Tag Archives: dictatorship

Hamasites – Journalism – The Truth Always Comes Out

13 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Journalism, Middle East, Regions

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Tell you what . . .

From now on, I will tell you what to do with your life (and

in addition to doing what I tell you to do,

you will pay me for the privilege of my leaving you alone).

*

I will tell you what to see and what to hear,

what to say and what to withhold.

When I tell you what is happening around you,

you are to believe me

and no one else.

I am your authority.

I am your only authority.

*

If you are in the news business, good — you can help me!

*

Every time out, you will make me look heroic (which, naturally, I am) and

not show anything to detract from that image.

*

Call me”Hamas”

Acknowledge that I am greater than you.

And I,

at any time, may

Arrest

Detain

Question

Torture

You

Without explanation.

*

If you so much as breath in Gaza,

I

am your world

I

am all the world

You

will know

______

In Spanish, Gutiérrez, who is writing for Melilla Hoy, tweeted, “On Saturday, 9th of August, Hamas launched a battery of rockets from the press hotel. What was their intent? To provoke Israel to kill us?#SaveGazaFromHamas.”

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/12/spanish-journalist-in-gaza-hamas-launched-rockets-from-press-hotel/ – 8/12/2014.

“Since the war started, one population group in Gaza has disappeared from the streets: people in uniform…They work for Hamas and are targets of Israel… Only at the Shifa Hospital, the big hospital in Gaza City, are a few sitting in uniform. There, they feel protected from the Israeli bombings. In addition, that is where they monitor the international press to prevent it from doing ‘wrong’ things. Local camera crews know this, but foreigners do not: Hamas does not want that killed or wounded fighters appear on camera footage.

Yes, there are many civilian casualties and most of the inhabitants of Gaza live in fear, but Hamas likes to exploit this for its PR. ‘He does not dare to talk to you,’ says the wife of someone who has been placed under house arrest because he is known for criticizing Hamas. She too does not dare to tell his story, because ‘we are being watched’.”

http://mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/issues/pages/testimonies-from-gaza-and-hamas-intimidation-of-foreign-journalists.aspx – 8/11/2014.

The media have turned the civilian death toll into the only measure of the justness of the Israeli warfare. The New York Times and Haaretz, for instance, published the Gaza death toll on their front pages every day. The message is clear: The higher the number of civilian casualties, the more “war crimes” Israel is committing.

This measure is groundless. According to its distorted logic, Nazi Germany – which had one million dead civilians in World War II – was the victim of the aggressiveness of the United States, which lost “only” 12,000 civilians, and Britain, which lost “only” 67,000 civilians. This is a logic and ethical failure.

International media failed professionally and ethically in Gaza – http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4557962,00.html – 8/13/2014

The FPA protests in the strongest terms the blatant, incessant, forceful and unorthodox methods employed by the Hamas authorities and their representatives against visiting international journalists in Gaza over the past month,” the statement said. “The international media are not advocacy organizations and cannot be prevented from reporting by means of threats or pressure, thereby denying their readers and viewers an objective picture from the ground.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/foreign-press-group-condemns-hamas-intimidation-in-gaza/#ixzz3AIUmVbgW 8/11/2014.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/07/31/forty-questions-for-the-international-media-in-gaza/ – 7/31/2014.

An Italian reporter, after leaving Gaza, confirms that it was a Hamas rocket that hit a school playground, killing 10 kids, but Obama sent Hamas 50 million bucks anyway, while he cancelled tourist visa applications for Israelis.

http://pamelageller.com/2014/07/italian-journalist-leaves-gaza-tells-truth-free-hamas-retaliation-hamas-killed-kids.html/#sthash.RNKyb2ak.dpuf – 7/30/2014.

1. The Gaza correspondent of Canada’s Globe and Mail, Patrick Martin, wrote in his article from 20 July: “The presence of militant fighters in Shejaia became clear Sunday afternoon when, under the cover of a humanitarian truce intended to allow both sides to remove the dead and wounded, several armed Palestinians scurried from the scene.Some bore their weapons openly, slung over their shoulder, but at least two, disguised as women, were seen walking off with weapons partly concealed under their robes. Another had his weapon wrapped in a baby blanket and held on his chest as if it were an infant.”

http://blog.unwatch.org/index.php/2014/07/22/hamas-human-shield-tactic-as-reported-by-foreign-journalists/ – 7/22/2014.

As The Guardian reported, the Hamas government in Gaza issued its ban on journalists co-operating or working with Israel’s media due to its “hostility.” It said “offenders will be prosecuted.”

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/jan/01/press-freedom-hamas – 1/1/2013.

Threats, physical violence and arbitrary arrest and detention by Hamas security forces are common. A score of journalists were arrested or roughed up during 2010 by the Hamas interior ministry’s security service. Such measures oblige Palestinian journalists to censor themselves. In mid-March last year, security forces harshly broke up meetings in the centre of Gaza City organised by the “March 15 Coalition” calling for reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, and arrested and beat journalists, including about 20 on 15 March 2011. Security forces raided many local and foreign media offices looking for photos of the crackdown.

http://en.rsf.org/predator-hamas-security-forces-in-gaza,42429.html – 2012.

After 15 days he was released. He then made a statement that it is clear that there is a systematic policy practiced by Hamas in the Gaza Strip with the aim of gagging the media by subjecting journalists to arrest, torture and detention in harsh conditions.

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/07/journalist-imprisoned-tortured-by-hamas.html#.U-uumuNdV8E – 7/16/2012.

At least eight journalists were beaten by the Hamas police officers during the rallies. Some had their cameras and laptops confiscated, while others were taken into custody and made to sign a document pledging to refrain from covering such events in the future.

http://www.barenakedislam.com/2011/03/29/gaza-palestinian-women-reporters-beaten-and-tortured-by-hamas/ – 3/29/2011.

Hamas Forces Arrest Two Reporters In Gaza –

http://www.imemc.org/article/62548 – 11/23/2011.

Hamas security services also arrested the journalists: Munir Al-Mawri, Ashraf Abu Khsewan and Mustafa Megdad without informing them of the reasons behind their arrest.

The Hamas’ Internal Security Agency summoned Sunday several Palestinian Journalists including Abdul Karim Haji and Hussein Abdul Jawad Karsou’, without revealing reasons for their arrest.

http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/national/3650-hamas-security-forces-in-gaza-arrest-several-journalists – 1/22/2013.

“The political struggle between Hamas and Fatah has inflicted a great deal of damage on the press in the Palestinian Territories,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Many media have been closed and dozens of journalists have been arrested. In the absence of the rule of law, they have no way of defending themselves. Mahmoud Abbas and Ismael Haniyeh cannot remain silent while this goes on. It is in their own interest to ensure there is room for free speech.”

http://en.rsf.org/palestinian-territories-arbitrary-detention-of-journalists-29-08-2008,28353 – 8/29/2008.

Committee to Protect Journalists, search page on Hamas:

http://www.cpj.org/search.php?cx=002635367788333464843%3A1kfp8mbluhy&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=Hamas

Friedman, Matti.  “What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel: The news tells us less about Israel than the people writing the news, a former AP reporter says.”  The Atlantic, November 30, 2014.

# # #

Palestinian Leader Mudar Zahran: “Most Gazans Have Had Enough With Hamas.”

01 Friday Aug 2014

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Jordanian Palestinian leader Mudar Zahran has been arguing for years for a revolutionary version of the “Jordanian Option”, the idea that the Palestinians should be absorbed by and governed by Jordan, an idea pursued by Yasser Arafat with disastrous consequences, but which in Zahran’s vision promotes a democratic pro-Semitic Jordan.

As King Abdullah II of Jordan would have to abdicate to get to the first leg of such an adjustment, Zahran generally argues his case from London.

Nonetheless, with Palestinian bona fides, Zahran has stepped out of the box that keeps the “middle east conflict” oscillating between temporary accommodation and relative quiet and then the rounds of brutal violence unleashed by the passions fueled by Arab hate in some proportion of the refugee populations.  The dictator generally boasts — and being delusional may believe — that everyone is behind him (and everyone loves him too), but the more level-headed among empiricists may rightly query that boast: truly, provably, how many constituents within the mafia state of theofascist Hamas deeply hate and resent its existence and its power over their lives?

As all autocracies are no-go zones for honest pollsters, no one really knows.

However, with this “different kind of war”, states share in their enmity reliance on general communications networks and devices and word gets in and word gets out — and then it moves quickly.

So one may take it on Mudar Zahran’s word, “Most Gazans Have Had Enough With Hamas”, until Gazans are free of Hamas and free to speak freely.

# # #

FTAC – On Turkish Courts Indicting Israeli Military in Relation to the Mavi Marmara Incident

03 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Political Psychology, Psychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

The “Gaza Boat Show” and Mavi Marmara incident trace back to deeply anti-Semitic and terrorist enthusiasms, and not only should there not have been a “compensation package” — plain political extortion! — drawn from Israel, but this drift in Turkish politics should have been stopped cold by the Turks themselves exactly when and where it started.  God willing, most will understand the only true axis in conflict and conflicted Islamic-majority state politics has to do with the despotic vs the democratic.  What PM Erdogan’s government and courts have done: despotic.  Evil.  

Source of inspiration: Schanzer, Jonathan and Merve Tahiroglu.  “Schanzer and Tahiroglu: When Turkey has problems, Israel always gets the blame.”  National Post, June 3, 2014.

In politics, anti-Semitism has become the signal of the criminal and weak: it’s expressed through disingenuous speech enforced, when it can be, by the tactics of political mafia.  In Turkey, Prime Minister Erdogan has been tripped in his tracks a time or two by a passionate Kamalist and otherwise mixed opposition, but when the heat in the streets diminishes, he returns to the comfort of his script.

Much of what I would bring to bear in telegraphic thought has been stabilized on a few BackChannels pages: “Malignant Narcissism“, for example, and there’s another most relevant here: “Paranoid Delusional Narcissistic Reflection of Motivation“.

Appeasement fails to appease the needs of such a personality, and, in fact, encourages its development.

Speaking to the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations forum in Vienna on Wednesday, Erdoğan made the following remark: “Just as with Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it has become impossible not to see Islamophobia as a crime against humanity.”

Shwayder, Maya.  “Erdogan’s Anti-Zionist Comments Draws Criticism From West, But Typical For Turkey These Days.”  International Business Times, March 1, 2013.

Whatever Prime Minister Erdogan may be thinking, and that may include possession of the favor of God as affirmed by Turkish realpolitik, his personality would seem to be asking a fair political question: why stop if not stopped?

Related Reference

In reverse chronological order —

Castillo, Mariano.  “Turkish cops harass CNN reporter on air.”  CNN, May 31, 2014.

Gezi, Kadri.  “Gezi resistance anniversary recalls impact on Turkey.”  Al Monitor, May 29, 2014.

Gursel, Kadri.  “Erdogan’s dictator defense.”  Al Monitor, May 25, 2014.

Watson, Ivan and Alan Duke.  “Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan declares victory after local elections.”  CNN, March 31, 2014.

Fisher, Max.  “Here’s the video of Turkey’s prime minister comparing Zionism to fascism.”  The Washington Post, May 19, 2013;

Ynet News.  “It’s all personal: Op-ed: PM Erdogan’s venomous verbal attacks on Israel do not reflect Turkish people’s opinion of Israel.”  March 3, 2013;

Ynet News.  “Erdogan’s long-term plan: Op-ed: Turkish PM systematically imposing Islamic law; sense of helplessness, rage spreads.”  September 12, 2012.

# # #

 

Aside

FTAC – Focusing on Dictatorship

19 Monday May 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Psychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

As dictatorships inspire or motivate conflicts worldwide, it may be worth taking a moment to delve into the psychology involved. Getting a handle on “malignant narcissism”, “narcissistic supply”, “narcissistic mortification” and similar other terms may help open some windows and let in some insight into how cycles of despotism and subjugation come about, how they work, and why they are so difficult to diminish.

______

In political psychology, one might find the principles simple enough but the machinery complex and difficult to take apart and rebuild.

As much may characterize the experiences of the states now collected under the rubric “Arab Spring” and those continuing to suffer along within systems of corruption, despotism, and patronage.

To readers even loosely in the field, whether in academe or, as I seem to be, in pseudo-academe, a model like, oh let’s just make one up, “dictatorship –> narcissism –> political and social control of others –> sadism” may beg a “so what else you got?” but what informs that apprehension may not be universal: do the subjugated know that those they have entrusted with their destiny are actually using them to abet their own aggrandizement and glorification?

Have those in the path of a Bashar al-Assad (there are many like him today) understand what echo in themselves facilitates his progress while compromising their own in their efforts to defend their people.

In the olden days, one could flee a troubled space, wander around lost for a while, perhaps create a more congenial environment for one’s own, but in a world compressed intellectually by the system on which you are reading this and physically by jets and supertankers and superhighways, where is the someplace else?

Well, there is a someplace else: the language of the mind, i.e., that which informs political concepts, including self-concept and ideas about others plus ideas about the world.

The Internet has brought about the appearance of a new global intelligentsia — with Facebook buddies from Riyadh to Islamabad, I think I can support that suggestion — and if we can take a firm step where the dynamics of dictatorship are concerned, we might allay, diminish, or eliminate much sorrow otherwise guaranteed by our ignorance with regard to a basic political and social psychology concept.

# # #

 

 

FTAC – Sawing On — and On and On — (Malignant, Political, Civilizational) Narcissism

14 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

In Egypt, the government that “came to power in a fair election” represented the only party with a program at the time, such had been the character of Mubarak’s suppression of all political competition, and, indeed, it proved its identity in values by immediate rewriting the state’s constitution to serve its own most undemocratic ends. Notably, it not only maintained Mubarak’s torture chambers but made them its own.

While “the problem” may be labeled “authoritarianism” and attention deflected away from Islam thereby, the primary driver in both unconstrained military and theocratic ambition has been “malignant narcissism” AKA “political narcissism” AKA “civilizational narcissism”. In individuals diagnosed with “narcissistic personality disorder” the signal that is “grandiose messianic delusion” may be quite distinct; in politicians, the same in personality may be recognized too late or — as happens with dictators, secular or religious — abetted by the “gonna get something” mentality of their followers plus the naturally strident and normal narcissism of youth.

Result: ih conflict, the same mentality playing on both sides of the table (“different talk; same walk”).

Against both, the middle in humanity — sometimes I call that the “humanity of humanity” — needs to assert or reassert its interests, and that would seem to involve a unique struggle but one familiar to many of many religions: the revolution on the outside may need to be matched by another within the heart.

Inspiration for the above note: Rodrik, Dani.  “The Problem is Authoritarianism, Not Islam.”  World Affairs, August 12, 2013.

Q: Why narcissism?

A: Narcissistic mortification.

Causes and encouragements are more probably multivariate regarding contributing factors in producing, say, an actor-producer-director of a personality and a contemporary monster like the dictator Putin-Assad-Khamenei, which is not to suggest that all of their counterparts opposite their position in Syria are honky dory either.

In any case, Dani Rocrick’s essay well covers the “all-for-all” character of the open democracies, the Musketeer quality of my paraphrase extending easily from “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”   However, as if with a sharp plane, he criticizes the authoritarianism on the surface of governance associated with the Muslim-majority states.

It may be noted of BackChannels that while I give portion of the “Islamic Small Wars” attention, such as the junta in Burma, Paul Biya in Cameroon, and Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe are never far from mind either, nor for that matter at this time is Russia’s President Putin, who appears to have been hastened along his predictable track by his commitment to Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian Civil War.  “Washington” as if it had a mind rather than contained a collection of such, may have thought that Putin representing Russia’s interests in the middle east would have no investment in Ayatollah Khamenei’s client state and platform for Hezbollah, but it turns out that what Putin, Assad, and Khamenei value most are their respective positions as absolute authorities, achieved or in ambition, in each of their states.  That quality also provides a political basis for greater cooperation between China and Russia.

Where fits Muhammad in this?

Approaching the eve of Passover today, some may be reminded that, “So We took retribution from them, and We drowned them in the sea because they denied Our signs and were heedless of them” (Quran 7:136).

Who is “We”?

The Jewish mythos acknowledges God alone as having parted the Red Sea with Moses as merely a leader: “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided . . . . ” (Exodus 14:21).

Repeat: ” . . . all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind . . . .”

Moses, recruited by God in the first place, speaking to Pharaoh as intermediary for God (for it would not do for God to speak to Pharaoh, Pharaoh having confused himself with God), and, by God’s will, leading the Jewish People and a “mixed multitude” down to the sea, may have in “Abracadabra” fashion reached out a foot or two over the lapping tide, but the language doesn’t change as regards who’s Boss, from beginning to the end, alpha-omega, and Who, exactly, “turned it into dry land”.

# # #

Link

Why Is Iran Shipping Arm to Hamas and Hezbollah?

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iran, Middle East, Regions

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Why Is Iran Shipping Arm to Hamas and Hezbollah?

On March 20, 2014, the U.S and the U.K. called on the United Nations to investigate Israel’s latest claim that it seized an Iranian arms shipment that amounts to an Iranian violation of Security Council sanctions.

This development compels renewed scrutiny of Iran’s intention behind its weapons shipments to Hamas and Hezbollah, particularly since Israel thwarted several prior Iranian arms shipments, among them the Karine A (January 2002), the Francorp (November 2009), and the Victoria (March 2011). Other countries, such as Turkey, and Cyprus and Italy have also intercepted Iranian arms shipments to the region.”

 

The piece is short but points out how cynically Ayatollah Khamenei uses language with what might be observed as “talk over talk” — two levels: the lower consisting of intention, e.g., ” Iran’s Army and Revolutionary Guard “will be responsible not only for guarding and preserving the frontiers of the country, but also for fulfilling the ideological mission of jihad in God’s way; that is, extending the sovereignty of God’s law throughout the world” — and that would be “God’s law” according to the despotic Iranian regime; and the upper level consists of the masking of intention: “. . . Iran will “scrupulously refrain[ing] from all forms of interference in the internal affairs of other nations, it supports the just struggles of the oppressed against the tyrants in every corner of the globe.”

Is there an Orwell in the house?

🙂

Those who would be clever often prove most talented at making themselves transparent.

# # #

Link

Syria – How Voting Works

27 Thursday Mar 2014

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

“Anyone who wanted to vote against him simply had to ask for an unmarked ballot — in front of an array of police officers and intelligence agents. ‘Not once in the whole day did I see someone vote against Assad,’ says Siraj, a 28-year-old Syrian military defector now living in Beirut who was helping his father run the local polling site that day by passing out ballot papers. ‘If you asked for an unmarked ballot, all eyes would be on you.’”

http://www.syriadeeply.org/articles/2014/03/4948/syria-executive-summary-327/

# # #