Political Perspective by Tim King Salem-News.com
Israeli-born Gilad Atzmon works tirelessly for Palestinians, criticizing Israeli war crimes, yet members of the movement call for others to ‘Disavowal’ his ‘Racism and Antisemitism’ Who is antisemitic?
Master of music and words…Every time.
No exceptions.When an activist for Palestine is killed and reports say the killers didn’t carry out the murder on behalf of Israel, they are lying.
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| Gilad Atzmon vents about Zionist war criminals |
When they say Ken O’Keefe or Gilad Atzmon are antisemitic, they are lying.
Believe me, threats are scary to people, we receive our share over these reports also.
The attackers are character assassins and they want Israel’s apartheid politics to continue uninterrupted.
Israel has separate laws for Jews and non-Jews, separate prisons for Jews and non-Jews, and separate roads for Jews and non-Jews. Holocaust survivors are allowed to live in poverty and dark-skinned Jews live with increasing racism in Israel.Anyone who supports this has the heart of a Nazi. Israel’s politics are so obscene that they’re worse than the Nazi’s because they’re doing it with U.S. money and weapons; at least the United States opposed Hitler, today it gives standing ovations to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Gilad Atzmon is a dedicated activist who is Israeli-born. As one of the world’s top jazz saxophonists, he has played with everyone from Ian Durry to Paul McCartney. He has a big following and a growing amount of political influence.
His words take Israel to task over crimes against Palestinian people.I can tell you as a white American, I fight white racists the hardest; it seems natural that a person born of a dangerous culture that oppresses others, would want to help turn that same culture around.
The easy thing for any human to do, is simply go along with the dangerous culture, particularly if it is in control of a region the way Israel is. In all fairness, one could call it a land of opportunity for ambitious Zionist Jews who say the right things and know the correct people. Gilad said ‘no way’ and rebelled against it, after growing up, and seeing up close what was really taking place. This is the human being following the human heart, knowing right from wrong and acting on it.
On Teaching
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.
The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.
And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.
And even as each one of you stands alone in God’s knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.” http://www.katsandogz.com/onteaching.html
His recent book, ‘The Wandering Who?’ is the basis of the latest round of attacks. I know for a fact that the person behind Electronic Intifada, which published a recent article claiming that Palestinian activists are against Gilad, was recently under heavy public attacks also, and now they have published an anti-Gilad article?Geez, follow the trail on that, what a joke. Of course many Palestinians are sold-out long and hard to the Israeli cause, they believe their own personal advancements are more valuable than those made on behalf of the entire Palestinian Diaspora.Special thanks to Gabi Weber
Responding to the attack in A Response to Ali Abunimah & Co., Gilad wrote:
Ali Abunimah & Co tend to present themselves as advocates of “One Democratic State in Palestine.” This leaves me puzzled: what kind of democracy do they have in mind, exactly? For by calling for my “disavowal,” they prove beyond a doubt that they cannot tolerate even some elementary cultural criticism—criticism that is endorsed and praised by some of the most respected thinkers within our movement and beyond.Gilad writes and fights and pipes for Palestine, not select individuals who cut deals with the Zionists to have a cozy deal at the expense of other members of their own culture.During the Holocaust Jews worked with Nazi’s; in every war people play both sides, I saw it in the current U.S. wars in the Middle east. They are really bad for going after Gilad and I can imagine the threats that Israel issued to some of these people and the bribery others responded to.
One of the best photos of our two favorite heroes: Gilad with his sax; Ken with his camera. They're serious about human rights and face pressure on all sides.
Both he and Ken O’Keefe have become leading world figures for the resistance because of their backgrounds; a former Israeli and a former U.S. Marine;
These guys have punch, they know people, they appear on major TV news programs, and they are two of Israel’s biggest threats because they expose patterns of illegal activity; murder, apartheid, genocide, child abuse, child murders, ambulance drivers shot in the line of duty…
The fact that pro-Palestinian western writers are being attacked simply proves that they are reaching people and changing opinions about Israel; the frequency of the pro-Israeli rally cries are always determined by their public successes, is a clear sign that every attack is a response to that success.And I have to ask the question, does anyone believe that being a Palestinian makes them somehow infallible? People from Palestine are exactly like all other human beings; some are good and some are bad and it really is that simple. We care very much about their suffering but we are who we are; and we account for about one percent of journalists in the US and UK.
If this is about Palestinian resentment of an Israeli-born representative, then they should come out and say it, we might be surprised to learn who really is antisemitic.
It seems outlandish that the bond would not be tighter, people can indeed be their own worst enemies. I know how much love and support Gilad has, but I also know his life is challenging because of an orchestrated campaign against him. So what if people found something to be offended about in his book, so what? We live in a world where Israel murders human beings and calls their victims ‘terrorists’? We have much bigger problems at hand than this inner-squabble.The Israelis are sitting back and smiling at this one, they’re clapping at the success of their subversion and reach.
The complexity of the matter is forged by the occupation, which forces otherwise good people to turn on their own, and turning on Gilad is like turning against a national hero.The resistance movement may be binding, but the cowardice is disillusioning.
None of us who stand steadfast on this matter will ever forget the incredible heat Ken O’Keefe drew when he and others battled their deadly Israeli attackers who stormed the peace ship ‘Mavi Marmara‘ in May 2010.
In cold blood, Israel attacked and killed nine of Ken’s shipmates and injured scores, even denying the injured and dying medical care. The crew was treated the way Israel treats all Palestinians, like they were animals.
So-called pro-Palestine activists and a couple who are sincere yet very confused in my opinion, waged a long running campaign against Ken because he took the weapons from Israeli soldiers and fought back. He and the others didn’t use the weapons they seized from the IDF, which they easily could have, which proved fighting and killing was never their intent or goal.
In spite of this self-defense incident, members of the pro-Palestine movement went right for Ken’s throat.
Vittorio 'Vik' Arrigoni is one man whose efforts to aid the captive population of Gaza will never be forgotten.
I see another example of that kind of strange inside attack in this event. I hope this latest round does nothing but propel Gilad’s name into the atmosphere and I suspect it will.
Those of us who know and love this man and his message will never be abated or swayed and if anyone comes up with anything that fails to meet the test, like this strange version of Palestinian suicide, just write it off and know…Like the murders of Vittorio Arrigoni and Juliano Mehr Khamis: the public attacks against Gilad Atzmon, Ken O’Keefe and others who stand up and say ‘NO!’ to Israeli bigotry and victimhood and Genocide – also apartheid, violations of international law – the only threat lurking in the shadows of origin is Israel and its Zionist politics which are not a matter of religion, not at all. Gilad is called every name in the book, yet antisemite is usually at the center of what his critics say.
I write frequently about the recent Genocide of Tamil Hindus and Christians in north Sri Lanka. In that case the violence was carried out by the Sri Lankan Sinhalese Buddhist government. You should read the irate comments and emails I receive over these articles. I am accused of being associated with the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) almost every single day.Last week I wrote about the terrible Genocides in Bangladesh-1971, and Balochistan, which is taking place this very second. I suppose some people would deem me anti-Muslim which would be a joke. I hate what the people of Northern Ireland were forced to endure at the hands of the British for so many years but it doesn’t make me anti-protestant.It always hearkens back to the same simple point; that there is no such thing as a humane religious government, not in all of history. Some are better than others, but the notion of a religion being the government is only disaster to the unlucky ones, the ‘wrong’ religion or culture.
Whether my detractors accept it or not, the strength of my arguments is grounded on the transparent truthful nature of my premises. Until now, not one of my opponents has been able to point out a single discrepancy within my argument or the facts I cite. For instance, I contend that since Israel defines itself as the Jewish State—its tanks and planes decorated with Jewish symbols—it is our duty to ask: Who are the Jews? What is Judaism? And what is Jewishness all about?
The fact that some activists shy away from asking those questions doesn’t mean that the rest of us also should behave cowardly.Dr. Kevin Barrett, another valued writer with conviction and courage in confronting the less comfortable national and world issues, wrote:
What these folks should be doing is reading Atzmon’s work carefully and holistically, and then, if they find that Atzmon is mistaken in his analysis of the way Jewish identity politics is a factor in Zionism, they should correct him.An ardent supporter of Palestine and Human Rights, Dr. Gabi Weber in Freiburg, Germany, wrote:
I am asking myself how many of the signers of “Anti-Atzmon-petitions” (http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/palestinian-writers-activists-disavow-racism-anti-semitism-gilad-atzmon) did what Kevin Barrett suggests?
I am afraid that witch-hunt arrived in the so-called ‘solidarity movement’.As we have written time and time again, antisemitism is nothing but an excuse when it is used to combat accusations of war crimes and civil rights abuse, nobody cares what religion anyone is, however we greatly care about people who pervert religion to meet their personal and governmental needs. It is wrong, Zionism is a concept barely over a hundred years old. Israel is an infant government that has proven clearly over and over again that it is a threat to its neighbors and the entire world.The complicity of the American government with this apartheid regime is shameful and unforgivable, the bodies in Palestine stack up while people like Ali Abunimah Abunimah randomly attack the strongest fighters that the movement has.
With regard to Mr. Abunimah, Wikipedia states that he:”opposes Zionism, which he describes as ‘a dying project, in retreat and failing to find new recruits.’ He argues that Zionism’s promotion of Jewish self-determination in Israel and Palestine’s ‘intermixed population’ has the effect of maintaining ‘a status quo in which Israeli Jews exercise power in perpetuity.’Abunimah’s position is that Palestinians should pursue coercive measures against Israel such as the non-violent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, while also putting forward a positive vision of a single democratic state.In January 2012, Abunimah tweeted ‘Isn’t it time for a popular Palestinian revolution in the form of a third intifada?’
Anyone who reads Gilad’s writings would note a similar sound to Mr. Abunimah’s words. I fail to understand why this man chose to attack Gilad. He claims Gilad is too much of a leader, implying that Gilad is not suitable as a man for the cause, what bullshit! Is that what he thought of Vik Arrigoni? I mean for God’s sake, Vittorio was from Italy, he was outspoken… does Abunimah look at his life as one of an outsider who had no business helping ‘his people’? This, when Abunimah lives in the U.S.?
I am sickened that people can be reached this way, we will never stop rallying for the embattled population of Palestine and the movement’s real advocates, like our friend Gilad Atzmon, a man of many uncomfortable truths and talent that scares people. I understand how this type of in-fighting can again, only benefit the Zionist cause of Israeli apartheid, Abunimah and all of those with similar sentiments know this too.
Mar-14-2012:Washington Report -To Disavow or Debate Gilad Atzmon? Salem-News.com
Dec-09-2010:Gilad Atzmon: ‘I Have a Reputation for Being a Suicidal Activist’ – Tim King Salem-News.comAli Abunimah – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Tim King in 2008, covering the Iraq War
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