THE LEFT: PART OF THE SOLUTION OR PART OF THE PROBLEM?

Is the so-called Left a danger and a threat to the future of civilization? Or does it represent rational, reasonable, knowledgeable and informed answers to the problems of human society?

Just to ask these questions points to the answer. Put it this way. Is the Left a body of rational and reasonable informed opinion OR is it a mob of semi- sane slogan screamers? Are they manipulated wackos, the products of indoctrination or brainwashing -- or are they sane and reasonable people willing to listen to reason and learn from the more knowledgeable and the better informed?

Does the Left stand for respect for human life? Or for mass murder? Does the Left respect truth or does it only respect political ends?

There are several issues on which today's Left --indeed the Communist Left since its beginnings-- are found wanting.
1- the Left, despite its former orientation to social and economic class and to the allegedly determining role of capital (that is, big money), does not recognize that the Arab states are significant locations of very rich people, people who exert major influence on the policies --including those toward Israel-- of their own governments and of Western governments. The Arab rich own significant portions of capital (corporation stock, bonds, real estate) in Western countries. Certain Arab oil rich states --Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, etc.-- have or have had a higher per capita income than the United States and various other Western states. Some have had a higher per capita income as far back as the late 1950s.

2- there is a population of millions of foreign workers in Arab countries, often very limited in rights, as in Saudi Arabia, often humiliated, as in Kuwait, etc. The Left does not care about them.

3- Western govts., such as the United States, Britain, France, transfer billions of dollars worth of disguised foreign aid to the rich Arab oil states, in addition to funds given openly --about 480 million euros per year to the "Palestinian Authority" by the European Union alone, not to mention funds to the PA from the United States, Japan, rich Arab oil states, etc.

4- Funds given to the "Palestinian Authority" are not used to benefit the poor of the PA zones, nor the inhabitants of the "refugee camps" [settlements for the refugees of the 1948 war, which for long have been built up towns and not "camps"]. The "camp" inhabitants are instead used as a demonstration of alleged wrongs by Israel, exhibits in a political trial of Israel and the Jews, while funds allegedly donated to help them economically and socially go for other purposes, such as lining the pockets of the local rich and the political-terrorist leadership, for purchasing guns and bombs for terrorists, etc.

5- Mass murder has been proceeding in various Arab states on and off for nearly sixty years, since the war and massacres began in the Sudan. But the massacres are not limited to the Sudan. In Algeria Muslims have slaughtered more 140,000 fellow Muslims, according to informed estimates, over the past 15 years. In Lebanon, Muslims were slaughtering Christians identified as fellow Arabs. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim Kurds were massacred in Iraq by Saddam Hussein, considered a hero by much of the Left, such as George Galloway, Ramsey Clark, etc.

6- Does the Left today acknowledge that throughout its history, Muslim society oppressed and denied rights to the non-Muslims, massacred them, stole their property, etc.? These victims included Jews, inducing some Jews to migrate to Christian-governed lands, both in the Middle Ages and in the 20th century. The social system in Islamic lands had much in common with racism and apartheid, though according to Muslim law, the discrimination was based on religion, not on biological race or skin color.

Does anyone remember that Ramsey Clark was pro-Khomeini after Khomeini's takeover of Iran? Has anyone heard Clark protest over Khomeini's effective restoration of shari`ah law in Iran, a law which severely reduces the rights and human dignity of non-Muslims [dhimmis] and of women, including Muslim women? [Maybe Clark comes to the discriminatory Islamic social system naturally, after all, his family were active members of the Ku Klux Klan]
It is no doubt fitting that Clark has long been chairman of the National Council of the American Civil Liberties Union. His trips to Iraq to help Saddam Hussein demonstrate the ACLU's shallow commitment to civil liberties.
Was George Galloway a toady to Saddam Hussein or merely a friend of the Iraqi people, as he claims now that Saddam's bloody tyranny has been exposed? If George was a friend of the Iraqi people, what about Saddam's victims? Who were they? Weren't they Iraqis too? Did Iraqis starve because of international sanctions or did Saddam have the money to feed them, yet let them starve? Or is the story of starving Iraqis just another Arab tale used to win sympathy, then leading to political support and money?
Does George know about the mass murders committed by Saddam and now by the so-called Iraqi "insurgents"? Do these "insurgents" who have slaughtered thousands of Iraqis represent the Iraqi people?
Do Galloway and Clark know about the history of Islam as an oppressive, enslaving, warmongering, racist-like social-political entity throughout history? If they don't know [Really?], do they want to know? And if they do know, are they any more than cheerleaders for oppression, mass murder, barbarism, etc.? All this applies to slime like Ken Livingstone, Tom Paulin, Eyal Sivan, and many others.

Sources: Bat Yeor, Moshe Gil, Bernard Lewis, David Bukay, Hugh Fitzgerald, Rafael Israeli, Moshe Sharon, Carlo Panella, etc.
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Coming up: Gerardy Santine on Jerusalem's population in the late 1850s, Francesco Suriano and the Arabs of Jenin, circa 1500, etc.