Red Scribblings: The Blundering Who? (A Marxist Perspective)

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Introduction by Gilad Atzmon:  This is a thought provoking reading of The Wandering Who from a Marxist perspective. It certainly proves that Left ideology can still produce an intellectual insight.


Gilad Atzmon_DSC0108b

 

Gilad Atzmon’s first substantive political book has caused a significant public controversy, particularly as it has been published by Zero Books, a well known publisher of what could perhaps be cynically dubbed as radical chic, works by various up-and-coming left-wing intellectuals and thinkers. A number of other authors have protested against its publication, accusing Atzmon of being close to a Nazi and certainly a Holocaust Denier. Aztmon, a very outspoken and passionate opponent of the oppression of the Palestinians by Israel, the country of his birth, is one of a small fringe of radicalised pro-Palestinian Israel Jews, who have not only rejected Zionism as a project necessarily involving the expulsion of the native Arab population of Palestine to make way for Jewish settlers, but have also drawn conclusions about the nature of ‘Jewishness’ as an identity. These appear to be a mixture of sometimes useful, sometimes off-the-wall criticisms of the notions of Jewish ‘nationhood’ or identity explicit in Zionism and Atzmon argues, implicit in other Jewish, secular political trends, with much more dubious extrapolations about 19th and 20th Century history, and particularly the persecution and massacre of Jews by Nazi Germany.

 

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Roy Ratcliffe on The Wandering Who

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Introduction By Gilad Atzmon: Roy Ratcliffe is a non-sectarian anti-capitalist thinker. I have been  following Ratcliffe's impressive work for years. Ratcliffe reading of my work is  accurate. He certainly understands where I come from. Being involved with the UK PSC for years. Ratcliffe is also pretty familiar with the damage inflicted by the enemy within.

http://criticalmassdotnet.wordpress.com/

This book is sub-titled ‘A study of Jewish identity politics’, and this is exactly what methodically unfolds throughout the book. With refreshing honesty, Gilad Atzmon, traces his own progress, from birth in a Zionist family, through youthful enthusiasm for Israel, to eventual horror at its brutality. The latter perception arising when in the Israeli army he realised that the Palestinians he witnessed in a Lebanese ‘concentration camp’, were the equivalent of 1940’s Jews and that he and his army comrades were the post-war equivalent of Nazis.  From then on he progressively engaged with the struggle for Palestinian rights and critically with the state of Israel, Zionism and the concept of Jewish-ness. In the book he rejects the biological assertion of Jews as a race or that modern Jews can now be defined by adherence to the religion of Judaism. He, therefore, distinguishes three categories of those who say they are Jews: a) those who follow Judaism; b) those who regard themselves as human beings – who happen to be of Jewish birth; and c) those who put their Jewish-ness over all other traits.  It is the latter, 3rd category Jews, which he argues create the problem for Palestinians and others because those who assign themselves to this ‘political’ category, raise it over and above all others. He convincingly argues that what unites most Jews in the modern era is their ‘identification’ with a separatist, anti-assimilation, re-constructed ideology.  It is, he argues, an ideology of ‘Jewish-ness’.

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Gilad Atzmon: Supremacists on ‘The Wandering Who’.

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Two days ago I referred to a critique of ‘The Wandering Who’ written by Mark Gardner. Gardner is a rabid Zionist and Jewish supremacist who tends to conflate Jewish Nationalism (Zionism) with Jewish ethnicity.  However, Gardner’s criticism of my book was, in the main, intelligent and fair, though certainly not free of error.  

Yesterday, I found out that The Occidental Observer, a White Supremacist magazine, also published a lengthy review of ‘The Wandering Who’ written by Prof. Kevin MacDonald.  Like Gardner, MacDonald also conflates Jewish ideology and culture with ethnicity. His most controversial claim is that a suite of traits that he attributes to Jews, including higher-than-average verbal intelligence and ethnocentrisms, have eugenically evolved to enhance the ability of Jews to outsmart non-Jews in the competition for resources while, at the same time, undermining the power and self-confidence of the white majorities in Europe and America who, he insists, Jews seek to dispossess. Just like Gardner, MacDonald produced an interesting text, though Macdonald’s was somewhat more scholarly.  

Although both are supremacist and ethnocentric thinkers, Gardner and MacDonald seem to be in a kind of dispute.

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Gilad Atzmon: The Jew-Only Panic Mobile Technology

Ladies and gentleman the ‘CST Report’ mobile application is ready to launch. The first ‘Jew only’ mobile application designed to comfort Jews, their anxiety and their very special security needs. 

The London Jewish Chronicle reported today that the  ‘Community Security Trust’  (CST) has launched a system to help members of the Jewish community, report ‘anti-Semitic’ incidents direct from their mobile phones.

CST Report is like an "app" for smart-phones. It can be used on any mobile, which has internet access. It is very much like “Angry Birds” yet it is designed to deter the  angry Goyim.

It allows its Jewish users to register where and when an incident took place: the nature of it, a description of what happened and their details.  Because CST Report is designed specifically for mobile use, it allows those who have witnessed an incident to upload a video or pictures from the phone direct to the CST command bunker in Golders Green. I think that this is a refreshing development. It would clearly disable the potential deniers of any future Shoa. With the CST Report at hand, Jews will be able to provide the CST control room with instantaneous reports from the crime scene.

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A New Video about the Annexation wall

Introduction by Gilad Atzmon: This important video explores the brutal reality inflicted by the neo ghetto ideology and the walls it surrounded itself with. Zionism was there to drift the Jew away from the Ghetto but Israel has managed to relocate the Jew behind the Ghetto wall. Israel has managed to separate its people from land and its indigenous people i.e.  the Palestinians.

The monstrous  wall is a clearly true reflection of the failure of the Jewish national project. The Annexation wall is, in fact,  a glimpse into Israeli collective phobia.

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Rainlore: The Neo-Book Burners And 'The People Of The Book'

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I normally steer clear of politics on this site as far as I can. That is not, after all, what this site is concerned with in the ordinary course of events. However, when an artist - in this case, an author - whose work has been reviewed on this site, and that author and his work become the subject of sustained smear campaigns and worse, then it is clearly every freedom-loving decent human being's duty to speak out. While we still have that precious freedom, that the very people who conduct these kinds of campaigns would so clearly and dearly like to take away from us.

The author and work we are concerned with here is that unique seeker of truth, freedom and beauty, and jazz phenomenon, Gilad Atzmon, and his latest book, The Wandering Who? - A Study of Jewish Identity Politics. (Reviewed on this site last month.) The sustained campaigns of puerile smears, distortions and outright lies by the would-be neo-book burners started weeks ago and show no signs of abating.

To read more:

www.rainloresworldofmusic.net

 

Gilad Atzmon on The Kevin Barett's Truth Jihad Radio Show

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On 28th September I was a guest on the Kevin Barrett’s radio show.  We spoke about everything: Israel, Palestine, freedom of speech, Islam, Judaism, Jewish identity, Zionism, Nazism vs. Zionism,  The Guardian and its 'new cult' , The Wandering Who, The Wondering me, the ‘left’, Jewish ‘anti’ Zionism and more.

Chating to Kevin is an inspiring event.

I  edited out the commercials and the music.

Enjoy yourself.

Book Launch: A Panel Discussion on 'Jewish Identity Politics'

Monday, 10th October, 2011, 7:30 pm

Resource for London, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 6PA

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=116757888430540

Zero Books invites you to a panel discussion on "Jewish Identity Politics" to launch Gilad Atzmon's important new book The Wandering Who.

For more info click here.

 

You can now order Gilad Atzmon's New Book on Amazon.com  or Amazon.co.uk

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Gilad Atzmon: Foreign Interests In Our Midst

The Jewish Chronicle reported yesterday that Israeli War Criminal Mrs Tzipi Livni is heading to Britain following the amendment of Britain’s universal jurisdiction law.
 
Under the old terms, ethically driven British citizens were able to apply for an arrest warrant for suspected war criminals. That meant that Israeli political and military leaders were strictly advised to stay away from this kingdom.
 
Legislation has now brought a new requirement aimed at preventing the courts from being used by morally driven individuals. The in-justice secretary, Ken Clarke, outlined how changes would give the Director of Public Prosecutions veto power over arrest warrants.
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Mazal Tov to Harry’s Place and Mark Gardner

Introduction by Gilad Atzmon: So the shekel has dropped. The notorious Zionist, pro-war, Islamophobic, Harry’s Place has finally woken up. At long last it attempts to engage - and, for the first time ever, to engage intellectually. Perhaps someone at the centre of Israel Cyber Command has at last gathered that urgent, strategic rethinking is now desperately needed.

So far, every effort to destroy The Wandering Who has backfired.  Last week’s orchestrated attack led by the Jewish Chronicle, the Guardian and war-advocate Jeffrey Goldberg ended in vain. The book wasn’t pulled, but we were given a telling glimpse into the embarrassing continuum between the hardcore Zionist praxis and the onanist AZZ ( Anti-Zionist Zionist) discourse. If you want to know how the Guardian ended up in bed with both the Jewish Chronicle and ex-concentration camp guard Jeffrey Goldberg, I suggest you read The Wandering Who. 

As usual, the Guardian listened to the wrong people and so grossly miscalculated its position, power and influence. Its outrageous attack on Alison Weir, Counterpunch and myself was not picked by a single dissident journal around the globe. In fact, it led Jonathan Cook, the most respected writer on Palestine, to expose what he defined as the Guardian’s “Dangerous Cult”. Unlike the Guardian piece that was left hanging out to dry on some rabid Zionist sites, Cook’s article was reprinted by every dissident outlet on the net.

However, Harry’s Place seems to be slightly more sophisticated. This week, they were quick enough to sense that a change of tactics is needed.  

For many years, Harry’s Place has had the following engraved on its banner: “Liberty, if it means anything, is the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear.”  This week, it dropped its old banner and introduced a new, more upbeat image featuring none other than…. myself.  They must have finally got it, that it is Atzmon whom they really despise, it is Atzmon who actually tells people what they don’t want to hear.

Obviously, I’m delighted with this development but the Zionist outlet still couldn’t quite manage to avoid yet another unfortunate lapse in taste. To my right, on their banner, you can see a vague, but still disturbing image. I suspect it’s an image of human corpses - probably victims of some genocide. But I can’t quite make up my mind whether these human corpses are victims of the Nazi Holocaust or are actually Arabs and Muslims who lost their lives in one of those wars for which Harry’s Place are so enthusiastic and supportive of. Is it not about time that Harry’s Place’s hasbara ringleaders grasped, that in every campaign they run, they simply expose further the darkness at the heart of the Zionist project?

Earlier today, Harry’s Place published an article by rabid Zionist Mark Gardner. Interestingly, Gardner has managed to produce the first Zionist attempt to deal with ‘The Wandering Who’ that’s actually worth reading. Unlike his tribal comrades, Gardner seems to have actually read my book. He doesn’t quote me out of context, he doesn’t falsify my words and, best of all, he seems to understand what I’m talking about. He actually attempts to criticise my text at face value. Unlike his comrades, Gardner manages to draw the necessary conclusions.  He grasps that, both myself and a few others, are “…formulating what risks becoming the new Jewish Question.” Here, Gardner is bang on. This is exactly what we’re doing. We argue that, considering the level of Jewish institutional involvement in Western politics (through lobbying AIPAC, CFI etc’ and pro Zionist think-tanks), the ‘Jewish Question’ is truly worthy of wide public interest.

However, Gardner is not entirely without error. For instance, he refers to ‘cultural racism’, yet it’s far from clear what he means by ‘cultural racism’ and exactly how I am complicit in such a discourse.  I believe that racism is indeed a horrible thing and I regard myself as a devoted anti-racist campaigner. But I also believe that supremacist cultures that are racially driven are also a very bad thing. This fact alone makes me into an opponent of every form of Jewish political discourse - for such a discourse is always racially driven.

I suppose that Mark Gardner and Harry’s Place are coming to realise that The Tide Has Changed. Solidarity with Palestinians is now far from being an insignificant, fringe, Marxist exercise, teetering on the verge of self-indulgence. Harry’s Place is waking up to a new reality. We’re all Palestinians now - and we’ve lost our fear.

 

Mark Gardner: From The Wandering Jew to The (new) Jewish Question

 

http://hurryupharry.org/

Gilad Atzmon is an ex-Israeli Jew. His latest book, “The Wandering Who?”, is potentially a key moment in the battle against contemporary antisemitism: forcing parts of the anti-Zionist left to finally confront the antisemitic dead-end that their over-heated fervour can lead to.

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The Wandering Who is Out This Week

In the last weeks my new book The Wandering Who has received incredible  support from some of the most inspiring people around (see below). It is no secret that some very forceful elements have been investing a lot of effort trying to stop the book and its message. So far, they have failed. 

You can now order Gilad Atzmon's New Book on Amazon.com  or Amazon.co.uk

A new short video about the book:

http://youtu.be/BFjejrGxFY4

Your support is much appreciated..

Endorsements:

“Gilad Atzmon decided to open Pandora’s Box, and ignite a debate that has been frustratingly dormant for too long. His experiences are most authentic, views are hard-hitting, and, at times, provocative. It must be read and discussed.”  Ramzy Baroud,  Palestine Chronicle

‘A transformative story told with unflinching integrity that all (especially Jews) who care about real peace, as well as their own identity, should not only read, but reflect upon and discuss widely.’ Professor Richard Falk

‘Essential to an understanding of Jewish identity politics and the role they play on the world stage.’ Professor John J. Mearsheimer 

‘Atzmon’s insight into the organism created by the Zionist movement is explosive. Professor William A. Cook

‘A pioneering work that deserves to be read and Gilad Atzmon is brave to write this book!’ Dr. Samir Abed-Rabbo

“Gilad's escape from spiritual claustrophobia towards a free and open humanitarianism is fearless” Robert Wyatt

“In his inimitable deadpan style, Atzmon identifies the abscess in the Jewish wisdom tooth – exilic tribalism – and pulls it out. Ouch!” Eric Walberg, Al Aharam Weekly

“It is more than an academic exercise. It is a revelation!” Lauren Booth, Press TV

"A brilliant analysis that makes what appear to be contradictions in Jewish identity based political behavior not only comprehensible but predictable." Jeff Blankfort

 ‘Atzmon has the courage - so profoundly lacking among Western intellectuals’ Professor James Petras

“Having known Gilad for 25 years, I read the book in English, I heard it in Hebrew and reflected on it in Arabic. Gilad Atzmon is astonishingly courageous” Dr. Makram Khoury-Machool

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Gilad Atzmon: May vs. Salah

Sheikh Raed Salah won a great victory in Britain High Court yesterday, Sheikh Salah (52) was detained on the orders of the home secretary, Theresa May who was obviously following instructions from the real rulers of this country (in Jerusalem). Salah was then imprisoned for funding Hamas and leading a violent demonstration. The High Court, however, ruled that Sheikh Salah was held unlawfully and is entitled to compensation. 

Since his arrival on 25 June, it has emerged that no one informed Sheikh Salah that he was prohibited from coming to Britain and that a Heathrow immigration officer who scanned his passport ignored a live alert to exclude him. Three days after entering the UK Sheikh Salah was detained at his west London hotel, handcuffed and taken to Paddington Green police station. He had been due to address a series of public meetings, including one at the Houses of Parliament.

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Prof. Brian Leiter: Mearsheimer Responds to the Latest Right-Wing Smears on Him...

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Introduction by Gilad Atzmon: The discrepancy of the general  quality between those who stood up for me in the last two weeks and those who used every tactics in the Stalinist book to silence me or my writing is staggering.  Amongst my supporters you'll find the greatest minds in academia, activism, journalism, art and beyond.  The list of my detractors is slightly embarrassing. It includes an ex-concentration camp guard Jeffrey Goldberg,  UK leading  Sayanim ring, one or two Bundists operators specialising in harassment campaigns and even one who thinks that he is Lenin.

For the obvious reasons they have failed all the way through- until now we didn’t see a single attempt to debate my ideas.  We didn’t come across a single argument. Instead we see a tsunami  of unsubstantiated labels levelled against my endorsers, supporters  and myself. But we stand firm, we lost our fear. We know that The Tide Has Changed.

I do think that my detractors better change their tactics, just for the sake of making life slightly more interesting.  They better find within their battalions  some who are clever enough to support their case.  Forging documents, quoting out of context, attributing misleading interpretations, copying  & pasting, intimidating, harassing, bullying or even shameful tantrums are not going to provide the good.

The following is a short post by professor Brian Leiter from Chicago University who comes into a conclusion looking at the evidence that is laid in front of him. A transparent  and brilliant text.   

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/

 

Brian Leiter...all because he wrote a blurb for a book, which none of the critics appear to have read.  What a world.  (I should add I've never met Professor Mearsheimer, and I share Professor Chomsky's skepticism about his and Walt's thesis about The Israel Lobby, but the hatchet jobs on him and Walt, which continue to this day, are such a travesty for academic freedom and honest intellectual discourse, that I hope readers will look at Mearsheimer's measured response to the latest smear and make sure to share it widely with colleagues and friends.)

UPDATE (9/28):  Prior to this tempest in a teapot about a blurb (!!!) on a book no one seems to have read (other than Professor Mearsheimer!), I'd not heard of Gilad Atzmon, the author who is apparently so verboten in certain circles that one can't even recommend anything he has written.   I found this interview with him illuminating and clarifying about his position, and it certainly confirms Mearsheimer's description of his outlook at the link, above.  Of particular relevance is this part of the interview:

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