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Friday, June 25, 2010

The New Totalitarianism That Dares Not Speak Its Name

As the world's leaders are battling it out in Toronto at the G8/G20 summit (comedic zombies photo gallery) - Obama proposing socialist Keynesianism to 'stimulate the economy', Europe embarking on a counter movement instead curbing spending - we are today the recipients of great news!

Ever since we embarked in 2006 on our quest to discover what foul ideology is nibbling away at the foundations of Western civilization, culminating in a manuscript entitled "The Dystopia of Paradise", the contours of the new, post Cold War, global mindset has become increasingly visible.

For want of a clear identity we called it Neo Communism (an epithet they feared most for propaganda reasons), Neo Totalitarianism, Postmodernism, subjectivism, the Unholy Alliance, the Counter Enlightenment movement, Leftist (and Rightist) Fascism, Transnational Progressivism and various other ugly names, depending on whether in a political, philosophical, rhetorical or historical context. We declared it Ideology of the Year 2007!


Although rooted in the world of academia, apart from the odd conservative researcher like Hudson senior fellow, John Fonte who coined the term Transnational Progressivism, and liberty authors like Mark Levin, higher education to date just produced adherents who did their utmost to further the notions while obfuscating its existence and identity. Recently that has changed - more about that later.

In fact, lack of identity and its undeclared war are one of the most typical aspects of the new anti-philosophy. This is not so strange when one realizes it has left a trail of blood and bodies throughout history. It is particularly hard to chase a nameless ghost that only surfaces for short periods of time, and is just discernible on the philosophical level and then only if one is inclined to spot it. There have been times fellow researchers as wel as self have felt like paranoid conspiracy theorists. It has been a quest akin to planet chasing.


I believe we are well past that period now with Professor Ernest Sternberg's publication, "Purifying the World: What the New Radical Ideology Stands For" (Orbis 54:1, Winter 2010, pp. 61-86)  - Hat Tip: Peter. Sternberg is coining yet another epithet for the new radical thinkers: the global purifiers. Non of these terms are factually incorrect and are all descriptive of various aspects of the dogma.

However, I believe when reduced to the historical and philosophical root the best identity description would be Rousseauism, or Utopian collectivism of the Rousseau variety. The fine, freedom-loving, individual-nurturing citations in this page, are his. The pristine, ideal tribal world as envisioned by Rousseau has a frightening, religious component.

It suffered in communism and fascism which largely preferred the cult of personality. But since the coalition between Western secular and Eastern religious collectivism (the Unholy Alliance) took shape, and has indeed now merged seamlessly (!) (women and gays be damned), the integration of ideas as put forward by Rousseau, is complete once again. From "Ideological Archeology":
In Roussea's ideas we find the source of every anti-Liberal, violent revolution ever since the French Revolution went off the Lockean track. Rousseau is ultimately the father of many noxious and lethal traditions besides: nationalistic Romanticism, redistributive Socialism, philosophical agrarianism, conservative and progressive Communitarianism, Nazism, and more to the point, the Counter-Enlightenment and postmodernism. Cultures, adopting Rousseauian ideas found in them a mirror of some aspect of their own identity. [Another great analysis, by Wildmonk].

Many have descended into the abyss of collectivist hell. In France his radical egalitarianism led to The Reign of Terror, in Germany to Left and Right Socialism with known results, in Russia and the Far East to communism, starvation and slaughter on grandiose scales. In China Mao Tse Tung's Great Leap Forward resulted in the greatest mass murder in human history and in Cambodia the Khmer Rouge's extermination campaign to establish Rousseauian agrarianism resulted in the deaths of well over twenty percent of the population. [Wildmonk] If this is not evil, frankly I don't know what is.
The event of the Gaza propaganda flotilla two weeks ago - the fleet of barely disguised 'aid' ships whose proper description should have been raid ships - sought not to deliver goods to Gaza, but to break the blockade which the legitimate and autonomous nation of Israel put in place around the Hamas terrorist hell hole of Gaza.

It is but the latest strategy by which the Unholy Alliance seeks to deligitimize Israel's right to exist and the right to defend itself. This event is an indication how far the Alliance is willing to go: all the way. Sternberg explains that the secular component has largely refrained from serious violence because they see their religious terrorist comrades as proxies.


Sternberg is pointing out that the current status of World Purification is an ideology, not yet a regime. But I believe he is overlooking the existence of another Axis, the one of Evil, an alliance now of North Korea,  Iran, Syria, a number of other Middle Eastern and South American dictatorships like Venezuela et al. - the Gaza propflot perilously adding NATO member, Turkey to the toxic brew.

Sternberg is apparently also unaware of the radical background and ideas of his own president, Barack Hussein Obama, the leader of what used to be known as the free world, which seems to be unaware of the silent, covert war being waged against it.

If you care to know where they are, read "Where Have All the Radicals Gone?".

Update

Andrew Thomas on American Thinker is also on the case of Prof. Sternberg's essay. He has this to add:
(...) The article(...) will open your eyes and scare you to death. In Sternberg's analysis, from the historical ashes of failed fascist and communist regimes a new totalitarian ideology is emerging (...) One issue that Sternberg does not address is the pervasive, unrelenting propaganda machine that constitutes the progressive mainstream media. 
As long as free-thinking individuals are misled and kept ignorant of the purificationist agenda, the infiltration of our institutions and the destruction of our freedoms and values will continue. We (...)  must do everything possible to educate others and disrupt this movement. Otherwise, the sweet dreams of the purifiers will inevitably result in an unending totalitarian nightmare of global proportions. (...) >>>

Update

Jihad Watch: "Jihadists love Nazism: Turkish supporters of Jihad Flotilla fly swastika flag"

And no doubt they support Hitler's genocidal aspirations for the Jews, as these coalesce so nicely with Islamic antisemitism.

Photo courtesy The Religion of Peace. >>>

June 27, 2010
~

Related dossiers


- "The Pomo Presidency"
- "The Dystopia of Paradise"
- "Socialist Utopia Redux"
- "Pomo Lingo"
- "Greenism"
- "The Jihad Project"

Elsewhere

- The Guardian: "A Communist Revival?"

Sunday, June 20, 2010

The Truth About Terror

It's time once more to post another remarkable piece by Dutch Iranian university lecturer Afshin Ellian. For a while I feared he'd gone all postmodern on me, but if so, he has now largely made up with present outstanding piece on the killing of Neda Agha Soltan at the hands of a Basij militiaman.

It is truly breathtaking that those who advocate talking to Hamas and other Islamofascists, are refusing to engage into coalition talks with Geert Wilders and his PVV party, as is the case in the Netherlands (i.e. the Leftist segment of the Christian Democrat party, CDA).

A similar movement can be discerned in the broohaha over the propaganda flotilla of Free Gaza, while the same people keep stumm over the Iranian clamp down of the Green rebellion.

Regime change in Iran would have been the best bet yet for peace in the Middle East. Yet the implied notion of the ideas proposed by the islamophiliacs for improved relations with Muslims, is to sacrifice the tiny postage stamp that is the nation of Israel.

- Caption: Atlas Shrugs posted a photo of Neda wearing a Christian crucifix, first published on an unspecified German site - 

These people have really somewhere lost sight of reality. Otherwise they would have remembered that Israel, since its legitimate inception, hasn't had a moment of peace. "The occupation" of which they speak is a result of the wars against Israel. The former PM of Spain, Jose Maria Aznar has stressed that again in an article in Times this week entitled "If Israel Goes Down, We All Go Down".

Aznar also announced the foundation of a new Israel support group, Friends for Israel, an initiative he took with a number of other prominent thinkers and politicians: the Northern Ireland politician David Trimble, British historian and journalist Andrew Roberts, the American former ambassador to the UN John Bolton, the former President of Peru Alejandro Toledo, filosopher and former President of the Italian Senate Marcello Pera, the Italian author and politician Fiamma Nirenstein, financier Robert Agostinelli and the Catholic apologist and author George Weigel.

In the meanwhile things are really heating up in the Middle East.

Turkey has made a 180 degrees paradigm U turn and has turned its back on the West. On the insistence of the loony West democracy's watchdog, the Turkish army, was sent to barracks and the Islamists won the day. Erdogan has already embraced Iran and Syria. He may even have strategic aspirations regarding the reconstitution of the Caliphate. Syria is back in charge in Lebanon, without anyone in the 'international community' crying foul over unacceptable meddling.

Hezbollah in the south of Lebanon has replenished its arsenal under the watchful eye of the UN peacekeepers (Iran state press claiming "UN confirms there are no hidden missiles in Lebanon").

Two weeks ago we witnessed how Israel was forced to trade security and sovereignty for propaganda with the terror flotilla. The Turkish model of the m/s "Mavi Marmara" was so successful that repeat performances are already under way. Lebanese and Iranian vessels, laden with martyr wannabes have been despatched to break the blockade of Gaza. The latter did so with unapologetic support of the regime.

Here's the gist of Ellian's post (partly paraphrased, partly verbatim translation).

Iran showed its true face with the killing of Neda Agha Sultan on June 20, 2009. The world stood by as she died. She wanted human rights and democratic principles. The regime wants laws based on the Koran, sharia and theocracy.

Neda was killed by a Basij, a member of the Islamofascist militia. A few days prior to her death she spoke to a couple of female police officers. They told her an awful truth: "Honey, you should stop going to these rallies, because you are too beautiful. They hate beautiful women. They hate beauty. I know them. Please stop going".

The regime and the militia are targetting beautiful women, because in their minds they must be secularists. Only secular women dare show their beauty. The Islamists hate everything human and beautiful. (Dare I say they share a value here with western Leftists, who also hate anything outstanding, such as wealth and wisdom.)

Neda was killed. There's newly discovered footage of her sad death (warning: explicit!). Antony Thomas has produced a documentary about Neda and her life. It also explains the Green movement and what it entails. It's an impressive document available in three languages: Farsie, Arabic and English.

"For Neda" is narrated by Shohreh Aghdashlo, a successful, Emmy Award winning actress who played in "House of Sand and Fog", "The Stoning of Soraya" and in the anti terror series "24". (See also a post on the Lighthouse on "The Stoning of Soraya".)

Shortly after Neda's death CNN secretly dispatched a young Iranian journalist to Tehran to interview her family. Who was she? In many ways a girl like any other in any other place in the world. But this wasn't just anywhere. This was the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In his last statement Mir Hussein Mousavi has laid out the Green movement's manifesto. Three concepts are standing out: the state of law, legitimacy and freedom. Legitimacy can only be based on the will of the people.

Allah, the highest spiritual leader, the Koran and sharia law are not mentioned as sources on which the political order draws its legitimacy. Moussavi is also proposing to scrap discriminatory laws affecting women.

Who was the true master of the Basij that was responsible for the act of terror that killed Neda? According to the hadith of Abu Hurairah the Prophet Mohammed was victorious through terror - ‘Wa nosrat belro’b’ means to win through terror.

Leader Khamenei is claiming to act according to the tradition of the Prophet. The Prophet Mohammed claims that victory through terror is one of his five attributes, not of his (pre Islamic) predecessors. The narrator of this often recited hadith is Jabir bin Abdullah.

It is Mohammed's terror that took the life of Neda on June 20, 2009. This is the truth.

Update: Oh hell, the Lebanese feminazis are coming!

JP: "A floating symbol of failure" 

Gerelateerd

- "Ellian Blogs"
- "Persian Power Play"
- "Turkey Trot"
- "The Levant Intrigate Intrigues"
- "Middle East Project"
- "The Flotilla Tactic"

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Coping with Islamists

By Dr. Sam Holliday

The Obama administration has stated that our enemy is al-Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates. They reject any suggestion that Islam motivates our enemies. John Brennan has said "Nor do we describe our enemy as jihadists and Islamists." They do not recognize the two faces of Islam. This view does not recognize that we are in a struggle with a worldwide movement, known as the Great Jihad, motivated by the teaching of Muhammad. It is time for the Obama administration to face the reality of the Islamists Threat.

Today there are Muslims who, in accordance with the Qur’an, continue the Great Jihad. They call themselves jihadists, or holy warriors. Those who value Western Culture should refer to them as hirabahists, or unholy warriors. Islamists is an accurate name for them, since that indicates Islamic motivation, yet it does not suggest all Muslims. Islamists call the current worldwide struggle the Third Jihad, and have five goals:

1. To weaken US influence in the Middle East and South Asia and to increase the “fifth column” in Europe and the United States.

2. To use the United Nations to paralyze effective action by the United States.

3. To control the oil in the Middle East, and then use that control to weaken the economic power of the United States.

4. To eliminate Israel.

5. To continue the struggle until a Great Caliphate is created.

How many Muslims are Islamists? It is impossible to know. Clearly the leaders of the Third Jihad are Islamists. Most of the terrorists lack the necessary historical perspective or theological knowledge to be Islamists. They are motivated by feelings of envy, frustration, greed, prejudice, and hatred resulting from manipulation by the leaders. What about most Muslims? Most Muslims believe in jihad, i.e. struggle.

However, they believe in different kinds of struggles. For some Muslims it is a personal (inner) struggle. Islamists struggle for the five goals of the Third Jihad. Some Muslims belief the Qur’an prevents them from condemning Islamists, or helping to neutralize them. The critical question is: How many Muslims will struggle for modernity and integration into Western Culture?

The current threat to Western Culture is from transnational Islamists with political goals. This is a battle of wills. We have not yet neutralized them or weakened their will, and they have not weakened our will. However, this conflict will not end as long as there are Islamists who believe the Qur’an requires a Great Jihad.

Muslims are not our enemies. Our enemies are all the Islamists that want to kill us and drive us out of “Islamic lands”, and those that provide them funds, sanctuary, and moral support; this includes al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and many other groups and individuals. Islamists support an ideology that opposes modernity and Western Culture; but not all Muslims support this ideology. At this time the threat doesn't call for a Holy War; there is not justification for an overall strategy similar to those used in World War II or the Cold War. We are not yet in a Clash of Civilizations and it would be a mistake at this time to think that we are. We should attempt to handle the conflict as Irregular Warfare, until the threat from the Islamists becomes greater—or is neutralized.

Our Overall Strategy

Our overall strategy must include information dissemination (communication) that is as effective as that of our enemy. However, this should not be confused with the spreading of our own values, attitudes, and ideology about economic and political systems. The goal of our strategy should be stability (homeostatic equilibrium), not political or economic development. The immediate goals must be local security and local authority. In time, we can hope, all Muslims might learn to value the free exchange of ideas, tolerance, free market economics, and representative government and give up those aspects of Islam that are incompatible with Western Culture. In other words, conversion to what we consider best should not be the strategic goal. Our strategic goal should be stability and stopping those who want to destroy us.

Our strategy must include getting Muslims to become a counter-balance to the Islamists. But the two faces of Islam cannot fool us. On the one hand, Muslims can be outwardly moderate, understand, tolerate and peaceful when living among nonbelievers, but inwardly believe in the Great Jihad. Only those who will work against Islamists and the Great Jihad can be trusted.

To date Muslims have failed to:
  • Point out that it is un-Islamic for the Islamists to claim they are conducting a Jihad (holy war), and that the so-called jihadists have perverted authentic Islam.
  • Clarify the “jihad martyrdom” factor so that it is not used as a recruiting tool.
  • Distinguish between offensive, defensive, and personal jihad.
  • Clarify the meaning of “infidel”, so that it is not used for political purposes and the killing of innocents.
  • Point out that many Islamist leaders are not clerics and have no authority to issue fatwas (religious edicts).
  • Point out that the Islamists deliberately ignore or misread many passages of the Qur’an and the Islamic Jurisprudence (the Figh).
Any successful strategy against Islamists requires realism, frankness and a high degree of unity. It requires honesty from governmental officials about the threat, and honesty from a loyal opposition in domestic politics. The skeptics, ideological Luddites (those with naive political beliefs that destroy that which supports and protects them), and partisans cannot be allowed to sabotage our strategy against the Islamists. Domestic political disputes must not provide an opportunity for the Islamists to divide and conquer. The useful idiots must be exposed. We must face this threat as one nation. In Irregular Warfare motivation, dedication, unity, effort and sacrifice are just as critical to success as they are in Conventional War.

Our leaders have to be candid about the threat, and what must be done; they should not speak in generalities or in words designed not to offend Muslims. They must believe in American exceptionalism. They must be honest, accurate and frank. They must project strength and confidence. Our leaders must admit that they don't know all and can't tell all that they know. They must explain:

  • That this is a protracted conflict being played out on a global field with Islamists who have their tentacles virtually everywhere.
  • That the "organization" of the Third Jihad has many autonomous parts and they often hide behind respected religious, culture, and welfare institutions.
  • That the legal rights and protections of individuals, determined to be appropriate for peace, are a mill stone around the neck of open, free, representative societies during Irregular Warfare; they need be appropriately revised in those situations when the actions of Islamists destroy the conditions of peace.

Unless there are such revisions, the Islamists will exploit the weaknesses of their target countries to their advantages.

The Challenge

The ideology of the Islamists is hostile to pluralistic, representative, secular government, since true believers consider Qur’an law and its Sharia derivatives the only basis for governance. This view must be recognized as a subversive ideology; it should not be legitimized as a religion. It is true that Christianity, Shinto, and other religions do not have stellar records.

However, dhimmi status (subordinate, disfranchised, residents subject to discriminatory taxation and limits on freedom) is unique to Islam. The teaching of hatred for non-believers is unique to Islam. Only when Islam controls a country, and all non-Muslims have accepted dhimmi status, can Islamists accept diversity. We value God given rights of individuals—Islamists values submission to Islamic leaders.

It is true that Islamists want to expel Western influences from all territory formerly under Muslim control. They want their politico-economic and philosophical views to be dominant. Whereas most insurgents in the past were motivated by a utopian view of a better world with economic equality and social fraternity, Islamists seek spiritual purity in the eyes of Allah. Islamists see nonbelievers as too weak, too easily tempted, too confused to govern themselves; therefore, scholar-jurists who know the way of Allah must control them. They seek to protect people from worldly temptations; therefore they attempt to remove anything that will prevent people from submitting to Allah.

The ideology of the Islamists is hostile to pluralistic, representative, secular government, since Islamic true believers consider Qur’an law and its Sharia derivatives the only basis for governance. This view must be recognized as a subversive political ideology; it should not be legitimized as a religion. It is true that in the past the leaders of Christianity, Shinto, and other religions have twisted religious doctrine into political ideologies.

However, today this is true only of Islam. Dhimmi status (subordinate, disfranchised, residents subject to discriminatory taxation and limits on freedom) is unique to Islam. Only when Islam controls a country, and all non-Muslims have accepted dhimmi status, can Islamists accept diversity. Today the teaching of hatred for non-believers is unique to Islam. Western Culture values the God given rights of individuals—Islamists values submission to Islamic leaders.

“Moderate and reasonable Muslims” who support the Third Jihad—such as CAIR, the Holy Land Foundation, ISNA, Organization of the Islamic Conference, and the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination League--are a greater threat than terrorists. Such “moderates” are Islamists since they do not reject those parts of the Qur’an that call for a Great Jihad.

They hid their true intent and consider it in keeping with the Qur’an to deceive non-believers. They use our legal system to silence and punish free speech critical of Islamists or their sources of financing. They are the lead elements of the “fifth column” seeking to weaken Western Culture and prepare the way for Islamic domination of the world.

It is Islamists—not all Muslims—who want the Third Jihad to be a worldwide movement that will cause all non-believes to submit.

More effective ways to neutralize the tactics, techniques and strategies of the Third Jihad must be used in the future if it is to be defeated. We must defeat, deter, or neutralize our enemy. In Irregular Warfare there is never the final victory of Conventional War—success is defined by stability. First, we must recognize that killing Islamist leaders will not end the Third Jihad.

The leaders represent an important segment of our enemy, but not its totality. Second, we do not want to make Islam or an entire Islamic culture our enemy. Third, we must recognize that the demise of Israel will not mean an end of the Third Jihad, even though Israel will always be used to rally support for the Third Jihad. Fourth, we must recognize that withdrawal from the Middle East will only embolden the Islamists and make the final Clash of Civilizations more likely.

Strategy to Defeat the Third Jihad

The best strategy for defending Western Culture includes:

1. Assure that the Middle East and South Asia are stabilized and that worldwide no state is willing to support Islamists attempting to overthrow those in authority.

2. Work toward energy independence through:
  • Developing the massive U.S. oil resources so that our economy is not dependent on sources that our enemies can disrupt. This would include the conversation of coal and natural gas into oil.
  • Reducing dependence on fossil fuels, and using less energy overall, while maintaining our standard of living.
  • Developing new sources of energy—primarily proven nuclear energy systems, such as those non-SL1 systems abandoned by the Army in the 1960s.
3. Adopt a policy of containment until the faults within the Third Jihad cause its ideological certitude to collapse, allowing other Muslims to neutralize the Islamists. Pursue such policies, both overt and covert, to hasten this collapse.

4. Face the fact that communication superiority is a prerequisite for success in Irregular Warfare--just as air superiority is a prerequisite for victory in Conventional War. To date we have been ineffective in the strategic communication campaign to strengthen the will of our own people, to weaken the will of our enemies, and to gain the support of people around the world. In the current battle of wills strategic communication is the center of gravity. This conflict is not to be won through economic, diplomatic, and military means.

5. Develop a message as effective as Muhammad's in winning hearts and minds. Then develop a sociopolitical structure to communicate that message which is more effective than that of the global revivalist movement known as the Third Jihad.  Recognize that the true believers of the Third Jihad are willing to suffer, sacrifice, deceive, kill, conquer, and die for their cause. Recognize that we need true believers in our cause, i.e. the principles and ideals of Western Culture.

6. Encourage respected leaders and scholars of the Islamic world to condemn in religious terms those using violence in the name of Islam. Also condemn as “useful idiots” those in the West who give aid, comfort and support to Islamists.

7. Take actions to strengthen pride in Western Culture. The weakening of the will in Europe and America, and ability to protect Western Culture as it developed in the modern era (from 1500 to the 1960s), has many causes. Partly it is the result of actions by those disillusioned by World War I and World War II, and partly it is the result of the cycle of rise and decline common to all groups. The ability to counter the Third Jihad depends on strengthening the will and unity of all of those who value Western Culture.

8. Designate any Muslim an Islamist, even if he or she claims to be a moderate, if that person will not condemn the Islamists and renounce that portion of the Qur’an that calls for the Great Jihad.

Life and liberty requires knowledge of your enemies and the ability to destroy or neutralize those enemies.

Dr Sam Holliday is Director of the Armiger Cromwell Center

All publications copyright © 2010 Armiger Cromwell Center. Permission is granted to forward this article by e-mail to friends or colleagues on a fair use basis. For reprint permission, contact Armiger Cromwell Center at armigercc@comcast.net

All posts by Sam Holliday on Politeia

Related dossiers


The Unholy Alliance"
- "The Jihad Project"
- "In Defense of Liberty"
- "Legal Jihad"
- "The Balkan Caliphate"
- "Stop Islamization of Europe/America"
- "Eurabia"
- "Islamization=Apartheid"
- "Apostating Islam"

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Where Have All the Radicals Gone?

A Dutch paper recently posted an article, investigating the whereabouts of anti globalist radicals. They seem to be missing. One wouldn't have thought it since the violence at the September G20 meeting in Boston and the Leftist media having the gall to compare it to the Tea Party.

The Left is fuming and frothing at the mouth that their convenient crisis is passing by without anarcho-communism, or at least world socialism having been declared at the UN. Left, right and center countries are voting in rightist governments and the Left has failed to associate the opponents with the economic downturn.

In The Netherlands the Senate last week adopted a revolutionary Bill which actually reaffirms the right to property. Traditionally the non existent "right to housing" was deemed more important than basic property rights. And so an entire industry has sprung up to avert squatting. Buildings that were taken over became strongholds of the counter capitalist movement and could only be liberated by laying them under siege.

Since the banking crisis broke in 2008 the movement has tried to call a convention on at least two occasions. They invited all the usual suspects, but returns were meager, to say the least. Of willingness to take action there was none. One is not to count the World Social Forum of the new Leftist mainstay, Brazil which in 2009 in Belem, was attended by some 113.000 radicals for social justice. A spokesperson for the squatter group has the following interesting analysis of the situation.

The resistance has become "happy", practical, and not as much Leftist as "green" and "sustainable". Since in his view that encompasses "just about everybody" radicalism has become mainstream. "Look at the NGOs", he says pointing to Fair Food and Globalicious. They think the Left vs Right dichotomy is outdated.  They have no problem working within the capitalist system.

The intelligence agency confirms the only ones radicalizing at this point are animal rights activists, the "delete-the-borders" brigades and the weapons-are-evil crowd. Neither has radicalism moved to the Internet. Students have started ... studying. The shrinking welfare state compels them to concentrate on their careers. Anarchist bookshops have largely disappeared.

A German squatter agrees: there are a few small networks, and there's Indymedia, but most have been absorbed by the system. Radical activists are more visible in France and Germany, and radicalism certainly isn't dead. It has been written off before after the fall of communism in 1989, but it bounced back ten years ago. He's hoping the anti squatting Bill will trigger a response shaking them out of hibernation.

Which is bearing out my hypothesis to the contrary. Radicals haven't become less Left or less radical at all. They've become part of the mainstream where they're infecting entire swathes of society with memes of greenism, sustainability and socially responsible entrepreneurship. Radicals haven't disappeared! They're simply everywhere!

Related

- "Mayday, May Day, They're Deleting the Borders"
- "The Ugly Face of the New Global Paradigm"

Friday, June 11, 2010

Climate Industry: Climategate Hasn't Impacted Belief in Climate Change

BusinessGreen recently claimed that on both sides of the Atlantic 'belief' in climate change has been less dented by the Climategate scandal as first thought.

The choice of words is telling in and of itself. Apparently climate change is now purely a matter of faith.

You can read all about it in businessGreen.

In the meantime, we're doing an unscientific survey of our own to see if we can match the astonishing figures claimed by the climate industry, still comfortably in the double digits.

Of course it's hard to catch up with government propaganda and a media that are solidly aboard the climate change paradigm.

How gullible are you? Are you still in the grip of the watermelons?




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Sunday, June 6, 2010

Relativist Foreign Policy and the Free Gaza Propflot (update)

This wasn't a one off, but a new tactic in assymetrical warfare toolkit - or should that be warfare under the guise of humanitarian aid? Lebanon is now preparing to send propflots, only they are no longer propaganda tools, but covert warfare. Here's the collection point on Articles.

Al Manar TV: "“Flotilla Assault Marks the Beginning of the End for Israel”"

June 6, 2010



There was a time in human history, not that long ago actually but it seems like eons now, that the ideal state of mind when judging others, was to be as objective as possible. The notion is built on the idea that all men are created equal and all are to be judged by the same moral standard. It is symbolized in the statue of Lady Justice, weighing her cases blindfolded.

A murder is a murder no matter who committed it, whoever the victim, and whatever the circumstances; the idea being that men are judged by the contents of their character, not by the color of their skin, or social class.

That's no longer the case. When the Left embraced relativism, it accepted with it, it's nasty little sibling, subjectivism. So, whereas one murderer gets life for killing a human being, another is getting away with a few years, depending on the circumstances and the history of the persons involved.

Where social classes have largely disappeared from most Western societies, other victim groups have been created to keep the social warfare alive. It's done on the basis of the dialectic of oppressors versus oppressed, or postmodern varieties thereof. Persons are judged and treated according to the victim group they stem from. It happens to also nicely pave the way for the apartheid of Sharia law, one law for the natives, another for Muslims - that is, as a first stage to total submission.

Some liberals like to think of themselves as non judgmental, but that moral neutrality is a myth. We discriminate all of the time, but no longer based on an objective standard of ethics, but by different standards depending on whom we are judging: we are guilty of practicing the hypocrisy of reversed discrimination.

The same is true in international relations. One commentator on a post on the shocking events in the waters of the eastern Mediterranean this week, assures us Israel is held by higher standards than the Palestinians, because they are a liberal democracy, not the usual Middle Eastern hellhole ruled by a dictator.

How evil and unjust that double standard is, can be measured by its effect: in Western culture it is responsible for the 'down with us' syndrome, effectively foisting upon ourselves a handicap, not unlike fighting with one hand tied behind our backs. And that is just to make it fair, because the other feller is only half our size. Yet we stand idly by when two thugs are bashing each others heads in, since neither seems to know any better. (In the civil world - thank Heaven - they still end up in prison, maybe.)

If you project that on to the world of international relations we end up precisely where we are today: with Israel condemned for defending itself, and the thugocracy of Iran getting away with enough fissile material to produce two nuclear bombs. How's that for a debilitating effect of subjectivism?

Caroline Glick describes the objectives of the Red-Green (Left and Islam) coalition as follows:
It seeks to delegitimize Israel's right to exist and it seeks to make it impossible for Israel to defend itself. If these aims are met, Israel's destruction will become an historic inevitability.
Far from advancing the peace process, the result of this effort is the destruction of the state of Israel, which is rationalized in any sort of way: it is racist because it is Jewish, yet the country consists of Jews, Christians and Muslims which are treated as equals before the law. But Muslim countries on the other hand are backward dictatorships, so their discrimination against women and religions other than Islam, do not matter because they're held to lower standards.

Muslim countries have never had any intention of tolerating the liberal democracy the size of a postage stamp in the midst of its conquered lands. On top of that, they have now managed to get the Western postmodern Left on its side in a Red-Green fascist coalition; the brew is toxic in the extreme.

A commentator in the US has made it be known that ... of course the aid convoy was a ruse to cover the real objective: breaking the blockade of Gaza so that heaven knows what may be brought into the port. There's nothing illegal about the blockade and what's more, it's sheer common sense. Only subjectivists go to the point of requiring entire countries and cultures to commit suicide in order to be considered ethical.

Time and again, whatever patches of land the Iraelis restored to the Palestinians, it always became a launching pad for violence and terror. They have no reason to trust the Palestinians with whatever concession in the name of the unspeakable 'peace process". The hellhole of Gaza itself is a case in point.

At first, in the relativist's reasoning, there's no moral difference between the Israelis and the Palestinians: both have an equal right to exist and resist. Initially it makes no difference that Israel is a liberal democracy that treats all equal before the law and the Palestinians have proven themselves time and again the pit of moral depravity. They then move over to the other side and call for Israel's destruction.

Welcome to the upside down, inside out world of moral subjectivism applied to diplomacy and international relations.

Related

- Washington Post: "Those troublesome Jews", by Charles Krauthammer
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Saturday, June 5, 2010

Pat Condell on the Cordoba Mega Mosque Project Next to Ground Zero





Shocker! Financier of Free Gaza gate crasher linked to Ground Zero Mega Mosque:

HotAir: "Founder of Ground Zero mosque part of group that helped fund Gaza flotilla"

(...) The imam behind a proposed mosque near Ground Zero is a prominent member of a group that helped sponsor the pro-Palestinian activists who clashed violently with Israeli commandos at sea this week. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is a key figure in Malaysian-based Perdana Global Peace Organization, according to its Website.

Perdana is the single biggest donor ($366,000) so far to the Free Gaza Movement, a key organizer of the six-ship flotilla that tried to break Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip Monday. (...) Go take a look at who the most prominent member of Perdana is. Right — Mahathir Mohamad, former prime minister of Malaysia, Jew-baiter extraordinaire, and prominent … 9/11 Truther. (...) >>>

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Thursday, June 3, 2010

We Con the World, We Con the People



Produced by Latma TV

NB: YouTube collapsed for the flagging by Hamas supporters and pulled the video.
It is now posted on Eyeblast (thank you, Eyeblast). See it here.


Cartoon by Ramirez

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

The Real Purpose of the Gaza Propflot

This wasn't a one off, but a new tactic in assymetrical warfare toolkit - or should that be warfare under the guise of humanitarian aid? Lebanon is now preparing to send propflots, only they are no longer propaganda tools, but covert warfare. Here's the collection point on Articles.

Al Manar TV: "“Flotilla Assault Marks the Beginning of the End for Israel”"

June 6, 2010






more about "The real purpose of the Gaza flotilla", posted with vodpod

This article explains what you've seen in the video.

Just Journalism: "UPDATED: Peace activists or violent agitators: How the media narrative on flotilla incident is shaping up"

With the Israeli government standing firm on their claim that IDF soldiers were met with severe violence from Gaza aid convoy participants, Just Journalism will be following developments closely and publishing new information on a rolling basis.

Before the incident had occurred, MEMRI had published this footage, with Arabic to English translation, showing participants on board one of the ships chanting violent anti-Jewish slogans before setting sail.

The activists shout: ‘Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammed will return’ - a reference to a seventh century attack in Khayber, Arabia, by Muhammed and his followers against Jews.

A female activist on the boat is also translated as saying, ‘We are now waiting for one of two good things – either to achieve martyrdom or to reach Gaza.’

The same chants invoking Khayber were also played on loudspeaker to a huge crowd gathered on Saturday in Istanbul to see off the flotilla, as has been broadcast by Turkish television. This footage also includes the repetition of ‘Intifadah! Intifadah!’

Furthermore, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday revealed his view that an interception of the flotilla by Israel would be as much a victory as reaching Gaza. The Jerusalem Post reported:

"If the ships reach Gaza, it's a victory for Gaza," Haniyeh told some 400 supporters after touring Gaza City's small fishing harbor, where several smaller vessels breaking the blockade have docked in the past. "If they are intercepted and terrorized by the Zionists, it will be a victory for Gaza, too, and they will move again in new ships to break the siege of Gaza." (...) >>>



IDF DA Desk


Free Gaza, the harassing 'peace' group is a coalition made up of the Turkish Islamist group of B.Yildirim, the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), a member of Sheikh Qaradawi's Ittilaf al Kheir (Union of the Good or the Muslim Brotherhood), and Marxist groups which includes Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn and Jodie Evans (Code Pink). Here are the NGOs involved.

The vessels have been furnished by Free Gaza and the IHH. Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi recently paid IHH millions of euros to organize actions against Israel. This is one of them. 

While Israel has announced it will free 600 prisoners, Free Gaza just let it be known it has dispatched yet another harassment vessel to Gaza.

The Dutch Telegraaf newspaper is revealing today that one of the two Dutch nationals arrested by Israel is the Hamas representative in the country. The 43 year old Dutch passport holder, Amin Abou Rashed is of Palestinian descent and operates out of the port city of Rotterdam. According to the official website of the Muslim Brotherhood the man is one of the main organizers of the propflot operation.

Intelligence sources say Rashed appears prominently in various reports as the leader of Hamas in the Netherlands. He's also known as Amin Abou Ibrahim. The American anti terror group Nefa is mentioning him in connection to the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. He's worked for Al Aksa, a fundraising organization for Hamas and is very active in a pro Palestine foundation called PPMS. His name is also appearing in the Holy Land Foundation trial in de US.

Source: Elsevier

According to Dutch Iranian columnist Afshin Ellian the operation masks a power struggle in Turkey. PM Erdogan is looking for ways to cut ties with Israel, whereas the military opposes such a move.

FoxNews: "Israel: Global Jihad Linked to Flotilla"
Israeli defense officials now say dozens of passengers who were aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, the scene of a bloody showdown with Israeli commandos Monday, are suspected of having connections to terrorist organizations. The Israeli Army says it's identified 50 passengers on the ship with terrorist links. (...) >>>
Meanhile on JTA ...Hamas has refused to accept the aid brought by a Gaza-bound flotilla intercepted by Israel. (...) Hamas Social Affairs Minister Ahmad al-Kurd told reporters that it would accept the aid only if it entered "without anything being stolen from the activists, and without any exceptions." "This includes the prefabricated homes, the cement, the iron and the electric generators," he said. Israel has prevented such equipment from entering Gaza, saying it could be used by Hamas to build bunkers and other military installations in the strip. (...) >>>

June 2, 2010



The flotsam and jetsam of martyrdom operations - Aboard the propflot were at least 100 jihadis from various global Islamist chapters seeking martyrdom. Another title might well have been 'Martyrdom by IDF'.

On the legal side of the affair:

NGO Monitor: "Lost at Sea: NGO Legal Distortions in the Wake of the Flotilla Incident"

Since the violent clash between the Free Gaza flotilla and Israeli naval forces on May 31, numerous NGOs and “human rights groups” have issued harsh and one-sided condemnations of Israel’s actions. Many of these statements have been couched in the terminology of international law. However, as the following analysis demonstrates, these claims are legally incorrect or dubious. They represent the continued exploitation of international law for political ends. (...) >>>

PJM: "As Reality Unfolds About Flotilla, World Media Continues with Fictional Narrative", by Allison Kaplan Sommer

The emerging reality on the ground in Israel regarding the nature of the Gaza flotilla, and the story being told around the world, are so utterly different that they could be taking place on two separate planets. As the days pass in Israel and more information is uncovered, the popular international narrative of brutal Israeli soldiers casually slaughtering tens of innocent peace activists bearing humanitarian aid drifts further and further from reality. (...) >>>
Caroline Glick: The fact that these pro-Hamas activists intended to commit suicide in order to discredit Israel on camera was made clear by the fact that the Turkish organizers named the lead ship Rachel Corrie - after the most famous pro-Hamas suicide protestor. (...) >>>
Irish Times: "Irish ship Rachel Corrie was sabotaged by Israeli intelligence says report", by Cathy Hayes

The Irish ship, MV Rachel Corrie, was tampered with by the Israeli Defense Forces according to Colonel Itzik Turgeman. The Rachel Corrie was planned to be the first ship to arrive into Gazan waters last weekend but was delayed due to mechanical problems now suspected to be a form of sabotage. (...) >>>

June 3, 2010

Shock! Financier Free Gaza linked to New York Cordoba Project, the 15-story mega mosque projected near Ground Zero ...

HotAir: "Founder of Ground Zero mosque part of group that helped fund Gaza flotilla"

As said ... martyrdom by IDF ...

Jerusalem Post: "'We had no choice'"

IDF Spokesperson: "Ship Attempting to Break Maritime Closure of Gaza Strip Boarded by Israel Naval Forces with Compliance of Crew"

For Immediate Release

June 5th, 2010

12:45

IDF naval commandos boarded the ship attempting to break the maritime closure of the Gaza Strip a short while ago with the full compliance of the ship’s crew members. According to initial reports, there was no violence or injuries amongst the soldiers or the crew, as the use of force was unnecessary and no shots were fired. (...) >>>

Related articles

- PJM: "Dead Muslims? Only Wake the EU and UN if Jews Did It", by Leon de Winter
- RBO: "Klein: Ayers, Dohrn top activists in Gaza flotilla group"
- Spectator: "'Peace convoy'? This was an Islamist terror ambush", by Melanie Philips
- Israel Politik: "Insider Facts: Flotilla"
- IDF Spokesperson: "Weapons Found on the Flotilla Ship Mavi Marmara Used by Activists Against IDF Soldiers, 31 May 2010"
- Yid With Lid: "AMBUSH! A Videologue of How A Turkish Terror Group Caused The Israeli Navy/ Gaza Flotilla Violence"
- Reuters: "Statement by Israel's Netanyahu on flotilla deaths"
- Jerusalem Post: "Navy commandos:‘They came for war’"
- JIDF: "Israeli commandos open fire after being attacked with axes & knives by Gaza flotilla "peace activists"
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