{"id":100016,"date":"2024-02-13T07:41:11","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T13:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=100016"},"modified":"2024-02-13T07:41:11","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T13:41:11","slug":"100016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=100016","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

The age of glorifying Greta Thunberg is over<\/a>
\n\u2018We are here in solidarity with those who are resisting this project,\u2019 said Thunberg with her now familiar keffiyeh around her neck<\/p>\n

Greta Thunberg spent her weekend in France supporting two\u00a0<\/span>environmental<\/span><\/a>\u00a0campaigns. On Sunday she appeared at a rally in Bordeaux against an oil drilling project; twenty-four hours earlier the twenty-one-year-old Swede was further east, adding her voice to those activists opposed to the construction of a new stretch of motorway between Toulouse and Castres.\u00a0\u201cWe are here in solidarity with those who are resisting this project and this madness,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>said<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Thunberg in English, her now familiar keffiyeh around her neck.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some French media described Thunberg as an \u201canti-global warming icon\u201d and the \u201cfigurehead in the fight to protect the planet.\u201d She might have been once.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, however, in her ubiquitous keffiyeh, appearing to\u00a0<\/span>chant<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u201cCrush Zionism\u201d or endorsing slogans such as \u201cPalestine will be free\u201d she has become \u2014 perhaps unwittingly \u2014 the figurehead for what conservative commentators in France call \u201cthe green alliance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Three years ago Jean\u00a0Messiha, the spokesman for \u00c9ric Zemmour during his 2022 presidential campaign, wrote of this strange coalition between Islamists and ecologists: \u201cThey share one color: green. But not only that. They also share a totalitarian approach to society.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Among those present at the weekend\u2019s protest rallies was\u00a0the environmental campaign group\u00a0Soul\u00e8vements de la terre\u00a0(Earth\u2019s uprising). There is no ambiguity about whose side they are on in the Gaza conflict. In a press release published three weeks after the slaughter of 1,200 Israelis, they described the terrorists who carried out October\u2019s pogrom, as \u201cPalestine fighters,\u201d saying \u201cThe murderous attacks of Palestinian fighters against Israeli civilian populations cannot justify joining those of the Netanyahu government against Palestinian civilian populations.\u201d They added that Palestinians \u201chave been crushed for more than half a century by the colonization that has deprived them of their land and their right to self-determination.\u201d Israel was accused of being an \u201capartheid regime.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Last March\u00a0Soul\u00e8vements de la terre\u00a0made\u00a0<\/span>headlines<\/span><\/a>\u00a0when one of their protests \u2014 against a large water basin in western France \u2014 turned extremely violent. Nearly thirty gendarmes were injured, and four of their vehicles were destroyed, as they came under attack from a large well-organized mob throwing Molotov cocktails and other projectiles.<\/span><\/p>\n

France\u2019s interior minister, G\u00e9rald Darmanin, subsequently ordered the dissolution of\u00a0Soul\u00e8vements de la terre\u00a0but this decision was overturned by the council of state, who judged Darmanin\u2019s action not \u201cappropriate and proportionate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u00a0<\/span>describing<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0<\/span>The Spectator<\/span><\/em>\u00a0the violence at the water basin, I referenced a recent book by the journalist Anthony Cortes,\u00a0<\/span>The Coming Confrontation: From Eco Resistance to Eco-Terrorism<\/span><\/em>. He had spent time living among a group of radical environmentalists and found that they were far more than just eco-warriors. They were anti-fascists, Trotskyists, anti-capitalists and anarchists, more interested in toppling the \u201csystem\u201d than saving the planet.\u00a0And to that list one can also now add anti-Zionists, or perhaps antisemites is more accurate.<\/span><\/p>\n

This green alliance extends beyond France. JustStopOil protesters are\u00a0<\/span>among<\/span><\/a>\u00a0the activists marching through London each Saturday in the Palestinian cause, as are Extinction Rebellion. They released a rambling\u00a0<\/span>statement<\/span><\/a>\u00a0a month after the Hamas attack, in which they demanded a ceasefire in Gaza and blamed the conflict on Britain: \u201cThe climate and ecological emergency has roots in centuries of colonial violence, exploitation and oppression \u2014 for which the UK bears a disproportionate share of responsibility.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

XR have\u00a0<\/span>expressed<\/span><\/a>\u00a0their \u201csolidarity\u201d with the climate activists who, along with the Free Palestine Coalition, occupied the British Museum at the weekend. They did so to \u201cdemand that the British Museum end its ten-year partnership with British Petroleum, an energy company profiting from Israel\u2019s colonial genocide.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

British environmental groups target any company and any individual who they regard as pro-Israeli, including government ministers. In November British politician Michael Gove had to be rescued by police after he was confronted by protestors.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2019 Gove, then energy secretary, listened with rapt attention when Greta Thunberg\u00a0addressed\u00a0members of parliament in Westminster. She\u00a0excoriated Britain for giving the world\u00a0the Industrial Revolution, what the Swede described as a \u201cmind-blowing historical carbon debt.\u201d Thunberg also snarled that the government\u2019s support of shale gas fracking and the expansion of its North Sea oil and gas fields was \u201cbeyond absurd.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thunberg received a thunderous ovation at the end of her tirade. \u201cYour voice \u2014 still, calm and clear \u2014 is like the voice of our conscience,\u201d Gove told the sixteen-year-old. \u201cI am of your parents\u2019 generation, and I recognize that we haven\u2019t done nearly enough to address climate change and the broader environmental crisis that we helped to create\u2026 When I listened to you, I felt great admiration, but also responsibility and guilt.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Does Gove still admire Thunberg in the light of her recent position on Israel? Does he still feel a responsibility to act given that environmentalists are becoming increasingly violent, what Gerald Darmanin has labeled \u201ceco-terrorism?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thunberg was arrested or detained by police in\u00a0<\/span>three<\/span><\/a>\u00a0European cities in 2023, including London. Convicted by a Malmo court of refusing to obey a police command, Thunberg was unrepentant. \u201cIt\u2019s correct that I received an order that I didn\u2019t listen to, but I want to deny the crime,\u201d Thunberg told the court. She claimed her disobedience was justified because \u201cwe are in an emergency that threatens life, health and property.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The one politician who has always been immune to the Greta effect is Donald Trump, once tweeting that she needed to \u201cwork on her anger management problem.\u201d Joe Biden, on the other hand, is in thrall and told Trump that he \u201ccould learn a few things from Greta on what it means to be a leader.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thunberg is a leader, and an icon \u2014 for the immature and the idiotic. For students waving Palestinian flags and singing \u201cFrom the river to the sea,\u201d without knowing what river or sea they are singing about; for politicians who for years pursued ruinous environmental policies until the fury of protesting farmers across Europe forced them to think again.<\/span><\/p>\n

The West has changed a great deal since 2019, the year Thunberg toured the world, haranguing and hectoring world leaders in London, Paris and New York. People who should have known better lapped up her angry and accusatory rhetoric. The novelist Margaret Atwood likened Thunberg to \u201cJoan of Arc\u201d and\u00a0<\/span>TIME<\/span><\/em>\u00a0magazine named her its Person of the Year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Five years later the world is far more violent, volatile and dangerous. Serious politicians are urgently required to address the myriad challenges facing the West. It\u2019s time for the grown-ups to make a comeback. The age of glorifying Greta is over.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The age of glorifying Greta Thunberg is over \u2018We are here in solidarity with those who are resisting this project,\u2019 said Thunberg with her now familiar keffiyeh around her neck Greta Thunberg spent her weekend in France supporting two\u00a0environmental\u00a0campaigns. On Sunday she appeared at a rally in Bordeaux against an oil drilling project; twenty-four hours … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,97,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-econuts","category-international","category-moslems-jihadis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100017,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100016\/revisions\/100017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}