A cast of unsavory characters

David Pryce-Jones wrote “The Closed Circle an Interpretation of the Arabs.” It is a brilliant book, expressing a point of view that must be considered and appreciated even by those who think they disagree with it” to quote Amos Elon.

“As with the best historical works, “The Closed Circle” is the outcome, and the resolution, of puzzlement. David Pryce-Jones has been observing the Arab world for many years. He has found it by no means easy or simple to explain, or account for the flow of events, mostly disconcerting and disagreeable, which ceaselessly issue from the Middle East.------“

The author argues that the Arab world is stuck in an age-old tribalism and behavior from which it is unable to break away from close kin and other members of the tribe. In the Arab world those who seek power achieve it by plotting secretly and ruthlessly eliminating their rivals.

Why is the Arab world so troubled? Or to quote two “Palestinians” cited by David Pryce-Jones in “The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs”: Why, has Arab society failed to modernize? Why have Arab countries failed to cope with some of the most basic social tasks? Why have the Arab people been unable to cooperate, to stop wars among themselves, to organize, to unify? Why is Arab behavior emotional, unscientific, and irrational?

Pryce-Jones, whose lifelong interest in the Arab world began with his childhood experiences in Morocco, asks these questions.

Stemming from tribalism is the Arab insistence on using “concepts of shame and honor” to sanction their conduct. “Honor is what makes life worthwhile: shame is a living death.” These syndromes, says Price-Jones even extend to the Arab world’s contact to the West. His argument suggests that contact with Western rationalism traumatized the Arabs.

Professor Arnold Ages reviewed the book, titling it “Spotlighting the brutality of Arabs”. He regards David Pryce-Jones as a courageous man—especially in the age of Salman Rushdie.

Contrary to the conventional wisdom that Israel is somehow responsible for the ills of the Arab world, Pryce-Jones shows how violence is endemic in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Gulf States—all of whom have been involved in wars against each other or against, as in the case of Iraq, Iran.

Of the callousness and brutality of the Arabs, Pryce-Jones writes: “Mercilessness to external enemies is matched by mercilessness to the internal populations under rule.” As examples of this attitude, the author cites Assad’s massacre of “several tens of thousands” at Hama in 1982.

In his list of atrocities committed within Arab regimes, Pryce-Jones also alludes to Kuwait’s deportation of 26,898 people in November of 1986 in the wake of an attempted assassination of the head of state. He also mentions that 32,000 Tunisians were expelled from Libya during the same period.

According to the author, “The Arabs believe in their inalienable right to be exploited by people of their own nationality ---the difference between the rule of the late Shah and Khomeini may be posed as a question of who is persecuting whom and according to what principle.

Delving into Arab society, Pryce-Jones cites a number of cases in which murder of the most odious variety is defended by the perpetrator on the basis of cleansing one’s honor.”

He has a quote in 464 pages of well researched and polished prose that Yitzhak Shamir remarked to President Bush during his trip Washington: ”We have to remember what kind of neighborhood we live in.”

Sol H. Marshall, another reviewer concentrates on “Understanding the Arabs” and finds that “Arabs do not understand cooperative labors between equals to gain advantages over common enemies. Lebanon is a classic example. The Shiites and the Sunnis cannot join together to control the Maronite Christians effectively. Alliances hardly hold together long enough to advance one step themselves.

Negotiation and cooperation indicate taking a subordinate position to another person. This is not acceptable to a Muslim says Pryce-Jones. As fast as this occurs, the leader is assassinated or deposed, usually in a violent confrontation..

Arab history is replete with stories of assassinations by rulers of perceived upstarts.---Kings have killed off their bothers, sons, cousins and supposedly loyal retainers in order to ensure their own positions. Bottom line: Pryce-Jones does not see an easy solution to the Middle East standoff----Conciliation and negotiation means dishonor and shame. Arabs cannot accept that.

While David Pryce-Jones had no religious training, he had a strong Jewish identity. He was knowledgeable about his mother's [Jewish] family and his links with the Holocaust.

The enemy within

The Jerusalem Post published Isi Libeler’s “Candidly Speaking: J Street’s soft sell for the uninformed” on August 10, 2011. It commences with, “It’s unconscionable for American Jews to canvass their government to force Israel to act contrary to its will regarding national security.”

Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder and President of J Street, has written a highly misleading book titled. “A New Voice for Israel” that portrays himself as a passionate supporter of the Jewish State and a dedicated Zionist, extolling the virtues of his purportedly “pro Israel, pro peace “organization.

The opening section is based on the autobiography of his father, Yitzchak Ben-Ami, whose antecedents settled in Palestine around 1890. Yitzhak became a devoted follower of Vladimir Jabotinsky, and was sent to the US on behalf of the Irgun, initially to recruit volunteers for a Jewish army and then to support the campaign by Peter Bergson [Hillel Cook] group to alert Americans to the plight of European Jewry..

The father was eminently qualified to document the destruction of European Jewry, the struggle against the British in “Palestine “and the establishment of Israel, given his experience.

Jeremy, unlike his father, supports the so-called “Two-State Solution”, urges J Street Supporters Walt and Mearsheimer, not be treated in McCarthyist manner, and considers personal attacks on Richard Goldstone, whom he describes as a “noble Jew”, counterproductive. Moreover, he says Israelis should respect the ‘Palestinian” fallacious narrative!!

The list of J Street’s anti-Israel initiatives is endless. Most are either ignored or played down in Jeremy Ben-Ami’s misleading book, which could well serve as a case study of Orwellian double-speak, topped by the dishonest manner in which it portrays itself as “pro-Israel.”

The question remains as to how the son whose father accomplished so much, who faced extreme danger on numerous occasions, unselfishly serving his people, seeds a pathetic son whose desperation leads him to believe that appeasing a hate filled enemy, can realize peace.

Which one of The Pesach Haggadah's sons is he?. That this is particularly so, is simply because he has accepted the narrative of Israel’s enemies----a position which differs radically, from his father.

One realizes that Jews have to suffer the enemy from within not just the Arabs. Dennis Prager in his “Sick Jews” discusses the first. He doubts that there is any national or religious group that produces the percentage of people who aid those who wish to hurt, let alone kill, their group as do Jews.

Why are there no others like them? ‘Were there blacks who defended slavery? Were there Armenians who defended the Turkish mass murder of fellow Armenians during World War 1?

It turns out that the Jews who side with those who wish to eradicate the one Jewish state and slaughter as many Jews as possible are unique. It is this uniqueness that makes these Jews difficult to explain.

Prager concludes:

Psychopathology and Left-wing ideology are the two primary explanations for why Jews such as those in groups like “Jewish Voice for Peace” and “IfNotnow” willingly serve as useful idiots for those who wish to exterminate the Jewish state and the Jewish people including them.

And now for Kamala Harris. The International Jerusalem Post’s headline on August 2-8, 2024 reads “Harris raises Israeli concern with post-meeting remarks” on August2-8, 2024. Vice-President Kamala Harris is on her way to joining the anti-Israel crowd and can achieve a high position.zz

Consider her remarks following her meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

“Still she said the impact of the war on the ‘Palestinians' in Gaza, has been devastating. I also expressed to the Prime Minister my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.

"And I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there with over 2 million people facing high levels of food insecurity and half a million people facing catastrophic levels of acute food impurity.”

The last statement is an outright lie. Overall, has she forgotten who created the war?

Kamala Harris has been rather clever in not allowing her early life with Marxist friends to appear. Nowhere in the majority media coverage, except for one generally unknown source, do they surface. Upon a comprehensive search, one finds the following:

“Trevor Loudan offers a detailed history of Kamala Harris and the Communists who hate us- Audio and transcript.

Here are some names of Harris friends.

Willie Brown, Lateefah Simon, Harmony Goldberg, Adam Gold, Cindy Wiesner, Van Jones, Alicia Garzo [founder of BLM], Steve Phillips and Karine Jean-Pierre.

Did I say "unsavoury"...