Gilad Atzmon's Blog, page 12
February 3, 2015
George Galloway Made It Again
By Gilad Atzmon
Jewish anger as George Galloway gets BBC invitation to appear on this week's Question Time. Programme will come from Finchley, home to large Jewish community
Mike Freer, the Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green, said the invitation was ‘deliberately provocative’. He added: ‘The BBC can’t have done it by accident. The shameless MP, makes it sounds as if the BBC should ask the Chief Rabbi for a green light before it sets its program.
‘Given what’s going on in the world it is a slap in the face for the local community. It lacks sensitivity,’ MP Freer said, and I wonder, what is happening in the world that should prevent MP Galloway from appearing in a Jewish neighborhood? Furthermore. how inviting a pro-Palestinian MP is a 'slap in the face' to anyone? Quite the opposite, it is actually a golden opportunity for London Jews to learnabout the opposition to their beloved Jewish State.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews also attacked the decision to invite Mr Galloway – but said they were not "calling on the BBC to retract the invitation." This is indeed a great positive news. Apparently Goyim can still drive through North West London without applying for an Israeli pass.
William Schabas Resigned Due To Israeli Pressure
The head of a UN inquiry into last summer's conflict between Israel and Gaza said on Monday he would resign after Israeli allegations of bias due to consultancy work he did for the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Canadian academic William Schabas was appointed last August by the head of the United Nations Human Rights Council to lead a three-member group looking into alleged war crimes during Israel's military offensive in Gaza.
The appointment of Schabas, who lives in Britain and teaches international law at Middlesex University, was welcomed at the time by Hamas but was harshly criticized by Jewish groups in the United States.
I guess that we better let Jews investigate the crimes committed by the Jewish State.
February 1, 2015
Adam Boulton vs. Chief Rabbi (must watch)
Sky's Adam Boulton goes out of his way trying to deliver the most trivial message to Britain's Chief Rabbi. But he fails. The Rabbi refuses to see any connection between Israeli war crimes and the rise of Antisemitism. According to the Rabbi Antisemitism has been with us for many years and the situation in the Middle east is a product of antisemitism rather than the cause for Jew hatred.
In short, according to our Chief Rabbi, Jews are always innocent and the Palestinians are the Antisemites du jour .
January 31, 2015
Jazz and 'New Labour'
GA: The following is Jazz Review's editorial ahead of the Jazz For Labour concert. I actually welcome artist campaigning for social causes. This is a new and positive development in Britain.
FROM THE EDITOR
Alan Luff prefers to talk of jazz not politics but it’s not so in all quarters. Ahead of the Jazz For Labour concert at the London Barbican on 27 February, clarinettist Arun Ghosh says: “Jazz embodies, and has always been built on anti-racist and progressive principles, principles that I believe are essential for our society. I do not want to live in a country where narrow-mindedness and bigotry are the norm. Jazz for Labour represents and calls for another way; just like the music, we value and recognise the need for community, empathy, fairness and diversity.” These are fine sentiments, but is that the whole truth about jazz? Saxophonist Gilad Atzmon coincidentally offers a different perspective in a 4 January interview at somethingelsereviews.com: “Like many people of my generation, I grew up inspired by Left thought and progressive self-righteousness. I foolishly tended to believe that people who speak about equality are somehow better. As I got older, I obviously grasped the lie that is embedded in whatever is left out of the Left. I am now regarding myself as a reactionary essentialist.” It seems politics can be as much combative fun as the best jazz cutting contests.
Jazz and New Labour
GA: The following is Jazz Review's editorial ahead of the Jazz For Labour concert. I actually welcome artist campaigning for social causes. This is a new and positive development in Britain.
FROM THE EDITOR
Alan Luff (p40 – welcome back, Alan) prefers to talk of jazz not politics but it’s not so in all quarters. Ahead of the Jazz For Labour concert at the London Barbican on 27 February, clarinettist Arun Ghosh says: “Jazz embodies, and has always been built on anti-racist and progressive principles, principles that I believe are essential for our society. I do not want to live in a country where narrow-mindedness and bigotry are the norm. Jazz for Labour represents and calls for another way; just like the music, we value and recognise the need for community, empathy, fairness and diversity.” These are fine sentiments, but is that the whole truth about jazz? Saxophonist Gilad Atzmon coincidentally offers a different perspective in a 4 January interview at somethingelsereviews.com: “Like many people of my generation, I grew up inspired by Left thought and progressive self-righteousness. I foolishly tended to believe that people who speak about equality are somehow better. As I got older, I obviously grasped the lie that is embedded in whatever is left out of the Left. I am now regarding myself as a reactionary essentialist.” It seems politics can be as much combative fun as the best jazz cutting contests.
Press TV: Clear crisis in US-Israel bond
The bond between the United States and Israel is “falling apart”, says a London-based political analyst.
Gilad Atzmon made the remarks to Press TV on Saturday while commenting on a Washington Post report about the US Central Intelligence Agency’s role in assassination of Imad Mughniyah, a high-ranking Hezbollah figure, by Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad, on February 12, 2008.
“For a long while, Israel and the United States had been collaborating in what they regarded security issues,” but now “this bond is falling apart”, Atzmon said.
In its report, the Post quoted a former US intelligence official as saying that the CIA had been tracking Mughniyah‘s movements prior to the operation and also helped build a bomb, remotely detonated by Mossad after being planted in the spare tire of a parked SUV in the Syrian capital Damascus
“Nobody is surprised by the fact that the CIA was involved in the assassination of Imad Mughniyah. What is slightly unusual is to see the method they were using,” Atzmon said, referring to the car bomb as “not something that’s usually associated with organizations like CIA”.
However, the bond between the US and Israel, Atzmon argued, “introduced some wild methods to the CIA operation”.
Back in 2008, the bond “seemed stronger than ever” but there is “clear crisis” between the two now as “Israeli interests are very different from the American” ones, said the political analyst referring to a widening rift between the Obama administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On January 18, Mughniyah’s son, Jihad, was killed in an Israeli attack on a Hezbollah convoy in Syria’s Golan Heights.
Five other members of the Lebanese resistance movement and an Iranian commander, Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, were among the dead.
Shameless Dershowitz Campaigns For Israel
Alan Dershowitz, recently implicated in a sex scandal, is campaigning for Israel. The shameless Harvard Professor is begging for Jewish support following recent Zionist leaders calls to dissociate from him and his acts.
Interestingly enough, Dershowitz is correct - the West Bank Settlements are not an obstacle as far as peace is concerned. If anything they make the One State Solution into the only viable resolution of the conflict. The real and only obstacle to peace is the embarrassing fact that the word 'peace' doesn't even exist in the modern Hebrew language.
The word shalom, usually translated into peace doesn't really mean peace, harmony or reconciliation. Shalom actually means 'security for the Jews.' As such, Shalom is a non empathic judeo-centric notion sustained by blindness to otherness. The only obstacle to peace in the Middle East is the lack of the notion of peace within the Israeli and modern Hebraic culture.
Once again, it is the comprehension of Jewish culture that enlighten us on the conflict and the prospect of its resolution.
I'll See Myself Out, Thank You (book and video)
On my blog I usually deal with issues to do with music, Palestine and Jewish identity. However, this time I call your attention to a new book named I'll See Myself Out, Thank You (Edited by Colin Brewer and Michael Irwin). The book elaborates on assisted suicide, it delves into the meaning of freedom and elementary human liberties. I also urge you to watch Glenn's Last Tape, a very touching documentary telling the story of Glenn Scott, a Canadian lecturer, who decides to take his own life once he learns about his terminal illness. The film features the great Miriam Margolyes who is also a devoted supporter of Palestine.
http://www.skyscraperpublications.com
A series of recent landmark cases have highlighted the issues surrounding assisted suicide and may be shifting public opinion in the direction of greater freedom.
These essays cover every aspect of the topic from the legal and religious issues to the deeply personal experiences of patients and carers. They present a reasoned libertarian argument for people with terminal conditions, or poor quality of life due to illness or treatment, to be allowed to be helped to kill themselves. The authors include Will Self, Stuart Lee, Lord Avebury, Peter Tatchell, Mary Warnock, and Anthony Grayling.
January 28, 2015
Peter Zaza: Who Will Speak for Me?
A song for Palestine...
