Was Karl Marx a Zionist NeoCon? A Bat Ye'or or a Robert Spencer ahead of his time?

Karl Marx is supposed to be one of the intellectual founders of Leftism, whatever that means today. Today, of course, the standard "leftist" position is to support Arab and Islamic terrorism --for whatever reason. Nevertheless, Karl Marx took the position that Islamic society was barbarous and an obstacle to civilization. Does that mean that Robert Spencer, Bat Ye'or, David Bukay, and likeminded others were really Marxists?

Here's what Marx had to say back in 1853 in the American newspaper, the New York Tribune [or Daily Tribune], edited by Horace Greeley, for which Marx was a regular foreign affairs correspondent:

This splended territory [the Balkans] has the misfortune to be inhabited by a conglomerate of different races and nationalities, of which it is hard to say which is the least fit for progress and civilization. . . Slavonians [Slavs], Greeks, Wallachians [Rumanians], Arnauts [Albanians], twelve millions of men, are all held in submission by one million of Turks, and up to a recent period it appeared doubtful whether, of all these different races, the Turks were not the most competent to hold the supremacy which, in such a mixed population, could not but accrue [p 123] to one of these nationalities. But when we see how lamentably have failed all attempts at civilization by Turkish authority --how the fanaticism of Islam, supported principally by the Turkish mob in a few great cities, has availed itself of the assistance of Austria and Russia invariably to regain power and to overturn any progress that might have been made; when we see the central, i.e., Turkish, authority weakened year after year by insurrections in the Christian provinces. . . we shall be obliged to admit that the presence of the Turks in Europe is a real obstacle to the development of the resources of the Thraco-Illyrian [Balkan] Peninsula. [p 124]

We can hardly describe the Turks as the ruling class of Turkey, because the relations of the different classes of society there are as mixed up as those of the various races. The Turk is, according to localities and circumstances, workman, farmer, and small freeholder, trader, feudal landlord in the lowest, most barbaric stage of feudalism, civil officer, or soldier; but in all these different social positions he belongs to the privileged creed and nation -- he alone has the right to carry arms, and the highest Christian has to give up the footpath to the lowest Moslem he meets. . . [p124]

The principal power of the Turkish population in Europe. . . lies in the mob of Constantinople and a few other large towns. It is essentially Turkish, and though it finds its principal livelihood by doing jobs for Christian capitalists, it maintains with great jealousy the imaginary superiority and real impunity for excesses which the privileges of Islam confer upon it as compared with Christians. [p 124]

[the above excerpts are from Marx's article in the New York Tribune, 7 April 1853; the page numbers refer to Paul W Blackstock and Bert F Hoselitz, eds., Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Russian Menace to Europe. . . (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1953)]

It is interesting that Marx admits in so many words the inadequacy of class analysis to describe and analyze Islamic society where dhimmis, non-Muslims, are a large part of the population. Further, Marx's self-styled epigones and disciples in the benighted Twenty-First Century tend to rather admire mobs and barbarism. Mass murder bombings by Islamists are just their cup of tea. But Marx saw Islam as fanatical, an obstacle to progress. And he pointed out the disabilities of non-Muslims --dhimmis-- under Muslim law, while showing how the Muslims could and did abuse the dhimmis. Nevertheless, the Bolsheviks started their rule with declaring support for Muslim nationalist movements against those of non-Muslims [see link]. Times change.

STOP THE ANNAPOLIS CONFERENCE FOR WAR & GENOCIDE!!!
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Coming: The fraud of the Peace Process, the lies underlying the Peace Process, peace follies, propaganda, Jews in Jerusalem, Hebron, the Land of Israel, etc.

Jimmy Carter Stole [Borrowed??] His Book Title from Arab Nationalist Liar

Just last November, Jimmy Carter published his notorious anti-Israel tract, Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid [November 14, 2006]. The book is thin on facts and has been widely deprecated for the falsehoods that it contains. It is interesting that Carter took his title from a book published by notorious Arab propagandist and liar, Marwan Bishara. Among other places, Marwan has written several viciously deceitful op eds for the International Herald Tribune, at least one of them using traditional Judeophobic themes, such as Jews as crucifiers.

Here are the titles of two of Marwan Bishara's books, which may be different versions of the same book:
Palestine/Israel: Peace or Apartheid, Prospects for Resolving the Conflict, published December 7, 2001, in paperback. Since then a slightly different title by Bishara was published on September 13, 2003, Palestine/Israel: Peace or Apartheid: Occupation, Terrorism and the Future, in hardback.

Here is a reader review on Amazon by a reader named S Sassoon, of the second title.

If you happen to be a Palestinian or relate to the media's version of a Palestinian Cause, looking to feed your fervor, this book is definitely for you. If you happen to have a pro-Israel stance and bear an intellectual capacity to distinguish between pseudo scholarly bias and nonsense, this book is also for you (you'll be able to cement your case). BUT, if you are someone with common sense looking for a somewhat truthful or dare I say historic approach to this sensitive material, than save your money and buy another book or take a class in Middle Eastern Affaires. This work is quite weak, tedious, and appears to have been fallen victim to horribly poor translation (there's no indication that this work has been translated, however, it's quite apparent by the outrageous use of language in the book that something's odd). Perhaps my opinion of this book might improve were I to read the Arabic version, should one actually exist, and provided the laughable content was in fact a blundering consequence of the translation.

Maybe it's just coincidental, but both Carter and Bishara have gotten payments from sources in oil rich Arab states. Bishara was a guest at a pseudo-academic conference in Qatar sponsored by the Islamic Free Market Institute Foundation. Indeed, Marwan seems to be associating with Free Market Neo-Cons. Can that be? For more on Marwan, see the previous post. Carter has gotten payoffs over the years --for himself and his Carter Center in Atlanta-- from various ultra-rich Arab sources. For instance, the Bank for Credit and Commerce International [BCCI, now bankrupt due to dishonest management] which was owned by the Shaykh and government of Abu Dhabi, and from the Saudi Bin Ladin Group. For the Bin Ladin Group's payoff, see the annual report of the Carter Center and also my earlier post. So it seems that both Marwan and Jimmy slurp at the same hog trough.

Marwan is the brother of Azmi Bishara, who was sent to Communist East Germany for a university education by the world Communist movement. Azmi later became a member of Israel's parliament [Knesset], where he specialized in Arab nationalist demagoguery, sometimes disguised in a Stalinist-democratic garb. He is now the subject of an investigation for espionage on behalf of Hizbullah, Iran, and Syria. Of course, I do not have access to facts uncovered in the investigation, but some of Bishara's offenses were committed very publicly and blatantly. He traveled to Syria and Lebanon on several occasions, including the funeral of Syrian butcher Hafiz Assad. He praised Assad and the Hizbullah, encouraging the Hizbullah and other Arabs to attack Israel. This is not a secret. Films of his treasonous statements made in Syria and Lebanon were shown on Arab TV and afterwards on Israeli TV. He even traveled to Lebanon during last summer's war between the Hizbullah and Israel. This was obvious and open treason. After Israel's parliament, the Knesset, had removed Bishara's parliamentary immunity several years ago so that he could be prosecuted for his earlier acts of betrayal, the Supreme Court, under the scofflaw, pro-fascist Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Aharon Baraq, declared that his treasonous incitement in Syria was no more than the legitimate use of a Knesset member's duty to represent his constituents, who were Arab nationalists, of course. Now, Azmi has the hutspeh to portray himself as a saint crucified by the Jews, going so far as to equate himself with Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew persecuted on false charges of espionage more than 100 years ago [see here for LATimes op ed]. But in Bishara's case, much of the treason was done openly. While he identifies himself with Dreyfus, for propaganda purposes in the West, crude Judeophobic propaganda is regularly published and broadcast in the Arab world, such as the blood libel, and Jews in general are defined as traitors by nature. Before we forget, let's recall how Azmi denied the well-documented Arab collaboration in the Holocaust.

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Coming: more on James Baker, peace follies, propaganda, Jews in Hebron and Jerusalem, etc.

Azmi Bishara Stars as a Martyr in the LA Times

A few weeks ago we wrote in a post that Azmi Bishara was on his way to becoming a world class martyr, indeed, he is already being portrayed as the victim of a Jewish crucifixion. His lies about his innocence have now been picked up by the Los Angeles Times [see here]. The LAT thereby enlarges its place as a world class Judeophobic, pro-Nazi rag. Bishara was spying for the Hizbullah, which made clearly Nazi-like statements in the past, besides being the prote'ge' of both Syria and Iran, which both make Nazi-like propaganda, while Iran declares its intention to destroy Israel.

As a sample of Hizbullah pro-Nazi utterances, back in 1987, when elections took place in France, the results were not to the liking of Hizbullah officials and publications. As the French daily Le Figaro reported, one Lebanese Hizbullah paper blamed the results on the Jewish vote in France. The Hizbullah paper wrote: "The Jewish microbe is everywhere" [Le microbe juif est partout]. This statement equates Jews with microbes. It is a clearly Nazi-like utterance. Unfortunately, it was not given the attention it deserved in the world press. Now, this kind of paralleling of the Nazis makes the Hizbullah's description of itself as a Resistance movement --seconded by its many Nazi-sympathizing admirers worldwide [especially "Leftists"]-- especially absurd.

There has been a propagandistic attempt to identify Hizbullah with the World War 2 era Resistance movements. However, whereas those movements were anti-Nazi, the Hizbullah is itself Nazi-like in many ways. Some Hizbullah sympathizers asserted that it was all Israel's fault for occupying Lebanon or part of it. Not only did these sympathizers overlook the Syrian occupation of most of Lebanon, of much more Lebanese territory than Israel was occupying, but that Hizbullah was an agent and/or ally of the Syrian occupation, of an occupation by a state that made pro-Nazi propaganda, as well as an agent of Iran that did the same. Furthermore, somehow these sympathizers forgot that Germany, Austria, and Japan were occupied countries after World War 2, and rightly so. The Communist ["leftist"] Soviet Union occupied parts of Germany, Austria and Japan, the aggressor states of WW2, as did the United States. France and Britain only occupied parts of Germany and Austria. Would a German "resistance" movement against the Allied occupation have been justified??? The Left of that time called for suppressing any German resistance as Nazi. By the way, Russia, heir of the USSR, still occupies parts of Japan which it has annexed [northern Sakhalin Island and the Kurile Islands].

Now, Azmi Bishara gave military information to the Hizbullah Nazis to use against Israel, including target selection and rocket aiming advice, during last summer's war. But he shamefully lies in the LATimes article, denying everything. That the LATimes rejects Israel's assertions and accepts an Arab's lies is a sign of the LA Times' deep Judeophobia. In other words, the LAT says that the Arab should be believed, whereas the Jews lie.

Nevertheless, Azmi gives some info in the LAT article that can be used against his side.

I am. . . a citizen of Israel and was, until last month, a member of the Israeli parliament.

This statement is true. In fact, it flatly contradicts the lies of an Arab American citizen, one Michael Tarazi, who was [and probably still is] a PLO spokesman despite being a US citizen. Interviewed on an international TV news network, CNN or BBC, a few years ago, Tarazi said that as a Christian Arab, he could not be an Israeli citizen nor be elected to the parliament [Knesset]. This was a gross lie. Arab citizens of Israel --now numbering over one million-- have had the right to vote and sit in the Knesset since the first parliamentary election in 1949. There are Arab members in the Labor and Likud and Qadimah parties. There are also parties that openly claim to represent Arab national interests in Israel's Knesset. Whether such parties should be allowed to sit in the Knesset is another matter, but they are there. The Israel Communist Party was mostly Arab in membership and Azmi grew up in the party, which sent him to Communist East Germany where he studied German philosophy, that is, the Judeophobic philosophy of Kant, Hegel and others. Marwan Bishara, Azmi's brother, now holds a position at an international affairs institute in Paris, which I assume is funded by the French government. Marwan is a big supporter of his big brother. Marwan used to often appear on French TV several years ago, at the beginning of the mass murder war called the Oslo War or --by Arabs and their sympathizers-- the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Needless to add, but we do it for the record, Marwan too is a very big liar and that is what he was doing in his many appearances on French TV back in late 2000 and in 2001 and 2002. Both of them, like other PLO spokespersons, Hanan Ashrawi, Leila Shahid, Sa'ib Erikat, Michael Tarazi, are very big, very shameless liars.

In the early years of the now ongoing war [year 2000 on], various French TV outlets gave Marwan and Leila Shahid a platform for their lies. Now, the LA Times gives Azmi a platform for his lies. Does this indicate that Arab lies are a convenient pretext and cover for Western Judeophobia?

UPDATING: More on Marwan Bishara. A google search turns up various institutional connections: In the year 2000 he was at Le Centre Indisciplinarie de Recherches sur la Paix in Paris. He may still be there. However, more recently he turns up as a teacher of international relations at the American University of Paris. Then, he is or was also at Ecoles Des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. He also speaks at conferences at Doha in Qatar before the Islamic Free Market Institute Foundation, no doubt collecting generous fees from the extremely democratic and tolerant shaykhs.

LATE UPDATING: French commentator, Michel Gurfinkiel, editor of Valeurs Actuelles, has supplied a summary of Bishara's career here in French.

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Coming: more on James Baker & US Middle East policy, Jews in Jerusalem and Hebron, peace follies, propaganda, etc.