This is a guest post by the American Neocon, cross-posted from The Spittoon. It is part 1 of a 2 part article.
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Professor David Miller
So, you will remember that a few months ago we featured one of the main writers of NeoCon Europe, Idrees Ahmed, on this blog. Today we look at one of Ahmed’s other friends.
Neocon Europe is the brainchild of Professor David Miller at Strathclyde University. Long before he created Neocon Europe Miller was also behind other initiatives such as Spin Watch and Spin Profiles. The former claims to monitor:
the role of public relations and spin in contemporary society.
The website publishes and peddles a series of kooky far-left conspiracies. It hosts, for example, Idrees Ahmad’s utterly insane conspiracy theory that the Darfur crisis is being perpetrated by a powerful Jewish lobby, which bizarrely includes the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. He says:
Ned Goldstein has suggested in his investigation of the Zionist interests behind the [the Save Darfur Coalition] that Darfur is being deployed as a strategic distraction from Israeli crimes against the Palestinians… the real interest of [the Save Darfur Coalition] is to perpetuate the conflict so as to continue using the image of the Arab as the perpetrator to distract from the regional reality of the Arab as the victim.
But if you thought that was bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Until recently, Neocon Europe promoted the works of Kevin MacDonald on its website as objective analysis of so-called ‘Jewish influence’. MacDonald is a notorious anti-Semite, best known for his trilogy on Judaism: A People That Shall Dwell Alone (1994); Separation and Its Discontents (1998); and The Culture of Critique (1998). Essentially, MacDonald proposes that Judaism is a ‘group evolutionary strategy’ allowing Jews to ‘outdo’ others for resources.
MacDonald even appeared as a witness for the disgraced pseudo-historian, David Irving, in his libel battle with Deborah Lipstadt. MacDonald told the court:
…the attacks made on David Irving by Deborah Lipstadt and Jewish organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League should be viewed in the long-term context of Jewish-gentile interactions. As indicated by the summaries of my books, my training as an evolutionist as well as the evidence compiled by historians leads me to conceptualize Judaism as self-interested groups whose interests often conflict with segments of the gentile community.
[…]
[Irving’s] work is required reading for serious students of the Third Reich and World War II.
You can tell a lot about a man from the company he keeps. Here’s what the Anti-Defamation League has to say about MacDonald:
Kevin MacDonald’s arguments about Jews and Judaism — originally expressed in four books he published between 1994 and 2004 — mimic those made by anti-Semites during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. MacDonald argues that Judaism is a particularly successful “group evolutionary strategy” that allows Jews to benefit at the expense of non-Jews, and that anti-Semitism is a “rational” non-Jewish response to counteract Jewish successes. MacDonald believes that Jews in contemporary times have fostered and supported multiculturalism, Zionism, and neo-conservatism to benefit Jews at the expense of non-Jews.
[…]
MacDonald thinks Jews are characterized by four “background traits”: elevated intelligence, hyperethnocentrism, aggressiveness, and psychological intensity which, when combined, make Jews a “formidable” and “effective” group, capable of dominating other groups. MacDonald sees Jewish intelligence, in particular (which he attributes to alleged “eugenics-style” breeding practices among Jews), as responsible for Jews’ purported ability to transform non-Jewish society for their own benefit. This intelligence is biological, MacDonald claims, and confers, at least upon Ashkenazi Jews, “the highest average intelligence of any human group.” He also believes it grants Jews a “tendency” to amass wealth, a further source of collective Jewish power.
In addition, the Anti-Defamation League also reports:
Kevin MacDonald maintains ties to racist organizations, writes articles for racist publications, has published with racist publishing houses, and has appeared in an anti-immigrant movie and on the cable television and radio shows of well-known anti-Semites.
Yet, NeoCon Europe still decided to present MacDonald’s views on their website as an objective commentary on Irving Kristol’s ‘The Neoconservative Persuasion’. They tell us that MacDonald:
…argues that neoconservatism is indeed a Jewish intellectual and political movement; stating that the ethnocentrism of the neocons enabled them to create ‘highly organized, cohesive, and effective ethnic networks’. It explores these networks in the academic world, in the elite media and think tanks, and at the highest levels of government. It also notes that in persuance of their persuasion they have purged more traditional conservatives from their positions of power and influence, to reorientate US foreign policy in the direction of hegemony and empire.
NeoCon Europe recently pulled the article, but the screenshots below show that it was hosted on their website:
We don’t know who wrote that ‘wiki’ entry on NeoCon Europe but we do know that David Miller was the one who deleted it, because the deletion log tells us. Miller might argue that he didn’t realise who MacDonald was and that he is just a bad researcher, rehashing any argument that comes his way. That might be so. But what is so amazing is that NeoCon Europe did not just republish MacDonald’s ‘analysis’ but also his racist list of ‘characteristics of Jewish intellectual movements’:
- A deep concern with furthering specific Jewish interests, such as helping Israel or promoting immigration.
- Issues are framed in a rhetoric of universalism rather than Jewish particularism.
- Issues are framed in moral terms, and an attitude of moral superiority pervades the movement.
- Centered around charismatic leaders (Boas, Trotsky, Freud).
- Jews form a cohesive, mutually reinforcing core.
- Non-Jews appear in highly visible roles, often as spokespersons for the movement.
- A pronounced ingroup/outgroup atmosphere within the movement—dissenters are portrayed as the personification of evil and are expunged from the movement.
- The movement is irrational in the sense that it is fundamentally concerned with using available intellectual resources to advance a political cause.
- The movement is associated with the most prestigious academic institutions in the society.
- Access to prestigious and mainstream media sources, partly as a result of Jewish influence on the media.
- Active involvement of the wider Jewish community in supporting the movement.
Isn’t it amazing that no alarm bells went off at this stage? A list of racially based characteristics? Seriously, didn’t that prompt anyone to think ‘hmm, maybe I should check out who this MacDonald character is?’ Clearly not.
Instead, after reproducing the list, Neocon Europe tells us:
For MacDonald Neoconservatism, although not simply a term for ex-liberals or leftists, as a movement derives from the long association of Jews with the left and a loss of influence in the Democratic Party because of the fall of the Soviet Union.
And what article could pass on Neocon Europe without some reference to ‘the lobby’?
For MacDonald, neoconservatism is a semicovert branch of the “massive and highly effective pro-Israel lobby”, which includes organizations like the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)and the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP).
That’s the kind of glowing analysis we’ve seen before.
Tune in tomorrow for Part 2!
