FTAC – Navigational Marker

03 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars

≈ 1 Comment

. . . the hardware is going to move around. Perhaps what’s important to track are four elements: 1) Red Brown Green Alliance (Opposition) that has flowed forward from the breakup of the Soviet Union; 2) Islamic Jihad, Shiite and Sunni both, serve that opposition and its chain of dictatorships; 3) we’re being squeezed — the whole world — between the perception of vicious and sadistic jihadists — I call them “JiSadists” — and a “velvet infiltration” by the same interests into every government and intellectual asset. On our plate is not just a “different kind of war” — it’s an immense war, and it is a war for control by the despotic among or within humankind; 4) all on the web and engaged in or around the Islamic Small Wars and and post-Soviet and Chinese New Imperial activities occupy the frontline of this war’s intellectual battlespace. Shalom

That’s a little large, even for BackChannels.

🙂

However, BackChannels has been privileged to overview a large tapestry, one that has been made officially as small as “al-Qaeda”, grown out to a nefarious 20th Century infusion of a philosophy-of-control associated with Islam — “Political Islam”, “Islamism”, Islamist” — and then that too has grown out to become a civilizational challenge to classical liberalism in concert with “state capitalism” as promoted by a piratical Russia and then joined by resurgence in national socialist talk headed by men who prefer investing in palaces than addressing their constituent’s lifestyle issues.

Call this one a dark new day.

Its symbol: the burning to death of a Jordanian pilot by Daesh.

# # #

Obama’s State Department and Campaign Staffers Accused of Meddling in Upcoming Israeli Elections

02 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Gaza, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Palestinia, Politics, United States of America

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Screen capture shows emblem of the United States Department of State as a partner in an organization with offices in Israel supporting a campaign against incumbent President Benjamin Netanyahu.

Screen capture shows emblem of the United States Department of State as a partner in an organization with offices in Israel supporting a campaign against incumbent President Benjamin Netanyahu.

OneVoice is the civil society partner for peace, and the spectrum of our partnerships reflects the validation our work on the ground has received from like-minded organizations. We leverage a broad network that includes membership organizations, government agencies, charities and foundations, academic institutions, corporations, and thought leaders to mobilize support for the two-state solution, not just in the Middle East but across the globe. See below for a complete list of our current partners.

http://onevoicemovement.org/partners – as viewed 2/2/2015.

V15′s complete takeover of OneVoice’s Tel Aviv offices, however, may raise some questions not only about the grant usage, but also about the State Department’s current partnership with OneVoice.

Indeed, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has called for an investigation into the State Department’s ties to OneVoice and the group’s anti-Netanyahu effort.

http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/netanyahu-fires-back-at-ex-obama-team-plotting-his-defeat/#rxFfbzKAPKPdKszP.99 – 2/1/2015.

The anti-Netanyahu campaign organization “Victory 2015” AKA “V15” has reportedly filled the offices fronted by the left wing base that is One Voice International.

United States Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-NY-1) have called for an investigation into the Administration’s “partnership” with One Voice International and its tenant “V15”.

Journalist Aaron Klein’s above-cited article in World Net Daily lists three major funders for the effort to unseat Netanyahu.

Billed as an “ardent Zionist” by Ben Caspit in a Jerusalem Post op-ed published in February 2013, this is how financial mogul S. Daniel Abraham appears to practice his version of people’s diplomacy:

“Then he turned to Abu Mazen and asked, what do you want of Netanyahu? At this point, Erekat intervened and said, in Hebrew, the following: One, nine, six, seven. 1967. Abu Mazen approved. That’s what we want. That’s what we insist on.

Abraham said he returned to Jerusalem, but Netanyahu was already in Tel Aviv.

One Voice International founder Daniel Lubetzky (the link is to his Peaceworks biography) appears to have little political profile apart from encouraging business partnerships between Israelis and the refugees of 1948.  From the bio “At Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, the seeds of PeaceWorks were planted as Mr. Lubetzky wrote his 268-page thesis, “The Influence of Economic Factors in Resolving the Arab-Israeli Conflict.”

One might wish the partnerships entrepreneured in the Qualifying Industrial Zones programs and those fostered by Mr. Lubetzky would take hold already and modify, transform, or remove Hamas and the remnant PLO (which remnant “Abu Mazen” represents), so that the residents of Gaza and Ramallah might indeed go about their lives in peace, secure from the roaming shadows of political mafia.

*

Related and still recent in the news:

A leaflet, issued by a hitherto unknown pro-Abbas group called Protectors of Legitimacy, threatened to kill 80 Dahlan supporters. The group published the names of the supporters, claiming they worked for Israel.

“Your threats will not intimidate us,” the group said. “You are beginning to play with fire. But we are made of fire, which will burn you. The language of dialogue with you has ended and as of today we will start talking to you with the language of weapons and skull-breaking.”

http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/28811/why-is-hamas-smiling-opinion/#QHvC1TH3q9Ypu0Tr.99 – 2/2/2015.

*

The third notable mentioned by Aaron Klein, Alon Kastiel, wealthy by way of real estate, appears in the news as a quiet enabler, merely a host to connections:

It is still unclear whether any legal entity stands behind the establishment of V15, but the story of its establishment is intrinsically linked to two Meretz activists, Itamar Weizmann (formerly an activist affiliated with Meretz MK Nitzan Horowitz), and Nimrod Dweck (who has managed Meretz’s campaigns since 2012 via the marketing company he owns, Dice Marketing.)

The two met at a gathering organized by real estate mogul Alon Kastiel.

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=23239 – 2/2/2015.

From Israel Hayom:

The issues surrounding the establishment of OneVoice have begun to become clear, raising difficult questions that will possibly require an investigation. Two possible avenues have emerged from this affair, showing a sophisticated system of election propaganda for the Leftist bloc, in a manner that allegedly intended to bypass the country’s Parties Financing Law (which prohibits parties from receiving campaign donations from foreign sources). It could very well be that the judicial system will have to determine its legality.

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=23239 – 2/2/2015.

A closer look at Bird’s consulting firm as well as its working relationship with the Israeli groups finds he is just one of scores of former senior Obama election campaign staffers now working on the anti-Netanyahu effort.

Besides Bird, the 270 Strategies team includes the following former Obama staffers . . . .

http://israelnewsagency.com/obama-seeking-netanyahu-defeat-sends-campaign-elections-team-israel/ – 2/2/2015.

The Israel News Agency filing goes on to list 13 Obama campaign staffers now placed in the “Victory 2015” and pursuing the mission, so it appears to BackChannels, of ousting an independent Israeli president and replacing the same with an American puppet.

Addendum, July 13, 2016

Brynes, Jesse.  “Netanyahu pollster: Obama role in election larger than reported.”  March 22, 2015.

Gefen, Micha.  “American Desire for Control over Israel is Uncovered through its Funding of OneVoice.”  Israel Rising, July 13, 2016.

Johnson, Natalie.  “State Department sent taxpayer funds to group trying to oust Netanyahu.”  Fox News, July 12, 2016.

 

 

# # #

Link – Zionism, “Post-Zionism” – Anti-Semitism

01 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Links

≈ Leave a comment

It can be said, with considerable accuracy, that the unlikely and unseemly “androgynous hybrid” of the “Zionist Union” is – with the possible exception of the Arab-majority parties in the Knesset – the most anti-Zionist party to emerge on the Israeli political landscape in decades.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Into-the-fray-The-demise-of-Israeli-patriotism-389454 – 2/1/2015.

Link – Yemen – Analysis

30 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by in Links

≈ Leave a comment

“The Houthis were advancing and no one was paying attention,” explained Abdul-Ghani al-Iryani, a Yemeni political analyst and opposition activist, by phone.

Yemen’s central government has never been strong or exercised full control over the country. Sheikhs, or tribal leaders, fill that void, as they’ve done for centuries, by arbitrating disputes, providing essential services like water, and enforcing customary law. Saleh had kept some semblance of control over the nation by pitting the sheikhs who could threaten his authority against one another, while making alliances with local leaders through an intricate patronage system. For decades, Saleh exhibited a genius for staying in power, but his style of rule never addressed Yemen’s fundamental problems, including poverty, conflicts over water resources, and a lack of basic services and education. He ignited resentment that flared into violence. Even before the Arab Spring, Western writers wondered whether Yemen was “the next Afghanistan” and pronounced it “on the brink of chaos.”

http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2015/01/yemen-arab-spring-leaderless-nation/103692/ – 1/26/2015.

FTAC – On Monotheist Assembly

30 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Philology, Philosophy, Religion

≈ Leave a comment

“We can proceed from the assumption that Judaism and Islam, while certainly differing in a number of fundamental perspectives and priorities — are, as religious communities, not in conflict.” In the main part, Christians, Jews, and Muslims and others are not naturally in conflict. There’s no cause but what may be amplified — or provoked! – in content of imagination and mind. However, legal, social, and political histories evolving after Hillel the Elder, a jurist who may have laid the foundation for a universalized access to Judaism, belie the assumption. Denial is sweet, but like sugar poured on a wound, may add to injury, and all have been injured on the monotheist merry-go-round that follows from Hillel’s outlook and the adaptation of Judaism to restive populations.

The Jews, not to separate myself too much, are a deeply rooted ethnolinguistic people, indigenous and inherent or joined, brought together beneath the umbrella of a common outlook about humanity. That it works may be born out by what has followed, and now we’re here and perhaps again — all sharing a common basis in faith: God — restive.

I don’t wish to drown in theology — it’s too soon — but may suggest being careful about assumptions that have deeply illiberal — enslaving — political consequences. What is here today is “back there” already. Looking forward may be part of a good assembling.

The source for the bounce:

Berman, Howard A.  “Jews and Muslims: A Call for Reconciliation.”  The American Council for Judaism.  Summer 2007.

A conciliatory stance may diminish the want of conflict and contribute to a character in conversation that eventually enables a clarified and frank reappraisal of ideas, instructions, and principles bound in with legacies in faith.  That conversation must and will be had, but whether today is its day is another matter.

And then on, I droned —

Setting aside the problems posed by inherently despotic leaders — they have their hidden stories and the concept of “malignant narcissism” may cover their intellectual disposition and layout — the psychologies of followers and readers differ also. Those are large areas for discussion, but Facebook threads challenge us to distill and compress as much as possible . . . .

Hillel’s statement to a man ambivalent about conversion sets out a standard perhaps implicit either in the Torah or the study of it: “That which is distasteful to thee, do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. All of the rest is commentary. Now go and study.”

Would that would be all there was to it.

Similarly, when Muhammad says, “One scholar is more powerful against the devil than one thousand worshipers,” he too invokes a universal observation, value, and yearning where language and its treasures have flourished.

We’re all fine with that, or should be.

What happens next becomes history where differences become loud.

In the Jewish way, none of the prophets are close to God or treated as if gods. Moses is shy; he’s dependent on Aaron for advice; and when the waters are parted, it’s not Moses who does it. It’s God. When God sets out to “prove” (test) Abraham, we’re not told whether the test is of obedience or conscience, and we are left to note and argue an awful lot of evidence and subsequent story whether or not Abraham “passes” or “fails” this particular — and many of us believe dumb galunk that would sacrificed his own son without asking God a few questions fails by miles. And so it goes with differences in apprehension, conversational style, and the informing of conscience through language.

On the other side of Jewish liberalism and western “classical liberalism” . . . we miss a lot, which for me starts with the language traditions behind “7,000 living languages” (approximate current estimate) and adding in the ecological and social exigencies of living in large numbers elsewhere on the planet. “Illiberal assumptions” may account for social organization and political peace where imposed even if we don’t much like (and shouldn’t).

Talk and time may work miracles, and as we have that time now, let’s together — Christian, Jewish, and Muslim — set aside complaints and foibles and have a good look around as well as into (my fave) “conflict, culture, language, and psychology” — and see if we cannot produce a better world than that in which we find ourselves.

# # #

Links – On Iran’s War by Proxy

28 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Middle East, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

In an interview that was broadcasted on Lebanon’s Murr TV that was translated into English by MEMRI, Ahmed Al Asaad, the chairman of the Lebanese Option Party and a member of the Shiite community, declared: “The Iranian regime still believes that things are like they were in the Middle Ages; it sponsors militias, here, there and everywhere, and these militias exert pressure from within on their countries. In this primitive manner, Iran tries to gain a foothold there.”

http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/middle-east/the-arab-world/lebanese-shiite-politician-declared-hezbollah-members-arent-martyrs-11310

Related:

Kais, Roi.  “Hezbollah faces internal criticism in Lebanon: Senior Lebanese officials say Nasrallah is dragging the country into another war in Israel; ‘Hezbollah has no right to implicate the Lebanese people in a battle with Israel,’ says leader of March 14 Alliance.”  Ynet News, January 28, 2015.

Mumford, Andrew.  Proxy Warfare.  Wiley (2013).  (I haven’t read this volume yet, but have read a portion via the Google project that has put book data online.  That didn’t show up on the latest search, so it may soon be a volume incoming for the library).

While the mainstream media has focused solely on Hamas and Israel in the current ongoing war, there has been less attention given to the major role that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been playing in ratcheting up the conflict with its military assistance to Hamas fighters, including Iranian-built Fajr 5 and M-75 with ranges of approximately 75 kilometers.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/majid-rafizadeh/irans-proxy-war-against-israel/ – 7/29/2014.

The Houthis are trying to take advantage of Hezbollah’s experience, and the Houthi-affiliated Al-Maseera Channel broadcasts from Beirut’s southern suburbs with technical support from the Lebanese Shiite party. Recently, relations between the two sides have grown deeper. This comes amid repeated accusations from the Yemeni state that Iran is supporting the Houthis, and after the United States put in place new sanctions in August 2013 against some Lebanese who were accused of providing funds to the Houthis in Yemen. The Houthis usually do not deny this strong link with Hezbollah, which is reinforced by common factors between the two sides, such as their presence in the same regional alliance with Iran at the political level. In addition, both groups have armed militias to support their political positions, which they use when necessary. Yet, for the Houthis, the militia is their most prominent — if not exclusive — tool and not the exception, as is the case with Hezbollah.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/11/yemen-houthis-differences-hezbollah-lebanon.html#ixzz3Q8V08ACR – 11/19/2014.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/139643/akbar-ganji/who-is-ali-khamenei – September / October 2013.

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/10/while-you-were-watching-isis-iran-took-yemen/ – 10/8/2014

In his resignation letter, Prime Minister Khaled Bahah said the cabinet did not want to be dragged into an “unconstructive political maze”.

Earlier this week, Houthi gunmen fired on Mr Bahah’s convoy and then laid siege to the presidential palace, where he was staying.

Then on Wednesday the home of President Hadi was shelled, shattering a ceasefire that had been agreed only hours earlier.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30936940 – 1/22/2015.

# # #

Links – Daesh – In The Guardian on Recruitment and Religion; Elsewhere: on Programmatic Savagery

27 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Political Psychology, Religion

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

As part of research involving in-depth interviews with Isis members for a book about the organisation, American analyst Michael Weiss and I have identified half a dozen categories of Isis members according to the factors that drew them to the group. In at least two of those categories, religion more than anything else has been the driving force. But these two demographic components – long-standing takfiris (radicals who adhere to teachings that declare fellow Muslims as infidels) and young zealots – are more central for Isis than other members because they formulate the group’s identity and ensure its resilience. In addition, the appeal of Isis outside its conflict zones tends to be primarily ideologically driven.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/25/inside-isis-training-camps – 1/24/2015.

The seeds of today’s brutality were perhaps sown long ago in a 2006 book called “The Management of Savagery,” wrote expert Lawrence Wright in the New Yorker. The book, written by a radical Islamist thinker named Abu Bakr Naji, details patterns of “abominable savagery” witnessed in both the Islamic State and its earlier incarnations. According to this English translation, it calls for an “administration of savagery” and a merciless campaign to polarize the population, attract adherents and establish a pure Sunni caliphate. “We must make this battle very violent, such that death is a heartbeat away, so that the two groups will realize that entering this battle will frequently lead to death,” the book says.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/12/the-calculated-madness-of-the-islamic-states-horrifying-brutality/ – 8/12/2014.

Related on BackChannels:

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2013/10/01/jisadists-an-update-on-westgate-mall-barbarity/ – 10/1/2013.

# # #