Analysis
Never again
By Gilad Atzmon
Online Journal Guest Writer


Jul 20, 2006, 00:54

Who can watch as a "spectator" the wanton destruction first of Gaza and now of Lebanon and not feel immediately, after the rage settles down a bit, an enormous and frustrating sense of impotence? It is almost as if such gross, vulgar and indecent violence unleashed against a group of innocent men, women and children is "somebody else's business, let's just get the Europeans safely out of there" and we can only just wait for the "international community" to sort it out and in the meantime shake our heads in regret and wash our hands of it all.

Gilad Atzmon isn't going to keep quiet about it, bless his soul. As a person who spent the first 30 years of his life in Israel, and was raised to be convinced of the righteousness, or at least the reasonability of his country of birth, the land where he served as a soldier, he is well acquainted with the mindset, the policy and the structure of Israeli society. He, as an "insider" can help us to see through the mist of deception and the continual grotesque excuse-making for violent atrocities committed against the Arabs of the Middle East. He is well aware of the violent undertones, which he calls aptly, "thug," in a society where men and women are judged by their racial, religious or ethnic composition and are treated (or mistreated) accordingly. Nothing he says is a secret, it simply doesn't usually make it through the censors on all sides, who have vested interests either in instability, war or maintenance of a myth.

He is chipping away at the block of "Israeli righteousness" splinter by splinter. It's possible that no sledgehammer of words will ever make a dent in that stone, because the foundations seem to be sunk quite firmly in the ground, and no matter how he hammers away, the stone seems to grow, the taboo against criticising anything remotely connected to the Jewish State and the driving forces behind it is so immense, that it seems unshakeable. The Western world prefers to look elsewhere but at Israel itself.

It is out of his spirit as a radical lover of life, disgusted by violence, but aware that resistance to an occupier and tormenter is not only a right, but it is a moral duty, that Gilad Atzmon denounces violence against innocent people, and reflects on the roots of that violence, hoping that one day soon, eyes are going to open and people will stop defending by rote violence just because the perpetrators are "the good guys like us, civilised Westerners."

That blind ignorance, the refusal to even look, a total lack of self-reflection and deep self-critique is what will ensure the continued tolerance -- if not outright support - for a system that remains in place in order to oppress people and control them, because they get in the way of bigger plans. Atzmon's war is a war against ignorance, a cry to those who still have enough humanity to listen, that the destruction of other people's lives is NOT tolerable, for the simple reason that the powerful get away with it by having thoroughly brainwashed the public opinion to look the other way or justify evil. We have been made terrified of speaking out against what is wrong, because we also know that we might be the next victims of the proto-fascist retaliation that comes in a million different guises.

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The photo at the left is not a pornographic image of a Rabbi giving oral pleasure to a newly born Jewish baby. It is actually Mohel Rabbi Yosef David Weisburg sucking blood from a baby�s penis while performing a circumcision. (The Jerusalem Post Magazine, Nov. 5, 1976, p. 14) [1]

Just six and a half decades ago, Jews were brutally spat out of Europe. As it happened, when the majority of European secular Jews were totally convinced that the condition of emancipation had finally matured into a comprehensive assimilation, the Nazi Judeocide was there to prove them wrong. Just two weeks ago, when the vast majority of the Israeli people were convinced that Peace was just about to prevail thanks to Sharon�s unilateral �peace initiative,� the Hamas and Hezbollah were there to prove them wrong.

And so it happened that Germany, which was nothing less than the promised land for Fritz Haber (the man who invented the WMD), Einstein (once a pacifist, later the man who convinced Roosevelt to allocate funds to the Manhattan Project), Buber (a German patriotic warmonger), Sholem, Benjamin, Adorno and many more, suddenly changed its spots. Within the short space of several years it transformed itself into the bitterest enemy the Jews have ever known. But Germany wasn�t an isolated case. As we all know it wasn�t Nazi Germany or the German people alone who actually exercised the destruction of European Jewry. The industrial homicide was indeed largely administrated by Nazi officers and operators, yet, most European nations willingly submitted their Jews to the Nazis [2]. Whether we like it or not, it was the Europeans who somehow collectively found themselves to be rather enthusiastic about transforming Europe into a �Jew-free Zone.�

Rather worryingly it is now evident that the Hebraic people failed to learn their lesson. In their attempt to erect a Jewish national home, namely Zion, they made every possible mistake. Rather than endorsing peaceful manners and loving their new neighbours, they have endorsed and exhibited the most brutal conduct possible. For almost six decades the Israeli army inflicts pain on Israel�s close neighbours in the name of the Jewish people. For almost six decades millions of Palestinians are living in refugee camps in atrocious conditions and the Jewish State does not permit them to come back. For almost six decades the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine are discriminated against by the new colonialists.

However, one seems almost compelled to admit it, but it was indeed the devastating impressions of liberated death camps which transformed Zionism from being a very marginal Jewish nationalist racist fantasy into the voice of world Jewry. Yet, it was in 1948, just three years after the liberation of Auschwitz, when Zionism underwent the transformation from being a nationalist racist philosophy into a murderous reality. It was just three years after the liberation of Auschwitz when Zionists proved beyond doubt that they properly internalised the most devious Nazi tactics, philosophy and precepts.

Already then, in 1948, the Israeli legislators found themselves engaged in setting racist laws that were no different from Nuremburg Laws. Already then, in 1948, the IDF together with paramilitary groups were practicing some Nazi-like ethnic cleansing strategies. As we happen to learn, the Israeli ethnic cleansing agenda has never faded. Israelis, like their Zionist Elders, very much like their Asheknazi Rabbinical ancestors don�t really like to mix with Goyim. Contemporary Israel is a clear resurrection of the European Jewish ghetto. However, the Israeli ghetto is a vast improvement compared with the old east European Shtetl. In the Jewish State, it is the Goyim who are locked behind walls in places that seem to be no different from concentration camps.

In defence of the post-war Jewish inclination towards Zionism, one may suggest that considering the vast impression of the Holocaust, the collective move towards Zionism was rather reasonable. Being totally traumatised by the scale of hatred against them, Jews all over the world collectively agreed; �Never Again.� I know about it all because I myself was raised on the �Never Again� philosophy.

�Never Again� Jews would be led to the slaughter, I was taught year after year in an Israeli school located obviously on occupied Palestinian territory in East Jerusalem. �The new Jew,� i.e. Israeli, so they said, �would fight back.� And indeed we were ready to fight back. Moreover, we were keen to do so, in the name of the Jewish people, in the name of our history. We were launched to punish the Arabs for our unfulfilled future in lost Europe.

It took me many years to realise that the �Never Again� that was initially portrayed as a moral argument, was actually non-ethical to the bone. It took me far too many years to realise that �within the Judeo-Centric universe, �Never Again� means: �from now on, Never Again Jews go to the slaughter, instead, it is going to be the Jews who take others to the slaughter. Looking at Beirut and Gaza, this is indeed what Israel is all about: �a barbarian political system that is fuelled by others� pain.�

While Emanuel Levinas, the post-war Jewish philosopher believed that after Auschwitz Jews would stand firmly at the forefront of any battle against inhumanity, discrimination, racism and other malaise of modern civilization, it seems that very much the opposite turns out to have happened. The Jewish State, with the support of their far too many Wolfowitzes and Dershowitzes, became the absolute embodiment of modern evil.

Day by day we see the �strongest army in the Middle East� squashing innocent civilians, whether in Gaza, Beirut or Jenin. The Israeli Army is blitzing civilian infrastructure of states that can never defend themselves. You may wonder why did the Israelis have to erase Beirut Airport? The answer is simple - just because they were capable of doing so. The Israelis are indeed thugs, but they are far from being ordinary ones. The Israelis are actually nothing but �self loving� thugs. Very much like the stereotype Jewish mother, they are totally in love with their symptoms. They really have fun flattening their neighbouring countries. Seemingly they have never taken in the possibility that one day, sooner or later, they will have to live in peace with all those one billion Arabs around them. Again, thugs always think in the �short term.�

I am left puzzled. Just six and a half decades ago Jews were kicked out of Europe. With the support of the United Nations the Israelites had a perfect chance to make the tragedy of their departure into a new peaceful start. They could easily look into their history and learn from their mistakes. Indeed very few did. One of them is Israel Shahak, another is Lenni Brenner. But as painful as it may sound, most Jewish secular institutes and scholars did quite the opposite. They made their past mistakes into their claim for fame. They made the newly-formed Jewish thug, the Israeli, into a cultural icon.

In Israel, the thug culture made it into a norm. Time after time, Israelis have managed to vote in war criminals and mass murderers to be their prime ministers. Strangely enough, in the last election, when they were sure that peace was just about to prevail, they had voted for a non-military prime minister. Yet as soon as the recent violent crisis erupted, Olmert and Peretz were very quick to use the ultimate military measures. They probably realise very well that arrogance, violence, brutality and barbarism is the Israeli raison d'�tre.

Sadly, we have to admit that Levinas�s prophecy was not forthcoming. Not only had Jews failed in collectively leading any recognised humanitarian cause, in the name of �Never Again� global Zionism, but together with the Israeli lobby they are consciously pushing us all into WW3. This time in the name of a cultural clash.

History, Revisiting the Present

The historian may suggest that knowledge of the past would help us to understand the present or even serve to safeguard the future. On the contrary, I would argue that any understanding of the past is in itself the direct product of the present discourse. In other words, it is our symbolic order currently in place that shapes our vision of any historical narrative. Practically speaking, it is the present carnage in Beirut and in Gaza inflicted by the Jewish State that will inevitably shape our take on Jewish history. The present Jewish State�s brutality will certainly lead towards the total collapse of the official Jewish historical narrative and its dominance in Western discourse.

Though Simon Wiesenthal won�t agree, history isn�t merely a collection of some sporadic anecdotes, i.e., historical facts, but rather a tale that links anecdotes into an intelligible narrative. Historical narrative is a message that survives the present discourse and symbolic order. Considering the crude Israeli brutality, the Judeo-centric historical narrative in which Jews are the victims is doomed to collapse. At least dialectically, it is rather fascinating that the �Never Again� attitude, happens to be a self-destructive mechanism, a Judeo-centric, historically orientated precept that aims towards the end of Jewish History.

Without referring to the truth value in the Medieval tales of blood libel; without trying to suggest whether or not Jews made matzos out of young gentile blood, the growing quantity of images of orchestrated murderous Israeli activity helps us to realise where such accusations may have come from. Without suggesting any historical narrative to do with WWII and the events leading to the destruction of European Jewry, it is the current Israeli murderous zeal against its next door neighbours that may throw light onto the collective European tendency to brutally spit out the Jews. One may sit in front of the TV watching Beirut burning and say, �If indeed this is what these barbarians are doing to their neighbours, no wonder why no one wants them as a neighbour.�

It must be mentioned that Jewish collective blood-thirstiness isn�t exactly a Zionist invention. Amos Elon, the author of one of the largest compendiums of Jews in Germany, provides us with a very shocking chapter of Jewish patriotic warmongering to do with WWI. On the eve of the war, Chaim Weizmann, a prominent Zionist and later the first president of the Jewish State, admitted to the British ambassador in Berlin saying, �seemingly Jewish intellectuals were the most arrogant and belligerent of all Germans.� [3] Martin Buber, the iconic symbol of left Zionism and Jewish poetic peaceful pacifism, could not stop himself from celebration at the point of departure of the global slaughter. �Not in faith but in devotion is the divine revealed,� said he, the prophet of the Jewish cultural renaissance [4]. �For Buber,� says Amos Elon, �the war was a �sacred spring� a wonderful purification through violence, he basked in the sheer moral beauty of it.� Yes this wasn�t Adolf Hitler but the adorable �Zio-pacifist� Martin Buber. But Buber was far from being alone, during the first weeks of the war even Freud succumbed to the general euphoria: �He couldn�t wait to see German troops march triumphantly into Paris.� [5]

Probably the most famous practitioner of poetic hate-mongering was the Jew Ernest Lissauer with his �Hymn of Hate against England�:

�We shall hate you with a long lasting hate.
A hate that endures and will never abate
Hatred by sea and hatred by land
From those who wear crowns and those who work by their hand
Seventy million all as one man
United in love and united in woe
United in hatred of one single foe
England�

James W. Gerard, the American ambassador in Berlin, reported in his memoirs that German Jews took pride of the ethnic origin of the above-cited sickening hate hymn. But the party didn�t last for very long. According to Elon, �the Anti-Semites were quick to turn the poem against Lissauer and the Jews. �Only Jews are capable of such hatred.� Whether this is indeed the case, isn�t for me to judge. Yet, there is something worrying about the rapid transition of some secular Jews into war-mongers (Wolfowitz, Dershowitz), mass murderers (Kissinger, Sharon), and war criminals (Haber, Olmert, and the Israeli society). This is very concerning because Rabbinical Judaism though being far from an ethical worldview is far from being violent, aggressive or even sadistic.

Seemingly, the Israeli, a secular Jew, has managed to kill God. He has managed to set a civil law rather than a civilised one, but somehow he failed to defeat the Jewish tribal barbarian zeal. Like Buber, Freud, Deshowitz, Haber, Wolfowitz and Lissauer, the Israeli man loves war (as long as he wins); he is �united in hatred of one single foe� -- the Arabs.

The modern Israeli Jew is no doubt a modern man, he doesn�t follow the bible, he doesn�t practice Judaism, he dumped God a long time ago but bizarrely enough, he still chops his male baby�s foreskin when this infant is just eight days old. The modern Israeli is circumcising his son, he mutilates his son�s young body following a primitive tribal blood ritual; he lets a rabbi (a Mohel) injure his newborn baby and then he watches the very same rabbi suck the blood from his newly born son�s penis. Evidently, the modern secular Jew may have managed to assimilate but failed in merging into humanity. He is still an active participant in an ancient tribal bloodsucking ritual.

I am not an anthropologist. I cannot determine whether it is exactly the bloodsucking culture that turned Buber, Haber, Sharon, Peretz, Wolfowitz and Kissinger into mass bloodsuckers. But I do know that in my road in London, there are no participants in any ancient blood rituals. Somehow, it feels very safe. I think to myself that it is rather possible that once we enforce or at least convince Israelis and modern Jews to stop celebrating their bizarre rituals they may learn to love their neighbours almost as much as they love themselves. By the time this happens the cultural clash between Jewishness and humanity may be resolved.

It is crucial to take into consideration that our collective image of Hamas and Hezbollah as mass murderers and bloodthirsty fanatics is just a projection made by those who happen to be active participants in blood rituals. In Lacanian language the 'unconsciousness is the discourse of the other.' In the Israeli practice, the murderous inclination the Zionists assign to Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and the Hamas is just a mirroring reflection of Zionist murderous tendencies that are far from being repressed anymore.

The above is far from being an adequate logical or an analytical argument. It is merely a desperate suggestion made by a man who grew up there, in Zion, amongst self-loving thugs and bloodsucking Mohels. It is a call made by a man who has been trying for many years to get to the bottom of the notion of hatred. It is a call made by a man who was dreaming of playing a concert in Lebanon, a country he visited as a soldier 22 years ago. A country that was flattened to dust but has spent the last two decades resurrecting itself. A country that had a dream, a country that is once again being wiped out by its next door neighbour.

Notes

[1] "There are three stages required for the performance of a ritually correct circumcision in Jewish law: the removal of the foreskin; the tearing of the underlying membraene so as to expose the glans completely; and the sucking away of the blood, m'tsitsah." Roger V. Pavey. The Kindest Cut of All. Bognor Regis, W. Sussex: New Horizon. 1981. pp. 87-88.

[2] If this isn�t enough, as Hanna Arendt pointed out already in the 1960s, the Jewish death toll wouldn�t have been as great if not for Zionist and local Jewish leaders actually collaborating with Hitler in such an extensive manner. Seemingly the Hebraic leaders didn�t learn their lesson, rather than endorsing peaceful thinking they have chosen brutal conduct. For almost six deacades the Israeli army inflicts pain on Israel's neighbours.

[3] Amos Elon, The Pity Of It All, Penguin Books 2004 pg 318

[4] ibid pg 319

[5] ibid pg 318