Zionist Exceptionalism

Friday, 15 December 2006

I've just finished reading Gilad Atzmon's latest missive carried by Dissident Voice . Gilad is a Jazz musician and writer, a self-exiled Israeli who has served in the IDF and is resident in Britain. He has quite a unique take on the politics of Zionism which because of his high profile has drawn to him the hate of all the Jewish British political groups from left, right and centre. In his own words; "I may as well be the King of The Jews. I have achieved the unachievable, accomplished the impossible. I have managed to unite them all: Right, Left and Center. The entirety of the primarily-Jewish British political groups: the Zionists the anti-Zionists, Jewish Socialists, Tribal Marxists, The Board of Deputies, Jewish Trotskyites, Jews Sans Frontieres, Jews Avec Frontieres for the first time in history all speak in one single voice. They all repeat exactly the same misquotes. They all hate Gilad Atzmon.... .....But why do they hate so much? The answer is simple. Once Judaism is eliminated, what remains of Jewish identity is pretty threadbare. Once stripped of religious spirituality, all that is left of Jewishness is a template of negation fuelled by racial orientation and spiced up with some light cultural context. Sadly, I have to say that though very many emancipated and assimilated Jews have adopted universal humanist ideas, secular collective Jewish identity has never matured into adopting a universal humanist ideological standpoint or even a philosophical insight. The reasons are simple: A. Racial or even ethnic orientation cannot form a basis for a universal ethical argument. B. Chicken soup or Jewish humor (culture) does not make an ideological argument." Gilad's piece had me remembering a time while I was the Eastern District Secretary of the CPGB between 1986 and 1989. Geographically the area covered Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and four of the outer London Boroughs - Redbridge, Havering, Barking&Dagenham and Walthamstow. I wouldn't say I did a good job, but I had a good time. The comrades in general were excellent people to work with. They were open and generous, which I like to think is also a reflection of my personality and so made the experience a pleasant one overall. But there was a problem I encountered and failed to resolve. At the outbreak of the first Intifada in 1987 I was approached by Gerry Pocock, the Party's International Organiser to see if a public meeting could be organised in Redbridge with a speaker from the Palestinian Communist Party. Immediate opposition arose from one branch in particular - Gants Hill which is an area in Redbridge Borough. The branch leadership was predominately elderly Jewish who had retired there from the East End of London. Ilford, another area of Redbridge was a predominently Asian, mostly Muslim area. I'm not going to put any names to the comrades involved, who anyway are probably all dead by now, but also because they had a 'good' political history when they were younger, especially during the 1930's. It was these comrades who, when living in the East End of London, in Stepney and Whitechapel, led, organised and participated in the street battles like Cable Street that defeated Mosley's fascist Black Shirts. The British people owed them a debt for that, but unfortunately following the second World War and the Nazi's attempted annihilation of the Jewish population of Europe, they fell into what Gilad describes as 'ethnic tribalism' and support for Zionism. It was a left Zionism of the kibbutz, but it still meant the belief in an exceptionalism for the experience of the Jewish people above that of the Slav, the Roma (my people) and those others that perished first at the hands of the Nazis - their own comrades - the Communists of all ethnicities. The opposition to the meeting involving a Palestinian, even a Palestinian comrade was vociferous and vicious. In the end the meeting did not go ahead as the political support for it in Redbridge and the District Committee was not strong enough. Even the national leadership failed to help push it through. The ideological reach of Zionism had corrupted the politics of an internationalist party like the CPGB. Gilad is right in his critique. My anger was expressed in no uncertain terms and it is still one of the most difficult political failures I've had to deal with. I also think the struggle with Gants Hill caused a relapse of the Maggie, my Multiple Sclerosis but that's a minor issue compared to the trauma that has been, and still is visited on the Palestinians by racist, Zionist Israel. My understanding of the racist nature of Zionism first started to became apparent to me during a visit I made to Israel in the winter of 1971/2. I was in the British army at the time and stationed in Cyprus with the Royal Irish Rangers seconded to the United Nations forces there and took the opportunity to spend a week's leave in Israel. It wasn't very long I know but it left me with enough of an inkling of its nature to see racism there. Though only a few years after the invasion and occupation of Gaza and the West Bank the sight of Zionists in civilian clothes, heads covered with yamulkas and carrying machine guns in the streets of east Jerusalem to intimidate the 'Other' was very common. Gilad's own web site can be accessed here.