The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."
Observing—assimilating--the anti-Semitic “protests” in colleges and streets, Americans now know exactly how and why the Holocaust happened.
The October 7, 2023 Islamist massacre of Israeli men, women, children
and even animals, has had a sobering effect on some possessed of the
conceit that all cultures are equally valuable, and none have the moral
standing to criticize another. Seeing women serially raped, tortured,
mutilated, beheaded, burned alive and kidnapped, seeing babies burned
alive in ovens, seeing inhuman atrocities thought no longer possible in
“civilized” humanity so gleefully committed and celebrated, tends to
make an impression, at least on those willing to recognize reality. That
the demons were not only Hamas terrorists, but ordinary Gazans,
supposed victims of Hamas, was just a little more jarring.
Observing—assimilating--the anti-Semitic “protests” in colleges and streets, Americans now know exactly how and why the Holocaust happened.
Could it be that some cultures might be just a little…off? Not quite right? Is
it possible the culture of Hamas, and of Muslims in
general—differentiate them as Islamists if you prefer—is not compatible
with this century’s morality? With civilization? And isn’t it a shame we
had no warning of this potential schism in our collective humanity? It turns out we did—and do:
Image: Konstantin Makovsky, The Bulgarian Martyresses, Wikimedia commons, Public domain.
Since opening the gates to unfettered mass migration in 2015, at
least 7,000 women have been raped or sexually assaulted in Germany by
alleged asylum-seeking illegal migrants, an analysis of government
figures has found.
A report from the Swiss-German paper of record, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, claimed
that statistics from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) show that
more than one thousand women — mostly Germans — have been sexually
assaulted by migrants seeking refuge every year since 2017.
Extrapolating
from this figure, the paper calculated that therefore at least 7,000
women have been raped or sexually assaulted by asylum seekers since
former German Chancellor Angela Merkel ushered in the European Migrant
Crisis in 2015 by unilaterally opening the gates of Europe to massive
waves of migrants from the Middle East and Africa.
And it was done with such good intentions, with
the d/S/C surety all those Muslim, tribal, men were just like us,
civilized, recognizing the humanity and preciousness of women, willing
to lay down their lives to protect them. How could it be otherwise since
no culture is superior to another; all are equally valuable--just like
us? We're all human, aren't we?
Last year, NZZ reported, asylum-seeking
migrants were vastly overrepresented in reported cases of rape and
sexual assault. Out of the estimated 10,000 suspects, 6,366 were German
while 3,679 were foreigners. Of those, 1,115 were asylum-seeking
migrants, meaning that while they represented just 2.5 per cent of the
population, they were responsible for over 11 per cent of the sex
assaults and rapes.
This confirms longstanding trends, with migration researcher Ruud
Koopmans finding that asylum seekers were five times more likely to be
involved in cases of rape and that they were 3.3 times more likely to
perpetrate sex crimes as a whole, including sexual harassment and sexual
abuse.
The article goes on to note that it took some years to
catch on, but plenty of those male immigrants “…come from societies in
which women are not afforded the same rights as in Western nations.” Who
coulda thunk it? Perhaps anyone who has read the Quran, or studied the
realities of those cultures? The Internet might have been helpful in
that regard.
The deputy
chairman of the German Federal Police Union, Manuel Ostermann, said
that the migrants committing sexual assault and rape — mostly against
German women — are often already known to the police and sometimes have
already been convicted of a crime but remain in the country due to lax
deportation standards.
“Anyone who commits crimes against sexual self-determination must not have the right to remain in Germany,” he told NZZ.
And how has that worked out?
The leftist Minister of the Interior, Social Democrat Nancy Fraser,
who is charged with protecting the nation’s borders, refused to be drawn
on the issue of mass migration, merely stating: “These acts are
abhorrent. This applies regardless of the nationality of the suspects.”
Except some “suspects” are clearly more culturally valuable than others.
The issue of sexual violence from migrants has been longstanding in
Germany. A string of sex attacks by mostly North African and Middle
Eastern migrant men on New Year’s Eve in 2015, which was brought to international attention by
reporting from Breitbart London, saw over a thousand women in Cologne
sexually assaulted or raped. The vast majority of the perpetrators never
faced justice, with merely six men being convicted of sex crimes in connection to the string of attacks.
It has worked out about as well as you might imagine. But hey, clinging to d/S/C equal culture delusions will only get thousands of your women and girls raped. It’s not like they’ll be killed or anything.
Oh, wait…
Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and
European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor and retired
police officer and high school and college English teacher. His home
blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
"At the time of writing, the State of Qatar contributes more funds to universities in the United States than any other country in the world, and raw donation totals omit critical, concerning details about the nature of Qatar's academic funding." — ISGAP report, "Networks of Hate," December 2023.
"At least 100 American
colleges and universities illegally withheld information on
approximately $13 billion in undocumented contributions from foreign
governments, many of which are authoritarian.... Speech
intolerance—manifesting as campaigns to investigate, censor, demote,
suspend, or terminate speakers and scholars—was higher at institutions
that received undocumented money from foreign regimes." — ISGAP report,
"The Corruption of the American Mind," November 2023.
Qatar makes it possible for Ivy League universities to claim that
they receive no funds from the Qatari state, because the donations are
funneled through the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and
Community Development, a not-for-profit organization established in 1995
by the Emir of Qatar. This ensures that the foundation can identify
itself as a private organization, which enables Qatar to conceal its
state funding as private donations.
"At the time of writing, the State of Qatar contributes more
funds to universities in the United States than any other country in the
world, and raw donation totals omit critical, concerning details about
the nature of Qatar's academic funding." — ISGAP report, "Networks of
Hate," December 2023.
"We would pay them [journalists]... Some of them have become MPs
now. Others have become patriots.... We would pay [journalists] in many
countries. We would pay them every year. Some of them received salaries.
All the Arab countries were doing this. If not all, then most of them."
— Former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim, February 2022.
The hapless testimony by three Ivy League university
presidents from Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania before
the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce can be traced to
Qatar and its insidious campaign to buy itself influence in US
academia. Pictured L-R: Claudine Gay, President of Harvard University,
Liz Magill, then-President of University of Pennsylvania, Professor
Pamela Nadell of American University, and Sally Kornbluth, President of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, testify before the U.S. House
Committee on Education and the Workforce on December 5, 2023. (Photo by
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The hapless testimony
by three Ivy League university presidents from Harvard, MIT and the
University of Pennsylvania before the U.S. House Committee on Education
and the Workforce can be traced to Qatar and its insidious campaign to
buy itself influence in US academia.
Qatar, oil-rich and with an estimated population of only 2.5 million, is the largest foreign donor
-- that we know about -- to American universities, with at least $4.7
billion donated between 2001 and 2021. Many of those billions went
unreported to the Department of Education, according
to research done by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism
and Policy (ISGAP). Under federal law, colleges and universities that
receive donations from foreign sources that total at least $250,000 must disclose such transactions to the Department of Education.
Qatar is far from the only authoritarian nation that donates to American universities. According
to a Department of Education report from April 2023, American
universities and colleges have received $19 billion from unreported
sources, more than half of which has come from authoritarian and
antidemocratic Middle East governments.
Flouting the law by failing to disclose foreign donations to universities has been declared a "dark money nightmare."
Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos wrote in February 2023:
"While there's nothing inherently inappropriate about
foreign-sourced gifts, there is a significant reason for concern if
these gifts are not disclosed, as required by law.
"Unfortunately, the higher-ed lobby has made it no secret it opposes
true transparency. The American Council on Education — the lobbying
organization for colleges and universities — praised the Biden
administration in an open letter for ending the investigations we
launched into schools that were skirting the law and failing to report
sources of foreign money.
"One major cause for concern is the high correlation between foreign
gifts, especially from our geopolitical adversaries, and American
universities that are home to major research laboratories, including
those with Department of Defense contracts."
To assess properly the damage that Qatari influence in the US is
causing, it is important to understand what Qatar stands for and
promotes. Qatar has for decades cultivated a close relationship with the
Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, whose motto
is: "'Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is
our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest
hope." Its aim appears to be ensuring that Islamic law, Sharia, governs
all countries and all matters.
Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, has enjoyed Qatar as its main sponsor, to the tune of up to $360 million a year,
and was until recently the home of Hamas' leadership. In 2012, Ismail
Haniyeh, head of the terrorist group's political bureau, Mousa Abu
Marzook, and Khaled Mashaal, among others, moved to Qatar for a life of
luxury. This month, likely because of Israel's announcement that it will
hunt down and eliminate Hamas leaders in Qatar and Turkey, the
Qatar-based Hamas officials reportedly fled to other countries.
Qatar was also home to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who was exiled from Egypt, until his death in September 2022. According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center:
"Qaradawi is mainly known as the key figure in shaping
the concept of violent jihad and the one who allowed carrying out terror
attacks, including suicide bombing attacks, against Israeli citizens,
the US forces in Iraq, and some of the Arab regimes. Because of that, he
was banned from entering Western countries and some Arab countries....
In 1999, he was banned from entering the USA. In 2009, he was banned
from entering Britain..."
Qaradawi also founded many radical Islamist organizations, which are funded by Qatar. These include the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which released a statement that called
the October 7 massacre perpetrated by Hamas against communities in
southern Israel an "effective" and "mandatory development of legitimate
resistance," and said that Muslims have a religious duty to support
their brothers and sisters "throughout all of Palestine, especially in
Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem, and Gaza.""
Qatar also still is home to the lavishly-funded television network Al
Jazeera, founded in 1996 by Qatar's Emir, Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifa Al
Thani. Called the "mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood," Al Jazeera
began the violent "Arab Spring," which "brought the return of autocratic rulers."
In 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, made 13 demands of Qatar:
"to cut off relations with Iran, shutter Al Jazeera, and stop granting
Qatari citizenship to other countries' exiled oppositionists." They
subsequently cut ties with Qatar over its failure to agree to any of the
demands, including ending its support for terrorism, the Muslim
Brotherhood and Al Jazeera.
The Saudi state-run news agency SPA said at the time:
"[Qatar] embraces multiple terrorist and sectarian groups
aimed at disturbing stability in the region, including the Muslim
Brotherhood, ISIS [Islamic State] and al-Qaeda, and promotes the message
and schemes of these groups through their media constantly,"
This is the kind of influence that US universities and colleges are
more than happy to see on their campuses in exchange for billions of
dollars in Qatari donations. According to ISGAP:
"[F]oreign donations from Qatar, especially, have had a
substantial impact on fomenting growing levels of antisemitic discourse
and campus politics at US universities, as well as growing support for
anti-democratic values within these institutions of higher education."
In November 2023 ISGAP published a report, "The Corruption of the
American Mind: How concealed foreign funding of higher education in the
United States predicts the erosion of democratic values and antisemitic
sentiment on campus." It found that there is a direct correlation
between antisemitism and censored speech on campus and undocumented
contributions from foreign governments, notably Qatar. According to the report:
"At least 100 American colleges and universities
illegally withheld information on approximately $13 billion in
undocumented contributions from foreign governments, many of which are
authoritarian.
"In institutions receiving such undocumented money:
Political campaigns to silence academics were more prevalent.
— Campuses receiving undocumented funds exhibited approximately twice as
many campaigns to silence academics as those that did not.
Students reported greater exposure to antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric.
Higher levels of antisemitic incidents were reported on their campuses.
This relationship of undocumented money to campus antisemitism was
stronger when the undocumented donors were Middle Eastern regimes rather
than other regimes.
— From 2015-2020, Institutions that accepted money from Middle Eastern
donors, had, on average, 300% more antisemitic incidents than those
institutions that did not....
"Speech intolerance—manifesting as campaigns to investigate, censor,
demote, suspend, or terminate speakers and scholars—was higher at
institutions that received undocumented money from foreign regimes."
Qatar makes it possible for Ivy League universities to claim that
they receive no funds from the Qatari state, because the donations are funneled
through the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community
Development, a not-for-profit organization established in 1995 by the
Emir of Qatar. This ensures that the foundation can identify itself as a
private organization, which enables Qatar to conceal its state funding
as private donations.
In a report published this month, "Networks of Hate: Qatari Paymasters, Soft Power and the Manipulation of Democracy," ISGAP wrote:
"At the time of writing, the State of Qatar contributes
more funds to universities in the United States than any other country
in the world, and raw donation totals omit critical, concerning details
about the nature of Qatar's academic funding. For instance, Qatar
concentrates its donations within a contained number of elite U.S.
universities to maximize its influence. This targeted approach suggests
that strategic motivations for instance—to advance Qatari state
interests, influence the Qatari strategy—rather than pure philanthropy."
The issue of Qatar on US campuses, as serious as it is, is only part
of a larger picture of Qatari influence in the US and the rest of the
West.
"In recent years, Qatar has significantly bolstered its
U.S. investments through its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment
Authority (QIA), and its subsidiaries, notably Qatari Diar. In 2019,
QIA pledged to allocate $45 billion to U.S. investments; it opened an
office in New York City in 2015 to facilitate its U.S. investments. The
fifth U.S.-Qatar Strategic Dialogue took place in Doha from November
2022 to March 2023 and further strengthened strategic and economic
partnerships and addressed obstacles to investment and trade."
In February 2022, former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim said in an interview, according to MEMRI, that Qatar had many journalists "in different countries" on its payroll.
"We had Journalists on our payroll. In many countries, we
would pay them. Some of them have become MPs now. Others have become
patriots. I know them. We would pay [journalists] in many countries. We
would pay them every year. Some of them received salaries. All the Arab
countries were doing this. If not all, then most of them."
Robert Williams is a researcher based in the United States.
The Houthi militants in Yemen have stepped up attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.
Components of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike
Group (IKECSG), guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem (DDG 63) and French
Navy frigate FS Languedoc (D 653) transit the Strait of Hormuz November
25, 2023.(photo credit: VIA REUTERS)
Iranian-backed Houthi militants attacked a Maersk container vessel,
prompting the company to pause all sailing through the Red Sea for 48
hours, Maersk said on Sunday.
The
attack was the latest by Houthi militants in Yemen, who have been
targeting vessels in the Red Sea to show their support for Hamas
fighting Israel in Gaza.
US Navy helicopters sank three of four small boats used by Iranian-backed Houthi
terrorists to attack a merchant vessel in the southern Red Sea on
Sunday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on social media platform X.
Helicopters
from the USS Eisenhower and USS Gravely, responding to distress calls
from the Maersk Hangzhou, returned fire on the Houthi boats in
self-defense and sank three of the vessels with no survivors.
The fourth boat fled the area, said the statement on social media platform X.
Ship continued on its journey after attack
Danish shipping company Maersk
confirmed that the crew onboard Maersk Hangzhou had reported a flash on
deck on Dec 30 at around 1830 CET, when the vessel was 55 nautical
miles southwest of Al Hodeidah.
The
crew was safe, and there was no indication of fire onboard the vessel
that was fully maneuverable and continued its journey north to Port Suez, Maersk said.
Maersk ship Volga Maersk is docked in Riga port, Latvia May 31, 2019. (credit: REUTERS/INTS KALNINS)
The Singapore-flagged vessel with the capacity to carry 14,000 containers was en route from Singapore.
Four high school female track athletes in Connecticut have stood against the influx of transgender athletes seeking to compete against girls in school sports.
(The Center Square) -
Four high school female track
athletes in Connecticut have stood against the influx of transgender
athletes seeking to compete against girls in school sports, likely
setting up a defining legal battle of 2024.
The U.S. Court of Appeals rescued the legal challenge, Soule v.
Connecticut Association of Schools, in December after a lower court
dismissed the case. Now, the case will be heard in federal district
court and will be a defining moment in the ongoing debate, which has
been ramped up by a string of injuries to female athletes at the hands
of transgender athletes in recent months.
Those girls say allowing biological boys to compete is unfair and
violates Title IX, the federal law that established and protected female
school sports by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex.
The girls in question are Selina Soule, Alanna Smith, Chelsea
Mitchell, and Ashley Nicoletti, who say they personally lost to male
athletes identifying as female.
They point out that from 2017 to 2019, two transgender athletes won
15 women’s track championship titles, titles that were previously held
by nine female athletes.
Soule missed qualifying for a state championship by one spot after
the two transgender athletes finished ahead of her. Nicoletti also
missed the opportunity to compete at a state championship open because
the transgender athletes finished ahead of her.
Mitchell, who was once ranked the fastest girl in Connecticut, lost
four state championships to the transgender athletes. Smith finished
behind a transgender athlete at a regional championship, pushing her
back to 3rd place instead of 2nd place.
“Selina, Chelsea, Alanna, and Ashley – like all female athletes –
deserve access to fair competition,” ADF Senior Counsel Roger Brook said
in a statement. “The [Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference]
policy degraded each of their accomplishments and scarred their athletic
records, irreparably harming each female athlete’s interest in accurate
recognition of her athletic achievements.”
Notably, the court said the girls who filed the lawsuit had suffered injury and thus were able to file the legal challenge.
“Plaintiffs all personally competed in high school track in
Connecticut, and they all identified instances in which they raced
against and finished behind one or both Intervenors,” the court said,
adding that, “With these assumptions in mind, we conclude that
Plaintiffs adequately pled a concrete, particularized, and actual injury
in fact: the alleged denial of equal athletic opportunity and
concomitant loss of publicly recognized titles and placements during
track and field competitions in which they participated against and
finished behind” the transgender athletes.”
The case has attracted national attention and will likely set
significant precedent in the ongoing battle over biological males
attempting to enter female sports in schools.
Proponents of the transgender athletes’ participation say it is unfair to prevent them from competing.
ADF boasted that a range of athletes, coaches, advocacy groups and 23
states have backed the female athletes filing 12 friend-of-the-court
briefs with the 2nd Circuit.
“The en banc 2nd Circuit was right to allow these brave women to make
their case under Title IX and set the record straight,” Brook said in a
statement. “This is imperative not only for the women who have been
deprived of medals, potential scholarships, and other athletic
opportunities, but for all female athletes across the country.”
"We started our company with the idea that books are the most important thing because they have a special way of sparking kids' imaginations and activating their mind," Brave Books CEO Trent Talbot said.
While companies such as Bud Light and Target have drifted left,
leading to boycotts and backlash, conservative entrepreneurs spent much
of 2023 creating a parallel economy to give consumers more products that
align with their values.
Conservative leaders described to Just the News how they got involved
in businesses by creating multiple alternatives in banking, books,
shopping, job boards and music.
Last year, country music star John Rich announced the creation of a
new bank for Americans who support freedom of speech and have concerns
about their existing bankers punishing them – and their accounts – for
publicly backing issues that their banks don't support.
The bank is called Old Glory Bank
and it's being led by Rich, conservative commentator Larry Elder and
Dr. Ben Carson, a former cabinet secretary and 2016 presidential
candidate.
"People are having their bank accounts frozen, suspended and sometimes completely turned off," Rich said on the Just the News, No Noise TV
show. "It disrupts their business in such a way that a lot of people
lose their businesses when that happens. So that's another hill as we
say... we have to build hills that people can run to."
Earlier this year, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, subpoenaed Bank of America, requesting information related to the firm's voluntary sharing of customer data with the FBI to aid its Jan. 6 investigations.
Public Square CEO Michael Seifert agreed with Rich's point about building hills people can run to instead of just boycotting.
Public Square describes itself as
"America's Marketplace." The service, started two years ago in San
Diego, promotes businesses that support conservative values and outlets
such as Fox News and The Babylon Bee.
"If I don't have somewhere else to move my money towards, then
boycotts are insufficient," Seifert said. "They're incomplete, and so
what we try to do for people is create a hopeful, positive alternative
to some of the major brands they're used to shopping with so that they
know with blessed assurance, they're not funding their opposition."
According to Seifert, the parallel economy is doing very well and represents over $7 trillion in GDP.
Another avenue that conservatives have been making advances in is
book publishing. Sexually-explicit books in school libraries have been
making headlines over the last few years, which has led to conservatives
beginning to write family-friendly books.
This led to Trent Talbot starting a company called Brave Books where authors can publish stories that uphold family values.
"We started our company with the idea that books are the most
important thing because they have a special way of sparking kids'
imaginations and activating their mind," Talbot said.
He hinted that the company would be making its way into television entertainment in 2024.
"We do think that there is a vacuum in the children's show world and
it is time that 'Brave Books' makes its way to screen, and I would fully
expect the release of a TV show in the year 2024," he told the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show.
Social media censorship is also a major concern, with platforms such
as Meta censoring the political opinions of Americans. When Tesla CEO
Elon Musk purchased X, formerly called Twitter, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, referred to it as the "single most important step for free speech in decades."
Former Congressman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., is the CEO of former
President Donald Trump's social media platform, TRUTH Social, which now
has about several million users.
"We're trying to take the best of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and
Twitter or X.... and put it into one easy to use app," Nunes said in
reference to TRUTH Social.
He said that a goal of TRUTH Social is to create communities and have people interact with one another in groups privately.
"If you want to be on Social...you can develop your own little family
group that's private," Nunes explained. "So if you want to get on
there, and some people have private groups.....they want to talk freely
amongst themselves. They don't want the fake news in there trying to
grab stuff and share it."
Privacy and keeping data safe have been other big concerns consumers have when it comes to the online world.
"I created strife and division and tension, and this tension led to a weakening, and this weakening, in many ways, led to the massacre."
MK Galit Distal-Atbaryan arrives to a Likud party meeting at the Knesset. December 3, 2023.(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
Former public diplomacy minister Galit Distal-Atbaryan
apologized for taking action that increased strife in Israel, saying
she was one of "about 100 people who shoved nine million [people] toward
an abyss" in an interview with Channel 13 on Sunday.
"There
were about 100 people who shoved nine million people toward an abyss,
from politics, the media, influencers. I was one of these people who
caused the state to weaken, who hurt people, who hurt civilians who in
their day-to-day lives are my friends, my partner," said
Distal-Atbaryan.
"It
suddenly hit me, boom! Suddenly you realize that everything you thought
you were doing well, you were doing badly. I created strife and
division and tension, and this tension led to a weakening, and this
weakening, in many ways, led to the massacre," added the former minister
to Channel 13.
Distal-Atbaryan
addressed secular, liberal Israelis, saying, "I sinned against you, I
caused you pain, I caused you to fear for your lives here. I apologize
for this."
Minister Galit Distal-Atbaryan reacts during a 40 signatures debate, at
the plenum hall of the Knesset. June 26, 2023. (credit: YONATAN
SINDEL/FLASH90)
Distal-Atbaryan's resignation from her post as public diplomacy minister
Distal-Atbaryan resigned from her post as public diplomacy minister
shortly after the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October after
widespread criticism concerning her ministry's failure to handle
"hasbara" (public diplomacy) while private; civilian groups were left
carrying most of the weight.
At the time, Distal-Atbaryan said that she was resigning because she felt her ministry had become redundant and was wasting the budget.
Likud MK attacks Distal-Atbaryan
Fellow
Likud MK Tally Gotliv attacked Distal-Atbaryan for her comments on
Sunday evening, posting on X, "No Galit. You are not to blame, and
neither are we! You just don't know how to be a right-winger."
"It
takes a lot of strength and power to be a true right-winger.
Right-wingers suffer mud-slinging and are under threats of demonization
and humiliation. The left caressing you is a dangerous illusion that
endangers the entire right-wing camp" added Gotliv. "The main thing is
that the right people like you, those who control the conversation and
the media...too bad."
After all, no nation is small or medium as such; it's the leadership that makes a country small or great.
Another case of the pendulum
swinging in the opposite direction concerns the United Nations and
diplomacy in general. The UN Security Council is likely to remain
inoperative for the foreseeable future, while the Secretary-General,
having tripped over the Gaza war, has lost much of his authority as
arbiter of international conflicts.
A broader and potentially more important pendulum swing in 2024
would be away from the mushy consensus formed during the golden days of
globalism.
Finally, the pendulum looks likely to swing in favor of small-
and/or medium-sized nations capable of adopting non-ideological and
effective policies in the interest of their people. After all, no nation
is small or medium as such; it's the leadership that makes a country
small or great.
(Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
If there is a pendulum that regulates world affairs, it is important
to know which way it may be swinging in the year that is about to start.
Seen from one angle, the pendulum looks like swinging towards
uncertainty. In 2024, many countries with major roles in international
affairs are facing dicey elections.
The United States looks set for what could be the most difficult
election season in its history. Will President Joe Biden, with his
physical and mental fitness questioned by some, be able to run the final
mile to his party's nomination? Or will his Democrat Party be forced to
rally around Kamala Harris at the last moment and out of desperation?
The Republicans face an even less predictable prospect.
Although Donald Trump continues to cast a large shadow on the whole
process, a shadow is just a shadow after all. The alternative savior,
Ron DeSantis, seems to be fading away, while Nikki Haley, a dark horse
just a few weeks ago, is beginning to emerge as a serious pretender.
Even then, and regardless of who would win the keys to the White
House next November, the United States will be on pilot mode for much of
2024 and thus, unable to take the tough decisions that only a
well-settled administration could take.
The United Kingdom is also facing what is seen as the most difficult
general elections it has experienced at least since the Suez Crisis of
1956. The Conservative Party seems to be in letdown mode, while the
Labour Party appears unable to seize the opportunity to make a big
comeback. The prospect of a hung parliament, with Labour forced to
depend on the Scottish National Party (SNP) to form a government,
signals a period of uncertainty as far as strategic decisions are
concerned.
In the European Union, the Netherlands is already without a stable
government and is likely to remain so for months, while
coalition-building goes on. In Germany, the EU's big beast in economic
terms, the shaky coalition led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz could unravel
at any moment, while the right-wing Alternative for Germany waits to
emerge as the arbiter of a divided political scene.
Even France now seems to be heading for a period of instability as
President Emmanuel Macron's shaky coalition begins to crumble, while his
government is unable to secure a majority in the parliament. The
prospect of dissolution of parliament and snap elections is hanging
above the scene like the Damocles' sword of the myth.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin seems set to easily sail to
victory on his bid for a new presidential term. But even there, the
elections are likely to lead to a major reshuffle of the ruling elite,
including the top brass and the inner circle of household oligarchs.
After all, the thinly disguised failure in Ukraine must be blamed on
someone, someone other than good old Volodia.
The only major power to appear stable at the moment is the People's
Republic of China. But there too, President Xi Jinping appears more
focused on managing economic slowdown and the purge of the party than
being dragged into international problems that promise nothing but
trouble.
The pendulum is also swinging more sharply towards conflict,
instability and state failures. In 2023, the list of "ungoverned"
countries was limited to Syria, Libya, Somalia, South Sudan and,
according to some, Afghanistan. In 2024 Sudan, caught in a war between
rival military factions, is certain to join the category, while Myanmar,
with areas controlled by Karen rebels expanding, is heading in the same
direction.
If you hope that the pendulum will swing towards peace, think again.
In Ukraine, both sides, that is to say Russia and NATO, appear in a
zugzwang that keeps them in conflict for the foreseeable future.
The Gaza war is set to continue in 2024. Even after Israel achieves
its military objectives, that is to say dismantling Hamas' military
machine and freeing Israeli hostages, within weeks the gargantuan task
of building a new status quo is certain to take much longer.
In the meantime, the Gaza war has already ricocheted to North Yemen,
still under Houthi control, and parts of Lebanon, under Hezbollah's
total control. Fighting involving Iranian-controlled militias in Syria
and Iraq with US-backed elements is also likely to get wider dimensions.
There are indications that both Russia and Turkey are also preparing
for military action on a grander scale to secure the chunks of Syria
under their control.
For its part, the Islamic Republic of Iran is likely to face a sharp
swing of the pendulum towards uncertainty in both domestic and foreign
policy areas.
Another case of the pendulum swinging in the opposite direction
concerns the United Nations and diplomacy in general. The UN Security
Council is likely to remain inoperative for the foreseeable future,
while the Secretary-General, having tripped over the Gaza war, has lost
much of his authority as arbiter of international conflicts.
At the end of the COP28 in Dubai earlier this month, there was much
talk about multilateralism making a big comeback. But that may be
nothing but wishful thinking. The coming year looks likely to see a
further decline in multilateralism and an increase in bilateral efforts
to deal with economic and security problems.
In some cases, lone-ranger policymaking is finding more advocates.
Hungary under Viktor Orbán, for example, is defying the EU by hosting
a Chinese manufacturer of electric cars to compete with EU producers.
Despite an agreement to coordinate immigration policy, EU members are
developing divergent strategies likely to lead to diplomatic clashes in
2024.
A broader and potentially more important pendulum swing in 2024 would
be away from the mushy consensus formed during the golden days of
globalism.
Almost everywhere, we are already witnessing a return to the
narrowest concept of national interests. Fear of dependence on
potentially hostile or unstable powers has forced many countries,
especially in the EU, to lean towards economic nationalism and discard
the "comparative advantage" argument.
France, for example, has just unveiled a plan for self-sufficiency in
a number of areas, notably pharmaceuticals, microchips and batteries
for electrical vehicles. In a more folkloric move away from
globalization, France has just revived growing a number of plants used
in textile industry.
Finally, the pendulum looks likely to swing in favor of small- and/or
medium-sized nations capable of adopting non-ideological and effective
policies in the interest of their people. After all, no nation is small
or medium as such; it's the leadership that makes a country small or
great.
This article originally appeared in Asharq Al-Awsat
Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the
daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for
innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a
columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987. He is the Chairman of
Gatestone Europe.
While it seems unlikely that 2024 will be better than this one has been, there are some reasons for optimism.
I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year even though, as 2023
draws to a close, it seems that “the whole world is festering in unhappy
souls,” to quote the brilliant Tom Lehrer. I know at times it seems
unlikely that 2024 will be better than this one has been, but there are
some reasons for optimism. I credit independent journalism, Elon Musk
with his fight for free speech on the internet, and the truism that
eventually reality bites for my belief that the West may be wising up to
the toxic mix of Islamism, traditional anti-Semitism, and Communism.
Domestically, I credit the brilliant U.S. Constitution and the good
sense of our citizens for my optimism.
Israel
Without
much media coverage, there are awful things going on in the world
outside of Israel and Gaza. In Sudan, Mauritania, Nigeria, and Libya,
Arabs are enslaving, raping, and murdering Africans. In Pakistan, 1.7
million Afghanis, many who have sheltered there for decades, were forced
back to their homeland in winter, with few possessions and even fewer
prospects for survival. The Ukraine-Russia war is taking an enormous
toll on the lives and fortunes of civilians in both countries. This toll
of atrocities against civilians is nothing new, as Matti Friedman reports, so it’s worth your time to read in its entirety. The article was written in 2014 but remains relevant today.
The volume of press coverage that results, even when little is going
on, gives this conflict a prominence compared to which its actual human
toll is absurdly small. In all of 2013, for example, the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict claimed 42 lives -- that is, roughly the
monthly homicide rate in the city of Chicago. Jerusalem, internationally
renowned as a city of conflict, had slightly fewer violent deaths per
capita last year than Portland, Ore., one of America’s safer cities. In
contrast, in three years the Syrian conflict has claimed an estimated
190,000 lives, or about 70,000 more than the number of people who have
ever died in the Arab-Israeli conflict since it began a century ago.
News organizations have nonetheless decided that this conflict is more important than, for example, the more than 1,600 women murdered in Pakistan last year (271 after being raped and 193 of them burned alive), the ongoing erasure of Tibet by the Chinese Communist Party, the carnage in Congo (more than 5 million dead as of 2012) or the Central African Republic, and the drug wars in Mexico (death toll between 2006 and 2012: 60,000), let alone conflicts no one has ever heard of in obscure corners of India or Thailand. They believe Israel to be the most important story on earth, or very close.
Despite the oversize coverage of the fighting in Gaza, the psychopath Yahya Sinwar’s
days seem numbered. The Hamas infrastructure is in rubble, including
most of the many miles of tunnels constructed with billions of dollars
of foreign aid that was meant to improve civilian life, but was
commandeered to aid death-cult forays into Israel. Along with Sinwar’s
demise must come the death of UNWRA, which has been fully exposed as a
leading force behind Islamist terrorism in Gaza. The UN and the
international press, along with our own major media, have black eyes for
their role in the invasion of Israel, the butchery there, the
hostage-taking -- all of it. (To take one example of many, it took 83
days after October 7 for the New York Times to finally report on the rapes and mutilations of Israeli women by Hamas.) A number of aid organizations have also exposed themselves as anti-Semites and will in time be as fully discredited. How the western press gets such reporting wrong is detailed in former AP reporter Matti Friedman’s account.
In
European countries, the huge wave of Islamists and recent immigrants
from Islamic countries have joined the stew of right-wing anti-Semites
and communists to demand their countries force a cease-fire on Israel
(that is, when they are not demanding those countries scrap their own
laws and customs and replace them with Sharia law). Germany has banned
such demonstrations and deported numbers of the demonstrators, France
has threatened to do so, while the UK seems paralyzed to act as the
streets of London are swamped with pro-Hamas and pro-Sharia thugs who
beset British patriots and deface treasured national symbols. Still,
there are leaders in the West whose popularity rose in defiance of these
mobs: Italy, the Netherlands, and Argentina seem to prefer rational
leaders to cowards and appeasers. In any event, the demonstrators demand
for a cease-fire seems futile. The latest offer of one in return for
the hostages was rejected by Sinwar.
Domestic Demonstrations
Almost
simultaneously with the October 7 attack, demonstrations were
orchestrated by outfits like Black Lives Matter, Students for Justice in
Palestine, and my favorite, “Queers for Palestine.” Many, like the
three Ivy League presidents skewered by Congresswoman Elise Stefanik,
showed they were bamboozled by nonsense like “oppressors and oppressed,”
“apartheid,” and “colonialism” to think that “From the river to the
sea” -- a call for the extermination of 7.2 million Israelis (including 2
million Moslem Israeli citizens) -- was, in “context,” just free
speech. This on the very campuses which regularly punished nonsensical
“microaggressions,” but not actual aggression. But the president of the
University of Pennsylvania was forced to resign, and serial plagiarist
and poor scholar Claudine Gay at Harvard is hanging on by a thread.
Likely, along with some more sweeping changes, she will not be in the
same position by the end of next year. The pressure is building both at
universities and corporations to reduce substantially, if not eliminate
entirely, the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) bureaucracies
which, among other things, have fueled anti-white, anti-male, and
anti-Semitic sentiments in both public and private institutions. Slowly
but certainly, in my view, the demand for meritocracy will prevail,
perhaps impelled by a growing number of lawsuits against outfits which
endorse it.
The public rioting and demonstrations -- at least as
they attract the leftists among us -- seem to me driven by a hope to
repeat in 2024 what worked in 2020. I don’t think they will. No longer
confined to wreaking havoc among the urban poor, they have seriously
overreached, blocking traffic to airports and bridges, and parading
about the World Trade Center (yes, pro-Islamists at the WTC). They may
get a frisson in their empty lives thinking they are the advance guard
of a large following to redo America. Instead, they are royally enraging
us. If, like me, you think the Left took advantage of the COVID
restrictions to alter established voting practices and make it easier to
cheat in 2020, I doubt that will work a second time. In droves, people
are refusing to be ordered about by public-health bureaucracies now that
we know how poorly they managed COVID and how hard they worked to keep
the truth about the disease, its fatality rate, its spread, and its
mitigation from being publicly known. Even Francis Collins, head of NIH at the time,
…acknowledged
in the Covid discussion that the [Great Barrington Declaration which
advocated against lockdowns, inter alia] could have been a great
opportunity for a broad scientific discussion about the pros and cons”
of focused protection. But then he blames the declaration’s authors for
“short-circuiting” debate by trying to change national policy without
first consulting public-health officials. Who really shut down that
debate? Soon after the declaration was published online, Dr. Collins emailed Dr. Fauci
calling for a “quick and devastating published take down of its
premise.” Within a few days, myriad public-health associations attacked
the declaration.
Social media were pressured to label such discussions
misinformation and posts relating to it were deleted and the posters
locked out.
Perhaps in recognition that the old ways of
jiggering a national election may not be of use this time around,
Colorado’s Democrat Supreme Court decided to remove Donald Trump from
the Republican primary, though it has retreated upon appeal to the
Supreme Court, saying he’ll be on the ballot unless the Court decides in
its favor. Maine’s crazy-eyed Secretary of State has ordered Trump off
the ballot, using an argument no stronger than Colorado’s. Any attempt
to justify this as a means of saving “our democracy” sounds like the
nonsense during the Vietnam war that we had to destroy a village to save
it.
With something like 7 million illegals in the country now,
many of whom have not been vetted, and both parties seemingly tied up in
any effort to compel President Biden to turn off the spigot, it’s hard
to predict how this will affect the election. Urban poor Hispanics and
Blacks are protesting, and these are voters the Democrats regularly
count on. A terrorist attack by any of these illegals will not help
those who opened the door to their admission. And the DNC’s plan to hold
its convention in Chicago, where anti-illegal immigration feelings are
very strong, seems a mistake. Will the sight of Democrats fighting each
other in what was supposed to be a show of unity around Biden really
help drag him into the winner’s circle?
Anyway, don’t give up a hope that next year will be better. It very well may be.
In a year of defeatism and surrender, he is fighting back.
In a year when the civilized world is stuck in a state of retreat, he is fighting back.
Under Biden’s leadership, America has been invaded by hordes of
millions of migrants, and Europe continues to stagger under an endless
wave of migration from the Muslim world. That’s why American and
European cities are being torn apart by rioting mobs supporting Hamas.
But after Israel was invaded on Oct 7, it fought back. The men on the
front lines are not the politicians or the generals, they’re among the
360,000 reservists activated in a nation with a Jewish population of 7
million who left behind their homes, families and jobs to go and fight.
The Israeli military was unprepared for both Oct 7 and a call-up of
this size. The soldiers were fed, clothed, and equipped by the people.
While the media reports on the fighting, the truly incredible unreported
story is how civilian volunteers have become the supply and support
(the ‘tooth-to-tail’) of the Israel Defense Forces or the IDF.
In a small country, volunteers have been bringing food every day, they have provided clothes, shipped in body armor and even showed up with washing machines on pickup trucks to do the laundry. Some civilian volunteers have been wounded and even killed while delivering food. Israeli housewives have formed the Baking Battalion to make cookies, a cooking school produces meals for the troops and restaurants operate free food trucks. Others have stepped in to harvest crops and run the shops of the reservists who have been called up to serve in Gaza.
When the government and the leaders failed, the ordinary Israeli stepped up.
Some armies call themselves the “people’s army”: IDF soldiers really
are. They’ve gone into Gaza knowing that the country stands behind them,
not as an ideal, but as an everyday reality. Israel is a small country
and everyone knows someone who died, came under attack, is among the
200,000 who left their homes to be out of range of the terrorist
attacks, or in the ranks of those who are fighting or who have already
fallen in defense of their nation.
Israel today reminds me of New York City after September 11 where for
a brief shining moment everyone except the worst leftists pulled
together against a common enemy. That spirit may well pass in Israel as
it did in America, but while it lasts, it is something to admire and
emulate.
Islamist mobs rampage around Manhattan and our elites celebrate
Hamas, but the Israelis woke up after one terrible day and decided that
they wouldn’t take it anymore. They rejected the dogma that fighting
doesn’t work and they went to war. And far more than their own country
is riding on the outcome. Nation after nation has surrendered to the
Jihad, appeased it, and accepted the lie that Islamic terrorists can’t
be defeated and fighting back only radicalizes them.
America accepted Islamic terrorism as the new normal, now we’ve
accepted Muslim mobs smashing up our cities as the new normal. What new
horror will we accept next?
The Israeli soldier is in the field fighting against this corrosive
mainstreaming of evil. He is at war not only with the reality of Islamic
terror but the idea that we are defenseless against it. That is why we
all have a stake in what happens thousands of miles away. Gaza is not a
territory: it’s a state of mind. There are Gazas in the ‘no-go zones’ of
England and France, forming in Michigan and emerging in New York City.
It is not a question of whether our war will come, but when.
For now we can still pretend that a 7th century madman’s book doesn’t affect us.
American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq all too often had to ask
why they were there, no Israeli soldier in Gaza ever has to ask that
question. Such questions end when the war comes home.
We’ve become used to wars that are abstractions, geopolitical policy
decisions to change a regime or protect the international order, but
that’s not what wars are like in Israel.
It’s a one hour drive from the hyper dense Tel Aviv metropolitan area
to Kibbutz Be’eri where Islamic terrorists carried out some of the
worst atrocities on Oct 7. The thousands of Jihadis, some on pickup
trucks with mounted machine guns, had orders to keep going until they
reached Tel Aviv. They didn’t get that far, but they did make it to
Sderot, a town of 27,000 and they attacked Yad Mordechai just down the
road from the city of Ashkelon.
It’s a six hour trip along Israel. On the narrowest points, it’s
walkable. In wartime, there is no ‘over there’ in Israel, it’s all ‘over
here’. IDF soldiers are not fighting for the international order or to
nation build anything: they’re traveling hours to the north to protect
their homes.
The Biden administration, the international community and the rest of
the foreign policy ‘blob’ are obsessed with nation building in Gaza.
They keep demanding a ‘day after’ plan from Israel. Conspiracy theorists
claim that the lack of a ‘day after’ plan proves that Israel intends to
expel all the Arab Muslim settlers from Gaza. The truth is that Israel
doesn’t care about the same nation building nonsense that failed in
every single Muslim country it’s been tried in 30 years.
When the madman across the street just butchered your family, you
don’t plan out a rehab program or discuss his prison sentence while
exchanging fire with him. That sort of madness is reserved for
international foreign policy experts with no clue or skin in the game.
The same goes for the obsession with “proportionate responses” or
“winning the hearts and minds” of Hamas.
Instead of the nonsense that wasted so many of our lives, Israel is focused on winning the war.
Buried in the CNN and MSNBC reports, which are virtually
indistinguishable from Al Jazeera’s Hamas propaganda barrage of bombing
videos, is the fact that Israeli soldiers accomplished what the Biden
administration’s military experts believed was impossible in record
time.
Secretary of Defense Austin had urged Israelis to use his fight
against ISIS in the Iraqi city of Mosul as a model. The fighting in
Mosul took 9 months and led to over 1,000 casualties among the anti-ISIS
coalition. Two weeks after the beginning of ground operations, Israel
was in the heart of Gaza City. Now, IDF leaders say they’re close to
having operational control over the north.
As of now, 164 IDF soldiers have fallen in the fighting against over
8,000 Hamas terrorists. Those approximate, but improve on, the casualty
rates of American forces fighting against ISIS (then known as Al Qaeda
in Iraq) and Iranian militias during the peak of the 2007 ‘Surge’. But
the Israelis don’t have any Muslim allied forces fighting alongside them
in urban battles.
Oct 7 heavily damaged the myth of the IDF, but the myth was always
based on a misconception of what the Israel Defense Forces are. The IDF
has its origins in groups of volunteer guards who were trained by Major
General Orde Wingate, a devout Christian Zionist highly unpopular within
the British military, in the unconventional doctrines that he would
apply in WWII. The IDF is excellent at offensive operations, but poor at
defensive ones except when individual soldiers launch desperate last
stands of the kind that helped turn the tide in a few crucial battles.
The strength of the IDF has never been in its generals, though like
the U.S. military it had some capable old school celebrity generals, now
long gone, but in the character of the average fighting man. Strategy
and leadership are crucial, but the IDF was built on the resilience of
the ordinary soldier. Nations don’t make peoples and generals don’t make
armies: it’s people who make nations and armies. That’s as true in
Israel as it is in America.
Unlike the Islamic Jihadists they are battling, IDF soldiers don’t go
to war fueled by meth or promises of 72 virgins, they go knowing that
the lives of their friends and families depend on them. The politicians
and the generals may fail them, but they do what needs to be done.
In Gaza now, they make beds among the rubble, put in earplugs and try
to sleep while bombs and bullets shatter the night, and then, when it
is time, they rise and fight. They are not superhuman or infallible:
only ordinary men who know what is at stake. But they don’t know
everything that is at stake. They see only their homes and the children
they said goodbye to.
What they don’t see is a thousand year Jihad, the rafts bringing
invaders to Europe and planes carrying them to America. They see only
their small corner of the sky and earth to protect, but they are
fighting a small battle that will shape the outcome of the greater
civilizational war.
That is why the IDF soldier is Front Page Magazine’s ‘Man of
the Year’. In a year of defeatism, he is still fighting. Even though
all the experts say he should stop, he does not give up.
Those of us who see the big picture are often prone to despair, but
the Israelis never look at big pictures. Israelis, unlike American Jews,
have little interest in the big questions because, also unlike American
Jews, they are religious in a mostly matter-of-fact way. When they look
in the mirror, they don’t see insecurity, they see a fallible human
being and when they look at the sky, they don’t see existential
questions, they see G-d. That is why they have hope, not woke.
These are important because they not only encourage us to hope, but tell us how.
The IDF soldier is the reflection of a nation that has learned to
live in the face of impossible threats by focusing on what needs to be
done today. That lack of vision is a weakness, but it is also a
strength. We too can turn from worrying about tomorrow and ask what we
can do today.
The ordinary Israeli is in the field, or making cookies, washing
khaki clothes and harvesting crops. He does not think about the
unlikelihood that a nation of millions can survive the hatred of over a
billion fanatics who believe that their only path to paradise is through
genocide. He or she does what needs to be done, without despair or
rage, but with the inner strength of purpose.
Israel is a nation at war with our enemies. The Islamists and
leftists, the professional racists and deranged woke armies march
through the streets of our cities calling for Israel’s destruction. It
is not only a physical war, but a spiritual war, a cultural war and a
moral war. It is a war that encompasses all of us, our homes, our
families and our futures, but at the moment only one group of men is
fighting that war, not just with words or elections, but with bullets.
Their fight gives us hope. Their fight shows us how to fight. Their fight shows us the future.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is
an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and
Islamic terrorism.
Douglas Murray and Col. Richard Kemp – two of Israel’s most beloved friends, indeed – answer some FAQs on the current war.
Douglas Murray(photo credit: Douglas Murray)
It might have been mistaken for a rock concert as hundreds of 20- and
30-somethings streamed into Tel Aviv’s Carlton Hotel last week. But
these young adults weren’t there for any music. Instead, they were
clamoring to hear the perspectives of two prominent advocates for
Israel.
The featured speakers at the International Salon were the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp; and author and political commentator Douglas Murray, who has become a social media star since Oct. 7 and whose book War on the West (2018) quickly became a New York Times bestseller.
Both
Kemp and Murray have spent the past two and a half months in Israel
covering the war. “I’ve almost made aliyah” quipped Kemp.
When
the charismatic Murray entered the room a little late, for reasons that
he would later share, the audience broke into applause. While Kemp has
been known for years for endorsing the IDF as the “most moral army” in
the world, Murray shot to fame at the opening of the current conflict
with his acerbic response to an interviewer’s question as to whether
Israel’s response to the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7 could be considered
“proportionate.”
In
a segment on Britain’s Talk TV, which went instantly viral, Murray
responded: “There is some deep perversion in Britain whenever Israel is
involved in a conflict, and it’s the word you just used – ‘proportion,’
‘proportionate,’ ‘proportionality.’ Only Britain is really obsessed with
this.
Col. Richard Kemp (credit: Richard Kemp)
“Proportionality in conflict
rarely exists. But if we were to decide that we should have this fetish
about proportionality, then that would mean that in retaliation for
what Hamas did in Israel on Saturday [Oct. 7], then Israel should try
and locate a music festival in Gaza, for instance (and good luck with
that), and rape precisely the number of women that Hamas raped, kill
precisely the number of young people that Hamas killed.
“They
should find a town of exactly the same size of Sderot, and make sure
they go door to door and kill precisely the correct number of babies
that Hamas killed in Sderot and shoot in the head precisely the same
number of old-age pensioners that Hamas shot in the head on Saturday.
“Proportionality
in conflict is a joke,” spurned Murray. “It is only the Israelis that,
when attacked, are expected to have precisely a proportionate response.”
Given
both British gentlemen’s philosemitic reputations, the audience broke
out with laughter and applause when they were introduced as the “two
most beloved goyim” in all of Israel.
Nonplussed
by the off-color moniker, Kemp stated proudly that “I am also an
extremely talented ‘Shabbat goy, the result of residing in a hotel with
many displaced persons from Kiryat Shmona who have used my services
quite extensively.”
Asked
by British moderator Deborah Danon what drew them to supporting Israel
in a topsy-turvy world that was largely hostile toward the Jewish state,
each had similar reasons for doing so.
“I
was taught when I was very young to know right from wrong,” said Kemp,
“and it’s my duty to support those who are right. There is no question
who is in the right in this fight.”
Underscoring
his 30 years fighting terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq, Kemp said
that he feels duty-bound “to do what little I can do to help fight this
fight with you because it’s not just your fight – it’s a fight for
Western civilization. The same ideology that’s attacking you now has
attacked us in the past and will intensify its attacks in the future.”
Apologizing for his late entrance, having been held up in an interview on [the TV talk show] Piers Morgan Uncensored (“It’s quite hard to get Piers to stop talking”), Murray offered another reason that drew him over to Israel’s side.
“Aside
from my love for this country and its people,” he said, “I also see
something that I think any writer or journalist should see and get very
annoyed by, which is lies. When it’s lies about an entire nation and
people, when I hear someone like this blowhard I heard earlier [on Piers
Morgan Uncensored] accusing Israel of ‘genociding’ the Palestinians, I
can’t sit here and not say something.
“I’m
not going to allow these canards, smears, lies, and defamation to just
go on. I don’t like lies being told, and Israel has been on the
receiving end of some of the biggest, longest, deepest, and most
wounding lies of our era,” Murray said. “So I believe in the simple
cause of ‘moral hygiene’ that it’s necessary to try and clean some of
that up.”
The moderator then asked: “In a world of TikTok, where Jesus is Palestinian... do you ever ask yourself ‘What’s the point?’”
“Never, actually,” Murray replied emphatically. “Even if it were the case, what option have you got?”
Despite
the omnipresence of social media, where lies “rocket around the world,”
Murray holds fast to a different view. “If you live in a world where 99
lies are being told and one person tells the truth, the truth will
win,” he asserted. “The validity of a truth in an era of lies cannot be
underestimated.”
ON
THE topic of lies, it was an easy segue to Hamas’s battle figures. “I
don’t know what the latest exaggerated figure is from Hamas about the
number of people who have been killed in Gaza,” said Kemp. “I just know
that [Hamas] has to be defeated. If it means that a very large number of
people, whether military or civilian, have to die in that process, then
unfortunately that’s the case.
“No sovereign, democratic state can exist under this threat. So [the threat] must be eliminated. It’s as simple as that.”
Kemp,
who has been in Gaza several times, noted that he is deeply impressed
by the IDF’s combat effectiveness. Regarding Hamas, he said: “They want
the IDF to kill their civilians. They want as many civilians killed as
possible because that then provokes the inevitable international demand
for ceasefire, condemning Israel for war crimes.”
Asked
about pressure from the United States, Murray said: “You should be
courteous to your allies but not subservient to them,” earning him a
hearty round of applause.
“The
future of this state, of the Jewish people, must be in the hands of the
Jewish people,” he continued. “It cannot be in the hands of anyone
else. It cannot be in the hands of people who say the day after the
massacre of Oct. 7 that this is why we need to double down on the
two-state solution. It just can’t be in the hands of people going at
that kind of slow speed.”
Had
the events of Oct. 7 happened in the US, Murray pointed out,
proportionately over 120,000 Americans would have been massacred on one
day. “Nobody can tell me that the Americans would have listened to
anyone then, nor should they,” he said.
The
one potential outcome of the war that Murray absolutely rejects is that
the situation might return to the status quo ante of October 6.
“Israel must be allowed to win,” he asserted. “It cannot simply always be encouraged to fight for a stalemate.”
Regarding
Hezbollah, Murray poked fun at the thought that we would all have to
relearn the map of the North and become experts again on the Litani
River [in Lebanon].
“Since
2006, it’s just been a replay of the same thing. Anything other than
actual victory by the Israelis in this conflict is unacceptable because
all of these efforts to make Israel fight into a stalemate will simply
prepare the groundwork for the next war, and this country deserves not
to be forced into perpetual war,” he stressed.
Israel's lacking friends
RESPONDING
TO the issue of the hostages, Murray said that he was genuinely shocked
by “the lack of empathy for Israel internationally.”
A
glaring example, he said, was the tearing down of posters of the
hostages around the world. “If you put up a poster of a missing cat or
dog in your neighborhood, you would not expect anyone to rip it down,”
he asserted.
“And
if anyone did rip it down, you would think that person was subhuman.
This wasn’t dogs or cats. These were Jewish children. In city after
city, sociopaths tore down these posters. This lack of empathy has been
there since [Oct. 7].”
Addressing
the tragic incident in which three hostages were mistakenly killed by
Israeli troops, Murray said: “The media treats it as more evidence of
the brutality of the Israeli soldiers – ‘they even kill their own!’
“Imagine
the lives of those soldiers who shot those three hostages, how they
must have felt. And yet, instead of recognizing what a tragedy that is
for everybody involved, they use it as a weapon against Israel! That
really has slightly startled me.”
When
asked by the moderator about “the day after,” Kemp said: “The IDF has
no option whatsoever, apart from to stay in control of Gaza from now on.
It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks; it doesn’t matter what
President Biden might want to happen.
“What
is absolutely certain is that the IDF must maintain security control of
Gaza. It means either a permanent IDF presence inside the whole of
Gaza, or it means the creation of a one- or two-mile buffer zone on the
inside of the Gaza border that no one is allowed to go into and that the
IDF can police.”
About
the general population of Gaza, Kemp said: ”The reality in Gaza is that
the vast majority of allegedly innocent civilians support Hamas. Even
when they see the horrors that Hamas has brought on them, they still
support Hamas. And there will be efforts to have a Hamas 2.”
Murray
concurred that it is a “very bleak necessity” for Israel to stay in
Gaza. For how long? “Call me a pessimist,” Kemp said, “but I would say
forever.”
Both
Kemp and Murray spend time visiting the wounded in hospitals. On a
recent visit, Murray met a farmer from a border kibbutz who had lost his
wife, son, and both his legs in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack. He
told Murray: “I have been a leftist all my life. I now want to look out
on nothing but potato fields from here to the Mediterranean.”
Commented
Murray: “Who can risk living beside these people? Nobody else in the
world would be expected to have to put up with that. I think you should
have the right to live in peace and know that the border you have does
not contain genocidal maniacs on the other side who want to kill you.”
A future in politics?
THE
AUDIENCE also had an opportunity to question the speakers. What changes
would Murray like to see in present-day Britain? “Obviously the first
thing I’d do would be to make Richard Kemp minister of defense,” he
suggested to uproarious laughter. “I assume you’ll be prime minister,
will you?” Kemp shot back. Feigning humility, Murray demurred, saying,
“If the nations calls…”
On
a more serious note, Murray condemned the “appalling” pro-Hamas
demonstrations that have taken place in London. “I think it’s been
shameful,” he said. “I want no Hamas supporters in my country. And
that’s quite easy to arrange,” he added. He was referring to Muhammud
Sawalha, a key Hamas terrorist from the West Bank who subsequently
obtained British citizenship.
“To
get a British passport, you must sign a form that says you are a person
of good character. I submit that he is not a person of good character,”
said Murray, “and that he lied on his form when he said that he was. I
would like to see his citizenship stripped, and I would like to see him
deported and to try his luck in Gaza.”
Murray
also cited the case of a young woman whose British passport was
recalled when she returned from having joined ISIS. She tried to pretend
that she didn’t know that they were actually a “murderous, head-hacking
group” and besides, “we all make mistakes.”
Murray
contended that she shouldn’t get her passport back. “If you’re with an
Islamist death cult, you should not be allowed to be in Britain.”
He
was also asked about the quality of Israel’s hasbara (public diplomacy)
in the current war. “I believe they should be given some credit,” he
said.
He cited
Al-Shifa Hospital as an example, pointing out that Israel released
closed-circuit TV footage of some hostages being dragged into the
hospital, as well as showing the weapons cache discovered there. But at
the same time, he underscored why not even the best PR may succeed.
“The
minute they show that the hospital has an arms dump inside it, and has a
load of Kalashnikovs and grenades, Jeremy Bowen of the BBC is asked
about it and says, ‘Well, it is not inconceivable that the Kalashnikovs
belonged to the hospital’s security department.’”
Murray
said that the following day, he responded on television by saying
sarcastically, “Yeah, and it’s possible the grenades were for the
cardiology department.”
Murray’s point is well taken. No matter how strong the evidence is, it is not necessarily strong enough to overcome bias.
Kemp
concurred, saying, “This extraordinary propaganda campaign against
Israel – everything that Israel does is wrong. For the past 10 years,
the BBC has not allowed me to speak on any program about Israel. Any
other security issue, any other country I’m on all the time on the BBC.
Just not about Israel.”
Murray
stressed how moved he is about the young people of this country. “They
will be an example not just to Israel, but to the people of the world.
“I think the country is still going through a trauma, trying to work out what was done to you in October,” he continued.
“You asked at the beginning why we do this. I would just say it is the honor of my life to be standing in alliance with you.”
When
the evening concluded, the young adults in the audience rushed to the
small stage to take selfies with both men. Douglas Murray and Col.
Richard Kemp – two of Israel’s most beloved friends, indeed.
