 Decoration Day is upon us, friends. It’s time to remember our ancestors who fought and died for civilization. Postmodern Southerners will soon have a chance to do something similar, many of them without the dying part! Last week, my friend and geopolitical expert Leonid Savin alerted me to a new article he published about the emotional manipulation of voters and citizens in great emocracies like the South. It won’t be long before average Southern IQs will have declined a full standard deviation from where they stood just six or seven decades ago. Sadly, Christian morality is on a similar downward trajectory. The emocratic concept makes sense, as emotions are all many folks have left. This concept was on display recently at the Libertarian convention where former president Donald Trump addressed the assembled potheads, abortionists, soft globalists, and potheads. Trump, a resident of Florida, once said some mildly pro-Southern things. In fact, he says a lot of things. He vowed to appoint a (Southern?) libertarian to some position or something. He’s also mumbled about reappointing the witch Nimarata, who I proudly point out is from the South. Rumor has it he will select the great Southern governor Ron DeSantis as his VP. Think of all the other things this Yankee con man and hot air balloon blowhard true Southern patriot has said. It begins to look like a winning ticket in an election that won’t happen and does not matter in the slightest because some Yankee failed to do what had to be done during and immediately after the terminal coup of January 2021. Meridionalis affectum.
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 Recently, it was my pleasure to read Eschatological Optimism by Daria Platonova Dugina. From that astounding book, among many points that stuck in my head was a question regarding one of my favorite literary figures, American author and poet, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). For whatever reason, I thought the matter was worth looking deeper into. As recounted in Ms. Dugina’s book, after the presentation of her lecture, “Eschatological Optimism as a Philosophical Interpretation and Life Strategy,” followed a transcribed question and answer session. This included exchange sufficiently garnered my attention:
The slight matter of an affirmative declaration versus a pure question aside, I found that brief discussion virtually identical to a query transcribed in Dugina, Daria, “Eschatological Optimism: Origins, Evolution, Main Directions,” Geopolitika, 20 December 2022, as translated by Sophia Polyankina, et al: “Valentin wrote: Edgar Allan Poe is an eschatological optimist, too. His last book Eureka is about our tragic universe, the finality of which is identical to the disclosure of a prisoner in misfortune. Thank you for a recommendation, Valentin. I will definitely read it.” Valentin’s transcribed suggestion, of course, stemmed from Ms. Dugina’s video presentation, hosted on or about 28 November 2020 on the Signum YouTube channel. The quoted remarks occur around time-mark 51:59. I am of the opinion Valentin’s suggestion is correct. Before explaining why, I offer Ms. Dugina’s short definition of what constitutes eschatological optimism. From her book, page 54:
Without delving into the Christian and philosophical depths Dugina explored, her general sentiment has been and is readily accepted or embraced, if via other terminology and if not so well synthesized, by an array of people regarding various human experiences. It is somewhat synonymous with the “Stockdale Paradox,” as explained by Vice Admiral James Stockdale of the US Navy, an observation from his time as a prisoner of war: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end —which you can never afford to lose— with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” See Collins, Jim, “The Stockdale Paradox,” Jim Collins Concepts (from a recounted, undated conversation)(discussed in regards to Stockdale, Jim, and Cybil, In Love and War, Toronto; New York: Bantam Books, 1985). Americans, largely being who they are, have largely taken the admiral’s advice to heart considering business “motivational” matters. In my previous review of Eschatological Optimism, I abbreviated the base concept as: “[T]he eschatological optimist, while accepting that terminal change in the world is imminent, nonetheless soldiers on by consciously and purposely living.” Lovett, P., “Apophatic Apologetics,” Geopolitika, 4 September 2023 (yes, wherein I *ahem* “cleverly” used one of Poe’s lesser-known spellings of his own middle name…). In other words, this is the Christian’s way of carrying on the fight until Christ’s Return. As such, where do we find evidence of Edgar Allan Poe’s urge to fight and overcome the dissipating illusion? I am not certain that Dugina ever directly answered the question, and I sincerely hope my report does her legacy justice. Eureka: A Prose Poem, as noted by Valentin —who I do hope finds this essay, finds it worthy, and accepts my thanks for initially raising the issue— is a plausibly definitive starting point. Poe was Baptized in the Episcopal Church (American Anglican/Protestant) though he was raised and married in his (birth and adoptive) family’s Presbyterian (Protestant) faith. For all my purposes herein, I assume Poe was a faithful Trinitarian Christian seeking grace and salvation via his humble acceptance of Jesus Christ. (I happily leave any sectarian doctrinal or theological quibbles to the professionals.) Poe’s, to me, peremptory deference to the Almighty comes through his approximate forty references to “God” in Eureka. Herein, I cite Poe, Edgar Allan, Eureka: A Prose Poem, New York: Geo. P. Putnam, 1848 (Gutenberg Kindle edition). Speaking nearly two hundred years early to Dugina’s references to the ultimate battle between the crude world below and God’s perfect spiritual order above, Poe’s Eureka is subtitled: “An Essay on the Material and Spiritual Universe.” Amidst language that has humored and confounded scholars since 1848, Poe begins by explaining, on page 1, “My general proposition, then, is this: —In the Original Unity of the First Thing lies the Secondary Cause of All Things, with the Germ of their Inevitable Annihilation.” In order words, the illusion will end. Poe almost immediately addresses the metaphysical limitations of the human mind when attempting to understand or even properly speak of God. From page 9:
This speaks to the apophatic basis of trusting and reaching for God, by negation, through faith, and without complete reason or knowledge. The approach via negation is a cornerstone of eschatological optimism. We do not “know” precisely or mathematically and we cannot even precisely quantify our attempt at knowing in the first place. Accordingly, we trust. Poe takes this matter as a given. He simply states, on page 11, “We believe in a God.” He further elaborates, on page 22: ”[P]roperly speaking—since there can be but one principle, the Volition of God. We have no right to assume, then, from what we observe in rules that we choose foolishly to name ‘principles,’ anything at all in respect to the characteristics of a principle proper.” On page 24 he describes an approach to appreciating the ultimately unknowable by three methods that look to me a little like the apophatic, the kataphatic, and the third “Aristotelian” (or “Aquinian”) way:
He goes on, many times, to reference the unerring nature and will of God. As others have noted before, some of Poe’s words and thought processes appear mildly convoluted, or, perhaps in kinder terminology, “imaginative.” Still, for purposes of Dugina’s theory, he sums up his proposition in a definitive declaration on page 73: “Let us endeavor to comprehend that the final globe of globes will instantaneously disappear, and that God will remain all in all.” The great and fully final eschaton; and, at no time does Poe appear fraught or dismayed by the prospects. Rather, in his mainly philosophical treatment of the predicament, he remains ardently optimistic as a predetermined and unquestioned fact of being. This, of course, like all of Eureka, is a matter of speculative conjecture. Before moving to proofs perhaps more in keeping with Poe’s literary reputation, I thought to attempt adding something novel to the discussion. Thanks to the efforts of a wonderful friend, I was placed in contact with a distant relative of Edgar Allan Poe, a Mr. Jim Poe of Tennessee, United States. Our Mr. Poe is, as I suppose the relationship, a distant cousin of the great author. Leaving genealogical exactitude to other professionals, I briefly assert Mr. Poe of Tennessee’s father’s, father’s, father’s, father’s, father’s father was David Poe of Dring County Cavan, North Ireland, the same who immigrated to Baltimore, Maryland, then Colonial America. Among the sons of David Poe of Baltimore were Mr. Poe of Tennessee’s ancestor, John Hancock Poe, and one David Poe, Jr. This David, Jr. was Edgar Allan Poe’s father. I asked my Mr. Poe about THE Mr. Poe’s faith, at least as understood by the family. I received word that many early Poes (of roughly Edgar Allan’s time) were “devout Presbyterians in Scotland and North Ireland.” Further, as a matter of fervent faith, I was informed that Edgar Allan Poe’s great-grandfather, also another David Poe, “was known back in North Ireland as David Poe the Covenanter, among those who were severely persecuted for their adherence to the theology of the Reformation.” I found additional support for this suggestion via the treatment of the Presbyterian Covenanters of Scotland (and Northern Ireland) by the English Monarch in Mary Phillip’s book, Edgar Allan Poe The Man, Volume One. Chicago: John Winston Co., 1926. As recounted on page 8, the Poe family mark of reprisal was particularly harsh: “[T]he King’s pardon was granted to all who had taken part in ‘the late wicked Rebellion,’ but with special exception of David Poe…” David was, in fact, sentenced to hang — a sentence happily unexecuted. Regrettably, Christianity has been beset with sometimes violent dissension from at least the betrayal of Judas. Or perhaps, from a post-Ascension standpoint, from the blasphemous heresies of the hated First-Century Nicolaitans. Jesus Christ promised Saint Peter that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against” the Church. Matthew 16:18. Our Lord never said hell would not continuously crash against the Church; in fact, elsewhere He essentially promised the opposite. See John 15:18-20. This is the war of the prince of the fallen war against God and His People. Daria Dugina understood the war and the critical importance of actively fighting in it; her quote I simply adore: “In the conditions of the modern world, any stubborn and desperate resistance to this world, any uncompromising struggle against liberalism, globalism, and Satanism, is heroism.” Eschatological Optimism, at 102. In this war, our battle there is no room for weakness or compromise. As Daria’s father noted concerning the real struggle of good against evil in the Twenty-first Century: “Satan, seeing that someone has challenged him, will not allow us to go back to half-way solutions.” Dugin, Alexander, “Satanism is Putting Matter Before Spirit,” Geopolitika, 18 September 2023 (as translated from: Дугин, А., “Сатанизм — как постановка материи над духом,” Газета Культура, 5 Сентябрь 2023). Edgar Allan Poe understood the Christian implications of our war now, which was his then, and he surely remembered some of his family’s then late worldly struggle regarding religion, some of which may have affected him personally. This was expounded upon by Professor James Kibler in his 2022 essay, “Poe’s Battle with Puritan Boston,” Abbeville Institute, 6 April 2022. Poe certainly knew about his struggles against the early American literary powers, a particularly keen forum of his earthly travail, as told by Professor Harry Lee Poe (another descendant also from Tennessee) in “Poe’s War of the Literati,” Abbeville Institute, 20 July 2017. While his personal demise was unpleasant and is still shrouded in mystery, his universal fame today suggests Poe won his part in that war. Poe’s fame today, and since his untimely death, is almost entirely due to that by which we best know and appreciate his creative thinking, his literature. My essay was inspired by Russian friends I have never met. It is my limited understanding that Poe enjoys a respectful reputation in Russia, of a similar variety he engendered in my America and elsewhere — a grand, stirring, determined, if somewhat muddled estate. One book, a rarer tome that I have not read, though it has worked its way into my extended booklist, may shed light on Poe’s presence in Russia: Grossman, Joan Delaney, Edgar Allan Poe in Russia: A Study in Legend and Literary Influence. Wurzburg: Jal-Werlag, 1973. By way of a review of Grossman’s take on Poe, we learn: “In 1895, two significant Russian translations of Poe’s poetry and prose appeared. Konstantin Bal’mont, one of the translators, embraced the ‘image of Poe as half-mad, half-genius…’” J. Lasley Dameron and Tamara Miller, “Poe’s Reception in Russia,” Poe Studies, June 1975, Vol. VIII, No. 1. Bal’mont’s observation matches, so far as it goes, many reviews of, say, Eureka, and it concurs with Poe’s own perhaps transient or self-deprecating self-assessment. “In describing this time of his life, Poe wrote to George Eveleth: ‘I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity. During those fits of absolute unconsciousness, I drank—God only knows how often or how much. As a matter of course, my enemies referred the insanity to the drink rather than the drink to the insanity.’” “Poe’s War…,” supra (emphasis added). I note that even within that missive, amidst his situational explanation, Poe still refers deferentially to God. Taken within its own limited context, it appears that like Job, Poe was willing to endure his personal problems without ever blaming or renouncing God. Perhaps selfishly, I call that further proof of a kind of optimism. Also, for my purposes herein, I find it may be a mistake, or at least, a needlessly restrictive approach, to limit any inquiry into the plausible theological philosophy of a great author by primarily exploring his personal circumstances. We know Poe best because of what he wrote, particularly in his fiction. It may be that in addition to what can be gathered from the life and times and semi-ephemeral didactic thoughts of the man, we should also give a measured weight to any clues within that fiction. I am cognizant of the potential fallibility of such a methodology. References are not necessarily definitive affirmations. For instance, Poe was not a direct proponent of the Mishna, Kabbalah, or Talmud because he somewhat artfully deployed Rabbinical tradition within the dialogue of A Tale of Jerusalem. That story, a warning against misplaced, prideful, and self-aggrandizing faith, trust, or circumspection, is more in line with Poe’s Masque…, discussed immediately hereafter, as another kind of example. It is also, in keeping with Poe’s humorous nature, probably an intentional parody of Zillah: A Tale of the Holy City, a preexisting work of historical fiction. See Tendler, R. Yitzchok, “Pharisee Sects and Edgar Allan Poe,” Torah Musings, 2 April 2013. We are looking for a complimentary match for what is already known or supposed about Poe’s outlook on the eternal. Therefore, in addition to Eureka, I now present two short stories that I think illustrate Poe’s eschatological optimism. The Masque of the Red Death is a cautionary tale about what happens when people try to hide and insulate themselves from the battles of our world instead of actively resisting the ever-present evil. See Poe, Edgar Allan, The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Vol. Two, “Raven” Edition: Gutenberg for Kindle, 106-111. “THE ‘Red Death’ had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood.” Id. at 106. This initial description is a highly suggestive metaphor. The mark of the Red Death, “The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men,” Ibid, fostered the kind of societal atomization Gogol and other writers have aptly described and which Ms. Dugina properly dismissed as dyscivilizational and spiteful towards the Almighty and His Order. “But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious.” Id. Today, Prospero and his friends would enjoy the vapid trappings of postmodernity, veiling their eyes against genuine illusory reality by erecting a false fantasy of comfort and safety. The Masque is one of my favorites of all things Poe. I am satisfied that it may, here, provide at least a counter-example of the questioned optimism. For it is a stern warning about what not to do. Leaving aside the mirth, horror, and nearly overwhelming symbolism Poe bequeathed us, let us move along toward the moral of the story. When the eyes of Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image (which with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sustain its role, stalked to and fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be convulsed, in the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror or distaste; but, in the next, his brow reddened with rage. Id. at 109. Unwanted or not, unprepared or not, the gates of hell will crash upon one. The end will come. Prospero’s reaction as described, is that of the foolish, neopagan postmodern man who finally confronts any facet of unpleasant reality: confusion and disbelief give way to fear, fear gives way to impotent rage. Those who are faithlessly unprepared and who fail to stand firm against the true enemy of God are destined to fall before the hateful wrath of the world.
Sad, morbid, entertaining—if confined within the pages of a book, but dreadful. Those souls, rarified but doomed, were like the other Hanoi prisoners Stockdale described, the ones who lost sight of the necessity of confronting the brutal facts of reality. Fortunately, that is not our fate. Nor, I think, Poe’s, nor of some other of his valiant characters. Over many years, I have read most of Poe’s stories, and many of them stand out to me for one reason or another as works of great worth. So I was very happy that, upon a little reading for refreshment and a lot of thinking, another favorite stagger-hopped right up and yelled, “Here I am!” In my mind’s eye, the poor, disfigured, tormented, and unfortunate little king’s jester, Hop-Frog, is a veritable dictionary definition of eschatological optimism brought to literary life. Hereafter, I reference Poe, Edgar Allan, The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Vol. Five, “Raven” Edition: Gutenberg for Kindle, 14-24. Titular Hop-Frog is our nominal optimist. His employer is a foolhardy (like Prospero) but cruel king. Poe describes the king and his seven court ministers in less than flattering terms: “They all took after the king, too, in being large, corpulent, oily men, as well as inimitable jokers.” Id. at 14-15. As with many real and fictional tyrants, he was not above taking as slave-prisoners select members of societies he conquered. So it was that he came to have possession of or dominion over poor little Hop and his friend, whom my mind, at least in the sense of Hugo’s Quasimodo and Esmerelda, wants to call his “girlfriend”, the diminutive dancer, Trippetta. Though being, like Hop, a dwarf, Trippetta was of normal proportion, gait, and of a comely appearance. Thus, she was generally more popular and better treated than Hop by the king and his court. She also kindly used what influence her grace and charmed circumstances afforded her in various attempts to make Hop’s life more gentle and bearable. However, as sometimes happens, her good luck ran out one evening during a festival celebration. Ever one seeking to entertain his audiences, the king turned to Hop-Frog for novel merriment and distraction. Whether by design or else by true reluctance (and probably by both), Hop was slower than normal in providing a recreational scheme. To assist his creative processes, the king employed the tested tactic of forcing unwanted intoxication upon Hop. Seeing her friend further distressed and observing the alternating wicked humor and violent proclivity of their master, Trippetta placed herself between the men in an act of supplication. For her kind intervention:
Hop, the proverbial camel’s back, broke. He then remembered or invented a game so fun that it delighted the wicked king. One assumes this game was pre-planned for this or a similar occasion. In short order, Hop had the ridiculous king and his oily ministers attired in highly flammable costumes so as to resemble a laughable troupe of apes. For good measure, he had them fastened securely together, the “Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs…” Id. at 19. When all was ready, he hooked their chains to the end of a chandelier hoist chain (lowered for the play act). With Hop riding the master chain, the assembly was then raised off the floor to the uproarious applause of the gathering. Using a torch as both a light and a weapon, little Hop-Frog then commenced in earnest his resistance to evil:
It was generally thought, so wrote Poe, that Trippetta had removed herself to the roof in a bid to assist Hop. After the fiery fact, they escaped to their homelands. In summary, Hop-Frog, abused but determined, fought and defeated his earthly enemy (and what a way to get rid of a tyrant!), and then literally ascended above (as if towards God) to go home. Set against the framework of eschatological optimism, Hop was painfully aware of the circumstances and essence of his restrained earthly existence, his illusory reality. He was extremely conscious of its finitude. Yet, ever trusting, he did not quietly put up with his condition. He overcame it. A stubborn resisting hero. I might otherwise smugly drop my fist on the table and proclaim, “Case closed!” Yet, I will not deign to understand the impossible. Rather, while I fully believe Valentin’s question of cognizance is correct, I offer the foregoing as an extended conversation starter. For those undertaking the task, I leave one final illusory and optimistically resisting-friendly quote from A Dream Within a Dream, Edgar Allan Poe, The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, New York: J. S. Redfield, 1850: “O God! Can I not save one from the pitiless wave? Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?” *Author’s postscript: a word about Signum: Signum (Сигнум) is a Russian think tank, a “humanitarian research center” dedicated to the continuing development of a better intellectual environment for social and humanities education, particularly for high school and college-aged students. In addition to written articles and papers, they specialize in lecture and course presentations – in person and via electronic formats. I encourage the Western reader to go to their website and auto-translate the presented materials. Signum is headed by the capable Semyon Semukhin and was founded by Maxim Krizhanovsky, to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude for his kind humoring of my little project. I look forward to one day seeing this essay presented at Signum, translated into Russian. (Such a feat is still beyond my current abilities.) A special sub-note: I must pause and point out that Yelena Zhivkovich is the best Russian language instructor anywhere. I am grateful for her knowledge, dedication, and charm. Thank you, Yelena! At first glance, I assumed Signum was a large, long-standing organization operationally on par with, say, the US’s Heritage Foundation. What I discovered was that Maxim built the forum just a few years ago and, most incredibly, it is run by very young people, many of whom are students themselves. They are backed by a solid coalition of highly resource capable organizations and eagerly assisted by a wide range of professionals in delivering excellence of thought and exploration to the excellent young minds of Russia and beyond. They are to be praised for all that they do. Превосходно! This piece was published at Perrin Lovett at on May 17, 2024.
 Friends, I have a unique and, I think, fascinating essay about Edgar Allan Poe coming soonish. I’ve had it for months, though for reasons I may explain later, it has been temporarily out of my hands. I think you're gonna like it. This fall, the BRICS+ nations will convene in Kazan. Their primary purpose is the official unveiling of the “BRICS-PAY” (aka, the upgraded “MIR-CIPS” network) commercial transactions facilitation system. Much else will be happening as well. I would like to attend. Furthermore, I would like to attend as your representative. I hereby request your nomination as Confederate States emissary in Kazan. Don’t worry; I know where the city is and I have a rough A1 command of the host language. Accordingly, I need the following from the Southern government:
Please try to provide all of this by the middle of June at the latest. With the South in firm control of her destiny, we need to keep the ball rolling into the vibrant future. If you are a representative of the CSA government with decision-making authority, please make your suggestions in the comments here, including your name, office, and contact information. Thank you.
Deo vindice.  © Blake Alcott. Very few phenomena are as misrepresented in Western mainstream discourse and as poorly understood by Westerners as the conflict between the Zionist entity of Israel and the Palestinian People. While this issue has grown into perhaps the great dividing line that separates the morally aware and responsible from the callous, the indifferent, and the wicked, a fog lies over the minds and hearts of too many Westerners, none more so than the residents of the faltering United States. Some are excusable in their ignorance for one reason or another. Others are less so. And yet others, a rather large group, willfully side with their own luciferian elite leadership and the ruling Anglo-Zionist ideologues and looters. America’s political class never ceases to amaze and confound, releasing one idiotic, bloodthirsty statement after another about the subject in general, and, specifically, with their nearly-uniform reaction to the late genocide, the Gazacaust. Even Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whom I otherwise respected for his book about US bioweapons programs, said Palestinians were the “most pampered people in the world.” In his world, “pampered” must be synonymous with “bombed” and “starved.” The Clown Prince of Gomorrah, Lindsey Graham, coldly said of Gaza, “Level the place.” Andy Ogles (ogles what, we wonder), said of the Gazans, “Kill them all.” False Witness and delusional moron Tim Walberg suggested repeating the war crimes of Nagasaki and Hiroshima against Gaza to “Get it over quick.” Joe “I am the AI” Biden mumbles one thing and then another, though he, a self-proclaimed Zionist, ever arms and supports the occupiers and their genocide. Carnival barker Donald Trump said, “Only a crazy or an idiot wouldn’t respond like Israel did to October 7.” Trump might be in an ideal position to know the inclinations of crazies and idiots. But neither he nor any of the others knows or cares to understand the totality of the situation, including the timeline of so many pitiful events. The American selling point for this particular atrocity is that Israel was attacked by terrorists on October 7, 2023, and that it has every right to defend itself. Intelligent men, like China’s Ma Xinmin, know that occupation forces have no claim to self-defense when attacked by the people they oppress and that the oppressed have every right to resist their occupation and oppression. And regardless of lies, distortions, woeful American attention spans, and lack of education, this conflict was brewing well over a century before October 2023. I recently read, reviewed, and fell in love with The Stone House by Dr. Yara Hawari, a narrative telling of Palestinian life, suffering, and triumph from the early Twentieth Century through 1968. Within Hawari’s combined stories and experiences, including those during and before the Nakba, the reader catches glimpses of repeated betrayals of Palestine. Through the eyes of her characters, members of her own family, she masterfully touches on the impact of a continuous sequence of terrible events. With a fascinating and inspiring human touch, she reveals the “what” of the shared Palestinian experience. Now, I have found a work that fills in many of the (early) gaps, providing the “hows” and “whys” behind the assorted deceptions and barbarities. Dr. Blake Alcott has assembled an expansive two-volume collection of original documents that provide a roadmap that leads from the end of the Nineteenth Century until the formation of political nation-state Israel after World War Two. His work is profoundly important from a historical perspective and because the experiences of the mapped territory stretch on until the present. His title is apropos. Alcott, Blake, The Rape of Palestine: A Mandate Chronology, Vol. 1 and 2, Zürich: Tredition, 2023. (From Amazon: Volume One; Volume Two.) Dr. Alcott is an ecological economist, Palestinian activist, and upon-a-time carpenter residing and working in Switzerland. His excellent work and interests may be found on his website. After reading Hawari’s book, as if it was ordained, I discovered Alcott and his books via Jeremy Salt’s sterling review of The Rape of Palestine at the Palestinian Chronicle. Of Alcott’s efforts, Salt wrote: “There are few works on Palestine of such scope. All the standard documents are here and analyzed anew but there are innumerable gems dug up by the author that the researcher will not have known about or has forgotten.” And the scope is vast. Salt referred to “the researcher” perhaps due to the nature of the material presented. It is not a work to be casually read. Well, in many ways it is, at intervals becoming a real page-turner. But there is a refined historicity and academic quality within the pages which, along with their Outlaws of the Marsh count, could be mildly off-putting to the cursory reader. None of this should bar anyone from obtaining and studying the copious history as assembled. Most fortunately, Alcott begins with a helpful section, “How to use this book.”
Alcott’s cheerful humor aside (and appreciated), he is correct. Think of it as an encyclopedia wherein specific facts await inspection based on the reader’s particular need or fancy. The 490(!) entries are sequentially set forth in the table of contents of each volume. All of these records are important, though the more critical among them are helpfully marked with an asterisk. Alcott also provides his methodology concerning the materials, his commentary, context, and appended matters. He is also correct, be forewarned, that there is sadness and shame residing within the documentation. However, for most readers, especially any guilt-deserving Westerners, I would hope the shock of the truth serves to change minds and, then, stir indignant protest. And now, I will slowly walk through a brief summary of all 490 transcripts. Or not. I slept well last night and I appear to have misplaced my pocket protector. No. Instead, I will merely present a short sampling. Even before the first official entry, Alcott provides a glimpse of a nascent Zionist movement that started no later than 1798, and continued into the Nineteenth Century, as recounted in 1919 by British anti-Zionist Jew Lucien Wolf: “... In 1840, when Mehemet Ali was driven out of Palestine and Syria by the Powers, the future of Palestine was open for discussion. … [U]ntil the time of Herzl all the most prominent protagonists of Zionism were Christians.” Id, at 21. The latter words in Wolf’s note might open a separate discussion regarding the links between Zionism and Christianity, especially certain of its Protestant elements, and American variants, along with other assorted strange fruits of the Enlightenment. However, Wolf also noted that the earnest modern Zionist movement had begun twenty years earlier in 1899. And in that year, where Alcott’s true count begins, Jerusalem’s mayor, Yusuf al-Khalidi, sent a letter to Rabbi Zadoc Kahn of France:
If one isn’t an American politician, a newly-arrived space alien, or a complete recluse, one knows that, the good intentions of God and man notwithstanding, since 1899, Palestine has had anything except peace. An aside: One of the many lies told repeatedly about Palestine is that it does not exist, it never existed, or that it didn’t exist until recently. The same goes for Palestinians themselves, a lie told far and wide by such degenerates as Newt Gingrich and Bezalel Smotrich. As one may see from the foregoing quotes, such a ridiculous assertion would have come as a surprise to al-Khalidi and Wolf, along with the Ottomans, the Crusaders, maybe the Mongols even, certainly the Imperial Romans (what else was meant by “Syria Palaestina”?), and, of course, the people of the Middle East. Furthermore, as to Zionists of both the Jewish and Judeo-”Christian” Evangelical kinds, the land of Israel they constantly proclaim rightly exists in place of Palestine doesn’t even match the boundaries of the wholly unrelated Biblical territory of a similar name prescribed in Joshua—to say nothing of the fantastical, ever-shifting idea of Greater Israel. Then again, some of the Zionists frequently ignore inconvenient or, shall we say, “undeciphered” parts of the Hebrew Bible and the Evangelicals have evidently read very little if any of the New Testament. This note may point towards that other discussion, and I digress. Perhaps the most famous, or infamous document in Alcott’s litany is the Balfour Declaration of 1917, a note from Lord Balfour to Lord Rothschild (yes, of that family) concerning property and lives neither had any claim to.
There’s another pesky reference to a place and a people that allegedly didn’t exist. But regardless of the intentions and sympathies of Balfour and George V, the following century would see existing non-Jewish communities deprived of virtually all civil and religious rights, a people cornered, hounded, and hunted towards extinction. I will now skip forward three decades into that process and engage a smidgen of literary comparison. By way of that comparison, and shifting gears, I’m going to try to demonstrate how useful Alcott’s book is in digging deeper into certain affairs. The following is just one example from a potential multitude. In Hawari’s story about her father Mahmoud, she writes briefly about the post-Ottoman British Mandate period. This span was supposedly temporary and transitional before control of Palestine was fully handed over to the Palestinians. Of course, all the while, London was scheming and blundering towards delivering Palestine from one form of colonization to another. Hawari follows up in subsequent sections via the eyes and experiences of her grandmother and great-grandmother. Regarding the establishment of Zionist occupation on May 14, 1948, she writes, “According to the mandate, the British were to hand over authority and assets to a governing local entity. But they didn’t. Their exit, while officially ending British rule in Palestine, was also an open invitation for the Zionists to take over the whole country.” The Stone House, “Dheeba’s Story,” e-book ed., at 27. Many of Alcott’s entries deal directly with the policies and deceptions behind this British treachery in allowing, even facilitating Zionist usurpation despite all contrary promises to the Palestinians. That includes the final item, number 490. As Palestinians tried to actively resist their pending disposition, their efforts were blocked by the British military. Confronted with English interdiction against a last-ditch effort to save Qatamon, and so losing the town, Ibrahim Abu-Dayeh pleaded with Izzat Tannous for diplomatic assistance with His Majesty’s forces. Tannous sadly replied, “‘No, my dear Ibrahim,’ I said, quoting an Arab proverb, ‘When the judge is your enemy, it is useless to appeal.’” The Rape of Palestine, Vol. 2, at 1,144. Here is an example of Alcott’s astute commentary, his words summarizing the feckless, biased British actions:
“Grandmothers and grandfathers, living their lives like you and me.” My suspicion upon reading Salt’s review was that Alcott would provide heavy factual backup for some of the emotional human stories Hawari related in stirring if necessarily concise form. He did and then some. I did not expect it, but was delighted to discover that he too possesses a keen ability to connect the reader’s mind and soul to even listless, heartless administrative functionary activities. There is a kind of brilliance in the book that slowly asserts itself via Alcott’s ability to both display an orderly chronology but to also link all the parts together in a nearly narrative fashion. He displayed his talent with the second-to-last asterisked entry, number 486, and the final words concerning the failed Mandate in Parliament on March 10, 1948. Creech Jones, de facto handler of the Palestinian “problem”, made stunning admissions about the end of English occupation in Palestine, the Mandate, betrayals, and all.
Alcott bridges and builds, adding, “The self-pity aside, Britain’s experience was indeed “tragic” in the literary sense that the seeds of devastation were present at the beginning – a sort of character flaw which made Britain dedicate itself to a ‘self-contradictory and unworkable’ experiment.” Id. He then goes on to show and dissect how Britain had always taken a side despite its supposed neutrality. And he shines a light on the fledgling United Nations’ fence-sitting, a position the body has essentially retained since 1948.
And since that year, as the British bowed out, other nations bowed in. While Britain and France would go on to provide some assistance to the Zionists, it was Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union who were the first to recognize newly appropriated political Israel. But no country has done more or worse in slavish, virtually religious service, support, and allegiance to Israel than the United States. Alcott devotes Section XXV, in the Second Volume, to “U.S. Power,” with seventeen entries in all. Among them, the reader will discover Harry “S” Truman’s zeal for the Zionists’ expanded entry into Palestine. The man who acceded to dropping an atomic bomb on a Catholic Church in Japan had no problem doing something of a similar nature, if by other means, in the Levant. Given the total degeneration of America since then it is little wonder why some filth like Tim Walberg calls for treating Gaza like Nagasaki. As with the blood stains on Zionist hands, from the Stern Gang to King Bibi’s rampage against hospitals, schools, Mosques, Churches, and aid workers, so too does America drip with the blood of innocents slaughtered in perpetual conflict. The English, base progenitors of the insanely poor idea behind the Zionist occupation, stand as guilty as any. At the moment, the only British leader I can think of who acquits himself is George Galloway, and he still admits a deep shame concerning these deeply shameful matters. Many parties are guilty, for their actions and complicity. And still others bear eternal abashment, admitted or not, for their inaction and silence. Not among the shamed are South Africa, Yemen, and a few other groups worldwide. One of the few groups is composed of anti-Zionist Jews, some of whom are now being arrested in “free” and “democratic” Western countries like Germany for standing up and speaking out for Palestinian justice. It’s hard evidence of a mad world when Germans attack Jews, for the false crime of possibly offending other Jews, doing so using anti-Nazi laws as their paper-thin justification. More to the point, indisputable proof of collective insanity and tolerance of sheer wickedness abounds. En route to doing something, anything to help, decent people want and need to make sense of the sad circumstances. And making sense of any complex system, circumstance, or problem requires a base of information. That is what Blake Alcott had delivered. His extreme dedication, utter competence, and artful presentation will reveal to the reader an open window to history, policy, drama, tragedy, and the human condition. Let the light shine in, we need it. I heartily endorse and recommend The Rape Of Palestine for anyone, regardless of position or location, interested in the injustice visited upon the Palestinian People. Really, this battle is for universal actuality and human dignity. Buy the book, read it, and understand it, a commanding and fascinating compilation. *Reviewer’s Note: Since first ordering Dr. Alcott’s book, and while drafting my review, I have spoken with the author via email several times. In fact, I now consider him a friend. And, of course, I greatly admire his knowledge, expertise, and devotion to the truth. As such, I have extended an open invitation for him (and several of his expert acquaintances) to add to this important discussion in any way and at any time he or they please. I’d also ask you, my dear reader, to do whatever you can to spread the word about this subject matter and help promote peace in any manner possible. There really are no small or unappreciated steps. |
