Radical chic (and its classless subset Terrorist Chic) has been around ever since students stuck Che Guevara and Black Panthers posters on their bedroom walls.
Zineb, your article is built on the flawed premise that Islamic Jihadism has always been the sole motivation and justification for Palestinian activism and militancy, including terrorism, and that Israeli occupation and expansion is the only natural response to that Jihadism.
Some of us are sufficiently long in the tooth to remember that the first configurations of the PFLP and the PLO coalition in the 1950s and 60s were socialist revolutionary groups founded by Christian Arabs such as George Habash, and were aligned with the Yemeni PFLY and Omani PFLO.
Not a Jihadi in sight, and no hint of Jihadi ideology inspired or justified by Islam.
When Leila Khaled (who, incidentally, made wearing the keffiyeh ultra-chic) with Patrick Argüello (a Nicaraguan-American) and others hijacked the four passenger jets in 1970 to Dawson's Field in Jordan, all the passengers were released unharmed, including a group of Jewish passengers, even though the four jets were blown up.
Not a single cry of Allahu Akbar was heard.
Your reduction of the Palestine issue to plucky, "successful" Israel combating bug-eyed, bearded Jihadi fanatics suggests that there are serious gaps in your historical knowledge, and makes this article look distinctly amateurish. Any challenge to this "consensus" as you call it is immediately branded antisemitic, not because it is actually antisemitic, but simply because it challenges the supposed consensus.
Ah yes Nigel. I remember the PFLP and PLO coalition. Are we referring here to the PFLP who pioneered plane hijacking in the late 60s and early 70s? Or the PLO who famously kidnapped and murdered Israeli athletes at Munich? Amongst many, many other outrages and crimes committed against Israeli citizens and others.... In fact the PFLP continues to spread its message of hate across the world, in this period of jihad. It doesn't seem to be as sensitive to this possible incorrect labelling as you are! Imagine! Declaring your knowledge of the history of these organisations doesn't in any way sanctify them back to a Garden of Eden moment when their methods were justified because they weren't religious fanatics.
I don't think Zineb was stating that Islamic Jihadism was always the motivating factor behind the support numpties like Spike Lee and Maxine Peake offer in our present day. After all there were idiot proponents of extremist chic present in the figures of Jean Luc Goddard and Vanessa Redgrave when, as you point out, jihadism wasn't the clear inspiration.
In fact the inspiration for terrorists allied to the Palestinian cause has remained pretty steadfast and written into the charters of most of the terror groups who bombed and shot their way into Western headlines; the destruction of the state of Israel which Britain had had the chutzpah to foist upon the Arabs, on a tiny portion of land smaller than Wales, at the same time as they also decreed that Pakistan become Muslim and separate from Hindu India.
All Zineb has done is point out the tedious repetitive nature of the support the fashionable Left (and actually the Right during Europe's Nazi period) has for violent extremists.
She wasn't trying to provide us with the definitive history of the creation of the state of Israel, with which you clearly have a problem.
It was an amusing short observation that fashionable fools will jump onto any bandwagon rolling through town if it will provide them with a personality and appearance of depth and meaning. This can be traced back through both ends of the political spectrum. And the Jews quite often (and famously) find themselves on the wrong end of these empty-headed gestures by empty-headed narcissists.
Your conclusion is revealing. You obviously share these views and appear butt-hurt that someone has successfully debunked the superficial nature of your views, and judging by your age, of which you appear extremely proud, you really are old enough to know better. But hey. Antisemitism was never a prejudice limited to the young.
Zineb doesn’t do "amusing short observations". She knows exactly what she is doing. Her choice of the term "Jihad Chic" (I think it should be "Jihadi Chic", actually) deliberately associates any and all opposition to Israel’s 20th century expansion with Islamic Jihad, and by extension Iran, alQaeda and ISIS – even though the Palestinian question is only of tertiary interest to alQaeda, and ISIS is positively opposed to the creation of an independent Palestinian state within its would-be Caliphate. I know she can do better.
You, however, concede that the first Palestinian militants were not Jihadists. You even came back, no doubt after some frantic Googling, to concede that the Dawson’s Field hijackings had no victims other than the airplanes. So what is your point?
Your indoctrinators have done a very good job: you can enumerate the killings of Israeli « innocents » in the 1970s. But did they tell you about the 110 Palestinian men, women and children executed in cold blood at Deir Yassin in 1948, or the 200+ at Tantura (now a mass grave under a beach parking lot), or the 1,000+ at Ramle and on the "Lydda death march"? Some more Googling for you.
One of the advantages of being ‘old and proud of it’ is that if you’re lucky, you’ve been places and seen stuff. If I knew about the hijackings and their aftermath, it was because I was booked to fly on the Bahrain-Heathrow flight, but my father took me off at the last moment. Our neighbour’s daughter was not so lucky. 15 years later I was living in Algeria, when Islamists (FIS), just back from Afghanistan, first began demonstrating openly in the streets in defiance of the failing socialist military regime, and not long before they started targeting Europeans for being Europeans. Perhaps my degree in Middle East studies and fluent Arabic and French helped me to realise that it was time to move on. And probably put me in good stead for the MSc I’m starting in September. Not bad for an elderly "superficial and empty-headed narcissist who should know better", eh?
Joanna, your comment(s) read like something cobbled together from the Melanie Phillips School of Gibberish. At the end of my first comment, I predicted that someone like you would be along sooner or later to accuse me of antisemitism, and lo and behold, here you are.
Isn’t it strange how the pursuit of antisemitism has become an end in itself, overriding the importance of the observance of the Jewish faith and even support for the State of Israel? I shall leave you with a quote from antisemitism educator Donna Nevel:
"When I was a young Zionist activist in college, I went on a Hasbara (propaganda) course at the Israeli Consulate. I remember being shocked that one of the things we were told was that when someone argued against Israel, not to address the argument, but, instead, to accuse the person of antisemitism."
And actually the hijacking you refer to in the paragraph where you attempt to sanctify Leila Khalid is true but needs to weighed against many many other horrors that these groups and people visited upon innocents including the Lod Airport Massacre in 1972 when gunmen from the Japanese Red Army, working with the PFLP, killed 26 people and wounded 80 at Ben Gurion Airport, and the Jerusalem Supermarket Bombing in 1969 when a bomb placed in a crowded supermarket killed two students and injured nine others. I could go on.
Basically the folk who inhabit the luvviedom bubble ,are culturally naive with savvy political agents who milk the cow twice a day to ensure the max mum cash flow from their clients. The clients are basically cretins with only limited knowledge of the world scene or history generally. They spend their serious time learning the lines created by original thinkers and have little left for serious enquiry. Money motivates their life style and the next gig is far more important to them than the wider world. Oblivious to the fate that would mark and determine their life if they ever strayed into the territories controlled by the regimes they support, they swan around continuing to speak in sound bites from the scripts in their Echo chambers. As I said in the beginning. Cretins!
The Embinders of this era, like the Radical Chic of Wolfe’s, are the Johnny-come-latelys. Say what you will of Roger Waters, but he expressed his loathsome views *well* before they were popular.
You might even say that this has been a revolution brought about by soft power ;-)
Generally speaking out against a community is brave. With qualifications. What Jewish community is she a part of? My guess is none. And if it’s Jewish voice for peace she’s preaching to the choir. But you hit the nail on the head. She’s basking in conformity within Hollywood. She’s signaling her status that she agrees with them. She’s not bucking any community bc she doesn’t belong to the community she’s claiming to buck. It’s in name only. Even though speaking out against a community is generally brave it isn’t always right. Sometimes it’s downright awful. But yes it should be pointed out what a farce that claim is in this case.
This Article reminds me of when I went back to college when I turned 50 (2014), I noticed that it was "chic" to have a disbelief in God, that somehow a person's disbelief was a sign that you were an intelligent person, it was packaged and sold that way, ingenous lie!
Psalm 14:1 Fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." The Complete Jewish Bible
What an unpleasant response. Your accusations are incorrect. We are the same age, you silly man. We have both travelled in North Africa and the Middle East over many years and funnily enough your interpretation of this piece and recent Middle Eastern history is not mine.
I have no interest in debating further with you. The basis of your position is clear to anyone with half a brain cell (yes, including me).
It's so easy to dismiss a different viewpoint as propaganda and brainwashing. I didn't do that to you. I credited you with some historically correct points but presented a defense of the piece and some more context.
Your arrogance and certainty comes with a lack of imagination and a deep lack of respect for Jews trying to fight their own oppression. Who are you to teach me or any other Jew a lesson in antisemitism?
I shall leave you with Shakespeare, although you don't deserve it;
as The Fool says to Lear "Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise".
I agree, also they feel safe as they think the jihadi won't attack because of their support and the west or Israel won't attack because they are civilised people
I just emailed a link to my anti-Zionist Jewish cousin with the subject line: "Hey, dId you see this article, it's about you."
Was appreciated I'm sure....
Radical chic (and its classless subset Terrorist Chic) has been around ever since students stuck Che Guevara and Black Panthers posters on their bedroom walls.
Zineb, your article is built on the flawed premise that Islamic Jihadism has always been the sole motivation and justification for Palestinian activism and militancy, including terrorism, and that Israeli occupation and expansion is the only natural response to that Jihadism.
Some of us are sufficiently long in the tooth to remember that the first configurations of the PFLP and the PLO coalition in the 1950s and 60s were socialist revolutionary groups founded by Christian Arabs such as George Habash, and were aligned with the Yemeni PFLY and Omani PFLO.
Not a Jihadi in sight, and no hint of Jihadi ideology inspired or justified by Islam.
When Leila Khaled (who, incidentally, made wearing the keffiyeh ultra-chic) with Patrick Argüello (a Nicaraguan-American) and others hijacked the four passenger jets in 1970 to Dawson's Field in Jordan, all the passengers were released unharmed, including a group of Jewish passengers, even though the four jets were blown up.
Not a single cry of Allahu Akbar was heard.
Your reduction of the Palestine issue to plucky, "successful" Israel combating bug-eyed, bearded Jihadi fanatics suggests that there are serious gaps in your historical knowledge, and makes this article look distinctly amateurish. Any challenge to this "consensus" as you call it is immediately branded antisemitic, not because it is actually antisemitic, but simply because it challenges the supposed consensus.
Ah yes Nigel. I remember the PFLP and PLO coalition. Are we referring here to the PFLP who pioneered plane hijacking in the late 60s and early 70s? Or the PLO who famously kidnapped and murdered Israeli athletes at Munich? Amongst many, many other outrages and crimes committed against Israeli citizens and others.... In fact the PFLP continues to spread its message of hate across the world, in this period of jihad. It doesn't seem to be as sensitive to this possible incorrect labelling as you are! Imagine! Declaring your knowledge of the history of these organisations doesn't in any way sanctify them back to a Garden of Eden moment when their methods were justified because they weren't religious fanatics.
I don't think Zineb was stating that Islamic Jihadism was always the motivating factor behind the support numpties like Spike Lee and Maxine Peake offer in our present day. After all there were idiot proponents of extremist chic present in the figures of Jean Luc Goddard and Vanessa Redgrave when, as you point out, jihadism wasn't the clear inspiration.
In fact the inspiration for terrorists allied to the Palestinian cause has remained pretty steadfast and written into the charters of most of the terror groups who bombed and shot their way into Western headlines; the destruction of the state of Israel which Britain had had the chutzpah to foist upon the Arabs, on a tiny portion of land smaller than Wales, at the same time as they also decreed that Pakistan become Muslim and separate from Hindu India.
All Zineb has done is point out the tedious repetitive nature of the support the fashionable Left (and actually the Right during Europe's Nazi period) has for violent extremists.
She wasn't trying to provide us with the definitive history of the creation of the state of Israel, with which you clearly have a problem.
It was an amusing short observation that fashionable fools will jump onto any bandwagon rolling through town if it will provide them with a personality and appearance of depth and meaning. This can be traced back through both ends of the political spectrum. And the Jews quite often (and famously) find themselves on the wrong end of these empty-headed gestures by empty-headed narcissists.
Your conclusion is revealing. You obviously share these views and appear butt-hurt that someone has successfully debunked the superficial nature of your views, and judging by your age, of which you appear extremely proud, you really are old enough to know better. But hey. Antisemitism was never a prejudice limited to the young.
Zineb doesn’t do "amusing short observations". She knows exactly what she is doing. Her choice of the term "Jihad Chic" (I think it should be "Jihadi Chic", actually) deliberately associates any and all opposition to Israel’s 20th century expansion with Islamic Jihad, and by extension Iran, alQaeda and ISIS – even though the Palestinian question is only of tertiary interest to alQaeda, and ISIS is positively opposed to the creation of an independent Palestinian state within its would-be Caliphate. I know she can do better.
You, however, concede that the first Palestinian militants were not Jihadists. You even came back, no doubt after some frantic Googling, to concede that the Dawson’s Field hijackings had no victims other than the airplanes. So what is your point?
Your indoctrinators have done a very good job: you can enumerate the killings of Israeli « innocents » in the 1970s. But did they tell you about the 110 Palestinian men, women and children executed in cold blood at Deir Yassin in 1948, or the 200+ at Tantura (now a mass grave under a beach parking lot), or the 1,000+ at Ramle and on the "Lydda death march"? Some more Googling for you.
One of the advantages of being ‘old and proud of it’ is that if you’re lucky, you’ve been places and seen stuff. If I knew about the hijackings and their aftermath, it was because I was booked to fly on the Bahrain-Heathrow flight, but my father took me off at the last moment. Our neighbour’s daughter was not so lucky. 15 years later I was living in Algeria, when Islamists (FIS), just back from Afghanistan, first began demonstrating openly in the streets in defiance of the failing socialist military regime, and not long before they started targeting Europeans for being Europeans. Perhaps my degree in Middle East studies and fluent Arabic and French helped me to realise that it was time to move on. And probably put me in good stead for the MSc I’m starting in September. Not bad for an elderly "superficial and empty-headed narcissist who should know better", eh?
Joanna, your comment(s) read like something cobbled together from the Melanie Phillips School of Gibberish. At the end of my first comment, I predicted that someone like you would be along sooner or later to accuse me of antisemitism, and lo and behold, here you are.
Isn’t it strange how the pursuit of antisemitism has become an end in itself, overriding the importance of the observance of the Jewish faith and even support for the State of Israel? I shall leave you with a quote from antisemitism educator Donna Nevel:
"When I was a young Zionist activist in college, I went on a Hasbara (propaganda) course at the Israeli Consulate. I remember being shocked that one of the things we were told was that when someone argued against Israel, not to address the argument, but, instead, to accuse the person of antisemitism."
Is that what’s happening here, Joanna?
And actually the hijacking you refer to in the paragraph where you attempt to sanctify Leila Khalid is true but needs to weighed against many many other horrors that these groups and people visited upon innocents including the Lod Airport Massacre in 1972 when gunmen from the Japanese Red Army, working with the PFLP, killed 26 people and wounded 80 at Ben Gurion Airport, and the Jerusalem Supermarket Bombing in 1969 when a bomb placed in a crowded supermarket killed two students and injured nine others. I could go on.
If this is a defense of non Islamic Palestinian murderers and hijackers , you did a bad job. Remember Leon Klinghoffer.
Basically the folk who inhabit the luvviedom bubble ,are culturally naive with savvy political agents who milk the cow twice a day to ensure the max mum cash flow from their clients. The clients are basically cretins with only limited knowledge of the world scene or history generally. They spend their serious time learning the lines created by original thinkers and have little left for serious enquiry. Money motivates their life style and the next gig is far more important to them than the wider world. Oblivious to the fate that would mark and determine their life if they ever strayed into the territories controlled by the regimes they support, they swan around continuing to speak in sound bites from the scripts in their Echo chambers. As I said in the beginning. Cretins!
The Embinders of this era, like the Radical Chic of Wolfe’s, are the Johnny-come-latelys. Say what you will of Roger Waters, but he expressed his loathsome views *well* before they were popular.
You might even say that this has been a revolution brought about by soft power ;-)
Generally speaking out against a community is brave. With qualifications. What Jewish community is she a part of? My guess is none. And if it’s Jewish voice for peace she’s preaching to the choir. But you hit the nail on the head. She’s basking in conformity within Hollywood. She’s signaling her status that she agrees with them. She’s not bucking any community bc she doesn’t belong to the community she’s claiming to buck. It’s in name only. Even though speaking out against a community is generally brave it isn’t always right. Sometimes it’s downright awful. But yes it should be pointed out what a farce that claim is in this case.
This Article reminds me of when I went back to college when I turned 50 (2014), I noticed that it was "chic" to have a disbelief in God, that somehow a person's disbelief was a sign that you were an intelligent person, it was packaged and sold that way, ingenous lie!
Psalm 14:1 Fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." The Complete Jewish Bible
Great Article Zineb, keep them coming!
Spot on!
What an unpleasant response. Your accusations are incorrect. We are the same age, you silly man. We have both travelled in North Africa and the Middle East over many years and funnily enough your interpretation of this piece and recent Middle Eastern history is not mine.
I have no interest in debating further with you. The basis of your position is clear to anyone with half a brain cell (yes, including me).
It's so easy to dismiss a different viewpoint as propaganda and brainwashing. I didn't do that to you. I credited you with some historically correct points but presented a defense of the piece and some more context.
Your arrogance and certainty comes with a lack of imagination and a deep lack of respect for Jews trying to fight their own oppression. Who are you to teach me or any other Jew a lesson in antisemitism?
I shall leave you with Shakespeare, although you don't deserve it;
as The Fool says to Lear "Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise".
This was an exceptionally vivid description of this rad chic posturing...
I agree, also they feel safe as they think the jihadi won't attack because of their support and the west or Israel won't attack because they are civilised people