News roundup
(1) The International Red Cross made an animated movie about a refugee from Afghanistan whom they considered a very sympathetic character. But he’s been arrested for murder in Greece, the country that took him in.
The case looks strong, and it was his American wife who gave police much of the evidence. From the Daily Mail:
The Red Cross has deleted a film tracking the journey of an Afghan migrant who is now accused of killing a British woman and hiding her body in a suitcase in Greece.
Sharif Ahmadzai, 26, was arrested on Monday over the murder of Scottish Christian Elisabeth-Jane Ross, in Athens.
Ahmadzai, a professional boxer who arrived in Greece on a small boat in 2016, is accused of killing Ms Ross before stuffing her body into a suitcase and ditching it in a derelict building.
The 38-year-old’s body was found by a homeless man on July 18, three days after she is believed to have been killed. …
Officers started probing Ahmadzai after his wife allegedly reported her husband had been behaving suspiciously on July 30.
She allegedly said she woke to find him missing on the evening of July 15 and checked his shared location which showed him at Ms Ross’s apartment.
Ahmadzai’s wife grew suspicious when it was announced Ms Ross’s body had been found. She left the family home with their baby and stayed in a hotel.
Ahmadzai gave her the sum of 2,550 euros and a new Apple iPhone 17 Pro but she refused them.
He used the dead woman’s credit cards. There’s much more to the story; you can read it at the link if you’re interested, but his excuse is that the woman was already dead when he arrived, and he panicked and stuffed her into a suitcase.
Sure thing.
(2) There’s no love lost between the NYC police and Mayor Mamdani:
Mamdani attempted to address about 3,500 residents and families attending the New York Police Department’s 43rd Patrol Borough National Night Out Against Crime event on Tuesday. His remarks, however, lasted less than a minute as loud boos, jeers and chants of “get out of here” and “nobody wants you” drowned out his voice.
The mayor attempted to continue speaking for a short time, but the jeers drowned him out. After the boos continued, Mamdani thanked the crowd with his signature hand-over-his-heart gesture, waved and walked offstage smiling. As he exited, the crowd continued to berate him, with some yelling expletives. An organizer attempted to regain control of the event, but the crowd persisted, booing and shaking their fists at Mamdani.
To be fair, the event occurred on Staten Island, a NY borough that is Republican and has been for quite some time. It is also the home of many NY police and firefighters, and lost a disproportionate number of residents on 9/11. For example, the borough has about 5.6% of New York City’s population but a quarter of the deceased firefighters lived there:
On Staten Island, 274 residents were killed, including 72 people who resided within two adjacent ZIP codes, 10312 and 10314.
The island has long been known as a blue-collar borough, home to first responders and office workers who enjoyed a quick commute to Lower Manhattan by the ferry.
“For Staten Island, 9/11 is a visceral part of our historical record,” said City Councilmember Joe Borelli, who was a 19-year-old Marist College student on Sept. 11, 2001.
Staten Island has a multitude of reasons to detest Mamdani.
(3) I don’t really think that praising Hasan Piker in any way is a good look for Democrats in Michigan. Debbie Dingell faces that quandary:
Rep. Debbie Dingell (MI-06) is one of the more well-known establishment Democrats in Michigan. A year or so ago, she warned against a looming “proxy battle” between the Democrat candidates over the issue of the Israel-Hamas war, something that ended up playing out throughout the primary between El-Sayed, Rep. Haley Stevens (MI-11), and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow.
Though Dingell didn’t endorse in the Senate primary, one got the impression that she wasn’t a fan of El-Sayed’s campaign, perhaps because she’s fond of reminding people that Michigan is a purple state, and far-left candidates like El-Sayed are not exactly what one would describe as “purple state material.”
But now we have this effort from Dingell. Although she is practically stuttering here and saying she doesn’t agree with Piker, she emphasizes how popular he is on social media::
“I guess he works out and when he works out he looks really good and some people follow him for that. Not you or me.”
Debbie Dingell says she only watches the Hasan stream for the articles. pic.twitter.com/2u69ecNK9w
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) August 5, 2026
If you don’t get X, she’s saying to Greta Von Susteren, among other things: “I guess he [Hasan Piker] works out and when he works out he looks really good and some people follow him for that. Not you or me.”
Democrats, and especially Democrats of Michigan, have some decisions to make about whether or not to support El-Sayed. I think almost all of them will fall in line behind him, and that may involve trying to explain away his closeness to the abominable Piker.
(4) Meanwhile, Democrats such as Julian Epstein are saying no to El-Sayed and casting their lot with his opponent Mike Rogers. They’re also putting their money where their mouths are. He wrote an op-ed piece in the NY Post entitled, “I’m a longtime Democrat — fighting for GOP’s Mike Rogers, and my party’s soul, in Michigan.” An excerpt:
President John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address, may have said it best: “In the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.”
It was a warning to those who tolerate the rise of authoritarian communism that they will inevitably end up next on the dinner menu.
Michigan Democrats, in nominating Abdul El-Sayed for Senate on Tuesday, seem to be riding the back of that tiger.
That’s an interesting JFK quote. It puts me in mind of the red-green alliance, which I first noticed in the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The leftists in that country thought they could ride the Islamist tiger. How’d that work out for them?
(5) Does Palestine have a distinct culture? Yes, violence:
There is no nation called “Palestine” and no “Palestinian” language, but there is a Palestinian culture. It was forged mostly by Yasser Arafat, the PLO’s leader for five decades, and is singularly defined by violence. Unique among all other Arab cultures and national identities, Palestinian culture and the Palestinian identity are predicated on a single political goal – the unceasing desire to destroy an existing country, in this case Israel.
Take away the resistance, and there’s nothing left of a distinctly Palestinian culture.
Cultures take centuries or millennia to form organically, but Palestinian culture, or “Palestinianism,” sprang into being quickly and artificially.
Historians might not agree on the precise date of the new Palestinian identity and its concomitant culture, but no serious scholar claims it to be much more than a century old.
Their violence is not limited to Israel as a target. They’ve wreaked havoc in every country that has taken them in in significant numbers.
Is there any evidence of a Palestinian national identity that predates the Zionist movement of the late 1800s?
FOAF:
Of course, the answer will depend on one’s political point of view. But I think this is a good source. See also this.
Good explanation. I always point out that the country of Palestine does not exist, its imaginary.
Is there any evidence of a Palestinian national identity that predates the Zionist movement of the late 1800s?
==
The British government assembled three Ottoman subprefectures, made some adjustments to the exterior boundaries, and called the result the ‘Mandate of Palestine’, established in 1920. Over a period of 1400 years, the only political entity in the region whose borders had borne some resemblance to those of the Mandate of Palestine was the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, which existed from 1099 to 1291.
==
A ‘Palestinian’ self understanding as distinct from a ‘Syrian’ self-understanding, an ‘Arab’ self-understanding, or identification with a locus or a lineage was not modal until about 1968. A large fraction of the Arab population as it was in 1947 had migrated from surrounding territories and you could find people from the territory in question who had migrated to surrounding territories. Yasir Arafat (b. 1929) and Edward Said (b. 1935) grew up in Egypt.
Afghan was married to a White American woman. Still hard to believe women buy this Cultural Marxism hook, line and sinker.
They live to regret it (the last thought they have).
Skip,
I would be surprised if.it wasn’t a white western woman.
Afghan was married to a White American woman. Still hard to believe women buy this Cultural Marxism hook, line and sinker.
==
She was attracted to him for reasons not a function of any notion of building a life with him. You see this among women who fall for prison inmates. I think it was the case 70 years ago that women in your social circle (especially your gal pals but also family members) would dissuade you from getting involved with characters who were not good prospects as providers. That set of vectors has largely disappeared. Too much value is placed on random and evanescent preference and not enough on building viable family relations. One thing I’ve noticed in our circle is that repellent borderline behavior among young women elicits no condemnation; it is treated as a weather event.
The Afghan even “converted” to Christianity to marry the white American woman.
The Trojan horse game is common among certain types of enemies.
And a “Trust culture” can create gullibility and a “savior complex”.
Supposedly converted yet first reports that murdered woman because she talked about Christianity.
Something tells me this conversation was a scam
The perp’s wife was the one who gave evidence against him; she had become very suspicious. But prior to that I would bet his cover personality was pretty good. For example, the conversion to Christianity probably seemed sincere to her, and a mark of his commitment to starting a new life in the West and a new life with her. As far as money goes, he was a professional boxer (it doesn’t say how successful), and together they started a charity to help immigrants. The woman he almost certainly murdered was also involved in relief work; that’s how they all knew each other. I would bet his commitment to all of this appeared to his wife to be strong. Con men and psychopaths can be very good at that sort of thing.
Again, refugees should be cared for in camps proximate to their country of origin with a view to their eventual repatriation. Resettlement should be a last resort and should occur in the most culturally proximate countries. Afghanistan’s population is a jumble of Pathans (who dominate Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier), Tajiks (who dominate Tajikistan), Hazara (who are close kin to the Tajiks), Uzbeks (who dominate Uzbekistan), Turcomen (who dominate Turkmenistan), and Balochs (who dominate Pakistan’s Baluchistan region). The only reason he should have been in Greece was if he worked for the Greek government; the Greek government deployed no troops to Afghanistan. These two dames had no business being in Greece except on vacation. No, Greece and Cyprus should not be collecting pools of Arab refugees, either. All of these should have been located in other Arab countries or perhaps in Turkey.
==
and together they started a charity to help immigrants.
==
No, that’s not what they should have been doing.
==
People who wish to immigrate to Greece or Cyprus should appear at an embassy, legation, or consulate, submit to a physical, submit information for a background check (to be done by the U.S. government for a fee), and submit to a written and oral examination in Modern Greek. If they pass the tests, they’re given a spot in a queue per the date of their application. If the subject gets married, his original spot is his ‘latent’ spot and his wife has a latent spot in the queue assigned per the date they were married. The two have an actual spot which is the average of their latent spots. Each child they bear has a latent spot assigned per their date of birth and all have an actual spot which is the average of their latent spots. If one of their children gets married and produces children, his family receives a recalculated spot in the queue. When a family arrive at the head of the queue, the background checks are re-run; if there are any penalties to be assessed (say, your 17 year old son stole a car last year), these are amortized over the whole family and the group faces time parked. They may also be parked at the head of the queue until each member of the family over age 14 has passed the English proficiency test. When people are taken out of park, they are clear to enter the country in the order they occupied in the queue. (NB, some people are not placed in park so are waved in ahead of those who have been). For a country with Greece’s population, you might issue about 10,000 settler’s visas a year; for one with Cyprus population, about 650.
==
Foreigners who marry Greek or Cypriot citizens might be offered an additional spot in a parallel queue. Greek or Cypriot citizens who wish to adopt from abroad might be allocated in a lottery a placeholder in the main queue and another in a parallel queue. Everyone has a spot in the main queue and you have two parallel queues. You then allocate 2% of the year’s entry permits to the 3d queue and 6% to the 2d queue. These allocations will clear spaces in the general queue. The remainder would then be allocated to those who are in the general queue alone. The other two queues would function as express lanes.
==
You want reside in Greece temporarily to teach, study, or undertake research in (or are dependents of someone who does), the government might allow a stock of 25,000 people to be there at any one time for such purposes, one-in-one-out. The inviting institution can purchase a visa for you at a multiple price auction. Cyprus might allow 2,000 people to reside there under similar terms.
In re the question by FOAF: Neo’s linked post by A. J. Caschetta at JWN had a good chart, which is similar to Art Deco’s summary of Palestinian history, such as it is.
The post.
https://jewishworldreview.com/0826/palestinian_culture.php
The chart.
https://www.investigativeproject.org/pics/6173.jpg?ref=relatedBox
Neo’s links in her comment are also very informative.
They come from this excellent resource.
https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/
#3.
“…popular…on social media…”
Heh, as I recall so was Schicklgruber…
Thanks for the links, neo. It seems to me that “national identity” in the Middle East is often a muddle. Some groups such as Jews, Persians, Egyptians and Turks clearly have roots in antiquity. Kurdish history may stretch back as far as the Jews’ or even further but no one has been too worried about giving them their own state though they now have an “autonomous” enclave in Iraq.
Other countries including Lebanon, Syria and Iraq seem to be pastiches of tribes and factions, with the borders having been decided arbitrarily by the previous European colonizing powers. Eg Maronites, Druze, Alawites, Yazidi, Assyrians. Even these all have histories long predating the 20th century. I may be biased but the Palestinian “identity”, as others suggest, was created mainly for the purpose of combating Israel.