Hamas has friends in high collegiate places
No, they don’t call themselves that. But that’s pretty much who they are.
No doubt the crocodile will eat them last.
Many of them are members of the hard left. Even I recognized that fact from some of the names, and Ron Radosh—who was once a member of that august group—recognized many more:
As a historian who has studied the American far Left for many years, and decades ago was part of, I immediately noticed that many on the initial list of signers are veterans of the already old New Left and either supporters of or fellow-travelers of the defunct Soviet Union and the Communist movement. Indeed, I know many of them personally, and are aware of their old affiliations and political allegiances.
They are not only Historians for Hamas, but Historians Who Ignore History. They also ignore recent history—i.e. current events.
Forget for a moment their petition, Israel, Hamas, and all the issues involved. Just contemplate the fact that there are that many members (and probably tons more) of the hard left who are teaching—and apparently teaching history?*—in American universities, and writing books that are assigned to many more students than they can reach individually. This is what we are up against.
The other day, after reading and writing about the summary public execution by Hamas of the 18 supposed Israeli “collaborators,” I wondered how the left can continue to justify and defend this sort of evil. Almost immediately I realized how incredibly stupid I was being. The left, which defended Stalin? Dummy me.
Nor should we wonder what all those feminists are doing on the pro-Hamas list. For the true believer, two and two makes five, or even six or seven or eight, if the left so wills it.
Alan Dershowitz compares Hamas to ISIS: “Everything we rightly fear and despise from ISIS we should fear and despise from Hamas. Just as we would never grant legitimacy to ISIS, we should not grant legitimacy to Hamas.” He is correct.
Of course, there are differences. Unlike ISIS, Hamas is not striving to use the most flamboyantly savage forms of death and dismemberment in order to outrage the sensibilities of the west although, like ISIS, it seeks to inspire other jihadis to join its ranks through its passionate devotion to violence. But Hamas probably would prefer that its killing sprees against its own not get all that much publicity in the west; its main aim in that regard is to dissuade any of its own people who might even think of acting against Hamas. And unlike ISIS, it would like the west to think it only has designs on Israel. But HAMAS is every bit as much a vile terrorist group as ISIS.
Claudia Rossett also has a post on how, despite many similarities between Hamas and ISIS, there is comparatively little outrage at Hamas’ actions as compared to the widespread furor over ISIS.
[* NOTE: But are the signers even really historians? Ought we to take their word for it?
For example, see the Wiki entry for leftist Bettina Aptheker. A PhD in the “history of consciousness”? Excuse me?
I looked up the first eight or so people on the list, and it was an interesting exercise. As expected, there’s a heavy representation from the various special interest “studies” departments that began to be inserted into universities as a result of Sixties leftist activism, especially (as with Aptheker) women’s studies. Others are specialists in the Middle East, or in something like the specialty of Paul Buhle, whose field seems to be the history of radicalism (and, as an activist leftist from the 60s on, he certainly knows that terrain).
The majority are quite far from what most people would think of as historians, and certainly not objective ones. Granted, it’s hard if not impossible to be completely objective. But this group isn’t even trying. They most definitely have a huge agenda.]
Purge them all.
How many of them are in Saudi-funded chairs or departments? Just asking.
The Democrats and professors are themselves terrorists. Look back to the 1960s to when the New Left took over campuses with threats and guns. The academics submitted to them. So why not now to ISIL and Hamas? Same game, new skin.
Ymarsakar
“The Democrats and professors are themselves terrorists.”
Good point. One of the dominant characteristics of the leftists is their continued love affair with violent bloody men. While they themselves are often not much physically, in their fantasies they are undoubtedly just as manly as the violent lawless men whom they idolize.
Some are indeed idealistic pacifist appeasers. The ‘Chamberlains’ of our time.
Some are simply in denial as to the cognitive dissonance of supporting Hamas and classical western values. Western feminists and homosexuals come most immediately to mind.
All isms of the left, to one degree or another, reject critical aspects of reality, such as human nature, the essential necessity for life’s “unequal sharing of blessings” and natural economic principles.
Is it really so surprising that once fundamental aspects of reality are rejected, that willful denial of logical inconsistency is easily embraced by some?
But IMO, the most dangerous by far are those really hard core leftists who rightly perceive that the Western right, especially America’s is the foremost obstacle to the left’s agenda and that Islamic terrorism can be used as leverage against the right. They are betting that once the Western right is permanently ‘neutralized’ that they can eliminate Islam as a viable force. Perhaps, perhaps not but I imagine that the Rahm Emanuels of the left look forward eagerly to the day when the left ruthlessly turning on jihadist Islam becomes strategically appropriate.
One thing is certain, Islam cannot win on its own strategic and logistical merits, they simply lack the resources. Islam’s only hope for eventual domination rests upon their hope to be “the dog with the most fight in them”.
IMO, it’s important to recognize that the hard core left is as dedicated to the emergence of a world-wide ‘1984’ style State as Islam is to its Caliphate. Totalitarian ideologies do not believe in ‘second place’ and for the left, a 1984 type State is necessary to the ‘perfection’ of mankind and the attainment of utopia on earth.
These two forces are in my estimation, the foremost strategies of the “father of lies”, who as neo pointed out the other day in response to my prophet Isiah quote; “Woe be onto him who calls good evil and evil good” has been active as a force in human affairs for a very long time.
Elements of “the left” appear to be moving, cautiously, toward the embrace even of ISIS. At “No More Mr. Nice Blog,” progressive blogger Steve M. writes:
“AFTER COMMUNISM’S FALL, THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE, EXCEPT ORGANIZED ULTRAVIOLENCE”
“I’ve been thinking that jihadism and narcoterrorism are the only alternatives to capitalism left for wanyone who chafes under the established order in a post-communist world. Capitalism triumphed a generation ago, communism is dead, but what remains is deeply unsatisfactory to much of the world, especially after the 2007-2008 economic collapse — yet there appears to be no alternative.
“No alternative, that is, except jihadism in parts of the world, and narcoterrorism in others. They’re the only forces that create pockets wherein the Masters of the Universe, and the governments they own, aren’t completely the masters.
“The old bromide says that when nonviolent revolution is impossible, violent revolution become inevitable. Here’s a variant: When economic revolt is impossible, nihilist revolution is inevitable. And it’s going to be extremely violent nihilism, because that’s the only thing that scares the crap out of the universe’s Masters enough to hold them at bay.”
http://preview.tinyurl.com/o8qcux6
The course of history since late 1980s seems to have inflicted a psychic wound on our progressives. That wound has now begun to fester and ooze poison. I would not be one bit surprised to see a wave of conversions to the most militant and malevolent forms of Islam among “progressives”. Those who in the 1960s chanted “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh! NLF is gonna win” as they waved the Little red book are preparing themselves to cry “Allahu Akbar” as they wave the Koran.
you are looking and considering them the wrong way…
they are not what your trying to make sense of
your not their target.
their job is to create the division by providing an alternate answer that others can use in opposition
a variation of the idea that if the first doctor says you only have a year to live, and you go to others until one says you have three years to live, you get to live longer.
to people not familiar wiht the game, your confoundd by trying to make sense of who they are, and who they are is not important other than they are looked to by those who use their messages against other messages.
i just had an argument online about burger kings merger with a canadian company… the left is furious with them calling them traitors and so on, including cheaters. why? because oppressors are not allowed to fight against or avoid their punishments… however, they are at a loss to explain as their leaders have yet to give them the responses.
this is why they either tow a party line or explanation, or resort to name calling. when you run out of ammunition provided by the other, you throw the kitchen sink
it got funny… in that the person said… you can go eat that junk at burger king, but he will remain pure and not do so. my response to him was that i only bought call options and sold them, then went to the oyster bar and had lobster bisque, and oysters for lunch… i dont eat at burger king… but those on state aid, and the poor do.
his response was that the burgers were crap and full of horrid things.. i said. they are 100% beef… he was incredulous… but i pointed out.. what makes you think that pure beef is healthy if eaten all the time and that you have to add bad things to it to make it harmful? you dont. and if they did dilute the beef with something, it would probably lower the calories and up the health quotient…
i also explained that if you want to win the election game, you have to play the numbers. now, which group has more people, the average to dumb or the very smart and not naive (as smart and naive might as well be dumb)? he could not grasp that the side with more numbers is not the smart side, its the dumb side as it has the numbers to win over the smart.
the game is the game, and the point is that if you dont have the right focus or get it… you waste time thinking things or trying to make sense out of things that are not to be made sense out of. smart people will think that X has to make sense to work, as their lives and thoughts are orderly that way… but less smart people dont compare notes, or use inferences to check, they buy into things based on the sales force, not the facts or consistency.
so they get the inconsistent message as its coming from teir trusted sales people, and they do not question it but use it the same way a lowly terrorist uses a belt of ammo they are handed… but the smart are confounded by wasting their time trying to analyse a message that makes no sense when analysed.. and do not have the common sense to not do so..
everything has its place and its point, and if your assumptions to the points and things are off, your just going to waste your time being confused.
to people who don’t know history, but buy in the way people buy into a football team or a baseball team. so they only have to know that its their teams message… makes about as much sense as painting your face blue to help them win…
Both Neo and I – and Ron Radosh- noticed an old far lefty surname- Aptheker. Herbert certainly made a name for himself.
Bettina Aptheker…WHEW…Now there’s a name out of the distant past. Her Daddy, Herbert Aptheker was a well known Communist professor at Berkely when I was in college and dear daughter Bettina was an SDS/Communist ajitator then. Time Machine.
They are not only Historians for Hamas, but Historians Who Ignore History.
Just think of the line attributed to Talleyrand about the Bourbons- “hey have learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.”
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Maurice_de_Talleyrand-P%C3%A9rigord
That would be “they have learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.”
Better quit while I’m behind.
So if the old left, which fancied itself the world’s most elite intellectuals, is now moving toward Islamofascism, (something which would seem to be incompatible with Marxist-Leninism) can be just reject all their intricate arguments and positions as so much self-serving bs?
jvermeer:
The facts are the facts, the evidence lies before us. We are surrounded by evil.
It is clear the Left increasingly merges with the islamofascists. Total power is total after all; why quibble about some queers and ugly women? Both parties despise Christians and Jews, so it’s cool. Islam is not overtly raacist either, cool again, lotsa room for blacks and browns, though the stupid Latinos may hug their Church. And the Left and Islam agree that some people are just meant to be slaves. Sex for young girls is fine with both, but the condom stuff for 8th graders will have to stop, since islam makes babies. I don’t think they flush a lot of fetuses.
Playing muslim can’t be that hard. Billions of people do it, and there’s great stuff in it for them if they play it right. Hell, anybody can be an imam or a sheik, even Sharpton and Jesse….issuing fatwas. Just consider how rapidly their words have entered our daily usage: jihad,fatwa,sharia, taqiyya…That is a sign of our probable defeat from within..
Yes, I am familiar with a few of these names and they are hopeless in that they are on the other and WRONG side of history. I don’t know all the names, but in universities — these attitudes are not unusual. These are the intellectuals who consider themselves oh so much smarter than anyone commenting here I am sure. Lambs to slaughter– and further, apologists for evil. There’s really no other way to put it. And, yes many are teaching kids this crap — that’s the really scary part.
On the good side, I’ve been encountering more people on my FB feed who seem to have some sense regarding Hamas, even if they are more left wing overall. But, they are still the exception.
“They are betting that once the Western right is permanently ‘neutralized’ that they can eliminate Islam as a viable force.”
The leftists in Iran used the same strategy against the Shah. It didn’t turn out so well for them. But these folks are not the type to really take a lesson from history. Despite pretending to be historians. Their ideological certitude frees them from, “the intolerable burden of thought.” (Apologies to Walter Lippmann)
Saul of Tarsus, letter to the Ephesians, 6:12:
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
I must say that I’m much more towards Art’s take: this cohort is the opfor ‘meme launch cadre.’
This crafty draft is emotional scaffolding for a narrative leap against all established norms.
As for their self-identification: ’tis truth inverted. They are ANTI-HISTORIANS — right down to their twisted souls.
To be a conventional historian is to be a researcher into truth and accuracy. Since humanity is prone to ‘spin’ — teasing the actual record out of the popular news and diaries is no small task.
For an anti-historian, the crusade is to ‘Winston’ history and to slip in some dogma, to taste.
For them, notorious notoriety must suffice; rather like dropping into porn, having failed to break into ‘legitimate theater.’
[Forgoing the History Channel — these screwballs had best launch Reds Tube, — all propaganda, all the time.]
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Hamas is absolutely criminal, and is at war with Abbas & Company — right on down the line.
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Sharon, I’d say, saw all of this as an inevitable development. It’s the real reason he had the IDF pull out of Gaza.
He appreciated that the ONLY way to undercut the mythic Palestinian morality requires that the fanatics call the shots. The devils must be given their dues.
Being jackals, Hamas must soon turn on all.
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The IDF needs to sever Gaza from Egypt, permanently.
I favor a deep moat.
I also favor bisection of Gaza — which was NEVER intended to be anything more than a TEMPORARY camp for Egyptian troops that lost their 1948 campaign.
If you’ve ever wondered why Gaza has never (politically) traveled in sync with the West Bank — it’s because the former is Egyptian while the latter is Jordanian; Arabs in both cases.
The zany idea of linking Gaza to Judea — last pushed by Clinton era ‘big thinkers’ has never attained traction since.
This lapse is yet another collateral impact from Sharon’s withdrawal.
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Gaza can NEVER be economic.
It’s a boil on the Mediterranean Sea… fed by unctuous European Leftists ensconced in Brussels… practiced in the art of crock feeding.
Interesting and very little-known history on Gaza Strip: it was occupied and administered by Egypt 1948-1967, which refused to incorporate the “Gazans” into Egypt.
Now with a population of 1.8 million and a whoppingly high birth rate of 2.9%, where is Gaza to go?
Don Carlos…
The original population of Gaza was 95% military age males! It was dinky.
Without a doubt, the Israelis expected that the Egyptian army would accept their men back.
The fact that these boys humiliated themselves — and Cairo — was over looked in the calculus.
The women were imported AFTER the Egyptian ‘campaign’ devolved into a sitzkrieg. (1949-1967)
[In 1948, the Israelis were a tad short in the tank department. This is why the Gazan position was not promptly driven into the sea.]
Likewise, the greater bulk of the 1948 Green Line was reached as Israelis finally met even token Arab resistance — particularly the southern wing of Judea.
The Israeli stab towards the Red Sea was inspired. It was not pre-figured at the beginning of the campaign. This is something that amazes. Keeping Egypt and Jordan separate has proven to be a war winner, time and time again.
@ Steve L,
I tend to agree.
Some members of the totalitarian-collectivist class will probably ally for convenience with Islam, but others will probably “discover” in Islam certain core values which they themselves embrace: universalism, the abolition of superstructural law (however perceived or defined), the end of: usury, individualism, private conscience, and civil society. They will find what they want in the form of “deep structural affinities” or whatever. They will worry about patriarchy later.
Hell, there was Freudian Marxism, why not Islamo-Progressivism? Or Islam inspired “progressivism”?
DNW….
But, but, but…
Islamism IS a fusion of Islam and Communism.
As in 30::70.
It’s MORE Communism than it is Islam.
Mo’s dicta have no economic relevance for today.
There aren’t enough camel caravans to go around — or anything like them.
This fusion is EXTREMELY evident within the agitprop of the opfor. It just gets suppressed in OUR MSM.
Our MSM doesn’t consider the Communist aspect of Islamism to be worthy of comment. Like a fish, the MSM does not recognize the sea of Communism that it swims in. Further, the MSM does not consider such matters as even being controversial… more towards: “the sky is blue, the Sun comes up in the east…”
In sum: not news, and certainly not news fit to print.
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More generally, collectivism is RETROGRADE, a return to our tribal norms, of GROUP ACTION, of “you didn’t build this…”
Most of humanity STILL lives by this rule set.
%%%
One people, one nation, one leader… it’s not just for Nazism.
It’s embedded in Stalinism, and many another ‘ism.
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I must take exception with Islamofascism. It’s logically incorrect.
Islamists are either Communist knock-offs… or a differing flavor of Shintoism.
Islamism is simply an Arab version of Shintoism.
The two track each other / parallel each other FAR, FAR, more than any linkage to Nazism — or Italian Fascism.
Islamists don’t even believe in the corporatist state.
Like the Shintoists, they see a fusion of religion with economics with triumphalist superiority — with epic domination.
While Hitler certainly admired Islamic fanaticism, Muslims did NOT return the favor. No living despot could supplant Allah.
“While Hitler certainly admired Islamic fanaticism, Muslims did NOT return the favor.” Wrong, wrong, wrong. They were deeply intertwined during the 30’s and WWII, and it would not be an overstatement to say that the Muslim Brotherhood is the living successor to the Nazis.
The Nazis, looking for partners in the Arab world, funded and trained the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1930’s helping them increase their membership from a few hundred to two hundred thousand in Egypt. Many, many Egyptians fought on the side of the Nazis and against the British in Africa. Two of the most famous were Nassar and Sadat.
One of the most important Brothers was Haj Amin Al-Husseni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, leader of the Arabs in Palestine. He escaped to Berlin about 1940 and was an honored guest of Hitler in Berlin for the entire war. He repaid the hospitality by making a daily broadcast to the Muslim world extolling the virtues of Nazism. He also organized an SS brigade of Bosnian Muslims who marched around the Balkans killing Serbs, Croats, and Jews. After the war, The British wanted to try him as a war criminal but the French let him go and he escaped to Egypt.
After WWII thousands of Nazis escaped to Egypt, including many SS and Gestapo officers, and helped the Brotherhood. Some even converted to Islam.
To this day Mein Kampf, along with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, is a very popular book in the Arab world.
blert and Paul in Boston:
While the Arab Muslims did not go so far as to think that Hitler supplanted Allah, they certainly did admire Hitler and Nazis tremendously in terms of their attitude towards the Jews, as Paul in Boston has written.
I wrote a post on the topic in 2010, here.
Paul…
Haj Amin al-Husseni, reportedly was housed next door to the Wannsee conference building. (Pam Gellar)
It’s also alleged that he issued a fatwa in favor of the Holocaust; which I figure must be true.
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And I grant you that the Muslim Brotherhood were re-launched out of failure by Nazi monies — long before WWII erupted.
And, it’s true that the MB was massively involved in Northwest Africa (French North Africa) working actively against the Western Allies from Torch onward.
###
But, it’s a major error to keep conflating post-war politics with the Nazis. The best fit is the Communists.
The KGB’s fingerprints are all over every single faction of radical Islam — going back at least as far as the High Aswan Dam and Nasser’s revolution.
Curiously, Nasser started out with the MB ‘on board’ — and then ejecting them. The split did not take very long.
As long as Moscow and Cairo were tight, the MB was on the outs.
The second Cairo switched over to Washington, Moscow become enthused with the MB, and every other shade of radical.
With all the cut-outs used by the KGB, one would need a playbill to keep up.
Certainly the PLO was a KGB construct.
Islamic fanatics breed new fronts like Hydra regenerates snake heads.
But, on the whole, they rather consistently get their weapons and funding from the Second World. Even their terror tactics are crafted by Moscow.
While I can certainly understand Jewish loathing for Hitler and Nazism; I must point out that the CURRENT threat emanates from MOSCOW, and has been ever since 1948.
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In my personal life, I’ve encountered no end of American Jewry that give Communists a ‘pass’ because they fought the Nazis.
That’s SOME revisionism.
Stalin, not Hitler, started WWII in Europe.
How’s that, you say?
While Hitler was looking for conquest all along…
He was actually trapped in a strategic box by Paris, London and Warsaw. Now entirely overlooked by history, Nazi Germany faced a resource crisis of the first magnitude: ALL of its rubber had to be imported via either the French or British trading blocs. Paris and London kept Adolf on a short leash.
Likewise, Hitler was building a massive air force — with no aviation fuel to power it. (!!!!)
Stalin eliminated all of Hitler’s bottlenecks at a stroke, AND he selected the START DATE OF THE ATTACK. (9-1-1939) This is now known to be in writing, drafted in Moscow.
Stalin’s original deal was to attack on the 1st. He cleverly dodged his massive guilt by delaying his attack until Warsaw was wrapped up by Nazi armies.
This stunt was later to cost the Red Army dearly. It was the primary rationale advanced by Adolf to his generals that brought them around to full support of Barbarossa. [Any army that couldn’t organize a walk over surely couldn’t respond in a timely manner in front of Moscow….]
And then there’s the horrific nature of Stalin’s anti-Semitism. Nikita declared Stalin to be an anti-Semite of the first water. He TOTALLY PURGED his (Jewish) Diplomatic staff — at a stroke. This was the beginning of Molotov’s reign. [ No, they didn’t all go off to a happy retirement. ]
And then there’s the Doctor’s Plot. Stalin intended to pick up where Adolf had left off — and liquidate any remaining Jews in Russia. So, Beria killed him with Warfarin. (Rat poison) It’s the kind of poison that you can ingest, side by side with Stalin, — and then go out and take the antidote before anything untoward were to happen.
And then there’s Stalin’s complicity in the Holocaust. There are enough tea leaves to believe that Stalin’s the reason why the repression of European Jewry lurched into lethal gear — only after Barbarossa. Some co-incidence.
Yet, after all of these indications, American Jews tend to give Stalinists a ‘pass.’
I can’t.
I maintain that Communists — now Putinists — are a global threat to peace — and that Russians STILL have a hard-on for victimizing Jewry. That will never change. I think it’s in their DNA.
Even now I spot obvious anti-Semitic trolling that stinks like Moscow. The Hydra keeps regrowing heads.
Without Moscow, Islamism would collapse due to economics. The Ummah can’t produce the weapons it needs to be a player. Never forget that.
Yet, virtually all of my Jewish (brainiac) friends DO forget that.
Can you explain it?
blert:
Nazi and Soviet influences.
blert:
You are making an error that is common, which is calling those Jews who were Communists and Stalin apologists “Jews.”
Yes, they were and are Jews in the sense Hitler defined Jews (i.e. of Jewish ancestry). Some of them define themselves as Jews culturally or ethnically; some not. But I think you’d have to look long and hard to find any observant Jew who apologizes for Stalin. The Jews I knew and know who were and are pro-Communist defined themselves as atheists. Their replacement religion was Communism.
So, it’s the use of the term “Jews” that causes the confusion. Granted, it’s a difficult term to define.
This group should be called Historians for the marginalization of Historians. History is great to know, but not even the dimmest student would look to this bunch to teach actual history.