Friday, June 14, 2024
The West Is Sick of the New Woke Jihadism ~ VDH
The more violent campuses and streets become, the more clueless the mobs seem about the cascading public antipathy to what they do and what they represent.
What are the mobs in Washington defiling iconic federal statues with impunity and pelting policemen really protesting?
What are the students at Stanford University vandalizing the president’s office really demonstrating against?
What are the throngs in London brazenly swarming parks and rampaging in the streets really angry about?
Occupations?
They could care less that the Islamist Turkish government still stations 40,000 troops in occupied Cyprus. No one is protesting against the Chinese takeover of a once-independent Tibet or the threatened absorption of an autonomous Taiwan.
Refugees?
None of these mobs are agitating on behalf of the nearly 1 million Jews ethnically cleansed since 1947 from the major capitals of the Middle East. Some 200,000 Cypriots displaced by Turks earn not a murmur. Nor does the ethnic cleansing of 99% of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ancient Armenian population just last year.
Civilian casualties?
The global protestors are not furious over the 1 million Uighurs brutalized by the communist Chinese government. Neither are they concerned about the Turkish government’s indiscriminate war against the Kurds or its serial threats to attack Armenians and Greeks.
The new woke jihadi movement is instead focused only on Israel and “Palestine.” It is oblivious to the modern gruesome Muslim-on-Muslim exterminations of Bashar el-Assad and Saddam Hussein, the Black September massacres of Palestinians by Jordanian forces, and the 1982 erasure of thousands in Hama, Syria.
So woke jihadism is not an ecumenical concern for the oppressed, the occupied, the collateral damage of war, or the fate of refugees. Instead, it is a romanticized and repackaged anti-Western, anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic jihadism that supports the murder of civilians, mass rape, torture, and hostage-taking.
But what makes it now so insidious is its new tripartite constituency.
First, the old romantic pro-Palestine cause was rebooted in the West by millions of Arab and Muslim immigrants who have flocked to Europe and the U.S. in the last half-century.
Billions of dollars in oil sheikdom “grant” monies swarmed Western universities to found “Middle Eastern Studies” departments. These are not so much centers for historical or linguistic scholarship as political megaphones focused on “Zionism” and “the Jews.”
Moreover, there may be well over a half-million affluent Middle Eastern students in Western universities. Given that they pay full tuition, imbibe ideology from endowed Middle Eastern studies faculty, and are growing in number, they logically feel that they can do anything with impunity on Western streets and campuses.
Second, the Diversity/Equity/Inclusion movement empowers the new woke jihadis. Claiming to be non-white victims of white Jewish colonialism, they pose as natural kindred victims to blacks, Latinos, and any Westerner now claiming oppressed status.
Black radicalism, from Al Sharpton to Louis Farrakhan to Black Lives Matter, has had a long, documented history of anti-Semitism. It is no wonder that its elite eagerly embraced the anti-Israeli Palestine movement as fellow travelers.
The third leg of woke jihadism is mostly affluent white leftist students at Western universities. Sensing that their faculties are anti-Israel, their administrations are anti-Israel (although more covertly) and the most politically active among the student body are anti-Israel, European and American students find authenticity in virtue-signaling their solidarity with Hamas, Hezbollah, and radical Islamists in general.
Given the recent abandonment of standardized tests for admission to universities, the watering-down of curricula, and rampant grade inflation, thousands of students at elite campuses feel that they have successfully redefined their universities to suit their own politics, constituencies and demographics.
Insecure about their preparation for college and mostly ignorant of the politics of the Middle East, usefully idiotic students find resonance by screaming anti-Semitic chants and wearing keffiyehs.
Nurtured in grade school on the Marxist binary of bad, oppressive whites versus good, oppressed nonwhites, they can cheaply shed their boutique guilt by joining the mobs.
The result is a bizarre new anti-Semitism and overt support for the gruesome terrorists of Hamas by those who usually preach to the middle class about their own exalted morality.
Still, woke jihadism would never have found resonance had Western leaders—vote-conscious heads of state, timid university presidents, and radicalized big-city mayors and police chiefs—not ignored blatant violations of laws against illegal immigration, vandalism, assault, illegal occupation, and rioting.
Finally, woke jihadism is fueling a radical Western turn to the right, partly due to open borders and the huge influx into the West from non-Western illiberal regimes.
Partly the reaction is due to the ingratitude shown their hosts by indulged Middle-Eastern guest students and green card holders.
Partly, the public is sick of the sense of entitlement shown by pampered, sanctimonious protestors.
And partly the revulsion arises against left-wing governments and universities that will not enforce basic criminal and immigration statutes in fear of offending this strange new blend of wokism and jihadism.
Yet the more violent campuses and streets become, the more clueless the mobs seem about the cascading public antipathy to what they do and what they represent.
The American Troubles
The left in the United States has incredible clout to push their narratives nearly frictionlessly through cultural institutions. CNN has now multiple times had on Justice Sam Alito's former neighbor, who is revealed to be a partisan progressive and, by a Supreme Court Justice and his wife unwilling to perpetuate the story, the neighbor gets to go unchallenged. The New York Times hears Sam Alito openly discuss his faith and values and deems it sinister. The national press has no curiosity about flyover country and thinks anyone to the right of President Joe Biden is a white nationalist or, worse, a Trump supporter.
Left-wing agitprop has become de rigueur. A Christian firefighter in Los Angeles has been disciplined for his conscious objection to hoisting the rainbow flag. In Seattle, three teens have been prosecuted for their scooters leaving tire marks across a rainbow flag painted on the ground. The businesses that do not embrace June as Pride Month get attacked, and most fold. Employees are forced into DEI training seminars. Disney has revised "Star Wars" into a woke intersectional cult where the Jedi are colonizers, the lesbian witches use the Force to conceive, and the dialogue and acting are awful, but the actors are nonbinary.
In Washington, D.C., Merrick Garland takes to the pages of a major newspaper insisting the Biden Justice Department is not political all while prosecuting a 75-year-old wheelchair-bound Christian for praying inside an abortion clinic and also prosecuting a Texas doctor who has blown the whistle on transgender medical activism at his hospital. But left-wing protestors who, last weekend, defaced federal monuments, assaulted park rangers, and chanted "kill the Zionists" outside the White House will not be prosecuted.
In the spring of 2023, multiple suspicious persons illegally crossed into the United States. Six of the individuals, all Russians, have suspected ties to the terrorist organization ISIS. In November of 2023, several months after these suspected terrorists crossed into the United States, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared on a debate stage, "If you look at the threats we face, terrorists have come in through our southern border." Eileen Sullivan of The New York Times fact-checked DeSantis's reporting, "This is false." It was true.
It has been obvious to tens of millions of Americans that if the Border Patrol is regularly detaining people from Middle Eastern countries, some of whom have questionable ties, and a lot of illegal aliens are crossing and getting away, the odds are some of those who got away also have questionable ties and affiliations. But the left and press demand we set aside our common sense and rely on experts of questionable expertise. What is a woman? Female Biden appointees to federal courts are actually saying they cannot answer that because they are not biological experts.
In the last week, in multiple locations in the United States, left-wing activists supporting Hamas have been caught on tape with a parade of horribles. A Black man in New York openly wished Hitler would come back. Activists in Manhattan held up a sign that read, "Long Live October 7th." The Jewish head of the Brooklyn Museum and several of the museum's board Jewish members had their homes vandalized. In Washington, activists chanted, "Kill the zionists." All these are left-wing agitators.
Were these Trump supporters, the press would give it all ample coverage and tie it all explicitly to the politics of the right. But because these are left-wing agitators, many of whom voice the sympathies of members of the newsrooms of the American press, they are given a pass and Biden is given a pass.
The press must protect their precious Joe Biden. They fear Trump more. They must discredit the Supreme Court because the left does not control it. Meanwhile, left-wing antisemitism is festering. The right will predictably reciprocate. Our nation does not head to a Civil War but to an American version of Northern Ireland's Troubles. Neighbor hates neighbor, and the press and cultural institutions, captured by the left, cannot mediate national discourse fairly. This will end badly for all of us.
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Jumping Ship: Gen Z Increasingly Turning Away From Biden
In yet another troubling sign for the foundering Biden reelection, several reports indicate that Gen Z—those born between 1996-2010—are increasingly unhappy with Joe Biden's performance and are not going to vote for him this November. Some are considering what they thought unthinkable just four years ago—checking the box for Donald Trump.
Even ethically challenged Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz was forced to admit in a piece Thursday that the trend is not in Biden's favor. It seems that a whole bunch of young people are furious that Biden threatened to ban TikTok from America unless China sells it. A group once known as TikTok for Biden and now called Gen-Z for Change is not all in on the president like they were in 2020:
“Biden is out of step with young people on a number of key issues,” said the coalition’s founder, Aidan Kohn-Murphy, 20, who called “the frustrations of young progressive leaders a barometer of widespread dissatisfaction among Gen Z voters.”
Across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch, anger and resentment toward Biden are boiling among Gen Z content creators who say they feel disaffected and betrayed by Biden’s positions on an array of issues, including the war in Gaza, the climate crisis and the president’s decision to support a potential TikTok ban. The rift has been exacerbated by the White House’s evolving strategy of courting friendly influencers while shutting out others who have been critical of the administration.
But it's a lot more than just social media that has Gen Z freaked out. They see the high prices, they see that their parents lived in a world where they could buy a house and raise a family in safety. They don't think of Biden's America as that place anymore.
RedState contributor Buzz Patterson has thoughts:
Here's 20-year-old Steton Sullivan explaining why he doesn't want anything to do with leftist politics:
Mr. Sullivan says the hardship of modern life attracted him to conservative politics. Older Americans could, when they were younger, build homes and livelihoods on entry-level jobs.
“My generation doesn’t understand how that’s possible, because of how much more expensive everything is nowadays,” he said.
The simple fact is that an increasing number of young people are turned off by the octogenarian leader:
In that year’s election, millennials and Gen Z voters – a group that includes those up to 40 years in age – voted for Mr. Biden at a higher rate than any other demographic.
Four years later, with Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump once again in a close race for the presidency, there are signs that change is coming.
Recent surveys in six key swing states by The New York Times, Siena College and The Philadelphia Inquirer showed Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden effectively tied among younger and Hispanic voters.
The lack of enthusiasm should be very disturbing to the campaign:
Earlier in the spring, the Harvard Youth Poll showed far greater levels of enthusiasm for Mr. Trump among younger people compared with Mr. Biden, and a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll showed 62 per cent of that group held unfavourable views of Mr. Biden, while Mr. Trump enjoyed a net-positive rating. (The Harvard poll showed greater strength for Mr. Biden, though his eight-point lead among adults 18 to 29 was considerably narrower than it was four years ago.)
One young man is throwing in his chips with the former president:
“Trump running and becoming president – it’s a huge thing for us and our generation,” said Judah Bredinger, 19, who plans to cast his presidential vote this year, the first of his life, for the Republican candidate.
While many make fun of Gen Z and say they are lazy, it is true that they're facing a different—worse—country than folks did even four years ago. I know because two of mine are in their early to mid-twenties, and although they're both fighters, they're frankly daunted. It's tough scraping by just to get enough money to afford an apartment and keep gas in the car, much less save up for a down payment on a house.
Young people may be a key factor in getting this guy out of the White House and back to sleeping on the beach in Delaware—and that would be a beautiful thing indeed.
The ‘Far Right’ Is Surging In Europe Because The Left’s Version Of ‘Democracy’ Has Failed
Democracy is not in danger; it’s the left’s version of ‘democracy’ that’s threatened as the right is beginning to flex its political muscles.
Due to mounting dissatisfaction with the political establishment throughout the European Union, right-wing parties have made significant gains in the recent European Parliament elections. Perhaps most surprisingly, this surge in seats won was fueled not only by traditional older conservatives but also by younger voters who have sought to rekindle the spirit of nationalism within their homelands.
Before the European Parliament elections, 32 percent of French 18-to-25-year-olds said they’d vote for the “far right” National Rally party, closely reflecting the eventual election outcome. Led by Marine Le Pen, “the National Rally party is on course to win 31.5 percent of the vote—more than twice the 14.7 percent projected for [French President Emmanuel] Macron’s liberal Renaissance party.”
Meanwhile, Germany’s AfD party secured better-than-expected results, coming in second in Germany’s EU parliamentary election, winning nearly 16 percent of the vote. Notably, AfD gained significant ground among younger voters, surging 12 percentage points to 17 percent among 16-24-year-olds.
This political earthquake felt in France and Germany is not an isolated incident within these two countries. Feelings of Euroscepticism and discontent over immigration are rising all across Europe.
While a “centrist” (meaning leftist) pro-EU majority remains in firm control of the European Parliament, members of the Western ruling class are quickly realizing that the backlash against the globalist agenda, put into motion shortly after World War II, is escaping leftist containment and steadily growing.
This should surprise no one. We saw the first strong signs of this immune response to globalism in 2016 when Britain voted to leave the European Union. Yet ruling class members on both the left and right within the United Kingdom did not heed the message their voters sent as immigration surged.
One of the major promises of Brexit was to regain control of England’s borders, yet the number of legal arrivals has nearly doubled since Brexit. This surge has fueled a significant rise in anti-immigration protests by individuals desperate to preserve their culture and heritage. As a consequence, the Conservative Party in the U.K., which has been the primary governing party since 2010, is now set for historic losses ahead of the July 4 national elections due in part to its failure to control its borders.
Of course, according to leftist media, the rise of so-called “far-right” populism, manifesting itself through legitimate electoral wins, is positioned as a threat to democracy. But this is a rhetorical sleight of hand.
Democracy is not in danger. It’s their “democracy” that’s threatened as the right is beginning to flex its political muscles — finally acting as legitimate opposition to the status quo dominated by an establishment left and right that look and behave in a very similar fashion.
When liberals use the word “democracy,” they don’t mean the will of the voters. Rather, the word democracy is used as a substitute for leftist hegemony, or as Curtis Yarvin explained, “When they say democracy, they mean oligarchy.”
“Traditional” conservatives and “centrist” leftists both share the same immigration policy. That’s part of why the left is terrified of legitimate right-wing opposition as opposed to the traditional “opposition in-name-only” conservatism they are accustomed to defeating. In a recent New York Times analysis titled “Just How Dangerous Is Europe’s Rising Far Right?” author Roger Cohen alluded to the failure of leftist political containment strategies,
“Across Europe, the far right is becoming the right, absent any compelling message from traditional conservative parties. If ‘far’ suggests outlier, it has become a misnomer. Not only have the parties of an anti-immigrant right surged, they have seen the barriers that once kept them out crumble as they are absorbed into the arc of Western democracies.”
Much to the dismay of liberal elites, authoritarian “barriers” in the form of “hate speech” legislation, social stigmatization, corporate media exclusion, and outright censorship are proving ineffective because the reality of deteriorating social and economic conditions, due in part to mass migration across the West, is too great to ignore. After decades of prioritizing the well-being of immigrants over that of native-born citizens, the reinvigoration of traditional forms of nationalism through legitimate right-wing opposition was not only necessary but inevitable.
The surging popularity of the “far right” in Europe is shaking democracy to its core, as it should, exposing how unresponsive “democracy” has become to the needs of the people Western governments were meant to serve.
It’s All Fixable
When President Obama famously told incoming President Trump the largest foreign policy concern was the potential for near-term military conflict with North Korea, Trump curiously asked Obama, “Well, have you talked to Kim Jong-un?”
President Trump has never revealed how Obama responded to that question; however, given the nature of the circumstances, what we know about DC and the background involved, we can assume the Obama reply was akin to the lightbringer telling Trump, “Things just are not done that way.”
We know what happened next; President Trump engaged directly with Chairman Kim, met with him several times and even crossed into the demilitarized zone as a physical expression of a new approach.
This was only one example of President Trump’s policy doctrine, which ran completely counter to the traditions of the professional administrative state. This was/is part of the reason why DC hated Trump.
The bureaucracy of DC exists to sustain the career influence and affluence of a group of people who would never survive in the private sector. Their weak work ethic, selfish worldview, insufferably annoying character traits, flawed logic, silly outlooks and disconnected opinions, created in a bubble that has no relationship to reality, are only useful within their echo-chambered system.
President Trump has a skillset of commonsense accomplishment that runs completely counter to the mindset of the administrative state. President Trump thinks like you and me; Trump finds optimal solutions. Washington DC simply cannot fathom successful policy outcomes that do not come from their creation. Trump succeeded with a doctrine that was entirely unfamiliar to the DC bureaucracy. {GO DEEP} It is absolutely critical that we never forget this.
It is important to remind ourselves of what is possible in a positive way, because everything discussed about our challenges is framed from the perspective of a flawed and corrupt DC system. From the traditional perspective, the challenge seems overwhelming, but that’s really a misnomer.
Here’s the key – The DC challenges are not overwhelming when you take a non-traditional approach toward finding solutions.
Consider the issue of SSI supplemental benefits and budgets. Yes, from the traditional perspective the financial drain on the system can collapse the federal budget. However, if we double the size of the economy and/or modify import tariffs, we can increase tax revenue and resolve the SSI budget problem. The problem for DC is that no one knows how to double the economy or leverage tariffs to expand the domestic pie. President Trump does.
Again, we mistakenly view our problems through the prism of how they were created.
This paralysis by analysis is emphasized by tradition, by DC punditry and by the media complex who exist to talk about the problems. But thankfully, President Trump views our problems through the prism of how to solve them. President Trump doesn’t look backward, he looks forward; it is a very unique and effective approach.
We look at the problem as if we individually are given an elephant to eat. President Trump looks at the problem as if there needs to be more of us with forks. It is, essentially, the feed a man a fish or teach a man to fish conversation. Which one creates the larger economic pie?
Despite the naysayers, backbiters and backseat drivers, we must continually remind ourselves that Trump’s optimal solution approach works. We have the history of the Trump Doctrine (2017 through 2020) to review as a reminder. It just works.
So, with that in mind…. here’s a little back-and-forth that might help break the funk and remind us to smile.
[Via Unseen] – “If Trump wins, he will be handed a country in basically a depression for a majority of its people, on the brink or actually in ww3, a wide open border and a 5th column of millions of anti-American military aged men within that border, a deteriorating military, a nation so in debt it will struggle to raise capital, a country with fragile supply lines for most of the goods it needs, a divided population with half brainwashed by the media to hate the concepts the country was founded on, and a government staffed with people who will be actively fighting everything he does. Pray for our country because regardless of who wins, it’s going to be a long, hard fight to keep this country together, let alone make it great again.” (link)
My quick ‘elevator‘ reply – “Which is exactly why Donald J Trump is the best man for the hardest job of this era. Trump will end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza within a week. Restart U.S. energy independence. Tariff China and EU, pull out of NATO, eliminate Green New Deal and then…. (2+2) along with the immediate closure of the southern border, Trump will collapse the infrastructure of Chinese EV’s in Mexico…. Then he’ll call MbS, have a Big Mac and Diet Coke and plan for day two.” (link)
Now, granted I am being a little brief and big picture in retort, but the substance of what I am sharing is completely doable. All is not lost. It is entirely possible to reverse course and Make America Great Again.
[Anne Hyatt] – “While I like that plan, fingers crossed, I don’t see how he can end the War in Gaza.” (link)
Again, THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX – “Did you follow the Trump doctrine in ’17 through ’20?
After talking to MbS, Trump will call Egypt’s President al-Sisi, and tell all regional players that fighting immediately stops and Sisi is now leading the reconciliation effort. Likely Hamas will balk. POTUS Trump will then tell Qatar to kick out the Hamas/MB leaders (“Drive them out” 2.0) or they will face economic sanctions. Erdogan will be told to stick a sock in it, and he’d better not give a home base to Hamas again. Trump will tell Hamas leadership they need to live in Gaza; like actually live in the region they presumably lead. Trump will tell Sisi to make part of the deal a regional rule that all Gaza political leadership must live in Gaza. Syria, Jordan and Kuwait will think Trump is nuts but keep quiet because Trump might be willing to prove he’s nuts,…. and eventually everyone will call Fattah Abel al-Sisi to find out the date for the peace summit.
After lunch, Trump calls Putin because that one is easier. (link)
♦President Trump’s foreign policy approach brought North and South Korea together away from the table of conflict. ♦President Trump’s foreign policy approach brought Serbia and Kosovo together away from the table of conflict. ♦President Trump’s foreign policy rallied the Gulf Cooperation Council to stop Qatar’s support for Islamic extremists via the Muslim Brotherhood. ♦President Trump’s foreign policy brought Turkey and the Kurdish forces together away from war and conflict. ♦President Trump’s foreign policy created a ceasefire to stop the bloodshed in Syria. President Trump mediated a cessation of hostilities between India & Pakistan in the Kashmir region. ♦President Trump’s foreign policy brought Israel and the UAE together… and then Bahrain… and then Sudan in the Abraham Accords.
President Trump executes a clear foreign policy, a unique doctrine of sorts, where national security is achieved by leveraging U.S. economic power. It is a fundamental shift in approaching both allies and adversaries – summarized within the oft repeated phrase: “economic security is national security.”
The Trump Doctrine, using economics to achieve national security objectives, was/is a fundamental paradigm shift. Modern U.S. history provided no easy reference for the effective outcome, and fearing irrelevance, Washington DC was furious at how effective he was.
President Trump is the one guy who can do it again.
After the Pier Disaster, Joe Biden Readies His Next Foreign Policy Failure in Gaza
After spending $320 million of American taxpayer money, on May 17th the Biden administration announced their floating Gaza pier was operational. Touted as a brilliant strategic move to facilitate "humanitarian aid," it was almost immediately shelled by Hamas fighters, and just 12 days later, it was shut down after being swamped by relatively moderate seas.
The ordeal was a microcosm of Joe Biden's career. For over five decades, across three major federal offices, he has managed to stake out his position as the worst foreign policy mind in history. Now, he's got a new plan for Gaza, and you can take a wild guess at how successful it will be.
The Biden administration, I’m told by U.S. and Arab officials, is coalescing around plans for an interim “Palestinian Council” to govern Gaza and a security coalition in which the U.S. military will play a major role...
...The Biden administration is building its current post-war plans around the idea that the U.S. will play a major role in a multi-national force largely made up of Arab forces, according to four U.S. officials familiar with Middle East policy and an Arab official familiar with the issue. But President Joe Biden is unlikely to allow any U.S. troops inside Gaza itself.
We'll get to the U.S. involvement in this because it smells like a disaster in the making, but the first question would be who these "Arab forces" would even be. Is Israel expected to welcome Turkish and Qatari troops into Gaza, two nations that have actively harbored and facilitated Hamas? No doubt, the Egyptians would play a role.
Those would be the same Egyptians who allowed Hamas to dig hundreds of tunnels into their country to smuggle arms across the border, and I can't imagine the Jordanians or Saudis want anything to do with this plan. The first time someone had to fire a weapon in anger at a "Palestinian" in Gaza, there'd be massive riots in the streets of their countries.
Of course, those concerns pale in comparison to those surrounding American troops being deployed, which is sure what it sounds like will happen. While Politico is quick to speculate that Biden likely wouldn't let them enter Gaza directly, they would absolutely be in harm's way. What happens when someone is killed because the president is too much of a coward to do what actually needs to be done?
Which brings me to the last point: All of this is completely unnecessary. Palestinians do not need a ruling "council" made up of the Palestinian Authority and others who celebrated the October 7th attacks. The Gaza Strip has forfeited its right to self-governance for the time being. Did the United States quickly usher the Taliban back into leadership roles after just eight months of war in Afghanistan? That would have been ludicrous, and this plan for Gaza is just as much so.
What needs to happen is exactly what already happens in the West Bank. Israeli forces need to maintain a presence to ensure security. The Arab nations will cry like they always do, and radicals in America will proclaim it an "occupation." So what? They were calling Gaza "occupied" prior to October 7th despite Israel not having a presence there in nearly two decades.
The only thing that should matter is a workable security plan that ensures Hamas or any similar groups never retake control. The guy who can't even build a pier properly probably shouldn't be dictating the terms