Europe Turns Against Israel

Gilad Atzmon
Gilad Atzmon's Blog

"Israelis are fully aware of their government and army’s brutal measures against Palestinian civilian population -- and yet, the vast majority of them support it all, and even affirm it democratically."

A German think-tank affiliated with the Social Democratic Party issued a new report last week that revealed “high levels of anti-Semitism in Germany, Poland and Hungary.”

Dr. Beate Küpper, a researcher from the University of Bielefeld who co-authored the study along with her colleagues Andreas Zick and Andreas Hoevermann, told The Jerusalem Post that the study showed a strong presence of “anti-Semitism that is linked with Israel and is hidden behind criticism of Israel, and is not neutral.”

Küpper termed the outbreak of Jew-hatred in Germany “remarkable” because, according to her, “there were widespread Holocaust remembrance and education events in Germany.”

It is possible that Küpper and others in the widely respected University have completely failed to notice a most obvious link here -- It is more than likely that the mushrooming of Holocaust museums actually contributed to the resentment towards the Jewish state. Those who are inclined to interpret the Holocaust as a universal and a moral message against racism and oppression would obviously also identify the Jewish State as a primary enemy of humanity and humanism. I guess that Germans and others expect Jews to be at the forefront of the battle against racism. As it happens, the Jewish State sticks out as the total opposite; it is a leading abuser of human rights. It is a terrorist, racist state that locks millions behind walls and barbed wires.

The study, entitled “Intolerance, Prejudice, Discrimination: A European Report” –questioned roughly 1,000 people in each of the selected EU countries. Asked to respond to the statement that “Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians,” 47.7 percent of the study’s participants in Germany expressed agreement – the highest number in Western Europe.

Given Poland’s lukewarm foreign policy toward Israel, the finding that 63.3% of the Poles questioned agree that Israel is seeking to obliterate Palestinians may be deeply alarming to some Zionist and Israeli Hasbara campaigners. It seems as if the Hasbara project has been a disaster -- Israel has managed the buy more than a few politicians around the world -- but the masses still see the Jewish state for what it is.

It seems as if the Holocaust indoctrination that is rallied and utilised by every Jewish and Zionist institution around the world has backfired, and on every possible front: more and more people around regard the Israelis as the Nazis of our time.

I must admit that I am uncomfortable with that comparison -- I actually believe that Israel is far worse than Nazi Germany, at least from certain perspectives. Israelis, for instance, are fully aware of their government and army’s brutal measures against Palestinian civilian population -- and yet, the vast majority of them support it all, and even affirm it democratically.

The researchers in Bielefeld were shocked to find out that the statement, “considering Israel’s policy, I can understand why people do not like Jews” met with general affirmation across Europe (35%-55%).

I would like to try to help the unimaginative ‘scholars': I would argue that Israel presenting itself as the ‘Jewish State’ may have something to do with it -- Zionism has successfully managed to redefine Jewish identity. While in the past, Jews where largely associated with a world religion, namely, Judaism, they are now associated with the Jewish State and Global Zionist politics. Considering the Jewish State’s atrocities then, it is only natural that Jewish political activity should reflect so badly on the image of world Jewry.

The research also asked Europeans whether “Jews try to take advantage of having been victims during the Nazi era” (as if we actually need a poll to know the answer to that one). Almost half the Germans responded in the affirmative. Poles who are subject to a constant flood of hostile Shoa tourism, totally approved the statement (72.2% affirmed). Furthermore, not only do Jews take advantage of their victimhood, there is also an extensive body of academic work that suggests that the Holocaust is the new Jewish religion : victimhood seems to be the current collective Jewish bond.

It seems as if Dr Küpper’s lameness knows no bounds -- for instance she insists on making a link between the growing resentment towards Israeli barbarism -- and the expanding intolerance towards marginalized minority groups: Poland and Hungary, she says, are “ also plagued by extraordinary levels of sexism and homophobia”.

Someone should remind Küpper that gays are yet to lock their alleged ‘foes’ in Bantustans, to surround them with walls and barbed wire, to impose a blockade on them with a gay Navy or drop bombs on them from aero planes decorated with gay symbols.

Gays and homosexuals do not use white phosphorus against people seeking refuge in UN shelters, and they do not raid peace activists’ flotillas in the middle of the sea.

In short, the resentment towards gays which Küpper detected in Poland and Hungary has nothing whatsoever to do with the clear antagonism towards Jewish politics --describing anti Israeli feeling and anti gay sentiment as originating from the same source, and explaining them as being rooted in a similar animus is both illogical and groundless.

It is embarrassing how lame academia has become.

I guess that the University of Bielefeld may have to raise its academic standards, and the sooner the better. I would like to suggest that it search for the right minds -- those who can teach and discuss the true intellectual heritage of German thought.

Heidegger, Nietzsche, Hegel, and Schopenhauer would be a good start.

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Gilad Atzmon was born in Israel in 1963 and had his musical training at the Rubin Academy of Music, Jerusalem (Composition and Jazz). As a multi-instrumentalist he plays Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Baritone Saxes, Clarinet and Flutes. His album Exile was the BBC jazz album of the year in 2003. He has been described by John Lewis on the Guardian as the “hardest-gigging man in British jazz". His albums, of which he has recorded nine to date, often explore political themes and the music of the Middle East.

Until 1994 he was a producer-arranger for various Israeli Dance & Rock Projects, performing in Europe and the USA playing ethnic music as well as R&R and Jazz.

Coming to the UK in 1994, Atzmon recovered an interest in playing the music of the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe that had been in the back of his mind for years. In 2000 he founded the Orient House Ensemble in London and started re-defining his own roots in the light of his emerging political awareness. Since then the Orient House Ensemble has toured all over the world. The Ensemble includes Eddie Hick on Drums, Yaron Stavi on Bass and Frank Harrison on piano & electronics.

Also, being a prolific writer, Atzmon's essays are widely published. His novels 'Guide to the perplexed' and 'My One And Only Love' have been translated into 24 languages.
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Photo: http://www.aztlan.net/gaza/gaza_massacre_of_children.php
URL: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2011/03/21/title-88