Gilad Atzmon
Gilad Atzmon's Blog

("Mosquitoes as big as this!!! Yes! Yes! I assure you!")

What makes one a philosopher? Probably, the capacity to aim at the essence of things, while celebrating the love of wisdom (from philo- "loving" + sophia "knowledge, wisdom). Though Bernard-Henri Lévy presents himself as a French philosopher, he seems to lack that elementary capacity. Unlike a true philosopher, Lévy engages in an endless spin, typical to a Hasbara agent.

A few days ago the Huffington Post gave a platform to the alleged ‘philosopher’ Lévy.

Lévy doesn’t approve of the BDS (Boycott, Disinventment, Sanctions) campaign. He claims it is “anti democratic”. I was expecting Lévy to eloquently advocate ‘freedom of speech’ and human rights, but the Zionist ‘intellectual’ failed miserably. Lévy followed the well-trodden Judeo centric Zionist template and spread half-baked ideas that hardly form an argument. Pathetically, in most cases, Lévy’s ranting proves counter effective to his cause.

“First of all” he said, “one boycotts totalitarian regimes, not democracies... One can boycott Sudan, guilty of the extermination of part of the population of Darfur. One can boycott China, guilty of massive violations of human rights in Tibet and elsewhere. “

For some bizarre reason, Lévy seems to be convinced that his beloved Jews-only state is an ‘exemplary democracy’. “One does not boycott the only society in the Middle East where Arabs read a free press, demonstrate when they wish to do so, send freely elected representatives to parliament, and enjoy their rights as citizens.” says Lévy.

I guess that Lévy either, doesn’t know or just pretends not to know that in the ‘Jews only democracy’ laws are racially orientated. The Law of Return, for instance, favours Jews and Jews only. Lévy should also learn about the case of MK Azmi Bishara who had to run for his life for suggesting that Israel be better transformed into ‘state of its citizens’ based on equality.

But it actually goes much further; Lévy’s argument is totally flawed and counterproductive to his Zionist cause. It is actually democracies, rather than dictatorships, that should be subject to humanitarian boycotts; it is in democracies where people are complicit in their government crimes. We must boycott Israel because in the Jewish state every citizen is culpable in the war crimes committed by the democratically elected government. We must boycott Israel because 94% of its Jewish population supported the IDF’s genocidal tactics during Operation Cast Lead. We must boycott Israel because its State-terror policies are a reflection of the public’s true will as proven in polls and democratic elections.

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Stephen Lendman

The line from Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore relates well to what's going on in Egypt, perhaps elsewhere in the region as well, saying: "Things are seldom as they seem. Skim milk masquerades as cream."

Visceral street anger is real. What's orchestrating it, however, is suspect, especially its likely Washington impresario, implementing long-planned regime change for new faces continuing old policies, leaving deep-rooted hardships unaddressed. The script is familiar.

In his book "Freedom Next Time," John Pilger discussed Nelson Mandela's betrayal in post-apartheid South Africa, embracing what he called "Thatcherism," telling Pilger:

"You can put any label on it you like; you can call it Thatcherite, but for this country, privatization is the fundamental policy."

In 1990, two weeks before freed from prison, he was quoted saying:

"The nationalization of the mines, banks and monopoly industries is the policy of the ANC (and changing) our views....is inconceivable. Black economic empowerment is a goal we fully support and encourage, but in our situation state control of certain sectors of the economy is unavoidable."

In 1955, that view became ANC Freedom Charter policy. Its liberation struggle wasn't just political but also economic. White mine workers earned 10 times more than blacks, and large industrialists used security forces to enforce order by disappearing dissenters.

Post-apartheid, a new way was possible, Mandela poised to lead it by rejecting market orthodoxy for economic justice. In 1994, ANC candidates won overwhelmingly. Nonetheless, despite transitioning peacefully, betrayal, not progressive change followed. Black South Africans became predatory capitalist hostages. They still are, worse off now than under apartheid.

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William Blum
The Anti-Empire Report

A cautionary tale

In July of 1975 I went to Portugal because in April of the previous year a bloodless military coup had brought down the US-supported 48-year fascist regime of Portugal, the world's only remaining colonial power. This was followed by a program centered on nationalization of major industries, workers control, a minimum wage, land reform, and other progressive measures. Military officers in a Western nation who spoke like socialists was science fiction to my American mind, but it had become a reality in Portugal. The center of Lisbon was crowded from morning till evening with people discussing the changes and putting up flyers on bulletin boards. The visual symbol of the Portuguese "revolution" had become the picture of a child sticking a rose into the muzzle of a rifle held by a friendly soldier, and I got caught up in demonstrations and parades featuring people, including myself, standing on tanks and throwing roses, with the crowds cheering the soldiers. It was pretty heady stuff, and I dearly wanted to believe, but I and most people I spoke to there had little doubt that the United States could not let such a breath of fresh air last very long. The overthrow of the Chilean government less than two years earlier had raised the world's collective political consciousness, as well as the level of skepticism and paranoia on the left.

Washington and multinational corporate officials who were on the board of directors of the planet were indeed concerned. Besides anything else, Portugal was a member of NATO. Destabilization became the order of the day: covert actions; attacks in the US press; subverting trade unions; subsidizing opposition media; economic sabotage through international credit and commerce; heavy financing of selected candidates in elections; a US cut-off of Portugal from certain military and nuclear information commonly available to NATO members; NATO naval and air exercises off the Portuguese coast, with 19 NATO warships moored in Lisbon's harbor, regarded by most Portuguese as an attempt to intimidate the provisional government. In 1976 the "Socialist" Party (scarcely further left and no less anti-communist than the US Democratic Party) came to power, heavily financed by the CIA, the Agency also arranging for Western European social-democratic parties to help foot the bill. The Portuguese revolution was dead, stillborn.[1]

The events in Egypt cannot help but remind me of Portugal. Here, there, and everywhere, now and before, the United States of America, as always, is petrified of anything genuinely progressive or socialist, or even too democratic, for that carries the danger of allowing god-knows what kind of non-America-believer taking office. Honduras 2009, Haiti 2004, Venezuela 2002, Ecuador 2000, Bulgaria 1990, Nicaragua 1990 ... dozens more ... anything, anyone, if there's a choice, even a dictator, a torturer, is better.

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Stephen Lendman

Part of a previous article is repeated below, followed by a summary of evidence Kevin Annett presented in his book titled, "Hidden No Longer: Genocide in Canada, Past and Present." His entire book is available free online, accessed through this link.

He calls it "the book that blew the cover off Canada's genocide," providing "the most thorough, documented body of evidence ever published concerning the planned genocide in Canadian residential schools." It includes:

● eyewitness testimonies;
● specific documentation; and
● genocidal roots in "European philosophy and culture of religious-based conquests known as Christendom," causing "the extermination of millions of indigenous people."

In residential schools and earlier, it represents, by far, the world's greatest ever genocide, still ongoing by deprivation and cultural extermination.

Annett said copies of his book were being destroyed to suppress truths too disturbing to reveal. As a result, he made it available in its entirety online, accessed through the above link. It is important, chilling reading, and is true about America as Canada. Both nations remain complicit in mass extermination, today by means other than direct slaughter. Annett will present much of the book's evidence at an upcoming International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State in London.

On January 17, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was summoned to appear before it to answer charges of complicity with genocide. Part of a letter from The (London-based) International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) said the following:

"Over the past three years, your government has legally exonerated the churches responsible for the death of more than 50,000 children in their Indian residential schools, refused to prosecute those responsible, and resisted all attempts to locate and repatriate the remains of these children for a proper burial and criminal investigation."

The letter requested Harper begin

"criminal legal proceeding against the Roman Catholic, Anglican and United Church of Canada for their proven criminal actions" and more, adding that if not begun by March 1, 2011, the Tribunal will intervene. "In this regard, our representatives will soon be serving upon you....a Public Summons to appear before this Tribunal to answer these and other charges."

For $50 plus postage, hard copies of Annett's book are available by calling him at 250-753-3345 or emailing him at hiddenfromhistory@yahoo.ca. His web site can be accessed through this link.

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Stephen Lendman

Perhaps so in his January 31 Huffington Post article titled, "The Egyptian Revolution May Produce a Lebanon-Type Islamic Regime," saying:

"No one can confidently predict the outcome, both short and long term...."

He then quoted Zhou Enlai once saying "It's too soon to say," when asked to assess the 1789 French Revolution.

Regime changes produce good, bad and in-between results, he said, ranging from his notion of post-Soviet societies to Hitler and other less ambitious despots. As for "liberated" Eastern European states, neoliberal tyranny proved much worse than harsh communist rule, but don't expect Dershowitz to explain or discuss decades of Washington/Israeli state terror and lawlessness. More on his article below.

Honest critics know he's a notorious bigot; a longstanding Islamophobe; a purveyor of myths, canards, and false logic; a misinterpreter of fundamental law standards; a believer in unique Jewish suffering, mindless of all others; an advocate for torture and targeted assassinations; and a committed Zionist and Israeli apologist who legitimizes its aggression, its worst crimes and abuses, and who believes

"international law, and those who administer it, must understand that (in times of war) the old rules" [don't apply against] "fanatical foes."

Further,

"the laws of war and the rules of morality must adapt to (new) realities,"

- the same rationale former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales used to dismiss the Geneva Conventions, calling them "quaint and out-of-date," not applicable to Al Qaeda or America's imperial wars. Dershowitz, of course, agrees.

He also supports Western preventive and preemptive wars, despite nothing in international law permitting them. In fact, the UN Charter's Article 51 is explicit, limiting attacks to self-defense until the Security Council acts. Moreover, under the Constitution's Article I, Section 8, only Congress may declare war, not the executive.

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