Bernard-Henri Lévy: ‘Today’s woke thinking is straight-forward racism’ - "when the 75-year-old French philosopher describes the scene at what was left of the Kfar Aza kibbutz in southern Israel on October 10 last year, his face empties of all expression... “I’ve seen a lot of dead bodies in my life,” stresses the Algerian-born war reporter and documentary-maker, in reference to the many war-torn lands he has visited over the past 40 years – from Bosnia, where he highlighted the concentration camps, to Afghanistan, where he was a French envoy in the aftermath of the war; from Libya, where Lévy met the rebels fighting against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime to Syria, Kurdistan, Nigeria and Rwanda... for the past year, the “rockstar” philosopher has been living in an undisclosed location under very heavy police protection, after intelligence officials discovered that a unit of the Quds Force – the special operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – had paid an Iranian drug dealer $150,000 to assassinate Lévy, who has been critical of the country’s leadership... the writer makes a philosophical distinction between events and “an Event” like October 7, that, he tells me today “changes not just the future but the past. Because it throws a new light on past events that we thought we understood. With Events like these, there’s a realisation not just that things will never be the same again, but that things were not what we thought they were before.”... “Hours after the attack,” he explains, “there were not only the ‘yes buts’ but actual, veritable explosions of joy. Professors at US universities with huge online followings recorded and broadcast messages of absolute joy. This, when the bodies of the dead had not even all been buried.” “Rarely has negationism functioned so well and so quickly,” he writes in the book, pointing out that even many of those who did offer early support began to fall away within the ensuing weeks and months. Ask Lévy whether six months on from the book’s publication in France, he still believes Israel’s response has been just, and he doesn’t have to think about it for a second: “Yes. I still don’t think the response has been disproportionate. I have been back to Israel several times since last October. I have done my job as a journalist.” When filming the liberation of Mosul in 2016, he says, “I saw what indiscriminate hits looked like, what the desire to destroy a place from top to toe looks like and let me tell you: that is not what is happening in Gaza.” He also stands by the assertion, in the book, that Israel “has done everything to avoid civilian casualties”. “Listen, one can always do better. But I’ve been covering wars for 40 years, and it’s the first time in my life that I’ve ever seen an army open up a corridor every day between 6am and noon in order to warn civilians that they are going to hit an area where they are. The Israeli army is the first army in the world that I have seen say: ‘We’re going to hit here – please move.’ That I’ve seen distribute flyers warning people, calling to warn people. Now, I’m not saying that it’s not a living nightmare [for those people]. It is.”... Lévy has known the Israeli prime minister for 30 years, and always been honest with him, he assures me. “But I cannot let people say that the hits are indiscriminate and targeting civilians, because that is wrong. And I cannot allow it to be said that there has been a genocide,” he says, echoing the chants of the students he accuses, among others, of “moral blindness” in the book, “because that is wrong.” It’s no surprise that woke culture comes in for a particular skewering from Lévy. After all, the eldest son of a wealthy Sephardic Jewish timber magnate – who was born in Béni Saf but moved to Paris when he was still a baby – was one of a group of young writers, the Nouveaux Philosophes, who broke with the fashionable Marxist dogmatism of the French left in the 1970s. At the elite École Normale Supérieure, Lévy was friends with Michel Foucault and taught by Jacques Derrida. Both philosophers’ theories have often mistakenly been blamed for the advent of “woke”, which enrages him. “Wokeism is an insult to the French theories these imbeciles think they’re adhering to,” he explodes when we move on to the virulent new strain of antisemitism woke theory has spawned. “Antisemitism is like a machine,” he tells me. “Like a magnet that, throughout history has been drawn to whatever happens to be around at the time that might help create a ‘valid’ argument. It’s all about fuelling the hate machine.” It does beggar belief that in 2024, when, as he says, “we have a whole apparatus and a whole language to show that all races should be respected, and that we should be protected from racism at all costs and provided with safe spaces, that thinking doesn’t apply to Jews.” “There’s a big difference between racism and antisemitism,” Lévy goes on. “Racism is about the hatred of the other for being too visible. That’s the crime, and the idiocy of racists – that you are too visible. But in the case of antisemitism, it’s exactly the reverse. The crime and idiocy of antisemites is in the thinking: ‘I hate you, because you’re too similar to me – because I can’t tell the difference between you and me.’” He falls silent a moment, then says: “Racism is horrific, to be clear. But I think that antisemitism is even more criminal, even more crazy. Because the principal activity of an antisemite, the crazy fantasy of the antisemite, is to rip off your mask, and expose you as Jewish.” “At the beginning of the woke movement,” he concedes, “there will probably have been an appetite for justice and equality – a desire to protect the weakest and so on. But as so often happens on the [extreme] Left, they then became racists and fascists, and today, woke thinking is straight-forward fascism.” It doesn’t help, he adds, that the kind of woke students inciting antisemitic hate or violence on campuses around the world “are basically bad students, with hopeless teachers. I am ready to tour US campuses tomorrow and talk to them all! I’ll talk to them about Foucault and Derrida – I’ll talk to them about identity politics.” I think of Lévy as fundamentally optimistic, so I’m surprised by his response when I ask whether the pendulum will swing back. “I’m not sure it will. I certainly don’t think it will go back soon. Quite the opposite, actually. I don’t think we’ve yet reached the climax of this delirium, and I’ll tell you why: there’s a real visceral pleasure behind wokeism, and it’s rare for humanity to give up on that level of pleasure. But it’s because we’re not at the end of this that we really need to fight it hell for leather.” Lévy was only 28 when he published Barbarism with a Human Face – an attack on Leftist mythology and its notion of an ideal society – and was hailed the new Camus. A series of best-selling books followed, which did nothing to temper the jealousy of less famous (and good-looking) intellectuals. Then there was Lévy’s family wealth, (when his father died, he sold off his company, Becob, for 750 million Francs to entrepreneur Francois Pinault), which has always been held against him."
A small gaggle of protestors (guess who) are blocking the EB Lakeshore lane at George St. Police in attendance, blocking the lane at Thomas : r/oakville - "Epic come back grown man! Attend some therapy racist"
"Pointing out that there was a protest blocking lanes and to avoid the area if you're driving due to traffic is racist? Didn't know I hated minorities due to trying to help people with diverted traffic but alright"
"Don’t you know whenever you disagree about the actions of a minority group it’s racist ?"
Thread by @RachelMoiselle on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "I think the decision not to share the videos of the October 7th attacks publicly was a terrible decision made by Israel. I do not think people comprehend the level of denial that I’ve experienced in Ireland. At best, people just do not grasp the valence of brutality involved: the performative sadism and cruelty of the most bestial nature. I know people disagree. The primary argument I hear is that ‘we do not parade our slaughtered people in front of the world for their atrocity porn’. This is one that I understand and empathise with fully. But this October 7th denial, which we saw unfold in real time, is only going to get worse as the months and years go on. Despite my condemnation of Ireland’s antisemitism problem, I actually do hold faith in the goodness of the majority of my people.
I think if they truly knew the scale of brutality that occurred that day, they would not so prosaically consider it as ‘a tragic loss of life’. I think if they truly comprehended the acts of atrocities that were committed, they wouldn’t be so tolerant of esteemed academics endorsing it. I think if they believed what happened that day, they would have more empathy. The people I know who viewed the footage were traumatised to the point of getting physically ill. I know that the majority of Irish people would not be so inhumane as to not have the same reaction.
Hamas committed acts so evil that the only way otherwise ‘good’ people rationalise tolerating their acquaintances/colleagues endorsing this ‘resistance’ is to deny or minimise their atrocities. I think the videos should have been released. At the very least so that those who endorse-let alone celebrate-this evil couldn’t hide behind notions of ‘justice’. The bourgeoisie who rationalise and pontificate about ‘context’ couldn’t frame themselves as enlightened. The world would see them for what they are: monsters and morally bankrupt respectively."
This wouldn't make much of a difference, because the terrorist supporter cope is that the IDF killed everyone, and that Netanyahu "funded" Hamas so everything Hamas does is Israel's fault anyway
Andrew Fox on X - "Every single time a former military officer gets shown the IDF’s procedures and practices firsthand, they come away convinced. Every time. Former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, 4* General Sir John McColl KCB, CBE, DSO, KStJ, is the latest and by far the most senior to add his name to the list. “Basing my views about the Israel-Hamas war on UK media coverage, I arrived in Israel critical and sceptical of their military operations… I came away from the trip satisfied that the IDF’s operations and rules of engagement were rigorous compared to the British Army and our western allies.” If you don’t believe me, a random buckshee retired major; or @just_Liles , a random buckshee retired brigadier; or the High Level Military Group, a bunch of random buckshee general officers from the USA and numerous European countries; or @ChrisRyanMM , a random buckshee decorated SAS veteran… perhaps you will believe a man with a glittering career who achieved the very top rank in his profession. None of us have any incentive to shit away our reputations on Israel’s behest. We’re simply seeing the reality and telling the truth as we see it. Perhaps this will finally persuade people to ignore the sea of disinformation bullshit and listen to actual experts."
"Western" democracies need to be held to standards that no one can ever meet, and no one else is ever expected to meet, so they will keep losing. Ironically, double standards are usually considered racist
I fought in Iraq — I know Israel’s doing all it can to save civilians - "Last week I visited Israel with a team of military experts from six Nato countries to see for myself. As a career officer, I served for 38 years in the British Army and have been in combat in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, and I was deputy supreme allied commander of Nato. I have seen war and know how difficult it can be to minimise civilian casualties. But I also know how hard we worked to do just that with our soldiers’ clear rules of engagement. Mistakes were made, but thankfully they were few and far between. Basing my views about the Israel-Hamas war on UK media coverage, I arrived in Israel critical and sceptical of their military operations... what we, military observers with decades of combined experience in leading Nato armies, were told and saw was the most complex and demanding operational environment any of us had come across, including in Afghanistan and Iraq. The IDF commanders explained that underneath Gaza they have discovered 125 miles of tunnels, but believe that there could be in excess of 310 miles. The areas they have cleared have tunnel shaft entrances in houses, in children’s bedrooms, mosques, schools and hospitals. The tunnels are used for fighters to move around the urban areas, appearing behind and on the flanks of troops. Suicide bombers are a constant threat. Many of the houses and tunnel entrances are booby-trapped and civilians are used as human shields. It means that in the confusion, regrettably, errors will occur. But the real problem is whether soldiers’ rules of engagement adhere to the law of armed conflict, whether they are being applied strictly, and whether when mistakes occur they are investigated thoroughly. Our briefing from the independent military legal directorate laid out in detail the rules designed to protect civilian life. The procedures are at least as rigorous as those applied in the UK armed forces. In addition, the Israeli military carries out civilian evacuations of war zones, forgoing the element of surprise, to which it would be entitled in armed conflict. Phone calls and text messages to Gazan residents, loudhailers, leaflet drops and “knocking” on the roofs of targeted buildings with small non-lethal munitions to warn of an imminent strike are part of the IDF’s tactics to minimise civilian casualties. Accompanying troops in Rafah we found that the rules of engagement were being adhered to rigorously and that a significant number of engagements were being aborted because the clearance of civilians could not be verified. The level of casualties in Gaza is significant and will undoubtedly result in criticism of the IDF. The alternative is to clear the buildings by hand with the inevitable loss of life that would entail, especially as Hamas terrorists wait for IDF entry to set off lethal booby traps via remote detonators. Rebuilding Gaza will take an enormous international effort. The IDF briefed us that 1,500 aid trucks were flowing into the Gaza Strip weekly and gave assurances that the quantity of food and medical supplies that they carry is sufficient to meet the needs of those displaced. While it was not possible to verify these claims we did see a significant number of aid delivery trucks as we moved along the Philadelphi corridor near Rafah. We also saw drone video footage which appeared to show that some of the trucks entering Rafah and other towns were being intercepted at gunpoint by Hamas terrorists before reaching the refugees. The perspectives that we gained were as a result of a relatively short visit; they are not comprehensive or definitive. However, they do indicate that there is balance missing in the reporting of events in Gaza... I came away from the trip satisfied that the IDF’s operations and rules of engagement were rigorous compared to the British Army and our western allies. War is terrible, but sometimes necessary. And Israeli soldiers are fighting in conditions of extraordinary complexity and risk. It’s time for the world to have its eyes opened to that."
Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 on X - "Pro-Palestine protesters in Melbourne surrounded two random street violinist performers and demanded they stop working. @HashTayeh accused them of supporting the killing of children and then members of the pro-Palestine crowd assaulted them and smashed their equipment."
Are mask ban laws about public safety or for lawmakers to quiet protesters? The controversies of face coverings outlined - "Backers of the efforts say the measures will increase public safety and protect minority communities from vigilante violence, but activists and legal experts tell The Independent the provisions could do the exact opposite: exposing protesters to potentially violent police interactions, threatening immunocompromised people, and silencing pro-Palestinian activism despite being ostensibly neutral... He noted how increasingly bold demonstrations from white supremacists in masks in recent years hasn’t triggered the same kind of mask crackdown as Israel-Palestine activism has."
Clearly, it's only proper civil disobedience if you hide your identity so you can destroy property and attack people and not get caught
What does it say about "pro-Palestinian activism" that they want to hide their identities?
Doxxing is only bad when it threatens the left wing agenda. These people cheered when Stonetoss got doxxed, despite not doing anything in the real world
If these activists are so terrified of covid, why are they putting themselves at risk by gathering in crowds with other activists?
Obviously "white supremacists" have been trying to shut down the world for the last year just like terrorism supporters
Pro-Palestinian activists charged with harassment while protesting Marc Miller - "The lawyer representing pro-Palestinian activists who are accused of criminally harassing federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller says the charges are an attempt to "criminalize free speech." Barbara Bedont says her three clients were protesting outside a Liberal byelection campaign office in Montreal's Verdun borough last week when they saw Miller and two of his employees in a car and confronted them, yelling messages such as “shame on you!” Mohanned Mansour, Samar Elkahlout and Wendy Ing were charged with criminal harassment and mischief for allegedly damaging the car Miller was in, and were given conditions Tuesday that include a requirement to stay at least 50 metres away from the minister and the two employees."
If you are against vandalism by activists supported by the left, this is a threat to free speech. But the "far right" needs to be jailed to protect society and politicians need to be protected from their "harassment"
Opinion: 23 years after the terrorist attacks that shook the world, the West has lost its way - "The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have been largely expunged from historical memory by an entire cohort of young adults too young, jaded or disinterested to remember or consider its import. But this lack of concern did not impede the TikTok generation from recently rediscovering and rehabilitating 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden as a clarion voice of truth and inspiration. The Canadian family members of 9/11 victims with whom we work were stunned to watch these young people, weaned ostensibly on a steady diet of diversity, equity and inclusion, deliver geopolitical soliloquies in praise of al-Qaida’s mastermind — a notorious jihadist, terrorist and proud murderer of innocents, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. These same 9/11 family members had watched in horror as another theatre of spectacular terrorist cruelty orchestrated by Hamas terrorists opened to the cheers of an international audience on October 7, 2023. The 10/7 attacks were then followed by the iconization of Hamas across the globe, which unleashed an unremitting torrent of antisemitism and anti-western hate that has tilted our world over the past 11 months. In the aftermath of the slaughter and sexual depravity committed last October, millions of people found clarity and validation for their support of Hamas in bin Laden’s violent extremist rhetoric against the West and the Jews, reflected in a 2002 missive he had written entitled “Letter to America.” The edification of a man who would have gladly incinerated them is symptomatic of a post-truth era in which so many card-carrying members of our me-too society betrayed the truths they had so passionately championed, unabashedly denying or applauding the sexual atrocities committed against Jews as legitimate acts of “resistance.” In some ways, 9/11 was a template enhanced and reapplied on 10/7. Both events stemmed from a common creed of Islamist extremism grounded in the ideological heritage of the Muslim Brotherhood; both received assistance from the Islamic regime in Iran; both events were greeted with applause if not celebration across the globe; both were ultimately recast by conspiracy theorists as fraudulent events or evils orchestrated by Jews; and both events involved the murder of citizens hailing from countries around the globe. Notably, the perpetrators in both cases were fuelled by an insatiable and genocidal antisemitism. The centrality of Jew-hatred in the thinking of bin Laden and the 9/11 al-Qaida terrorists is a common binding article of Islamist extremist faith, in which Jews are understood as the irredeemable, metaphysical source of all historical evil and corruption, whose destruction is essential to human salvation... KBG defector Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov predicted this phenomenon. In a 1984 interview, he revealed that a main focus of Russia’s KGB was ideological subversion and psychological warfare. According to Bezmenov, the plan was to transform the West from within: “This is about changing the perception of reality … to such an extent that despite the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their community, their country. It’s a great brainwashing process that is slow — to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy, expose them to the ideology of your enemy.” The problem goes well beyond classical Soviet propaganda methodologies, which created the current templates of distortion still employed by totalitarians, antisemites and other purveyors of calumnies against western democratic values. The West has also welcomed Iranian, Chinese and Qatari money, malign influence and subversive narratives. Young people are encouraged to obsess over identity politics, real or contrived, and to marinate in grievance as some twisted form of aspirational personal growth. They are conditioned to be ashamed of liberal democratic traditions, and to focus on democracies as fatally and inherently flawed rather than works in progress that have made Canada and other western countries the envy of the millions of immigrants willing to do anything to join our ranks. There is a particular animus in this worldview that places Israel as the collective Jewish scapegoat, inherently guilty of all and any of humanity’s perceived sins. Western youth, including Canadians, are indoctrinated into the falsehood that tiny Israel, the only Jewish state, a democracy with an evolved judiciary and equal rights for citizens of all faiths that has made endless overtures for peace and co-existence with its neighbours, is worthy of more criticism than the regimes in China, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan combined. Israel is the only country whose right to exist is debated and whose destruction is so often demanded."
South African chief sheikh Riad Fataar proclaims: 'I Am Hamas!' - "Sheikh Riad Fataar, president of South Africa’s Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), expressed staunch support for Hamas... The MJC is regarded as the most influential Muslim organization in the Western Cape area... Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Warren Goldstein, commented on these remarks, adding: “This disturbing support for a brutal terror organization is not isolated to the MJC. It is part of a concerted effort to radicalize many stakeholders in South Africa, including the mainstream media, academia, and government. This radicalization takes the form of stigmatizing Israel by the false accusations of genocide and the moral equivalence between Hamas, a murderous terror organization, and Israel, a free democracy fighting for its life within the ethics of international law. “This campaign has been effective which is why the open support of Hamas by the MJC is only being raised as an issue by the Jewish Report. None of the other media consider it objectionable or even noteworthy. The MJC statement is also a timely reminder for law enforcement to investigate the allegations raised by global media on how funds raised by the MJC and others for Hamas, have been banked and transferred from South Africa via local banks to Hamas, an organization on global terror lists,” added the chief rabbi... “The ANC has proven once again its intentions to marginalise the South African Jewish community. The South African government is proving, once again, that they cannot be an honest broker for any kind of negotiated two-state solution, which is actually the official foreign policy position of the South African government. They cannot be trusted if one of the leading political parties in government, the ANC, sides with a terrorist organization whose very foundational genocidal charter calls for the elimination of the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”... Fataar’s stances were backed by the Western Cape branch of the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), which expressed solidarity with the sheikh against what they deemed “an unwarranted attack by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies”... Al-Quds Foundation’s youth group, Youth for Al-Quds, also supported Fataar’s statements, denouncing a critical article published in the South African Jewish Report, blaming “the Zionists” of “mislay(ing) the narrative around HAMAS” and adding: “We stand behind our honourable Sheikh Riad Fataar loudly and proudly… We are proud when we say, ‘YOU are HAMAS, I am HAMAS, WE are ALL HAMAS!”... South African banks provide platforms to fund Hamas through a network of several organizations and straw man groups linked to the Al-Quds Foundation, a front for Hamas designated as such by both the US and Israel. Hamas officials have also visited South Africa several times since at least 2016, and ANC leaders have been praising and endorsing the group repeatedly since the October 7 massacre and before."
Weird. I thought no one supports Hamas or terrorism
Clearly, South Africa is only pursuing the criminal case against Israel because they are concerned about "genocide"
LILLEY: NDP candidate campaigning under Palestinian flag should lose - "An election pamphlet being distributed right now features a Palestinian flag on the front, not a Canadian flag. On the back, the candidate in question promises to push for an immediate ceasefire and tells voters to “send a strong message to Ottawa to stop the genocide in Gaza.” Again, this was a piece of literature handed out in Canada, during a Canadian election to elect a member of Canada’s Parliament. No one is surprised that this flyer is being distributed by the NDP. Craig Sauve is the NDP candidate seeking to win the Montreal-area riding of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun in the Sept. 16 byelection. It’s an odd move by the NDP candidate. According to Statistics Canada, the area doesn’t have a very large Muslim or Arab population, coming in at 5,735 Muslims out of a population of 107,564 in the last census — that works out to 5.3%. The NDP is facing plenty of outrage online over the flyer, which is no surprise — you can find people online outraged that that sun rises in the morning. The party isn’t backing away from the flyer, in fact, they are defending it strongly and strangely... "It’s ludicrous to suggest that when a politician is seen with another flag it’s unCanadian, whether that’s the Ukrainian flag, Israeli flag, Palestinian flag or other nations.” A Maple Leaf next to the NDP logo superimposed over the Palestinian flag which is dominating the campaign literature doesn’t negate the fact that he’s campaigning for a seat in Canada’s Parliament with a foreign flag. It’s not just Sauve being seen with a foreign flag — he’s profiled under it, the foreign flag is at the top. Strangely, the NDP sent four photos to show that politicians are seen with foreign flags. One is Stephen Harper from his 2007 visit to Australia where he addressed their Parliament. Canada’s then Conservative prime minister is standing in front of a podium with Australia’s coat of arms on it and Australian flags behind him. In two others, Harper is featured in Hungary and the United States with their flags while visiting those countries after he left office. In the one photo of current Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, he’s seen standing on Parliament Hill this past winter with two men taking part in a rally to support Israel who are holding an Israeli flag. None of that is the same as campaigning for a seat in Canada’s Parliament under a foreign flag. The many Canadians of all political stripes who are offended by this are right to be so and to ask if the NDP will put Canada and Canadian interests first... They went on to attack Poilievre and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “We condemn Pierre Poilievre’s unconditional support for Benjamin Netanyahu’s push for war regardless of how many innocent Israeli and Palestinian people die. We condemn Justin Trudeau’s mealy-mouthed weak refusal to take action in support of a ceasefire and steps toward lasting peace.” About the only good thing in the statement and the flyer is that the NDP is calling for the hostages to be released. To claim this is about “Netanyahu’s push for war” without acknowledging Hamas started the war or calling for them to surrender shows where the NDP priorities are."
Openly proclaiming that another country is your priority is not a bad thing when it helps the left wing agenda
Meme - "*Kid with rifle and Palestinian flag popping out of car window* OUR PARENTS PREFER TO SACRIFICE US RATHER THAN RELEASING THE ISRAELIS WE KEEP IN OUR TUNNELS"
