Suella Braverman fired; Cameron replaces her

The New Neo Posted on by

Suella Braverman was just starting to grab my attention. Then just like that – poof! – she’s gone. But she may return in some other capacity in the future, particularly as a challenger for the role of head of the Conservatives.

Braverman was the UK’s Home Secretary, and the reason I noticed her recently was that I was listening to a YouTube clip of a British radio show and caller after caller mentioned agreeing with an article she’d written criticizing the police for using a double standard in dealing with the recent anti-Israel protests. Braverman had claimed that the police favored the pro-Palestinian wing. The callers were also particularly incensed with the fact that a big demonstration had been held on what is known in Britain as Remembrance Day (Veterans Day here). Braverman obviously is a populist hero to a large group of Brits who are fed up with what’s happening in their country.

And so apparently she had to go, according to the central wing of the party. But did Sunak have to bring Cameron back?:

While her removal was no surprise, it was the appointment of Cameron which caused shock in the party. It was welcomed by more centrist lawmakers but loathed by some on the right who described it as the ultimate “Brexit surrender”.

It seems like a great big F-U to the Brexit crowd. It gives Labour – which seems to already be way ahead in polls – a ready-made opportunity to further criticize:

The Labour Party has consistently held an around 20-point lead in the polls, and [PM] Sunak has failed to reduce that gap.

He tried to relaunch himself as a representative of “change” at his party’s conference last month, when his message was overshadowed by a poorly communicated decision to cancel part of the country’s biggest rail project.

Labour had called Sunak weak since Braverman’s article was published on Wednesday. Now, opposition lawmakers said his decision to appoint Cameron was an act of desperation.

Lawmaker Pat McFadden, Labour’s national campaign coordinator, said: “A few weeks ago Rishi Sunak said David Cameron was part of a failed status quo, now he’s bringing him back as his life raft.”

What a mess. When strong conservative voices are needed, Britain gets this. On that same radio show I was listening to – before Bravermn’s sacking – the callers were also already calling Sunak weak and gutless. I can just imagine what they’re saying now.

NOTE: By the way, the Sunak/Braverman spat is an example of an altercation between two people of East Indian ethnicity, a little bit like our own Haley/Ramaswamy spat. Braverman was born in London and her husband is Jewish; he came to the UK as a teenager from South Africa, also has lived in Israel, and has relatives in the IDF.

Spambots of the day

The New Neo Posted on by

Count ’em, two.

I assume this one is meant to be a compliment, but I’m not too sure. Perhaps it’s mocking me:

You always have something favorable to claim. You make me laugh.

This one’s definitely a compliment, albeit a redundant one:

I am in awe of your creativity and also imagination. I’m constantly excited by your knowledge as well as knowledge.

Pro-Hamas riots in Manhattan

The New Neo Posted on by

The police don’t seem to be able or perhaps willing to control these violent and organized mobs. Very chilling.

As Douglas Murray has said in many recent interviews, if the authorities won’t control this, regular people may take it on themselves to do so, and that will be even more dangerous.

How did we get here? Gradually, then suddenly.

The minds of Hamas and the minds of the Einsatzgruppen

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There have been a lot of comparisons between Hamas and the Nazis in terms of their violent hatred and genocidal intents. I think such comparisons are valid although of course hardly exact; many details are different although the Jewish target is the same. Hamas operatives seem worse than the Nazis in their sheer sadism and delight in torture and other horrors. It’s not that the Nazis didn’t employ such sadistic individuals – they did, but that sort of psychological makeup doesn’t seem as though it was quite as common among Nazis as among the Hamas killers.

Most people who are familiar with the genocide during the Holocaust are likely to think first of the death camps, with their gas chambers that made it less necessary for the murderers to kill their victims up close and personal. The better analogy would be the earlier murders in Eastern Europe by the Einsatzgruppen, who shot their victims and buried them in mass graves. Many of these killers were “ordinary” men who had been convinced this action was not only right but necessary.

I believe the same is true of many of the Hamas killers, particularly the ones who merely dispatched their civilian victims without the extras of torture and rape.

The other day I was doing some research and I happened across this. I was already familiar with this sort of reasoning on the part of German members of the Einsatzgruppen squads, and I think this is an excellent example of how the mindset worked:

Walter Mattner, a policeman who took part in the murder of the Jews during this first action [in a Belarus city called Mogilev], described the shooting and how he felt about it in a letter to his wife:

“[When we shot the Jews brought by] the first truck my hand trembled somewhat during the shooting, but one gets used to it. By the tenth truck I was already aiming steadily and shooting accurately at the many women, children, and babies. I thought about the two infants that I have at home, to whom this gang would do exactly the same, if not ten times worse. The death we were according them was a short and beautiful one compared to the hellish sufferings of the many thousands in the torture chambers of the [Soviet] GPU. […] Let’s get rid of this brood [of Jews], who pushed all of Europe into war and is now agitating America also until it too is dragged into the war. […] I’m already looking forward to it, and many here are saying that when we return home, then it’s the turn of our local Jews.

As historian Christopher Browning points out, Mattner desired to justify the murder of children and babies … He rationalizes the murder of Jewish children by the “need” to protect his own children.

The idea that the Jews caused WWII was a huge German propaganda point that was relentlessly hammered home to the German people. Hitler was so wedded to the idea that he included it in his last will and testament, composed shortly before he committed suicide. It’s quite a document; here are some of the relevant portions:

It is untrue that I or anybody else in Germany wanted war in 1939. It was desired and provoked entirely by those international statesmen who were either of Jewish origin or who worked in the Jewish interest. …

But nor have I left any doubt that if the nations of Europe are once more to be treated only as collections of stocks and shares of these international conspirators in money and finance, then those who carry the real guilt for the murderous struggle, this people will also be held responsible: the Jews! …

But before everything else I call upon the leadership of the nation and those who follow it to observe the racial laws most carefully, to fight mercilessly against the poisoners of all the peoples of the world, international Jewry.

Hamas has certainly taken up the torch, and they are hardly alone.

The voting fraud dilemma

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Commenter “Tom Grey” notes:

The Dems have upped their game on cheating – most Reps refuse to even note that the cheating is happening.

I assume what’s meant there is Republican politicians rather than Republican voters. The majority of Republican voters and those who lean Republican believe the 2020 election was fraudulent and don’t seem shy about saying so.

But many Republican politicians are faced with a dilemma if they want to discuss the issue at all, and their opponents are well aware of their dilemma. In a very red state it probably doesn’t matter. But in any election that promises to be at all close, if the GOP candidate takes a stand on this issue then that candidate risks alienating moderate voters, including moderate Republican voters.

It’s an old old story, although the details keep changing: whether or not to “pivot to the middle” in the general election. The pivot risks alienating the base, and the lack of pivot risks alienating the moderates who are often needed for victory.

The left and the current administration have managed to successfully demonize those who believe the 2020 election involved fraud. The latter are called “election deniers” – as though belief in election validity is some sacred creed and those who don’t believe are “undermining our democracy” and “insurrectionists” as well as “MAGA Republicans.” The message has been relentlessly and quite successfully hammered home, with the help of a complicit MSM.

As I’ve written many times here, once we lose the trappings of election security – voter IDs, strict signature verification, in-person voting – the public is going to doubt the veracity of the outcome of any election that is even remotely close, and some that are not. Without those safeguards, election fraud is possible to pull off and also very difficult if not impossible to prove after the fact. This possibility and the resultant perception of fraud is what “undermines democracy,” whether or not fraud ever occurs or ever can be proven.

Open thread 11/11/23

The New Neo Posted on by

Evolution? More like devolution. Maybe the technique gets better, but who cares? The incomparable Fracci, the first on the video (1971), is the only one whose dancing really interests me. Notice also that she dances faster than the others. Over the years, most dancers have gotten rather slow and not very fluid or expressive either, because they are concentrating so hard on their perfect show-offy technique and striking poses (the third dancer isn’t really as thin as she looks here; her video is somewhat distorted):

Why is Eric Adams being investigated?

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Adams may indeed be guilty of something, but there are other Democrats who probably are guilty of something and are not being pursued by the feds. Why Adams?:

The FBI seized the phones of New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Friday. The move came as part of a sweeping investigation into a donor scheme in which the Turkish government and others allegedly illegally funneled money into Adams’ 2021 political campaign.

The mayor’s top fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, had her home raided on November 2nd as part of the probe. One of the factors being looked at is whether Adams offered kickbacks to a Turkish construction company. At the time, the New York Times reported that there was no “indication” that the mayor himself was a target of the probe. That dynamic has apparently changed. …

Some are suggesting that Adams is being targeted because of his outspoken opposition to the Biden administration’s immigration policies. …

In September, Adams gave a speech in which he suggested that New York City would collapse if illegal immigration wasn’t curtailed.

In addition, Adams spoke out very strongly in mid-October in favor of Israel and against Hamas. I wonder whether that might have been a factor, too.

Recall also that Senator Menendez of New Jersey, a Democrat who was investigated and recently indicted (and may indeed also be guilty), has long been a critic of the Obama/Biden Iran deal, perhaps the only Democrat who can claim that status. He also a few weeks before his arrest had been critical of Biden’s money-for-prisoners swap with Iran.

One wonders.

Jews, the Holocaust, escape, and fighting back

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Commenter “AesopFan” wrote this recently:

As Andrea Widburg posted recently at Bookworm Room, [liberal Jews in the US have] believed that their support for all the “catechism causes” of the left would give them some cover for being Jewish, but it didn’t.

The liberal Jews in 1930s Europe made the same mistake.

I’m a bit confused by that analogy, because liberal Jews in Europe wouldn’t have expected protection from the left in Europe during the 1930s, since the traditional left was being persecuted by the Nazis once the latter came to power. Unless you define Nazis themselves as “the left” (they had elements of both left and right as those sides are defined by Europe, but what they most had in common with the left was that they were statists), how could the more traditional left of Europe have protected the Jews when the left had trouble protecting themselves?:

In April 1933 communists, socialists, democrats, and Jews were purged from the German civil service, and trade unions were outlawed the following month. That July Hitler banned all political parties other than his own, and prominent members of the German Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party were arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps.

However, at least early in the game, some German Jews apparently expected that their patriotism – for example, the fact that they had fought in WWI for Germany – might have protected them. But it is generally a myth that most German Jews didn’t see the terribly dangerous writing on the wall not long after the Nazis came to power, and certainly they saw it by the late 1930s.

I’ve written on this topic several times before, but I think it bears repeating. So please take a look at this post of mine, which has appeared already on this blog now and again over the years. There are other myths about the Jews of Europe, too, such as the idea that they didn’t resist going “meekly into the boxcars.”

If you study the history of what the Nazis actually did, they practiced all sorts of clever deceptions to make sure the people they were rounding up did not know what was happening and certainly didn’t know for sure. There were told they were being relocated, and to pack bags, and many believed them. The entire roundup apparatus was geared to maintaining the deception to the bitter end, including the false showers at the death camps, in order to forestall any chance of rebellion.

In addition, there were many women, children, and old people involved, and the Jewish populace, unlike that of the US, was not armed. In Germany, which had a registry of all gun owners, there were gun-confiscating surprise raids on Jews early on, and you can read more here about what was done by the Nazis to disarm the Jews. Furthermore – and this is also of the utmost importance to remember – where would the Jews have gone, even if they had been successful? Many of the Jews who did manage to flee without papers – and papers were very had to get – were turned back in droves, into the arms of the Nazis. Most of Europe would not accept them, nor would the US, and in the notorious White Paper of May, 1939 the British sharply limited Jewish immigration to Israel/Palestine.

As for other countries, the German blitzkrieg method of quickly conquering them left Jews there with little opportunity for escape. Recall, for example, that Anne Frank’s family had fled to Amsterdam from Germany back in 1934. But later the net closed quickly around them when the Netherlands was suddenly conquered, and they were trapped. This experience of fleeing to another European country erroneously assumed to be safe (The Netherlands, for example, had remained neutral during WWI) was a frequent occurrence for European Jews.

I can’t recall where I read the following – probably from various sources, almost certainly including Primo Levi – it’s not as though no one standing in line for deportation tried to resist. But those who did try to resist were shot on the spot or killed by guard dogs, and those people who were watching probably decided to take their chances with the unknown of deportation instead. By that time, many of them were also ill and weak and suffering from disease and malnutrition, having spent time in overcrowded ghettos created by the Nazis (see this) who gave them completely inadequate rations. The more able-bodied and young among them, however, sometimes joined partisan groups (for more information on Jewish partisans please see this). And most of you probably know about the heroic but doomed resistance of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.

One likes to think there was a way out for those who didn’t – or mostly couldn’t – leave Europe early. But for most, it would have required 20/20 hindsight, perfect organization, knowledge, arms, good health, and a safe haven – none of which were possible for the remnant who had not been able to escape Germany earlier, and for the larger group in other countries in Europe. It is also not widely known how many Jews committed suicide rather than be taken to camps, but it happened quite frequently and is described by Victor Klemperer in his diaries from the Germany of the era.

[NOTE: Nothing here is an attempt to pick on AesopFan, who may indeed already know all of this. But I see misconceptions on this topic so often that I used AesopFan’s comment as a take-off point to discuss the issue.]

How do Israel and the US get information about the hostages held in Gaza?

The New Neo Posted on by

In a discussion about an article concerning the hostages held by Hamas, I saw a comment by someone who wondered how Israel or the US knows what it knows about the hostages.

I’ve certainly wondered that myself. There are different kinds of “knowing,” as well – knowing who has been kidnapped, knowing who is still alive, knowing where hostages are being kept, knowing how they are being guarded, and knowing what would be needed to get them out.

Here are some possible sources of information that I’ve come up with; those of you with more military background than I (which is just about anyone with military background) probably have more ideas:

(1) There are almost certainly moles in Gaza among Hamas. Whether their motive is that they are being paid, or whether it is ideological, they exist.

(2) Four hostages were released and one was rescued; they may know something and have been debriefed about it.

(3) It takes a while to go through all the Hamas terrorist videos, including those from dead terrorists, as well as Israeli security cameras and videos taken by other Israelis. There may be information there that is still being processed – certainly information about who was abducted.

(4) There may have been witnesses to the abductions who just came forward or were questioned fairly recently.

(5) There are many captured living Hamas terrorists, and they are being interrogated.

(6) Ditto captured terrorist papers and plans, as the Israelis explore tunnels and building within Gaza itself.

(7) I have no idea what the details may be, but I have a hunch there is technology, both known and unknown, that will help in hostage location efforts. Here’s some vague information:

“In support of hostage recovery efforts, the U.S. is conducting unarmed UAV flights over Gaza, as well as providing advice and assistance to support our Israeli partner as they work on their hostage recovery efforts,” [Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder] said. “These UAV flights began after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.”

It’s not clear how helpful the imagery gathered by the overhead flights in Gaza will be in locating hostages, since they are widely believed to be held in the vast network of underground tunnels, some former intelligence officials said. Of the 240 hostages still held by Hamas, 10 of them are believed to be Americans.

US officials insisted that the intelligence gathered by the drones and shared with Israel is limited to hostage recovery efforts and is not so-called “targeting intelligence” — information used to conduct lethal strikes against Hamas leaders and positions.

US special operations personnel inside Israel have also been advising the Israel Defense Forces on hostage recovery efforts, as the US separately has been providing bombs and other lethal aid.

I thought there were more than ten US hostages.

I will add that Israel must walk a fine line to help keep the hostages alive. For example, it wouldn’t do to categorically say that they will never agree to a prisoner exchange. If Hamas believed that, the value of the hostages would fall to zero and they would probably all be killed or worse. What’s more, I have no doubt that Hamas would say that Israel had killed them in raids on tunnels.

Joe Manchin announces …

The New Neo Posted on by

… he’s not running for re-election to the Senate in 2024.

Looking back at my posts, in August of 2022 I thought there was a good chance he wouldn’t run for re-election in 2024. Logic tells me his retirement from the Senate is good news for Republicans, and I hope they won’t find a way to muck it up. And looking back to this post of mine from July of 2023, I thought there was at least a possibility that he might try to run for president 3rd party in 2024.

I still think that’s at least a possibility. After all, Manchin presently has this to say about his plans: “what I will be doing is traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together.” Hmmmm.