We are into the eighth year of a propaganda exercise bent on the extermination of Jews that is known as Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). Art, politics, lectures, photography, and writing are all being used in ways that mimic the programs that went into the propaganda campaign of the Third Reich to justify the Holocaust. The Holocaust was hastened by the hateful, dehumanizing propaganda which led to the most horrific crime against humanity of all time.
“Propaganda must always address itself to the broad masses of the people.
All propaganda must be presented in a popular form and must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed.
The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the appropriate psychological form that will arrest the attention and appeal to the hearts of the national masses.
The great majority of a nation is so feminine in its character and outlook that its thought and conduct are ruled by sentiment rather than by sober reasoning.”
Much written and said about the Middle East has always been fantasy. But nowadays the proportion of fantasy to reality is higher than ever. And number one on that list is the war hysteria with Iran.
Israel may have to attack Iran some day. But not this week, month, or even year. That’s true for very good reasons.
Iran doesn’t have deliverable nuclear weapons. It is not about to have deliverable nuclear weapons. Israel is not about to attack Iran. The United States is certainly not about to attack Iran. The whole idea that the leaders of Iran are crazed suicide-oriented people who expect the twelfth imam to arrive next Thursday is simply not true.
Richard Falk, Princeton University professor emeritus of international law and United Nations Human Rights Council special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, is well-known for his hostility towards Israel. Indeed, this antagonism, and his high-profile involvement in any number of anti-Israel organizations, led to his expulsion from the country in 2008.
A recent lecture at Stanford Law School entitled, “Imagining Israeli-Palestinian Peace: Why International Law Matters,” provided a platform for more of the same vitriol. Approximately 100 people attended, about evenly split between students and local residents. One of the latter, when asking a question, described himself as an “activist” and an elderly couple sporting keffiyehs and political buttons sat in the front row, nodding enthusiastically in agreement throughout the lecture.
Norman Finkelstein, a frequent critic of Israel and supporter of Palestinian terrorists, has gone on camera to actually admit what civilized people have known all along: The collection of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) groups agitating against Israel are “disingenuous” — a “cult” determined to “eliminate Israel.” I’d use stronger terms: They are neo-Nazi, anti-Israel, genocidal bigots, but let’s let ol’ Norm speak for himself, from HonestReporting:
… Evidence so far indicates that no malice was intended in the Koran-burning at the [Afghan] air base, Doug Wilson, the Pentagon’s assistant secretary for public affairs, said today.
“We do not believe that this was something where those involved intended to burn the Koran as a religious document,["] Wilson said. …
“After 10 years, incidents such as this have been extremely rare,” he said. “No matter how serious this was, no one should necessarily extrapolate a broader trend about how our armed forces in Afghanistan are poised to treat religious and cultural materials.” …
President Obama has completely lost it. His “perspective” is reversed — upside down. Intolerant Muslim savages are again on a murderous rampage simply because some American kid accidentally burned a book. Remember Muslim madness over the silly Mohammed cartoons? A crazed Afghan killed two American soldiers today because of this non-”incident,” and all’s Barack Obama can do is apologize to whom; the Taliban? 1,883 American soldiers have been killed trying to bring civilization to Afghanistan. It is the Afghan president and civic groups who should be apologizing to the U.S. for their own barbarism and bigotry. The book which was burned was the Koran, but nonetheless, just a collection of paper pages. President Obama should be ashamed of his “apology.”
Oh, ye of little (nonexistent) faith. Are your “Islamic” beliefs so shallow that you would once again commit murder because some icon or object is accidentally destroyed? People of true faith have the strength and courage to remain civilized in the face of any tribulation — because their beliefs are rooted in their hearts, minds, and souls, and not dependent on mere objects. True believers are also unshaken by the acts of hooligans. Do these barbaric Afghans even know what they are rampaging about? Do they have any feelings of conscientiousness, forgiveness, and/or compassion? Do they only understand violence and hatred? You can’t shake my faith by burning my flag or my Bible or my Constitution — I’ll only dig my heals in because my faith tells me that civilization and the pen are mightier than any sword.
In 2001, the Taliban terrorist group so popular among Afghans, destroyed, “all ancient sculptures [in their country]. Explosives, tanks, and anti-aircraft weapons blew apart two colossal images of the Buddha in Bamiyan Province, 230 kilometers (150 miles) from the capital of Kabul.” Buddha was the Prince of Peace. Just read his words. He never condoned violence or intolerance.
To heck with Afghanistan and President Obama. If the Taliban hurt us or our friends, we can carpet bomb them from the air. President Obama should be voted out of office for his misjudgement and cowardice. Oh, by the way Mr. Obama, your “apology” — your weakness — will only encourage more violence: “Taliban leaders called on Afghans to ignore the apologies and step up attacks against Americans.”
Of all the issues that drive the Arab-Israeli conflict, none is more central, malign, primal, enduring, emotional, and complex than the status of those persons known as Palestine refugees.
The origins of this unique case, notes Nitza Nachmias of Tel Aviv University, goes back to Count Folke Bernadotte, the United Nations Security Council’s mediator. Referring to those Arabs who fled the British mandate of Palestine, he argued in 1948 that the UN had a “responsibility for their relief” because it was a UN decision, the establishment of Israel, that had made them refugees. However inaccurate his view, it still remains alive and potent and helps explain why the UN devotes unique attention to Palestine refugees pending their own state.
With the Obama administration strengthening its ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, home and abroad, and with a new focus on aligning America to anything and everything Islamic, including permitting operatives in America who influence the administration on Iranian policy, citizens now have almost as much to worry about with regard to the Obama Administration as the mullacracy in Teheran. If Obama is not a Muslim by birth, then his passion and his sympathies lie, nonetheless, with the re-establishment of the Islamic Caliphate.
1. Dewy-eyed predictions of democracy within the year proved to be as silly as they appeared to be back then. Instead, a power-hungry military leadership shows it will do whatever necessary to remain in the saddle.
Resistance to a new bill aimed at limiting foreign law in Pennsylvania courts serves as a case study of how Islamists and their allies operate: peddling falsehoods about Shari’a, painting Muslims as victims, and denying that anyone seeks to institutionalize aspects of Islamic law — even as they vigorously promote that very agenda. With similar legislationbeingdebated across the U.S., understanding their tactics is critical.
Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda won the 2011 World Press Photo of the Year award Friday for an image of a veiled woman holding a wounded relative in her arms after a demonstration in Yemen. … the image has religious ‘almost Biblical’ overtones and noted its resemblance in composition to Michelangelo’s Pieta — but in a Muslim setting. …”
“Almost Biblical.” Not… even… close… Comparing Michelangelo’s Pietà to some snapshot of a burqa-ed Muslim woman holding some injured Yemeni street protester is an ideal example of Westerners wearing rose-colored glasses. Many Western “intellectuals” are bending over backwards to placate the largely violent and intolerant Muslim World, because they want to believe in an “Arab Spring.” The Pietà “analogy” is not an analogy at all. It is political correctness gone mad.
The burqa-ed woman is wearing latex gloves, for Christ’s sake! Is she afraid of being soiled by or soiling the wounded man she’s holding? Why is the woman covered from head to toe in black, except for an eye-slit? Because Islamists are so repressed a la Freud that they can’t trust themselves to look upon their own women. The burqa is the sure sign of the third-place status of Muslim women — they can’t drive, work, or be seen to varying degrees depending on what dysfunctional Islamic country in which they reside. Yemen ranks worst in the world according to The Global Gender Gap Report.
Jesus was a man of peace. His mother Mary stood by his side through the worst of times — and she didn’t wear a burqa or latex gloves. “Jesus publicly included many women as his disciples” (see here also for Biblical citations). When Jesus rose from the dead, the first person he appeared to was Mary Magdalene.
So to you “jurors” for selecting the 2011 World Press Photo of the Year award: You got it wrong. It’s a photo — and not the best I’ve ever seen. Do you morons remember who Michelangelo was and what he accomplished — like his David? Michelangelo’s work was sublime, not the product of some digital, idiot-proof, one-shot camera.
For the second time in a few months we have seen a crazy global Israel-About-to-Attack-Iran Story. I don’t want to go into all of the details but this tale is an example of how the media has just lost it completely due to a combination of laziness (reporters don’t really do research or check sources); agenda; ignorance; and good old sensationalism. Partly, too, it arises from the difficulty of the mass media in dealing with the Internet media era and the difficulty of the Internet media in achieving decent journalistic standards.
A couple of months ago a level of hysteria was reached on the basis of three stories:
The Washington Post’s editorial writers ought to read their own newspaper. Monday’s lead editorial bemoaned the fact that having illegal aliens go to the “back of the line” is deceptive since there is no “line” for them:
Among the second wave of Arab Spring uprisings that followed Tunisia, Syria was the most spectacular “out of the blue” that suddenly arose in the face of the media and analytic community. Just days before Deraa exploded with protests last March, some analysts were still scrutinizing Syria’s circumstances and declaring the country to be immune from the Arab Spring. Nor did reporters who visited the country spot signs of a brewing storm.
When the Spanish conquered the Aztecs, they promptly demolished the Aztec capital (Tenochtitlan) and built a cathedral on top of the natives’ great and most important twin temples — the city center. Did the desecration/destruction of Tenochtitlan and slaughter of the Aztec people legitimize the Spanish conquest of the great Valley of Mexico? Of course not. The Spanish were greedy, murderous thugs. Similarly, Arabs invaded and destroyed Jerusalem in 691 A.D. and built their al-Aqsa mosque on top of the indigenous Jews’ most holy place. So yippee for the Arabs?
So now we find that Muslim Arabs point their fannies at the “sacred(?)” al-Aqsa Mosque during their daily prayers. That’s a strange way for showing reverence for the “third most important” Muslim shrine. It’s plain silly. Watch for yourself:
I’d like to share with you a secret. Every day I read and hear things by people who claim to be experts on the Middle East. I have read them on the land; I have read them on the sea; I have read them in the air.
And they will never surrender to reality. Here are the two main causes of error:
–They think the Middle East is just like the West so they can extrapolate from their own experience. When someone would say, “If I were Yasir Arafat, I’d….” My response would be: Stop right there. I must run out to the corner store and get a pack of cigarettes. I have never smoked a cigarette. And I kept on running. You are not Arafat or Khomeini or Saddam Hussein or whatever and unless you have some understanding of how they actually think–and not your own Western pragmatic interpretation of what they should think–there’s no sense in discussing it.
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