Ukrainian news: two phone call leaks which say it all (plus a long Saker rant)

Two phone conversations have recently been intercepted by "parties unknown" (thank you Spetssviaz & 6th GRU!) which are truly revealing of the true nature of the folks put in power by the CIA.

The first one is a conversation between Igor Kolomoisky, mega-oligarch, Mafia don, dual Ukrainian-Israeli citizen and "junta governor" of the city of Dnepropetrovsk in southeastern Ukraine and Oleg Tsarev, ex-candidate in the Presidential election (ex Party of Regions, now independent), the one who was brutally assaulted in Kiev after participating to a show called - I kid you not - "free speech".  This is the machine translated transcript of the conversation (slightly corrected by me):

Kolomoysky: Hi.
Tsarev: Hi.
Kolomoysky: Where are you? Same place? 
Tsarev: Same place.
Kolomoysky: How are you? 
Tsarev: Good. 
Kolomoysky: There's big trouble happened . A Jew of the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish community was.
Tsarev: What happened there?
Kolomoysky: Well, a Jew got killed, one of the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish community . I am right now in the synagogue.
Tsarev: What was he doing there?
Kolomoysky: Well , no matter what he did. They said that they would put a contract on your life, fuck , big money. 
Tsarev: For my life? 
Kolomoysky: Million dollars. For your life . Yes. Moreover , they said that will be looking everywhere. Well, I just say that this so you say in Moscow, don't travel anywhere 
Tsarev: Let me tell you something . In Africa, there are ...
Kolomoysky: Tomorrow they will go after your people (family) here.
Tsarev: In Africa, there is such a ... such a poison ...
Kolomoysky: Look, I don't give a fuck about Africa.  I don't care about this. I am telling you that in the synagogue on the eve of the Sabbath there was a prayer. They prayed for the slain fellow Jew, comrade Shlemkevich, who was killed in Mariupol, fuck! 
Tsarev: So ...
Kolomoysky: And they said that Tsarev is to blame for it all, fuck . And tomorrow, fuck, the first thing they will do is look for all your loved ones, fuck . You better tell them to get the fuck out of here. Because we will hang them right on the public square, fuck ...  And tell Markov not to come here . Well, in the Ukraine. Under any circumstances . You hear me? 
Tsarev: Do not call me . Do not call me , Igor. 
Kolomoysky: Not to call you? Ok. So long Tsarev
Tsarev: Come on. Bye.

Charming no?

The second conversation, which is too long for me to transcribe here took place between a guy called Oleg Noginskii and the Israeli Honorary Ambassador to the Ukraine, Ian Epstein (spelling?).  The Russian transcript can be found here.  Two things are clear from that conversation: Kolomoiski is the guy who sent the neo-Nazis to Odessa and the Israeli diplomat and the Jewish community in the Ukraine are horrified by Kolomoiski's actions and want to distance themselves from what they call "Nazi crimes".  Noginski spells out there conclusion:

We declare that the world Jewish community, first: has nothing to do with Mr Kolomoisky, second: does not support (the actions) in Odessa, or Mariupol or any of those involved and expresses sincere sympathy. And third, says that if a Jew is involved in Nazi crimes, we will fight first him.

I find this very interesting because it perfectly illustrates something which I have been trying to hammer into the heads of the pathological Jew-haters out there for what seems like forever: YES there are Jewish oligarchs out there who are almost a perfect caricature of the loathsome Jewish plutocrat-thug and they are very bit as bad as the worst anti-Jewish propaganda likes to portray them.  But NO, they are not typical of a Jewish community which is every bit as complex and diverse as any other.  Some Jews are truly horrified by what these oligarchs to and they are acutely aware that the backlash against such scum will hit the entire Jewish community.

------- Non-Ukrainian interlude: Saker rant warning -------

Now, of course, a knee-jerk rabid Jew-hater will immediately reply that "oh, of course, how naive, these guys are playing both sides just to make sure to win" which is absolute crap.  I personally have known many Jews who have were active in struggles for what is right without anybody knowing about it.  Like my Jewish neighbor who was sending money to Serbs during the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo and even after, and then she was sending letters of support to Milosevic in the Hague not because she wanted to play "both sides" but because her entire family except her mother had been butchered in the Nazi camps and she was grateful for the Serbs for having really fought Hitler (unlike the rest of Europe).

Now while I am at it, let me make something clear here:

I am fully aware of the role which Jews played in the horrors of the 20th century, I am aware that they declared war on Russia first, and on Germany after that (both times the order came from organized American Jewry and Jewish banks), I loathe both Rabbinical Judaism and Zionism because both are based on self-worship and racism.  I don't need lectures on all the bad things Jews have done or are still doing.  Believe me, I have read more anti-Jewish books than most people here (if only because I read them all not only English, but also in Russian which has at least 10 times as many anti-Jewish books as there are in English).  And yet, I want to make something clear:

As Gilad Atzmon correctly points out - Jews are racist, but they are not a race.  As Shlomo Sands proved it - there is not such thing as a "Jewish race".  It's an invention.  Like most nations, by the way.  So we are dealing with two ideological phenomena: a) Jewish tribalism and b) Rabbinical Judaism.  Neither of them is transmitted by genes, has any basis in biology or is somehow magically passed on from generation to generation.

So I am walking a very difficult and tight path here: I DO want to participate and support the struggle against the secular and religious manifestations of Jewish racism.  But I DO NOT want to "cross the line" and do exactly what I accuse many Jews of doing: turn racist myself and deny our common humanity.  I assure you that my position is a difficult one as I get labeled both an anti-Semite and a Jew-lover.  I am neither.  Or, I am an anti-racist and a mankind-lover if you prefer.  I will go as far as saying that Rabbinical Judaism is, in my sincerely held conclusion, Satanic at its core and at least as evil as Wahabi Islam.  And Zionism is noting but the semi-secular rendition of the same racist values (at least modern Zionism, the original one was a very different phenomenon).  But to bring all the evils of our times only to the actions of those Jews who are truly evil is plain ridiculous: there is AT LEAST as much non-Jewish evil out there as there is Jewish one.  Need I remind you all that the favorite slogan of the Ukie Nazis is: "Бий жидів та москалів" or "beat the Jews and the Russians" (notice that Jews come first!).

I am disgusted by the modern media in which no criticisms of Jews is possible or, not without at least 3 paragraphs of disclaimers.  I hate the modern "Holocaust Industry" (As Norman Finkelstein called it) for constantly rubbing it in over and over and over and over again with the "Holocaust" and its absolutely mandatory figure of "6 millions" (the only case of mass murder in history which always has to be attached to a number of victims, the only one.  Ever wondered why?).  I find Israel an abomination whose very existence is a disgrace for all of mankind.  And I am sick and tired of mediocre talentless Jews being promoted by their fellow Jews everywhere just because "he is one of us".  But NONE of that has ANYTHING to do with race, ethnicity or biology.  This is simply the hijacking of an immoral and corrupt society by a particularly immoral and corrupting *tribe* which is also ruled by its own 1%.  Just like non-Jews, the vast majority of Jews having no control over what their elites are doing in their name.  As for their elites, they brainwash them literally from birth (just study the feat of Purim for a proof of that) and then further terrify them with the constant repetition of the mantra: "the goyim hate us, they almost exterminated us many times, we have to protect ourselves or they will exterminate us again, we need to make sure we hold all the positions of power and wealth to prevent the goying from killing us all".  And the percentage of Jews who believes that crap is about the same as the percentage of non-Jews who believe the propaganda which they are taught in their own home and schools.  Guys - we are all humans, with the same weaknesses, the same inclinations and the same evil 1% ruling over us.

Anyway, I am getting off my soapbox fully aware that I must have pissed off both those who like Jews and those who hate them.  Look, this is my opinion and I don't expect you all to agree.  What I will say is that this is my blog and this is my post and for the comments section under this post - just for this one time - I will set much stricter rules than usual.  First, if you want to call me an anti-Semite or a covert Jew or Jew-lover - don't bother.  I plead guilty both (just to confuse and piss you off) and reject your comment.  Second, IF you want to discuss the "J" topic - make darn sure that your comment is respectful to all others, well substantiated, logically organized and substantive.  Venting or slogans will be rejected.  And please posts on this topic only if you have something to say, at least in regards to my rant which I will single out in blue to separate it from the rest of the post about the Ukraine.

Oh, and for Pete's sake, please read what I actually wrote.  And if needed, read it again.  I wrote what I wrote and not something else.  Please don't "read something into what I wrote".  No "overtones" or implications.  If you are not sure - please ask.  I say this because the other day I got an email from a moron who accused me of being an anti-Semite and when I challenged him three times to quote a single sentence from this 7 year old blog to prove it he could not come up with one example.  You have no idea how sick and tired I am of constantly having to deal with idiots who simply cannot understand that I do oppose an ideology and not a race.  Or take the expression "AngloZionist Empire" which I use (and find very appropriate).  Do you know how many times I got an objection to the use of the word "Anglo"?  Once.  Do you know how often I got attacked for the second part of the expression "Zionist"?  Too many to count by now.  Though, think of it: "Anglo" is a cultural/ethnic term.  "Zionist" is a purely ideological one.  Yet it is this second, non-racial, term which gets me accused of being a racist.  How frigging stupid can people be? (Pardon my frustration, but I am sooooo tired of idiots!!!).  It is a special torture for me to write one thing, and then have to spend time trying to prove to semi-literate morons that I did not write what they thought I wrote but that what I wrote is actually what I wrote (would seem self-evident, but no, not to some idiots).

Anyway, end of rant here.  I get off my soap box, take a deep breath, drink a glass of water, wipe the sweat of my brow and feel a mixture of relief (felt good to yell) and guilt (my God, did I really yell for that long?!).

Remember the one-time comments rule for this section in blue, or you will be offended again.  Speaking of offending.  I apologize if anything I wrote above offended anybody. No, I don't care if I ruffled some hyper politically-correct and sensitive feathers.  But if I did really offend somebody I apologize.  Like you I am just a fallible human being who has a very long record of being wrong.

------- Non-Ukrainian interlude: Saker rant ends here ------- 

The  other interesting development in the Ukraine is the growing evidence that the junta is grossly under-reporting its losses.  For example, there is very good evidence that two armored personnel carriers and even one infantry fighting vehicles were completely destroyed by the resistance.  There is no way that the number of casualties could be 7 as announced by the junta.  A figure of at least 15-20 would be much more likely.  Some sources in the combat area are claiming that the real number of killed junta soldiers is close to one hundred.  What is certain is that the military commander of the resistance have now declared that they will engage in offensive combat operations and that all Ukie soldiers - whether conscripts of hired guns - will killed.

At the same time, military coordinator of Lugansk Resistance, Vladimir Karasiuk, declared that Donetsk and Lugansk will not unite because it is indispensable to unify all the regions of the southwest, including Kharkov, Donetsk, Lugansk, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhie, Nikolaev, Kherson and Odessa.

This might all be bluster, I have no way of checking, but it sounds to me like the resistance in the Donbass is getting much more confident.  Finally, I have seen some combat footage showing what are clearly well-trained and well-equipped Donbass resistance units preparing for an ambush.  This was not the typical ragtag force mix of civilians with hunting rifles, young men with pretend semi-uniforms and a few old guys with beer bellies.  The footage showed a well camouflaged unit silently progressing though vegetation while keeping in radio contact with their commanders.  Also, at least one pro-resistance website mentions radio intercepts of the junta forces radio communications.  Nice.  It looks to me that the resistance might well be getting better organized and better equipped.

Stay tuned, I will soon have a report about worldwide reactions to the events in the Ukraine.

Ooops - here is a tornado warning here.

Gotta run.

Be back later!

The Saker

Jews, Judaism & Jewishness

by Gilad Atzmon

Since Israel defines itself as the ‘Jewish state’ we are entitled to consider what the word ‘Jewish’ stands for.

I tend to differentiate between three distinct (yet occasionally confusing) categories.

1. Jews - the people
2. Judaism - the religion
3. Jewishness - the ideology

During my study of Zionism, Jewish politics, 'identity politics' and culture, I have managed to avoid embroiling myself in the complexity involved with the first category -- I do not deal with Jews as a race or an ethnicity. I also generally avoid dealing with Judaism (the religion). In fact, I am the first to admit that the only Jewish collective to support the Palestinians, are groups that exist within the Torah Jews. That such groups support Palestinian self-determination and autonomy is proof enough that aspects of religious Judaism can be interpreted as emphasising ethical precepts.

However -- I am very critical of what I view as 'Jewish ideology, and I am also critical of what I consider to be 'Jewish identity politics.'

'Jewish ideology' is basically an amalgam of racially orientated exclusive arguments. It is fuelled by assumptions about 'ethno'-centric supremacy, and ideas such as ‘choseness’. Being a tribal setting then, Jewish ideology defies equality. It also opposes universalism. The followers of that ideology tend to believe that they are somewhat different and even better (chosen) than non Jews. And much Jewish political activity is a formulation, and expression of a tribal exclusive club that demands a ‘Jews only’ entry card.

It is important to note that Jewish ideology and Zionism are not entirely the same -- In fact, Zionism should be seen as just one manifestation of Jewish ideology. Though Israel is the fruit of the Zionist project -- it is vital to realise that Zionism does not drive Israeli politics or ideology. In fact, Zionism is largely a Diaspora Jewish discourse.

While early Zionism presented itself as a promise to ‘resolve the Galut’ (Diaspora) by ‘transforming’ the Diaspora Jew into an ‘authentic civilised’ human being -- it is important to remember that the last few generations of Israelis have been born in Zion (Palestine) and are, therefore, not entirely shaped by Zionist ideologies. From a Zionist perspective, the modern Israeli is then, a ‘post-revolutionary’ subject. And indeed, I myself, amongst millions of other Israelis, joined the Israeli army because we were Jews -- not because we were Zionists.

Israelis do, however, follow what I define as Jewish ideology -- They practise and perform a number of different measures that are there to maintain Jewish exclusivity on the land. When 94% of Israeli Jews supported IDF's murderous tactics against Gazans at the time of Operation Cast Lead, it wasn’t Zionism that motivated them. It was the total lack of empathy with other human beings. It was blindness towards others. It was supremacy and chauvinism; or, in other words, it was the ugliest homicidal manifestation of their choseness.

Almost every aspect of Israeli politics, whether it is the ‘unilateral disengagement’ or the loyalty oath, can be grasped as an attempt to project and protect Jewish exclusivity on the land (instead of trying to resolve the Galut)

You may note that I neither refer to Jews as a racial or ethnic group; nor am I directing my critique towards Judaism, the religion. And whilst Jews can indeed succumb to what I define as 'Jewish ideology', (and many of them do) it is valuable to bear in mind they can also be its most virulent enemies: Obvious examples are Jesus, Spinoza and Marx, and one can also include Israelis such as Israel Shahak, Gideon Levy and others. It is also pertinent to mention that some early Zionists such as Nordau and Borochov were also strong opponents of Jewish ideology and culture -- For them, Zionism was a necessary attempt to amend Jews. They believed that once dwelling on ‘their promised land,’ what had hitherto been perceived as 'Jewish tendencies', (such as 'non-productive inclinations'), would disappear.

It should be obvious that I am in total support of the universal and ethical ideas that are coupled with the ODS (One Democratic State) and SOIC (State of its Citizens). I would be also be the first to endorse and explore any form of reconciliation between the indigenous people of the land (Palestinians) and the new comers (Israelis).

Yet, I believe that for any possible and intelligible discussion to take place --we surely must be able to freely explore the true nature of the ideology that drives the Jewish state, and Jewish politics around the world.

We must find a way to admit to ourselves that the Jewish ideological, political and cultural discourse is a tribal discourse: it is foreign to universalism and ideas of true equality. Also, we need to realise that the Israeli notion of ‘shalom’ (peace) is interpreted by Israelis as ‘security for Jews’ instead of reconciliation.

Unless we are brave enough to confront these issues, and discuss them freely, the pro- Palestinian movement is trapped in a futile discourse on the verge of self-indulgence.

Gilad Atzmon - Lexicon of Resistance

by Gilad Atzmon for Palestine Think Tank

The following is an attempt to present my own personal dictionary of what seems to be the most charged terminology and concepts attached to the Palestinian solidarity and anti-war discourse.

Palestine- a piece of land on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. For many years Palestine was the home of the Palestinian people: Muslims, Christians and Jews who lived in peace and harmony for hundred of years. In the late 19th century, in the light of emerging European nationalism, a few Jews had decided that Jews should not be left out. They then invented the notions of: ”Jewish people”, ”Jewish history” and ”Jewish nationalism”. They decided to settle the majority of world Jewry in Palestine. Throughout the years the Jewish national project, i.e., Zionism, had become more and more sinister and ruthless. In 1949 70% of the indigenous Palestinian population had already been ethnically cleansed. Nowadays the majority of Palestinians are living behind barbed wire in a state of terror guarded by Israeli soldiers.

Jews- the people who happen to identify themselves as Jews. Jews are not a race, they do not follow a single belief system either. I made myself a rule. I categorically refrain from dealing with ”the Jews” as a collective or an ethnic group. Instead I restrict myself to criticism of Jewish politics, Jewish ideology and Jewish identity.

Judaism- one of the many religions practiced by the Jewish people (Jews for Jesus, Jews For Buddha, Jews For Allah and so on). Though Judaism contains some non-ethical aspects and teachings, the one and only peace-seeking collective amongst the Jewish people is actually a religious orthodox sect, namely Torah Jews. This fact is enough to make me very careful when criticising Judaism as a religion. When dealing with Judaism, I would restrict myself to criticism of interpretations of Talmudic racism and the biblically orientated Zionist genocidal plunder of Palestine.

Jewishness- Jewish ideology, the interpretations of the meaning of being a Jew by those who regard themselves as Jews. Jewishness is the core of Jewish identity, it is a dynamic notion. It is hard to pin down. While refraining from criticising Jews (the people) and Judaism (the religion), elaborating on Jewishness is a must, especially considering the crimes committed by the Jewish state in the name of Jewish people. As long as the Jewish state is shelling civilians with white phosphorous, it is our ethical duty to question: Who are the Jews? What does Judaism stand for? What is Jewishness all about?

Palestine vs Israel- Palestine is a country, Israel is a state.

Palestinians- currently the longest lasting sufferers of racist colonial abuse and state terrorism. Palestinians are the only true indigenous inhabitants of Palestine. 4,300,000 Palestinian refugees are scattered in the Middle East. There are Palestinians who managed to hold onto their land yet are denied equal civil rights, others live under military occupation. The Palestinian cause is largely the ethically grounded demand of the Palestinian people to return to their own land. The land that belongs to them and to them alone. The Palestinian cause is the demand to dismantle the Jewish state and to form a State of its Citizens instead.

Zionism- the national colonial practical interpretation of Jewish ideology. It asserts that Jews are entitled to a national home in Zion (Palestine) at the expense of the Palestinian people. Zionism is a colonial racist philosophy that practices genocidal tactics. It is a biblically orientated precept. Although Zionism portrayed itself initially as a secular movement, from the very beginning it transformed the Bible from a religious text into a land registry.

Israel- the Jewish state is a racist political concept. It is a place where Jewish supremacy is celebrated in an institutional manner. Israel is a place where 94% of the population supports dropping white phosphorus on innocent civilians. Israel is the place where Jews can pour their vengeance on the Goyim.

Palestinian resistance- the exercise of the ethical right to resist an invader, an ethnic cleanser and a racist.

Demographic bomb- Israel possesses many bombs, cluster bombs, petrol bombs, atomic bombs, WMD bombs, etc. The Palestinians have only one bomb, the demographic bomb. The Palestinians are the majority of the people between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. This fact itself defines the temporal quality of the Idea of Jewish state in Palestine.

Zionism vs Jewishness- it is difficult or maybe even impossible to determine where Zionism stops and Jewishness begins. Zionism and Jewishness establish a continuum. As it seems, Zionism has become the symbolic identifier of the contemporary Jew. Every Jew is identified by himself and others in reference to the Zionist compass (Zionist, anti-Zionist, oblivious to Zionism, love Zionism but hate Israel, love Israel but hate falafel and so on).

Secular Judaism and Jewish Secular Fundamentalism- secularity has been a very popular precept amongst Jews in the last two centuries. The Jewish form of secularity is very similar to rabbinical Judaism. It is fundamentally monotheistic, it believes in one truth (God is dead until further notice). It is supremacist, it is extremely intolerant of others in general and Muslims in particular, it even promotes wars in the name of enlightenment, liberalism, democracy and even in the name of the victims to come.

Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder- the kind of mental state that leads 94% of the Israeli population to support air raids against civilians. Within the condition of the Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Pre-TSD), the stress is the outcome of a phantasmic event, an imaginary episode set in the future; an event that has never taken place. Within Pre-TSD, an illusion pre-empts reality and the condition in which the fantasy of terror is itself becoming grave reality. If it is taken to extremes, even an agenda of total war against the rest of the world is not an unthinkable reaction. Unlike the case of paranoia, wherein the sufferer is subject to his own symptoms, in the case of Pre-TSD the sufferer actually celebrates his symptoms while others are left with the role of the audience or even victim. The sufferers of Pre-TSD within the press and media lobby for global conflict. Once they are in power they just spread death around. They manage to see a threat in almost anything. The Pre-TSD sufferer would call to flatten Iran, he would defend the IDF military campaign in Gaza for his own existential fears. The Pre-TSD sufferer is rather predictable and for one reason or other always to be found in the non-ethical cause.

Jihad- the struggle to improve one's self and society. Jihad is the attempt to reach a harmony between the self and the world. It is there to bridge the gap between self loving, loving self and the love towards others. Jihad is the answer to chosenness.

Holocaust- an overwhelmingly devastating chapter in recent Jewish past. It would be difficult to imagine the formation of the Jewish state without the effect of the holocaust. Yet, it is impossible to deny the fact that Palestinians ended up paying the ultimate price for crimes that were committed against the Jews by other people (Europeans). Hence, it would make sense to argue that if Europeans feel guilty about the Holocaust, they better take extra care of its last victims, i.e., the Palestinians.

It must be mentioned that due to some legislation that restricts the scrutiny of the holocaust in an open academic manner, the holocaust is no longer treated as an historical chapter. Instead it is regarded by many scholars as a religious narrative (namely, Holocaust Religion). Those who do not obey the religion or follow its restrictions are chased, excluded and jailed. The failure to maintain the holocaust as a vivid historic chapter turned Jewish history into a Pandora’s box sealed by prohibitions, legal restrictions and different forms of threats. In an ideal ”free world”, we would be able to look into the holocaust, to regard it as an historical chapter and to draw some lessons out of it. That would mean also questioning its meaning. In an ideal (free) world, we may as well be allowed to wonder how come, time after time, Jews ended up despised and detested by their neighbours. In an ideal (free) world Jews may have a chance to learn from their mistakes in the past. For the time being, as long as we want to keep free, we better avoid questioning the past.

The Meaning of the Holocaust- the Holocaust provides the Jews and others with two obvious lessons. One is universal and almost simplistic, it says: ”NO to racism”. As some Jewish intellectuals predicted after the war, Jews were supposed to lead the fight against racism. Seemingly, it didn’t happen. Not only did it fail to happen, but the Jewish state had become the ultimate form of racist practice. Three years after the liberation of Auschwitz the newly formed Jewish state brutally ethnically cleansed the vast majority of indigenous Palestinians. As time goes by, the Jewish state doesn’t try to disguise its racist agenda, i.e., Jews only state.

The second lesson that can be drawn out of the holocaust is far less abstract, it is actually very pragmatic. It suggests to Jews ”to be aware of their deed”. It suggests to Jews ”to act ethically, or at least to pretend to do so”. Seemingly, this lesson is totally ignored. In the Jewish state young IDF soldiers wear T-shirts depicting pregnant Palestinian women caught in the crosshairs of a rifle, with the disturbing caption "1 shot 2 kills". In the Jewish state, civilians had been caught picnicking watching their army dropping unconventional weapons on their Palestinian neighbours. The Israeli reality and the forceful Jewish lobbying around the world portray a complete dismissal of any ethical judgment or moral conduct. Whether it is the genocidal practice against the Palestinian people or the lobbying for more and more global conflicts. If the meaning of the holocaust would have been internalised, different appearances of such inhuman behaviour would have been addressed and tackled.

However, within the prohibition to re-visit our history we may still be entitled to reflect over Nazi brutality towards Jews in the light of the Jewish state’s crimes in Palestine. Seemingly, there is no legislation that prohibits us from doing that as yet.

Hamas- political party that was elected in 2006 by the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. Since then Israel has withheld payments owed to Gaza, causing the Palestinian economy to collapse. It has blockaded Gaza for months, starving the civilian population. And yet, Hamas proved once again that the Palestinian people are resilient. In spite of Israel’s genocidal tactics, in spite of the IDF targeting children, women and the elderly, Hamas’ popularity increases by the day and more so especially after the last Gaza conflict. It has now become clear that Israel does not possess the means of combating Islamic resistance. In other words. Israel’s days are numbered.

Gatekeepers- for many years the Palestinian solidarity discourse had been shattered by those who claimed to know what is right and what is wrong. They also claimed to know what should be discussed and what subject must be dropped. Initially, gatekeepers tried to recruit the Palestinian movement to fight antisemitism. Another bizarre agenda was to use the Palestinian people as another Guinea pig in a dogmatic socialist exercise.

Due to the growing success of Palestinian and Islamic resistance, the power of Gatekeepers is now reduced to none. Though gatekeeping operators still insist upon exercising their powers, their influence is totally restricted to primarily Jewish cells.

Antisemites- in the old days, antisemites were those who didn’t like Jews, nowadays, antisemites are those the Jews don’t like. Considering the growing chasm between the Jewish state and its lobbies and the rest of humanity, we have good reason to believe that before not too long, the entirety of humanity will be denounced as antisemitic by one Jewish lobby or another.

Antisemitism- a misleading signifier. Though it refers largely to anti-Jewish feelings, it gives the impression that these feelings are racially motivated or orientated. It must be clear that Jews are not a race and do not establish a racial continuum. Thus, no one hates the Jews for their race or their racial identity.

Bearing in mind Israeli crimes and Jewish lobbying around the world, anti-Jewish feeling should be realised as a political, ideological and ethical reaction. It is a response to a criminal state and its institutional support amongst world Jewry. Though resentment to Zionism, Israel and Jewish lobbying is rather rational, the failure to distinguish between the ”Jew”, and Zionism is indeed very problematic and dangerous especially considering the fact that many Jews have nothing to do with the Zionist crime. However, due to the extensive Jewish institutional support of Israel, it is far from easy to determine where the ”Jew” ends and the Zionist starts. In fact, there is no such demarcation line or spot of transition. The outcome is clear, Jews are implicated collectively by the crimes of their national project. One obvious solution for the Jew is to oppose Zionism as an individual, another option is to oppose Zionism in the name of the Torah, it is also possible for the Jew to shun the tribal ideologist in himself.

Self loving- the belief that something about oneself is categorically and fundamentally right, moral and unique. This is the secular interpretation of being chosen.

Self Hatred- the belief that something about oneself is categorically and fundamentally wrong, immoral and ordinary. This state of being may also be a point of departure of a spiritual ethical quest.

Chicken Soup- is what is left once you strip Jewish identity of Judaism, racism, chauvinism, White Phosphorous, supremacy, cluster bombs, secularity, Zionism, Israel, intolerance, Nuclear reactor in Dimona, cosmopolitanism, genocidal tendency, etc. The Jew can always revert to chicken soup, the iconic symbolic identifier of Jewish cultural affiliation. The Jew is always more than welcome to say: ”I am not religious nor am I a Zionist, I am not a banker, nor is my name Madoff. I am not a ”Labour friend of Israel” nor I am a Lord or look like a cash machine. I am just a little innocent Jew because my mama’le used to feed me with chicken soup when I was slightly unwell.” Let’s face it once and for all, chicken soup is not that dangerous (unless you are a chicken). My grandmother taught me that it was very healthy. In fact I tried it once in winter 1978, I had the flu then. It helped, I feel better now.

The Saker interviews Roger Tucker, author of the One Democratic State blog

After a lengthy break from making interviews, I am finally returning to this aspect of my work with what I consider one of the most interesting interviews I ever made. One of my readers (thanks RC!) pointed me to the website and work of Robert Tucker, truly an immensely interesting and courageous person whom I consider to be the living proof of the fact that no amount of propaganda and indoctrination can overcome the human desire for truth, freedom and justice. Robert, who was born as a American Jew (usually the most indoctrinated Jews anywhere on the planet, at least in my experience) simply says that "we are defined by our choices" yet these six simple words contain within themselves the assumption that we are *not* just defined by our environment or genetic makeup, a basic truth which both nationalists and racists have totally forgotten. I believe that being defined by our choices is a core element of our common humanity, that this freedom to choose is likewise a core element of our essence as human beings and that what I would call the "brotherhood of choices" is far more important in our lives than our ethnic origins (just recall the Parable of the Good Samaritan).

It is always a joy for me when any person breaks free from the ideological shackles he/she was born into and bursts into a life of true freedom of the spirit. This is a painful process which can only be completed through a great deal of suffering and anguish, but one which eventually leads to peace. I hope that Roger's example will inspire many others.

The Saker

-------

What happened to Hillel's teaching that the essence of Judaism, from which all else springs, is, "That which is hateful unto you do not do to your fellow human being"?
- When Abraham wept

The Saker: Please introduce yourself, tell us about the various organizations or websites you are associated with and what considerations brought you to get active in "Internet-based politics" (for lack of a better word)?

Roger Tucker: I think that I am a fairly typical product of my time, place and antecedents. I was born and brought up in Newton, one of the largely Jewish suburbs of Boston, populated then as now with a lot of professional and business types, particularly faculty of the major schools, like Harvard and MIT, doctors, lawyers, accountants et al. I rebelled against the whole shtick, heavily influenced by my mother, I think, who was a woman way ahead of her time but made the mistake of entering into a conventional marriage, one which suffocated her. Well, we are defined by our choices and inexorably reap the consequences.

I am part of two worlds that I have chosen. The first, following an evolution starting in my early teens, is the rather vast arena of Buddhism. At first it was Zen, and then in the early 70's I became a student of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, a Tibetan meditation master. The associated organization is Shambhala International, which acts as a container and transmitter of the teachings of this particular lineage. The second, which dates back only about five years, is the world of political activism. This is in stark contrast to my attitude and activities when I was a student in San Francisco in the 60's. I was very much a part of the local counter culture, which was involved in that remarkable spiritual revolution that was prologue to so much of what we take for granted these days, in spite of the fact that the counter-revolution was so emphatically successful. However, across the Bay in Berkeley, there was a political revolution of sorts going on, the Free Speech Movement, robust antiwar activity, heavy support for the Civil Rights movement, People's Park, and so forth. Well, identifying much more with the flower children, I dismissed most of that as the realm of the "politicals," as we called them, and went about my business.

About five years ago I found myself suddenly aware that I had been, like most people, in something like a state of hypnosis regarding the State of Israel and the profoundly malevolent influence its existence and activities were having on both international affairs as well as domestic realities back here in River City. So I kind of woke up, snapped out of it, and almost immediately concluded that there was one, and only one way out of the mess - and that is what is known as the One State Solution. Having come to this conclusion, one thing just followed another and I found myself setting up a website as a source of information, education and advocacy. That led (I won't go into the technical reasons why) to my current website.

What were the circumstances which brought you, a Jew, to turn to Buddhism? What about Christianity, Islam or Hinduism, have you ever considered these?

First of all, even as a youngster I never felt the slightest inclination to believe in God any more than I bought into the tooth fairy or Santa Claus. To me they were all childish productions of the mind that were best categorized by Freud as "infantile wish-fulfillment fantasies." But, atheism, of course, is not very satisfying spiritually - it is merely a negation of theism. So I set about actively searching for answers to the age old elemental questions that can best be summed up as "who am I - and what is That?" I felt sure that there must be, or must have been someone, somewhere, who had at least the slightest idea of what was actually what, but for a long time didn't feel that I could even be sure of that. I read The Way, by Lao-Tze, the Bhagavad Gita (and gave a talk on it to other young people), looked into Sufism and even joined a Quaker Meeting, and while a student at the Army Language School took a course in the history of Islam, but it wasn't until after I returned from a three year stint in the Army that I settled on Buddhism. This was precipitated by a lecture at Brandeis by D.T. Suzuki of Tokyo University. I came out of that talk with two distinct feelings. One was that I hadn't really understood a word that he had said. The other was that for the first time I had listened to someone who was privy to the truth about the nature of existence. Such is Zen. I remember the sense as I was walking out of the auditorium that I was two feet off the ground. I had the feeling that I was, finally, not alone. I have since come to the conclusion that there are religions and there are wisdom traditions, and the former are by-products of the latter, sort of like ossified husks that preserve the form but have discarded the essence. Among the wisdom traditions I happen to find Buddhism to be the clearest and most useful.

I don’t want to give the impression that I consider all religion to be detrimental to human understanding and development – that would be inaccurate and far too simplistic. On the contrary, all religions, as I said, contain the original, genuine spiritual inspiration and wisdom within them. Otherwise they would just dry up and blow away, offering nothing to sustain them. One could say that religious beliefs and practices could be graphed as a spectrum that ranges from hopelessly ignorant, dogmatic fundamentalism (the products of the back country madrassas in Afghanistan and Pakistan or those of the Saudi Wahhabists, the piney woods Assemblies of God and Bible Colleges in the southern U.S., the Hindu fanatics in the rank-and-file of the BJP of India, and the fetid Orthodox precincts of Brooklyn that send forth the genocidal settler-colonists in the West Bank).

At the other end of the spectrum are the saints and mystics, and ordinary people possessed of transcendental common sense, who may or may not identify as believers in one of the traditional theistic traditions, but who can’t really be distinguished from the practitioners of the wisdom traditions in their basic understanding. It would turn out to be a bell curve, no doubt, with the majority in the muddled middle, basically confused and kind of inwardly agnostic but going along to get along. People will express their natural yearning for spiritual understanding one way or another, and the gulf between belief in God and reliance on science and reason is not as wide as is popularly thought.

To a large extent the difference lies in the confusion between absolute and relative truth. Language itself evolved as a way of expressing relative truth, in order to distinguish between this and that, good to eat or not good to eat, threatening as opposed to harmless and so forth. In order to express absolute truth, that which goes beyond polarities and concepts and points directly to things as they are, art is born and language becomes metaphor, poetry, song and the voice of the spirit.

I am going to repeat an old question here: what/who is a Jew? Do you still consider yourself as a Jew and, if yes, what meaning do you give to your "Jewishness".

The first part has a simple answer, though it's not the only answer. Like being human, or male or female, one is born that way. I was brought up to understand that one is a Jew if one's mother was a Jew, and my parents and their parents were Ashkenazim. The Nazis elaborated on that to include any forebears going back even three generations. The Israelis, likewise, due to their "demographic problem," have loosened the definition considerably, so that nowadays - if you're of the "right" nationality or ethnicity, you merely have to make some vague claim to being Jewish. You're a shoo-in if you're a white European, which accounts for the hefty number of recent Russian immigrants. The same thing happened in South Africa, under the Afrikaner regime, and for the same reasons.

When one looks at Jewish history, though, the whole picture becomes quite muddled. It appears that, contrary to popular belief (even among Jews), Judaism was for many hundreds of years a very actively proselytizing religion, and a very successful one at that. It has been known for some years that we Ashkenazim (the Yiddish speaking people) are the descendants not of the Hebrews but of the citizens of the Khazarian Empire, which was converted to Judaism back in the 8th Century AD. And due to the efforts of an Israeli historian by the name of Shlomo Sand we discover that many of the Sephardim (from Spain and Portugal) and most of the Mizrahim (Middle Eastern and Asian Jews, mostly North African) are descended from Berber people who were converted by a warrior Queen. His book is currently being translated from Hebrew into English and it will no doubt cause quite a stir, no matter how assiduously the Zionists try to repress and distort it. The ironic upshot of all this is that it turns out that there is no such thing as "the Jewish People," anymore than there was such a thing as Hitler's beloved "Aryan Race." Fascism is always built on some such mytho-history. The "misplaced concreteness," or reification, of such squirrelly collective terms as "the Jews," "White People," "Black People," “the Working Class” or “Capitalists” is such a cause of unnecessary suffering. I follow Ghandi’s example when he said when he was asked if he was a Hindu “Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew.” We are all just people, human beings, with the same inalienable right to live in peace and dignity as anyone else, and the same moral responsibility to let others do likewise.

Why are you, a Buddhist Jew, active in the Palestinian question? Why is this topic important to you?

We are all faced with a question from early on, and one that never goes away. How is one to live one's life? I'm going to give a Buddhist answer and a Jewish one. The dharma talks about "the eightfold noble path," which has some similarity to the Ten Commandments, but much more nuanced and spiritually sophisticated. One of these is "right action." This is not defined - that is left to commentary - but it means to act lawfully, where the term dharma, best translated as "the teachings," or "things as they are," is understood to be the basis of proper behavior, what determines how you act in relation to others. This is further elaborated in the Mahayana tradition in the form of the Bodhisattva Path. In order to enter this path, one takes a vow to put others before oneself, indeed, to save all sentient beings. This may sound like a bit of overreaching, but one eventually comes to understand that, given the seamless inseparability of all that exists, there's really no choice. This becomes, at the very least, one's aspiration. But, as in all things Buddhist, how you go about it is left entirely up to you, and depends on the depth of your understanding and your commitment to the vow that you have taken. That's the Buddhist part. (It might strike some that there's an obvious similarity here to what Jesus taught, particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. There's a great Zen anecdote about that, but no space for it here.)

So let's imagine a Buddhist who also happens to be a Jew, somebody like me. Let me note here that no one who meets me gets the slightest hint that I am "Jewish." I don't fit any stereotype, whether it's physically, linguistically or culturally. When I was bumming around Europe, the Middle East and Africa, people I met were often surprised when I told them that I was an American - I had to convince people. I wasn't ashamed of it particularly, although in certain circumstances I, as is still the custom among backpacker types, opted for passing as a Canadian to avoid unnecessary complications. When I found myself in Israel the first time, I wound up becoming a volunteer on a kibbutz, as much a matter of practical necessity as leftover Jewish romanticism. I soon discovered that the "volunteers" were considered a necessary evil by the kibbutzniks - free labor is free labor, a bargain at any price. They avoided any contact with the volunteers except as necessary to get the work done - so much for the original ideal of a communitarian agrarian socialism - it was all business. Whenever possible, I would get away and wander around the country, soon discovering that I was drawn to the Arab inhabitants, the Palestinians, who seemed altogether so much more attractive as people, so much more at home in the land. But I found that conversation would eventually get around to politics, and they would begin to get tense and the anger and frustration were palpable. I wasn't close at this point to putting two and two together, so I would begin to feel alienated and restive and would soon move on. This pattern of moving back and forth between the two peoples persisted during both of my sojourns in Israel in the early 70's. But I digress, which is fun, but perhaps confusing to the reader.

Going back to the meaning that I give my "Jewishness," I should relate that I was sent to Hebrew School to prepare for my Bar Mitzvah, which, in the Conservative Jewish tradition, as in the Orthodox, requires one to chant from the Haftorah in Hebrew. This comprised my Jewish education though I remember very little of it - I was not there willingly; my father insisted, more for social and family reasons than anything else, which was a common attitude among second generation Jews at the time. For those who don't know, the Conservative school was something of a compromise between the Orthodox (rare at the time except among those born in the old country - I think many of us felt that it was sure to die out completely in America; little did we realize how resilient such cultural artifacts are), and an American invention, Reform Judaism, a precursor to the type of Christianity that became dominant within the National Council of Churches starting in the 60's, a kind of catch-all that mimicked multi-activity secular institutions while paying lip service to whichever branch of the religion whose name it carried - a sort of social service oriented pastiche whose function was more that of providing some sense of community and social purpose than any semblance of pursuing a religious path. This has somewhat gone out of fashion in recent years, largely replaced by a more robust form that relies on magic and blind faith, signaling a return to traditional American revivalism with the tents replaced by TV and Monster Churches.

The institution I attended was Temple Emeth - 'emeth' meaning 'truth' in Hebrew. In recent years I have found this increasingly ironic as I have become aware of the almost totally mythical nature of the stories that Jews have told about themselves over the centuries, much of which is contained in the collection of folklore called the Jewish Bible. And with the advent of political Zionism, we have a full blown fascist mytho-history that is almost entirely fabricated. But somehow I absorbed something of the wisdom tradition that must have provided the seed for the whole thing, as can be found in every theistic religion if one looks hard enough. Certain words resonate in my mind, like “truth,” “justice” and "righteousness," which somehow encapsulates the notion of what in Buddhism we call "right action." It was all quite legalistic, stemming from the famous Ten Commandments and immersed in the injunction to "fear God," for he is a "jealous God." I never had the slightest inclination to believe any of the theistic claptrap, but something about how one should live one's life properly did make sense. The wisdom essence seems to be contained in the Golden Rule. I just looked up a variation that was handy, “Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you,” which was attributed to Rabbi Hillel. A Google search then came up with other sources for those exact words, Confucius and Jesus of Nazareth (according to the Gospel of Matthew). One could also say that this formula sums up Mahayana Buddhism, as well as the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King. It’s all of a piece.

All of this is leading to an answer to the question of why I am concerned with the Palestinians, of why it's important to me. I am not particularly attached to Palestinians as such. They are neither better nor worse than anyone else. Everyone is, as it is put in Shambhala Buddhism, "basically good." But perhaps because I am Jewish, I feel that I have a special responsibility to the millions of people who are suffering at the hands of some of my fellow Jews, and I particularly object to this being done in my name. But really it's a moral imperative. What's basically wrong with political Zionism (the Jabotinskian variation that gained the upper hand in Israel in the 1930's and has had a tight grip on power ever since) is that it directly and flagrantly violates the bottom line of all genuine spiritual traditions. That is to say, it is intrinsically evil, and must be opposed by anyone who has even the most rudimentary understanding of the difference between right and wrong, be they of whatever religious, ideological, ethnic or national persuasion.

What was the reaction of your Jewish relatives and friends to your conversion to Buddhism?

This question I can dispense with quickly, but it does bring up an interesting point. As for relatives, I am close only to my brother, who very generously keeps me from starving and, to a much lesser extent, my father, who kept me from starving while I was growing up. They are aware of my Buddhist connection, but are not particularly curious about it. I put this down to the fact that they are secular - my brother is agnostic and my father's Jewishness is a matter of identification with the tribe - his pro forma relationship with the religion is, as with most Jews of his generation, more a matter of sentimentality and attachment to some sense of tradition and community than anything else.

I have many Jewish friends, but pretty much all of them are also Buddhists. It might help to point out that just as English is the world's second language, Buddhism, if my take on this is correct, is the world's "second religion." I don't know how many people (a lot) have told me that if they weren't a This or a That, or if they were to identify with any spiritual path, they would be Buddhists. I don’t mean to imply that one path is “better” than another. For example, my brother is one of the kindest and wisest people I have ever known, yet the only spiritual discipline (if one could call it that) that one could ascribe to him has been so-called secular humanism. He is a self-taught student of the Western Enlightenment, whose sages were the likes of John Locke, David Hume, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

I should add that "conversion" is not an accurate term in this context. One converts to a religion, and there is a distinction between religions and spiritual (or wisdom) traditions. Religions, as I’ve said, are institutions that grow out of wisdom traditions, a process akin to ossification, or the production of a husk around a seed. The wisdom which is experienced and transmitted by elders, shamans, mystics, practitioners of spiritual yogas, sages, etc., becomes solidified into a masquerade, usually with elaborate trappings and political responsibilities in support of the state. Religions, almost always theistic, are founded on blind faith, dogma. One can no more "convert" to a genuine spiritual discipline than one can convert to physics or gardening.

The Internet is buzzing with discussions about the Neocons and the "Jewish/Israel/Zionist Lobby". What is your taken on these concepts? Is it correct to conflate them and use them interchangeably as is often done? Norman Finkelstein often repeats that it is wrong to speak of a "Zionist Lobby" because the leaders of the "Lobby" are not at all Zionist in their outlook; according to him, all they are interested is their power. Noam Chomsky says that it is wrong to speak about an "Israel Lobby" because, according to him, the USA is using Israel and not the other way around.

First off, I like the term "Zionist Lobby" because it is the most concise and accurate. "Israel Lobby," which is the common usage, comes close, but Israel is entirely the creation of Zionism, and therefore not quite as descriptive. Why Finkelstein disagrees I have no idea, but one must bear in mind that he is what we call a "soft" or "closet" Zionist. He, like other soft Zionists such as Jimmy Carter or Uri Avnery, who immediately come to mind, are still supporting the chimerical notion of the "two state solution." It is for this reason that I consider them to be more a part of the problem than the solution, in spite of their otherwise useful contributions to the general debate, particularly their insistence on viewing Palestinians as fellow human beings rather than cartoon characters with suicide belts strapped to their waists.

But can one really speak of a "Neocon Lobby" when referring to AIPAC, the ADL, or the CPMJO?! Aren't all these organizations Israel-centric? And if they are, does this not justify speaking about a "Zionist Lobby" or "Israel Lobby"? Furthermore, the fast majority of Neocons, but not all, are Jews and pretty much all members of AIPAC/ADL/CPMJO/etc are Jews also. Should one then speak of a "Jewish Lobby"? Please give us your nomenclature, your choice of words in regards to this issue: in your opinion who is representing whom,..

As for the neocons, that term refers to a very specific group of people composed primarily of Jews who started out on the Left and then, under the influence of Leo Strauss, philosopher, and the other wing of the Chicago School associated with Milton Friedman, economist (both of whom were Jewish), migrated to the Right. Strauss is considered to be the father of neo-conservatism, and is a perfect candidate for the role of the real Dr. Strangelove. As pro-Israel sentiments have historically been more prevalent among the Democrats than the Republicans, Neocon Lobby is a non-starter (as would Neolib Lobby, for the same reason). I have a certain fondness for a term coined by James Petras, Zionist Power Configuration, because it not only references the various formal organizations that are considered to comprise the Israel Lobby, but includes all of the various individuals, corporations, associations as well as the vast army of collaborators, fellow travelers and sympathizers that have made support of Israel a fundamental plank, if not THE fundamental plank of both of the two major political parties (who, by the way, I collectively refer to as the Republicrats).

Most of the confusion about terminology stems from the conflation of three distinct terms, "Jews," "Israelis," and "Zionists." Jews are the people who self-identify as Jews and are considered Jews by others. The basic idea is that of a tribe or a people descended from Abraham of Chaldea (in what is now Iraq) and his progeny. Although that is probably 99% mythology and 1% history, it's the general view. Many people are under the impression that it refers to people who practice the Jewish religion - that was actually true, by and large, for perhaps a thousand years or so, when Judaism was an energetic proselytizing religion, but hasn't been for at least the last 200 years. Israelis are the people who are considered to legitimately reside in Israel (they don’t have such a thing as citizenship, as it would hinder their peculiar policy towards their Palestinian population. And Zionists are those who buy into that particular ideology, which is, in essence, the belief that the Jews deserve a nation state of their own and that they had the right to establish a state in Palestine, and to maintain it there no matter what.

Jewish Lobby is a total non-starter. For one thing, most American Jews feel a great deal of ambiguity towards Israel and Zionism. There is the subliminal tribal attraction counterbalanced by a natural repugnance, on the part of people who are otherwise secular, tolerant, progressive children of the Western Enlightenment and so forth, to an ethnocentric, fascist and violent ideology. Then there is the fact that the influence of Jewish Zionism is wholeheartedly buttressed by the far more populous Christian Zionists, who are very much a part of my preferred term, Zionist Power Configuration. And if that term sounds too clumsy, Zionist Lobby will do fine. But I usually say Israel Lobby because it is the most popular term and it isn't entirely inaccurate.

..who is the dog and who is the tail"?

I consider the relationship between the U.S. and Israel to be basically symbiotic, but "who is the dog and who is the tail" depends on the specific time and context. The term USrael comes in handy in this respect. Both regimes are under the impression that they are using the other, but I think the Israelis are winning that one hands down. Israel couldn't survive for a month without the all out support of the U.S., and most of official Washington appears to still buy into the notion that Israel is a useful proxy in advancing the interests of American hegemony in the Middle East (principally control of their petroleum resources). That the truth is actually just the opposite is a notion that doesn't seem to have penetrated at all inside the Beltway (perhaps we could start referring to the Beltway as the Separation Highway and DC as the Domestic Green Zone. How about the U.S. Permeable Membrane that allows money in but filters out any genuine concern for human beings and the planet).

Tell us about the Jewish opposition to the Neocons and the Lobby: who is it composed of, what does it stand for and what exactly does it oppose - the Neocons? Zionism? The State of Israel? What are the main expressions of this anti-Neocon Jewish movement, the progressive readers of Tikkun or Orthodox Jews like the members of Neturei Karta International?

This question is directly addressed in "A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism", by Yakov M. Rabkin. It is listed on the Books Page of my website .

'This book sheds light on religious anti-Zionism, which, demographically and ideologically, represents the most serious threat to Israel as a State and as a collective identity. In fact, it is a more grievous and dangerous challenge than Arab and Palestinian hostility. The State, by increasing its achievements, leads the country straight into an abyss. To paraphrase Marx, one could say that Israel, by virtue of its spectacular development, is digging its own tomb.' (from Noam Chomsky’s review)

In the West most Jewish opposition comes from secular Jews who see the Occupation as the main problem, as well as people like myself who view Zionism as an inherently fascist ideology, and its product, the State of Israel, as a criminal enterprise that has no more legitimacy as a modern nation state than La Cosa Nostra has as a normal corporation. Tikkun, the creation of Rabbi Michael Lerner, a close friend and advisor to the Clintons, represents a group of (mostly secular) progressive Jews who are somewhat New Agey and conventionally postmodern, similar to the Jewish Renewal movement (more spiritual), whose most prominent teacher is Rabbi Zalman-Schechter. In spite of their disgust at Israel's behavior and compassion for the Palestinians, these people are all soft Zionists insofar as they support Israel's "right to exist."

More broadly, what role does religion vs secularism play in the issue of Israel, the Lobby and the Neocons? Is religious piety a reliable indicator of the political leanings of a Jew?

It plays a divisive and negative part in Israeli politics, as the religious parties have an influence far exceeding their numbers, but is a non-issue with regard to the Lobby and the Neocons, who are overwhelmingly secular. As for religious piety, I don’t think it’s any different from its role in any of the theistic religions – its basic function is to maintain a bulwark against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, known in Buddhism as samsara (the wheel of birth and death, the world of confusion and suffering, the natural result of continuing to make the same mistakes over and over again and expecting a different result). As this bulwark is an artificial construction, all available spiritual energy is diverted from actually dealing with things as they are into shoring up what is essentially a house of cards. I suppose one could say that the Neturei Karta are the exception that proves the rule, at least in terms of their attitude towards the “Jewish State,” which they consider to be an oxymoron. Joe Lieberman is an example of an Orthodox Jew who appears to be schizophrenic when it comes to separating his general views, which tend to be relatively sane and humane, from his fanatical devotion to Israel. This is not all that uncommon among Zionists in general. One would think that the cognitive dissonance would be deafening, but it has been said that our ability to hold two contradictory thoughts simultaneously is a big part of what makes us human.

How are people like you who support Palestinian rights and who live in the USA seen in Israel?

That’s difficult for me to say – one can only guess. There is an enormous diversity of opinion about just about everything in Israel, but a recent survey that found more than 80% of (Jewish) Israelis have a strong anti-Palestinian bias demonstrates that government fostering of paranoia and hatred has been largely successful. On the other hand, another survey found that upwards of 40% would emigrate if they could, including a majority of Holocaust survivors, who are allocated less than enough to live on in spite of the huge amounts of money Israel has managed to extort from Europe and North America (especially Germany). The organized pursuit of this blood money is based on the exploitation of guilt about the Holocaust. This extortion racket and its associated spinoffs, such as the Holocaust Museums, has been termed “the Holocaust Industry.”

Do you hear the "if you lived here you would see differently" line very often?

Yes, something like that, but much more common are screams of sarcasm and hatred from Zionist true believers, though my guess is that those mostly come from Brooklyn, the center of Jewish religious fanaticism and the source of the bulk of the settler-colonists in the West Bank.

What is your position on the "Two State" vs. "One State" issue? In your opinion, is it possible for Israel to be a democracy and a "Jewish State"? Have you read Jonathan Cook's book Blood and Religion: the Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State and, if yes, what do you think about it?

Advocating One State is the project that I’m engaged in. I wrote to Jonathan at one point – we have had a long standing correspondence – and asked if he specifically advocated One State in Blood and Religion (because I hadn’t read it). His answer was “..the book doesn't specifically advocate one state (although i do) because that wasn't the goal i set myself with this book. instead the book demolishes the idea both that israel can be a jewish state and democratic and that a jewish state has any interest in peace with the palestinians -- with of course the very clear implication that the only solution would therefore be one, secular and democratic state…" I took this as a “yes,” and included it in my listing of books advocating One State, which had been the reason I had asked.

It should be mentioned that although the recent American and Israeli agreement on the need for a Palestinian state appear to be in concert, a closer look reveals that the Israelis are still just playing a delaying game that conveniently masks the consistent view of political Zionism that all the land from the Euphrates and the Nile constitutes “Greater Israel.” At the same time the Israeli people, like any other people, have a genuine desire for peace and security, which must be pandered to. However, there are cracks in this wall of deception, as Olmert’s recent pronouncement indicates. The establishment American view is purely pragmatic. It continues to see Israel as its advance guard in the Middle East, and there is some impatience to finally see borders clearly drawn and some sort of stability arrived at so that the project of fully establishing U.S. hegemony in the region can be realized without all the distracting fuss.

While Jimmy Carter speaks of an Apartheid-like regime in the Occupied Territories he is very careful to stress that he doe not refer to Israel proper. Jonathan Cook's book focuses on the Israeli Arabs and their legal status and he makes the claim that their status inside the Israeli society is also very much Apartheid-like. Do you agree?

Very much so. Carter is an interesting case of a moderately intelligent person who tries very hard to do the right thing. As such, he is that rare case of a religious person who is genuinely compassionate and I have a lot of respect for him, in spite of the numerous shortcomings of his book on Israeli Apartheid, which includes the fact that he writes atrociously. That such a person, so deeply steeped in both American and Israeli mytho-history, was able to let his conscience dictate such a departure from the conventional wisdom as to actually label Israeli policy as apartheid (a commonplace in the Israeli internal discourse) bespeaks considerable moral courage. At the same time he’s unable to perceive that the Israeli Arabs, so-called, are very much the victims of apartheid as well. A mere glance at the numerous restrictions they live under; their second-class status when it comes to social services, allocations for education, medical services, infrastructure, and so on; the fact that Israeli identity cards are based on religion; that land ownership of 90% of Israel is administered by the Jewish Land Trust and is available only to Jews…well, you get the idea. They don’t have drinking fountains labeled “Jews Only,” but that’s about the only difference between the situation in Israel and that of the Jim Crow South or of South Africa under the Nationalists.

What is your view of modern anti-Semitism? Do you agree with Norman Finkelstein when he says that this is largely an invention of the ADL or with Michael Neumann when he says that the very concept of anti-Semitism has been so overused as to become meaningless?

There’s some truth to both of those assertions, but a comprehensive view of anti-Semitism would involve a much more detailed and nuanced exposition. Finkelstein is referring to the ADL version as the official, mytho-history of innocent Jewish victimhood. It conveniently omits any serious discussion of the causes of the almost universal hostility that Jews engendered in numerous countries over the millennia. I should amend that – this hostility occurred almost exclusively in European countries, in contrast to the Islamic world for example. This is because the only Jews with this history are the Ashkenazim, the descendents of the Khazars, a turko-finnic people who themselves were leftovers from the hordes of Attila the Hun. There is as yet, as far as I know, surprisingly little good historical material on the Khazarian Empire and its subsequent manifestation among the Ashkenazim. It would be a terrific subject for some aspiring PhD student of History.

As for Neumann’s assertion, it’s true as far as it goes, but one must ask how and why that happened. The problem could be said to be encapsulated in the fact that the only real “semites” with whom I am familiar speak Arabic as their native language. And it becomes even more of a muddle as one looks closer. Suffice it to say that “anti-semitism” has become little but a propaganda device used as part of the whole Zionist disinformation project. Anyone who criticizes Israel or its raison d’etre Zionism is automatically labeled an “anti-semite,” and if they happen to be Jewish like me, they are by definition “self-hating Jews.” Anyone who can’t see through this shallow, knee-jerk logic wouldn’t be reading this.

It gets really interesting when one looks at the heavily Zionist influenced intellectual fads that swept American universities in the ‘70s. From multiculturalism to identity politics, from victimology to the criminalization of hate crimes, everything conveniently fit the Zionist playbook. Political correctness was probably the most insidious of the lot, as it was a bid for Orwellian mind control. Fortunately, young people turned out to be resilient and the thought police are having a rougher go of it these days, not that they aren’t still working at it. Perhaps the most dangerous result of this effort has been the criminalization of speech in a dozen or so European countries, with the Germans, not surprisingly, being the worst offenders. The result has been legislation against questioning any details of the official version of the Holocaust, as determined by the priesthood of the new Inquisition. This is a subject outside the scope of your question, but it deserves much more discussion than it gets outside of the insular world of the Historical Revisionists (the officially sanctioned Holocult term is “Holocaust Deniers.”)

I should also point out that both Finkelstein and Neumann are what I have called "soft Zionists" – they too continue to advocate the fantasy of the two state solution. I think that the only way to overcome this lingering problem is by offering free courses in intensive map reading. And if any of your readers find that idea intriguing, the best maps I know of are in Jeff Halper’s book Obstacles to Peace: A Reframing of the Palestinian - Israeli Conflict.

Do you think that most of the vocal critics of Israel, the Lobby or Zionism are harboring a maybe well-concealed but deeply felt hostility towards Jews?

In some cases it’s not well-concealed at all. There are numerous white supremacist and/or “Christian” sites that publish anti-Zionist material. I avoid linking to them for obvious reasons. Then there is the curious case of David Duke, whose Klan past has the effect of devaluing his writings on the subject, but he’s actually quite good on the subject these days, though I assume that most people don’t read his stuff when they see his name on it. Then there are Ziopedia and Israel Shamir. One can find relevant material on their sites that is hard to find elsewhere, but the general odor of Judeophobia permeates the environment around them so it’s kind of touchy. Most One Staters strenuously dissociate themselves from both, but I am inclined to be more inclusive, and I occasionally link to material I find on their sites. Then there’s Joachim Martillo’s blog, Ethnic Ashkenazim Against Zionist Israel, which is well worth a look. It’s difficult to classify, starting with the curious fact that he is neither Ashkenazi or Jewish. But he is quite erudite, and produces a considerable amount of material that is original and is based on an extensive knowledge of Jewish history and religion. This is the after effect of a youthful enthusiasm to convert to Judaism and an associated commitment to learning everything he could about it.

Overall I would say that the best informed, most intelligent, articulate and compelling “critics of Israel, the Lobby or Zionism” are just that, and are no more judeophobic or “anti-semitic” than I am, and you will find all of them on my website(s), as long as their work is written in or translated into English. There’s a contributor’s page on my old site that is now a couple of years out of date, but has some detail about all the writers who wrote at least three pieces that I referenced.

What is the purpose of your website? What kind of people is it addressed to and what makes it different from other websites trying to provide good information about the Middle-East?

It is meant to inform and educate, and hopefully help as many people as possible to come to the conclusion that there is only one viable solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and that is the establishment of one democratic state in the land currently comprised of Israel, the Occupied West Bank, and the besieged ghetto of Gaza. Those people of whom I speak are not those whose minds are adamantly made up, but of that relatively small but potent group of people whose minds are still open. Most of all I want to reach ordinary Israelis and Palestinians, for they are the ones who will have to do the hard work of realizing this seemingly impossible but absolutely necessary goal. This is not to say that we don’t need the support of people everywhere, particularly in North American and Europe, whose governments are ignoring their own best interests by going along with the U.S. in propping up what has been accurately termed “the Zionist Entity.” (It’s not a nation state like other nation states, for reasons we don’t have the space to go into here, so what else should one call it?). One could look at One State advocacy as a public health project. I have elsewhere compared Israel to a malignant tumor embedded in the body politic. I leave it to the reader’s imagination to contemplate what happens when such a growth is not only suffered to survive, but is widely nourished and sustained. And bear in mind that the body I refer to is not just Palestine and the Middle East, but the entire world.

If one visits my links page, you will find six websites (one of which is my old one) listed at the top that specifically advocate One State. They all agree on the reasons why this would be a wise, just and workable solution, but they differ in the same way that works of art in the same genre that deal with the same subject matter differ – their creators are individuals with their own unique styles and points of view. So you will find that Ali Abunimah’s Electronic Intifada clearly reflects the outlook of a Palestinian American, while Mazin Qumsiyeh’s Human Rights Web is a product of his background as a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem. Haidar Eid’s One Democratic State Group (Gaza) is unmistakably a view from that tragic enclave. The Committee for the Open Discussion of Zionism grew out of the Zionist hounding of Joel Kovel for publishing his book, Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine. Joel, John Siglar (the creator of An Online One State Bibliography in English), and I are all American Jews, but each with our own perspectives and background.

My particular approach is characterized by a quote I have attached to an image on the site’s home page that combines the Israeli and Palestinian flags – “Only connect…” It can be found in E.M. Forster’s Room With A View, but he liked it so much he inserted it as a sort of aphorism at the beginning of “Passage to India.” It says a lot in only two words, and it is my approach to the website, which carries the banner Your One Stop Source For Real (not Faux) Reporting on Israel/Palestine, Zionism, the Middle East, Pax Americana, and Related Matters. It is indeed all connected, and one can’t really put the whole puzzle together, and fully comprehend it, without all or at least most of the pieces.

How can somebody best help you in your work?

Well, I’m so glad you asked! I stopped maintaining one-state.net because the web design front end I was using became no longer compatible with the new operating systems and I’m not a code warrior. The current Google site is OK, but lacks much of the functionality that I would like. So the first answer is technical help. For that and numerous other reasons, I could make good use of some financial assistance, including solving the first problem. There’s a Donations page on the old website that still works, or people could email me if they have something to offer, even if it’s just helpful suggestions.

Thank you very much for your time and for your important work!
-------
Roger Tucker is author of the One Democractic State website and a student and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism who grew up as a Jew in the Boston suburbs. He has traveled widely, including two stints in Israel, and now lives quietly in North Carolina. Aside from watching the birds and the deer in his backyard, he collects and disseminates articles on his website "Your One Stop Source For Real (not Faux) Reporting on Israel/Palestine, Zionism, the Middle East, Pax Americana, and More." He also writes some pieces himself, - By the Editor - most of them advocating the One State Solution. He can be reached at rtucker41@earthlink.net.