Mubarak and Anti-Semitism: A Boomerang Effect?
Mubarak is gone, chased from power by the pressure of the Egyptian “street,” but also by that of Western capitals and the Western media. The latter made itself virtually as a whole into the propaganda arm of the “revolution,” ceaselessly extolling its virtues, while steadfastly refusing to see, much less examine, its dark side.
As I showed in two previous PJM reports (see here and here), the evidence of anti-Semitic and/or anti-Israeli sentiment among the anti-Mubarak protests was extensive. Moreover, the evidence reveals not only the protestors’ hostility to Israel and/or Jews as such, but also that this hostility was inseparable from their opposition to Mubarak. Hence, the numerous portraits of Mubarak with a Star of David scrawled on his face or forehead. Arabic speakers have confirmed to me that many of the signs carried by protestors identified Mubarak as an Israeli “agent” or “spy.”
As such evidence began trickling out, a common response among supporters of the “revolution” was to suggest that the pro-Mubarak forces were also employing anti-Semitic insults against the protestors and/or foreign journalists. Such claims were typically unsupported by any evidence at all, let alone the mass of evidence revealing the anti-Semitic/“anti-Zionist” current among the protestors themselves. The ultimate source for the claims appears to have been Al Jazeera.
There is also, however, a more sophisticated variant of the same sort of argument. According to this variant, Mubarak has fallen victim to a kind of “boomerang effect.” He had himself been responsible for fomenting the widespread anti-Semitism in Egyptian society, and hence if he had now become the principal target of this anti-Semitism, he was merely reaping what he had sowed.
Now, there has been some evidence offered in support of the latter charge. Such evidence was gathered, notably, in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed by Max Boot titled “Hosni Mubarak, Troublesome Ally.” Boot accuses Mubarak of “turning a blind eye to the rabid anti-Semitism and anti-Westernism that polluted Egypt’s state-controlled news media and mosques,” and he cites several examples culled from the Middle East media watchdog group MEMRI.
The problem, however, is that the evidence adduced by Boot is weak and highly ambiguous. Indeed, some of the supposedly “state-controlled media” from which the examples derive are not state-controlled at all. They are private media. More to the point, not only are they private media, but they are private media that are associated precisely with the opposition that brought down Mubarak.
Let us consider Boot’s examples one-by-one. Immediately after invoking Mubarak’s “state-controlled media,” Boot cites a sermon in which the Egyptian cleric Hussam Fawzi Jabar stated that “Hitler was right to do what he did to the Jews.” The sermon — in effect, an extended anti-Semitic tirade — was televised. Excerpts from it are available on the MEMRI website here. The sermon was not, however, broadcast on any “state-controlled” channel, but rather on the private religious channel Al-Nas.
The broadcast of Jabar’s sermon took place in July 2010. Just three months later, in October, the Mubarak government banned Al-Nas and several other religious channels, citing, among other things, their “incitement to religious hatred.” (See the report in the English edition of the Egyptian daily Al Masry Al Youm here.) This is hardly, then, a probative example of Mubarak “closing his eyes.” Ironically, the ban was mentioned in the Western media as evidence of the Mubarak government “cracking down” on press freedoms and attempting to “muzzle” the opposition. Combined with warnings issued to other religious channels, the ban prompted Muslim Brotherhood attorney Montasser Al Zayat to complain of “government harassment.”
Maybe the better answer is that everyone, including the government, the media, and society, is Anti-Semitic and hates the Jews.
I think you are right. Read “Now they call Me Infidel” by Nora Darwish for confirmation.
Some people notice something because it is brought to their attention when they weren’t thinking about it by its obvious presence.
You seem to have that obvious presence in your mind first and then go out and hunt for things to back it up.
So Egyptians don’t like Jews. So what? Lot’s of people don’t like lots of other people. You think Jews would be a typical example themselves of Islamophiles? To extend that thinking to mean that the protests were somehow specifically anti-Jewish is wrong.
To suggest that Egyptians hate Jews more or as much as living under emergency laws, being tortured, extorted by officials and being paid 75 dollars or 150 dollars a month to live, among other issues, is kind of silly and reveals a self-absorbtion that rivals black American culture in that everything, every event, every movie, every book, every job, is looked at through a lens of self-fascination and an assumption of hate that in fact, the entirety of the rest of the world doesn’t share.
People complain endlessly about muslims coming to Europe by immigration and wanting to set up a state that is based on Islamic religious precepts.
Isn’t that scenario what took place in the British Mandate of Palestine? Isn’t the reason Jews in Israel worry about its Israeli muslim citizens because of the possibility that a specifically Jewish sovereignty might be threatened by demographics and votes in the government? Let’s not go nuts on the Palestinian Arabs for not handing out presents as the result of 1,000 years of European anti-Semitism punctuated by the Holocaust being dumped on their unsuspecting heads no matter how ill-advised their response to this reality was.
If the Palestinian Arabs are to be criticized for anything it is their unwillingness to deal with the failure of their response to Jewish immigration into the British Mandate and surrender to the reality of the fate that has overtaken them but not for disliking the co-opting of a still born Palestinian nation. And to criticize Egypt for not being Jewish cheerleaders or at least neutral in 1947 is a zeitgeist nowhere to be found in your own writings.
Try this one on for size: try getting along together and don’t come back with, “Well, I would if they would”. You are responsible for your own half of it. Portraying the Egyptian anti-government protesters as a bunch of Jew hating thugs when there is a chance, however slight, that we may see Egypt go from being a de facto muslim version of a “Zionist” state to a truly multicultural democracy isn’t helpful.
Everything is MusBros. this and Iran that and before you know it that lack of faith and absolute confidence that in fact what we are dealing with is just another bunch of bigoted muslims will produce the pariah it is already condemned as before a government and constitution is even set up. I personally think this is a great opportunity for Egypt and one they will fail at but there is no reason to throw gas on this fire.
True rights regardless of race, religion or creed is something the anti-Mubarak faction should strive for in their new constitution because without it, they will not have a real democracy but in a case of that failure, they would be no worse than the so-called democracy in Israel which is, lets face it, a democracy for Jews only in real terms.
It is no defense to suggest that it is survival itself that is the reason a specifically Jewish state exists because that is what was wanted in the first place when it came to the creation of the state of Israel.
You want to lose 80 million new potentially democratic friends on Israel’s border because you claim they are already a Jew hating cause forever lost? Could be a self-fulling prophecy but knock yourself out because war and terrorism are ever so much fun even when the debate and terrorism come to Minnesota or New York who really don’t give a rat’s ass about people who cannot find a way to get along in the land of holy rocks and holy sand and holy everything.
Sure, the Egyptians overwhelmingly side with the Palestinian Arabs and Americans side with Israel – so what? It’s like, what, there’s the good hate and the bad hate? If you lived in a state in the U.S. and 10 million Palestinian Arabs emigrated there and you heard rumors that their intent was to fragment that state and set up a specifically muslim country you would say what? “Welcome, brothers.”?
So here’s my advice: continue to not get along for the next 8 million years and we can just make some pre-fabricated Twin Towers that can be replaced endlessly like Lego buildings.
You dream of hate – I dream of that old Jewish temple on Adly St. in Cairo having Jewish tourist weddings in front of it. That’s a kind of faith too but fine, it’s never going to happen and let’s just run with that.
In this rambling comment, James May seems to dislike Israel as a bigoted state and, alternatively, supports multiculturalism. I don’t know this person, but I would guess that he is a left-leaning anti-Zionist. He seems to stand for a kind of internationalism with self-determination but that is not what “multiculturalism” promises. Rather it is an elite strategy for micromanaging group conflict, and was invented by statist moderate conservatives who were axing the Left. See my website, and for starters, this latest blog: http://clarespark.com/2011/02/11/undoing-multiculturalism/.
Nothing you wrote about me is accurate, not even close. In this regard, you are only revealing what you want to believe about me and nothing about what I actually wrote or the truth. If I disagree with your own views then I must be this or that.
This is often the case when one has nothing concrete with which to refute a person’s comments. Try this tactic at an open debate and see where it gets you.
In the Vancian sense, your guesses and “seems” are nuncupatory.
When an article appears that shows moderate criticism of events or attitudes in or among Muslims-Arabs, you control yourself pretty well. When one like this comes that illustrates the author’s points about the intense bigotry in Muslim Arab society, you lose it altogether. Your own hatred of Israel, Zionism and Judaism then emerge.
The idea that the founders of Israel were devoted to what you say they were is historically refuted by all evidence. In fact, many of Israel’s current security problems can be traced to the sort of de-facto liberalism that Meir, Dayan, Rabin, Peres and others practiced, all in hopes of avoiding an endless confrontation with the Arab world. They were infused with apologetic attitudes at different levels.
What did it get Israel? Endless international pressure, and now a likely return to pre-67 realities, and ‘James May’ denouncing many Israeli pioneers as horrible racists. Meanwhile, Arabs vote, elect MKs, etc., and a Jew turning the wrong way in the West Bank still runs the risk of being ‘lynched’ – torn apart – every day. Nice going, James May.
To suggest that muslims have cornered the world market on bigotry is its own form of bigoty, as enlightened as the Jewish guy who decried Egyptian anti-Semitism in PJM comments as he himself referred to Egyptians as groveling cowards followed by other commentators who congratulated him on his “clarity”.
If I portrayed Jews as cornering the market on bigotry or as groveling cowards it would be a clear case of anti-Semitism but when applied to muslims only the “clarity” remains and not the bigotry.
I hate neither Judaism, Zionism or Israel; the idea is laughable.
When did I ever refer to Israeli pioneers as horrible racists? I suggested nothing of the kind.
What I actually did suggest is not historically inaccurate but cold fact which I could quote famous Israeli’s as themselves saying and is general history, known to one and all – well mostly. The idea of a state that would be specifically Jewish as a haven for Jews is not a fantasy by me but something that came pre-formed as an idea with Jews into the British Mandate and, coincidence of coincidences, actually occurred and exists today.
The idea that Israel in its present form as a Jewish state was forced on Jews by the intransigence of Palestinian Arabs is a false one as is the idea that Arabs who live within Israel today are fully equal citizens to Jews, something Israeli’s themselves are entirely aware of and do not refute.
In point of fact, the Palestinian Arab reaction to the immigration of Jews into the British Mandate played right into the hands of the men who had no intention of living in a greater state with Arabs and Jews as happy brothers; Jews and Arabs couldn’t and didn’t get along and it was just not in the cards.
Jews in the Mandate didn’t want to be in yet another polity that might eventually overwhelm them and start sticking them in ovens. Jews coming to the Mandate weren’t seeking distance from Europe into friendly Arab hands but a state where they could control their own destiny and that meant enough with the pogroms, murders and genocide.
I neither approve or disapprove of what happened in the British Mandate as it occurred before I was born and no one in Israel or the West Bank is asking me to approve or disapprove and I blame neither side for their initial reactions one to the other; it was and is a very difficult situation.
In passing, your suggestion that Meir was an apologetic liberal is Twilight Zone-ish.
And why would a person turning the wrong way is a de facto war zone expect to feel safe or not be lynched? I myself had this exact lynching not happen to me a week ago when I was ‘lucky’ enough to be detained by the Egyptian secret police as a photographer and released. Had I been allowed to continue I would almost certainly had been assaulted, beaten and robbed by the pro-Mubarak supporters in Talaat Harb Square; this is what happens in the middle of a fight.
I think it’s safe to say that your comments are virtually entirely the opposite of the truth.
James May: Thanks – Excellent comments.
I also feel that the knee-jerk chicken-little reaction of so many in the west that ‘The Muslims are coming, the Muslims are coming!’ is both ignorant and arrogant on our part. Arrogant because we assume that only We Of The West have any ability to enable and live within democracy. Ignorant because we forget our own history when we lacked or rejected democracy and our long struggle to become a people accepting that democracy.
The basic cause of Islamic fascism is, in my view, economic and political repression; that is, the causes are internal to the Middle East dictatorships. I recommend not only Karl Popper’s ‘The Open Society and its Enemies’ for an examination of the disastrous results of a closed society..but also Natan Sharansky’s ‘The Case for Democracy: The power of freedom to overcome tyranny and terror’. In this case, Sharansky, who lives in Israel, writes that “terrorism is primarily a function of the absence of democracy” (p.22).
I have more trust than you do in the ability of Egyptians to develop a constitutional democracy and its concomitant, a capitalist market economy. It’s not easy; you can’t change infrastructures or ideologies that have been in place for generations in the hour-long length of a TV show – but it has to be done. And will be done.
Again, thanks for your insight and comments.
If Mr. May had to spend the rest of his life living in a Middle Eastern country where would he chose to live? In modern, progressive Democratic Israel? Or in one of the Arab-Moslem states?
If you had to spend the rest of your life as an ignorant fear mongerer and utter bigot or as a rational person able to get along with more than 3 people in the world which would you chose to accept the fait accompli?
Let me understand this, Mr. May: A Westerner who would chose to live in Westernized, democratic, prosperous, secular Israel over any of its regressive, anti-Western, xenophobic, intolerant Arab neighbors is an irrational, fearmongering bigot? Your reply doesn’t even qualify as an artful dodge, let alone a rational response.
Secular Israel? Is that the one that’s never had a constitution because there are simply too many people who think that the Torah should be sufficient as a basis of law? That one?
Mate, you worry me. You need help.
Indeed. Nothing to see here. Just move along, please.
(And by the way, if you DO see it, it’s all your fault!)
Still, it’s reassuring to see (or NOT see, whatever) that both Mubarak and anti-Mubarak forces agree on the essentials.
Which should give everyone grounds for hope for Egypt’s future.
John, of course the MB is viciously Judeophobic and has been since its founding in 1928. But I can’t agree with your attempt to exonerate Mubarak and his regime of the charge of Judeophobia. Over the years, the Free Officers regime, which came to power in 1952 and of which Mubarak too was part, regularly engaged in Judeophobic agitprop, in its press, in its electronic media, in the schools and universities under its control, and in the mosque preaching which it could strongly influence. You might also recall that when Nasser was alive, Egypt gave refuge to many Nazi veterans/Nazi war criminals, some of them proficient in propaganda [such as Johann van Leers]. On the other hand, I would not deny that Mubarak may have had Osama al-Baz criticize Judeophobic paranoia when that was convenient or when pressured by Israel. But the overall picture since 1952 has been very ugly. It is interesting that the State Dept did not find time to criticize the Judeophobic indoctrination in Egypt over the years.
Anyhow, I asked an old acquaintance who knows Arabic very well and regularly reads the Arab press, to read your article and give me his response and his informed opinion. Here is his email response below the broken line:
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I’m pretty sure the anti-semitic stuff was going on on mubarak’s state-media and in all other Egyptian media. the regime uses anti-semitism to vent the “street” anger to the Jews instead of government. of course the opposition, esp. the MB, are virulently anti-semitic, they dont need mubarak for that. its also known that sometimes the regime uses islamists, and shuts them down when they dont serve their interests any more.
Where were western liberals when mubarak’s anti-semitism, among his many other crimes, were going on?
From my viewing point there are a number of disparate protesters and there is a minority trying to focus that unrest to support their own agenda, an agenda that may not have any real popular support. That has been a standard operating procedure for this spirit.
Why does the world hate the Jew? Is it because they usually find success at what they do? Is it because they put their effort to providing their own needs rather than try to take someone Else’s profit? Or is it because of prophesy? All of the Above?
The history of the Jews is not a history of warfare for conquest as it was with Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great and Rome. That they did not keep the spirit of the law they were given is well documented but, after occupying their promised land they have not indulged in conquest, even though they had much war usually because they did not follow their teaching.
Likewise the United States has not launched a war of conquest and our history is to return a captured nation to its own people as in Cuba, the Philippines from the Spanish/American war or Germany and Japan from WW II yet we are being infiltrted with a spirit and agenda that looks like one world government. We are supporting the UN which has a lot of the characteristics of the image of the beast in Revelations. The UN is not a country of a national government yet it is usurping power over sovereign nations and dictating rules and regulations contrary to our best interests. It is not compatible with our Constitution yet our own government is its chief financial support.
My observations show that the Muslim is violent but that violence seems to be directed by the Bolshevik revolution which has infiltrated our own government and is directing much of our foreign policies today. If this influence is brought to light and rejected as it should be the changes will be to our and the world’s good. If we continue to support that spirit we are all doomed. As it stands at the moment we are in an untenable position straddling that fence.
It is interesting to note that the Jew, despite being the perpeptual oustsider, has almost never blamed their host countrymen for their poor lot in life. On the contrary, the further down his rights slid, the higher his quest for spirituality, education and longing to improve the world became. Unlike other ethnic groups who have been subjugated throughout history, the Jew never resorted to violence, never played the ‘collective guilt’ game in order to gain favours or reparations. Assimilation, education, improving his own lot and that of the world around him has always been paramount for the Jew. On the flip side of that, it has led to hatred, violence and jealousy on the part of others who prefer to live off the government and take the vitriol of their wicked leaders as the gospel truth. Those who prefer to curse the dark rather than light a candle will certainly never progress in this world.
Did you really write that “the UN…has a lot of characteristics of The Beast in Revelations”?
Not since Charles Manson got his instructions from the Beatles’ White Album has there been such a profound political analysis.
I used to have a friend who was a psychiatrist in Dallas. He told me that every time a patient said, “I’ve figured out the Book of Revelations…” he’d write in his notebook: “Schiz. Haldol.”
Reply to Mr. May.
I read through James May’s lengthy comments. I don’t find him anti-Israel, but he suffers from the common malady of having learned a bowdlerized version of the region’s history. Palestinian Arab anti-Semitism is not a result of having “1000 years of European anti-semitism punctuated by the Holocaust dumped on their unsuspecting heads”. Mr. May, I don’t condemn your views as some others here do. I think you are sincere. But you need to take some time and read the history – of pre-Israel Palestine. It will dispel some of the common myths that you have picked up.
Attributing comments to me I didn’t make and then arguing them has nothing to do with me and is ill-advised.
Nothing I wrote regarding the former British Mandate is inaccurate so I “suffer” from nothing other than one comment I never made.
Here’s a radical notion: the 90 million people of Egypt are important in their own right. They deserve to live in a free and prosperous country, even if that might not be good for Israel.
Or is that too secular-humanist for y’all?
And if these 90 Million free Egyptians decide that you should pay a special tax if you don’t worship a moon god?
Clare Spark an Ayn Rand acolyte has been mocked by her own colleagues for finding anti-Semitism where no mention of Jews or even code words for Jews existed. May’s comments about the Jewish victimhood complex are apt. Mubarak sold out the Palestinians. He was no better than a quisling. So, if a lot of anti-Semitic venting has and continues to occur – isn’t that understandable. Many Jews make horrible generalizations about blacks, Latinos, Arabs, the French, etc. In fact, every ethnic group is guilty of bigotry at one time or another. Jews are prospering like never before. Persecution is a thing of the past. So, some people don’t care for (some) Jews. They’re not in a position to do anything about it. Iran does NOT have the Bomb. Israel has hundreds. So, what’s the problem?
On a side note, there is an interview available on YouTube where Ayn Rand tears us a new one from 1959 while being interviewed by Mike Wallace.
In retrospect, Rand is dead on in the general view.
I find Mr Mays blathering combination of punctuated thoughts – as opposed to a coherent point – entertaining as well as disturbing. Such incoherent jeremiads composed of stream of consciousness bitching and clever wordplay belong in their own blog. ETAB can be his biggest fan. But when you respond to a professionals well formed essay you should be willing to keep your thoughts constrained to the data, logical arguments and context of the content as opposed to your own cognitive distortions.
Nowhere did the author present the anti-governement protestors as a bunch of Jew hating thugs. Nor did he suggest that Egyptians hate Jews more or as much as their own societal problems. He did explore the phenomenon of anti-semitism in the various non-Mubarak forces that is a worthy topic of consideration since we know so little about what the society this revolution actually is likely to create.
There are often reasons to pay close attention to minority perspective regardless of how paranoid they may appear because history has proven that they offer unique insights into how capable of morality that society truly is. Just because the Copts made it through recent events ok doesnt mean that things cant change quickly. Just because the MB and islam didnt dominate the protests doesnt mean they wont take power and have their way. Just because war with israel wasnt the battle cry of the revolution doesnt mean they it will not be. But Mr Rosenthal’s analysis suggests that these possibilities are a little more likely than if the anti-mubarak forces weren’t infected with any level of visible jew hatred.
Dear Mr. Burns, you should take your own advice since Mr. Rosenthal in this essay links to his first essay in this trilogy whose title starts out: “Democracy or Jew-Hatred…” and quite clearly comes down on the side of the latter. I did not pull the term out of a hat.
I am sorry if you suffer from some version of an attention deficit syndrome which prevents you from reading a comment that touched on points here and there: one man’s “blathering” is another man’s lack of concentration.
In fact, Mr. Rosenthal has suggested that this uprising has an equal part of “jew-hatred” which the main stream media is unwilling to hear, instead preferring to think of the uprising as not about Jews.
You accuse me of not being constrained to the “data” but in your own last paragraph highlight future events by the least examples of their having actually appeared; this is not “data” but wishful thinking which by your own, “just because”, admission is not in keeping with what actually occurred in Tahrir Square.
As is usual in these types of rebuttals, one doesn’t see a point by point debate which should be easy to win considering it’s just “blathering”, but nonsensical insults since in point of fact you cannot take your own advice and refrain from “cognitive distortions”.
Next time you try and trip me up you should have some better weaponry.
Speaking of blathering, how in the world does a minority perspective give one insight into a society’s moral capability? Your comments are laced with the least being the most. So much for “data” and “blathering” since you also appear to prefer to continue with hate and mistrust instead of dreaming of a better future.
Mr May,
You say: “one man’s ‘blathering’ is another man’s lack of concentration.” Yes, and they are both yours. Your writing does not present a coherent series of ideas that form any thesis. Just the energized ranting of a self absorbed travel writer. Your interjection of your immature version of zionist/palestinian history among other random ideas makesit clear you have no concept of jewish thought, history and complexity of the adversity jews have been confronted with.
Just because you are on the ground at an event does not mean you have very good perspective on every article related to it. In fact it suggests you dont since you are too close and emotionally involved. Especially if you have little background in the articles content. Doctors look all the time for subtle symptoms rather than acute presenting events. You are like an EMT reporting from the scene of an accident and handing of bits of knowledge to expert doctors who can actually comprehend the big picture from an educated perspective. Every see House? People are entitled to have a ‘presence of mind’ and go look for things such as anti-semitism because they are so damn tricky and yet so proven to be so damn telling.
Just because somebody is looking for something they suspect exists doesnt mean they are self obsessed haters who dont want to get along and who cant appreciate events outside of themselves. There are many books about “Political Anti-semitism”, how unique, powerful and instructive a force it is in understanding how democratic a movement will truly be. I recommend you investigate one, just search for that term on amazon since I doubt it will be at your local Cairo bookstore next to Main Kampf. One cannot explain complex concepts in such a forum but if you are sincere about your dreaming of a better future I suggest you learn a little about the past. Just being in the present isnt very impressive if you want to have some credibility when talking about the future.
My writing on “Zionist/Palestine” history is dead on and I challenge you to refute any of it. The fact you chose not to do so in favor of once again resorting to insults is telling. My advice is to not bother since I’ll just smoke you again.
Your idea that the man on the ground who cannot see the forest for the trees then begs the question that the further away one is from Tahrir Square the better a person like you can talk about it.
What childish nonsense.
I never have seen “House” cuz I actually get out of the house rather than making ridiculous statements suggesting those that stay in have the better perspective.
“I’ll just smoke you again” Boy you couldnt smoke me if I leant you a flamethrower and a bucket of benzine. Your mommy is calling and she wants you to come home from Tahrir square right now and do your homework. This is not Yahoo comments section. Your 15 minutes of relevance is over. Take your pictures and shut up.
Im sure we will all watch and see how this plays hoping for a truly pluralistic and egalitarian egypt but knowing history suggests a very different story. Jews, native people of the area are known to have an ancient continuous presence in Egypt. Bat Ye’or, meaning “daughter of the Nile,” wrote eloquently about the destruction of her community and offers great insight into how the modern arab/muslim world treats its minorities and what that means for their future. An Adly St. temple tourist site would not prove egypt to be democratic-it would be a typical monument of jewish defeat. Let them have a few thousand jews living and freely worshiping there and expressing their traditional and modern beliefs in safety. Let them stop using Jews as symbols and concepts but accept them as real equal empowered people. And yes- Let them strive to be as as pluralistic and tolerant a society as their neighbor to the north. Then Egyptian democracy will be worthy of optimism.
Insults aren’t debate but just insults.
Invoking my mother and telling me to “shut up” is something I remember from the playground when I was 7.
In a nutshell:
I hope for a better future (instead of worry about a potentially “problematic” one—even if it’s based on some inconvenient “facts”).
Ergo, I can never be wrong (even if things don’t pan out exactly as they ought to).
And you are forever damned for your pessimism.
QED
James May insults others and then cries when others do the same to him. The following is typical of his hubris:
“My writing on “Zionist/Palestine” history is dead on” (yawn)
“I’ll just smoke you again” (yawn)
James May insults others and then cries when others do the same to him. The following reveal his child-like hubris:
“My “Zionist/Palestine” history is dead on” (yawn)
“I’ll just smoke you again” (yaaaaaaawn)
It is not hubris to point out that others are misinformed who say I am ignorant about history.
Since we cannot have a public debate, tell me about any of the following subjects extemporaneously – no Google.
The Peel Commision, Sykes-Picot agreement, elements that made up the Nakba, the standing of Ilan Pappe in Israel, the Balfour agreement, 1936-39, length and lawful standing of the British Mandate, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem during WW II, number one cause of the ’67 War, who is Jeff Gates?, what is Israel accused of doing in Haiti? I could go on but you get the point.
One person accuses me of being lite on my understanding of the events during and after the British Mandate in an insulting manner and they get it right back as you will now.
It may be child-like hubris but there is little doubt I’d smoke you or your buddy in a public debate without notes on this subject. Rather than insult, tell me why my remark wasn’t dead on. Answer: because you can’t. That is not an insult but the reality of your own ignorance which look very similar from one who actually does suffer from overweening hubris while hiding behind a cute alias.
More playground insults while bewilderingly decrying insults add up to lack of brains. The idea of debating you in a live public forum makes me salivate, not cry. To say it would be humiliating is an understatement.
Haiti? Yes, tell us about Haiti.
Do.
I included this in an essay I wrote last Spring:
In a 2010 essay titled, “Focus on Israel: Harvesting Haitian Organs”, Stephan Lendman descends into madness by charging the Israeli government with taking advantage of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti to steal human organs. He quotes Haaretz as reporting: “The Israel Defense Forces’ aid mission to Haiti left Israel overnight (January 14) with equipment for setting up an emergency field hospital. Around 220 soldiers and officers (were) in the delegation, including 120 medical staff (to) operate the hospital in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.”
Lendman writes, “On January 20, Lebanon’s Al-Manar TV reported on the mission, citing a damning You Tube video posted by an American named T. West from a group called AfriSynergy Productions. ‘The video presents something to think about while exploiting the horrible tragedy that has befallen Haiti where Israeli occupation soldiers are engaged in organ trafficking.’ ”
“Its medical teams apparently are doing it in Haiti, exploiting fresh corpses and the living. The Manar TV cited You Tube said ‘there are people operating in Haiti who do not have a conscience and are members of the search and rescue teams, including the Israeli occupation forces,’ far from home harvesting Haitian organs, and the pickings are plentiful.”
“Apparently, the publicity about providing humanitarian aid is cover for this illicit operation, another crime against humanity among Israel’s growing list, matched and exceeded by its Washington benefactor with generations more practice.”
Incredible stuff by Mr. Lendman which I have quoted for the purpose of showing how far into the muck muslim media like the english language Al-Ahram Weekly, published in Cairo but distributed throughout the Arab world, have to dig to find Western writers that will attack Israel with all the delusional fervor which is de rigueur in the middle east. Contrasting Lendman’s writings destroys the credibility of them all; whatever his agenda or world view it has little to do with reality. Although I quote extensively from Al-Ahram Weekly its articles often represent work syndicated throughout the middle east and sometimes the world in English language newspapers and also on websites which are, of course, global. I was in Egypt when I wrote most of this essay and Al-Ahram Weekly simply the paper I read the most.