Mediaboss Marketing

Richard Spencer, born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Dallas, Texas, is responsible for popularising the term alt-right and is the movements best-known activist.

Spencer was educated at the University of Virginia, obtained a masters degree from the University of Chicago and then embarked on doctoral studies at the private Duke University.

Tellingly, Spencers entrance essay for Duke University was on the German philosopher, political theorist and Nazi Party member Carl Schmitt. In 2007, he dropped out and took a job as assistant editor at Pat Buchanans magazine, The American Conservative, before later being fired for his extremist views.

Spencer then moved to Takis Magazine as executive editor before founding AlternativeRight.com in 2010 as an online magazine of radical traditionalism that aimed to forge a new intellectual right-wing that is independent and outside the conservative establishment. The websites contributing editors were Peter Brimelow, the British founder of the anti-immigrant website VDARE.com, and Paul Gottfried, also from Takis Magazine. The success of the website meant that in 2011 Spencer was offered the leading position at the National Policy Institute (NPI) and Washington Summit Publishers upon the death of Louis Andrews. On taking control he promptly moved the operation from Washington DC to the location of his family holiday home in Whitefish, Montana.

In 2012, Spencer launched Radix Journal as a twice-yearly offshoot of Washington Summit Publishers. The journal went on to be one of the leading outlets for the alt-right, hosting articles by a plethora of prominent far-right writers, before Spencer stood down in January 2017 to launch his new venture, Altright.com.

Spencer and the NPI have been central to the rise of the alt-right and have played an important role in bringing European New Right thinkers to an American far-right audience. The yearly conferences, organised by Spencer, who describes himself as an identitarian, attract prominent speakers from across America and Europe. In 2013, at their After The Fall: The Future of Identity conference, the NPI hosted the French New Right founder and philosopher Alain de Benoist alongside the fascist author of Against Democracy and Equality: The European New Right, Tomislav Suni.

That same year, at Jared Taylors American Renaissance conference, Spencer called for peaceful ethnic cleansing.

In 2014, Spencer was expelled from Hungary after trying to organise a conference in Budapest that was to include Philippe Vardon from the French Bloc Identitaire movement and the Russian far-right philosopher Alexander Dugin. As a result, Spencer is now banned from entering the UK and the other European Union countries covered by the Schengen agreement.

The NPI made headlines around the world in late 2016 when Spencer was filmed bellowing Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory! at their Become Who You Are conference in Washington DC where speakers included VDares Peter Brimelow, antisemite Kevin MacDonald and Colin Robertson (aka Millennial Woes) from the UK.

Spencer was a vocal supporter of Donald Trump during his election campaign and became an increasingly high profile figure especially in the wake of Hillary Clintons speech that referred to the alt-right.

In January 2017, Spencer was central to the emergence of AltRight Corporation, a merger between the NPI, the publisher Arktos Media and the Scandinavian media platform Red Ice Creations.

The new group has a single board and an office in city centre Washington DC. Spencer is the American editor and sits on the Board of Directors with Daniel Friberg, Henrik Palmgren, William Regnery and Tor Westman.

Read the original post:
The International Alternative Right | HOPE Not Hate

Jeremy Christian (right), seen during a Patriot Prayer, allegedly stabbed three men, two fatally, in Portland earlier this year. During a subsequent courtroom appearance, he exclaimed: "Free speech or die, Portland. You call it terrorism I call it patriotism." John Rudoff/AP hide caption

Jeremy Christian (right), seen during a Patriot Prayer, allegedly stabbed three men, two fatally, in Portland earlier this year. During a subsequent courtroom appearance, he exclaimed: "Free speech or die, Portland. You call it terrorism I call it patriotism."

Updated 9:26 a.m. ET on Aug. 14

Alt-right. White nationalist. Free speech. Hate speech.

A number of labels involving the far right have been tossed about once again after a weekend white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., turned deadly.

Here's a look at some of the phrases being used to describe the people involved and what's behind them:

Alt-right/white nationalist

There's plenty of disagreement and debate about what language to use to describe far right politics and the groups that operate there.

These days, the labels white nationalist and alt-right have become ubiquitous. Radical right and ultra-right are older terms from the 1950s and '60s, and other terms include paleo-conservative, the militia movement, identity movement, American fascists, national socialists, neo-Nazis. But according to Mark Potok, a leader at the Southern Poverty Law Center for the last two decades, essentially these groups can be broken down into two main categories those who focus primarily on issues of race and those who focus primarily on conspiracy theories. One idea that courses through nearly all of them is the belief that healthy societies are dependent on racial, ethnic and cultural purity that for the white race, diversity is the path to political and cultural extinction.

The thinking is that each racial/ethnic group should get their own country, but the USA (and Europe) is for white, European, Christian culture.

It's why language like that of Jeremy Christian who allegedly stabbed three people on the Portland Metro then shouted "get the f*** out of my country" in court is prevalent among the far right.

In the "Unite the Right" rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia last week, white nationalists and neo-Nazis chanted the phrase "blood and soil" and "Jews will not replace us."

"Blood and soil" began as a political and cultural idea in Germany that predated and then was taken up in earnest by the Nazi regime.

There are several romanticized conceptions in the Blood and Soil ideology race and ethnic purity combined with a belief that a rural, agrarian lifestyle is the healthiest, most sincere, conservative and (during the first half of the last century at least) Germanic way of life. In 1930, Richard Walther Darre wrote a book Neuadel aus Blut und Boden A New Nobility Based On Blood And Soil which glorified "peasant virtues" and aggressively promoted eugenics. It was a powerful influence on Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler. A virulent anti-Semite, Darre became Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture in 1933 and authored the idea of "Rasse und Raum" Race and Space which was intended to provide political and intellectual cover for Nazi aggression and expansion.

This supremacist vision is what separates alternative right/white nationalists from others on the political spectrum. It's an enormous leap ideologically from mainstream conservatism and the main reason why alt-right membership remains relatively low. Where does the term alt-right come from? Paleo-conservative philosopher Paul Grottfried first used the phrase in 2008 but white nationalist Richard Spencer ran with it and helped make alt-right ubiquitous.

Spencer is a new face of the extreme right movement. Well-educated at the Universities of Virginia, Chicago and Duke, he is a world away from old images of the Ku Klux Klan. According to Pete Simi, professor of Sociology at Chapman University and the co-author of the book American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement's Hidden Spaces of Hate, the term alt-right was a successful attempt by Spencer to rebrand himself and his followers as something fresh, young and smart for a new generation.

Among its allies, the alt-right embraces President Trump adviser and former Breitbart editor Steve Bannon. Bannon has called the site a "platform for the alt-right."

Free speech or hate speech?

Free speech has grown into a major issue for both mainstream conservatives and the alt-right. For mainstream conservatives, the belief that the left is more intolerant of dissent than the right is evidenced by the protests against right-wing speakers on college campuses.

White nationalists believe their First Amendment rights go further: that they should have the freedom to say whatever they like and not suffer consequences for example, getting fired from their job for posting something hateful on Facebook.

The alt-right has developed its own language and symbols on the Internet. Parentheses around a person's name means they are Jewish. "Cuckservative" is a particularly ugly racist and derogatory term describing establishment Republicans who aren't considered conservative enough.

Professor Simi says a key feature of white nationalist belief is seeing themselves as victims. "We're not the haters, we're the victims of white genocide," Simi says, describing the alt-right mindset. Marginalized, oppressed and fighting an uphill battle against the powers that be, they view themselves as noble, courageous, even heroic warriors.

"Patriot" or terrorist?

A second category of the extreme right is the American militia movement, which can be characterized by its belief in conspiracy theories. On his Facebook page, Christian praised Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, "May all the Gods Bless Timothy McVeigh a TRUE PATRIOT!!!"

Former SPLC director Potok said the movement's fundamental idea is that the federal government is involved in a conspiracy against its people's liberties. The imposition of martial law will be followed by the forced confiscation of guns, and Potok explains that in the end, the U.S. government will be forced into a one world government, the so-called "New World Order" that will be run to serve the global elite. Elements of these conspiracy theories recently made a prominent appearance in Texas in 2015 during an armed forces military exercise, which stoked fear among some worried Texans that President Barack Obama was about to use Special Forces soldiers to confiscate guns and round up resisters. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott responded by ordering the Texas State Guard to monitor the Special Forces soldiers while they trained in Texas.

Martin Kaste contributed to this story. It was originally published on June 4.

Originally posted here:
Alt-Right, White Nationalist, Free Speech: The Far Right's ...

Breitbart's Milo Yiannopoulos, a self-proclaimed leader of the movement, co-wrote a manifesto of sorts about what the alt-right believes. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption

Breitbart's Milo Yiannopoulos, a self-proclaimed leader of the movement, co-wrote a manifesto of sorts about what the alt-right believes.

The presidential candidates this week accused one another of racism and bigotry, with Hillary Clinton arguing that Donald Trump's rhetoric and policies are an invitation to the "alt-right" movement.

"This is not conservatism as we have known it," the Democratic nominee said on Thursday during a speech in Reno, Nev. "This is not Republicanism as we have known it. These are racist ideas. These are race-baiting ideas. Anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-women ideas all key tenets making up an emerging racist ideology known as the 'alt-right.'"

So what, exactly, is the "alt-right"?

The views of the alt-right are widely seen as anti-Semitic and white supremacist.

It is mostly an online movement that uses websites, chat boards, social media and memes to spread its message. (Remember the Star of David image that Trump received criticism for retweeting? That reportedly first appeared on an alt-right message board.)

Most of its members are young white men who see themselves first and foremost as champions of their own demographic. However, apart from their allegiance to their "tribe," as they call it, their greatest points of unity lie in what they are against: multiculturalism, immigration, feminism and, above all, political correctness.

"They see political correctness really as the greatest threat to their liberty," Nicole Hemmer, University of Virginia professor and author of a forthcoming book Messengers of the Right, explained on Morning Edition.

"So, they believe saying racist or anti-Semitic things it's is not an act of hate, but an act of freedom," she said.

For that reason, as well as for fun and notoriety, alt-righters like to troll, prank and provoke.

One of their favorite slams is to label someone a "cukservative," loosely translated by the Daily Caller as a cuckolded conservative, or "race traitor" who has surrendered his masculinity.

How does the alt-right movement differ from what we think of as traditional conservatism?

The movement's origins are traced to many conservatives' opposition to the policies of President George W. Bush, especially the U.S. invasion of Iraq (alt-righters are strictly isolationist).

They are also suspicious of free markets, a key tenet of conservatism, as they believe that business interests can often be in conflict with what they view as higher ideals those of cultural preservation and homogeneity.

Two self-proclaimed leaders of the alt-right movement Breitbart's Allum Bokhari and Milo Yiannopoulos recently outlined a manifesto of sorts for what the group believes and who their allies are and are not. It claimed that "beltway conservatives" hate alt-right adherents even more "than Democrats or loopy progressives."

They see themselves, rather, as "natural conservatives," with an "instinctive wariness of the foreign and the unfamiliar," Bokhari and Yiannopoulos wrote.

What is Trump's connection to the alt-right?

Last week, the GOP presidential nominee announced that Stephen Bannon, chairman of Breitbart News Network, which Bannon has called "the platform for the alt-right," would be his campaign's new chief executive.

"By putting Brietbart front and center in his campaign," said Hemmer, "Trump has elevated the alt-right."

But Hemmer suspects that Trump and all but a small fraction of his supporters do not pledge allegiance to the alt-right movement.

Yet, the movement has embraced Trump.

"I think they are attracted to Trump [and] see him as a vessel for getting their ideas out there," Hemmer said.

Clinton is likely to continue drawing a link between Trump and the alt-right in the minds of voters.

"She's reminding those undecided voters that whatever the new moderate face of Donald Trump might be, there are the things he has said and here are the implications of the things he said and the people who he's brought into his campaign," Hemmer said.

How do alt-right leaders feel about Clinton's statements?

They seem to be loving the attention. As Michelle Goldberg wrote in Slate:

"The white nationalist Richard Spencer was on vacation in Japan when he learned that Hillary Clinton was planning to give a speech about Donald Trump's ties to the so-called alt right, and he was thrilled. 'It's hugely significant,' Spencer told me by Skype from Kyoto. 'When a presidential candidate and indeed the presidential candidate who is leading in most polls talks about your movement directly, I think you can safely say that you've made it.' "

Read the original post:
What You Need To Know About The Alt-Right Movement : NPR

Background

The Alternative Right is a term coined in 2008 by Richard Bertrand Spencer, who heads the white nationalist think tank known as the National Policy Institute, to describe a loose set of far-right ideals centered on white identity and the preservation of Western civilization. In 2010, Spencer, who had done stints as an editor of The American Conservative and Takis Magazine, launched the Alternative Right blog, where he worked to refine the movements ideological tenets.

Spencer describes the Alt Right as a big-tent ideology that blends the ideas of neo-reactionaries (NRx-ers), who advocate a return to an antiquated, pseudo-libertarian government that supports traditional western civilization; archeofuturists, those who advocate for a return to traditional values without jettisoning the advances of society and technology; human biodiversity adherents (HBDers) and race realists, people who generally adhere to scientific racism; and other extreme-right ideologies. Alt-Right adherents stridently reject egalitarianism and universalism.

At the heart of the Alt-Right is a break with establishment conservatism that favors experimentation with the ideas of the French New Right; libertarian thought as exemplified by former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas); anarcho-capitalism, which advocates individual sovereignty and open markets in place of an organized state; Catholic traditionalism, which seeks a return to Roman Catholicism before the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council; and other ideologies. It is a reaction to the conservative establishment as exemplified by the nomination of Barry Goldwater for the presidency in 1964. According to Spencer, that solidified several aspects of contemporary conservatism, including an emphasis on liberty, freedom, free markets and capitalism. Spencer considers these ideas to be anti-ideals and says the Alt-Right is redefining categories for a new kind of conservative.

Spencer describes Alt-Right adherents as younger people, often recent college graduates, who recognize the uselessness of mainstream conservatism in what he describes as a hyper-racialized world. So its no surprise that the movement in 2015 and 2016 concentrated on opposing immigration and the resettlement of Syrian refugees in America. Although such stances align with older forms of white racism, Spencer insists that the Alt-Right is a liberation from a left-right dialectic.

The Alt-Right is intimately connected American Identitarianism, a version of an ideology popular in Europe that emphasizes cultural and racial homogeneity within different countries. One difference is that while European Identitarians indict the generation known as the 68ers, a reference to the left of the 1960s, their American counterparts attack baby boomers, who are presumed to comprise the bulk of the current Republican Partys base. But the movements on both continents are similar in accusing older conservatives for selling out their countries to foreigners.

Spencer left his Alternative Right blog on Christmas Day 2013 in order to focus on the Radix Journal, an online journal published by the National Policy Institute that promotes the creation of a white ethno-state. Spencers abrupt departure, referred to as the Christmas Day Purge, left the blog to two fellow white nationalists, Colin Liddell of the United Kingdom and Andy Nowicki, a former college professor. The blog has struggled since then to stay relevant to the white nationalist movement.

Although Spencer has positioned himself as the effective leader of the Alt-Right, other proponents include several well-known names on the far right, including Jared Taylor , editor of the American Renaissance racist journal; Greg Johnson of the publishing house Counter-Currents; Matthew Parrott and Matthew Heimbach of the Traditionalist Youth Network; and Mike Enoch, who runs The Right Stuff blog. But the general population of the Alt-Right is composed, by and large, of anonymous youths who were exposed to the movements ideas through online message boards like 4chan and 8chans /pol/ and Internet platforms like Reddit and Twitter.

The movement is not monolithic. The diversity of far-right ideologies that it includes has resulted in some disagreement with regard to Jews, and whether to blame them for the perceived plight of white culturea belief that has undergirded many sectors of white nationalism for decades. While some Alt-Right leaders are unquestionably anti-Semitic, others, like Jared Taylor, are not, seeing Jews simply as white people. For his part, Spencer has repeatedly brought in anti-Semites to speak at his events.

In March 2016, for instance, Spencer invited former California State University-Long Beach professor Kevin MacDonald, the author of a trilogy purporting to show that Jews seek to undermine the host Christian societies in which they often live, to speak at an event titled Identity Politics. After the event, Spencer stopped just short of questioning the Holocaust, telling a Huffington Post reporter that if it really happened, then of course it wasnt justified. If it happened differently than what the story weve been told [is], then I think that needs to be let out.

Social media have been instrumental to the growth of the Alt-Right. Legions of anonymous Twitter users have used the hashtag #AltRight to proliferate their ideas, sometimes successfully pushing them into the political mainstream.

The best example of that is probably the term cuckservative a combination of cuckold and conservative, coined to castigate Republican politicians who are seen as traitors to their people who are selling out conservatives with their support for globalism and certain liberal ideas. The phrase has a racist undertone, as some of its backers have suggested, implying that establishment conservatives are like white men who allow black men to sleep with their wives. It received widespread media attention, including, to the delight of Spencer and others, in The Washington Post.

But the Alt-Right has taken on many more issues than that, including issues of high importance to white nationalists like the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the U.S. and Europe in 2015 and 2016, the Black Lives Matter movement and immigration reform. Propaganda campaigns also have been organized around hashtags such as #WhiteGenocide, a reference to the myth that white people are being subjected to an orchestrated eradication campaign; #ISaluteWhitePeople; #BoycottStarWarsVII, a racist campaign to protest the black actor who was cast in a lead role in the 2015 Star Wars reboot; and #NROrevolt, which arose after the National Review, a journal that has historically served as the gatekeeper to mainstream conservatism and has vehemently opposed Donald Trumps candidacy for president.

Trump is a hero to the Alt-Right. Through a series of semi-organized campaigns, Alt-Right activists applied the cuckservative slur to every major Republican primary candidate except Trump, who regularly rails against political correctness, Muslims, immigrants, Mexicans, Chinese and others. They have also worked hard to affix the Alt Right brand to Trump through the use of hashtags and memes.

The movement is not limited to the Internet. At least twice a year, Spencer reserves the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., for a coat-and-tie gathering of his followers. The events are open to reporters but also cloaked in secrecy attendees regularly use false names or refuse to identify themselves for fear of being labeled as racists. Topics and themes vary. The gathering in March 2015 was titled Beyond Conservatism and capitalized on the strength of the cuckservative meme. Identity Politics in March 2016 focused heavily on the continued success of Trumps presidential campaign. Each of the speakers featured there addressed a different facet of Trumps influence of politics and American culture. Kevin MacDonald classified Trumps rise as part of an implicit white backlash against present-day politics, while Spencer declared that Trump was merely creating a political space, intentionally or not, in which the Alt-Right could grow.

The Alt-Right also has a stable of publishing houses. Most notably, both NPI and Counter-Currents have publishing arms NPIs is Washington Summit Press that focus on historical and contemporary extremists. They distribute the works of such well-known white nationalist writers as Alexander Dugin, Corneliu Codreanu, Guillaume Faye and Alain de Benoist, along with more contemporary authors like F. Roger Devlin, Andy Nowicki, Greg Johnson and Richard Spencer.

In March 2016, Allum Bokhari and Milo Yiannopoulos wrote an article for the right-wing Breitbart news site that claimed that the Alt-Right was fundamentally about youthful provocation and subversion, rather than simply another vehicle for the worst dregs of human society: anti-Semites, white supremacists, and other members of the Stormfront set, a reference to an online forum run by a former Alabama Klan leader. Yiannopoulos, who was instrumental in the online harassment campaign against women in the electronic gaming world known as Gamergate, was not well received. Virtually every mainstream conservative publication, from the National Review to The Federalist, condemned it. And some on the furthest extremes of the Alt-right attacked him as a Jewish homosexual, in the words of Andrew Anglin, who runs the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website, which Anglin describes as The Worlds Most Visited Alt-Right Web Site. Anglin said Yiannopoulos had a history of engaging in sneaky Jewish tricks and added that this is how they get you. Clearly, the man seeks to undermine right-wing movements for Jewish purposes.

That last attack, which came despite the fact that Yiannopoulos has been photographed wearing a necklace with the German Iron Cross symbol, illustrates the diversity of opinion within the Alt-Right world. But, at the end of the day, neo-Nazis like Anglin, coat-and-tie racists like Richard Spencer and Jared Taylor, and oddball figures like Yiannopoulos have more in common, in terms of sharing a vision of society as fundamentally determined by race, than they disagree about.

Martin Luther King Jr., a fraud and degenerate in his life, has become the symbol and cynosure of White Dispossession and the deconstruction of Occidental civilization. We must overcome!

National Policy Institute column, January 2014

Immigration is a kind a proxy warand maybe a last standfor White Americans, who are undergoing a painful recognition that, unless dramatic action is taken, their grandchildren will live in a country that is alien and hostile.

National Policy Institute column, February 2014

Since we are fighting for nothing less than the biological survival of our race, and since the vast bulk of Jews oppose us, we need to err on the side of caution and have no association with Jews whatsoever. Any genuine Jewish well-wishers will understand, since they know what their people are like better than we ever can. Saving our race is something that we will have to do ourselves alone.

Greg Johnson, White Nationalism & Jewish Nationalism, August 2011

I oppose the Jewish diaspora in the United States and other white societies. I would like to see the white peoples of the world break the power of the Jewish diaspora and send the Jews to Israel, where they will have to learn how to be a normal nation.

Greg Johnson, White Nationalism & Jewish Nationalism, August 2011

At the core of the JI [Jewish Identity] is a malevolent supremacy. This is the manifest in their rejection of outgroups who wish to participate and innovate traditional Jewish cultural activities. Why reject diversity and progress within your community if not a false feeling of betterness? The root of this problem is, of course, a sexual feeling of inferiority. Mighty psychosexual urges must not be downplayed within group dynamics. As a remedy to this, the JI must be infiltrated with foreign members to procreate with their men and women. That way, the deep psychological psychosis can be treated at the root.

A Critical Analysis of the Jewish Identity, The Right Stuff, January 2016

The new left doctrine of racial struggle in favor of non-Whites only, a product of decolonization and the defeat of nationalists by egalitarians after WWII, must be repudiated and Whites must be allowed to take their own side in their affairs. A value system that says Whites are not allowed to have collective interests while literally every other identity group can do so and ought to do so is unacceptable.

The Fight for the Alt-Right: The Rising Tide of Ideological Autism Against Big-Tent Supremacy, The Right Stuff, January 2016

This is our home and our kith and kin. Borders matter, identity matters, blood matters, libertarians and their capitalism can move to Somalia if they want to live without rules, in the West we must have standards and enforce them. The freedom for other races to move freely into white nations is nonexistent. Stay in your own nations, we dont want you here.

Matthew Heimbach, I Hate Freedom, Traditionalist Youth Network, July 7, 2013

Those who promote miscegenation, usury, or any other forms of racial suicide should be sent to re-education centers, not tolerated.

Matthew Heimbach, I Hate Freedom, Traditionalist Youth Network, July 7, 2013

Read more here:
Alt-Right | Southern Poverty Law Center

Israel and Russia Support the Catalan Separatist Movement

by Sean Jobst

The Catalan independence movement, in the news recently with the referendum vote for independence, has very vocal political and ideological backers in Israel and Russia. These two countries, as well as its amen corner in various pro-Israeli and pro-Russian media outlets, have interfered in the internal affairs of Spain and given the Catalan separatists their blessing. This is even while both countries have a long and continued history of squashing violently the independence aspirations of the peoples they occupy, hypocritically denying its occupied people any such referendum while passing judgment on the European country of Spain.

The Catalan independence advocate, Barcelona High Court Judge Santiago Vidal, told the Barcelona Delta magazine in its Nov.-Dec. 2014 edition that it would be unlikely that Catalan separatists could appeal to the Central Bank of Europe: But there is a solution for this: another state with solvency. Basically speaking of Israel and Germany, will serve as our temporary bank. The obvious double standard on courting the support of the occupier of the Palestinians was not lost on Vidal, who had a quick answer: The Palestinian issue is characterized by violence. Whereas, the Catalan issue is characterized by civic lessons, pacifism and the doing of good things that we are giving to the whole world. And this is something the Israelis like very much. (Julie Steigerwald, Catalan Independence Advocate Looks to Israel, Germany for Funding, The Jerusalem Post, Nov. 24, 2014)

A Petition to the State of Israel to support the independence of Catalonia was delivered to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Ambassador Alon Bar. It garnered 1,146 supporters, mostly Catalan separatists and leftist Spaniards. A perusal of the comments section of the petition reveals a deep-seated hatred of Spain, which it collectively accuses of anti-Semitism in contrast to a Catalonia presented as a more progressive state that would naturally look to Israel as its inspiration. The thread throughout is one of simply: Catalans and self-hating Spaniards against Spain, but singing the praises of Israel as chief benefactor of an independent Catalonia.

Israeli Ambassador to Spain: It is wonderful Israel can be a source of inspiration for Catalonia

Alon Bar, the Israeli Ambassador to Spain and Andorra, gave an interview to Naci Digital on 20 May 2012 which has been approvingly touted on a website proclaiming its objective as Catalan Independence explained to the World. How strange is it for an ambassador allegedly representing one countrys interests in another country, to so actively sympathize with and even promote a separatist movement against the very country which graciously hosts him! Yet, this is exactly how Alon Bar has championed the Catalan cause as most beneficial to Israel. When asked about the much larger number of Israelis who visit Barcelona (300,000) compared to Madrid (40,000), as well as certain similarities with the Catalans, the ambassador replied:

There is a special friendship, and also some admiration, in the parallel renewal system of Hebrew and Catalan. We recall contacts with Jordi Pujol before the establishment of diplomatic relations between Spain and Israel. There is a special relationship that has been strengthened given the circumstances.Relationships are good and fluid with President Artur Mas team, the Foreign Committee of the Parliament of Catalonia and the City Council. We have a special interest in establishing business contacts. Both administrations have signed mutual agreements to promote joint projects to increase commercial relationships and have strengthened the Catalan-Israeli Chamber of Commerce, which is very active. We see business opportunities in what Israel has to offer in times of crisis.I think it is wonderful Israel can be a source of inspiration for Catalonia. (Interview with Israel Ambassador to Andorra and Spain, Alon Bar, Naci Digital, 20 May 2012)

Catalan Separatist Leader: I am pro-Israel and pro-Zionist

One of the leaders of the Catalan independence movement was Alfons Lopez Tena, leader of the Catalan Solidarity for Independence, who by 2015 dismissed any talk of Catalan independence as wishful thinking while still proclaiming: I am not Spanish and I have never felt Spanish. Nevertheless, he was very much a separatist when he gave an interview with the Israeli Haaretz newspaper in 2012, predicting an independent Catalonia within two years and close friendship with Israel. This doyen of Catalan separatism expressed his own support for the foreign ideology of Zionism:

On a personal level, I define myself as being pro-Israel and pro-Zionist. These are views I inherited, in my family. I well remember the concern that filled our house at the time of the Six Day War. I was a boy at the time, 10 years old, and we all prayed for Israels survival. At least half of the members of my party are members of the Catalan Friends of Israel Association. Israel is a democratic state, and we support the steps it takes for survival, and the survival of the Jewish people. We have no intention of criticizing what its government does. We seek cooperation with Israel, and we hope it will support our independence movement. It is clear that an independent Catalonia will be a close friend of Israel theres no doubt about that. (Adar Primor, Catalan Leader Predicts Independence in About Two Years, and Close Friendship With Israel, Haaretz, Oct. 4, 2012)

This same Israeli journalist earlier profiled Lopez Tena, in a very sympathetic article so clearly theres a pattern of sympathy for Catalan separatism within the Israeli media: Spain will not easily give up its crown jewel, but Lopez Tena is losing no time in making a promise that Europes new member state will be very friendly to Israel. In that too it will separate itself from its rival in Madrid. And here is another message. Just as Catalonia will soon be the state of the Catalan people, Israel is first and foremost the state of the Jewish people. There is no future for a binational state. The latest victory of the separatists in Quebec, Canada, the continuing efforts to dismantle the Belgian kingdom, and the national referendum to take place in Scotland in 2014 are only a few examples that prove this. Neither a federation nor a confederation, nor autonomy, nor cantons. Binationalism is dead. Visca (Viva in Catalan ) Israel, Visca Catalonia. (Adar Primor, Viva Catalonia, Viva Israel, Haaretz, Sept. 28, 2012)

The Generalitat de Catalunya and Israel

Catalan regionalist politician Jordi Pujol was longtime President of the Generalitat de Catalunya from 1980 until 23 December 2003. Even after his departure from power, he was still viewed as sufficiently influential that he was invited to address the Israeli Knesset on 28 October 2003. The speech was filled with invectives against Spanish history, cheered on by many who still obsess about medieval oppression in Spain against the Sephardic Jews and more recent anti-Semitism of the Franco period. But the most interesting part of his speech was his remarks about himself:

I come from a family at first rather sympathetic with the Jews, but not especially interested. However, there was something that increased, by reaction, the pro-Jewish attitude, and that was the Franco regime was anti-Jewish. And oddly enough, he mixed [compared] Judaism with Catalanism. In times of great Francoist exaltation and xenophobia of Spain, we were accused of being the Jews of Spain. But as I said, I did not come into contact with Judaism alone. Also, and in a certain sense above all with Zionism. And not in a superficial way. At only 17-18 years old I read Herzls Der Judenstaat and a very comprehensive book by Chaim Weizmann, which tells the whole Zionist struggle.

Pujol has attended and spoken at many functions of the Fundacin Samuel Toledano, whose namesake Samuel Toledano, was the long-time leader of the Jewish community in Spain and was instrumental in Spains establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel in 1987. Pujols Catalunya cultivated many close trade and political links with Israel, and these were continued by another member of his CiU party, Artur Mas, President of the Generalitat from 2010 to 2015: Israel is a strategic country for Catalonia and we want to continue strengthening our cooperation.

Mas successor and the current President of the Generalitat de Catalunya is Carles Puigdemont, also from Pujols CiU. Former Mayor of Girona, Puigdemont came to power after an agreement between CiU and the two Catalan separatist parties, Junts pel S and CUP. He is the first Catalan President to refuse taking the oath of loyalty to the Spanish Constitution even while enjoying the privileges of his autonomous position in the first place because of the Spanish states blessings. Puigdemont may be moving Catalonia away from Spain people who share the same blood, ancestry and history with the Catalans but during his tenure has been moving even closer towards Israel.

Under Puigdemont, the Catalan government has opened a trade and investment office in Tel Aviv. His media advisor, Aleix Clari, confirmed on his Twitter that 32% of Spanish exports are to Israel (the bulk of them to Catalonia) and that 79% of Israeli investments in all of Spain are within Catalonia. Puigdemont has cultivated close links with Chabad, including its local representative, Barcelona Rabbi Dovid Liebersohn; Putins Rabbi Berel Lazar, the Chabad Chief Rabbi of Russia; and Israeli-Russian billionaire Shimon Aminov.

Puigdemont with his Chabad friends, from left: Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Shimon Aminov, Putins Rabbi Berel Lazar, and Barcelona Rabbi Dovid Liebersohn

The Chabad Connection

Most notable in the above picture is four Chabad figures meeting with Puigdemont, who obviously enjoys cordial relations with this global Jewish supremacist organization that has deep finances. Foreshadowing the broader separatist trend, in 2016 the Jewish communities of five Catalan cities Barcelona, Besal, Castell dEmpries, Girona and Tortosa withdrew from the national Network of Spanish Jewish Quarters to form their own regional network according to the Networks director Marta Puig Quixal: This breakup is another example of how Catalan institutions are looking to go their own way. Girona Mayor Marta Madrenas evoked stronger Catalan-Jewish links as part of her own case for separatism: We think we can do better in terms of showcasing our Jewish patrimony.

One Chabad website described an international Chabad conference that took place in the Catalan city of Girona, from 11-13 June 2017. It brought together 45 attendees from around the world, including many from countries with negligible Jewish populations. Girona was chosen because It was once home to the second-largest Jewish community in Catalonia. In 1194, it was the birthplace of the medieval Kabbalist, Talmudist and Torah commentator Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman known as Nachmanides or the Ramban who served as its rabbi and established a yeshivah there.

Notable attendees included Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of the Chabad educational wing Merkos LInyonei Chinuch; and Rabbi Berel Lazar, the Chief Rabbi of Russia and a close ally of Vladimir Putin. Aside from Lazar, there was another Russian link: Organizers said the conference was being underwritten by Jewish-Russian transportation magnate Shimon Aminov, who in his travels has encountered many of the most remote Chabad emissaries and wanted to do something to support their work in return. The conference was also attended by its Guest of Honor Puigdemont, who expressed his appreciation and admiration of the shluchim who flew in from near and far.

The Russian Connection

Even while expressing their opposition to the Kurdish independence referendum because its seen as held under American auspices, pro-Russian media has gone out of its way to champion the Catalan independence cause against Spain. This includes the decidedly pro-Catalan separatist, anti-Spanish coverage on Russia Today; expressed support for Catalan independence by Duginist websites and think-tanks; statements by selective whistleblowers Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, who are silent whenever Russias interests tell them to be; and support for Catalan independence by many American libertarians, including a factually incorrect article by Justin Raimondo which called Catalonia A Spanish Tiananmen Square, while he consistently sings the praises of statist Putin and parrot Kremlin state media.

Julian Assange has seized upon the secessionist cause, in a massive display of activity on his social media accounts: Assange, for all intents and purposes, has become the independence movements chief international spokesman. The vast majority of his tweets this month, in many cases written in Spanish and Catalan, have centered around promoting Catalan secessionism and self-determination as a bulwark against Madrids repression. Russian news agency Sputnik has helped, too and has taken notice of Assanges tweets. The outlet posted 220 stories about the Catalan independence movement between September 11 and 27. (Natasha Bertrand, Julian Assange is rallying behind Catalan separatists ahead of a historic referendum and Russia has taken notice, Business Insider, Sept. 30, 2017)

One strange phenomenon within the last few years has been the staunch pro-Russian line taken by many U.S. libertarian media outlets. They have allowed their opposition to American interventionism not only to blind them to Putins own interventionism, but to actively apologize for any Russian state action. A recent example was an article on Antiwar.com by academic Thomas Harrington. Obviously triggered by an El Pas article, he dismissed it as Atlanticist using a common Duginist phrase. This alleged professor of Hispanic Studies nevertheless attacked Spain collectively as ever-prisoner to its own endlessly repeated mythologies about self and other, and championed Catalans against the Spanish centralists, while apologizing for Putins Russia with its own authoritarian centralism.

The Moscow-based Anti-Globalization Movement, which only supports separatist movements that would weaken and destabilize the United States and European Union while justifying Putins suppression of separatist movements at odds with Russian imperialism, issued a statement comparing Catalonia to Crimea. Putins media has twisted the Catalan issue to accuse the West of hypocrisy regarding his own conquest of Crimea from Ukraine. According to Russia researcher Casey Michel: Catalonian independence advocates are among those whove flown to Moscow to meet with a group that, as of 2016, received Kremlin funding to help network Western separatist groups.

Conclusion

Towards what end are these forces supporting Catalan independence? Foremost is to destabilize Spain. To destabilize European countries identified with Atlanticism is indeed a primary objective of Dugins Russo-centric Eurasianism. With an independent Catalan fiefdom separated from Spain and even more tightly controlled by Puigdemont and his malaise, the Israeli and other political links can enjoy more influence. Trade benefits can be even more for Israel if Catalonia is less connected to trade connections to the rest of Spain. A Catalan tax haven could be a boon for the Chabad, Israeli and Russian oligarchs already closely linked to local corruption.

A less obvious reason is a deep-seated vengeance against Spain. It may seem far-fetched at first, but many pro-Israel scholars have evoked a simplistic, one-sided, distorted historical view of medieval anti-Semitism against the Sephardic Jews and the Marranos, for modern political capital. Many books are published resurrecting this topic again and again, used to guilt-trip Spaniards. Specifically, it has been used to justify close Spanish relations with Israel and to shut down any dissent to Israeli policies; to grant the automatic right to citizenship to millions of Sephardic Jews of North Africa and elsewhere; to open up Spain to unfettered immigration and slander any opposition to this as racist; and to perpetuate thought-crime laws.

It should be clear to anyone who studies the political and financial links of Puigdemont, Artur Mas, Santiago Vidal, and other Catalan elites pushing for independence, that this is not a spontaneous, grassroots rising of a majority of people in Catalonia. Nor is it any move towards federalism and devolution, as its proponents as well as the leftist and even communistic trends supporting it envision a centralized Catalonia that might even grow to include regions such as Valencia and the Baleares. It would also be a state founded on a myth of a historically independent Catalonia, whereas historically it was linked with the Kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia.

Modern Catalonia is not some exploited region, but a privileged region that has often been propped up by the rest of Spain.one that already enjoys much autonomy: The right to its own language and parliament; led by its own President and Generalitat; exercising much local control over its trade and banking activities. Certainly it enjoys far more autonomy than the peoples occupied by the Israeli and Russian States that now meddle in Espaas affairs. I know its a painful pill for many to swallow, but.Catalua es Espaa!

View post:
alt-right.com - Reconquista Europa Reclaiming Our Heritage