Progressive Choseness: Gilad Atzmon Video Analyzes Israeli Zionist Mentality in Stuttgart

Al-Jazeerah Some Palestinian solidarity campaigners are excited this morning about Rabbi Eric Yoffie's pearls of wisdom. The outgoing President of the Union for Reform Judaism, wrote in a recent blog post for the Jerusalem Post: “I care about humankind, but I love my own group a bit more. I am more comfortable with them. I care more about them, just as I care more about my family than other families.” People who understand the full extent of Jewish tribalism shouldn’t be taken by surprise. Rabbi Yoffie is genuine and coherent. Consequently, his support of The Two State solution is consistent with his Jewish belief system. “Without a two-state solution.” Says Rabbi Yoffie, “Israel will not longer be a state for my group; it will be a bi-national state without a clear Jewish identity. That is not the kind of place where I, or most Israeli Jews, will want to live.” As a supporter of the One State Solution I myself explored this exact issue at the Stuttgart One Democratic State Conference last year. Needless to say, that the five German ‘progressive’ Jews who attended the conference insisted on my removal from the Conference’s protocol. I believe that truth must be said - there is a clear unfortunate discrepancy between Jewish Ideology and the One State Solution. This discrepancy must be addressed rather than be swept under the carpet. Sadly enough, Judeo centrism and racial orientation is inherent to any form of Jewish political setting. It isn’t just the Zionists, Israelis and the odd Rabbi who wants to live in a mono-cultural ghetto. The Jewish Left follows exactly the same problematic mantra. J-BIG, for instance, is a UK ‘Jews only’ Israeli boycott campaign. For some reason they operate as a Judeo-centric segregated group apart from the general BDS movement. The International Jewish Anti Zionist Network (IJAN) would also take into their ranks activists who are ethnically and racially qualified. Like Rabbi Yoffie they claim to care about humankind, but somehow, they probably ‘love their own group a bit more.’ They are just slightly ‘more comfortable with them’. A few months ago, the progressive blogger Philip Weiss wrote to me: “I believe that all people act out of self-interest. And Jews who define themselves at some level as Jews -- like myself for instance -- are concerned with a Jewish self-interest. Which in my case is: an end to Zionism. A theory of political life based on altruism or concern for victims purely is doomed to fail.” Philip Weiss and Rabbi Yoffie must agree then. Rabbi Yoffie cares more about his people just as he ‘cares more about his family than other families’, Weiss seems to be slightly more succinct, he actually explores the true meaning of Jewish non-altruistic political existence. So here we are, many Jews believe in Zionism, a few Jews believe that Zionism is actually ‘bad for the Jews’ (as opposed to bad for humanity or the Palestinians). But all Jews who identify themselves politically as Jews act out of ‘Jewish self interests. They all prefer to operate in ‘Jews only cells’ I guess that this is the true practical meaning of ‘choseness’. As it stands, universalism, humanism and altruism are still foreign to Jewish culture and Jewish political thinking. Those amongst us who dream of peace in the Middle East better address this crucial issue and find an adequate solution. As far as I can tell, this is a grave problem. Also, as long as progressive Jews keep operating in ‘Jews only’ political cells, they won’t be part of a solution but just another aspect of the problem.

GILAD ATZMON: FLOTILLA, FLYTILLA AND THE PROSPECT OF ‘CIVIL SOCIETY ACTION’

Gilad Atzmon

It might be argued that the passing week was not very easy on the Palestinian solidarity movement:  firstly, an international peaceful flotilla aiming to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza did not manage to leave Greek ports. The Greek government had surrendered submissively to Israeli pressure and American Jewish organisations, and blocked the naval enterprise.

Secondly, an international attempt to fly hundreds of activists from all over the world to the West Bank also partially failed, as the Israeli Government had managed to mount just enough pressure to make sure that the project fell apart before it became airborne.[1]

Though it may seem as if the Palestinian solidarity movement suffered a blow, it is actually Israel that was harshly beaten here, for Israel has managed to expose its level of hysteria: it seems that eight old yachts and a few hundred Easyjet passengers have managed to shake the entire Israeli society.  Now try to imagine the potential impact of hundred of thousands of  Palestinian refugees marching to their  homes  in Jaffa , Acre Lod , Ramle, Haifa, Beer Shiva and  Al Quds.

I guess that the picture is clearer than ever-- Israel doesn’t stand a chance. Its fate is doomed. It is just a question of time. It is not a matter of ‘if’ but a question of ‘when’.

But the truth of the matter goes slightly deeper. Both the Flotilla and the Flytilla are exemplary cases of ‘civil society campaigns’-- they were intended to mobilise international public support using peaceful and democratic means.

Both campaigns were not aimed to harm Israel’s security in any way; rather, they were there to draw the world’s attention to the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. Their immediate goal i.e. reaching Palestine, was not fulfilled, but their mission is still a clear and significant victory because it proves once again what Israel is all about: the Jewish State is a closed society, a morbid collective driven by ‘Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder’ (fuelled by vivid imaginary fantasies of destruction).  Most importantly, the Israeli government’s desperate measures against the peaceful Flytilla proved to the world that the West Bank is also under siege, and Palestine is closed to visitors.

The leaders of the two ‘civil society campaigns’ had done their homework: they had planned it all for months, orchestrating and coordinating an airlift of different international groups. They had raised the funds, and they operated as you would expect ‘civil society campaigners’ to operate.

But they had failed to see one thing. They did not grasp the most obvious fact about the Jewish State and its supportive powers around the world.  As much as they wanted to put into action the most civilised peaceful strategy, they may have failed to grasp that the Jewish State is not a civilised place, and it is also totally foreign to the notion of civilisation.  Once again the Israeli Government provided its critics around the world with a clear lesson about the unique traits of the Jewish State.

Israel vs. Civilisation

The word ‘civilisation’ comes originally from the Latin word civilis, related to the Latin words civis, meaning citizen, and civitas, meaning city or city-state.

‘Civilisation’, then, is traditionally grasped as a society that acknowledges and respects notions of  ‘civil law’ and ‘citizenship’. Israel is not such a society unfortunately. Most of the people whose homes are on Israeli-controlled land lack basic civil rights just for failing to be Jewish.
It is possible that Israel’s deficiency in that regard is rooted in orthodox Judaism's defiance of the notions of ‘civil law’ and civilisation. For Rabbinical Judaism, it is the Halacha law that strictly sets the legal rights and duties of the Jew.[2]

Interestingly enough, early Zionism was an attempt to remedy the situation. It promised to ‘civilise Jewish life’.  It vowed to erect a Jewish society that respected principles of citizenship and secular civil law. But Zionism was doomed to fail. Already, at its moment of inception, the Jewish State preferred to ethnically cleanse the vast majority of the Palestinian population instead of exercising the theoretical possibility of ‘Jewish civilisation.’
The truth of the matter is that the Jewish state has battled with Halacha laws since its moment of birth. On the one hand secular Israelis, Hasbara agents and Zionists disseminate the deceptive image of a Jewish ‘democratic’, ‘civilised and open society’ but on the other hand, the religious institutions in Israel challenge that fictitious deceptive   agenda: they clearly argue that if Israel defines itself as the ‘Jewish State’, it should give Jewishness some real meaning. They are basically referring to Halacha laws

The outcome of this struggle is clear: by now, Israel has very little respect for the notion of ‘civilisation’ or ‘civil law’.  At the most, it mimics some liberal Western symptoms. The Arab MK Azmi Bishara who suggested a few years ago that Israel should become a state of all its citizens ( i.e. a civilisation ), had to run away for his life, and has lived in exile ever since. It is not a secret that Israeli Arabs (Palestinians with Israeli citizenship) are second class citizens, and the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank lack any meaningful civil status. They are dwelling in open air prisons. They are subject to Israeli brutality  and different forms of racially discriminative laws. Not only that, foreign labour communities in Israel are also totally marginalised, living a life of complete insecurity, with few rights.

Media falsifiers: censorship by mainstream liberal media

Redress

Paul J. Balles argues that the media lie of the moment reverberates through liberal TV channels pretending to report the news from all angles and from all points of view but in reality exercising censorship through omission and emphasis.

I am not blaming those who are resolved to rule, only those who show an even greater readiness to submit. (Thucydides)

Day after day, TV anchor after anchor has been boasting "News from all angles, from all points of view".

There's never been such an open campaign to convince television viewers they aren't being brainwashed by the media's restricted point of view.

In what appears to be an attempt to outfox the Fox News Network, which has never admitted the truth about their own political bias, the more liberal networks of NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and CNN now propagandize their viewers with outright lies.

Dozens of liberal commentators, from MSNBC's Chris Matthews to CNN's Christiane Amanpour, have been making a mantra out of "News from all angles, from all points of view".

“Facebook, Twitter, blogs and websites with alternative news and commentary are slowly making mainstream media obsolete.”

When a media spokesperson makes a claim like that, he or she should make sure of its truth or refuse to repeat the falsehood.

Those who have been misinforming their audiences are intelligent enough to know that they are deceiving their viewers. Is it possible, for example, that any news reporter would not know of the media’s anti-Islamic brainwashing?

How can they continue to report on events like the Quran burning or the objections to the planned Islamic centre in New York without exposing the Islamaphobia? Where has the Muslim angle or point of view in the news been?

The internet is full of examples of under-reported news. One source of such stories is Project Censored, which lists the top censored stories of 2011:

1. Global plans to replace the dollar
2. US Department of Defence is the worst polluter on the planet
3. Internet privacy and personal access at risk
4. ICE operates secret detention and courts
5. Blackwater (Xe): the secret US war in Pakistan
6. Health care restrictions cost thousands of lives in US
7. External capitalist forces wreak havoc in Africa
8. Massacre in Peruvian Amazon over US Free Trade Agreement
9. Human rights abuses continue in Palestine
10. US Funds and supports the Taliban

Harvard Professor Stephen Walt reports that as early as 2005, 78 per cent of the news media, 72 per cent of military leaders and 69 per cent of foreign affairs specialists believed that backing Israel seriously damages America's image around the world.

That factual revelation isn’t something you hear on TV. If 78 per cent of the news media hold that belief, they are not reporting it.

Ex-Israeli author and jazz musician Gilad Atzmon writes regular internet columns on the Middle East. He has zero respect for the mainstream media, commenting:

Our independent websites and blogs are far more informative than the mainstream media. Collectively, we provide a source of information that people can trust, and we are rapidly becoming the main source of information.

Facebook, Twitter, blogs and websites with alternative news and commentary are slowly making mainstream media obsolete.

Major stories have been censored by the mainstream media. Often the censorship raises questions about why an important story has been censored.

The media has kept the fact that Obama has cut domestic spending while increasing military spending under wraps. Much military spending is unjustifiable and wasted.

Apart from any conspiracy theories about 9/11, serious questions about discrepancies in the official reports have been totally ignored by leading commentators.

Also censored by the networks are health risks in personal products like cosmetics and suntan lotion with nanotech particles.

Not satisfied with manufacturing cover-ups, the networks have now resorted to brainwashing viewers with lies about reporting the news from all angles and all points of view.

University bans anti-Zionist Atzmon speech

The JC

By Marcus Dysch

 

The University of Westminster has cancelled an event it was due to host featuring Israeli anti-Zionist Gilad Atzmon.

A panel discussion examining "Israel criminality in the wake of the Goldstone Retract" was due to be held in a rented room at the university on Tuesday, but was called off last week.

The event was organised by jazz musician Mr Atzmon, who hasfrequently been accused of antisemitic statements and Holocaust denial.

He has written essays questioning what he called "the Auschwitz narrative", and said burning down a synagogue could be seen as "a rational act".

A university spokeswoman said that the event had been cancelled because "necessary processes were not followed". It is believed the university was unaware of Mr Atzmon's previous controversial statements, and may have been misled about the exact nature of the event when the booking was taken.
Speakers due to appear alongside Mr Atzmon on the panel included Ghada Karmi, lecturer at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, author John Rose, and former journalist Alan Hart.

Dr Karmi and Mr Rose had already signalled their intention to pull out after learning they would be expected to appear alongside Mr Atzmon.

The event had been promoted by groups including the Stop the War Coalition, the white nationalist Stormfront movement, and the Real IRA.

In 2005, left-wing Jewish and anti-Zionist groups rowed with the Socialist Workers' Party over an invitation to Mr Atzmon to appear at SWP conferences.

A panel discussion entitled "Zionism, Jewishness and Israel" featuring Mr Atzmon, Mr Hart, Palestine Telegraph founder Sameh Habeeb and writer Karl Sabbagh, instead took place off campus on Tuesday.
Earlier this month Westminster Union elected two men linked to the extreme Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir to lead the union.

Gilad Atzmon: Global Intifada

Gilad Atzmon

Haaretz reported today that  “Israel urges the world to curb criticism of Egypt's Mubarak.”

Apparently Jerusalem seeks to convince its allies that it is in the ‘West's interest’ to maintain the stability of the Egyptian regime. In other words, Israel urges the ‘Goyim’ to ‘keep being subservient to Jerusalem’. Jerusalem was  foolish enough to admit that Mubarak was there to serve Israeli and ‘Western’ interests.

Over the weekend Israel called on the United States and a number of European countries to restrain their condemnation of President Hosni Mubarak to “preserve stability in the region.”

Let’s all be clear about it : as far as Israelis are concerned, ‘stability in the region’ means a few million Jews living in ‘safety’ on Palestinian land, at the expense of one billion Muslims. But I guess that this Zionist militant expansionist fantasy is crumbling in front of our eyes now.

Apparently the Israelis detect some confusion within Western capitals : "The Americans and the Europeans are being pulled along by public opinion and aren't considering their genuine interests," one senior Israeli official said. The Israeli official was kind enough to suggest to Europeans and Americans what their ‘genuine interests’ are. Seemingly, the Israeli always know better.

The Israeli official was also clever enough to envisage a tidal wave of mistrust between the West and its Middle Eastern puppet regimes. "Even if they (the Westerners)  are critical of Mubarak, they have to make their friends  (the puppets) feel that they're not alone. Jordan and Saudi Arabia see the reactions in the West, how everyone is abandoning Mubarak, and this will have very serious implications,"

The senior official is obviously correct -- We are indeed, entering a new era : Corrupted regimes in the Middle East are about to crumble, one after the other, as people all across the region rise up. Those in the West who were stupid enough to dismiss the Palestinian Intifada are now waking up to the reality of  a regional Intifada. And the collapse of American puppet regimes in the region could dramatically affect global economies and energy prices,  bringing Europe and America to their knees.

For years I have been arguing that Palestinians are at the forefront of the battle for humanity; alone,  they faced Zionist evil.  However, the time has changed, and  it isn’t just Gaza or the West Bank anymore -- Today it is Cairo and Amman, and tomorrow, as energy prices sore beyond affordability, it could well be any Western capital.

We are all Palestinians, because we share the same enemy.  We are all tired of Zionist driven expansionist wars. We don’t want ‘Israeli officials’ to preach to us about Western interests. We don’t want to see our elected politicians dancing to the Jewish Lobby’s irritating tune. It is time to emancipate humanity from the Zionist grip.