On Saturday, US President Donald Trump made a post on his Twitter that caused many American leftists to tense up.
“I am thinking of recognizing ANTIFA — these cowardly, radical left-handed loonies, who do nothing but fight (although they are opposed to violence) and beat people over the heads with baseball bats — the main terrorist organization (the same MS13 and others) It would greatly facilitate the work of the police! "
MS13 is nothing more than Mara Salvatruch, or the Salvadoran Stray Ants Brigade, the largest US ethnic mafia with hundreds of thousands of fighters and thousands of cliques (territorial branches) throughout the country. It emerged in the early 1980s in Los Angeles as an organization of refugees from El Salvador in flames of civil war.
ANTIFA became known much later (in fact, after the 2016 elections), but it has already earned a dismal reputation for constant clashes with conservatives and supporters of President Trump. ANTIFA was particularly distinguished during the confrontations in Charlottesville in 2017.
A month ago, in Portland, Oregon, twenty antifashes from the group “Proud Boys” brutally beat journalist Andy Ngo (a Vietnamese with a pronounced Asian appearance) because he filmed their “action using milkshakes”.
Despite the innocuous name, tossing political opponents with “milkshakes” (and not “Molotov cocktails”) is a rather dangerous thing. Invented in the working quarters of Manchester, it lies in the fact that a quick-hardening cement is added to an ordinary paper glass with a McDonald's or Burger King milkshake, which can cause serious health damage if it gets into your eyes.
"Guilt" by Andy Ngo was that he videotaped the attacks of ANTIFA activists on Trump's supporters, and then posted them on Twitter. As Toby Young, a London-based columnist for The Spectator, writes, “he thereby earned a lifelong hatred from members of this group. Personal data of him and his family members were laid out on the Internet without consent, and activists of this group published his home address on social networks. ”
Surprisingly, many leftists (both in the United States and in Britain) defend such actions by ANTIFA. Among them, leftist journalist David Aaronovich (The Times), a spokesman for the advocate group defending the interests of the American LGBT community, Charlotte Climer (which is piquant because the beaten Ngo is openly gay), comedian and ardent supporter of the Women's Equality Party of Great Britain Joe Brand. The latter joked cheerfully: “Is it worth worrying about milkshakes if you can easily get the acid battery electrolyte?”
“That the violence was committed is completely wrong,” Charlotte Climer wrote in her Twitter, “but I don’t intend to pretend that this was not Ngo’s goal from the very beginning.”
In other words, Ngo himself provoked the Proud Boys to have a concussion and doused him with Portland cement.
The left-wing American media climbs to protect anti-fascists. The “drowning” for portland “Proud Boys” CNN host Chris Cuomo. Columnist Vox Zach Beecham, contradicting himself, writes that, firstly, there is no evidence that they attacked Ngo were ANTIFA members, and secondly, even if this is so, then everything that happened in Portland does not look so much a part “A broad scheme of attack on journalists,” as a special case of personal enmity between Ngo and Antifa.
But in any case, he adds, right-wing attempts to equate ANTIFA and neo-Nazi groups should be stopped in the bud. “No matter how bad the antifa is, the far right is worse!” - exclaims scourge. “Nothing like Heyer’s killing, shooting at a church in Charleston or attacking the Pittsburgh synagogue of antifa. ANTIFA does not have any relations with the Democratic Party, and its members do not support the Democrats, while the alt-Wright activists are Trump fans, and sometimes they seem to receive tacit support from the White House (see Charlottesville). ”
You can find a lot of lies and juggling in this typical statement for an American left-wing journalist.
James Alec Fields, who crushed left-wing activist Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, was a banal neo-Nazi who went astray on the aesthetics of the Third Reich.
Dylan Ruf, who shot black parishioners at a church in Charleston, refused a Jewish lawyer, saying that “an electric chair is better” and had great mental problems.
Robert Bowers, who staged a massacre at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, posted anti-Semitic slogans on his page and hated Donald Trump.
At the same time, Zach Beecham himself actively defends one of the main left-wing activists of the Democratic Party, congresswoman Ilhan Omar, against "false attacks" by Republican Senator Ted Cruz. And this is much more interesting.
The Blue Wave (in color of the US Democratic Party), raised by Democrats during the midterm congressional elections (2018), carried out on its crest a number of strange characters who settled on Capitol Hill. Disguised as a "democratic socialist" Trotskyist Alexandria Okasio-Cortes. Ilkhan Omar and Rashid Tleib, one of whom was born in Somalia, and the second, albeit in Detroit, but in a family of refugees from Palestine. These last, which represent the states of Michigan and Minnesota in Congress, have become a source of constant headache for respectable politicians of Washington.
Lobster and Tleyb very quickly sang with the Latin American Okasio-Cortez and the African American Ayana Pressli. The four of them organized the so-called "Squad" (Squad) - a group of "independent left women" who intend to fight for the extremely progressive ideals of the America that Barak Husseinovich Obama built, but did not finish.
Not having had time to settle in the walls of the congress, Omar said in an interview that the support of Israeli lawmakers in Israel was based on a strong financial foundation.
“This is all because of Benjamin’s children,” the Somali joked, referring, of course, to the hundred-dollar bills on which one of the founding fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, adorns. And when, after the publication of this interview, she was asked on Facebook who was paying American congressmen for taking the pro-Israel stance, Omar did not hesitate to say: “AIPAC!”
In such cases, the reaction should be immediate: the Jewish community, party colleagues, and the more so Republicans rushed to accuse Omar of anti-Semitism, and she was forced to apologize. But it was not possible to calm her down. She continued to oppose the “Jewish lobby” and in support of the BDS movement (“Boycott, Isolation and Sanctions”), which is directed against the Zionist policies of Israel and is banned in 24 US states. BDS proponents call for various forms of Israel’s boycott until it fulfills its international obligations.
Omar’s activity led Congressman Brad Schneider to submit a resolution to the House of Representatives that strongly condemns the BDS movement and all its supporters to put pressure on Israel through sanctions. And here Rashid Tleib, “the first Palestinian woman in Congress”, rose to the defense of her friend and comrade-in-arms.
In the old Soviet film “Member of the Government”, Vera Maretskaya, in the role of Alexandra Sokolova, uttered a passionate monologue from the rostrum, which began with the words: “Here I stand before you, a simple Russian woman, beaten by her husband, frightened by priests, and shot by the enemies — enduring!” Rashida Tleib, it seems, was inspired by this particular motion picture:
“I stand before you, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants. The parents of which were deprived of human rights, the right to freedom of movement, equal treatment. Therefore, I cannot stand by and watch this attack on our freedom of speech and the right to boycott the racist policies of the government and the state of Israel. I love freedom of speech in our country, Madam Speaker. Disagreement is how we develop democracy. ”
But either the acting data of Tleyb turned out to be worse than that of Vera Maretskaya, or the love for “the children of Benjamin” overpowered the love of freedom of speech, but failed to convince congressmen Rashid. The resolution, opposing the “efforts to delegitimize the state of Israel and directed against the Global Movement for Boycott, Isolation and Sanctions against Israel”, was adopted by 398 votes to 17 (of which 16 are Democrats and only one Republican, Thomas Massey).
This is not the end. Ilkhan Omar introduced a new resolution on the boycott to Congress: Israel was not mentioned directly there, but there was a reference to the boycott of Nazi Germany by the States in response to the "dehumanization of the Jewish people on the eve of the Holocaust."
This turned out to be too even for the other members of the “Left Squad” - Ocasio-Cortes and Ayanna Pressly. Pressly simply refused to vote for the resolution submitted by the commodity, adding, however, that she would vote against the sanctions bill.
But the matter has already been done: the left wing of the Democratic Party, by the hands of Omar and Tleib, has branded itself. And the stigma of anti-Semitism is not something with which you can make an enviable political career in the United States.
And if we remember that quite recently the “Left Squad” actively opposed Trump, it will become clear: the anti-Israel fervor of the first Muslim women in Congress caused damage primarily to the democratic coalition opposing the president. And first of all, the leader of the majority in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, who is forced to explain to the sponsors of the Democratic Party (including from the AIPAC), why it was her wards who were so grounded.
Pelosi does not envy. A couple of weeks ago, Trump, without naming his names, rode along the “Left Squad” in his inimitable manner:
“It is very interesting to watch the“ progressive ”congressmen-democrats who came from countries in a catastrophic situation, with the most corrupt government in the world (if there is one there), with the highest crime rates, but loudly and maliciously lecturing the people of the USA , the greatest and strongest country in the world, how our government should work. Why don't they go to their country and bring order to this completely destroyed and completely criminal place? And then let them come back and show us how it is done. Motherland needs your help - go as soon as possible. I am sure that Nancy Pelosi will be happy to arrange this trip for you. ”
In the face of such cruel trolling, Pelosi was forced to intercede for the Squad:
“When Trump invites four American parliamentarians to return to their countries, it only proves: the slogan“ We will return America the former greatness ”means, in fact,“ We will return America to the white people. ” But our strength is in diversity and unity. ”
It does not sound very convincing. Especially considering that the most ardent defenders of antifa and “milkshakes” who justify the beating of a gay Asian just because they were “for Trump” are protecting the left politicians.
For example, Zox Beechm from Vox, quoted above, doesn’t spare bright colors to protect Ilkhan Omar: “The right-wing media are harassed by a democrat - and not only a democrat, but also a black Muslim woman who has become the object of ruthless racist persecution by the president!”
It seems that the unity that American liberals talk about is held together by Portland cement.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.