Social Science Files, I again remind readers, is consciously secular and despairing of the unscientific influence religion continues to wield in the tribal suicidally primitive politics of modern societies in decay. Our Plop! section gathers together exhibits on 9 varieties of contemporary ideological war games which undermine the resilience of Western societies reliant for survival on what I call effective ‘Border-Bond-Bind’.
As the WSJ Editorial Board wrote this week:
Memo to those seeking the privileges of statehood at the United Nations: Start with a massacre of civilians, help to mobilize American college protests, and finish with an end run around the U.N. Security Council. That’s the strategy now playing out as Palestinians seek a U.N. General Assembly vote Friday to elevate their status. … A draft resolution says the “State of Palestine” shall have the “right to be seated among Member States”, as well as the ability to co-sponsor proposals and amendments, raise procedural motions and “requests to put proposals to the vote.” It grants “the right to full and effective participation” in conferences and “meetings convened under the auspices of the General Assembly”. Its officials may “be elected as officers in the Plenary and Main Committees of the General Assembly”. … The statehood resolution is co-sponsored by such beacons of justice and democracy as China, Cuba, Libya and Yemen, and they assume their mission will succeed by acclamation. The General Assembly has an anti-Israel majority, with the 56-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation as the largest single voting bloc. …
Without wishing to conflate two globally influential Islamic pressure groups Social Science Files would like in passing also to draw attention to an article that appeared two days ago at The Spectator, by historian Gavin Mortimer:
… In what may come to be regarded as one of the most significant interventions by the government of Emmanuel Macron, Gérald Darmanin – the French Interior Minister – gave a remarkable interview to a newspaper at the weekend. The subject was the Muslim Brotherhood, described by Darmanin as a ‘vicious organisation’. As he explained, the Brotherhood doesn’t wage violent jihad, but deploys ‘much gentler methods…[to] gradually bring all sections of society into the Islamic matrix’. …
… In a communique announcing this task, the ministry stated; “Islamist separatism is a theorised politico-religious project…aimed at building a counter-society. The Muslim Brotherhood plays a major role in disseminating such a system of thought. … They attack all areas of society and form a network: sport, education, medicine, justice, student and trade union organisations, NGOs, politics, associations and culture …They give voting instructions, support community businesses, use anti-French rhetoric, launch petitions, surround local elected representatives, sign economic partnerships with major brands.”
But the Brotherhood’s most successful achievement has been the introduction into the West of a new word: Islamophobia. ‘This is their word, and it covers their primary strategy, that of victimisation,’ said Darmanin. …
… Darmanin’s remarks have been welcomed by specialists in the field of the Muslim Brotherhood. Prominent among them is Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, who has been studying the movement for three decades and as a consequence requires police protection. In her 2023 book about the Brotherhood, she wrote that ‘their goal isn’t to adapt Islam to Europe but to adapt Europe to Islam’.
Austria outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood in 2021, but no other European country has followed suit. Darmanin said there will be no ban in France because ‘that is quite simply impossible’; this is because of the Brotherhood’s secretive nature and lack of defined hierarchy. Instead, what is required is a ‘European awakening’, which Darmanin said he is pleased to see happening in Germany and Sweden. German intelligence is reportedly monitoring the activity of the Islamic Community of Germany, an organisation overseeing a network of mosques and cultural associations.
One country Darmanin didn’t namecheck as being alert to the threat was Britain. Here the Brotherhood is flourishing in a country notoriously naïve – in French eyes – about Islamism. In his 2019 book about the Muslim Brotherhood, The Project, Alexandre del Valle (who collaborated with MI5 during his time in French intelligence in the 1990s and was shocked by their insouciance) explained that, in the aftermath of the 2005 London bombings, the organisation was seen as the ‘moderate’ voice of Muslims. Del Valle alleged that the Muslim Brotherhood has strong links to the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) – a claim denied by the MAB. In March this year, Michael Gove named MAB as a group of ‘Islamist orientation and beliefs’, and he said the government was considering classifying the organisation as extremist. MAB responded by threatening legal action. This is perhaps not a surprise. A report in France this week by the country’s intelligence service highlighted how the Muslim Brotherhood has built a ‘vast network of lawyers…committed to the cause’.
Now to the main exhibit, which reminds us of a fact many members of the United Nations General Assembly may choose to forget, namely that Israel is a vibrant Type 8 capitalist democracy surrounded by stagnant authoritarian-patrimonial Type 9 elite societies which (at best) are merely ‘facade democracies’. That is the viewpoint of Social Science Files from the perspective of the 40k-year evolution of societies.
Today The Editor of the Spectator usefully draws attention to the fact that the ‘song and dance’ against the existence of Israel and its people is blind to a simple fact:
“Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East … a democracy that’s world-leading in tech, academia and culture … a beacon of democratic diversity and tolerance in a Middle East that is at war with those values”.
Why Israel is crucial to Eurovision
By Fraser Nelson, 11 May 2024
Eden Golan has qualified for the final of tonight’s Eurovision Song Contest and will represent Israel in the world’s most-watched cultural event. How she’ll get there is another issue: the pro-Palestinian crowds outside the venue (including Greta Thunberg) are so formidable that at one point yesterday Golan’s security team said it was not safe for her to leave the hotel. Yet again, the Eurovision final will become a massive collision of politics, music and culture: the world’s most-watched non-sporting event.
To many Brits, Eurovision is a concert of bad musical taste and a festival of camp trash. … I’ve long seen Eurovision a different way: a forum of low-culture, but no less important for that. It unites a global audience through the medium of schlager: a kind of carabet where humour, choreography and music come together to pitch for the votes of a mostly-drunken electorate across dozens of national and language barriers.
To most, it’s just a laugh (or a tacky horror show). But for those who want to understand European politics, more can be learned from Eurovision voting than in watching a year of European Parliament debates. It’s a scene of diplomatic drama, where hatchets are buried or battlelines drawn. … Turkey’s 2003 victory was the high water mark of its Europhilic ambition; Ukraine’s 2006 victory presaged its Orange revolution.
In Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, the Eurovision cultural bat signal is seen very clearly. It’s a chance for Israel to be seen by the world not for conflict but for what it is: a liberal, democratic country.
The avant-garde culture of Tel Aviv comes across: the way it nurtures a diversity of identities that could get you imprisoned or killed in pretty much any of Israel’s neighbours.
Eurovision matters a great deal to small countries. They get to parade their European credentials on the world stage. The elation of the Georgian team when they made tonight’s final was moving and reflects what’s happening back home: protesters battling police every night, fighting the threat of a new law that could end Georgia’s EU entry hopes and put it on track for Russian. But when does anyone in the West pay any attention to Georgia? Tonight, briefly, millions will. So these small countries try to think carefully: what message to send? How to articulate the historical moment?
Israel won in 1979 with Hallelujah: a Hebrew word understood everywhere, cleverly emphasising cultural commonality at a time when entrants had to sing in their own language. In 1998 Israel won with Dana International, a trans woman whose professionalism showcased an aspect of Tel Aviv’s culture that might never have been given a global airing otherwise. Then came the 2018 victory of Netta, an orthodox Jewish singer whose look and style challenged the female performer archetype. ‘Thank you so much for choosing different,’ she said in her victory speech. ‘Thank you for accepting differences between us.’
Netta proved that you can win while defying the aesthetic of pop beauty. Everyone is now following her playbook. If you watch the final tonight you’ll see all kinds of weird stage acts as artists beg voters to ‘choose different’. Netta’s anti-supermodel vibe anticipated a trend — just as Dana International, an act named in homage to Ireland’s 1970 Bogside winner, presaged Austria’s now-famous Conchita. But it was Israel, a country on the periphery of Europe, that was the cultural trailblazer.
Israel dared to be different, which is the story of its existence. …
[In events such as this] Israel … can be understood as a place where all types of people can not just survive, but innovate and thrive. It’s a reminder of what the Jewish people have created: a democracy that’s world-leading in tech, academia and culture. They turned desert into farms, built Tel Aviv from nothing and created an oasis of tolerance, in a part of the world where being gay can get you imprisoned or worse. It’s not just a county and economy but a double-identity culture: of West and East, mixing ultras with secular.
It’s not as if everyone on Israel is pro-Netta: there is no shortage of people in Jerusalem who see the festival as an assault on taste, music and basic morality. Ultra-orthodox Jews were protesting last time Israel hosted Eurovision, annoyed at work done in defiance of the Sabbath.
But Israel is a place where the views and the rights of the minorities have cast-iron protection: the only place in the Middle East where it’s genuinely okay for a Muslim (or anyone) to be openly trans or gay. This is what baffles me about those criticising Israel’s inclusion now. BBC Newsnight had a long interview with a drag performer saying she had cancelled her Eurovision party in protest at Israel’s inclusion.
Good luck hosting that party in any other country in the region.
Israel is a beacon of democratic diversity and tolerance in a Middle East that is at war with those values. The 7 October massacres forced Israel into yet another war for its survival. How it fights that war is, to put it mildly, a matter for debate. But this evening is about music where Israel takes its hard-earned place in a Western cultural forum celebrating values of tolerance — in whose defence Israel is fighting a war. …
My thanks to the Wall Street Journal and the Spectator … and conservative Condorito
Dr Michael G. Heller
