This is the real outrage

One can find these cartoons mediocre. One can perceive in them, as I do, a certain similarity with the anti-Semitic and racist caricatures of the 1930s or 50s.

One can -and it would still be true- decide that depicting the Prophet in this way, particularly with such dumb and obnoxious features, wasn't the brightest idea in the present context and amounted to tossing a lit match onto a powder keg.

Still, it is one thing to publish ludicrous cartoons in a newspaper that no one has heard of outside of Denmark, but it is quite another to see these cartoons travel around the planet four months later, particularly in the Muslim world, where they are igniting a form of planetary intifada with enormous demonstrations, embassies and consulates set on fire, a priest shot dead in Turkey, four protesters killed in Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan, not to mention the turning of Westerners living on Islamic soil into targets, mortal enemies threatened with death − expiatory victims offered to the white-hot, crazed and radicalized crowd.

What made this demented scene, this planetary upheaval possible?

However you might look at the problem, it is hard not to see that powerful and insidious forces have brought these drawings to the attention of the Arab and Muslim masses.
And it is hard not to link this provocation, the deliberate circulation of these cartoons, the quasi home-delivery of a Danish publication no one could have guessed had so many readers in the Muslim world, it is hard not to link this self-inflicted blasphemy, this calculated offense (but calculated, mind you, by the true organizers of the distribution of the cartoons, by these other fire-setters of the minds who, right after the editors of the Jyllands Posten of Copenhagen, chose to dangle them under the nose of the Muslim world), it is hard not to link this blasphemy to a new planetary configuration, itself determined by three recent and major events.

The diversionary tactic of a Syria we never saw so concerned over religious matters but now turns out to be capable of anything (including, incidentally, infiltrating agents into Lebanon and sponsoring demonstrations in Damascus, where it is well known that nothing of the sort can happen without the explicit assent of the government) in order to reclaim its role as a great regional agitator and make everyone forget the involvement of its secret services in Hariri's murder.

The hardening of Iran's Islamic republic, ready to make all kinds of theological concessions (including a grand historic alliance of Shi'ites and Sunnis, which experts have been telling us for decades would be against nature, but which is clearly in the process of being forged and sealed against a common enemy) with the goal of heading up in the Muslim and Arab world the grand anti-Christian, anti-Semitic and anti-democratic crusade.

And then the tragedy in the Palestinian territories of the victory of an ideology whose themes (the call, based on the denial of the Holocaust, for the pure and simple destruction of Israel and the Jews) had up to now only been in power in openly dictatorial, sometimes even crypto-fascist states but that, it must be admitted, have triumphed for the first time in a long while through democratic decision and the sacred path of the ballot. Would we be witnessing, without this electoral sacrament of Hamas, Hebron crowds so sure of their right to hold any Westerner in the West Bank accountable for the offense? Would we be witnessing all these Fatah militants and leaders actually trying to outbid everyone else in the grotesque denunciation of the "French position" as manifested by the reprinting of the drawing in an obscure Parisian newspaper were it not for the will to defy Hamas on the very terrain where it won?

These three events are obviously linked as a triangle.
There is, between these three poles, a veritable triangle of death that is in the process of locking into place thanks to the cartoon affair and that, if it is successfully welded together, will produce a symbolic heat or even, with an Iranian bomb tomorrow, a physical and fissile heat unlike anything we saw in the good old axis of evil.

And, faced with this triangulation in progress, faced with this formidable hate-and-death machine, faced with this "moral atomic bomb" that, as we know since Mao Tse-tung, does not need the real bomb to spread fire in the souls, we have no other solution than to counter with another triangle, a triangle of life and reason, which more than ever must unite the United States, Europe and Israel in the rejection of any clash of civilizations of the kind desired by the extremists of the Arab-Muslim world and by them alone.

The heart of this second triangle?

First, the affirmation of principles. The affirmation of the press?s right to the expression of idiocies of its choosing -rather than the acts of repentance with which too many leaders reacted, and which merely encourages in the Arab street the false and counterproductive illusion that a democratic state may exert control over its press.
And second, in the same breath, the reaffirmation of our support for those enlightened moderate Muslims who know the honor of Islam is far more insulted, flouted and trampled underfoot when Iraqi terrorists bomb a Mosque in Baghdad, when Pakistani jihadists decapitate Daniel Pearl in the name of God and film their crime, or when an Algerian fundamentalist emir disembowels, while reciting the Koran, an Algerian woman whose only crime was to have dared show her beautiful face. Moderate Muslims are alone these days, and in their solitude they more than ever need to be acknowledged and hailed.

The writer is one of France's leading philosophers and the author of "Who killed Daniel Pearl".

The zionist propaganda machine instrumentalizing the riots to smear all their pet geopolitical punching bags -- along with Islam as a whole, natch

This time it's the WSJ providing a soapbox

I believe it was you, Harriet, who wrote this:

"Ain't no one gloating [over the rioting]"
"So, show me the url of Zionists gloating."

Uh, scroll up

And of course more two-faced posturing re: "press freedom"
"The affirmation of the press's right to the expression of idiocies of its choosing"

Uh-huh. When I see Levy demonstrating for Ernst Zundel's release from prison, maybe I'll pay him a listen on this. 'til then, fuck you pal

"The zionist propaganda machine instrumentalizing the riots to smear all their pet geopolitical punching bags -- along with Islam as a whole, natch"

Gee, I coulda been fooled to think he was actually not referring to Joooooos per se.

Never mind that Ilan Pappe, Noam Chomsky, Norm Finkelstein, and countless more Jews who hate lies as much as I do have proven you DEAD WRONG

Yeah, I know their breaking of ranks is why you hate their guts. That's why you call them "self-hating Jews." You assume they must hate themselves as much as you hate them. In fact, I think they have TRUE self-respect, unlike you. 'Self' means SELF. It doesn't mean "group." Theirs is the side of all truly great Jews, versus nasty group-think bigots like you. Einstein knew:

"Anti-Semitism is nothing but the antagonistic attitude produced in the non-Jew by the Jewish group. The Jewish group has thrived on oppression and on the antagonism it has forever met in the world...
the root cause is their use of ENEMIES THEY CREATE in order TO KEEP SOLIDARITY"

Albert Einstein
as quoted in the 11/26/1938 issue of Collier's Magazine

"Moderate Muslims are alone these days, and in their solitude they more than ever need to be acknowledged and hailed. "

Thats not gloating, twit.
You are not a winner. Play again.

I wasn't talking about *LEVY*.

I meant the zio-trash who posted Levy's work in this thread. THAT is the person who chose to fill out the author/title fields in a way that equated all of Islam with fascism. I don't suppose it was you was it...?

Also, I don't accept Levy's back-scuttling on these points

You don't drop rhetoric like this:

"the Muslim world, where they are igniting a form of planetary intifada ... a new planetary configuration ... a veritable triangle of death ... formidable hate-and-death machine ... "moral atomic bomb"

and then follow it with "oh, I didn't mean all of Islam," but then even qualifying THAT with "Moderate Muslims are alone these days." Oh really, Mr. Philosopher? And of course by this you mean to imply -- in your conscious sophist way -- that the rest of them are UNITED behind the "formidable hate-and-death machine," n'est-ce pas?

I know you're immune to my meaning here, Harriet, but not all untermenschen are stupid enough to fall for such word games, his or yours. This guy's just another lying malevolent bigot, like you.

BTW, you know why I call you a 'glob of mercury,' don't you?

I wasn't talking about *LEVY*.

I meant the zio-trash who posted Levy's work in this thread. THAT is the person who chose to fill out the author/title fields in a way that equated all of Islam with fascism. I don't suppose it was you was it...?

Uh, scroll up, you foul mouthed loser. The author is listed as "Levy". The title is listed as "Global intifada". Where, but in your putrid little mind is that equating all of islam with fascism?
And you call me stupid? You are a paranoid and silly little man. But you already knew that.

BTW, you know why I call you a 'glob of mercury,' don't you?
Must be my mercurial eloquence?
Perhaps my quicksilver wit?

You know:

"global fascist movement"
by "masquerading as religion"

On this post I stand corrected. Yes, I'm sure the great French Sophist Bernard-Henri Levy thought to himself, "sacré bleu! Why should I content myself with using a small-town birdcage liner like the WSJ to spew my lies?? I have a whole world to conquer! I could use ... I could use ... San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia!!!!!!!

Liberté (pour les juifs)!!!!
Egalité (pour les juifs)!!!!
Fraternité (pour les juifs)!!!!

Merdre, j'ai presque oublié

Viva la Revolution (pour les ... eh, you know)!!!! "


Yes, Harriet, what I said about that screed must be COMPLETELY BASELESS because it was obviously LEVY HIMSELF who dumped that steamy load of shit on this site. He probably didn't even use the online form. I bet he had engraved stone tablets shipped to Indybay. Yeah, French Sophists dig that shit, makes 'em feel like their hero Moses. He had a real good scam going, too.

(Harriet with thinking cap: "hmm, how can I flow around this one? Ah, got it!" Tippety tappy tap... )

And why do you assume that every article you don't like is posted by me?

I don't assume every frothing anti-semitic missive I read here comes out of your twisted mind.

Oh, wait. Yes I do.

Re: glob of mercury:

Did you know, Twisted weasel, that Allied spies used globs of mercury on Nazi planes? The globs quickly corroded the aircraft, often causing them to disintegrate in mid air.

Is that why you called me a glob of mercury, weasel? Because in spite of your evil impulses, it doesn't take much for me to destroy you?

"Allied spies used globs of mercury on Nazi planes. The globs quickly corroded the aircraft, often causing them to disintegrate in mid air."

If you actually believe this flimsy crock of shit, you're even stupider than I thought. On the other hand, why would a zio reject a transparent lie? They like lies. Lies are their friends

Historical uses of mercury: preserving wood, developing daguerreotypes, silvering mirrors, anti-fouling paints (discontinued in 1990), cleaning, and in road leveling devices in cars. Mercury compounds have been used in antiseptics, laxatives, antidepressants, and antisyphilitics. It was also allegedly used by allied spies to sabotage German planes. A mercury paste was applied on bare aluminum, causing the metal to rapidly corrode. This would cause the planes to mysteriously fall apart

'allegedly'

By your usual standards thats uncontrovertable proof.
The only thing we need now is an article in the Electronic Intifada or a quote from Mona Baker to confirm it.