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Category Archives: BCND – BackChannels News Day

FTAC – The Decentralizing of ISIS

03 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, BCND - BackChannels News Day, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iraq, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East

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Tags

Iraq, ISIS, Mosul

Something to know about ISIL: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/12/09/syria-assad-isil-background/

ISIL — the “Islamists” — have been long “played” by Moscow and Tehran as a goad to the west and a useful foil in their feudal struggle to sustain the medieval political absolutism that in turn supports their respective dictatorships.

President Trump’s bearing down on ISIS threatens to remove that plaything from the Moscow-Tehran (old “Red-Green Alliance”) toy box. Under pressure, and as much may have taken place in St. Petersburg earlier today, ISIS has now to displace and redistribute its criminal program.

The kind of manipulation involved between Moscow and an assortment of terrorist organizations may often be indirect. As the editor of Back-Channels, I believe that the al-Qaeda presence in Syria was “incubated” of de-emphasized in Syria’s combat planning, so as to shape and “frame” the look of the developing civil war. That’s what the piece is about, and there’s more online to support it.

Regarding the St. Petersburg train bombing — today’s event — there are some tweets now crediting ISIS with the attack.


The prompt: the suggestion that ISIS was finished in Iraq.

Jared Kushner’s visiting Iraq may be overshadowing the battlefield story.

There may be more signs likes this one, however — http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/islamic-state-kills-imam-mosque-western-mosul/ — that ISIS, ever murderous and disinterested in the fates of the living, has grown desperate in Iraq and gone in for “motivating” resistance by summarily killing those unwilling to cooperate in their own suicides.


Footage of #Iraq's Federal Police using a cart-mounted HMG during a battle with Da'ish in the heart of #Mosul. pic.twitter.com/GlLrzH63pI

— Haidar Sumeri (@IraqiSecurity) April 3, 2017


Reliant on the open source, BackChannels has been finding it difficult to obtain data regarding the ISIS presence in Mosul and elsewhere in the combined Syrian-Iraq Theater of War.   This may be the closest one may get with today’s field reporting:

http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/deploys-women-snipers-fights-harder-remaining-western-mosul-districts/


Some posters on Isis forums linked the explosions to Russia’s backing of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who is fighting Isis as well as other groups in the Syrian civil war.

The group hasn’t yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but often takes as long as a day to do so. If it does claim responsibility for the incident – which it has done with attacks that officials have later said it had no role in – it would be far from the first time it has done so, after it said it had inspired attempted attacks in Chechnya and Russia earlier this year.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/st-petersburg-attacks-isis-russia-bombings-celebrate-islamic-state-response-a7664656.html


“Syria conflict: Raqqa’s civilians foresee last days of Isis: City residents describe a kind of anarchy as jihadis prepare for final battle”: https://www.ft.com/content/db290a58-1847-11e7-a53d-df09f373be87


Note: Undated URL’s were published on the same day as the BackChannels post.

–33–

St. Petersburg Metro Blast – Ten Dead, Thirty Injured – Whodunit?

03 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, BCND - BackChannels News Day, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Psychology, Russia

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media and truth, St. Petersburg train bombing, terrorism

BackChannels doesn’t know which way to go with the latest reports of the bombing of a subway car in St. Petersburg — cynical or sincere?

False flag (remember the “Moscow Apartment Bombings“) or authentic independent action by an enemy of the state?

Islamic terrorists or domestic dissenters?

For catching up:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/03/europe/st-petersburg-russia-explosion/index.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/03/saintpetersburg-bombing-casualties-explosion-metro-train/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/st-petersburg-metro-explosion-russia-bomb-attack-casualties-blue-line-a7664251.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/03/everything-know-explosion-st-petersburg/

BackChannels may experiment here with watch-write updating on this post.

This is a complicated attack made more so by the foreknowledge that the Russian State, if true to form, will frame it for the public and neither the public nor the sincere among police may have access or authority in the investigation launched.

In the west, the public would trust involved security services to get to the truth and to tell the truth.  In Russia, one may expect absolute authority to say what it may and for the public to nod agreeably or mumble away in political impotence.

(more to come)


URGENT | After the #explosion in St #Petersburg metro station, many rash into the station. Police sets containment.pic.twitter.com/w8UWJ08v9P

— Vocal Europe (@thevocaleurope) April 3, 2017


“We ask #allah to bless the ops by the lions of the #caliphate, we ask to kill the Crusaders,” said an #isis supporter from #alMinbar forum.

— PhoenixSecurityGroup (@PSC_Italy) April 3, 2017


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/st-petersburg-attacks-isis-russia-bombings-celebrate-islamic-state-response-a7664656.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-attack-cctv-st-petersburg-bomb-plotter-metro-blast-video-footage-a7664721.html

–33–

 

All Russia Protests Against Corruption – Rolling Tweets

26 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, BCND - BackChannels News Day, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Free Speech, Russia

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All Russia Protests, anti-corruption, dictatorship, kleptocracy, March 26, rallies, Russia, tweets

Order: reverse chronological or most recently encountered material toward the top, a flexible guide.


People protesting in St. Petersburg's Palace Square in 1917 and today, chanting "Down with the Tsar!" pic.twitter.com/hGj5EwO40S

— Russia is fake news (@Mortis_Banned) March 26, 2017


The Guardian’s latest:

Hundreds of protesters have been detained by riot police in cities across Russia, as some of the largest anti-government protests in years swept the country.

The call to protest came from the opposition politician and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, who was himself detained at the Moscow demonstration. A monitoring group said at least 700 people were detained in Moscow alone, while the news agency Tass gave a figure of 500.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/26/opposition-leader-alexei-navalny-arrested-amid-protests-across-russia

The post may exist only to get the Sunday reader started on the “All Russia Protests Against Corruption” (the title is BackChannel’s interpretation of the Russian billing for the event).


Note: many of today’s gatherings across Russia in protest of the Putin regime’s feudal indulgence in theft and corruption (reference: Gary Kasparov’s Winter is Coming and Karen Dawisha’s Putin’s Kleptocracy) have not been permitted by state officials, so all who have responded to the call for protest risk arrest and other methods of political repression known to those who have challenged similar regimes in the past.


Recommended: https://twitter.com/navalny; https://twitter.com/Kasparov63;


Add the supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny now organize such actions in dozens of Russian cities. In many places, authorities have not agreed on the meetings under various pretexts, and some are already there have been reports of detentions.

Prospekt Mira.  “More than a thousand of Krasnoyarsk came to the rally, ‘He told us not to Dimon'”. March 26, 2017.


Screen Capture:

ARuss-StPetersburg-170326-3

Time on the recording: 20:50 Location: Field of Mars, St. Petersburg, Russia
– https://www.periscope.tv/teamnavalny_spb/1nAKEVzDzLXGL?


“I have a couple of times at the meetings asked what my personal motive and whether he is. There is a personal motive, yes. The answer is:”

У меня пару раз на встречах спросили в чём мой личный мотив и есть ли он. Есть личный мотив, да. Отвечаю: https://t.co/yIpmdx3re9

— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) March 26, 2017


Томск сейчас #ДимонОтветит #26марта pic.twitter.com/DQ2IieomVl

— GuDLTOWARIW (@gudl2010) March 26, 2017

“Tomsk is now”

Note: “now” was 4:14 p.m. in Tomsk, Siberia.


Уфа. Опять никто не пришел pic.twitter.com/gpMG2UbBja

— КухаркаУфа (@KyxapkaUfa) March 26, 2017

“Ufa.  Again, no one came.”


Ведущие информационные агенства страны (ТАСС, РИА, Интефакс) про акции, проходящие в разных регионах, не сообщают ни слова. #ДимонОтветит

— Владимир Варфоломеев (@Varfolomeev) March 26, 2017

“The leading news agencies of the country (TASS, RIA, Intefaks) about the actions taking place in different regions, not a word report.”


Protests all over Russia today. This is Tomsk. https://t.co/4cwTm6pSwr

— Anders Östlund (@andersostlund) March 26, 2017


На наших глазах сейчас рушится пропагандистский миф о "маргинальном меньшинстве", не пользующемся поддержкой народа https://t.co/kiBqjJqX1R

— Владислав Наганов (@naganoff_ru) March 26, 2017

“Before our eyes is now crumbling propaganda myth of the ‘marginal minority’ do not enjoy the support of the people.”

Vladislav Naganov@ naganoff_ru

Urban District Deputy # Khimki # Moscow// # Dubna # Dmitrov # Taldom // info@naganov.ru

Moscow, Russia
facebook.com/naganoff
Joined February 2011
Born in 1984


Who, what, where, when: above.

Why: below.

“The Italian Minister of the residence and you pay for it” (machine translated); posted to YouTube March 16, 2017.  English subtitles available using the “cc” (caption) control.


–33–

BackChannels News Day, March 4, 2017

04 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by commart in BCND - BackChannels News Day, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

editor's news feed, foreign affairs, pro-democracy, pro-human rights

Today’s compilation may be light – what am I even doing here at the computer, and so early?  Still, my eyes see a lot of political coverage from around the world having to do with the support of democracy and its liberal humanist values.

This kind of post has had its own category on BackChannels for years, but has not been a staple for the blog.  The writing by others and the reading is so good an spot-on it would be a shame not to share on one sheet.

The links may be dated variously but close to the day encountered (or not — I’ll have to make up my mind about that).

http://hotair.com/archives/2017/03/03/sen-coons-fbi-has-transcripts-showing-collusion-between-putin-trump-campaign/ – 3/3/2017.

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/melik-kaylan/mysterious-circumstances-surrounding-russian-murders-deaths – 3/17/2017.

http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/04/gop-media-strategist-reminds-trump-fbi-granted-fisa-warrant-covering-ties-russia.html – 3/4/2017.


Georgetown Prof: “Is Islam an Enemy of the West? It Does Seem Like Such a Ridiculous Question, Doesn’t It?”

MARCH 3, 2017 6:39 PM BY ANDREW HARROD48 COMMENTS

“Is Islam an enemy of the West? It does seem like such a ridiculous question, doesn’t it?” asked Georgetown University professor Tamara Sonn on February 22 at its Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU). What seemed manifestly obvious to this Qatar-funded Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor in the History of Islam at the ACMCU presentation of her new, eponymously-titled book, is not clear at all to skeptical observers. Thus, her work resembles that of many of her Middle East studies colleagues, who long ago replaced rigorous scholarship of Islam with a fawning approach that blames the West for the region’s systemic problems.

Sonn presented her “little, airport-size book” to an ACMCU conference room filled with about fifty listeners, included like-minded Georgetown colleagues Jonathan Brown, Jordan Denari Duffner, and Father Drew Christianson.

For the whole story:

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/03/georgetown-prof-is-islam-an-enemy-of-the-west-it-does-seem-like-such-a-ridiculous-question-doesnt-it – 3/3/2017

 


Earlier, on Friday, February 24, Head of the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) Natalia Korchak says her agency has received a request from Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk to probe into the finances of Ukrainian State Fiscal Service chief Roman Nasirov`s trip to attend the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

http://uaposition.com/latest-news/ukrainian-tax-services-head-detained-suspected-inflicting-uah-2-bln-damage-budget-including-money-trip-trump-oath/

Ukrainian state agencies sought to detain the head of the tax and customs service on Friday over the alleged embezzlement of around $75 million – a potentially landmark case after patchy anti-graft efforts from the Western-backed authorities.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-corruption-idUSKBN16A0NW


 

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/322330-the-memo-white-house-fails-to-fend-off-russia-questions – 3/4/2017

https://www.wsj.com/articles/western-feminists-snub-an-iranian-heroine-1488413022 – 3/1/2017

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/buried-history-of-ukrainian-famine-finally-told-in-film-bitterharvest/article34183392/ – 3/2/2017

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/trumps-ties-to-russia-amount-to-treachery-to-the-republic.html – 3/3/2017

–33–

FNS – From Phyllis Chesler, Another Note on the Education of Palestinian Adolescents

07 Thursday Nov 2013

Posted by commart in BCND - BackChannels News Day, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Islamic Small Wars, Israel

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Tags

crimes against humanity, education, middle east conflict, propaganda, weaponizing humans

For the first time ever, the New York Times had a front page story about how Hamas is brainwashing its high school students into hating Israel by having them read textbooks with false, defamatory, and one-sided narratives.

According to Fares Akram and Jodi Rudoren, “The books used by 55,000 (Palestinian) children in eighth to tenth grade do not recognize modern Israel or mention the Oslo Peace Accords.”

Hamas is Brainwashing Youngsters – It’s in the NY Times: Kids are brainwashed, writers fear for their lives, Israeli books are banned. Peace? :: The Phyllis Chesler Organization – 11/6/2013.

NYT Article Referenced: To Shape Young Palestinians, Hamas Creates Its Own Textbooks – NYTimes.com – 11/3/2013:

Asked the lesson of the uprising, one of the 40 boys in class promptly answered, “Al Buraq Wall is an Islamic property,” using the Muslim name for the site, one of the holiest in Judaism. Pleased, the teacher then inquired whether the students would boycott Israeli products, as Arabs had boycotted Jewish businesses in 1929. A resounding chorus of “Yes!” came back from the class.

I am telling you the truth: unless they are my targets, those I quote here as authorities tell the truth.

As regards the Palestinian students involved, if they’re in high school, they’re not children: they’re tall and strong enough to kill and dumb enough to swallow the bait fed them by their elders.

Of all the crimes possible against humanity, the misdirecting of the young — let me be clear: the theft of a real education from the very young — would rank highest among them.

# # #

FNS – Egypt — Watching It With You

29 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by commart in BCND - BackChannels News Day, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Egypt, Fast News Share, Islamic Small Wars, Journalism, Middle East, Politics, Regions

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2013, demonstrations, Egypt, June

Most newspaper editors refrained from mockery of Morsi’s predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, during his thirty-year reign, but in the new Egypt, things are different. A law against “insulting” the President remains in the penal code, but illustrators unabashedly lampoon Morsi on a daily basis.

Guyer, Jonathan.  “A Year of Drawing Morsi.”  The New Yorker, June 29, 2013.

I’ll be asking what I’m doing “watching it with you”, but, for a while, I’ll be watching for videos and tweets on what would seem to be shaping up as a bloody day in Egypt.

As the world turns, Cairo’s about six hours ahead of New York City, so no “all nighter” seems necessary here, and, part of answering my own question, I’m not scoopin’ nobody!

If I’ve two cents to add, it’s going to have to do with analysis and reflection.

Themes

Petition to remove President Morsi from office: “Egypt group: 22 million signatures against Morsi”

General violence: “American Killed in Egypt Taught English to Children.”

A friend called a couple of hours ago to commiserate over reports of another gang-type rape of a journalist in association with Egypt’s violence, but one would expect that to play at the top of reports, and an attempt to access a referenced video link sent by the same party seemed only to block my web connection in general.

Reduced street-to-world time in reporting: “Egypt protests set for showdown, violence feared.”  The URL is about two hours old — I think CNN and Reuters are going to “own my eyeballs” as other outfits start begging subscriptions when they really haven’t any monopoly on a large story nor, if narrow casting, all that unique a perspective (but that brings up my motivation too, and it nags me that I might fare better working on much narrowed research by contract).

Lessons yet to be learned:

At 0:32, Hamada Moharram says, “He can’t even rule a village.  This isn’t fair.  The Muslim Brotherhood as a whole is an organization full of corruption.”

Somehow, I just don’t want to play The Who’s “Won’t Fooled Again” again in this spot.

It gets old.

Kind of like the web.

Be that as it may, good luck today, Egypt.

The whole world will be watching.

Try not to horrify it too much.

Syria – An Update – Item One: RT Says Russia Holding On S-300 Delivery

04 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by commart in BCND - BackChannels News Day, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

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Tags

civil war, Russia, Syria

The black hole that is today’s official Syria and Syrian Civil War — a state so dense with evil and steeped in blood that it attracts its own kind and drowns them too — has continued sucking at humanity’s heels.

*****

*****

This is a long clip from Al Jazeera, and I post it with mixed feelings — for length, for “carrying someone else’s water” as some may put it — but the Hezbollah story is integral to my view that events in Syria channel back to Iran, it’s nuclear and missile programs, it’s deeply anti-Semitic / anti-Zionist stance, and from Evin Prison stories back to the “chain murders”, and it’s own inherent evil and hypocrisy demonstrated in both its contempt for human rights and its grandiose ambitions.

*****

In addition to those still most recent YouTube videos, I continue scanning the war news — sadly, there’s more of that around the world than any geek at a computer might look over in a day — and in Syria, the conflict has achieved an odd kind of stability, a sort of infernal stalemate cordoned a bit by Russian forces, perhaps orchestrated some too with Putin’s hands on the really interesting levers — incumbent relationships with Syria, those ghosts of the Soviet-era; the Russian military presence at sea; the contracts and delivery schedules between Russia and Syria — and otherwise drawing fighters to its agony and struggle on behalf of two diabolical systems: an absolute dictatorship dispossessing and murdering its own constituents at will and with impunity; an equally absolute theocratic design representing a privileged few no less inclined to exploit minions.

Which of those two would you gamble on?

Place your bets.

Mine: Syria is it’s own anachronistic, self-destructing demolition project, the burning, energy-sucking black hole of global conflicts — and with close to 95,000 dead, 1.6 million refugees, and 2.4 million internally displaced persons, the Assad’s Syria — the state and the cities and marketplaces and neighborhoods that were — is no more.

Pot Pourri Reference

Al Jazeera.  “Doctor in Syria’s Qusayr pleads for help.”  June 3, 2013.

Al Jazeera.  “Pro-Hezbollah leaders attacked in Lebanon.”  June 3, 2013.

Al Jazeera.  “Syria rebels battle Hezbollah in Lebanon.”  June 3, 2013.

AP.  “Syrian rebels, Hezbollah battle in worst clash in Lebanon.”  June 2, 2013.

CBS/AP.  “U.N. report, new death toll breakdown highlight potential complexities of arming Syria rebels.”  June 4, 2013.

Gilbert, Ben.  “‘The jungle’: Syrian refugees endure crowded, lawless camp.”  June 2, 2013.

Nader, Alireza.  “Why Iran is Trying to Save the Syrian Regime.”  U.S. News and World Report, August 24, 2013.

Saad, Hwaida and Hala Droubi.  “Hezbollah and Rebels of Syria in Border Fight.”  June 3, 2013.

ShelterBox.  “Syria ‘fastest evolving internal displacement crisis’.”  Thompson Reuters Foundation, May 13, 2013.

Shorter, Tiffany.  “Security implications of the EU arms ban repeal against Syrian rebels.”  The Washington Times, June 1, 2013.

Schlein, Lisa.  “UN: Syrian Refugee Count Tops 1.6 Million”.  Voice of America, May 31, 2013.

Spyer, Jonathan.  “Hizballah enters the Syrian Abyss.”  Gloria Center, June 2, 2013.

Qanta Ahmed Comments On “The Battle for America’s Muslim Narrative”

29 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by commart in BCND - BackChannels News Day, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share

≈ Leave a comment

Muslim Student Associations members are documented in their own voices expressing loyalty to Osama Bin Laden. “I don’t know this guy,” Amir Mertaban, recorded in 2007 when President of MSA West, “I don’t know what he did. I don’t know what he said. I don’t know what happened. But we defend Muslim brothers, and we defend our Muslim sisters to the end. Is that clear?”

Ahmed, Qanta. “Islamists’ Media Jihad: The Deadly Embrace.”  The Blaze, March 29, 2013.

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Epigram

Hillel the Elder

"That which is distasteful to thee do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study."

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?"

"Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world."

Oriana Fallaci
"Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon...I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born."

Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
Qohelet Raba, 7:16

אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

More colloquially translated: "Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind."

Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

Abraham Isaac Kook

"The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom." From the pages of Arpilei Tohar.

Heinrich Heine
"Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned." -- From Almansor: A Tragedy (1823).

Simon Wiesenthal
Remark Made in the Ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Vienna, Austria on the occasion of His 90th Birthday: "The Nazis are no more, but we are still here, singing and dancing."

Maimonides
"Truth does not become more true if the whole world were to accept it; nor does it become less true if the whole world were to reject it."

"The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."

Douglas Adams
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Epigram appearing in the dedication of Richard Dawkins' The GOD Delusion.

Thucydides
"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

Milan Kundera
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Malala Yousafzai
“The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

Tanit Nima Tinat
"Who could die of love?"

What I Have Said About the Jews

My people, not that I speak for them, I nonetheless describe as a "global ethnic commune with its heart in Jerusalem and soul in the Land of Israel."

We have never given up on God, nor have we ever given up on one another.

Many things we have given up, but no one misses, say, animal sacrifice, and as many things we have kept, so we have still to welcome our Sabbath on Friday at sunset and to rest all of Saturday until three stars appear in the sky.

Most of all, through 5,773 years, wherever life has taken us, through the greatest triumphs and the most awful tragedies, we have preserved our tribal identity and soul, and so shall we continue eternally.

Anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism = Signal of Fascism

I may suggest that anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism are signal (a little bit) of fascist urges, and the Left -- I'm an old liberal: I know my heart -- has been vulnerable to manipulation by what appears to me as a "Red Brown Green Alliance" driven by a handful of powerful autocrats intent on sustaining a medieval worldview in service to their own glorification. (And there I will stop).
One hopes for knowledge to allay fear; one hopes for love to overmatch hate.

Too often, the security found in the parroting of a loyal lie outweighs the integrity to be earned in confronting and voicing an uncomfortable truth.

Those who make their followers believe absurdities may also make them commit atrocities.

Positively Orwellian: Comment Responding to Claim that the Arab Assault on Israel in 1948 Had Not Intended Annihilation

“Revisionism” is the most contemptible path that power takes to abet theft and hide shame by attempting to alter public perception of past events.

On Press Freedom, Commentary, and Journalism

In the free world, talent -- editors, graphic artists, researchers, writers -- gravitate toward the organizations that suit their interests and values. The result: high integrity and highly reliable reportage and both responsible and thoughtful reasoning.

This is not to suggest that partisan presses don't exist or that propaganda doesn't exist in the west, but any reader possessed of critical thinking ability and genuine independence -- not bought, not programmed -- is certainly free to evaluate the works of earnest reporters and scholars.

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