World Kobane Day: November 1st

In the War of Freedom, the freedom fighters of Rojava help lead the way: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Protesters-Flood-the-Streets-of-Rome-in-Solidarity-with-Kobane-20151031-0020.html

Oh dear. Suddenly an anti-AKP newspaper loves Erdogan!

The cover of an anti-AKP newspaper on Friday that is no longer anti-AKP

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is an Islamo-fascist. Full stop:http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/30102015

Erdogan vs the people of Diyarbakir

Diyarbakir, the Republic of Turkey

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is an embarrassment to civilised people everywhere: http://www.english.rfi.fr/europe/20151028-kurdish-city-bears-scars-battles-between-turkish-military-and-armed-youth

Israeli Muslims supporting the State of Israel

Israeli flag in an Israeli Muslim's shop window

There are those in the West, blinded by identity politics, who would not believe it possible for Israeli Muslims to support the State of Israel: http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Muslim-Family-Hangs-Israeli-Flag-in-Store-to-Make-Statement-336389401.html 
Here, by the way, is a Wikipedia entry on Muslims more generally in the world who support Israel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_supporters_of_Israel

The CHP and the HDP should unite against Erdogan's Islamo-fascist AKP

Brother, why the four-finger Islamo-fascist salute?

When will the world wake up to the apocalyptic millenialism of the AKP's Recep Tayyip Erdogan: http://kurdishquestion.com/index.php/kurdistan/north-kurdistan/turkish-state-knew-of-sarin-gas-delivered-to-al-nusra-from-turkey.html

J K Rowling is just all right with me (Part II)

J K Rowling (aka) Robert Galbraith

After praising her detective series two days ago, here - as if by serendipity - is yet another reason to commend J K Rowling: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/22/israel-needs-cultural-bridges-not-boycotts-letter-from-jk-rowling-simon-schama-and-others

Lucy Aharish transcends identity politics

She is described as "Israeli Arab" but Lucy Aharish transcends identity politics

Here is Lucy Aharish telling it like it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rYCQjQkRGs .
If you are interested, this is her Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Aharish

Why does Erdogan not protect the Alevi?

The distribution of the Alevi throughout Turkey

Why do President Obama and NATO protect Recep Tayyip Erdogan? See the latest on Erdogan's Turkey and the hounding of the Alevi: https://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/turkeys-military-destroying-cemeteries-mosques-and-alevi-houses-of-worship-in-kurdistan/
Here, if you are interested, is the Wikipedia entry on Alevism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alevism

J K Rowling is just all right with me

I enjoyed the first two books in the Cormoran Strike detective series penned by Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling) and am keen to get started on the new one, Career of Evil. Still, this piece by James McCann on the absence of hysteria (or anything, really) surrounding its launch makes salutory reading: http://ripitup.com.au/culture/launch-days-for-new-j-k-rowling-books-arent-quite-what-they-used-to-be#.VicyqGQrJsY
Let us never forget, though, that J K Rowling almost single handedly held back the tide of non-reading for the young.  

Why Labor is engaging in the politics of identity

PM Turnbull in Parliament (courtesy of the Herald Sun) 

Here is a link to my Drum article on the ALP and identity politics: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-19/mccann-why-labor-is-engaging-in-the-politics-of-identity/6865384

Conspiracies and the Islamic State: What can we learn from the Ankara bombing?

Here is a piece I wrote for the ABC's The Drum on the subject of the October 10 Ankara bombing: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-14/mccann-what-can-we-learn-from-the-ankara-bombing/6852406

The Sins of Sultan Erdogan

Presidents Erdogan and Obama

Here is my article, "The Sins of Sultan Erdogan", from the October 2015 edition of Quadrant magazine: http://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2015/10/sins-sultan-erdogan/

Honest Reporting: "Palestinian terror wave prompts media bias wave"

Here is the address for Honest Reporting: http://honestreporting.com/

The Honest Reporting site is very helpful for seeing the other side of the story. For example:
http://honestreporting.com/palestinian-terror-wave-prompts-media-bias-wave/

Ask Halawa: About Israel and the Jews

Here is the link to the YouTube site where you can hear Mark Halawa (a Palestinian-Canadian) give his honest impressions of Israel having lived in Jerusalem for four years on a Canadian passport: /www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPMiApP8dSo There are subtitles in English.

The Palestinian Authority: a bad joke

Liel Leibovitz argues that, in order for Israel to liberate itself from the shackles of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Palestinians should be unilaterally given their state in order for the State of Israel to disengage from Mahmoud Abbas's impossibly corrupt and hostile PA: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/194033/palestinian-state?utm_source=tabletmagazinelist&utm_campaign=04be396524-Friday_October_9_201510_9_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c308bf8edb-04be396524-207   

Palestinian journalist Sama Hassan: a disgrace

Sama Hassan's op-ed in the Gazan newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (courtesy of Memri) 


Here is an example of how some Palestinian journalists have departed from civilised values: http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8789.htm

 

Peter Hitchens: "There's a difference between pleasure and happiness."

Courtesy of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

I just found this and would like to share it. Peter Hitchens is a conservative ("civilisation lost") and I can consider myself a freedomist ("it ain't over till it's over"), and yet I agree with so much that he says in this Australian Broadcasting Corporation talkfest. Watch it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDA819BJTtg

Here, by the way, is a link to an article I wrote about the Brothers Hitchens: http://darylmccann.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/the-hitchens-brothers-salisbury-review.html

Senator Ted Cruz should be the GOP's 2016 presidential candidate.

Senator Ted Cruz

Here Senator Cruz questions the president of the Sierra Club, Aaron Meir, who appears to be "cooking up and heating" throughout the grilling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl9-tY1oZNw

Petitioning the BBC

Click on here to go to petition: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1504024fa57423e6

From one freedom fighter to another

Deluded tyrant in Moscow comes to aid of deluded tyrant in Damascus

Here is my essay about Russia's stepped-up intervention in the Syrian civil war for the ABC's The Drum: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-05/mccann-russias-syria-success-could-quickly-turn-to-failure/6828220
And this is a piece I wrote three years ago about Vladimir Putin, "The Deluded Tyrant in the Kremlin": http://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2012/06/deluded-tyrant-in-the-kremlin/

Obama must end "special relationship" with Erdogan

Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Barack Obama

Turkey has been helping all the wrong types in Syria and now complains about US assistance to the YPG: http://www.basnews.com/en/news/2015/10/04/turkish-president-erdogan-slams-us-support-for-kurds-in-syria/

Turkish police drag body of HDP supporter through streets

The People's Democratic Party of Turkey

Here is the shocking story: http://www.basnews.com/en/news/2015/10/05/turkish-police-accused-of-dragging-body-of-kurd-through-streets/

Rojava's 2015 Summer Offensive in northern Syria

The Rojavan cantons of Kobani & Jazeera became one contiguous territory after the capture of Tal Abyad in June 2015   

The victories of the YPG (People's Protection Units) and the YPJ (Women's Protection Units) have gone mostly unreported in the MSM. Here is a piece I wrote about the meaning of the Battle of Kobani even before it was won, published in January 2015: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2015/01-02/battle-modernity-borders-kurdistan/

Thousands 'Like' the cold-blooded-murder of two Jewish parents

Mahmoud Abbas maintains silence on murder of two Jewish parents by terrorists 

The terrible truth is told by Ari Soffer in this story: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/201379#.VhBsxbSqpBc

Throngs of Palestinians celebrate murder

Admirers of the Al-Aqsa Matyrs' Brigades (Courtesy of The Algemeiner)

Here is Shiryn Ghermezian's report on Palestinian celebrations:http://www.algemeiner.com/2015/10/02/palestinians-launch-fireworks-wave-flags-to-celebrate-brutal-murder-of-israeli-couple/

Species Shame - Again

Here is the moral wakeup call for a somnambulant world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YllqrXMkDWo
And here is the transcription of Netanyahu's speech: http://israelnewsagency.com/text-speech-israel-pm-netanyahu-un-speech-iran-nuclear-terrorism-palestine-jerusalem/

October 2015 Quadrant is out!

I have an article in Quadrant 2015 titled, "The Sins of  Sultan Erdogan". As of this moment, it is behind the subscriber's wall. Here is the link to an online subscription to one of the most intellectual magazines in the Western world (and the Eastern world for that matter): http://quadrant.org.au/subscribe/