Middle East Friendship Chart (In case you plan a holiday)

Israel's End - The Countdown Has Begun (video)

A slip of the tongue by a former mossad agent about the london bombings

More on this Mossad character in an article by Maidhc Ó Cathail,,,

The Frankfurt School and the Proliferation of Alterity: Voices from the Right

[presented at the Alterity Conference, Genoa, Italy; July 2014]

– Michael  McAnear, PhD*

National University

In 2010 the National Association of Scholars in the US analyzed what incoming freshmen are asked to read as part of college orientation programs prior to their starting school. Surveying 290 programs, the analyses concluded that “[. . .] the preponderance of reading assignments promotes liberal social causes and liberal sensibilities. Of the 180 books, 126 (70 percent) either explicitly promote a liberal political agenda or advance a liberal interpretation of events. By contrast, the study identifies only three books (less than 2 percent) that promote a conservative sensibility and none that promote conservative political causes." Common knowledge holds that the academy is dominated by the Left, and conservative commentators all over the West bemoan this fact. In Germany, for example, the leftist 68rs—so named to mark the cultural upheavals of the late sixties—are resented by some for their long standing dominance. Even in 1990, an editorialist for the right-of-center Die Welt was writing that “The ideology of the 68rs has settled like fine dust … into every nook and cranny of society.” As to the reading lists mentioned above, the president of the organization conducting the survey wrote that it supports these programs on American campuses but wants them out of "the rut of promoting trendy causes." Something is wrong when "books on Africa outnumber books on Europe nearly six to one,” (Jaschik).

On the Right there is a compelling theory circulating to explain the Left’s dominance, a notion put forth not only in scholarly writings but of course spread on the Internet. The theory holds that the so-called Frankfurt School has exerted overwhelming influence in the West to shape cultural discourse in the academy, media, and society at large. This paper investigates the strong criticisms directed at the Frankfurt School and its legacy following more than a half century of prevailing influence in European and American academia, particularly in the social sciences where notions of cultural pluralism dominate the discourse. Conservative commentators have claimed that the Frankfurt School’s thrust has been entirely ideological, and it has eschewed empiricism to assault Western society through the production of countless identities—countless others—which are in explicit opposition to the dominant culture. Women’s liberation, the gay movement, minority interest groups and radical-progressiveness of all shades: conservatives view these as attacks on tradition and yet they are firmly ensconced in the academy and largely considered mainstream. But the overarching ideology of the ‘Other’ is defined solely by negation of the mainstream, say its critics. So, as the argument goes, the Frankfurt School’s formulation of alterity prevents authentic identity building because of its adversarial stance. The self is defined chiefly by what it is against, leaving scarce room for genuine self-affirmation and authenticity (Atzmon).

The opening salvo in this critique appeared in 1992 with the publication of Michael Minnicino’s “The Frankfurt School and Political Correctness” in the far-right American journal Fidelio. He writes that the “irrational adolescent outbursts of the 1960s have become institutionalized in a ‘permanent revolution’ [and] our campuses now represent the largest concentration of Marxist dogma in the world (3).” He traces this development to the 1920s, when the Institute for Social Research was established as a Marxist think tank associated with the University of Frankfurt and which became known as the Frankfurt School. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, global communism believed that the proletarian revolution would sweep into Europe and ultimately to North America. But it didn’t, so Frankfurt School theoreticians set out to implement Antonio Gramsci’s inspired judgment that social revolution occurs through the permeation and gradual command of the means of cultural production and policy-making, through cultural hegemony. Author Minnicini identifies the initial guiding light of the Frankfurt School, a Jewish Hungarian aristocrat-turned-communist named Georg Lukacs, a prolific cultural and literary critic who allegedly asked when joining the Communist Party during the 1^st World War, “Who will save us from Western Civilization?”[1] It appears the Frankfurt School had a bone to pick with the West from the outset.

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Gaza, Essentialism and Jewish History

Gilad Atzmon Interviewed by Alimuddin Usmani for Egalite Reconciliation

http://www.egaliteetreconciliation.fr/

Alimuddin Usmani:  As I write to you, the ceasefire has, once again, collapsed between Israel and Palestinian fighters in Gaza. In its attempt to kill Hamas armed wing leader, Mohammed Deif, the IDF failed, and instead killed his wife and infant son.

It is increasingly clear that Israel is stuck in this conflict and doesn't know how to end it. You were the first to say that Israel was "desperate for a break in the violence."

How were you able to predict this outcome when most analysts failed?

Gilad Atzmon:  Unlike the Jewish ‘progressive’ commentators who have dominated the Palestinian solidarity discourse for about two decades, I am a reactionary essentialist. I believe that events in history and politics become meaningful only when analyzed within an rigorous essentialist context. Righteous progressive Jews suffocate the discourse with tons of anecdotal details in order to conceal the Jewish ideology at the core of the crimes committed by the Jewish State and the Lobby. I firmly believe that every Israeli and Jewish collective political activity from AIPAC to Mondoweiss can be understood within the framework of Jewish culture, ideology  and heritage.

By now I am not a lone voice anymore. Many scholars and commentators detect the obvious spin at the heart of the Jewish progressive discourse. The Jewish State openly proclaims its commitment to Jewishness, Jewish values and heritage, making the Jewish progressive attempt to prevent an understanding of Israeli crime and Jewish lobbying within the context of Jewish culture, ideology and heritage almost amusing.

As an essentialist it is clear that Israeli barbarism, the Nakba, the Holodomor, the Zio-driven neocon movement and even the crimes committed by the Yiddish speaking International Brigade at the time of the Spanish Civil war must be examined in the light of Jewish goy hatred, Jewish supremacy and the unique sense of Jewish righteousness inextricably intertwined with Jewish self-love.

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Ian Donovan: READINGS ESSENTIAL TO DISCUSSING THE JEWISH QUESTION – WITH COMMENTARY

"Ian Donovan is a long-time Marxist, currently independent of the putative Marxist organisations, but active in the Left Unity broad left party as well as a signatory to its Communist Platform. This list was issued to encourage others on the left to read about the Jewish question as preparation for a discussion in the near future."

READINGS ESSENTIAL TO DISCUSSING THE JEWISH QUESTION – WITH COMMENTARY
1.    Karl Marx: The Jewish Question (1844)

One of Marx’s earliest published essays. This is in two parts: the first of which ought to be uncontroversial, as in replying to Bruno Bauer it puts forward a simple call for political emancipation of the Jews and freedom of religion. The second part, however, is highly controversial, as it contains passages such as:

“What is the secular basis of Judaism? Practical need, self-interest. What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly God? Money. Very well then! Emancipation from huckstering and money, consequently from practical, real Judaism, would be the self-emancipation of our time.

“An organization of society which would abolish the preconditions for huckstering, and therefore the possibility of huckstering, would make the Jew impossible. His religious consciousness would be dissipated like a thin haze in the real, vital air of society. On the other hand, if the Jew recognizes that this practical nature of his is futile and works to abolish it, he extricates himself from his previous development and works for human emancipation as such and turns against the supreme practical expression of human self-estrangement.

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In 2008 Israel Agreed to a Protocol for the Port of Gaza

Why not now?

by Paul Larudee

http://dissidentvoice.org/

In August, 2008, I and forty-three other participants motored into Gaza by sea in two converted fishing boats, becoming the first to openly succeed in doing so since 1967.  The entry stamp in our passports reads “Gaza port” and was created for the occasion.  We carried a modest cargo of hearing aids for the children of the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children.

Israel tried multiple means of preventing us from succeeding, including threats, jamming of communications, and pressure on the Greek and Cypriot governments, but it did not send naval or coast guard vessels to intercept us, and did not attack us or block our way.

Why not?  According to Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeserson Arye Mekel, “Because we know who is on the boats and what they contain … we will allow them to land.”

How did they know?  Because we put all of that information on our website and because the government of Cyprus made extraordinary security arrangements, inspecting our boats inside and out and even under the hull, and placing us in a separate section of the port where we were the only vessels.

Three days after our arrival in Gaza, the boats returned to Cyprus, leaving some of the volunteers behind and taking on some Palestinian passengers.  Israel threatened to stop us and remove the Palestinians, but in an interview with Israel National Radio only hours before departure, I pointed out that these passengers had been approved by Cyprus and that in any case they would be screened by Cypriot authorities in Larnaca upon arrival.  If they trusted Cypriot security on departure, why would they not trust them upon return?  In the event, Israel again did not obstruct us.

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Shape Freedom Summer Conference! 31st August 2014, Glastonbury

Shape Freedom is happy to announce its first conference which will take place in the Red Brick Building in Glastonbury, Sunday 31st August 2014 between 11am and 10pm.

DATE: Sunday 31st August 2014
LOCATION: Red Brick Building, Glastonbury, Somerset, UK
COST: £35 all-day ticket (8 speakers + food)
£20 (low/unwaged – limited number available)
or individual speaker tickets – prices listed below

Further venue and event/ticket information listed after the speakers.

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Israel Faces its Own Evil

By Gilad Atzmon

Earlier today, just a few hours before the ceasefire collapsed, sources in Jerusalem have disclosed that Israel and the US have agreed to gradually lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip, starting with the land crossings and eventually opening up sea traffic. Hamas, so it seemed, has achieved all of its objectives in the latest round of violence.  With sparse resources, limited fire power and obsolete ballistic technology, Hamas managed to bring Israel to its knees.

Plainly, the war was unwinnable for the IDF. Israel invaded the Gaza strip without establishing its own military objectives. The Israeli Government sent its soldiers into the streets of Gaza without understanding its own military, political or diplomatic aims. Both the IDF and the Israeli government were attempting to appease Israeli popular demand for revenge. The Israeli people felt humiliated by the Palestinian rockets. These largely harmless homemade rockets interfered with Israeli escapist philosophy. The rockets’ flare reminded Israelis that there are another people who claim the land, and this people, the Palestinians, are named after the land. Once again polls confirmed that Israelis were bloodthirsty, they wanted to wipe out the Palestinians for good, and the populist Netanyahu government rushed to deliver.

But here is a little surprise; Haaretz reported today that Netanyahu tried to hide the Egyptian cease-fire proposal from his cabinet. His deceit came about because Netanyahu understood that the Egyptian draft represented a total defeat for the Israelis.  Israel could have lifted the blockade on Gaza and let the Palestinians have a seaport and an airfield without dragging the region into another war. Netanyahu could have ‘freed’ the Gazans without perpetrating another set of colossal crimes against humanity.

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Business as usual: British arms manufacturers supplying Israel with weapons during its Gaza offensive

BY Sarah Jane Brennan

http://www.sott.net

© Image from londonpalestineaction.tumblr.com
A UK arms factory was recently occupied by nine British activists in protest against the company's alleged complicity in Israel’s Operation Protective Edge.

Against a backdrop of widespread bloodshed and devastation in Gaza, a mounting body of evidence indicates military equipment used by Israel during Operation Protective Edge was made in the UK.

As violence wanes in the besieged Palestinian enclave, scrutiny of UK arms exports to Israel is amplifying. While Cairo peace talks between Israel and Hamas bring a sense of reprieve to Gaza's rubble-laden streets, damning evidence indicates Israel used UK military wares during Operation Protective Edge. UK government statements, photographic evidence, IDF commanders' recent praise of drones deployed in Gaza, and Israel's purchasing patterns of foreign military equipment all appear to indicate this is the case.

Britain's arms trade relations with Israel are extremely lucrative. Since 2010, British authorities have presided over the sale of £42 million worth of military produce to the Middle Eastern state. And on an annual basis, the British government grants up to £15 million worth of licenses to UK defense firms for the export of military equipment to Israel. These figures stem from in-depth research conducted by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), a London-based NGO dedicated to tackling the global arms industry's impact on human rights.

Approximately 44 defense companies spanning Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland broker UK arms exports to Israel, according to the CAAT. Four such firms are Raytheon, Schleifring Systems, Selex Galileo, and UAV Engines. Each of these defense factories epitomize an acutely profitable yet contentious set of military trade relations between Britain and Israel. Amidst nationwide concern over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, there is strong reason to surmise drone engines, bomb components and other parts produced by these firms were deployed by the IDF during its recent military attacks on the region.

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