Gilad Atzmon argues that, instead of engaging in a banal debate on whether or not Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is descended from Jews, the Western media should challenge the Judaeo-centric paradigm that gives primacy to the Zionist version of Jewish history and denies Palestinian suffering.
The question of "who is a Jew?" has been debated in Israel since it attained statehood. In the Jewish state the authorities, the rabbis and the media would dig into one’s bloodline with no shame whatsoever. For the Israelis and orthodox Jews, Jewishness is obviously a blood-related concept. However, Jewishness and blood concerns are becoming a subject of a growing debate in the UK. In the last few days the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian have been trying to decide whether Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a “self-hating Jew” or just an ordinary anti-Semite. As with the Israeli rabbis, they both dig into his bloodline.
Ahmadinejad is said to have a “Jewish past”, according to the Daily Telegraph. The paper said that a photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 “clearly” suggests that his family had Jewish roots. The Daily Telegraph even found “experts” who suggested that “Mr Ahmadinejad's track record for hate-filled attacks on Jews could be an overcompensation to hide his past”. In fact, contrary to what the Daily Telegraph suggests, Ahmadinejad has actually never come out on record with a single anti-Jewish “hate- filled” attack. He is indeed extremely critical of the Jewish state and its raison d'etre. He is also highly critical of the crude and manipulative mobilization of the holocaust at the expense of the Palestinian people.
One may wonder why a Western media outlet happens to selectively engage with issues to do with the racial or ethnic origin of the Iranian president. At the end of the day, digging into people’s ethnic past and family bloodline is not the kind of practice you expect from the Western press. It is something you tend to leave for racists, Nazis and rabbis. For one reason or another, no one in the so called free press tried to dwell on the close ties between multi-billion-dollar swindler Bernie Maddof and his tribe. The free press saved itself also from dealing with Paul Wolfowitz’s ethnicity, in spite of the fact that the Zionist war he brought on us hasso far cost 1.5 million lives. If you wonder how it is that the Western free media is reverting to “pathology” in order to deal with a Muslim president, the answer is simple, if not trivial.
The so-called “liberal West” has yet to find the answers to President Ahmadinejad within the realm of reason. It lacks the argumentative capacity to address Ahmadinejad. Instead, it insists on spinning banal racially-orientated ideas that cannot hold water. “By making anti-Israeli statements.” says the Daily Telegraph, “he [Ahmadinejad] is trying to shed any suspicions about his Jewish connections.” The truth of the matter is clear. Ahmadinejad has already managed to redirect a floodlight of reasoning and scepticism just to enlighten our darkest corner of hypocrisy. Somehow, he has managed to remind us all what thinking is all about.
It is pretty much impossible to deny the fact that Ahmadinejad’s take on the holocaust and Israel is coherent, consistent and valid. Three main issues appear to underline his narrative:
1. Around 60 million people died in World War II, the vast majority of them innocent civilians. How is it, asks Ahmadinejad, that we insist on concentrating on the particularity of the suffering of one very specific group of people i.e. the Jews?
2. The Iranian president rightly maintains that this historical chapter must be examined within a historical perspective. This would mean that every event in the past should be subjected to scrutiny, elaboration and revision. “If we allow ourselves to question God and the Prophets, we might as well allow ourselves to question the holocaust.”
3. Regardless of the truthfulness of the holocaust, it is a basic fact that the suffering of the Jews in Europe had nothing to do with the Palestinian people. Hence, there is no reason for the Palestinians to pay for crimes committed by others. If some Western leaders feel guilty of crimes committed against the Jews by their own ancestors, which they seem to claim, they had better allocate some land for the Jews within their own territories rather than expect the Palestinians to keep carring the murderous Zionist burden.
As much as it is obviously clear that the above points raised by Ahmadinejad are totally valid, it is also painfully transparent that the West lacks the means to address those issues. Instead, we seem to revert to supremacy and pseudo-scientific discourse, dwelling on blood, pathology and lame psychoanalysis.
As embarrassing as it may seem, in just three moves Ahmadinejad manages to expose the current deceptive Western mode of discussion. He, in fact identifies the holocaust as the core of our hypocritical stance, a tendency that has managed to shatter our ethical judgment. The holocaust was was highlighted to divert attention from the colossal crimes committed by the allies. Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Dresden are just some examples of institutionalized genocide committed by the English speaking empire. The holocaust has successfully matured into a new religion. Yet, it lacks theology. It doesn’t allow any form of criticism or revision. It is in fact an anti-Western religion inspired by hate and vengeance. It is dark, it is blind and it lacks mercy and compassion. It is a faith that declares an assault on any form of doubt. It is a crude brutal belief system that stands in opposition to the notions of liberty and goodness. As if this is not enough, those who subscribe to this religion are complicit in an ongoing assault against grace and peace.
As things stand at the moment, the British media is yet to decide whether Ahmadinejad is a “Jewish rebel” or just a “Meshugena Goy”. The Guardian was very quick to publish its own take on the subject, refuting the Daily Telegraph’s account. However, one thing is clear” neither the Guardian nor the Daily Telegraph nor any other so called “free media” outlet is free enough to address the questions raised by Ahmadinejad. First, why only the Jews? Second, why do you all say NO to scrutinizing the past? Third, why do the Palestinians have to pay the price? Instead of engaging in these crucial elementary questions, the British broadsheet papers succumb to racially orientated-bloodline digging.
Rather than following the banal Zionist quetion of “who is a Jew?”, I suggest that we take the discourse one step further and ask a very simple question: what does Jewishness stands for?
Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli-born musician, writer and anti-racism campaigner. His latest jazz album, "In loving memory of America", was released on 1 March 2009 and can be purchased here.
