Anthony Lawson: The Israeli Judge Lied!!!
Gilad Atzmon: Rachel Corrie and the Kosher Legal Stamp
Judge Oded Gershon’s ruling earlier this week that the state of Israel is not to blame for the death of Rachel Corrie, came as no surprise. In fact it reaffirms everything we know about the Jewish state - its politics, legal system and spirit. Israel is surely a most peculiar state - it is impervious to ethical thinking and humanist thought. Accordingly, Judge Gershon gave this week a kosher stamp to a cold-blooded murder and by so doing, he proved, once again, that Israeli criminal actions are consistent with the most vile interpretations of Old Testament and Talmudic Goy-hating.
As one would predict, Judge Gershon, restricted himself to legalism and litigation as opposed to ethical thinking - he actually blamed Corrie for not ‘behaving reasonably’. Yet, one may wonder what is this ‘reason’ or more precisely, what does an Israeli mean when he or she refers to ‘reason’.
Rachel Corrie was bulldozed to death by an Israeli military D9 Caterpillar on 16 March 2003. She was part of ISM (International Solidarity Movement), a non-violent pro-Palestinian peace activist group. Being an American youngster, Corrie mistakenly believed that Israeli soldiers were humanly driven. Being a reasonable person she must have believed that an Israeli bulldozer driver would never drive over her body. She was wrong. Corrie clearly failed to grasp that Israeli ‘reasoning’ was lethally fuelled by psychosis and fantasies of destruction.
The Kindness of Banks
By Barb Weir
Penin Diaz, an American friend of mine, sent me this distressing report that I felt I had to share. Some of the details are uniquely American, but the experience is not – Barb Weir
Our family is going through hard times, and we’re trying to cut expenses, so I asked my bank about mortgage loan modification.
“We’re here to help you, Mr. Diaz,” said the loan officer. “How far behind are you in your mortgage payments? You don’t qualify unless you’re pretty destitute.”
“We’re not behind yet,” I said, “but I lost my job. In order to keep up the payments, we had to shut down the heating and air conditioning and eat peanut butter sandwiches. My son is wearing my daughter’s hand-me-downs, which she got at the thrift store. My wife sold all her jewelry, and is getting additional income from what she calls ‘the kindness of strangers.’”
“That’s terrible, Mr. Diaz, but I can’t help unless your payments are at least two months behind. Stop paying and come back in two months.”
So we did and I returned after two months.
“Good job,” said the loan officer. “Fill out these forms, and mail them in, along with proof of how poor you now are, compared to when you took out the loan.”
Chocolate, America, John Cleese & a Kosher Armageddon
Chocolate, America and a Kosher Armageddon
In this new Israeli advert for Chocolate Spread you can learn what it takes to drag America into a Kosher war.
I guess that in reality it takes slightly more than just chocolate spread, but, seemingly, not much more than that.
p.s. It looks as if John Cleese doesn't take BDS seriously
Rinaldo Francesca interviews Gilad Atzmon
Hello everybody, I was away for a month.
I will try to catch up.
Here is a very interesting film made by Rinaldo Francesca:
The Wandering Who? A Study Of Jewish Identity Politics, Jewish political interest, Jewish Lobby and beyond..
The book can be ordered on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
David Mamet Vs. Gilad Atzmon
Introduction by Gilad Atzmon: Yesterday I came across this very interesting piece by James Warner. It is far from being surprising that intellectual and ideological criticism is taking place out of the solidarity movement. This is probably a price we are paying for three decades of Left and AZZ indoctrination. Warner's reading of my work is pretty astute. He doesn't take my words out of context and his criticism is also valid. Those who enjoyed The Wandering Who may find this piece interesting.
David Mamet, Gilad Atzmon and identity politics
There are unexpected similarities between two writers usually thought of as polar opposites. The author ends up wishing that each of them would write their version of an imagined encounter with the other.
Reading Gilad Atzmon's The Wandering Who? [5] immediately after David Mamet's The Secret Knowledge [6], I was surprised to find the two books, written from vehemently opposed political viewpoints, nonetheless reminded me of each other. Does Mamet's need to see the Israelis only as scapegoats grow from the same root as Atzmon's need to see them only as perpetrators? An underlying emotional argument of Mamet's The Secret Knowledge [6] could be glossed as “I used to be a poster child for liberalism, so all the more reason to believe me now I reject everything about liberalism.” For an underlying emotional argument of Atzmon's The Wandering Who? [5] substitute “Zionism” for “liberalism.” But even if this were a compelling line of argument, each book contains plenty of evidence Mamet and Atzmon were never exactly poster children.
Mamet's plays and other writings celebrate individual courage, discipline, and commitment. While he has only recently started identifying as a conservative, his long-term distrust of academia and high estimation of street smarts, his generally low opinion of human nature and belief that playing the victim card is a more contemptible route to power than is straightforward self-interested chicanery – while arguably bipartisan attitudes -- in the contemporary U.S. tend to be more associated with the right. It's not surprising if a man whose plays observe the Aristotelian unities of Time, Place and Action leans conservative, while when it comes to Israel – more likely the driving factor behind Mamet's political conversion – he has for some time been on the right of Israel's foreign policy spectrum. According to The Secret Knowledge [6], he now desires a Republican victory in the U.S. in 2012 and the repeal of health care reform, Israel's infallibility apparently not extending to its system of socialized medicine. Mamet loves America and Israel for their entrepreneurialism, and tends toward the neocon line that Israel is the front line in the “War Against Terrorism,” and that anyone criticizing the Israeli government's treatment of the Palestinians must be an anti-Semite. Mamet reports he is now ashamed not to have fought in Vietnam, a lack for which his more recent hawkishness could be seen as a bid to compensate.
Deconstructing Avraham Burg
By Gilad Atzmon
I respect former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg. Over the years, Burg has managed to extend the scope of the Zionist self-criticism; he has challenged the Zionist discourse, Israeli society and even Jewish identity politics. A few days ago, in a New York Times opinion piece, he attempted to explore the reasons behind the collapse of Israeli democracy.
Burg seemed alarmed by the way in which the relationship between Israel and America has evolved. “When an American presidential candidate visits Israel and his key message is to encourage us to pursue a misguided war with Iran… we know that something profound and basic has changed in the relationship between Israel and the United States.”
Burg was obviously referring to Mitt Romeny’s grave comment in Jerusalem last week. But, in his analysis of the relationship between the two warmongering states, Burg may have failed because, in reality, nothing much has changed in recent years. On the contrary, the true nature and deep cultural, ideological and spiritual bond between America and Israel is now clear for all to see.
Dismembering the Arab World
by Makram Khoury-Machool
Dr Makram Khoury-Machool is a Palestinian scholar, based in Cambridge, UK
http://www.deliberation.info/dismembering-the-arab-world/
The behaviour of the NATO-aligned, anti-Syrian bloc is now blatant enough for us to better understand what is happening in Syria. On the one hand, we find political operators such the ad-hoc group ‘Friends of Syria’, and on the other, two Arab personalities, both ministers of two Gulf sheikhdoms.
The first group includes NATO-led heads of states, with a barely disguised Israeli master-plan conceived by the likes of Bernard-Henri Lévy. Rather than being the friends of Syria, these personalities are arguably working to secure their own financial interests in, around, and via Syria. The two Arab politicians are the two foreign ministers ofSaudi ArabiaandQatar. They have declared that those forces acting violently against the Syrian state should be armed and financially supported. In short, these conventions of the so-called ‘Friends of Syria’ are probably no more than a ‘modern’ version of those meetings conducted by Viceroy Lord Curzon, who, in 1903, addressed the ‘Chiefs of the Arab Coast’ on HMS Argonaut in Sharjah (UAE).
The Qataris and Saudis give financial support to the ‘rebels’ for weapons, payments to fighters and mercenaries, and logistical oversight of attacks on Syria. All of this is in addition to their support with telecommunication services, combat tactics, and strategic military advice. Unsurprisingly, the Western military advisors, who operate for the armed groups behind the scenes, do not feature in any media outlets. Neighbouring states also provide geographical assistance to the armed groups, with Jordan providing a passage for mercenaries from Libya, and Turkey acting as the northern military base for operations.
Turkey is involved because of its wish to align itself with the Saudi-Sunni, NATO-backed line and also its fear that a dismembered Syria would lead to the promotion of Kurdish autonomy. In their eyes, this could bring about the eventual union of the Kurds with Iraqi and Syrian Kurds and then lead to civil war with Turkey and the eventual separation of Kurdistan from Turkey and the creation of a Kurdish state.
For its part, Israel has for decades planned, as part of its strategy to dominate the Middle East and the Mediterranean, to weaken Syria in order to continue its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights and to dominate water sources. Essentially, Israel wants to be the main economic and military power in the region and indeed, Israel may well emerge from the weakening ofSyria as the main winner, if only in the short-term.
Through its orchestrated media campaigns transmitted over the decades to its own public,Israel has constructed a concept of Syria as the major threat to its existence in the Arab world. Arguably, the governmental vacuum that might be created in Syria could be filled by al-Qaeda-like groups giving sufficient justification for Israel’s actions (against Syria and/or Iran) and would also promote the idea of a conflict between ‘civilized-democratic’ Israel and ‘savage’ Islamists.
Despite huge differences between Syria and Libya, Syria’s fate could be similar to that of Libya in terms of direct foreign intervention, were not Russia and China firmly opposed such actions at the UN, where there has been consistent cooperation between the two. Although the origins of Sino-Soviet relations go back to the early days of the 1917 Communist Revolution, it seems that, even two decades after the dismantlement of the Eastern Bloc, the Russian Federation and the Republic of China are, more than ever, following what Mao Tse-tung advised in his ‘Be a True Revolutionary’ address on 23 June 1950. Here, Tse-tung said that ‘in the international sphere we must firmly unite with the Soviet Union’ (see Selected Works of Mao Tsetung, vol. V. p. 39). Shared ideology, world vision, economic interests, and objectives in the field of energy have brought Russia and China ever closer together over the Syrian conflict.
Mezvinsky & Atzmon on Heidegger's Podium
Dear friends
I am away (with no internet or wifi connection) for 3 weeks finishing a new book and teaching Jazz.
However, I just learned that my talk for Cafe Palestine @ Freiburg University is now available on youtube.
Last month I toured Germany, Austria and Switzerland together with Frank Harrison and Dr Gabi Weber for 3 weeks. I gave talks about music and Jewish identity ahead of the publication of the German edition of The Wandering Who (October 2012). The legendary American historian Prof. Norton Mezvinsky Joined us for three days.
The following is our joint talk in Freiburg University on 03.07.2012 (German translation by Dr. Gabi Weber)
Gilad Atzmon on The Wandering Who
Prof. Norton Mezvinsky on Jewish Histroy, Zionism and Israel