"Fairness" In Marxist/Islamist BDS Terms--Boycotting the "Despotic" US and UK Along With Israel

The BDSers' true colours are in full view at the University of Illinois-Chicago--the "virtuous ones" despise the West, of which Israel is an exemplar (as well as the proverbial canary in the coalmine):

The student council at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) on Tuesday voted to divest their school’s $2.3 billion endowment from Lockheed Martin, Hewlett-Packard, Boeing, and Caterpillar, in other words, the usual suspects guilty of doing business with the Jewish State, but the vote came with a twist: those companies were also punished for their shameful collaboration with other “despotic regimes,” such as the United States and the United Kingdom. 

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the debate over the decision became so fierce, Jewish students asked campus police for protection. 

The decision reads like the brainchild of an SDS manifesto from the 1960s and a PLO list of demands from a hijacked Swissair Jumbo in Tripoli — probably because it is. It condemns America’s “drone attacks in foreign countries that have killed between 2,700 and 5,000 people, torturing prisoners and keeping them indefinitely in Guantanamo Bay, and NSA’s mass surveillance,” which is why their school’s money should be kept from “Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, G4S, Lockheed Martin, Foxconn, Elbit Systems, and Boeing.” ...

The decision reads like the brainchild of Karl Marx with input from Yasser Arafat, more like.

Ideology or Incompetence? What's Really Behind the Obama M.O.?

Marco Rubio attributes the dreadful policies to the former. Michael Ledeen, on the other hand says "it is quite possible to be both ideological and incompetent at the same time," citing as an example Obama's relentless pursuit of a "normalized" relationship with Iran:

...The Iran policy is the magnum opus. If Obama was so determined to forge an alliance with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the worst way to do it was the one he chose: running after the Iranians like a lovelorn teenager, offering no end of presents, never saying no to Iranian demands, and not even insisting that the deal be formalized. To this day, neither we nor the Iranians have signed any agreement, which has the effect of maintaining pressure on Obama to keep Khamenei happy, lest the supreme leader walk away from the deal. 

Behaving in this way inverted both the logical and strategic balance of power between the two countries. Iran was desperate for money, which we control. Ergo, it should have been fairly easy for us to say to the Iranian negotiators “well, if you don’t agree, we’ll just keep the sanctions on.” Instead we begged them to take the money and catered to all their whims. Indeed, there is very little evidence that we are at all interested in Iranian adherence to the terms of the deal. We just learned, for example, that we do not know where Iran has delivered its enriched uranium. And if we do not know where it is, we do not know if they have disposed of it, do we?

Well, no, we don't. Which means that it's a fairly safe bet that it hasn't delivered it. Or, at least, hasn't delivered it all.

So now that we know that Obama's Iran M.O. is not an either/or phenomenon, what, pray tell, is behind it?

On that count, Ledeen is far less certain. He says that some of it can be attributed to Obama's obvious "romantic feelings for Islam." As for what undergirds the rest, he writes:

Time will tell, provided that we do someday get to read the memos, emails, and other records of internal debates. Both in Washington and Tehran.

In other words, who the hell knows? Because, even though we're into the eighth year of his presidency, Obama's motivations remain as enigmatic as they were at the outset of his first term.

Me? I don't think it's as mysterious as Ledeen makes it out to be. I think Obama, a narcissist to the max, has his eyes on what, for him, is the ultimate prize: his capital-L Legacy. He wants to be remembered as the president who embraced the two nations--Iran and Cuba--that his political opponents considered to be irredeemable. In so doing, he would become for the Democrats what Ronald Reagan is for the Republicans--the lodestar, the permanent inspiration, the One and Only.

But, really, Obama is looking beyond the U.S. and wants to be the guiding force for the entire world (i.e. for the world body, the UN).

Ideology? Yes. Incompetence? For sure. A soft spot for Islam, the faith of his absent but beloved daddy? Absolutely. But for Barack Hussein Obama, ego reigns supreme.

Anti-Semitism On the Decline?

That's what a Frenchman, writing in City Journal, contends. However, I contend that his reasoning is more than a soupcon muddled:

It is true that, especially in France, in places where the Jewish community is mostly of North African origin, Jews are victims of violent criminal acts. But these remain quite rare, committed by young Arabs who reenact the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in their sections of Paris or Marseille. And anti-Zionism shouldn’t be confused with anti-Semitism.  

Anti-Zionism is based on a real situation: the Palestinians are not a mythical people, nor are their demands mythical, however difficult they may be to satisfy. Anti-Semitism, on the other hand, is entirely mythical: the Jew was not a real person but a mystical and political construction.

Wrong. Anti-Zionism--or as I call it, Zionhass--is the latest incarnation of "the oldest hatred."  Zionhass incorporates, and is often fueled by, the hatred of Israel, the world's one and only Jewish state.

As for Jews being "mythical" and Palestinians being "real"--that one is wrong on both counts. Jewry is real (even if fantasies/derangements about it have nothing to do with how real Jews think and behave) . Palestinians, on the other hand, are Arabs who took on peoplehood in the 1960s, and then only as a weapon with which to dislodge Jewry from the Jewish national home.

ISIS Beheads 15-Year-Old Boy In Iraq for the "Crime" of Enjoying Western Pop Music

The savagery of these religious totalitarians knows no bounds and rivals the worst in history:

A teenage boy has been beheaded by ISIS for simply listening to Western music. 

Ayham Hussein, 15, was arrested by militants after allegedly being caught enjoying pop tunes on a portable CD player in the group's Iraqi capital Mosul. 

He was dragged before a Islamist kangaroo court which sentenced him death in a public execution. 

ISIS has imposed its own sickening brand of medieval justice across swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, executing prisoners for so-called 'crimes' such as blasphemy and being homosexual. 

In a statement two years ago, the terror group also banned 'music and songs in cars, at parties, in shops and in public, as well as photographs of people in shop windows.' 

It added: 'Songs and music are forbidden in Islam as they prevent one from the remembrance of God and the Koran and are a temptation and corruption of the heart.'

The Sunnis of ISIS and Iran's Shia Khomeinists are at odds over many things. On  the issue of fun being strictly verboten in Islam, however (fun being seen as subversive because it is within the individual's--and not the theocrats'--control), they are entirely in synch.

Not Exactly Value for Money: "Human Rights" Mausolem Cost $350 Million to Build But Is Worth as Little as $30 Million?

While city authorities in Winnipeg tussle with the feds over unpaid taxes, I'd say the real story here is how Canadian taxpayers got suckered--big time--into paying for this vastly devalued money pit.

Find the Socialist of Your Dreams on the BernieSingles Dating Site

Oy vey! 

Since they're all Socialists, I suppose they expect someone else to pick up the tab for their dates.

Trump Says He'll Be "Neutral" On Israel

That sucks, Donald.

Why are you so resolute when it comes to say, China and Mexico, but no better than that waffler Justin Trudeau when it comes to America's stalwart ally, Israel?

If that's an example of the powers of discernment you plan to bring to the White House, God help us all.



A pair of "honest brokers"?

They Wanted To Blow Up the Superbowl Stadium. They Settled for Shooting Up a Motoon Contest in Garland, Texas

An object lesson in the flexibility of "lone wolf"/self-radicalized jihadis. During the trial of one of the trio of ISIS fans involved in the Garland shoot-'em-up, we learn that when their grandiose schemes fall flat, they're more than willing to reassess and, if need be, downsize their feats of jihad.

How Ironic!: In Honour of "Freedom to Read Week," PEN Canada Presents Obnoxious Israel-Despiser Max Blumenthal

Here's how the event is being promoted on the Toronto Public Library site:

PEN Canada presents Embattled Truths: Reporting on Gaza - ATRIUM

Wed Feb 24, 2016
7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
90 mins

Toronto Reference Library Atrium

Please note that seating for this event is now SOLD OUT and there is standing room only.

Searching for truth within the fog of war is particularly consequential in dispatches from Israel's occupied territories. Depending on where we get our news, Gaza is either a terrorist haven and a legitimate military target, or a zone of unjustified violence against a captive civilian population.

PEN Canada presents acclaimed US journalist Max Blumenthal, author of The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza on the challenges of sifting truth from propaganda when reporting on conflict in the Gaza Strip. With Toronto Star Foreign Affairs reporter Olivia Ward.

This event will be held in the ATRIUM of Toronto Reference Library and there is no cash bar.

Note: This event replaces Free Speech and Digital Warfare previously announced in What's On: Programs & Events at Your Library (January to March 2016).

$15 suggested donation. All proceeds go to PEN Canada.

Presented in partnership with Another Story Bookshop and Independent Jewish Voices in honour of Freedom to Read Week.

About the Author:

Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author whose articles and video documentaries have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Daily Beast, The Nation, The Guardian, The Independent Film Channel, The Huffington Post,
Salon.com, Al Jazeera English and many other publications.

His book, Republican Gomorrah: Inside The Movement That Shattered The Party, was a New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller.

He blogs at Maxblumenthal.com

The irony that Israel is the only place in the Middle East where people have the freedom to read is obviously lost on malicious Max and the other blood libel-purveying leftists.

Obama To Skip Scalia's Funeral Because He'll Be Busy Doing Something Else

It's unclear what that "something" is--could be golfing, could be gazing at his reflection in the mirror, could be thinking up new ways to insult Republicans. It seems clear, however, that skipping this funeral is mean, petty and akin to blowing a big, wet raspberry in his political opponents' direction.

Rockefeller Brothers Foundation Funds Zionhass--In the Name of "Peace"

That's because if the Zion-loathers came clean about their true intentions--i.e. the sort of "peace" that can only come about via the erasure of Jewish Israel--it would be that much harder to persuade "peace"-minded foundations to part with their cash.