Democracy or Jew-Hatred? The Libyan Edition
The virtual entirety of the western media and all western governments appear to be united in their condemnation of Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi and their open or tacit support of the forces seeking to topple his regime. It should be noted that this “opposition to Gaddafi,” as it is typically described in the media accounts, is clearly not now a non-violent opposition — whether it ever was one — but has taken the form rather of an armed rebellion.
Little attention, however, has been paid to the nature and motives of the Libyan “opposition.” Indeed, there is even evidence of the American media editing out aspects that might trouble the simple and reassuring picture of the oppressed masses protesting against tyranny. Consider, for instance, the following AP photo, which accompanies a syndicated article from the New York Times:
The caption reads: “A Libyan man hits a defaced billboard of leader Moammar Gadhafi with a stone during a demonstration against the regime Saturday in Tobruk, a city in eastern Libya.” Note the light red smudge on Gaddafi’s cheek below the backwards swastika. It might be a Star of David, but it is hard to tell.
Now, look at the following AP photo, which appears on Yahoo Korea (hat-tip: Clemens Heni) and which shows the same defaced image:
This view clearly reveals that the light red element is indeed a Star of David. Moreover, it also reveals something else: a dark red Star of David scrawled on Gaddafi’s raised fist. Whether as a result of the original framing or of cropping, the raised fist does not appear in the first photo.
Wire service photos taken at last week’s protests in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi reveal several other examples of Stars of David drawn on portraits or caricatures of Gaddafi. For example, three of the four posters of Gaddafi shown in this collection of photos feature Stars of David. Smaller versions of the same photos, all from Reuters and dated February 23, are shown below:
Just as Hosni Mubarak was hanged in effigy in Cairo’s Tahrir Square one month ago, so too was Gaddafi hanged in effigy in Benghazi. And just as the effigy of Mubarak had a Star of David drawn on it, so too did the effigy of Gaddafi. Oddly enough, although the caption to an AP photo of the hanging effigy of Gaddafi mentioned the Star of David, the reproductions of the photo were frequently too small actually to see it. Here is a close-up detail that makes the Star of David clearly visible:
There is only very limited photographic documentation of the Libyan unrest currently available on Flickr. But the relevant Flickr archives also reveal protesters making the association “Gaddafi=Star of David.” The below detail from a Flickr photo dated February 25 apparently shows youngsters making anti-Gaddafi posters in Benghazi. The caricature at the bottom of the photo depicts Gaddafi holding forth at a podium emblazoned with the Star of David:
It is not clear if the below photo from Al-Arabiya was taken in Libya or at a “solidarity” rally outside Libya:
In any case, photos taken at “solidarity” rallies regularly feature portraits of Gaddafi defaced with Stars of David.
Nonetheless, when the Los Angeles Times’ “Babylon and Beyond” blog published a photo essay titled “Libya: Kadafi caricatures, parodies abound,” no Stars of David were to be seen. It is perhaps not coincidental that the post in fact contains only three photos and only two that are actually from Libya.
So, what does it all mean? The few commentators that have taken note of the Stars of David have as a rule seen them as an occasion to engage in blanket denunciations of Arab and/or Muslim anti-Semitism as such. My earlier collections of photographic materials from the Egypt protests (see here and here) provoked some similar responses. Note that for Israelis, supporters of Israel and/or Jews, such a “pox on all their houses” response is in its own strange way also reassuring. After all, it suggests — quite independently of any concrete evidence — that what is to come after the deposed Arab dictators will at least be no worse in this respect, even if it is no better.
It should be noted, however, that at least one key advisor to Gaddafi — namely, his son Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi — has in fact been known to speak quite positively about Israel. In a 2009 interview with Germany’s ZDF public television, Saif al-Islam praised Israel as a “progressive” country whose economic success should serve as a model for Libya’s own economic development. When German interviewer Claus Kleber suggested that Israel’s economic success might merely be a function of American aide, he responded, “Okay, they have dollars. We have oil and gas. There is no excuse.” (The interview forms part of the ZDF documentary Die Bombe.)
In a 2009 op-ed in the New York Times of all places (hat-tip: Martin Kramer), Saif’s father pleaded for a “one-state solution” to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Such a “one-state solution” would certainly seem to imply the end of Israel as a Jewish state. But the tenor of the editorial can hardly be described as anti-Semitic. Indeed, it is not even unambiguously anti-Zionist. Gaddafi not only recognizes but indeed underscores the history of the persecution of Jews. He even states, “The Jewish people want and deserve their homeland.” Perhaps Gaddafi has expressed himself differently in Arab media. The editorial is, however, consistent with similar remarks that he has made in the European press.
It is also worth noting that Gaddafi’s 2003 decision to abandon Libya’s nuclear arms program will undoubtedly have been seen as a craven act of capitulation by those Arab nationalists and/or Islamists eager to obtain an “Arab bomb” to counter the “Jewish” one.
In any case, one thing is sure: simply averting one’s gaze from the evidence does nothing to clarify its significance.
In the name of Allah and the light of day the cockroaches will be fighting and slaughtering each other as they have always done. Democracy, good luck, dream on.
Just today, in looking over some of the Life magazines that Google has scanned I found this article regarding Jews in 1938. They don’t miss the displacement going on in Europe but I was struck by how benign and complacent the tone was, given what was revealed to the world 7 years later. We should be wary of becoming that complacent this time around.
Oh, they call people Jews because they love Jews. I mean, we call people dogs, but we still love dogs. (If you can see the smarmy sarcasm here, you must be quite a leftist!)
Hey, there aren’t a significant numbers of Jews who live in Libya. When they realize there are no more Jews to murder, they’ll turn on Christians. And when they exhaust the Christians, they’ll fight amongst each other.
But never fear, a true leftist would suggest that this may be how we solve the population problem.
If there are any Jews, when they have eliminated them, they will eliminate Christians and, as they do, call them Jews.
One other note about Moammar’s NYT op-ed. At the very end he acknowledged that the Palestinians had not been expelled!
State enforced ignorance has always been a means of control. Simply give the sheep a target for their helplessness, fear and anger and they will follow you anywhere. Let them become educated and realize that it is those who have kept them ignorant that they should hate and power is lost to the people.
Pretty much like Wisconsin and the SEIU/NEA. Keep the people ignorant, and put incorrect stereotypes out in front of them to focus their anger on, while robbing them blind.
The language may be different, but the game’s the same.
The truly simple and ignorant can be educated. What troubles me are the elites and the intelligentsia of not only the Muslim world, but in the west who believe, recycle and regurgitate ad nauseum all the old bromides.
I have worked with quite a few Muslims who are college educated intellectuals who truly believe that “the Jews” control the world financial system and are the cause of all the wars and strife since time immemorial.
Al Jazeera – the supposed lone voice of reason, moderation and enlightenment in the Arab world – produced and broadcast “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” as a docu-drama to an estimated audience of over 100 million across the Muslim world.
Then there are fiends and useless idiots like Oliver Stone, Noam Chomsky, Harry Belafonte, Howard Zinn, Red Ken Livingston, Michael Moore, Ward Churchill, Calypso Louie Farrakhan and Jesse “Hymie-town” Jackson to name just a few – the supposed voices of western “progressivism” and enlightenment – to whom the vilification of Jews, Israel and American values is as natural as breathing.
One only has to look at the thug tactics in Wisconsin and at the goons who attack the Tea Party rallies to see where we are headed. I mean, what did 0bama mean by the establishment of a domestic security force larger than the US military?
As goes Israel, so goes western civilization. G-d give us the strength to save ourselves from this madness.
I have worked with quite a few Muslims who are college educated intellectuals
There’s a difference between academic intelligence and common sense intelligence. They don’t always come in the same package.
If your “holy” book says kill the infidel, if your media and mosque teaches Israel and Jewish hatred, this is what you get. When the people who are demonstrating have no economic gains, they will divert the hatred towards Israel, the scapegoat of the region.
Sooner or later, Americans will have to deal with the fact that no other nation on the planet has our phobia about (most) ethnic slurs. Even other English-speaking countries use casual ethnic insults as small talk. Grow up and deal with it.
If you want to know how this sort of casual vilification works, do a search for the words “Arab” or “Muslim” in comments on any Pajamas Media story.
The way Muslims routinely speak about Jews, and often behave toward Jews, solely because they are Jews (remember Ilan Halimi?) goes beyond “casual vilification,” into the realm of genocidal barbarism. If you’re more outraged when others speak candidly about that barbarism (toward Jews, or all the kuffar, or daughters who don’t want to shroud themselves), then you’re part of the problem.
Oh Lord, not again. And complete with ‘doublethink’ comments about muslims as “cockroaches”.
I’m waiting for your article on that not uncommon comment in different comments sections here because it is not “hard to tell”.
I can make a list if you want. Or is “groveling”, “cowardly” and “liars” enough of an expression of “laser like clarity” as one non-bigot put it. I take it on faith that were these people born in the middle east they would be anti-Semites.
Wow – try saying those things about Jews and see how far you get here. I agree, there is “clarity” in those bigoted comments but not the kind they themselves think and it is quite a bit more compelling and straight forward than Star of David symbols on the heads of dictators.
It’s fourth down – you should’ve punted on third down. Me, I would’ve punted on 1st down as regards these silly articles which are devoid of context and proportion and cheered by some who are rather more obvious bigots which seems to be an irony entirely lost on you.
+
Does being called a bigot by an idiot mean anything? Time will tell, time will tell.
Glass, baby, when you call Arabs/Muslims “cockroaches” you kinda have to expect to be called a bigot. Feel free to take notes, or I can slow down and use words of one syllable if this is going too fast for you.
If I’m an idiot for calling out people for referring to Arabs and muslims as groveling, cowardly, lying, cockroaches then where in the world does that put you?
In the land of ‘doublethink’ where what is good for the goose is not good for the gander and also, firmly in the province of defending bigotry.
If someone in the liberal media ever got hold of some of these comments it would wreck a lot of good work put in at PJM. My advice is to knock it off.
This is not the fight to fight and nor can it be won. There is plenty of fruitful territory with which to criticize Islam without over-stretching into the very territory you claim to despise and which, trust me, cannot be defended.
Does anybody remember what Gaddafi said just two weeks ago? “Palestinian refugees should capitalize on the wave of popular revolts in the Middle East by massing peacefully on the borders of Israel until it gives in to their demands”. http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/02/13/137492.html
Funny, isn’t it?
The notion of “Democracy” is simply not a worthwhile end-game to pursue – there is a reason that the word never appears in our Constitution.
“Democracy?” —”freedom?”—to what end? To chose another dictatorship? fascism? communism? a Muslim theocracy? “Freedom” for others is not necessarily in our best interest, or long-term health.
I would have thought that here at PJM it didn’t have to be spelled out every time that the Muslims/Arabs referred to are the radical/muslims, cockroaches. But I guess it has to be as political correctness seems to have worn off on more that one would think. As for the other names mentioned I would assume they are your feelings. Ramble on much? Scared of the liberal media? Enough band width, sorry PJM, no more.
Nice try at a save but this is BS. The other comments I was referring were in turn referring to every day Egyptians and done right here at PJM. Why in the world would I be scared of the liberal media – I’m scared of people like you.
As for Burns, he thinks a witness is an idiot since I spent 10 crucial days in Tahrir Square and putting forth 1% posters whose context is questionable in the first place and saying, “They hate Jews” is nonsense as are your own comments since they have no context – none. I am the witness, not you.
You seem to be saying that our perception of antipathy toward Jews in the Middle East is blown out of proportion. Why do you think that? Would you please provide a link to a poll (or some other document) that shows this?
Thanks!
No Richard, I’m not saying that at all and you damn well know it; I am talking about T-A-H-R-I-R Square; 3 strikes on Tahrir means no credibility on Libya.
Hey, knock yourself out. If you want a an article on the HuffPo, Kos or Democracy Now about the CEO of PJM being on Fox and Friends that aims at you bigots undercutting Mr. Simon’s work, just keep up waving the Jews good Muslims bad flag and see where it gets you.
Try and keep your wandering straw man in the cornfields you want to bury PJM under. Cry wolf til no one listens to you. With friends like you…
Why the hostility?
In fact, I didn’t “damn well know it”. It was the impression I got from your posting. I’m not trying to argue with you, I’m just asking for more information on something that I thought you were saying.
Also, I am not a “bigot”, and I resent you jumping to that conclusion.
If that is so I apologize.
Saw a lot of scarecrows coming at me on this one and it may have made me cross-eyed.
Zenga,zenga!
Yet again evidence of various obsession with jews rears its head and its dismissed as insignificant or out of proportion. This series of articles is fascinating. Yet there are those who think every man with eyes is a bigot rather than a witness. The context of a vast history of political antisemitism is insufficient to the willfully blind. The symbols that resonate in public discourse give us great insight into the quality and character of that society.
I wish someone would explain this dichotomy to me. Arabs love Nazis and hate Jews. Since there is so much admiration for Nazis, why do they call Jews, Nazis?
Well said ajai Burns.
The antisemitism we are seeing today is far more widespread, dangerous and deeply rooted than it was in Nazi Germany. This is not some despotic propoganda trick.
What concerns me most is the sheer denial among liberal Jews as we see in the J Street coverage and even among many Israeli Jews.
James May would have seen far fewer signs of antisemitism and nothing much for Jews to worry about while covering the speech at the Berlin Sports Palace in January 1941. That is OK, Jews do not need him to understand. They should expect nothing and take nothing for granted. If the last century has taught anything it is that we Jews need to be responsible for our own security and fate. Nobody will do that for us.
It is not the number of such signs in these Jew-free lands that matters. The symbol of the Jew as the ultimate blood-dripping evil is accepted without question by the vast majority from Iran through North Africa. They dont have to say it out loud anymore that declaring the sky blue. Here we see it again in a context that has nothing to do with Israel, it is the Jew which is evil. As we did see in Tahrir square the mere suspicion of “Jew” is enough to justify the public rape and beating of a young woman.
More straw man nonsense. Now I’m defending Nazi Germany? Dream a little dream of logic moron. What in the 7 hells of idiocy does 1941 have to do with signs at Tahrir Square or Libya? The anti-muslim/Arab bigots here have the distinction of having that link, not me.
Try and stick to the point which so artfully evades you. No surprise since you have no point to make other than by fancifully linking me to nonsense. What’s next? How about the Wansee Conference? Take a nap – you might wake up.
It is a very big and difficult picture is it not? I work and produce well with folks from Lebanon, Palestinian, Egypt and Syria. I am an American Zionist Jew.
So always the idea that we cannot get along confronts everyone. We can. But the political crap gets in the way.
Libya or Egypt is not America. They now have to deal with military rule until what?
My point to you is that for Jews it is not so outspoken when confronting the threat.
You would never defend Nazi Germany. I believe that. That is all retrospective now.
I have no thesis here just hard concerns. US and Israel seem defensive.
Spindok. Dont back down to Mr May who injects his all important self into an argument and then acts surprised when others continue the connection. I dont know the man(nor do I wish to discuss him or with him) but his position reminded me more of an observer of events in 1920s and 1930s Germany.
It must have been easy for some to get caught up in the energy and self absorbtion of so many germanic people suffering from the unfair balance of blame for WWI. I bet the beer filled parties and the energy of those revolutionary times were amazing to be a part of. Willful blindness is not unique to any people or individual. The Jews of Germany loved it so much and thought it the height of human civilization they too were willing the ignore the signs, symbols and language of jews representing evil in the world.
Let us wish the Arabs well in their revolutions. My distrust of them is not greater than my hope for their success. But I will not ignore or excuse their sickly obsession with my people and I will not be distracted by their apologists and useful idiots attacking those who have eyes to see. I think by 1941 Mr Mays ilk would have wised up and been agast. Or perhaps they would have been in a camp somewhere forgotten because they dared to wise up. In any event their priorities are not ours, back then or today.
Well thank you for all those ‘facts’ and intellectual arrogance. I present this argument based on things I saw in Tahrir extrapolated out from the authors inadvisable comments about that event and you present them based of the idea that others who actually see things are misguided and lack perception. No need for debate – you simply ‘are’.
Your most telling statement is “my people”. Go have coffee with this week’s other notable racist, Eric Holder.
One thing is for sure not in your vocabulary and that is straw man; so now I’m an approving spectator of Germany’s descent into madness in the 20s and 30s. Nicely done.
Not having an education is a tragic thing.
Both sides are doing it:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_YEMEN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-03-01-08-16-16
In case people did not know, the Star of David is on Israel’s flag. It is as much a symbol of Israel as it is of Jewish people. I do not think it is a great surprise to anyone that the many Arab’s hate Israel. I am not saying that Arab’s may also not like Jews, but it is not clear if the Star of David is just representing the state of Israel or Jewish people. I think it is imperative to distinguish.
well Brian how did you miss the big noses and blood dripping mouths? the horns on the heads?– in Muslim lands these are synonymous with JEW not ISRAEL- this is not criticism of ISRAEL- it’s the same old, very old, it ever was- JEW to them is the ugliest slur the wickedest insult they can conceive of and so of course they use it on Ghaddafi, who they despise and want dead.
In fact all these images are exactly reproduced from Hitler’s Nazism- the foundations of the so called radical parties are all directly connected to to actual NAZIS- yes this is “normal” for MUslims. They know to tell American and media it’s Zionists they hate but the truth is exposed daily.
When Ghaddafi and Mubarek are gone and in the grave the jewhate will remain in their minds and hearts. The same who minimize it, excuse it, make pretend they can’t see it, re-name it,or say it doesn’t matter are of the same mind as many people before ww2- no, maybe not Nazis or Nazi sympathizers but apologists. People who say “who cares it’s only about Israel” but who in the smallest reaches of their own minds feel it’s deserved, earned or just words.
Jews can’t afford to ignore it becasue it’s a wildly contagious disease that many are unable to avoid infection because they have a very compromised immmune system.
The masses will use whatever means to unite people against Qaddafi. Do not fear these pictures because these are not religious uprisings but rather economic.
Well, they hate us. Is this new? What did you expect? Sorry, but I think many times we’re way too paranoid with this thing of anti-semitism. We see it behind every non-Jew.
These people hate Gaddafi. Israel has a bad image (to say the least) in the whole Arab world. So, it’s quite easy to put both together, if they’re trying to humiliate and show their hate for the dictator.
Trust me, these people have a lot to worry beyound Israel. In fact, many even admit the Palestinian issue has been long used by their leaders do avoid dealing with their own problems.
“It should be noted, however, that at least one key advisor to Gaddafi — namely, his son Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi — has in fact been known to speak quite positively about Israel.”
Given Saif’s behavior and public statements over the past week or two, it’s pretty clear that all his statements in previous years to the media, which tended to portray him as a West-friendly reformer, were BS. So I’m surprised the author of this post doesn’t apply his skepticism towards Saif.
More to the point, yes, there is anti-Semitism in Libya, but I don’t understand what the author is arguing. Does he thing the US and Israel should actually support Gaddhafi right now?
If you haven’t seen it, look for Zenga, Zenga on You Tube. It was loved by the entire Arab world until it was discovered that it was created by an Israeli. At first the comments were of love, admiration etc. Since the discovery of it being of Israeli origin, there has be a flood of curses and even death threats. Please look it up on You Tube, its worth the trouble.
Gaddafi is without doubt an anti-Semite. That is not the existential issue. He is a lunatic in many other ways. What is happening now has little to do with that particular mental illness.
What happens now has more to do with big time economy and potential military threat. Not much anyone outside can do about it.
Israel should prepare. Economy, military and political.
Never again
Ghaddafi hated the Fakestinians- taxed them higher than everyone else, prevented them from jobs and education, gave no passports, (and this while he presided over the “human rights” (the condemn Israel fanclub) commisssion at United Nitwits) then in the recent uprising threatened to kill them as Hamas spies and sympathizers.
These fakers are hated by all Arabs who just use them as excuse to F**K with Isreal. Yet no UN condemnations, no outcry from “peace groups” lefty jew twostaters, or Un bodies.
They are treated better in Israel than by any Arab nations, such as Lebanon or Jordan. And grandchildren of people who left in a war are not refugees of anything- they have been born outside ISrael and can dangle keys to nothing but they can remain in the countries they were born- let the Muslims take care of their own and pay reparations tothe giant ethnic cleanses of 1948- when Arabs were happy to be rid of JEws so they could steal their money, land and businesses.
I am sick to death of hearing how ISrael needs to make the solution by ethnic cleansing of JEWS from mandated lands- it is Fakestinains who occupy ISrael- all of Jordan, all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza are occupied Israel lands – and if Egypt decides war then Sinai too should go back to Israel. The only right of return they deserve it right back to where they came from—> SYRIA
Kahane was right
yep, kahane was right about everything. jews like him are israel’s only hope of survival.
Another pic, taken at the same time as the two first ones in this post:
http://it.notizie.yahoo.com/foto/galleria/foto-gheddafi.html?imageUrl=/ap/20110226/r_p_ap_wl_mideast/pwl-mideast-libya-ef2cfe9-a73e4ebaa27e&sp=-1
As long as people who adhere to faith traditions other than Islam, or don’t adhere to any faith tradition, can count on less protection than Muslims, when it comes to having grievances, due to man’s inhumanity to man, being redressed; all that has changed is the leopard got a wash. The spots are still the same.
People like James May (and unfortunately there are plenty of them out there) have such a distorted and messed up operating system that it is quite troubling.
So he was at Tahir Square: My condolences.
What’s his point? That the Quran is not anti-Semitic? That the people, in particular the Arabs are not the inheritors of Nazi ideology?
It is me/us who hold the Arab and Muslim accountable for the genocidal hatred that are the racists? To observe, witness and give voice to the fact that Arab Muslims are in there majority enslaved by their own psychotic, delusional ideas of Jew as all powerful, world dominating and controlling hatred makes me/us hateful?
When the Arab Muslim world comes crawling on their collective knees and asks the Jewish people and Allah for forgiveness for their centuries of cruelty, brutality, thievery, and hatred of the Jewish people the world will have peace.
In the meantime James May and his ilk are apologists for inheritors of Nazi ideology. And those who placed him in 1930′s and 40′s Nazi Germany got it spot on. And I do believe James when he complains in his vitriolic fashion that he is outraged and troubled in being called out in this way; for he is a cyclops. Like a spectator who goes to a tennis match and watches only one half of the court – he shows no compassion for the Jewish people – only an identification and a narcissistic indulgence in his “super compassion” for the poor poor Arab who is so victimized in his hell hole of a universe. These Arabs are slaves of slaves and so is James May!
The Libyan Rebels should only have had a Tank General like Sharon, If they did they would be in Tripoli today.As for Christian Infidels, a Patton, Rommel or Montgomery would NOT have sat on their ASS for a week to 10 days after capturing tanks, ammunition and having a source of fuel as the Libyan Rebels did.Momentum is a valuable thing, lose it and things go awry. Those guys thought that NATO (Spelled the USA) would finish their job. We did not and therefore, they might lose. What I loved the most was some Libyan rebels hoping that GWB would rescue them. t least they can tell the difference between George Custer and that Howdy Doody character “Mr. Bluster” who is our President today.
Dr. Shalit