Category Archives: Conflict – Culture – Language – Psychology

Link – Diane Weber Bederman: “We Must Not Become the Barbarian”

24 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars

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And I knew. We are falling, falling, falling into the trap, into the abyss of hatred. And that will be the end of the Jewish people for this is not our way. We came out of the desert 3500 years ago with an ethic that Irish author Thomas Cahill calls “The Gift of the Jews.” It was given in the desert, in the wilderness, publicly and openly, in a place to which no one had any claim. “Everyone who desires to accept let him come and accept.” (Mekhilta, Bahodesh 1) It is the revolutionary ethic that separates the civilized from the barbarian. The ethic that made it possible for some tribal societies to transform themselves over the millennia into democratic nation states that welcome people of all races, colours creeds religions and sexual orientation to live in one country without fear.

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/we-must-not-become-the-barbarian/ – 8/24/2014.

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As Regards ISIS: On Video — TWI’s Michael Knights and Michael Eisenstadt

22 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iraq, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Regions, Syria

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“In this new video series, Washington Institute experts assess the current state of military operations in Iraq and evaluate Abadi’s ability to extricate his country from deadlock, defeat, and disintegration.”

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/confronting-isis-and-the-future-of-iraq-video-series – 8/21/2014.

From the looks and sound of the productions, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (TWI) has launched a DIY-AH (do-it-yourself-at-home) effort to promote its fellows’ analyses.  May the TWI powers that be give them an upgrade in audio-visual recording technology.

What follows is an incomplete relay of the series, but in the way of the web, whether the viewer starts out with e-mail (as I did) or on TWI’s web page or YouTube, all routers lead back to some kind of primary media content.

Of course, if you heard it from me first — after I’ve heard it from them — in the older fashioned way of news, good!

“They are very good at using psychological operations to very quickly establish the sense that they control areas, putting up their flags on all key administrative buildings, cross-roads, wide visibility locations, and they’re very good at pursuing what they want in the mergers and acquisitions model of growth whereby they ruck into an area and immediately try to recruit the most like-minded insurgent group in the area to become part of ISIS.”  (1:28 – 1:59).

“First, you can’t address the ISIS threat in Iraq, without addressing the ISIS threat in Syria. Secondly, you can’t address the ISIS threat in Iraq and Syria without addressing the foreign fighter problem. And third, the U.S. really cannot “solve” the region’s problems, because they are rooted in issues of religious and political identity and legitimacy, and this is a problem that can only be worked out among Muslims themselves. ” (2:18 – 2:41)

My “big picture” thought, which might make sense of an $11 billion arms sale): what ISIS scours Qatar will devour.

One day.

However, there are many days between this day and that one, and the Ummah, bloodied from Afghanistan to Yemen, has been pushed by the ambitions and behaviors of its own subscription into a larger global conversation about rightful power, despotism, barbarism, and democracy.

Related on BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2014/08/21/qatar-terrorist-refuge-and-financial-platform/ – 8/21/2014.

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Link

21 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, North America

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Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, President of American Islamic Forum for Democracy states: “Sharia-compliant finance only empowers Muslim Sharia Law leaders whose real long term vision is to impose Sharia Law on the world and recreate an Islamic Empire. These leaders want to overpower capital free markets and create their version of an Islamic economy. Bankers and business leaders are being duped.”

What about the rest of us?

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/65454 – 8/21/2014.  “Different types of Jihad-including an attack on our economy.”  Diane Weber Bederman.

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Qatar – Terrorist Refuge and Financial Platform

21 Thursday Aug 2014

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Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal lives in Qatar, and today Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is to meet him in Doha.

Is it even news?

What follows is about an hour’s worth of “scraping” across various searches containing the terms “Doha”, “Qatar”, “banking”, “financing”, “terror”, “terrorism”, “Hamas”, “Mashaal” – like Adolph, he’s achieved last name status — “funding”, etc.

The reportage underscores the idea that the Middle East Conflict has been sustained by an anti-Semitism that has its end the supersession of Islam, the same story that paved the way for Hitler’s adaptation of German Christian eschatology into the construction of the Nazi program of genocide that became the Holocaust.

Different talk?

Same walk.

Perhaps the question for Washington and the American public at large should be, “How did all this money and confusion get into our America the beautiful?”

Although Saudi Arabia has pledged $100 million to anti-terrorism activity, the sectarian Sunni vs Shiite competition nonetheless plays through the politics.  There’s simply an awful lot of cash in the pool, and the pool would seem as dirty as it can be.

For the day, perhaps for its long history of shady banking and association with well known promoters of Islamic terrorism, Qatar perhaps deserves greater focus and increased scrutiny as a state-sponsor of terrorism, and if not for direct financing then for allowing or enabling indirect financing of the same criminality under its (therefore incompetent) auspices.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have fined Qatar’s Doha Bank – New York branch a $5m civil money penalty. According to FinCEN and the OCC, the bank’s branch in Manhattan – USA was engaged in high-risk services accompanied by lack of adequate anti-money laundering controls which led to the failure to report $7.4bn-worth of suspicious transactions in a timely manner.

http://www.acc-co.com/content.asp?ContentId=598 – 4/23/2009

Related four years later:

“The core disconnect between Washington and these two countries on the issue of terrorist financing stems from their unique political dynamics and security calculations, which drive them both to allow some local fundraising channels for foreign extremist and other groups. These dynamics also determine the extent of Kuwaiti and Qatari cooperation with America’s counter-terrorist financing agenda. Accordingly, Washington should not expect substantive changes in their approach to terrorist financing unless a shift occurs in some aspect of these basic calculations.”

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-terrorist-funding-disconnect-with-qatar-and-kuwait – 5/2/2014.

Though you wouldn’t know it from visiting Qatar Islamic Bank’s web site, because they choose not to disclose their Shariah advisory board there, the chairman of the bank’s Shariah Advisory Board is none other than Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a man we have referred to in the past as “Creepy Qaradawi.”

http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2010/10/04/qatar-islamic-bank-wins-bank-of-the-year-award-at-the-arabian-business-awards/ – 10/4/2010.

Related, four year later:

“Responding to reports that the Egyptian-born Qatari cleric had been sent to Tunisia or Yemen, Al Qaradawi said on his official Twitter and Facebook accounts that he has spent over 53 years in Qatar preaching, calling and writing about Islam “without anyone telling me before what to say, what not to say or why are you saying that.”

http://dohanews.co/al-qaradawi-debunks-rumors-deported-qatar/ – 4/20/2014.

Recently, a group called the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) raised about $6.5 million in Qatar. The group is led by Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, a top Muslim Brotherhood cleric who calls himself the “Mufti of Martyrdom Operations.” He never shies from supporting Hamas and suicide bombings and got into a bit of hot water in 2009 when he said that the Holocaust was a judgment upon the Jews from Allah. He prays that the Muslims will deliver the next judgment. In November, the IUMS declared that Muslims must “revive the duty of jihad in all its forms” and prepare for the destruction of Israel.

http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/americas-friend-terror-funding-qatar – 5/20/2014.

In the 1990s, Doha was among the most active “financiers” behind the separatist rebellion in Chechnya. It sent money to local militants and trained Arab terrorists who participated in attacks on the Russian Army in the North Caucasus. When the rebellion was put down and peace began returning to Chechnya and the Arab “mujahedin” were almost completely destroyed, Qatar’s Emir provided a refuge for Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, “president” of the self-proclaimed Republic of Ichkeria and his many supporters, providing them with benefits and even government jobs.

http://moneyjihad.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/qatar-state-sponsor-of-terrorism/ – 6/4/2013.

Cited Source:

http://orientalreview.org/2013/05/23/qatar-is-funding-international-terrorism/comment-page-1/ – 5/23/2013.

Most notably, Qatar, a longtime U.S. ally, has for many years openly financed Hamas, a group that continues to undermine regional stability. Press reports indicate that the Qatari government is also supporting extremist groups operating in Syria. To say the least, this threatens to aggravate an already volatile situation in a particularly dangerous and unwelcome manner.

With new leadership in Doha, we remain hopeful that Qatar – a country that in other respects has been a constructive partner in countering terrorism – will continue to work closely with us to oppose and combat those who adhere to the warped and murderous ideology of Hamas and al-Qa’ida.

http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl2308.aspx – 3/4/2014.

Qatar, no less than any other person or state, cannot have it both ways, and the remarks by the Treasury Department’s Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, David Cohen, do little to inspire confidence in change.  In fact the excerpt from his speech fits well within this collection of cited material in that even a subjective researcher’s haul actually reflects what is immediately available through the search engines: the headlines are simply NOT screaming, “Qatar cleans up banking, expels Khaled Mashaal, exiles Quaradawi” or some such.  The drift appears quite opposite of that.

While Hamas tactics directly orchestrate the murder of children in Gaza and in Israel (it’s certainly attempted by the hour), the bankers and royals of Qatar comfortably keep company with fellow billionaire Mashaal.  They’re living large, and Gazans have been made to live very small because of them.

The Clinton Foundation and the terror group Hamas share a key donor: The government of Qatar, a leading backer of terror groups that has emerged in recent years as Hamas’ chief financial lifeline.

Qatar, which has been designated by the State Department as a “significant terrorist financing risk,” has pledged more than $400 million to Hamas since 2012 and has long harbored one of the terror group’s senior leaders, Khaled Mashaal.

At the same time, Qatar has sought to curry favor with elite Westerners, donating between $1 million and $5 million through 2013 to the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

http://freebeacon.com/politics/clinton-foundation-hamas-share-major-donor/ – 7/11/2014.

Apaches and Javelin defense systems are heading off to Qatar as part of our wonderful relationship with the terror-sponsoring nation that also happens to share close ties with Hamas and Al Qaeda. The weapons are valued at $11 billion.

http://www.independentsentinel.com/obamas-11-billion-arms-deal-with-terror-sponsoring-nation-of-qatar/ – 7/22/2014.

“Qatar is a very strange place. They rely on the U.S. for protection and invest heavily in the U.S.,” said Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), noting that the U.S. has its largest Mideast airbase—Al-Udeid Air Base—in Qatar.

“[But] at the same time, just miles away from [the airbase], you can find the head of Hamas (Khaled Mashal), and there was even a Taliban embassy there for a while too. All of these things make for a foreign-policy anomaly,” Schanzer told JNS.org.

http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2014/7/25/gaza-conflict-spotlights-role-of-qatar-the-hamas-funding-us-ally#.U_XzEsVdV8E= – 7/25/2014.

It’s getting harder and harder to deny that Doha and Ankara, two long-standing allies of the United States, are full Hamas partners.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/08/04/hamas_s_bffs_turkey_qatar_israel_gaza – 8/4/2014.

HAIFA, Israel – The latest ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended Friday morning when Hamas resumed its costly campaign of rocket attacks on Israel even as its 2 million constituents suffer from wrenching poverty.

Although the millions of Palestinians packed into the small strip suffer from chronic unemployment, and lack of electricity and running water, Hamas and its backers such as Qatar have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on tunnels and rockets with one goal in mind: killing Israelis.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/08/08/hamas-backers-spend-fortunes-on-rockets-and-tunnels-while-gazans-live-in-misery/ – 8/8/2014.

“Qatar has three Knesset seats for terrorism,” Kariv said, according to Israel Hayom.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/18/israeli-arab-knesset-members-visit-hamas-funding-qatar/ – 8/18/2014.

“There will be no return to negotiations in Cairo before we have ensured favorable circumstances that will force the enemy to meet the demands of the Palestinians.”

Mashaal said that the Palestinians’ top demand was the lifting of the blockade on Gaza

http://www.timesofisrael.com/mashaal-hamas-defiant-after-assassinations/#ixzz3B2DFDgVG – 8/21/2014.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will meet Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and the emir of Qatar, in Doha Thursday, according to sources in Ramallah.

http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Abbas-to-meet-Mashaal-Qatar-emir-in-Doha-371720 – 8/21/2014.

Related Reference

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/08/20/German-minister-accuses-Qatar-of-financing-ISIS-.html – 8/20/2014.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/14/america-s-allies-are-funding-isis.html – 6/14/2014.

http://cnsnews.com/video/cnsnews/former-british-intelligence-chief-speaks-substantial-and-sustained-saudi-funding-isis – 7/9/2014.

Dickinson, Elizabeth.  Playing with Fire: Why Private Gulf Financing for Syria’s Extremist Rebels Risks Igniting Sectarian Conflict at Home. Saban Center, Brookings, December 2013.

Addendum – 8/24/2014.

Qatar – Accusations Denied – Region Opaque

Either the state has been maligned, the state is lying in some part, or the state hasn’t control of its wealth or revenue throughput.

Every time out on this perilous blog brings insight into the fast mediated conflict environment.  How would one report news from the “left” without compromising with the demands of an Hamas or PLO/PA  . . . or an ISIS?  Is there time to ask a question when a camera hog tells you, more or less, that “proof is irrefutable” and the news has been reported already by the CIA, West Point, The Washington Post?  Do you says “Wait a minute” at the first assertion or do you give the talker his rope?

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Aside

20 Wednesday Aug 2014

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The Jewish story that begins with exodus sends its signal down through time about the character of men who would be gods. With the help of God, so goes this story, the Jews pleaded, God interceded, and the Jews fled Pharaoh and what he represented.

Who were the Jews?

What manner of human gathered out in the desert to do things perhaps a little differently?

These throwbacks under the black flag seem the pestilence of each generation, and, as my old Haggadah stated, “With every generation a little more freedom is won.”

Jewish Universalism may have gotten a bit of a push by Hillel the Elder who died around 10-CE, a date significant for what may have been left for Jesus and later Paul and Constantine to both pick up and exploit against the backdrop of decayed and restive Rome, and the same may then have come into Muhammad’s purview. Two of the three monotheist houses have been vying a long time to suppress and eliminate the people who first abandoned Pharaoh, and to do it, it seems some keep becoming Pharaoh-like in their ambition, political absolutists served by an immoral and vacuous loyalty above all.

I think that’s where we all are and we ought to come forward of those old positions, say hello, embrace, and get on with being done with the bloodiest of despots.

However, it’s a large job, and watching Lord of the Rings doesn’t really help us anymore. 🙂

The Catholic Church dropped its habitual charge of Deicide against the Jews in 1964 (the Lutherans of the U.S. took a decade or two longer), and parts of the Christian community have moved on to a pro-Zionist position based on their eschatology.

Islam may be more challenged, but deep down in it, one hears . . . Hillel: ” 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.” It too will shear away from the barbarism sustained in the existence of the Muslim Brotherhood and its many associates.

And if we are lucky, we may all come through being a little bit something else, even more Jewish but equally more wise in being ourselves.

WWWIII: solved.

Wake me for the next one. 😀

Hamas – Bad Faith – No Ceasefire – Never Was – Will Not Be – Stop Dreaming

19 Tuesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Gaza, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Politics, Regions

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According to Marc Schulman writing for Newsweek, it was the ceasefire that wasn’t:

It turns out that last night the representatives of the Palestinian Authority were putting forth a patently untrue story as to what Israeli and Hamas had agreed, when neither had. Unfortunately, all of the press (both Israeli and worldwide) reported the story as true.

Israel has recalled its negotiating team.

The latest at ABC reports more than 50 rockets fired on Israel this afternoon, some reaching as far as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Is the reader perhaps looking for the Hamas “off-button”?

Stop looking.

It doesn’t exist.

The Hamas program script plan vision has no curtain, no final act.

In fact, the doctrine is explicit:

. . . even if the obstacles erected by those who revolve in the Zionist orbit, aiming at obstructing the road before the Jihad fighters, have rendered the pursuance of Jihad impossible; nevertheless, the Hamas has been looking forward to implement Allah’s promise whatever time it might take.

Hear,  oh Israel (and all others): with Hamas and what drives it — that deeply malignant narcissism that lends to each his own indulged and grandiose center of the universe — there is nothing to negotiate.

So Hamas does not negotiate in good faith, neither for peace and prosperity to be shared by Gazans nor for considerations having much to do, after all, with The All.

Know the character of the commanders: Ayatollah Khamenei, Khaled Mashaal, Ismail Haniyeh, and others.

Why should Hamas or any other Jihad Joe group come equipped with an “off button”?

The enterprise clearly cons the public, makes a lot of money (which with “terror tunnels” and all would seem not to reach intended deserving recipients), and harms the principles not at all (although, perhaps, after all, Allah knows what they do — and, for now, has them getting away with it).

Related Reference

http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/President-Peres-accuses-Qatar-for-financing-Hamas-terrorism-368579 – 7/23/2014.

http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/analysis/121018/hamass-biggest-backer-it-has-entire-westin-palm-its-hand – 7/31/2014.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/arab-bank-trial-allegedly-financing-hamas-article-1.1904694 – 8/15/2014.

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Anti-Semitism – Badge of Weakness

19 Tuesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

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Not one European national parliament has mirrored the U.S. House of Representative’s resolution defending Israel’s measures against Hamas.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/behind-europe-anti-semitic-slurs-article-1.1891349 – 8/4/2014.

Along with resurgent nationalist fascism in Europe has come an equally robust anti-Semitism, and the pundits are weighing in on cause with a dizzying profusion of partially warranted hypotheses.  Whether expressing pique over the latest episode of “Israel vs Hamas” or perhaps exculpating Auschwitz guilt, one thing has become clear as regards the eruption of the new barbarism in Europe: someone failed to keep the gates shut.

It would seem no one inclined toward hate cares to listen to the direction of a more refined Greco-Roman-Judeo-Christian government when like-minded fellows met on the Internet are also to be met out on the street.

And who and what is to stop them?

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“Yo, Bunky, about beating up the Jew — don’t do it again.”

“Why not?  What are you going to do about it?”

*

The destructively narcissistic ideation that ends with “Jew Hate” and general war against all probably gets its start with “narcissistic mortification”, i.e., the deep embarrassment and felt humiliation of the spirit who becomes so engaged with the world, and the engagement becomes expressive of a basic “Fuck you” written small in acts of vandalism or large in the merciless and vacuous slaughters of tens upon tens of thousands by autocrat, boss, caliph, dictator, king, or emperor.

The lives put at risk — and less involved noncombatant Gazans fit this model very well — have no more meaning to those who harbor such contempt and hate for others than their specific targets.  In essence, Khaled Mashaal, for example, not only hates the Jews and Israel but doesn’t give a shit either about Palestinian lives.  For that psychological perversion, life has made Khaled Mashaal a billionaire twice over.

One need not go down the ranks of wealthy dictators and their rates of survival.  The main thing, whether with Paul Biya, Robert Mugabe, Bashar al-Assad, or Baghdaddi and the Islamic Hate (what a band!) is that the patterns are the same: life provoked in each the want of a grandiose and messianic self-aggrandizement, and someone then either let them get away with it or failed to stop them in their tracks.

The type have no “off button” — but they have an “on switch” with a recognizable start-up program, and it’s completely visible today from Asia to Europe to the Middle East.

The beating last Tuesday of 53-year-old rabbi Daniel Alter in front of his young daughter, allegedly by a group of Arab youths, has been roundly condemned.

The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, urged Muslim groups to “finally deal decisively with anti-Semitism in their own ranks”.

http://www.news24.com/World/News/Muslims-deny-inaction-over-anti-Semitism-20120903 – 9/2/2012.

“I am deeply disappointed that we have come to this, that society tolerates tough talk again and tough talk spreads,” said Gyula Foldes, an 81-year-old Holocaust survivor.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/21/us-hungary-antisemitism-idUSKBN0E10E420140521 – 5/21/2014.

Kantor spoke after meeting with senior Belgian politicians including Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo in the aftermath of the terror shooting at the Jewish Museum in central Brussels, which left three people dead and one seriously injured and in critical condition.

“What better example is there of the lack of security, the absence of tolerance and the climate of fear in our European cities than this attack on Jews in the capital of Europe?” Kantor said.

http://www.eurojewcong.org/Combating%20anti-Semitism/11212-european-jewish-congress:-eu-inaction-created-breeding-ground-for-extremism.html – 5/26/2014.

Some of the trapped Jews fought their way out as the riot police dispersed the crowd. Manuel Valls, the French Prime Minister, condemned the attack in “the strongest possible terms”, while Joel Mergei, a community leader, said he was “profoundly shocked and revolted”. The words had no effect. Two weeks later, 400 protesters attacked a synagogue and Jewish-owned businesses in Sarcelles, in the north of Paris, shouting “Death to the Jews”. Posters had even advertised the raid in advance, like the pogroms of Tsarist Russia.

http://www.newsweek.com/2014/08/08/exodus-why-europes-jews-are-fleeing-once-again-261854.html – 7/29/2014.

In July, the number of Dutch-language anti-Semitic Facebook pages ran into the hundreds, according to MDI, which cannot keep up with the amount of hate-fueled posts, ranging from statements such as “Jews must die” to those praising Adolf Hitler. On Twitter, the hashtag “Hitler was right” appeared more than 10,000 times in July in connection with Gaza and became a trending topic, says MDI.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/16/anti-semitic-hate-speech-internet_n_5682031.html – 8/16/2014.

“One of the attackers signaled me to ‘Shut up or we’ll kill you,’” Anna Sjögren, in her 40s, said of the ordeal, which transpired on Thursday.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/18/swedish-woman-viciously-beaten-for-wearing-jewish-star-necklace/ – 8/18/2014

I have heard and seen much the same thing on the BBC and Channel 4 News; reports of horrible attacks upon synagogues and Jewish businesses in Europe. A huge spike in anti-Semitic attacks in this country, too — more than 200 in the last month; more in the last four weeks than the previous six months put together. But no mention, not even a hint, as to who might be responsible. A complete mystery, isn’t it?

http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/rod-liddle/9286532/its-ok-to-mention-anti-semitic-attacks-but-not-who-commits-them/ – 8/16/2014.

Almost two thirds (64 %) of those who experienced physical violence or threats of violence did not report the most serious incident to the police or to any other organisation. Three quarters (76 %) of the respondents who experienced antisemitic harassment in the past five years did not report the most serious incident. More than four in five (82 %) of those who said that they felt discriminated against in the 12 months before the survey because they are Jewish did not report the most serious incident.

http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra-2013-factsheet-jewish-people-experiences-discrimination-and-hate-crime-eu_en.pdf – European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights – 2013; Related primary report:

http://fra.europa.eu/en/publication/2013/discrimination-and-hate-crime-against-jews-eu-member-states-experiences-and (2013).

Related Reference

http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Anti-Semitism-alarms-ADL-371452 – 8/19/2014.

http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/182400/ctrl-f-genocide – 8/15/2014.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/behind-europe-anti-semitic-slurs-article-1.1891349 – 8/4/2014.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/The-anti-Semitism-sweeping-Europe-370058 – 8/4/2014.

http://time.com/63960/hate-crimes-anti-semitism/ – 4/15/2014.

http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/162559/jews-control-the-internet-says-pro-palestinian-website – 2/10/2014.

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Australia – “18C” – A Conservative Looks Over the Enforcement of Being Thoughtful

19 Tuesday Aug 2014

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What 18C does is, it prohibits the utterance of words that could potentially offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate someone and that is problematic.

Criminal offenses fall under two categories. Mala in se are intrinsically wrong as determined by a civilised society, for instance rape, murder and theft. These are wrong in and of themselves regardless of how they are dealt with from a legislative standpoint. Mala prohibitum are arbitrarily wrong because the lawmakers say so, for instance driving a vehicle without a license, illegal drug use and copyright infringements. 18C is a malum prohibitum presented to the world by the left as a malum in se in order to boost its appeal to moral conscience, hoping to guilt trip Australians into appreciating its alleged utility.

http://www.menzieshouse.com.au/?p=5311 – 8/19/2014.

Sherry Sufi’s scathing overview of Australia’s be-always-politically-correct legislation “18C” covers the psychology and realpolitik of obtaining a gateway for claiming victimization in response to a critic’s speech and the power to take the same to court for it.

As often noted in this space, there’s no greater a signal to malignant narcissism than the want of obtaining control over someone else’s talk — and then from that what may be heard in the political sphere.  In that regard, 18C would appear devised to open the way to serving an autocratic speech-suppressing will.

Excerpted from Sufi’s piece:

Those fearing the worst may wish to note that Australia continues to remain one of the most ‘discrimination-sensitive’ nations on earth. Statutes designed to protect the vulnerable from discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, disability or religion are staggering in number as confirmed by the voluminous list below.

Commonwealth laws:
Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth)
Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth)
Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth)
Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth)

State and Territory laws:
Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW)
Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (SA)
Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (WA)
Discrimination Act 1991 (ACT)
Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (QLD)
Equal Opportunity Act 1995 (VIC)
Anti-Discrimination Act 1996 (NT)
Racial Vilification Act 1996 (SA)
Anti-Discrimination Act 1998 (TAS)
Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 (VIC)

What Ken Wyatt and Adam Goodes should be asking is, why should discrimination not be fought using existing Criminal Code provisions and the various defamation laws already in place which seek to protect all Australians regardless of racial origin in the face of abuse and vulnerability. The very existence of these special ‘identity-specific’ laws presupposes that those it represents are different from the rest of Australia. It assumes that they are weaker and want to be treated differently.

The legislation referred to as “18C” enjoys its own Facebook page.  From that location comes reference to this ugly bit of Aussie news reported by radio station KIIS 1065:

Customers and staff of the Forbes and Burton Cafe in Darlinghurst have walked out on the owner, after the Daily Mail reports cafe owner ‘Steven’ turned down a Brazilian man applying for a job because he was “black”.

Nilson Dos Santos applied for a job at the cafe, and apparently ‘Steven’ didn’t ask him a single question, merely made the remark that Nilson was “black”.

Steven reportedly said he didn’t want “coffee made by black people”.

Apparently after being turned away by Steven, Mr Dos Santos stood up and announced to the other customers on Sunday why he had been rejected from the job and even asked them if they minded being served by a black man.

http://www.kiis1065.com.au/news/Shocking-Racist-Claims-From-Sydney-Cafe-Owner#rfpvSgdBydeLpXYB.99 – 8/18/2014.

By title, one wonders what might be inadequate about, say, the “Racial Discrimination Act (1975), as regards fielding what might become greater bad news for cafe owner “Steven”, if indeed events took place as told.

Related Reference

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-05/government-backtracks-on-racial-discrimination-act-changes/5650030 – 8/6/2014.

https://www.humanrights.gov.au/glance-racial-vilification-under-sections-18c-and-18d-racial-discrimination-act-1975-cth 12/13/2013:

Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act makes it unlawful for someone to do an act that is reasonably likely to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” someone because of their race or ethnicity.

Section 18D of the Racial Discrimination Act contains exemptions which protect freedom of speech. These ensure that artistic works, scientific debate and fair comment on matters of public interest are exempt from section 18C, providing they are said or done reasonably and in good faith.

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