Tag Archives: USA

Brief Reference: Iran v USA

15 Wednesday May 2019

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

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Mysteriously sabotaged Norwegian and Saudi tankers in the Persian Gulf; U.S. State Department order for all non-essential embassy personnel to leave Iraq post-haste; an American carrier group becomes a message — or makes a statement; sanctions — and induced hardships felt in Iran — make statements too; and Iran engages in nuclear blackmail to shore up its damaged economy: while the prospects for conventional war between the Iran and the United States appear “iffy” — not likely — to some experts, the broad spectrum of war x deceit x disinformation x proxy would seem undeniably dangerous and ongoing.

While states of affairs involving Ukraine, Russia, Syria, and Turkey appear same-old same old — at least as settled as yesterday and the day before as well as week, month, and year past — events involving the U.S. relationship with Iran appear “forward” or moving toward some change in what has festered for years with Tehran’s bankrolling and arming of Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and its bellicose and continuous threatening of Israel and the west. While “east-west” parties deny the wanting of war, conditions appear moved toward error (by way of accident, itch, or misperception) in that regard.

BackChannels compiled and read through the following this morning (retention: minimal; impression, however: pretty good) and most highly recommends for those seeking insight in background the two articles bolded), one by former FBI agent and terrorism expert Ali Soufan, the other by veteran journalist Ariana Tabatabai.

Also, at the bottom of his post is a video posted yesterday by Sky News featuring an interview with Iranian ambassador Hamid Baeidinejad. In it, the diplomat notes that while Washington has abandoned the “nuclear deal”, Iran has kept up its part in light of European adhesion and may expect from the same the benefits promised for its good behavior on that issue.

Arango, Tim. “Iran Dominates in Iraq After U.S. ‘Handed the Country Over’. The New York Times, July 15, 2017.

Bergman, Ronen and Raz Zimmt. “Israel’s most dangerous enemy: Who are you, Hamm Qasem Soleimani?” YNet, April 7, 2018.

Frantzman, Seth. “Mystery Deepens in ‘Sabotage’ of Oil Tankers in Persian Gulf.” The Jerusalem Post, May 13, 2019.

Gambrell, Jon. “Analysis: Persian Gulf tensions, unclear threats raise risks.” AP, May 14, 2019.

Knights, Michael. “The Evolution of Iran’s Special Groups in Iraq.” CTC Sentinel, 3:11, November 2010.

McChrystal, Stanley. “Iran’s Deadly Puppet Master: Gen. Stanley McChrystal explains exactly why Qasem Soleimani is so dangerous.” Foreign Policy, Winter 2019.

Mikelionis, Lukas. “Iranian presidential aide says Trump will ‘get a war’ for listening to ‘the mustache’ John Bolton.” Fox News, May 14, 2019.

Nahmias, Omri. “War with Iran Forthcoming? Most Experts Say They Don’t Think So.” The Jerusalem Post, May 13, 2019.

Ryan, Missy, John Hudson, and Carol Morella. “Trump administration considers responses to potential Iranian attacks, including troop increase.” The Washington Post, May 14, 2019.

Schmitt, Eric and Julian E. Barnes. “White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran, in Echoes of Iraq War.” The New York Times, May 13, 2019.

Soufan, Ali. “Qassem Soleimani and Iran’s Unique Regional Strategy.” CTC Sentinel, 11:10, November 2018:

Despite its ongoing economic woes, today’s Iran has fashioned itself into one of the premier military and diplomatic powers in the Middle East—and Saudi Arabia’s principal rival for hegemony over the entire region. It has achieved this with a mix of policies—among them, deft diplomatic maneuvering; a tactical alliance with Vladimir Putin’s Russia; and the provision of arms, advice, and cash to Shi`a militias across a variety of countries. In the latter case, Iran has pioneered a seemingly unique strategy that combines insurgent and state power in a potent admixture—a strategy that is evident today in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.

Tabatabai, Ariane. “Iran and Its Iraqi Shi’a Allies.” Lawfare, November 6, 2016.

Wikipedia: “Iranian Intervention in Iraq”.

Listen for the blackmailing of the European Union in relation to the “Nuclear Deal” (JCPOA) and Iran’s need for economic amelioration in response to western sanctions about 1:32 into the interview).

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FTAC: “Is there an ‘American’ cemetery somewhere?”

08 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by in American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, North America, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Politics, Religion

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Abraham Lincoln Statue, Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor's Center, November 8, 2010

Abraham Lincoln Statue, Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor’s Center, November 8, 2010, (c)2010 James S. Oppenheim

I’m an American of Jewish descent and the last name tells of a small wine-making town on the Rhine. Perhaps growing up the proper noun-based cultural infusions in the development of self-concept shaped whatever it is I’ve become, but had those details been missing, would I have gravitated toward writing, music, photography, and, later, blogging?

In the democratic modern mode, there’s a lot more going on in the “mixing” of the person — multiple influences and variables — and in many ways we choose our character and if not for better — I’ve been handed some things . . . haven’t made a good life or at least picket-fence-and 2.5 children template of the “American Dream” — then at least for the possession of integrity, an authentic existence, which I think ultimately a good thing.

In other modes — authoritarian, medieval, Orwellian — legacy may indeed fix in place the future.

On the left sidebar of my blog are in essence listed my values —
https://conflict-backchannels.com/

We should be able to enjoy our respective ethnolinguistic and other legacies in heritage by finding for ourselves what is noble in survival and scrapping and shrugging away and tucking in the miseries of the past. For everyone: something happened back there — so what needs to happen to produce a better experience in living, personal and community-wide, tomorrow?

I don’t know where I want to be buried anymore.

Is there an “American” cemetery somewhere?

Who are your people?

My people are Americans.

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FTAC: On the Preservation of Political Heritage and Memory

20 Sunday Aug 2017

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology

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With standards set by the definition of speech-related crimes (conspiracy, incitement, sedition, and a very few additional regions associated with prohibitions, rightly), I have been absolute about “Freedom of Speech” prerogatives for Americans. I not only see nothing wrong with such a statue but everything right if connected to greater contemplation requiring greater knowledge and humanity.

I own here a copy of Mien Kampf.

It doesn’t make me a Nazi.

In the area of public display managed by public offices or services, see this morning’s wall on Back-Channels.

In general, I endorse Milan Kundera’s observation, “The struggle against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”

States and their leaders do have their icons and standards, and it’s those that may be favored or disfavored across time and adjusted by public consensus openly as part of the process of governance. It would seem that gross historical revisionism has accompanied extremist ideologies and absolute power across time. Certainly, it has been “Communists”, “Fascists”, and “Socialists” along hard lines that have sought to erase the past. Perhaps an exception may be made for the eventual erasure of the names of Palestinian mass murderers who have been made into heroes beneath the despicable and upside-down guidance of Soviet Era thought about the relationship between State Power and “The Masses”. Extreme revolt against that would seem in order today — when and as the Palestinians learn how they have been abused by Moscow — but Confederate flags, statues of despots, books — place them where they belong, but keep them somewhere and don’t forget them or what they said they stood for, or what they really did with their lives.

Today . . . it’s last week’s Big Topic: from the post-Civil War statues of Confederate military nobility to one of Lenin in Washington State, American extremists have engaged in minor battle over what’s in the public presence while the public has been urged to review policy and, perhaps, considering “moving the furniture” of the public lawn or into the back rooms we call museums.

Here’s Laura Southern on the matter:

And here a statement from the National Trust on Historic Preservation (June 10, 2017): https://savingplaces.org/press-center/media-resources/national-trust-statement-on-confederate-memorials#.WZoELdQrJlZ

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FTAC – Trump’s Choice and Moscow

08 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, North America, United States of America

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1. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-making-inquiry-ex-trump-campaign-manager-s-foreign-ties-n675881 – 11/1/2016.

2. http://uawire.org/news/media-manafort-s-deputy-was-linked-to-russian-intelligence – 9/8/2016.

3. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/08/meet-the-man-who-is-spinning-for-donald-trump-in-russia.html – 8/22/2016.

Alex Jones? “Active Measures” – confusion, disinformation, information warfare, manipulation — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures

Track the themes – 1, 2, and 3 – and have your say as I’ve had mine.

Intervening and other variables:

— President Elect Trump may be getting the education through briefings that he seems not to have had when standing before the public as Candidate Trump.

–President Elect Trump has not “stepped off” as President in either action or words.

IF in his foreign affairs he gives NATO full support and continues blocking neo-imperial Moscow at Crimea and continues the struggle with Syria, good, but if he caves to his authoritarian narcissism in the manner of Erdogan and Orban, we may never recover our meaning or stature — and Moscow will happily continue spreading its absolutism and the chaos and destruction it pushes ahead of itself.

Not only America but the free world — EU, NATO, the “democratic open societies of the west” and other democratic societies worldwide — have worries with President Elect Trump.

Those who have suffered beyond imagination in Syria in relation to Bashar al-Assad’s shaping of that war into “Assad vs The Terrorists” exist today inside a purgatory special to totalitarian Hell, a place between Assad’s sadism matched by Moscow’s own and its military presence, and, sigh, “The Terrorists”, whom Assad helped developed (go ahead and click and look over the points and references made the earlier BackChannels post).

Ukraine, which “leaned west” in its revolt against Viktor  Yanukovych and his manner of little black book keeping, works with a different problem, i.e., Moscow’s occupation of Crimea, but it has the same worry: what does America mean today?  What does and what will “Washington” represent in the spectrum of politics between “political absolutism” — autocracy, fascism, kleptocracy, totalitarianism — and a responsible and responsive democratic governance possessed of integrity?

Reference

BackChannels.  “How Assad Helped Develop ISIL”.  November 12, 2016.

BackChannels.  “Syria — “Assad vs The Terrorists”: How ISIS Defends Assad.”  October 2, 2015.

Dilanian, Robert Windrem, William M. Arkin, and Tom Winter.  “FBI making Inquiry Into Ex-Trump Campaign Manager’s Foreign Ties.”  NBC News, November 1, 2016.

Mak, Tim and Katie Zavadski.  “Meet the Man Who is Spinning for Donald Trump in Russia.”  The Daily Beast, September 8, 2016.

UA Wire.  “Media: Manafort’s deputy was linked to Russian intelligence.”  August 22, 2016.

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Arson as Terror – Haifa: Known – Gatlinburg, Tennessee – Under Investigation

30 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, North America, Russia, United States of America

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Update – December 1, 2016

God may have given man imagination for fun —  and we may have given ourselves empiricism to outwit imagination and defend ourselves from our own God-given errors.

Accused of setting the Gatlinburg fires, or at least two of them: Keith Eugene Mann, 49, of Franklin, North Carolina.

http://www.ky3.com/content/news/Death-toll-climbs-to-7-for-wildfires-in-Tennessee-403858096.html – 11/30/2016

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdnc/pr/franklin-nc-man-arrested-federal-arson-charge – 11/30/2016.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article118033648.html – 11/30/2016.

Sorry, Russia; sorry, Mr. Putin — on this one, BackChannels may have been wrong . . . but this is how it may go with “hybrid warfare” and the keeping of kleptocratic fellow travelers like that Ayatollah Khamenei.  With the appearance of a mysterious and large fire in an iconic American setting, one might well be found a little bit . . . touchy.

However, the Charlotte Observer piece wraps up with this note:

Officials have said some of the wildfires in the western part of the state are believed to be the work of arsonists. Gov. Pat McCrory has posted rewards up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of arsonists.

This note will have to be about national security and possibility in light of the “Phantoms of the Cold War” (e.g., Putin’s revival of the KGB, Russia’s behavior in Syria, and the invasion and, for the time being, annexation of Crimea) and the fact that “active measures”, “hybrid warfare”, the long Soviet relationship with terrorism and Moscow’s present inability to condemn Hamas as a terrorist organizations are real things.

Investigators (and armchair adventurers): leave no stone unturned.

Background — It Makes for Good Fiction, But It May Have Applied

Moscow Apartment Bombings

Satter, David.  “The Unsolved Mystery Behind the Act of Terror that Brought Putin to Power.”  National Review, August 17, 2016.

Two Major Fires

Haifa, Israel

Amid warnings from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel will consider arson an act of terrorism, Israeli police have arrested at least 13 people suspected of starting a series of wildfires that have burned around the country for four days . . . .

There is video evidence that the Haifa fire was an act of arson, a spokesman for the Haifa Fire Department told Israel’s Channel 2 Friday.

A blaze Thursday in Zichron Ya’acov, about 20 miles south of Haifa, also was caused by arsonists, Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan said Thursday.

http://www.wnd.com/2016/11/arrests-after-arson-terrorism-in-israel/#4qgbbg4LwUuFTwIy.99

Gatlinburg, Tennessee, USA

gat-prkhqtwcrpav

Google Maps, November 30, 2016.

Officials initially reported additional fire activity near the Park Headquarters area, as well as a spot fire between Elkmont and Newfound Gap Road off of the Sugarland Mountain Trail approximately 1 mile south of the Husky Gap Trail intersection.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/us/wildfires-lead-to-evacuation-of-gatlinburg/ar-AAkSBHh – 11/29/2016.

The fire that sparked the dozen other blazes was “human-caused,” National Park Service spokeswoman Dana Soehn said, without elaborating.

The blaze is under investigation.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/29/us/gatlinburg-fires/ – 11/30/2016.

Manipulation — “gaslighting” – has long been associated with “malignant narcissism“.

In  the original sense of the word, the narcissist would rearrange his intended victim’s surroundings without the victim’s knowledge, an effort made to drive the same into madness.

For the purposes of political psychology, BackChannels applies the term to the creation of an entire “theater of the real”, i.e., and as with the “Moscow Apartment Bombings” (cited for background at the top of this post), the intent is to produce an event and spectacle designed to promote a political outcome favorable to the actor.

A near example would be that of the fireman-arsonist who sets the fire, so that he may later show up and share in the heroic glory of putting it out.

The disconnections between Moscow, the encouragement of the terrorism produced by others (or Moscow would have refused to meet with PFLP – Nov. 2014) and would have long ago designated Hamas a terrorist organizations — it has so far refused to take that step), may make the discovery of empirical linkage all but impossible — but revisit the “Moscow Apartment Bombings” and then have a look at the almost under-the-radar firebombings of Haifa and, potentially, the fires burning in the mountains in the vicinity of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, one of America’s true heartland locations, Dollywood and all.

Stockholm, Sweden

The Scandinavian country has been plagued with arsonist thugs setting vehicles alight, with hundreds of cars burning out since 2015.

In 2016 alone, more than 70 cars have been destroyed as police struggle to combat the increasing violence and criminal activity in the famously liberal country.

The latest video shows three cars in Hallunda in southern Stockholm engulfed by flames as firefighters battle to put out the blaze.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/738151/Sweden-Stockholm-car-fire-epidemic-rage-no-go-zone – 11/30/2016.

Is the hand of Moscow behind “Islamic Terrorism” in the United States?

Is there a “meta”connection between fires set in Haifa, Gatlinburg, and Stockholm?

BackChannels invites readers to explore its references and sources and weigh for themselves the depth of the presence of the “Phantoms of the Cold War”, if any, in the recent spate of arson with the public as target.

Additional Reference

BackChannels.  “FTAC — ‘How ISIL Developed'”.  November 12, 2016.

BackChannels.  “It’s Not Islam — It’s Moscow.”  July 15, 2016.

Batchelor, Tom.  “Russian spies are influencing major EU decisions.”  Express UK, January 18, 2016.

Collinson, Stephen.  “Why the alleged Russian spy ring matters.”  CNN Politics, January 28, 2015.

McGreal, Chris.  “How Russian spies infiltrated suburban America.”  The Guardian, June 29, 2010.

Orton, Kyle.  “How Russia Manipulates Islamic Terrorism.”  The Syrian Intifada, September 8, 2015.

Staff.  “One-third of about 90 fires caused by arson, police estimate.”  The Times of Israel, November 27, 2016.

Wikipedia.  “Active Measures”.

Wikipedia.  “Illegals Program” (Russian Agents).

Wikipedia.  “Soviet espionage in the United States”.

Wikipedia.  “Spetsnaz” (Russian Sabateur and Special Forces).

Wikipedia.  “Terrorism and the Soviet Union”.

Related News – Updated

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/gatlinburg-officials-a-fire-for-the-history-books/357912872 – 11/30/2016/1347 (time is time first posted for the cited URL).

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/11/what_caused_the_gatlinburg_wil.html – last updated 12/1/2016.

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/12/gatlinburg_fire_update_death_t.html – last updated 12/2/2016.

http://heavy.com/news/2016/11/gatlinburg-tennessee-fire-cause-arson-arrest-arrests-terrorism-isis-al-qaeda-terrorist-israel-fires-ember-bomb-suspect-forest-jihad/ – 11/30/2016.

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Shaykh Shpendim Nadzaku To Serve as Imam for the Islamic Association of North Texas

12 Monday May 2014

Posted by in Religion

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THE “COOL” WAHHABIS. A modernized, “cool” offshoot of the conservative Wahhabi-Salafi Dar-us-Salaam (in Maryland, USA) that later transformed into a full-fledged organization of its own, the al-Maghrib Institute and its affiliates now attract more followers by making Wahhabism look less closed-minded and more open-minded and “doable” in modern society (US, UK, etc.). Beneath the paraphernalia, however, is the same ugly accusations of “shirk” and “kufr” against the majority of Muslims . . . .

http://sunni1.wordpress.com/purpose-of-this-blog/ – circa 2012.

The “cool Wahhabis” must have won a round or two, for “sunni1.wordpress” appears to have stopped publishing about the al-Maghrib organizations in March of 2012.

* * *

Shaykh Shpendim Nadzaku is an inspiration to all those who are starting their knowledge-seeking late. He did not grow up learning Arabic or the Qur’an; in fact he went to the Islamic University of Madinah with only a few short Surahs memorized.

http://ruhma.almaghrib.org/instructors/shpendim-nadzaku#profile – n.d.

Section Update – September 10, 2018

The above link has been discovered defunct, and so after so many years dimmed for viewing.  Nothing has been made up out of nothing, earlier or later, so BackChannels wishes not to send the section (in Orwellian fashion) down the “memory hole”.  This adjustment has been made because traffic has risen for this page, which has long pulled two to a few looks a day, and the editor thought to have a look at it.  It appears as much was done in 2015 as well.

In addition: the “sunn1.wordpress” page’s most “recent” post appears to have been published March 6, 2012 — “NEW! Yaser Birjas says: Muslims can eat chicken in fast-food restaurants in America”, so the blog appears also abandoned.  Its information was but two years old when this post was developed; it is now six years old. Moreover, Sunni1’s “About” page leads to an indeterminate “Muhammad”, so one shy BackChannels (in 2014) has no way today of reaching the source blog’s author for a chat.  😦

Finally, and now from “long ago” — a day on the World Wide Web can be a long day, and four years (is that all it has been?) may feel like a decade or more — BackChannels impression had been that Turkish imam Yusuf Kavakchi had “retired” from his mosque in a hasty manner without fanfare.  Who knows why?  Appointed in his place not too long thereafter: a Macedonian born American raised in New Jersey and for his profession educated at the Islamic University of Madinah. 

Section Update – October 21, 2015

The cited URL is defunct: this location, however, continues to provide a paragraph — search the page — about Shaykh Nadzaku: https://sunni1.wordpress.com/al-maghrib-institute-exposed/ —

“Shaykh Shpendim Nadzaku has an intriguing name that roots back to an intriguing country reflecting his even more intriguing character. Born in 1973 to Albanian parents in the beautiful city of Ohrid Macedonia, his parents immigrated to America when he was just a year old. He was raised in New Jersey and soon took to the UNIVERSITY OF MADINAH where he graduated from the College of Shariah in 2001. He was contemporary to our other instructors from Madinah, Shaykhs Mohammad Alshareef and Yasir Qadhi.” 

* * *

Alhamdulillah! The Boards of IANT are pleased to announce that inshaAllah Sheikh Shpendim Nadzaku will be joining the IANT community as our Imam and Resident Scholar from mid-June. May Allah SWT bless him and his family and make their move to our community a blessed one.

______

Related: Islamic Association of North Texas.

Related on BackChannels: Richardson, Texas – Imam Leaves Dallas Central Mosque, Quietly.

______

My sources sometimes nudge me toward domestic events, and I remind right back that . . . what happens in America in the the imam’s / priest’s / rabbi’s office stays there, rattles around in there, makes waves or shakes it up in there, but outside of the church, mosque, or synagogue no one cares unless or until something really bad — worth going to jail for — happens in connection with it.

Add: and no smart imam / priest / rabbi should care today to play an Anwar al-Aulaki / Holy Land Trust  / Weather Underground, etc., role in his or her church / mosque / synagogue.

The Dallas Central Mosque’s former imam, the esteemed Yusuf Kavakci, returned without fanfare — actually, without public notice — to Turkey the week ending October 12, 2013 according to my then surprised and baffled source.   The Muslim pluralist universalist on the spot, Mike Ghouse, wrote of the event the following week as if it were happening as he composed the farewell.

Hmm.

The moment remains ever curious: after more than two decades of continuous service, why the swift flight to Istanbul by the former imam?

Be that mystery as it may, seven  month’s later: congratulations are due Shaykh Shpendim Nadzaku, whom it appears will pick up the reins at IANT come June.

Addendum

Mike Ghouse’s original has disappeared from its primary space at Blogger’s “worldmuslimcongress”, which is why I chose an alternative link; however, after some reading through that location and some searching, I found it appearing on Ghouse’s “The Ghouse Diary”: “Great Imam of Dallas, Dr. Yusuf Zia Kavakci Retires” (October 17, 2013).

The cute, well known, and naughty travel slogan, “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas” applies everywhere in business of every sort in the U.S. until whatever has happened in Vegas has made its way into a report on a police blotter.

Count that a good thing.

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Ukraine to USA to South Sudan – Worlds of Hate, Scale Unknown

23 Wednesday Apr 2014

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

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SLAVIANSK – Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine said on Tuesday they were holding an American-Israeli journalist in the city of Slaviansk and the online news site Vice News said it was trying to secure the safety of its reporter Simon Ostrovsky.

Reuters.  “American-Israeli journalist held by east Ukraine militants.”  YNet News, April 23, 2014.

* * *

The president of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress narrowly escaped with his life on Monday after he was targeted in an assassination attempt in central Kiev.

Ya’ar, Chana.  “Pres. of Ukrainian Jewish Congress Targeted in Car Bombing.”  Arutz Sheva, March 6, 2013.

* * *

A local rabbi said the last time he saw a message like this one was in 1941, when Nazi armies occupied Donetsk. It is painful, he told a reporter, to be used by “cynical politicians” who see Jews “as an instrument of their political games.” Secretary of State John Kerry called it “grotesque.”

Ghitis, Frida.  “Mystery surrounds Ukraine’s anti-Semitic pamphlet.”  The News Tribune, April 23, 2014.

* * *

“As a Jew, what impacts me is how the anti-Semitism that prevailed in that part of the world seems to still be in the gut of some people in that community,” said Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress.

“Sixty eight years hasn’t changed much,” said Rosen, whose parents were Holocaust survivors.

Corbin, Cristina.  “US Jewish leaders deeply troubled by ‘outrageous’ pamphlets in Ukraine.”  Fox News, April 18, 2014.

______

I think 68 years have changed the world quite a bit, but deeply seeded beliefs and attitudes toward Jews have been distributed across space and down through generations.  Anti-Semitism remains a pervasive presence in contemporary political life.  Not only in Ukraine or across the arcs of the Arab and Muslim worlds have cultural communications and actions laid out this truth, but even from the heartland of the most inclusive of democratic open societies, the Untied States of America, has come this expression of ever vacuous rage.

(Reuters) – The suspect in the Passover Eve killings of three people at two Jewish community centers near Kansas City is a former Ku Klux Klan leader with a history of spewing vitriol against Jews, law enforcement officials said on Monday.

Gillam, Cary.  “Ex-Ku Klux Klan leader charged in Kansas Jewish center killings.”  Reuters, April 14, 2014.

Related: Wilber, Del Quentin.  “Von Brunn, white supremacist Holocaust museum shooter, dies.”  The Washington Post, January 7, 2010.

In numbers — Incidents x (character + intensity) / place + time — what does anti-Semitism look like spatially?

What is the character of the spillover into an aggregated bigotry, the sort signaled by the canard, “What starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews”?

Journalists better funded than I — my beat is broadband; my most cherished resource is my library — may be urged to look into this question about now because the answers may presage greater conflict (or be used to head it off) encouraged by an appeasing diminishment of the significance of anti-Semitic acts, rhetoric, and tactics.

______

 . . . Ukraine’s prime minister, anxious to maintain U.S. support against Russia, issued a statement accusing Moscow and told a U.S. TV channel he would find the “bastards” responsible.

Reuters.  “Ukraine rabbi seeks end to anti-Semitism row – in vain
Ukrainian PM blasts anti-Jewish leaflets, demands to bring those responsible to justice.”  Haaretz, April 20, 2014.

The righteous of the world — of any creed, ethnicity, race, or religion — need to know more about this kind of hatred NOW, post-WWII, post-Holocaust, and its distribution and intensity in the industrialized world.

In the developing world, if South Sudan may be representative of that, tribal genocide would seem to go unabated, well noted, and yet barely addressed with either martial or poetic (intellectual, attitude-changing) force.

That too needs greater attention, energy, and focus.

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Nested (Conflict) Dolls – NATO-Russia | Sunni-Shiite | KSA-Iran | Syria

18 Tuesday Feb 2014

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

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That which is distasteful to thee, do not do to another.

HILLEL – JewishEncyclopedia.com

* * *

More than 450 Indian migrant workers in Qatar have died in the last two years, media revealed on Monday. Another upcoming report will show that 400 Nepalese have lost their lives scrambling to get the Gulf state ready for the 2022 World cup.

Qatar World Cup toll: ‘Hundreds’ of Indian migrant workers dead in two years — RT News – 2/17/2014.

* * *

WANT TO know how badly U.S. Syrian policy is going, as President Obama works with international mediator Lakdhar Brahimi? Over the weekend Brahimi apologized to the Syrian people that their hopes for a resolution has come to naught, as the peace talks collapse. It’s made worse that Russia is blocking humanitarian assistance to the people, putting President Obama in a very tough spot.

Putin Plays Pimp of Sochi, While Ignoring Carnage in Syria – Taylor Marsh – 2/17/2014.

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The latest virtual manufacture in the world might be called “nested conflict dolls”, the creation of successive wars by proxy between Russia and the United States / NATO and played out between layers of Sunni and Shiite Islam within the Islamic Small Wars of the middle east and elsewhere, perhaps too between nationalist movements, at least one of which, Hungary’s Jobbik, claim far back Iranian roots, and the liberal-progressive do-good societies of the open democracies.

Predictably, RT’s rakin’ the muck — and no need to fabricate it — from the Arab world while Americans like Taylor Marsh (and myself) view Sochi (a $51 billion show) and Syria (for which Russia has pledged $10 million in humanitarian aid) side by side.

For Putin, Russia, and the rest of the world, Sochi, in memory and in fact, will survive Syria.

The jet set will go skiing, plan winter vacations, ape their own Olympic moments, take snapshots, and dine like royalty by the Black Sea while those punished by years of war and the destruction of their former lives will go on struggling along in the darker shadows of history.

Reference

Qatar World Cup toll: ‘Hundreds’ of Indian migrant workers dead in two years — RT News – 2/17/2014.

HILLEL – JewishEncyclopedia.com

Sochi Winter Olympics: criticism of Games reflects ‘Cold War’ mentality, says Putin – 2/12/2017.

Putin Is Playing a Game of His Own – WSJ.com – 2/14/2014.

It may be warm in Sochi, but these 5 things are chilling U.S-Russia relations | Updates | PBS NewsHour | PBS – 2/13/2014.

Putin Plays Pimp of Sochi, While Ignoring Carnage in Syria – Taylor Marsh – 2/17/2014.

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For thought on the role that money, big money, Ayatollah money, corporate money plays in political sports everywhere and on every issue:

“I’m happy to promote business, but I’m not one of those folks who’s going to be directed by billionaires and I think that’s one of the divisions we have in the Republican conference,” he added.

GOP congressman caught on tape blasting leadership as ‘directed by billionaires’ | The Raw Story

Republican Representative Steve King of Iowa voiced the above complaint in relation to U.S. domestic immigration reform; however, in principle, he’s remarked for all intents on the gravitational sway of wealth in its own right.  Whatever the lobbyists may promote, however they may define issues and do battle over them, the money has no conscience but rather a life of its own and the want of more (and more and more and more) of itself.

The three amigos of post-Soviet dictatorship — Putin-Assad-Khamenei — put on a good show and spread it around some through their systems of patronage, but as the web in English gets around, it may become ever more difficult to “follow the money” without also seeing the blood spattered across it and hearing the agonized crying of the suffering behind it.

Related: Reuters Investigates – Assets of the Ayatollah – 11/11/2013; Vladimir Putin Marbella villa in La Zagaleta – 1/19/2013; Assad’s palace: an empty, echoing monument to dictator decor | Art and design | theguardian.com – 9/11/2013.

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