Mark LeVine's Europe

UC Irvine comedian Mark LeVine, who is supposed to be an expert on the Middle East, tries to establish himself as an expert on Europe as well with this piece in Al Jazeera. In this bizarre blurb, Professor LeVine talks about what is happening in Europe these days while ignoring the elephant in the room.  Rather than mention the obvious horrors that  millions of young Muslim guys from hell-holes like Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, etc. (What could possibly go wrong?) have brought to the streets of Europe, LeVine makes it all seem so complicated when it's really very simple.

"Laying aside the evident elision in the text between Europe and the EU (which isn't mentioned in the manifesto though it's clearly the idea more in danger today), even the origin of the word points to a core problem faced by "European patriots" such as the signatories.

Did Europe arise from the idea of "eruba", the Akkadian/Mesopotamian term for the western horizon or the Phoenician "erub" meaning evening or west? And did the Ancient Greeks adopt it into the myth about Phoenician princess Europa of Sidon (modern-day Lebanon), who was kidnapped by Zeus and brought to Crete? Or did they come up with the word combining "eurus" (broad) and "opt" (eye)?"

With that as a sample, read on.

   https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/wrecking-europe-190130020618898.html


"Here it's not surprising that Dominque Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced former head of theIMF, which along with the World Bank helped lay the groundwork for so much of the misery that pushed millions to flee towards Europe from Africa and Western Asia, said,"Europe is not about borders, Europe is an idea." Were it not for one brave hotel maid in New York, one could imagine Strauss-Kahn proudly adding his name to this document (indeed, one of the primary signatories, Bernard Henri-Levy, publicly defended his friend when news of abuses first became public).'

You talk about digression! At least he didn't drag "Deep Throat" into this topic.

"In this context, it's tellingly ironic that when the Italian deputy prime minister, Luigi di Maio, wanted to blame France for the migrant crisis that has sent untold tens of thousands of Africans towards Italy's shores, he accused the French government of "taking the lead" in "never stopp[ing] colonising tens of African states" and "impoverishing Africa." "Africans should be in Africa," he continued, "not at the bottom of the Mediterranean." Of course, Italy was no less brutal in its own colonial wars and rule in Africa (nor were any other European colonial powers)." 

It is interesting how much LeVine drags up Europe's colonial history while seemingly defending today's France against the Italian charges of exploitation of African countries, a story we covered recently and which contained specific allegations not mentioned by LeVine.

What is really missing in LeVine's article (which would probably never pass Al Jazeera's censors anyway) is the devastating violent crime and threat of terrorism that these swarms of migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers ("forced migrants", according to LeVine) have brought to Western Europe (Eastern Europe is, sensibly, refusing to accept them.) Nowhere in this article does LeVine refer to the horrific acts of terrorism carried out in Paris, Nice, Brussels, London, Madrid, Manchester, Berlin, Stockholm and other places in the name of Islam. Nowhere does he refer to Pakistani sexual grooming gangs operating across England. Nowhere does he mention the rapes carried out in Sweden (the rape capital of Europe). Nowhere does he mention the murders and rapes carried out across Germany, thanks to Angela Merkel's insane immigration policies. Nowhere does he mention the rampant anti-semitism sweeping across Europe in places like Paris, Toulouse, Amsterdam, Malmo, Berlin, and Brussels to the extent that Jews cannot walk the streets in Jewish garb and to the point where Jews are emigrating by the thousands-thanks to the violence and Jew hatred perpetrated by the exploding Muslim population while cowardly European leaders look the other way. Nowhere does he recognize that Italy cannot absorb a never-ending flow of Africans while its own people cannot find jobs. Nowhere does LeVine mention the threat of literally thousands of ISIS terrorists trying to make their way back to the European countries from where they left to fight in Syria and Iraq. Nowhere does he mention the radical hate speech coming out of European mosques. Nowhere does he mention the no-go zones of Europe where even police are afraid to go. Nowhere does he mention the riots and car burnings in places like Sweden and France. Nowhere does he mention the fact that led by the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels and Strasbourg, Europeans are losing control over their own laws. Nowhere does he mention the fact that criticizing immigration or Islam in general can get you prosecuted. And nowhere does LeVine mention the fact that if present demographic trends continue, Europe will become majority Muslim within a couple of generations. Yes, Europe will disappear, and what is left will not be pretty.

Instead, LeVine attacks those who rightly say that the insanity that is sweeping Western Europe must stop. Like liberal professors everywhere, LeVine is all caught up in his post-colonial philosophy.

Indeed, colonialism was wrong, and it was exploitive. (France and Britain, especially, are dealing with large numbers of citizens with origins in the Maghreb or South Asia respectively with varying degress of success when it comes to assimilation. The same can be said about the Netherlands with its immigrants from the East Indies and West Indies.) But at what point do we hold former colonies responsible for their own corruption, lack of human rights, and dysfunction? As I have always maintained, immigration, if properly done, is a positive. Europeans have gotten it all wrong. They never gave a lot of thought to the idea of assimilating their immigrants into their own cultures. They have concentrated on bringing in those who will not assimilate, people who, in far too many cases, despise the very societies they have chosen to immigrate to. Now it is too late. Discussions of "neo-liberalism" may sound good at Al Jazeera or in a classroom at UC Irvine, but they don't address the reality of everyday life in Europe where women are advised to dress modestly, don a hijab, or just stay indoors at night. They don't address a reality where Jews are advised not to wear a kippah in public.  

Mark LeVine should stick to his area of "expertise", the Middle East. He screws that up badly enough.