Jewcy War with Oprah Begins, Joey’s War with Tariq Ali Continues

I have no idea what this image is supposed to be communicating, but I think it's important that you see it.

Now is the time to make mistakes and learn lessons about how the Daily Shvitz should be managed, and so perhaps our first mistake will be to allow the Shvitz to devolve into a neocon autofellatio festival. But for the moment I can't resist.

So…Tariq Ali. Ugh…shudder. Of all the misguided European 68ers out there, he's worked harder than anyone to confer radical cachet on the 7th -century-or-bust crowd. He was, for example, the first person I know of to try to popularize the term "Islamo-anarchist" (in this Guardian article, among other places). Anything, anything at all, to find a way to fit these guys into the historical framework of the left.

Yes, yes, I know, this was really just a bit of terminological jujitsu in response to the advent of the word "Islamofascism". But if "Islamofascism" is a manipulative and inaccurate term–and Ali would certainly argue that it is–then how much more spurious an historical analogy is "Islamo-anarchism"? How can you possibly argue, "why, fascism was a distinct historical movement native to Europe, and those who conflate it with extremist Islam are pitifully ignorant of the enormous points of departure between the two movements. On the other hand, bin Laden and Bakunin…sure, that's a reasonable match!"

So here he is again in the article Michael shows us, his loins still hot with longing for these Islamic militants who believe so passionately in everything he claims to detest.

This is one of the reasons, incidentally, that the Jewcy Radicals list is so necessary, so timely. Too many Tariq Alis out there shamelessly devaluing an important term.

Finally, I'll just add that in this month's issue of Commentary, Victor Davis Hanson reviews Fouad Ajami's new book The Foreigner's Gift. According to Hanson, Ajami paints several fascinating portraits of men like Ali, progressives who cast their lot with reactionaries. The difference is that the men Ajami discusses actually live(d) in the Middle East. The fate of these "sorry men", Hanson says, was to "end up murdered or exiled by the very people they once sought to champion."

Good thing for Ali that he's shouting his approval from afar, where his allies can't reach him.