"Syria authorities target children, says UN rights chief"

The BBC is reporting that....

Syrian authorities are systematically detaining and torturing children, the United Nations' human rights chief, Navi Pillay, has told the BBC.

Ms Pillay said President Bashar al-Assad could end the detentions and stop the killing of civilians immediately, simply by issuing an order.

....

"They've gone for the children - for whatever purposes - in large numbers. Hundreds detained and tortured... it's just horrendous," she said.

"Children shot in the knees, held together with adults in really inhumane conditions, denied medical treatment for their injuries, either held as hostages or as sources of information."

I ask for universal condemnation of these horrific acts of violence against the most vulnerable in any society.

How any country, such as China and Russia, can support such a regime in the security council and at least in Russia's case, via arms and munitions is unimaginable

Russia faces a growing international outcry over its arms sales to Syria but shows no sign of bowing to pressure and has even increased deliveries of arms that critics say are helping keep President Bashar al-Assad in power.

How any country's ruling political alliance, such as Lebanon can include a party, such as Hezbollah, that supports such a regime is unimaginable. The people of Syria are taking note

Hezbollah's support for the Assad regime has not gone unnoticed by Syrian protesters. Recent images from demonstrations in the country show people burning the yellow Hezbollah flag. The Syrian Revolution Coordination Committee has accused Hezbollah of firing Katyusha rockets from Lebanon into the al-Zabadani region of Syria where anti-Assad protests are taking place.

The world is watching.

Victory in Park Slope: BDS Loses Vote On Whether To Have Vote

The results are in from tonight's much followed vote by the Park Slope Food Coop on whether to have a vote on whether to join BDS - the "Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions" regime that seeks to replace Israel with an Arab-majority state. Out of more than 1600 votes cast at an unprecedented meeting of some of the coop membership at a high school auditorium, the members present opted to defeat BDS by a margin of 61% to 39%.

It is an important victory for the anti-BDS side because this debate drew significant outside attention beyond the usual I-P partisans, with repeated coverage in the New York Times and other media outlets, as well as by entertainer and paranoid freak Glenn Beck. Also, rather unique to BDS circuses, this one featured several prominent local politicians weighing in, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who delivered a scathing rebuke of BDS.

It is interesting that this partcular vote was accompanied by significantly more outside interest. One could certainly attribute it in part to being in New York City, the home of many media companies. The Park Slope Coop is also a pioneer in the food coop movement, dating to the early 70s, so their move either way may be seen as more significant and impactful than recent similar happenings in Sacramento, Davis, Port Townshend, Ann Arbor, and Olympia.

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61% to 39% is closer than many would have liked, but it is a decisive defeat that will probably keep BDS from trying again in Park Slope for at least a little while. It is also possible that some people in attendance out of deference to (small-d) democratic ideals may have voted to hold the vote but would have voted no in that actual vote. Also the vote itself drew only the most interested members. 39% is therefore an upper limit to BDS support at the coop (Note that this will not stop BDS from claiming that their democratic rights were infringed because of the arcane procedure that this was the vote on whether to hold the vote and not the actual vote - and I note the insane hypocrisy that will accompany this because in Olympia BDS insisted on no vote by the membership).

This is another in a very long line of electoral defeats for BDS, which include all of the above mentioned food coops except for Olympia, as well as every college and university, municipality, and church hierarchy in America where they have tried over the past 10 years (many gory details are available at the excellent Divest This blog). However - and this is crucial for understanding what BDS is all about - BDS will not see Park Slope as much of a defeat, for their goal is not to actually economically harm Israel, which everyone knows could not happen even if every food coop in America stopped selling hummus.

Rather, the goal of BDS is to get the "Israel=bad" meme to be associated with a respected progressive institution such as a coop, university, mainline church, or cool city. And that is unfortunate, because it means we have to strive to defeat BDS every time, not just a majority of times or the most important times. Annoyingly, Park Slope is not the end, it may not even be the beginning of the end, but at least it may be the end of the beginning.

This Friday is Buy Israel Day, and I hope many Brooklynites will hit up Park Slope for the Israeli products they will continue to be able to enjoy.

Strange Times We Live In: The Red-Brown-Redneck Alliance

One of the most fascinating things for me as I have explored the depths of blogdom and activism is the ideological alliance that has coalesced among the strangest of bedfellows, who find common cause at the intersection of antisemitism and Israel hatred.

It has often been mentioned how Israel exercises power far out of proportion to its tiny size - economically, militarily, and culturally - and to that list we can also add the extraordinary way it has brought together Jihadis, survivalists, and supposedly secular far-leftists.

Attend any ANSWER-type political rally nowadays, or look at almost any web-based discussion of Israel - whether it be in the comments section of a CNN article or Youtube video, or at a blog such as Daily Kos, or a dedicated anti-Israel and antisemitic website such as Mondoweiss - and you will notice three distinct and seemingly incompatible affiliations, all brought together:

1) Jihadis: Their motivation in the game is clear, and they have an unhidden genocidal hatred of Jews and Israel. Online, their presence is characterized by mangled spellings and grammar (e.g. the famous "BUT can yoo handle the truth with facts??!!"), copious broken links to Jihadist and Iranian regime websites, and random interjections of 100 variations of AhaLlu AkBar, all featuring different spellings and capitalizations. At ANSWER-type rallies, they can be seen waving Hamas flags, dressing children up in suicide bomber regalia, and doing those ominous "Yehuuuudi" chants.

2) Survivalists: They are obsessed with Jewish and Israeli influence in the US government, and are tweaked by all of the insane conspiracy theories, from 9-11 to the USS Liberty and beyond. This group is mostly middle aged and older Caucasian males, usually bearded, who are on the margins of society. Online they are obsessed with the USS Liberty and display significant support for Ron Paul. At ANSWER-type rallies, they have the barely coherent often hand-made signs charging vast conspiracies of Jews and Israel.

Many would think of these people as some sort of Neo-Nazis, but while there are similarities, I think there is a distinction because they are not usually affiliated with actual Neo-Nazi groups, and they have a completely different aesthetic and age distribution - tending toward older, bearded, health-afflicted, and lazy, rather than young, built, and looking for a fight. They really exist at the aesthetic intersection of redneck, hippie, and petty paranoia. However, they are far lazier than those who would act physically on their hatred. The best word I could think of to encompass all of the converging strands is 'survivalist'. Basically BigAl (for those familiar with Daily Kos) is the model for this person, but they can be seen all over fringe rallies and websites.

Why would people who are fundamentally pretty racist be so eager to ally with Arab and South Asian Islamists? I think it is because the survivalists' combination of racism and laziness manifests in a desire not for race war but for America to completely withdraw from contact with the rest of the world, and Jihadis of course are their allies in this. But it gets even stranger with group #3:

3) Secular far-leftists: The secular far-leftists tend to be the organizers of, and strive to be the public face of the alliance. They are the ones who organize the rallies, who form the leadership of far-left organizations such as ANSWER, and who run the websites such as Mondoweiss and Adalah at Daily Kos. They thrive off the support from, and in turn provide rhetorical support to, the Jihadis and the survivalists. Without the Jihadis and the survivalists, ANSWER-type rallies and Mondoweiss and Adalah would have a small fraction of the bodies that they do now, with the accompanying irrelevance.

It is tough to discern the actual core values of this group of secular far-leftists, because they have absolutely no problem making common cause and perpetual alliance with the awful people described above, not to mention other fundamentally illiberal villains such as the Cuban or Venezuelan regimes. They also, to put it mildly, tailor their message to the audience, speaking of "human rights" and "peace" when speaking to liberals, and speaking of "revolution" and "resistance" when talking to others.

So what do they actually believe and seek? I don't know, but it seems to be some sort of world anti-Capitalist and anti-American revolution that absolutely has to start in Israel, and somehow things will just work out from there.

The secular leftists are of course the most surprising contingent of the alliance, because it seems like they should know better than to make common cause with the other two. After all, they spend their time sitting around coffee houses reading Marx and Sartre, right? And they really care about human rights, alternate sexuality, and patriarchy, right? Well, I don't know.

What I do know is that they have adopted Muslims and Arabs, and in particular the Palestinian Arabs, as the major symbolic representatives of everything that is wrong with, and victimized by, American and Western military and economic power, Capitalism, and so forth. And in turn, the Arab world's major self-declared mortal enemy, Israel, has become the symbolic representative of Western, American, and Capitalist military and economic power.

Now I will be the first to state that there are many problems with the manifestations of extreme Capitalism and American military overreach - I am a liberal after all. However, I recognize the fundamental illiberality of Jihadists and conspiracy nuts, and of seeking to deny self-determination to only one ethnic group in the world - the Jews - which also happens to be the most persecuted group in human history.

But that's me. The secular far-leftists in question don't believe so. They see Israel - population 6 million, with gay rights, universal health care, environmental stewardship, and universal suffrage - as the necessary starting point for a world revolution. Unfortunately, this strange belief has been creeping in from the extremes of the far left into more mainstream leftist thought, at places such as Human Rights Watch and even Amnesty International.

The amazing thing is that all of this has already been tried before by the secular left, to disastrous results. They seem not to be aware of, or not to want to learn from, obvious history. Many people forget that the Iranian Islamic Revolution was initially largely supported by the secular liberals and Communists in that country and among its exiles. They figured that once the Shah was dealt with and the old order was overthrown, they could maneuver in the post-Shah system to achieve their goals.

Boy were they wrong! Iran's leftists and Communists quickly learned that their position once the Ayatollahs took over was not going to be at the negotiating table or in the Parliament, but rather in the prisons and torture chambers, behind veils, and for the lucky few, in exile. The same will no doubt be the case in the unlikely scenario that certain Western far-leftists succeed in bringing about revolutionary change through their alliance with Jihadis.

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This analysis applies to what I would call the 'true believers' from each camp - those that are genuinely convinced of the ideological righteousness of their cause. Of course beyond those types, in these sorts of movements, there are the opportunists who are willing to do anything to sell a book, become famous, drum up support for their regime, sell pot, or whatever else it might be. Those people would probably need an entirely different analysis, because their motivations are quite different than true believers.

Politicians: Don't Attend Netroots Nation If Antisemitic Panel Is Included

(note: this is a draft of a petition that will be circulated through change.org)

Netroots Nation is an annual gathering of internet-based activists, largely centered around the website Daily Kos. In the past, Netroots Nation has focused on a variety of topics of Democratic Party and progressive interest, often in panel discussion format, and has had the participation of a number of mainstream Democratic Party figures.

This year there is a proposal to include a panel discussion at Netroots Nation about the Israeli-Arab conflict. The proposed panel is entirely one-sided, illiberal, and against universally held Democratic Party and progressive principles. As proposed, there will be no representation on the panel from a pro-Israel perspective. The two 'sides' of the proposed discussion will both consist of extremists who favor the elimination of Israel and its replacement with an Arab-majority state. The only effective disagreement between the two proposed sides of the discussion is the method by which this outcome will be acheived. The most famous proposed participant is blogger Ali Abunimah, who has explicitly called for the elimination of Israel and for a "third Intifada".

Furthermore, some of the proponents and promoters of the proposed panel have a long history of tolerating and promoting explicit antisemitism at the website Daily Kos. As documented extensively in summaries such as available at http://progressivezionist.blogspot.com/2012/03/resources.html, many of the proponents tolerate and promote traditional antisemitic rhetoric such as charging Jewish Americans with disloyalty to America and intent to control US foreign policy, promoting conspiracy theories involving the USS Liberty, pushing the debunked Khazar hoax, and many other staples of antisemitic rhetoric. Many of these same panel proponents have excused the rhetoric of the Iranian regime and expressed support for both Iran and Hezbollah acquiring nuclear weapons.

If the proposed panel is included, it will be a forum for some notorious internet promoters of antisemitism to push their hateful ideas, as well as a forum for extremists alone to promote their preferred outcome to the Israeli-Arab conflict: the replacement of Israel with an Arab-majority state, in direct contradiction to the positions of the Democratic and Republican Party platforms and every major elected official in the United States.

We call on all politicians and elected officials to avoid any association with Netroots Nation if the proposed Israeli-Arab panel is included in the program. Such extremist ideas are the antithesis of the true mission of the Netroots, the progressive movement, and the Democratic Party.

We the undersigned pledge to withhold all contributions and votes from any politicians or elected officials who participate in Netroots Nation if the proposed Israeli-Arab panel is included.

Resources

Hello, thank you for your interest in combatting internet-based antisemitic rhetoric.

These collections are an extensive, but by no means complete, documentation of antisemitic rhetoric promoted by users and the management of the website Daily Kos. Many of the same users are promoters of the proposed Netroots Nation Panel on the Israeli-Arab conflict.

These collections are not exhaustive, meerly a representative sample of the rhetoric promoted and tolerated on Daily Kos by proponents of the Netroots Nation panel.

A) Links to many instances of antisemitic rhetoric, including:
1) Charging Jewish Americans with disloyalty to America
2) Promoting conspiracy theories involving Jewish control of finance, the media and government
3) Denying, minimizing, or revising the Holocaust
4) Promoting the debunked Khazar hoax


B) Links to instances of rhetoric such as:
1) Holocaust and Darfur genocide denial
2) Promotion of the elimination of Israel
3) Promotion of nuclear weapons in the hands of the Iranian regime and terrorist organizations

C) Links to more of the same, including
1) The elimination of Israel and possible genocide of its inhabitants
2) Accusations of Jewish control of the US government

An Open Letter to the Administration about Netroots Nation 12

Mr. President and Staff,

My name is _____ and I blog under the name volleyboy1 at both Daily Kos and at my own blog http:progressivezionist.blogspot.com (the Progressive Zionist). On my site I constantly defend this administration against Right Wing members of the Jewish community. At Daily Kos I am one of the co-founders of "Jews for President Obama". This said....

At Netroots Nation 12 there is consideration for a panel on the Israel-Palestine conflict that would feature only those voices that would deny Israel's existence and force a One State solution on the area.

While it is important to recognize that the Palestinians DO indeed have a voice that needs to be heard, in this setting it is also important that Zionist voices are heard as well. For over 95% of American Jews, the existence of Israel is an important and vital part of our lives.

Any panel at this conference that did not include Zionist voices that support the full existence of the State of Israel would be a sure indicator that the delegitimization of the legitimate right of Jewish self-determination.

Were any Democrat to then speak at Netroots Nation with a panel that denied Israel and Jewish Self Determination I can't help but think that they would be supportive of that panel as well. As such I could not see myself supporting those particular politicians and in fact would speak out against them.

Therefore, I am asking that should Netroots Nation 12 take this path -the administration NOT support this by sending speakers or representatives. Can you imagine what FOX or Right Wing bloggers would do with tapes of this. It would destroy all of the hard work you have put in to show the Jewish community that you are our friend.

Mr. President, we support you. You have been a great friend to our community and to Israel. Please don't let this tarnish that friendship.

Please join me in sending the text of this letter (skip the first paragraph as it is not relevant to individual writers) to your representatives and the White House. I will be sending this to my Rep. John Garamendi as well as the offices of Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein. Hopefully they will not support nor send proxies to NN12 should the panel as discussed (a panel in which NO strong Zionist voices would be presented) go forward.

The goal here is not to shut down Netroots, I think it is a great conference. The goal is to make sure that Democrats are not supporting something that gives a platform for hatred and denial of the legitimate right of Jewish self determination.

The thing is that there are people (whether Paulistas or true lefties) that are trying to radicalize the Democratic party for whatever reason and there is no reason that we as Democrats should let them. Racism, has no place in our party. The Republicans and the Right have embraced that meme (just look at the Paul candidacy or "the Southern Strategy" or the speakers at CPAC etc...), let them have it. We don't need it, don't want it, and I for one won't stand for it. Not that what I say has any bearing on what people think.
All of us have a voice to fight racism. NN12 is proposing a racist panel. We can't just fight the racism that exists "across the aisle", we have to face what we see here as well.

SO... please keep an eye on this, and let our representatives know that participating in a conference that actively promotes anti-Jewish memes (destruction of Israel through BDS and the Palestinian One State Solution) is simply unacceptable to us as Democrats.

Shalom!

US Report: Turkey among worst defenders of religious rights

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has released its annual report where Turkey has now been added to the list of countries found to be the among the worst in violating religious rights within the country.

ABC News reports the commission as citing Turkey for "systematic and egregious limitations" against religious freedom.

Among other problems, the report criticizes Turkey for regulating non-Muslim groups by restricting how they can train clergy, offer education and own their places of worship.

Turkey joins a list of countries that includes

Tajikistan, Myanmar, North Korea, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Not great company in regards to respect for religious liberty.

UPDATE: Thanks to Pager for the link to the report here

Excerpts from the report....

Due to the Turkish government‘s systematic and egregious limitations on the freedom of religion or belief that affect all religious communities in Turkey, and particularly threaten the country‘s non-Muslim religious minorities, USCIRF recommends Turkey be designated a ―country of particular concern.The Turkish government, in the name of secularism, has long imposed burdensome regulations and denied full legal status to religious groups, violating the religious freedom rights of all religious communities. These restrictions, including policies that deny non-Muslim communities the rights to train clergy, offer religious education, and own and maintain places of worship, have led to their decline, and in some cases, their virtual disappearance.

Other concerns include the Turkish government‘s intervention into minority religious communities‘ religious affairs; societal discrimination and occasional violence against religious minorities; limitations on religious dress; and anti-Semitism in Turkish society and media. Additionally, Turkey‘s military control over northern Cyprus supports numerous arbitrary regulations implemented by local Turkish Cypriot authorities. These regulations limit the religious activities of all non-Muslims living in northern Cyprus, deny these religious communities the right to worship freely and restore, maintain, and utilize their religious properties, and threaten the long-term survival of non-Muslim religious communities in the area.