People across the political spectrum in Israel were disgusted recently to see others at a Jewish wedding celebrating the fire bombing of a Palestinian family and holding up a picture of 18-month-old Ali Dawabshe who was burned away in the attack. One youth was shown stabbing the picture of the baby as others danced and rejoiced. Israeli police arrested four of the men in the videotape today, though (as despicable as these extremists are) the arrests raise questions over the criminalization of speech.
The wedding of a couple from the far religious right showed people dancing with weapons and rejoicing in the deaths. The father and the baby Ali both burned to death in the attack. It took a month for the mother, Reham, to die in the hospital. She was a 27 year old teacher and had third degree burns over 90 percent of her body. Only their four-year-old son Ahmed survived with second-degree burns on more than 60 percent of his body.
The four men arrested include the groom Yakir Ashbal. What is interesting is that the lawyer representing them was one of those at what is now being called the “hate wedding” filled with extremists. Attorney Itamar Ben Gvir has insisted that a weapon shown in the videotape was a toy and that “even if it was tasteless, no crime has been committed during the dance from this perspective.” Giver would seem to have an obvious conflict in representation as a potential witness. His participation in such a hateful event also raises questions about his own moral judgment, but I fail to see how he could defend a case in which he is a witness.
Putting those ethical concerns aside, his point is still a valid one. The men were charged with “incitement to violence” and “illegal possession of weapons.” The latter charge is a factual question and not particularly troubling from a legal perceptive. The incitement charge is a concern. We have long discussed the increasing criminalization of speech. We have previously discussed the alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West, particularly in France (here and here and here and here and here and here) and England ( here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Much of this trend is tied to the expansion of hate speech and non-discrimination laws. We have even seen comedians targets with such court orders under this expanding and worrisome trend. (here and here).
Here you have hateful individuals celebrating and rejoicing in the death of a family, including a baby. However, what constitutes incitement and what constitutes opinion rests on a highly subjective determination. Presumably any rejoicing over the attack would encourage or incite others. This creates a slippery slope in which prosecutors can pick and chose who to arrest for unpopular speech. I find these people, including a lawyer at such a hateful event, to be disgusting and grotesque people. Yet, civil libertarians are often required to defend the least sympathetic individuals in our society. We do not need free speech to protect popular speech or individuals. The test of our convictions is our willingness to extend the same protections to those whom we despise.
While Israel does not have the same free speech protections as the United States, it is the country with the most such protections in this region. If there are gun charges to be brought, I say bring them. However, the incitement charges raise deep concerns over how speech is regulated or prosecuted by the government.
What do you think?
@Prairie Rose
1, January 4, 2016 at 2:46 pm
“How would his recommendations translate into nonviolent resistance in a digital age, where much of the surveillance state is unseen? It would be difficult to get iconic photos like the one of the protester sticking a daisy in the soldier’s rifle.”
————–
Although I’ve recently purchased a copy of From Dictatorship to Democracy in order to support Dr. Sharp’s work (which I urge others to do, as well), it is available as a free download online, the link to which is provided below.
Here’s an excerpt, which I hope addresses your question, above:
THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION
Psychological intervention
158. Self-exposure to the elements
159. The fast
(a) Fast of moral pressure
(b) Hunger strike
(c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
161. Nonviolent harassment
Physical intervention
162. Sit-in
163. Stand-in
164. Ride-in
165. Wade-in
166. Mill-in
167. Pray-in
168. Nonviolent raids
169. Nonviolent air raids
170. Nonviolent invasion
171. Nonviolent interjection
172. Nonviolent obstruction
173. Nonviolent occupation
Social intervention
174. Establishing new social patterns
175. Overloading of facilities
176. Stall-in
177. Speak-in
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
Economic intervention
181. Reverse strike
182. Stay-in strike
183. Nonviolent land seizure
184. Defiance of blockades
185. Politically motivated counterfeiting
186. Preclusive purchasing
187. Seizure of assets
188. Dumping
189. Selective patronage
190. Alternative markets
191. Alternative transportation systems
192. Alternative economic institutions”
Political intervention
193. Overloading of administrative systems
194. Disclosing identities of secret agents
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of “neutral” laws
197. Work-on without collaboration
198. Dual sovereignty and parallel government
http://www.engaged-zen.org/PDFarchive/From_Dictatorship_to_Democracy.pdf
What steve said.
second paragraph to end convey exactly my feelings. I voted for Jill Stein last time and will vote for her this time around too.
I am optimistic too, but I just cannot see how this will end well. Were we a dictatorship, or a theocracy, the masses could usher change simply by heading into the streets, as we see around the world. This system has done a fantastic job creating no “”others””, no obvious class of people whom we would point the finger at and blame for the diseases of this country (which is why Obama was a god send for many, “”there he is, the problem, right there, the other, the black guy, the muslim, the kenyan), to the point where when we rail against the government, we don’t know who is the government.
Additionally, the system manages to keep us looking at the carrot, meanwhile totally oblivious to the stick. As long as we keep hoping to make it, and there are more immigrants coming in to replenish that pool of hope, we will toe the line so as not to impact our chances and our turn to bite on the carrot.
That is why I hoped that Mitt Romney would have won against Obama…why? Because Obama, i knew, would be given the benefit of the doubt in much greater amounts than Romney, and that therefore we would be patient enough for the system to hijack our patience and squeeze another few years of compliance out of us. That is why the Occupy movement, our first real and best chance at change did not go anywhere because it happened under Obama and most of its base voted for Obama.
I feel sorry for the next president, especially if it is a republican.
Thanks for the link, Ken, I had given up on non-violence, thinking of it as a the tool of privilege…glad to see I was wrong.
Ken,
How would his recommendations translate into nonviolent resistance in a digital age, where much of the surveillance state is unseen? It would be difficult to get iconic photos like the one of the protester sticking a daisy in the soldier’s rifle.
I did think of one, small example: John Taylor Gatto cites Bartleby the Scrivener as inspiration for how to oppose high-stakes testing. Bartleby simply says, “I’d rather not.” to everything that is asked of him.
I will look more at Dr. Sharp’s writing. Thank you for posting about him.
@stevegroen
1, January 4, 2016 at 11:45 am
Thanks for this thoughtful and articulate post, Steve.
I’ll respond at greater length after I’ve gotten a couple of pressing personal matters out of the way.
In an earlier post on this thread, I wrote, “In order to avoid ‘bloody revolution,’ with its obscene price tag in human carnage and counter-productivity via the prolongation of state and anti-state violence, we need to be looking seriously at the alternative, the collapse of the US oligarchical welfare-warfare system, and at what we can do to hasten that collapse by withholding our support of it.”
It has long been apparent to me from my admittedly cursory study of historical events, that “bloody revolutions” almost invariably issue in regimes that are as bad or worse as those that were “overthrown,” the Bolshevik Revolution providing a prime example.
This is the main reason that I’ve long been an advocate of non-violent resistance to the depredations of the State, and why I became an admirer of Martin Luther King, Jr. as soon as I became aware of his advocacy of non-violence in the civil rights movement, and when he later publicly opposed the war in Vietnam.
With that as very brief background, the scholarship and political advocacy of Dr. Gene Sharp has only recently come to my attention, and I had him in mind when I wrote what I did about hastening the collapse of the regime of the US Power Elite (aka the US Military-Industrial Complex) by withholding support from it in multiple, specific, and effective ways.
Here’s as good an introduction as any to Dr. Sharp’s work for those unfamiliar with it, as I was until very recently, which I’ve lightly edited for clarity:
“At 84 [as of 2012], American political scientist Gene Sharp [Ph.D., Oxford University] has seen his lifelong work on nonviolent resistance echo around the world. He wrote a manual on how to overthrow dictatorships, From Dictatorship to Democracy, and says that no regime can survive without the support of its people.
“He’s been called the father of nonviolent struggle, and could be also described as a revolutionary’s best friend—or perhaps, more accurately, as a dictatorship’s worst nightmare.
“This American academic has dedicated most of his life to the study of the bold, some might say reckless, idea that nonviolence — rather than violence — is the most effective way of overthrowing corrupt, repressive regimes.
“From Dictatorship to Democracy has spread like a virus since he wrote it 20 years ago and has been translated by activists into more than 30 languages.
“He has listed ‘198 Methods of Nonviolent Action’ — powerful, sometimes surprising, ways to tear power from the hands of regimes. Examples of their use by demonstrators and revolutionaries pop up over and over again.
“In Ukraine, during the 2004 Orange Revolution that propelled opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko to electoral triumph, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators turned Kiev’s Independence Square into a sea of orange flags — the color of Yuschenko’s campaign. Number 18 on Sharp’s list: displays of flags and symbolic colors.
“In Serbia, activists fighting then-President Slobodan Milosevic in the 2000 presidential elections printed ‘Gotov Je!’ ‘He’s Finished!’ on stickers, T-shirts and posters to help the population understand he was not invincible. Number 7 on Sharp’s list: slogans, caricatures, and symbols.
“In Cairo during last year’s Egyptian Revolution, protesters lived in a tent city in Tahrir Square, where they produced art, made music and sang anti-Hosni Mubarak songs. Many Egyptians would gather there for Friday prayers followed by mass political rallies. Numbers 20, 37 and 47 on Sharp’s list: prayer and worship. Singing. Assembling to protest.
“His ideas of revolution are based on an elegantly simple premise: No regime, not even the most brutally authoritarian, can survive without the support of its people. So, Sharp proposes, take it away.
Nonviolent action, he says, can eat away at a regime’s pillars of power like termites in a tree. Eventually, the whole thing collapses. (Emphasis added)
“For a half century, Sharp has refined the theory of nonviolent conflict and crafted the tools of his trade. His methods have liberated millions from tyranny — and strike fear in the hearts of regimes from Myanmar to Iran.
“In 2009, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. During the Arab Spring uprisings, his methods were cited repeatedly.
“The applause [for his work] comes after ‘decades of hardships,’ he says. His methods have been dismissed and misinterpreted — he’s even been accused of working for the CIA.
“But he’s kept on with ‘the work,’ sometimes despite being nearly penniless. He runs his organization, the Albert Einstein Institution, out of his home in East Boston, because he cannot afford office space.
“He’ll give almost anyone a half hour of his time, even a high school kid doing a project. And the pilgrims come.
“They come from all over the world because they want to change their situation. They come to hear the extraordinary ideas that Sharp has stubbornly built over a lifetime: ideas that have started revolutions.”
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/23/world/gene-sharp-revolutionary/index.html
For more information regarding Dr. Sharp and for a list of his books and other publications, see Wikipedia.
Ken, thanks for this. I hadn’t heard of Dr. Sharp.
As to your comment about the Bolshevik Revolution, it might have just worked had Stalin not maintained plenary control of the economy. Lenin and Trotsky wanted to return production from the elite to the people themselves after gaining power. Stalin made short work of Trotsky after Lenin’s death.
Frankly, I’m a bit more pessimistic than you in that I think Citizens United was the endgame. This is no democracy, and the violent conservatives over the past 75 years have succeeded in suppressing voice in favor of too-big-to-fail banks and the MIC. Sure, they sprinkle on a smidgeon of oil at any sound of a squeaky wheel, but ours is basically a state controlled by strong propaganda to shield against free thinking. And don’t expect even the moderate petite bourgeoisie to assist – they’re too busy vying for greater wealth at the expense of humanity only to recognize the only way to get there and remain there is a war economy and convince us it’s all to protect the poor sheep from terrorists. If you don’t believe it, look at the Ayn Rand fan club members who regularly respond to posts on this blog.
I believe in peaceful protest intended to promote political change. However, the two variations on a one-party system, the Republicans and Democrats, have to go. I’ve made the mistake of voting for the lesser of two evils too many times, and I’ll never make that mistake again. I’m voting for Jill Stein.
Po; Just say no?
Armed militia, incl. Bundy bros, occupy forest reserve HQ in Oregon, call ‘US patriots’ to arms
https://www.rt.com/usa/327762-armed-bundy-militia-oregon-ranchers/
Silence is implied consent.
It certainly is, Hild, it certainly is… interesting how some of our friends will bend backward to justify that “patriotic act”…
“”One should never take themselves THAT seriously. You agree?””…no doubt, ultimately a sense of humor is the only true protection against these increasingly crazy times.
Oily “most people participating in blogs ARE awake.” It truly depends on the blog of course, but I hope you’re right.
“Your difficulty in this blog will be the many people that have no desire to change the direction of government; they simply want their interests positively addressed.”
If the government was by the people for the people are interests would be more positively addressed….I hope. It really depends on how educated (as opposed to “schooled”) people are. It’s a Republic vs Democracy issue. Socrates referred to a Democracy as “tyranny of the majority”. If the majority wants to force their will on an individual against their individual rights, in a Republic it wouldn’t be allowed.
“To them, you’re another nut job that’s a threat to their progressive ideology.” I get your point but that just made me laugh; so little do I really care what “progressives’ think of me, not that we don’t agree on some issues.
“Usually I’m so happy to know that someone is awake to the truth that I don’t even care what else they do…except wake up somebody else!”
Hildegard,
Don’t assume not buying into your approach implies people don’t get “it”. If your strategy is simply to wake people up then you should be aware most people participating in blogs ARE awake. Your difficulty in this blog will be the many people that have no desire to change the direction of government; they simply want their interests positively addressed. Admonishing people for not feeling the same way you do is an absolute waste of time. To them, you’re another nut job that’s a threat to their progressive ideology.
“”But in the US there is no prospect of change from elections. Change can come only from collapse or from bloody revolution. The American Establishment will not accept change.“ (My emphasis)
In order to avoid “bloody revolution,” with its obscene price tag in human carnage and counter-productivity via the prolongation of state and anti-state violence, we need to be looking seriously at the alternative, the collapse of the US oligarchical welfare-warfare system, and at what we can do to hasten that collapse by withholding our support of it.”
My point exactly! At this point the system is too resilient and too entrenched…there is no independent portion of it left able and willing to start a good fight, especially the judicial and the media. With those two gone, the system won.
The only thing to follow, and this will happen before or in lieu of the revolution, is that the system collapses, and we have been artificially maintaining it financially while the oligarch milk it, ideologically with “support our troops”” and electorally with “” a vote for your top choice is a vote for your worse choice…””
I suggest we all start prepping..store up on some dry goods and water 🙂
Darren and Others,
I think the reason I was previously unable to successfully post the above was that I had first transferred Roberts’ comments to Microsoft Word, where I’d interspersed my own comments and then attempted to copy and paste the whole into the WordPress format, here.
When I bypassed Word and went straight to WordPress, it posted with no problem.
@Hildegard
“Trump is an [enneagram type] eight.”
The following assessment of Trump by the politically astute former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts (a Reagan appointee) seems to importantly agree with enneagram typology:
“As I have said in a number of interviews, Trump’s problem is that he has no movement behind him, no advisors that he can trust, and he does not understand the issues. Trump has learned that forceful statements are appreciated by voters. Therefore, he doesn’t differentiate intelligent forceful statements from insane statements. As long as his statements are forceful, Trump thinks that they work. (My emphasis)
“Recently I watched a video of a woman described as a ‘Trump advisor’ who repeated neocon nazi William Kristol’s statement: ‘What’s the use of nuclear weapons if you can’t use them?’
“How did a William Kristol neocon nazi get on Trump’s staff? What more proof do we need that even if Trump is elected, the establishment will prevail despite Trump? (My emphasis)
“Trump cannot be a dissident politician without a dissident staff. He doesn’t know the people who would comprise a dissident staff. Trump knows how to make deals, and the Establishment will staff up a Trump presidency with deals. The minute Trump takes office, he would be already captured.
“In France Marine Le Pen’s National Front Party could bring political change. In the UK Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party or Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party could bring political change. But in the US there is no prospect of change from elections. Change can come only from collapse or from bloody revolution. The American Establishment will not accept change.“ (My emphasis)
In order to avoid “bloody revolution,” with its obscene price tag in human carnage and counter-productivity via the prolongation of state and anti-state violence, we need to be looking seriously at the alternative, the collapse of the US oligarchical welfare-warfare system, and at what we can do to hasten that collapse by withholding our support of it.
More regarding withdrawing that support, in a subsequent post.
Ken Rogers; On Dec. 24th I read the article you quoted from Paul Craig Roberts about Trump on another blogsite and verbatim this was my comment:
“Paul Craig Roberts is a smart cookie and “nobody’s fool”, but it seems to me he’s put a lot of focus on what if. What if Donald Trump has some loose cannons, ducks out of line, Nazi scum in his ranks? As knowledgeable as Paul is, I’m betting he doesn’t know about The Universal Managers. Maybe he’s a Perfectionist, putting a magnifying glass on the imperfections.
Many people feel that JFK was the last real human being we’ve had for president. Many feel Jesus Christ was an enlightened human being. Did they not have woefully errant followers, staff members…etc.? Of course they did. Without the Universal Managers life itself would cease which is why we never NEED to have all our ducks in a row. Maybe Donald Trump isn’t “The One”. Regardless; we have those managers…. ”
The site I read it on is a big mix of politics and spirituality and my reference to “The Universal Manager” is a concept shared by Abraham-Hicks, teachers of the Law of Attraction.
Then I posted a video link that would be quite out of place here, so I’ll post this one instead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkU-7ysy0EI
I agree that the possibility of change through elections is slim to none and predictions of Trump’s untimely demise are pouring in I’m very sad to say. If he survives to be elected it will be a miracle.
“…we need to be looking seriously at the alternative, the collapse of the US oligarchical welfare-warfare system, and at what we can do to hasten that collapse by withholding our support of it. More regarding withdrawing that support, in a subsequent post.” I’m looking forward to that. We need a plan and contrary to the going psyop, liberty lovers are most definitely not wanting a bloody revolution.
Contrary to Main Sewer Media “white male constitution loving bible thumping conservative gun owners” are not the big threat they make them out to be. Otherwise it would Obama worrying about his skin rather than Donald Trump.
@Hildegard
1, January 2, 2016 at 4:13 pm
“Ken Rogers; Are you aware that only two links per comment are allowed? I had many comments disappear until Darren alerted me to that.”
Thanks for the suggestion, H., but I already knew about that. The one in question had only two links.
I’m hopeful that Darren can sleuth out the problem.
Po,
Sometimes WordPress just gets hungry. I’ve had that happen. Darren can either free it from the filter (caught inexplicably at times), or, it has completely vanished into thin air (a glitch of the browser???).
Ken Rogers; Are you aware that only two links per comment are allowed? I had many comments disappear until Darren alerted me to that.
yes, Darren, please look into it. I have had many incredibly insightful, THE BEST, checkmate type (and slightly insulting, a tiny bit) comments disappear.
Po “I have had many incredibly insightful, THE BEST, checkmate type (and slightly insulting, a tiny bit) comments disappear.” I like your sense of humor Po, and I’m being serious here. One should never take themselves THAT seriously. You agree?
Darren,
Speaking of posts, I’ve tried twice (unsuccessfully) this afternoon to post a response to Hildegard, in which I cited some observations about Donald Trump by Paul Craig Roberts, President Reagan’s Deputy Treasury Secretary.
Can you determine what the problem might be?
Thanks.
Ken