Monday, June 5, 2017

Laughed At by Time



All the same we take our chances
Laughed at by time
Tricked by circumstances
Plus ca change
Plus c'est la meme chose
The more that things change
The more they stay the same

-        Rush

Maybe history wouldn't have to repeat itself if we listened once in awhile.

-        Wynne McLaughlin


The year is 1911; the place is Libya, Syria, Palestine; the man is Muhammed Iz-al-Din al-Qassam.  But the story is just one of type: it has been repeated regularly both before and since, in all regions of North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, by many others.

I will add: there is one other difference.  All of the violence fostered in 1911 was local – local to the region, local to Palestine.  Today, the blowback is not regionally restricted; we read of events almost daily, mostly throughout Europe but also the United States.  London and Manchester are merely the recent examples.

Otherwise, there is nothing new under today’s sun.  If you find something different while reading this story, please raise your hand.

In 1911, Italy invaded Libya and al-Qassam declared a jihad, a holy war, against the infidel Catholics defiling a Muslim nation.

At the time, al-Qassam was imam of a local mosque in Haifa.  He began collecting funds for the Libyan resistance; he wrote a victory anthem; he recruited dozens of volunteers who set out for Libya.  All reasonable actions to take if one was fending off an invasion of homeland, as was the case.

Yet, the Ottoman authorities turned his volunteers back – not allowing them to continue to Libya.

After World War One, the entire region was “in the grip of lawlessness…and everyone was fighting everyone else….”  Also after World War One, Britain had the Mandate from the League of Nations regarding Palestine; Britain also had the complications of competing promises made to the local Arabs and to the Zionist Jews.  It was a recipe for conflict.

Somewhere around this time, al-Qassam was appointed to an official position within the Supreme Muslim Council; using this position he would go from village to village, encouraging people to organize terrorist cells against the British and the Jews.

Fathers were proud of their “martyred” sons, those who joined to fight against the British and the Jews.  Neighbors would visit the home of a dead son, offering, not condolences, but congratulations, to the parents.  The parents would joyously accept such sentiments.

In addition to human targets, these cells went after symbolic targets: trees planted by the Jews; railroad tracks laid by the British.

The popular and near spontaneous outbreaks of violence, fostered by al-Qassam, were expressions of social unrest, national rage, and the dark mood of a generation that had matured under British rule.

In November, 1935, al-Qassam hid in the hills, along with several men; it was felt at the time that if Jewish immigration continued, Palestine’s future was “very black.”  Yes, rather.  Especially for Palestinian Arabs.

In the meantime, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia; Hitler and the Nazis came to power in Germany, opening the benefit of more international pressure supportive of bringing even more European Jews to Palestine.  The conflict – both in Palestine and throughout the region – was certain to escalate.

When al-Qassam died, thousands attended his funeral; it turned into a mass demonstration of national unity.  In death, his work had only begun.

What the Jewish community called “the events” and the Arab community referred to as their “rebellion” began on April 19, 1936, in Jaffa, when nine Jews were murdered and four wounded.

The Arabs launched a war for their homeland.

Now the conflict between the two peoples became a threat to the security of every individual, every day of the week and every hour of the day; life was a routine of total horror.

Bombs, bullets, burned fields – every night before sleep and after morning after awakening.  Countless thousands killed – including unknown thousands in inter-Arab violence.  Throwing a grenade into a passenger train full of Jews was considered heroes’ work.

The Arabs went on strike; Arab leaders were murdered by Arabs, accused of collaborating with the British; family feuds were brought to a head – charges taken to the British by one Arab brother against another brother.

Many Arabs lost their lives at the hands of other Arabs.

And many Arabs lost their lives at the hands of the British and the Jews; many Jews lost their lives at the hands of the Arabs.

And, in the meantime, more Jews were coming.  The British were seemingly impotent to offer any meaningful solutions.  British officials in Palestine were sympathetic to the Arabs; those in London felt otherwise.

Conclusion

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.

-        George Bernard Shaw

This “unexpected” hasn’t gone on for over one hundred years because political leaders are stupid, “incapable…of learning from experience.”  When something like this is sustained – when the same “mistakes” occur repeatedly – one might consider other reasons.

I will revisit my view for the reasons behind this ongoing history in the coming days.

6 comments:

  1. "This “unexpected” hasn’t gone on for over one hundred years because political leaders are stupid, “incapable…of learning from experience.” When something like this is sustained – when the same “mistakes” occur repeatedly – one might consider other reasons."

    Government strengthens with conflict, or "war is the health of the state". That's about as close as I can get to understanding what moves people (they are still people, yes?) to murder thousands and destroy entire cultures. I'm sure I could never do it even for self preservation, much less for profit and power.

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  2. One probability is that globalist elites at the beginning of the century, noting the popular rise of dispensationalism with the publication of the Scofield Bible, etc., saw in it a way to get a majority Christian nation to support perpetual military intervention in the middle east in the name of protecting God's "chosen" people. To this day, dispensational Zionism runs rampant in evangelical America, across virtually every denomination. Conservative Christians (including several of my relatives) who claim to want small government, low taxes, and individual liberty, will in the same breath defend any and all U.S. military action, no questions asked, because "Israel."

    Insane.

    The grand scheme, I think, is the destruction of family and tribe, and the destruction of Western bourgeois culture and civilization. Mass migrations of people internationally, which is what all of our meddling in the Middle East and North Africa (and elsewhere) has done, is the easiest way to do that.

    Mark Steyn has a great video related to this that LRC linked to recently: https://youtu.be/MTSBEc4JJSQ

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    Replies
    1. Great post.

      I highly recommend the film "Marching to Zion" regarding christian zionism and the Scofield "Bible".

      Found here on Youtube:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=typ2pl2L47k

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  3. BM, you may find these pieces by Dr. Kerry Bolton useful.

    http://www.kerrybolton.com/roots-of-present-world-conflict/

    >Arab support for the Allied cause during World War I, and the promises that were made to the Arabs, have been all but forgotten. As recent history indicates, the Arabs have had congenial relations with the West, and have been met with duplicity and betrayal. Now the West is reaping what its perfidious politicians had sown a century ago. There was nothing “inevitable” about this “clash of civilizations.” Goodwill existed during World War I and was trashed for the sake of Zionism. Sycophancy towards Israel has assured ever since that accord between the Arabs and the West has been scuttled.

    https://inconvenienthistory.com/5/3/3215

    >summary of the dialectic between national socialism and zionism

    https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/08/02/the-red-face-of-israel/

    >summary of the relationship between communism and zionism

    (these pieces are best read in the order listed)

    Regarding libertarianism, I have found it remarkable how many hardline libertarians will jump through hoops to describe the terrorism, ethnic cleansing, global meddling, and outright marxism that created the Jewish State as "homesteading." It is made even absurd by the fact that Zionism is the source of the present "clash of civilizations" and perpetual war in the ME. If you support peace you cannot support Zionism.

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  4. BM,

    Once again you have produced a fantastic analysis of history, and a map of the future.

    I fear the word "pogroms" will soon return to the European vernacular without radical political changes in Europe and America.

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  5. "Pogrom is a Russian word meaning “to wreak havoc, to demolish violently.”

    Isn't that what has been made to happen in the ME since World Wars 1 and 2?

    In the ME, both sides (opposing religionists) commit pogroms daily.

    Israel is not the innocent your comment suggests, and neither are Muslims.

    If both sides would stop warring, peace might break out.

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