December 8, 2019

 

The Guardian (Britain)

Two Muslim US congresswomen have been targeted by a vast international operation that exploits far-right pages on Facebook to inflame Islamophobia for profit, a Guardian investigation has found. A mysterious Israeli-based group uses 21 Facebook pages to churn out more than a thousand coordinated fake news posts per week to more than a million followers around the world. It milks the traffic for revenue from digital advertising. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who earlier this year became the first Muslim women to serve in the US Congress, have been singled out for vicious attacks by the coordinated effort … A key figure in the network is Ariel Elkaras, a thirty-something jewelry salesman and online operator living on the outskirts of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

Charles Lutton -- Institute for Historical Review

… Pearl Harbor revisionism has come of age. From the first writings of John T. Flynn, to George Morgenstern's masterful study, to the work encouraged by Harry Elmer Barnes, the testimony of participants in the events, and the latest findings of "second-generation" historians who are not satisfied merely to retell the standard accounts, this endeavor to uncover the truth has not been marked by paranoid "conspiracy theories" or reactionary "Roosevelt baiting." What revisionists have accomplished is a sober re-appraisal of the origins of the Pacific War, and the making of a strong case for remembering December 7, 1941, as President Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy."

Eric Margolis

Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor 71 years ago this month was a “day that will live in infamy” according to US President Franklin Roosevelt. Seven decades later, it increasingly appears that the president’s surprise and outrage may have been synthetic. Roosevelt had been maneuvering for more than a year to bring the United States into World War II ... Historians will long battle over whether Roosevelt lured Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor ... At minimum, the embargo of strategic material to Japan was a huge provocation. Japan foolishly took the bait and paid a terrible price.

Book by George Morgenstern, Available from IHR

This classic work remains unsurpassed as the best one-volume treatment of the background to the Day of Infamy. Indispensable introduction to the question of who bears the blame for the Pearl Harbor surprise, and, more important, for America's entry, through the "back door," into World War II. In his introduction to this attractive IHR edition, Dr. James Martin writes: "Morgenstern's book is ... still the best about the December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor attack, despite a formidable volume of subsequent writing by many others on the subject."

Beyond 50 Radio - Video

In this focused, hour-long broadcast, IHR director Mark Weber and host Daniel Davies review the long record of deceit by American presidents to generate public support for war, and the complicity of politicians and the media in this deceit. Weber looks at the lies of George W. Bush and other high-ranking US officials for the 2003 bombing and invasion of Iraq, President Johnson's campaign of deceit to build support for the Vietnam war, and President Franklin Roosevelt's fear-mongering campaign for war against Germany and Japan. Runtime: 53:34 mins.

AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday said acknowledging Nazi crimes was part of Germany’s national identity in a message aimed at far-right calls for a shift away from a culture of remembrance. Merkel crossed the gates of the former Auschwitz Nazi death camp in Poland on Friday for the first time in her 14 years as chancellor, promising to battle a new wave of anti-Semitism … “Remembering the crimes … is a responsibility which never ends. It belongs inseparably to our country,” Merkel said. “To be aware of this responsibility is part of our national identity, our self-understanding as an enlightened and free society, a democracy with rule of law,” she said. Merkel said Auschwitz “demands that we keep the memory alive”.

The Times of Israel

The lower house of France’s parliament on Tuesday approved a draft resolution that calls hate of Israel a form of anti-Semitism, drawing praise from Jerusalem and Jewish groups. The 577 members of the National Assembly voted on the draft, which also calls on the government to join other European nations in adopting the definition of anti-Semitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The resolution was backed by 154 lawmakers while 74 opposed it. The IHRA definition states that some forms of vitriol against Israel, including comparing it to Nazi Germany, are examples of anti-Semitism, though criticizing Israel’s policies is not. … Israel hailed the move, with Foreign Minister Israel Katz calling it “an important step in the battle against anti-Semitism” and urging more countries to follow suit.

Robert Faurisson

Alain Finkielkraut is a professor of philosophy at France's elite École Polytechnique who for years has been a darling of a certain section of the Parisian intelligentsia ... "Ah, how sweet it is to be Jewish at the end of this 20th century! [he writes] We are no longer History's accused, but its darlings. The spirit of the times loves, honors, and defends us, watches over our interests; it even needs our imprimatur. " ... Obviously, it is "sweet" to be Jewish in these final years of the century, but only a Jew has the right to say so. In effect, as Finkielkraut acknowledges, it is no longer possible to publish without the imprimatur of organized Jewry.

The Jerusalem Post (Israel)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made progress on a defense pact between their countries in their meeting in Lisbon this week, Netanyahu said on Thursday. “The meeting with Pompeo was critical for Israeli security,” Netanyahu said of the discussion that took an hour and 45 minutes on Wednesday. “We agreed to promote a defense pact.” … Netanyahu said “We will do it with full cooperation with the IDF and security forces and ensure total freedom of action for the US and the IDF.” Relevant officials in Israel and the US have reviewed a draft of the agreement, which was originally proposed by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.

The Canary (Britain)

A former president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD) has called for Jeremy Corbyn to be ‘sacrificed’. Speaking at the BoD meeting on 19 May, Lionel Kopelowitz said: “The word Corbyn is a very suitable one for him, after Corbyn in Hebrew is ‘korban’, which is a sacrifice. And I think we should sacrifice him for all the trouble that he has caused.” His comment forced current BoD president Marie Van Der Zyl to say: “I’d just like to remind you that you are being live streamed.”

The Sun (Britain)

Ghislaine Maxwell and her paedophile lover Jeffrey Epstein were both Israeli spies who took pictures of powerful men having sex with underage girls to blackmail them, their alleged Mossad handler has sensationally claimed. The pair allegedly ran a "honey-trap" operation where they would provide young girls to politicians in order to squeeze them for information for the Israelis. The unsubstantiated claims have been made by Ari Ben-Menashe who claims he is a former Israeli spy. Ben-Menashe claims that he was the “handler” of Ghislaine's dad Robert Maxwell, who was also a spy, and that it was the former newspaper baron who introduced Epstein and his daughter to the Israeli intelligence agency.