Happy Passover, New York Times!

Interrupting the (hopefully temporary) silence for this extraordinary bit of news:

The New York Times on Saturday acknowledged publishing in Thursday’s international print edition an anti-Semitic political cartoon, reminiscent of the worst Arab, Soviet and Nazi works. It depicted President Trump as a blind man wearing a yarmulke and being led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the shape of a seeing eye dog wearing a collar adorned by a blue star of David.

The story checked out by several people, who bought the edition in question.

Social stigma, self-esteem, social justice etc

Still not enough time for anything, but this case deserves all attention one is able to muster. The experiment described in the following page (a copy from a book by Arnhild Lauveng) has implications far beyond a simple personality quirk. Click on the image to make the reading easier.

Just to make sure the story is true, I have done some fingerwalking with Google. First of all it is Major and Crocker, and, besides, the experiment was performed by Kleck, R. E., and Strenta, A. in 1980. However, the description above summarizes the results in a simple and easy language, so I have decided to use it, despite the wrong reference.

In our brave new world, when the battle cry "Discrimination!" is used by so many small and large groups of people, for a good reason or (more frequently) without any reason at all, this experiment should serve as a litmus paper for a lot of cases.

Thank you, Norway, for getting Europe to stage 3 of Jew-biting

Attorney General Tor Aksel Busch - Norway

The man in the picture above should be allotted a place in history books. He pushed the (willing) population of Europe to the third stage of recognized and approved Jew-hate. To remind you the first two stages:

1. "Some of my best friends are Jews, it is the Zionists over there, in Israel, that I despise and protest."
2. "Criticism of Israel/Zionist Entity is not antisemitic, and my Jewish friends that support Israel are not my friends anymore, I despise and protest them too."

Now, thanks to the gentleman depicted above, we are at the third stage: "Fuck all Jews, they are all Israel". With all the consequences, logical, legal and physical that follow.

The article by Elder of Ziyon tells the story. For the lazy here is a summary:

A Norwegian-Iranian rapper says "fucking Jews" during performance. Whether it was a poor joke or an intended racist slur is immaterial for our purpose. Besides, I am not into trying to interpret a rapper.

Norwegian police (sic!) decided that "Fuck Jews" was not a racist statement. Why is this a matter for police to decide is unclear, but also immaterial.

Then a State Attorney Trude Antonsen agrees with the police's assessment. She decides that the statement is "highly derogatory, offensive and false, but that it is not affected by the criminal code". Whatever. Not very enlightening, but immaterial as well.

And here the hero of this post jumps into the fray:

Attorney General Tor Aksel Busch rejected the appeal on the grounds that "fuck Jews" can be understood as criticism of Israel.

At this point I have to disagree with the learned Elder. He says:

In other words, now pretty much any attack on Jews in Norway can be justified as being merely political, and not racist.

Not in Norway only, dear Elder, I am sorry to say. This is a precedent, soon to be expanded and used by many others, to be sure.

Too bad.

The death of Stalin and other animals

This extraordinary document deserves a translation. While my expertise as a translator is somewhat unimpressive, I shall try to do my best. The letter below was sent to Nikita Khrushchev immediately after the tyrant and mass murderer croaked. Khrushchev was the chairman of the funeral commission.

***

Dear Nikita Sergeevich [Khrushchev]!

Whether under the influence of the great grief that befell our Soviet people, or under the influence of burning hatred for the enemies and traitors of the people, murderous terrorists who carried their sting over our leaders and statesmen, or under the influence of both. I dare to express and hope, not only my opinion and wish, but also the opinion and wish of many Soviet citizens, the wish is that during the civil funeral for our beloved and beloved leader I.V. Stalin did not allow the "Jewish ensemble", called the State Symphony Orchestra of USSR, which team is always assigned to play mourning music in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions.

The mourning melody of this orchestra, consisting of 95% of Jews, sounds insincere. After each funeral, this Jewish weed, rallied under the guise of the State Symphony Orchestra of USSR, with a sense of satisfaction, calculates its unplanned income. I believe that this Jewish team of the symphony orchestra is not worthy of being in close proximity to our great, beloved leader, dear I.V. Stalin.

We have many orchestras consisting of the devoted sons of our multinational Soviet state, and there is no need to impose this mission on the people (the Jews), who have not shown examples of heroism and devotion throughout their history. The only thing that our industrious people hear and confront is theft, cheating, speculation, betrayal and murder on the part of this small, corrupt people, one word about which - “Jew” - evokes a feeling of disgust and distaste.

As for the composition of the State Symphony Orchestra of USSR, it would be useful to think about its future existence in such composition. A small group of leaders of the orchestra, that creates an aura of fame for Jewish musicians in the competitive selection of musicians for the orchestra, often under pressure from Jewish musicians, do not give players of Russian nationality the opportunity to join the orchestra, although they are far superior to Jews who insinuate into the orchestra through the intrusiveness of the Jews and the support of the Jewish members of the entire symphony orchestra.

V.Antonov [the author]

***

The official answer to this letter is no less amazing. Here are some excerpts:

***

... In fact, the position in the orchestra is as follows: out of 112 orchestra members, 66 are Russians (59%), 40 are Jews (35.7%) and 6 are of other nationalities(5.3%).

The message of the author of the letter that few Russians were accepted at the contests held in the orchestra is not true. In 1951/52, only 14 musicians were enrolled to the orchestra after the selection process, of which 11 were Russian and 3 Jews.

... During May - June of this year. The Arts Committee retires 10 musicians (2 of them are Russians, 8 are Jews). In September 1953, the orchestra will be replenished by new musicians of indigenous nationality.

V. Kruzhkov and P. Tarasov [signed the response]

***

Hat tip: M.T.

Fisk - alive and kicking, without fisking

For several years I have neglected the subject, somehow considering it being passe and not exciting at all anymore. After all these years.

Besides, there is that promise given by myself to myself 11 years ago:

It was already agreed in the blogger community that fisking Fisk has lost its appeal due to this specific target becoming too pathetic, senile and totally cooking on another planet. Barmy, in one word.

So, when a kind friend brought this to my attention, I have decided just to bring up a choice quote or two from the shining beacon of anti-Zionism. Here:

Two thousand five hundred miles separate the Israeli ministry of defence in Tel Aviv from the Indian ministry of defence in New Delhi, but there’s a reason why the usual cliche-stricken agency dispatches sound so similar.

And:

But it is difficult to see how Zionist nationalism will not leach into Hindu nationalism when Israel is supplying so many weapons to India – the latest of which India, which has enjoyed diplomatic relations with Israel since 1992, has already used against Islamists inside Pakistan.

And now, instead of fisking, let's just unleash the power of positive thinking: ain't India the biggest dog the Zionist tail has succeeded to wag so far?

At least, according to the much fisked thinker...

AIPAC as (another) left-wing conspiracy

In a post on his Facebook page, Netanyahu slammed what he called the Left's "double moral standards."
"They criticize an alliance on the Right with right-wing parties while the Left is working to bring radical Islamists into the Knesset to set up its own alliance," the prime minister wrote.

Interesting.

P.S. And just to make clear where I stand on this issue: here is where.

If You Want to Be Honored By German President Frank Walter Steinmeier

Not much time for anything. Meanwhile watch this, posted by Benjamin Goldstein.

Baizuo - for further reference

A useful bit of information via a Facebook buddy:

Baizuo (/ˈbaɪˌtswɔː/;[1] Chinese: 白左 báizuǒ, literally "white left") is a derogatory Chinese neologism used to refer to Western leftist liberal elites. It refers to the left faction in the culture wars in Western politics, implying support of multiculturalism, political correctness and positive discrimination. In more than 400 answers submitted by Zhihu users during 2015 to May 2017, the term is defined as referring to those who are hypocritically obsessed with political correctness in order to satisfy their own feeling of moral superiority motivated from an ignorant and arrogant Western-centric worldview who pity the rest of the world and think they are saviours. A related term is shèngmǔ (圣母, 聖母, literally "holy mother", title for the mother of an emperor), a sarcastic reference to those whose political opinions are guided by emotions and a hypocritical show of selflessness and empathy, represented by celebrities.

So there, now you know too.

Gary Spedding or an appeal to the goddess of fairness

The gentleman in the picture is Gary Spedding*, mentioned in the headline. He was recently kicked out (BBC report) from Ben Gurion airport, back to wherever he has started his flight to Tel Aviv from. His report on Facebook** is placed at the end of the post here, for full disclosure. I would like to stress only one sentence from this report, the cry of an anguished innocent soul:

I invite Israeli authorities to respect legitimate democratic activities and process and permit me to continue with my journey.

Says BBC about the poor soul, being treated so unfairly:

A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London said: "Mr Spedding's entry into Israel was denied due to his involvement in organising a violent protest in Queens University, Belfast, in which an Israeli representative was attacked, and others were forced to take shelter to prevent being hurt.

And here is the story, from 2011. Some choice quotes:

An Israeli law lecturer had to be rescued by security officers when a seminar was abandoned after being disrupted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Solon Solomon, a former legal adviser to the Knesset Foreign Affairs committee, had been invited to speak to law school students at Queen's University in Belfast.

When the security team eventually moved him out of the university building, protesters attacked the car he was travelling in, punching the vehicle and attempting to smash its windows.

The protest was organised by Gary Spedding, president of the university's Palestine Solidarity Society. Mr Spedding works for the Holy Land Trust charity, which seeks to empower Palestinians in the West Bank.

You know, after reading the above, I can't get rid of a feeling that Gary Spedding wouldn't know legitimate democratic activities if the said activities bit him on his backside. And that Gary Spedding is a choice example of a hypocrite.

But it is neither here nor there. The important thing that he is back home and safe...

(*) Here is how he bills himself in Times of Israel, where he, apparently, is welcome to keep a blog:

Gary Spedding is a cross-party advocate and lobbyist on the Israel-Palestine conflict in the UK, Irish and European Parliaments and an applied peace and conflict researcher. He is a member of the UK’s Labour Party.

However, not being an expert on Gary Spedding, I shall let other people add to the above short blurb.
Here is a brief one.
And here is a longer one, in three parts!

(**) Here it goes:

Five years on, I have just been detained upon arrival at Israel’s Ben Gurion international airport. I have once again been refused entry. I will try to provide updates as I attempt to carry forward with my visit to Israel-Palestine.

I’ve spent the last five years banned from Israel. After having followed all stipulations required of me (including not attempting re-entry during the period of my ban). The main reason for my visit is to meet and catch up with Israeli and Palestinian friends and colleagues.

I do not believe that my political views and positions constitute a legitimate reason to deny my entry to Israel. I do not have a criminal record in any country, I do not post a security threat. It would be understandable if I held extreme views or dangerous tendencies - but I do not.

I wholeheartedly believe in peace, justice and equality for Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs and Jews in this land. It is my hope that this will be recognised and that I’ll be permitted to enter the same as any other UK passport holder without prejudice.

I invite Israeli authorities to respect legitimate democratic activities and process and permit me to continue with my journey.

Press release to follow if I still have access to my phone.

You dare to call yourself friends of Jews?

A Jewish German political activist Aviel Tromm, who describes himself on his Facebook page:

My name is Aviel Tromm, I actively tried to shape politics from 2001 to 2014. I was chairman of the LAG Queer NRW, the party The Left, fractional employee of the city council faction in Brühl and sat there in 8 committees, have worked with the then parliamentary group and was networked with politicians across the country.
To this day, I have friends in various factions of the Bundestag and the European Parliament and I am still fighting actively in the BAK Shalom, but I am no longer a party member! My "career" ended in Essen in 2014 because I sided with Israel.

The letter to the German government, written by him, is borrowed from Benjamin Goldstein's blog.

You all annoy me the way you mentally please yourself with your ‘culture of rememberence’ and your ‘raison d’État’ and how you at the same time learned so much from history that in fifty years Germany will finally be as your murderish grandparents envisioned it – judenrein!

Every time a Jew in Germany gets beaten, you have to act like shocked politicans with your useless Sunday speeches and slogans and you pretend not to be able to understand where that hatred comes from. You prattle in talk shows that there wouldn’t be a place for anti-Semitism in Germany. You carry wreaths to memorials. Oh, how much you love your dead Jews. I’m inclined to attest you a propensity for necrophilia!

But every time when the living Jews resist, when they insist on their right to self-determination, then you’re there to pass UN-Resolutions together with the religious and ideological fanatics, painting Israel as the world’s demon. In [the Nazi propaganda magazine] ‘Stürmer’ they did it with cartoons. You do it with politics.

High-ranking politicans may clap hands when in the European Parliament Mr Abbas spreads the most anti-Semitic narratives. One may loudly speak of an apartheid state or a regime and it’s also perfectly okay for you to lay down flowers and wreaths on the graves of dead terrorists. Still today Europe must be very sad that the Arabs failed to drown the Jews in the Middle East in 1948 like a farmerman who’s killing kittens in a barrel of rain.

Either you’re so stupid that you can’t distinguish scrambled eggs from shit or you do it on purpose. You’re a bunch of lousy hypocrites who present themselves in front of memorials, howling in the minor chords of Klezmer-music, and at the same time you’re working only to get rid of the European Jews.

What did you learn from the last years? What have you done? Anti-Semitic riots throughout Germany, arson attacks on synagogues, endless insults and repressions against Jews and Jewish institutions. What was the consequence? The German parliament of the state NRW, for example, examined the incidents in the City of Essen, condemned them and after that the topic was over. Nothing of practical use followed. The guilty are still sitting exactly where they sat then. The only effective measure was a big rally, which wasn’t initiated by you, but the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

And what are you working on in practice? You condemn and criticize Israel since the 1960s perpetually. You have no understanding for self-defense and security needs. You reject Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and you pump billions of euros into the terrorist structures of Hamas and others on site. And what does that make of you after your own definition? You dare to call yourself friends of Israel and the Jews? Friends? What the hell is wrong with you?

With this policy of ‘friendship’ you created such a one-sided media coverage that there are only two types of Jews in the daily lives of Germans. Jews have almost disappeared completely from everday life.

First type: Jews in Germany appear in news articles about students who have to change schools because of their Jewish identity. Or in documentaries about the Shoa, which have become so irrelevant that they feel like a substitute of the black-and-white picture noise of the analogue TV set.

Second type: Jews encounter the majority of people in Germany as a boogeyman in the news when Israel every so often has to defend itself and even the headlines then leave no qualms that ‘the Jew’ is always the guilty one. In fact, the media almost always reports negatively about Israel. The attacks against the state of Irael are usually only mentioned as the last line in consistently tendencious articles, and politicians of all parties either drown in their calls for temperance or they curse Israel as an apartheid state like [former] Minister of Foreign Affairs Sigmar Gabriel.

The West German post-war narrative is the attempt to avert the guilt. In order not to face the own history Israel is at least equated to the Nazis.

And finally, to crown your hypocrisy, you install anti-Semitism commissioners who have to beg to get heard at all. If they’re listened to, they can have the moral highground for a moment. [Note: I think that he means they are selectively given the mic for purely strategic political advantages.] Fabulous! Great show! So much perversion and deviousness is otherwise known only in psycho thrillers.

The result of over fourty years of German-Israeli ‘friendship’ is that anti-Semitism has become louder, that it’s becoming increasingly dangerous for Jews to walk the streets and that more and more Jews emigrate from Germany.

There’s only left to say that you’re bound by tradition, a German tradition which made it possible to slaughter Jews during the Crusades like livestock, a tradition that was inspired by Martin Luther’s letter of shame ‘From Jews and their lies’, a tradition responsible for the murder of six million Jews on government orders.

It’s not us who have become like your grandparents, no, you’re just as your murderish ancestors desired. At least be honest, this farce is almost unbearable.

Murder of a poet - 80 years

Behind us still our fate was grimly holding,

A razor-handed madman, seeking fee.

(Arseny Aleksandrovich Tarkovsky)

The picture above is, most probably, the last picture of Osip Mandelshtam, one of the brightest stars in Russian poetry of XX century. It was taken by a prison photographer not long before his death. His murder, in fact. The poet signed his death sentence by his famous epigram of the tyrant:

We live, not feeling the earth beneath us
At ten paces our words evaporate.
But when there’s the will to crack open our mouths
our words orbit the Kremlin mountain man.
Murderer, peasant killer.

His fingers plump as grubs.
His words drop like lead weights.
His laughing cockroach whiskers.
The gleam of his boot rims.

Around him a circle of chicken-skinned bosses
sycophantic half-beings for him to toy with.
One whines, another purrs, a third snivels
as he babbles and points.

He forges decrees to be flung
like horseshoes
at the groin, the face, the eyes.

He rolls the liquidations on his tongue like berries
delicacies for the barrel-chested Georgian.

It is not my place to write about the life and poetry of the genius, but here are some memories of his last days. His last letter to the family:

Dear Shura! 

I am - Vladivostok, СВИТЛ*, the 11th barrack. Got 5 years for the к.р.д.** by decision of the ОСО***. From Moscow, the Butyrki, our group left on September 9, arrived on October 12. Health is very weak, exhausted to the extreme, emaciated, almost unrecognizable, but I don’t know whether to send things, food and money makes sense. Try all the same. Very cold without things.

My dear Nadinka, I do not know whether you are alive, my dove. You, Shura, write about Nadya to me now. Here I am at a transit point. I was not taken to the Kolyma. Wintering is possible.
My dear, I kiss you.

Osya and Shurochka, I am writing more. The last days I went to work, and it raised my spirits. From our camp, as a transit point, they send [people] to the permanent [camps]. I have obviously got "screened out", and I have to get ready for the winter.

And please send me a telegram and money by telegraph.

(*) СВИТЛ - Northeast Forced Labor and Correction Camps - a branch of GULAG.
(**) к.р.д. - Counter-revolutionary activities.
(***) ОСО, Special Committee) - an administrative body under the NKVD of the USSR, which existed from 1934 to 1953.

And a description of the poet's death:

...in November we have started being eaten alive by thoroughbred white lice. Typhus, of course, got to us. The sick people were taken away, and not seen anymore. On a morning at the end of December, a few days before the New Year, we were led to the baths, to "sanitary processing". There was no water. We were ordered to undress in the cold and take the clothing to the heating room*. And then we were transferred to the other half of the premises, the dressing room, where it was even colder. The room stank of sulphur and smoke. At this time two naked men fell unconscious.
Several flankeys came up. They took out pieces of plywood, twine and put tags on the dead. His tag said "Mandelshtam Osip, Article 58 (10), 10 years."

(*) Heating room - a preferred way then to kill the lice in clothing.

This is the end of one of the very few through whom the deity of poetry speaks.

Take from my palms some sun to bring you joy
and take a little honey - so the bees
of cold Persephone commanded us.

No loosing of the boat that is not moored,
no hearing of the shadow shod in fur,
no overcoming fear in life's dense wood.

And kisses are all that's left us now,
kisses as hairy as the little bees
who perish if they fly out of the hive.

They rustle in transparent depths of night,
their home dense forests on Taigetos' slopes,
their food is honeysuckle, mint and time.

So for your joy receive my savage gift,
a dry and homely necklace of dead bees
who have transmuted honey into sun*.

(*) Well, better a poor translation than nothing. Not that there is any possibility to translate him.

God willing, we'll kill you all...

To start with dry facts:

Russia’s Ministry of Defense plans to build the military’s main church in the Moscow Region, and it’s going to be big. According to blueprints, the church will be 95 meters tall, making it the third tallest Orthodox church on the planet. As it stands, the first and the second tallest are also Russian: Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, and St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St.Petersburg.

“Throughout history, Russians have built monumental churches, chapels, and whole architectural ensembles to commemorate the defenders of the Motherland,” the project’s official webpage says. Thus, the new church follows the traditions and aims at “uniting all the Orthodox servicemen of Russia.”

The Minister of Defense Sergey Shoygu stated that both the government and the Russian Orthodox Church approve of the project. The church will be in the Byzantine style and located in Patriot Park in Kubinka, (75 km west of Moscow). It’s earmarked to be completed by 2020.

Few more details from another source:

The idea of building the main temple of the Armed Forces of Russia received the blessing of Patriarch Cyril. The temple will become a spiritual, educational, methodical and educational center for servicemen and other citizens of Russia. An exhibition exposition dedicated to the history of the formation of the Russian state and armed forces will be located on its territory.

To make sure, the planners haven't forgotten anything:

The temple will have several altars, the central one will be named in honor of the main Christian holiday - the Resurrection of Christ, the rest will be dedicated to the heavenly patrons of the different branches of the Armed Forces.

And, for dessert:

The steps of the main church of the Russian Armed Forces,... will be cast from Wehrmacht trophy equipment, said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at a meeting of the public council of the Russian Defense Ministry on Monday.

What kind of psychotic mind stands behind this project? Meet Sergei Shoigu:

Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation and and General of the Army that appears in the picture in military uniform and a treasure trove of medals has never served in the military.

No more to be said.

US Defense Department or Radio Hezbollah?

I am totally unsure that I understand where US international politics is going. If CNN is to be believed (and no MSM source is to be believed these days), the shameful act of withdrawal from Syria occurred just so:

Erdogan was explaining all the problems with the US presence in Iraq and Syria and was irritating Trump, according to a senior administration official who received a detailed readout of the phone call between both presidents.
"OK, it's all yours. We are done," Trump said, according to the source.

Kurds, who played a major role in the defeat of Daesh, sacrificing thousands lives in the process, are left to the predictable fate in the hands of the Turkish dictator. That because Trump was irritated?

And there is another, relatively new quirk in the US mandarins' behavior. After each Israeli strike in Syria (real or imagined), some "anonymous sources in the US Defense Department" sees it as her/his/... duty to produce a statement of this kind:

US Defense Department official claims alleged Israeli attack occurred shortly after several senior Hezbollah officials boarded a plane bound for Tehran, according to a report by Newsweek.

Sources in the US Defense Department claim that several senior Hezbollah officials had been hit in an alleged Israeli airstrike near Damascus, according to a report Wednesday by Newsweek.

If there is an agreement between IDF and US Defense Department, engaging the "anonymous sources" there as our spokesperson?

Confused and discombobulated here...

Andrew Sullivan - more Biased and Balanced than ever

Usually this here blogger, after two or three critical posts dedicated to a person, will leave the said person as a subject for a long time, if not forever. People, as a rule, don't change, at least not enough for the changes to merit a special notice. So, after dedicating three posts to Mr Sullivan in general and his exemplary hate for the Zionist Entity in particular, I thought there wouldn't be any reason to go back to this sad case.

And you know what: there really ain't good reasons to do so. That is, aside of the level of obsession, displayed by the Biased and Balanced lately. Which obsession is perfectly well shown in the thread that, initially didn't have anything to do with the Entity. Here it is:

David French, the author of the above, might be right or wrong, but it matters little to Mr Sullivan, who immediately comes in with this zinger:

The only fitting response is this borrowed one:

The answer to Jon Star is, quite obviously, "nothing" - aside of the said sick obsession. About ten years ago or more I had a talk with an expert on dementia. Dementia tends to exacerbate most of our pre-existing negative traits, she said. Something to be learned here in relation to the sad case in question.

You can view the whole thread here, not that there is much to be learned.

Hat tip: Dr. Petra Marquardt-Bigman

Mr Soros

Jamie Kirchick has written a brilliant piece - long and detailed - on Mr Soros here:
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/274870/the-truth-about-george-soros

POTUS had got into a lot of trouble for remarking that Soros was funding the screaming women who ambushed Senator Flake during the Kavanaugh confirmation hoo-ha.  See the Guardian's entirely predictable report:
 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/28/jeff-flake-elevator-rape-survivors-brett-kavanaugh
Turns out Soros had funded this groupscule - and has poured billions into all the various anti-Republican 'resistance' groups.

Then the British government got it in the neck a couple of weeks ago (as though it is not under enough pressure, but that's another story) when they gave the brilliant, Conservative philosopher, Roger Scruton, an unpaid consultative position on some sort of commission charged with building more beautiful houses (a lost art in the U.K. but that too is another story).  The British left, with the Guardian in full talley-ho chase (Scruton hunts..) licked its lips.  And accused Mr Scruton of antisemitism (as though the British Left cares about Jews - this is what 'weaponising antisemitism' looks like).  A few lines from a long, complex talk were seized as evidence. 

Mr Scruton is not an antisemite. For once, cowardice did not win the day and Scruton keeps the job - the Left is gunning for him and Mr Scruton stands his ground.