NOVANEWS
-
Anders Behring Breivik, a perfect product of the Axis of Islamophobia
-
UN report: Israel boarded the Mavi Marmara with ‘an intention to kill’
-
Breivik manifesto outlines virulent right-wing ideology that fueled Norway massacre
-
International community to Gaza’s kids: You can’t be free, but you can be in the Guinness Book of World Records
-
US is walking back Obama’s ’1967′ line
-
Liberal Jewish media moralists could do more home cookin
-
More video emerges of Israeli military attack on Gazan fishermen and international observers
-
Targeted Labour gathering on Norwegian island reportedly featured gestures of Palestinian solidarity
-
The Norway massacre and the nexus of Islamophobia and right-wing Zionism
Anders Behring Breivik, a perfect product of the Axis of Islamophobia
Jul 24, 2011
Max Blumenthal
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store visits the Utoya Labor Youth camp a day before Breivik’s killing spree. He earned loud cheers with an unapologetic call for Palestinian rights.
When I wrote my analysis last December on the “Axis of Islamophobia,” laying out a new international political network of right-wing ultra-Zionists, Christian evangelicals, Tea Party activists and racist British soccer hooligans, I did not foresee a terrorist like Anders Behring Breivik emerging from the movement’s ranks. At the same time, I am not surprised that he did. The rhetoric of the characters who inspired Breivik, from Pam Geller to Robert Spencer to Daniel Pipes, was so eliminationist in its nature that it was perhaps only a matter of time before someone put words into action.
As horrific as Breivik’s actions were, he can not be dismissed as a “madman.” His writings contain the same themes and language as more prominent right-wing Islamophobes (or those who style themselves as “counter-Jihadists”) and many conservatives in general. What’s more, Breivik was articulate and coherent enough to offer a clear snapshot of his ideological motives. Ali Abunimah and Alex Kane have posted excellent summaries of Breivik’s writings here and here and a full English translation is here. It is also worth sitting through at least a portion of Breivik’s tedious video manifesto to get a sense of his thinking.
From a tactical perspective, Breivik was not a “lone wolf” terrorist. Instead, Breivik appeared to operate under a leaderless resistance model much like the Christian anti-abortion terrorists Scott Roeder and Eric Rudolph. Waagner and Rudolph organized around the Army of God, a nebulous group that was known only by its website and the pamphlets its members passed around in truck stops and private meetings. If they received material or tactical support, it occurred spontaneously. For the most part, they found encouragement from like-minded people and organizations like Operation Rescue, but rarely accepted direct assistance. Breivik, who emergedfrom the anti-immigrant Norwegian Progress Party (which built links with America’s Tea Party) and drifted into the English/Norwegian Defense League sphere of extremism, but who appeared to act without formal organizational support, reflects the same leaderless resistance style as America’s anti-abortion terrorists.
While in many ways Breivik shares core similarities with other right-wing anti-government terrorists, he is the product of a movement that is relatively new, increasingly dangerous, and poorly understood. I described the movement in detail in my “Axis of Islamophobia” piece, noting its simultaneous projection of anti-Semitic themes on Muslim immigrants and the appeal of Israel as a Fort Apache on the front lines of the war on terror, holding the line against the Eastern barbarian hordes. Breivik’s writings embody this seemingly novel fusion, particularly in his obsession with “Cultural Marxism,” an increasingly popular far-right concept that positions the (mostly Jewish) Frankfurt School as the originators of multiculturalism, combined with his call to “influence other cultural conservatives to come to our…pro-Israel line.”
Breivik and other members of Europe’s new extreme right are fixated on the fear of the “demographic Jihad,” or being out-populated by overly fertile Muslim immigrants. They see themselves as Crusader warriors fighting a racial/religious holy war to preserve Western Civilization. Thus they turn for inspiration to Israel, the only ethnocracy in the world, a country that substantially bases its policies towards the Palestinians on what its leaders call “demographic considerations.” This is why Israeli flags invariably fly above black-masked English Defense League mobs, and why Geert Wilders, the most prominent Islamophobic politician in the world, routinely travels to Israel to demand the forced transfer of Palestinians.
Judging from Breivik’s writings, his hysterical hatred of the Labor Party’s immigration policies and tolerance of Muslim immigrants likely led him target the government-operated summer camp at Utoya. For years, the far-right has singled Norway out as a special hotbed of pro-Islam, pro-Palestinian sentiment, thanks largely to its ruling Labor Party. In 2010, for instance, the English Defense League called Norway a future site of “Islamohell,” “where unadulterated political correctness has ruled the roost, with sharp talons, for decades.” Yesterday, when the Wall Street Journal editorial page rushed to blame Muslim terrorists for what turned out to be Breivik’s killing spree, it slammed the Norwegian government for pulling troops from Afghanistan and demanding that Israel end its siege of Gaza. For his part, Breivik branded the Labor Party as “traitors.”
There is no clear evidence that Breivik’s support for the Israeli right played any part in his killing spree. Nor does he appear to have any connection with the Israeli government. However, it is worth noting that in November 2010, the Israeli government joined the right-wing pile on,accusing the Norwegian government of “anti-Israel incitement” for funding a trip for students to New York to see the “Gaza Monologues” play. Then, the day before Breivik’s terror attack, which he planned long in advance, Norway’s Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stor visited the Labor Youth camp at Utoya. There, he was met with demands to support the global BDS movement and to support the Palestinian Authority’s unilateral statehood bid. “The Palestinians must have their own state, the occupation must end, the wall must be demolished and it must happen now,” the Foreign Minister declared, earning cheers from the audience.
Breivik’s writings offer much more than a window into the motives that led him to commit terror. They can also be read as an embodiment of the mentality of a new and internationalized far-right movement that not only mobilizes hatred against Muslims, but is also able to produce figures who will kill innocent non-Muslims to save the Western way of life.
UN report: Israel boarded the Mavi Marmara with ‘an intention to kill’
Jul 24, 2011
Kate
Report: UN panel rules IDF boarded Marmara ‘to kill’
Ynet 24 July — The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet said Sunday that the Palmer report on last year’sGaza-bound flotilla is expected to be released this week. According to the newspaper, the UN-appointed panel to investigate the raid on the Mavi Marmara vessel has ruled that IDF soldiers boarded the ship with an intention to kill. The Turkish daily claimed that this assertion is what prompted the debate within Israel’s government on whether the Jewish State should issue an apology to Turkey … The Turkish daily claimed that this assertion is what prompted the debate within Israel’s government on whether the Jewish State should issue an apology to Turkey.
And more news from Today in Palestine:
Settlements
Barak seeks to delay Migron razing
Ynet 24 July — Defense minister set to seek High Court approval for postponement of outpost demolition in bid to prevent violence … The State made a commitment to the Supreme Court to demolish the three structures, which were built in April, within 45 days. The demolition date passed on Sunday.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Israeli forces
IDF’s reply confirms collective punishment of Palestinian village / Noam Sheizaf
22 July — On Saturday night, I posted a clip showing IDF forces shooting tear gas and throwing stun grenades at Palestinian houses in the middle of the night. The incident occurred in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, where unarmed protest against the confiscation of the village’s land takes place every Friday … Here is the video again … Note that there is nothing else happening in the street, and there is no Palestinian in sight. The soldiers aren’t under any kind of threat. On Sunday morning, I contacted IDF Spokesperson for a comment on the video. It took them the entire week, but I finally got a reply … From my own personal experience as a soldier and an officer in the West Bank, I can testify that these forms of collective punishment against Palestinian civilians who happen to live where protest is taking place is very common. The only unique thing about this incident is that it was caught on tape.
link to www.promisedlandblog.com
Violent confrontations after IOF storms Doheisha refugee camp
BETHLEHEM (PIC) 24 July — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed the Doheisha refugee camp in Bethlehem in six armored vehicles before dawn Sunday and fired sonic bombs when they reached its outskirts. Local sources said that the sound of the explosions woke up the inhabitants and some of the young men ventured into the streets to confront the invading troops. They said that the soldiers responded to the stone throwing youths by firing rubber bullets and teargas canisters in which they described as “violent” confrontations. The sources noted that some of those canisters fell in the yards of many houses causing fainting among a number of citizens, while a youth sustained burns in his shoulder when one of those canisters directly hit him.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
IOF armored vehicles roll into central Gaza
GAZA (PIC) 24 July — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in armored vehicles raided the central Gaza Strip near Breij refugee camp on Sunday morning and bulldozed cultivated land lots, local sources said. They added that the IOF troops advanced 300 hundred meters east of Breij and leveled agricultural land amidst heavy shooting, but no casualties were reported. The IOF troops routinely raid Gaza border areas in a bid to impose a buffer zone, a thing rejected by the Palestinians.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Gaza
IDF shoots live ammunition at ISM activists at sea
ISM 24 July — On Saturday the ISM crew for CPS Gaza rode out on the trawler that rescued us during the second attack on the Oliva on Thursday, July 14th. As I mentioned before, the Oliva project is currently on an indefinite hiatus. Nils, Joe and I went to the port at 7:10 am and we rode out to sea around 7:30. There were 3 adult Palestinian men on the boat and two young boys. Joe, Nils and I sat on the deck of the ship’s bow and the captain and other passengers stayed in the middle and back of the vessel. Around the 2 to 2.5 mile point we spotted the Israelis coming towards us from the north. When they were still about a mile’s distance from us I called them over the radio and said that we were “Unarmed international observers on board, 2 United States citizens and one Swedish citizen.” I repeated this a number of times but they continued to approach us at a high speed. Joe and I were on the bow of the boat when we noticed that the Israeli Navy was now about 100 meters from us and had fired 2 shots into the water. We retreated to the center of the boat where the steering cabin is and I repeated again over the radio that we were “unarmed international observers.” This did nothing to sway their actions and they fired live rounds both in the water and directly at the boat for around 15 or 20 minutes.
link to palsolidarity.org
Video: Gaza fishermen swamped by Israeli gunboats and water cannon
Guardian 24 July — Harriet Sherwood watches the Israeli navy force back Palestinians who dispute ‘security’ fishing limit — Hani al-Asi, a fisherman since the age of 11 and a father with 12 mouths to feed, had just begun throwing his lines into the Mediterranean when an Israeli gunboat sped towards his traditional hasaka. With a machine gun mounted at the rear and half a dozen armed soldiers on the bridge, the navy vessel repeatedly circled the small fishing boat. The rolling waves caused by the backwash threatened to swamp it. Asi had stopped his boat over an artificial reef created by dumped cars to attract the dwindling fish population. He was just beyond the limit of three nautical miles from the Gaza shoreline set by the Israeli military for Palestinian fishermen, beyond which they are forbidden to fish for “security reasons”.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Gaza’s tunnels: an inside perspective / Alexandra Robinson, Gaza
MEO 24 July — “Complimentary tour of the Rafah tunnels.” I received this offer a few weeks after arriving in Gaza. In a conversation I was having with my colleague, Joe Catron, it came up that a friend of ours from Gaza City had given an open invitation for us to tour the tunnels. For the purpose of this article we’ll refer to her as ‘X’ … We visited two different tunnel zones, the first one, Salah Din Gate, is right at the border with Egypt. The Egyptian side is visible and the tunnels in this area are short, on average ranging a distance of only 10 to 50 meters before reaching the Egyptian side. We visited two working tunnels in this area and one tunnel that was still being built. There are different types of tunnels, most of them are well-like structures covered by tents … Risks and reputation aside, the tunnels seem to be functioning as a legitimate and important economic mechanism in Gaza, providing for all sectors imaginable. link to www.middle-east-online.com
Popular committee for refugees suspends UNRWA protests
GAZA (PIC) 24 July — Mu‘een Ukel, the head of the popular committee for refugees in the Gaza Strip, has declared that popular protests against UNRWA were halted due to promises to meet demands … The popular committee had started a series of protests against UNRWA in Gaza that culminated last Thursday with closing the gate to its main premises, which blocked the agency staffers from assuming their work and their inability to reach their offices.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
UNRWA responds to Gaza protests
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 24 July — …Ma‘an asked [UNRWA spokesman Chris] Gunness for UNRWA’s position on the crisis … The refugees and their representatives are naturally angry about the slashing of emergency services and have threatened further action. How worried is UNRWA about this? Because of a $35 million shortfall in its emergency budget, UNRWA in Gaza has been forced to make drastic cuts to its emergency programs. The original emergency appeal of $300 million had already been scaled back to $150 million because of the inadequate donor response and even against this minimum spending requirement, we are $35 million short. The core of the $300 million emergency appeal had been for food assistance to 600,000 people, jobs for 53,000 people, cash assistance for 300,000 abject poor (living on less than $1.6 per day) and basic assistance to public health infrastructure … The real problem is that we are asking our donors to fund emergency programs which aim to mitigate the effects of Israel’s illegal collective punishment of 1.5 million people.
link to www.maannews.net
Flotilla activists still have much to learn about Gaza siege / Amira Hass
Haaretz 24 July — …And in fact, a Canadian-Syrian doctor asked me in amazement, after I tried to explain something about the denial of right of movement of the Palestinians: “Do you mean to say that the closure in Gaza has been going on for 20 years”? Yes, I said, since 1991. I explained to a Spanish actor, who had come straight from the 15-M protest encampment in Madrid, that neither Rafah nor the Israel Navy are the main barriers that must be removed to enable the Palestinians in Gaza to have the freedom of movement to which every human being is entitled. “Cutting off the natural link to the West Bank, which is 50 to 70 kilometers away, is the worst thing in terms of the lives of the residents of the Strip,” I explained to him … But I did repeat the words of my friends in Gaza: “We are not lacking food. Nor clothing and electrical appliances. Medications are lacking because of the quarrel between Ramallah and Gaza. What we lack is the freedom to come and go, to study, to manufacture and export, to go on vacation, to visit friends, to host people here. Like all human beings.”
link to www.haaretz.com
Video: ‘Gazans mostly suffer from racism’
Press TV 24 July — Press TV interviewed James Haywood from Campaign for Palestine who led members of university groups on a trip to Gaza to see with their own eyes conditions on the ground in Gaza. Press TV: What did they say they wanted? Haywood: Freedom, simple as that, the freedom to live normal lives, the freedom to do simple things, just like to go and visit Egypt, simple things like that. It is incredibly difficult for them. The freedom to go and visit where their grandparents grew up, you know, which is now mostly in Israel. The fact that we could go and visit where their grandparents lived, where they were expelled from in 1948, we as Europeans could visit those areas, those towns, those villages but they could not, as Palestinians who had family there. I mean, that is just something that shows how much racism they actually suffer. So it is that basic freedom that they are after more than anything else.
link to www.presstv.ir
In Gaza: the grades
For the past week students have been counting the days until their high school exam results are released. Tawjihi, the last year of high school, is notoriously difficult in Palestine, and many students feel that this year was among the more difficult tests. Some here feel that the reason the test has become more difficult Palestine-wide is, with over 20,000 university and college graduates already sitting unemployed in Gaza alone, not to mention thousands more in the occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, more challenging exams might persuade potential students to go to trade schools or open small businesses like small grocery stores, to decrease the number of new university students and future unemployed. An ironic solution for a nation which prides itself on its high rates of education and higher education.
link to ingaza.wordpress.com
Army: Projectile lands in Negev
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 24 July — A rocket fired from Gaza landed in the Negev desert Sunday afternoon, Israel’s army said after a militant group reportedly claimed responsibility for launching five projectiles.
link to www.maannews.net
European parliamentarians to visit Gaza Strip
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 24 July — A high-profile delegation of European parliamentarians is scheduled to arrive Sunday in the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing on Egypt’s border … The delegation includes the chairman of the British Labour Party Tony Lloyd and Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for the British Ministry of Justice Baroness Falkner.
link to www.maannews.net
Dughmush discusses Rafah crossing, reconciliation with Egyptian intelligence
CAIRO (PIC) 23 July — Secretary general of the popular resistance committees Zakaria Dughmush met in Cairo on Friday night with Egyptian intelligence officials for a discussion on easing traffic restrictions on the Rafah border crossing and inter-Palestinian reconciliation … The Egyptian intelligence officials promised that conditions at Rafah terminal would witness more facilities in the few coming days.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Rafah crossing reopens after 2-day closure
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 24 July — The Rafah border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip will reopen Sunday after a two-day closure, crossings director Ayyoub Abu Shaar said. Abu Shaar told Ma‘an that patients and people who reside in Egypt would be given priority to leave the Gaza Strip and those who had been listed to depart on July 19 would be allowed to travel Sunday.
link to www.maannews.net
Detention
Israeli court extends prison period of longest-held administrative detainee
NABLUS (PIC) 24 July –Tadamun researcher and legal expert Ahmed Tubasi said that an additional three months in administrative detention has been pinned on prisoner Ahmed Nabahan Saqr, from the Askar refugee camp near Nablus. Saqr was first arrested on 28 November 2008 after a night raid on his home. He was then immediately transferred to administrative detention, without charge or trial. The instance was the ninth time his period of detention had been extended.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Palestinian prisoner dies seven months after his release
GAZA (WAFA) 24 July – The Palestinian Prisoners Study Center said Sunday that released prisoner Walid Shaath from Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip died after a stroke, only seven months since his release. Shaath was arrested in 1993 and sentenced to 18 years that he fully served in Israeli prisons. The Palestinian Prisoners Study Center called for an opening of the issue of prisoners’ medical treatment in Israeli prisons, after the rising number of fatalities among Palestinian prisoners due to chronic diseases. The Center warned of Israeli policies of medical neglect and delays in treatment, whose price is paid by Palestinian prisoners immediately after their release, adding that these policies are among the leading causes of death of these prisoners.
link to english.wafa.ps
Political / Diplomatic / International news
Barak: Focus on Europe to stop UN bid
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 24 July — Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday that Israel must exert all efforts to avoid a confrontation with the Palestinian Authority over its plan to seek recognition at the United Nations in September. Barak told Israel’s Army Radio that his government’s main concern was to mobilize European support to stop the PA’s bid.
link to www.maannews.net
Peru, Ecuador to vote for Palestinian membership in UN
ISTANBUL (WAFA) 24 July — Palestinian ambassador to Peru and Ecuador, Walid Abdul Rahim, said Sunday that both countries will vote for Palestinian membership in the UN this September.
link to english.wafa.ps
France to buy Israeli-made drones ending 42-year weapons embargo
Haaretz 24 July — Israel’s Aerospace Industries will sell France its largest and most sophisticated drone, the Eitan, four decades after President Charles de Gaulle banned weapons sales to Israel.
link to www.haaretz.com
Iran: Murder of nuclear scientist is Israeli-American ‘act of terror’
Haaretz 24 July — Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani blamed Israel and the U.S. for themurder of an Iranian nuclear scientist on Saturday, AFP reported Sunday. Larijani was quoted in the Mehr news agency calling the killing an “American-Zionist act of terror.”
link to www.haaretz.com
‘West’s involvement in hit on scientist uncertain’
Ynet 24 July — Mystery surrounding death of Iranian university lecturer intensifies as Tehran’s intelligence minister says hit may not have been carried out by foreign agents
link to www.ynetnews.com
Norway youths discusses Palestine prior to attack
The teenagers who took part in Norway’s ruling party youth camp in the island of Utoya met with Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and demanded he recognize Palestine on Wednesday, two days before the deadly terror attack which left many of them dead.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Other news
Tamar partners in talks to sell gas to Palestinians
Globes 24 July — Delek and Noble Energy are in talks with the Palestinian Authority to sell one billion cubic meters of natural gas to three power stations due to be built … “Globes” found that the Tamar partners and the Palestinians have held several meetings in neutral locations in Amman, Jordan, Cyprus, and Greece … Supplying gas to the Palestinian Authority would enable Israel to end its commitment to supply electricity to Palestinian customers in the West Bank, which will greatly increase Israel Electric Corporation’s (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22) reserves. The Palestinian Authority is IEC’s largest customer, consuming 7% of its output.
link to www.globes.co.il
Israel seeks to strip convicted terrorists’ families of state allowances
Haaretz 24 July — Bill part of the ‘citizenship and loyalty’ initiative by Yisrael Beiteinu party; proposed law aims to revoke pension, welfare of families of Israeli citizens convicted of terror against the State of Israel. [Does this include Jewish terrorists’ families? And this is collective punishment again, like the demolition of suicide bombers’ families’ homes in the past, and like arresting the relatives of detainees to get them to talk.]
link to www.haaretz.com
Israelis rank economy as top concern, survey finds
Haaretz 24 July — More Israelis dissatisfied with the government’s social, economic policies than with international political situation, says poll conducted by the War and Peace Index.
link to www.haaretz.com
New soldiers want Golani
Ynet 23 July — IDF says new recruits show high motivation to join combat units, Golani most popular choice
link to www.ynetnews.com
New: ‘Segregated Facebook’ for haredim
Ynet 24 July — Welcome to FaceGlat – ‘kosher’ social network for ultra-Orthodox public. Women please sign up on the left, men on the right. And why can’t married people connect? ‘They can meet at home, on the sofa in their living room,’ says website’s manager
link to www.ynetnews.com
Analysis / Opinion
Video: ‘PLO seeks to redefine Israel conflict’
Press TV 24 July — interview with international law researcher Munir Nuseibah. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) seems to be trying to redefine the conflict with Israel as state versus state, says an international law expert.
link to www.presstv.ir
The promise of the tent protests / Gideon Levy
Haaretz 24 July After generations of apathetic and submissive Israelis that blindly put their fates in the hands of politicians, perhaps the young people of Rothschild [Boulevard], who are a little bit spoiled, will teach them that they were mistaken.
link to www.haaretz.com
Israelis protest housing problem but make no connection to the occupation / Aziz Abu Sahah
972mag 24 July — The current Israeli government’s focus on improving living standards in settlements and neglect of the rest of the Israel is a moral failure … According to a Peace Nowreport published on July 20, settlers in the West Bank receive 69 percent discount on the value of the land (so that buyers have to pay only 31 percent of the price of the land) and 50 percent funding of the development costs of the building project. In 2009 Israel investment of settlements public building (excluding East Jerusalem) was 431 million shekels, which was 15.36 percent of all public investment in construction for housing that year, despite the fact that they compose only 4 percent of the residents of Israel. Israel’s focus on sustaining the occupation and growing settlements is paid for by reducing development and the quality of life in the rest of Israel.
link to 972mag.com
If only Rothschild were a settlement / Dror Etkes
Haaretz 24 July — Six governments preferred to encourage Israelis to go and live on settlements rather than in the periphery of the country. This had a critical effect on the level of supply in various regions, and therefore on the prices of real estate.
link to www.haaretz.com
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)
www.theheadlines.org (archive)
Breivik manifesto outlines virulent right-wing ideology that fueled Norway massacre
Jul 24, 2011
Alex Kane
A detailed manifesto reportedly written by the alleged perpetrator behind the Norway massacre was posted on the web yesterday by an American blogger. Titled “2083: A European Declaration of Independence,” it sheds significant light on the virulent and extreme right-wing, anti-Islam and anti-immigrant ideology which appears to have fueled Anders Behring Breivik’s murder of over 90 people on Friday.
As the Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah notes:
Anders Behring Breivik saw himself as a holy warrior and crusader engaged in a war against a “Marxist-Islamist alliance” that he feared would take over Europe if not stopped. He hoped by his actions to inspire “thousands” to follow in his path. He described himself as a “martyr” and “resistance fighter.”
He described members of Norway’s Labour Party as “traitors” because of their alleged support of “multiculturalism and Islamisation.” Behring advocated “terror” attacks on mosques, especially during Muslim relgious holidays.
This is according to a 1,500 page manuscript Breivik himself wrote. Norway’s public broadcaster NRK reported on the manuscript and that Breivik had admitted to writing and disseminating it (Google translation of NRK report).
In addition, the manuscript provides a more detailed look at how Breivik’s strong support for extremist Israeli policies fits into his worldview. Professed throughout the manifesto is a motif of unwavering support for Israel–a key component of Breivik and his ilk’s ideology–in addition to support for the mass deportations of Arabs and Muslims from Israel/Palestine. Here are some examples taken from an English translation of the manuscript written by Breivik:
Let’s end the stupid support for the Palestinians that the Eurabians have encouraged, and start supporting our cultural cousin, Israel…(page 338)
I believe Europe should strive for:
A cultural conservative approach where monoculturalism, moral, the nuclear family, a free market, support for Israel and our Christian cousins of the east, law and order and Christendom itself must be central aspects (unlike now). Islam must be re-classified as a political ideology and the Quran and the Hadith banned as the genocidal political tools they are…(page 661)
As part of a “draft” for a so-called “European Declaration of Independence,” Breivik also writes:
A public statement in support of Israel against Muslim aggression should be issued, and the money that has previously been awarded to Palestinians should be allocated partly to Israel’s defence, partly to establish a Global Infidel Defence Fund with the stated goal of disseminating information about Muslim persecution of non-Muslims worldwide
Max Blumenthal succintly explains here why Israel occupies such a central role in the Islamophobic far-right’s imagination:
While in many ways Breivik shares core similarities with other right-wing anti-government terrorists, he is the product of a movement that is relatively new, increasingly dangerous, and poorly understood. I described the movement in detail in my “Axis of Islamophobia” piece, noting its simultaneous projection of anti-Semitic themes on Muslim immigrants and the appeal of Israel as a Fort Apache on the front lines of the war on terror, holding the line against the Eastern barbarian hordes. Breivik’s writings embody this seemingly novel fusion, particularly in his obsession with “Cultural Marxism,” an increasingly popular far-right concept that positions the (mostly Jewish) Frankfurt School as the originators of multiculturalism, combined with his call to “influence other cultural conservatives to come to our…pro-Israel line.”
Breivik and other members of Europe’s new extreme right are fixated on the fear of the “demographic Jihad,” or being out-populated by overly fertile Muslim immigrants. They see themselves as Crusader warriors fighting a racial/religious holy war to preserve Western Civilization. Thus they turn for inspiration to Israel, the only ethnocracy in the world, a country that substantially bases its policies towards the Palestinians on what its leaders call “demographic considerations.” This is why Israeli flags invariably fly above black-masked English Defense League mobs, and why Geert Wilders, the most prominent Islamophobic politician in the world, routinely travels to Israel to demand the forced transfer of Palestinians.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency also picks up the story in an article today, “Norway killer espoused new right-wing, pro-Israel philosophy”:
The confessed perpetrator in the terror attack in Norway espoused a new right-wing philosophy allied with Israel against Islam – a trend in European populist and far-right movements that has Israel worried…
European right-populist parties increasingly have been waving the flag of friendship with Israel. Last month, after it emerged that German-Swedish far-right politician Patrik Brinkmann had met in Berlin with Israeli Likud lawmaker Ayoub Kara, deputy minister for Development of the Negev and Galilee, Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding that Kara be prevented from making further trips abroad.
According to Ynet, Lieberman accused Kara of meeting with neo-Nazis and causing damage to Israel’s image. Brinkman said he had reached out to Israeli rightists hoping to build a coalition against Islam
There are supporters of Israel who refuse to acknowledge the central role right-wing Zionism plays in the current attempt to gin up anti-Muslim sentiment. But the actions and words of Breivik, and those from whom he drew inspiration, make clear that it is imperative to acknowledge, understand and combat what Blumenthal aptly calls the “axis of Islamophobia.”
Alex Kane, a freelance journalist currently based in Amman, Jordan, blogs on Israel/Palestine atalexbkane.wordpress.com, where this post originally appeared. Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.
International community to Gaza’s kids: You can’t be free, but you can be in the Guinness Book of World Records
Jul 24, 2011
Henry Norr
Part of record-setting canvas created by Gaza children.
Credit: UN News Service
The children of Gaza are on a roll, as far as the Guiness Book of World Records goes. A few days ago, as part of the fifth annual Summer Games organized by UNRWA, 5,922 Gaza kids set a world record for creating the largest-ever hand painting – a 5,620-square-metre mosaic of handprints. Last week 2,011 of them set a world record for the largest number of soccer balls dribbled simultaneously. (Last year and the year before they set similar records with basketballs.) In late June about 3,520 of them “flew” (actually flapped, as best I can tell) 176 brightly colored parachutes, shattering a record set five years ago by 1,547 English children playing with 58 parachutes. And on July 28 more than 12,000 Gaza kids will attempt to smash the world record, for the third consecutive year, for simultaneous kite flying.
Children throw balls in the air in celebration after breaking world record for simultaneous dribbling at Rafah.
Credit: Adel hanA, ap.
The news reports on these feats are full of poignant and inspiring quotes from the children. After completing their giant hand-printed canvas, they celebrated their feat by chanting “we want to live, we want to play, we want the world to see” and waving Palestinian flags, according to aXinhua report. “I drew my hand in the fabric and when I put my hand there, I felt like I reached the world,” six-year-old Heba Abu Amra of Rafah told a reporter for the UN News Service covering the hand-printing project.
It’s all very inspiring – further proof of the remarkable resilience the Palestinians have demonstrated for decades. Or, to put it another way, their determination to stay human, in the face of a world that blesses Israel’s denial of their humanity.
Of course, it’s not hard to see the other side of this story: for all the joy I’m sure the Summer Games bring to the children of Gaza and their families, they also serve to divert attention from the crueler realities of these children’s lives: most of their families are dependent on international charity for survival; 45 percent of their parents are unemployed; 85 percent of their drinking water is contaminated; many still don’t have permanent homes because Israel hasn’t allowed reconstruction of the homes it destroyed during Operation Cast Lead; their schools are desperately overcrowded and underequipped; medical care is grossly inadequate (28 percent of essential medicines are out of stock, for example); and so on.
As the photo below shows, the very governments that have supported and assisted Israel in imposing these conditions boast about their generosity in supporting the Summer Games. Talk about adding insult to injury!
Gaza kids play with parachutes, and the U.S., E.U., Australia, and finland boast about their generosity. credit: Arab News.
US is walking back Obama’s ’1967′ line
Jul 24, 2011
Philip Weiss
Daniel Levy at Foreign Policy reports on a US draft statement on Palestine for the Quartet (EU, UN, US, and Russia) that the other members of the Quartet rejected earlier this month. Levy says the US was pulling a “fast one” by using the statement to thwart the greatest immediate threat to Israeli, sorry I mean U.S. interests, the statehood vote in the U.N. Levy concludes that the US opposition to the statehood initiative may well foster a European endrun on the Americans at the U.N., and leave the U.S. and Israel further marginalized internationally. Levy:
The U.S. draft proposal presented to the Quartet did include the President’s language from the May 19 speech, but it also included a whole lot more, all of it skewing, extremely uni-directionally, in Israel’s favor. To the simple May 19 border language of “based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps,” the U.S. added the following from the May 22 speech:
“The parties themselves will negotiate a border between Israel and Palestine that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967, to take account of changes that have taken place over the last 44 years, including the new demographic realities on the ground and the needs of both sides.”
This is essentially America asking the Quartet to endorse illegal Israeli settlement activity that has taken place since 1967 (and in phrasing this as “the parties themselves will negotiate a border…” the U.S. is deviating from its own previous policy of not dictating to the parties). Compare that to the official position of the European Union: “The European Union will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties.”
Remember, the Quartet issued a statement endorsing the president’s May 19 speech; it has never endorsed the May 22 speech.
The U.S. text also included language about Israel that was spoken on both May 19 and May 22 but was not part of the principles or foundations for negotiations set out on May 19 (and it is these principles that the Quartet endorsed). As follows:
“A lasting peace will involve two states for two peoples: Israel as a Jewish state and the homeland of the Jewish people.”
Again, this is terminology that neither the EU nor the Quartet has endorsed in the past. While it may be derived from previous U.N. resolutions (UNGA 181) it is problematic in several respects. It comes at a time when the nationalist chauvinism of the Netanyahu-Lieberman government is creating in practice an ever less democratic rendition of Jewish statehood. And America’s text actually fails to even mention the need for Israel to be a democracy or to respect the equal rights of all citizens (maybe the American drafters did understand more than appears at first glance)….
Liberal Jewish media moralists could do more home cookin
Jul 24, 2011
Philip Weiss
Yesterday I was driving (to Cape Cod, for my mother’s birthday) when I caught On the Media on NPR and heard Brooke Gladstone interviewing Calvin Trillin about his coverage of the Freedom Riders 50 years ago. The segment was a bath of moral affirmation. Trillin reflected on the tension between being an objective reporter and knowing that what he was covering was wrong, and Gladstone extended the civil rights movement to the victory of gay marriage in New York, saying in essence, this is the same struggle and gosh, we have been on the right side both times. Though Trillin said that when he was in high school people made anti-gay slurs without thinking about it. And now we know that was wrong. And then he took a shot at the wicked Murdoch reporters hacking telephones.
The tone of the segment was self-congratulatory: look at the progress our society has made, and we have been in the vanguard. But of course there was not a word about the Palestinians. If you ask why I am injecting this concern into a show about domestic moral questions– well, this is an American Jewish question, that’s why. This is our inheritance. Near my head on the bookshelf of the bedroom I got last night in my parents’ (second) house, there is a book of stories, Gates of Eden, by the director Ethan Coen that includes a 1967 remembrance of a Hebrew School teacher gathering the entire school in the lunchroom during the Six-Day War to talk pugilistically about the Jews taking on the Arabs; and that’s it. The Israel issue of dispossession and second-class citizenship on a racial basis is a live moral question and it’s our inheritance. It is Trillin’s and Gladstone’s too (Trillin said that he had grown up in a family of Yiddish-speaking immigrants; Tablet reports that Gladstone is Jewish (sorry, no links, bad connection)).
I imagine they’d both say, Well that’s complicated. But I bet privileged whites in the Deep South said that was complicated, too.
Trillin said that geography was destiny back then; if you were from Louisiana you were a racist, couldn’t help yourself. And I wonder, To what extent is Jewish geography destiny? If you are a mainstream liberal Jewish media person, you are doomed to paralysis on the great human rights issue of our time and place.
More video emerges of Israeli military attack on Gazan fishermen and international observers
Jul 24, 2011
Kate
VIDEO: Escalation of attacks by the Israeli navy on the CPS Gaza boat
ISM 23 July — Footage of the second water-cannon attack by the Israeli navy against the Civil Peace Service Gaza boat ‘Oliva’ on Thursday, July 14, 2011. The camera used was lost in the sea when the crew evacuated the ‘Oliva’, recovered in a fishing net, and returned on Wednesday, July 20.
And more news from Today in Palestine:
Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid
Al Arakib: Sixty years and the struggle is just beginning / Adam Keller
23 July Al-Arakib [Al-Araqib] is a village in Israel, northeast of Beersheba. A village which does not appear on any map published in this country, a village whose existence the Government of Israel does not recognize and does all in its power to make sure that it would indeed no longer be there – and yet, in spite of all that the government can do, the village is very much alive. At just the moment that I write this, the children of Al-Arakib are very loudly singing and dancing at the center of their village. The village of Al-Arakib existed in the Negev, under the Ottoman Empire, long before a Viennese Jew named Theodor Herzl convened a conference at Zurich, Switzerland to call for the creation of a Jewish state.
link to adam-keller2.blogspot.com
Israel to carry out two new Jewish settlement projects in East Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 23 July — Israel plans on carrying out new settlement projects in Har Homa and Pisgat Ze’ev, Jewish settlements established in occupied East Jerusalem, Israel’s weekly newspaper Kol Ha’ir has revealed. The project in Har Homa, which was erected in Jabal Abu Ghneim, between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, comprises 97 settlement units, seven structures, and a small trading center, with costs at around US $38.3 million. Some of the structures will be built near a park under construction, and among the structures, some will be one unit and some will be made up of 16 units, the source said … The source added that the Pisgat Ze’ev project, in northeast Jerusalem, will include 24 new settlement units and will cost around US $14.7 million.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Sabri: ‘Bitter situation’ in Jerusalem needs urgent action by Arabs, Muslims
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 23 July — …Earlier on Thursday, Al-Aqsa Foundation has reported that units from Israeli intelligence have made repeated ”suspicious” incursions on separate corners of Al-Aqsa Mosque over the past few days. The incursions were made by the director of the Israeli artifacts authority accompanied by Israeli forces, said Al-Aqsa Foundation, who documented the incursions with photographs. The report documents at least three incursions that lasted for several hours each. On one occasion, intelligence elements interrogated students who arrived for lessons.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Netanyahu may be forced to destroy settlers’ homes
Independent 23 July — The government of Benjamin Netanyahu is on course for its first major clash with Israeli settlers in the West Bank, before a court deadline expires tomorrow to destroy three homes which have been built without permission in a hilltop outpost near Ramallah. Israel’s high court last month ordered the destruction within 45 days of three permanent dwellings in Migron, an outpost of 48 families mostly living in caravans. The dwellings were built illegally on land owned by Palestinians. If the government complies, it will be the first time Israel has destroyed permanent settler buildings since 2006, when the bulldozing of nine houses in the Amona outpost triggered violent clashes with Israeli police. Although illegal, even under Israeli law, Migron was given more than $1m (£612,000) by the Israeli ministry of housing and has a road, water, phone lines, electricity and a permanent army patrol. The high court ordered its closure more than three years ago.
link to www.independent.co.uk
Ariel’s mermaid breeding ground
Haaretz 22 July — A visit to the pool in the West Bank settlement’s country club — financed by U.S. Jews and spearheaded by Mayor Ron Nachman — reveals a small-scale, watery melting pot [of different kinds of Jews, that is] …This is mainstream Israel — in the West Bank … The country club, built three years ago, is open only to Ariel residents who pay a membership fee. It features a 400-square-meter fitness room and a semi-Olympic swimming pool with a sliding roof …The complex is surrounded by one-story homes, situated at the foot of a mountain chain. On the other side of the hills, far from the eye, are Palestinian villages. [Really? Looking at the pool (elevation 1962′) on Google Earth, it would seem that it overlooks the slopes down to the village of Marda (nearest house elev. 1533′) — that part of Ariel is built on 47.5% of Marda’s original land. Seeview of Ariel from Marda.]
link to www.haaretz.com
Settlers
Extremist settlers attack Qasra village
West Bank, (Pal Telegraph) 23 July — Extremist settlers attacked yesterday Qasra village in the south of Nablus and slaughtered cattle owned by Palestinians. Ghassan Douglus, in charge of settlements file in the northern part of the West Bank, said that a number of settlers clashed with Palestinian citizens in response to the violent act. He added that the incident was witnessed by Israeli soldiers who finally came to stop the clashes.
link to www.paltelegraph.com
Israeli forces
Israeli soldiers uproot 100 olive trees in Jerusalem-area village
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 23 July — Israeli soldiers Saturday uprooted over 100 fully grown olive trees in Beit Iksa, a village northwest of Jerusalem, and took them to an unidentified destination, according to local residents. Nabil Hababeh, a local activist, said that Israeli soldiers leveled the land after uprooting the trees to hide what it had done. He said army bulldozers were also razing large areas of the village farm land under the pretext of digging for water wells and building a barrier between the village and the nearby Jewish settlement of Ramot. He said that Israeli soldiers arrested Mohammad Hababeh, 21, when he protested against Israeli bulldozers uprooting 42 olive trees that belong to his family and which were their only source of livelihood. Israeli soldiers also battered Palestinians who attempted to stop the bulldozers from uprooting more olive trees.
link to english.wafa.ps
Al-Khalil (Hebron) Nighttime home raids in the Old City / Jessie Smith
[photos] Christian Peacemaker Teams 23 July — In the last month, a new brigade of Israeli soldiers has arrived in Hebron and Palestinians have reported an increase in the number of home invasions. Raheb, mother of five young girls, recounted the hour-long raid of her home describing how they first searched the roof, then entered their home where her girls were asleep. Soldiers proceeded to empty drawers, pull apart bedding and search the kitchen. Raheb questioned the soldiers; “Why are you here?” The only answer she received that evening was another question; “Where are your men?” The men of the household were outside on the street having been detained by the soldiers. Two of Raheb’s five daughters slept through the raid, while the other three watched in terror.
link to cpt.org
Gaza
Gaza health official: PA failing to send medicine
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 23 July — Gaza Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf Al-Qedra on Saturday accused the Palestinian Authority of trying to obstruct national unity by failing to send sufficient medicine to the Gaza Strip. Al-Qedra said the Hamas-run health ministry sent lists of Gaza’s medical needs to the PA but that the Ramallah-based government still did not send enough medicine. The Hamas spokesman said the health sector had been in crisis since early June due to severe shortages of 163 medicines and 149 items of medical equipment. One-third of the patients in Gaza’s hospital were affected, he said.
link to www.maannews.net
In Gaza: Gaza reality
[photos] 21 July — After reading so many reports (for years) on Gaza’s failing health system and economy, I became a bit numb to the reality of what zero-stock drugs and supplies, and over 45% unemployment of the working age actually means. I know it means people with serious diseases like cancer, diabetes, hypertension, psychological disease, kidney failure… suffer for want of treatment, and that the thousands of new university and college graduates sit jobless, parents sit jobless and line for food aid, families suffer. But the words ‘shortage’ or ‘suffer’ or ‘crisis’ don’t suffice. Nor even the numbers or facts which should shock, especially considering that these are long-term shortages, increasing by the year:
link to ingaza.wordpress.com
Activism / Solidarity
Video: Beit Ommar demonstrates against settlement expansion, 23 July 2011
PSP 23 July — Demonstrators were assaulted in Beit Ommar today, as Israeli military forces attacked the village’s demonstration against the recent rapid expansion of building work in the illegal Karmei Tsur settlement … Even as the demonstration began to leave the area, around 40 soldiers continued to harass and assault the protesters. The soldiers present were part of a unit whose conduct in the area of Beit Ommar has recently been the subject of complaints by human rights groups. One such example is a video recently released by B’Tselem which shows a soldier cocking a loaded gun and pointing it to the face of an unarmed Palestinian.
link to palestinesolidarityproject.org
Videos: Ni‘lin Village – struggle against the Apartheid Wall – 15 & 22 July
link to palestinevideo.blogspot.com
Community leader: Israel is hunting down international supporters
Bethlehem – PNN Exclusive — 23 July — Sami Awad, director of Holy Land Trust, a local NGO that works in developing nonviolent resistance in Palestine, warned on Saturday that Israel is targeting international supporters of Palestinians and is attempting to illegalize their work. Awad’s statement came after Israel deported five French solidarity activists to Jordan on Friday. A group of French activists were crossing an Israeli military checkpoint between Jenin and Tulkarem, soldiers then detained the five and arrested them. The French activists were later taken to a military detention facility before they were deported to Jordan.
link to english.pnn.ps
Political / Diplomatic / International
Abbas says UN Resolution 181 gave Palestinians right to a state
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 23 July — …Abbas, on a visit to Turkey, said that the UN resolution 181, which divided Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state, talked about both an Israeli and a Palestinian state, thus “the establishment of the Israeli state is still conditional on the establishment of a Palestinian state, according to resolution 181.”
link to english.wafa.ps
Fatah official urges release of affiliates detained in Ramallah
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 23 July — Fatah Revolutionary Council member Sufian Abu Zaidah on Saturday urged President Mahmoud Abbas to order the release of Fatah affiliates detained in Ramallah on Thursday. Abu Zaidah said Fatah affiliates were detained by security forces from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority. He said they were arrested because they were originally from Gaza, and noted that the detentions followed the dismissal of former Fatah strongman in Gaza Muhammad Dahlan from the party’s leadership. Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language news site reported that those detained were supporters of Dahlan, who was accused of plotting a takeover.
link to www.maannews.net
Egypt military leader: We will respect all previously signed agreements
Haaretz 23 July — Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi says Egypt will keep working to achieve a stable and sustainable peace in the Middle East; vows to strengthen ties with all Arab states … Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979.
link to www.haaretz.com
Turkish PM: No normalization with Israel without apology and end of Gaza blockade
Haaretz 23 July — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan said on Saturday that his country will not normalize its relations with Israel as long as Israel does not apologize for the killing of nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists during the takeover of the Mavi Marmara ship last year. Erdoǧan, who spoke at the “Palestinian Ambassadors’ Conference” in Istanbul, added Israel should compensate the families of those killed and end the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
link to www.haaretz.com
Dutch unblock charity assets after Hamas accusation
Ynet 21 July — An Amsterdam court overturned on Thursday a government freeze on assets of a charity accused of funneling funds to Palestinian militant group Hamas, citing a lack of evidence.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Fatah Youth condemns Norway attacks
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 23 July — …”It is with consternation that we have received the dramatic news of an awful terrorist attack against a summer camp ran by our comrades of Norwegian Labor Youth ‘AUF,'” the statement said. The Fatah Youth group had taken part in the summer camp in the past on the Island of Utoya, near Oslo … “Fatah Youth has participated for almost 15 years in the same summer camp and our youth has benefited by learning and sharing experiences on democracy and advocacy for peace and justice…
link to www.maannews.net
UN envoy to Lebanon says ceasefire with Israel holding up ‘very well’
dpa 22 July — Michael Williams says while Resolution 1701 that ended hostilities between IDF and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon being upheld, he has no way of knowing if Hezbollah has been receiving massive military aid.
link to www.haaretz.com
Iran: Nuclear scientist shot dead in Tehran
AP 23 July — Gunmen on a motorcycle assassinated an Iranian nuclear physicist on Saturday, Iranian media reports said, in a killing that bore similarities to other slayings of scientists involved in the country’s nuclear work in recent years.
link to www.haaretz.com
Foreign press fed up with PM’s office?
Ynet 23 July — Foreign Press Association threatens to stop covering Prime Minister’s Office’s events over ‘continued harassment’ of its members … “In the past two days, three female reporters in separate incidents were forced to undress, remove their bras and have them placed through an X-ray machine in front of a group of colleagues. In addition, pocketbooks were emptied in public, with personal items also put on display and X-rayed for everyone to see. This type of treatment is unnecessary, humiliating and counterproductive…”
link to www.ynetnews.com
Other news
Dutch band brings music to Palestinian streets
PNN 23 July –– Dutch band, De Fanfare van de Eerste Lief des Nacht (the First Night of Love Brass Band) performed in the streets of Beit Sehour Saturday night, surprising and delighting passersby and shop owners as they played music specially composed for the people there. The band which has performed in Romania, Turkey, Cuba and many places in between has been enjoying their first trip to Palestine. Touring bedouin villages and refugee camps, as well as performing for locals at the Alternative Information Center, the trip has had a deep impact not only on the people who hear them but the band members themselves. … The tour is designed to be interactive, working with children from a refugee camp in the east of Bethlehem and having them play along with the band and dancing in the streets together.
link to english.pnn.ps
Day of fury: Housing protesters converge on Tel Aviv
Ynet 23 July — Nationwide protesters gather in Tel Aviv: Tens of thousands of Israelis angry over skyrocketing housing prices hit Tel Aviv’s streets Saturday evening for a march and rally, as part of the “middle class’ day of fury.”
link to www.ynetnews.com
Analysis / Opinion
Everything in this land is about real estate: Understanding the tent protests / Noam Sheizaf
987mag 22 July — The protest that sprang up out of the blue against rising rent costs, not started by or backed by any political power, is now described as the greatest challenge PM Netanyahu faces on the home front [The Republic of Singapore has 5.1 million people living in a state with an area of 268 sq miles or 694 sq km. Compare Israel’s est. 7,746,000 people on 22,072 sq km, not counting the West Bank. Space does not have to determine everything.]
link to 972mag.com
Fighting for Israel’s soul
Haaretz 22 July — The president of the New Israel Fund, Naomi Chazan, who has been vilified by the right, refuses to surrender, saying the current battle is for the very soul of Israel.
link to www.haaretz.com
Canada clamps down on criticism of Israel / Jillian Kestler-D’Amours
AJ 22 July — In an affront to free speech, Canadian committee declares that criticism of Israel should be considered anti-Semitic — Nearly two years after the first hearings were held in Ottawa, the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism (CPCCA) released a detailed reporton July 7 that found that anti-Semitism is on the rise in Canada, especially on university campuses. While the CPCCA’s final report does contain some cases of real anti-Semitism, the committee has provided little evidence that anti-Semitism has actually increased in Canada in recent years. Instead, it has focused a disproportionate amount of effort and resources on what it calls a so-called “new anti-Semitism”: criticism of Israel. Indeed, the real purpose of the CPCCA coalition seems to be to stifle critiques of Israeli policy and disrupt pro-Palestinian solidarity organizing in Canada, including, most notably, Israeli Apartheid Week events.
link to english.aljazeera.net
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)
www.theheadlines.org (archive)
Targeted Labour gathering on Norwegian island reportedly featured gestures of Palestinian solidarity
Jul 24, 2011
Philip Weiss
The Norwegian press reports that the Utoya Island Youth Meeting that was attacked by the rightwing madman (allegedly, yes!) featured a boycott Israel event– I am told earlier in the same week. And that a Norwegian minister visited and supported the creation of a Palestinian state. Sorry about the clunky link, my laptop aint making hypertext:
link to politisk.tv2.no
And Spengler’s forum, a rightwing site, says that meeting participants in boats were enacting a run on the Gaza blockade.
link to spengler.atimes.net
The Norway massacre and the nexus of Islamophobia and right-wing Zionism
Jul 24, 2011
Alex Kane
Details on the culprit behind yesterday’s massacre in Norway, which saw car bombings in Oslo and a mass shooting attack on the island of Utoya that caused the deaths of at least 91 people, have begun to emerge. While it is still too early for a complete portrait of the killer, Anders Behring Breivik, there are enough details to begin to piece together what’s behind the attack.
Although initial media reports, spurred on by the tweets of former State Department adviser on violent extremism Will McCants, linked the attacks to Islamist extremists, it was in fact an anti-Muslim zealot who committed the murders. An examination of Breivik’s views, and his support for far-right European political movements, makes it clear that only by interrogating the nexus of Islamophobia and right-wing Zionism can one understand the political beliefs behind the terrorist attack.
Breivik is apparently an avid fan of U.S.-based anti-Muslim activists such as Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and Daniel Pipes, and has repeatedly professed his ardent support for Israel. Breivik’s political ideology is illuminated by looking at comments he posted to the right-wing site document.no, which author and journalist Doug Sanders put up.
Here’s a sampling of some of Breivik’s comments:
And then we have the relationship between conservative Muslims and so-called “moderate Muslims”.
There is moderate Nazis, too, that does not support fumigation of rooms and Jews. But they’re still Nazis and will only sit and watch as the conservatives Nazis strike (if it ever happens). If we accept the moderate Nazis as long as they distance themselves from the fumigation of rooms and Jews?
Now it unfortunately already cut himself with Marxists who have already infiltrated-culture, media and educational organizations. These individuals will be tolerated and will even work asprofessors and lecturers at colleges / universities and are thus able to spread their propaganda.
For me it is very hypocritical to treat Muslims, Nazis and Marxists differ. They are all supporters of hate-ideologies…(page 2-3)
What is globalization and modernity to do with mass Muslim immigration?
And you may not have heard and Japan and South Korea? These are successful and modern regimes even if they rejected multiculturalism in the 70’s. Are Japanese and South Koreans goblins?
Can you name ONE country where multiculturalism is successful where Islam is involved? The only historical example is the society without a welfare state with only non-Muslim minorities (U.S.)…(page 7)
We have selected the Vienna School of Thought as the ideological basis. This implies opposition to multiculturalism and Islamization (on cultural grounds). All ideological arguments based on anti-racism. This has proven to be very successful which explains why the modern cultural conservative movement / parties that use the Vienna School of Thought is so successful: the Progress Party,Geert Wilders, document and many others…(page 13)
I consider the future consolidation of the cultural conservative forces on all seven fronts as the most important in Norway and in all Western European countries. It is essential that we work to ensure that all these 7 fronts using the Vienna school of thought, or at least parts of the grunlag for 20-70 year-struggle that lies in front of us.
The book is called, by the way 2083 and is in English, 1100 pages).
To sums up the Vienna school of thought:
-Cultural Conservatism (anti-multiculturalism)
-Against Islamization
-Anti-racist
-Anti-authoritarian (resistance to all authoritarian ideologies of hate)
-Pro-Israel/forsvarer of non-Muslim minorities in Muslim countries
– Defender of the cultural aspects of Christianity
– To reveal the Eurabia project and the Frankfurt School (ny-marxisme/kulturmarxisme/multikulturalisme)
– Is not an economic policy and can collect everything from socialists to capitalists…(page 20)
Daniel Pipes: Leftism and Islam. Muslims, the warriors Marxists Have Been praying for.
link to www.youtube.com
The following summarizes the agenda of many kulturmarxister with Islam, it explains also why those on death and life protecting them. It explains so well why we, the cultural conservatives,are against Islamization and the implementation of these agendas… (page 27)
We must therefore make sure to influence other cultural conservatives to come to our anti-rasistiske/pro-homser/pro-Israel line. When they reach this line, one can take it to the next level…(page 41)
Breivik’s right-wing pro-Israel line, combined with his antipathy to Muslims, is just one example of the European far-right’s ideology, exemplified by groups such as the English Defense League (EDL). The EDL, a group Breivik praises, along with the anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders, share with Breivik an admiration for Israel.
Anti-Muslim activists and right-wing Zionists share a political narrative that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a “clash of civilizations,” one in which Judeo-Christian culture is under attack by Islam. Israel, in this narrative, is the West’s bulwark against the threat that Islam is posing to Europe and the United States. The nexus of Islamophobia and right-wing Zionism was clearly on display during last summer’s “Ground Zero mosque” hysteria, which culminated in a rally where Geller and Wilders addressed a crowd that included members of the EDL waving Israeli flags.
This comment by Breivik is one example of the twisted way in which Islamophobia and a militant pro-Israel ideology fit together:
Cultural conservatives disagree when they believe the conflict is based on Islamic imperialism,that Islam is a political ideology and not a race.
Cultural conservatives believe Israel has a right to protect themselves against the Jihad.
Kulturmarxistene refuses to recognize the fact that Islam’s political doctrine is relevant and essential. They can never admit to or support this because they believe that this is primarily about a race war – that Israel hates Arabs (breed).
As long as you can not agree on the fundamental perceptions of reality are too naive to expect that one to come to any conclusion.Before one at all can begin to discuss this conflict must first agree on the fundamental truths of Islam’s political doctrine.
Most people here have great insight in key Muslim concepts that al-taqiiya (political deceit), naskh (Quranic abrogation) and Jihad. The problem is that kulturmarxister refuses to recognizet hese concepts.They can not recognize these key Muslim concepts. For if they do so erodes the primary argument that Israel is a “racist state” and that this is a race war (Israelis vs. Arabs) and not defense against Jihad (Kafr vs. Ummah)