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http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/97030/atzmon-wandering-who-anti-semitism-israel?page=0,0

Why are John Mearsheimer and Richard Falk

Endorsing a Blatantly Anti-Semitic Book?

Alan Dershowitz

November 4, 2011 | 12:00 am

.As the discourse about Israel on university campuses continues to

degenerate, there is growing concern that some of Israel’s most vocal

detractors are crossing a red line between acceptable criticism of

Israel and legitimizing anti-Semitism. The recent endorsements by

several internationally prominent academics—including John Mearsheimer

of the University of Chicago and Richard Falk of Princeton—of an

overtly anti-Semitic book written by a notorious Jew-hater illustrate

this dangerous trend.

The book in question is entitled The Wandering Who? and was written by

Gilad Atzmon, a British jazz musician. Lest there be any doubt about

Atzmon’s anti-Semitic credentials, listen to his self-description in

the book itself. He boasts about “drawing many of my insights from a

man who … was an anti-Semite as well as a radical misogynist” and a

hater of “almost everything that fails to be Aryan masculinity”

(89-90). He declares himself a “proud, self-hating Jew” (54), writes

with “contempt” of “the Jew in me” (94), and describes himself as “a

strong opponent of … Jewish-ness” (186). His writings, both online and

in his new book, brim with classic anti-Semitic motifs that are

borrowed from Nazi publications:

Throughout his writings, Atzmon argues that Jews seek to control the world:

· “[W]e must begin to take the accusation that the Jewish people

are trying to control the world very seriously.”

· “American Jewry makes any debate on whether the ‘Protocols of

the elder of Zion’ [sic] are an authentic document or rather a forgery

irrelevant. American Jews do try to control the world, by proxy.”

Atzmon expands on this theme in The Wandering Who?, repeatedly

conflating “the Jews” and “the Zionist”:

· He calls the recent credit crunch “the Zio-punch” (22) and says

it was not “a Jewish conspiracy” because “it was all in the open”

(30).

· Paul Wolfowitz, Rahm Emmanuel, and other members of “the Jewish

elite” remain abroad instead of moving to “Zion” because they “have

proved far more effective for the Zionist cause by staying where they

are” (19).

· The American media “failed to warn the American people of the

enemy within” because of money (27).

Atzmon has written that Jews are evil and a menace to humanity:

· “With Fagin and Shylock in mind Israeli barbarism and organ

trafficking seem to be just other events in an endless hellish

continuum.”

· “The Homo Zionicus quickly became a mass murderer, detached from

any recognised form of ethical thinking and engaged in a colossal

crime against humanity.”

Atzmon rehearses many of these ideas in The Wandering Who?:

· “[T]o be a Jew is a deep commitment that goes far beyond any

legal or moral order” (20) and this commitment “pulls more and more

Jews into an obscure, dangerous and unethical fellowship” (21).

· If Iran and Israel fight a nuclear war that kills tens of

millions of people, “some may be bold enough to argue that ‘Hitler

might have been right after all’” (179).

Atzmon regularly urges his readers to doubt the Holocaust and to

reject Jewish history:

· “It took me years to accept that the Holocaust narrative, in its

current form, doesn’t make any historical sense. … If, for instance,

the Nazis wanted the Jews out of their Reich (Judenrein—free of Jews),

or even dead, as the Zionist narrative insists, how come they marched

hundreds of thousands of them back into the Reich at the end of the

war?”

· “[E]ven if we accept the Holocaust as the new Anglo-American

liberal-democratic religion, we must allow people to be atheists.”

Atzmon reprises some of this language in The Wandering Who?:

· Children should be allowed to question, as he did, “how the

teacher could know that these accusations of Jews making Matza out of

young Goyim’s blood were indeed empty or groundless” (185).

· “The Holocaust religion is probably as old as the Jews themselves” (153).

· The history of Jewish persecution is a myth, and if there was

any persecution the Jews brought it on themselves (175, 182).

Atzmon argues that Jews are corrupt and responsible for “why” they are “hated”:

· “[I]n order to promote Zionist interests, Israel must generate

significant anti-Jewish sentiment. Cruelty against Palestinian

civilians is a favourite Israeli means of achieving this aim.”

· “Jews may have managed to drop their God, but they have

maintained goy-hating and racist ideologies at the heart of their

newly emerging secular political identity. This explains why some

Talmudic goy-hating elements have been transformed within the Zionist

discourse into genocidal practices.”

Atzmon returns to this theme repeatedly in The Wandering Who?:

· The “Judaic God” described in Deuteronomy 6:10-12 “is an evil

deity, who leads his people to plunder, robbery and theft” (120).

Atzmon explains that “Israel and Zionism … have instituted the plunder

promised by the Hebrew God in the Judaic holy scriptures” (121).

· The moral of the Book of Esther is that Jews “had better

infiltrate the corridors of power” if they wish to survive (158).

Finally, Atzmon repeatedly declares that Israel is worse than the

Nazis and has actually “apologized” to the Nazis for having earlier

compared them to Israel:

· “Many of us including me tend to equate Israel to Nazi Germany.

Rather often I myself join others and argue that Israelis are the

Nazis of our time. I want to take this opportunity to amend my

statement. Israelis are not the Nazis of our time and the Nazis were

not the Israelis of their time. Israel, is in fact far worse than Nazi

Germany and the above equation is simply meaningless and misleading.”

In light of this Der Stürmer-like bigotry against Jews, it should come

as no surprise that even some of the most hard-core anti-Israel

activists have shunned Atzmon out of fear that his anti-Semitism will

discredit their cause. Tony Greenstein, a self-styled “anti-Zionist”

who recently participated in the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s

unprecedented disruption of an Israel Philharmonic Orchestra concert

in London (which Greenstein compared to protesting the Berlin

Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1930s), denounced The Wandering Who? as

“a poisonous anti-Semitic tome.” Sue Blackwell, who co-wrote the

Association of University Teachers’ motion to boycott Israeli

universities in 2005, removed all links to Atzmon from her website and

placed Atzmon on her list of “nasties” along with David Irving and

Israel Shamir. Socialist Worker, a website that frequently refers to

Israeli “apartheid” and publishes articles with titles such as

“Israel’s murderous violence,” removed an interview with Atzmon and

called the evidence of Atzmon’s anti-Semitism “damning.” At least ten

authors associated with the Leftist publisher that published The

Wandering Who? have called on the publisher to distance itself from

Atzmon’s views, explaining that the “thrust of Atzmon’s work is to

normalise and legitimise anti-Semitism.”

Hard-core neo-Nazis, racists, anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers, on

the other hand, have happily counted Atzmon as one of their own. David

Duke, America’s premier white supremacist, has posted more than a

dozen of Atzmon’s articles on his website over the past five years and

recently praised Atzmon for “writ[ing] such fine articles exposing the

evil of Zionism and Jewish supremacism.” Kevin MacDonald, a professor

at Cal State Long Beach whose colleagues formally disassociated

themselves from his “anti-Semitic and white ethnocentric views,”

called Atzmon’s book “an invaluable account by someone who clearly

understands the main symptoms of Jewish pathology.” Israel Shamir, a

Holocaust denier (“We must deny the concept of Holocaust without doubt

and hesitation”) who argues that Jews ritually murdered Christian

children for their blood and that “The rule of the Elders of Zion is

already upon us,” refers to Atzmon as a “good friend” and calls Atzmon

one of “the shining stars of the battle” against “the Jewish

alliance.”

But neither Atzmon’s well-established reputation for anti-Semitism nor

the copious anti-Semitic filth that fills The Wandering Who? has

deterred Professors John Mearsheimer and Richard Falk from actively

endorsing Atzmon’s work. Mearsheimer, the Harrison Distinguished

Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago

and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, calls The

Wandering Who? a “fascinating” book that “should be read widely by

Jews and non-Jews alike.” Falk, Milibank Professor of International

Law Emeritus at Princeton University and United Nations Special

Rapporteur on “human rights in the Palestinian territories,” calls The

Wandering Who? an “absorbing and moving” book that everyone who

“care[s] about real peace” should “not only read, but reflect upon and

discuss widely.” Falk’s endorsement appears prominently on the cover

of Atzmon’s book. Mearsheimer’s endorsement is featured on its first

page. These professors are not merely defending Atzmon’s right to

publish such a book; they are endorsing its content and urging their

colleagues, students, and others to read and “reflect upon” the views

expressed by Atzmon. One wonders which portions of this bigoted screed

Professors Mearsheimer and Falk believe their students and others

“should” read and “discuss widely.”

Mearsheimer has defended his endorsement (on Stephen Walt’s blog) by

questioning whether his critics have even read Atzmon’s book. Well,

I’ve read every word of it, as well as many of Atzmon’s blogs. No one

who has read this material could escape the conclusion—which Atzmon

freely admits—that many of his “insights” are borrowed directly from

classic anti-Semitic writings. Mearsheimer claims, however, that he

has endorsed only Atzmon’s book and not his other writings. But the

book itself is filled with crass neo-Nazi rants against the “Jew,”

“World Jewry,” and “Jewish bankers.” He claims that “robbery and

hatred is imbued in Jewish modern political ideology on both the left

and the right” (123). And like other anti-Semites, Atzmon is obsessed

in the book with Jewish names. It was Jews, such as Wolfowitz and

Libby, who pushed the United States into war against Iraq in the

“interests” of “their beloved Jewish state” (26). “How is it that

America failed to restrain its Wolfowitzes?” Atzmon asks (27).

Likewise, according to Atzmon’s book, it was “Jewish bankers,”

financiers, economists, writers, and politicians such as Greenspan,

Levy, Aaronovitch, Saban, Friedman, Schiff, and Rothschild who have

caused the economic and political problems of the world, ranging from

the Bolshevik revolution to the wars of the 20th century to the

current economic troubles (27,194). And like other classic

anti-Semites, Atzmon doesn’t simply fault the individual Jews he

names; he concocts a worldwide Jewish conspiracy motivated by a

“ruthless Zio-driven” (27) “Jewish ideology” (69) that finds its

source in “the lethal spirit” (122) of the Hebrew Bible. This sort of

conspiratorial drivel is borrowed almost word for word from the

Protocols of the Elders of Zion—the Czarist forgery that became a

staple of Nazi propaganda.

A number of other prominent academics have defended Atzmon and his

endorsers. Brian Leiter, the Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at

the University of Chicago Law School, dismissed the reaction to the

book and to Mearsheimer’s “straightforward” endorsement as

“hysterical” and not “advanc[ing] honest intellectual discourse,”

though he acknowledges not having read Atzmon’s book. On the basis of

having perused one brief interview with Atzmon, Leiter is nonetheless

prepared to defend him against charges that he is an anti-Semite or a

Holocaust denier: “His positions [do not mark him] as an anti-Semite

[but rather as] cosmopolitan. … He does not deny the Holocaust or the

gas chambers… .” Leiter should read the book, especially pages

175-176, before leaping to Atzmon’s defense. There Atzmon reflects

“that 65 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, we must be entitled

to start asking questions. We should ask for historical evidence and

arguments rather than follow a religious narrative that is sustained

by political pressure and laws.”

James Petras, Bartle Professor of Sociology Emeritus at Binghamton

University, called The Wandering Who? “a series of brilliant

illuminations” and praised Atzmon’s “courage.” The list of academics

who have endorsed Atzmon also includes William A. Cook, a professor of

English at the University of La Verne in southern California; Makram

Khoury-Machool, a lecturer at the University of Cambridge; and Oren

Ben-Dor of the University of Southampton School of Law.

These endorsements represent a dangerous step toward legitimizing

anti-Semitic rhetoric on university campuses. If respected professors

endorse the views contained in Atzmon’s book as “brilliant,”

“fascinating,” “absorbing,” and “moving,” these views—which include

Jewish domination of the world, doubting the Holocaust, blaming “the

Jews” for being so hated, and attributing the current economic

troubles to a “Zio-punch”—risk becoming acceptable among their

students. These endorsements of Atzmon’s book are the best evidence

yet that academic discourse is beginning to cross a red line, and that

the crossing of this line must be exposed, rebutted, and rejected in

the marketplace of ideas and in the academy. (Another evidence of this

academic trend in Europe appeared recently on Atzmon’s website, where

he brags that he has been invited to “give a talk on ethics at the

Trondheim University” in Norway. This is the same university whose

faculty refused to invite me to speak about the Arab-Israel conflict.)

Accordingly, I hereby challenge Professors Mearsheimer and Falk to a

public debate about why they have endorsed and said such positive

things about so hateful and anti-Semitic a book by so bigoted and

dishonest a writer.

Alan Dershowitz is a professor at Harvard Law School.

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