What Does "Left" Mean Today? Is the Right-Left Spectrum Notion Anymore than a Fraud Nowadays?

Who said professors don't have  a sense of humor? Two professors wrote an article as a spoof on the pretentiousness and earnest absurdity of the rather new and novel field of Gender Studies. Their article, “The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct,”  claimed to prove that the penis, the male reproductive organ, was not only a leading cause of the medical condition called pregnancy, but of, among other things, climate change. Anyhow, soon after publication in the journal Cogent Social Sciences, they revealed their real names and that the article was a hoax. I personally think that they should have waited a while longer before revealing the reality in order to see how many fish --or dupes-- they could catch who might take the article seriously and quote from it in all seriousness with admiration for and in agreement with its novel thesis. Here is a quote from the original hoax essay:

 "Nowhere are the consequences of hypermasculine machismo braggadocio isomorphic identification with the conceptual penis more problematic than concerning the issue of climate change,”

Be that as it may, the online magazine for academics, Inside Higher Ed [Ed = education] ran an article describing the hoax and quoting from it liberally while discussing several related issues. This article in turn drew a good number of comments. One line of discussion was how the toilers in the field of Gender Studies, although identifying themselves as Left, neglected the traditional concerns of the Left:

Don't you all miss the days when the "academic left" was preoccupied with issues such as social formations and the class structure of contemporary capitalism, the relationship between the dominant economic order and the state, the analysis of ideological hegemony, the application of Marxist theory to contemporary social conflict, the anarchist critique of Marxian strategies for social change, labor history . . .  

This raises the question of just what meaning the label or term Left has today. Especially since its concerns have changed so much and some charge that it is too often preoccupied with what the critics call "Identity Politics." Some used a phrase of the poet William Blake who lived in the late 18th century when the factory, the steam-powered mill was just making its appearance. Blake hated early industrialization which he characterized with the phrase: dark, satanic mills. Here is my contribution to the discussion between the two broken lines:

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It really is hard to know nowadays just what "Left" is and how it may be different from "Right." Furthermore, the gender studies and queer theorists seem to have no time to study the Dark, Satanic Mills that actually exist today in the inevitably progressive 21st century. How about the building sites in Qatar for the 2022 world soccer championhip as today's counterpart --or worse-- to Blake's dark, satanic mills? So are the gender and queer theorists really Left, in the traditional (patriarchal?) sense of the term, as they neglect the oppressed proletarians of Qatar? Indeed, an earnest lady of the philosophical persuasion prestidigitating in the gender studies field informed us a few years ago that Hamas and Hizbullah were parts of the "Global Left". Yet precisely Hamas was at the time (and probably still is) a recipient of $$ billions from Qatar. Now Qatar, besides overworking --sometimes to death-- the toiling gastarbeiter from Nepal and India, etc, enjoys one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, at least for its own citizens which the laborers are not. 

Although Lenin defined imperialism as not only the highest stage of capitalism but as any very large concentration of capital --a definition that surely fits Qatar & some of its neighbors on the Persian Gulf-- our philosophical theorist of what is Left today failed to see the contradiction in her own labeling of Hamas as Left. Since it is an Islamist organization funded in large part by Qatar, an imperialist state by Lenin's definition anyway, Hamas would seem to be an imperialist cats paw.

On the other hand, the old style Marxist-Leninists too might quite possibly have failed to apply Lenin's definition of imperialism consistently and might also have been reluctant to define Qatar as imperialist. And I certainly reject Marx and Lenin's notion of historical inevitability. Which leaves us with prejudice, preference, and selectivity marching forward hand in hand with new-fangled theories.

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Here is a comment that partly expresses some of my thinking about the meaning and purpose of today's "Left":

. . .  the American "Left's" preoccupation with identity politics has been a major distraction from the economic and critical methodologies noted above by Goodsensecynic [= another commenter-Eliyahu]. Maybe we're talking "post-Marxism" but, if we are in that period, then Capital can continue to have its way with most workers and citizens, no matter what their race, color, creed, or gender. The "hoax" article is, of course, about gender.
Capital has always offered "bread and circuses" to the masses (although not always the bread); chariot races have been replaced by NASCAR.
The implications of all this are obvious in the current state of academia . . .          [Frank Tomasulo]

In my view, circuses today are more the demonstrations of the Occupy Movement than of NASCAR.
The Left in the 21st century -- is it any more than pane et circenses, the Roman practice of giving the plebeians Bread and Circuses? Does the left-right notion do any more than confuse and mislead the public and the student of politics in our first fifth of the 21st century?
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--More on Qatar as well as on how certain capitalist institutions finance "leftist" organizations, especially if they are anti-Israel/anti-Jewish [here]
--Qatar's beneficiary, the Hamas Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip [here]
-- The Qatar paradox, anti-American & pro-American at the same time [here]
-- How Qatar's royal broadcasting enterprise, Al-Jazeera, broadcasts anti-Israel "leftists" [here]

Hamas, Qatar and the "Left"

Updated as of 9-22-2014 re Tariq Ramadan & the Left, & article on Qatar-see at the Bottom

Anti-Zionism is the anti-imperialism of fools
Eliyahu m'Tsiyon

Once upon a time, children, the "Left" prided itself on defending the workers, the honest workingman, the toilers in the factories, mills and mines of capitalism, etc etc. Those days are long gone. Stalinist and Trotskyist Communists claimed to always be guided by the class interest. that is, the interest of the working class.  Nowadays, most of the "Left" gets most passionate when hating Israel. Various Communist factions [such as the New Anti-Capitalist Party] and the Communist trade union, the CGT, were sponsors and organizers of the pro-Hamas demonstrations in Paris. "Death to Jews" [not Zionists but Jews --mort aux Juifs!] was chanted at some or all of these demonstrations, among other hateful slogans. Some of these demonstrations split up into the non-combatants who went home and the more "militant" element who rushed to make pogroms against Jews in Paris.

The French government led by Francois Hollande and Manuel Valls realized the danger of letting these marches and demonstrations take place near Jewish neighborhoods, and forbid them to take place or come near to synagogues and areas with many Jewish residents, often Jews who had fled Arab lands like Algeria, Morocco and Egypt. In other words, the organizers, both Islamist militants and Communists, wanted to march from Republic Square to Bastille Square, near many Jewish residents. One of the first pro-Hamas marches did go that route and gangs of thugs broke off to raid  synagogues near the Bastille on the Rue des Tournelles and on the Rue de la Roquette, where a street brawl took place between Jewish defenders and Muslim thugs, until police reinforcements arrived. Another would-be pogrom took place in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles where many North African Jews live, close to many North Africa Arabs, as well as Assyrian Christians from Iraq, now the target of Islamist fanaticism in their homeland. There is a lot more to say about these demonstrations/riots/pogroms but our object is to point out the "leftists"  fighting for Hamas. The Hamas charter of course calls for genocide against Jews [especially Article 7].

In Oakland, California, certain "leftist" led workers groups organized to stop unloading of Israeli ships. We can go on with examples of "leftists" and even workers unions joining in the lynch mob trying to hang Israel for defending itself.

Now we won't go into how Hamas sacrifices its own civilian population in Gaza in order to charge Israel with war crimes. We have done several previous posts on the subject of Hamas' strategy and the riots in Paris. We have not yet mentioned how some Hamas leaders have become billionaires as have some Fatah leaders. Interesting that so much of the "left" believes or may believe that it is in the interest of the working class to support a mass murder movement led by very rich people.

Let us now ask where Hamas gets its money. Is Hamas funded by the pennies of the poor?
. . .  . the money came from two directions: "Legacies from the deceased; money from charity funds; a donation called zaka, one of the six pillars of Islam; and donations from various countries. It started with Syria and Saudi Arabia, with Iran added later and becoming one of Hamas's biggest supporters, and ended with Qatar, which has now taken Iran's place."   [Globes English, 24 July 2014]

So now Qatar is Hamas' major benefactor. And Qatar also has one of highest per capita incomes in the world. So the major part of the global "Left" supports a mass murder movement funded by a very rich country. Indeed, one of the leading muddled brains of today's academic world, one Judith Butler, openly declared that Hamas and Hizbullah were parts of "the global left."

Well, if Qatar is rich, then maybe it is still somehow anti-imperialist, which might still be enough to justify "leftist" support for its projects, since anti-imperialism was always supposed to be in the working class interest and in favor of revolution, objectively at least, for the true blue reds. Now, for a very long time, anti-imperialist has been interpreted to mean anti-American, anti-Western, by the true blue Communists. Yet if Qatar is anti-American, it surely has a strange way of expressing that stance. Qatar hosts the Middle Eastern headquarters of CENTCOM, the United States armed forces Central Command. Qatar also owns the Al-Jazeera TV network which agitates anti-Jewish propaganda throughout the Arab world by means of Shaykh Qaradawi. The latter was a leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood who took refuge in Qatar from the Egyptian government that he and the Brotherhood were long trying to undermine. Now he is a regular on Al-Jazeera. The network also stirs up hatred of Israel and tries to undermine several Arab governments through broadcasting agitprop hate propaganda. Its "reporting" is highly tendentious and partisan. And that includes its "reporting" on the Gaza war.

Well, what is the connection between Al-Jazeera and CENTCOM? I honestly don't know. But at least a visual connection exists. Journalists have reported that the CENTCOM HQ is within eyesight of the al-Jazeera offices. Now, if the "Left" wants to associate --indirectly at least-- with CENTCOM while declaring opposition to US foreign policy, and with Al-Jazeera while claiming to oppose racism and religious bigotry, they certainly can do what they like. And they may not be capable of  understanding what they are doing anyway.

Now, let's take up how workers are treated in Qatar, yes, there are workers there. However, most of the workers there are foreigners who do not share the privileges of native subjects of the al-Thani family, the princely family that runs Qatar. Indeed, the many many foreign workers in Qatar are treated horribly. They are not merely  subject to exploitation but they work under very harsh and dangerous conditions and they are forced to do jobs that they may want to refuse but their passports are typically confiscated by employers and labor recruiters.  And their pay is often withheld. Without their passports they cannot leave the country and if they have not been paid they are working for nothing, that is, they are slaves.

Is that all that we can point to about Qatar that is negative from what used to be considered a leftist, class-conscious viewpoint?

The biggest project in Qatar now is building facilities for the 2022 Mondiale world soccer championships. Of course, thousands of foreign workers have been brought in to do the actual building work, which is made all the more difficult by the summer heat. Indeed Qatar is warm most of the year. In the summer the temperature may go over 50 degrees centigrade/Celsius. The harsh working conditions plus the extreme heat in summer make it a danger to life to work on constructing the soccer stadiums for the Mondiale. Just in the past couple of years hundreds, literally hundreds, of foreign building workers have died building for the 2022 Mondiale. Have we heard of any "leftist" or workers union protests in the West against the horrid working conditions in Qatar, whether the unsafe physical conditions or the conditions of exploitation and oppression of the foreign workers, many of them from Nepal and India, by the way? Has the "Left" protested the near slavery conditions? Any street demonstrations in Paris or New York or Oakland or London or Brussels?  Yet, demonstrations and marches, often turning into anti-Jewish pogroms and riots have taken place in those cities against Israel's war of self-defense against a mass murderous jihad movement funded by Qatar, a clear enemy of the working class one would think.
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postscript: before we forget, Qatar won the right from the world soccer federation, FIFA, to host the Mondiale in 2022, because it bribed many of the representatives on the FIFA board.
Qatar also is a big advertiser on CNN, hosting its program on the Middle East. Maybe that helps  ensure that news coverage of Qatar will be favorable. The coverage is directly paid for by the Qatar Foundation that claims to do all sorts of good works. Judge for yourself:

Inside the Middle East is a 30 minute monthly feature program on CNN that seeks to capture the dynamism and broad range of cultural diversity in countries across the Middle East. Together with exclusive online articles and galleries it gives a fresh perspective on life in the region that goes beyond the news headlines. It is broadcast in association with Qatar Foundation.

Robert Fulford on slavery in the Persian Gulf and Arabia [here]
8-25-2014 Salem ben Ammar writes on the Eurabia blog that the Emir of Qatar funds Tariq Ramadan and bought him his university chair at Oxford (Oriental Institute, St Antony's College) [ici]. "Adoubé et sponsorisé par l’Emir du Qatar qui lui a acheté sa chaire d’islamologie . . . .  Tarak Ramadan est le premier agent de propagande de l’islam ou islamisme modéré."

9-2-2014 Fergus Downie on Tariq Ramadan and the "Left" -- Ramadan is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. He is now popular among progressive circles in France and elsewhere as the authentic voice of Moderate Islam. The only problem is that he is not really moderate, more like the subtlest slithery snake north of the Mediterranean. [here]
9-13-2014 Gil Mihaely of Causeur.fr gives some background and analysis of Qatar's success and policy -- À quoi joue le Qatar? [ici] -- " un pays . . . .  peuplé de deux millions d’habitants dont moins de 300 000 nationaux (les statuts subalternes du reste de la population s’apparentent parfois à une forme d’esclavage)" [emphasis added].
9-22-2014 UN "human rights council" praises Qatar's human rights record -- you have to see it to believe it!!! [here] -- UN Watch says foreign workers in Qatar die at the rate of one per day [same as previous link].

Passengers and leaders of the Turkish Armada Tell that They Sought "Martyrdom"

UPDATING 6-7 & 7-16-2010

Here are two videos from the Arab TV media. Speaking to their fellow Muslims, Arab and Turkish friends and practitioners of terrorism tell the truth. Those who died were hoping to die, for the sake of Allah, in the path of jihad, and all that.

Several interviews in the Arab and Iranian press tell the true aims and practices of the jihadis on the ship Mavi Marmara. These jihadis were both Turks and Arabs, the Turks having been organized by the IHH, a terrorist aid body that was connected to the 2000 attempt to bomb the LAX [LA airport]. One of the interviews has two voices speaking at the same time. The interviewee was speaking Turkish which was translated into an Arabic voiceover. See interviews [video here].

The second video is of Bulent Yildirim, head of the IHH Islamic fake "charity." He tells the enthusiastically admiring mob in Gaza that he brings greetings from Saladin & Sultan Abdul Hamid. Abdul Hamid was the sultan who organized slaughter of Armenians in the late 19th century. Then he tells the mob, imbued with enthusiasm like Germans at one of Hitler's Nuremberg rallies, that there are 70 million Abdul-Hamid's in Turkey. That is just about the whole population of Turkey. Armenian spokesmen have been strangely quiet over the past two weeks as Turkish prime minister Erdogan picked up brownie points from the "left" and "humanitarian" and "human rights" crowds. If Erdung is indeed bestowed with the halo that the humano fakers are trying to place on his head, then Armenian claims for justice vis-a-vis the Turks will be forgotten and/or considered petty or trivial. The Armenians will be seen as nags at best. Their demands for recognition of the Armenian genocide will be routinely dismissed. After all, the Turks wear a halo. They support the "palestinians," seen in much of the West as a collective Jesus figure, while Israel, the collective Jew, is still blamed for the crucifixion. Hence, the Turks are now the Christian good guys, the Crusaders for the faith against the "Christkillers," the Jews. How many in the West will care about the Armenians in that situation?? Or about the Greeks for that matter, given that Greeks too have a list of historical grievances against the Turks?? See Yildirim's rabble rousing speech here [video].

For more on the Phoney Humano Flotilla see our several previous posts preceding this one.
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UPDATING 6-7-2010 It's funny that Arab & Turkish jihadis can be frank and say where they stand, at least when speaking Arabic & Turkish. However, Western "news" agencies embellish their words and the photos that show them in their bloodthirsty mode, carrying knives and ranting and chanting for bloodshed. Little Green Footballs discovered that Reuters was working hard to cover up for the IHH jihadis. See here.
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UPDATING 7-16-2010 The New York Times finally tells of the terrorist ties of the IHH, the Turkish group behind the Turkish Thug Armada, and of its ties to high Turkish officials [here]

Arab Peacemonger Is a Warmonger -- Will CNN Admit It?

UPDATING 6-7-2010


At the beginning of the week, while the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ferry boat run by the Turkish jihadi foundation IHH [here (pdf) & here & here] was sailing toward Gaza to create a provocation, an incident meant to make Israel look bad in world public opinion, CNN's Rosemary Church interviewed a well spoken humano faker named Osama Kashoo [here] As befits a spokesman for a fake "humanitarian" expedition, Kashoo told CNN viewers that he loved all mankind; he loved peace and all people and all things. See the interview here.

However, other video films were made on the ship showing the very peaceful, loving Mr Kashoo. In one of these films he appears chanting the triumphalist Islamic jihadist battlecry, Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud, Jaysh Muhammad sa ya`ud. This chant celebrates an early jihad battle victory led by Muhammad himself in which the defeated Jews of the Khaybar oasis were massacred, enslaved, humiliated and dispossessed of their lands, their moveable property and their dignity. Their wives were taken as concubines by the Arab-Muslims, including by Muhammad himself. Here it is again with translation:

Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud, Jaysh Muhammad sa ya`ud

[Remember] Khaybar Khaybar O Jews, Muhammad's army will return for sure.

Our peaceful, loving innocuous peacenik, Osama Kashoo, sits among a group of other jihadis chanting away, chanting a war cry, a chant of humiliation of Jews. See here. My suggestion is that you watch the two videos, trying to catch a glimpse of Kashoo on the right side of the group of chanters. Here is a still of Mr Kashoo sitting with his friends and chanting, raising his fist in a quintessentially peaceful gesture.


Below is another shot of our two-faced warmonger.


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UPDATING June 7, 2010 Thugs of IHH stand over wounded bodies of captured Israeli soldiers. Some of the Turkish thugs carry knives which have been thoughtfully cropped out of the photos by Reuters which took it upon itself to preserve the sacred narrative of innocuous "peace activists" murdered by Israeli commandos without provocation. Thanx to LGF for noting the deliberate alterations or embellishments of two --not one-- photos from the Mavi Marmara [here].

Euro Hypocrites Forget Turkish Mass Murder of Armenians -- Israelis Remember - Photos of a Tel Aviv Demonstration

UPDATING 6-7-2010 see at bottom

Western & Islamic Hypocrites forget the Turkish crime of the Armenian genocide. Israelis remembered at a Tel Aviv demonstration on Monday night, May 31, 2010 [photos below].

It seems that Judeophobia/Israelophobia is a magic glue that brings Christian and Muslim, Greek and Turk, Arab and Irish together [& here]. It is also a narcotic that makes Western "liberals" and "humanitarians" forget all of Turkey's past and present injustices -- because Turkey is now on the right side against the "Christkillers" and for the poor, innocent, innocuous, persecuted, collective Jesus, the "palestinians", merely the sub-group of Arabs living in the Land of Israel. Indeed, in the midst of Greece's economic difficulties, the prime minister found time to criticize Israel while Greek "humanitarians" sailed with Turkish Islamists to besmirch Israel and bring succor to "crucified" Arabs. While doing so, these Greeks forget the Smyrna Affair of 1922 when Ataturk's Turkish army literally drove the Anatolian Greeks into the sea at the port of Smyrna, massacring the Armenian remnant in Smyrna at the same time. The Greek embrace of their old enemies in a common struggle, a crusade-cum-crescentade against the Jews shows the power of the Judeophobic narcotic in the benighted 21st century.

Euro progressives are eager to open the sea route to Gaza so that very large, more advanced weapons can be brought in to use against the "Christkillers." Prime Minister Brian Cowen of the Republic of Eire wants ships from his far off misty isle to land in Gaza without any Israeli inspection of what their contents may be. As the French used to say when they were wiser: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. In Hebrew, אין חדש תחת השמש [There is nothing new under the sun]. Old wine in new bottles. But the new progressive, Western humano, liberal Judeophobia can be resisted.

Meanwhile, look at these beautiful demonstrators in Tel Aviv Monday night.





















Photos from the Muqata blog [here]. Photos taken by M Brener. - - - - - - - - - - -
Our previous posts on the fake "humanitarian" flotilla [here & here]
Robert Pollock in the Wall Street Journal describes the sick thinking of Erdogan [here]. Erdo is much more dangerous than Washington would like to imagine.
A Catholic bishop was stabbed to death in southeastern Turkey by his own driver [here]. This follows a series of murders of Christian religious personalities since Erdogan came to power in 2002. Erdogan has highly exacerbated the climate of hate already existing in Turkey for non-Muslims.

UPDATING June 7, 2010 Gilles William Goldnadel, leader of the Association France-Israel, answers Le Figaro magazine [4 juin 2010]:
LeF: . . . Israel has lost its principal ally in the region, Turkey.

GWF: Things were only getting worse with the Islamist Turkey of Erdogan. He succeeded in his coup d'etat against the Turkish army and is in the process of changing that country. I would have liked Netanyahu to say before the Israeli parliament [in his speech of Wednesday, 6-2-2010] that he does not accept any lessons in humanity from a state that denies the Armenian genocide, that bombards the Kurds, and that occupies the northern part of Cyprus, a member of the European Union.

. . . Israël a perdu son principal allié dans la région, la Turquie.

Avec la Turquie islamiste d'Erdogan, les choses n'ont fait qu'empirer. Il a réussi son coup d'Etat contre l'armée turque et il est en train de changer ce pays. J'aurais aimé que Netanyahou dise devant le Parlement israélien qu'il n'accepte aucune leçon d'humanité de la part d'un Etat qui nie le génocide arménien, qui bombarde les Kurdes et qui occupe la partie nord de Chypre, un membre de l'Union européenne

Close-Up Footage of Mavi Marmara Passengers Attacking IDF Soldiers

UPDATING 6-7 & 7-16-2010

Here is a link to a Youtube video showing thugs on the Mavi Marmara throwing objects at a small Israeli navy boat that came alongside the Marmara, actually a fairly large ferryboat that rides higher in the water than the Israeli navy boat carrying naval commandos [here]. The film also shows thugs strutting about the ferry with metal bars to be used as clubs.

Here below is a video showing peaceful demonstrators attacking Israeli troops coming down from a helicopter to enforce a rightful blockade of Hamas-ruled, Nazi ruled Gaza.



Here above are some of the weapons on board the Mavi Marmara, long and short knives [non-kitchen tools], axes, long hammers, long steel tools, molotov cocktails, pebbles collected in bottles, metal bars and wooden clubs, what seem to be firecrackers or some heavier small explosive, slingshots, and other tools [here].

Below is a film of soldiers coming down onto the ship from helicopters and being attacked.


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UPDATING June 7, 2010 Thugs of IHH stand over wounded bodies of captured Israeli soldiers. Some of the Turkish thugs carry knives which have been thoughtfully cropped out of the photos by Reuters which took it upon itself to preserve the sacred narrative of innocuous "peace activists" murdered by Israeli commandos without provocation. Thanx to LGF for noting the deliberate alterations or embellishments of two --not one-- photos from the Mavi Marmara [here].
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New York Times finally reports on the terrorist ties of IHH, the Turkish body behind the Turkish Thug Armada and its ties with high Turkish govt officials [here]

Turkish Islamist Fanatics Send "Freedom" Flotilla to Gaza to Help Islamist Brethren of Hamas -- Euro "leftist" Fascists/Judeophobes Eager to Help Out

UPDATINGS 5-31 & 6-2&3-2010

Should the Turks succeed in their
efforts to open a sea line to Gaza as
a result of the precedent which may
be created by the current sail, the
southern part of the State of Israel
will be under clear and immediate
danger, similar to the situation in the north.
Ron Ben-Yishai, ynet 30 May 2010

Erdogan, the hate-ridden Islamist prime minister of Turkey, has found a way to international acceptance for his retrograde regime. Work to sabotage Israel. That's the key to successful diplomacy with the Euro Judeophobes, left, right and center. All Turkish offenses of the past are forgiven. Turkey has a very bad human rights record in the past and present!! Turkey still refuses to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. Indeed, not long ago Erdogan himself threatened to expel 100,000 Armenians from Turkey. Also, Turkey is brutally repressing the Kurds, fabricating evidence against his domestic opposition for show trials [see article by Dogan and Rodrik in The New Republic], harassing Turkish Jews, conducting a hate campaign against Israel, broadcasting blood libels against Israel and Jews on TV, etc.

Erdogan was very clever to pick Israel as a target. All the superficial Euro concern over recognition of the Armenian genocide is left behind as well as honest acknowledgment of the bloody war to suppress the Kurdish insurgents, often terrorists themselves, to be sure. The war against the Kurdish rebels has killed many civilians that all the Gaza worshipers are supposedly so keen to protect. He has also corrupted the judiciary, etc.

But he seized the right enemy to strike moralistic postures against. He seems to have found the right formula to endear himself to bien-pensants Europeans. He is making himself ever more worthy of being accepted as a true European and even joining the EU. And the alleged Turkish "humanitarian" body, the IHH, which is behind this propaganda flotilla, has raised funds for al-Qa`ida terrorism. At the same time, IHH officials are sophisticated enough about the advantageous instrumentalization of "human rights" rhetoric and gestures that they sought to procure immunity for the flotilla by appealing to the vanity, hypocrisy and Judeophobia of Euro Judeophobes:

Members of IHH, the Turkish organization which funded and organized the sail, insisted on the inclusion of European parliament members, whom they view as an "insurance policy" against the Israeli Navy's firm hand. [Ron Ben-Yishai, ynet 5-30-2010]

In 2010, anti-Zionism and Israelophobia are the last refuge of the scoundrels.

For the "Left," Turkey’s continuing membership in NATO may now be forgiven since Turkey is anti-Israel. Maybe the Armenian genocide will be finally recognized as a fundamentally progressive accomplishment since those Armenians were really all middle class anyway. Be that as it may, the Armenian genocide cleared eastern Anatolia of its most sizable civilized and civilizing element. So shouldn’t it be heralded the way the Narodnaya Volya hailed the pogroms against Jews??

Once upon a time, Turks and the Ottoman empire had a bad reputation for cruelty, brutality, barbarism, and what have you, etc. Isn’t it wonderful what a little anti-Zionism can do?? Here Erdogan has purified the Turkish rep with a few mendacious smears on Israel to hide his own nation’s record and his very own. I forecast that anti-Zionism and Israelophobia will give the Turks a new, fresh, innocent squeaky clean image, all those ugly hostile tales of 19th and 20th century massacres will be forgotten. The forecast is coming true. Note how a horde of Western would-be do-gooders, some of them Greeks, are happily embarking for Hamas-ruled Gaza with their boats full of “humanitarian aid,” oblivious to or in sympathy with what Hamas really represents. Note how Greeks are getting into the act too, as if the Anatolian Greeks had not been almost literally driven into the sea in 1922, as they were ethnically cleansed by Comrade Ataturk, the Islamic ghazi, before he declared himself a secularist reformer and abolished the caliphate. The Greeks of Greece seem to have forgotten 1922 and the anti-Greek pogrom of 1955 in Constantinople that reduced the Greeks in the city where they had once been a majority to a small minority. But the Cypriot Greeks may have the memory of ethnic cleansing on that island [1974] more freshly in mind.

There is no doubt that Israel's greatest success in this affair was the way the Cypriot authorities were convinced not to let the ships gather in its territorial waters and use its ports as the sail's meeting and fueling point.
The island's leaders realized that the sail was in fact a move orchestrated by the hostile Turkish government and decided not to play along with it. [Ron Ben-Yishai, ynet 5-30-10]

Let us recall that bourgeois governments and Leftist movements alike demonstrate historical forgetfulness when it is convenient.

In 2010, anti-Zionism and Israelophobia are the last refuge of the scoundrels.

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Excerpts from two separate pieces by Fiamma Nirenstein on the Turkish-sponsored Gaza Freedom Flotilla:

Dear Friends,

Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister . . . [is sending] a number of boats, especially from Turkey, that want to reach Gaza in order “to bring humanitarian aid.” This is a totally anti-Israel enterprise: Gaza is in difficulties because of its cruel, authoritarian, hyper-religious government by Hamas. These international humanitarian movements are political movements for delegitimizing that intend, in fact, to help the Hamas terrorist organization. We too ask Erdogan to not involve Israel, assaulting it in words and deeds at every moment, in his management of power in Turkey which is becoming ever more Islamist. . . . [20 May 2010]

http://www.fiammanirenstein.com/articoli.asp?Categoria=6&Id=2376

The Turkish Fleet on the way to Gaza Helps Iran

Il Giornale, 22 May 2010

Israel now has a perfect right to cry out, “Mommy, the Turks are coming.” Ten Turkish vessels want to reach the coast of Gaza next week in order to bring what they call humanitarian aid. In reality, they are bringing a gesture of solidarity and legitimization to Hamas. The latter dominates Gaza by fundamentalist violence against its own people and Israel, that it has sworn to destroy. . . . Turkey is the only country that is helping organize the boats [going to Gaza]. The flotilla is being prepared by the IHH (Turkish humanitarian aid Foundation). Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met the organizers and publicly announced his “support for breaking the siege of Gaza.” Members of the Turkish government are traveling on those boats, as well as artists and journalists, all those who serve to make the expedition untouchable.

Israel is in a seriously awkward position: stopping such a large group of ships would require a true naval battle, and the Jewish State has no desire for that. In Israeli ports, they are reluctantly getting ready, without knowing very well what can be done beyond cruising through the country’s territorial waters. . . . Israel cannot allow them [Hamas] freedom of movement, nor can Egypt either.

Naor Gilad, deputy director of the [Israeli] foreign ministry’s Europe division, tried to tell this to the Turkish ambassador, asking him to stop the violations of Israeli law and to ask Turkish citizens not to sail. But matters are going ahead. No humanitarian aid was ever offered by the same organizations leaving today for Gaza to the population of Sderot and Ashqelon, bombarded for years by Qassam missiles coming from the Strip. Nor did they ever concern themselves with the Fatah men driven from Gaza with their families or killed there. Even less with the Christians persecuted and killed there. But Turkey has now taken an Islamist turn which makes it a natural partner for Hamas, and this is disturbing at the moment when the world must trust it after, together with Brazil, it contracted an agreement with Iran to transfer to Turkey almost one and a half tons of uranium enriched at 3.5%, ignoring the decisions of the IAEA [international atomic energy agency] and the Security Council.

But why has Turkey, from the day when Erdogan attacked Shimon Peres at Davos, set in motion an escalation of anti-Israeli actions up to the point of supporting Hamas in many circumstances? The answer is in the frequent visits to Teheran and Damascus . . . [by] Erdogan . . . .

. . . . [pro-Hamas politicians of Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Russia,] In their recent meeting[s] they repeated in unison that Hamas is an elected force without which nothing can go anywhere. And here the flotilla is sailing from Turkey: Israel chews its fingernails, Erdogan and Hamas are happy, and the sky is still blue.

http://www.fiammanirenstein.com/articoli.asp?Categoria=3&Id=2377

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IHH = The Foundation for Human Rights and Humanitarian Relief [the initials IHH are based on the Turkish name]

When Turkish police raided its premises in Istanbul more than 10 years ago, weapons were found as well as links tying the group to al-Qa`ida. See links:

To Danish research group report -

http://www.diis.dk/graphics/Publications/WP2006/DIIS%20WP%202006-7.web.pdf

To a report by The Investigative Project -

http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/312.pdf#page=17

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AP shows that "freedom flotilla" spokesperson is Huwaida Arraf, a leader of the pro-terrorist ISM [here]. The ISM is a CommuNazi group that specializes in dehumanizing Jews.

CAMERA: Supplies are going into Gaza all the time [here]

UPDATING 5-31-2010 Danny Ayalon, deputy foreign minister, protested the clearly Judeophobic chant chanted by some of the passengers on the flotilla. See the JPost article [here]. Many of the passengers are wearing Islamic garb. Here is the chant, a traditional Arab chant against Jews:

Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud

Jaysh Muhammad sa ya`ud

Khaybar Khaybar O Jews,

The army of Muhammad will return.

This is an Islamic triumphalist chant against Jews. It refers to the conquest, occupation and destruction of the Jewish-populated Khaybar oasis in northern Arabia that was conquered by Muhammad's forces. The Jews fought but were defeated. Their property was usurped, and they were either killed or enslaved. Their wives were seized by the Arabs/Muslims.
The article in the Jerusalem Post incorrectly confuses the name "Khaybar" in this not so charming little ditty with the name "Haifa."

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Lee Smith explains Israel's strategic dilemma in regard to blockading Hamas-misruled Gaza:

"UNIFIL is supposed to be preventing arms shipments to Hezbollah [in Lebanon according to Security Council resolution 1701], but is not doing the job or else the Israeli navy would not have had to apprehend the Francop [a weapons-carrying ship from Iran to Hizbullah]. There is no UNIFIL for Gaza and hence wiithout a blockade the Iranians and Syrians could send basically anything they wanted, including many weapons they can't get through the tunnels, not least of all because the Egyptians don't want, for instance, scuds on their border either. Moreover, the blockade is what will ensure that Iran cannot harden its nuclear program by sending nuclear material to Gaza - as it may very well to Lebanon."

Lee Smith is author of the new book about the Middle East, The Strong Horse.

UPDATING 6-3-2010 Robert Pollock describes Erdogan's sick way of thinking in the WSJ [here] A Catholic bishop was stabbed to death in southeastern Turkey by his own driver [here]. This follows a series of murders of Christian religious personalities since Erdogan came to power in 2002. Erdogan has highly exacerbated the climate of hate already existing in Turkey for non-Muslims.

Rebranding Judeophobia, Israelophobia from Right to Left & the Absurdity of the Left-Right Spectrum

UPDATING 10-29-2009

Anti-Zionism is the anti-imperialism of fools

One bizarre sign of "leftist" convergence with "rightists" is the Obama administration. Obama's national insecurity advisor, Jim Jones, is supposed to give the major address to a konclave of the George Soros-funded pro-Arab, pro-Muslim jihadist, pro-PLO lobbying group called J Street. This group was not created by the grass roots of Jews in America, although it does have a following. It was created by Soros' money [collaborating with the Fenton PR firm] in order to supply public opinion support to Obama's anti-Israel, pro-Arab, pro-Muslim policies, necessarily undermining AIPAC in the process. This is because AIPAC is seen as an obstacle to Obama's racist policies against Israel, such as preventing Jews from living in Judea-Samaria.

Jones was a big general, and advocates using American military power throughout the world.

Marine Gen. James L. Jones (Ret.), the former head of NATO and U.S. forces in Europe and former commandant of the Marine Corps.

He was born into a Marine family [here].
Jones has called for sending more troops to Afghanistan to avert defeat there. [see Washington Post at this link biographical information]. Jones exemplifies the outlook of the national security/national defense establishment in the United States.

He is now promoting an anti-Israel policy that was earlier promoted by Republicans, by Prez George Bush I in the early 1990s and by John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles in the 1950s.

Since the Dulles brothers' time, Israelophobia has successfully rebranded itself as it were, making it a "leftist" cause and a mystique of support for an allegedly ancient people, the "palestinians" previously unknown to history. Most of today's "left" serves the foreign policy establishment as a cheerleader for what were long ago Republican policies. I could go on and on about the fakery of what today's Left claims to be.

Those informed about psychological warfare techniques, which much overlap with advertising, may be aware [see Vance Packard's Hidden Persuaders] of how successful such rebranding and reimaging campaigns can be. I remember one of my girl cousins back in the late 1940s, early 1950s, smoking Marlboro cigarettes. The Marlboro package had the name Marlboro written esthetically in a red line of handwriting on a white background, apparently meant to appeal to women who considered themselves elegant if not glamorous, as my cousin saw herself. Then a few years later --Vance Packard describes the process-- Marlboro had a new package with the name in straight bold, angular printed capital letters, not the elegant feminine curves in red of a few years before. The smoker of Marlboro was now a real man, a he man, a cowboy riding a horse with cowboy boots on, etc. Marlboro was now a man's cigarette. That's probably how most people today think of Marlboro. And they remember that cowboy riding his horse. I'm sure that few remember, as I do, that it was once meant to be an elegant woman's cigarette.

So if a consumer product can change not just its image but its very sex, then the mindbenders must think that they can do anything. Israelophobia and a pro-Arab policy are no longer the province of hardboiled Republican friends of Big Oil --as were the Dulles brothers-- today it is softboiled and kindhearted. It is "leftist" and is Good for the "Third World." Even members of the foreign policy establishment and the national security establishment, like walt, mearsheimer, and General jim jones, can be considered friends of the Third World, enemies of Israeli aggression, etc. My feelings aren't hurt. Nowadays, higher oil prices too are depicted as Good for the Third World, Good for the world's poor, etc.

It should also be borne in mind that the invention of the "palestinian people" too, by British psychological warfare experts, was a necessary ingredient in this process of transformation of image.

The lion may not yet lie down with the lamb but the uncouth mob of "leftist" Israelophobes can break bread with the old school exponents of Realist, frankly immoral or amoral foreign policy, which the "leftists" too support de facto, and maybe de jure too. And all this is demonstrated by the upcoming J Street konclave and the identity of its invited and disinvited guests, entertainers, "poets", and speakers.
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UPDATING 10-29-09 "After he retired from the Marine Corps, Gen. Jones served as president and CEO of the Institute for 21st Century Energy — an industry-funded lobby and PR organization; and in 2008 he joined the Board of Directors of the Chevron Corporation, which has large operations in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. He was appointed “security coordinator” for the Bush Administration’s Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts [sic!], and in 2008 issued a report which was not released, but which purportedly made “Israel look very bad”. He also proposed that security should be guaranteed by NATO troops after an Israeli pullout from Judea and Samaria"-- from Fresno Zionism [here]. Where do oil industry and Arab influences on Jones end & where does his concern for the American people's security begin, if at all??

"Leftist" speaker at semi-official JStreet bloggers conference supports Obama on Israel, supports Obama's racist policy against Jews living in Judea-Samaria [here], also says walt-mearsheimer provided necessary cover for J Street to exist, "I personally think they provided cover for J Street to be able to exist."
Former official of Pres. George Bush II's national insecurity council & State Dept tells J Street that Iranian regime has real "security concerns" & that calling A-jad a liar is "racist" [here].
Jennifer Rubin says that Obama's "administration seems awfully fond of it [= J Street]. Is it the Iranian excuse-mongering or the unhelpful platitudes. . ."? She asks. [see here]
Pro-Obama, pro-fascist "leftist" Nation magazine journalist wants to strip Israel of ancestral Jewish territory also needed for defense: "a final deal between Israel and Palestine will indeed require US security guarantees for Israel. Nearly everyone agrees on that" [here]