photo: REUTERS |
However difficult it is, you have to feel some sympathy for Andrei Breivik. He was a devout Christian Zionist and he assumed that if Israel killed with impunity, then there was no reason that he shouldn’t either. As I wrote yesterday, Israel has murdered 825 Gazans with the use of drones over Gaza in the past 4 years. No Western government has protested, so why – Breivik thought – shouldn’t he kill some ‘Muslim supporters’ i.e. young socialists in Norway, who also supported the Palestinians (as all decent socialists and social democrats do these days).
Breivik had been to Israel several times and just loved the fact that there you could be openly racist and anti-Islamic without any sign of disapproval. Despite media disinformation, he had strong contacts with the EDL and as the article in the Independent below shows, EDL leader Stephen Lennon praised him, adding that ‘the murders he carried out would have been easier to justify if they had been perpetrated against Muslims’. We now know exactly what the EDL intends for its opponents (although most of us were already aware).
Those who remember the initial reports of the massacre that killed 77 in Oslo will remember that ‘Islamic extremists’ were first to be blamed. When it turned out to be a fascist with strong sympathies with Israel, then the news began to be censored. It didn’t quite fit the message we are taught to imbibe, that Israel and its supporters are peaceful and it is only Muslims who glory in blood and death.
Below are articles on the support for Breivik of the EDL nutters as well as an article on Anders Behring Breivik, Islam and Israel by Brit Dee, Breivik’s Zionist streak in The Daily Beast and an article in the Jerusalem Post, a right-wing Israeli paper admitting to the fact that ‘Norway attack suspect had anti-Muslim, pro-Israel views’.
Breivik was declared sane in an insane system that targets the victim as the aggressor. It is a tribute to Norway, that unlike the United States and other states based on barbarism, the call for vengeance did not materialise. Norwegians in their overwhelming majority were not prepared to allow their legal system to be subverted by a fascist oddball like Breivik. The USA, which has a far higher murder rate than Norway, uses of course the death penalty as a ‘deterrent’ – though it has yet to employ it on those guilty of truly mass murder, such as Obama, Bush and Clinton.
I also submitted a comment on a hate-filled ‘Christian Voice’ site which I doubt will be published, so here it is, with the original link. Breivik: right verdict – wrong sentence
‘Your article is outrageous and indefensible. Those young people who were murdered were not ‘those at the Utøya youth camp should be proposing a solution to Israel as final as that which Hitler attempted for the Jews.’ That is just a political libel.
Support for the Palestinians, who are being ethnically cleansed and driven off their land, their houses demolished their youth beaten up, has nothing at all to do with Hitler’s final solution. Perhaps you should look at the ‘Christian’ record during the holocaust when the German Reich church supported Hitler, the Pope refused to speak out and western church leaders, with a few exceptions, kept silent.
The Norweign youth that Breivik murdered were doing what should have been done in the 1930’s – supporting the victims of racism.
Nor were they supporting ‘the anti-Israel terrorism of Hamas’. Hamas is a political party and group, created partly by Israel as a response to secular Palestinian nationalism. They were supporting the people of Gaza, a somewhat different thing. Nor were the Gaza flotillas ‘Hamas flotillas’. That is cheap propaganda.
Israel has no right to impose an embargo on the people of Gaza, just as the Nazis had no right to incarcerate the Jews of Europe in ghettos. A breach of such a blockade is perfectly justified.
Glenn Beck’s comparison between the camp and the Hitler youth was simply obscene. It should be obvious to all but the most stupid numbskull. Hitler Youth gloried in attacking individual Jews. Criticising and boycotting a STATE has no comparison, whatever name that state calls itself. Or was it wrong to boycott South Africa under Apartheid?
The author of this post finds it strange that Breivik is described as far right. Really? He attacked a left-wing youth group, his friends were neo-Nazis. Opening fire on political opponents is a stock-in-trade of the death squads of Central America and South America and Colombia today. All of which the USA sponsored.
It is no accident that this hate filled article should end by saying Breivik should have been sentenced to death. In Europe we are more civilised. The death penalty reduces us to the level of the murderer and if anyone deserves it, it was ‘born again’ Bush who was responsible for the death of over a million Iraqis.
Let’s see if you have the courage to print this.’
Tony Greenstein
EDL leader praises Breivik in interview with Norwegian tabloid
The leader of the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, has praised Breivik in an interview with Norwegian tabloid newspaper Dagbladet. |
The leader of the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson [aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon], has praised Breivik in an interview with Norwegian tabloid newspaper Dagbladet.
The newspaper visited Robinson, 29, in his home town and the birthplace of the EDL, Luton. Here he showed them the town, and revealed worrying admiration for Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right terrorist who killed 69 people in two terror attacks in Norway last July.
Although links between Breivik and the EDL have long been known due to his repeated mentioning of them in his so-called manifesto, that Tommy Robinson has applauded Breivik’s point of view and the attention he brought to the cause, is sure to spark outrage. Breivik is currently on trial for the terror attacks which he has confessed to but maintains he is not criminally responsible as a justified crusader against Islam.
Several EDL members have even reported that Breivik attended a number of EDL events, although Tommy Robinson denies this. Either way, links are certain, at least in ideology.
In support of Breivik’s writing, which Robinson says he has read, he argued:
“The blogs are full of facts. You can not yell at people because they tell the truth. You may find the truth hurts, but it is still the truth. I read the blogs themselves – they contain facts about Islam.”
Although the EDL leader condemns the approach the Breivik took, in his interview with Dagbladet he defended his writings and argued that it can’t be denied that he is “pretty smart”.
When asked ‘would it be easier to justify the attack if Breivik had attacked Muslims?’ he answered:
“Yes, it would been easier to justify it, but he would only have been swept aside as the one that killed Muslims because he did not like Islam. Whether you like it or not, that guy was pretty smart…What he did is despicable, but he managed to make people curious.”
Just a few weeks ago on 31 March the EDL helped to organise and attended a rally in Aarhus, Denmark, in an attempt to promote a pan-European far-right movement. Although the march was by all accounts a failure, it was another worrying instance of far-right sentiment that can lead to such devastating attacks as those conducted by Breivik in Norway last year.
Additional Reporting The Foreigner
EDL leader forced to deny praising Anders Breivik
EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon has been forced to deny supporting mass-murderer Anders Behring Breivik after he was quoted praising the man who killed 77 people in a Norwegian newspaper.
In an interview conducted in his home town of Luton, Mr Yaxley-Lennon called Breivik “smart” and said the murders he carried out would have been easier to justify if they had been perpetrated against Muslims.
“The [Breivik’s] blogs are full of facts. You can not yell at people because they tell the truth. You may find the truth hurts, but it is still the truth. I read the blogs themselves – they contain facts about Islam.”
In the interview with the Dagbladet newspaper, Mr Yaxley-Lennon, who also goes by the name “Tommy Robinson”, added: “Yes, it would been easier to justify it [if the crime were committed against Muslims], but he would only have been swept aside as the one that killed Muslims because he did not like Islam. Whether you like it or not, that guy was pretty smart…What he did is despicable, but he managed to make people curious.”
Today, Mr Yaxley-Lennon was forced to insist that he did not condone the killings. He acknowledged the quotes given to the Norwegian paper but told The Independent: “they were not in support of Breivik. I was saying that it is bad we are all playing out what he wants us to. Everything that is happening, he thought about. He has planned all of this; it is disturbing to give him what he wants.
“What I said was if it was Muslims, he would have been swept aside as a Muslim-hater. The man is a monster, he took kids away from their families. But the blogs are the truth.”
The anti-Islam group whose marches have been marked by violence and numerous arrests, has been at pains to distance itself from Breivik ever since he mentioned it in the largely racist writings he used to justify his actions.
There were reports that Breivik attended EDL marches in the UK before carrying out the murders, although these were denied by Mr Yaxley-Lennon.
See also
Anders Behring Breivik, Islam and Israel
by Brit Dee, July 27 2011
During the ongoing trial of Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Behring Breivik we have learnt many interesting but chilling details about the bombing in Oslo and subsequent shootings on the island of Utøya. Perhaps most interestingly of all, Breivik has provided a clear explanation of exactly what he hoped to achieve through his acts of terrorism. Immediately after the attack, some commentators speculated that the tragedy would be exploited by the political elite, to demonise moderate nationalists – “patriots” who reject mass immigration and the erosion of national culture – and to stifle debates on such issues. This, it seems, is exactly what Breivik hoped for.
During the third day of his trial, The Guardian reported how Breivik insisted that his goal (in the short to medium term) was to make pariahs of Europe’s nationalists – the very people with whom you might expect him to feel kinship. “I thought I had to provoke a witchhunt of modern moderately conservative nationalists,” he said. Then he claimed that this curious strategy had already borne fruit, citing the example of Norway’s prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, who he said had given a speech since the attacks saying that critics of immigration were wrong. The effect of this “witchhunt”, said Breivik, would be to increase “censorship” of moderately nationalist views, which would “increase polarisation”. The effect of this, he said, would eventually lead to “more radicalisation as more will lose hope and lose faith in democracy”. Ultimately, he said, these new radicals would join the war he has started to protect the “indigenous people” of Norway and western Europe.
Whilst Jens Stoltenberg’s speech may give the impression that Breivik’s strategy is indeed going to plan, other evidence suggests that nationalist parties and policies have not suffered at all in the wake of the Norwegian terror attacks. Last week Geert Wilder’s fervently anti-Islam Freedom Party, the third largest party in the Netherlands, brought down the Dutch coalition government after withdrawing its support for EU-imposed budget cuts. In France, Marine Le Pen’s equally strongly anti-Islam National Front won a record 18 percent of the vote in the first round of presidential elections. Le Pen claims to be fighting the “Islamisation” of France, a position for which there is evidently considerable support, particularly in the aftermath of Mohamed Merah’s “Al Qaeda” shootings in Toulouse last month (the fact that Merah was likely an asset being handled by the French authorities of course being rarely mentioned).
Indeed, the far-right appears to be in the ascendancy, and even courted by the mainstream. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, knowing that he will have to attract National Front votes if he stands any chance of re-election, said after the first round that NF voters “must be respected“, as their votes were “a vote of suffering, a crisis vote”. Comments bluntly critical of Islam, previously the preserve of the far-right, have also been made by leading mainstream politicians in other European countries. Last week the leader of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats in parliament, Volker Kauder, described Islam as “not part of our tradition and identity in Germany and so does not belong in Germany”, though he was careful to add “But Muslims do belong in Germany. As state citizens, of course, they enjoy their full rights.”
Whilst Breivik’s purported plan to spark a demonisation of nationalists does not appear to be working, or even necessary, his attacks are certainly feeding into the general tension currently building between those of different political parties and faiths; society is indeed becoming polarised. This may be the natural result of a failed experiment in multiculturalism, the effects of deliberate conspiracies echoing those such as Operation Gladio, or the “strategy of tension”, or a combination of the two. No matter who or what is behind the current ratcheting up of tension, a political, religious and racial tension inextricably linked to the collapsing economies and deteriorating living standards of Europe, the ultimate beneficiaries are clear – the shadowy criminal elite who profit from such “systemic destabilisation” and who Peter Dale Scott characterises as the “overworld”.
It must be pointed out that Zionist supporters of Israel are one of the beneficiaries of the tensions currently being played out in Europe. Indeed, the newfound alliance between staunchly pro-Israeli Zionists and ultranational anti-Islamists, is one of the most intriguing aspects of today’s political scene.
The extreme right has traditionally been seen, often with good cause, as anti-Semitic – and yet now we see many examples of the anti-Islamic far-right openly embracing Zionism and Zionists. Anders Breivik was himself an avowed Zionist, his 1515-page manifesto containing multiple references to his firm belief that Israel is an ally which must be strongly defended by nationalists at all costs. Breivik was also of course an avid follower of such anti-Islamic, pro-Zionist writers as the American blogger Pamela Geller.
The Dutch politician Geert Wilders, mentioned earlier, is also a staunch supporter of Israel, having reportedly lived in the country for two years during his youth, and visited 40 times in the last 25 years. His Freedom Party allegedly receives financing from supporters of Israel in the US. The English Defence League, to whom some have linked Breivik, openly state their support of Israel, sometimes appearing at demonstrations waving the Star of David flag. The EDL has a Jewish Division, run by the Zionist Roberta Moore, who recently expressed her support for Breivik’s murders and claimed that his teenage victims were “not innocent“. In France, Le Pen’s National Front has also reportedly recently won support from a previously hostile Jewish community.
We are obviously living in dangerous times and, with the economy collapsing, widespread social tension increasing, peculiar alliances forming, and Muslims seemingly being scapegoated in a role historically allocated to Jews, drawing parallels between today’s political climate and that of the 1930s, is unfortunately unavoidable.
The Norway Shooter’s Zionist Streak
Jul 25, 2011
‘A Very Devout Christian Zionist’
Anders Breivik’s embrace of Israel is the latest sign of a shift among reactionaries in Europe—with fascism and Zionism going hand in hand, fueled by Islamophobia, says Michelle Goldberg.
Anders Breivik is a Christian nationalist terrorist obsessed with preserving the “Nordic/Germanic” people. He is also an ardent Zionist. Though he finds elements of Nazi ideology appealing, his 1,500-page manifesto condemns anti-Semitism. He argues that Hitler should have used his “military capabilities…to liberate Jerusalem and the nearby provinces from Islamic occupation” and give them to the Jews. Breivik calls on his imaginary comrades: “So let us fight together with Israel, with our Zionist brothers against all anti-Zionists, against all cultural Marxists/multiculturalists.”
Coming from a Scandinavian fascist, this is a remarkable sentiment. The European far right has long been rooted in Nazism, and for decades, anti-Semitism was its hallmark. But Breivik’s embrace of Israel, far from being unique, is just the latest sign of a great shift among the continent’s reactionaries. Indeed, in European politics, fascism and an aggressive sort of Zionism increasingly go together.
You can see it in country after country. While Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s ultraright Front National, is a Holocaust denier, his daughter and successor, Marine Le Pen, is working to cleanse the party of its reputation for Jew hatred, telling the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that it “has always been Zionistic.” In the early 1990s, the British National Party organized a violent neo-Nazi gang called Combat 18. In 2009, the party’s leader, Nick Griffin, boasted that his was the only British party to support Israel’s war “against the terrorists” in Gaza.
Earlier this year, Newsweek ran a story about this phenomenon titled “Europe’s Extreme Righteous: Far-right European politicians find love—and common cause—in Israel.” It opened with three politicians, “a Belgian politician known for his contacts with SS veterans, an Austrian with neo-Nazi ties, and a Swede whose political party has deep roots in Swedish fascism,” visiting the Holocaust museum Yad Vashem. They met with members of the Knesset and signed something called the Jerusalem declaration, which affirmed, “We stand at the vanguard in the fight for the Western, democratic community” against the “totalitarian threat” of Islamic fundamentalism.
Obviously, Islamophobia is responsible for the bizarre alliance between Israel and European white nationalists. Muslims have come to occupy the place Jews once held in the reactionary European imagination; they’re seen as agents of an apocalyptic conspiracy that threatens Europe’s very survival. The specter of the coming caliphate has crowded out the old myth of the scheming elders of Zion. Naturally, the self-described agents of the counter-jihad see the enemy of their enemy as an ally. It’s the inverse of the anti-Semitic alliance between Hitler and Haj Amin el-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem.
‘Norway attack suspect had anti-Muslim, pro-Israel views’
By BEN HARTMAN 07/24/2011
1,500 page manifesto credited to Breivik, accused of killing spree, lays out worldview including extreme screed of Islamophobia, far-right Zionism.
Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian who killed nearly 100 people in a combined terror attack Friday that included car bombings in Oslo and a shooting rampage at an island summer camp, held fiercely anti-Islamic and pro-Israel views, according to a 1,500 page manifesto he uploaded before his killing spree Friday.
In the 1,500-page tome, which mentions Israel 359 times and “Jews” 324 times, Breivik lays out his worldview, which includes an extreme, bizarre and rambling screed of Islamophobia, far-right Zionism and venomous attacks on Marxism and multi-culturalism.
In one passage, he lashes out
at the Western media, which he accuses of unfairly focusing on the wrongdoing of
Jews.
“Western Journalists again and again systematically ignore serious
Muslim attacks and rather focus on the Jews,” he wrote.
Breivik also took
a jab at leftwing Jews.
“Jews that support multi-culturalism today are as
much of a threat to Israel and Zionism as they are to us,” he
continued.
“So let us fight together with Israel, with our Zionist
brothers against all anti-Zionists, against all cultural
Marxists/multiculturalists.”
He also stated that Israel is the homeland
for Jews largely due to the persecution suffered by Jews at the hands of
Muslims, saying “if one acknowledges that Islam has always oppressed the Jews,
one accepts that Israel was a necessary refuge for the Jews fleeing not only the
European, but also the Islamic variety of anti- Judaism.”
The manifesto
also serves as a call-to-arms, of sorts, in which Breivik lays out his reasons
for launching the attack, focusing on what he described as the importance of
nationalism and the growing scourge of Islam in Europe.
Entitled “2083 –
A European Declaration of Independence,” the document states: “as we all know,
the root of Europe’s problems is the lack of cultural self-confidence
[nationalism] …this irrational fear of nationalistic doctrines is
preventing us from stopping our own national/ cultural suicide as the Islamic
colonization is increasing annually …You cannot defeat Islamization or
halt/reverse the Islamic colonization of Western Europe without first removing
the political doctrines manifested through multiculturalism/ cultural
Marxism.”
Breivik did, however, note that he doesn’t hate Muslims in any
fashion and that “I have had several Muslim friends over the years, some of
which I still respect.”
He also expressed his sympathy for the people of
Serbia, and blasted Norway’s support of the 1999 NATO-bombing campaign on Serbia
that stopped the expulsion of Kosovar Albanians by Serbian forces.
In
addition, he expressed his disgust at his government’s awarding of “the Nobel
peace prize to an Islamic terrorist [Arafat] and appeasers of
Islam.”
Breivik sneers at those who would spare the lives of women, and
in an especially chilling instruction writes, “once you decide to strike, it is
better to kill too many than not enough, or you risk reducing the desired
ideological impact of the strike. Explain what you have done [in an announcement
distributed prior to operation] and make certain that everyone understands that
we, the free peoples of Europe, are going to strike again and again.”