The ISIS Attack in Paris and the New Jersey Assembly Elections
Democratic elections are the
best way for societies to peaceably resolve disputes. Corrupt elections or
biased administration leads to violence.
The ISIS attack in Paris is a
perfect illustration of corrupt elections and hypocritical attitudes leading to
violence. France, a racist country, is
biased against the Arabs in favor of Israel.
Not counting the decade long dirty war in Algeria in the
1950’s, which killed between half a million and a million and a half Algerians,
depending on who is asked, the French government with American support,
encouraged the Algerian military to cancel the Algerian elections in 1992 when
it became clear that the Islamic Salvation Front was going to emerge
victorious. This led to another civil
war in which an estimated 200,000 people lost their lives.
Not surprisingly, at least
one of the native born suicide bombers in the Paris attacks has Algerian roots.
Freedom of Speech in France
France has a law called the Gayssot
Act that makes it an offense to question the existence or size of crimes
against humanity. On September 13, 1987 right-wing politician Jean Marie Le Pen
said, “I ask myself several questions.
I’m not saying the gas chambers didn’t exist. I haven’t seen them myself. I haven’t particularly studied the question.
But I believe it’s just a detail in the history of World War II.” Le Pen was
prosecuted and forced to pay a $200,000 fine.
Le Pen was also stripped of
his immunity as a member of the European Parliament so he could be prosecuted
in Germany for saying, “If you take a 1,000 page book on World War II, the
concentration camps take up only two pages and the gas chambers ten to fifteen
lines. This is what one calls a detail.” This was considered to be “minimizing
the Holocaust” for which he was convicted and fined.
Now, let’s compare France and Germany’s exquisite
sensitivity to Jewish and Israeli sensibilities to its total disregard of
Muslim feelings when Charlie Hebdo ran a cartoon of
the Prophet Mohammed on its front page. No wonder the Muslims in France are
furious.
Furthermore, France gave Israel its nuclear capability to
become a nuclear power and then wanted to drive an excessively hard bargain
over Iran’s nuclear program. Then,
France participated in the bombing of Syria.
Maybe the Moslems are sick and tired of being killed by western arms and
are looking for the west to live up to its professed ideals. Maybe the motivation for the terrorists has
nothing to do with Islam and everything to do with Israel.
The 2002 French Presidential Election
France has a run-off system for choosing its President. In
2002, Jean Marie Le Pen, the perennial right wing candidate, faced President
Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and
thirteen other candidates in the first round of voting. It was widely expected that Le Pen would
receive a large protest vote, but that the runoff would pit the centrist Chirac
against the Socialist Jospin. The Chirac and Jospin camps were negotiating the ground rules for a debate
to follow the first round.
However, because of
fragmentation on the left, Le Pen squeaked past Jospin
to get into the runoff. In the first round, Chirac got 5,665,855 votes (20%) to
Le Pen’s 4,804,713 (16.8%) to Jospin’s 4,610,113
(16.2%). Suddenly, Chirac refused to
debate Le Pen and a demonstration of a million people took to the streets in
Paris to protest Le Pen’s candidacy and to support Chirac’s refusal to debate. Mob rule in action. Chirac won the runoff with more than 82%
of the vote, but does that mean that the opinions of 17% do not have to be
heard or considered? France is not
really a democracy.
Terrorism is not new to France. In the early 1960’s, right-wing groups of
military dissidents opposed to Algerian independence set bombs on trains and
near government buildings. Of course, this does not include the 1961 massacre
by the Paris police of Algerians who were engaged in an illegal but peaceful
demonstration for independence. After 37
years, the police admitted to the deaths of 40 demonstrators, although some
independent estimates put the toll at over 200. After beating them unconscious,
victims were thrown over the bridge into the Seine River where they drowned.
In the 1970’s, the conflict in the Middle East spilled over
onto the streets of Paris. So, terrorism
in France is nothing new.
The 2015 New Jersey Assembly Race
New Jersey is really no more democratic than France. Last
week, the turnout was less than 25%. The
newspapers ran a disinformation campaign. Instead of covering the candidates,
it covered pollsters. Without any
knowledge about the election or the candidates, people did not vote. This was not accidental because in the 13th
Assembly District the incumbent Republicans did not even bother to put out
campaign signs showing that they had advance knowledge that the newspapers
would not cover the race. And one of the
incumbent candidates is a college professor of marketing (or in this case,
information suppression.)
So, after a hundred years of
being partitioned, invaded, bombed, gassed and shot by the west or the west’s
clients, all in defense of the creation of a fundamentalist Jewish State at the
crossroads of Asia and Africa, it should not be surprising that the Muslims in
the Middle East are sick and tired of the so-called benefits of Western
Civilization. By representing the conflict as one of Islamic Terrorism,
American media and the two parties are misrepresenting the reasons for the
anger, so of course the “terrorists” appear to be irrational maniacs.
The terrorists want the west to live up to its professed
values. Until Israel settles with the
Palestinians, this conflict will continue and grow.
The Paris attacks will probably
strengthen support for the strongly xenophobic tendencies of the far right
National Front in the next French presidential election scheduled for
2017. If Marine Le Pen, the current
leader, makes it into the runoff, this time there certainly will be a debate.
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