Over the past couple of years, I have been quietly building on a theory that what really causes the American Left, and perhaps their foreign ideological brethren, to favor the Palestinians over Israel is actually rather simple to understand. The Left thrives on, and is obsessed with creating new categories of underdogs[1] (the poor, minorities, or anyone whose reduced power position is assumed to render them ‘oppressed’). This usually requires a narrative fallacy, such as unarmed black males are unjustifiably killed by armed white police officers (“Black Lives Matter”), or that the Palestinians are the perpetual victims of the State of Israel (the BDS crowd). The thing about narrative fallacies is that they can be rather attractive, particularly for people with a penchant for intellectual laziness. Populist rhetoric seems to pay dividends for politicians, but there seems to be some limit to its policy effects. Continue reading
Intelligence Analyst & Chief Executive: David Firester
About Me
David Firester is the founder and CEO of TRAC Intelligence (Threat, Reporting, and Analysis Consultants), which is a premier threat analysis firm. TRAC Intelligence provides threat assessments to the private sector.
David is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science and teaches at Baruch College in New York City. He has also taught at Queens College and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. In 2016, David worked on a project for Jihad Intel, which is an organization that provides information on Islamic terrorist groups to law enforcement and the general public.
As a veteran and former Intelligence Analyst with the United States Army 3100th Strategic Intelligence Group (Defense Intelligence Agency), David has been involved at the tactical, operational and strategic levels of analysis. David has also served in the law enforcement community since 2004, and has worked for entities as diverse as the DHS-funded New Jersey Regional Operations and Intelligence Center (NJ ROIC). His work there centered on intelligence analysis and policy review.
He has a rich background in policy, international security, national security, domestic security, counter terrorism, counterinsurgency, and domestic laws related to terrorism.
David Firester's Security Forum is a free, publicly available tool, which aims to summarize complexity and provide insight into areas as diverse as security, intelligence, politics and policy.
My Recent Posts
- Post-9/11 Jihadist Attacks in the U.S.
- The Islamic State Attacks the Islamic Republic of Iran
- The Challenge of Looking Beyond The Islamic State: Trump’s Foreign Policy Inheritance
- Russian Hacking Accusations Sours Russia-US Relations
- Deep red state split over latest Trump allegations
- Technology and Terror: How Tech is involved with Modern Terrorism
- Police Threaten Boycott Over Colin Kaepernick’s Protest
- Van Susteren out at Fox
- GOP legislators fearing Hispanic blowback
- David Firester’s Critical Review of McCauley & Moskalenko’s book, Friction: How Radicalization Happens to Them and Us
- Reflecting on the Wisdom of an Intelligence Professional, by Way of a Book Review
- David Firester’s Book Review of Lieutenant General (ret.) Michael T. Flynn’s Book, The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies
- Burkini ban spikes sales
- The Advantages Of Early Involvement
- Terrorism in the West, Again
David Firester