The Palestine Liberation Movement is not about Anti-Semitism

by Paul Larudee

I don’t disagree that the cowardly removal by Aljazeera of everything written by Joseph Massad is a travesty of justice and journalism and that their reinstatement is justified.  But why was Massad trying to defend Palestinian rights based upon them being “the last of the Semites?”

The term “Semite” was born of the assumption that all the languages of the world are the result of the sons of Noah – Shem, Ham and Japheth – going to different parts of the globe after the flood and creating different language groups: Semitic, Hamitic and Japhetic.  The sons of Noah?  Are we seriously entertaining such nonsense?

To make matters worse, this absurdity was extended to fictitious “races,” not just languages.  “Anti-Semitic” therefore is descriptive of the Hamitic and Japhetic races turning on the descendents of Shem, the third brother.  No one seriously speaks of Hamitic and Japhetic races.  Is it not time to recognize the absurdity of the Semitic “race” as well?

Even more absurd is the attempt to use such mythological concepts to measure the virtue of the Palestinian cause.  The Palestinian cause has nothing to do with Jews, Semites, anti-Semitism, God, Abraham, Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, Noah, Jacob, Ishmael, Shem, Ham and Japheth, whether you believe in them or not.  It has nothing to do with the Holocaust, colonialism, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Crusaders, the Turks or the British.

It has everything to do with the expulsion of Palestinians from their land and with denial of their right to sovereignty, to self-determination and above all their Right to Return.  It does not matter who expelled them.  It is their land and they have the right to return.  It does not matter who denies their existence.  They have a right to return.

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United Against Scholarship

By Gilad Atzmon

In the last few years we have been witnessing the emergence of a self-gratifying populist culture in the midst of the Palestinian scholarly discourse. Two years ago we watched Ali Abunimah's lecture about ‘culture’ and politics setting a new record of intellectual ignorance.  We then came across  ‘anti’ racist Israel boycott campaigner Omar Barghouti preaching in favour of  biological determinism. This week I came across Columbia Professor Joseph Massad’s Last of the Semites, a talk on Zionism and anti-semitsm the Professor delivered in Stuttgart last month. Unfortunately Massad repeats the exact same pattern.

Watch Massad's Lecture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqtnY3aYuOo

Let’s us examine  some of Massad’s ideas. Towards the end of his talk Massad concludes that  “whereas Israel insists that European Jews do not belong in Europe and must come to Palestine, the Palestinians have always insisted that the homelands of European Jews were their European countries and not Palestine.” Nice set-up of conflicting views but made up out of whole cloth by Massad.  I can’t think of any Palestinian, including Massad himself, who has been brave enough to boldly suggest to Europeans Jews where they really belong. In fact, the only person who was courageous enough to express such a simple and truthful idea was American hero Helen Thomas. So the next question to ask is who are the ‘Palestinians’ Massad has in mind? Do they exist outside of his solipsistic universe?

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Gilad Atzmon on free speech, self-censorship, and the legacy of George Orwell

Gilad Atzmon on Kevin Barrett's Truth Jihad

http://truthjihadradio.blogspot.com/2013/05/gilad-atzmon-on-free-speech-self.html

Gilad Atzmon
Gilad Atzmon, who will be performing tonight in Madison, Wisconsin, says the loss of freedom in today's world is being driven not just by overt power grabs, but by a sort of Orwellian self-censorship that is pervasive on the left.  His latest project is a re-reading of George Orwell - who, Gilad says, saw it all coming.

http://truthjihadradio.blogspot.com/2013/05/gilad-atzmon-on-free-speech-self.html

The Role of the United States in Israel

 

 

By Samir Abed-Rabbo: Zionism

Introduction:

Israeli apologists would like us to believe that Zionism, the political ideology guiding Israeli policies and practices since its establishment of Israel in Palestine in 1948, is God’s chosen national movement for the re-establishment and maintenance of a “Jewish homeland” in “biblical lands”. Moreover, they want us to accept that Zionism is Judaism and that present-day Israel is the Jewish “promised land”. As a religion, Judaism considers the return of Jews to Palestine before the coming of the Messiah a sacrilege.

God has never been involved in real estate transactions; neither has the Bible ever been considered a source of International Law governing relations between modern states nor a reliable source of human history or archeology. If the world were to be re­established according to the Bible, the United States, Europe and most modern states would not exist. Furthermore, there are no eyewitness accounts or scientific evidence linking current Israeli Jews to the ancient Hebrews. Some historians and archeologists even dispute that Jews ever had a significant presence in the area.
 
 

A Brief Analysis:

Israel was established by a European racist and settler colonial ideology through the use of carefully and deliberately fabricated myths. Unlike classical settler colonialism, Zionism and Zionists do not maintain an umbilical cord to a mother European country nor plans to exploit local natives and resources.  Zionism and Zionists argue for close cooperation with disposable surrogate superpower(s), complete control of resources, and the expulsion of the indigenous population, the Palestinians.  Zionism and Zionists claim that Palestine was desolate and the Palestinians never existed. The clear motive behind the myths is to justify the establishment of Israel in Palestine as a Jewish state and the gathering of Jews therein. Myths that are often repeated give ways to delusional mindset. Zionism and Zionists concluded that Palestine will become a home for the Jewish state regardless of the wishes of the Palestinians and in order to achieve this objective, the inhabitants will be ethnically cleansed. There are two main lies that the Zionists regurgitate: Palestine was desolate and there is no such a thing as Palestinians. Was Palestine desolate? Did the Palestinians exist in history?

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Egypt to Gaza; The Gate and The Key

By: Lauren Booth Publication; OnIslam.net

It’s been exactly a year since I was last in Gaza.

In that time another terrible attack has been unleashed by the Israeli military and government on the trapped Palestinian populace.

On my previous visit, months after Egyptians elected the Muslim Brotherhood to power, there was little sign to the visitor of any real easing of the punitive behavior of officials at the Rafah crossing, towards Palestinians, wishing to travel to and from their homeland.

What changes would I see this time?

The team I work with at Peace 2012 stack our boxes of stationary and children’s toys onto trolleys at the dreaded crossing. ‘Dreaded’ because it has for decades been a symbol of the Mubarak regime’s ruthless willingness to carry out the dirty job of persecuting Palestinians at the behest of the Israeli government.

I remember feeling dumbfounded on my first visit to Gaza in 2006.

Read our interview with Lauren Booth during her visit to Cairo, Egypt:

- We’re One Body: Lauren Booth’s Message in Cairo

On hearing Gazan’s mutter bitterly that it was ‘better’ to fall into the hands of the Israeli soldiers, than Mubarak's boot boys. ’You expect things from your enemy but the violence of your brothers - this hurts in another way’ I heard many times.

Outside the Egyptian terminal, the same anarchy as always - a sea of clawing hands grabbing at our cases and boxes. Not to help us, certainly not! The hands here hijack your bags, walk them a hundred paces then menace you into paying as much as 60 US dollars, forcing a loud, near violent exchange, before we give up shouting and empty our wallets - of much much less! Same old, same old!

Laurenbooth222
Instead of a mocking faux interrogation (as in years gone by), today, all is tea and coffee pleasantness. Assurances are given that Palestine is at the heart of every Arab and every Muslim.

I am hoarse with shouting; ‘this is NOT Islam’ to the bemused, couldn’t-care-less, muggers.

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Arch AZZ Greenstein surrendered

By Gilad Atzmon

In the last few weeks we have witnessed more than a few humanists abandoning the Palestinian solidarity sinking dingy.

Veteran BBC celebrity Alan Hart, the person who devoted the last 3 decades to the Palestinian cause and provided us with some spectacular analysis, decided to call it a day. A week later we learned from Haaretz, that Prof’ Norman Finkelstein, possibly one of the most profound academic contributors to the discourse, was also tired of ‘Israeli bashing’. Stuart Littlewood, probably the boldest pro Palestinian writer in Britain, admitted that he is also close to take a similar decision. Hart, Littlewood  and Finkelstein expressed their  dismay for more than a while and their concerns, although varied, have been shared by many, at least in part, including your truly.

But our humanists are not the only one to manifest fatigue.  Even the AZZs are drifting away now. Apparently UK leading tribal operator Tony Greenstein has also given up.

Using his favourite colour (red) to announce his departure yesterday, Tony he wrote on his blog “As Anti-semitism in the Palestine Solidarity Movement has all but vanished the purpose of this blog has become redundant”

This is indeed a sad day. Tony was my favourite cyber stalker and he will be missed. I would love to use the opportunity to not only wish him the best but also to thank him from the bottom of my heart for all the hard work he invested into promoting my work and helping to make The Wandering Who into a best seller.  

Tony makes it pretty clear what led him to his regrettable decision. According to him, the Judeification of the Palestinian Solidarity has been completed. To a certain extent Tony is correct: the actions of UK PSC expelling Palestinians, and monitoring the BDS changing its goal statement in a clandestine manner just to appease the Jews suggest clear Judeification.  Watching Electronic Abunimah and BDS harassing truth tellers in accordance with Biblical Hebraic herem culture is another serious concern.

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Take It From the Rabbi’s Mouth

Introduction by Gilad Atzmon

Every so often we come across a secular Jewish ‘anti’ Zionist’  who argues that Zionism is not Judaism and vice versa. Interestingly enough, I have just come across an invaluable text that illuminates this question from a rabbinical perspective. Apparently back in 1942, 757 American Rabbis added their names to a public pronouncement titled ‘Zionism an Affirmation of Judaism’. This Rabbinical rally for Zionism was declared at the time “the largest public pronouncement in all Jewish history.”

Today, we tend to believe that world Jewry’s transition towards support for Israel followed the 1967 war though some might  argue that already in 1948, American Jews manifested a growing support for Zionism. However, this rabbinical pronouncement proves that as early as 1942, the American Jewish religious establishment was already deeply Zionist. And if this is not enough, the rabbis also regarded Zionism as the ‘implementation’ of Judaism. Seemingly, already then, the peak of World War two, the overwhelming majority of American Rabbis regarded Zionism, not only as fully consistent with Judaism, but as a “logical expression and implementation of it.”

In spite of the fact that early Zionist leaders were largely secular and the East European Jewish settler waves were driven by Jewish socialist ideology, the rabbis contend that “Zionism is not a secularist movement. It has its origins and roots in the authoritative religious texts of Judaism.

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Mideast Masters of Jazz: Gilad Atzmon & Zane Musa Quintet

landmark victory For a Change

BY Gilad Atzmon

Cafe Palestine Freiburg won a landmark victory against Freiburg University in the German administrative court last Friday.

Six months ago Café Palestine filed  a complaint against the University in the Administrative Court following the University´s refusal to let the Palestinian solidarity group use a space for a lecture by Paris University professor Christophe Oberlin.

On Friday, the  Administrative Court of Freiburg  made of five judges found that the University  acted illegally. 

Freiburg University together with Dr. Heinrich Schwendemann, who was the main actor against the Café,  were highly criticized by the court.  Schwendemann is one of the founders of the German Holocaust memorial site shoa.de.

As far as I am aware the University will have to pay all costs involve in the legal proceedings. I guess that Dr. Schwendemann may need to consult with a legal expert soon. Apparently the Shoa expert was lying in court and he may face a further legal  humiliation soon.

 

To read more: http://othersite.org/press-release-cafe-palestine%C2%B4s-victory-against-the-university-of-freiburg-3/

A Must Watch!!!

A Documentary Film exploring the Western misconceptions about the Middle East through are Main Stream Media outlets (Movies,News and TV) and how important it is to re examine are support for Israel. To be reasonable about this clip. I have not seen this film. But I have read the reviews and I agree with personalities portrayed on this clip. There for felt it was important enough to add to my channel.

Hello Everybody, I am in the USA for the next 2 weeks

Gilad Atzmon’s Appearance Schedule from May 13 – 29, 2013

http://wanderingwho.com/

Berkeley, CA

  • Monday, May 13  5pm KPFA radio interview for Flashpoints

Portland, OR

Oakland, CA

San Diego, CA

Los Angeles, CA

 

Santa Barbara, CA

  • Saturday, May 18 meeting

Denver, CO

Madison, WI

Chicago, IL

  • Wednesday, May 22, Appearance on CROE.TV

Toledo, OH

Ann Arbor, MI

  • Friday, May 24, Meeting

 

NYC, NY

  • Saturday, May 25 10pm @fat cat 75 Christopher at 7th Ave. NYC
  • Sunday, May 26 4:30pm-7pm @Smalls Jazz Club 183 West 10th St. Greenwich Village, NYC

Washington, DC

  • Tuesday, May 28  7-9pm  “Grooving with Gilad” @Madam’s Organ  2461 18th St., NW, Washington, DC

My response to Salvador López Arnal and Santiago Alba Rico

 

By Gilad Atzmon

http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/
Gilad Atzmon جيلاد أتزمون گيلاد آتزمون

 

My piece “In Bed With Bibi” was published in English a few days ago. It was circulated and posted by a vast majority of Western dissent, online magazines. It has been praised by many and, as far as I am aware of, no one took the trouble to criticise or deconstruct the article.

Interestingly enough, two days ago, the Spanish translation of “In Bed With Bibi” was published online by Tlaxcala and reproduced by the Rebelión website. Within a few hours, all hell broke loose: Salvador López Arnal and Santiago Alba Rico were remarkably quick to criticize the piece. On the face of it, the meaning of it to me seems simple and positive. The Spanish-speaking left is still engaged in an intellectual and ideological debate.

I have now read both López Arnal and Alba Rico’s papers, and my response will be short and to the point. I am afraid that both Salvador and Santiago failed categorically in understanding my article.

To start with, in my piece, I refrain from taking either side of the debate. I am neither pro-Assad nor pro the ‘rebels’. I am not taking either side for two reasons.

First, I question the notion of ‘moral intervention’ and I ask, what would create an ethical ground for any form of intervention whatsoever? When is it right and when is it wrong to intervene? What is it that makes it right for ‘person A’, who lives in ‘place B’, to interfere with the reality of ‘person C’, who lives in ‘place D’? And if intervention can be justified ethically how do we distinguish between a Neocon’s call and a ‘righteous progressive’ one? 

Second, I feel that the war we are witnessing in Syria is extraordinarily complicated. We should all remember that, in it’s early phase, it was led by non-violent Syrian protesters who were faced with the regime’s brutality. However, I believe that the situation on the ground has changed radically, and it is not the Syrian people or their interests that shape this conflict anymore. I think we are witnessing an odd alliance between Qatar, foreign mercenaries, the USA and Israel.

The question I am raising in my piece is simple:

How is it possible that some of our leading political scientists are blind to the devastating probability that their calls for intervention provide Israel with a green light to attack an Arab country?

I also feel that both López Arnal and Alba Rico have failed to answer this question. Instead they criticise my language and the manner in which I choose to deal with the term ‘allies’. In this respect, they are right, and I don’t choose my words to appease any readers. Quite the opposite, I much prefer to intrigue people to think critically, ethically and out of the box.

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