Postmodern Apes In PostmodernTuxedos, Part Two
We received an email yesterday, from a reader of Reclaiming Space (otherwise known as 'People's Geography'). Out correspondent thought we were too harsh in our treatment of Ann el Khoury, the author of that blog (yesterday, we mistakenly misspelled Ms Khoury's first name. Our apologies). The email missive touted Ms Khoury's 'record' of 'inclusion' and her 'desire to be even handed.'
Like Ms Khoury, our correspondent is sadly out of touch with reality and like Ms Khoury, a creation of postmodern drivel (we will look at that later on).
Ms Khoury's 'even handedness' is rarely if ever, seen in her work and even less visible is any kind of commitment to the truth. While she claims to be versed in politics, she displays what is either a profound lack of understanding of political fundamentals or an unhealthy addiction to deceit.
In A Sacred Right: The Palestinian Right Of Return, el Khoury breathlessly emphasizes the opinion of Jew who takes issue with and then rewrites Israel's past. She presents the opinion piece by Alex Stein, as Gospel and this Phd candidate is only too happy to go along with the revisionist history:
Why should I, a Jew from north London, be permitted to take up Israeli citizenship, when that right is denied to a Palestinian who languishes in a refugee camp in Lebanon? Especially when I acknowledge that a large majority of those that left in 1948 were ethnically cleansed by Israeli forces.
If Ms Khoury had even fundamental understanding of political reality, or a any kind of desire to be honest, she would have at the very least acknowledged the truth about Israel's rather unremarkable immigration policy.
...appears to be woefully ill informed when it comes to immigration policy. As a free and sovereign state, Israel has the right to have any immigration policy it chooses. Further, Israeli immigration policy is remarkably similar to the immigration policies of other nations.
Citizenship status is derived by way of one of two criteria- ‘blood’ or ‘land.’
In the United States, for example, citizenship is primarily derived by ‘land’ status. That means that if you were born here, you are automatically awarded citizenship.
Conversely, being born in Switzerland is no guarantee of citizenship. In fact, there are generations of people that have been born in Switzerland that are not entitled to Swiss citizenship according to Swiss law.
Descendants of British, Irish and Polish ancestry, for example, are all entitled to enhanced and privileged immigration status by those nations. Throughout most of Europe, having even a bit of ‘preferred’ blood entitles one to a citizenship ‘fast track.’
Israel has every right to determine her own immigration rules.
Consider too, the rescue of Ethiopian Jews (the largest rescue of Blacks by whites in history) and compare that to the slaughter by the Arab tribe janjaweed in Darfur and the ongoing slave trade by Arab slave traders in Mauritania. It isn’t surprising that Muslims that made their way from Sudan want to stay in Israel.
In fact, when the Israelis pulled out of Lebanon after occupying an 11 mile security zone (After years of rocket attacks against civilians and the Lebanese government’s inability or unwillingness to halt those attacks, the Israelis had enough), even the Alawites, the clan than claims the ruling Assads of Syria, pleaded to remain under Israeli jurisdiction, preferring Israeli rule to that of an Arab country.
Ms Khoury appears totally unaware of the political realities, preferring instead her own interpretations and racist world view.
Her racism becomes clear in Iran's President Did Not Say Israel Must be Wiped Off The Map. She quotes one Arash Norouzi:
Across the world, a dangerous rumor has spread that could have catastrophic implications. According to legend, Iran’s President has threatened to destroy Israel, or, to quote the misquote, “Israel must be wiped off the map”. Contrary to popular belief, this statement was never made, as this article will prove.
In el Khoury's world, Mahmoud Ahmadenijad is really a nice, but misunderstood man, and a 'victim' of all kinds of 'misunderstandings.'
El Khoury's blog tag, 'Holocaust Related' is perhaps the best indicator of her intellectual dishonesty. Only articles (preferably written by Jews) that are dismissive or belittle the Holocaust are on her radar. She herself is very careful- she posits not a single word when it comes to the horrors of the Holocaust. Ahmadinejad would be so proud!
What is it about Israel that el Khoury finds so offensive?
In the end, el Khoury is a fraud- and an anti Semite, notwithstanding el Khoury's protestations and assurances 'that some of her best friends are Jews.'
To be sure, Israel, as a nation, is not above reproach. There are policies that deserve renunciation and reconsideration. Nevertheless, to single Israel out from the body of world nations that have for decades and longer have been far more repressive than Israel has ever been as an expression of ‘anti-Zionism’ is patently anti-Semitic. That is especially true when real instances of genocide and ethnic cleansing are occurring and el Khoury and her ilk ignore the tragedies in favor of singling out Israel for excoriation.
The utter hypocrisy and duplicity of el Khoury is clear. Where is the outrage directed at Russia, considering the atrocities in Chechnya? Where is the outrage directed at Kuwait after the expulsion of 350,000 Palestinians? Has she ever expressed outrage directed toward Syria, after the slaughter of 10,000-30,000 in Hama and the occupation of Lebanon? How about boycotting China for human right’s abuses that are legendary? How about Castro’s Cuba? Then there is Darfur, a decades long tragedy that has resulted in 2 million deaths, so far. Mauritania is where Arab slave traders, to this day, go to ply their trade. That too, is off el Khoury's 'inclusive' and 'even handed' radar.
Criticism of Israel is one thing- that is, a free exchange of ideas, a back and forth. There is none of that. There is simply a closing of doors and a cessation of communications, as if the case against Israel were so egregious that it stood out in a most singular fashion.
SC&A wonder why el Khoury singles out Israel for such treatment. What is it about Israel that is so special? Why does el Khoury treat Israel so differently from other, real human rights violators?
Of course, the answer is clear. Simply put, it is anti Semitism. To point to Israel as the worst human rights offender in the world is laughable. Now, two UN Secretaries General have openly pointed out what el Khoury cannot be bothered to address- the hypocrisy and deceit of singling Israel out as a horrific offender of human rights. As far back as 2003, Reporteur sans Frontieres have labeled the UN Commission on Human Rights a travesty- and yet el Khoury, who is obsessed with seeing herself as champion of human rights, understandably has yet to acknowledge yet another truth that would upend her her deceit.
There are tens of millions of women that have suffered FGM- and the world, for the most part, el khoury included, remains silent (SC&A wonder how quiet el Khoury would be if Jews were committing these atrocities).
Simply because there are people like el Khoury who close their minds to reality or accept and promulgate deceit as truth, does mean those deceits are expressions of democratic values. Just because it is au courrant to say criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic, does not make it so. It an absurd and skewed look at reality. Criticism of Israel has become anti-Semitic because there is a different standard of measurement for Israel than there is for any other country (the same applies to the US. When America is criticized, is also by a different yardstick).
One more, Jews are being ‘ghettoized’ by the likes of el Khoury- this time, in their own country, singled out and set apart.
The fact remains that Israel is as legitimate a country as any other nation (probably more so than some of her neighbors), notwithstanding el Khoury's intellectual deceit.
Virtually every country in the world was founded on the basis of conflict. Whatever your country of origin, it’s very existence today, is as the result of conflict. That said, el Knoury's bigoted, sanctimonious, irrelevant opinions and feelings about Israel as being a special and particularly egregious case is hypocrisy at it's peak. The criticism of Israel under the guise of ‘outrage’ at the ‘treatment’ of the Palestinians or the ‘violation of human rights’ is a laughable outrage. As we noted earlier, the ‘occupation’ of the Palestinian territories has been the most benign occupation in history.
The old canard of ‘ethnic cleansing’ is often touted as the goal of Israeli policies in the region. That is simply a tired excuse, hauled out, when legitimate argument cannot be made.
Ethnic cleansing is what occurred in East Timor, when the Christians were slaughtered by Muslims, or forced to convert at ‘edge of sword’- and were forcibly circumcised. Ethnic cleansing took place when the GIA in Algeria raped and murdered children as a matter of course- because the GIA wished to instill it’s own version of Islam. Ethnic cleansing has resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands in Darfur (you know, the place Israel’s critics don’t give a damn about)- women raped to the music of singing Arab women. Hundreds of thousands- if not millions- dead, and nary a word from the AUT.
The death toll as a result of the intifada? Just over 3,000 Palestinians in the five year period from 2000 to 2005.
Lets be clear. The hatred of Jews pre-existed the establishment of the State of Israel. What Israel is facing now is a continuation of a long honored tradition- excoriate the Jews, any way possible. Those that profess to be anti Israel only, have been given a gift, of course. They can spew their Anti-Semitism because they can make the claim they are protecting an ‘underdog,’ the Palestinians, from the ‘evil’ machinations of the Jewish lobby, Jewish ideology and the Jewish State.
It bears to remember that the Arab world had no part in the persecution of Jews in Europe (though they certainly did an admirable job of it in the Arab countries). The Muslim community, if they chose, could point to the Christian world and say, ‘This is your shame, not ours.’ Instead, they celebrate and identify with the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis and even glorify the evil, pining in their writings, ‘If only Hitler had finished the job...’
We wonder why.
El Khoury cannot contain her bigotry. She is like a pedophile who professes to love children.
When El Khoury and her ilk deliberately refuse to divine the difference between Hizbollah, with their committed and stated anti Semitism (Nasrallah has often referred to Jews as ‘descendants of apes and pigs’) and Israel, she and they identify themselves liars or idiots. When Mein Kampf remains a best seller for decades in the Arab world and decades old promises to 'finish what Hitler started,' el Khoury cannot be taken seriously when she feigns outrage (and even then, mildly). Her refusal to to take a stand against proactively against those kind of outrages speaks for itself and undermines her credibility.
Why some forms of racism are given a pass, Ms el Khoury? Why does 'even handedness' mean only the constant excoriation of Israel? How is it that el Khoury seems to have missed the institutionalized racism, bigotry and hate that come to define the Arab world? How is it that el Khoury sees fit to ignore that kind of hate?
The good news is that el Khoury's deceptions serve an important purpose- they invite comparisons between Israel and the Arab world. In fact, we were introduced to Ms Khoury after we published The Israeli Beast. She could not abide the sunlight. In her absurd world, Israel's achievements are not the result of hard work, effort or the determination to excel- they are the result of the exploitation of Palestinians.
Therein lies an evident truth. Jews escaped the Holocaust as victims and built a state with world class educational institutions, a viable economy and a free and democratic government. In fact, the Jews built in 50 years what the Arab world, with all it's obscene wealth, could not build in 2,000 years. Ann el Khoury would have you believe that is the fault of the Jews.
To repeat-
Of all the states on Earth, every one of which was created in bloodshed, only one has its existence constantly challenge...And then we wonder why people equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.
Indeed Ann, what is it about Israel and her inhabitants that is so special? What exactly is it that enrages you so?
What does Ms Khoury think happened at Sabra and Shatilla? Why did the Phalange go into the camps? Was it out of a sense of unbounded love? Does Ms Khoury and the Lebanese Army today see the Palestinians comrades in arms?
Will Ms Khoury rewrite history again? Will she misrepresent the findings of the Kahane Commission? Will she dismiss Nagi Najjar's eye witness account of the events?
Ann el Khoury, graduate student of 'Human Geography' is a product of wide but shallow pool that is postmodernism.
Dr Sanity, in the Children of Postmodern Nihilism:
These are the children of postmodernism; steeped in the nihilism of our day. They believe in nothing and stand for nothing. They utter the same old tired and worn self-serving platitudes of a defunct and dangerous world view, but anyone can see that the fire has gone out of their movement. They are losing, and they know it. But they are so narcissistically invested in that world view, that they tremble in fear whenever the real world presents them with something that contradicts their religiously held beliefs.
They are in a great deal of terror at the moment. Not, of course from Jihadis (which would be rational) but because their world view is under attack whenever a George W. Bush is elected; or a Sarkozy or Merkel, for that matter. They cling to the Hugo Chavez types for dear life; and pray that thugs like Ahmadinejad and Zawahiri are able to humiliate and defeat their real enemy, which is America and all it stands for.
These children were raised on postmodern milk; and their brain development has reached a point of no return and is functioning now for the sole purpose of blocking out the real world; rather than trying to understand it. Reality, truth and reason are far too dangerous for their childish beliefs and behaviors.
If you can convince children that objective reality is an illusion; that A does not equal A; that black is white; and that good is bad; if you can make them accept that everything is subjective and relative; then you own them. They will believe any drivel. Through the appropriate manipulation of language, everything can be distorted, without the messy need to resort to facts, logic, or reason.
Without a rational metaphysics--or worldview--that explains the nature of existence and reality; and without an epistemology that says our minds are able to acquire knowledge of that reality; then it is easy to enforce conformity, totalitarian thinking, and political passivity.
Ethics, or the study of how man should behave in the world--or, what is good and what is evil--is totally dependent on both metaphysics and epistemology, because it is impossible to make choices withoug knowledge; just as it is impossible to have knowledge without a reality that can be known by our minds.
What matters in the postmodernist's convoluted thinking is not truth or falsity--only the effectiveness of the language used. Lies, distortions, ad hominem attacks; attempts to silence opposing views--all are strategies that are perfectly satisfactory if they achieve the desired effect. Ideas and reason must make way for reification of feelings; and freedom is replaced by thought control.
If you wonder why they exhibit so much animosity and emotional hysteria directed against traditional values and ideas; and against Republicans, neocons, Christians, Males etc. etc.; then understand the nature of the postmodern nihilism that defines and sustains them. The pervasive and unrelenting trickle down of postmodern theories and thinking in education, art, politics and all the social areas of life has resulted in a crop of humans who are opposed to thinking because it is far to dangerous to their secular religious beliefs. Even science has not been immune from the nihilism and anti-reason, anti-reality agenda of the postmodernists.
If you want to understand why nothing seems to make sense and the most blatant contradictions and relativistic meanderings are presented as absolute truth; why language is abused and words don't seem to have the same definitions anymore; and can sometimes even mean the opposite of what they used to; why photographs can lie; why contradictory discourses and distortion of truth; and ad hominem attacks and a distinct reluctance to face reality are all a part of the "reality-based" community--you need look no further than postmodernism.
And finally, if you want to understand why that which is truly evil --embracing death, slavery, and nihilism--is now presented and even trumpeted as the "good" while the good is dismissed, denigrated and mocked; then you would do well to understand the psychology and ideology of the covert enemies of America and of civilization--the adult children of postmodern nihilism.
Dr Sanity, in Postmodern Leftist Tripe,
Well, there are two reasons we are being subjected to this kind of propaganda. The first is that historical revisionism is not something that is confined to psychotic regimes in the Middle East who convene "scientific" conferences to "prove" that the Holocaust did not even happen (I'll bet a Gallup poll in Iran, or anywhere in the muslim world for that matter, would have even more than 54% of the population agree that it didn't. Are we supposed to believe that such a poll has anything to do with reality?).
For them, popularity will always trump truth and reality. They will never acknowledge, let alone take responsibility for the millions that their ideology killed in the last century and the unbelievable depths of human misery their ideas wrought. They will only continue their con, protected by the fog of postmodernism.
The second reason is that in our lovely postmodern world, where reality and truth are only relative and anybody's "reality" is as good as anybody else's; is is just a matter of a poll or two, constructed along ideological lines to fit a particular template; that can somehow determine today, what history will say many tomorrows from now. With enough repetition and passion, "history" can be set in stone in the temporal present...
Today's political left might have a few transient moments of glory left in them, but the perfidy and nihilism that is destroying civilization and which is relentlessly promoted by their mindless minions through the irrational postmodern rhetoric we've come to expect from the MSM has now been fully exposed.
The left deeply fears neoconservatism and the economic and political freedom that it supports, and will stop at nothing to discredit its ideas. But they cannot do it using reason, reality, and truth; so these impediments they must abandon.
In our last installment, we will look at the postmodern environment that has birthed 'Human Geography' and how that environment attracts intellectual lightweights and agendized bigots like Ann Khoury.
In the end Ann el Khoury has yet to answer the question we posed.
* Cessation of hostilities and terror
* Secure borders.
* Diplomatic recognition of Israel.
Those are the minimum requirements as noted by Israel, the UN, the US, and the EU.
Which of those requirements are too onerous for the Palestinians and the Arab world?
In Ms Khoury’s defense, her response to our posts noted under ‘pages’ in our sidebar, was that they ‘showed promise.‘
No doubt our clients will appreciate her endorsement.
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