Leading free speech writers association PEN America has cancelled a major literary festival and awards ceremony amidst a boycott by the pro-Palestine far Left in a further sign of the death of irony. Lionel Shriver writes about the miserable developments in UnHerd.
Another day, another opportunity for huffy, hypocritical “progressive” posturing. PEN America has now been forced to cancel its World Voices literary festival in New York and LA, on the heels of also cancelling its 2024 awards ceremony. Too many authors had withdrawn from both events to make going ahead with staging either practicable. The reason for so many writers flouncing from these programmes? PEN’s failure to publicly denounce Israel’s ‘genocide’ in Gaza. But you had probably guessed the point of indignation already, because as of October 2023, the Anglosphere’s far-Left has neatly pivoted from the infantilisation of black people to the Palestinian cause with the coordinated grace of a synchronised swimmer.
To clarify: the purpose of PEN is to defend freedom of speech and to protect writers from political oppression and persecution. It makes perfect sense, therefore, that a significant cadre of its membership would seek to stifle freedom of speech and engage in political oppression and persecution. Or: we’re all for free speech so long as you say what we tell you. These folks are athletes. It requires considerable intellectual acrobatics for Writers Against the War on Gaza to regard the shutting down of events to advance free expression as “a win for free expression”. Presumably, the fact that a number of withdrawals from both occasions were motivated by fear of being attacked by a mob of pro-Palestinian zealots is also “a win for free expression”. PEN itself stated its concern “about any circumstance in which writers tell us they feel shut down, or that speaking their minds bears too much risk”.
PEN is by its nature a big tent. It represents not only Muslim writers but Jewish ones too, some of whom might just support the existence of Israel, might just regard Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza as justified, and might just find alliance with genuinely genocidal terrorists whose unembarrassed aim is to wipe Israel and the Jewish people off the map as a teeny tiny bit obnoxious. While one PEN member decries the non-profit’s “both-sidesing”, the truth is that PEN has no business taking a position on this issue whatsoever.
Unfortunately, the Left has successfully installed the expectation that, regardless of their established purpose, all institutions — companies, museums, theatres, universities, charities, you name it — must proclaim their fealty to the “right” (which is to say Left) position on a host of inflammatory issues of the day. This hyper-politicisation of entities that ought sensibly to remain politically neutral has been systematically debauching everything from the National Trust to the NHS, from Anheuser-Busch to the Chicago Art Museum. First, all such outfits were required to fly Black Lives Matter flags, then garishly incoherent Pride flags, and now these banners have all to be swapped out for Palestinian flags, never mind what constituency or customer base might be alienated by this gratuitously partisan branding. Thus, an organisation established for the defence of free speech of every sort — including the overtly Zionist kind — is necessarily obliged to openly advocate for Hamas, a murderous, cheerfully antisemitic cult whose interest in free speech on its home turf would fit in a thimble.
Worth reading in full.
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It will be our billions that will pay for them. We need to stop sending money to this criminal.
Absolutely, he’s had enough, with his palaces around the world and bugatti…
He’s corrupt as the day is long, willing to see the slaughter of 600000 men for his own means..
The western media have lied yet again, but like all the other bs narratives it’s believed by the masses…
Putin bad, Zelensky good..
Israel good Arabs bad.
And the masses swallow it hook line and sinker, just like covid scandemic..
And The Daily unSceptics who regurgitate Zionist propaganda day in day out……
Bravo!
Yet another Hebe hater.
Putin bad
Zelensky bad
Biden bad
Trump bad
Cameron bad
Sunak bad
Starmer bad
…
There, fixed it. They all demand power because they all think they’re the best and that their amazing ideas need to be forced on others. People who demand power shouldn’t ever be given it.
Spot on! And that includes Power-Crazed Wannabes like real name Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke.
..
Putin Evil, Zelensky Evil: both Globalists in cahoots.
Zelensky needs to get his uncle Joe to send him some more money before that nasty Mr Trump takes over and cuts him off.
I hear he has a lovely place in Italy!
Ukraine “Will Seek Nuclear Weapons” if it Cannot Join NATO, Zelensky Says
The only way forward now is a compromise peace built around partition. This is because the Russians – remember them? – will simply not allow the Ukraine to acquire nuclear weapons.
And who would sell any to them? USA, UK, France, Iran? But it’s likely that some kind of partition, or rearrangement of the borders, is required.
Eastern Ukraine is historically Russian land
And from whom would he acquire them?
Biden’s leaving the Presidency soon, but I’m sure he’d be able to arrange a discrete shipment, in exchange for another whole great metric shedload of cash from his little Hebrew friend Volonogmogomyr, via the military-industrial complex.
.
A dirty bomb is the last throes of the clown prince coke head Zelensky before Russia “liberates” Ukraine from malign Western influence.
Desparate? Deranged!
It is generally accepted that Israel has nuclear weapons, yet it does not deter Iran.
And yet Iran is developing its own nuclear weapon at eye watering expense.
‘in September 2024 the IAEA and E3 estimated that Iran had acquired enough highly enriched uranium that, if enriched further to 90% (weapons grade), would theoretically be enough for four nuclear explosive devices.
Estimates of breakout time do not account, however, for the technological capability and time required to build a deliverable nuclear warhead (which has been estimated by some at 1-2 years). In its 2024 Annual Threat Assessment, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded that while Iran does not appear to be currently pursuing development of a nuclear device, the nuclear activities undertaken since 2020 “better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so”
Ukraine has a ballistic missile nuclear delivery system. It has uranium. It would be strange if Ukraine was not attempting to develop a complete nuclear weapon capability.
So the question for the EU is: does the EU want to share a border with a nuclear armed Russia or Ukraine sheltering under a nuclear deterrent of its own or sheltering under NATOs conventional deterrent?
”So the question for the EU is:”
The idea of the EU answering such a question presupposes that the EU is a coherent, rational, logical, thoughtful and intelligent organisation……………………. if only!
Very much agree.
Analysis paralysis seems to be the default position of the EU regarding defence; quite possibly without the analysis bit.
In 2021, State Enterprise «National Nuclear Energy Generating Company «Energoatom» began work on establishing the production of nuclear fuel (fuel cassettes) using Westinghouse technology at the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant.
According to the statements of the Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko, Ukraine is moving forward with a project to create its own fuel production facility.
It is planned to complete licensing in 2023 and start commercial production of nuclear fuel components in 2024.
President of Energoatom Petro Kotin added that by 2026-2027, the company plans to create its own nuclear fuel production line.
‘I really do not know. The President was shocked about Bucha. All of us were shocked about Bucha. I was in Bucha on the second day when the Russian forces were repelled. Zelenskyy completely changed face when he came into Bucha and saw what had happened. A lot of people say it was the Prime Minister Boris Johnson who came to Kiev and put a stop to this negotiation with Russia. I don’t know exactly if that is true or false.’
Oleksiy Arestovych Jan 2024
What a nasty little blackmailer this professional actor is!
One day the world will realise that Tiny Tatar Putin and Tiny Zionist Zelensky have been in cahoots all along, using their Meatgrinder War to exterminate as many Ethnic Europeans as possible. It’s what Globalists do as False Opposition.
Putin fires top official who described Chabad as a supremacist cult | The Times of Israel
Vladimir Putin, Chabad: What’s behind the Russian president’s close relationship with an Orthodox Jewish sect? (slate.com)
Shofars blown in Ukraine frontlines as part of Rosh Hashanah initiative – The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)
Zelensky’s parents’ local rabbi: They don’t understand why he wanted to be president | The Times of Israel
Absolutely, it’s exactly what the Zionists and friends (Churchill) did in the second world war…getting gentiles to slaughter each other..
This is about creating a second Jewish state….
I presume western leaders and it’s media won’t have a problem with this. They have been telling us that Ukraine is a bastion of democracy and peace being attacked by horrible Putin and his big bad Russia. So I assume they’ll be perfectly happy with Ukraine developing its own nuclear weapons to, you know, promote democracy and peace.
Peace in Ukraine would be so simple. As Russia has always requested: (1) de-militarization, i.e. no NATO and no USA troops in Ukraine, and (2) de-Nazification, i.e. goodbye to Zelensky and his Banderite government.
There you go. No need for any nuclear weapons whatsoever.
And if that piano-playing actor ever did get his hands on nuclear weapons, he would be firing them off to Moscow within seconds. He does not give a damn about anything or anyone except himself. He cares least of all about Ukraine or the Ukrainians, as the result of his totally unnecessary war shows.
Peace in Ukraine would be so simple if it only capitulated!
Somehow, we knew that one already. A better idea for peace in Ukraine would be to teach Putin that he’s free to de-nazify his large intestine for as long as it pleases him and that invasions of foreign countries in order to mess with their internal affairs will only end in defeat.
NB: I don’t see that happening anytime soon but daydreams can sometimes be soothing.
Daydreams of Ukrainians dying because the West wants to pull one over on Putin? Merkel and Hollande did that with the Minsk peace agreements, intending to misuse the supposed truce to bolster Ukraine with western weapons and training. Something to be proud of? Putin never wanted to invade Ukraine but why should he accept western missiles lined up on Russia’s border? Why does Germany now accept having US nuclear missiles back on its soil after such a long time? USA never hesitates to invade any foreign country provided there is plenty of oil they can get their hands on. And tell Israel that invasions of foreign countries will only end in defeat: that is something I could daydream about.
When was it that Putin actually said he would fire nuclear weapons at Ukraine?
I believe he said he would only fire in retaliation to a first strike by another party.
Now what Western politicians and media have said he said is a completely different story.
Anyone who thinks that having a missile and some Uranium is sufficient to build a bomb seems to be ignoring the massive effort and cost involved in moving from Uranium to the level of enriched Uranium required for bomb making, is seriously deluded.
Iran has I believe many thousands of high performance centrifuges, progressively enriching microscopic quantities of Uranium until a critical mass is achieved (not all in one place of course). These have been running for years, and yet it hasn’t yet joined the bomb club.
I doubt if Ukraine has enough electrical power to keep such an enterprise running now, so talk of a nuclear threat from Ukraine is blatant and ill-informed scare mongering.
As the person making this claim is Arestovich, if you believe him then you must also believe what he said about the outline Istanbul peace agreement a couple of years back. You know, the one Johnson is supposed to have vetoed. Arestovich was one of the Ukrainian negotiators so should know what he was talking about.
That’s what you want – nukes in the hands of a desperate and cornered coke addict. As the emotional and spiritual turmoil deepens there arises a desire to end it all even if it isn’t conscious and acknowledged. We are moving into a time where a nuclear holocaust will seem preferable to things carrying on as they are to a lot of people. Obviously a uniquely dangerous moment in our known history. You have to summon the forces to fight against this tendency.
“ Mr. Zelensky and his Government were getting desperate”
Maybe Western taxpayers are also getting pissed off by having their living standard squeezed while billions are guaranteed by SStarmer.