ZGram - 8/7/2004 - "Jews or Zionists?" - Part I
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Sun Aug 8 14:27:02 EDT 2004
Zgram - Where Truth is Destiny: Now more than ever!
August 7, 2004
Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
This morning I read a three-part newsgroup submission with utter
fascination. Although it is titled as "Jews or Zionists?" I would
call it "The Hair Shirt called the Holocaust." And does it ever itch
the ones still wearing it - unable to shed it completely!
The first part was written by Shraga Elam, an Israeli journalist
based in Zurich/Switzerland. The introduction comes from Israel
Shamir, a Russian-born Israeli I have introduced to my readership
before:
[START]
Should we speak against Zionist atrocities (limited position) or
against Jewish privilege that allows for Zionist atrocities (broad
position)? Here are three items representing three views.
The anti-Zionist Israeli journalist Shraga Elam represents the
Limited position. He attempts to convince Jews in Diaspora to drop
their support of Israel in their own interests. It is a good example
of divergence between our view and that of good anti-Zionist Jews. In
our view, Shraga's [and other Limited positionists] effort is doomed
to fail; while the correct and plausible direction is to minimise
Jewish influence altogether by dealing with Jewish privilege. As long
as only Zionism is attacked, and Jews are applauded, the Jewish
privilege survives; and our cause is reduced to useless attempts to
persuade Jews to drop Israel. Second item is a German nationalist
perspective, who is not so much interested in Palestine but is
annoyed by Jewish positions in German discourse. The third and the
best is a honed letter by our friend Joh Domingo from South
Africa/Australia, more or less representing our view.
1. Judaeophobia in the service of Israel
A Lecture at the anti-imperialist Camp in Assisi/Italy, August 2,
2004 Shraga Elam*
There is an obvious growth of anti-Jewish sentiments worldwide. One
cannot disregard anymore the rise in Judaeophobia and consider it
always as just propaganda and manipulation. By the way, I prefer the
use of the term Judaeophobia to the more common, and in itself racist
term "anti Semitism".
Judaeophobia has to be confronted and rejected as every other form
of racism, and for that purpose we have to understand its present
reasons and causes and not just stop at the isolated "treatment" of
superficial symptoms as propagated by many Zionist organizations and
Israel.
In order not to exploit your patience unnecessarily I'll tell you in
advance that I'm deeply convinced that the main reasons for the
increase in Judaeophobia are basically the Israeli criminal policy
against the Palestinians and the wrongdoings of the pro-Israel
lobbies. These two serious problems are then combined with the
existing anti-Jewish prejudices that are rather harmless as such, at
least in most cases. It is the mixture of these Jewish offenses with
existing prejudices that Jews are something special that might create
a very explosive cocktail.
If it was in the past wrong and racist to look for the reasons for
aggressions against Jews by Jews themselves, it is now right and
necessary to do so!
One of the best methods at the moment to fight Judaeophobia is to
stop the Israeli crimes! It is as simple as that.
I shall extrapolate now on this statement and try to make it clear
what brings me to this conclusion.
It was no one less than a very renowned Israeli expert on
Judaeophobia, Professor Dinah Porat who observed on the Israel state
radio that there is a correlation between Israeli actions (we can say
atrocities) and outbursts of Judaeophobia. This was for example the
case in the early '80s following the Lebanon invasion or in the late
80's during the first Palestinian uprising, the Intifada.
We can see that all Jews, notwithstanding their individual
positions, were then held responsible for the Israeli atrocities.
This follows not only because of anti-Jewish prejudices, but partly
also because of Israel's false claim that it represents all Jews,
that it is the state of THE Jews. The widespread and ostensive public
support for Israeli crimes led by many Jews all over the world
strengthens the impression that all Jews stand behind Israel.
Another example of Jewish activity that caused a rise in
Judaeophobia, according to my own observations, is the restitution
campaign in the mid '90s that the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and the
Jewish Agency (JA) led against the Swiss banks on the issue of the so
called heirless Jewish assets held in Switzerland since the Nazi era.
These two Jewish organizations, a leading factor of the Holocaust
Industry, abused a just issue without showing too many considerations
for the truth or for the interests of the victims of the Nazis and
their successors. The obviously greedy Jewish organizations were
perceived as confirming, through their behavior, the existing
judaeophobic prejudices and thus triggered a rise in anti-Jewish
feelings in Switzerland. Some of the leading Swiss Jews were not very
happy about this development but the JA and WJC could not have cared
less, as they were successful in using also this increase in
Judaeophobia against the Swiss.
This win-win situation by swinging what can be called the
"Anti-Semitism bludgeon or club" (in 1991 the German-Israeli
historian Professor Michael Wolffsohn spoke of the "Auschwitz
bludgeon" - "Auschwitz-Keule") can be observed in action in silencing
Israel's critics, that is, if they are not careful and mix legitimate
and necessary condemnations of Israeli policies with anti-Jewish
prejudices. But even if there are no real Judaeophobic
manifestations, critique of Israel, even if true and correct, may be
labelled simply because it is unbearable for Israel and its
supporters.
An example of this mechanism can be found in the case of the German
politician of Syrian origin, Jamal Karsli. Karsli, who was a Green
Party legislator in the assembly of Germany's most populous state,
North Rhine-Westphalia, protested in March 2002 against the Israeli
war crimes. He dared to say something that is usually only accepted
if expressed by Zionist hardliners and their supporters, namely he
compared the Nazi atrocities with a present event.
After seeing on TV that Israeli soldiers had marked the arms of
Palestinian captives with numbers, Karsli released a press
declaration bearing the title: "Israel uses Nazi methods!" This
German-Syrian politician was actually not alone in having such
associations. The former MK and now minister Joseph 'Tommy' Lapid,
who survived the Judeocide in Hungary, protested against the
unbearable similarity between the Nazi marking Jews with numbers in
Auschwitz and the action of the Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli national singer, the so called "war singer", Yaffa
Yarkoni, asked then in an interview on Israel's military Radio:
"didn't they (meaning the Germans) do similar things to us?" Yarkoni
got murder threats from right wing radicals after she had asked this
question along with her appeal to soldiers to refuse to serve. In the
beginning Karsli was luckier than Yarkoni. He received only mild
private criticism from his Green colleagues. Some weeks later, at the
end of April 2002, he decided to leave the Green party in a protest
against its pro-Israel politics (the head of the party, the German
foreign minister Joschka Fischer, had sabotaged proposed sanctions of
the European Union against Israel). The next day Karsli joined the
Free Democratic Party (FDP), whose deputy leader and a former
minister, Juergen Moellemann, known for his criticism of Israeli
policy, propagated a position on the Middle East conflict closer to
Karsli's.
In early May, Karsli, in an interview, broke another taboo by
criticizing the strong influence of the Zionist lobby. A ferocious
attack was launched against him, as his statements were considered to
be anti Jewish. Juergen Moellemann tried to help Karsli and declared
that Israel and Jewish officials are responsible, through their
politics, for the rise of Judeophobia (he used the word
"anti-Semitism").
This was of course like pouring fuel on an open fire. The fierce
attacks against Karsli, within the context of the ongoing German
election campaign, were really aimed against the more important
politician, Moellemann. Karsli himself was not interesting enough to
have garnered such a huge scandal which engaged the German media for
months.
Through the Karsli affair, Moellemann was ruined. He was accused of
fishing for votes in brown dark waters, meaning votes from fascists.
He apologized for his statements and refrained from contacts with
Karsli, but it did not help much. On the contrary, he lost the
support of many Germans, who had seen in him some hope for more
honesty within the political system, but were anew disappointed
through his inconsistency and opportunism. Far from being right wing
radicals, they are fed up with the widespread hypocritical
Judaeophilia, unacceptable and unjustified privileges for Jews in
Germany and not least the lack of honest and significant criticism of
Israeli war crimes.
In a desperate act, Moellemann distributed a flyer criticizing
Sharon and an important Jewish-German representative, Michel
Friedman, but stated at the same tiime his support for Israel's right
to exist. This rather moderate leaflet, which could have been
formulated by Zionists like "Peace Now" or Uri Avnery, was first
called "anti-Semitic" by the German media and then defined "anti
Israeli".
None of the journalists and other persons who expressed themselves
publicly with negative commentary on Moellemann's flyer seemed to
have read it or to care about its real content. It seemed to be
forbidden to express another opinion. Moellemann's career and life
came to an end after it was claimed that he financed the flyer with
dubious money. He parachuted to death and while the official version
is that it was a suicide, there are some who still believe that
Moellemann was murdered, which in a way he was.
Following the Karsli and Moelleman affair, the frustration in
Germany has been growing and many people have the feeling that once
again, as in the Nazi era, one is not allowed to say in public
obvious and apparent facts. This censorship is dangerous in many
ways. There is a growing tension between private and public opinion.
As right wing radicals seem almost the only one not to be very
impressed by the taboos, they stand a better chance to profit from
the situation and to be able to channel the growing frustration.
Arabs or Muslims who also refuse to obey these taboos are in danger
of being marginalized like Jamal Karsli or even face the possibility
of being persecuted. In order to help us fight against these very
dangerous taboos and develop courageous approaches based on
emancipation, we should try to analyse Karsli's two controversial
statements:
1. The Israeli army deploys Nazi methods
2. The Zionist lobby possesses enormous influence.
Nazi methods
There is a strong prohibition on comparing the Nazi crimes to almost
anything else besides another real or imaginary aggression against
Jews. Any other comparison is considered as playing down the Nazi
Judeocide and therefore racist.
This tabooization is a modern version of the old judaeocentric
concept of "chosenness": Jewish suffering is special, and cannot ever
be compared with other miseries.
This ban is racist and prevents normal historical analysis, as one
of the common and important principles of scientific method is the
use of comparison. The comparison as such must not be automatically
categorized as racist. It might be wrong or correct, but should not
be forbidden. It has to be realized that the Nazi crimes were not
really unique for Germans as the eternal victimizers, or for Jews as
the eternal victims.
There is nothing in the "German" or "Jewish" genes that make these
people victims or victimizers.
For example, more than 60 years ago militarism was very central in
Germany, while today, in this society there is a very widespread
aversion to military conflicts. Conversely, over 100 years ago it was
rather rare to find a Jewish militarist, but today Israel is a modern
Sparta, with one of the world's most militaristic society.
In present day Israel, actually more than in many other countries
including Germany, we can find many influential people who would have
fit perfectly into the Nazi system both in terms of ideology and
practice. Unique to the Israeli Nazis (some of them are victims of
the German-Nazis) is the desire that the world believe them to be THE
real anti-Nazis; that they have the right, because of past
sufferings. to inflict similar or dissimilar suffering on other
people; that they are, by virtue of the suffering of their ancestors,
beyond reproach.
There is a common mistake of identifying the Nazi crimes only with
the industrial extermination of Jews as in Auschwitz, disregarding
the fact that the Nazis acted in many other criminal ways and that
the plan to build Auschwitz was developed only in 1941, while the
Nazis came to power in 1933 and were criminals from the beginning and
of course acted not only against Jews.
We should not overlook and play down the escalatory character of the
Nazi brutality. Till 1938, for example, they worked towards a so
called voluntary "transfer" (mass deportation) of the Jews out of
Germany and employed much less violence than Israel today does while
pursuing similar goals against the Palestinians. The Israeli army and
the right wing radical gangs escalate continuously their violent acts
and have plans, like the Nazis after 1938, for forced expulsion.
Historically, despite all the differences between the two situations
- Nazi Germany and present Israel - there are too many worrisome and
obvious structural similarities. The fact that there are still some
democratic traits in Israel today while in the 1930s Germany was a
dictatorship makes no real difference to the victims, for whom the
type of political system that oppresses and abuses them is of no
consequence. In fact, the Israeli Jewish citizens bear an even
greater responsibility than did the people of Nazi Germany precisely
because of these democratic traits. They don't yet have to fear the
same repercussions as the Germans did under the Nazi regime.
If we consider very strictly Jamal Karsli's accusation that the
Israeli soldiers used Nazi methods by putting numbers on the
Palestinian captives, we have to admit that there are different
circumstances involved in the two situations and for the Palestinians
it was actually, in comparison with other Israeli crimes, a rather
harmless action, which has mainly a symbolical value. The numbers
were not tattooed in the hands of the Palestinians and the captive
were not (yet) in an extermination camp like Auschwitz.
On the other hand, many Palestinians currently live in Ghettos and
concentration camps and as the former Israeli education minister,
Shulamit Aloni pointed out, we don't have to wait till there are gas
chambers for the Palestinians in order to draw such comparisons. We
experience already an escalating ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians
and there are no exact figures of casualties due to malnutrition,
lack of adequate medical care etc. Nor are there exact figures on how
many Palestinians have left their homeland "voluntarily".
I consider the comparison between the Nazi atrocities and the
Israeli crimes, despite the many differences, not only historically
justified, but mainly politically necessary, as this is one of the
important tools to prevent Israel from misusing the Nazi Judeocide as
a free licence to kill, to abuse, to dispossess and to expel the
Palestinians. This is one of the means to show that Israel has no
moral right, and actually never had, to induce guilt feelings, for
example in Europe -- guilt feelings among non-Jews that are the
result of the long history of persecutions suffered by the Jews and
that Israel and its affiliates know perfectly how to play upon and
manipulate.
Zionist Lobby
There can be no doubt that the pro-Israel lobbies belong to the
mightiest in the world. E.g one of them, AIPAC (American-Israel
Public Affairs Committee), is proud of the fact that according to
Fortune magazine it is for years one of most influential power groups
in the US. One can read it on AIPAC's website and not just in some
obscure publication of Jew haters.
In order to find ways to neutralize the pro-Zionist lobbies, we are
not allowed to demonize them. We have to try to understand how they
function and what are their weaknesses and soft points. The tendency
to attribute some magical powers to them is not only racist, but is
also self-defeating. It is an additional justification for the
powerlessness of the people who propagate it. You cannot really be
successful against such an omnipotent and supernatural phantom.
One of the greatest weaknesses of the pro-Israel lobbies is that
they are usually just groups of officials with a very narrow base.
There has not been a really effective opposition to them because too
many people, Jews and non-Jews as well, believe that Israel defends
the Jewish interests and can serve as a refuge in case of a second
Judeocide. This myth, this illusion has to be destroyed!
It can be proven how Israel endangers not only the Palestinians but
also Jews and not only in the Middle East. It has to be made widely
understood that this illusion of life insurance for Jews is paid by
the sufferings and blood of the Palestinians and is in itself a
source of danger for Jews themselves.
Israel and its affiliated organizations have been pushing very
strongly towards the present so called anti-terror campaign in
general and especially towards the US aggression against Iraq;
activities which have created more dangers rather than neutralising
or preventing them.
In the case of Iraq there is no serious evidence that Saddam
Hussein's regime was, in recent years, dangerous to anybody besides
the Iraqis themselves. Israel was for sure not endangered by Iraq and
Saddam Hussein signalled several times his earnest intentions to
achieve an agreement with the Zionist state. According to various
reports in the early '90s he was even ready to absorb some of the
Palestinian refugees in Iraq in order to help to pacify the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Just the same, many supporters as well as opponents of the Iraq war
were, and some still are, convinced that this aggression was made in
order to avert dangers to Israel.
There were for sure Israeli interests in this war, and this
expressed itself by the active role that the Israeli ruling classes
and the affiliated Jewish US neocons played in pushing towards this
military action.
The name of the game is not more security but more instability and
thus higher military budgets and more income for the US and Israeli
military industrial complexes (MIC), who are supposed to be once
again locomotives for their respective economies. This unholy
alliance might one day come to an end and there are even today
instances of conflict of interest between these partners and the
Israelis have had to live with some painful defeats. For example many
jobs in the Israeli military industries are in danger, because it is
cheaper for the Israeli army to get weapons from the US for free
rather than to buy them locally.
US military aid to Israel is to a large part a subvention to the US
military industries, as most of the money cannot be expended anywhere
else.
Some Israeli companies try to bypass these restrictions through
joint ventures with US firms, but this does not mean that the
production will stay in Israel.
The strong alliance forged between the US and the Israeli MICs in
1967 is the main reason for the strong influence of the pro-Israel
lobbies. Once this alliance comes to an end, or the US MIC loses
substantial political and economical importance, this will be the end
of the bubble called the strong Jewish lobbies and not only in the US.
[END]
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