(((fromchaostocosmos)))

Okay, sure, let's have it out. I imagine I'll pretty much piss off everyone with this.

First: the only confidence I have in my understanding of the political situation of the Middle East is that I have no fucking understanding whatsoever of the political situation in the Middle East. Sure, I've read plenty. I have friends of many many stripes. But I'm not a victim of the Dunning-Kruger effect here, folks: I know enough to know how much I don't know, and how much I know is tons.

Second, you say that person is a "zionist." There are three things I find pretty annoying about this as a defense attorney. One is that the term is not defined, and the other is that there is a complete lack of evidence. The third is the implicit assumption that being a "zionist" is enough to wholeheartedly condemn anyone.

Let's tackle these one by one. And, once again, I am neither a scholar of Jewish history nor Middle Eastern history nor anything except American criminal law.

First: definition. There are many possible meanings of zionist that I see people use. One potential meaning of "zionist" seems to be "is Jewish, but fails to disavow Israel as fast and loud as I personally want them to." Sometimes the meaning of "zionist" is just "is Jewish." Sometimes it's "a Jewish person who wishes for a return to a very distant ancestral homeland." Sometimes it's "wholehearted supporter of Israel's war crimes." A lot of pointless arguing, it seems to me, is centered around someone saying they are zionist, i.e., they would like Jewish people to someday have a nice homeland where they don't feel like a strange political chunk in another country, and another person hears that they are zionist, i.e. they enjoy wholesale slaughter of civilians.

Second: No evidence. Self-explanatory. You are an anon. I don't know why I'm supposed to trust your word. I read police reports for a living and I am supposed to be able to trust them, and let me tell you how many lies they contain.

Third: the assumption of condemnation. I literally defend the human rights of sex criminals in court. I defend murderers. What we are talking about, right now, at best, is a human person expressing an opinion, however potentially damaging and offensive (depending on definition of zionism and truth of accusation). Do you think I'm gonna say that Jewish people who express an opinion are inhuman and deserve segregation from the rest of us?

Do you think I'm ever going to stop reaching out my hand to people who use violence? Do you think I'm ever going to lose the hope that someday they will lose the fear that makes them resort to violence?

Finally, now that I've spent some time listing my problems with your case, so what.

Let's use an example closer to home. I'm an American, and I do in fact believe that America is a nation and will continue to be so, and that tearing down all government to give it back to indigenous people (something that is, to be clear, to my understanding, not comparable with any kind of political situation in Israel) is not possible as things stand. And yet nobody's here interrogating me about Donald Trump and his bombing of Iran or whether I support ICE's jackbooted thuggery.

A little further from home? If I met a Russian person, my first ask would not be "Tell me in detail your thoughts on Ukraine and Putin."

And in those two examples, I myself and this hypothetical Russian person are actually members of the country in question that is doing the thing. A Jewish person who is not Israeli isn't even that.

Listen. I think there's a lot to be unpacked about how the insularity of Jewish culture and the separateness of it from the countries where it lives is both in the interest of continuing the Jewish ethnicity and in the interest of the people who want Jewish people exterminated, and how the double-pull of those two interests maintain a tension that otherwise might dissipate. I think there's something real to be analyzed about how modern anti-semitism isn't a recurrence of medieval anti-semitism but a different thing, a sign of fascist thinking.

I think there is a horrific tragedy for everyone involved that the group who was decimated beyond belief in the blackest events in human history now has a very loud and visible nation channeling their survival into rage and violence.

I think that there are lots of Arab nations around Israel that would gladly see every person in it subject to that same rage and violence, and I'm not down with that shit either.

I think the history of who colonized who and when and what pogroms did what and how violence and why are all too fucking complicated to untangle.

I think the only way truly forward for Israel and Palestine is some kind of truth and reconciliation type thing and that Israel as it stands is too scared to see all their atrocities come to light.

I was raised atheist with college professor parents, so you can bet Jewish people in academia were part of my life from an early age. I don't understand antisemitism literally at all. It's completely incomprehensible to me. I also think Arab culture is gorgeous and studied Arabic in college. I don't discount the idea that I have subconscious biases; I've done my best to unpick them, but it's lifelong work.

The whole goddamn clusterfuck is a great example of why violence begets violence begets violence. I reject the idea that One Final Ass-Kicking on anyone's part will solve any one of these problems. The only thing that ends violence is not choosing violence. And that can't happen until enough people in and out of power want the violence to stop. There. Not here. There. It can't be imposed from outside. It has to come from within.

And that's a decision -- I must add -- that I seriously could not have less to do with. White Americans should not be making any of the related decisions.

Here endeth the essay, with one final note.

AI is trained off of available data. Available data is about the real world, where racism and sexism and all that shit exists. Unless you carefully put effort into making sure that bigotry is EXCLUDED from the training, it will by default be included.

Especially a nose that looks like that.

Ratlines: a series of clandestine networks out of Europe used by Nazis to escape justice after World War II, often with the help of sympathetic Red Cross and Vatican officials.

ESTIMATES

In 1967, renowned Nazi hunter and Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal estimated that as many as 6,000-7,000 permanently or temporarily found refuge in the Arab world, including as many as 4,000 accused war criminals. 

Other historians and researchers, most notably British journalist Guy Walters, have disputed Wiesenthal’s figures, arguing that they are inflated. Nevertheless, Wiesenthal is credited for bringing the cases of hundreds of fugitive Nazis to light.

What we do know for a fact is this: no other countries officially elicited the services of as many Nazi war criminals in military training, military intelligence, and state propaganda as did countries in the Arab world, particularly Egypt and Syria.

Geopolitically-speaking, no region in the world was more influenced by Nazi war criminals post-World War II than the Arab world.

IN 1948: THE WAR AGAINST ISRAEL'S ESTABLISHMENT

I’ve already written several posts on the Nazis who joined the fight against Israel in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, but here’s a quick refresher:

Both homegrown Palestinian Arab paramilitary groups, Haj Amin al-Husseini’s Army of the Holy War and the Arab League’s Arab Liberation Army were commanded by former Nazis and Nazi collaborator. Al-Husseini himself had been charged as a war criminal for his work as a Nazi propagandist during World War II. His first-in-command, Abdul Qadir Al-Husseini, had been sent to Berlin for explosives training in 1938. His second-in-command, Hasan Salama, had worked for the intelligence arm of the SS.Meanwhile, the commander of the Arab Liberation Army, Fawzi Al-Qawuqji, had joined the Nazis as a Wehrmacht colonel.

About 1000 former Bosnian Muslim SS members fought on the side of the Arabs during the First Arab-Israeli War.

In March 1947, a newspaper report suggested that Egypt had smuggled Nazis out of POW camps and enlisted their services to train two Palestinian Arab youth groups: Al-Futuwwa and Al-Najjada.

In January 1948, between 800-2000 Bosnian SS soldiers joined the fight under the command of Hasan Salama.Another report suggested 30 former Nazi POWs were involved in battles in Hebron and Jerusalem. The Haganah executed two former Nazis who’d been found fighting for the Army of the Holy War.

Per a February 1948 report, tens of thousands of former Nazis or members of other European fascist forces were training Arab fighters in Syria.

When the Haganah took Haifa in April 1948, one of the terms of surrender for the Arabs was for them to hand Nazi German fighters over to Haganah custody.

In May 1948, the Haganah shot down five Egyptian pilots. Only two were Egyptian. The other three were actually German.

In October 1948, Baghdad Radio reported that the Arab countries had recruited former Nazi pilots that had participated in the London Blitz.

NASSER'S PROPAGANDISTS

In the aftermath of World War II, the Egyptian government not only gave prominent Nazi war criminals refuge, but it also enlisted their services as propagandists against the Jewish state.

Johann von Leers, who’d worked in Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Ministry under Joseph Goebbels, started working as an anti-Israel propagandist for the Egyptians in 1955. Von Leers joined the Information Department, heading Egypt’s anti-Israel propaganda unit.

Johann Appler, the founding member of the SS in Gunzenhausen, worked for the Egyptian Ministry of Information.

Franz Bartel, the head of the Gestapo in Kattowitz, Poland, joined Egypt’s Ministry of Information and worked for the Department of Jewish Affairs.

Wilhelm Bockler, who’d participated in the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, also joined the Ministry of Culture and National Guidance, which oversaw Egypt’s propaganda operations.

Hans Appier, another one of Goebbel’s subordinates, also joined the Ministry of Culture and National Guidance. Appier converted to Islam and adopted the name Salah Chaffer.

Nasser intentionally recruited former Nazis to oversee his anti-Israel propaganda efforts because he believed them to “understand the enemy.”

NASSER'S BALLISTIC MISSILE PROGRAM

In the early 1960s, Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser developed an entire ballistic missile program with an entire cohort of former Nazi war criminals at the helm. Approximately 300 to 500 German and Austrian scientists, engineers, and technicians, veterans of Hitler’s V-2 programs, were involved.

Nasser’s program was headed by Dr. Wolfgang Pilz, the creator behind Nazi Germany’s V-1 rocket, and Luftwaffe engineer Dr. Eugen Sänger.

Intelligence suggested that Dr. Pilz had joined a project to use the missiles for radioactive and chemical warfare against Israel.

In response, the Mossad launched a covert intelligence campaign known as Operation Damocles to intimidate German scientists and pressure them to drop out of the program, which they ultimately did.

CEMENTING ARAB POLICE STATES

Nazi war criminals in the Arab world also played a prominent role in cementing the authoritarian rule of Arab dictatorships.

Walther Rauff, who’d helped develop the mobile gas vans during the Holocaust, worked with 47 other Nazis to reorganize Syrian intelligence.

Alois Brunner, Adolf Eichmann’s right-hand man, became an important advisor to Syria’s Ba’athist regime.

Joachim Deumling, a Lieutenant Colonel in the SS, became an advisor to the Egyptian secret service.

Hans Becher, who oversaw the “Jewish Section” of the Gestapo in Vienna, joined the Egyptian police force.

Bernhard Bender, who served on served on Heinrich Himmler’s personal staff, became an advisor to the Egyptian police.

SUPPORT FOR PALESTINIAN TERROR GROUPS

Nazi war criminal influence in the Arab world extended far past sovereign governments and extended well into decentralized Palestinian terror networks. 

For instance:

Wilhelm Borner, a Nazi police commissioner who oversaw a number of infamous atrocities at Auschwitz joined the Egyptian Ministry of Interior and later worked directly for the Palestine Liberation Organization.

François Genoud, a major financier for the Nazis, later supplied arms to Palestinian terror groups (most notably the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP) and bankrolled the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini while he was in exile in France.

Otto Ernst Remer, best known for stopping the plot to assassinate Hitler, became an advisor to the Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas’s parent organization), the father of Palestinian nationalism Haj Amin al-Husseini, and a young Yasser Arafat.

WHERE'S THE ACCOUNTABILITY?

On the eve of the Nuremberg Trials, the popular and influential Palestinian Arab newspaper, Falastin, condemned the Allied pursuit to bring Nazi war criminals to justice, calling Nazism “as much a way of life as democracy and socialism.” This attitude was later reflected in the manner in which Arab governments dealt – or did not deal – with the Nazis that they took under their wing.

As in South America, Arab governments not only gave Nazi war criminals refuge, but they openly embraced them and protected them from extradition and international prosecution. Just as the Pinochet regime did in Chile, when it enlisted the services of Nazis like Klaus Barbie and Walther Rauff, Arab regimes sought the services of fugitive Nazi war criminals. In the Middle East, Arab governments saw Nazis as useful tools in their campaign to annihilate the Jewish state. 

No Arab government ever extradited Nazi war criminals or brought them to justice.

ASKING THE HARD QUESTIONS

Most of us know that in the shadow of World War II, a number of South American countries, and in particular Argentina, gave Nazi war criminals refuge. It’s almost a joke at this point.

But there has been little – if any – acknowledgment of the fact that thousands of Nazis not only escaped to the Arab world, but they fundamentally shaped the geopolitical and social landscape of those countries through their military, intelligence, and propaganda “contributions.”

This raises some difficult questions that few want to address, particularly in today’s political climate. Was the Arab opposition to Zionism really rooted in support for the human rights of Palestinians, or was there something much darker at play? Is the relentless pursuit for the annihilation of the Jewish state not just the Final Solution by another name? How influential was Nazi ideology to the development of the Palestinian national movement? And, most importantly: is it past time we acknowledge that Nazism is not just generalized racism, but a specific ideology driven first and foremost by a genocidal hatred of the Jewish people?

For a full bibliography of my sources, please head over to my Patreon.  

debbielechtman

WHEN social media influencer Chris Caresnone made his first trip to Israel just over a year ago, he knew very little about the country — including nothing about the events of October 7.

But he is a fast learner and has embraced all aspects of Israeli society, including Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze, on his quest for good food.

“About a year ago, I was invited by a group called Reality to go to Israel,” the Chicago-based food blogger told me. “A lady named Debra Feinberg reached out and was like, ‘Chris, I’ve been following you for a while, and I think you’d be great for this organisation that gets people to Israel’, because my Jewish audience was starting to grow.

“I was thinking that I need to get to Israel because it would be good for the energy, ethos, brand, and content.”

Chris, who has hundreds of thousands of followers across social media, continued: “I’ll be honest, I had heard stuff about Israel and Palestine, but I was ignorant. I didn’t know much about anything until I was in Israel. I was wet behind the ears. I didn’t know about the bombs or October 7. All I knew was, I’ve got to get to Israel.”

Chris, whose real surname is Campbell, said the first thing that struck him about Israel was that it wasn’t all Ashkenazim.

“We ignorantly think that all the Jewish people on Earth are eastern European,” he told me.

“It’s not from a place of hate, just that we don’t know. But then when I went to Israel, I’m like, man, there’s people my colour who are Jewish and Israeli.

“As far as food, I would say excellent. It all felt fresh, even the fried food.”

Chris, who is known as the Babka King, was a little surprised about the lack of babka in Israel.

“There’s some, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not really Sephardic, Mizrahi,” he said.

There was another aspect of Israeli life which surprised him — the driving.

“It’s a little hectic,” he laughed. “I don’t know if I want to drive over there. I personally thought the vibe of Israel was super cool, and I plan on going back as often as I can.”

Despite being a six-foot two-inch black man with a beard, Chris said he has never encountered any problems getting into Israel, apart from being stopped constantly by people who recognise him.

“The reach is getting so big now, so many people notice me in the airport, and it’s not even just Israel, it’s back home too, New York, Chicago,” he smiled.

“I have to stop and take pictures every few minutes, so that’s not really a problem, but it’s something that’s a slight disruption.”

Although it was never his original intention, Chris’ social media feed is now heavily Jewish, leading to many Jewish dinner invitations, including from rabbis for Friday night dinner.

“I’m kind of Jewish now,” he joked, “I’m embedded and I see what’s going on, but my first time in Israel? I heard that this is apartheid, but I see all kinds of people there walking freely. I’m a black America dude, clearly not Israeli, clearly not Jewish and not only do I walk perfectly fine, people come up to me and show me love.”

Chris, who says he grew up Christian but is not very religious, had his babka obsession started by a Muslim.

“And that turned into this movement, so to speak, of humanity, which I think is the most beautiful thing ever,” he explained.

“I started making culture content, showing love to different cultures. I did like 50 cultures. I didn’t even make any Jewish or Israeli content for seven or eight months.

“I feel like I get so much love within the community, and I’m just treating y’all normal like how I treat everyone else.

“I was told the way you have to look at it is, imagine if someone gives you a glass of water every single day.

“Eventually, it’s just another glass of water. But imagine you’re walking through the desert for four months, and then someone gives you a glass of water, it’s a bigger deal. And it’s not because the glass of water is any different, it’s because the context of the situation.

“It’s so big and powerful, yet it’s a matter of just being human and showing humanity.

“And the whole food, the babka was really just life’s way of Hashem, the universe, God, whatever we wanna call it, it was the Trojan horse to get my energy amplified.

“It’s more than food. I don’t feel like a food guy at all. I feel more like a bridge builder.”

During his trips to Israel, he has also spent time with Ethiopian and Druze communities.

He described Ethiopian food as “ridiculously good”, adding: “I have tried other cultures that are mixed within Israel. That’s what makes Israel’s food scene so unique. It’s almost like the opposite of what people are trying to say.”

The 42-year-old was raised around the North Shore of Chicago, which, he said, has one of the largest Jewish populations in America.

“I didn’t really have a lot of Jewish cuisine outside of matzo ball soup,” he explained. “When I got a little older, I started working in restaurants in different areas, and sometimes affluent areas.

“I started trying things that I probably would not have tried had I not worked in a restaurant. So my horizons got expanded because of that.”

He said what he realised about kosher food was that the food was still good despite the restrictions (apart from gefilte fish, which he has never been fond of).

As expected, his videos from Israel, while garnering mainly positive comments, do receive a number of hateful comments.

He had changed his name to Caresnone to reflect the fact that he wasn’t letting hate get to him, but it is a situation that has provoked a lot of thought.

“Here’s something I’ve been asking myself a lot recently,” he said. “Am I trying to be right or am I trying to solve the problem? I have learned that a lot of times I was trying to be right, not trying to generally solve the problem.

“On my birthday, February 2, I went out with some people and I had a buddy bring a girl he had met like once or twice.

“He should not have invited some girl he had just met to my intimate personal birthday dinner, but it is what it is. So we’re all sitting there at this restaurant and it’s a good 10 of us. We were talking about food and I’m like one of my new favourite cuisines is Israeli food. I’ve been going to a lot of Israeli restaurants.

“And this girl who’s sitting next to me, she goes, ‘oh, excuse me, what did you say?’

And I’m like, ‘I like Israeli cuisine, it’s fire, I love it’. And she says, ‘there’s no such thing as Israeli cuisine, it’s all stolen, they steal everything’.

“She invited this new energy when we were just talking about food.

“I’m with my buddy Kareem KWOE Wells, who’s considered King of the Mitzvahs, a black Christian in Chicago who’s known for doing the most epic and powerful mitzvahs in the country. Me and Kareem went at her. We weren’t rude or ignorant, but I was starting to feel myself losing composure, because I’m part of the humanity tribe, but I’m also very entrenched in the Jewish community and Israel.

“Then she made a comment along the lines of ‘I should be able to say whatever I want to say’ and then I matched her with that.

“I’m a pretty intimidating figure. And I looked at her, and I’m like, ‘well, I can say what I want to say, too’. I was giving her energy that wasn’t welcoming. I didn’t cuss her out or anything. And everyone else at the table thought I handled it well.

“But I was trying to be right. I wasn’t trying to solve the problem. So much so that she said, ‘maybe I should get out of here’. And I looked at her and go, ‘yeah, maybe you should’.”

He continued: “Fast forward. I’m on the way to Israel, on a 10-hour flight. I get a DM: ‘F*** Israel, f*** you, you black monkey’.

“I was immediately reminded of my birthday. I thought about that moment and I asked myself, do I want to be right or do I want to solve the problem?

“Being right would be to either call that person a racist or antisemite, or to ignore the person, or to call them an idiot, that you’re wrong, you don’t know anything about nothing. Or am I trying to solve the problem genuinely?

“So I typed to that person ‘I love you, brother’. Then we’re going back and forth, but I’m always bringing it back to humanity. I’m trying to solve the problem.

“And instead of looking at this person as a racist and antisemite, which he’s showing himself to be, I saw him as this person who’s hurt, who believes a narrative, who thinks he understands something, he obviously doesn’t know me, and that’s what I saw now.

“So I was able to not take it personally because I want to solve the problem. I don’t care about being right. I don’t care that he thinks I’m this. I’m trying to solve this.”

He added: “That guy who called me a black monkey. He equated me being aligned with Israel as equal to hating Muslims.

“I know Jewish people for a fact do not hate Muslims. But this person believed that all Jews and all Israel, or anyone who stands for that, hates Muslims. I’m like, brother, a Muslim sent me my first babka.

“A Muslim has created a lot of this, you know what I’m saying? He was the one who sent me the babka.”

The guy eventually apologised for his ‘black monkey’ comment.

Chris has also received death threats because of his Israel content.

He joked: “How you gonna hate me because I’m eating the babka? I’ve never once come out and said I’m pro-Israel or pro-Jewish. I said I’m pro-humanity, which includes Israel.

“I don’t think that’s controversial. I’m looking at a Jewish person, you got arms, you got a head, you got feet, you’re one of us. If the aliens come down, I don’t care if you’re Jewish, Muslim, green, yellow, it’s us versus the aliens?

“Like I said, people coming at me crazy for eating the food, which is interesting, because whoever’s throwing out that slur or that energy, I’ve probably done their culture too.”

Chris describes his job as to move “in a light, which is very Jewish! Very tikkun olam, from what I’ve been learning. And I feel like before I even knew what tikkun olam was, and before I even knew what being chosen people was, and before I knew any of the core premises of Judaism, I align with a lot of this stuff.”

Chris is hoping to spread his wings more. He is keen to “get my butt out to Europe, I know there’s a lot of people telling me I need to go to Australia and Mexico City, where there’s a big Jewish population.”

One of his favourite restaurants in Israel is called Pitmaster.

“I have learned that the Israeli community loves to dance,” he said. “Pitmaster is an experience. Everyone’s dancing. They stop between the meals and they dance and it’s like a vibe. They are gonna bring two more to the United States. And in America, you’re gonna have to make alcohol more of a thing, because these people weren’t dancing because they were drunk, they were dancing because they were joyful. In the States, you’ve got to get people drinking.”

He added: “So when you ask me, am I aware of how what I do affects the Jewish community and the people of Israel specifically. I want to be clear and say I’m not a Jewish content creator. I am not an Israeli content creator.

“I’m a humanitarian creator who happens to also include Jewish and Israel on the humanitarianism, and also, I just happen to be really cool with them like anyone else.”

In one of his newer videos, Chris talks about volunteering in Jerusalem with Colel Chabad.

“It reminded me that sometimes the best part of travelling isn’t just what you experience. It’s what you can give back. If you’re visiting Israel, I genuinely recommend adding this to your itinerary.”

From one of the most depressing articles I've read in a while:

The cease-fire and memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran are clearly over. On Tuesday, U.S. Central Command restarted its blockade of all Iranian shipping and ports, which comes after three days of U.S. airstrikes in reprisal for Iranian attacks on shipping in the Persian Gulf. 

The thing to keep an eye on, though, is the belated entry into the wider war of the Houthis, a designated terrorist group that runs much of Yemen and has terrorized the Red Sea for years. The Houthis’ entry into the conflict, which was announced on Tuesday with ominous threats (and reprisal strikes on neighboring Saudi Arabia), turns a war that Trump is already struggling to manage into a potentially even wider conflict, with nasty implications for world trade and oil prices. 

Benchmark oil prices jumped to $85 a barrel, after a brief respite earlier this summer when the war seemed to be over. Shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which never entirely recovered from the U.S.-Iran war, collapsed again in the wake of renewed hostilities. On Monday, less than a score of ships crossed the strait. 

Now, there’s a new strait in the crosshairs.

The Houthis’ entry into the war, after four years of tenuous peace with Saudi Arabia, renews the threat to another vital shipping lane: the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is the narrow bit at the entrance to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. The Houthis already closed down shipping in the area once, practically for good, in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war that began in 2023. Experts fear that may be about to happen again.