by S.G.Kazolias, Paris, October 13, 2024.
It is amazing that, after all we have seen, there are those who still tax critics of Israel as “antisemites.” We are not antisemites. Those who cover up for Israel should know that, unlike with the Nazis, thanks to social media today, they will never be able to say: “We didn’t know.”
“The next guy who calls me an antisemite gets my fist in his face!” Thierry said a couple of months after Israel began its most recent genocide attempt in Gaza.
Thierry’s father, a Jewish Frenchman in Alsace, lost his whole family during the Nazi occupation. After the war he changed his family name “to sound more French just in case somebody wanted to do a remake.”
Like so many European Ashkenazim, Thierry votes left, is a militant antiracist, and a member of the legions of western Jews opposed to Israel’s criminal behavior.
One would think that accusing those critical of Israel and the whole Zionist project, genocidal intent from its conception1, of being “antisemitic” has worn off; that most people have seen the truth and have taken sides against Israel. But the Israel Lobby continues all the same.
There are two main reasons why Zionists and their supporters do this: firstly, to shut down any debate possible by automatically labelling the critic a racist, putting them on the defensive; and secondly, to push people towards antisemitism as a justification of their proclaimed “victimhood.” The armies of Israeli trolls who have taken control of social media help create a sense of isolation for many who want to support the Palestinians.
Are there antisemites in the anti-Israel camp? Of course, there are. So what? How does that disqualify the legitimate criticism of decades of Israeli crimes? As I wrote previously, it is not antisemitic to oppose genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethno-supremacism and colonial theft.
It is true there is an Islamist element taking advantage of outrage at Israel’s genocide and state terrorism to advance their own political agenda which includes a strong dose of antisemitism.2 This is what the French call “The New Antisemitism” (clic here)
I Will Not Apologize!
The pundits in the legacy and mainstream media, in general Zionist supporters, demand that any critic of Israel begin first by condemning “Hamas Terrorism” or “Palestinian Terrorism” or “Hezbollah Terrorism” or “Iranian State Terrorism.” When have they ever condemned Israel’s state terrorism?
I refuse to begin by condemning Palestinian resistance, no matter where it comes from, because it is a reaction to the inhumane treatment they have received from the Israelis for 75 years. I don’t condone Hamas’s Islamist political line, nor any other Islamist theological-fascistic movement, but it is not up to me to tell Palestinians how they should fight for their freedom against an illegal and brutal occupation.
Who is asking that those fighting for Indian rights today to begin by condemning the “terrorism” of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Cochise, Geronimo, and many others who led their people to massacre White settlers to defend their land and avenge their martyrs? Who is denying Europeans committed a genocide in their colonial conquest of America? So, why should I apologize for my opposition to another colonial settler genocide by mostly European and American settlers.
I understand why angry Palestinians will take the weapons from the first group that offers them one in order to avenge the deaths of their families. This is what happened in France with the Resistance. Many Frenchmen went to the Communist Party, not because they were Communists, but because the Communists gave them the means to fight back.
Zionism is the Greatest Threat to Freedom of Speech Today
In the US, University Presidents are forced to resign for allowing free speech for pro-Palestinian students thus caving into the pressure from wealthy pro-Israeli donors. In Germany people are arrested for wearing pro-Palestinian tee-shirts while protests, conferences, and meetings are banned as they have been in France. In both countries, writing what I have written here can get you taken to court, fined and jailed, charged with “apology for terrorism.”
They label any pro-Palestinian protest a “Pro-Hamas protest.” We must not allow them to do this.
Once again, we come back to the famous dictum: ‘One man’s Terrorist is another man’s Freedom Fighter.’
I feel honored to share my views with so many anti-Zionist and critical Jews such as Professors Norman Finkelstein (The Holocaust Industry), Jeffrey Sachs, Richard D. Wolff, John Mearsheimer (The Israel Lobby), Shlomo Sand (The Invention of the Jewish People), hardly antisemites; journalists like, Katie Halper, or Aaron Maté and Max Blumenthal at the Grayzone who have done so much to expose Israeli lies on what really happened on October 7-8, 2023 (fabrications still repeated by the press and the politicians who receive money from the Israel lobby).3
It is ironic that somebody like me should end up in court for denouncing a genocide and state terrorism rather than those who spend their days, every day, promoting and enabling it. It is truly the world turned upside down.
It is bad enough to be called an antisemite for being a decent human being. It becomes even worse when well-meaning people, confused by the Zionist propaganda machine, say they won’t discuss the subject with you because they “have Jewish friends.”
What? What do Jewish friends have to do with what Israel is and has always been doing?
This is the Zionist trick. They want to convince us that all Jews are ‘psychopathic, genocidal, maniacs’ as we can see in Israel today. They are not. I dare believe the majority of Jews are hostile to Israel. But their voices are silenced because they are “The Wrong Kind of Jew.”
- How could it be otherwise? The project was to impose a “Jewish state” based on the exclusive use of the “chosen people” in land already occupied. The only way to do that was total ethnic cleansing of the whole region. This is something Israel has been working hard at since its creation. ↩︎
- In Europe, the Zionists are ‘bringing the Israeli war home’ by arguing that Israel is fighting a “war for our shared values” and “civilization against barbarism” while the Islamists are using the same tactic to convince angry Muslim immigrant youth that the fight against Israel is the same as their fight in the countries their families immigrated to these past 40 years. Both sides are succeeding in creating “an atmosphere of civil war” and have made the war in the Middle East a European War. The support of European regimes for Israel is also pushing Muslim youth into the arms of the Islamic militants. It is the hate for Muslim immigrants which pushes far right European antisemites to back Israel. Somehow, they feel they can fight “the Muslim colonization of Europe” by backing “Jewish colonization of Palestine.” (I deliberately use the word Jewish and not Zionist here because I am expressing the far right racist point of view, shared by Zionists) ↩︎
- Lies such as the 40 decapitated babies, the photos of which Biden said he saw; the babies put in ovens which never happened; the mass rape stories also debunked by the Grayzone forcing the New York Times to withdraw the stories from their web site and many other daily lies the media and politicians relay to cover for Israel. ↩︎
KazoDaily 