Al-Ahram Weekly reported earlier this year on
Shamir's problems publishing in Europe, where his book
Flowers of Galilee, documenting the fate of Palestinians
forced to flee their ancient lands by the arrival of the
likes of Shamir, was seized and burned in France and Spain
and his publishers bankrupted. He sadly points out the irony
of France persecuting an Israeli Jew (albeit a convert to
Christian Orthodoxy) for his writings. He relates in "For
Whom the Bell Tolls" how he was brought to the police
station in Jaffa and asked to answer the complaint of the
French Jewish organization LICRA. "Did you write about
Jewish supremacy and world dominion?" a policeman asked. "So
what if I did?" he replied. "Every second Rabbi has
expressed this view." "Yes, but they see it in a positive
light!" said the policeman.
Shamir tackles head on what it means to be Jewish ("Jewish
identity, as it has evolved in the West today, could be a
real barrier to encountering the depths of Judaism"),
Judaism (a "dangerous and troublesome ideology"), about
outsize Jewish control of Western media to such an extent
that there is a wider range of dialogue on all issues in
Israel itself than in the West. He identifies with Karl
Marx, whom he refers to as a Christian, another convert from
this "troublesome ideology", quoting several times Marx's
caustic words, "Judaism is a sordid form of Christianity,
while Christianity is sublime Judaism." If only the left
hadn't airbrushed out of the discourse Marx's cogent
critique of Judaism, he laments.
He is sharpest in his dissection of things both Jewish and
Russian, reflecting his heritage. His credentials are solid.
Like Norman Finkelstein (but more to the point, like
virtually all Russians), his relatives suffered and died in
the war against fascism. He bravely — now he says
foolhardily — protested in Red Square in 1968. He faithfully
served as an occupier of Palestine in the aftermath of the
1967 war and tried to be a good liberal Israeli. But what he
saw as a soldier planted the seeds of rebellion anew,
changing his worldview so much that he rejected Judaism
altogether, and now sees the collapse of the Soviet Union as
a great tragedy, leaving the door open to world domination
by a largely Jewish-run United States, provoking wars around
the world in pursuit of total control of the world's
resources and people's minds.
What sounds far-fetched at first glance is argued
convincingly in his writings, not least this fine
collection. While Noam Chomsky puts you to sleep after five
pages, Shamir has you chuckling, aghast, absorbed. He turns
such pompous terms as the Holocaust on their heads with
dialectical agility. He was attacked by the French thought
police for arguing that the very term Holocaust is proof
that its promoters are racial supremacists, exactly like
Hitler himself. Christ suffered for us and came back to
life. The Holocaust believers believe that the Jewish people
suffered and came back by creating the Jewish state.
He notes that museums devoted to the Jewish Holocaust have
sprouted up across the West. And that the North American
native peoples and the non-Jews who suffered under the Nazis
are not deserving of the same reverence, that their
suffering is somehow less tragic. We must deny the
concept of the Holocaust even if the most fantastic
inventions of Wiesel were abolutely true. The technical
discussions of how many Jews died, and how they died, are
perfectly legitimate but superfluous — in the same way the
argument as to whether a whale could swallow Jonah is
superfluous to an atheist. (452)
When maligned because his articles are posted on far-right
sites, or for using sources that the Anti-Defamation League
labels anti-Semitic, he counters "every idea stands or falls
on its own merits," and though a socialist, he has more in
common with "paleo-conservatives" than many liberal leftists
who support the concept of a Jewish state and fritter away
their energies decrying what he insists is a non-existent
anti-Semitism. What is more important in seeking out your
political allies is: are you part of the US-Israeli
establishment out for world domination, or are you against
it?
His deconstruction of the anti-Semitic term is especially
stimulating.
He explains that the idea of Jews as racially inferior was a
short-lived concept born in the late 19th century, which
burned itself out under the Nazis. Anti-Jewish prejudice is
an understandable phenomenon throughout history, since
today's Judaism is a descendant of rabbinic Judaism, which
developed as a reaction to Christianity in the 4th-6th
centuries, and is the basis of this "dangerous and
troublesome ideology" that has culminated in the financial
ruin of America and the desolation of Palestine. This is not
racism, but justified resentment of a privileged caste and,
now, of Israeli injustices which are not being addressed by
our governments. As for hatred, it is such a
mother-in-law word: "Son, I know you hate me and want me
dead!" "No, mama, but I want us to control our lives
ourselves."
Is there a Jewish world conspiracy? The concept is not
needed in order to understand Jewish influence. As a rule,
Jews seek to make things better for Jews — but it is not a
"conspiracy". There are many Jews in the world media; they
have differing views, but they usually agree on certain
things; for instance, they try to spike news items which are
unfavourable to Jews. The majority of Jews are sympathetic
to the US, dislike Christianity, prefer muticulturalism,
support Israel -- this is not a "conspiracy", but just their
preference. (19) This even-handed, dispassionate
approach to such volatile subjects is refreshing.
Shamir has civilized debates with many leading, more
establishment theorists, in particular Noam Chomsky, who he
sees as an important critic of US imperialism, but mistaken
in believing that "the dog wags the tail", i.e., the US uses
Israel as its pawn in conducting Middle East policy. As
Shamir argues in the essay "Kugel Eaters" in Masters of
Discourse, it is neither one or the other, but rather
the US Zionist financial and economic elite that control
both the dog and the tail. They make sure Israel gets its $3
billion a year (and much more on the side) and conducts its
unending wars, as a symbol, a unifying force for American
and European Jews, their raison-d'etre, to keep them
and their shabas goy allies true to "the faith".
In effect, both the US and Israel are pawns on their
worldwide chess board.
He refers to the little known Mega Group of the 50 richest
and most powerful Jews in the US and Canada, founded in 1991
by Wexler and Charles Bronfman as an informal but
all-powerful policy-making group to add greater clout to the
Israeli lobby. Indeed, the Megabucks crowd, represented
at the Bronfman gathering, influence us [Israelis] more than
they influence the US. Our politicians are just as weak and
corrupt as America's, but they are easier to swing and
cheaper to buy. Consider that California bingo-parlour owner
Moskovitz could push our ex-prime minister Netanyahu to open
the tunnel near the Mosques, causing major bloodshed. That
is why, in Israel, we have a parody of democracy instead of
a democracy. (531)
He makes a sharp critique of Israeli peace activist Uri
Avneri, who was upset when the Zionist fanatic Avigdor
Liberman demanded Avneri's citizenship be revoked. Shamir
paints a picture of the Israeli Ashkenzi elite who look down
on Oriental and Russian Jews like Liberman for coming to
Israel after everything was in place and then criticizing
pious peaceniks like Avneri. Shamir points out that Avneri
himself was born in Germany, and that — yes — everything was
"in place", i.e., Avneri's pals had murdered and deported
thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, and their fringe
peaceniks were whining about a two-state solution, demanding
"Peace Now!". That is, now that they had their stolen
Palestinian homes, they wanted peace and a two-state
solution before the roof caves in on the whole sordid
enterprise. And that 35 per cent of the IDF just happen to
be Russian immigrants, protecting the ill-gotten gains of
the earlier immigrants.
Shamir dares Avneri to embrace Liberman's proposal, to join
the 50 per cent of Israelis who have no citizenship, to
proudly become a Palestinian and refuse the blue Israeli
passport as an illegal document. His solution to the Middle
East conflict is simple:
Israelis should be de-Judaised — de-linked from the
Jewish People overseas — in order to link up with the
natives. To unite my country into a lasting peace
requires first the restoration of the native
Palestinians to their natural position and only then can
we help the immigrants strike root in the soil of the
Holy Land. (480-2)
There are many arresting views which make you stop to think.
Perhaps the suicide bombings are even encouraged by Israel?
They are an excellent way to kill off potential guerrilla
fighters while killing relatively few Israelis, none of whom
are political leaders. They justify even more rapid theft of
Palestinian lands in revenge, and are fodder for the Western
media.
And this supposed truism that Jews are natural allies of the
left. This is only from the period of the French revolution
till 1948, a necessary alliance of convenience to secure a
strong hold on political and economic power during a period
of change. Before that and afterward (and even during that
period), Jews have alligned themselves with ruling despots
as their personal financiers. Where did all the
progressive Jews go?
There is much wit to keep you going. Jews believe in
equality for Jews around the world, but Jewish supremacy in
Palestine. Avneri's preference for the Zionist dystopia is
like the man who marries an ugly women, for "beauty passeth".
His "Animal Farm revisited" documents how Stinky, the head
pig, sells out the inefficient animal-run farm (the Soviet
Union) to a slick farmer bearing Marlboro cigarettes and
nylons, and the "excess" animals are promptly carted off to
the slaughter house. One particularly apt sound byte for
readers in Egypt, the land of soap operas: The cult of
Zionism is an old and toothless beast, a political
experiment that has been reduced to a poorly-scripted and
staged soap opera for the entertainment of a distant
American Jewish audience. (533) If only.
Despite these strong views, Shamir is never strident. You
will be unlikely to agree with all of his colourful essays,
but you will not be bored. There are many fascinating
historical detours, revealing his protean intellect and
scholarship, and many anecdotes, revealing his warmth and
undying optimism about the human condition. You even come
away with a grudging respect for the exasperating
hodge-podge of people who cling to their "dangerous and
troublesome ideology".
His self-confidence is well earned and cuts through the
tangles of ideology and prejudice. Nor is he afraid to admit
his mistakes. Only a fool refuses to change as the world
changes and his understanding of it deepens. His online
shamireaders group is without a doubt the most
stimulating source of ideas for anyone concerned about the
Middle East and East-West relations in general.
Masters
of Discourse republishes many articles and interchanges
that have appeared there, and is inspired by the Internet
era — note the publisher
www.israelshamir.net — uncensored by the "the
masters of discourse".