Mick Hartley

Politics and Culture

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  • Simpering terrorist sympathisers

    We've already seen some of the eulogies that Nasrallah's, um, untimely death has prompted in the Western media. Siam Goorwich at the JC has more:

    In Saturday’s FT, it was noted that the ‘charismatic’ Nasrallah – who was eliminated on Friday by an Israeli strike on Hezbollah’s subterranean headquarters in Beirut – was described as ‘courteous, perceptive and funny’ by those who met him in recent years. For readers who are still unsure what to make of the man, the following paragraph rather charmingly reveals: ‘a life-long speech impediment, which left him unable to pronounce his Rs, was widely viewed as disarming.’ Cute. (And surely the perfect plotline for a follow up to 2010’s box office hit The King’s Speech. The Terrorist’s Tongue, anyone?)

    Over in Sunday’s Observer, Nasrallah was remembered as ‘politically astute’ and ‘adored by supporters’. Later in the piece, he is praised for his ‘dignified response’ to the death of his son, Mohammed Hadi, who was killed fighting the IDF in 1997. Not mentioned is the fact that Nasrallah rejected the Israeli offer to return his son’s body in exchange for the body parts of Israelis killed by Hezbollah, stating: “Keep it. We have many more men like Hadi ready to offer themselves to the struggle.” So dignified! What a dad!

    This insight was also strangely absent from the Washington Post’s farewell, where they tell readers that Nasrallah was seen as ‘a father figure, a moral compass and a political guide,’ by his followers. Adding: ‘He was lauded as the man who empowered Lebanon’s once downtrodden and impoverished Shiite communit.

    ’Not to be outdone, the New York Times claims that he, ‘maintained that there should be one Palestine with equality for Muslims, Jews and Christians’ – dizzyingly at odds with Hezbollah’s stated aims of destroying Israel, allegiance to Iran’s supreme leader and establishing Islamist supremacy across the middle east….

    Obviously simpering terrorist sympathising in the western media is nothing new, but in a sea of bad takes since Hamas’ atrocities of October 7, glowing obituaries for Nasrallah still stand out as a low point. While it’s true that everyone has some good in them, singing the praises of a man who was responsible for the subjugation and death of hundreds of thousands of people, is completely deranged, and shows a lack of moral backbone and understanding of the horrors he inspired, rather than a fair and thoughtful disposition. Worst of all, it is an insult to everyone who suffered at his hands – whose names have, and will, fade into obscurity, while his is praised, and his cruelty re-written to suit the tastes of contemporary, progressive paletes.

    So often, less is more – and that is definitely the case when it comes to memorialising this monster. In fact, I think his obituary needed only seven words: yimakh shemo, may his memory be erased.

  • Coincidence of the day

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  • A history of Lebanon

    This is good:

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    Full text:

    However, people who are of the opposite conviction (mostly from the medieval Middle East) always respond with the same modus operandi… Every single time someone disagrees with them, they answer by calling us names like Donkey, Pig, or Dog (حمار، خنزير، كلب hmar, khanzeer, or kaleb) which they intend as big insults. They also call us either 'Zionists' or 'traitors' or 'agents'.

    They simply have no logical answer, and they are so pathetically childish.

    My feelings are not hurt. Far from it. But seeing so many here in the US chanting "I am Hamas" causes me to see the need to enlighten those who don't know the detailed history of the past 50 years.

    Why do we oppose terrorist and don’t agree with their terrorism and savagery?

    Here is the long history recap, told from my personal perspective.

    I grew up in Lebanon with friends from all faiths: Druze, Muslim, and various Christians. We laughed and played and got along. Lebanon was generally peaceful and safe.

    We welcomed the Palestinians as refugees to Lebanon.

    The border between Lebanon and Israel was generally quiet compared with other Arab nations. Many Lebanese did not want war. Instead, we desired to live in peace and tranquility. We wanted prosperity, trade, tourism, and banking. The Lebanese used to be known as having joie de vie and some of the most fun people to be around.

    Lebanon was referred to as “the Switzerland of the Middle East” for its beauty and its desire to remain peaceful and neutral and a bridge between the east and west.

    Lebanon was also called “the Riviera of the Middle East”, "California on the Eastern Mediterranean", and “Green Lebanon” because trees covered the hills and mountains and there was no desert.

    Beirut was known as "the Paris of the Middle East". Lebanon's Golden Age was a period characterized by its natural beauty, including snow-capped mountains, warm beaches, and a pristine coastline. Beirut was a glamorous city with luxury hotels, nightclubs, and a vibrant cultural and intellectual life. It was a popular destination for movie stars.

    Tourists flocked to Lebanon. They went snow skiing in the morning then drove 2 hours to Beirut to water ski in the Mediterranean the afternoon of the same day. It was on everyone’s bucket list.

    Tourists were safe and they had so much fun that they did not want to leave. Many came back year after year.

    Over time, the Palestinians created a state-within-a-state and there were areas where they prevented even the Lebanese army from entering. Which country would accept that? Knowing the trouble it will eventually cause, the Lebanese started to become bitter about the situation.

    Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser wanted to make Lebanon part of the United Arab Republic, causing a civil war in 1958.

    I was in Middle School when the six-day war erupted in June of 1967. School was nearing summer break. We went out for our lunch break and heard that war has started. I saw Israeli fighter jets dog fighting with Syrian jets overhead. the Syrian jets lost.

    Because Lebanon is very small, we could catch AM radio stations from the surrounding countries. All the Arab stations repeated the same lie: "Our forces have destroyed the enemy's air force, and we have reached the outskirts of Jerusalem." All lies and propaganda from Radio Egypt, Radio Damascus, and Radio Amman. Same garbage from each station. Propaganda in the news continues to this day. If a radio station does not toe the line, the regime will shut it down.

    To hear the truth, we turned to Radio Israel, Voice of America, and the BBC.

    Three years later, the PLO started fighting against the King of Jordan. Their headquarters were in Amman, Jordan and even though they were refugees in Jordan, they tried to overthrow King Hussein. The king's forces surrounded them and almost killed every single fighter. The world called for a cease fire and forced King Hussein to relent. That was a major mistake. The same mistake is being repeated these days when the world asks Israel to stop firing. When the world does that, the problem never ends. It only becomes a bigger problem. The world had repeatedly made that mistake in the Middle East.

    The PLO relocated to Beirut. They started firing at Israel from Lebanese territory, causing Israel to retaliate against Lebanese territory. Who would blame them for retaliating?

    Again, we did not want war. We wanted peace.

    Knowing that civil unrest was on the horizon, I went to America to study medicine hoping that by the time I completed my studies, the situation would have calmed down. Little did I know what the future held.

    In 1975, the PLO caused the devastating civil war that engulfed Lebanon for 15 years. My parents were displaced and lost everything. So did many families. The toll was horrendous.

    The town where I was born was located in the mountains outside Beirut, only about 30 minutes by car. My family could not go there because of the civil war and lost access to our house for over 10 years. Because it was a house owned by Christians, it was hit on more than one occasion while other homes nearby were OK. The roof had a hole in it from artillery shells. It was repaired, yet more shells hit it, sending the message not to return to town.

    Our orchards used to have apple trees, peach trees, cherry trees, olive trees, sumac, artichoke, pine trees, mulberry trees, fig trees, and other trees. Not being tended to nor watered, they all died. Even the stones used for terracing our orchard were looted. Thus, our neatly terraced land became a worthless desolate wasteland.

    My brother was kidnapped, other friends died. We had an apartment in Christian East Beirut. The area was besieged for a while and there were times when there was no bread. Artillery fired from Muslim west Beirut was so intense at times that even crossing the narrow street to the bomb shelter was incredibly dangerous. My mother developed heart disease and Parkinson's from the stress and fear.

    My family were on the run from Beirut to the Metn district, then to the Bekaa, then to Cyprus, then back to various areas in Lebanon. The war had made them nomads.

    There were so many other stories that my family endured, but I will omit them for brevity's sake.

    The Syrian army entered Lebanon as ‘peacekeepers’ and destroyed Lebanon. For many years, the Syrian army occupied our house in the mountains and used it as their headquarters in the town. To remain warm and acting like uncivilized primitives, they lit fires inside the house on our ornate ceramic-tiled floor in the living room.

    In the 1980's, Hezbollah came to existence and wanted Lebanon to be part of the Iranian Islamic caliphate.

    Syria occupied Lebanon ruthlessly. Many Lebanese were taken to Syrian jails and tortured. Many never returned.

    The war "ended", and all factions were disarmed except Hezbollah. Syria and the Shiites were in control and dictated that. Hezbollah kept getting stronger due to intense backing from Iran. For years, Lebanon remained an occupied country. Syria plundered Lebanon and became rich.

    Syria and Iran, using Hezbollah and their own agents, began assassinating any leader who opposed them. They killed Christians and Sunnis alike. In 2005, Bashar Al Assad 'summoned' Prime Minister Rafik Hariri (a Sunni Muslim) to Damascus and 'ordered' him to do something, threatening that if he did not toe the line, Assad would 'break his head'. Hariri did not toe the line and was assassinated in February 2005. Hezbollah were the ones who committed the act.

    The cowardly Iranian regime had established Hezbollah as a proxy to fight Israel. In essence, cowardly Iran used Lebanon to fight Israel, causing the destruction of Lebanon while Iranian territory remained safe.

    So back to my first thought. The opposition cannot handle the truth. The only thing they can do is call us names.

    I have thick skin. We have gone through a lot of trials and tribulations and adversity wreaked upon us by these savage terroristic animals.

    Thank you, Israel, for Nasrallah's demise. It may create an opportunity for peace, but only if Lebanese leaders have the courage to seize the moment.

    I will repeat what the terrorists and their supporters don’t want to hear: The Iranian Regime, The Syrian Regime, all proxies of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, ISIS, Al Qaeda, The PLO, Islamic Jihad, PJ, PFLP, Syrian Baathist Party, all the Communist parties, all of these and more have been CANCERS in the World. They oppress their own people and us alike. They are savage animals who are stuck in the seventh century with the mentality of brutal conquests and war.

    Call me what you like. I was born a Phoenician, not an Arab. The terrorists took away my county, but God gave me America. I am grateful and I am blessed.

    I'm going to have an awesome day, and the terrorists are going to get their rears kicked. Have a good night.

    "To hear the truth, we turned to Radio Israel, Voice of America, and the BBC." Those were the days.

  • Cultures, not people

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  • Kris Kristofferson 1936-2024

    The Times obituary:

    As well he knew, Kris Kristofferson could have been describing himself when he wrote the lyrics for Pilgrim, Chapter 33: “A walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction, taking every wrong direction on his lonely way back home.”

    He wrote hits for other artists but was ignored when he tried to record them himself; his brief spells of critical acclaim were generally followed by condemnation; he had a knack for acting in poor films with bad scripts and then defending them to the hilt anyway.

    In the Nineties he dismissed what remained of his musical following by embracing left-leaning causes. Too intellectual to be a cowboy and too self-conscious to be a proper star, the only country and western cliché he might truly have lived up to was indulging in the twin demons of drink and drugs.

    One of the Outlaws, along with Wllie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, and a long association and mutual admiration society with Johnny Cash, he had the looks to be a major movie star, but, yes, the old drink and drugs kept getting in the way.

    Great songs, though. Songs that nobody else could have written:

  • Institutionally hostile to Israel

    From the Times:

    The BBC has been accused of being “institutionally hostile to Israel” by three prominent Jewish organisations, which have criticised its coverage of the Middle East conflict.

    Danny Cohen, who was director of television at the BBC from 2013 to 2015, has compiled a report accusing the corporation of making “false and damaging claims about Israel’s conduct of this war” and producing “misleading broadcasts and social media output”.

    The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council, and the Community Security Trust, a charity that combats extremism and antisemitism, have backed the report. They argued in a joint statement that coverage has “led many British Jews to conclude that the BBC has become institutionally hostile to Israel”.

    Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi, said: “Few institutions are as vital for our national cultural identity or for the health of our democracy as the BBC. That’s why the content of this report, which records the repeated and longstanding failure to ensure impartial and accurate news coverage of the existential war that Israel is fighting on multiple fronts, is so profoundly troubling.”

    More detail here:

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    Full text:

    From Gary Lineker’s factless musings to the BBC worker who called Jews ‘Nazi apartheid parasites’. From BBC Arabic having to correct mistakes every 48 hours to headlining stories on OCTOBER 7 as ‘Israeli revenge attacks’: a new report lays out why many Jewish people believe not only that the BBC is institutionally antisemitic but that it is creating antisemitism in this country and around the world.

    This report details how:
    • On the day of the 7 October massacre, while the rest of Britain’s media were detailing the brutality of Hamas’s attack on Israel, the BBC led its coverage with a headline about “Israeli revenge attacks”.
    • The BBC broadcast interviews in the immediate aftermath of the atrocity with Hamas apologists who used their platform to make comments which the BBC was forced to admit were “offensive”.
    • The BBC refused to call Hamas “terrorists” because it would be seen as “taking sides”, only to back down following days of criticism.
    • The BBC reported that an ‘Israeli strike’ killed ‘hundreds’ at the Al-Ahli hospital: thereby repeating, legitimising and reinforcing entirely false claims that directly caused unrest in some European and Middle Eastern countries, including serious arson attacks upon synagogues.
    • The BBC failed to remove articles suggesting the same hospital blast may have been caused by the Israeli military, even after the BBC admitted it got its reporting wrong.
    • The BBC incorrectly reported that Israeli soldiers had been “targeting” medical teams and Arab speakers as they hunted Hamas terrorists in a hospital, when instead they actually had brought medical teams and Arab speakers with them to help the patients during the military operation.
    • A senior BBC executive admitted inaccuracies had “real world consequences” for British Jews but were inevitable because of the “fog of war”.
    • The BBC aired an edited interview with French President Macron which was highly critical of Israel only for French diplomats to insist it was not a fair representation of his views.
    • The BBC published an article that wrongly claimed a UN report had warned “half of Gaza’s population is starving” and peddled a Hamas propaganda line that Gaza had become a “polio epidemic zone”.
    • The BBC failed to investigate claims babies were beheaded by Hamas terrorists in a kibbutz massacre on 7 October – despite the issue dominating other news outlets’ coverage and British political debate for days.
    • The BBC was forced to correct an article that described Iran’s bombardment of 300 rockets fired into Israel as “dozens” of “objects”.
    • The BBC took no action against five BBC Arabic reporters placed under investigation for offensive social media posts in the wake of the 7 October massacre.
    • At the height of the conflict, BBC Arabic was forced to correct articles on average every 48 hours, including copy that referred to Hamas as the “resistance”.
    • BBC Arabic platformed one guest who had previously referred to the 7 October massacre as a “heroic military miracle” and another who described Hamas atrocities against innocent Israelis as “necessary”.
    • BBC Arabic was forced to purge articles from its website including one that asked whether the Kfar Aza kibbutz atrocities really happened.
    • BBC Arabic failed to moderate antisemitic and offensive comments on its YouTube channel and encouraged a discussion about whether the killing of a 79-year-old Israeli woman was “terrorism” or “resistance”.
    • The BBC failed to remove graphs from its website that purported to show that 70 per cent of Gazan fatalities were women and children – after those figures were shown to be inaccurate.
    • The BBC routinely quoted figures produced by the Hamas Health Ministry without highlighting it as a terrorist-run organisation, and routinely failed to stress in reporting that Hamas fatality figures are unverifiable and include thousands of Hamas terrorists.
    • The BBC referred to Hezbollah not as terrorists but as a “heavily armed militant and political movement” in one story, while a BBC News Channel presenter suggested during an interview that Hezbollah terror attacks were in protest over Palestinian deaths.
    • The BBC referred to one killed senior Hamas fighter as an “advisor” rather than a terrorist, and portrayed an assassinated Hamas leader as a “moderate” rather than a terrorist under sanction in the US.
    • The BBC came under fire for calling Palestinian militants and activists killed in the conflict ‘journalists’. One BBC Arabic article described 69 “journalists” killed in the conflict, while evidence from their social media posts suggest 55 of them either supported Hamas or worked for the terror group.
    • The BBC used freelance journalists and eyewitness reports without due diligence on their social media accounts which would have revealed clear anti-Israel bias.
    • The BBC was forced to sack one employee who described Jews online as “Nazi apartheid parasites” and called the Holocaust a hoax.
    • The BBC failed to sanction high-profile sports presenter Gary Lineker who shared a BDS post calling for Israel to be banned from international sporting events.
    • The BBC failed to apologise for wrongly claiming the International Court of Justice had ruled that allegations Israel had committed genocide in Gaza were “plausible”.
    • The BBC refused to launch an investigation called for by its own Jewish staff and contributors after extensive broadcasting mistakes and repeated failures of due diligence on sources and guests
    • The BBC repeatedly reported Israeli strikes on Hamas command centres based inside school buildings as “strikes on schools” and repeatedly failed to explain the terror group’s use of innocent Palestinians as human shields.

    The full report is here.

  • Mr. Nasrallah

    While many (most?) Lebanese, and others across Syria and Iran, are very happy to see the back of this genocidal antisemite who's had his foot on Lebanon's throat these past decades, much of the western press are busy making idiots of themselves:

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  • The voice of Lebanese Christians

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  • Celebrating in Syria

    From MEMRI TV:

    A video posted on YouTube by the Enab Baladi Newspaper showed Syrians in Idlib who have gathered to celebrate the killing of Hizbullah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah. One Syrian said he had come to celebrate the killing of “the Dahia Dog” and expressed hope that Bashar Al-Assad is next.

    "The blood of our martyrs was avenged by Allah." Well, by the Israelis….

  • “Thank you Israel”

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