By Gilad Atzmon

The following is the index I submitted to the British Columbia Supreme Court in relation to Arthur Topham's trial. This text may help activists and anti imperialist commentators in their future battles with Israel's supporters, Hasbara merchants and Sayanim in general.

Gilad Atzmon’s Index and topics

Jewish Symbols

Zionism

Semitism

The Holocaust

Germany Must Perish/Israel Must Perish

The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion

The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today

'The Controversy of Zion,” by Douglas Reed

Conclusion

Jewish Symbols

Once we realise the crucial distinctions among Jews (the people), Judaism (the religion) and Jewishness (ideology and politics), we are ready to accept that Jewish symbols that appear within different Jewish political contexts that are not religious often present ethical problems. For instance, Israel decorates its airplanes and tanks with the Star of David. Similarly, the Menorah is borrowed as a symbol by the controversial Israeli Intelligence Service (The Mossad). The traditional Jewish knotted skullcap and the Tztitis[1] have become the symbol of the West Bank extremists.

It is reasonable to assume that when such symbols are used as political identifiers they can and should be critiqued and analyzed within the context of their political meanings.

Zionism

Zionism is often defined as the promise to bring the Jews back to their ‘promised land’ and to form a Jewish National Homeland, i.e., The State of Israel. Yet that definition suggests that, at least from an Israeli perspective, Zionism finished its role in 1948 with the foundation of the Jewish State. However, early Zionist writings suggest that Zionism had a far wider, deeper and even radical purpose than merely forming a Jewish State. Early Zionists such as Herzl, Nordaw, Borochov, A.D. Gordon and Kazanelson looked at the Diaspora Jew with contempt. Zionism was, for them, the promise to civilize Diaspora Jews by means of ‘homecoming’ and productivity (as opposed to speculant-capitalism).

This point is crucial for the court because it confirms that early Zionists were driven by deep hatred of the Jew and their language was often virulently anti Semitic. Here are just a few of many examples:

“The wealthy Jews control the world, in their hands lies the fate of governments and nations. They set governments one against the other. When the wealthy Jews play, the nations and the rulers dance. One way or the other, they get rich.” (Theodor Herzl, Deutsche Zeitung)

The above Herzl's problematic quote appears around 4 min' 47 sec' in...

“The Jew is a caricature of a normal, natural human being, both physically and spiritually. As an individual in society he revolts and throws off the harness of social obligations, knows no order nor discipline.” (Our Shomer “Weltanschauung”, Hashomer Hatzair December 1936, p.26).

“The fact is undeniable that the Jews collectively are unhealthy and neurotic. Those professional Jews who, wounded to the quick, indignantly deny this truth are the greatest enemies of their race, for they thereby lead them to search for false solutions, or at most palliatives.” (Ben Frommer, The Significance of a Jewish State, Jewish Call, Shanghai, May 1935, p.10).

“The enterprising spirit of the Jew is irrepressible. He refuses to remain a proletarian. He will grab at the first opportunity to advance to a higher rung in the social ladder.” (The Economic Development of the Jewish People, Ber Borochov, 1916)

‘Semitism’

Scholars are divided on the question of whether Jews have their origin in the Near East. However, It may be noted that Semitism is not a racial category or reference but it is rather a name for a family of Middle Eastern languages.

Anti Semitism is commonly used as a general term for hatred of Jews. However, if Jews have little to do with the Near East, then the label ‘anti Semitism’ also serves to associate the Jews and their origin with a place they have nothing or very little to do with.

Holocaust (vs. religion)

The term ‘Holocaust’ is commonly used to refer to the Jewish catastrophe that took place in Germany and occupied Europe between 1933 and 1945. Since 1945 Jewish institutions have worked relentlessly to restrict research of the Holocaust and its historicity. In the 1970’s the great Orthodox Jewish philosopher, Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, came to the conclusion that the Holocaust or Shoah had become the most popular Jewish religion. Since then, many more scholars have joined Leibowitz’s view; amongst them are the philosopher Adi Offir and the Jewish theologian Marc Ellis. In the 1990’s American historian Norman Finkelstein published ‘The Holocaust Industry,’ a scholarly academic work that confirmed Abba Eban’s (legendary Israeli diplomat, ambassador and Knesset member) 1950s adage that ‘there is no business like the Shoah Business.’

Unlike many Jewish politicians and scholars, in my book, ‘The Wandering Who’, I insist that for history to be a meaningful, it must be realised as an attempt to revise the past as we move along. As such, history is, by definition, a revisionist project. I argue that for the Holocaust to sustain its ethical meaning it must be reinstated as a chapter in history rather than a stagnated religion.

Germany Must Perish/Israel Must Perish

Neither I, nor any contemporary scholar I know of, have written about Theodore N. Kaufman’s ‘Germany Must Perish’ before Mr. Topham made it into a satire (Israel Must Perish). I learned that even the Crown’s Expert, Mr. Rudner, admitted that he wasn’t aware of Kaufman’s text. The necessary conclusion is that it is actually Mr. Topham’s satire that brought this horrid text to our attention.

This is exactly what satire is all about:

“ A genre of literature in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government or society itself, into improvement.” (Wikipedia)

A satire is a way of using humour to show that someone or something is foolish, weak, bad, etc. I cannot imagine life without satire, but I guess that perhaps some people in Canada are determined to abolish this genre.

In his documentation to the court Mr. Rudner stated that ‘Germany Must Perish’ is a hateful text. Did it really take a Jewish official more than seven decades to admit that the call to eradicate the German people is unacceptable? Is not Mr. Rudner’s long delayed denunciation the direct outcome of Mr. Topham’s satire? I believe that Mr. Rudner’s well-deserved denunciation proves the necessity of satire and Arthur Topham’s contribution to the genre.

The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion

For over a century, Jewish organisations all around the world have expended great effort to prove that the protocols are a forgery as well as fictional. This is slightly puzzling considering the fact that there are no reasonable opponents arguing that the Protocols are an authentic document. However, critical study of Israeli and Jewish identity politics reveals that Israel and Jews are widely over represented in Western politics, culture, finance, media and so on.

In 2006 the prestigious and superlative American academics, Mearsheimer and Walt published ‘The Israeli Lobby And US Foreign Policy,’ a study that confirmed that Israel dominated American foreign policy.[2]

In 2008 the Jewish journalist Joel Stein, wrote a large article published in the LA Times, “Is Hollywood Run by Jews? You Bet”[3] In the article Stein boasted of Jewish domination in Hollywood.

A few months ago, the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz ran a headline that read: “Netanyahu's Address to Congress Is Not a Speech. It's a Coup.”[4]

But most interesting in this regard is Theodore Herzl, the founding father of political Zionism, whose view of Jews were identical to the anti Jewish views expressed in the Protocols:

“The wealthy Jews control the world, in their hands lies the fate of governments and nations. They set governments one against the other. When the wealthy Jews play, the nations and the rulers dance. One way or the other, they get rich” (Theodor Herzl, Deutsche Zeitung)

Herzl, Haaretz, Joel Stein and Mearsheimer & Walt, were not referring to a fictional lobby or a forged narrative. They were actually discussing authentic people and politics that are dominating political discourse and even, at times, endangering world peace.

I tend to believe that the endless Jewish and Zionist attempts to refer to the Protocols as an anti Semitic forgery is a tactical move that is intended to divert attention from the reality of forceful Jewish lobby groups such as AIPAC, CFIJA, CFI, LFI, CRIF etc’.

The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today

Elizabeth Dilling expresses some controversial views; she believes, for instance, that the “purpose of Judaism is to exterminate or enslave Christians and that the Jews studied the Talmud to learn how to undermine Christianity.” [5]

This is a devastating statement, however, reading the words of chief Israeli Sephardic Rabbi and Talmud sage Rabbi Ovadia Youssef, confirms that at least some top Jewish Rabbis totally agree with Dilling.

“Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel.” Weekly Saturday night sermon in October 2010

If the court is interested in Jewish genocidal texts. Torat Ha'Melech (King’s Torah), a new book by Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira is the place to go.

The book includes 230 pages on the laws concerning the killing of non-Jews. According to Shapira, "Non-Jews are ‘uncompassionate by nature’ and should be killed in order to ‘curb their evil inclinations.’ If we kill a gentile who has violated one of the seven commandments… there is nothing wrong with the murder.” Shapira also believes that , "there is justification for killing babies if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us, and in such a situation they may be harmed deliberately, and not only during combat with adults."[6]

Rather than killing the messenger, in this case Mr. Arthur Topham, we might be better advised to deal with the problem he has broughtto our attention.

“The Controversy of Zion,” by Douglas Reed

According to Reed, “Judaism is responsible for the creation of the theory of the master race and that the implication of this belief is that the master race becomes God itself.”

Not only is Reed’s paradigm valid, at least from a theoretical perspective, his views are almost identical to Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s, the founding father of right wing Zionism and the arch mentor of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

In 1914 Jabotinsky wrote: “the source of national feeling … lies in a man’s blood … in his racio-physical type, and in that alone … a man’s spiritual outlooks are primarily determined by his physical structure … For that reason we do not believe in spiritual assimilation. It is inconceivable, from the physical point of view, that a Jew born to a family of pure Jewish blood … can become adapted to the spiritual outlooks of a German or a Frenchman … He maybe wholly imbued with that German fluid but the nucleus of his spiritual structure will always remain Jewish”[7] …

“There can be no assimilation as long as there is no mixed marriage”[8]

Reed’s opinions mirror those of some Jewish agitators of his era. The duty of the intellectual is to find such critical links within our cultural heritage. Is not this exactly what Radical Press and Mr. Topham have been doing for the last three decades?

Conclusion (removed by the court)

I may not agree with every statement made by Mr. Topham. But it is clear to me that Mr. Topham is a thinking honest person as well as a humanist. I cannot find a single statement he made that expresses hatred of any kind. I found no instance in which Mr. Topham made a call for any action that might lead to any form of violence or incite hatred.

Mr. Topham’s activity is part of the vital effort to maintain a humanist approach to politics and to continue evolving ethical thinking. The views that I express above, are not only concerned with the public interest, more than anything else, they are in the direct interests of the Jewish people though I accept that many Jews may fail to see it.

[1] Tztitis - the name for specially knotted ritual fringes, or tassels, worn in antiquity by observant Jews.

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Israel-Lobby-U-S-Foreign-Policy/dp/0374531501

[3] https://trutube.tv/item/photos/40/24YK99NWD29U/Is-Hollywood-Run-by-Jews-You-Bet-L-A-Times-Article

[4] http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.643852

[5] http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/W/bo3624725.html

[6] http://coteret.com/2009/11/09/settler-rabbi-publishes-the-complete-guide-to-killing-non-jews/

[7] https://zulfahmed.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/the-race-theories-of-jabotinsky-a-central-figure-of-zionism/

[8] Ibid