Jeff Blankfort on Zio Con wars, Palestine and Paul Jay

Following is Jeff Blankfort's email to Paul Jay (The Real News Network) after reading his 'deconstruction' of my work. Jeff allowed me to publish his straight forward and illuminating  text.

Paul,

I am writing this late in the evening because I am now only just getting to my email having spent a good part of the day watching the House Foreign Relations Committee hearings on the Syrian war resolution, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting to vote out their own pro-war resolution, and most of an hour and three quarter CSPAN recording of a Jewish Inst. of National Security Affairs panel, featuring Dennis Ross, and chaired by the NY Post's Morty Zuckerman, which focused on the importance of attacking Syria on Israel's behalf because "we" need to send a message to Iran that it will be next.  That was a recurring theme in all the hearings.

What does this have to do with your refusal to give Gilad a chance to respond to Max Blumenthal's vilification of him on TRNN?

Quite a bit because, you see, none of what I have written, none of what went on today, will be commented on by the leading Jewish spokespersons of the Palestine solidarity/antiwar movement, Noam Chomsky, Phyllis Bennis, and Norman Finkelstein. In the tradition of Left Jewish activists, they will continue to ignore what was described in yesterday's NY Times (until it was pulled from its online edition), "the 800 pound gorilla in the room," namely AIPAC.

Paul, I have been active on the Palestinian issue since spending 4 1/2 months in Lebanon and Jordan in 1970, and the biggest obstacles to my work has not been AIPAC or the ADL, which I successfully sued, but Jewish leftists, from the members of the Communist Party and fellow travelers who were ready to lynch me then they heard I had been with the Palestinians, to all of the left groups, CP, Line of March, Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Action, etc., who combined their efforts to keep the Palestinian issue off of the movement agenda during two major marches in 1985 and 1988, the first in opposition to US intervention in Central America and the latter, for "peace, jobs, and justice," four and a half months into the first Intifada.

Whereas Jewish activists were prominent in the Central American movement and instrumental in getting Congress to vote down $15 million for the Contra (at a time when Israel was getting that much from the US every day), every effort to raise the issue of stopping aid to Israel was blocked by the Jewish activists who dominated the movement groups.

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Joshua Blakeney: Against War in Syria: The Great Parliamentary Revolt of 2013

This video, introduced by journalist Joshua Blakeney, offers a selection of the best anti-war speeches delivered during the House of Commons debate on Syria that took place on August 29, 2013. The Con-Dem Coalition had proposed taking Britain into yet another war to help destabilize one of Israel's adversaries, Syria. However, unlike in 2003 with the Iraq war, a sufficient amount of British MPs were able to see through the war propaganda and voted to refrain from deploying UK forces to flight against the people of Syria.

Paul Jay: Portrait of an Anti-Zionist Zionist

Introduction by Gilad Atzmon:

A few weeks ago some of us were rather amused to see Max Blumenthal, in conversation with Paul Jay (The Real News Network), deliver the usual anti-Zionist Zionist (AZZ) spiel. After the program many Palestinian solidarity and anti-war commentators were outraged and demanded that Jay provide me with a right to reply. So Jay approached me, asked to clarify a few issues and promised to come back to me shortly with an answer. I didn’t hold my breath because since the incident I had learned a little about Jay’s political affiliations and motivations. 

Yesterday, he came back with his answer (see below) which he manages to stuff with a pile of confused and jumbled arguments that convey profound intellectual ignorance and are riven with a host of embarrassing contradictions. But one thing was for sure. Gilad Atzmon would not be appearing on Jay’s show. Why? Because, above all, Jay is a coward and must have realised that he doesn’t stand a chance of countering my ideas in front of a camera, not even in his own studio.

I define Jewish Power as the power to divert the attention from Jewish Power and Paul Jay clearly engages in just such an endeavour. In fact, my main contribution to this discourse is probably my capacity to expose this very power and the manner in which it is wielded (Actually, all I do is hand the microphone to my detractors and let their symptoms speak for themselves).

But Jay’s muddled text cries for attention because it is an invaluable glimpse into the deeply corrosive and dishonest attitude that currently contaminates Palestine solidarity, the anti-war movement and the entire peace movement.

Jay attempts to build  his entire argument around the notion that I am an ‘anti Semite’ only to eventually admit that actually I am not. “Since the late 19th century the term (anti Semitism) has been used to mean hatred of Jews….Do I believe you (Gilad) hate all Jews? No. But your theory leads to that”

Well, I have some news for Jay & Co. ‘Theories’ do not hate, ideas do not kill, it is people who hate and people who kill. My ‘theories’ are there to enlighten people, including Jews.  My ideas offer Jews, even the so-called progressive Jews such as Jay himself, an opportunity to self-reflect and, hopefully, to correct that which needs correction. But here we have a problem. As I explore in The Wandering Who, Jewish identity politics is a general state of blindness, a detached collective mind-set which Jay himself proudly exhibits. We know that the Israelis will accept no criticism and their Jewish so-called  opponents react exactly the same. Time after time, they kill the messengers - or at least attempt to do so. This is why I am not at all angry with Jay, in fact I feel for him. He is trapped - metaphysically, spiritually and intellectually. Jay’s plight is the Jewish tragedy - a disastrous tale I explore fully in my writing. From a  psychoanalytical perspective  the man is in ‘denial’ and, like other progressive Jews, he, for the time being,  resists therapy. 

Now, before I let you read Jay own words, allow me to address some of his mistakes:

Jay fails to grasp the obvious distinction between ‘Judaism’ (the religion), ‘Jews’ (the people) and ‘Jewishness’ (the Ideology). In my work I concentrate on Jewish ideology and since I believe that every ideology and politics must be subject to criticism, this obviously includes Jewish identity politics. Jay, on the other hand, tries to block any criticism of Jewish politics and ideology. Is this because he believes that Jews are chosen? You be the judge.

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A Portrait that Tells Many Tales

A beautiful piece by Lasse Wilhelmson

http://lassewilhelmson.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/a-portrait-that-tells-many-tales/

photoPicture: writer Lasse Wilhelmson

This is a portrait of me in my writing corner with some of the many books I have bought over the past ten years, mainly off the internet; books that are about history, but not the history told by the victors of Europe’s two world wars. A portrait of a blue-eyed, curly-haired little boy can be seen too, along with an old Swedish country sideboard.

Four Books

You can identify them in the bookcase in the picture. The Jewish Century (2004) by Juri Slezkine, a Jewish-born American professor of history with roots in Russia. It is probably one of the most important books ever written, as he himself says, if you wish to understand 20th century history. According to Slezkine, this is impossible unless you comprehend the Jewish influence. Everything from the Russian ”revolution” to European education, culture and science is dealt with in this book which also includes many statistics.

The next book is The Israel Lobby, and US Foreign Policy (2007) by two of America’s most prestigious academics, John J Mearsheimer, professor of political science and Stephen M Walt, professor of international politics. It came to be the classic that broke the official silence surrounding all discussions concerning Israeli and Jewish influence on US foreign policy.

Between these two, is my own book  Is the World Upside Down? (2009). It contains a selection of my articles about the Palestinian issue, Zionism and the neocolonial wars waged in the first decades of the 21st century. They are arranged in order by time which makes it possible to follow how my earlier opinions, partly Jewish-Marxist, have changed as a result of a changing world and my in-depth studies.

The red book, The Wandering Who? (2011), is by Gilad Atzmon. He grew up in a rightwing Zionist home in Israel, where he did his military service; twenty years ago he chose exile in London where he now lives with his family. He has, perhaps like no other, deconstructed Jewish mentality which he sometimes calls Jewishness or Jewish ideology. Atzmon is also an informed philosopher and one of the world’s best jazz musicians, his favourite instrument is the saxophone.


Atzmon’s upbringing and experiences are very different from mine. I found him on the internet twelve years ago. I read one of his early articles and was astonished to find that I had a soul-mate, albeit several sizes larger than myself, apart from our ages. This was when I had just written my first long essay, perhaps my most significant, dealing among other things with Moses Hess and Karl Marx: Zionism – More than Traditional Colonialism and Apartheid.

The Swedish marxist Jan Myrdal had always been my intellectual role-model up until then. Now Gilad Atzmon replaced him.

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Simon Schama’s The Story of the Jews – History Vs. Chicken Soup

Review by Gilad Atzmon

On the day we learned that the BBC’s new Middle East editor, Raffi Berg, urged colleagues to downplay Israel's siege of Gaza, the British broadcaster launched Simon Schama’s The Story of the Jews.  I have only watched the 1st episode of this new BBC 2 grandiose series. But I already learned from Schama about Jewish greatness, the formation of his people and the continuum between the ancient Israelites and their contemporary followers: Schama and his local reform Synagogue in North West London.  I also learned about Jehovah, the God that was invented by the Jews to choose them over all other people. 

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Don’t miss: Gilad Atzmon at the LJF - 20 years in the UK @ The Queen Elizabeth Hall

21st November,  Gilad Atzmon 20 Years in Britain, London Jazz Festival, special concert at The Queen Elizabeth Concert Hall, London South Bank.

20 years after landing in the UK, saxophonist and composer Gilad Atzmon has become an intensely creative presence on the European scene, whether leading successive editions of his Orient House Ensemble, developing new work for string quartet alongside interpretations of the evocative Charlie Parker with strings project, or playing with the Blockheads and Robert Wyatt. 

This concert offers a journey through Gilad’s varied musical activity, including some very special collaborations.

The concert will feature The Orient House Ensemble (Frank Harrison, Eddie Hick & Yaron Stavi, The Sigamos Quartet led by Ros Stephen, Sarah Gillespie, Asaf Sirkis, Jennifer Bennett,   Yair Avidor and the legendary Norman Watt Roy.  

Don’t miss it, book now, the concert is selling out quickly: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/gilad-atzmon-74480

Coming gigs and tours, recordings & talks  (UK, Luxemburg, Cyprus, USA)

September

1 With The Power Cats, wall2wall Jazz Festival, Swan Hotel, Abergavenny

3 Gilad Atzmon Quartet, Wilmslow Conservative Club, Wilmslow

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Israel and the Jewish lobby likely to get embroiled in Congress debate on Syria

 

Israeli writer Chemi Shalev predicts today in Haartez that Israel and the Jewish Lobby will be putting pressure on congressmen. In practice they will push for a war against Syria.

"Supporters of Israel will likely be told that at this critical juncture, neutrality is a luxury that neither the lobby nor the Administration can afford. Time to put up or shut up, get off the fence and spend some of the precious political capital that Israel supporters have amassed in order to fight in the Washington trenches for something that most Israelis contend is crucial to their national interests."

And the verdict is clear, if you have a powerful Jewish lobby in you country, you don't really need an enemy, you will end up fighting a war with no end...

Hot off the Press: Britain sold nerve gas chemicals to Syria

By Gilad Atzmon

If you want to know why PM Cameron was keen to launch an immediate attack on Syria while the UN mission was still collecting evidence on the ground,  but then was very quick to scrap the idea all together, dailyrecord.co.uk provides the answer. Britain and Cameron’s government may as well be complicit in the unfolding tragedy.

Seemingly, British firms sold Syrian companies the chemical components needed for the production of chemical weapons, long after the beginning of the civil war.

“BRITAIN allowed firms to sell chemicals to Syria capable of being used to make nerve gas”

“Export licences for potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride were granted months after the bloody civil war in the Middle East began.”

According to the Daily Record, “the chemical export licences were granted by Business Secretary Vince Cable’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills last January – 10 months after the Syrian uprising began. They were only revoked six months later, when the European Union imposed tough sanctions on Assad’s regime.” However, it is far from being clear yet who is responsible for the attack. There is clear evidence that Rebel forces also possessed chemical weapons. One of the possible explanations for the recent tragedy is that Syrian artillery shells hit rebels’ WMD storage and it was the explosion that spread the lethal substance that killed so many innocents.  

“Yesterday, politicians and anti-arms trade campaigners urged Prime Minister David Cameron to explain why the licences were granted.”

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Syrians In Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack

Introduction by Gilad Atzmon:  I do not posses the means to verify how credible the following report is. It suggests that it was actually Syrian forces’ conventional artillery and missiles that hit rebel’s WMD storage. If the report is genuine, it would be consistent with the  American intelligence account: Assad's forces indeed fired rockets and artillery at the time of the alleged chimical attack, yet the rockets were of a conventional nature.

The meaning of it is simple, the rebels posses WMD supplied by foreign agents and the conflict is about to escalate into a genocidal warfare, an unfolding tragedy.

What we need is divine intervention as opposed to Zionist immoral interventionist pathology.

Syrians In Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack

Source: http://www.mintpressnews.com/witnesses-of-gas-attack-say-saudis-supplied-rebels-with-chemical-weapons/168135/

Rebels and local residents in Ghouta accuse Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan of providing chemical weapons to an al-Qaida linked rebel group.

By Dale Gavlak and Yahya Ababneh

Ghouta, Syria — As the machinery for a U.S.-led military intervention in Syria gathers pace following last week’s chemical weapons attack, the U.S. and its allies may be targeting the wrong culprit.

Interviews with people in Damascus and Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital, where the humanitarian agency Doctors Without Borders said at least 355 people had died last week from what it believed to be a neurotoxic agent, appear to indicate as much.

However, from numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families, a different picture emerges. Many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the dealing gas attack.
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On Immoral Interventionism

By Gilad Atzmon 

As we are marching towards an imminent American attack on Syria, a conflict that can easily escalate into a regional disaster, it is embarrassing to recall that just four months ago some of our ‘leading’ political scientists were clumsy enough to lend their names to a pro interventionist petition. On April 8th we found out that Tariq Ali, Norman Finkelstein and Ilan Pappe, amongst others, demanded “that Bashar al-Asad leave immediately without excuses so that Syria can begin a speedy recovery towards a democratic future.”

I learned today that Tariq Ali confessed to friends that he regretted signing this interventionist petition, bless him.  However, I wonder where Ilan Pappe and Norman Finkelstein stand on the issue? Is the looming American attack what they had in mind?

Kosher PSC Exposed Once Again!

 

A few days ago one of my readers posted a comment by me on PSC York' website. It was referring to BBC's censorship of Nigel Kennedy Apartheid comments .

 

Gilad Atzmon’s comment (originally published here ):

"The BBC was reportedly set to cut out remarks about apartheid in Israel made by world famous violinist  Nigel Kennedy two weeks ago at the Proms Music Festival. Would the BBC leave Kennedy’s comment in, no one would have noticed it. But now, we are all paying attention to Kennedy’s observation.  But we also learn a crucial lesson about Jewish power in Britain in general and within the BBC in particular!"

However, within a short while the message was removed by PSC York's local commissar.  The reasoning is given below.

It seems as if the UK PSC is operating shamelessly  as an extended progressive synagogue. Different kinds of politically identified Jewish groups (A.K.A AZZ) are deciding who is 'in' and who is 'out'. I can't decide whether this is amusing or tragic, yet one thing is clear, it has nothing to do with open discourse, freedom of thought or pluralism of any sort. It is a dead end. 

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Israeli Scientist Challenges Hypothesis of Middle East Origins

Introduction by Gilad Atzmon:  Following is a very interesting and important article regarding Jews and their origin. Eran Elhaik, an Israeli young academic, proves that Ashkenazi Jews' roots lie in the Caucasus - in short, Ashkenazim have nothing to do with Palestine or the Middle East.  Elhaik's scientific account fits nicely  with Shlomo Sand reading of Jewish's History and origin.  

'Jews a Race' Genetic Theory Comes Under Fierce Attack by DNA Expert

Israeli Scientist Challenges Hypothesis of Middle East Origins

Science Feud: Johns Hopkins geneticist Eran Elhaik says his research debunks the long-held theory that Jews are a single race.

 

By Rita Rubin

Published originally by forward.com

Scientists usually don’t call each other “liars” and “frauds.”

But that’s how Johns Hopkins University post-doctoral researcher Eran Elhaik describes a group of widely respected geneticists, including Harry Ostrer, professor of pathology and genetics at Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine and author of the 2012 book “Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People.”

For years now, the findings of Ostrer and several other scientists have stood virtually unchallenged on the genetics of Jews and the story they tell of the common Middle East origins shared by many Jewish populations worldwide. Jews — and Ashkenazim in particular — are indeed one people, Ostrer’s research finds.

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Tonight I am a British Patriot!!!

The House of Common said No to another Zio-Con war. President Obama and the USA are  left to fight this war alone, and according to the Israeli Ynet, President Obama  is willing to do so. 

BBC reports: British MPs have voted to reject possible military action against the Assad regime in Syria to deter the use of chemical weapons.

A government motion was defeated 285 to 272, a majority of 13 votes.

Prime Minster David Cameron said it was clear Parliament does not want action and "the government will act accordingly".

It effectively rules out British involvement in any US-led strikes against the Assad regime.

And it comes as blow to the authority of David Cameron, who had already watered down a government motion proposing military action, in response to the opposition Labour Party's demands for more evidence of Assad's guilt.

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Concerts, Tours, Talks and a London Jazz Festival Special Night @ The QEH

September

1 With The Power Cats, wall2wall Jazz Festival, Swan Hotel, Abergavenny

3 Gilad Atzmon Quartet, Wilmslow Conservative Club, Wilmslow

12 With The Blockheads, Central Theatre, Chatham

13 Gilad Atzmon & The OHE, Goring on Thames

15 Gilad Atzmon with Rob Palmer Trio, Jazz East at The Fludyer Arms hotel, Felixstowe.

21 With The Blockheads

22 Gilad Atzmon & The OHH at Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury

26 Gilad Atzmon Plays Coltrane, The Watermill Jazz Club, Dorking

27 With Reto Weber and The Squeeze Band, Dudelnge, Luxemburg

29 Gilad Atzmon 4tet Paphos Jazz Festival, Cyprus   

October 

1-8  Recording in NYC with Ben Meigners and Jason Brown. Information re public meetings and sessions will follow.

10 With Andy Urquhart 4tet, Poole

Touring with Norman Watt Roy’s  Faith & Grace Tour  

17  SUDBURY Quay Theatre

18+19 GUERNSEY Fermaine Tavern 20 WORCESTER Marr's Bar

22 KINGS HEATH Hare and Hounds

24 PUTNEY Half Moon

25 COLCHESTER Arts Centre

26 TUNBRIDGE WELLS Forum

27 SHEFFIELD Greystones

29 WATFORD The Horns

30 BOLTON The Railway

31 POOLE Mr. Kyp's

November

01 BIDEFORD Palladium

03 PORTSMOUTH Wedgewood Rooms

07 DERBY Flowerpot

08 NEWTON ABBOTT Seale Hayne

09 WATCHETT Mineral Line

14 SWINDON The Vic

 

21 st  Gilad Atzmon 20 Years in Britain, London Jazz Festival, special concert at Queen Elizabeth Concert Hall, London South Bank.

Buy Tickets:
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/gilad-atzmon-74480

20 years after landing in the UK, saxophonist and composer Gilad Atzmon has become an intensely creative presence on the European scene, whether leading successive editions of his Orient House Ensemble, developing new work for string quartet alongside interpretations of the evocative Charlie Parker with strings project, or playing with the Blockheads and Robert Wyatt. 

This concert offers a journey through Gilad’s varied musical activity, including some very special collaborations.

 

* not an OHE's concert

**Pre-Show Talk - The Road To Bop -Ahead of this concert, Gilad will give a talk about his first encounter with Jazz music and its impact on his ethical and philosophical stand. The talk will explore different aspects of music and their direct link with Gilad’s views on morality. A rare chance to engage with a star musician who is an equally popular writer and political commentator.

Western Democracies And Criminal Interventionism

By Gilad Atzmon 

It doesn’t take a genius to grasp that the American president doesn’t really want to attack Syria. He doesn’t want to topple Assad’s regime - He doesn’t have an alternative partner on the ground. Instead of ‘Shock and Awe’ this time the Pentagon is talking about ‘surgical attack’. The English speaking empire, famous for its destructive inclinations, makes the potential attack on Syria sound like a ‘cosmetic effort’. No one in America, Britain, France or Israel is yet to suggest what is the goal of such an attack. What are the military initiatives? But the most crucial question is what could be the positive outcome of such a military assault? I guess that we have to admit that Obama’s administration is almost as confused as the situation on the ground is.

It seems as if in a relatively short time, the American administration has managed to fall into every possible trap. It is now affiliated as well as conflicting with Al-Qaeda (assuming there is such a thing), Wahhabi war-mongers, Salafi terrorists, the Muslim Brotherhood and their enemies - the Arab seculars and nationalist revolutionary forces. America has tried to appease them all, but it obviously failed in every possible front.  Dropping bombs on Syria is not going to provide the goods either. A ‘surgical’ assault on Damascus is not going to appease America’s Wahhabi partners, it may even achieve the opposite. I guess that time is ripe for Obama to re-examine America’s entire interventionist doctrine, but can he?  Can an American leader think for himself? Can an American leader think for America?   Can an American leader think at all, or is he or her just reacting to Lobby pressure?

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John Zorn's Artist Performs to Jews Only (audio)

In the audio recordings, the organisers of the upcoming Daniel Zamir (John Zorn's Tzadik label artist)  at Wits University in Johannesburg (scheduled to take place on Wednesday the 28th of August), admit that they make use of "background checks" and are trying to keep the event as a "Jewish only" event - even though the event has been advertised as being open to the general public. The hosting of Israel's Daniel Zamir at Wits University comes five months after another Israeli musical event at Wits University was protested and subsequently cancelled.

Wits University Student: "This is a Jewish only event?"
Organiser of Daniel Zamir Israel concert: "Yes, it is"

 

for more info: http://www.bdssouthafrica.com/2011/08/audio-recordings-with-evidence-of.html