by Oui
Wed Nov 21st, 2018 at 11:05:46 PM EST
There are multiple ways to theorize the growth of populist parties across the Western world, including the North Atlantic allied countries.
Yesterday I read an extensive article in The Guardian ...
○ Why is populism suddenly all the rage?
My take on the rise of populist parties. There have always been elements present in political parties based on nationalism, anti-immigration and so-called culture of the fatherland. By the turn of the century, I felt an restlessness in the community and in the Netherlands. After the 9/11 attacks on America and the following War on Terror by the Bush/Cheney administration there was an inevitable series of events. General hatred for Muslims became the discourse in the media and between political parties. Xenophobia reared its ugly head and turned into anti-immigration policy by leading nations. A right-wing movement had a rapid growth and with the financial crisis the populists gained votes by putting blame on "the establishment".
More below the fold ...
Right-wing Zionism, white supremacy and the BDS | Al Jazeera - Qatar |
Sebastian Gorka, a real-life Nazi and Islamophobe who until recently worked in the Trump White House, was the keynote speaker at a counterterrorism conference near Tel Aviv, speaking alongside Israeli cabinet ministers such as Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman. As The Forward reported, Gorka has been accused of having ties to Vitézi Rend, an anti-Semitic Hungarian political party whose leader reportedly handed over hundreds of thousands of Jews to the Nazis in the Second World War.
Yair Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister's son, found common cause with neo-Nazis and white supremacists when he posted on Facebook a meme laden with anti-Semitic imagery including George Soros, a reptile and a sinister Illuminati figure. Former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke retweeted the meme, and the post drew praise from the neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer, calling Yair Netanyahu "a total bro" and posting an article entitled, "Netanyahu's Son Posts Awesome Meme Blaming the Jews for Bringing Down his Jew Father". Following the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, Yair Netanyahu equated the white supremacists and neo-Nazis with the anti-fascist protesters, and said he was far more concerned with the far-left "thugs of Antifa and BLM who hate my country (and America too in my view) just as much" and "are getting stronger and stronger and becoming super dominant in American universities and public life".
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has invited Breitbart chief and former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon to speak at its November 12 gala in New York. The White House overthrow of Bannon - who has been accused of making anti-Semitic statements - was hailed by mainstream Jewish-American organisations such as the Anti-Defamation League, the Reform movement and J Street.
Described as the oldest pro-Israel organisation in the US, ZOA has in recent years engaged in "anti-Muslim extremism", according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Supportive of expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank, ZOA was the first Jewish group to meet with President Trump.
Survival of the fittest has become survival of the fascists | Mondoweiss |
A week ago, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told Likud officials that "occupation is nonsense". This is a continuation of a right-wing spinning of history that says that Israel is not an occupying power.
Then Netanyahu went further, to speak with clear fascist eliminationist undertones:
"Occupation is nonsense. Empires have conquered and replaced
entire populations and no one is talking about it".
This line was reported by the Israeli Yediot Aharonot, yet didn't make too many headlines otherwise. One might have thought that Israel apologists would ignore this line as too overtly fascist, but here is the Israel apologia site United with Israel openly quoting it.
Middle East Monitor rightly observed that "[t]he comments appear to support the claim made repeatedly by Israel's critics who insist that Israel's policies in Palestine have more in common with the past when settler colonialism and empire building was the norm and racist attitudes towards native population was used to justify the denial of their basic human rights."
[...]
While those Hitleresque statements were made in the context of his September visit to Dimona and the nuclear center, the recent ones were made in the general context of relations with Arab countries:
"Power is key. Power changes everything in our policy with Arab countries," he said. "Aligning [Arab] interests with Israel, based on Israel being a technological superpower must lead the way".
This view of power politics is consistent with Israel's intensifying campaign to create a strong alliance with Arab countries aligned with Saudi Arabia. Last week Netanyahu spoke openly about how the Saudi Prince should get a pass for the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in order that Saudi Arabia relations remain strong:
"What happened in the Istanbul consulate was horrendous and it should be duly dealt with. Yet at the same time I say it, it is very important for the stability of the world, for the region and for the world, that Saudi Arabia remain stable".
Netanyahu is basically mainstreaming a fascistic rhetoric, the maintenance of a supposed `necessary evil' against the supposed ultimate evil, Iran.
"Israeli Minister Shaked Takes After Mussolini" | Haaretz |
Top White House posts go to Jews | JPost - Apr. 25, 2006 |
After appointing Joshua Bolten to be the White House chief of staff, US President George W. Bush nominated another Jewish staffer, Joel Kaplan, to serve as Bolten's deputy, putting him in charge of the daily policy planning. The fact that White House policy is now in the hands of two Jews is not seen as significant by activists in the American Jewish community. "He is simply appointing the best people for the job," said Nathan Diament, who heads the Washington office of the Orthodox Union.
Another Jewish activist added that he "wouldn't read too much into it." Bolten, who first served as head of the Office of Management and Budget, was the first Jewish member of Bush's cabinet. Ever since Bush took office, there has been a custom of opening cabinet meetings with a brief prayer and so, before his first cabinet meeting, Bolten's assistant contacted Diament and asked for help in finding a Jewish prayer for the security and well-being of the cabinet members. The Orthodox Union provided him with the text in English and in Hebrew and Bolten read it aloud at the next cabinet meeting.
Bolten and Kaplan will probably be the most prominent Jewish members of the Bush administration, but not the only ones. Apart from Bolten, there is another Jewish cabinet member, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and there are other Jewish senior staff members, including Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams and White House staffer Jay Lefkowitz. In the past year, several Jews who were holding senior posts in the administration have left, among them deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz, undersecretary of defense Doug Feith, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby and political adviser Ken Mehlman, who now heads the Republican National Committee.
○ Joel Kaplan, Facebook's vice-president of global public policy
'Facebook removed 95% of terror incitement requested by Israel'
Ministers Shaked and Erdan and execs from social media giant agree to form task force to fight online incitement - but option of passing a law forcing social networks' hand is till on table.
MK Revital Swid (Zionist Union), who proposed a bill to remove inciting content, met with Kaplan and Bickert separately, and called for Facebook to hire Israeli employees who understand local security concerns. "Facebook understood that it is a superpower that is responsible for the well-being of its users," Swid said.
"The terrorism industry uses social networks, which have the responsibility to find and remove content calling for acts of terrorism. As long as Facebook is not committed to removing inciting content, legislation is necessary."
○ How Pro-Israel Goons Rule Twitter | Tikun Olam |
Hi Tikun Olam,
Your account, @richards1052 has been locked for violating the Twitter Rules.
The Delusions of Washington-Riyadh Ruling Elite and the Journalists Who Feed Them | Tikun Olam |
In the aftermath of Trump's disastrous recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the spin from Washington and Riyadh-and the journalists and think tank analysts only too eager be spun-has been outrageous. The level of sheer delusion is stupendous. This post will offer an anatomy of delusion and why it means only more suffering and bloodshed for both Arabs and Israelis.
The Times Shills for the Two-State Delusion
The NY Times, ever the newspaper of record for the élite and their paid emissaries, purports to debate whether the two-state solution remains viable in light of Trump's seeming endorsement of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. Who does Mark Landler quote as sources? Why, think tank talking heads who earn their keep from the Israel Lobby and its donors. Landler quotes no less than four sources affiliated with Lobby, all of whom endorse a two-state solution. And none of whom have ever offered any serious analysis or balanced discussion of the one-state solution: Martin Indyk, David Makovsky, Scott Anderson, and Daniel Levy.
How many Palestinian or Arab sources does he quote? One, Saeb Erekat. And he doesn't quote anything original from Erekat. He merely quotes statements the Palestinian made to other media outlets.
○ Facebook, Lies and Cambridge Analytica
It's not Russia as the NY Times wants its readers to believe caused the upset victory for Trump!
○ Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook's Leaders Fought Through Crisis | The New York Times |
Further reading ...
○ War On BDS, Progressive Left Under Attack
○ Money Talks ... The Arab World
○ Democratic Ideologues, Populism and Identity Politics
