Book review of Gilad Atzmon's The Wandering Who?

[JoeWallack]

JW:
After Atzmon identifies his primary target, "The Jews" who consider themselves Jews first, whatever group that may be, he than slippery slopes to identifying Zionists as:

The Zionist is first and foremost a Jew.

He briefly meinsplains that this means Zionists consider themselves Jews first. So just like his definition of "The Jews" who consider themselves Jews first, his definition of "The Zionists" is not based on any survey, study or research. It's based on his selection of a few old quotes from extremist writings. It's unclear than what the group of Jews is here. His combination of subject "The Jews" and lack of clarity as to what group of Jews it includes gives the impression that he means a rather large percent of "The Jews".

Specifically regrading "Zionist" the common definition is:

Zionism

Zionism (Hebrew: צִיּוֹנוּת‬ Tsiyyonut Hebrew pronunciation: [t͡sijo̞ˈnut] after Zion) is the national movement of the Jewish people that supports the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the historic Land of Israel (roughly corresponding to Canaan, the Holy Land, or the region of Palestine).[1][2][3][4]

All it means is Jews who support a Jewish homeland in historic Israel. Most Jews now do support a Jewish homeland in Israel but again, don't consider themselves Jews first. Atzmon claims contra the definition of Zionism that Zionism is not merely limited to the issue of Israel but:

Zionism is not a colonial movement with an interest in Palestine, as some scholars suggest. Zionism is actually a global movement that is fuelled by a unique tribal solidarity of third category members.

So it's a global network like Dr. Evil's and because it acts globally only in its own interests it always acts against the interests of the country where it lives and the world as a whole. While Atzmon is long on the extent of this evil Jewish Empire he is short on evidence. His evidence:

• 1) Jonathan Pollard
  
  2) Paul Wolfowitz (solely responsible for Iraq/any other Mideast wars per Atzmon)

After presenting all this evidence for a world-wide conspiracy of "The Jews"/Zionists Atzmon concludes:

Looking at Zionism as an organismus would lead to a major shift in our perspective of current world affairs. The Palestinians, for instance, aren’t just the victims of the Israeli occupation, they are actually the victims of a unique global political identity, namely the third category people who transformed the Holy Land into a Jewish bunker. The Iraqis are better seen as the victims of those third category infiltrators within British and American administrations, who succeed in transforming the American and British armies into a Zionist mission force. The Muslim world should be seen as subject to the third category attempt to make ‘moral interventionism’ ideology into the new Western expansionist Bible. Americans and Brits and, to a certain extent, the West are all subject to a financial turmoil known as the ‘credit crunch’. It could be seen as a Zio-punch.

Atzmon seems to have a pendactic relationship between the quantity of his evidence and conclusion. The less evidence he has the greater the conclusion. At this point in the book he strikes me as a troll/Ann Coulter type. Intentionally overstating to get attention. And Godfree is a sucker for trolls.


Joseph

The New Porphyry

[iskander]

Book review of Gilad Atzmon's The Wandering Who?

"Gilad Atzmon's The Wandering Who? is a series of brilliant illuminations and critical reflections on Jewish ethnocentrism and the hypocrisy of those who speak in the name of universal values and act tribal.
Relying on autobiographical and existential experiences, as well as intimate observations of everyday life, both informed by profound psychological insights, Atzmon does what many critics of Israel fail to do; he uncovers the link links between Jewish identity politics in the Diaspora with the ardent support for the oppressive policies of the Israeli state.

Atzmon provides deep insights into the 'neo-ghetto' politics. He has the courage--so profoundly lacking among western intellectuals -- to speak the truth to the power of highly placed and affluent Zionists who shape the agendas of war and peace in the English-speaking world.
With wit and imagination, Atzmon's passionate confrontation with the neo-conservative power grabbers and liberal yea sayers sets this book apart for its original understanding of the dangers of closed minds with hands on the levers of power.

This book is more than a " study of Jewish identity politics" in so far as we are dealing with a matrix of power that affects all who cherished self-determination and personal freedom in the face of imperial and colonial dictates "
Professor James Petras , Bartle Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University, Ney York, author of more than 62 books including The Power of Israel in the United States.
.

[neilgodfrey]

JW:
Going beyond Atzmon's cover let's play a New Antisemitism game. Hold your breath and start counting until Atzmon invokes "Hitler", "Nazi" or "Germany". I have faith it won't take long. The quote that starts the book:

"The" [one]

So far so good. let's goose the second step:

"Nazis" [two]

So it took Atzmon two word orders to invoke the verboten.

Now the full quote:

‘The Nazis made me afraid to be a Jew, and the Israelis make me ashamed to be a Jew.’ Israel Shahak

Note that the Nazis are past tense and the Israelis are present tense. These two groups are both shown as bad with the implication that since both are really bad and the only bad things shown they are comparable:

Nazis = bad

Israelis = bad

Wha...??? Oh my god, Joe. You are embarrassing yourself. That is playing mantic games with the letters on the page and ignoring the fundamental meaning of the text. Your desperation is showing. You simply cannot read Atzmon with the most basic skill of reading comprehension.

Of course you can't. You announce from the outset that you are looking to find, with hostile reading, antisemitism (which in your mind means anything remotely critical of anything associated with Israel.)

You really do have a reptilian tribalist mindset. You cannot possibly comprehend anything that fails to give unqualified ra-ra backing to Israel in every move she makes, every breath she takes.

And the converse for an Arab. Especially a Palestinian Arab.

There's a word for a person with that outlook, Joe.

[JoeWallack]

JW:
Chapter 2 is Atzmon's Mengelaus Opiodd where he claims that a combination of Paul Wolfowitz + Alan Greenspan = "The Jews"/Zionists total control of the World to the benefit of "The Jews"/Zionists and detriment of not "The Jews"/Zionists. His presentation reminds one of Glenn Beck's Prime except he lacks Beck's dots and not being able to use George Soros at all because Soros is with him on The Left leaves a big hole and he has to fill the Big A Hole with himself.

Presumably, in what's left of Atzmon's mind, he thinks that Paul Wolfowitz + Alan Greenspan is just the continuation of The Jews"/Zionists evil plot since The Beginning because he starts his expose with them. No doubt he is currently planning a Prequel. The Chapter 2 title includes "Zio Punch". Again with the combination of accusation of "The Jews", insult and attempt to be funny (More on his attempts later). Putzmon writes:

Back in 1992, the United States Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney, appointed Paul Wolfowitz (Undersecretary for Defence Policy at the time) and his deputy Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, to draft the USA Defense Planning Guidance (DFG) for the 1994-99 fiscal years. The document that was later named as the ‘“Wolfowitz Doctrine’” was soon leaked to the New York Times and raised some harsh criticism. This astonishing document laid out the strategy for merging American and global Zionist interests into a unified practice.

So because Wolfowitz was instructed to draft the USA Defense Planning Guidance by the Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz is solely responsible for it. Cheney had no idea what Wolfowitz would write, no one else had any input and once written it was automatically accepted by everyone. Atzmon claims this Guide had two key points proving the evil "The Jews"/Zionists total control of the World.

• 1) The US would try to remain the World's only superpower.
  
  2) The US would try to keep its ally in the Mideast, Israel, safe.

Regarding 1), generally the US government and people would want this as would most any country, it's not a unique thought of Wolfowitz or "The Jews". Regarding 2), this has always been the US policy even before "The Jews" were allowed in the government. If Cheney didn't already know and want this from Wolfowitz, Wolfowitz would not have been selected. And if Cheney's superiors did not already know and want this, Cheney would not have been selected.

Regarding Wolfowitz and Atzmon's claim that he is a Jew/Zionist so he is everything Jewish first, Wolfowitz famously hookahed up with Shaha Ali Riza, a notorious Arab feminist. Now I know Godfree may be Skeptical because Arab and feminist are two words that don't really go together like President and Trump, Godfree and Israel and iskander and English, so look it up. And look at her, she's ugly. He must have really liked her. How could a Zionist Jew First like/love an Arab? I mean, she's not just ugly, she's ugli. That's plural for ugly. She's fugly. That's fucking ugly. She looks like a Hamas rocket misfired and hit her in the face than malfunctioned, backed up and did it again. She's so ugly she could make a freight train take a Hamas terror tunnel. She's ugly! The Wolf of Wolf Street should have just got glasses like the other two Jews Godfree knows.

Atzmon than claims that Alan Greenspan is the second part of The Diaspora Duo. This time he doesn't bother to explain how Greenspan made it good for "The Jews" and bad for the not Jews. What Atzmon says is that when the US economy was good that was because of Greenspan and when the US economy was bad that was because of Greenspan.

So Atzmon's style is to take prominent world events, find the most public Jew related to it, say this Jew is uniquely responsible and tie this Jew to unnamed Jewish co-conspirators. Jesus, no one's ever done that before.

At the end of the Chapter, apparently because Beck's chalkboard was already in use, he is unable to make any coherent conclusion so he writes:

You may wonder at this stage whether I regard the credit crunch as a Zionist plot or even a Jewish conspiracy. In fact the opposite is the case. It isn’t a plot and certainly not a conspiracy for it was all in the open. It is actually an accident. The patient didn’t make it to the end.

Finally, now that he is no longer Jewish because he publicly criticizes an entire group of people, he does prove one Jewish stereotype = You do have to be Jewish, to be funny.


Joseph

The New Porphyry

[iskander]

Book review of Gilad Atzmon's The Wandering Who?:

"Gilad Atzmon has written an absorbing and moving account of his journey from a hard core Israeli nationalist to a de-Zionized patriot of humanity and a passionate advocate of justice for the Palestinian people.

It is a transforming story told with unflinching integrity that all (specially Jews) who care about real peace, as well as their own identity, should not only read, but reflect upon and discuss widely"


Professor Richard Falk. Professor of International Law Emeritus , Princeton University

"Gilad Atzmon has written a fascinating and provocative book on Jewish identity in the modern world. He shows how assimilation and liberalism are making it increasingly difficult for Jews in the Diaspora to maintain a powerful sense of ' Jewishness.'
Panicked Jewish leaders, he argues, have turned to Zionism ( blind loyalty to Israel) and scaremongering ( the threat of another holocaust) to keep the tribe united and distinct from the surrounding goyim.
As Atzmon's own case demonstrates, this strategy is not working and is causing many Jews great anguish.
The Wandering Who? should be widely read by Jews and non-Jews alike. "

John J. Mearsheimer is the R, Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago.

"Atzmon's insight into the organism created by the Zionist movement is explosive.

The Wandering Who? tears the veil off Israel apparent civility, its apparent friendship with the United states and its expressed solicitude for Western powers, exposing beneath the assassin ready to slay any and all that interfere with its tribal focused ends."

Professor William A. Cook, Professor of English at the University of LA Verne in Southern California and author of The Rape of Palestine.

"Perhaps only a musician could have written this sensitive, perceptive lament over how so many Jews, believing themselves to be doing 'what is good for the Jews', have managed to carve the heart out of the Palestinian nation and make this tragedy look like the natural order of things."


Kathleen Christison, former CIA political analyst and the author of several books on the Palestinian situation

Gilad Atzmon decided to open Pandora's Box, and ignite a debate that has been frustratingly dormant for too long. His experiences are most authentic, views are hard- hitting, and at times, provocative. It must be read and discussed.

Ramzy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle

The Wandering Who? features Gilad Atzmon at his delightful and insightful best: engaging, provocative and persuasive.
Jeff Gates, author of Guilt By Association : How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War.

[JoeWallack]

JW:
Obama Says 'I'm Basically a Liberal Jew'

Okay, so maybe Atzmon is on to something.


Joseph

The New Porphyry

[iskander]

Gilad Atzmon, not only ..., but also :


"A formidable improvisational array...a local jazz giant steadily drawing himself up to his full height..."-John Fordham, The Guardian

"Best Musician" living in the world today, Robert Wyatt, The Guardian

"Atzmon is surely the hardest-gigging man in British jazz..." The Times

"Atzmon is a loose cannon: a larger than life figure with an almost overpowering musical personality... it's as perfect a jazz marriage as you could wish for" Phil Jonson, Independent on Sunday

“Atzmon sends his soprano sax and clarinet soaring over complex rhythms from all points of the globe with a poetry that never forfeits control.”- Nina Caplan, Metro

“Audiences are clearly bowled over with Atzmon's whirlwind approach ... dynamic, charismatic and ... exasperating!”-Brian Blain, Jazz UK

"His flow of ideas and coherent marshalling of them makes for solos that are as exhilarating as they are impassionedfantastiK." The Herald Sunday Tribune

[JoeWallack]

You really do have a reptilian tribalist mindset. You cannot possibly comprehend anything that fails to give unqualified ra-ra backing to Israel in every move she makes, every breath she takes.

And the converse for an Arab. Especially a Palestinian Arab.

There's a word for a person with that outlook, Joe.

JW:
Okay, so you're trying to Giload me into posting something like this:



Not going to do it. Not going there.


Joseph

The New Porphyry

[JoeWallack]

JW:
Unlike Chapter 2 where you could at least follow Atzmon's antisemitic thought Chapter 3 doesn't really have any arguments. Just random thoughts (like a game of Bingo):

Is being a Jew, a Muslim, gay or an ethnic Albanian enough to make one a ‘marginal identity’?

So the conflict between identifying with your specific group and assimilating into society as a whole is universal. But somehow this being the cause of a worldwide evil conspiracy is unique to "The Jews"/Zionists. Atzmon never explains why.

for the Zionist it is Jew/gentile

No Putzmon, for the "Zionist" it means supporting a Jewish State in Israel and not necessarily the most important thing to the Zionist, in the top 3 or even in the top ten and is also not mutually exclusive to supporting a Palestinian state which in fact has always been the basis of negotiations for Israel, two States.

Zionism, for instance, is maintained by anti-Semitism. This may explain why Zionists are so enthusiastic about the growing statistics of anti-Semitic incidents.

If only Hitler had known this. He could have solved The Jewish problem by ignoring them. There should be an award ceremony hosted by Atzmon, "The Jewies", where awards are handed out to those who work the hardest to preserve "The Jews"/Zionists. I picture Atzmon handing out the Jewie to himself and saying:

"I'd like to thank alt-those who made this possible, Martin Luther, Adolf Hitler, Louis Farrakhan, David Duke and The Self-Hating Jews Academy." And it gives me great pleasure to present this End of Lifetime Achievement Award to Adolf Hitler for under-writing The Holocaust, without which there would be no "The Jews"/Zionists today. Assuming that The Holocaust really happened of course."

An American Jewish settler living on confiscated Palestinian land must genuinely believe that being on occupied land, being involved in war crimes and breaching every possible moral code on a daily basis, while risking his own life and the lives of members of his family, constitutes the direct fulfillment of his ‘true self’. The settler must believe that he is the son of Abraham, and that this relation to his ancestor grants him special rights where Palestinian land is concerned.

Or he just wants to live in Israel where land is available and doesn't break any laws. There are also plenty of Palestinians living on illegal land per the Oslo agreement. An example on the other side would be a Palestinian family brain washes their 15 year old daughter to try and stab Israelis so she will be killed and they will receive a Terrorist pension 3 times higher than the average Palestinian wage.

The Holocaust was a ‘Zionist victory’, just as each single rape is interpreted by feminist separatist ideologists as a verification of their theories. As we have seen, marginal politics is maintained by hostility against oneself. In order to sustain marginal politics, the loathing directed against oneself becomes advantageous. Zionists rely upon burned synagogues and some lesbian separatists agitators rely upon rape victims. If there were no burned synagogues around, Mossad would go as far as burning some itself31. Within the separatist worldview, such behaviour is legitimate because the end is far more important than the means, and the campaign is more important than any moral integrity.

The main comparison he makes with "The Jews"/Zionists is Lesbians. You can make this shit up.

Bingo!

Chapter 3 was apparently just random antisemitic thoughts that because of contradictory significance he couldn't figure out how to work into a complete antisemitic argument. Hell, he's writing a book, might as well throw all his shit out and see what ssticks.


Joseph

The New Porphyry

[JoeWallack]

JW:
Made you look.

Joseph

The New Porphyry