#mond was probably in danger and he was forced to step in

[goldenfoxthe1st]

venti and the travelers friendship means so much more when you realize that the traveler is the first person to love (platonic or romantic is up to u) for all of him rather than just venti or just barbatos. even if venti is a little shit whos definitely leaving out some information from them, i do fully believe he wants to tell them but cant OR has good intentions because there is no way he would betray the traveler like that ESPECIALLY regarding what happened with his last best friends. they trust eachother so much and hold so much respect for eachother i truly dont think anything could tear that apart

[auburnfamilynews]

Julie Bennett-USA TODAY Sports

Road underdogs, time to kick this season off.

So, we’re 3-0. Cool. Couple of wins over Kent State and Tulane followed the big victory over Oregon, but now it’s time for SEC play.

Candidly, the College and Mag group chat has been nervous this week. There were times when we didn’t have a ton of confidence in the Tigers as they head out to College Station. However, if you think we’re not collectively Barning Hard, you’re sadly, sadly mistaken.

#8 Auburn @ #16 Texas A&M (-4) (O/U 48)

Here we go, folks. Auburn’s first real test. Yes, the opening week battle in Arlington mattered, and Oregon is certainly a great team that tested Auburn to its limits. However, nothing matters more than SEC wins, and nothing prepares a true freshman quarterback for his first game in a hostile environment. Bo Nix will be behind an offensive line that may not have great chemistry. He’ll have to overcome communication issues. I would expect a few false starts and delay of game penalties.

Auburn has one of the best defenses in the country, including (probably) the best defensive line. Kellen Mond had a QBR of 73 and 87.3 against Lamar and Texas State, respectively. However, against Clemson, that number dropped all the way to 59.8. I don’t think he’ll ever get comfortable enough to throw with ease against our line. However, this take depends on the health of Derrick Brown. Auburn’s superstar, future first rounder needs to have an impact tomorrow night. Auburn will need him at 100%. Auburn 30, Texas A&M 28.

-Josh Dub

It’s a huge weekend for both Auburn and Texas A&M. Auburn looks to silence the many critics from the fanbase while A&M looks to avoid it’s 2nd loss after 4 weeks. This is the first road environment that Bo Nix will face as a collegiate. We saw signs of the running back being more efficient last week but can they do that against an SEC defense? Will the Offensive Line be able to block for Boobee Whitlow, Bo Nix and others? On defense, I would expect Derrick Brown to play but if not, Tyrone Truesdell has stepped up big time along with Marlon Davidson and others on the D-Line. There’s no Trayveon Williams at Running Back but there is Kendrick Rogers at Wide Receiver. How will Iggy and Roger McCreary matchup on him and the other Aggie receivers? Clemson held them to 10 points and I think Auburn can do just enough to come out of College Station with a huge win! Auburn 27 Texas A&M 21.

-Will McLaughlin

In my pretend expert opinion, there are 3 swing games that will determine whether this is a good, average or bad year for the Tigers

@ A&M

@ UF

vs UGA

As of today, it’s hard to feel great about Auburn’s chances winning on the road in Baton Rouge or beating Bama. That’s not to say they can’t or won’t do either. It’s just recognizing that AU hasn’t won in Death Valley in 20 years and Alabama’s offense having the pieces to exploit some vulnerabilities in Auburn’s defense. The rest of the games SHOULD be wins even if they end up closer than we like. That leaves those 3 contests as vitally important.

Go 3-0 and all of a sudden those other two look very winnable or at least you got a 10 win regular season. 2-1 is what I am expecting which would likely lead to a 9+ win regular season giving AU chance at a 10th win in a bowl. 1-2 is danger zone and puts Auburn in the worst place. A coach sitting on possibly another 8-4/7-5 season with a buyout that isn’t necessarily reasonable to make a move on. 0-3 and it’s time to fire up the coaching hot boards.

As for A&M, this game holds similar importance. Only the Aggies and Gamecocks can challenge Auburn’s claim for toughest schedule in America. A&M has already gone on the road and lost to Clemson. They still have to host Alabama and finish the season with road games in Athens and Baton Rouge. Lose this game and Jimbo is staring down the barrel of a 7-5 year at best. They didn’t pay him that ungodly contract for more Sumlin success.

All that to say, I expect both teams to empty every round they have in their chamber to ensure they come away with a victory. Gus has undoubtedly put some things on film to setup big plays down the road. Pull em out now if you got em. Starting the SEC gauntlet with this type of a win can be the energy shot you need to go onto have a special season. Lose and you have to wonder if you got what it takes to compete against the best this season.

Matchup wise, I expect this game to be dominated by defense. A&M and Auburn both have outstanding front 7s who excel at smothering the opposing rushing attack. The Aggies are down their starting RB, have an inconsistent QB, some questions still on the offensive line and a case of the dropsies at wideout. Auburn has an inconsistent OL, a true freshman QB starting on road for the first time, questions at running back and could be down their best wide receiver. If either team reaches 30 points I will be shocked.

Before the season I had this penciled in as a loss. First road game for Bo vs a defense that dominated most of last year’s matchup before Jarrett Stidham caught fire. Add in Gus’s general struggles to be ranked teams on the road and it’s easy to see why the Aggies would be the favorite.

BUT WE BARN HARD HERE DAMNIT

Until this team falls on their face I am going to keep believing. I actually trust Bo more than Mond in the big moments and I think Auburn’s defense will prove more elite than the Aggies’. Nix leads another remarkable 4th quarter drive to put AU up late and the defense stands tall to seal the victory. AU escapes College Station with a very important first SEC win. Auburn 23 A&M 20.

-AU Nerd

At first blush, I really don’t like this game. Yeah, yeah, true freshman, first road start, salty d-line vs French Army-esque Offensive line trying to protect said freshman, blah blah blah. The main thing I will be watching for is to see if Seth Williams and Derrick Brown are both in the game and can give meaningful minutes to both sides of the ball. I am going to go against my better judgement because I want to believe and get hurt again. Auburn straight up and take the under. Tigers 24-16.

-Drew Mac

There are so many unknowns for Auburn in this game. Do Derrick Brown, Seth Williams, and Tega play? Do none of them play? You could argue those three guys are the most irreplaceable players on the roster, and Auburn will need all three of them to win. Is Bo Nix ready to stand up to an SEC pass rush? Oregon gave him trouble a few weeks ago in his first career start, but A&M will probably do a better job of shutting down the run game than the Ducks, putting the offense in Bo’s hands. Ultimately, this is an early season elimination game for these two teams. The winner will cement themselves as a contender in the West with LSU and Alabama, and the loser will more than likely become the #4 team in the division. And trust me, either team that loses this game will have a restless fan base.

I’m a firm believer in Auburn’s defense right now. The few busts they’ve made in the last two games have been when the secondary is over-aggressive in chasing interceptions, something I think will begin to pay off soon. Mond has thrown a pick in every game so far this season, and if the defense can pull one in with good field position, that will be the difference in the game. Otherwise, Arryn Siposs will have his hands (legs?) full trying to win a punting battle with A&M punter Braden Mann, a battle I’m not sure we can win. Auburn’s not losing to Aggy, though. 24-14 Tigers.

-Ryan Sterritt

This feels like an impossible pick. My head is telling me one thing and my heart is pulling hard for another. I look at this game as a continuation of what I’ve said for the first three games of the year…what Auburn does will dictate victory or defeat.

Texas A&M is a quality opponent with a QB in his second year of a complex, successful system that is known for one thing above all others…getting that QB paid in the NFL, deserving or not. Kellen Mond is a far cry from some of Jimbo’s better QB’s at FSU, but he is absolutely capable of making enough throws to beat some of the better teams in the SEC. A&M’s rushing attack has taken a hit with the loss of Vernon Jackson, who is likely to never play football again. I expect A&M to still attempt to establish the run early, and build in the play-action game and 3-5 Mond runs to attempt to keep the Auburn defense honest. I have no idea what to expect from A&M’s defense aside from a strong inside presence at the line of scrimmage. GOOD THING RUNNING INSIDE HASN’T BEEN A PROBLEM FOR US OR ANYTHING!

Here’s where I’m at with my head…Auburn’s rushing attack is mindlessly frustrating to watch. The play-calling has been fine in my opinion, it’s simply that the execution has been lacking due to proper personnel to run even the Inside Zone, a staple of Gus’ offense. Bo Nix has been coached to not read the entire field by this point as we’re trying to bring him along at a pace that limits his ability to go full Favre and force throws that can cost us a game. And Auburn’s defense has struggled mightily early on in games against a scripted offense. This game is on the road in an environment that is far less daunting than people like to recognize because it’s not as loud as you’d think. Playing at A&M is like playing at Arkansas or Alabama. They get loud but they don’t stay loud. I’m never going to be accused of being totally objective, but if I was going with my head I would take A&M 24 Auburn 16, as I expect our offensive line to struggle and Bo Nix to have to put the team on his back yet again. He’s capable, but it’s starting to ask a lot of a true freshman if he doesn’t have any help on the ground.

Fortunately for you, dear reader, and for my sanity’s sake, I’m not picking with my head. Reason being is that there are so many keys to this game that can very easily push us over the top that my heart believes we will check off just enough of these boxes to get the W. That being said, here are Auburn’s keys to victory:

Rush for 150 yards or more – Just give us something of a push in the middle, OL, and we dictate this game.

The presence of a true alternate every down back in DJ Williams. Whitlow needs some help, and DJ is the best shot we have to add a spark in the ground game. I’d like to see him get 5-8 carries to spell Boobie and give us more than a change of pace back there.

Defense needs to impose their will up front early, play smarter on the screens, and get off the field on 3rd down…especially early in each half so that we force the Aggie sideline to get off the script and actually work to sustain drives. If we win battles with our defense early, it’s going to be a good day.

Give Roger McCreary some snaps in place of Javaris Davis on the outside. He’s earned it and has been the more consistent of the two these past 3 weeks.

GIVE US SOME HANG TIME…punt coverage is poor. Don’t give them a chance.

Involve Joey Gatewood in the game with the 1’s and LET HIM THROW 2-3 PASSES. Bo is our starter. That’s not going to change and I don’t think it should. But Joey provides us a spark and gives us something on the ground that can extend plays/drives. He needs to be more involved on Saturday.

Anthony Schwartz needs to be targeted in multiple routes this week to free up some double coverage on Seth and/or Eli. Also, if there was ever a time for a crossing pattern to rejoin the Auburn offense, this weekend would be a good time to start.

Don’t put out kicker into a position where he’s kicking outside of 45 yards. With this defense, a punt to pin Mond and Co. deep is not the worst option.

HANG ON TO THE DADGUM FOOTBALL FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE BOOBIE I CAN’T TAKE SEEING YOU PUT ANOTHER ONE ON THE GROUND OR ELSE I MAY LOSE MY MIND.

Honestly, if Auburn checks off boxes 1 & 3 from above they win this game. It’ll be close, but that’s what has to happen for us to get out of Aggieland with a W and set this season up for some real, legitimate hope. I’m not ready to give validity to tweets from a literal crazy person out in California about a member of the Board of Trustees. I’m not going to get into a mindset of thinking Auburn needs to make a change. I believe this program is doing the best it can on the field, and I’m going to believe that our personnel issues are fixable, both in this season and beyond. This football season is too dang young for all of that negative nonsense. Furthermore, the grass on this side of things is greener than some want to admit. We’ve never lose in College Station, and that enabling, lying, snake of a head coach over there may be getting rich off of A&M’s stupidity, but it sure doesn’t mean he should have another day of happiness at our expense. We’re going to win this game and it is going to give us some serious momentum to survive the next few weeks. Auburn 24 Texas A&M 20.

-Josh Black

This is the first(or second if you count Oregon) in a long line of real tests Auburn will face this season. If they come out of this one unscathed, it will say a lot about the TIgers’ prospects for the rest of the season. I say this not because I think Texas A&M is particularly good, but because they have a strength (defensive line) that is matched up against our biggest weakness (offensive line). This is also a huge test for Bo Nix. Kyle Field is loud. Not nearly as loud and wild as advertised (I was there in 2013, in field level, in their student section, so I feel pretty comfortable with my sample size) but still loud. This could be pretty daunting for a true freshman. However, Bo is not your average true freshman and I think he goes on the road and continues to show the unflappability he’s shown all year and the good guys get the win. Tigers 28 - Fake Military Bros 17.

-AU Chief

Gus’ record in “big games” is something his fiercest detractors (read:idiots) usually bring up. The problem is, the goalpost of “big game” is often moved after Gus wins the game. This is a big game. It’s a big game just like Oregon was a big game. Win this game and the probability that Auburn wins 9 or more games this season goes way up. I’m not josh dub, but I’m pretty sure that’s true. If Auburn loses this game, it will need to beat some teams a sight better than the aggies to get to 9 wins. Guys, 9-10 wins is the goal. An unbiased observer would look at this Auburn schedule and think a 9-10 win season would earn a parade through Toomer’s corner. If Gus goes 2-0 through the first two tests of this young season then buddy we have a chance for this to be a special year.

I think Aggy will score on us. Not like 40 points or anything, but I don’t see us shutting them down to two scoring drives or anything like that. Mond is real good. He’s gonna get his. Often times, you have to take away the weaker aspect of a team in order to limit the damage the stronger aspect can do to you. This is one of those times. If Auburn can’t completely shut down Aggy’s ability to run the ball at all, making them one-dimensional, then I think Auburn can score enough on offense to keep up.

On offense, I think this is the game Bo Nix is let loose. Or at least I hope it is. Auburn can’t afford to get one dimensional itself, and Bo Nix finding five or six different receivers this game might be what Auburn needs. I hope he can do it. I hope he’s allowed to do it.

I’m picking Auburn because I genuinely think the defense is great and because I hate the aggies. Auburn 30 Aggy 23.

-Son of Crow

I think Auburn has more talent and has the best “group” in the matchup (their defensive line). The reason’s for concern is whether or not Auburn’s running game is really coming around, and Auburn starting a true freshman quarterback. I think Gus keeps things close to the vest, leans on the running game and a (LORD I HOPE) improved punt game than the first two weeks. If this goes over, it’s because Auburn had to cut the offense loose and the defense didn’t get enough stops. Auburn 23, Texas A&M 17. (Auburn wins and covers, UNDER)

-James Jones

In much the same way that Oregon was kind of our first test of the year, it’s so hard to put a ton of stock into first games. Last year, we beat Washington and lost a couple weeks later to LSU. This A&M team isn’t as good as that LSU team, but we’re on the road this weekend. There are still a ton of questions about Auburn, and I don’t know if we’ve seen ample answers through the previous two games, wherein I’m positive that Gus Malzahn sharpie-d out like 95% of his playbook because he knew he wouldn’t need it.

We need to just flip to the back half of it for tomorrow, and let Bo run the dipsy-doodle and the kitchen sink and the razzmatazz zoomberry express. If he makes a mistake, it means he learns now instead of later. It’ll likely happen anyway, so let’s get it out of the way, and who knows... it could end up great. I’m hoping that we’ve been getting him used to the college game and now we’re going to let him show what he can really do with the full capability of this offense. Of course, the offensive line and skill position injuries could be a problem. Ugh.

Defensively, I don’t think Clemson’s defense is much better (if at all) than ours, so I’m confident that we can hold A&M to two touchdowns or less. I think the offense gets two or more touchdowns, and as much as Ryan Sterritt loves Aggie punter Braden Mann (weird idol, Ryan), I like Christian Tutt more. We get a special teams touchdown and a couple field goals, and it’s a more comfortable win than we expect. Auburn to 4-0 with a 27-14 win.

-Jack Condon

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/9/20/20875098/staff-picks-8-auburn-16-texas-a-m

[clubofinfo]

Expert: Back in the 1950s, the US intelligence community coined a term: “blowback”. It referred to the unintended consequences of a covert operation that ended up damaging one’s own cause. There are mounting indications that the intensifying campaign by the Israel lobby in the UK against Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the parliamentary opposition, is starting to have precisely such self-harming repercussions. A campaign of smears In the three years since he was elected to lead the Labour party, Corbyn has faced non-stop accusations that his party has an endemic “anti-Semitism problem”, despite all evidence to the contrary. Of late, Corbyn himself has become the chief target of such allegations. Last month the Daily Mail led a media mauling of Corbyn over disparaging comments he made in 2013 about a small group of pro-Israel zealots who had come to disrupt a Palestinian solidarity meeting. His reference to them as “Zionists”, it was claimed, served as code for “Jews” and was therefore anti-Semitic. Mounting evidence in both the UK and the US, where there has been a similar escalation of attacks on pro-Palestinian activists, often related to the international boycott movement (BDS), suggests that the Israeli government is taking a significant, if covert, role in coordinating and directing such efforts to sully the reputation of prominent critics. Corbyn’s supporters have argued instead that he is being subjected to a campaign of smears to oust him from the leadership because of his very public championing over many decades of the Palestinian cause. Israel lobbyists Al-Jazeera has produced two separate undercover documentary series on Israel lobbyists’ efforts in the UK and US to interfere in each country’s politics – probably in violation of local laws. Only the UK series has been aired so far. It showed an Israeli embassy official, Shai Masot, both plotting to “take down” a Conservative government minister seen as too sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and helping to create an anti-Corbyn front organisation in the Labour party. Masot worked closely with two key pro-Israel groups in Labour, the Jewish Labour Movement and Labour Friends of Israel. The latter includes some 80 Labour MPs. Under apparent pressure from the Israel lobby in the US, the series on the US lobby was suppressed. Last week Alain Gresh, the former editor of Le Monde diplomatique, published significant quotes from that censored documentary after viewing it secretly in Dubai. The US lobby’s aims and practices, as reported by Gresh, closely echo what has happened in the UK to Corbyn, as he has faced relentless allegations of anti-Semitism. The US documentary reportedly shows that Israel’s strategic affairs ministry has taken a leading role in directing the US lobby’s efforts. According to Gresh, senior members of the lobby are caught on camera admitting that they have built up a network of spies to gather information on prominent critics of Israel. In Gresh’s transcripted excerpts, Jacob Baime, executive director of the Israel on Campus Coalition, a group of organisations fighting BDS, states: “When I got here a few years ago, the budget was $3,000. Today it’s like a million and a half [dollars], or more. … It’s a massive budget.” “It’s psychological warfare,” he adds, noting how the smears damage the targeted groups: “They either shut down, or they spend time investigating [the accusations against them] instead of attacking Israel. It’s extremely effective.” David Hazony, a senior member of another lobby group, The Israel Project, explains that a pressing aim is to curb political speech critical of Israel: What’s a bigger problem is the Democratic Party, the Bernie Sanders people, bringing all the anti-Israel people into the Democratic Party. Then being pro-Israel becomes less a bipartisan issue, and then every time the White House changes, the policies towards Israel change. That becomes a dangerous thing for Israel. No discussion These reported quotes confirm much of what was already suspected. More than a decade ago scholars John Mearsheimer and Steven Walt wrote a book examining the composition and role of the powerful pro-Israel lobby in the US. But until the broadcasting of the Al-Jazeera documentary last year no comparable effort had been made to shine a light on the situation in the UK. In fact, there was almost no discussion or even acknowledgment of the role of an Israel lobby in British public and political life. That is changing rapidly. Through its constant attacks on Corbyn, British activists are looking less like disparate individuals sympathetic to Israel and more recognisably like a US-style lobby – highly organised, on-message and all too ready to throw their weight around. The lobby was always there, of course. And, as in the US, it embraces a much wider body of support than right-wing Jewish leadership organisations like the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council, or hardline lobbyists such as the Community Security Trust and BICOM. The earliest Zionists That should not surprise us. The earliest Zionists were not Jews but fundamentalist Christians. In the US, the largest group of Zionists by far are Christian evangelicals who believe that the return of Jews to the Promised Land is the key to unlocking the second coming of the Messiah and an apocalyptic end-times. Though embraced by Israel, many of these Christian fundamentalists hold anti-Semitic views. In Britain, there is an unacknowledged legacy of anti-Semitic Christian support for Zionism. Lord Balfour, a devout Christian who regularly voiced bigotry towards Jews, was also the man who committed the British government in 1917 to create a home for Jews in Palestine. That set in motion today’s conflict between Israel and the native Palestinian population. In addition, many British gentiles, like other Europeans, live with understandable guilt about the Holocaust. One of the largest and most effective groups in Corbyn’s parliamentary party is Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), most of whose members are not Jewish. LFI takes some of the party’s most senior politicians on all-expenses-paid trips to Israel to wine and dine them as they are subjected to Israeli propaganda. Dozens of Labour MPs have remained loyal to LFI even as the organisation has repeatedly refused to criticise Israel over undeniable war crimes. When Israeli snipers executed dozens of unarmed demonstrators in Gaza in May, the LFI took to Twitter to blame Hamas for the deaths, not Israel. After facing a massive backlash online, the LFI simply deleted the tweet. A double whammy Historically the Israel lobby could remain relatively low-profile in the UK because it faced few challenges. Its role was chiefly to enforce a political orthodoxy about Israel in line with Britain’s role as Washington’s foreign policy junior partner. No British leader looked likely to step far from the Washington consensus. Until Corbyn. The Israel lobby in the UK now faces a double whammy. First, since Donald Trump entered the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dropped any pretence that Israel is willing to concede a Palestinian state, whatever the Palestinians do. Instead, Israel has isolated the Palestinian leadership diplomatically while seeking to terrorise the Palestinian population into absolute submission. That was all too clear over the summer when those Israeli snipers picked off demonstrators each week in Gaza. As a result, the Israel lobby stands more exposed than ever. It can no longer buy time for Israeli expansionism by credibly claiming, as it once did, that Israel seeks peace. Second, Israel’s partisans in the UK were caught off-guard by the unexpected rise of Corbyn to a place that puts him in sight of being the next prime minister. The use of social media by his supporters, meanwhile, has provided a counter-weight to the vilification campaign being amplified by the British media. The media have been only too willing to assist in the smearing of the Labour leader because they have their own separate interests in seeing Corbyn gone. He is a threat to the corporate business interests they represent. But not only has the messenger – the Israel lobby – now come under proper scrutiny for the first time, so has its message. Lack of irony The success of the lobby had depended not only on it remaining largely out of view. It also expected to shore up a largely pro-Israel environment without drawing attention to what was being advocated, beyond unquestioned soundbites. In doing so, it was able to entirely ignore those who had paid the price for Israel’s diplomatic impunity – the Palestinians. The campaign against Corbyn has not only forced the lobby to come out into the open, but the backlash to its campaign has forced the lobby to articulate for the first time what exactly it believes and what is at stake. The latest furore over Corbyn concerns a Youtube video of him speaking at a pro-Palestinian meeting in 2013, two years before he became Labour leader. He has been widely denounced in the media for making disparaging remarks about a small group of hardline pro-Israel partisans well-known for disrupting such meetings. He referred to them as “Zionists” and suggested that the reaction of this particular hardline group to a speech by the Palestinian ambassador had betrayed their lack of appreciation of “English irony”. Israel’s lobby, echoed by many liberal journalists, has suggested that Corbyn was using “Zionist” as code word for “Jew”, and that he had implied that all Jews – not the handful of pro-Israel zealots in attendance – lacked traits of Englishness. This, they say, was yet further evidence of his anti-semitism. Jonathan Sacks, Britain’s former chief rabbi, told the New Statesman last week that Corbyn’s comment was “the most offensive statement made by a senior British politician since Enoch Powell’s 1968 ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech”. In that notorious speech, the right-wing politician sought to incite race hatred of immigrants. Calling Corbyn an “anti-Semite”, Sacks added: “It undermines the existence of an entire group of British citizens by depicting them as essentially alien.” Treacherous words In a now familiar pattern to lobby claims, Sacks relied on the false premise that all Jews are Zionists. He conflated a religious or ethnic category with a political ideology. The Labour leader has held his ground on this occasion, pointing out that he was using the term “in the accurate political sense and not as a euphemism for Jewish people”. Others have noted that his accusers – many of them senior journalists – are the ones lacking a sense of irony. Corbyn was not “otherising” Jews, he was highlighting a paradox not confirming a prejudice: that a small group of Britons were so immersed in their partisan cause, Israel, that it had blinded them to the “English irony” employed by a foreigner, the Palestinian ambassador. However, the terms “anti-Semitism” and “Zionism” are likely to prove more treacherous to weaponise against Corbyn than the lobby thinks. As the anti-Semitism controversy is constantly reignited, a much clearer picture of the lobby’s implied logic is emerging, as illustrated by the hyperbolic, verging on delusional, language of Rabbi Sacks. The argument goes something like this: Israel is the only safe haven for Jews in times of trouble – and the only thing that stands between them and a future Holocaust. The movement that created Israel was the Zionist movement. Today most Jews are Zionists and believe Israel is at the core of their identity. Therefore, if you are too critical of Israel or Zionism, you must wish bad things for the Jewish people. That makes you an anti-Semite. Problematic premises It probably doesn’t require a logician to understand that there are several highly problematic premises propping up this argument. Let’s concentrate on two. The first is that it depends on a worldview in which the non-Jew is assumed to be anti-Semite until proven otherwise. For that reason Jews need to be eternally vigilant and distrustful of those outside their “tribe”. If that sounds improbable, it shouldn’t. That is exactly the lesson of the Holocaust taught to children in Israel from kindergarten onwards. Israel derives no universal message from the Holocaust. Its schools do not teach that we must avoid stigmatising others, and discourage sectarian and tribal indentifications that fuel prejudice and bigotry. How could it? After all, Israel’s core ideology, political Zionism, is premised on the idea of tribal and sectarian exclusivity – the “ingathering of exiles” to create a Jewish state. In Israel, the Holocaust supplies a different lesson. It teaches that Jews are under permanent threat from non-Jews, and that their only defence is to seek collective protection in a highly militarised state, armed with nuclear weapons. This idea was encapsulated in the famous saying by the late Israeli general Moshe Dayan: “Israel must be seen as a mad dog; too dangerous to bother.” A ‘globalised virus’ Israel’s ugly, self-serving tribal reading of history has been slowly spreading to Jews in Europe and the US. Fifteen years ago, a US scholar, Daniel J Goldhagen, published an influential essay in the Jewish weekly Forward titled “The Globalisation of anti-Semitism”. In it, he argued that anti-Semitism was a virus that could lie dormant for periods but would always find new ways to reinfect its hosts. “Globalized anti-Semitism has become part of the substructure of prejudice in the world,” he wrote. “It is relentlessly international in its focus on Israel at the center of the most conflict-ridden region today.” This theory is also known as the “new anti-Semitism”, a form of Jew hatred much harder to identify than the right-wing anti-Semitism of old. Through mutation, the new anti-Semitism had concealed its hatred of Jews by appearing to focus on Israel and dressing itself up in left-wing garb. Perhaps not surprisingly, given his latest comments about Corbyn, that is also an approximation of the argument made by Rabbi Sacks in a 2016 essay in which he writes: “Anti-Semitism is a virus that survives by mutating.” In a sign of how this kind of paranoia is becoming slowly normalised in Europe too, the Guardian published a commentary by a British journalist last month explaining her decision, Israel-style, to teach her three-year-old daughter about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism. That, she hoped, would prepare her child for eventualities such as Corbyn becoming prime minister. But the increasing adoption of Israel’s tribalist doctrine among sections of the British Jewish community – and the related weaponisation of anti-Semitism – is likely to shed further light on what kind of a state hardline Zionists uphold as at the core of their identity. Paradoxically, the new anti-Semitism turns the tables by legitimising – in fact, necessitating – Jewish racism towards gentiles. Rather than Corbyn stigmatising Jews – except in some feverish imaginations – it is the pro-Israel lobby stigmatising non-Jews, by claiming that they are all tainted by Jew hatred, whether they know it or not. The more the lobby kicks up a hysteria about Corbyn’s supposed anti-Semitism, the clearer it becomes that the lobby regards much of the non-Jewish public as suspect too. Palestinians made invisible The other obvious lacuna in the lobby’s logic is that it only works if we completely remove the Palestinians from the story of Zionism and Israel. The idea of a harm-free Zionism might have been credible had it been possible to establish a Jewish state on an empty piece of land, as the early Zionists claimed Palestine to be. In reality there was a large native population who had to be displaced first. Israel’s creation as a Jewish state in 1948 was possible only if the Zionist movement undertook two steps that violate modern conceptions of human rights and liberal democratic practice. First, Israel had to carry out large-scale ethnic cleansing, forcing more than 80 per cent of the native Palestinian population outside the new borders of the Jewish state it created on the Palestinians’ homeland. Then, it needed to deny the small surviving community of Palestinians inside Israel the same rights as Israeli Jews, to ghettoise them and stop them from bringing their expelled relatives back to their homes. These weren’t poor choices made by flawed Israeli politicians. They were absolutely essential to the success of a Zionist project to create and maintain a Jewish state. The ethnic cleansing of 1948 and the structural racism of the Jewish state were unmentionable topics in “legitimate” public debates about Israel until very recently. That has been changing, in part because it has become much harder to conceal what kind of state Israel is. Its self-harming behaviour includes its recent decision to make explicit the state’s institutionalised racism with the passage in July of the Nation-State Basic Law. That law gives constitutional weight to the denial of equal rights to a fifth of Israel’s population, those who are Palestinian. The backlash against Corbyn and other Palestinian solidarity activists is evidence of the lobby’s fears that they can no longer hold the line against a growing realisation by western publics that there was a cost to Zionism’s success. That price was paid by Palestinians, and there has yet been no historical reckoning over their suffering. By veiling the historical record, Israel and the Zionist movement have avoided the kind of truth and reconciliation process that led to the ending of apartheid in South Africa. The lobby prefers that Israel’s version of apartheid continues. Loss of moral compass If there is one individual who personifies the loss of a moral compass in the weaponisation of anti-Semitism against Corbyn and Israel’s critics, it is Rabbi Sacks. Asked by the New Statesman what he thinks of the new Nation-State Basic Law, the normally erudite Sacks suddenly becomes lost for words. He asks a friend, or in his case his brother, for the answer: “I’m not an expert on this. My brother is, I’m not. He’s a lawyer in Jerusalem. He tells me that there’s absolutely nothing apartheid about this, it’s just correcting a lacuna… As far as I understand, it’s a technical process that has none of the implications that have been levelled at it.” Sacks, it seems, cannot identify apartheid when it is staring him the face, as long as it is disguised as “Jewish”. Similarly, he is blind to the history of Zionism and the mass dispossession of Palestinians in the 1948 Nakba. He tells the New Statesman: “Jews did not wish to come back to their land [Palestine] to make any other people [Palestinians] suffer, and that goes very deep in the Jewish heart.” Not so deep, it seems, that Sacks can even identify who had to suffer to make possible that Jewish “return”. In a critique of Sacks’ lengthy 2016 essay on anti-Semitism, a liberal Jewish commentator Peter Beinart noted that the rabbi had mentioned the “Palestinians” by name only once. He berated Sacks for equating anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism: By denying that [Palestinians] might have any reason besides bigotry to dislike Zionism, it denies their historical experience and turns them into mere vessels for Jew-hatred. Thus, it does to Palestinians what anti-Semitism does to Jews. It dehumanizes them. Topsy-turvy world In a world that was not topsy-turvy, it would be Sacks and the Israel lobby that were being publicly upbraided for their racism. Instead Corbyn is being vilified by a wide spectrum of supposedly informed opinion in the UK – Jewish and non-Jewish alike – for standing in solidarity with Palestinians. It is, remember, the Palestinian people who have been the victims of more than a century of collusion between European colonialism and Zionism, and today are still being oppressed by an anachronistic ethnic state, Israel, determined to privilege its Jewishness at all costs. The lobby and its supporters are not just seeking to silence Corbyn. They also intend to silence the Palestinians and the growing ranks of people who choose to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians. But while the lobby may be winning on its own limited terms in harming Corbyn in mainstream discourse, deeper processes are exposing and weakening the lobby. It is overplaying its hand. A strong lobby is one that is largely invisible, one that – like the financial and arms industries – has no need to flex its muscles. In making so much noise to damage Corbyn, the Israel lobby is also for the first time being forced to bring out into the open the racist premises that always underpinned its arguments. Over time, that exposure is going to harm, not benefit, the apologists for Israel. • First published in Middle East Eye http://clubof.info/

[auburnfamilynews]

Eli Stove sticks a dagger in the Aggies! (AP Photo/Sam Craft)

     War Eagle, everybody! It’s time now for another Auburn game preview! On September 21st, Auburn will travel to College Station, Texas to take on the Texas A&M Aggies in the SEC season opener. Texas A&M was a dangerous team last season, that really had Auburn on the ropes for most of the game, before a furious 4th quarter Auburn rally. Both teams need the win, to really have any chance to compete for the SEC West title.

     This will be Jimbo Fisher’s second season as head coach in College Station. Some folks say that Fisher inherited a wealth of talent, and was fortunate last season. I think with Fisher’s track record, that is a bit unfair. Texas A&M won 9 games while playing in the toughest division in college football, and I think that speaks for itself. The issue this year that faces the Aggies is replacing a large amount of talent that either graduated or left early for the NFL.

     Texas A&M opens the season with Texas State, then travels to Clemson in week 2. The Aggies return home to tune up against Lamar, then host the Auburn Tigers. Auburn will have already played a game in Texas, in Arlington in the opener against Oregon. Auburn goes back home to tune up on Tulane and Kent State. I think Auburn’s schedule week to week is tougher than Texas A&M’s, but the Aggies do face the defending national champion on the road.

     Texas A&M will have to rebuild in spots on defense, and head coach Fisher brought in former Notre Dame defensive coordinator Mike Elko to do the job. The Aggies have to replace 3 starters on the defensive line, as well as a dominant sort of linebacker. The key for the Aggies is going to be slowing Auburn’s running game down. When Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn gets a running game going, Auburn has been next to impossible to beat. Texas A&M needs to force the game onto the arm of a freshman quarterback for Auburn. The Aggies have a veteran secondary, although the defense only forced 11 turnovers all season long, lasts year.

     Texas A&M returns a dangerous dual threat quarterback in Kellen Mond, but other areas took some off-season hits. When the Aggies could run the ball last season, the offense was strong. When the offense was stopped up front, Mond took a beating, as the Aggies allowed a whopping 35 sacks last season. Star running back Traveon Williams takes 1760 rushing yards and 278 receiving yards with him to the NFL. Also gone is dangerous receiving tight end Jace Sternberger. The Aggies do have some big receivers returning, and young talent in the running back corps, but it will probably take time for the unit to gel.

     Texas A&M has a great player on special teams, senior Braden Mann, who punts and kicks off. Mann was the nation’s leading punter last season, and more than half of his kickoffs were touchbacks. Dangerous Aggie return men are back this season on both units, and coverage in both aspects was good, last season. If there was an Aggie special teams weakness last season, it was place-kicking, as the Aggies missed 10 field goal attempts with freshman kicker Seth Small missing 8 of those. As a sophomore, Small will likely improve.

Unit matchups, after the jump!

Auburn defensive line vs. Texas A&M offensive line: Auburn must win this matchup to keep this game close. Auburn brings a big, athletic defensive line back this season. Likely starters at tackle are senior Derrick Brown and junior T yrone Truesdell. Senior strong-side end Marlon Davidson will be a 4-year starter. The buck side is a rotation between juniors Nick Coe and Big Kat Bryant. Auburn can play monster sophomore Nick Coe at any position on the line with great results. Auburn has serious depth all across the line, as well. Texas A&M’s line was a solid run blocking unit at times last season, but had difficulty allowing a lot of negative plays against better fronts. From left to right, the likely Aggie starters are junior Dan Moore, Jr., junior Jared Hocker, junior Ryan McCollum, senior Colton Praeter, and junior Carson Green. Advantage: Auburn.

Auburn linebackers vs. Texas A&M backs: Auburn will be breaking in a new starting rotation of linebackers, but there is a good bit of playing experience, as these guys have been rotating in for a couple of years. Auburn will go with junior K. J. Britt in the middle, and some combination of junior Chandler Wooten, and sophomore Zakoby McClain on the outsides. I would also expect true freshman Owen Pappoe to play early and often. Texas A&M sophomore Jashaun Corbin is expected to be the bellcow back for the Aggies, this season. Corbin produced 362 rushing yards as a freshman, and 85 receiving yards. He is the most complete back the Aggies have, but there is talent behind Corbin, most notably transfer Cordarrian Richardson, from Central Florida. Richardson checks in at 246 pounds, and would be a load to try and tackle. The possible issue for the Aggies is lead blocking. The hope is that sophomore transfer Ben Miles will be solid enough, there. Advantage: Auburn.

Auburn corners vs. Texas A&M receivers: Auburn has a fairly good combination of starting corners, in senior Javaris Davis and junior Noah Igbinoghene . Auburn has depth and experience behind the starters. What is worrisome about the Aggie receivers is the size of them. There are 5 juniors that will likely rotate at the receiver spots, and all of them are around 6′ 2,” Auburn is smaller than that, at most defensive back spots. The Aggie receiving candidates are Quartney Davis, Jhamon Ausbon, Cameron Buckley, Kendrick Rogers, and Hezekiah Jones. Advantage: Even.

Auburn safeties vs. Texas A&M secondary receivers and quarterback: Auburn’s starting unit features Seniors Jeremiah Dinson and Daniel Thomas at safety. This is a veteran crew with experienced backups. I think Auburn would like to start sophomore Christian Tutt at the nickel spot. Quarterback Kellen Mond is the key player for the Aggies. Despite getting a ton of pressure last year, Mond mostly was able to avoid critical mistakes, and added 474 rushing yards to the offense, to go along with 7 touchdowns on the ground. This year, Mond would like to improve on a 57 percent completion percentage. The Aggies will likely run a lot of 3 receiver sets, and will utilize some of the receivers in the previous section in the slot. The Aggies are hoping to plug sophomore Glenn Beal in at tight end. Advantage: Even.

Punting: Aaron Siposs had a good rookie campain punting the football (averaging 44.2 yards per punt), and is expected to be one of the better punters in the SEC this season. Likewise, Texas A&M returns senior punter Braden Mann, who averaged 50.98 yards per punt last season. Auburn improved dramatically in coverage last season (3.36 yards per return), and Texas A&M was good, allowing 6.3 Advantage: Even.

Kickoffs: Auburn sophomore Anders Carlson had a great year kicking off, last season, with hitting 51 touchbacks on 70 kickoffs. When Carlson didn’t kick it to the end zone, Auburn gave up only 19.44 yards per return. Senior Braden Mann handles kickoffs for the Aggies. Last season Mann had 80 kickoffs and 57 touchbacks. Texas A&M gave up just 16.5 yards per kick return. Advantage: Texas A&M.

Place kicking: Auburn sophomore Daniel Carlson hit on just 15 of 25 field goal attempts, and was 5 of 14 from 40 yards or more. Seth Small hit on 20 of 28 field goal attempts last season. Advantage: Even.

Auburn offensive line vs. Texas A&M defensive line: Auburn has 5 veteran seniors returning on the offensive line, and they looked very good in the Music City Bowl, and on A-Day. From left to right, this will be Prince Tega Wanagho, Marquel Harrell, Kaleb Kim, Mike Horton and Jack Driscoll. The lone returning starter for the Aggies is junior tackle Justin Madubuike, who is a rock. The other tackle will probably be junior Jayden Peevy. Texas A&M will be young but talented under sophomores Tyree Johnson and Bobby Brown. Look out for incoming freshman DeMarvin Leal, a large defensive end who was one of the top defensive linemen in the country in the recruiting rankings. Advantage: Auburn.

Auburn backs vs. Texas A&M linebackers: Auburn lost H-back Chandler Cox, a 4-year starter, blowing open holes. The real question is who will replace Cox. Right now, senior Spencer Nigh is the only fullback/H-back listed on the roster. Sophomore John Samuel Schenker is likely to get work here as well. Senior Kam Martin is blazing fast, but has had durability issues in the past. Sophomore JaTarvious Whitlow took over the top spot last year, and is said to be much improved this spring. Senior Malik Miller has size, power, and a few carries here and there, but hasn’t been used much. Auburn will likely face a trio of juniors as linebacker starters, asked to step up from the bench. Across the corps is Buddy Johnson, Keeath Magee II, and Braden White. Advantage: Auburn.

Auburn receivers vs. Texas A&M corners: Auburn is moving sophomore Seth Williams to the boundary (X) side of the offense, and the likely starter in the flanker spot is either redshirt freshman Matthew Hill or junior Marquis McClain. While Auburn is young here, Texas A&M is veteran and capable at cornerback. Senior Charles Oliver and junior Debione Renfroe should be capable, and there is depth behind them. Advantage: Texas A&M.

Auburn secondary receivers and quarterback vs. Texas A&M: All eyes will be on a new Auburn freshman quarterback starting. Whether that will be Joey Gatewood or Bo Nix has yet to be determined. I would expect the Aggies to try to go after these guys, and cause confusion in the backfield. Auburn has a very speedy and dangerous group of secondary receivers, including junior Eli Stove, senior Will Hastings, and sophomore Anthony Schwartz. Auburn can put big senior receiver Sal Cannella in and get a size mismatch. Texas A&M safeties return from last season, sophomore Leon O’Neal Jr., and junior Derrick Tucker. I think Auburn can create some mismatches in space, but can freshmen quarterbacks take advantage? Advantage: Texas A&M.

     Auburn lost a lot less to graduation than Texas A&M did, and appears to have more advantages than the Aggies do. Particularly interesting is that Auburn appears to be stronger on both lines of scrimmage. However, Auburn inexperience at quarterback vs. a veteran Aggie back end could be a great equalizer, or worse. College Station is a great home field advantage for the Aggies, as well. I will note that Auburn has never lost in this venue, but as always, history doesn’t win games. The current players do, or don’t.

Prediction: With advantages on both lines of scrimmage, Auburn pushes the Aggies around a bit, and quiets the home crowd. Able to run the ball successfully and avoiding turnovers, Auburn produces a surprising 34-20 win.

The post Auburn Heads Back to Texas. (Previewing Auburn’s SEC opener against Texas A&M.) appeared first on Track 'Em Tigers, Auburn's oldest and most read independent blog.

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