The Russia-Ukraine War w/ Patrick Cockburn/The Kyrie Irving Controversy and Black Hebrew Israelites w/ Jacob S. Dorman

On this edition of Parallax Views, long-time war reporter Patrick Cockburn, author of War in the Age of Trump, joins us in the first segment to discuss the latest in regards to the Putin's war in Ukraine as well as his thoughts on Netanyhu's political victory in the Israeli elections.

Among the topics covered in the conversation:

- Putin's war as a hubristic miscalculation and the evolution of the war; what is Russia's aim in Ukraine now?

- The problem of wars that don't end and why they escalate

- Ukraine's blowing up of the Kerch bridge and the Russian war against Ukrainian infrastructure such as electricity and water supplies

- The way modern warfare has changed in way that some don't realize; the U.S. no longer has a monopoly on precision weapons like they did in the 1990s

- Escalation and the question of nuclear weapons being used; why Patrick is skeptical that nuclear weapons will be launched

- Ukrainian victories not being decisive defeats of Russia

- U.S. Chief of Staff Mark Milley's call for diplomacy and the Biden administration's opposition to that; why Patrick doesn't see diplomacy as being acceptable right now to either Ukraine or Russia

- Parallels between the Middle East Forever Wars and the Russia-Ukraine War

- U.S. arms to Ukraine

- Ferreting out war propaganda and separating that propaganda from reality

- The economic war against Russia and the use of sanctions; sanctions, Iraq, the Kurds, and Saddam Hussein, the boomerang effect of sanctions

- Donald Trump, the foreign policy establishment, and the forever wars mess

- The natural tendency for wars to escalate and spread

- Prospect for diplomacy vs. escalation

- Putin and nuclear saber-rattling

- The problem with journalists covering wars today; coverage of war on the ground vs. war on infrastructure

- The electoral loss suffered of Bolsonaro in Brazil, Trump's civil war with the GOP, and the failed comeback of Boris Johnson in the UK

- Benjamin Netanyahu's electoral victory in Israel and the normalization of Israel's far-right

- The importance of remembering/thinking about the Afghanistan war, the Iraq War, the Saudi War in Yemen, and the death of Gaddafi in Libya

- And much, much more!

In the second segment of the show, Prof. Jacob Dorman joins us to discuss Black Israelite religions in light of the controversy over NBA basketball player Kyrie Irving tweeting about the Ronald Dalton Jr.'s documentary Hebrews 2 Negroes: Wake Up Black America. The tweet caused a backlash due to the documentary peddling not only Black Israelite beliefs in the documentary, but also antisemitic tropes and quotes from notorious antisemites like Henry Ford.

Among the topics covered in this conversation:

- The history of the Black Israelite movement including it's relationship to the 19th century Holiness movement, Freemasonry, the Anglo-Israelite movement, Rastafarianism, Judaism, and Black Nationalist/Black Power movements

- Harlem, Rabbi Wentworth Arthur Matthew, and the Second Wave of Black Israelism; 

- William Sauders Crowdy and the Church of God and Saints of Christ

- Black Israelite thought as a theory of history rather than a religion

- The spread of Black Israelite thought or elements of it through the internet

- Understanding the Black Israelite movement in the context of anti-black racism historically including Jim Crow, lynchings, and anti-racism

- Dorman's take on Kyrie Irving, Kanye West as well as his take on on Hebrews to Negroes being a documentary "by and for stoned people"; Irving as being a different case from Kanye and Kanye as more truly peddling antisemitism; Irving's apology over his tweet; Kanye and mental illness; Kanye's "slavery was a choice" comments

- The concept of polyculturalism (as opposed to multiculturalism) in regards to Black Israelite religions; identity and Israeli scholar Shlomo Sand's The Invention of the Jewish People; genetics and the claim to being an Israelite

- Black Israelism as a powerful critique of anti-black racism

- Antisemitism as not being representative of all Black Israelite religions; Dorman's experiences with Black Israelites; sensationalism in reporting on Black Israelism; One West and the amplification of the most extreme elements of Black Israelism

- Black Israelites and cosmopolitanism

- Similarities between Black Israelites and Black Muslims

- Should Black Israelism be written off as historical revisionism?

- White supremacy, white Jews, black antisemitism, and James Baldwin

- A summary of Dorman's new book The Princess and the Prophet: The Secret History of Magic, Race, and Moorish Muslims in America

- And much, much more!