Coming
in October
From Common Courage Press
Today's
Stories
August 28, 2003
Tariq Ali
Occupied
Iraq Will Never Know Peace
Website of the Day
Pot TV
Recent
Stories
August 27, 2003
Bruce Jackson
Little
Deaths: Hiding the Body Count in Iraq
John Feffer
Nuances and North Korea: Six Countries in Search of a Solution
Dave Riley
an Interview with Tariq Ali on the Iraq War
Lacey Phillabaum
Bush's Holy War in the Forests
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Website of the Day
The Dean Deception
August 26, 2003
Robert Fisk
Smearing the Dead
David Lindorff
The
Great Oil Gouge: Burning Up that Tax Rebate
Sarmad S. Ali
Baghdad is Deadlier Than Ever: the View of an Iraqi Coroner
Christopher Brauchli
Bush Administration Equates Medical Pot Smokers with Segregationists
Juliana Fredman
Collective Punishment on the West Bank: Dialysis, Checkpoints
and a Palestinian Madonna
Larry Siems
Ghosts of Regime Changes Past in Guatemala
Elaine Cassel
Onward, Ashcroft Soldiers!
Saul Landau
Bush:
a Modern Ahab or a Toy Action Figure?
August 25, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
Israeli Outlaws in America
David Bacon
In Iraq, Labor Protest is a Crime
Thomas P. Healy
The Govs Come to Indy: Corps Welcome; Citizens Locked Out
Norman Madarasz
In an Elephant's Whirl: the US/Canada Relationship After the
Iraq Invasion
Salvador Peralta
The Politics of Focus Groups
Jack McCarthy
Who Killed Jancita Eagle Deer?
Uri Avnery
A Drug
for the Addict
August 23/24, 2003
Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld
Does Bogota
Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity
Insults to Intelligence
Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor
Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful
Fungus
Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest
or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon
Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary
of 9/11
Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield
Dave Lindorff
Marketplace
Medicine
Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and
Free Speech
Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy
José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?
Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America
Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine
Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations
William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films
Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable
Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam
Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry
August 22, 2003
Carole Harper
Post-Sandinista
Nicaragua
John Chuckman
George Will: the Marquis of Mendacity
Richard Thieme
Operation Paperclip Revisited
Chris Floyd
Dubya Indemnity: Bush Barons Beyond the Reach of Law?
Issam Nashashibi
Palestinians
and the Right of Return: a Rigged Survey
Mary Walworth
Other People's Kids
Ron Jacobs
The
Darkening Tunnel
Website of the Day
Current Energy
August 21, 2003
Robert Fisk
The US
Needs to Blame Anyone But Locals for UN Bombing
Virginia Tilley
The Quisling Policies of the UN in Iraq: Toward a Permanent War?
Rep. Henry Waxman
Bush Owes the Public Some Serious Answers on Iraq
Ben Terrall
War Crimes and Punishment in Indonesia: Rapes, Murders and Slaps
on the Wrists
Elaine Cassel
Brother John Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Salvation Show
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Gouged by Banks
Marjorie Cohn
Sergio Vieira de Mello: Victim of Terrorism or US Policy in Iraq?
Vicente Navarro
Media
Double Standards: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush
Website of the Day
The Intelligence Squad
August 20, 2003
Robert Fisk
Now No
One Is Safe in Iraq
Caoimhe Butterly
Life and Death on the Frontlines of Baghdad
Kurt Nimmo
UN Bombing: Act of Terrorism or Guerrilla War?
Michael Egan
Revisiting the Paranoid Style in the Dark
Ramzi Kysia
Peace
is not an Abstract Idea
Steven Higgs
NPR and the NAFTA Highway
John L. Hess
A Downside Day
Edward Said
The Imperial Bluster of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Gridlock at Path 15: the California Blackouts were the "Wake
Up Call"
Website of the Day
Ashcroft's Patriotic Hype
August 19, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Blackouts Happen
Gary Leupp
"Our Patch": Australia v. the Evil Doers of the South
Pacific
Sean Donahue
Uribe's Cruel Model: Colombia Moves Toward Totalitarianism
Matt Martin
Bush's Credibility Problem on Missile Defense
Juliana Fredman
Recipe for the Destruction of a Hudna
John Ross
Fox Government's Attack on Mexican Basques
Sasan Fayazmanesh
What Kermit Roosevelt Didn't Say
Website of the Day
Tom Delay's Dual Loyalities
August 18, 2003
Uri Avnery
Hero in War and Peace
Stan Goff
The Volunteer Military and the Wicked Adventure
Cathy Breen
Baghdad on the Hudson
Michael Kimaid
Fight the Power (Companies)!
Jason Leopold
The California Rip-Off Revisited: Arnold, Milken and Ken Lay
Matt Siegfried
The Bush Administration in Context
Elaine Cassel
At Last, A Judge Who Acts Like a Judge
Alexander Cockburn
Judy Miller's War
Harvey Wasserman
The Legacy of Blackout Pete Wilson
Website of the Day
Fire Griles!
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
August 16 / 17, 2003
Flavia Alaya
Bastille
New Jersey
Jeffrey St. Clair
War Pimps
Saul Landau
The Legacy of Moncada: the Cuban Revolution at 50
Brian Cloughley
What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?
William S. Lind
Coffins for the Crews: How Not to Use Light Armored Vehicles
Col. Dan Smith
Time for Straight Talk
Wenonah Hauter
Which
Electric System Do We Want?
David Lindorff
Where's Arnold When We Need Him?
Harvey Wasserman
This Grid Should Not Exist
Don Moniak
"Unusual Events" at Nuclear Power Plants: a Timeline
for August 14, 2003
David Vest
Rolling Blackout Revue
Merlin Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Sherman Austin
Adam Engel
The Loneliest Number
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Hamod & Albert
Book of the Weekend
Powerplay by Sharon Beder
Hot Stories
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
August
28, 2003
Collective Self-Deception
The
Most Common Mistakes of Israelis
By GILAD ATZMON
The most common mistakes made by Israelis are
as follows:
1. To fail to realize that there is no
essential difference between Tel Aviv and a Jewish settlement
in the West Bank.
2. To believe that the creation of the
state of Israel was an outcome of the Holocaust.
3. To regard themselves as innocent people
and thus as victims of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict.
4. To believe that they live in a democracy
and therefore that their atrocities are legitimate.
5. To be convinced that they live in
an open society which enjoys political and ideological diversity.
6. To believe that the ghetto is behind
them.
7. To be convinced that the 'Jewish state'
is a legitimate concept.
8. To think that Israel is a shelter
for the entire Jewish people and the best answer to anti-Semitism.
9. To regard themselves as humanists.
10. To be sure that Israel is immortal.
Throughout the relatively short history
of Jewish nationalism many Jews have managed to find flaws within
Zionist philosophy. Many have detached themselves from Zionism.
Since the declaration of the Israeli state, numerous Israelis
have left Israel and more than a few Jews around the world have
joined forces with the Palestinian liberation movement. Israelis,
on the other hand, are those who still fail to realize that the
ten beliefs above are grave, indeed fatal, mistakes.
One could probably ask whether these
essential mistakes are made by Zionists in particular rather
than all Israelis. In response I would argue that Israeli people
are Zionists even though they may only have a very little knowledge
of what Zionism is. Most Israelis were born into a colonial and
racist reality. They are educated to maintain Zionism rather
than to question it. This blind acceptance of one of the most
radically chauvinist worldviews turns the Israelis into an impossible
candidate for any form of peaceful negotiation.
The mistakes in detail
1. To fail to realize that there is
no essential difference between Tel Aviv and a Jewish settlement
in the West Bank.
Most Israeli people regard the Jewish
settlements in the 'occupied territories' and the settlers as
obstacles on the road to peace. Israelis in general and the so-called
'left' Zionists in particular, from within their self-centered
universe, are utterly convinced that a withdrawal of Israeli
forces to pre-1967 lines would guarantee them peace. The only
intelligible explanation for this common misconception relates
to the fact that it was only after 1967 that Israelis came face
to face with the Palestinians who had been ethnically cleansed
in 1948 (who 'suddenly' appeared within the new expanded occupied
territories). Israelis want to believe that what they don 't
see doesn't exist. They still refuse to acknowledge that the
'Palestinian cause' is based on the justified demand to return
to one's homeland.
Last week PA Minister Nabil Sha'ath made
the following statement concerning the 'right of return':
"The U.S.-sponsored road map for
Middle East peace guarantees the right of Palestinian refugees
to return to their homes in Israel or to lands conquered in the
1967 Six-Day War." (haaretz.com, 16.8.03)
Let's review some comments made by major
Israeli political figures:
"Refugees will never be allowed
to return to Israel." (Israeli government spokesman Avi
Pazner, haaretz.com, 17.8.03)
"Any advances in the road map should
be dependent on Palestinians giving up the right of return to
lands within Israel." (Israeli Health Minister Dan Naveh,
haaretz.com, 17.8.03)
"[Palestinians] again addressing
an issue they will never attain." (Labor Party Chairman
Shimon Peres, haaretz.com, 17.8.03)
"All political parties in Israel
are united against a Palestinian right of return to Israel."
(Labor MK Matan Vilnai, haaretz.com, 17.8.03)
"Israel and the Palestinian Authority
have a joint interest in finding solutions for the refugee problem
within the borders of a Palestinian state, and not in Israel."
(Meretz MK Ran Cohen, haaretz.com, 17.8.03)
As we can see Israeli politicians have
yet to acknowledge what the Palestinian cause is all about. They
still expect Palestinians to give up their fully legitimate legal
rights. In practice they expect the Palestinian to give up being
Palestinian. Wishful thinking I would say the Palestinians
will never give up their right of return. They will never give
up the resistance against Zionist colonialism. Definitely not
now, not when they are winning growing world support. Every Palestinian
knows that Zionism aims to turn the whole of Palestine into a
Jewish land. In that sense Tel Aviv, which is partially located
over confiscated Palestinian lands (Yafo, Abu Kabir, Sheikh Munis
etc.), and Elon More, a settlement in the West Bank, are very
much the same. They are Jewish colonies on Palestinian land.
2. To believe that the creation of
the state of Israel was an outcome of the Holocaust.
First, some enlightening quotes:
"A Jew brought up among Germans
may assume German custom, German words. He may be wholly imbued
with that German fluid but the nucleus of his spiritual structure
will always remain Jewish, because his blood, his body, his physicalracial
type are Jewish." (Vladimir Jabotinsky, 'A Letter on Autonomy',
1904. Jabotinsky is the ideological mentor of the Israeli right
wing.)
"I too, like Hitler, believe in
the power of the blood idea." (Chaim Nachman Bialik, The
Present Hour, 1934. Bialik is the official Israeli national poet.)
"Had I been a Jew, I would have
been a fanatical Zionist." (Adolf Eichmann, 1955, published
in Life magazine in 1960. Eichmann, an SS officer in charge of
the 'Jewish problem', made this remark in reference to his visit
to Palestine in 1937.
Along the years, Israeli people have
adopted a bizarre view of their own Zionist historical narrative.
Somehow they have decided that their militant and nationalistic
colonial venture is actually a post-Shoah 'peace-seeking movement'.
In the early days of Israel this manipulative notion was found
to be very effective in generating western support, probably
as a result of feelings of guilt among western people. Since
the Lebanese war in 1982 opinion in the west has shifted. More
and more people acknowledge that it is the Palestinians who are
actually 'Hitler's last victims'. While the western world is
slowly but surely waking up to the ongoing inhuman Israeli crimes,
Israelis still believe in their fabricated self-image. Israelis
are convinced that the Jewish state was created after the Holocaust
to secure a safe haven for Jews in case of repeated disaster.
This misconception is the direct consequence of the misreading
of crucial historical events. Israel is the fruit of Zionism
and the Zionist ideology was well established before Hitler was
born.
Moreover, there is good reason to believe
that Hitler developed some of his anti-Semitic arguments after
reading early Zionist texts. From Ber Borochov he could learn
how socially abnormal the Jews were ('The socio-economic structure
of the Jewish people differs radically from that of other nations.
Ours is an anomalous, abnormal structure' Ber Borochov, 1897,
published in Moshe Cohen (ed.), Nationalism and the Class Struggle:
A Marxian Approach to the Jewish Problem, 1937). From Jabotinsky
he could learn how crucial blood purity was. The quotes cited
above suggest that Zionism and Nazism are very similar in spirit
(both are nationalistic movements inspired by concepts of racial
purity). One thing, however, is clear: Zionism pre-dates Nazism.
On the other hand, if we decide to go
along with the Israeli self-deception which regards Israel as
the outcome of the Holocaust, we should address the fact that
Zionists have always been more than enthusiastic about anti-Semitism.
In Zionist eyes it is anti-Semitism that will push Jews to their
'homeland'. Accordingly, the Zionists realized from the very
beginning that Nazi Germany presented a great opportunity for
Zionism. While before the war Zionist organizations collaborated
with the Nazis transferring German Jewish wealth to Palestine,
during the war, when the scale of the disaster had already been
revealed, very little was done by Zionists around the world to
help their brothers and sisters in Europe. One particular incident
should be mentioned here. Towards the end of World War II Adolf
Eichmann (on behalf of Heinrich Himmler) offered Rezso Kasztner,
a Zionist Hungarian leader, the freedom of up to one million
Jews in return for 10,000 trucks. Surprisingly enough, this offer
was ignored by the Zionist organizations that had realized by
then that the annihilation of European Jewry would help generate
enough support among the nations for the future establishment
of the Jewish state. Apparently, the Nazi offer was reduced to
a single train and just 600 devoted Zionist Hungarian Jews. Clearly,
the Zionists were interested in saving neither assimilated nor
Orthodox Jews.
Sadly enough, we must admit that, at
least tactically, the Zionists were proved right: the liquidation
of European Jewry indeed generated great support for the Zionist
cause that led eventually to the establishment of the Jewish
state. Nonetheless, if we do adopt this line of thinking, we
must regard the Zionist leaders as partly responsible for the
liquidation of European Jewry.
3. To regard themselves as innocent
people and thus as victims of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict.
It is hard to believe but Israeli people
do regard themselves as innocent beings. Even those very Israeli
people who ethnically cleansed the Palestinians and terrorized
them for decades (such as Peres and Sharon) have the chutzpah
to regard themselves as victims. Even the clear fact that for
more than half a century the Israeli people have been voting
in favor of denying the Palestinians the most basic human rights
has never brought Zionist minds towards some skeptical contemplations.
To date there isn't a single Jewish political body in the Israeli
parliament that acknowledges the Palestinian right of return.
Considering the fact that world Jewry
led by the Israeli government is pretty efficient at raising
demands concerning pre-World War II Jewish interests (in relation
to bank accounts or properties in eastern Europe), it is rather
bizarre that Israelis are so successfully ignoring very similar
Palestinian rights. How does it happen that Jews who are so enthusiastic
about Swiss banking injustices are found to be completely deaf
and blind to their own continuous robbery of Palestinian land,
assets and dignity? I have two possible answers to suggest:
a. Israelis and Zionists aren't genuinely
concerned about the injustices done against their people in the
past; they are simply motivated by greed, by political enthusiasm
or both.
b. Israelis and Zionists are very unusual
creatures that do not follow any recognized human pattern of
empathy, therefore we shouldn't expect them to feel any sensation
of compassion or guilt regarding their own crimes against gentiles
in general and Palestinian people in particular.
It is widely known that thousands of
young Israelis travel to Poland every year to visit different
'Shoah' tourist attractions. These journeys are sponsored by
the Israeli government and many other Jewish organizations. One
would expect that when those cheerful youngsters go on to join
the Israeli army they would apply the moral lesson and feel some
genuine compassion towards their Palestinian neighbors. However,
though it becomes clear that they have learnt a lesson, it is
unfortunately the wrong one: when in the occupied territories
they behave very much like the vermacht. No wonder Israelis invest
so much money in these 'educational trips'.
4. To believe that they live in a
democracy and therefore that their atrocities are legitimate.
In spite of the fact that more than half
of the population living within Israeli borders is denied the
right to vote, Israelis still regard themselves as democratic
people. Moreover, Israeli people (very much like many Americans)
believe that their 'freedom' of political choice gives them a
mandate to decide the fate of other people. Israelis are sure
that their murderous acts are fully legitimate only because they
are 'the only democracy in the Middle East'. This can be explained
with reference to the Israeli interpretation of the Jewish concept
of 'chosen-ness'. While Orthodox Jews regard being chosen as
an ethical and spiritual burden, Israelis regard their 'chosen-ness'
as a form of cosmic gift: a condition you are born into which
makes you superhuman. In a very short time, Israeli people have
developed a system of 'chosen people democracy' which allows
them, the chosen people to dictate their worldview to those who
are too weak (for the time being) to fight back. It is important
to mention that Israel is not alone in having a 'chosen people
democracy'. American democracy follows very much the same line
of thinking. Since World War II, American people have decided
for the rest of the world how the latter should participate in
supporting American wealth. No wonder those two 'chosen people
democracies' are so enthusiastic about each other.
5. To be convinced that they live
in an open society which enjoys political and ideological diversity.
"The problem with the [Israeli]
left is that they think that being for peace is a matter of singing
a song. I say, if you want to sing a song, become a singer."
(Shimon Peres, the Independent, 4.8.03)
Israeli people tend to believe that they
enjoy a politically diverse society with a real leftright
debate. Traditionally, left-wing thinking is identified with
a struggle towards social and legal equality while right-wing
politics is classed as the endeavors of the strong. Funnily enough,
when it comes to Israel such a distinction is not applicable.
Zionism is all about being strong and Jewish. Palestinians (and
cheap foreign labor) are somehow out of the game. The Israeli
left doesn't try to make them equal players and right-wing Zionists
don't even allow them in the pit. In practice, both the Israeli
right and left have adopted Jabotinsky's right-wing 'Iron Wall'
philosophy which aims to build a power that 'the native population
cannot break through' (Vladimir Jabotinsky, 'The Iron Wall ',
1923).
I assume the reason that Israelis fail
to see that their society lacks any real debate between right
and left is because they fail to differentiate between an ideological
debate and a political one. While in practice there is no ideological
difference between the Likud party and Israeli Labor, Israeli
people still regard their political clash as an ideological debate.
In the UK, by contrast, most people now understand that Tony
Blair is a Tory leader in Labor disguise. British people are
far more advanced than the Israelis in realizing the ideological
context of their own political game. In Israel, only very few
people  grasp
that differences between Peres and Sharon are nothing but marginal.
If this were not enough, even the left-wing Israeli organizations
such as Peace Now, Women in Black and Gush Shalom, who fight
courageously for Palestinian rights, support the unacceptable
'two states solution'. Thinking about those 'Israeli left' movements
in categorical terms reveals the devastating fact that their
political agenda is not at all ideologically far from Sharon's.
As sad as it is to admit, there is no such thing as an 'Israeli
left'.
6. To believe that the ghetto is behind
them.
Nationalistic Jewish aspirations started
to appear in the late nineteenth century following the emancipation
of European Jews. Zionist ideologists followed the growing wave
of European nationalism. Early Zionists regarded the possibility
of Jewish assimilation as a grave threat to Jewish existence.
Many of those thinkers also agreed that Jewish people suffered
from severe social malfunctioning, referring to traditional Jewish
occupations as non-productive. The Zionist assumption at the
time was that this form of unhealthy social condition was a result
of living in a ghetto in a foreign land for too long. Zionism
was regarded as a remedy for the many different 'traditional
Jewish sicknesses'. It aimed to create a new Jew: a secular,
civilized and productive man that lives and cultivates his own
land while communicating in his own language (Hebrew), very much
the opposite of the eastern European ghetto character. This experiment
proved to be very short-lived. In practice, that 'new Jew' has
never been created. Zionism has never been a secular movement.
While secularity is an alternative philosophy to religion, when
it comes to Zionism and Jewish secularity, Zionism rejects some
Jewish rituals only to then adopt new ones.
From the very beginning Zionism adopted
many biblical and mystical heroic Jewish symbols, mostly suicidal
ones (the stories of Massada, a tale of collective kamikaze,
and Samson, the first Jewish suicide bomber, are typical examples).
Moreover, the decision to resurrect the Jewish state in Palestine
related directly to the biblical promise. Although in the beginning
it looked as if a real effort to establish a Hebraic civilization
was being made, every visitor to Israel nowadays would agree
that most Hebraic cultural aspects are vanishing from the collapsing
Israeli culture. Even the Hebrew is getting minced by the day.
Needless to say, soon after their arrival, the Zionists found
that it was far easier to use Palestinian labor than to get burned
themselves in the open Mediterranean fields. In retrospect, it
would be hard to point out any major cultural Hebraic rebirth
except of some barbarian habits that naturally developed during
many decades of sadistic oppression. A consideration of the wide
and impressive contribution made by Jewish people to world culture
will reveal that very little has ever come from the Jewish state.
This is not particularly surprising. As we know, very little
cultural contribution came out of the Jewish ghetto. When we
think of great Jewish thinkers and artists we find that all of
them are emancipated Jews who preferred assimilation to Zionism
or Orthodoxy. Sharon's remarkable 'Defense Wall' is there to
explain why Israel has never been culturally productive. In practice,
the Zionists have never left the ghetto; they just moved it from
eastern Europe to Palestine. The concept of segregation is probably
inherent to Zionist existence.
7. To be convinced that the 'Jewish
state' is a legitimate concept.
This mistake results from misreading
the twentieth-century cultural shift. When Zionism was born it
was more than a legitimate ideological philosophy. It was part
of the nineteenth-century European nationalistic movement and
developed at a time when hatred of the Other was more than common
within European intellectual and political discourse. Revisionist
Zionists led by Vladimir Jabotinsky openly praised Italian fascism
and regarded Mussolini as their ideological mentor. Further,
Jabotinsky adopted the idea of racial purity many years before
Hitler even mentioned it. At the time, Zionism wasn 't the only
philosophy to push for a nationalistic state based on racial
purity. After World War II and the fall of Nazism, however, things
changed. The idea of a state based on racial purity was no longer
legitimate. Even the new American form of fascism is multiracial.
As a matter of fact Israel is the only remaining example of a
nationalistic state based on racial purity. The Jewish state
isn't a legitimate concept anymore.
8. To think that Israel is a shelter
for the entire Jewish people and the best answer to anti-Semitism.
It was recently revealed by Mrs Tzipi
Livni, the Israeli Minister of Immigration, that Jewish immigration
to Israel has stopped completely. In other words, she admitted
that Israel is not the most attractive place for Jewish people
to come to live in. Not long ago I heard a presentation by a
Palestinian spokesman here in the UK. The spokesman was asked
whether he could justify Palestinian suicidal acts against Israeli
civilians. Saving himself from the over complicated moral aspects
of this much repeated question, the spokesman restricted himself
to the pragmatic aspects of the different forms of Palestinian
struggle. His argument was very simple: 'If Israel is the state
of the Jewish people, it is Palestinian terror that should make
this state into a very unattractive place for Jewish people to
live in.' There is no doubt that suicidal attacks are found to
be very effective in achieving such an aim. Tzipi Livni's words
confirmed that Palestinian terror is defeating the Zionist venture.
But the failure of Zionism is far more dramatic. Not only has
Israel not stopped anti-Semitism, if anything, the devastating
inhuman crimes that are daily committed by Israel 'in the name
of the Jewish people' make anti-Semitism into a legitimate philosophy.
No doubt the next Jewish disaster is going to be a reaction to
Zionism.
(It is important to note again that Zionism
is consciously enthusiastic about anti-Semitism. Here we face
a vicious circle initiated by the Zionists: Israel deliberately
commits inhuman crimes in order to initiate anti-Semitic acts
that will supposedly lead Jews towards the realization that Zionism
is the one and only solution for the 'Jewish problem'.)
9. To regard themselves as humanists.
No, this isn't a joke. In spite of the
pain that they inflict on their neighbors, Israeli people still
regard themselves as humanists. Moreover, it seems as if the
humanist image is very important to the Israeli people. You will
find Israeli rescue teams and medical emergency crews in every
disaster location around the globe. For some reason, however,
you never find those Israeli humanist knights in Gaza or Jenin.
I would assume that the Israeli humanist
disguise has something to do with the universal Marxist legacy
partially adopted by the early 'left' Zionists. That said, we
must remember that there is nothing in the Zionist philosophy
to echo any universal moral code of behavior. Zionism is all
about Jews. It was invented by Jews and can only be applied to
Jews. The call for the unification of world proletarianism that
appeared for years on some left Zionist papers was a pretentious
call with very little behind it. Furthermor e, the left-wing
parties that were calling for international cosmopolitanism were
in practice very active in the robbery of the indigenous Palestinians.
The vast majority of Israeli Kibbutzim are located on confiscated
Palestinian lands. The robbing of the Palestinian lands stands
at the very core of all Zionist philosophies. I believe that
the denial of the most basic human rights by the Israeli people
can be explained by their self-perception as a chosen race. Why
should Palestine belong to the Jews who left it two millennia
ago and not to the Palestinians who have been living there since
time begun? Probably because Jews are chosen and their biblical
text is superior to any other text (including legal documents).
How can you be chosen and a humanist at the same time? This is
a major question that should be addressed to Israelis. It would
appear that in the new Jewmerica dominated world, you are entitled
to regard yourself as a humanist as long as you have enough nuclear
weapons at your disposal to support your self-image.
10. To be sure that Israel is immortal.
As a matter of fact, Israel is pretty
much a dead entity already. It is going through a rapid process
of disintegration into isolated sectors that share no common
collective aim. Sooner rather than later the currently rejected
Israeli sectors will understand that they have far more in common
with the Palestinian people than with the Zionist zealots. The
so-called 'left' Zionists will realize that they have more in
common with Nabil Sha' ath and Saib Arikat than with any Likud
Party members. The Orthodox Jews will realize that they have
far more in common with Islamic fundamentalism than with the
so-called Israeli secular liberal front. The new Russian immigrants
haven't even tried to integrate into the Hebraic society which
they regard as inferior. The Ethiopian Jews, who are not even
allowed to donate blood, and the many oppressed foreign cheap
laborers will soon realize that Zionist supremacy is their biggest
enemy. The days of the Zionists are numbered. There is no need
for a war. Let them destroy themselves in 'peace'. Within the
new self-imposed ghetto walls they surround themselves with they
do not have any other option.
Where does this leave us?
It seems as if any form of communication
with Israelis is pretty much impossible unless one decides to
engage with Israeli self-deception. Since it is clear that the
Israelis are pretty good at self-destruction, we need only help
them by serving as a catalyst. A gradual scheme of bans and boycotts
would do the job. We must start with cultural boycotts and market
boycotts. We must make sure that Zionist and Israeli war criminals
are arrested as soon as they land on the free world's soil (assuming
of course that there is such a thing). If these don't provide
the goods we must move forwards and ban Israelis from traveling
to Europe unless they state their complete rejection of Zionism.
Those many enlightened states who are brave enough to ban anti-Semitism,
neo-Nazi propaganda and any other form of racist activity should
immediately consider adding Zionist activity to their list of
prohibited activities.
It won't take too long. Facing a moment
of truth, many Israelis will be happy to leave Zionism behind
and rejoin the human family.
Gilad Atzmon
was born in Israel and served in the Israeli military. He is
the author of the new novel A Guide to the Perplexed
. Atzmon is also one of the most accomplished jazz saxophonists
in Europe. His new CD, Exile,
was just named the year's best jazz CD by the BBC. He now lives
in London and can be reached at: atz@onetel.net.uk
Weekend
Edition Features for August 23 / 24, 2003
Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld
Does Bogota
Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity
Insults to Intelligence
Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor
Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful
Fungus
Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest
or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon
Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary
of 9/11
Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield
Dave Lindorff
Marketplace
Medicine
Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and
Free Speech
Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy
José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?
Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America
Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine
Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations
William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films
Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable
Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam
Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry
Keep CounterPunch
Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|