James Petras and Robin Eastman-Abaya
February 19, 2006
The center piece of the
current explosive confrontation between Islamic and Arab protestors, political
leaders and governments and the
Why did the “cartoons” get published in
What is the political
background of “Flemming Rose” the cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten, who
solicited, selected and published the cartoons?
What larger issues
coincide with the timing of the cartoons publication and reproduction?
Who “benefits” from the
publication of the cartoons and the ensuing confrontation between the
Arabs/Islam and the West?
What is the contemporary
political context of the Arab/Islam protests?
How is the Israeli
secret service, Mossad, implicated in provoking the Western-Islamic/Arab
conflict, and how do the consequences measure up to their expectations?
A starting point for
analyzing the cartoon controversy, which has been a focus for attacking Muslims
and Muslim countries as intolerant of Western ‘freedom of expression’ is the
long-standing role of Denmark as a major operation point for Mossad activity in
Europe. Re-phrased: How could a tiny Scandinavian country of 5.4 citizens
and residents (200,000 or less than 3% of whom are Muslim), renowned for fairy
tales, ham and cheese, have become a target for the fury of millions of
practicing Muslims from Afghanistan to Palestine, from Indonesia to Libya and
into the streets of cities all over the world with significant Muslim
populations? Why, after the bombing of
The story, presented
with straight faces, by television news-people, is of, Mr. ‘Flemming Rose’, a
crusading cultural editor of a widely read Danish daily newspaper who wanted to
counter the growing ‘political correctness’ of Europeans about criticizing
Moslems and which he compared to the ‘self-censorship’ he had witnessed in his
native Soviet Union. The oddly named Ukrainian-born editor of the culture
page of the Jyllands-Posten commissioned Danish cartoonists to submit a series
of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed as they (the Danish cartoonists)
might imagine him. However four of the twelve cartoons selected for
publication were illustrated by ‘Rose’s’ own staff including the most
controversial ‘bomb in the turban’ one. Braving
A huge world wide attack
on the West’s “sacred right to free expression” erupted in the
Moslem world with millions of shocked Europeans and North Americans rushing to
defend their cherished freedoms in this ‘clash of civilizations’.
The cultural editor,
‘Flemming Rose’, who soon tired of being surrounded by a team of Danish police
and security to protect him from assassination and missing his daily jogs
through his tranquil Copenhagen neighborhood, chose to seek safe haven in
Miami, Florida (rather than his native Ukraine) among the Cuban exiles, Israeli
sayanim*(see footnote) and Mah Jong-playing retirees
as the drama plays on.
Why
An interesting chapter
in former Israeli Mossad agent, Victor J. Ostrovsky’s book, By Way of
Deception (1990 St. Martin’s Press), outlines the close relationship
between the workings of the Danish intelligence services and the Israeli Mossad
over decades:
“The relationship between the Mossad and Danish intelligence is so
intimate as to be indecent. But it is not the Mossad’s virtue that is
compromised by the arrangement; it’s
The Mossad has the capacity to monitor the entire population of Arabs and
especially Palestinians (presumably including those with Danish citizenship)
through their special relations with the Danes:
“…a Mossad man monitors “all Arabic and Palestinian-related
messages(among
The Danish Intelligence officers’ high regard for their Israeli Mossad
office mates is apparently not, according to Ostrovsky, reciprocated:
“The Mossad have such contempt for their
Danish counterparts that they refer to them as ‘fertsalach’, the Hebrew term
for a small burst of gas, a fart…they tell the Mossad everything they do.” Pp.
231-232
In return for their servility, the Danes get valuable ‘training’ from
the Israelis:
Once every three years, Danish intelligence officials go to
In the wake of the US
debacle in Iraq and the world’s resistance to a massive ‘preemptive military
attack’ or economic and diplomatic embargo of Iran, which could send oil prices
to over $100 a barrel, Israel needed to turn the war of ideas on its
head. It would make sense that a campaign, aimed to further whip up
justifications to attack countries like Iran and Syria (Israel’s current enemy
du jour), would emanate from one of the US strongest European ally in the
invasion and destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan and whose national
intelligence apparatus (so fondly known as ‘fertsalach’) would be eager to
serve Israel’s interest.
Given Mossad’s long-standing
penetration of the Danish intelligence agencies, and their close working
relations with the right wing media, it is not surprising that a Ukranian Jew,
operating under the name of “Flemming Rose” with close working relations with
the Israeli state (and in particular the far right Likud regime) should be the
center of the controversy over the cartoons. “Rose’s” ties to the Israeli
state antedate his well-know promotional “interview” with Daniel Pipes (2004),
the notorious Arab-hating Zionist ideologue. Prior to being placed as a
cultural editor of a leading right-wing Danish daily, from 1990 to 1995 “Rose”
was a Moscow-based reporter who translated into Danish a self-serving
auto-biography by Boris Yeltsin, godchild of the pro-Israeli, post-communist
Russian oligarchs, most of whom held dual citizenship and collaborated with the
Mossad in laundering illicit billions. Between 1996-1999 “Rose”, the
journalist, worked the
There is a great body of
evidence demonstrating that
The Zionist succeeded in
their goals in
The major Jewish
organizations mobilized to oppose any critics of the Zionist policymakers,
predictably accusing them of ‘anti-Semitism’. Nevertheless, over time, FBI
investigations, CIA reports and judicial indictments have pointed to key
Israeli operatives and their domestic collaborators as Israeli spies.
While
Israeli strategic plans to extend US military operations to
A strident campaign was
launched in practically all the pro-Western mass media condemning the initial,
relatively moderate Islamic protests, which had occurred between September to
December 2005 and rapidly provoked the subsequent massive escalation,
doubtlessly aided by covert Mossad operatives among Arab populations.
Mossad’s ‘little farts’, the Danish intelligence fanned the fires by advising
Denmark’s rightwing Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen not to give way by
refusing to apologize as the pro-Western Arab regimes requested and even refusing
a request for a meeting with a group of Denmark-based diplomats from Arab and
Moslem countries to discuss the ‘situation’.
“Flemming Rose”-Mossad
tried one more gambit – to further heighten East-West tension. He
publicly offered to publish any Iranian cartoons which would mock the Holocaust
in ‘his’ paper’. The senior editor of Jyllands-Posten, apparently
belatedly caught on to “Flemming Rose” hidden agenda and vetoed the ‘offer’ and
asked Rose to take a leave of absence. Rose left for
The
sayanim, derived, according to Victor Ostrovsky, from the Hebrew word ‘to help’
are a huge world-wide network of Jews in strategic or useful places (real
estate, mass media, finance, car dealerships etc…) who have been agreed to help
in Israeli Mossad actitivies within their own countries. This has been
ascribed to the supra-national loyalty sayanim offer to
Israeli
leaders expressed their opposition to the Bush Administration’s diplomatic
efforts to engage the European powers in the
The cartoons, the
subsequent insults and calumnies attacking the Islamic protestors and their
secular allies throughout Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe eventually
provoked major peaceful and then violent protests by millions of people.
Visual images of violent protests and demonstrations were featured by the
Western mass media, successfully creating the intended fear and apprehension
against Muslim countries and minorities in
The democratic electoral
victory of Hamas – dubbed by Israel as a terrorist movement – accelerated
Israeli efforts to convince Western governments to insist that regimes in
Muslim countries repress the ‘irrational Islamic masses’ or face Western
censure or elimination of aid. (The failure to crack down violently on
demonstrators was presented by the media as official approval or
instigation) The major US Zionist organizations were able to influence
Secretary of State Rice into blaming
While most establishment
analysts have narrowly focused on the cartoon as the source and target of the
massive global demonstrations, in fact it is at best the immediate detonator of
a whole series of ongoing events of much greater political
significance. From the “shock and awe” carpet bombing of Iraq, to the
mass torture and routine everyday humiliation in occupied countries, from the
utter destruction of Fallujah (an American example as Guernica was for the
Nazis), to Israeli devastation of Jenin and Palestine, from the everyday
assassinations of Palestinians by the Israeli occupiers, to the smearing of the
Koran with filth at Guantanamo, Israel, the US and Europe have attempted to
demonstrate that no Moslems are safe anywhere- not in their schools, home,
offices, fields, factories or mosques- and that nothing is sacred.
The reasons that
millions are demonstrating against a caricature of Mohammed published in an
insignificant Scandinavian rightwing newspaper is that this is the last straw –
the detonator – of a series of deliberate violations of fundamental social and
political rights of Muslim, Arab and colonized peoples. While the Western media
have focused exclusively on the religious content of the demonstrators, almost
every country, where massive sustained demonstrations have taken place, has
been subject to recent Western intervention, large-scale pillage of raw
materials and/or experienced the destruction of their secular rights: countries
invaded, homes, schools, hospital, systems of health and clean water
demolished, agriculture and natural resources looted, museums, libraries and
archeological sites pillaged and mosques desecrated. The present condition for
material existence has been a Western inferno for all the people (both secular
and observant) living in Arab or Islamic countries. Now their most profound,
historic, spiritual reference point, the prophet Mohammed – the most cherished
religious figure – has been repeatedly trampled with impunity by arrogant
imperialists, their media servants, aided and abetted by the Israeli state and
its overseas ‘sayanin’ operatives. It is cynical to suggest that
practicing Moslems could desecrate the figure of Jesus Christ with impunity
when that too is forbidden by the Koran.
As the Israeli
strategists well knew in advance, the vilification of Islam was not taking
place in a political vacuum: The material conditions for an Islamic-Arab
uprising were ripe: Hamas had swept the Palestinian elections, the US military
were aware that they were losing the war in Iraq, Iran was refusing to
capitulate, Bush was losing public support for ongoing and future Middle
Eastern wars, AIPAC, Israel’s main political instrument for influencing US
policy was under criminal investigation…Israel’s strategy of having the US
fight its wars was boomeranging. There was a need to revive the
political-military tensions which they had exploited after September 11, 2001
to Israel’s advantage: hence the “Flemming Rose” provocation, hence the
coordinated, wide promotion of the act, hence the free speech agitation among
Western ‘sayanin’, liberals, conservatives and neocon ideologues, hence the
predictable explosion of protest, hence the ‘recreation’ of Mid-East
tension…and the advances of Israel’s agenda.
Clearly the burgeoning
confrontation is more than a religious or free speech issue, more than the
crude provocations of an errant cultural editor coddled by the ‘little farts’
of a penetrated Danish intelligence agency. What is at stake is the
deliberate racist stereotyping of Arab, Islamic and
The most pervasive,
prolific and influential source of racist Arab stereotypes are Israel and its
overseas (particularly US and European) academics, terror ‘experts’,
psychologists at the most prestigious universities and think tanks, who have
provided the “psychological profile” to torture, humiliate, provoke and repress
the millions struggling for self-determination against colonial and imperial
dominance.
Once again
While the
Mossad-provoked ‘free speech versus blasphemy’ controversy between the West and
the Islamic peoples continues to deepen,