Philip Giraldi on the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act

/33 Comments/in , /by

From Philip Giraldi, “Fake News Versus No News” on Unz.com:

… The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act is intended to give the Department of Education investigatory authority over “anti-Jewish incidents” on America’s college campuses. Such “incidents” are not limited to religious bigotry, with the examples cited in the bill’s text including criticism of Israel and claiming that the holocaust was “exaggerated.” It is a thinly disguised assault on the Boycott Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement, which is non-violent, does not criticize Jews as a religion or ethnicity, and is actually supported by many Jewish American who are concerned about Israel’s apartheid regime.

The Anti-Semitism bill makes Jews and Jewish interests a legally protected class, immune from any criticism. “Free speech” means in practice that you can burn an American flag, sell pornography, attack Christianity in the vilest terms or castigate the government in Washington all you want but criticizing Israel is off limits if you want to avoid falling into the clutches of the legal system. The Act is a major step forward in effectively making any expressed opposition to Israeli actions a hate crime and is similar to punitive legislation that has been enacted in twenty-two states as well as in Canada. It is strongly supported by the Israel Lobby, which quite likely drafted it, and is seeking to use legal challenges to delegitimize and eliminate any opposition to the policies of the state of Israel.

As the Act is clearly intended to restrict First Amendment rights if they are perceived as impacting on broadly defined Jewish sensitivities, it should be opposed on that basis alone, but it is very popular in Congress, which is de facto owned by the Israel Lobby. That the legislation is not being condemned or even discussed in the generally liberal media tells you everything you need to know about the amazing power of one particular unelected and unaccountable lobby in the U.S.

And there is always Iran to worry about. If the United States can successfully avoid a war with Russia, a conflict with the Mullahs could have major consequences even if the all-powerful U.S. military successfully rolls over its Iranian counterpart in less than a week. Iran is physically and in terms of population much larger than Iraq and it has a strong national identity. An attack by Washington would produce a powerful reaction, unleashing terrorist resources and destabilizing an economically and politically important region of the world for years to come. Currently, the nuclear agreement with Iran provides some measure of stability and also pushes backwards any possible program by Tehran to build a weapon. Iran does not threaten the United States, so why walk away from the agreement as some of Trump’s advisors urge? Or violate the agreement’s terms as the U.S. Congress seems to be doing by extending and tightening the sanctions regime with its just passed Iran Sanctions Extension Act? Look no further than the Israel Lobby. Hobbling Iran, a regional competitor, is a possible Israeli interest that should have nothing to do with the United States but yet again the United States government carries the water for the extreme right wing Netanyahu regime.

Israel for its part has welcomed the Trump election by building 500 new and completely illegal settler homes in what was once Arab East Jerusalem. Trump has surrounded himself with advocates for Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s expectation that he will have a free hand in dealing with those pesky Palestinians is probably correct. I would like to think that Donald Trump will unpleasantly surprise him based on actual American rather than Israeli interests but am not optimistic.

Indeed, deference to perceived Israeli interests enforced by the Israel Lobby and media permeates the entire American foreign policy and national security structure. Congressman Keith Ellison who is seeking to become Democratic National Committee Chairman is being called an anti-Semite for “implying U.S. policy in the region [the Middle East] favored Israel at the expense of Muslim-majority countries, remarks ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt described as ‘deeply disturbing and disqualifying.’ ” Donald Trump and his senior counselor Steve Bannon have also both been called anti-Semites and several other potential GOP appointees have been subjected to the media’s fidelity-to-Israel litmus test.

The recently nominated Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who can hardly be called a moderate when it comes to Iran, has also been labeled an anti-Semite by the usual players. Why? Because in 2013 he told Wolf Blitzer “So we’ve got to work on [peace talks] with a sense of urgency. I paid a military security price every day as a commander of CENTCOM because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel, and [because of this] moderate Arabs couldn’t be with us because they couldn’t publicly support those who don’t show respect for Arab Palestinians.”

Mattis will no doubt be reminded of his remarks when he is up for Senate confirmation. A predecessor Chuck Hagel was mercilessly grilled by Senators over his reported comment that the “Jewish lobby” intimidates congressmen. But ironically nearly everyone who is not an Israel-firster who is involved in U.S. foreign and security policy knows that aggressive Israeli colonization of the Palestinian West Bank and its siege of Gaza contribute greatly to terrorism against the United States, since Washington is regularly blamed for enabling Netanyahu. When General David Petraeus said pretty much the same thing as Mattis back in 2010 he was forced to “explain” his comments, retract them and then grovel before he was eventually given a pass by the Lobby.

And there is considerable self-censorship related to the alleged sensitivity of “Jewish issues,” not only in the media. I recently attended a conference on the Iraq invasion of 2003 at which the role of Israel manifested through its controlled gaggle of American legislators and bureaucrats as a factor in going to war was not even mentioned. It was as if it would be impolite or, dare I say, anti-Semitic, to do so even though the Israeli role was hardly hidden. Former Bush administration senior official Philip Zelikow has admitted that protecting Israel was the principal reason why the U.S. invaded Iraq and others have speculated that without the persistent neocons’ and Israel’s prodding Washington might not have gone to war at all. That is apparently what then Secretary of State Colin Powell also eventually came around to believe.

So let’s stop talking about what Russia is doing to the United States, which is relatively speaking very little, and start admitting that the lopsided and completely deferential relationship with Israel is the actual central problem in America’s foreign policy. Will the media do that? Not a chance. They would rather obsess about fake news and blame Putin.

 

T.S. Eliot and the Culture of Critique, Part Two

/12 Comments/in , /by

eliot

‘We must discover what conditions, within our power to bring about, would foster the society that we desire. … Reasons of race and religion combine to make any large number of free-thinking Jews undesirable.’
 T.S. Eliot, After Strange Gods, 1934.

One of the most striking features of Julius’s T.S. Eliot, Anti-Semitism, and Literary Form is that it is no mere literary critique. This basic and relatively short work is a multi-pronged and vicious ad hominem masquerading, with odious pretentiousness, as criticism. Eliot, the man, is attacked in multiple, often scurrilous, forms throughout.

These are subtle attacks, perpetrated under the cover of a flimsy, indeed petulant, thesis. This thesis, such as it exists, is two-dimensional. Summed up, it consists of two basic arguments. The first is that Eliot drew on “anti-Semitic” themes for some of his poetry, themes that were characterized by their disdainful attitude towards Jews. The second is that “anti-Semitism” was an intrinsic part of Eliot’s art, and therefore Eliot himself was ‘anti-Semitic.’ Of course, in and of itself, the accusation that Eliot wasn’t fond of Jews is hardly damning. However, in the hands of Jewish ethno-activists the accusation of “anti-Semitism” is often loaded with deeper and more insidious aspersions. As such, the thesis and the ad hominem nature of its arguments and content are bound up intricately via a single common thread: Julius’s own corrupt understanding of what “anti-Semitism” is.

Julius’s professed understanding of anti-Semitism is identical to that of other Jewish ethno-activists. In this perception, “anti-Semitism” is a mixture of “incoherent” discourses riddled with “internal contradictions.”[1] It arises, at worst, in the sick, irrational mind. At best, it develops ex nihilo, since, as Julius puts it, “no external factor can induce it.”[2] In this remarkable psychological bubble, Jews are entirely blameless. Ever passive, they lack all agency. They exist merely to register the irrational mental undulations of “the nations,” that confused, miasmic mass of humanity they have been tasked by Jehovah to act as a “light unto.” The problem with such a perception, of course, is the existence of an overwhelming amount of contradictory evidence. Read more

The Winds of Change: Update on European Elections

/13 Comments/in /by

Just six short months ago President Obama and Chancellor Merkel, presided over a formidable coalition of globalists committed to transforming the Western world, including also Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron, France’s President François Hollande, and Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. United by a common ideology, these Western leaders were busy ushering in a  transformative era of unfettered and massive migration of Arab Muslims and Africans into Europe and the US.

Now Merkel stands alone.  Obama exits the world stage next month, Cameron resigned after the Brexit vote, Hollande announced last week that he would not seek re-election, and as of the weekend, Renzi has also announced his resignation.

According to the NY Times, Merkel

once untouchable, now seems vulnerable in next year’s elections. And far-right parties are also seeking power in France. In Austria, the Green Party stalled the advance of populist forces on Sunday by defeating the presidential candidate of the far-right Freedom Party, which was established by former Nazis. The result in Austria might have calmed some nerves, but it was the rejection of Mr. Renzi that most sent shivers through Europe and the world.
In a strategic blunder that echoed David Cameron’s call for a “Brexit” referendum, Mr. Renzi had tied his government’s tenure to Sunday’s vote when he was flying high in the polls. But his support eroded, and world leaders anxiously watched the vote in Italy, the fourth-largest economy in Europe and a key player in the European Union, as a referendum on Mr. Renzi’s centrist government and as a barometer on the strength of anti-establishment winds blowing across both sides of the Atlantic.

Sunday’s rejection of Renzi’s referendum and his subsequent resignation has created a political crisis in Italy that could spread across the Eurozone. Like Americans last month, Italian voters were furious about their dismal economic prospects and the migrant crisis that has engulfed them, as it has all of Europe.  Voters were emphatic in expressing their anger and opposition to establishment elites, globalization, open borders and the overreach of the EU. Read more

T.S. Eliot and the Culture of Critique, Part One of Two

/34 Comments/in , /by

ts-eliot

“My house is a decayed house,
And the Jew squats on the window-sill”
T.S. Eliot, Gerontion, 1920.

In a previous article I explored the nature of academic ethno-activism in the deconstruction of the cultural legacy of Ezra Pound. The article adopted the approach of a broad overview, emphasizing the scale of successive critiques and, to some extent, illuminating the psychology of those whose caustic attentions had been aroused by the interplay of Pound’s genius and politics. It was argued that these individuals exhibited a psychological duality of both attraction and hatred. The academic activists drawn to figures like Pound were “appalled because they perceived an unjustified critique upon their ethnic group, and they perceived this critique all the more keenly because of their ethnocentrism. They were impressed because they appreciated, and were threatened by, the talent of their target, often despite themselves. The ‘attraction’ arises from the desire to deconstruct and demean that talent, and thus avenge or assuage the critique.”

Although the previous article fulfilled its purpose of providing a succinct overview of the forms of the critical assault on ostracized cultural figures, in this article I wish to present a more thoroughgoing treatment of the psychology underpinning these forms. Included also are reflections on what this reveals about “anti-Semitism” as it exists in the socio-cultural consciousness of strongly-identified Jews. In order to explore this matter on a deeper level, and to keep our material fresh, we now turn our attention to the academic deconstruction of Pound’s associate, and fellow Modernist poet, T.S. Eliot. Read more

Richard Spencer, Dallas, and Texas A&M

/54 Comments/in , /by

What’s been going on in Texas since the end of the NPI conference, Richard Spencer’s much-commented-on speech, and “Hail-gate,” is hard to believe. An absolute media meltdown by the Dallas Morning News, followed by Texas Aggies fleeing to the world’s largest “safe-space,” 100,000 seat Kyle Field (A&M’s giant football stadium), when it was announced that Richard would be speaking to a couple hundred people elsewhere on campus.

I would put this in the Comedy section if TOO had one, but this will have to do.

Immediately before the conference, articles started appearing in the Dallas Morning News about the rich-kid, preppie, White-nationalist from St. Mark’s (Dallas’ most prestigious private boys school and Richard’s alma mater) who was now one of the chief leaders of that dangerous, hateful new group — the Alt-right — earnestly denounced by Hillary as an egregious threat to the Republic in a widely publicized speech during the campaign.

After the NPI conference, all hell broke loose. Angry mothers of current St. Mark’s students wrote letters to the DMN editor, bewailing that the same “wonderfully diverse” school their darlings attended could inexplicably produce such a monster, and begging the paper not to associate Richard’s name with St. Mark’s, lest it queer their sons’ chances of being accepted at Big Ticket U. The St. Mark’s headmaster publicly disavowed Richard, the first time the school has ever done this to one of its graduates. Feeling especially in need of atonement, the St. Mark’s class of 1997 launched a campaign to support refugees in order to repudiate Spencer, raising around $40,000.

Other anti-Alt-right articles have been appearing daily. Yesterday there was a long complaint, “I won’t let neo-nazis dictate what little fashion sense I have,” where some manlet reporter whined about Richard and his buddies making the “fashy haircut” (long on top, very short on the sides) a symbol of “white-supremacy,” but he would bravely go ahead and retain his own fashy haircut, because it looks nice. Also yesterday there was a general rant against White racism by DMN’s “culture critic.” Both articles included pictures of Richard in various poses, in various outfits. They all hate him, but they all admit he’s photogenic.

Photo accompanying manlet reporter's article on Alt Right fashion

Photo accompanying manlet reporter’s article on Alt Right fashion

Read more

EXCLUSIVE: Assaulted Red Ice Cameraman Speaks Out

/20 Comments/in , /by

Following the hullabaloo outside the recent NPI Conference in Washington, D.C. I got a chance to sit down with Aryan Gondola (as he’s known on the TRS Forums), the Red Ice cameraman who was viciously assaulted by up to ten Antifa as he and correspondent Emily Youcis were being escorted back into the Ronald Reagan building. Still sporting a couple of bumps and bruises from the fight, he took time out from his busy schedule to tell Occidental Observer readers about his experiences with the melee and the conference — and his path to the Alt Right. Readers will find invaluable information on how to stay safe and aware whenever Antifa slime are near.

Aryan Gondola. . . You went a round with ten men at once, and you still have a little shiner to show for your efforts, I see!

I fought for it!

Before we get to the gritty details, tell me a little about your upbringing.

Well, I was born and raised in New Jersey. I was home-schooled my entire life. I’ve actually never been in a public school. My parents always encouraged me to find my own path in life, not to just take the path others told me to take. Basically the college-to-corporate pipeline. The same path my parents were pushed into. I had a well-rounded curriculum of math and history. I explored astronomy and electronics. From home school I went on to community college. I went about halfway through, but found that I really wanted to pursue my entrepreneurial passion. After a few failed attempts with marketing and other things I settled on [redacted] as a path to independence economically, and the Alt Right as a way to chart a future for myself and my eventual children.

How long have you been working to build the Alt Right?

I’ve been on the Alt Right since before it was called the Alt Right. About nine years. I started as a teenager on image boards, unfortunately. 4Chan, even Stormfront — that sort of thing. Exposing truth in the most brutal way possible. Trolling took off, and then I began to see posts in an 8chan sub forum for IRL meet ups two or three years ago. Those unfortunately did not take off. There just weren’t enough people in New Jersey who were attracted to this through the image boards. You also had the trust factor — everyone was completely anonymous. Eventually I coalesced with the TRS community and the other Alt Righters on the forums and I was absorbed into the Greater Philadelphia Alt Right community — which was thriving! It had actual, normal individuals. Productive individuals and not the kind of people you’d meet from image boards. It’s kind of incredible how just at the same time I was ready to get out there and meet others there who were other people were already planning in places I wasn’t even aware of. Read more

Donald Trump and the American Counterrevolution, A.D. 2016

/52 Comments/in , /by

julius

Julius Nisle, “Pact between Faust and Mephistopheles” (engraving 1840)

Sooner or later even the darkest cloud must have a silver lining. This poetic justice is a central theme in the seminal work of European literature, with the incarnate cosmic Evil, the satanic Mephistopheles, admitting to young Faust: “I am part of the Power that would always wish Evil, and always works the Good.” (1335-1340).

Donald Trump may have never read Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Faust, or for that matter studied the meaning of chance and necessity in Sophocles’ dramas. His sudden emergence on the American political scene, however, is a portent of gigantic world changes which, even if he decides to backpedal now, can no longer be rolled back. This time around, the first woman on Earth, the all-gifted, albeit credulous and unfortunate Pandora, is letting a good gene out of her box. The supreme irony of history is that the state of America, which has stood in European eyes, for two and half centuries, as a prime symbol of international plutocracy and a land of “free movement of goods and people” will be now first to ditch them one by one. A country, which after World War II played a crucial role in setting up different political regimes around the globe, from the UN to WTO, from the EU to TTIP, is now in the process of dismantling them one by one — to the great joy of millions of both implicit and explicit White Americans and Europeans. Aside from many White fortune- tellers and twitter warriors bragging now how they “knew that Trump was coming,” no one could have divined Trump’s earth-shattering rise to world political prominence. The twentieth century was an American century; the twenty first century will be again the American century — albeit in a reverse fashion. Read more