Stanford Bars Public from Walid Shoebat Event, But Not Finkelstein

My latest blog post at Campus Watch:

Walid Shoebat and "Three Ex-Terrorists" Deemed Too Controversial for Public Consumption at Stanford, No Such Problems With Finkelstein

Muslim Leftists Love America, Western Leftists Hate America

As I've stressed repeatedly, one of the reasons for my post-9/11 political shift from left to right, and that of many others in the same camp, has been the Western left's attachment to anti-Americanism, even when it lands them on the same side as dictators, Islamists, and terrorists. Blinded by the sort of hatred of their own country and civilization produced by years of indoctrination in what I like to call the postcolonialist, self-loathing school of multiculturalism, today's leftists are incapable of recognizing the true threats to their own existence. Instead, they cling to familiar demons and push reactionary policies.

It's gotten to the point where one would be hard pressed to tell the difference lately between the foreign policy of so-called liberals and that of so-called realists. Both are in favor of the sort of isolationism that would leave dictators and theocratic regimes to their own devices, not to mention the oppressed people living under their thumbs. To the extent that engagement with these foreign powers is encouraged, it's in favor of meaningless negotiation in the craven hope that they can save their own skins in the process.

These days, this translates into calls for immediate withdrawals from both Iraq and Afghanistan and a foreign policy of appeasement, a la Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's recent visit to Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad and her promise to do the same with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

Meanwhile, voices of reform from the Muslim world are either ignored or in some cases, suppressed, by the Western left, which seems to find their lack of anti-Americanism terribly inconvenient.

Iranian-American writer and scholar Amir Taheri comments on this bizarre state of affairs in his latest column and expands on the topic to include the views of Muslim leftists, most of whom have little in common with their Western counterparts. As he puts it:

Skimming through the Middle Eastern press these days can produce unexpected results. It's not rare to see a virulently anti-American article by an American or Western European leftist - and, alongside it on the same page, a pro-American article from an Arab, Iranian or Afghan progressive figure.

{snip}

While Chomsky and Moore see the United States as "an evil power," many leftists in the Middle East see it as a force for good that ended the tyranny of the Taliban in Afghanistan, dismantled the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and forced the Syrians out of Lebanon after 30 years of occupation.

Read the whole thing. And let it be lesson to those who still don't understand why some of us no longer wish to associate ourselves with Western leftism. There's nothing "progressive" about it.

Update: Speaking of strange political bedfellows, the latest report at zombietime.com looks at a case earlier this month where racist and anti-Semitic literature was distributed around Berkeley by the group founded by KKK member Tom Metzger, the White Aryan Resistance. It seems that the anti-Semitic material involved consisted of exactly the type of paranoid, Israel-hating language and imagery commonly seen these days at leftist "anti-war" protests, which may explain, as zombie points out, why the local media conveniently overlooked that aspect in its coverage. Western leftists don't just hate America, they hate Israel too.

Cross-posted at Kesher Talk.

DePaul University's Director of Islamic Studies Helps Sabotage "Islam vs. Islamists" Documentary

New post at Campus Watch:

DePaul University Director of Islamic Studies and Finklestein Ally Helps Sabotage PBS Documentary on Moderate Muslims

Speakers at UC Berkeley "Iraq: Four Years after 'Freedom'" Event Don't Bode Well for Balance

My latest blog post at Campus Watch:

Speakers at UC Berkeley "Iraq: Four Years after 'Freedom'" Event Don't Bode Well for Balance