Hitchens, Obama, and the War Party

Hitchens, Obama, and the War Party

Posted by Richard Spencer on October 13, 2008

Christopher Hitchens’s endorsement of Barack Obama should be fodder for at least two or three days of blogospheric chatter. Yes, that Christopher Hitchens, the Bolshi who became a neocon and endorsed Bush in ‘04. (Not that there’s too much ideological difference between Bolshevism and neoconservatism, especially after the latter group gave up writing about the “unintended consequences” of public policy and started dreaming of global revolution.) Hitchens is also the man who became National Review’s favorite Leftist once he started backing Washington’s noble war of liberation against the “fascist” Saddam Hussein. Chief NR theologian Michael Novak dubbed the author of God is Not Great a “treasure.”

Well, after this one, I imagine Hitchens’s books will elicit much less gush when they’re reviewed in NR’s illiterate “Book, Arts, & Manners” section, and the man probably won’t get as many invites to come “defend” World War II with Victor Davis Hanson on those Hoover Institution webcasts. A five-year love affair has reached its end.

Don’t worry about Hitchens though, he’ll quickly find work elsewhere, and NR’s loss will undoubtedly be The New Republic’s gain (or is it the other way around?).

Anyway, with regard to the endorsement itself, most will probably focus in on Hitchens’s ad hominem attacks against the GOP standard bearers—and Hitchens has, indeed, rejected McCain and Palin specifically because of their personalities: The senior senator suffers “from an increasingly obvious and embarrassing deficit, both cognitive and physical”; Palin is “simply a disgrace.”

It therefore seems to me that the Republican Party has invited not just defeat but discredit this year, and that both its nominees for the highest offices in the land should be decisively repudiated, along with any senators, congressmen, and governors who endorse them.

Beyond all this, Hitchens makes a more important point—and one that will, no doubt, be lost on most commentators:

On ‘the issues’ in these closing weeks, there really isn’t a very sharp or highly noticeable distinction to be made between the two nominees, and their “debates” have been cramped and boring affairs as a result.

And the “issues” Hitchens refers to aren’t just the bailout and tax cuts but Iraq and America’s foreign policy more generally:

I used to call myself a single-issue voter on the essential question of defending civilization against its terrorist enemies and their totalitarian protectors, and on that ‘issue’ I hope I can continue to expose and oppose any ambiguity. Obama is greatly overrated in my opinion, but the Obama-Biden ticket is not a capitulationist one, even if it does accept the support of the surrender faction, and it does show some signs of being able and willing to profit from experience.

Organs like NR have worked very hard to define conservatism on the basis of support for the Iraq war and one’s willingness to “confront” various international bogeymen. Well, if Hitchens is correct (and I think he is), NR & friends will be able to get their global-hegemon fix from Obama and Biden just as with McCain and the Barracuda.
Going forward, this means that with an Obama victory, the divide between the neocon-mainstream Right and the “paleo”-alternative Right won’t in the least “fade in significance” (as if the two sides could reconcile and start working together to oppose socialized medicine or whatever.) To the contrary, the paleo-neo divide is likely to grow wider. As Daniel Larison argues:

To the extent that Obama is relatively hawkish on most things except Iraq, which Republican hawks deny for electoral reasons now but will rediscover once he is in power, we will see exactly the same splits between the hawks who side with the Obama administration’s interventions in (name a few countries where we have no business being) and the conservatives who do not believe these interventions to be in the national interest. It will be very much like what we saw in the 1990s. Mainstream, ‘responsible and ‘realist’ conservatives and Republicans will support Obama’s actions, and a significant but largely uninfluential minority on the right will protest against them. All of the bogus arguments war supporters have trotted out for years to justify the Iraq debacle will be turned around on them, and most of them will end up backing the next intervention to halt a ‘genocide,’ ‘liberate’ another country or stop weapons proliferation. They will delight in the frustration of the antiwar left and praise the bipartisan consensus in favor of American hegemony.

Although it might be hard to imagine now, if Obama would decide to bomb Iran, bully Putin, or even order some ridiculous intervention in Darfur, Frum, Lowry, the Podhoretzs, and the Kristols would all be there to root him on and label the whole thing “patriotic.” Hichens would even get in on the act and offer up a post-Trotskyist justification or two.

For the neocons, with “enemies” like Obama and Hitchens, who needs friends?

Bar Refaeli & The IDF

Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Bar Refaeli poses topless for GQ Italia in nothing but a military helmet and shorts.

Referred to Bar Refaeli’s past, the Israeli Defence Forces could interpret this mission as a bold manoeuvre. Seven years ago she managed to evade national service in her home country, Israel. All Israelis men and women must serve the army when they turn 18. In 2007, an Israel Defense Forces major-general clams Bar Refaeli married a friend of the family to avoid military service, then divorced him shortly thereafter.

After the model signed a $300,000 campaign deal with Fox fashion chain, the annoyed parents threatened to arrange a boycott of the chain if it didn’t write into Refaeli’s contract that she must complete her military service. Fox avoid a boycott with a compromise, in which Refaeli will simultaneously visit injured IDF soldiers hospitalized at the Sheba Media Center in Tel Hashomer whenever she arrives in Israel. In addition, she will encourage soldiers to serve in the army.

Refaeli, the 25-year-old girlfriend of movie star Leonardo DiCaprio, has been photographed for the mag's May war-themed issue.

According to Jewish news site ynet.com, Bar said she didn't regret getting into an arranged marriage to avoid national service.

'I don't regret not enlisting, because it paid off big time,' she is reported as saying.

'That's just the way it is, celebrities have other needs. I hope my case has influenced the army.'

She went on: 'Why is it good to die for our country What, isn't it better to live in New York
'Why should 18-year-old kids have to die It's dumb that people have to die so that I can live in Israel.'

In the interview with GQ, however, Bar has only positive things to say, wishing her homeland 'peace and prosperity'.

Draft-Dodging Refaeli Poses Topless in Army Helmet

Israeli model's 'GQ' cover is kinda ironic

(Newser) – Bar Refaeli allegedly dodged the draft in Israel via a sham marriage—which makes her recent cover shoot for GQ Italia rather ironic. The Israeli model poses topless, wearing an army helmet, seven years after she escaped mandatory national service in the Israeli Defense Forces. The Daily Mail has more photos. (And in other Bar Refaeli news, rumor has it she and Leonardo DiCaprio are headed toward Splitsville.)

The Israel Lobby's Turkish Connection

Jan III Sobieski parades the captured Ottoman banner outside Vienna, 1683

The fallout from Israel's May 31st seizure of an aid convoy headed for the Gaza Strip is revealing some new dimensions to the incident. Credible information has surfaced that the Turkish NGO organizing the ill-fated Peace Flotilla, Insani Yardim Vakfi (known as IHH), has ties to the international jihad. IHH allegedly raised funds and recruited Muslim fighters for holy war in the Balkans and Chechnya.

In the ongoing crisis in relations between Tel-Aviv and Ankara, Israel’s most fervent supporters in the United States have been quick to seize upon the IHH charity’s jihadist connection. Yet they omit the fact that key figures within the Israel lobby have long encouraged the use of mujahideen in Eurasia to advance U.S. interests. And the very same lobby that now warns of Turkish power has been instrumental in its rise.

It’s inaccurate to claim that the mission to Gaza was just a grand terrorist ploy, but certain activities of its sponsors should not be overlooked, especially in a geopolitical context. If IHH was involved in finance and logistics for past conflicts in Bosnia and the Caucasus, such operations would align with Turkish strategic interests. This is especially relevant since the flotilla had Turkey’s informal support.

AIPAC and the usual array of neoconservatives are currently in overdrive to defend Israel’s botched raid and link the Gaza aid effort to terrorism. The neocons have also quite suddenly begun to express alarm at Turkey’s growing role in the Middle East now that the Jewish state's relationship with Ankara is at an all-time low. So while the IHH-jihadist connection deserves to be publicized, it’s far from the whole story.

Over the past two decades Israeli and Turkish interests in Washington have enjoyed a cozy partnership of mutual benefit. In 1989, the ever-ambitious Doug Feith and Richard Perle founded International Advisors, Inc. to increase defense technology transfers to Turkey. Since that time, the Israelis and Turks built a noticeably close Beltway alliance, with the Turkish lobby playing sorcerer’s apprentice to AIPAC, JINSA and other Jewish policy organizations.

Throughout the 1990s and up to the present day the Israel lobby has provided groups like the American Turkish Council expertise in managing the cash flows that power K Street and Capitol Hill, as well as access to its networks in government and the defense industry. This assistance has ranged from the relatively overt business of influencing legislation (such as killing Armenian genocide bills) to joint intelligence collection of advanced U.S. weapons technologies. Needless to say, Israeli and Turkish espionage gets little play in the media. The success of both lobbies’ political operations has led to a growing convergence of interests with lawmakers and the foreign policy establishment, so spy scandals are quickly swept under the rug.

Besides Perle and Feith, other prominent partisans for Israel have been instrumental in securing U.S. support for Turkey. These include Paul Wolfowitz, the late Congressman Tom Lantos, and former ambassadors to Ankara Mort Abramowitz and Marc Grossman. According to the former FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sybil Edmonds, many of these figures were also under investigation for their close contacts with Israel’s Mossad and MIT, the Turkish intelligence service.

Even when examining the public side of influence campaigns, the intimate links between Israeli and Turkish lobbying organizations in the U.S. are immediately apparent. The Sunlight Foundation’s 2008 record of Turkish embassy contacts is largely a story of meetings and communications with AIPAC, JINSA, the ADL, the American Jewish Council and similar parties. The Israel lobby may rail against Turkey in the aftermath of the flotilla debacle, but this newfound concern belies years of collaboration in manipulating Washington’s power centers.

In addition to snagging lucrative consulting contracts, the neocons fostered the Turkish connection for purposes both ideological and strategic. Drawing inspiration from the thought of scholar Bernard Lewis, the neocons saw Turkey as a model for the development of the Open Society alongside “moderate Islam”[1]. Richard Perle implied that the nation would serve as a platform for U.S. ambitions to transform the “Greater Middle East” after the September 11^th attacks. Neoconservative policy planners have also been consistent advocates for Turkish entry into the EU and Muslim immigration to the Continent.

Alongside its status as a longtime Israeli ally, Turkey has been pivotal to U.S. plans for routing Caspian energy resources from Central Asia into Europe. Oil pipelines like Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and the prospective Nabucco natural gas project are intended to create an East-West Corridor under American control. Militarily, the U.S. alliance with Ankara allows the Pentagon to enhance its power-projection capabilities within Eurasia. And while the Turks are proving less cooperative than desired, Washington still looks to harness their regional clout to eventually confront Iran and undermine Russia along its southern periphery.

In its bid to attain a dominant position in the heart of Eurasia, the U.S. runs covert action programs employing Islamic fighters. This has been the case since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and the neocons have formed the vanguard in support of this policy. It has been alleged (and it is highly likely) that these operations have been carried out in close coordination with Turkish intelligence and associated paramilitary outfits. Far from being limited to cooperation with the Kemalists, these ventures extend to transnational Islamist networks such as Pennsylvania-based Fethullah Gülen’s organization.

From the conflicts in the Balkans to Chechnya, luminaries of the Israel lobby have been behind initiatives to create U.S.-aligned Muslim states in Europe. In the run-up to Operation Allied Force in 1999, a veritable who’s-who of neoconservatives including Elliott Abrams, John Bolton and William Kristol pressed mightily for the bombardment of Orthodox Serbia and Kosovo’s occupation. They were successful in their entreaties and would go on to sponsor Kosovar Albanian independence in 2007.

The neocons have also played a prominent role in U.S. policy elites’ efforts to exploit instability in Chechnya. Former New York Congressman Stephen Solarz and Abrams, in addition to many of the usual suspects, are active members of Zbigniew Brzezinski’s American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus (ACPC). The ACPC’s ultimate aim is to detach the Muslim republics of the north Caucasus from Moscow, thereby paving the way for new energy pipelines westward and Russia’s further fragmentation. Organizations such as the ACPC grant the perpetrators of atrocities like the Beslan massacre respectable cover in a wider geopolitical game.

Whatever opinion one might hold regarding the justice or injustice of the May 31st flotilla raid, it has exposed deep contradictions in the Israel lobby’s dealings with Turkey and jihadist groups in Eurasia. The IHH charity has been linked to mujahideen activities in the Balkans and the Caucasus; strangely enough, so have some of Israel’s most influential devotees in America. To top it off, the neocons are issuing fearful proclamations regarding Turkey’s ascent when the movement’s leadership helped facilitate the emergence of a powerful neo-Ottoman state.

The men from Washington’s top foreign lobby may style themselves champions of Israel. Never, though, should they be mistaken as defenders of the West, given their complicity in its dissolution.

Monday, 07 June 2010
By Mark Hackard

"israel + turkey"
"turks + jews"
"turkey vs israel"
"turks vs jews"

Brief History of Jews in Cuba

In proportional terms, Cuba offered refugee or migrant status to more Jews than any other Latin American country; more, in fact, than was offered by the United States. In addition, despite occasional periods of hostility by certain sectors of the Cuban elite, these Jews were afforded a good reception. Robert Levine offers three reasons for this unusual circumstance. First, Cuba had an open economy with a "worldly" elite, long accustomed to dealing with strangers. This explains the relative absence of the class-based ethnocentrism and anti-semitism often found among Latin American elites. To be sure, prejudice and discrimination existed but, according to the author, tended to be of the "petty" rather than the institutional sort.

Second, because the Jews settled all over Cuba rather than concentrating in one city (much less one neighborhood), their presence never engendered the "ghetto" syndrome so common in other countries.

Finally, accomodation was facilitated by the fact that Jewish migration occurred in widely spaced historical sequences, each with different settlement patterns. The two earliest groups were very successful economically and incorporated themselves smoothly into Cuban society. First came the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardim, who arrived either with the conquering Spaniards or from the island of Curacao, the center of Sephardim culture in the Caribbean. Although not mentioned by the author, Cuba's most powerful "sugar baron," Julio Lobo, was a descendant of this group. This group is not to be confused with later Sephardim migrants from North Africa and the Otoman Empire. Religiously orthodox, poorly educated and non-Spanish speaking, these Jews were always disdainfully referred to as "Turcos." The second earliest migration was that of American Jews. They arrived with the United States occupation troops and held important technical and commercial positions from the start.

In some way, therefore, attitudes had been mellowed for later migrations. These tended to be Ashkenazim (generally referred to as "Polacos") and while they were not as easily incorporated as the earlier migrants, it is evident that things could have been much worse. Those who arrived in the 1920s and early 1930s included a good number of Marxists, who played a key role in the founding of Cuba's Communist party. In the 1930s, especially around the years of the Spanish Civil War, these Jews became targets of a small but influential sector of the elite that had Falangist leanings. These elites also opposed the entry of the next wave of Jews, the refugees from Nazism. Desperate to enter the United States they settled for Cuba as a safe-haven but tended to see the islands as an "immigration hotel" (p. 285). The unintended consequence was that their aloofness minimized possible confrontations with local anti-Semites. It is to this group that the author gives the bulk of his attention, and it is their often-tragic story which provides him with his most dramatic material.

This book provides a powerful sense of hemispheric history repeating itself: refugees attempting to reach the United States by any means including expensive smugglers, the United States attempting to get alternate settlements for them in small Caribbean countries, and corrupt local officials and politicians enriching themselves from this sordid game of avoidance and callousness. As such, this book is about more than just a Jewish diaspora; it is about the many Diasporas which have made the Caribbean Basin what it is.

Russian Orthodox Church in Israel stoned by Jews

MIGDAL HA-EMEQ, Israel, June 22 (Compass Direct News) – When the congregation at St. Nicolay church in this northern Israeli town gathered on that quiet Friday morning of May 29, they never expected to be showered with stones.

The Russian Orthodox worshipers, including many women, children and the elderly, had filled the small building to overflow with several outside when they were stunned by the rain of stones. Some were injured and received medical care.

“The church was crawling with people – the worshipers stood not only inside the church, but also outside, as the building is very small, when suddenly a few young men started throwing stones at the direction of our courtyard,” Oleg Usenkov, press secretary of the church told Compass. “Young children were crying, everyone was very frightened.”

The church had also been attacked earlier that week, during a wedding ceremony. Stones and rotten eggs were thrown from the street, hitting guests as they arrived.

The same night, the Rev. Roman Radwan, priest of St. Nicolay church, filed a complaint at the police station. An officer issued a document to confirm that he had filed an official complaint and sent him home, promising that measures would be taken. But within 24 hours, the attackers again appeared at the church’s doorway and no police were present to deter them – although the police station is located a few dozen meters from the church.

The identity of the assailants is unknown – a police officer said the complaint “lacked the exact description of the attackers” – but eye-witnesses claimed they were ultra-orthodox yeshiva students who frequently cursed the church on their way to the school or synagogue.

“They often assault us verbally, curse and yell at us, although we tried to explain that this is a place of worship, a holy place,” said a frustrated Usenkov, adding that the police inaction amounts to nonfeasance.

Another member of the congregation identified only as Nina, born in Moscow and now living in Nazeret Ilit, said that she didn’t understand where all the hatred is coming from.

“They are heading to the yeshiva or going back home after praying at the synagogue – are they inspired to attack us during their prayers?” she said. “I hope not. We are all Israeli citizens, we pay taxes, serve in the army and are entitled to freedom of choice when it comes to religion.”

She and other members of the congregation fear hostilities could escalate quickly if measures are not taken soon. Already the small building, which barely accommodates the worshipers, is surrounded by a stone fence by order of Migdal ha-Emeq officials following a series of arson attempts and other attacks.

Members of the congregation, a few hundred Christians from Migdal ha-Emeq, Afula, Haifa, Nazareth and other Israeli cities still remember how their building was vandalized in June 2006. Under cover of darkness, unidentified men broke in and broke icons and modest decorations, smashed windows and stole crosses.

The identity of those responsible remains unknown.

Established in 2005, the church building was constructed to meet the needs of Christians who do not belong to the Arab Christian minority, mostly Russians who came to Israel from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s. Besides the Christians, these immigrants included other non-Jews, as well as atheistic Jews and Jewish converts to Christianity.

No official data on religious make-up of the immigrants are available, especially since many fear deportation or persecution for talking openly about their faith, but Usenkov – a Russian Jew who converted to Christianity after immigrating to Israel in the 1990s – said he believes there are at least 300,000 Christians of Russian or Russian-Jewish origin who live in Israel today.

According to Israeli law, non-Jewish relatives of a Jew are also entitled to citizenship, but Jews who have converted to other faiths are denied it.

Most of the Russian and Russian-Jewish Christians in Israel belong to the Russian Orthodox Church and find it difficult to adjust to Greek or Arabic services common in the Greek Orthodox churches of Israel. Since St. Nicolay’s church opened its doors, hundreds of worshipers from across Israel have visited it.

“Many people fear they might pass away without seeing a priest, or they dream of a Christian wedding service,” said Radwan, an Israeli-Arab whose family once owned the land on which the St. Nicolay church is located. “Here we can answer their needs. We do not want to harm anyone and wish that no one would harm us.”

Stimulus bill gave $1 billion to Jewish social service providers

Stimulus bill gives $1 billion to Jewish social service providers

February 17, 2009

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The economic stimulus bill enacted by President Obama will provide $1 billion to Jewish nursing homes and social service agencies, according to the United Jewish Communities.

The funds come from the $87 billion that the legislation allots for state Medicaid programs as a result of an increase in the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, or FMAP. An increase in FMAP was a top priority for UJC, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and other Jewish groups that lobbied for passage of the $787 billion bill signed Tuesday by Obama.

The federation system receives about 1.4 percent of total Medicaid funds, so it will get more than $1 billion of the $87 billion provided in the stimulus package.

Jewish groups advocated for a variety of forms of assistance to vulnerable populations that ended up in the final version of the legislation.

"By ensuring that people get the assistance the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will offer, we’re doing a tremendous service by helping the most vulnerable and looking out for their general well-being,” said Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the JCPA.

William Daroff, vice president for public policy and director of United Jewish Communities’ Washington office, said the demand for social services has increased as the recession has worsened, and the supply of resources to fund those services "has been taxed to the limit."

"The legislation signed into law today by President Obama will hopefully not only shorten the duration of the economic recession, but will also blunt its impact on those who have been devastatingly impacted by providing needed funds to social service agencies,” he said.

The Orthodox Union did not take a position on the bill but congratulated the president and Congress for its enactment and said "like all Americans, we hope and pray it will indeed spark an American economic recovery."

O.U. public policy director Nathan Diament praised the legislation for its allocation of millions of dollars to fund educational services and students with disabilities -- which are provided to private as well as public schools. But he noted "our continuing disappointment" that religious and other non-public schools were excluded from receiving money for the "green" school modernization program outlined in the legislation.

U.N. rejects gay group with pedophile link (USA, UK & Israel in favor)

New York City, N.Y., Feb 15, 2009 / 07:08 pm (CNA).- Despite an opposing vote from the United States, the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Committee responsible for approving U.N. NGOs has rejected the application of a Brazilian homosexual group because of questions concerning the group’s position on pedophilia.

The Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians and Transgendereds (ABGLT) faced scrutiny because of allegations that one of the group’s founders was being investigated for posting pro-pedophilia essays on his blog, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) reports.

“The UK pushed hard for the group to be accepted,” C-FAM President Austin Ruse said in a statement. “The Obama administration also voted in favor of granting official status to the group.”

The 19-member NGO Committee is a subcommittee of the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) which uses various criteria to decide whether to recommend official status for NGOs. Accredited organizations are invited to participate in U.N. meetings. They may deliver oral and written reports and may organize events on U.N. premises.

According to C-FAM, the committee voted against deferring a decision on AGBLT and rejected the application in a vote of eight to six. The Russian Federation, China and Pakistan were among those who voted to reject the application, while the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel were among those voting against its rejection.

The NGO committee member from Egypt urged that the committee not make a rushed decision on any group where there was even the “slightest shadow of doubt” about its involvement in pedophilia. The committee member charged that the answers provided by AGBLT were not yet sufficient to clear the case and assure committee members that the NGO did not have any members or associates involved in such a “deplorable act.”

After the vote, the representative from the U.K. said she deeply regretted the committee’s decision and claimed the vote reinforced the view that the committee could not properly undertake its assigned work.

The observer from the Czech Republic, speaking on behalf of the EU, agreed with the U.K. statement, arguing that the committee acted in a “discriminatory manner” against the AGBLT, claiming the group “has every right to participate in the work of the U.N.”

The observer for Brazil, who had vouched for the organization, charged that the committee failed to evaluate the merits of the organization and had acted as a “censorship chamber.”

C-FAM says that debates in NGO Committee meetings over applications from homosexual rights groups have become “increasingly heated” in recent years. While ECOSOC almost always accepts subcommittee regulations, it has made exceptions in order to accredit radical homosexual groups. Two homosexual rights groups have received a negative recommendation from the NGO committee, only to have that decision overturned by ECOSOC.

According to C-FAM, the ECOSOC council is expected to review the NGO Committee recommendations at its July session in Geneva.

Why America is hated

From Grecoreport.com (2001)

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." - Dr. Samuel Johnson

"To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely." - Edmund Burke

"How Do I Hate Thee? Let Me Count the Ways." - Samuel Francis

The cinders of the World Trade Center had barely fallen to the earth before George W. Bush had it all figured out. "America was targeted for attack," the President explained to the nation barely 12 hours after the first plane hit the Manhattan skyscrapers, "because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world." Perhaps that explanation provided some comfort -- though not much enlightenment -- to the mystified and terrified millions who were wondering what was happening and why; but it was an explanation upon which the President and many others soon enlarged. By September 20, Mr. Bush could offer the country an expanded account of the motives behind the bloodiest single act of mass murder in history. "Americans are asking, 'Why do they hate us?'" he said during his address to a joint session of Congress, and again he had the answers at his fingertips:

They hate us for what they see right here in this chamber; a democratically

elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms:

our freedom religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble

and disagree with each other .

Among those statesmen who admired both the President's rhetorical gifts as well as the profundity of his political philosophy was the largely forgotten football star Jack Kemp, who advised the public in his syndicated column that "I would add ... they also hate our democracy, our liberal markets and our abundance of economic opportunity, at which the terror attacks were clearly directed." But even this incisive analysis failed to exhaust the creative powers of the ruling class and its spokesmen in fabricating flattering, self-serving, misleading, and transparently false explanations of the motives of the terrorists who planned and carried out the September 11 attacks.



National Review, once the leading conservative magazine in America, echoed the themes sounded by the President and Mr. Kemp. "The United States is a target because we are powerful, rich, and good," it bustled in an October 1 editorial. "We are resented for our power, envied for our wealth, and hated for our liberty." And, like many of those offering such reasons for the attack, NR was especially concerned to smother any suspicion that it may have been the result of U.S. support for Israel. Two weeks later, Senior Editor Ramesh Ponnuru sallied forth to explain it once more:

The radical Islamists' broader quarrel is with American power: not with the uses

of that power, but with the fact of it. We are infidels. And we are liberal, capitalist,

modern, powerful, and rich; therefore hated. Benjamin Netanyahu made the point

well when he wrote in the aftermath of the September massacres that the Islamists

do not hate the West because of Israel; they hate Israel because of the West. They

call us, not Israel, "the Great Satan."

Mr. Netanyahu's point, as dubious as it was, is nonetheless something of an insult: Arab attacks on Israel have nothing to do with Palestinian claims to the land on which Israel now sits nor with continuing complaints of Israeli repression but are really the fault of the United States and the "West" in general (the unstated implication, of course, is that the United States and the West therefore owe Israel their continuing and unbounded support, since there would be no attacks on Israel without the West). Norman Podhoretz, after a ranting attack in a letter to the New York Post on conservative columnist Robert Novak for even mentioning the role American support for Israel may have played in the September 11 attacks, unbosomed in the Wall Street Journal sentiments largely identical to those of Mr. Netanyahu. So did George Will, who assured us that the terrorists' targets were "symbols not just of American power but of its virtues," and explicitly quoted the former Israeli premier as telling us, "They hate 'Zionism as an expression and representation of Western civilization' " [Zionism is no more 'an expression of Western civilization' than cancer is an expression of health. ed.], and added that "they hate America because it is the purest expression of modernity -- individualism, pluralism, freedom, secularism." Columnist Paul Greenberg, apparently unable to think of any further virtues for which we were attacked, contented himself by telling us that

the haters need no reason to hate us. It is enough that we are who we are -- a free and powerful people....They can't bear our happiness, our prosperity,

our power, and most of all the realization that others want to model themselves

a on us and build their own free societies.

The list could go on, but it soon became apparent that suggesting that U.S. policies in the Middle East -- either U.S. support for Israel or our role in the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq -- had played a part in the events of September 11 was a certain road to ruin. Nevertheless, the barest acquaintance with what Osama bin Laden and his merry band of cutthroats have said and are saying about the private war they are waging shows that hatred of "democracy," the "West," "liberal markets," and the "virtues" of which Mr. Will boasts have absolutely nothing to do with it.



In 1995, for example, as the Washington Post reported on September 23, authorities in the Philippines arrested a gentleman of Pakistani extraction who was discovered to be planning the bombing of 11 American commercial airliners on behalf of bin Laden's network. The draft communiqué in the suspect's possession was quite explicit about the motives that drove him and his accomplices:

The U.S. government gives military aircraft to the Jewish state so the Jews can

continue fighting and killing. All of this is a result of the U.S. government's financial

and military support of the Jewish state. All people who support the U.S. govern-

ment are our target.

If that is not clear enough, consider what bin Laden himself told Time in January 1999 about President Clinton's bombing of Iraq the previous month:

There is no doubt that the treacherous attack has confirmed that Britain and America

are acting on behalf of Israel and the Jews, paving the way for the Jews to divide the

Muslim world once again, enslave it and loot the rest of its wealth.

He uttered similar sentiments in an interview with PBS:

Once again, I have to stress the necessity of focusing on the Americans and the Jews

for they represent the spearhead with which the members of our religion have been

slaughtered. Any effort directed against America and the Jews yields positive and

direct results -- Allah willing.

Bin Laden is upset mainly because he thinks U.S. forces have defiled Muslim holy sites in his native Saudi Arabia by military occupation, but retribution for the deaths and damage we have inflicted in Iraq since 1991, as well as our support for Israel against the Palestinians, are major termites under his turban.

That the U.S.-Israeli alliance plays an important role in instigating terrorist attacks against us -- a bit more of a role than radical Muslims' distaste for martinis, the stock market, Nicole Kidman, and other achievements of "modernity" -- ought to be obvious. Acknowledging that role has nothing to do with whether we should support Israel or pursue our current policies toward Iraq. Like every other policy, these should be judged by the standard of what they contribute to our national interest, not whether a handful of fanatics (Muslim or Jewish) approve or disapprove them. Moreover, it is dangerous to deny and disguise the truth about the role the U.S.-Israeli relationship played in motivating the terrorist attack, as so many public leaders and opinion makers have. "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer," Don Corleone advised, and one purpose of staying close to enemies like Osama bin Laden is to understand why they do what they do.



Sensitivity about the Israeli connection clearly lay behind the cant and a good many of the denials that the ruling class threw up around the September 11 attacks, but there was perhaps another purpose as well. The general thrust of virtually all of the false explanations of the attack and of the motivations of the attackers was to praise not only the United States but the kind of social order that the ruling class wants to build and govern -- the very sort of transnational global "society" that is animated by Mr. Will's much-treasured "modern virtues" of "individualism, pluralism, freedom, secularism" -- and the larger purpose of the rhetorical and analytical fog that was spread around the attacks was precisely to assist in the legitimization and consolidation of ruling-class hegemony and the global regime it is constructing.



Indeed, the genius of the American and, more generally, the Atlantic ruling class is that it is able to manipulate the meaning of words, symbols, and cultural icons into almost the opposite of what they really mean. It was grimly amusing to watch multinational corporations suddenly sport American flags in the wake of the attacks. A couple of years ago, when Ralph Nader's activists asked several Fortune 500 companies to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at their public board meetings, almost all simply refused. Patriotism and nationalism -- or, at least, manipulation of their symbols -- can sometimes be useful, and in the weeks after the September 11 attack, the ruling class lost no opportunity to massage the public mind as it pleased, mainly for the benefit of its own regime.



The sudden sprouting of Old Glory at corporate headquarters and in glossy magazine advertisements, for example, did not really signify a return to national loyalties and patriotic sentiments, nor did the constant and cloying invocation of patriotism by political leaders. On the contrary, the purpose of such exhibitions was to invest old and accepted symbols like the flag, patriotic songs, and patriotic images with the new universalist and globalist meanings that help legitimize the New World hegemons. That is why we were told constantly that not only did Americans die in the World Trade Center towers, but lots of people from other countries, too; that is why President Bush and other leaders kept banging the drum about how wonderful most Muslims and Arabs are and how the terrorists did not represent real Islam, which is part of the New World Order and the New World America. That is why there was such a studied avoidance of the immigration issue -- not just trivial visa security policies but actually reducing or halting the number of foreigners who are allowed to enter, roam around at will, and stay as long as they please. That is also why the constant sub-theme of the post-attack discourse was the danger of "hate" (especially from "white hate groups") and "hate crimes." The multinational dimension of the alliance -- with Great Britain, ostensibly with NATO, and with various Arab or Muslim states like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan -- reemphasized the globalist scope and substance of American power. Almost every assertion of nationality, patriotism, and national security was immediately diluted or modified by counterassertions that insisted that such affirmations should not be taken as abandonments of, or distractions from, America's global mission and universal character or the transnational utopia of "modernity" that the ruling class is building.



What stands out in the response of the American ruling class to the September 11 attacks is not so much the skills of real leadership as an amazing capacity to turn the whole attack and its aftermath into an opportunity for cementing the ruling class's dominance in the United States and its larger, long-term agenda for the planet. Osama bin Laden and his friends ought to learn something from the experience: The richest irony of the most lethal attack on the United States in its history, is that, so far from seriously wounding or destabilizing the American megastate, the attack actually helped to increase its power and promote the interests of its elites.



Source. Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. January 2002, issue. pp. 32-33. Emphasis not in original was added.



[In line with the above article, and to add some left-wing balance to this issue, Phyllis Benis, of the Institute for Policy Studies, in Washington, D.C., wrote the following after the September 11th attack: "I am afraid that this incident, rather than bringing about a new evaluation, a new stepping back to say 'what is it about our policy that makes us vulnerable to these kinds of attacks? what are we doing that makes us seen as if we are outside the international community, [as if] we are above it. Why are we seen that way?' [I'm afraid instead], that government officials and media types and others will whip up a kind of hysteria." (Emphasis added.) ed.]



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Editorial comment



Dwight D. Eisenhower's biographer, Stephen Ambrose, has written that: "We [Americans] are guilty of murdering innocent civilians when we bombed non-military targets such as Dresden [Germany] during the Second World War." Unfortunately, this does not seem to bother America's more recent crop of "leaders" because SINCE 1947, IN ITS MISSIONARY-LIKE ZEAL TO BRING "DEMOCRACY" TO THE WORLD -- ( you know, real post-1960s American-style "democracy," like the democratic "right" of all peoples everywhere to "choose" between a "Big Mac" or a "Whopper"; or the "right" to select who will pollute the brains of their children by being able to "choose" between Oprah Winfrey or the Simpsons; and the "right" to pick the kind of sexual partners one wishes to couple with: male to male, female to female, male or female with chickens, goats, or a family member; and of course, the "right" of all women to adhere to the loving dictates of "real" Americans like Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinham, Barney Frank, Charlie Schumer, Hillary Clinton and Jesse Jackson, who tell them they can "choose" to abort or not ) -- AMERICA HAS BOMBED, in alphabetical order: AFGHANISTAN, BOSNIA, CAMBODIA, CHINA, CONGO, CUBA, GRENADA, GUATEMALA, INDONESIA, IRAQ, KOREA, LAOS, LEBANON, LIBYA, NICARAGUA, PANAMA, SOMALIA, SUDAN, VIETNAM and YUGOSLAVIA.



Is it any wonder these "ungrateful" foreigners hate America?



As far as U. S. "Keystone Kops" foreign policy is concerned, they bombed Iraq for invading Kuwait, but never bombed Tel Aviv for invading and occupying Lebanon for 18 years. Nor did they bomb Ankara when Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974, and Attila the Hun still occupies the island as the U.S. stands by and mouths platitudes about "our Turkish friends and allies." The murderous fruits of this bootlicking, bought-and-paid for foreign policy was emphatically illustrated when the journalist Leslie Stahl interviewed the former U. S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on CBS's 60 Minutes. The TV program aired on 11 May 1996, and the arrogance and overweening chutzpah of this racist, Zionist troglodyte almost shocked Stahl into silence. Behold the words of ice-cold hatred and self-deluded superiority:



Leslie Stahl, speaking of the U.S. sanctions against Iraq, which even the anti-Iraq U.N. says has claimed the lives of over a half million children: "We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima ... and, you know, ... is the price worth it?"



Madeleine Albright: "I think this is a very hard choice, but ... we think the price is worth it."



And some Americans still persist in wondering why their country is hated!



Polish Nobel Prize Winner in Literature Wislaw Szymbors had it right when she wrote:

On this third planet of the sun

among the signs of bestiality

a clear conscience is Number One

Philip Giraldi on Turkey & Israel

Sibel Edmonds, the Turkish FBI translator turned whistleblower who has been subjected to a gag order could provide a major insight into how neoconservatives distort US foreign policy and enrich themselves at the same time. On one level, her story appears straightforward: several Turkish lobbying groups allegedly bribed congressmen to support policies favourable to Ankara. But beyond that, the Edmonds revelations become more serpentine and appear to involve AIPAC, Israel and a number of leading neoconservatives who have profited from the Turkish connection. Israel has long cultivated a close relationship with Turkey since Ankara’s neighbours and historic enemies - Iran, Syria and Iraq - are also hostile to Tel Aviv. Islamic Turkey has also had considerable symbolic value for Israel, demonstrating that hostility to Muslim neighbours is not a sine qua non for the Jewish state.

Turkey benefits from the relationship by securing general benevolence and increased aid from the US Congress - as well as access to otherwise unattainable military technology. The Turkish General Staff has a particular interest because much of the military spending is channeled through companies in which the generals have a financial stake, making for a very cozy and comfortable business arrangement. The commercial interest has also fostered close political ties, with the American Turkish Council, American Turkish Cultural Alliance and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations all developing warm relationships with AIPAC and other Jewish and Israel advocacy groups throughout the US.

Someone has to be in the middle to keep the happy affair going, so enter the neocons, intent on securing Israel against all comers and also keen to turn a dollar. In fact the neocons seem to have a deep and abiding interest in Turkey, which, under other circumstances, might be difficult to explain. Doug Feith’s International Advisors Inc, a registered agent for Turkey in 1989 - 1994, netted $600,000 per year from Turkey, with Richard Perle taking $48,000 annually as a consultant. Other noted neoconservatives linked to Turkey are former State Department number three, Marc Grossman, current Pentagon Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman, Paul Wolfowitz and former congressman Stephen Solarz. The money involved does not appear to come from the Turkish government, and FBI investigators are trying to determine its source and how it is distributed. Some of it may come from criminal activity, possibly drug trafficking, but much more might come from arms dealing. Contracts in the hundreds of millions, or even billions of dollars provide considerable fat for those well placed to benefit. Investigators are also looking at Israel’s particular expertise in the illegal sale of US military technology to countries like China and India. Fraudulent end-user certificates produced by Defense Ministries in Israel and Turkey are all that is needed to divert military technology to other, less benign, consumers. The military-industrial-complex/neocon network is also well attested. Doug Feith has been associated with Northrup Grumman for years, while defense contractors fund many neocon-linked think tanks and "information" services. Feith, Perle and a number of other neocons have long had beneficial relationships with various Israeli defense contractors.

Somali “pirates”

User "the_big_wedding" comments at antiwar.com/radio on the so called Somalia-based piracy

I don’t buy the MSM bilge about these Somali “pirates”. These “piratings” are merely parts of an integrated strategy to bottle up middle east and central asian resources, diverting them through planned pipeline routes to Israel.

The United States and Israel have been heavily involved in the horn of Africa (Sudan/Somalia/Darfur) for years, and it is logical to conclude that these pirate operations could not have been successful in interdicting shipping headed to and from the Suez Canal without satellite imagery and shipping schedules. These operations have resulted in the disruption of this strategic waterway, threatening the oil supply routes to the world.

As far as I’m concerned…and this is the kicker…these “pirates” are nothing more than part of a puzzle, a plan creating a exclusion ring around the resources in the middle east and central asia, as outlined by the PNAC, a plan to divert the flow of oil & NG to Israel (Haifa) away from Russia and China. A great defensive circle around the grand prize. I believe if Dick Cheney’s energy task force minutes ever see the light of day, this plan/strategy would become clear.

All one has to do is look at a map to see how seemingly disparate parts of the puzzle fit together to give one a clear coherent picture, a chain of events and policy outcomes stemming from the looting of the FSB, 911, leading up to this very day:

Link to Oil Wars Map (1.37 MB JPG)

Beyond the pirates, other parts of the puzzle (exclusion ring) include: the “missle shield” threatenng Russia and Iran, strategically stationed in eastern Europe; the NGO color-coded “revolutions” in Poland, Georgia, the Ukraine, etc…with the Ukraine being able to block NG flows to western Europe; the Georgian attack on South Ossetia, meant to bottle up Russian and Iran’s southern access to central asia; the so-called “war on terror” stemming from that neocon miracle 911, inflaming all of muslim, oil-rich middle east and central asia; Israel about to bomb Iran any second, closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz (Iranian oil); with Pakistan now being torn apart from within and without; India, hoping to get water and oil from Kashmir and central asia, being subjected to a “terrorist” attack in Mumbai, and now facing a nuclear confrontation with Pakistan and its erstwhile ally China…all of these puzzle parts makes one conclude that there are forces at work, threatening to cut oil and NG off to the world, China and Russia, except through oil and NG routes friendly to the west, notably one terminal located in Haifa, Israel.

When you integrate these events, it becomes clear who has really benefited from this whole “war on terror” since the 911 attacks. But we don’t want to look at 911 and the forces that were unleashed that day that now are enslaving us, that have reduced our country to 3rd world status, that have resulted in people like Jane Harman running our intelligence apparatus, who authored HR 1955, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007; an act that will be used to round up anyone who opposes the plan outlined above.

Material support of synagogues by Atheistic Jews and secular Israel is justified

Moscow, July 25, Interfax - Synagogues as Jewish cultural centers have preserved the diaspora Jews from assimilation for centuries, so they may be lawfully supported by secular agencies, the Nobel Prize winner Viltaly Ginzburg opines.

‘The synagogue has been not only a house of worship, but also a community center for the Jews. So it is obvious why even atheistic Jews, or at least some of them including me, believe that some material support of synagogues is possible and justifiable now,’ Ginzburg said in his article ‘A Few Notes on Atheism, Religion, and Jewish Feeling of Ethnic Identity,’ published in 2004 by Yevreiskaya Starina online almanac.

According to him, the Russian Jewish Congress as a secular body shares his view. ‘State support of synagogues in Israel is unquestionably natural in certain limits too,’ he added.

However even in Israel ‘Judaism’s role and influence exceeds the limits acceptable for a secular and democratic state.’

‘Why public transport stops or is restricted in Israel on Sabbaths? If the believers do not want to use it, it’s their problem, but why the atheists’ freedom is restricted?’ he said hoping that Israel ‘will move towards full separation of religious organizations and all religious life from the state.’

According to Ginzburg, Judaism ‘has been essential’ for non-assimilation of the Jews after they left Palestine. However, ‘unavoidable and ultimate’ advent of atheism will not result in ‘total assimilation of the Jews.’

‘There is a more universal and deep feeling than religion, which also counters assimilation in diaspora. I mean the feeling of ethnic identity,’ he said.

In case with the Jews, ‘being sympathetic to Israel and desiring for it to flourish is an explicit manifestation of such a feeling,’ he added.

In 1995 Ginzburg won the Israel-based International Wolf Prize in Physics. During the award ceremony he said to the jury: ‘I am an atheist but my parents were Jewish and I am glad that there is Israel where any Jew may find his or her home.’

Jews comment on Theophilus III and Christianity

From "Pro-PLO Greek Orthodox Church Leader Ousted" @ INN - 12/19/07

Russian "Greek" Orthodox history is tainted with Jewish blood
The Russian government controls the Greek Orthodox church not Greece. the history of Christian control over the state of Israel is well documented & the battle between Ar'bs & Christians over mosque & church is based on the tombs and homes of Biblical Jews. Starting with the Romans, foreigners paid shekels for a spot & later Ottoman Saladin collected revenue in taxes. Not one of these transactions was legitimate. All were a Den of Thieves according to Ju-zeus. All bare false witness!! Members of this church were Ar'b converts to Christianity.

The Greek Orthodox Church is largely not Christian. Just because they use Christian-sounding words does NOT make them Christian. A Christian is a follower of Christ, not some pompous windbag who hates Jews. Were the Jews involved with having Jesus killed? Yes. Are Christians to hate and revile Jews as a result? No. Real Christians do not hate Jews, do not love the enemies of the Jews (in the sense of supporting those who hate Jews), do not believe that the Christian Church has somehow mystically appropriated the uni-lateral covenant promises made to the Jews through Abraham, and do NOT worship idols (as do most Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox and Catholic adherents). God still has a plan for Israel and His chosen people (the Jews) that will kick back into top gear once the real Church of believers is removed from this planet in the near future. Once that event happens (millions of people disappearing in an instant), you Jews will know without a doubt that any people remaining claiming to be "Christian" (which will be most of the "big churches" previously mentioned) will in fact not be. Any person who favours the children of Ishmael over the children of Jacob is in direct opposition to the God of Abraham's plan and wishes. The Bible says that Ishmael and his descendants would be "wild donkeys" with "his hand turned against everyone, and everyone's hand turned against him" - what clearer picture of the Arab usurpers could you want? All of Israel, from Lebanon to the Wadi of Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates belongs to the Jews. Woe to the person who would steal land given by God to another!

The problem other Christian groups have is the Christian Orthodox practice of relic worship which includes the actual dehydrated head of John the Baptist, the actual dehydrated hand of John the Baptist and the list goes on of dehydrated corpses, feet and so on. The Multi -Christian groups who share the Holy Sepulchre Church, St Helene's Chapel (crypt of tombs) Church of the Nativity etc. all of which have relics of Jews. The question is why do they collect dead relics of Jews when they have live religious Jews to learn spirituality from? Clearly the G-d of Israel does not approve of this method of Christian Orthodox worship. After viewing several photographs of these relics used we all need to pray for the redemption Orthodox Christian groups whose pratices are unacceptable to G-d.

denying that these people are Christians is like we Jews denying Meyer Lansky was a Jew. Cover it up but deep down all Christians hate us because we reject Jesus. You & other Christians all believe we are damned & must be "saved" so please cut the crap as we are not fooled nor are we interested in your dead voodoo man-god

EVERY INCH IS OUR LAND!!!! ALL arabs & (if you are not pro-Israel or want prostulatize and convert) ALL GOYIIM out!!!!!! THIS IS JEWISH LAND ALWAYS AND FOREVER!!! MOSHIACH!!!! KOCH baby!!! KOCH!!!