From: <peacethrujustice@aol.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 4:59 AM
Subject: [bangla-vision] Our Perspective on the Terrorism (and its aftermath) in Norway, Pt.1
5. Israelis Debate on the Web: Did Norway Get What It Deserved? By J.J. Goldberg (Perhaps the most interesting and revealing of them all)
I would simply say in closing that while Muslims had nothing to do with the commission (or even the incitement) of the twin tragedies that took place in Norway, there are demonic forces that will nevertheless attempt to manipulate this tragedy against us. We should not become fearful and reactive; we should instead become resolute and proactive.
by Joan McCarter
Mon Jul 25, 2011 at 05:30 PM PDT.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/25/998530/-Peter-King-still-targeting-only-Muslims-in-terror-hearings?via=blog_
There's a policy response the United States needs to consider in the wake of the Norway mass murders, and that's acting on an already recognized threat that has been ignored for political reasons.
In 2009, when the Department of Homeland Security produced a report, "Rightwing Extremism," suggesting that the recession and the election of an African-American president might increase the threat from white supremacists, conservatives in Congress strongly objected. Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, quickly withdrew the report and apologized for what she said were its flaws.
Daryl Johnson, the Department of Homeland Security analyst who was the primary author of the report, said in an interview that after he left the department in 2010, the number of analysts assigned to non-Islamic militancy of all kinds was reduced to two from six. Mr. Johnson, who now runs a private research firm on the domestic terrorist threat, DTAnalytics, said about 30 analysts worked on Islamic radicalism when he was there.
The killings in Norway "could easily happen here," he said. The Hutaree, an extremist Christian militia in Michigan accused last year of plotting to kill police officers and planting bombs at their funerals, had an arsenal of weapons larger than all the Muslim plotters charged in the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks combined, he said.
Homeland Security officials disputed Mr. Johnson's claim about staffing, saying they pay close attention to all threats, regardless of ideology. And the F.B.I. infiltrated the Hutaree, making arrests before any attack could take place.
While staffing levels in DHS for domestic terrorism might be in dispute, Napolitano's response to right-wing criticism following the 2009 report is not. The report was withdrawn, and DHS had essentially gone quiet on the issues of right-wing domestic terrorism.
The extremists on the right wing, however, haven't held back. One of the primary critics of that 2009 report was Rep. Peter King, who said at the time, "[Napolitano] has never put out a report talking about look out for mosques. Look out for Islamic terrorists in our country. Look out for the fact that very few Muslims come forward to cooperate with the police."
In the wake of the Norway attack, King is keeping up his anti-Muslim drumbeat. Despite these revelations of right-wing terrorism, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) — who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee — has announced that he will continue his series of investigations focusing exclusively on Islamic terrorism and will not widen them to include other forms of terror[....]
As ThinkProgress noted at the time of his first hearing examining exclusively the radicalization in Muslim communities, there have been almost twice as many terror plots from non-Muslims than Muslims in the United States since 9/11.
King cannot and should not be the primary voice on the issue of terrorism in our government, and now is a particularly good time for the administration and for other members of Congress to combat his bigotry.
Norway massacre: Breivik manifesto attempts to woo India's Hindu nationalists
Norway massacre suspect Anders Behring Breivik's manifesto invites Jewish groups in Israel, Buddhists in China, and Hindu nationalist groups in India to contain the spread of Islam.
By Ben Arnoldy, Staff writer / July 25, 2011
The manifesto
Norway Killer Claimed to be Anti-Muslim and Pro-Israel
By JTA
The confessed perpetrator in the attack in Norway that killed scores of people espoused a right-wing philosophy against Islam that also purports to be pro-Zionist.
Anders Behring Breivik is charged with detonating a car bomb outside Oslo's government headquarters, which houses the office of Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, and of shooting and killing an estimated 68 mostly young people at a political summer camp on nearby Utoya Island. The July 22 massacre reportedly was the the worst attack in Norway since the end of World War II.
In numerous online postings, including a manifesto published on the day of the attacks, Breivik promoted the Vienna School or Crusader Nationalism philosophy, a mishmash of anti-modern principles that also calls for "the deportation of all Muslims from Europe" as well as from "the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."
According to the manifesto, titled "2083: A European Declaration of Independence" and published under the pseudonym Andrew Berwick, the Vienna School supports "pro-Zionism/Israeli nationalism."
Breivik listed numerous European Freedom Parties and neo-Nazi parties as potential allies because of their anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim stance, and mentioned that right-wing populists like Dutch politician Geert Wilders "have to condemn us at this point which is fine. It is after all essential that they protect their reputational shields."
Among the potential allies he listed for Germany were the three largest neo-Nazi parties – the National Democratic Party, Deutsche Volksunion and Republikaner. In Holland, Wilders' Freedom Party topped the list, and the British National Party topped a long list of potential supporters in the United Kingdom.
European right-populist parties increasingly have been waving the flag of friendship with Israel, as well as expressing vehement opposition to Europe's multicultural society.
Last month, after it emerged that German-Swedish far-right politician Patrik Brinkmann had met in Berlin with Israeli Likud Party lawmaker Ayoub Kara, who is deputy minister for development of the Negev and Galilee, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding that Kara be prevented from making further trips abroad. According to Ynet, Lieberman accused Kara of meeting with neo-Nazis and causing damage to Israel's image. Brinkman said he had reached out to Israeli rightists hoping to build a coalition against Islam.
In postings on the website Document.no that appear to be by Breivik, the poster pondered whether one could "accept the moderate Nazis as long as they distance themselves" from the extermination of the Jews.
The words of right-wing populist politicians "are dangerous, it allows them to radicalize," Hajo Funke, an expert on right-wing extremism in Europe and the Holocaust at Touro College Berlin and the Free University Berlin, told JTA in a phone interview.
"It is a tactical viewpoint of the rising populist right-wing to use this kind of identification, or forced identification with Israel, to be accepted," he said. "They say, 'Our enemies are not any more the Jew … the real enemy as you can see all over the world is Islam, and not only Islam, but the Islamic person.' This is the new, great danger."
Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told JTA that "in the recent years we have witnessed the phenomenon of radical rightists proclaiming their sympathy for Jews and their support for Israel, also in Germany," adding that "In many cases, it is clear that this is no more than a PR maneuver to create an air of respectability."
"Whatever 'support' for Israel Anders Behring Breivik may have had in his abominable mind, it is not any kind of support we want," Kramer said.
One day after the attack, members of Norway's small Jewish community gathered at the Synagogue of Oslo to pray for the survivors.
"We also pray that the authorities will be less naive on security issues and threats," businessman Erwin Kohn, newly elected head of the 750-member Jewish community, said in a telephone interview from Oslo.
Kohn added that it appeared that no one in the Jewish community was injured or killed in the attack, but "we are affected just the same as the Norwegian society in general."
On the reports about Breivik's online postings, he offered his concerns.
"You have many others who are in the same ballpark, being scared of multiculturalism," Kohn said, adding that Breivik's alleged pro-Zionism is a sham. "We don't need such friends, we don't need such friends."
Serge Cwajgenbaum, secretary general of the European Jewish Congress, in a call from France said that Breivik "is not pro-Israel – he is anti-Muslim.
"It is a national catastrophe," he said, "and we share the sadness of the sorrow of the families."
German journalist Ulrich Sahm reported on the pro-Israel Israelnetz.com website that many of the youths who survived the massacre said they thought the killer, dressed as a police officer, was simulating Israeli crimes against Palestinians in the occupied territories. They believed that "the cruelty of the Israeli occupation" was being demonstrated to them, Sahm wrote.
Meanwhile, Israel on Saturday night condemned the attacks in Oslo.
"Nothing at all can justify such wanton violence, and we condemn this brutal action with the utmost gravity," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We stand in solidarity with the people and government of Norway in this hour of trial, and trust Norwegian authorities to bring to justice those responsible for this heinous crime."
Israeli President Shimon Peres called the king of Norway, Harald V, to express condolences. "Your country is a symbol of peace and freedom. In Israel we followed the events over the weekend in Norway and the attack on innocent civilians broke our hearts. It is a painful tragedy that touches every human being. We send our condolences to the families that lost their loved ones and a speedy recovery to the wounded. Israel is willing to assist in whatever is needed," Peres said, according to his office.
The king thanked Peres for his phone call and for the expression of Israeli solidarity.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas visited Norway last week and was told that Oslo will recognize Palestine, but not immediately.
While much attention in Norway has been focused on the threat of Muslim extremism, the threat from the far right was generally considered to have abated.
Kohn noted that anti-Semitism in the country remains a serious problem. A recent study of 7,000 Norwegian teens showed that more than half of youth of all backgrounds, whether Christian or Muslim, use the word "Jew" as an expletive.
Anecdotally, Kohn said, "one-third of the Jewish kids in our schools have experienced harassment … but not from one specific group."
Israelis Debate on the Web: Did Norway Get What It Deserved?
By J.J. Goldberg
The Norway massacre has touched off a nasty war of words on the Israeli Internet over the meaning of the event and its implications for Israel. And I do mean nasty: Judging by the comments sections on the main Hebrew websites, the main questions under debate seem to be whether Norwegians deserve any sympathy from Israelis given the country's pro-Palestinian policies, whether the killer deserves any sympathy given his self-declared intention of fighting Islamic extremism and, perhaps ironically, whether calling attention to this debate is in itself an anti-Israel or anti-Semitic act.
The debate seems to be taking place almost entirely on Hebrew websites. There's a bit of bile popping up on the English-language Jerusalem Post site as well (for example, there are a handful of choice comments of a now-they'll-know-what-it-feels-like variety following this Post news article reporting on Israel's official offer of sympathy and aid). In Hebrew, though, no holds are barred. I've translated some of the back-and-forth from the Ynet and Maariv websites below, to give you taste.
The debate exploded aboveground on Saturday in an opinion essay at Ynet (in Hebrew only) by Ziv Lenchner, a left-leaning Tel Aviv artist and one of Ynet's large, bipartisan stable of columnists. It's called "Dancing the Hora on Norwegian Blood." He argues that the comment sections on news websites are a fair barometer of public sentiment (a questionable premise) and that the overwhelming response is schadenfreude, pleasure at Norway's pain. As I'll show below, that judgment seems pretty accurate.
He goes on to blame the Netanyahu government, which he accuses of whipping up a constant mood of "the whole world is against us." Again, a stretch—a government can exacerbate a mood, but it can't create it out of whole cloth. Israelis have been scared and angry since long before this government came in two and a half years ago, for a whole variety of reasons. The government isn't working overtime to dispel the mood, but it can't be blamed for creating it. Finally, Lenchner argues, on very solid ground, that the vindictive mood reflected on the Web is immoral and un-Jewish, citing the biblical injunction "do not rejoice in the fall of your enemy."
His article has drawn hundreds of responses—more than any of the articles he complains about. They fall into four basic categories in roughly equal proportions: 1.) Hurray, the Norwegians had it coming; 2.) What happened is horrible but maybe now they'll understand what we're up against; 3.) What happened is horrible and the celebrations here are appalling; 4.) This article is a bunch of lies, Ziv Lenchner invented this whole schadenfreude thing because he's a lying leftist who wants to destroy Israel.
It's worth noting that at some point late on Saturday several readers found links to Norwegian news sites showing that some kids at the campground where the shooting took place had been brandishing signs a day or two earlier calling for a boycott of Israel. These links were posted (here and here) and the mood quickly got darker—sympathy for the shooting victims dropped fast.
The background to this, as Ynet reported in a news article, is that Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Store had visited the campsite on Wednesday, two days before the shootings, as he does every year (he was a camper there as a kid) and addressed the group. He was asked from the audience about Palestinian statehood, and he said Norway was looking forward to the Palestinians' U.N. bid, but he wouldn't recognize a Palestinian state before that. He was also asked about boycotting Israel. He said it was a bad idea and would make the conflict worse rather than help bring peace. At some point during the day, some of the campers held up the signs that appear in the photos. Israeli readers seem to have concluded that the pictures show the camp program was anti-Israel and therefore fair game.
Here are some of the responses to Lenchner's article:
15. Almog, Beer Sheva: they have it coming, period. Your article is pointless. Anyone who acts without mercy towards us, there's no reason I should pity them!!!! Let them continue to respect and honor Muslims.
16. Gidon: I never enjoyed any support from Norway all these years when there were terror attacks in Israel just the opposite you bent, corrupt person let them understand that terror is not a solution to anything you self-righteous Jew
54. Roi, Bet Shemesh: Ziv Lenchner you're a leftist!! If you haven't noticed you're a leftist like the rest of the media!!! Enough with the leftist incitement!!! There's no getting away from it Norway was always against the state of Israel it's not new and never will be!! We're not in favor of the attack but to say that maybe they'll understand us better after what happened is entirely legitimate!!!
103. Yossi, the north: Oslo … Maybe they'll learn in Oslo that they're not immune they'll feel what many Israelis have felt and some of them can no longer feel because of the activity of Israelis and Norwegians in Oslo.
104. Ilan, on the stoning of gays [sic]: Anti-Jewish? Have you ever heard of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? Suddenly a few little Jew-boys have popped up and "invented" a new Torah! Before the Torah is moral it is first of all for survival and the destruction of all enemies! Sing to the Lord for He is highly exalted the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea [Exodus 17:21, after the drowning of Pharaoh's army—JJG]
303. Effie: I feel no sorrow about it!!!! Anyone who doesn't feel the no pain of my people shouldn't ask sympathy for his own pain.
392. We're more unfortunate: Enough demagoguery! The Norwegians and Europe generally are super-anti-Semitic. So 100 people were killed there are 7 billion more people in the world. I don't pity them they're my enemies they hate Israel so they have it coming!!!
393. The whole world dances on Jewish blood. Europe is the same Europe and even more anti-Semitic. The killer is right!!! Europe is defeated, Norwegians are becoming a minority.
458. Very sorry: With all due sorrow they were waving a sign on the island the day before calling to boycott us. So I really don't feeling like showing empathy. Very sorry. If you don't believe me here the link to the lovely picture:
When the first news report appeared Friday on Ynet, the Yediot Ahronot website and Israel's most trafficked news site, comments seemed to run about 3- or 4-to-1 (at a rough eyeball guess) hostile rather than sympathetic. The reported death toll at this point was 11, and the perpetrators were assumed to be Islamic extremists. Here are a few typical comments:
181. Noam: Ha Ha Ha! Europeans, this is your "liberalism"
240. D.A.: Bring the Oslo criminals to justice?
242. Radical Dreamer: Let them eat what they cooked.
243. Just a Person: Speedy recovery to the wounded and condolences to the families.
260. Shai, Tel Aviv: Give Norway back to the Arabs! End the occupation of Norway!
268. Shimon: Good news for Shabbat. So may they increase and learn the hard way.
285. Nir, Hasela Ha'adom: Allow me a few moments of pleasure.
315. Moshe, Haifa: I'm sorry, it doesn't move me. From my point of view, let them drown in blood.
Ynetnews, the English website, carried an English translation of the story. The comments are far more moderate: almost none express outright pleasure, and there's a rough balance between sympathy and sarcasm.
When the news came out on Saturday that the killer was not a Muslim but a right-wing Norwegian nationalist angered at multiculturalism, liberalism and tolerance of Islam, the tone sharpened. Suddenly there was a rush of comments claiming the killer was right and the victims had it coming. Here is Maariv's report on the killer's 1,500 page manifesto, calling for a European-wide uprising to "reclaim" the continent (here, for you English-language readers, is NPR's report on the same document). Maariv's readers piled on.
1. Y.: The best thing to come out of this is that Norway will be divided.
12. Gandi: the boy wanted to send a message. Extreme, yes, but they don't understand anything else.
13. Yossi: To commenter no. 1: You're mentally ill. How can you see anything good the depraved murder of boys and girls think for a minute (if you're capable) what if some of them were your relatives
To self-righteous Yossi: Coming soon to all the Norwegians. And all the Europeans.
Y.: My relatives aren't Muslims. It's time for Europe to deal with these Arabs. From my point of view they could kill 1,000,000 of them here too.
AA: You leftists have to be wiped out too. And it will happen soon. When the economic house of cards comes down, even your shoes won't be left (unlike last time)…
18. Anti-Left: Of course I condemn this terrible murder but in a larger sense he was right!
19. Ron: A freedom fighter for Norway cleared of foreigners…!!! But this time it won't be easy for you … Muslims aren't Jews — who go willingly to death!
Horrifying but correct, Muslims will teach them a few lessons. They won't go like sheep to the slaughter, but today neither will we!
We also let them piss on us
Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/140297/#ixzz1TEYYZJ1h
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/
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