Tag: politics of anti-Semitism

Iran

Iran: uprising against austerity ā€”and clerical rule?

A wave of protests across Iranian cities began as a response to inflation and economic pain, but shows signs of escalating to a popular repudiation of clerical rule. Spontaneous protests first broke out in the northeast city of Mashhad, where security forces responded with tear-gas and water cannons. Since then, protests have been reported from Kermanshah and Hamadan in the west, Rasht and Sari in the north, Ahvaz in the southwest, and Qom and Isfahan in central Iran. Arrests are also reported from the capital, Tehran, where a group of demonstrators attempted to occupy a public square. Protests began with the slogan "Death to high prices!" But as repression mounted, demonstrators began chanting "Death to the dictator," in apparent reference to President Hassan Rouhani and the ruling mullahs. (Photo: Center for Human Rights in Iran)

Southern Cone

Argentina: judge orders arrest of former president

An Argentine judge ordered the arrest of current senator and former president Cristina Fernandez de KirchnerĀ for her alleged involvement in a cover-up of Iran’s participation in a 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center that left 85 people dead. Kirchner is alleged to have signed a deal with the Iranian government that would allow for Argentine magistrates to interview the officials suspected of ordering the attack in Tehran rather than in Buenos Aires in an attempt to impede the investigation.

Watching the Shadows

Plame tweet prompts conserva-purge of Giraldi

American Conservative finally gave far-right ex-spook Philip Giraldi the sack over rank anti-Semitism after one of his evil screeds was tweeted by Valerie Plame. Would that some of our supposed allies in the Palestine struggle were as principled as our conservative enemies. Counterpunch, ANSWER, Al-Awda andĀ MondoWeiss continue to promote Giraldi and/or his equally vile sidekickĀ Alison Weir. Image: frgdr.com

Europe

Moscow stonewalls on fate of Holocaust hero

A Moscow district court rejected a lawsuit by relatives of Raoul Wallenberg, seeking to access uncensored documents concerning his death in Soviet captivity. Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who rescued thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II. Soviet forces detained Wallenberg in 1945, supposedly for espionage. He was reported to have died two years later in Moscow's notorious Lubyanka Prison.

East Asia

Hokkaido: flashpoint for world war?

Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido seems, unfortunately, poised to jump into the headlines as East Asia's next flashpoint for Great Power confrontation. When North Korea fired a missile over the island last month, it was during unprecedented joint US-Japan military exercises on Hokkaido. Now Russia is conducting its own exercises in the Kuril Islands immediately to the north—including territory that Japan has claimed since the end of World War II.

North America

Nazis in the streets: how do we react?

The violence in Berkeley has sparked divisions over how to confront the fast-rising radical right. One danger of advocating nonviolence is playing into the hands of the equivalists who blame both sides (or “many sides”) for the violence. On the other hand, the fact that equivalist propaganda will be used doesn’t give us a blank check to dismiss the whole discussion of astute tactics.

North America

Car culture, racism: Charlottesville makes the link

The man arrested for ploughing his car into anti-racist counter-protesters at the Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally is identified as a follower of the Vanguard America hate group. We will now be treated to endless debate about whether he is a "terrorist" or just an angry lone nut—with both sides overlooking the critical role of car culture in the attack.

Palestine

No, Guterres. Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism

UN chief Antonio Guterres' assertion that "denial of the right of the State of Israel to exist" is "the modern form of anti-Semitism" is an insult to anti-Zionist Jews worldwide.

New York City
countervortex

NYC: protest Gilad Atzmon at Theatre 80

Professional Jew-haterĀ Gilad Atzmon will be appearing at Theatre 80, a venerated neighborhood institution in the East Villageā€”with New York antifas preparing to protest.