rampage and kill at will and to impose Islam and usher in a new dark age — that's what.

Simon L's avatar

It's not anti-Semitism it's anti-Whitism.

Thomas M Gregg's avatar

Well, po-mo progressivism conflates the two. Among the crimes of the Jews is "white supremacy."

The Angry Demagogue's avatar

Exactly right - they got rid of communism and morphed into post-modernism.

That is the key to the idiocy.

Ehud Neor's avatar

Clear thinking and clear writing, among the best I've read on the subject.

Steve Fleischer's avatar

Well said.

Time that we speak up against the cancer in our midst.

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Apr 19, 2024
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Thomas M Gregg's avatar

Yes, Jayapal's a real piece of work.

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Apr 19, 2024
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Thomas M Gregg's avatar

The word was carefully chosen, based on my observation of her behavior.

Deep Turning's avatar

"Antisemitismus" is actually from Germany, coined by one Wilhelm Marr, who was a radical along the lines of Wagner, socialist when younger, German racial chauvinist when older. (Marr was part of an important group of ideological thinkers known as the Young Hegelians, which included Jews like Marx -- self-hating "scientific" socialist -- Heine, one of the German language's greatest poets, belated returnee to his Jewish identity -- Moses Hess -- radical communist, then a proto-Zionist, once he started to sense that something was amiss with emancipation and assimilation -- and Borne, a popular author who was widely read by non-Jews, yet never fully accepted as German.)

Marr needed a new term, once Jew-hatred had emerged as a secular, modern prejudice in the late 19th century and left behind the old way of framing the conflict as a religious one between the older Judaism and the newer Christianity. The modern version certainly evolved out of that, but left religious dispute behind as old-fashioned and pre-modern. As Heine wittily put it, it was less about creed and belief, and more about one's nose ;-) (Heine had quite a rapier wit and was deeply admired by Nietzsche, who used Heine's example to demonstrate how a "foreigner" could master German better than most Germans.*)

As Marr himself implied, "antisemitismus" was simply a euphemism for "judenhasse," or hatred of the Jews. He wanted something that sounded a few shades more polite, maybe even scholarly and pseudo-academic. Germany's 19th century academia generated multiple generations of over-credentialed, badly educated pseudo-intellectuals spouting half-baked "radical" ideas couched in jargon that parodied German idealist philosophy a la Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer. Some of these ideas -- about race and "Aryanism" and the cosmic Will, for example -- reappeared in the Nazi period.

* And let's not forget how much of Heine's early poetry was set to music by Schubert and Schumann, as Aryan/goyische as they get :-) ... such was their admiration for Heine's brilliance. Alas for Germany, it was not to last.