Here’s a video of Max Blumenthal speaking about anti-Semitism at University of Glasgow last month, a brief part of his Israeli Apartheid Week 2015 presentation at the college. I contacted the person who uploaded the clip, a reader and commenter here, these are his words:
The perverse and counterintuitive relationship between Zionism/Israel and anti-Semitism is a difficult thing to articulate. Blumenthal does a great job of illuminating this very dangerous, and very real, relationship. He’s got an uncanny ability to articulate out loud, and very directly, the connections and concepts which many of us have difficulty expressing and can only intuitively feel. Since these truths are rarely spoken in public platforms, for me it’s very powerful to witness Blumenthal illuminate this concept so concisely. Just when you think he couldn’t possibly make a more critical point or make things any clearer, he makes another key observation/analogy. And he does it consistently and off the cuff. He’s a special cat, he’s an epiphany distributor.
Well said. For safety from antisemitism in Europe, 1900-1945, Jews became Zionists and conquered and stole Palestine. Today, with hardly any antisemitism anywhere but plenty of anti-Zionism especially in M/E,, Zionists complain that they are not welcome in Palestine (surprise!) and must take more and more territory and kill and torture and attack more and more people (I suppose some of them say: in order to become safer where they are). No thought (as in 1940s) of going somewhere ELSE to find safety. South America anybody? No siree Bob, manufacturing anti-Zionism and calling it antisemitism works just fine.
“He’s a special cat, he’s an epiphany distributor.”
Yes, he is. That’s an apt description of what he does so well! I am very glad that you are highlighting this~ I saw it at the beginning of March, and archived it.
He’s already made a huge contribution toward truth & justice on Palestine/Israel. He’s wise beyond his years.
OK, up until 2:34, it was good, and it’s important to be against anti-semitism like he explains. But then he says Gilad Atzmon is inciting against Jews. However, if Max is wrong and Atzmon is not making incitement, then Max is unfortunately also misusing the term anti-Semitism and labeling people who aren’t.
In reality, Atzmon (who is Jewish) does not criticize all, Jews, but directs much attention against those who create secular nationalist organizations because he believes that solidarity organizations should not be divided based on one’s nationality, and that to do otherwise is exclusionary (what he calls “tribalism”). Now I think Atzmon is too strong in his criticism, but in any case, do you actually think that he is inciting against people for being Jews?
This is a meretricious argument. Most Jews support a Jewish state. That much is true. So, although it may be technically true that there’s no Jewish consensus on Zionism, it’s the same as saying that there’s no African-American consensus on affirmative action. Are there African-Americans who oppose affirmative action? Yes, a few. Do many, if not most African-Americans read a bit of anti-black racism into vociferous anti-affirmative action arguments? Yes.
It’s the same with Israel. Are there Jews who oppose Zionism or Israel’s existence as a Jewish state? Yes, a few. Do many, if not most, Jews read a bit of antisemitism into obsessive anti-Zionist arguments? Yes. Is that the same thing as saying that Zionism and Judaism are equal?
The Chinese analogy is also meretricious. There aren’t many Chinese people in the Middle East. There were tens of thousands of Jewish in the Arab world, most of whom lived as second-class citizens in the Middle East in the pre-Zionist period. It’s a little of Norman Finkelstein’s old bit about if grandma was a baby carriage, would she have wheels? It really doesn’t matter what would have happened with the Chinese. There are six million Jews there now, and they’re NOT LEAVING.
I don’t know if anyone else has been following this amazing meltdown of the “Neocon Honor Brigade” on twitter, but Max B. has now made it into a Storify:
“Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Neoconservative Honor Brigade
A look at the militant neoconservative network that has mobilized to defend the honor of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, one of the world’s leading Islamophobes, against my factual reporting.”
https://storify.com/MaxBlumenthal/ayaan-hirsi-ali-s-anti-muslim-honor-brigade