Alan Dershowitz is seeing the writing on the wall

Iran Bashing, Terrorism and Who Chose The Chosen People, Anyway?

On The Israeli Right's New 'Peace' Agenda

by Gilad Atzmon

As the Israelis are becoming conscious of their inevitable tragic circumstances, a final desperate attempt to rescue the Zionist project has come to life. Astonishingly enough it is the Israeli right that is now pushing for ‘one binational State.’ It is pretty staggering to find out that while the Israeli so-called ‘left’ is locked within the 1967 territorial paradigm that is fueled by Judeo centric racial ideology, it is actually the hawkish Zionist thinkers who are willing to move the discourse forward.

In a mind provoking piece Noam Sheizaf outlines in Haaretz the new revolutionary Israeli idea. However, I will maintain at this stage that the new Zionist call for ‘one binational state’ suggests that Zionist ideology is on its last leg. Israel has come to realise its inevitable end. And amidst its terminal conditions Israel tries to buy time.

Israel should apply its law to “Judea and Samaria and grant citizenship to 1.5 million Palestinians,” says Moshe Arens, a former Israeli defense minister, a top leader in the Likud party and a political patron of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Arens is not put off by those who slander him for promoting the idea of a binational Jewish-Palestinian state. "We are already a binational state," he says.

This approach is now being advocated by leading figures in the Likud and amongst the settlers. A year ago, Uri Elitzur, former chairman of the Yesha Council of Settlements and Netanyahu's bureau chief in his first term as prime minister, published an article in the settlers' journal Nekuda calling for the onset of a process, at the conclusion of which the (West Bank) Palestinians will have "a blue ID card (like Israelis), yellow license plates (like Israelis), National Insurance and the right to vote for the Knesset." Emily Amrousi, a former spokesperson for the Yesha Council, also takes part in meetings between settlers and Palestinians and speaks explicitly of "one land in which the children of settlers and the children of Palestinians will be bused to school together."

This Zionist political novelty doesn’t take me by complete surprise. Unlike the Jewish left that is tribally orientated both in Israel and in the West, the right wing Zionist philosophy was grounded on a dream of an eternal bond between the Jew and the alleged ‘promised land’. In Zion the Jew was supposed to transcend oneself beyond the race and the tribe. Israel was there to demolish the ghetto wall. As it happened, in practice, Israel had become the biggest ghetto in Jewish history.

However, there is a clear trap here. As much as the peace loving Zionist hawks seem to  champion Palestinian civil rights, the vision of a ‘one binational state’ is still totally Judeo centric. The Israeli advocates of the one binational state are not talking about a neutral "state of all its citizens", nor about "Israstine" with a flag showing a crescent and a Shield of David. One state still means a sovereign Jewish state, but in a more complex reality, and inspired by the vision of a “democratic Jewish state” without an occupation and without apartheid, without fences and separations.

One may wonder at this stage what the notion of “Jewish democratic state” stands for. It is obviously an empty signifier, there is no such a thing as Jewish democracy. As far as I remember Democracy was born in Athens rather than Jerusalem. And yet, the dream is compelling. In such a state, “Jews will be able to live in Hebron and pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and a Palestinian from Ramallah will be able to serve as an ambassador and live in Tel Aviv or simply enjoy ice cream on the city's seashore.”

It is clear beyond doubt that a coin has dropped. Some Israeli hawks have come to realise that the occupation cannot be maintained forever. They were also quick to grasp that, in the long run, the separation wall put an end to the Zionist expansionist program. They also gather that the negative exposure of Jewish lobbies in the West will eventually lead to the down scaling of Israeli political maneuvering.

However, the Zionist tribal orientation is never too difficult to trace. When Elitzur was asked “What do you say to the allegations that you have joined the radical left?” he was quick to reveal his political mantra.

"There's a clear separation between us. I am talking about a Jewish state, the state of the Jewish people, which will contain a large Arab minority. The left is talking about an Arab state containing a Jewish minority, even if they do not explicitly think that. The leftist demonstrators in (the West Bank village of) Bil'in have totally joined the Palestinian cause."

I guess that this what it is all about. The Israeli hawks want to counter the inevitable 'demographic disaster'. They would offer West Bank Palestinians Israeli ID cards, and  offer them to “enjoy ice cream in Tel Aviv” as long as they are kept as a minority. The Israeli hawks ignore Gaza and the right of return. In practice they dismiss the Palestinian cause for they are certain that the Jewish one is superior. In short, this is not a solution or a resolution. It is just another Zionist spin that is planted in our discourse in order to disseminate confusion.

The Crucifixion of Kindness

by Gilad Atzmon

Panic is detected in Israel. Strategic affairs minister, Moshe Boogi Ya'alon who served as acting PM during last week's massacre in the high seas said yesterday that “someone failed to prepare a standard operating procedure.” A senior IDF official was quick to respond "If there wasn't a standard operating procedure, why didn't he make sure there was one. He was the acting prime minister and it was his responsibility.” War criminal Tzipi Livni is also unhappy with the Government for failing to take responsibility. Two days ago she led a no confidence vote in the Israeli Knesset.

Seemingly the Israelis are starting to blame each other. This may look like a positive move, however, not a single Israeli is yet to ask for forgiveness. Seemingly no one in Israel grasps the scale of the atrocity in the high seas. No one in Israel comprehends the level of outrage amongst the nations. Israelis, are instead concerned with their Hasbara failure, their military operational mistakes and so on. Up until now, they fail to see that in the high seas, they have managed to kill Christ again.

Killing Christ is realised symbolically as an assault on goodness, a crime against kindness and innocence. The cold blooded slaughter of peace activists in international waters has a very similar effect. It is an assault on compassion, righteousness and humanism. It is an attack on everything Christianity and Islam happen to value. As much as Israelis, Zionists and Neocons are insisting on spreading the deceptive myth of a Judeo-Christian alliance, it is this last Israeli crime that made it clear that the Jewish State shares nothing with humanism, Christianity or Islam. Israel in fact stands against any recognised Western value.

Though the contemporary Israeli has no ethnic or biological lineage to the ancient Israelites, the merciless ideology repeats itself. Since, the Zionist project defines itself as a revival of the Biblical Israelite nation, it shouldn’t take us by surprise that the lethal Biblical ideology also comes to life. It is implemented daily against Palestinian women, children, elders and now against an international humanitarian convoy.

If we want to understand what happened to the Palestinian solidarity movement last week, we could start by elaborating on a mass shift of consciousness. This goes beyond politics, psychology or sociology, it is actually a spiritual metaphysical shift. As I have been predicting for many years, we now start to see hope and liberation through the Palestinians and their righteous struggle. We understand that the Palestinians are at the forefront of the battle against evil. And we obviously stand behind them as one person. Interestingly enough, politicians are way behind. They still fail to notice the rapidly emerging worldwide public awareness that something is deeply sick in the Israeli society and its lobbies around the world. Our politicians will probably join us later, when their Zionist money runs out.

By equating Christ's murder with last week's massacre in the high seas, we can then understand the total failure of the Israeli Hasbara machine. Instead of standing up and admitting that something went horribly wrong at sea, Israeli officials reverted to the usual spin. The Turkish activists had become ‘Jew haters’, ‘Al-Qaeda terrorists’, and the Mavi Marmara had become a ‘Boat of Hate’. This tactic is unfortunately too familiar. It has been employed by Rabbinical Judaism for two thousand years, especially against the memory of Christ.

I guess that Christians and Muslims will be shocked and outraged to find out that Yesh’u (יש"ו), the Hebrew name for Jesus, is an abbreviation that corresponds to the "May his name and memory be blotted out"*, an expression used for deceased enemies of the Jewish people like Hitler and Stalin. In the Hebraic culture, Jesus, the kindest of all people, the son of God, is regarded as the ultimate enemy. If Jesus is cornered with Hitler, it shouldn’t surprise us that Hasbara officials insist to stick Peace activists with Al-Qaeda. Seemingly, in the modern Israelite philosophy one becomes a Yesh’u hate figure once hit by an Israeli bullet.

The Judaic hatred towards Jesus, as reflected by the Hebraic abbreviation Yesh’u is pretty revealing in the context of the latest Israeli massacre. Rather than accepting its crime and genuinely repenting, Israel attempted to portray the Turkish martyrs as the ultimate Jewish enemies. Seemingly, this attempt failed completely. The Free Gaza flotilla is now making it into a symbol of hope and compassion. Israel, on the other hand shoved itself into a corner. This is a tragic prophecy that fulfilled itself. Israel will never recover, it simply can’t.


*יימח שמו וזכרו

Talking about Athens and Jerusalem

by Gilad Atzmon

* There is often a noticeable discrepancy between what one claims to be and what one actually is.

* Hegel taught us that our self-perception is a fragile and evolving amalgam of the way we like to see ourselves and the way we are mirrored by others.

* I, for instance, tend to regard myself as a Jazz saxophonist. My self-image is inherently dependent on the willingness of others to listen to me and to buy my music. My vision of myself as a writer is again subject to other people’s reactions to my thoughts and ideas. It seems that man is not exactly an island. We live amongst others and are shaped by a process of mirroring.

* In terms of Jewish history, we can detect a real dilemma here concerning this mirroring. As much as Jews tend to regard themselves (traditionally) as a chosen people, they have been largely confused by other people’s dismissal of their ‘greatness’.

* Zionism intended to amend this dilemma. It promised to reinvent the Jew as a proud authentic, ethical, universal, productive, organic, humble and civilised human being.

* If Athens stands for universalism and inclusive ideologies and Jerusalem stands for tribal and exclusive thinking, Zionism was a promise to introduce Athens to the Jerusalemite.

* The Zionist Jew was supposed to eventually look into the mirror with pride.

* Zionism may have been, at one stage, a genuine attempt to bring this about. However, it was doomed to fail. It was set into a conflict with the indigenous Palestinian population. It was inspired by Biblical planderous ideology. It was unethical to the bone. Zionism is, practically speaking, a repetition of a Biblical sin.

* As much as the Israelis insisted on presenting themselves as moral beings celebrating their national revival project, millions of uprooted Palestinians were there to remind us all that the notion of an ethical ‘new Zionist Jew’ was mere spin.

* As much as we can recall seeing white phosphorous pouring over UN shelters, as much as we witnessed babies being slaughtered, as much as we continue to witness Gaza transformed into the biggest jail in the history of humanity, the Israelis also see it all by themselves. But far more concerning for them is the fact that they see themselves being watched by the rest of us.

* They see themselves mirrored as modern day evil by our gaze.

* Lacan teaches us that ‘unconsciousness is the discourse of the other’. Unconsciousness is the fear of becoming the subject of a public discourse. From a Lacanian perspective, the fear of impotence should be realised as the threat of being established as ‘sexually malfunctioning’ instead of just failing in bed.

* Similarly, the Israeli collective unconsciousness can be grasped as the fear of being perceived as a collective murderous society rather than the obvious concern about being involved in the murderous act itself.

* This fear has matured along the years into a unique form of Israeli collective neurosis. In fact, when Zionists blame you for being an anti Semite, they basically express a deep unease with the fact that you have managed to see through them.

* As things stand, the discrepancy between ‘what the Israeli claims to be’ and ‘what the Israeli happens to be for real’ has already grown into an unbridgeable abyss.

* Consequently, the gap between Athens and Jerusalem is more noticeable than ever.

* Since 1948, the Israelis and Zionist insisted on portraying Israel as nation amongst nations. However, after the 2006 Lebanon campaign and the 2009 Gaza massacre, such an effort is in vain.

* The deceptive attempt to portray the Jewish state as an ordinary society is doomed to fail.

* The current, hawkish Israeli government is fully aware of all this. They know about the unbridgeable gap between Athens and Jerusalem. They are familiar with the unavoidable neurosis, but they also know how to resolve it. As we can see, Israel has given up on Athens.

* Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman does realise that for Israel to survive as the ‘Jews only state’, the demographic threat posed by Palestinians must be resolved once and for all.

* Israel is preparing itself for a second Nakba. For those who do not realise, the ethnic cleansing currently taking place in Jerusalem is part of this sinister program. Israel also insists on maintaining its status as the region’s only nuclear power. It is willing to take the risk of an attack on Iran.

* As we have known for more than a while, Israel is the biggest threat to world peace.

* Israel also realises that it won’t be able to fulfil its missions with American support.

* Israel is willing to, at least momentarily, run into conflict with the entire West.

* In political terms, Israel’s behaviour is totally unpredictable.

* The history of Western civilisation can be realised as a continuous battle between Athens and Jerusalem. Between the universal and the tribal. Between the ethical and the plunderer.

* Our assets known as humanism are all associated with Athens. Interestingly enough, the Jews who contributed to humanism, such as Jesus, Spinoza and Marx and many others, were people who opened their hearts to the Athenian philosophy. Jesus, Spinoza and Marx broke away from Jerusalem.

* To stand up against Israel is to fight against the invasion of Jerusalem. To stand up against Israel is to fight for the revival of Athens. Bearing all this in mind, it is not that surprising to find the Greek people at the forefront of the Palestinian solidarity movement.

* Accordingly, the coming Gaza Flotilla Mission is not just a humanitarian mission. It is actually there to remind us of what humanism is all about. It is there to remind us of what Athens stands for.