Mick Hartley

Politics and Culture

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  • Gaza puzzle

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  • A recipe for surefire disaster

    Could the Palestinian Authority perhaps take control of Gaza after Hamas is defeated? Nitsana Darshan-Leitner – Hope is not a strategy: The futility of a possible Palestinian Authority return to Gaza.

    More than three months have passed since the Oct. 7 attack against Israel, and officials have warned that eradicating Hamas and its military capabilities will take many months, if not longer. Hamas spent 17 years and untold billions of dollars establishing a terror mini-state inside and underneath the Gaza Strip. Destroying the hundreds of miles of terror tunnels, eliminating battalions of trained killers and searching for hostages, all the while trying to avoid civilian casualties, is a slow-moving deliberate process. But still, as the fighting rages on, the talk in many world capitals — especially inside the beltway of Washington, D.C. — is about what to do the “day after” Hamas is removed from power.

    Most Western leaders, including President Biden, are calling for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to assume control of the Gaza Strip and its 2.2 million inhabitants. Pinning Gaza’s future on the PA is a recipe for surefire disaster.

    The PA was the byproduct of the 1993 Oslo Accords and the wishful thinking that terrorists could be rehabilitated into becoming responsible statesmen. Then-President Bill Clinton, and then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, hoped that an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict along with billions of dollars of American and European Union tax money could convince, and bribe, Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat and the heads of the other Palestinian fronts to test drive self-governance and create a peaceful future of coexistence for their people….

    Since 1994, the State Department’s USAID has sent more than $5.5 billion to prop up the PA. The CIA and other federal agencies have spent untold billions more to prop up the PA’s numerous security agencies, but that training and the funds were merely used to facilitate and finance the mechanisms of terror rather than to combat it. It took legal action by the human rights NGO that I founded to help force the Congress to stop the PA from using American taxpayer money from paying stipends to the terrorists and their families as a reward for murdering Jewish civilians.

    Mahmoud Abbas — Arafat’s successor, and the current PA president known by his nom de guerre of Abu Mazen — is 88 years old and serving the 19th year of a four-year term. He is corrupt, ineffective and a promoter of virulent antisemitic conspiracies….

    The PA holds on to its power in the West Bank through the brutal tactics of violence and intimidation. A year before the Oct. 7 attacks, Human Rights Watch published its findings that torture by the Fatah-led PA in the West Bank may amount to crimes against humanity. In a scathing essay published in The Atlantic after Oct. 7, Gaith al-Omari, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who served as an adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team at the 2000 Camp David Summit, claimed, “A staggering 87 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza believe that the PA is corrupt, 78 percent want Abbas to resign, and 62 percent believe that the PA is a liability.”

    How then, one must ask of the U.S. State Department and the UK’s Foreign Office, can anyone expect the PA to govern a war-torn Gaza Strip and rehabilitate the lives of more than 2 million people who have been reared on intimidation, radicalization, terror, conflict and self-inflicted suffering? ….

    For 30 years, the PA has failed its benefactors and partners in peace and, most tragically, betrayed the Palestinian people. Fantasizing that the PA will be Israel’s sheriff and can solve the gargantuan problems of post-Oct. 7 Gaza is a mistake of epic proportions that will only guarantee continued bloodshed and misery for all sides. Hope is not a strategy.

  • Renouncing Darwin

    A depressing MEMRI report on a biology professor forced by Pakistani clerics to renounce Darwin:

    In October 2023, a video emerged on social media showing a group of Islamic religious scholars in the Bannu district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. In the film, the clerics are forcing Sher Ali, a teacher of zoology, to renounce, on camera, a number of beliefs and scientific ideas such as Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

    Sher Ali is an assistant professor of biology at the Government Postgraduate Decree College in the Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He holds a Master of Science degree in Zoology from the University of Peshawar, and a Master of Philosophy degree in human genetics from the Quaid-e-Azam University of Islamabad….

    In May 2022, Sher Ali's car was attacked with a magnetic bomb, leaving him in a wheelchair for months and raising the question among his students and followers whether he would continue to speak at seminars and teach openly. However, in an interview with one of his students from his hospital bed, Sher Ali revealed his optimism that he would continue to teach.

    This seems to have prompted a group of radical clerics associated with the Deobandi school of Sunni Islam to gather together to force him to renounce certain scientific ideas.

    Memri

    The statement:

    "I, Sher Ali, son of Sharif Khan Sarkakhel, with my senses, willingness, and safety, bearing Allah the Almighty as witness, declare and confirm that Allah is the one and only without any partner, and the Prophet [Muhammad], peace be upon him, is the true messenger of Allah and the last prophet of the prophets, and after whom, there will be no new prophet in any form.

    "I accept all the beliefs brought from Allah by the noble Prophet [Muhammad] according to the explanations of scholars from the Ahl-e-Sunnah Wal Jamaat and the Deobandi [school of Sunni Islamic thought], without any doubt or hesitation.

    "In times of necessity, I consider the woman observing proper hijab from head to toe when leaving the house to be according to shari'a. As a woman's intellect is comparatively less than that of a man from the perspective of Shari'at-e-Ilahi [Allah's shari'a], I understand this to be correct…

    "I consider forced or consensual sex [outside of marriage] to be openly haram [forbidden]. I consider those who accept it as halal [permissible] to be outside the fold of Islam. I consider any form of sexual freedom as openly haram. The interaction of women with men [to whom they are not related] is not permissible. I consider this to be correct.

    "I consider all intellectual and scientific ideas and theories that go against Allah's shari'a to be falsehoods, such as Darwin's theory [of evolution]. I declare that I repent all the statements I have made in seminars, lectures, social media posts, comments, and other gatherings that contradict the above-mentioned matter…

    "In the future, if I make any kind of speech or written statement that is contrary to the above-mentioned matters and the Islamic opinion, I will be found guilty according to the shari'a, for example, insulting the symbols of Allah, insulting the prophet, denying the hadith [traditions of Muhammad], insulting the Companions [Sahaba of Prophet Muhammad], and so on."

    Knowing the fate of those who offend the religious zealots in Pakistan, or are accused of blasphemy, we can be fairly sure of the wretched professor's fate should he dare to continue in his efforts to teach anything which goes against what Allah decreed some 1400 years ago.

  • “She has a penis”

    From the Mail:

    A transgender charity shop worker allegedly exposed 'her penis' to two 11-year-old girls as they walked past the window of her home.

    Samantha Norris, who is transitioning from a man to a woman, is accused of 'glorying' her nudity in front of the girls on two occasions in July, last year.

    Well, claims to be transitioning from a man to a woman. He can claim to be the second coming of Christ, but that doesn't mean we have to take him seriously and refer to him as "the Messiah" in court.

    The 56-year-old, who says she is a 'naturist' who enjoys being naked in her own home, is accused of 'manipulating' her genitals in full view of the girls two days in a row.

    On one occasion the defendant, who appeared at Southampton Crown Court today wearing a half-pink half-leopard-print top, is accused of pulling down her trousers in front of the pair and was allegedly still naked when they walked past again two hours later.

    Norris, of Hampshire, has been charged with indecent exposure and engaging in sexual activity in front of the girls, all of which she denies…

    Speaking to the jury of eight women and four men on Monday, judge Christopher Parker KC, said: 'Samantha Norris is in the course of gender transition at the moment and prefers to be referred to as she.'

    Charles Gabb, prosecuting, told the jury that Norris, who worked at a Sue Ryder charity shop, was naked by the window of her home when she was seen by the two girls on two days in a row.

    He said: 'The defendant, Miss Norris, now transitioning, she has a penis, was standing there fully naked, on the first day almost glorifying in that nudity over quite a period of time knowing the girls were there and drawing attention to herself.

    'And the next day when she saw them again and she was naked, glorying in her nudity, almost posturing, definitely manipulating her penis with these two young girls being able to see all this….

    In a recorded police interview, one of the girls said that she and the other girl had seen the defendant through his window as she pulled down her trousers and added that she was still naked two hours later.

    She said: 'He looked naked from where he stood in the window. He was still looking out the window two hours later.'…

    She added: 'He had his penis in his hand and was throwing it around, I just walked away because I didn't want to see it, to be honest. It was like he was trying to make us watch.'

    The girls know perfectly well that he's a man, and have no problem talking about "he" and "his". The Mail, on the other hand, and the adult court officials, are determined not to misgender. Out of the mouths of babes…

    I've featured the lovely Samantha before, when he first appeared in court back in the summer. Reports in three local papers made no mention even that he was trans, simply referring to a "woman who has been accused of indecent exposure". Though we did learn that he was "charged with three counts of making indecent pictures of a child, possession of a prohibited image of a child, possession of extreme pornographic image and two counts of exposure". Perhaps worth a mention…

  • Two states

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    Text in full:

    Yes. Israelis remember what happened to the Iraqi army, which the US invested so much money and training into, when it was challenge; it just went home.

    As did the Afghan army, when the Taliban showed up.

    A Palestinian state requires a Palestinian national movement that can deliver on an agreement, and at the moment, there isn't one.

    It can't be built by the Americans or the Brits or the Israelis or the Saudis or the Emiratis.

    People can say they're in favour of a 2 state solution as much as they like, but it can't happen until there is a Palestinian authority that wants a state and is capable of asserting sovereignty over the Palestinians.

    It is not within the gift of the Israelis to deliver a Palestinian state.

    Yes, Israel could withdraw its civilian settlers and leave behind a military occupation. But how can you build a majority for that in Israel, while there is zero prospect of a Palestinian state – only a Palestinian antisemitic movement that would move into the vacuum?

    But for so long as people say that "ending the occupation" is within Israel's gift, then they will think that all violence is an Israeli choice. And it's not.

    I think it would be easy to win a majority in Israel to a 2 state solution, if Israelis were convinced that a Palestinian state could be built that would live alongside it in peace. What's the problem with that?

    The problem is that there is no Palestinian national movement that can make that happen. At the moment, there is not even a possibility that people could hang their hopes on.

  • Israel and South Sudan

    A surprising connection.

    Simon Deng, a Christian from South Sudan, was taken into slavery at the age of nine when his village was attacked by Arab Sudanese soldiers – just one small chapter in the long and largely ignored history of Arab jihad against Black Africans across North Africa over the centuries. He now lives in the US.

    On Oct. 7, 2023, I watched the news and was sick. Seeing the video of the attack on the music festival in Israel, everything welled up inside me. From the experience of my people, from my own experience, I knew exactly what had just happened and how those terrified hostages were going to suffer. Israelis had been raped, tortured, mutilated, and burned alive just like my people had been for centuries. I will never forget the fires and the burned bodies: They looked exactly like what I saw the day my village was destroyed.

    What Hamas did was precisely like what Arab Sudan’s genocidal government did to my people. Since they invaded Africa in the seventh century, Arab Muslims had always been doing jihad. We will never really know many Blacks have died between then and today. It is one of those numbers which, because it is unknown, proves how huge the suffering must be.

    Both Israel and my country, South Sudan, were born through jihad, one which began in 1948, the other in 1955. In 1948, the Arabs declared a jihad against the new State of Israel and tried to finish what Hitler had started. In 1955, the Black Christian people of southern Sudan revolted against the north because the Muslim government refused to give them autonomy or freedom of religion. In response, the government declared a jihad—but not on paper, as it would later in 1989. The Arabs killed possibly up to 1.5 million Black people in the south. Nobody knows the number they enslaved, since nobody really counted.

    The Israelis, like the Black Sudanese, won the war but lost the peace, and the jihad continued. People in the West only learned about jihad and slavery in Sudan in the 1990s, during the Second Sudanese Civil War, which began in 1983, but it was going on throughout the first one, which ended in 1972. I was kidnapped in the 1960s, so this terror has been happening for my entire lifetime. All we know is that about 200,000 Black Christians like me were enslaved in the Second Civil War, which only stopped in 2005, and about 2 million were killed. Sadly, there are still many Africans owned as slaves today. Now I saw what was done to me and my people being done to Israelis.

    Israel secretly helped the southern Sudanese fight the north. We would never have fought the Arabs to the negotiating table without them. Today, South Sudan is independent partially because Israel chose to help us win over our Arab colonizers—because that is what they are. The Jewish people, just like us, are native to our lands, which the Arabs conquered.

    Recently, I went to Israel to show my solidarity with my Jewish brothers and sisters, and with the (enslaved) hostages. I walked twice from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and back along the highway to show that we Africans love and care about Israel. I picked strawberries on a kibbutz and met with Jewish hero Natan Sharansky—a freedom fighter who went to prison, like Dr. King, for trying to free his people.

    Living in New York, I see protests against Israel. These manifestations of sympathy for evil should disgust all decent people. They disgust me because Hamas is made up of the same people, acting on the same colonizing and imperial motivations, who enslaved me and murdered 4 million of my Black brothers and sisters.

  • Remaining a man

    More from Helen Joyce:

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  • Fear of being seen to support gender-critical beliefs

    Jo Phoenix, a criminology professor who who left the Open University after harassment for her gender-critical beliefs, has won her employment tribunal case:

    A gender-critical academic has won her case against the Open University. In a significant victory for academic freedom, an employment tribunal has concluded that Professor Jo Phoenix suffered discrimination, harassment and was constructively dismissed by the OU. Crucially, the tribunal found that the university failed to protect Phoenix out of “fear of being seen to support gender-critical beliefs”.

    The 155-page judgment, which was published on Monday afternoon, found that colleagues compared Phoenix to a “racist uncle”. They also posted statements on the OU’s website claiming gender-critical beliefs fostered an environment which endangered the lives of trans people. More than 380 academics signed a public letter calling on the OU to close down Phoenix’s research group.

    Phoenix posted news of her victory on X, describing it as “a message to all universities: you cannot stand back and allow gender critical academics to be hounded out of their jobs.” The judgment comes only days after a report by the Committee for Academic Freedom revealed that nine universities have policies under which academics who don’t believe that transwomen are women are considered “transphobic”. They include Imperial College, Sheffield Hallam University and the London Business School.

    Such policies are clearly in conflict with both the right to free expression and the intellectually curious atmosphere that should exist in higher education. They are further evidence of the way in which trans lobbyists have degraded basic rights in one institution after another, forcing people to accept transparent nonsense about “gender identity”.

    Phoenix’s victory, though welcome, has come at great personal cost. When I first interviewed her, more than two years ago, she had just announced that she was bringing a case against the OU. She had decided to leave her “dream job” at the university after experiencing unremitting hostility from colleagues, leaving her sleepless and diagnosed with PTSD. Her offence? Conducting research on the effects of allowing trans-identified men, including convicted sex offenders, to serve their sentences in women’s prisons.

    And we know how well that turned out.

    Her ordeal is an indictment of a conspicuous lack of courage at some British universities, which appear to be more concerned about being accused of the T-word than their duty towards staff and students. They have even allowed trans activists to prevent screenings of a documentary, Adult Human Female, which expresses perfectly legal views about sex and gender. (To its credit, Reading University, where Phoenix is now Professor in Criminology, is an honourable exception.)…

    Future generations will surely look back in disbelief at a time when women had to go to court to assert their right to believe in biological sex — and supposedly liberal politicians were too pusillanimous to support them.

  • United Nations Conference on Disarmament

    Why the UN has become a joke, chapter 103:

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  • Attacked “for being Jewish”

    London now. From the Telegraph:

    Three people were attacked in Leicester Square, London, “for being Jewish” in the early hours of Sunday morning after they were overheard “speaking Hebrew”.

    The three victims, all in their twenties, were enjoying a night out when they were attacked by a group of men.

    A 28-year-old woman, Tehilla, told The Telegraph she was “physically attacked” and called the Metropolitan Police 10 times “afraid she was going to die” but that police did not attend.

    She was out with two male friends, both 25, who it is understood suffered blows to the head.

    The group were heading towards a nightclub when they were accosted for speaking in Hebrew but they “walked away because they wanted to stay out of trouble”.

    They were later threatened around 2am by people “swearing in Arabic”.

    “They heard us talking and said, ‘are you Jewish?’” Tehilla, who has lived in London since she was 13, told The Telegraph. “I said ‘yes, I’m Jewish,’ and then they started chanting ‘Free Palestine’, and f— Jews, all this kind of swearing at us.

    “So we just tried not to get into trouble, to walk away, but they started following us and then all of a sudden, it started with like two or three guys, and all of a sudden, they called all their friends and 15 to 20 guys started attacking us physically.”

    She said she had tried to intervene but “they started attacking me as well”.

    “I hurt my leg, they punched me in the neck,” she said. “I tried to run away and I called the police so many times, at least 10 times and I kept crying to them, ‘I’m a girl, there’s a group of guys attacking me and my friends because I’m Jewish, please can you come, I’m scared I’m going to die’.

    “They don’t really care. They kept saying ‘I’m sorry, it takes some time, you are not the only one that called tonight’,” she said, adding that she “never thought this would happen in London”. […]

    A friend of the victims who wished to remain anonymous said they visited them at the hospital in North London where they were for a few hours and that the police “never showed up” despite claiming they would.

    “We believe there’s a two-tier police situation. The police are not tackling the weekly hate marches, they are not tackling antisemitism,” they told The Telegraph.

    “The feeling for the Jewish community is that the leadership of the police, the government do not care about us,” they added. “The climate is very very distressing for the British Jewish community.’”