All the perfumes of Brand Israel will not wash off Israel’s apartheid and brutal occupation. Despite, Yigal Caspi, deputy director general of media and public affairs at the Israeli Foreign Ministry explains the new soft sell approach (as if it hasn’t already been part of Israel’s dominant whitewashing strategy):
“This move doesn’t have a down-side… For a year we’ve been explaining our political policies and virtually ignoring everything else. I’m not sure that the first thing Europeans want to see when they open their morning newspaper is news about the conflict with the Arab world.”
“If we tell them about all the other interesting things here – about culinary and fashion, agriculture, innovations and high-tech – they’ll see us differently.”
Considering that the Foreign Minister of Israel is, in fact, a settler living in Noqdim, and that the state is addicted to building settlements while rent costs in major Israeli cities is causing nationwide protest, it is a safe bet that the interests of the state are in line with the settlers.
to move to outlying areas like Upper Nazareth, instead of demanding an apartment in “the state of Tel Aviv.” Speaking to Arutz 7, Sofer said “I would not build even one apartment in ‘the state of Tel Aviv,’ which extends from Hadera to Ashdod. Someone must tell the ‘yuppie youth’ that they should not bother fighting for an apartment there, because they will not get them.”
Sofer suggested instead that those seeking an apartment move to the south or the north. “If they all move to the periphery, the jobs will follow them. Pressure can be put on the billionaires who got rich off the rest of us to move their factories to these areas,” he said.
While Israeli hasbaraboffins plot and scheme their next apartheid-washing ad campaign, Israel is starving Gazan hospitals of fuel. Israel’s collective punishment of the people of Gaza centres again on those least able to defend themselves – the sick.
Bassam Barhum, who oversees ministry of health supplies in Gaza, said electricity generators would stop within a day or two if fuel was not delivered.
Every hospital in the coastal strip was vulnerable, Barhum said, adding that operation rooms had already closed in Gaza City’s Ash-Shifa hospital and the European hospital in Khan Younis due to the chronic energy supply shortage.
In 2011, the Ministry of Health in Gaza received less than 400 thousand liters of fuel, but the hospitals need 1.5 to 2 million liters, he said.
Barhum said Gaza hospitals received just 25.84 percent of required fuel in 2010, and more than 10 percent was unusable.
A critical shortage of medical supplies in the coastal strip led the Hamas-led authorities to declare a state of emergency in the medical sector in June, and doctors and nurses took to the streets to protest against the ongoing crisis.
While the specific content of the traditionalist beliefs and mores cherry-picked and melded into ‘new’ mythology is of lesser import, that the terrorist Breivik is racist, nationalist and rightwing is significant, orienting the political compass. In common with other proponents of fascism, Breivik syncretises disparate, contradictory elements – of the Crusades and Knights Templar, Freemasonry and modern expositions of conservative and reactionary thought – to mythologise a glorious ‘pure’ past. Fascism is better defined by its rightwing nature, its hatreds, ultraracism and ultranationalism, than the myths it recycles and from which its bankrupt political ‘philosophy’ is derived. The perpetual struggle is against perceived impediments – in Breivik’s pseudo-philosophy these are scapegoated Muslims, communists who tolerate them, feminists and the politically correct – if these results and proponents of multiculturalism can be removed or dealt with, the re-mythologised past can be transmuted into a glorious future. Did Breivik consciously attempt to resolve the contradiction between eternal warfare against the ‘Other’ and the achievement of a golden age described by Eco, by setting out specific tasks to be accomplished by certain times?
Whether harvesting from Christianity or Wobblythumpianism, fascists merge core cultural, political and religious themes into dissonant reactionary mythologies to galvanise an irrational political ideology tailored for the target society, forging Blut und Boden ultranationalism with selective populism in order to promote a militarist drive for power.
Other notable commonalities within existing and historic fascist ideologies and the Breivik dogma include newspeak – the epithet of his movement ‘cultural conservatives’, its ‘cultural marxist‘ enemies and ‘Eurabia’ are striking examples; the ends justifies the means, contempt for the weak, attack of intellectuals, communists and leftists; anti-capitalist and anti-democratic goals; social darwinism, sexual machismo; a cult of heroism, strength, unity and purity; militarism and violence; rejection of cultural pluralism and multiculturalism; xenophobia, ultra-racism, antisemitism, bigotry and prejudice; censorship of opposing ideas, disagreement is treason, strategic victimhood and sense of besiegement.
Although Breivik executed a spectacle which may reduce pressure for a time and is disowned publicly by those who similarly espouse extreme rightwing views (with the exception of the monstrous Glenn Beck, who likened Breivik’s victims to ‘Hitler youth’), Breivik’s essential nationalist, Islamophobic doctrine remains as yet unrepudiated and unexamined critically by these fellow travellers.
One of the features of racism is that its sufferers are oblivious to its symptoms. Yet, racism doesn’t grow in a vacuum. Breivik’s acts and doctrine cannot be separated from the substrate in which it arose in the specific contexts of permissiveness of racism and violence, fuelled by frustration with the hegemony of the ruling class, alienation, and major political events like 9/11 and leaders’ counter-productive, inflammatory reactions to them. While Breivik sees multiculturalism and its leftwing protectors as his primary obstructions, the destructive activities of the transnational ruling class which benefits from and promotes racist, nationalist division is obscured.
There is a larger organism with which Breivik is connected – from neofascist and islamophobic organisations, to fascist Israel, to the white supremacist, uncritical media and people who assumed myopically that the appalling carnage plotted and executed by Breivik couldn’t have been committed by a ‘white’ person, a rightwinger or in a ‘white’ culture. This political terrorist may not be defined as ‘mad’ (to diagnose and disparage is unwise as mentally ill people are no more violent than other community members) or adher to any one isolated belief system than his own concocted dissonance, yet be ‘possessed’ of a dangerous, familiar ideology which has taken root symbiotically in several polities, a toxic phenomenon to be cauterised, else there will be more spectacles, with successive liftings of the bar. The Norwegian Prime Minister has demonstrated deep wisdom in declaring that Norway’s response will be more democracy and respect, not more security and fear.
May kindness, universal human rights, reason and democracy, prevail over brutish dogma.
The killer has evidently absorbed the far right’s shift from the language of race to the language of culture. But what is most striking is how closely he mirrors the ideas and fixations of transatlantic conservatives who for a decade have been the meat and drink of champions of the war on terror and the claim that Islam and Islamism pose a mortal threat to Western civilisation.
Only months before he went on his murderous killing spree he exchanged several messages with EDL supporters using his internet pseudonym Sigurd Jorsalfare, the name of the 12th century King of Norway who led one of the Crusades.
One staple of post-9/11 discourse has been the consistent demand that all Muslims everywhere not only condemn terrorism — which almost all invariably do, if for no other reason than that they have been its chief victims — but also that Muslims denounce Muslim hate-mongers, the “enablers” of terrorism.
Yet here we are witnessing a furious attempt by Islamophobic politicians and pundits, as well as their apologists, to decouple themselves from Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist.
This despite the fact that Breivik himself repeatedly cites some of the leading European and American anti-Muslim crusaders to rationalize his anti-Muslim jihad. They, of course, do not advocate violence, while he is a mass murderer. The distinction is clear enough. But they influenced him and shaped his world view. His exaggerated sense of the danger posed by Islam, Muslims and multiculturalism is about the same as theirs.
Breivik said in his 1500-page manifesto that he attended the founding meeting of the Knights Templar Europe “military order” in London in 2002 where he met a “mentor” who used the pseudonym Richard – after Richard the Lionheart.
Paul Ray, who writes a blog under the name Lionheart, says he belongs to an anti Muslim group called The Ancient Order of the Templar Knights but denies ever meeting Breivik and says he was horrified by the mass killings in Norway on Friday. In a telephone interview with Associated Press, Ray said he was not at the 2002 London meeting that Breivik described in his manifesto.
“I’d like to express my deepest sympathy to the people of Norway and to the families who have lost children,” Ray said. “It’s a horrendous crime that has been committed by someone what goes beyond the realm of human understanding.”
Ray, who now lives in Malta, refused to say how many members were in his group but said he had had no contact with Breivik and had not heard of him before Friday’s attacks.
“It’s an idea,” he said of The Ancient Order of the Templar Knights. “It’s not like it’s a massive organization. It’s a belief.”
Ray, who was involved with the far right English Defence League before falling out with the leadership, said it appeared Breivik had drawn inspiration from some of his ideas and writings.
“It’s really pointing at us. All these things he’s been talking about are linked to us,” he said. “It’s like he’s created this whole thing around us.”
says the main ideological drivers for lone terrorists are white supremacy, Islamism, nationalism/separatism and anti-abortionism. …
Indeed, right-wing views are increasingly becoming political mainstream in Europe, and even moderate politicians have been moving to the Right and away from multiculturalism.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Prime Minister David Cameron in Britain have all recently declared an end to multiculturalism.
…
Norway does not exist in a vacuum. Its right-wing scene is connected to the rest of Europe through internet forums, where hate-speech proliferates, and participation in right-wing demonstrations throughout Europe.
…
The Norway attacks are a reminder for Australians of the need to monitor individuals with extreme right-wing views. They should not be allowed to join gun clubs, own guns or be able to buy quantities of explosive precursors.
“I can tell you, at this moment in time, we don’t have evidence or we don’t have indications that he has been part of a broader movement or that he has been in connection with other cells or that there are other cells,” said Ms Kristiansen, who heads the Norwegian Police Security Service.
She said she did not think Mr Breivik was insane, as his lawyer has suggested.
Instead, she described him as calculating and evil, and someone who sought the limelight.
Breivik is no loner. His violence was brewed in a specific European environment that shares characteristics with the specific American environment of Loughner: relative economic decline, a jobless recovery, middle-class anxiety and high levels of immigration serving as the backdrop for racist Islamophobia and use of the spurious specter of a “Muslim takeover” as a wedge political issue to channel frustrations rightward.
“What we’ve seen is an active extremist scene across European countries, including the UK,” Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, told the Guardian. “There are some signs the extreme right have been more active, especially on the Internet. They are more sophisticated and using social media to attract younger people.”
How to defeat racism, prejudice and bigotry? Education for respect of all humans, for equal rights for everyone, for the intrinsic worth of each human, while challenging discrimination where it manifests is essential. Racism, prejudice and bigotry are political acts, defined by the relations of the individual to others. They are not religious beliefs conditioned by one’s relationship with the unknowable, to be tolerated lest our own beliefs not be tolerated. Free speech is limited in our own interests when the rights of others are infringed upon, for example with slander and incitement to crime, and in Australia, with racial vilification laws. Disparate beliefs are forged into a newspeak newculture. These syncretised beliefs are decoration and padding, obscuring an underlying drive for power. In a dark soil of forbearance and silent assent composted with racism, violence and hatred builds, fertilising the poisonous flower of fascism.
Racism, prejudice, bigotry, sexism and able-ism are diseases of the point of view, yet cannot be seen in isolation from the cultures in which they grow. To heal them, it is the whole community organism which must be treated.
The white supremacist attacks in Norway show how dangerous nationalist racism is and how racism, prejudice and bigotry are the common enemies of humanity. Breivik’s major hatreds were for multiculturalism, marxism and Islam, irrationalising that the pure culture, including Protestantism which he re-mythologises and syncretises with the Knights Templar myths, of Norway and Europe was being diluted with invading genes and ‘non-European’ culture, facilitated by the newspeak ‘culture marxists’. In fascist ‘blut und boden’ tradition, he formulates a glorious ‘pure’ past, all the better to point to a glorious purified future in an effort to incite populism to fuel his cause. For him, his targets represented the traitors within.
‘Instead, by choosing to attack a government building and a Labour Party summer school, Breivik is drawing attention to what many fringe nationalists see as the political failure of mainstream and left-wing politicians to confront the Muslim threat. So-called appeasers of the “Islamification of Europe” have become as hated as Muslim activists and therefore face the same kind of attacks.’
The pervasive global nature of white supremacism is demonstrated monotously – a political ‘cultural conservative’ massacred children from the Norwegian Labour Party and bombed the PM’s office, and the white media STILL doesn’t call it terrorism or neo-fascism, let alone both.
Other symptoms of fascism besides those mentioned above which Breivik’s pseudo-philosophy includes are sexism and machismo, attack of intellectuals, contempt for the weak and parliamentary democracy; violence, militarism (his Knights Templar schemata), censorship of opposing ideas, disagreement is treason, propaganda, social darwinism, expansionism (of his movement throughout Europe), indoctrination, strategic victimhood, a sense of besiegement, scapegoating and promotion of a cult of unity and heroism.
Respect to the people of Norway.
From the Prime Minister of Norway:
We must never cease to stand up for our values.
We have to show that our open society can pass this test, too,
And that the answer to violence is even more democracy,
even more humanity, but never naïveté.
@Dr_Ulrichsen Oslo Mayor Stang asked whether Oslo needs greater security – “I don’t think security can solve problems. We need to teach greater respect” #
http://www.youtube.com/wat?ch?v=2ek3IA8ARIw&feature=y?outu.be
http://www.youtube.com/wat?ch?v=GGyyBn3Lmjc&feature=y?outu.be
http://www.youtube.com/wat?ch?v=18PcaGQVtYM&feature=y?outu.be
And from the founder of the EDL in 2007 : Knights Templar – 21st Century Christian Crusaders
‘When you preach bigotry and fear on a daily basis, don’t be surprised when one of your followers takes the next logical step. But Robert Spencer has a reason to feign surprise and indignation over what his hatred has incited, as the link between his hate-writing and this act of terrorism becomes clear: Richard Silverstein notes that the right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik cited Robert Spencer 46 times in his manifesto.’
Police believe the 32-year-old, six-foot-plus Norwegian acted alone in the bombing of government offices in Oslo and an assault with firearms on a island youth camp less than a hour from the capital.
…
Norwegian television said that Breivik belongs to right-wing circles in Oslo, and a Swedish newspaper has reported the Breivik has posted on right-wing forums in Norway.
Norwegian media has linked Breivik to a Facebook account in which the poster described himself as a Christian conservative.
Media reports said the gunman, wearing a police uniform, beckoned bystanders over to him, on the pretense that he wanted to speak to them about security measures in the wake of the bombing in Oslo. He then opened fire.
Emilie Bersaas, 19, told Sky News that she heard shooting, saw people running and screaming, then ran herself to a building to take cover. She and a friend piled clothes and a mattress onto a desk and hid under it.
Under education, Breivik wrote he studied independently, noting he has “approximately 14,500 hours of study” equivalent to a bachelor of business administration and masters in history, as well as “3,000 hours of study in micro and macro finance, religion .”
His profile also says he’s a director at a company called Breivik Geofarm.
He lists himself as single and has five profile photos – four of which are headshots, and one of him at a wedding with two women, one of which is the bride.
A Twitter account is also being linked to Breivik, although there is just one tweet on July 17.
“One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests,” he wrote.
The television station TV 2 in Norway reported Breivik had right-wing extremist tendancies and had two guns registered under his name.
“The alleged offender is a member of the John lodge St. Olaus TD Three pillars of the Norwegian Masonic Order. He has 3 degree status, where the peak is ten degrees. – We have no way to express an opinion on individuals or incidents related to any members, said spokesman of the Norwegian Freemasons order Helge Qvigstad told Dagbladet.
Another stereotype by the media : ‘Breivik appears to evade the stereotype of being influenced by metal music.’ Perhaps today the neo-Nazis in Europe count Muslims among the problems that drive their madness. But to a large degree, these right wing extremist views shaped 20th century Europe. It’s time for a European reckoning of its own history of violence that has bled into the present in such painful ways.
If so, what do we call a right-wing nationalist capable of planting major bombs and mowing down scores of people for the sake of the greater glory of his cause? If even a liberal newspaper like the Times can’t call this guy a terrorist, what does that say about the mindset of the western world?
Say NO to normalisation of apartheid through visits by Israeli/Palestinian AFL teams under the guise of ‘peace’. Eleanor Kilroy writes at Mondoweiss:
A ‘Peace Team’, co-sponsored by the Peres Center and Al Quds Association for Democracy and Dialogue, will take part in the Australian Football League (AFL) Cup this August. In preparation, a delegation from the Australian Football League visited Israel this month to meet with the Peace Team, accompanied by Australian media, (which might explain why one of the Team’s sponsors is Sydney’s Israel Travel Centre). The Team will also participate in a welcome function at Marrickville Town Hall on 18 August. This is in spite of the fact that Marrickville Council voted to “in principle” support a Green Party-led boycott of cultural and sporting exchanges with Israeli institutions. Archbishop Desmond Tutu sent a letter praising the Council for taking a stand, noting that ‘Ten Marrickville councillors – five Greens, four Labor and one independent – voted to support the boycott campaign against Israel last December, provoking condemnation from federal and state politicians, Jewish groups and media commentators. The motion was overturned in April, when all the Labor and two Green councillors withdrew their support.’ Ziyaad Lunat, a member of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee (BNC), told me “Al-Quds Association are part of a program that includes a stop-over at Marrickville, Australia, participating in anti-BDS propaganda set up by pro-occupation groups.” As ‘Merc’ says in the post Foul Play, ‘all it took was a little email from a Zionist, and the Victorian Greens (‘we’), without any discernible thought or research, threw caution to the winds and embraced a cheap little Zionist BDS-busting PR stunt.’ I asked Australians for Palestine’s Public Advocate, Samah Sabawi, to comment and she said, “What can be more appealing for those of us in Australia who are passionate about peace in Israel/Palestine than to welcome the AFL Peace Team? The answer: the idea that when members of this team return to their homes, the Palestinian players would not have to go through dehumanising checkpoints, around high barbed wire walls and into Bantustans surrounded and suffocated by a matrix of Jewish-only roads, settlements and security zones.”
Omar Barghouti – BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) – The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights
Filmed at Socialism 2011 in Chicago http://haymarketbooks.org
“It is not a Jewish It is an Israeli, colonial apartheid issue and it should stay within those parameters.”
“Any one who says ‘all Jews are …’, anything that comes after ‘are…’, is an antisemite. … Zionism treat Jews as super-human, Nazis treat Jews as sub-human. But both dehumanise Jews.”
‘Time and again, I met Israelis who exhibited an unashamed sense of entitlement that seemed justified by a deeply held belief that Palestinians deserve their situation because they refuse to recognise Israel’s right to be a state that legally discriminates against them, granting differential legal rights and privileges to its own Jewish citizens and to Jews anywhere in the world. This model of racial division is entrenched.’
“As far as the Palestinians are concerned, bad news for Murdoch can only be good news for them. Murdoch’s deeply held sympathy for Israel and his enmity towards the Palestinians is clear for all to see. His tabloid press have a track record of Islamophobia and of stirring up hatred against Palestinians.”
When the Marrickville BDS resolution was up against the wall, Marduk’s The Australian gave virtually no coverage to Palestinian voices, or BDS voices at all. Instead Marduk published a procession of zionists, spinning crap.
Balad Party MK, Palestinian Haneen Zoabi, has been suspended from Knesset discussions till the end of the summer session in fascist Israel’s latest move to punish those who speak out against its injustices. The Kafkesque Knesset ‘Ethics’ Committee decided upon this action, which Haneen will appeal.
Ms Zoabi, a vociferous critic of Israeli policies towards the Palestinians, was a passenger on the Mavi Marmara, attracting fury in Israel. She was branded a traitor by colleagues and stripped of some parliamentary privileges. But the latest move to sanction her demonstrates the extent to which the flotilla affair still rankles in Israel. The Knesset’s ethics committee voted to bar Ms Zoabi from parliamentary debates until the current session ends next month, declaring that her actions had “harmed national security and were inconsistent with the legitimate conduct of a lawmaker”.
“This was not an Ethics Committee decision, it was the decision of an automatic racist, right-wing majority in this committee. Therefore, it was a completely political decision.”
“Who decides what is politically legitimate? The right-wing majority that makes up the government? A political majority? Then what is the meaning of my immunity, which is meant to protect me from the tyranny of the majority?”.
“I upheld my human, moral and political obligation by participating in the struggle to break the illegitimate and inhumane blockade on Gaza”.
At Nabi Saleh demonstrations against the illegal Israeli occupation, Nariman Tamimi films and documents along with providing medical aid to those whom the Israeli occupation forces injure:
Definitely, the protests have caused a lot of awareness and the evidence is that we have Palestinian youth coming from different districts in the West Bank who are committed to going to Nabi Saleh every week. Activists from Israel and the international community are part of the popular resistance that is key to forming the awareness that leads others to denounce Israel as an occupying force and a military state, which is why our war is against the media.
It is a good sign to see more and more people getting convinced and exposing Israel’s crimes and atrocities in a way in which the world can understand them. This current resistance is inclusive of all the members of society, much like the first intifada, which was a true popular uprising, and I do believe that the current protests will spread because of their result of undermining the state of Israel and attracting international responses. The more that increases, the better it is for us.
Israel is continuing its outrageous crimes against Palestinians with construction of another 336 illegal Jews-only settlement dwellings in the Occupied West Bank.
Meanwhile, the French vessel, Dignite-Al Karame, with 10 human rights activists on board prepares to face the Israeli forces at sea, on its attempt to break the illegal Israeli blockade on Gaza.
Thomas Sommer-Houdeville, a French national and flotilla spokesperson, said Sunday the boat was carrying a message of peace, hope and solidarity with the people in Gaza. He hoped the Israeli Navy would not intercept the boat and let it complete its civic mission. He believes that the boat must get near as possible to the destination, as it represents the “determination and will” of the people who were on board other boats and all those who have been involved in raising awareness about the blockade on Gaza.
Ali Abunimah: “The difference now between us and zionists … is that we can put forth a positive vision based on universal values without betraying any Palestinian rights. Our vision is rooted in one that views all human beings as equal. Their vision is rooted in one that sees some human beings as garbage.”
‘I expected that activists will challenge the anti-Boycott law and chant for BDS or call for Settlement boycott as well as chanting for a Palestinian state, I was wrong. It turned out to be a march organized by Zionist leftists calling for a legitimate Palestinian state next to the state of Israel.’
We urge our South African peers to boycott and challenge this intended tour of South African universities in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town, which we view as a part of a campaign launched to whitewash the crimes of Israel’s apartheid policies.
‘“I just hope we can shift public opinion in Australia and that [the government and media] stop being so apologetic towards Israel. My detention in Greece got more news in Greece than it did here — where criticism of Israel seems to be ‘off limits’ to a lot of the media.
“I spent two to three months in Nablus, in the Occupied West bank in 2008-2009. I received a lot of support [for the flotilla protest] from my friends in Nablus. They and the people of Gaza don’t want hand-outs: they just want their freedom.”’
13th July – and yes, still in prison – UK citizen Pippa Bartolotti writes on her stint at the Israel entity’s request in Givon prison for the terrible crime of wanting to visit the West Bank :
Why does my government allow me to be held for 5 days without papers, or explanation, or charges?
Why does my country accept Israel as a sovereign state when it has no borders?
Why does the UK and EU give Israel special rights when its Human Rights position is untenable?
Why can Israel sing in the Eurovision Song Contest and take part in UEFA football champioships whilst being an apartheid state?
Why are British police ordered to act on Israeli paranoia and lies and interrogate British citizens before they go to Israel?
Why were the British the last to leave Givon prison?
Why did the British Consul allow our conversations to be recorded?
Why does the British Consul in Israel say that no visitors are allowed to visit the West Bank, when the FCO website says no such thing?
Why does the British Government collude in the inhumane and cruel treatment of the Palestinians?
‘The Home Office listed as another example of “unacceptable behavior” an interview with MEMO in which Salah advocated the Palestinian right of return and the boycott divestment and sanctions movement’.
