There are many weird and angry political movements in the 21st-century West. But it’s hard to think of any as ugly, vindictive and packed with prejudice as the Israel-bashing BDS movement.”
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Samizdata quote of the dayDecember 2nd, 2015 |
 52 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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Agreed.
What does BDS mean? Last I saw that acronym, it meant Bush Derangement Syndrome.
It’s just plain old Leftist antisemitism dressed up as anti-Israel or anti-Zionist human rights activism. Ask any of these people whether they support similar sanctions against any of the other 192 nations which are members of the UN, or just the one – the solitary one – that just happens to be Jewish.
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
“Its backers want every institution, retail outlet and right-minded person in Christendom to refuse to have anything to do with Israel and its apparently wicked wares and people.”
Isn’t “Christendom” racist? I’m offended.
‘…left-minded person’ seems more accurate.
BDS is the new face of the abomination called antisemitism, a true affront to all humanity.
Just present these “Human Shi’ites activists” with two lists… One of rights and freedoms in Israel and one of rights and freedoms in Gaza without the name of the places at the top and asked which is which and which they approve of or not. For the “liberal” hipsters it might be uncomfortable that their “white hats” would torture to death their gay friend or, heaven’s forfend, not let them have a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. There will be many more. I am not a whole-hearted fan of Ms Rand but I hold with her dictum of always holding civilization above barbarism. When we (UK – or Israel) have a change in government the ousted clear their desks and mope for a bit. When Hamas beat Fatah they went on a rampage and chucked their opponents from roof tops, ransacked and stole Yasser Arafat’s Nobel (still waiting for that on eBay) and – fuck me -they stole his toilet. They stole the Arashitter. This is like the end of “Apocalypse Now”.
Then I read this…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3341784/New-horrifying-details-emerge-1972-Munich-Olympic-massacre-including-one-athlete-castrated-hostages-watched.html
“What can men do against such reckless hate?” asked Theoden. I think Lt. Ellen Ripley might have had the answer. But as a first step we should stop pretending the Saudis are our friends. They are Bertram Blunts of the first water and should be treated as such even if it means (in the short term) buying our oil and gas from Pooty Poot.
PS. Typed on a machine with a CPU designed in Israel. What have the … ever done for us and all that.
NickM
Not sure who Pooty Poot is, but would it not be nice if one chain of petrol stations in the UK offered ‘ethical’ petrol and Diesel not made from oil bought from Saudi Arabia, Qatar (Gas-to-Liquid), Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Libya or any other nasty place?
That might leave the North Sea, Texas, Alaska, Trinidad and Tobago and perhaps some bits of sub-Saharan Africa as sources of oil, but it would be a nice start. I can’t see this happening in the market though.
@ Mr ED
Pooty Poot is presumably Putin.
Universities (in one of which I work) are particularly prone to this ugliness. The UCU (lecturers’ union) has a policy (of BDS) and has forced out essentially all its Jewish members. It’s all charming good fun.
“Pooty Poot” is Vladimir Putin. The term was coined by GWB. Mr Ed, yes, why not? I try as far as I can to buy eggs with the highest ethical standards and am happy to pay a bit more (not a lot more it must be said) so why not petrol?
Yes, I’d be prepared to pay a bit more for fuel from the sources you mentioned (and there will be others) than from a murderous medieval theocracy governed by an ineffably corrupt monarchy. To put it simply I’d rather see an Alaskan or a Norwegian get the cash than a Saudi or Qatari. The practicalities of it might be tricky but then when aren’t they? An excellent idea Mr Ed.
Clovis,
A friend of mine once got hassle from a fellow student (who was “Palestinian” in the loosest sense of the word – he was actually an Egyptian citizen but styled himself because she was Jewish. Here are the facts of which I suspect he either knew or could guess at: she is a US citizen who is Jewish – but only on her mother’s side* and then a bit “watered down” and had never been to Israel or indeed anywhere in the Near or Mid-East. Also she’d never practiced. He still once showed her his naff ring with the name “Allah” in Arabic on it. It was a hefty ring and was done in a semi-threatening manner. His Islamic belief didn’t stop him boozing or shagging the college bike – “Dirty” Maria from Valencia. He ceased and desisted when my friend’s flatmates (a big guy from Hamburg and a kick-boxer from Copenhagen gave him the look). It’s not just academics. It is often grass-roots.
Mr Ed –
‘Pooty[-]Poot’ was, allegedly, Dubya’s nickname for Putin.
Gentlemen, Thank you for enlightening me. I have never heard that term before, but it makes sense. I do wonder though if the ‘refugee crisis’ is not a dusted-off and updated KGB plot to destabilise Europe left over in an old FSB drawer waiting to be used. Mischief to take the West’s eyes off the Crimea and the Ukraine. The collateral damage to Russia being a price worth paying.
It’s just that the crisis all seems to delight the Left so much, it looks as if they have got what they wanted, except a USSR at which to genuflect.
I second Mr Ed’s motion for an “ethical” petrol distributor. I have long declined to purchase from Citgo because it’s owned by the Venezuelan government. I’d be happy to boycott Saudi gasoline if I could, too.
@NickM
Yeah, it’s quite a lot of the students too. I have slightly more sympathy with their idiocy, ‘cos they’ve never been told any better. The academics seem to just do it because Israel fails to fit their preconceptions of what a “poor, post-colonial state” should look like. Either that or it’s just naked antisemitism (but I repeat myself…)
I think that the Left hate Israel for several reasons:
1. Being essentially ethnocentric, although were I a Druze (ceteris paribus), I would prefer to live in it to any neighbour.
2. Being defiant and having self-belief as a nation (insofar as that is a valid concept).
3. Being successful.
4. Not being a Ba’athist/Nasserite craphole.
5. Being if not of the West, an example to it.
Even today an SNP MP has posted a video of Anthony Wedgewood Benn holding forth in the House of Commons about the horrors of bombing in the context of Iraq whilst Mr Corbyn was sat behind him, and Ted Heath festered opposite him, the resentment at any action being taken by the West to put the Iraqi Ba’athists back in their box was evident then. ‘Anyone but the West’ is their start and end point, the evidence is irrelevant.
And Israel just carries on, looking after itself. In the 1980s, when the Daily Telegraph actually carried news in some depth, there was a nice piece of page composition. One column reported a British Minister in the House of Commons poo-poohing calls from MPs for action against some craphole or other, I forget which, that was playing up (think War of Jenkins’ Ear on a nano-scale), and the Minister said ‘The days of gunboat diplomacy are over‘. Right next to that article was an 2-inch long article headed ‘Israeli gunboats shell Tyre‘.
Mr Ed,
Another reason the leftists don’t like Israel is it represents a failure of the left. In its early years Israel was quite a bit more socialist. I don’t remember seeing all the hate from the left until after the Kibbutzim failed and the government shifted heavily to a more free-market paradigm.
The left loves the Muslims. They are a reliable voting bloc and a private army of the left.
It is not an ‘angry’ or ‘weird’ movement at all.
Very planned and very obvious to anyone with an open mind.
Lots more where that came from.
Clovis,
I walked through a student barricade in Leeds once. I had to get to the library to get a book on computational methods in fluid dynamics. I considered it more important then their poseuring. I did at the time and 18 years later I would do the same. The corridor (Red-Route – familiar to anyone who spent time at Leeds University and was used to film some episodes of Dr Who and similar in the ’70s) was plastered with ads for the up-coming SU elections. Racism, sexism and homophobia on campus topped the agenda. I recall thinking – here!!! Dear Gods! A University campus – the least racist, sexist or homophobic sort of place you can find. Not a word about anything to the purpose such as street crime or terrible landlords or the desperate need to update the computers in maths or anything to the purpose. Yes, it is grass-roots but those go on to ever higher echelons.
Which I guess is why the decap of ISIS will do no good. They are grass-roots – not in the sense of the ordinary folk (see above comment) but this is from below and not above. This is one of the reasons I was dismayed (but not surprised) that a sub-squadron force of the RAF will bomb ISIS to take out “leaders”. Everyone of those placard-holders in Leeds was a future leader. At least they hope so. There is an ideology rather than a mother-ship. How do you kill that? How do you make their future cohorts see it as not just evil (that appeals to some) but ludicrous.
I am bored with this game and think we should shit or get off the pot. This is war without end because we have no defined goals and a few Tornados will do nothing. If I thought it might work (or even if I thought anyone believed it would) then yes. But this is pissing on the Great Fire of Chicago and pissing in the wrong direction.
And dare I say it? I mean dare I think it to myself? I don’t want to but whenever I see the growing list of atrocities… Paris, New York, London, Madrid, Beslan and all the rest my heart hardens and I just think, “Fuck ’em”. It makes me think in terms I wouldn’t like to such as, “towelheads”. Frequently with terms like “MOAB”, “White Phosphorus”, “crack and burn” and… Well… you know where I’m going here…
I have thoughts like, “Give ’em warning that if they don’t straighten-up by a certain date we unleash ‘Operation Meccatrate’ – this is a multi-warhead strike over Mecca leveling it completely and for kms around, This is shortly followed by ground bursts aimed directly at Allah’s very own shitter. And take out Qom until the turbans and beards are in the stratosphere.
I have thoughts I try not to but… I wish I didn’t but I am 42. I have had this shit all my life.
The very last thing that our politicians will ever do is secure our borders.
Send thousands of troops to run around Helmand onto and over IEDs? Yes, to keep Britain safe.
Take an area, hold it for a while, then retreat and let the Taliban return? Yes, to keep Britain safe.
Kill the enemy, and salt the Earth? No, to keep Britain safe.
Seal the borders to keep out possible enemies, even if they came from the Taliban itself? Never, to keep Britain safe for Labour.
Israel is an icon of Western Civilization it dispel most if not all of Left ideas so it must be Destroyed.
It demonstrated that you can prosper from a small land part without any resource in a short period of time.
It demonstrated that western warfare is superior.
It demonstrated the creativity of capitalism instead of colectivism.
It had the only ethical socialism that ever existed: Kibbutz, you only go there if you want.
Instead we have today are reaping the failure of Arab Socialism in all its forms from Iraq, to Syria to Libya.
But imbecile newspapers from the so called “Right”: Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, The Economist etc.. are silent of one more giant Socialist failure.
“I have thoughts like, “Give ’em warning that if they don’t straighten-up by a certain date we unleash ‘Operation Meccatrate’ – this is a multi-warhead strike over Mecca leveling it completely and for kms around, This is shortly followed by ground bursts aimed directly at Allah’s very own shitter. And take out Qom until the turbans and beards are in the stratosphere.”
If nothing else it would prove to them that Big Al is either totally powerless or doesn’t give a shit about them.
Not sure who Pooty Poot is, but would it not be nice if one chain of petrol stations in the UK offered ‘ethical’ petrol and Diesel not made from oil bought from Saudi Arabia, Qatar (Gas-to-Liquid), Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Libya or any other nasty place?
To be honest, that’s probably the case already. Middle Eastern oil used to come to the UK, but I think for at least the last 10-20 years all Middle Eastern oil has headed east to Japan, Korea, and China. Most of Venezuela’s output will go to the USA, I don’t think our refineries are set up to handle their ultra-heavy stuff. UK will get its oil from the North Sea and West Africa, but I think most Nigerian oil goes to the USA (at least, it did). We might get some from Libya and Algeria though. There isn’t much chance we’d be getting Qatari GTL, but we will certainly be getting their LNG through South Hook.
I mentioned this on here a few weeks back, but I was recently in the company of a very westernised, US-educated, middle-class Turkish professional woman in Paris. She was very liberal on all measures, didn’t support the current Turkish government or where it was headed, called herself a non-practicing Muslim and dated a Jewish guy in New York. Yet she casually stated that she didn’t think Israel should exist, as if it was the most natural and uncontroversial thing in the world. I removed myself from her company in short order, leaving her in tears in the middle of the street.
I think that the Left hate Israel for several reasons:
Oh, the Left were fine with Israel when it looked as though they’d turn into a Soviet-backed collectivist country. Only when the Americans started backing them after Yom Kippur and the Soviets decided to through their lot behind the Arab nationalism and Israel’s enemies did they switch sides. Remember, the Left were quite happy with Old Adolf until he attacked Uncle Joe.
NickM, you are not the only one. I occasionally think that a nuclear strike to wipe out Mecca, and send a message of despair to Islamists, may be necessary.
I first became aware of BDS late last year, when they announced that the world should boycott SodaStream, because it was made in Israel.
I had had no idea where SodaStream was made, up until then, but the wife had been wanting one. I had been reluctant, viewing it as a gimmick, but this was enough to prompt me to go to the store and buy her one.
As we say in Texas – Support the other Lone Star State.
You know, the old school National Socialists were generally up front about it.
It saddens me to say it but I too think that ruthless,obliterative violence will be necessary, including vaporising Mecca, and probably Madinah too, with nuclear weapons.
This will kill a lot of people, and that is regettable, but it might show all mohammedans that Allah does not exist, or is powerless to protect them or does not care about them.This will,I hope, stop mohammedans believing in their nonsense, therefore removing a reason for their opposition to the West.
We have to bring Islam to an end because if we don’t we will have decades of violent attacks against us with a continuing severe death toll and an existential threat to our culture.
After Mecca and Madinah have been vaporised we could then welcome former mohammedans to embrace the culture , our culture, that is demonstrably superior in furthering the condition of humanity.
And the mass shooting in California appears to be a case of Sudden Jihad Syndrome.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3343309/At-TWENTY-people-gunned-California-mass-shooting-police-search-three-suspects.html
I still want to erase Mecca.
The Other Rob,
Here you go: Israel, The other lone star state.
Oh no. I’m fairly sure that in 24 hours the police will still be baffled by the killers’ motivation, and the media will put it down to another “lone wolf” attack while urging us to remember that Islam is a religion of peace.
Sorry, off topic but I just wanted to share.
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/12/02/turkish-doctor-faces-two-years-prison-saying-erdogan-looks-like-gollum
Amusingly Le Monde refers to Vladimir Putin as “Vladimir Poutine”. Poutine is the “cheese and chips” dish from Quebec.
I beg to disagree on the wisdom of nuking Mecca and Medina: if “we” do that, then we can no longer threaten to do it. I’d think it better to cause partial damage to the sites with a non-nuclear device. The implied threat of total annihilation should become obvious.
I note that the shooter in Colorado was (according to the NYT) a drugged out Art Dealer who was into sado- Masochistic sex. In England he would probably have been a Lib Dem MP.
In California the lead killer was a municipal bureaucrat, formerly a state bureaucrat and tax collector. My guess is that the bastard was a bully and a sadist long before he found Allah.
Could it be that there is something truly toxic about people who seek out work that involves harassing and humiliating their fellow humans ? I wonder if the killers in Paris were frustrated because they failed to find work in France’s large civil service ?
If they ever had to deal with said civil service it would certainly provide one readily-accepted explanation.
Tim, I’m afraid that I have to agree with you.
@Rob
Re how the French spell Putin’s name, if they spelled it the way we do it would be pronounced exactly the same as ‘putain’, the world’s other oldest profession.
So it turns out that the San Bernardino gunman was upset because a Jewish colleague of his was a Conservative anti-Muslim. Conservative anti-Muslims need to get the message: learn your place and shut your mouth, or be filled with lead.
Michael, that can’t be right! Aside from oil, those ISIS worshipers are often seen with swords. I don’t know of any western firm that makes swords, so these must be locally produced! A threat to ban foreign swords should do the trick.
And camels. If camel-smokers would just change to another brand, then that would terrify those jihadies.
The Left hates on Israel because Israel is white, Western, and a successful settler colony. Israel was established by Britain, when they invited several hundred thousand European Zionists to move there in the 1920s – without the consent of the people who already lived there. Israel’s formal founding included the displacement of several hundred thousand Arab residents (mostly by their own actions).
In the present era of anti-racism and white-guilt hysteria, that original sin is unforgivable. The Left champions American Indians, Maoris, and Aborigines, too (even Hawaiian natives). There is much talk of autonomy and reparations and grovelling to “native” activists. But undoing the last 300 years is not even remotely practical.
Israel is much newer and much more vulnerable. As a practical matter, that “original sin” is IMHO offset by Arab persecution and expulsion of Mizrahic Jews, in much greater numbers than the Arabs of Palestine, who became and still are the majority of Israeli Jews. Liberals don’t see that – they only see Israel’s military prowess, and a carefully constructed “Pallywood” narrative of Arab vicitmization. See Richard Landes’ blog for much detail on how Hamas and Fatah cook the news, and how Western journalists submit to intimidation and censorship, and then join in.
That’s what drives BDS.
Of course, Arab and Moslem pressure is a big factor too – but it didn’t really take hold in the West until the Left went demented over race.
Michael,
I have to respectfully disagree. They don’t make cars or phones or computers but they are World-Class at manufacturing rage and all Hell follows in that train. They don’t make trains either. The piccy is priceless though.
In general, the left hate Israel because it works. Because the IDF handed the left’s pals their arses on a plate in the Six-Day War. Because they love their children more than the Arabs hate Israeli children (many of whom are Arab and Muslim). But it is the success they hate more than anything other than their self-hatred. I think Golda Meir would be happy with my mangling of her quip*.
Nicholas Gray,
I used to fence. They make swords in Sheffield. So they make swords? We make JDAMs. Anyway, I bet they get the swords from Japan.
In general. The only serious argument against Operation Meccatrate is the destruction of historical places but the Guardians of the Sacred Places are more than happy to bulldoze them to build 7* hotels to cash in on the Hajj so fuck ’em. Fuck ’em with the greatest fuck we can render. At least when they race their Lamborghinis through London. Crush the cars. Oh, the gentleman** was still inside…
I have had enough of it. I have have had enough. I was born in ’73 in Newcastle and they need to be “telt”. Four Tornados. Jesus wept.
*Not being a diatribe but sometimes the short quip contains more truth than the long speech.
**Whatever!
So it turns out that the San Bernardino gunman was upset because a Jewish colleague of his was a Conservative anti-Muslim. Conservative anti-Muslims need to get the message: learn your place and shut your mouth, or be filled with lead.
You know, there’s a proper response to such a demand, but it requires the use of barracks language.
without the consent of the people who already lived there
I know you are paraphrasing the leftist narrative, but we all know that is not quite true
Not only that, he forgot about the Jordanian Kingdom. An Arabian tribe ruling in Palestine mandate… I don’t notice any venom for that. Only silence.
The irony is that if Israel didn’t existed we would never heard about Palestinians as we do today. They would be Syrians, Jordanians and Egyptians and we will hear about them as we hear about Assyrians , Zoroastrians, Druzes, etc etc… nobodies for the Marxist Western press.
Because they would not have any useful propose for them. Being against Egypt, Jordan, Syria don’t help destroy or neutralize Western world.
The left is a huge steaming pile of cognitive dissonance, their root cause of continually trying to implement a social movement that died out years ago and then laughably calling this “progressive” is just the start, from there it is a short step to side with one of the most conservative and fascist ideologies on the planet against the real progressives in the region.
Runcie,
You win the cigar. Israel is (AFAIK) kinda a Swedish style social democracy. So shouldn’t the left like them? They did. You are absolutely right. I have seen Gay Pride marches in Manchester where Palestinian flags were hoisted. Not many (mainly, obviously, the rainbow flag) but a few. There is a little known surgical procedure called a realectomy. Israel can win Eurovision with a transgender singer but still some of the Mancunian homosexuals support Hamas who have a strong track-record of killing homosexuals (or suspected homosexuals) in the most grisly ways. All I think is they buy into the idea that all “discriminated against” minorities have a common purpose. Well, no. And if I have seen a significant social change in the UK in the last decade or so it is homosexuality becoming dramatically normalised. I’m 42. When I was at school you’d be beaten senseless (or ostracized) over even the vaguest hint of gayness. Now kids are happy to play at being Captain Jack from Dr Who in the playground. This is a good thing. I want his RAF coat and he’s cool.
But that is the thing about the alleged “proggies”. There is always another hill to conquer regardless of whether it is worth the puff or not. Any sympathy (and I had little) for the Gazans evaporated when the Israelis abandoned their last settlements and gifted the Paleoswinians with a load of poly-tunnels and stuff. Now, if they had taken the opportunity and gone into market-gardening I’d be more than happy to buy Gaza tomatoes. But, no, they wrecked the whole lot and pleaded poverty. Exporting fruit and veg and tourism (they have lovely beaches) and maybe turning the engineering skills that make rockets to rain down on Israeli primary schools (my primary school didn’t have a bomb shelter – they do in Israel) into useful stuff then and only then would I respect them. Ultimately it comes down to this. Israel is a much nicer place than Gaza for most people. This is not because they stole anything but because they build rather than destroy and I just know the leadership keeps the standard Gazan in a state of permanent penury to keep the rage up. It is so easy to blame others. Well, my neighbour has a nicer car. Do I fire bottle rockets at his front garden? No. No, I just think, “Work harder, be smarter…” Not that I’m much of a Clarkson anyway. Gaza is envy explained by a vile ideology. It is the drug addict who feels vindicated in stealing from someone who they see as richer and feels this is unfair.
But yeah, Runcie hits the nail.
Runcie Balspune @December 4, 2015 at 9:48 am:
Even leftists get a fact right once in a while.
Feisal was Hejazi, not Palestinian. He was elevated to “King of Greater Syria” by British arms, in return for his clan’s support of the Allied campaign against Turkey, but never actually ruled Palestine. He had no more right to cede Palestine to the Zionists than Alex Salmond would have to cede East Anglia to China.
As for Transjordan – the Bedouins there probably didn’t care much for Abdullah, whom the British set up there, but they probably considered him an improvement over the Turks, and in any case he didn’t bring 200,000 non-Moslem, non-Arab friends with him.