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BARRY RUBIN: HOW THE WEST GETS PLAYED FOR SUCKERS…….

It’s like taking candy from a baby

Barry Rubin has a couple of excellent posts up highlighting the simple headed naiveness of many in the Western media and in the US state department, concerning statements issued by Mahmoud Abbas about “quitting”, and of a report by a pseudo Turkish human rights organization complaining of the Turkish army’s “repression of religious freedom”.

Actually, the greater Middle East continues to befuddle them as they exhibit the nack to, time and again, misread statements and misunderstand agendas of key Muslim players in the region. They can be counted on to get it wrong on any number of issues the majority of the time, and the Muslims expect them to as well. It’s a great relationship that the latter hopes will never end, because, they couldn’t manage half as well without their predictable gullibility.
One of Rubin’s posts is about how many in the West fell, hook line and sinker, for Mahmoud Abbas’ “quitting farce”, the other is about the state department’s blind faith in a report supposedly filed by a Turkish human rights organization, but is in reality an arm of the Turkish hard line Islamist government. It has all the makings of a sit-com, but unfortunately, many of the players will never know that they are being taking for ride (read= fools), because that’s the art of the con. So expect them to keep playing their marks for all they’re worth! KGS

 Abbas:Yes indeedy-do,
they took the bait as expected

The Great “Abbas is Quitting” Farce; Media Deletes Palestinian Intransigence

By Barry Rubin

It’s really funny how the story about Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas supposedly-going-to-call-elections-and-resign story was covered. Everyone in the Middle East knew he wouldn’t resign and he wouldn’t call elections. It was a blatant bid to get something from the Americans and pretend that he was tough. But the Western media reported the story as if it were true.
This technique borrows from Egyptian President (dictator) Gamal Abdel Nasser after he lost the 1967 war.
Step 1: Announce your quitting. Step 2: Organize big demonstrations begging you not to quit. Abbas added to this a Step 3: Get Westerners to give you goodies and demand more concessions from Israel so that you’ll stay.
So the media played along and took it seriously. In the process we were given the mainstream view of the Israel-Palestinian conflict within the framework of the Commandment: Thou shalt not criticize the Palestinian side. Well, you can knock Hamas but not the PA. In fact, the more one-sided the reporting, the better.
But it wasn’t long before it was clear he’d stay on as the PA’s head and there won’t be any elections.
In covering the story, though, the media generally gave us this narrative: The poor Palestinian leadership is just slathering for peace but Israel won’t give them anything and President Barack Obama won’t help. (Yes, so compelling is the Commandment on not criticizing the Palestinians that people are even willing to criticize Obama instead! Which really tells you something about the intensity of this syndrome.

More here.

Mazlum-Der: Mahmoud Abbas said
the state dept. would fall for it, and he was right!

State Department uses Islamist Anti-American Propaganda to Criticize Turkish Army Kicking Out Islamists

By Barry Rubin

I’ve already written about how former President Bill Clinton, in line with the Obama Administration’s thinking, acted as an apologist and even booster of Turkey’s Islamist regime. Now the State Department is doing it. Indeed, this is a fascinating little example of how thoroughly Islamists bamboozle the West.
The State Department issued its annual religious freedom report. If you look at the section on Turkey, you will see that a main—perhaps the main—source is Mazlum-Der, which is the Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed People. What could be better than human rights and helping oppressed people?
Unfortunately, Mazlum-Der is a front for the Islamist government in Turkey and the main oppressed people it’s concerned about are Hamas, Hizballah, and others of that ilk.
In fact, this group is headed by an Islamist member of parliament for the Adiyaman district who comes from the ruling party, Faruk Unsal, who has been personally involved in repressing those criticizing the regime through trumped-up treason charges! [To hide Unsal’s identity, his name appears only on the Turkish, not the English language site, and neither tell you about his political role.]
As for the group, to give an example, on May 1 it organized a rally in Diyarbakir with Kurdish Hizballah calling for the regime to uninvite Israel to joint militry maneuvers. Clearly, the government had already decided to do so and assigned its front groups to show “popular support” for that step.
So the State Department, by using a radical group as a source, falls into the Islamist trap in several ways:
–Religious Muslims in Turkey are portrayed as victims of the military and judiciary. These are, in fact, the only two institutions that the AK hasn’t infiltrated and largely taken over yet. So Islamists use the State Department to discredit the army and courts to make it easier to complete their seizure of the state apparatus.

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