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Friday 31 October 2014

Candle Vigil For Kobani


Photograph: Daryl McCann


Last night, October 31, 2014, saw a Candle Vigil in Adelaide organised by the Adelaide Kurdish Youth Society. Here is the link to their Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/AdelaideKurdishYouthSociety

Kobani is Stalingrad - D'oh!



It is nice to know that that even obtuse publications such as the Economist have worked out the obvious: http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21629475-kobane-has-acquired-huge-symbolic-significance-all-those-fighting-it

Monday 27 October 2014

Egypt vs Qatar, Turkey, Iran & Islamic Terrorism


Gaza Tunnel

The Long War is not a conflagration between the West and Muslims but between Islamic millennialism (and the bohemian leftist enablers in the West) and virtually everybody else: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/10/27/egypt-considers-gaza-wall-to-block-hamas-terror-attacks/ 

Sunday 26 October 2014

Saturday 25 October 2014

Russell Brand Enters the Twilight Zone




Conspiracy theories tell us more about the conspiracist than anything else. As a serious thinker, Russell Brand is one funny guy:      
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/russell-brand-says-george-bush-could-have-been-behind-9-11-attacks-1471583

Here is a link to the article I wrote for the November 2013 edition of Quadrant on JFK assassination conspiracy theories: http://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2013/11/john-f-kennedys-assassination-america/

Richard Landes & Ten Reasons Against a Palestinian State


Screen shot of Richard Landes' The Augean Stables site


This is Richard Landes' important essay on why a Palestinian state is not such a good idea: http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2014/10/15/peace-when-ten-reasons-why-a-palestinian-state-now-is-bad-for-the-world/   

Thursday 23 October 2014

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Tuesday 21 October 2014

Good vs Bad



Here is an interesting story about an American, Jeremy Woodard, who has gone to fight with the PYG: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29705167

Saturday 18 October 2014

The Tide Turns In Kobani

Women carry the caskets holding the bodies of four female Kurdish fighters (YPJ)

The tide might well be turning against the Islamic State in Kobani: http://time.com/3513840/isis-syria-kobani-kurds/

Thursday 16 October 2014

Wednesday 15 October 2014

Rehana vs the Islamic State

If this is not a photograph of Women's Protection Unit (YPJ) fighter Rehana it should be 

I am not sure how completely true this following report by Gareth Platt in the International Business Times is, though we can but hope: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/heroine-kobani-kurdish-female-fighter-rehana-kills-100-isis-jihadis-single-handedly-1469989

Tuesday 14 October 2014

The Kurds Recapture Strategic Kobani Hill



Here is the latest report from the BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29611673

France's Loss, Israel's Gain

The cover of Robert S. Wistrich's From Ambivalence to Betrayal

What follows is a powerful indictment of French anti-Semitism in an article by Robert S. Wistrich: http://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2014/10/summer-in-paris/

Here is a review I wrote of Wistrich's From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews and Israel (2012):  http://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2012/11/how-the-left-became-anti-semitic/

Sunday 12 October 2014

Letter from YPG fighter to her Mother

YPG or People's Protection Units

Here is letter from a female YPG fighter, involved in the siege of Kobani, to her mother: http://www.hawarnews.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2656:letter-from-a-ypj-fighter-to-her-mother&catid=6:manet

President Erdogan's Priorities


Turkey's President Erdogan has done great damage to his nation's standing in the world. Why? Some of the answer might be in this article by Joan Smith in the British Independent newspaper: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/isis-in-kobani-why-turkey-is-allowing-the-town-to-fall-9789197.html

Saturday 11 October 2014

The Battle of Kobani

The Battle for Kobani is like a modern-day Stalingrad 

Rudaw might be a good site for obtaining the latest news on the Battle of Kobani:  http://rudaw.net/english

Thursday 9 October 2014

We Are All Israelis Now

Photograph taken in Jerusalem, January 2012. 

Here is the editorial in this week's Australian version of the Spectator magazine: http://www.spectator.co.uk/australia/australia-leading-article/9327821/leader-4/

In many ways it complements my Hamas article in this month's Quadrant:
http://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2014/10/hamass-propaganda-deed-gaza/

Here, by the way, is a link to the Honest Reporting site:http://honestreporting.com/

"Erdogan Hates the Syrian Kurds"

The Battle for Kobani

Here is a recent update on the Battle for Kobani in the Guardian newspaper:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/08/kobani-isis-turkey-kurds-ypg-syria-erdogan


Wednesday 8 October 2014

Hizb ut-Tahrir in Australia




Click on this link for a fascinating article by Latika Bourke in today's Sydney Morning Herald concerning last night's Lateline interview between Emma Aberici and Wassim Doureihi, a spokesman for the Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir:
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-backs-lateline-host-emma-alberici-over-fiery-hizb-uttahrir-interview-20141009-113fxd.html

Tuesday 7 October 2014

Kobani: Kurds Attempting to Fend off Islamic State


This a report from the Guardian newspaper:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/07/syrian-kurds-isis-militants-kobani

Here is an article in the Jerusalem Post : http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Western-fear-of-angering-Turkey-leaves-besieged-Kurdish-town-at-mercy-of-Islamic-State-378395

For some relevant background reading, here is "The Downfall of Obama's Middle East Doctrine", which appeared in the March 2014 edition of Quadrant magazine: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2014/03/downfall-obamas-middle-east-doctrine/

Hamas's Propaganda by Deed in Gaza

Hamas is the first cousin of the Islamic State 

Hamas, also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, excels at only two things – terrorism and propaganda. On August 26, 2014, an open-ended ceasefire began with Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri declaring to the world: “We have won.” What they had won did not seem entirely clear. This was the same deal Hamas had rejected – and Israel accepted – on July 15. But terrorism is propaganda and propaganda terrorism, and so Zuhri felt free to boast that Hamas had accomplished “what no Arab army has done. We have defeated them.” With victories like this Hamas need never experience defeat.

Click here to read my entire article in the October 2014 edition of Quadranthttp://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2014/10/hamass-propaganda-deed-gaza/


Wednesday 1 October 2014

Women Are The Other Half Of The Sky


Here is a fascinating article by Nicholas Krist in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/opinion/nicholas-kristof-what-isis-could-teach-the-west.html?action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article

Echoes of Tiananmen 1989


Here is a report on the incredibly polite people of Hong Kong who are prepared to take a stand against Beijing: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29430229 

The Hamas Death Cult Murdering Gazan Civilians On Friday, 22 August 2014



To support or even apologise for the Hamas death cult is to be an enabler of violent and apocalyptic millennialism. Some Leftist historians are doing just that. See this article by Jeffrey Herf in The American Interest magazine:  http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2014/08/26/a-pro-hamas-left-emerges/ 
Then again, Karl Marx was an apocalyptic millennialist and so maybe the connection was just waiting to be made: http://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2011/10/the-opium-of-terry-eagleton/