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<h2><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=5><b>Think Tribal, Speak
Universal: Don't let the smear campaigners set the
agenda</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
</b></font></h2><font size=1>
<a href="http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2005%20Opinion%20Editorials/December/13%20o/Think%20Tribal,%20Speak%20Universal%20Don't%20let%20the%20smear%20campaigners%20set%20the%20agenda%20%20By%20Gilad%20Atzmon.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2005%20Opinion%20Editorials/December/13%20o/Think%20Tribal,%20Speak%20Universal%20Don't%20let%20the%20smear%20campaigners%20set%20the%20agenda%20%20By%20Gilad%20Atzmon.htm<br>
<br>
</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>By Gilad Atzmon<br><br>
Al-Jazeerah, December 13, 2006 </font> <br><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Introduction by Peacepalestine:
NEVER GIVE UP! <br><br>
That is what we can all say following the insuccess of the latest of a
slew of Zionist smear campaigns directed against Gilad Atzmon. All of you
who have been following this blog, and the very many other places where
Gilad's work is published have witnessed many attempts to publicly defame
him, to accuse him of being a racist and an anti-Semite. All of these
campaigns ultimately fail, because when one looks at the actual material
that is available, it is crystal clear that Atzmon is one of the
strongest voices condemning racism! Every time these attacks start, they
fall flat once one is given the opportunity to evaluate for themselves
whether or not this strong anti-Zionism can be interpreted as being
anti-Semitism, it is obvious that the attempts to silence him, to silence
anyone who dares criticise Israel or Zionism, are exposed for the
instrumental propaganda that they are. <br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#DE7008">
<a href="http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/gilad_atzmon/2006/12/gilad_atzmon_responds_to_david.html">
The Guardian,</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> paper that
allowed an outrageous smear piece to be hosted on its blog, having later
done the research on the actual accusations, decided, after many
complaints from readers, to amend its policy, and give Gilad a space to
comment the attack against him. It is the same piece that was printed
here a few days ago, albeit edited. BUT THE FACT REMAINS - NEVER LET THE
SMEAR CAMPAIGNERS SET THE AGENDA! Deception will never win in the end, no
matter how arrogant it might seem. People can find out the truth easily
enough, and keeping silent against lies is what they want. They want us
to become tired and frustrated. We won't let that happen.<br><br>
So, to celebrate this victory, I am proud to publish a brand new paper
precisely about the mechanisms of the silencing of those who speak out.
<br>
Gilad, thanks for holding strong and not giving up!<br><br>
<b>GILAD ATZMON - THINK TRIBAL, SPEAK UNIVERSAL<br><br>
</b>I may as well be the King of The Jews. I have achieved the
unachievable, accomplished the impossible. I have managed to unite them
all: Right, Left and Centre. The entirety of the primarily-Jewish British
political groups:
</font>
<a href="http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_hirsh/2006/11/a_new_menacing_current_is_appe.html">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#DE7008">the
Zionists</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> the
anti-Zionists,
</font><a href="http://www.jewishsocialist.org.uk/">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#DE7008">Jewish
Socialists</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>,
</font>
<a href="http://shirazsocialist.blogspot.com/2006/11/open-letter-to-gilad-atzmon.html">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#DE7008">Tribal
Marxists</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>,
</font><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/atzmon10232006.html">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#DE7008">The Board of
Deputies</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>, Jewish
Trotskyites,
</font>
<a href="http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2006/11/jews-sans-frontieres-hosts-gilad.html">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#DE7008">Jews Sans
Frontieres,</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
</font><a href="http://www.auphr.org/thewall/">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#DE7008">Jews Avec
Frontieres</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> for the first
time in history all speak in one single voice. They all repeat exactly
the same misquotes. They all hate Gilad Atzmon.<br><br>
“Pretty impressive,” I think to myself, “I must be doing something
right.” Yet, I am slightly confused by my own achievement. When it comes
down to it, I’m not the canonical enemy; I am a jazz musician and author.
I am not a politician, nor am I a member of any party. I do not present
or support any political agenda. I have never been involved in any act of
violence (not even as an Israeli soldier) nor have I ever called for
violence. I am what some may call an “independent critical thinker”. It
is my personal understanding that I choose to share with my readers and
listeners. I express my very own reading into events and some
speculations regarding the notion of identity. I write about things that
I find while looking into myself. This is indeed very dangerous for
people who try to promote some collective dogmatic and ethnic tribalism.
It is apparently the individual and critical thinker who endangers any
form of ideological dogmatism (in general) and Jewish collectivism (in
particular).<br><br>
Surely, the most effective way to confront a thinker is through open
intellectual debate. But somehow, this is precisely what those who oppose
me refuse to do. Instead, they employ various tactics aimed at silencing
me. They are filled with hate. Because, it seems, hate is the name of the
game.<br><br>
I recently came across an interesting insight into the subject of hate
and anti-Semitism. It goes like this:<br><br>
‘While in the past an 'anti-Semite' was someone who hates Jews, nowadays
it is the other way around, an
</font><a href="http://www.masada2000.org/list-A.html">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#DE7008">anti-Semite</a>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> is someone the Jews
hate.’<br><br>
The politics of hate can be effective, as well as being vicious. And
you’d think tribal Jewish activists would be the first to understand
this. We all know that Jews have been suffering hatred and discrimination
for centuries. Yet the
</font>
<a href="http://shirazsocialist.blogspot.com/2006/11/open-letter-to-gilad-atzmon.html">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#DE7008">Jewish ethnic
activists</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> seem to have
learned hatred from their enemies so much that the secular Jewish
political discourse has been totally shaped by it. Moreover, hate has
become the main matrix of negation: The Israelis are set to hate the
Arabs, the Zionists are there to hate the Goyim (in general), Jews
against Zionism hate the Goyim as well as Israel as well as Atzmon (in
particular).<br><br>
But why do they hate so much? The answer is simple. Once Judaism is
eliminated, what remains of Jewish identity is pretty threadbare. Once
stripped of religious spirituality, all that is left of Jewishness is a
template of negation fuelled by racial orientation and spiced up with
some light cultural context. Sadly, I have to say that though very many
emancipated and assimilated Jews have adopted universal humanist ideas,
secular collective Jewish identity has never matured into adopting a
universal humanist ideological standpoint or even a philosophical
insight. The reasons are simple:<br><br>
A. Racial or even ethnic orientation cannot form a basis for a universal
ethical argument.<br>
B. Chicken soup or Jewish humour (culture) does not make an ideological
argument.<br><br>
It was
</font>
<a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history_community/Modern/IntellectualTO/Haskalah.htm">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#DE7008">Moses
Mendelssohn</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>, an 18th
century Jewish progressive scholar, who coined the famous Haskalah
(Jewish Enlightenment) insight: “Be a Jew at Home and a (cosmopolitan)
Man on the Street”.
</font><a href="http://www.whymarryjewish.com/timeline6.htm">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#DE7008">Mendelssohn’s
revelation</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> for the modern
Jew doesn’t leave much room for doubt. Rather than encouraging the modern
Jew to genuinely assimilate into a universal ethos of equality, the
Haskalah Jew is destined to live in a dual mode if not practically a
state of schizophrenia. He is split between the solitary pleasure of a
cosy, homey Jewish identity and the public appearance of the
‘cosmopolitan man’. In fact, it is this duality of tribalism and
universalism that is at the very heart of the collective secular Jewish
identity. <br><br>
This duality has never been properly resolved. A few attempts have been
made to brush it off but they have all failed. Zionism for instance,
offered to abolish the ‘abnormal’ condition of the ‘Jewish Diaspora’, in
other words, it suggested that in a ‘Jewish State’ (intended as being for
Jews Only) the differences between the ‘home’ and the ‘street’ would
disappear. In fact, Zionism was all about the transforming the ‘street’
into the cosy Jewish ‘home’. Though it managed to do this, there is no
trace of universalism in either the Zionist’s ‘street’ or in his ‘home’.
The state of Beit Hanoun and the carnage Israel left behind in Lebanon
last summer doesn’t leave much room for doubt - Israel doesn’t really
offer us any lessons in universal cosmopolitanism. Marxism, on the other
hand, attempted to make people equal. In other words, it promised to make
all ‘homes’ look the same. This idea was very appealing to many European
Jews. Marxism was certainly successful for a while but sadly enough,
nowadays, it is only consumerism that makes us all look homogenous (iPod,
coca-cola, jeans). Clearly, there is not much to celebrate there
either.<br><br>
It is within the failure of these two competing grand ideologies that the
matrix of negation marched triumphantly back. Clearly, the search for a
contemporary collective secular Jewish identity is a perplexing
endeavour. Just as in Mendelssohn’s time, it aims at integrating the
opposing categories of tribalism with universalism. But this can never be
achieved, and this is exactly where hate politics starts to play its
part. If you don’t know who you are, just find yourself an enemy. In
other words, ‘tell me who you hate and I will tell you who you are.’
<br><br>
It occurred to me a while ago that if all tribal Jewish activists see me
as a threat, surely they must perceive in me some kernel of truth. I
realised that there must be something about my ideas that shakes
everything they believe in. Indeed, it doesn’t take a genius to
understand what that thing is. I have managed to expose the
Mendelssohnian clash at the very heart of contemporary Jewish secular
identity in general, and in tribal Jewish left activism in particular.
<br><br>
Mendelssohn must have understood the intrinsic clash between the
‘cosmopolitan man’ and the ‘Jewish home’. He must have realised that
universalism and tribalism are opposing categories. Being trained as a
rabbi, Mendelssohn offered a pragmatic and practical solution - but this
solution led to false and deceptive behaviour. Either you pretend to be a
cosmopolitan while in the ‘street’ or you lie to your God at ‘home’. This
behavioural code, though being very pragmatic, happens to be non-ethical
by definition. It is based on deception: both self-deception and
deceiving the other. As we know, it was Mendelssohn’s insight that was
the cause of many Germanic Jews eventually converting to Christianity or
just departing from any connection with Jewish collectivism, Jewish life
or culture. True humanists would be apt to disengage from a non-genuine
lifestyle. Ethically, at least, Mendelssohn’s middle way between
orthodoxy and modernity failed to provide an answer.<br><br>
Surprisingly enough, the primarily-Jewish left activist falls straight
into Mendelssohn’s trap. He tries desperately to bridge the gap between
tribal commitment and the universal call and, like Mendelssohn, he is
doomed to failure. Indeed, in the early days of the Palestinian
solidarity movement the primarily-Jewish peace activism was of immense
importance. It was actually Jewish humanists who were the first to speak
out for the Palestinians when the world out there was still immersed in
the Zionist narrative. But things have now changed. Once Hamas was
democratically elected, it was the Jewish tribal peace activist who was
the first to show dissatisfaction on many a progessive discussion group.
Obviously Hamas doesn’t fit into the Jewish Socialist vision for the
region. In other words, tribal Jewish humanists’ support for the
Palestinians is tilted by self-centric concerns.<br><br>
I do know what Judaism stands for. I can easily follow and support the
Torah Jews’ argument against Zionism. Also, in my concerts and readings I
meet very many Jews who put aside any tribal orientation to join the
emerging Palestinian solidarity movement. I admire them and I respect
their courage. Indeed, I fail to understand the Jewish tribal peace
activism.<br><br>
Monitoring tribal Jewish left activism for more than a few years, I have
managed to expose some major categorical flaws. If the left is a
‘progressive’ endeavour aiming at a universal message that goes beyond
race and ethnicity, then applying tribal and clannish banners is nothing
but ‘reactionary’ attitude. The introduction of racial orientation into
the Socialist discourse reduces Socialism into a light form of marginal
politics and sometimes even, a bitter manifestation of national
socialism. This complexity is far from being new. Lenin was already
concerned with this issue in
</font>
<a href="http://www.marx.org/archive/lenin/works/1903/2ndcong/13.htm">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#DE7008">1903</a></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>. <br><br>
However, I must admit that I am not concerned at all with the healthiness
of the Socialist or Marxist discourse. I am engaged here solely in the
deconstruction of a political standpoint and in scrutinising its
rhetoric. Rather than saving the Marxist philosophy, I care for the
people of Beit Hanoun, Jenin, Ramallah and Nablus. I devote my energy to
support the Palestinian people who are bombed and starved by a State that
happens to be ‘the Jewish State’. My message is clear. A crime of immense
proportions is taking place in Palestine. As far as the humanist argument
is concerned,
</font>
<a href="http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2006/11/palestinians-are-priority.html">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#DE7008">Palestinians are the
priority</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>. If the crime
against the Palestinians is a crime against humanity, we had better fight
it collectively as human beings rather than as isolated formations of
ethnically and racially segregated groups. The task ahead is complicated
enough. Tribal Judeo-centric issues to do with anti-Semitism may be
important to some. However, I maintain that they are secondary as far as
Palestine solidarity is concerned. In other words, when you speak
universal you may as well mean it for a change.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/">
http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/</a> <br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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