Proteus Arrested
A review of Joachim Martillo’s lecture on
Failure of Jewish Studies in America
November 19, 2002
The extensive lecture of our friend and
correspondent Joachim Martillo[i]
contains some very good ideas which could be used in discourse.
He rejects Zionists’ equation of ancient and modern Jews and
reminds us that the term ‘Jews’ is an anachronism. Indeed, one
can reject the idea of Jewish continuity, and say that there is
very little connection between the Banu Israel of the Bible and
the Jews of Hasmonean and Herodian Kingdom, between them and the
Jews of Talmud, between them and Jews after 9th
century etc. In other words, the name and the idea lived though
its ethnic bearer changed. This deconstruction of Jewish
pseudo-history is in line with works of Arthur Koestler, Paul
Wexler, Leon Gumilev and other scholars.
For us, familiar with some ideas of Martillo
from Internet, there is a chance to understand his outlook,
usually obscured by brevity and jargon. Martillo tries to put
Zionism in historical and geographical context of Eastern and
Central Europe. He gives the Jews another name, Ashkenazi. In
his opinion, an East European name will help to reduce the
question to its normal proportions. He points out the
similarities between nationalism and confessionalism of various
East and Central European nations and Zionism. He describes
Zionism as an ‘organic’ movement with ‘primordialist’ ideas, and
objects to exceptionalism of Jewish scholars.
Alas, this reduction does not work. Much as
one dislikes exceptionalism, it is not out of place dealing with
this question. If Ashkenazis are an ordinary East European folk
full of organic primordial ideas, just like Serbs, according to
Martillo, why, then, in the dominant mainstream discourse all
East European, indeed all organic movements bar Zionism are
damned? Why this exclusion? Why nor Serbs, neither Japanese are
allowed by the NY Times to have organic movement and
primordialist drives? If the Jewish movement is so similar to
the German Nazism, why one is damned and another one is blessed
by mainstream? How come this small East European folk succeeded
to dominate the discourse of the US and Russia, and to smaller
extent, Europe? How come the biggest and most devastating
financial weapon of our days is called George Soros? How come
that the ideas of these ‘almost Serbs’ became the paradigm of
the day under brand name of neo-liberalism? How come one can say
whatever one wants about Serbs, but the very hint of
anti-Semitism freezes ink in fountain pens?
Martillo’s comparison is very interesting but
misleading. Zionism has indeed some features similar to organic
European movements (“Nazis” etc), but are these features
inherent or superficial? Is Zionism organic? Surely not, as it
is the movement of eradication of all real traditions of
Ashkenazi Jews and of all nature in their new habitat, in
Palestine. It pretends to be organic in order to appeal to
supporters of organic movements. Or, rather, it pretended in
1920s and 30s, when organic movements were on the rise.
Zionism has also some features similar to
Socialist movements, but are these features basic? Kibbutz
appears a socialist feature, until one looks closely and finds
unique, “exceptionalist” quality of total racism, of military
order, of brainwash. Is Zionism socialist? No, it pretended to
be socialist in order to appeal to the socialists, and with
great success.
Nowadays, Zionist State appears to be an open
society and democracy. Again, it is an appearance only, created
to mislead and attract. There is no need for many examples, as
you are aware of the real nature of murderous Israeli apartheid.
This is my objection to the attractive thesis
of Martillo. Zionism, or the Jewish Movement, deserves
exceptional treatment because it is exceptional by its ability
for mimesis[ii],
or mimicry[iii].
Nazi, Socialist, Democratic, whatever you wish, Protean if
anything, Zionism can’t be comprehended in separation of other
Jewish-led movements, from anti-Zionist Bund to non-Zionist
Neo-Cons. The Jewish activity in Palestine appears to be part
and parcel (and not the most important) of a bigger framework.
It is felt by leaders of the world who send
their best ambassadors to our small and poor land. In Tel Aviv,
they search for keys to the hearts of mighty, to the destroyer
of treasuries George Soros, to the darling of Conservatives
Conrad Black, via Michael Levy to the chief of Labour Tony
Blair, via Richard Perle to George Bush, via plethora of media
lords to the hearts of the American people. Prudence forces me
to place a caveat: it is perceived as an integrated and
interconnected whole, though it is very possible that whenever
these important people meet they discuss golf on Bahamas.
A scientist in his heart, Martillo wants to
classify Zionism and place it on a needle in his collection of
East European monsters. But this monster is too big, and it
calls for a spike, instead of a needle.
II
From Cairo to Kuala Lumpur
Alijah Gordon is hard as nails.
Pennsylvania-born and bred, she belongs to the same almost
extinct breed of Americans as Ernest Hemingway, William
Burroughs, and Paul Bowles, much-travelled, composed,
knowledgeable, eternal expatriate completely at home in the
tropical paradise. The chain-smoking clear-eyed slim old lady
recently published a most tender and poetic memoir, In the Time
of the Mishmish, telling of the days of her rebellious youth in
Egypt.
Her rhythmic prose reminds of Joyce’s attempt
to create a fugue. “A correspondent of the Christian-belief
newspaper, a clean-looking fellow as all their men must be,
moseys over”. Her descriptions of Egyptian daily life as seen by
a young girl freshly from the States, are precise like a poem:
“Boys romp, loosely housed in green and red stick-candy pyjamas,
day’s happy, uninhibited dress. Men float in gallabiyas, a
night-dress made grand, generous sleeves flapping as a swan’s
wings clapping the amenable air, grace not a woman’s preserve”.
She came to discover world and discovered
“Egypt the embodiment of her self’s projection, a nation like
unto herself”. It is an absolutely personal book, sharing with
us sensations, feelings, desires: “I walked on the surface of
the world, slid on the utter flatness, at the edge of the east;
an area for a dance, an expanse stealthfully entering and
pushing our minds’ more circumscribed range”. In Egypt, she
experienced this strange and familiar feeling of discovering
one’s true home land far away from one’s place of birth. Alijah
was not the first European charmed and captured by the Orient,
but she was decisive and wise: she dismissed her background,
embraced Islam and remained in the East.
The book gives an idea of ideological
struggles of 1950s, when colonial powers, Islam, Pan-Arabism,
Communism competed for the future of the biggest Middle Eastern
country. Young Alijah meets Anwar as-Sadat, “a brown thin man,
agile frame. He prays and smokes his Lucky Strike from a Dunhill
holder. A long history has he, a plotter’s history, a history of
assassins”. She goes on the train with Nasser, “full of chest,
structurally the leader type, black, tightly knitted hair,
kinked around his head, beak of a nose, eyes comprehending
everything”. The Time of Mishmish does not deal directly but
hints on events that made Alijah Gordon an important and
influential figure in modern political Islam. That is why I
placed this slim volume of suitable apricot colour on my
bookshelf, between the Sheltering Sky and the Pilgrim’s
Progress.
I sincerely recommend you to read this
pleasant, poetic and insightful book, subtitled ‘A Painting in
Twenty Parts’. Orders by email
msri@po.jaring.my to
the publisher.
------------------------------
[i]
http://www.telfordtools.com/NAAP_Lecture/naaplecture.htm">Jewish
[ii]
The word is Greek and means “imitation”.
[iii]
in biology, phenomenon characterized by the superficial
resemblance of two or more organisms that are not closely
related taxonomically. This resemblance confers an
advantage—such as protection from predation—upon one or both
organisms through some form of “information flow” that passes
between the organisms and the animate agent of selection..
|
