How Sickening is This?
Yes, this is a "Palestinian" kindergarten.
Children singing for violence, holding weapons instead of toys. This is the reality.
And UNRWA plays a role in shaping this education system.
When will the world wake up? pic.twitter.com/vBdTr7cbpf
— Yossi BenYakar (@YossiBenYakar) December 28, 2024
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Photographer Tony Worobiec, from his book Abandoned on the Plains: Fragments of the American Dream.
Abandoned Pickup and Silo's near Plentywood MT.
Barn & Rising Moon, Montana.
Madoc, Montana.
Truck and Cottonwood Church, Montana.
Abandoned saloon
Storm on the high plains, Saskatchewan
Abandoned school, North Dakota
Dunkirk, Montana
Abandoned school near Havre, Montana
Church at Heil, North Dakota
School at Robinson, North Dakota
Elevator, Glengarry Montana
[Photos © Tony Worobiec Photography]See also, Ghosts In The Wilderness: Abandoned America – now out of print.
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This astounding paper reminds me of Hannah Arendt's The Banality of Evil: 'The net effect of this language system was not to keep these people ignorant of what they were doing, but to prevent them from equating it with their old, ‘normal’ knowledge.' 1/5https://t.co/nPNlm033r6
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 28, 2024
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Full thread:
We're all used to the obfuscatory language gender activist medics and their cheerleader, insist upon. 'Gender affirming care/treatment' is so much nicer sounding than 'sterilisation, surgical mutilation and provision of toxic drugs to troubled minors'. 2/5
But this paper breaks new ground. It acknowledges that by the usual medical standards ('old normal knowledge') transitioning minors has not been found to be the unqualified success many have claimed. The proposed solution? Jettison the old knowledge. Redefine success. 3/5
'Yes, some young people given irreversible surgeries and hormone regimes regret it. Yes, some have complex problems that transition doesn't fix and may worsen. But hey, they wanted it and were given it. That should be the new metric of success!' 4/5
I'm not sure I've ever read a better example of what Arendt described when analysing those determined not to break ranks, yet who felt the need to justify their participation in atrocities: 'self-deception, concealing a ruthless desire for conformity at any price.' 5/5
You start with the ideology, which you cannot possibly gainsay as your whole livelihood is bound up in it, and then find ways to present the facts to fit. Obscure language and as much "technical" jargon as possible always help.
[As I've argued before, Arendt was wrong about Eichmann: he was no dim bureaucrat but a committed Nazi. His defence – that he was just obeying orders – fooled Arendt, but didn't fool the Israeli court. But Arendt's more general point about the banality of evil still stands.]
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David Isaac in the JC – The Iran regime’s collapse would pave the way for a stable and peaceful Middle East:
Iran has never been as vulnerable since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
With Iran’s leadership facing an emboldened Israeli military, the second coming of Donald Trump [!], internal fissures and a crisis of confidence among its people, experts say here lies a chance for regime change.
The extent of the damage to Iran’s drive for regional domination is evidenced by the remarks of its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who in a speech on December 11 admonished supporters to “not become depressed, hopeless or heartbroken,” and on December 22 denied that Iran even had proxies.
Tehran has lost Hamas and Hezbollah, its major ally, Syria, and its primary air defences to Israeli airstrikes, making any Israeli attack potentially even more effective. Moreover, despite its wealth of energy resources, Iran is in the midst of an energy crisis.
“This is a golden opportunity,” Janatan Sayeh, a research analyst with the Washington-based Foundation for Defence of Democracies (FDD), told JNS on Tuesday, outlining the possibility of a one-two punch, with the US imposing economic sanctions and Israel delivering military blows. […]
The potential collapse of the Islamic Republic offers startling possibilities for Israel. Unlike Syria, in which anti-Israel Islamists have filled the vacuum, the end of the ayatollahs could herald the emergence of a pro-Israel Iran, one even more pro-Israel than under the shah, as the people of Iran are siding with Israel against the regime.
In a piece he co-wrote for FDD in early December, Sayeh revealed that “both Iranian and international pollsters consistently show that most Iranians oppose the Islamic Republic’s antisemitic and anti-Western foreign policy.”
In October 2023, students refused to chant “Death to Israel” as demanded by school administrators, instead chanting, “Death to Palestine.” Students at Tehran University refused to walk over a painted Israeli flag on the floor.
“The fall of the Islamic regime in Iran would be transformative for Israel and the region,” Rafizadeh agreed. “As the primary sponsor of terrorism and the ideological driver behind groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, the regime’s collapse would significantly reduce the threat of attacks against Israel.
“It would also pave the way for a more stable and peaceful Middle East, where Iran could potentially shift from being a destabilising force to a constructive regional actor.”
Moreover, once the Ayatollah regime falls, Iran, with its educated populace, age distribution (not weighted too young) and regular practice of elections, however limited, has a real shot at making a successful transition to democracy (with or without a constitutional monarchy). https://t.co/ZBYqbXY6Sm
— Dr. Einat Wilf (@EinatWilf) December 28, 2024
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Another voice silenced by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Renowned Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala, known for her courageous reporting from conflict zones has been arrested and is being held in solitary confinement in Iran. Freedom of Press is not a crime.#FreeCecilia pic.twitter.com/E26Hl5CcF8— Dr. Nina Ansary (@drninaansary) December 27, 2024
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Britain’s cultural world has turned its back on Jewish creatives according to a series of allegations gathered by The Times.
Artists, writers and performers have stated that they are being frozen out of British cultural life because they refuse to describe Israeli actions in Gaza as genocidal.
While many have chosen to remain anonymous because of the “chilling” cultural climate in the country, others have decided to speak out.
A film producer, who is planning to build one of the biggest film studios in Europe in Sunderland, said his industry was “institutionally antisemitic” while the organiser of the UK Jewish Film festival said cinemas were making it “impossible” for it to book venues for screening.
A series of literary figures meanwhile have described how they have been dropped by their agents because they refuse to use the word “genocide”, how authors are refusing to have their books transcribed into Hebrew and how they are being excluded from literary festivals and other readings.
Shocking, but not a surprise. Whatever one may think about Israel's response to the October 7th pogrom, one thing it clearly isn't is a genocide of the Palestinian people.
There are a number of possibly genocidal campaigns going on at the moment, including the Uighurs in Xinjiang, Ukraine at the hands of Putin's Russia, and the Arab massacre of Africans in Sudan. There's also the matter of the 600,000 Syrians slaughtered by Assad and his Russian and Iranian friends next door, but I doubt that should count as genocide. But the Palestinians in Gaza? Obviously not. Brutal, yes. Justified? Open to debate. But genocidal? Of course not.
The enthusiasm with which the accusation of genocide is now thrown at Israel – and the Holocaust-inversion rhetoric on those pro-Palestinian marches – clearly shows what's behind all this. These people just can't wait to turn the tables on those Jews and throw the genocide charge back at them.
There's a name for that.
As has been said often enough, Jews will never be forgiven for the Holocaust.
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A new addition to the Café Royal Books catalogue, from photographer Sheila Burnett:
[Photos © Cafe Royal Books/Sheila Burnett] -
From the JC – How the West’s literary elite distorted language to justify their bizarre embrace of jihadism:
We live in an age in which the words “genocide”, “apartheid”, “colonisation” and “ethnic cleansing” are swiftly losing all meaning and, as the recently sacked adviser to the UN Alice Wairimu Nderitu has noted – after she failed to support repeated claims that Israel was guilty of such atrocities – this poses serious consequences for real victims.
Too many within the literary and arts scenes of both this country, and across the West, are actively leading an assault against language, and by extension against humanity, by perpetuating the lies and false narratives that are the source of the tragic conflict in the Middle East. Moreover, they are “proud” to be doing so.
Since October 7, 2023, in a rush to be relevant and radical (condemning terror and, especially, sexual torture seems passé), a stampede of publishers, presses, cultural institutions and arts organisations have feted and platformed so-called Palestinian writers, artists and film-makers – very often with public funding….
These writers and artists are using public money in the free West – using their “privilege”, in other words – to lobby for the oppressors of some of the most oppressive places on Earth: Gaza under Hamas, Lebanon under Hezbollah, Yemen under the Houthis (actively trying to bring back slavery) and Iran under its Islamic regime. Unlike actual Gazans, such as Mosab Hassan Yousef, Taysir Abu Saada, Yaron Avraham, Dor Shachar and Hamza Howidy, who work tirelessly to bring the world’s attention to Hamas’s cruelties, having each been imprisoned and tortured, for example for participating in the We Want to Live protests to which no one in the West paid any attention, Western writers and organisations choose not to campaign for true freedom and a sustainable peace for Palestinian-Arabs.
Instead they repeat and disseminate the lies, hatred and historical misinformation that keep Palestinians locked in perpetual struggle against their Israeli neighbours….
It is perhaps one of the biggest lies of all to pretend that Gaza is a state whose inhabitants would live “free” and prosperous lives if it weren’t for Israel and America or, simply, “the West”. Gazan women have no rights. Gay people have no rights. Non-Muslims have no rights. There are no Jews allowed – at all – in the land; not even Jewish graves. It is Judenrein. The level of inhuman hatred inculcated in the Gazan population against Jews was on full display on October 7 and in the days following, when even ordinary civilians were spitting on and beating Israeli hostages.
And is it any wonder, when their education system, including in Unrwa schools, teaches hatred from the day Gazans are born?
The fact that this was written by "a UK university professor who wishes to remain anonymous" tells its own story.
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Not a word while the Houthis attack Israel. Not a single breath wasted on attacks on Jews. But when Israel defends itself against the Iranian proxies, up he pops. He is transparent and we see him for what he is https://t.co/4xI01s7nFf
— Stephen Pollard (@stephenpollard) December 27, 2024
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This you? pic.twitter.com/de1Ae6rhXl
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) December 27, 2024
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Women’s rights campaigners are suing the British Transport Police (BTP) over guidance that allows transgender officers to strip-search women.
The policy, revealed by The Telegraph, allows male staff identifying as female to intimately search women so long as they have a gender recognition certificate (GRC).
Ah yes – the little piece of paper that magically changes your sex. A bargain at £5.
A backlash earlier in 2024 saw similar national policing guidance temporarily withdrawn after the Conservative government raised concerns about women’s safety.
Campaigners wrote to Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi last month calling for the advice to be removed on the basis that it breaches human rights.
But the force refused and now faces a lengthy legal battle with activists who say the guidance means women risk being subjected to “undignified and humiliating treatment”.
Maya Forstater, the chief executive of human rights charity Sex Matters, which is suing the force, said: “Sex Matters is seeking urgent permission for a judicial review to halt British Transport Police’s heinous practice of allowing male officers with a Gender Recognition Certificate to strip-search female detainees.
“This policy means every woman who travels on trains around the UK is at risk of being subjected to undignified and humiliating treatment, which is a breach of her human rights.”
The law on searching is supposed to protect people from being searched by members of the opposite sex. But British Transport Police is taking the Kafkaesque approach of saying that if a male person with a government-issued piece of paper searches a woman, that search is “being done by a female”.
“We are bringing this case to ensure that no woman in the UK has to suffer this degrading treatment, and to protect female officers from being forced to search male suspects who decide to declare themselves ‘women’.”
Mick Hartley 