Anthony McIntyre's Blog, page 1215

Might As Well Perform An Exorcism

Mick Hall writing @ Organized Rage suggests that:

The priests who open every session of the UK and Irish parliaments with a prayer would be far better employed if they performed an exorcism.


Some of the 26 church of England bishops who are automatically granted a seat in the UK's second parliamentary chamber.
One of the great tragedies about post 1921 Ireland is how far to often they ape their former British masters. The British House of Commons begins the day’s business in the chamber with prayers for members of Parliament which last for approximately three minutes. Harmless foolery some might believe but this ridiculous charade is far from that as prayers are said by the Speaker’s Chaplain, who is always a Church of England priest.

Presumably MP's who adhere to the Catholic, Islamic, Hindu or Buddhist religion or none, are in no need of a prayer. What is happening here is the Church of England marking it's space in a major state institution, much like a tom cat does when spraying its dominance in a back alley.

This is not the only democratic chamber in which the priests hold sway. Almost every UK Local Council session begins with a prayer from a Christian priest. If you consider the majority of the population do not subscribe to a Christian region you get some idea of just how out of date this type of mumbo-jumble is. It's bad enough 26 CoE Bishops are given an automatic seat in the House of Lord. Which in itself highlights what a mockney sorry excuse of a democracy this disunited Kingdom has become.

As Anthony McIntyre writes "why not sacrifice a goat." Myself, I would suggest as the British parliament is full of charlatans, crooks, and shysters, why not make the priest earn his coin and carry out an exorcism?

While AM is centring on the dominance of the Catholic church in Dáil Éireann, we shouldn't be smug because much the same nonsense is happening here in the British parliament at Westminster and our local councils. When will the people wake up and cry enough of such ruling class self interested twaddle?

Craigavon 2 Booklet Launch

JFTC2 with news of booklet launch this evening in Craigavon.

Sam Gyimah: Droning On

Alex Cavendish writing in Prison UK: An Insider's View , pours scorn on UK Prisons Minister, Sam Gyimah.

Sam Gyimah: Prison Minister
It seems our dysfunctional Ministry of Justice (MOJ) never learns the truth of the old saying that when you have already dug yourself a very deep hole, it’s best to stop digging. This week it’s hapless Prisons Minister Sam Gyimah who is the star of the clown show.

The issue of drones being used to courier drugs, mobile phones and other contraband into our out-of-control prisons has already been the cause of much mirth following the excruciating faux pas by Justice Secretary Liz Truss in the House of Commons back in December. In the aftermath of the merciless mockery she has endured in both the national news and on social media in response to her bizarre comments about barking dogs deterring drones, you might be forgiven for imagining that she would never want to hear mention of the subject again. Not so, apparently. Now Mr Gyimah (who very obviously barely suppressed his own urge to laugh out loud at his boss in the Commons) is in on the act. He proclaimed.

We are absolutely determined to tackle the illegal flow of drugs and mobile phones into our prisons and turn them into places of safety and reform. The threat posed by drones is clear, but our dedicated staff are committed to winning the fight against those who are attempting to thwart progress by wreaking havoc in establishments all over the country.

Call for the Flying SquadAs anyone who knows anything about prisons and the problems posed by the smuggling of contraband will confirm, remote controlled drones represent a very, very small part of a much bigger security crisis across our prison estate. Virtually every report issued by HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) confirms what is already well known: jails in England and Wales are awash with drugs and mobile phones. And the vast bulk of this contraband is not being flown in on flimsy little drones that cost less than £100 in Argos.

Nevertheless, the MOJ – always anxious to be seen to be ‘doing something’ – has just announced the launch of a ‘national initiative’ that will see prison authorities pool intelligence about drones with the police. An astonishing £3 million is likely to be earmarked to set up this new task force, while the much bigger issue of how the vast majority of contraband consignments actually get into our chaotic prisons remains largely ignored.

Contraband this way...I have written previously about the highly controversial subject of corruption among prison staff (uniformed and civilian) – see here – and recent prosecutions of corrupt staffers confirm that their pivotal role in what has become an incredibly lucrative business cannot simply be ignored. HMPS employees have a degree of access to prisons that outsiders can only dream about.

Time and again I’ve had it confirmed by long-serving members of the prison staff that there is often little or no searching of staff by security officers. As one remarked to me recently, “I’ve worked in prisons for over eight years and I have personally NEVER been searched going into my workplace.”

This means that unless a corrupt individual is extremely unlucky, the risk of being caught red-handed is likely to be incredibly small. It’s my suspicion that those staffers who do get apprehended with holdalls full of drugs, mobile phones and SIM cards have already been the subject of tip-offs in the run up to their arrest.

Not likely to be 'plugged'However, the relatively small number of HMPS employees who are caught, prosecuted, and often jailed for their crimes, cannot account for the vast expansion in the availability of illicit mobile phones inside our prisons. Last year alone, MOJ figures state that over 20,000 mobile phones and SIMs were seized by officers, an incredible amount, and up nearly 20 percent on the number of seizures made in 2015 (that year it was nearly 17,000 handsets and SIMs). Back in 2014, the total was just 9,745. Someone, somewhere is making enormous profits from this vast criminal enterprise since even basic phone handsets are changing hands inside for up to £600.

Moreover, not all of these phones are tiny so-called ‘BOSS-buster’ handsets that can be concealed inside bodily orifices and beat the BOSS chairs that are supposed to scan for illicit electronic contraband in jails. As is evident from mobile footage being shot in prisons and then posted on social media, many prisoners are in possession of full size smart phones, including iPhones.


Busted by BOSS?I defy anyone of normal human physique to ‘plug’ an iPhone 6 without requiring subsequent surgical intervention. Such items are also not being chucked over prison walls or landed by drones. Someone with authorised access is walking these phones through the gate and making a substantial profit on the deal.

Of course, not all contraband is smuggled into prisons by bent staff members. There are plenty of alternative routes as was shown at HMP Northumberland in 2015 when quantities of Class A drugs were discovered concealed inside old mattresses being brought into the prison as part of a recycling operation. It is true that drones are also being used, although the current numbers of incidents is certainly not sufficient to justify spending £3 million of taxpayers’ money on a specialist unit, rather than tackling contraband smuggling as a whole.


Sam Gyimah: trying not to laughUnfortunately, the MOJ is currently in the grip of a PR meltdown. Fellow cabinet ministers are busy briefing against the hapless Liz Truss and she has become a figure of fun in the national media. Even the Daily Mail hasn’t been able to resist having a pop at the ridiculous comments that so often just seem to slip out of her mouth. In a desperate effort to regain a shred of credibility, the embattled Secretary of State has now approved the launch of what is likely to become known as the Anti-Flying Squad.

In reality, this public money would be far better spent on developing an effective national anti-corruption unit that would do serious intelligence work to combat the pernicious spread of drugs and phones throughout the prison estate. Highly mobile security teams should be deployed without notice at jails to search anyone coming into prisons, including governor grades, focusing first on those prisons where HMIP have identified serious problems. Such an initiative would cost money, but at least it wouldn’t be wasted on a Keystone Cop-style pursuit of a few dozen drones. It might also tackle the tsunami of crime and corruption that is drowning our prisons in drugs, contraband, bullying, debt and violence.

Seamus Ruddy Coming Home To Newry

From The Transcripts Vinny Hurrell speaks to Anne Morgan via telephone from Paris, France about the possibility of finding the remains of her brother, Seamus Ruddy , one of The Disappeared.

BBC Radio Ulster
Note: The audio cannot be downloaded. You can listen along by clicking here.

Vinny: So as we’ve been hearing in the newspapers human remains have been found in France in search for the body of Seamus Ruddy, one of The Disappeared. His sister, Anne Morgan, is in France and can talk to us now. Good Morning to you, Anne.

Anne: Good Morning, Vinny.

Vinny: A difficult question to answer, I’m sure, but can you put into words what this will mean if it is confirmed to be Seamus’ remains?

Anne: It will just be absolutely wonderful to be able to take his remains home and to give him a Christian burial. And we’ve thought about this and dreamt about this day but it has now come, hopefully, when the remains are identified, and we will be ready to take him back to Newry.

Vinny: He was thirty-two years old when he went missing teaching in Paris in 1985 – shot dead by the INLA (Irish National Liberation Army). It must feel, for you and your family, like this continual nightmare that never seemed to end.

Anne: Yes and I think in Seamus’ case, because he was here in France, we had a more difficult task through the years because it is not easy, you know, going through all the bureaucracy of the French system and to get a search carried out. So it has taken a lot of effort on behalf of the ICLVR (Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains) who have been with us all the way since the peace process began in 1999.

Vinny: Did you ever give up hope that you’d get to this point, Anne, that you would find him?

Anne: Well no. No, no. Through the years I’ve always been hopeful. I probably gave up hope on Friday because I was leaving Rouen and I had boarded a train to go back to Paris and then to continue home when I got the phone call to say that remains had been found.

Vinny: And how do you feel after so many years, thirty-two odd years, when you hear that?

Anne: Well I was just completely taken by surprise. I was just very, very emotional and I could hardly speak and I was not as controlled as I am today and it was just overwhelming.

Vinny: This is, is obviously, a bit of a bittersweet time for you and the family. You’ve got closure for the family but then this new phase in the grieving process will begin between now and, this is once again assuming that they do confirm they are Seamus’ remains, to the point where you get to give him that burial that you’ve wanted for so long.

Anne: Yeah, I think that the grieving process has, we’ve come through it a certain degree, over the years and whenever a search was taking place here in France you know that grieving process was being, it was being rushed if you know what I mean. And then now, things now will slow down and the family, who are all in Newry, will be patiently waiting for him to return so we’ll be – you know we’re strong, Vinny.

Vinny: This isn’t the first time, of course, that there has been a search – they’ve attempted to try and find him so obviously that would have been in the back of your mind when this was happening, when you out there, when you made the journey to France.

Anne: That’s right. You know, I had been here in 2000 when the first search took place and that lasted six hours. Then I came back in 2008 and the forensic team were in charge of that particular search and that search took four days. And then so on two occasions I’ve been present in France when the results were negative and I had to return without him. But this time now it’s more joyful in one respect because I will be able to take him home at some stage.

Vinny: Can you put into words, Anne, what this ordeal, which has lasted for over thirty years, has done to you and you family – going through that – that constant search on a daily basis?

Anne: I think it was very, very difficult for the family from the very beginning and then as it was the case The Troubles were still going on at the time and whenever Seamus first disappeared and we began to ask questions that was the time when we were given a death threat and we were told we were not allowed to speak about it and the family had to be quiet and …

Vinny: …And where did that death threat come from?

Anne: The death threat came from the INLA and it just meant that we had to – we had to be quiet. And probably people were wondering why we weren’t talking about it but we were under the threat and you know so those first ten years were very, very, very, very difficult but the peace process came in and Seamus’ name was on the list of The Disappeared and then that’s when it came out really into the open as such, you know the…

Vinny: …When did you find out, Anne, that he was dead in terms of in 1985 when he disappeared and when did it move from becoming hoping that he would re-appear, that he would come home one day, to knowing that was never going to happen?

Anne: Yeah well in 1995 there was a news report, it was from a member of the INLA who released a statement, and then in that statement he said that Seamus was dead and it was the first time, the first confirmation we had…

Vinny: …Did you know – had you suspected that he was gone? Had you any doubt after the initial few days passed when he disappeared in 1985?

Anne: Yeah, well it was quite difficult because we were in Newry and he was in Paris and he was teaching in Paris and it was his colleagues in Paris who informed us that he hadn’t turned up for work and then they’d gone to his flat and he wasn’t there you know so – and his passports were still in the flat and you there were signs that he had just gone out you know, for whatever for and never came back.

Vinny: But you live in hope?

Anne: Yes, definitely. Definitely. I was always hoping. And I was always searching for him in a sense. When I would go out you know in crowds I was always looking for his face and that may sound strange to people but I never sort of gave up hope, you know – I was always was – you know maybe – there’s always a maybe. Maybe he’s still around. Maybe. I wasn’t convinced of the fact that he was dead, if you know what I mean? The brain, I suppose, just plays tricks with you, you know? And then even on one occasion I was in a bar and a fella came in and he was standing with his back to us at the bar and I thought: That looks very like him – same set as him you know – he wasn’t that tall and dark hair, curly hair and I thought: My God, that looks like him! So in the end I did go up to this man and I said: Excuse me, (and I just said) have you any relatives living in Northern Ireland? I didn’t know what really to say to the man. And he said no, no – he was a southern Irish man and I said: He looks very, very like you – you must be his twin. You know so those occasions did happen you know where – and I’d say that the rest of the family were the same. There probably were times when they looked at someone and thought: Well maybe that is him, you know? The passage of time does a lot of strange things to you…

Vinny: …Yeah, it doesn’t necessarily make it any easier for you, Anne?

Anne: No, it never made it easier. Definitely not. And sort of entering into the grieving process you know away back in 1985 it has been struggle really to remain positive and to have hope you know so it has been – it has been a very, very difficult thirty-two years really.

Vinny: We – quite often it pops up in the news now and again, Anne, when we hear about The Disappeared, whatever update or investigation is underway, and it can be easy to forget about the people, the people that have gone, to become just a name or just one of the number and the people that are associated with them so what was Seamus – what was he like?

Anne: Seamus was a happy-go-lucky fella who would have been very passionate about politics – you know he would have been able to talk to anyone about any of the international affairs that were going on. He was very bright and he had gone to Trinity College and you know he was an intelligent and happy-go-lucky young man.

Vinny: And do you remember that last time you saw him, Anne? It’s a long time ago but I’m sure that’s something that sticks out in your mind.

Anne: Yes. Yes, yes, I do remember vividly because I was here in Paris with a group of school children from my school – I taught in Saint Mary’s School in Newry and we were on a French trip and Seamus came with us while we were touring around Paris and he came on the coach and he took us to some very interesting places that he had found out about and on the last night that I saw him I met him at the Sacré–Cœur Church in Paris and we went back to his apartment and we sat ’til the early hours of the morning talking and laughing and you know, carrying on. And then the next morning he got up and he went to work and he just left me a note – and I still have the note – explaining to me how I could get back to the school group – I had to go back and meet up with the school group and that was the very, very last time that I spoke or seen Seamus alive.

Vinny: There will be people, Anne, listening this morning that will say that Seamus was involved in Republicanism and his murder was by former associates in the INLA. How do you feel about that when you reflect back on his life?

Anne: Well it really is: Seamus lived his life the way he wanted to live his life and what he did he did it in a private manner. The family were totally unaware of anything that Seamus was doing.

Vinny: I guess the reason, the reason I ask is: Do you ever feel frustration towards him because you loved him dearly, he was your brother, and the situation that he ended up in at the end?

Anne: No, no, no. Seamus lived his life the way he wanted to live his life and he was committed to that life. And you know it ended tragically in a forest in France. We would prefer him to be here, of course, but that wasn’t the case. And then it meant that we just had to get on with it. It was only after Seamus died that we then began to realise about his other life which we had no control over and during this time, during the thirty-two years, I have always said, even to you know the INLA or whoever: I am looking for my brother. And I maintained that because that’s the reason that I looked for him. he was my brother. He wasn’t a member of an organisation, he wasn’t this other person because we did not know about that.

Vinny: Many victims’ families, Anne, they want their day in court. They want to see the killers prosecuted for taking their loved ones.

Anne: Well in 1999 the families of The Disappeared agreed during the peace process that we would give that side of our recovery – just leave it there. Our justice is not being looked at in the court. We are not going to court to prosecute anyone who’s carried out these offences. We are not going to try and get them to you know apologise or anything else. We are not doing that. And the families of The Disappeared have stood by this commitment that we want justice and the justice for us is not in a court room but it is to get the remaining bodies back home and give them a Christian burial.

Vinny: Is there not a little part of you, Anne, that would like to see whoever is responsible for taking your brother – prosecution – some kind of punishment in some way?

Anne: No. No, no. I mean being a member of The Disappeared is a very complicated area and I would never have got Seamus back if I had been looking for prosecution. I would never have got him. And I…

Vinny: …A difficult compromise to make.

Anne: Very, very difficult – very difficult – but it was the best way for the families of The Disappeared to get their loved ones home. We needed to let the men of violence know that we are not out to take them through the courts. We do not – we don’t want that and we’re not going to do that. We’re not. But we were just – and the people who came forward and gave the information about where Seamus was they’re the people, really, that I would thank – you know, that they came forward and I would also appeal to those who know, or may know, some details about the remaining three disappeared who are still waiting – there’s three families still waiting – to come forward and to give the information. And the information will be given in a confidential style. Nothing will be leaked out. And though this process, since 2005-2006, no information has ever gone back so it is water-tight. I would encourage anyone to come forward with information concerning the others.

Vinny: And yet they find at the weekend, we are assuming it’s your brother, is Seamus, this came after new information was passed to the Commission and of course that information then is protected from prosecution. Did you have any unease with that or is that just a means to an end – this is what – a price worth paying to get Seamus home?

Anne: That’s exactly right. We wouldn’t be taking Seamus home if I had said that you know I’m going through the courts and I want these people prosecuted. That is not the way of it. That is not the way of it. And I feel that we should be you know working towards this and I think, you know with regards to the peace process in Northern Ireland, you know that the families of The Disappeared need to be given some relief and that they need their loved ones home and we need – you know as a society in Northern Ireland I think we need to be working towards more reconciliation and helping those who have information to come forward.

Vinny: That’s what some people might find difficult this morning, Anne. Earlier, a few minutes ago, you said that you would thank the people that passed over information that has led to the hopeful discovery of your brother’s remains and they might say well there’s a good chance, there’s a possibility that those people, the people with that information are, in some way, connected to the death of your brother and then in a round about way you may be thanking the people that led your brother to his death.

Anne: Yeah well that’s just – that’s the paradox of this. We had to allow – we had to enter into this process and encourage those who had the information to come forward and give it to us. You know I wouldn’t be talking about remains in a forest being found if we hadn’t entered into that process and that process has been instrumental in finding these remains. And you know this will be the eighth body that has been found by the forensic team since 2006. So the process is there. The people are there. The experts are there to recover these bodies. They’re the ones that we need to be encouraging and this is why you know we need to keep appealing you know to those you may know something about the other disappeared to come forward.

Vinny: Well what would you say, Anne, because obviously you come from a point of unfortunate experience in terms of those three families, the families and friends of those people that are still ‘unfound’. You know what they’ll be going through so what would you say to them to try and encourage them to keep hope?

Anne: Well I would say to keep the hope in their hearts and then, if need be, if they have to go and talk to people who may have information or you know, that people that may be able to influence others to go to them, you know, and try and get this information. I think you know we have to support them, we have to support those three families because I can appreciate the support that I received through the years and a lot of that support came from the other families and also the WAVE trauma group and they were instrumental in keeping our spirits up. And the other families that are still waiting, they will appreciate that we who have had or who are going to have our loved ones back, that we will still be with them in spirit and encouraging them to keep going. (ends)

Transcriber's Note: On the date of this transcription, 10 May 2017, the ICLRV has confirmed the remains found in France are indeed Seamus Ruddy’s. May he (finally) rest in peace.

Israel: The House Of Hate

Writing in Aljazeera , attorney and human rights activist Stanley Cohen, who has done extensive work in the Middle East and Africa, argues that:
Systemic hatred and violence have worked their way into the very marrow of the Israeli state.


Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd - Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays

How many armies invite children to autograph bombs with words of 'greeting' before they are loaded on to planes to level schools, hospitals and shelters? [Sebastian Scheiner/Associated Press]I remember as a young boy sitting and watching my father's blank stare as he watched a documentary about World War II and concentration camps. He seemed to travel to distant places, as if he was all alone and not seated there right next to me. Only once did he share with me what he had seen as a soldier when part of a group that had liberated camps.

On that occasion he described carrying the skeletal remains of a still living man from the darkened catacombs far below the ground to the light of day, as they both cried ... the survivor because he expected to die and my dad, I am convinced, because at that moment he wanted to.

Even then, years later, my father cried as he struggled to tell his story, barely audible ... as soft as a broken whisper. Although I was distressed by his pain, there was simply no way for me, at that time, to understand what had happened, let alone why.

Years later, as a young college student, I threw myself into the study of that period of world history with an emphasis on the Germany of the 1930s through the Nuremberg Trials that followed the end of the war.

I can still recall passages of the judicial decisions from the war crimes tribunal almost word for word, powerful, passionate calls for humanity and accountability. Try as I did, I could never quite deduce what there was about a place and time that enabled a population to close their eyes and hearts and simply surrender to the sheer evil that consumed millions of Jews, Catholics, gypsies, communists, the disabled, gay women and men, and artists.

Israel, after all, is a society, some would say a culture, born and nurtured from group hate from long before the very first day of the Nakba [Mussa Qawasma/Reuters]
The hallmarks of systemic hatred and violence

The cause of such unmitigated hate, indifference or, at least, feigned ignorance, by so many for so long, escaped me for decades only to crystallise and become absolutely clear to me, all these years later, through Israel - the house of hate.

Although psychiatrists and seasoned criminal defence attorneys could surely craft a creative defence to explain away, indeed, justify the recent rash of young Jews apparently calling in bomb threats or drawing swastikas on college dorm doors, on the sides of synagogues in the United States, and elsewhere, it's really a challenge without a dare.

Israel, after all, is a society - some would say a culture - born and nurtured from group hate from long before the very first day of the Nakba. It's only grown worse, with the passage of time, as one generation of apologists has given way to a second and a third and on and on, leaving the entire state very accomplished at communal denial or numbed to the occasional, but rare, burst of truth - painful as it might otherwise be.

In psychoanalytical circles it's called herd or mob mentality.

There aren't many places in the world today where picnickers would cheer to the blast of each phosphorous bomb as it rained its chemical death down upon hundreds of thousands of defenceless civilians.

Israel is one.

Indeed, the parallels between Jews as victims of German hatred in the 30s and 40s and as instigators of that same odium today against Palestinians is as dramatic as it is eerie.

Nor, do I know of many fighting forces guided by religious fiat that justify rape as an almost incidental benefit of warfare. Boko Haram, ISIS and Israel come to mind. And how many armies invite children to autograph bombs with words of "greeting" before they are loaded on to planes to level schools, hospitals and shelters? Lebanon got that special Israeli message.

Starvation as a weapon of war, not possible, you say. Israel perfected the practice of "measured" collective punishment, slow torture through controlling calorific intake, access to water, medicines and electricity to millions in Gaza whose only crime is to exist.

How often have we heard the ritual scream "Death to Arabs" from settlers as they parade through Jerusalem looking for their next Palestinian victim to trample to death under the watchful protection of the Israeli army? Want to become a national hero overnight? Simple. In Israel the road to a successful political career is surely paved with the cold-blooded execution of an injured, unconscious Palestinian prisoner.

These are but a few of the more recent examples, indeed, hallmarks of the kind of systemic hatred and violence that has worked its way into the very marrow of the Israeli state; one which never runs short of hollow excuses for each new outrage always, of course, for the understandable, if not "right", reason.

Propaganda and the siege mentality

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear - Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays

Propaganda knows no unique time, place or ideas. It's systematic. Purposeful, an almost artful manipulation of emotions and attitudes for ideological ends echoed over and over again through one-sided messages which inform the life of a given society's members.

Germany's Hitler excelled at it. He learned early on in his grab for power that, to be effective, propaganda must not only be simple but appeal solely to the masses, not to the "scientifically trained intelligentsia". Above all else, he understood well that, to be successful, propaganda must target base emotions - and not the intellect - and be repeated constantly much like a never-ending drumbeat.

Tyrants have long since learned that the most effective propaganda is that which breeds and reinforces a siege mentality among a people, a world that is neatly compartmentalised into a theology of "us" and "them", those that are with us, those that are against, those that are allies, those that are enemies.

Ultimately, its goal is fear.

'The settlers and the guards harass us and our children’

Once the point of black or white devotion to a state or theology is reached, anything and everything becomes possible, no matter how extreme or offensive, so long as it’s connected, even marginally, to illusions of threats, real or imagined.

Israel has stage-managed, to perfection, that mechanical message of rumour and fear for years. It's exploited it as well as any state in recent history. It's elevated it to nothing less than blind, obedient faith among Jews, in particular, both in and out of Israel.

Not a day passes without the propaganda machinery of the state preaching that Israeli Jews face imminent extinction, not just from Palestinians but from wholly hostile Arab neighbours that surround them.

That Israel enjoys well-established bilateral treaties and security agreements with its immediate and powerful Arab neighbours Jordan and Egypt is, of course, conveniently suppressed - as to do otherwise would be to weaken Israel's shrill and disingenuous appeal.

This "at risk" message is further manipulated by a narrative that would have Israelis believe they are largely alone, cast adrift in a world very much hostile to them and, thus, an ever-present evil and malevolent threat.

While this papered-over vulnerability fits snugly within the "us against them" narrative, here, too, reality once again gets swallowed by propaganda.

Not a day passes without the propaganda machinery of the state preaching that Israeli Jews face imminent extinction [Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters]
Parallels between victims and instigators

Israel, after all, receives billions in yearly military aid and assistance from countries throughout the world and has benefited from decades of carte blanche Security Council protection at the United Nations.

When a siege theme, with its companion drive for social conformity, becomes central to a society's core beliefs, hate and violence are as predictable as they are essential to the maintenance of political power.

Indeed, the parallels between Jews as victims of German hatred in the 1930s and 1940s and as instigators of that same odium today against Palestinians is as dramatic as it is eerie.

A difference in volume, but not at all sound, there is scant separation between Jewish businesses and synagogues burned to the ground during the Kristallnacht of 1933 in Germany and repeated incidents in which Palestinian mosques, churches, homes and olive groves have for years been torched by rampaging settlers in the West Bank.

Propaganda drives signposts of hatred, whether anti-Jewish banners hung throughout Germany under the Nazis or those that Zionists display with pride today at demonstrations in Israel or spray paint on the sides of Palestinian buildings. And, of course, the forced segregation of Palestinian and Jewish schoolchildren in Israel today is no different from the days when Jews were forcibly separated from German students before World War II.

History bears repeated witness to man's inhumanity to man. Nowhere is it more painfully and palpably clear than in those times and places where racial or religious supremacy whips the crowd into mass frenzy while its targets pay a constant and often deadly price for state propaganda.

Today, in Israel, some Jews struggle to find meaning and purpose in a state that slaughters defenceless women and children by the thousands in the name of peace, that imprisons ten times as many in the name of liberty, and silences opposition - Jew and Palestinian alike in the name of speech.

Ultimately, that contradiction is best summed, perhaps, by a very simple but powerful rhetorical question etched on a wall in the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC: "What is there about the process that leads some to help and show compassion while others comply with persecutions willingly?"

In the darkest of days, the worst of times, in the midst of the hatred that was Germany long ago, a white rose grew. One can only pray that today, from the "River to the Sea", another one will yet flower.

A Blairite Like Macron

Mick Hall writing in Organized Rage is hostile to any notion  that Blairism might solve UK woes.

Macron is a Blairite to his core so ask yourself why would anyone support him, or indeed a Macron type organisation within the UK if they're sick of inequality, low wages and zero hours contracts, privatising the NHS, tax dodging multinationals, tuition fees, the lack of affordable homes to buy or rent, the high levels of pollution in our towns and cities?

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As expected the Murdoch crime family's media outlets, along with the Standard, Mail, Telegraph and the Express are targeting Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party with their normal venomous exaggerations, smears and lies.

However for the first time in a decade during a general election campaign the so called liberal MSM, the BBC, Guardian, Channel Four news, and the Independent have firmly placed themselves in the Tory campaign camp and if anything in a more insidious way than the openly rightwing media.

It's not really a surprise as it's been pretty clear since Jeremy Corbyn became party leader in 2015 this collection of hand ringing liberal poseurs prefer a Tory government rather than one led by an honourable and decent man like Jeremy Corbyn* whose policies are designed to help the majority not just the few.

Since late 2015 there has been a concerted campaign to discredit Corbyn mounted by Blairite LP politicians and party bureaucrats like John McNicoll, along with mainstream media talking heads like Jon Snow, Michael Crick, Laura Kuenssberg, Polly Toynbee, Nick Robinson, Jonathan Freedland, and others.

Its clear they intend to continue throughout the general election campaign vilifying the Labour leader at every turn, by fair means or foul.

Never mind most of them have spent the last seven years decrying the harsh austerity measures the Tory led governments have implemented since 2010, yet when they have an opportunity to put an end to it by electing a Labour government, they deserted the field of play and reverted to type and all but sided with the current occupant of 10 Downing Street Theresa May.

Indeed LP Blairites like Tom Watson and Chuka Umunna have spent the last two years stirring up differences and creating apathy in the constituencies, and are now advising party members not to put Corbyn on their election leaflets. Despite both men having voted remain they cannot even bring themselves to deny with any sincerity they prefer a Tory government led by Mrs May.
Michael Crick.

Channel Four news gave a good example of this strategy earlier this week when Michael Crick followed the Blairites latest Dauphin Keir Starmer, the LP MP for Camden up to Burnley, which is 246 miles from his constituency to take part in a Mayday march of less than a hundred people. To seek out the opinions of local peoples Crick went to a golf club, I kid you not. As if golf clubs are not notorious bastions of bigoted Tories.

There is a pattern here, for when no golf clubs are available for Crick to spread his poison, he and other broadcasters target elderly people in the street, pub bores and market traders and ask them what they think of Corbyn. It's hardly unsurprising they don't like him as they're mostly self employed members of the petty bourgeoisie who if they vote it will be for Ukip or Tories.

As Paul Mason recently wrote:

What Corbyn Labour are up against is not just the antics of the Tories and their MSM creatures but also a galaxy of pub bores, and golf-club bigots.

The Guardian which sells itself as being a progressive media outlet on the centre left, has become a ferocious opponent of Corbyn Labour, even those who have been in his camp like Owen Jones have been called up to attack Jeremy in the lead in to the general election on the 8th of June. While Jones has often been criticised unfairly in the past by his left critics, his behaviour lately deserves their disapprobation.

Cometh the hour Cometh the man or so they believe.
Since Blair announced his return to front-line British politics in January of this year, the Guardian has been his main mouthpiece. It has published countless articles, interviews and powder puff opinion pieces about the wretched man.

As I reported in March on Organized Rage, Blair and many of his supporters have given up on the LP believing a neoliberal candidate would not be elected leader even if Corbyn were to go. The war criminal is clearly positioning himself to become leader, or king maker of a British version of the campaign mounted by Emmanuel Macron for the French presidency. Tough on organised Labour, cutting red tape and the rights of workers in the workplace, in favour of humanitarian intervention in Syria, strong on the EU and social issues, and a supporter of a neoliberal economy in which the writ of the multinational corporations and the banksters run free.

This is what Olivier Tonneau wrote about Macron and his campaign, read it and ask yourself who it reminds you of:

To achieve this feat, spin doctors resorted to celebrity-building in ways previously unknown in French political life. Macron was new because he was young and handsome, and because he had never been elected before. He appeared repeatedly on the front pages of Paris Match with his wife, whose name is chanted by his supporters at his rallies. In the final weeks of the campaign Macron was so careful not to expose the true nature of his programme (which amounts to little more than the unpopular liberalism-cum-austerity implemented by Hollande) that his speeches degenerated into vacuous exercises in cliche and tautology. He has already announced that he would resort to governing by decree if needed, and it is easy to anticipate increased social tensions by the autumn. To those who would oppose him, Macron would answer that he is implementing the programme on which he was elected.

Macron is a Blairite to his core so ask yourself why would anyone support him, or indeed a Macon type organisation within the UK if they're sick of inequality, low wages and zero hours contracts, privatising the NHS, tax dodging multinationals, tuition fees, the lack of affordable homes to buy or rent, the high levels of pollution in our towns and cities?

But this is just what Jon Snow, Polly Toynbee, Katharine Viner and all the other so called liberal MSM talking heads are doing. Why because they put their interests before the majority of the British people.

This, as I have pointed out above is why they hate Corbyn and support May. Their hypocrisy is startling as despite their handwringing on our TV screens and in their newspaper columns they're well aware it will not be them who are picking up the bill for Theresa May's misdeeds, but the overwhelming majority of the population who unlike them, do not fall into the highest tax fresh hold..* *


* This is what Hilary Benn called Jeremy before he found out Corbyn was man of steel and was no push over.

* * Earning between £45,001 to £150,000 a year.

Do We Not Have A Say?

A letter from Daniel Bradley, protesting the visit by Prince Charles to Altnagelvin Hospital.


Is it the Derry and Stabane Council who invited Prince Charles to open Altnagelvin Hospital?
If it was, it's a disgrace. Is he not the commanding officer of the paratroopers that took down 14 innocent victims on Bloody Sunday and doesn't he get to proudly parade around in his full uniform?

It just shows you the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

The rich are first class and do what they want the poor are second class and do what they are told.

Nothing has really changed in Northern Ireland.

Between the DUP and Sinn Fein, they both work for the Queen and do what they are told.

It's an insult to nationalists that Prince Charles opened up the hospital, while there's still the blood on his hands of all the victims of Bloody Sunday who were taken to that same hospital.

From Joy To Despair

From Mark Rainey @ The News Letter , an interview with Anthony McIntyre about Loughgall.

Loughgall: IRA inmates’ joy turned to despair as news of SAS ambush reached Maze prison
Anthony McIntyre @ the H-Blocks Prison hospital with his son, 2006
Former IRA prisoner Anthony McIntyre said news of the IRA’s encounter with the SAS at Loughgall left a dark cloud over the republican wings in the Maze prison.

I was in the prison at the time. It was a Friday night, and we had just been locked up, and the news came through about heavy casualties at a police or security forces base in Armagh. Immediately the doors started to bang and there was cheering.

I remember calling across to one of my friends who was shouting and cheering, ‘be careful, it just said heavy casualties and it could be a bad one for us.’ Some others were taking that view too, then as the news started to filter in it wasn’t a good feeling. The next morning when we got up the wing was a sombre, sombre place. There was a real sense of despondency, despair, grief and anger.

Danny Morrison later said that his head ‘almost exploded’ that night. That phrase probably sums up how many of us felt. It did come out of the blue and we were shocked. But myself and others on the wing, who weren’t cheering or banging, were concerned because there was nothing on the news that said it was a successful IRA attack - and shortly before it [RUC chief constable] Jack Hermon had promised that there would be serious action planned to deal with the attacks that had been taking place in Tyrone.

One of the Henry [Brothers] people (Harold Henry who lived near Magherfelt) had been shot dead. He had been brought out of his house and he asked if he could put on his shoes, but was told that he wouldn’t need them where he was going. That conveys a callousness and I can remember Hermon coming on TV saying there would be action taken, that there would be serious consequences.

In later years [IRA commander] Brendan Hughes had said he had warned against this type of operation taking place. He was very, very concerned about it. There was an apprehension on the part of leadership at the time that people in that area were not buying into the leadership line and were suspicious of that leadership.

That [East Tyrone] unit and the units in south Armagh, in that period, always went beyond what was sometimes called the ‘acceptable level of violence’. I think had the British been able to penetrate south Armagh they would have carried out the same type of IRA operation [as Loughgall]. I think the British were sending a very strong message to the IRA at that time...’we are not taking prisoners and we will wipe you out if you continue with this.’

The British were also aware of the messages being transmitted to them [by the IRA] so they would have been trying to send a message to the IRA that the military option is no longer viable - they were going to have look for another way, and the other way was the peace process.

In terms of an operation having an impact in a way that would have dissuaded those thinking about a [IRA] military option, it was the operation at the end of the year and that was in Fermanagh, where they killed the people [at the Remembrance service] in Enniskillen. I would say that was a more significant operation.

If we look at the IRA operations after Loughgall, there were operations on the continent, there were still IRA volunteers going out in Tyrone. There was an upsurge in IRA activity in 1988 ... so it didn’t deter the IRA volunteers. It maybe made them more angry.

The British were determined to say to the IRA ‘the military option is out and this is what we will do to you if you pursue the military option,’ but it took a while longer for that to sink in. That is why I’m saying Enniskillen had more of an impact and you could see a change in the discourse. The IRA operations in Fermanagh after that led to the comments from [Gerry] Adams that ‘the IRA must be careful and careful again.’ Then you had [Martin] McGuinness saying that the unit that killed [former RUC reservist] Harry Keys and then [Belleek shop worker] Gillian Johnston should be stood down.

You could see how IRA operations began to have less impact in terms of security force killings. The IRA were less able to kill the security forces and therefore you had the big operation at Teebane in 1992 where they killed eight workmen who were working in an army base. The IRA was now killing the least valuable targets in terms of how it was organising its targeting strategy - which was normally British Army, RUC, UDR, then the loyalist paramilitaries.  And the very lowest level of prestigious target would have been the workman. So they were reduced to that.

But overall, the Loughgall [SAS] operation didn’t impact on the willpower of the IRA volunteers, but it made some people who think strategically to consider a different option.

The defeat of the IRA was inevitable given they had an impossible goal, but I suppose the way it happened, and the [agent] penetration, always queers the pitch (spoils the illusion) in terms of looking back and thinking of the romantic IRA.


• Anthony McIntyre left the republican movement when it endorsed the Good Friday Agreement. On leaving prison he completed a PhD and became a journalist.

One, Two, Three – Rejoice!

The Uri Avnery Column focuses on in creasing disharmony within Israeli society.


That was long ago. This years Independence Day, last Tuesday, was not a very happy affair. The holiday was subdued, even sad. Old-timers felt that "this is not our state anymore", that "they" have stolen Israel". "They" - the rightists.

One of the reasons may be that there is no real unity any more. Israeli society has fallen apart into a number of sub-societies, which have less and less in common.

There are the Ashkenazim (of European descent), the Mizrahim (Easterners, from Arab countries and Iran, often erroneously called Sephardim), the "Russians" (from the former Soviet Union, who live a separate life of their own), the Haredim (God-fearing, ultra Orthodox, non-Zionists), the National-Religious (religious Zionists (including the settlers in the occupied territories and fascist elements), and, of course, the Palestinian-Arab minority, who constitute more than 20% of the population, and who exist outside of almost everything.

Lately, some of the Mizrahim have developed an almost pathological hatred of the Ashkenazim, feeling despised and discriminated.

So all the routine Independence Day ceremonies were observed as scheduled, without much enthusiasm and without anything new. The fireworks, the Air Force fly-by, the Bible quiz, the official torches lit by outstanding citizens (including a leader of the settlers who excels in driving Arabs out of Jerusalem.)

The Chairman of the Knesset said in his speech that "Not all the Leftists are traitors." Interesting. How many are?

Most of the ceremonies were just occasions to show the King, Binyamin Netanyahu, again and again on TV. His queen, Sarah’le, also got the measure of exposure she demands. Woe to the TV editor who does not give Sarah'le her due!

What is her merit? Well, she married Netanyahu when she was an airline stewardess and he was just a young diplomat, twice divorced.

I Don't like officially-decreed holidays and official days of mourning.

When the Nazis came to power in Germany, I was 9 years old. I had the impression that almost every second day had become a national holiday, commemorating a German victory in a forgotten war or some Nazi event.

On such occasions, all the boys (there were no girls) in my highschool were assembled in the Aula (Latin for hall), listened to patriotic speeches, raised their right arm and sang the two anthems – the national and the Nazi one.

This particular occasion was the 17th century Battle of Belgrade, in which the Austrian Prince Eugene beat the Turks. I was the youngest pupil in the lowest class, and the only Jew in school. I stood at attention like everybody, but did not raise my arm and did not sing the Nazi song. My heart was pounding.

My class teacher, a Catholic priest, protected me. A few weeks later, we were on our way to Palestine.

Since that day, I don't like officially ordered celebrations. IN ISRAEL we are blessed, perhaps more than any nation in the world, with official days of joy and mourning, some national and some religious, with no clear difference between them.

By my count there are 15 in the Jewish-Israeli year, but I may have omitted one or two. They are:

New Year: a religious holiday. It arose long ago in an agricultural society. In Palestine, autumn is the time of re-awakening of nature, like spring in Europe.

Yom Kippur: the holiest day of Judaism, when God finally decides on your fate for the next year.

Succot: the feast of the huts, commemorating the 40 years of wandering in the desert after the escape from Egypt. In the desert, there were no houses.

Shmini Atseret: the eighth day of Succot, when God gave us the Ten Commandments.

Hanukkah: the feast of the lights, commemorating – what? For nationalists, the victory of the Maccabees over the "Greeks" (actually Syrians). For the religious, it is all about a miracle, when God made a lamp burn for eight days in the Temple on enough oil for one day. Now, Jews light candles over eight days.

15t of the month Shvat – "the birthday of the trees", honoring all the plants in our country.

Purim – a jolly day, like carnivals elsewhere, when the anti-Semite Haman in Persia was about to kill all the Jews, but Queen Esther, a Jewish girl who succeeding in marrying the drunken King Ahasuerus, convinced him to change the decree and allow the Jews to kill all their enemies, especially Haman and his sons.

Passover: the feast commemorating the Exodus from Egypt, when Jews are forbidden to eat real bread and commanded to eat matzot, a kind of unleavened bread.

Second Passover: the last day of the feast. The days in between are half-holidays.

Holocaust Day: day of mourning for the millions of Jews killed by the Nazis by gassing, shooting, starvation and disease. Practically every Ashkenazi Jew had relatives among those who perished. Since only very few Mizrahim were among the victims, this gives rise to a lot of jealousy.

Remembrance Day: in commemoration of the fallen in the wars of modern Israel. They amount to about 23 thousand, but this year the public was astonished to learn that this number also includes all soldiers who died in road accidents or from disease.

Independence Day: starts immediately after Remembrance Day.

Lag B'Omer: an ancient agricultural festival, announcing summer, but linked in Jewish mythology to several different historic events, such as the last rebellion against Rome, which put an end to Jewish statehood in Palestine. Children light bonfires all over the country.

Shvuot: the feast of harvest, also the feast of the Torah.

9th of the Month Av: The day on which the Temple in Jerusalem was twice destroyed, first by the Babylonians and, centuries later, by the Romans. A day of mourning.

On most of these days, everything in Israel is closed. Some observe even more days commemorating calamities of the past.

What Is the reason for this proliferation of joy and mourning?

For many centuries, Jews were an ethno-religious community, without a territorial homeland. They were not an exception. In Byzantine and Ottoman times, communities were organized that way. A Jewish girl in Antioch (today's Syria) could marry a Jewish boy in Alexandria (Egypt), but not the Catholic boy next door. Communities were largely autonomous, ruled by religious functionaries. .

Such communities disappeared long ago. People adopted new forms of human organization. But the Jews clung to their ancestral habits. All these ceremonies and holy days were necessary to hold them together. Jews in Riga read the Passover Haggada in exactly the same way and at the same time as Jews in Cape Town.

Some 250 years ago, human communities became nations. As these nations became the norm, Jews were becoming more and more "abnormal" and hated. The founders of Zionism decided that Jews, too, must become a nation.

How to turn a religious community into a modern nation? All the important rabbis of the day cursed Zionism and its founder, the Viennese journalist and playwright Theodor Herzl. In order to overcome this resistance and lure the Jews to Palestine, Herzl and his disciples adopted the religious holy days and poured into them a new nationalist content.

These, then, are the Jewish-Israeli holidays: a mish-mash of ancient religion and modern nationalism, many of them including both.

At the beginning of modern Zionism, such a proliferation of holy days may have been necessary to hold the new society together. But now?

What's So bad about that?

The bad thing is that these holy days create an endless continuity of indoctrination, of brain-washing. Every child absorbs the national story almost from birth. The parents see to that. In kindergarten, these ideas are deeply implanted in their minds, in school the indoctrination is deepened from feast to feast and from year to year. The end result is a community totally absorbed with itself, half-religious and half-ultra-nationalist, cut off from all other nations, lacking universal values.

Expressions like "all the world is against us" or "they all want to destroy us" or "all the Goyim are the same" are heard quite often. The great majority of Israelis of all hues believe in them deep in their hearts.

Perhaps it is true that there exists no really secular Jewish Israeli. Take a secular specimen, dig into his consciousness and you will find the traces of all these holy days. Very few escape.

Perhaps the most characteristic is the transition we experienced last Monday evening. Memorial Day for the fallen soldier turned into Independence Day, with nothing between them.

Extreme joy after extreme mourning, almost merging. A masterpiece of emotional manipulation.

If we want to turn Israel into a normal nation, all this profusion of holy days must be reduced to a normal few.

Greatest Covered-Up Genocide In The History Of Man

From The Transcripts John McDonagh speaks to Chris Fogarty via telephone about the launch of his new book about the Irish holocaust. (Mike Costello of the National Irish Freedom Committee is also in studio.)
Radio Free Eireann
22 April 2017
WBAI 99.5FM Pacifica Radio
New York City
listen on the internet: wbai.org Saturdays Noon EST
Audio Player
(begins time stamp ~ 06:41)

John: With us on the line is Chris Fogarty. Chris, if you could tell us quickly – people might want to come hear you speak, you’re out of Chicago, and if anybody knows about FBI surveillance it is definitely you but we won’t be talking about that today. But what is your book about and people can come see you tomorrow at Rory Dolan’s.

Chris: Alright, the title of the book speaks for itself: Ireland 1845-1850: The Perfect Holocaust and Who Kept It ‘Perfect’. And the holocaust dates from 1847 itself when writers, including people like Michael Davitt in his published works in the Cork Examiner newspaper and others, wrote about it as ‘holocaust’ so we’re not treading on anyone’s toes – that’s what it was called in public at the time.
But it describes how something over five million people were murdered by the British government when it sent in sixty-seven regiments of its Army into Ireland to remove Ireland’s abundant food crops at gunpoint. And those sixty-seven regiments were more than half of the British Empire Army at the time. This has been the greatest covered-up genocide in the history of man. We call it An t-Ár Mór as well for those who speak Irish and we should actually promote that. So we’re very grateful, by the way, to the National Graves Association of Ireland and to The 1916 Societies and to the Irish Republican Brotherhood all of whom have been constructively putting out the word about this book.

John: Well Chris, thanks and if that doesn’t whet your appetite you can get up and hear Chris speak longer about the book and he’ll be signing books up at Rory Dolan’s. And Mike, just quickly once again, and then in Irish.

Mike: (makes announcements)

Chris: See you this evening – see you this afternoon – or tomorrow afternoon!

John: Alright, Chris, we’ll see you then. (ends time stamp ~ 8:59)