Rock of
Dissent
By Israel Shamir
A victim can develop mental attachment to the tormentor. Patty
Hearst, a millionaire’s daughter, was kidnapped and fell in love
with her kidnappers. In the Night Porter, the dark movie by
Liliana Cavani, an ex-inmate of a Nazi camp and an ex-SS-man,
her tormentor of past, run a passionate love affair.
Now something similar happens in the Palestinian American
community. The most reviled and wronged group of American
population is called to defend the most prosperous and powerful
one against their own supporters. On 24th of August ’02, there
will be an event in Washington, Rock for Palestine, or Rock
against Israel, as it is also called. The event is organised by
some right-wing Americans, loosely connected to a small group
called National Alliance (NA). Whatever one thinks about NA, one
would expect a satisfied shrug, at least, if not outright
support coming from Palestinians and their friends in the US.
Instead, in the emails there is a hysterical letter addressed to
“all my Arab sisters and brothers”, calling to violently
confront the event in a military manner (!) “in several
different contingents with various risk levels”. The letter is
extremely violent and is written in intemperate language of
hate, the like of it we have not seen before: “We have to stop
this racist scum from polluting the Palestinian cause”, no less.
The organisers of the event are described as “neo-Nazis”,
“fascists”, “Nazi enemies” and “anti-Semites”. It is composed by
a mysterious East Coast Anti-Fascist Network, and has some Arab
names attached to it, though for sure it isn’t written by an
Arab.
Now, nobody likes Nazis, but I wonder why this militant
Anti-Fascist Network did not go out to confront gatherings and
demonstrations of Judeo-Nazis? What is so wonderful about us
Jews that so many people wish to go out and fight for us “in
different contingents with various risk levels”? Why this
fighting Uruk-hai does not describe Mort Zuckerman or Richard
Perle, “racist scum”? Not even Israeli settlers, as racist as
anybody, were ever described as “racist scum” that “should not
pollute Palestine”.
It is a mistake to describe anybody as “scum”. We should promote
more tolerant discourse, accepting or arguing, not fighting
somebody else’s war. The letter of this “anti-fascist Network”
looks like an attempt of the Jewish lobby to make its
adversaries to fight each other.
This thing has no end. Today they want us to fight NA, tomorrow
they would ask us to condemn Farrakhan, and next day – to reject
Hezbollah and Hamas. Maybe some of us would like to be approved
and promoted only by the Yale professors. But we live in real
world. Israel accepts support of every racist that extends its
support: be it South African apartheid of old, or present-say
fundamentalists, and it does not hurt its “credibility”.
It does not mean that one should run forward and endorse the NA
get-together. But these people should be worked with, not
rejected out of hand. Some of their erroneous ideas could be
corrected. If they would just say “affirmation of European
legacy” instead of “white supremacy” you would discover that the
arguments against them collapse. It is like saying “let us make
love” instead of 'fuck you' - the meaning is quite similar, but
wording is important.
I do not intend even to enter discussion, whether the organisers
of the event are good guys or bad guys. They can’t be more
racist than the present Israeli government and the American
Jewish community leadership. They can’t be more racist than Pat
Roberson and his bunch of (anti-)Christian Zionists. Let this
anti-fascist (and surely crypto-Jewish) network go out and fight
them first. I would bless whoever supports the cause of
Palestine without checking their ideological credentials. I
bless all supporters of Palestine full stop.
However, navigating to the home page of the NA, one finds a
cartoon to sympathise with. It is rather crude depiction of a
Neo-Con, looking like a cross between Kissinger and Perle,
asking America to kill his enemies: Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and
so forth. Yes, these guys are short of finesse, some of their
ideas are weird, but they came to correct conclusion: America
should not fight the WWIII for the Zionists’ sake.
In our Togethernet, “the freest discussion group in the known
Universe” , we had some people who will attend the concert. One
of them wrote: “I don't know of ANY white “supremacists” outside
of a couple of fantasizing juvenile delinquents in the World
Church of the Creator and some Hollywood Nazis. And a section of
the Republican Party personified by George Bush. “Supremacist”
is a label created by the Zionists of the ADL and kindred
spirits. It was used for the same purpose as calling all
Palestinian opposition to Zionist occupation and invasion,
'terrorism'. Methinks the Zionists engage in a lot of
projectionism when they cast their epithets”.
If we go out now to defend the powerful American Jews and to
fight these ‘White’ guys, because we do not like their ideology,
our next step should be to go out and defend Israel with our own
bodies against possible attack from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Saddam is also supposed to be a bad guy, and I am ready to
accept he is. In 1991, I wrote in the leading Russian newspaper,
“Probably Saddam is a bad guy, but the Middle East needs a
strong bad guy to counteract other, Zionist bad guys”.
The world is full of bad guys, and things are good only if and
when the bad guys balance each other. Saddam would balance
Sharon, while the White supremacists would balance the Jewish
supremacists. If indeed these men are not supremacists, but
cultural separatists, as they claim, we certainly can do things
together with them, and with another group of cultural
separatists, the Black Muslims, too.
The author of the epistle offers, with his low grade cunning, an
additional reason for Palestinians to go and fight for Jews: “If
we don't do this, our Nazi enemies will claim our noble cause
and our Zionist enemies will try to present them as our face”.
Let him rest assured. In Israel, and in Jewish communities
overseas, Palestinians are presented as Nazis on daily basis.
Menachem Begin called Arafat, “Hitler” years ago. If there is a
nasty thing that the Jewish-owned media could say and print
about Palestinians, they already did it. When Palestinian
children are shot, Palestinians are blamed that they let their
children out. The Palestinians are already smeared so much that
they can not be smeared more: they are already described as
Jew-haters and baby-killers. How come we Jews do not become
“discredited” because of Kahane terrorists or Sharon’s
assassins? Because people understand: not every Jew is a
Judeo-Nazi. In the same way, Americans can distinguish between
different opponents of the Israeli apartheid.
Let us suppose for the sake of argument, that these ‘white
supremacists’ are real Nazis. (They are not). It would be enough
for them to cease attacking Jews, and they would become
perfectly good in the eyes of the US media. After that, they
would be permitted to say whatever they wish against Muslims,
Palestinians, Blacks. All this talk against fascism lasts only
as long as the fascists are against Jews. The moment they switch
sides, they get kosher approval. Now, an Israeli government
delegation participated in deliberations of European extreme
right (“fascists”) in Brussels . In the US, the “pro-white”
people are not courted by the Jewish community, but it still
could happen, if we do not watch out.
Probably you had seen this last Bruce Willis movie, Last Man
Standing. In a small Texan town there are two gangs, and Willis
helps them to fight it out. The Jewish supremacists are a
million times stronger than all White supremacists put together.
Elementary strategy calls us to avoid giving any support to the
Jewish cause, until the apartheid in Palestine is dismantled.
As for the concert, probably some Palestinians and their friends
will get there, and the rest would stay away. The organisers did
not ask for anybody’s endorsement. Let the anti-fascists keep
their strength for more worthy cause. And whoever will go to
fight for the American Jewish community, let him be prepared for
disappointment. His chivalry will not be reciprocated.
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