Comrade Raimondo Seeks a Scapegoat

By Israel Shamir

A man accused of witchcraft at the Inquisition Court had two ways to defend oneself. One, he could laugh it off, and declare: there is no such thing as witchcraft. The problem is, the inquisition won’t approve of such a defence, and the daring Witchcraft Denier may yet end at the stake, if not for his black magic, then for his Denial. The second way was to finger a ‘real sorcerer’ and thus to demonstrate one’s obedience to the Inquisition.

This easier way out was chosen by an internet columnist Justin Raimondo of Antiwar.com who was accused of variety of sins (1) by a junior London-based inquisitor called David Aaronovitch in the Times (London). He decided to scapegoat me. (2) I find myself in a familiar predicament: much as I sympathise with the victim of inquisition, I am not ready to serve as his fall guy.

In brief, Raimondo says: I am not an antisemite, but Shamir “of indeterminate ethnicity” is.

This is the path many good but frail guys tread before him and it made them no good at all. The Columbia University professor Joseph Massad comes to my mind: he accused late Prof Israel Shahak of being antisemite. It did not help him a jota: he was accused of the same dreadful offence by the same inquisition he tried to placate and almost lost his job. Now Raimondo goes the same path, and not the first time. (3) He even took up the line of "doubtful ethnicity": Jews use this disclaimer to imply that a pureblood Jew would never stray that far. After repeating this small slur, Raimondo may begin to check kosher sertificates on his bacon and eggs.

Pity, for a long time, I have kept a warm spot in my heart for Comrade Raimondo. Much as I do not like the US right-wingers, this flamboyant Republican-against-the-war appeared to me a man who fulfils a positive function in the US body politic. He is not the man I would like “to be in bed with”, as he claims, for I do not like to be in bed with men. But he is doing a good job, opposes Zionism and the US expansion to the Middle East.

He writes, correctly: “The War Party greatly fears unity among the antiwar forces. If they can succeed in demonizing antiwar conservatives, and play on the Left's own caricaturized conception of the Right – a caricature based on ignorance and loyalty to an outmoded "left-right" paradigm – they can split opponents of America's imperial ambitions and even set them against each other.” After this, perfectly correct line, he explodes in indignation: “what I have to do with the likes of David Duke, Nick Griffin, and the founder of the Baader-Meinhoff Gang, is a mystery to me”.

A hint: all these people – as well as the Paleo-Conservatives, Nationalists, Communists and some Christian and Islamic Fundamentalists - are against the US-led war on the Third World. Strange, he does not want to see this common denominator. He has these qualities in common with other people whom I mentioned – from Duke to Mahler. I disagree with them on many positions, but approve of their antizionism and anti-imperialism. Likewise, Winston Churchill was not overtly fond of Communism, but supported Stalin in his struggle against Hitler’s Germany. Another more up-to-date example: fervent Zionist and warmonger Aaronovitch supports the ‘antizionist Jews for Peace’ in their attacks on Gilad Atzmon and myself.

The world-view difference between me and Raimondo (and Buchanan, and others) is a normal Left vs. Right difference. Raimondo’s main accusation that “Aaronovitch is formerly a Communist Party youth leader” is in my eyes the sole redeeming feature of the named Aaronovitch. Raimondo calls him ‘a Stalinist’, I reply with “alas, he is not”. But I agree wholeheartedly with Raimondo that “Aaronovitch is a worm with slime trail”. If the “left-right paradigm is outmoded” as Raimondo claims, we should look beyond differences, to the mutual convergence of interests.

Raimondo proclaims that “he is not against Jews”. Well, this is not the Jewish view of him. Google “Raimondo Jews”, and you will find that an important Jewish publication describes him as “American neo-fascist”, (4) while the Chief of Staff of the Jewish Action Alliance writes: “what makes Justin Raimondo an especially dangerous anti-Semite is that he is too much of a coward to come out as an anti-Semite directly; instead, he uses the ruse of being anti-Israel.”

Raimondo tries to sell us his PC version of the events: “support for that war within the administration had nothing to do with putting Jews in an "exalted position," but everything to do with putting the nation-state of Israel in such a position.” “Most American Jews opposed the Iraq war, and they continue to oppose it. Israel is not "the Jews" – it is a nation, with interests unique to itself and policies that are all too often directly counterpoised to the interests and beliefs of Jews worldwide.”

Very, very convincing. What, I pray, makes “the nation-state of Israel” so influential in the US? Why this small and far-away “nation-state” gets 90% support in the Congress and Senate and receives over 50% of all American foreign aid? Raimondo offers no answer of his own. For obvious reasons he can’t agree neither with Chomsky’s thesis that support of Israel is a real American Imperial interest nor with our view. Thus it remains a mystery in Raimondian universe.

In our view ("Shamir's thesis"), the main reason of Israel’s prominence in the US is the Jewish prominence in the US discourse. Israel indeed is not ‘the Jews’, but a part and parcel of the Jewish setup. If Raimondo were slapped by Aaronovitch, he would probably claim that he was slapped by Aaronovitch’s hand “which has nothing to do with Comrade Aaronovitch”. In my view, if Aaronovitch’s hand slaps Raimondo, probably his body and head are not too far behind.

I wonder what makes Comrade Raimondo a leading expert on “the interests and beliefs of Jews worldwide”? Jews say they support Israel (with miniscule exclusions) but he knows better. He says that “the American antiwar movement consists of a large number of Jews”. Very true, and that is why the US antiwar movement was very hesitant of ever tying the war in Iraq with the cause of Palestine. They preferred to blame the war on ‘oil interests’.

Raimondo says that “most American Jews opposed the Iraq war”. Even if it were true (and it is not) what difference would it make? He notes that “60 percent of Americans say we ought to start withdrawing from Iraq” but “the War Party is still in the driver's seat”. Isn’t it the same story? Opposition of ordinary Americans of Jewish descent to the War does not influence the policy of ‘the Jews’ (i.e. of Jewish elites) like the opposition of the ordinary Americans makes no impact of Bush’s policies.

In order to present me as “an addled brain of a nutbar”, Raimondo distorts my words. I write: “AIPAC and ADL should be registered as foreign-interests lobbyist if not banned altogether”. He writes: “Shamir's idea that the U.S. government should ban Jewish organizations is grotesque, not only by libertarian standards but by any measure of human decency.” I am not aware of the measure of ‘human decency’ which forbids banning of these two monsters for they run a (surely illegal) private political police force in the US. This is certainly not ‘grotesque’ for the country which routinely bans even philanthropic Islamic bodies. And who but Raimondo wrote in 2001: “when such groups [as AIPAC] put the interests of a country other than the US at the very top of their agenda, when nary a sliver of daylight can be found between their stance and that of a foreign power – then Americans have a right to call them on it”.

He writes: “Shamir caters to his deranged constituency of Jew-haters”. Far from it: our community of shamireaders (5) has many professors and priests, people of Left and Right, of Jewish and Gentile origin, and is probably one of the most diverse and exciting groups in cyberspace. We are still ready to listen and swap views with all anti-War people, even with Raimondo.

(1) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22369-1671715,00.html

(2) http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=6472

(3) http://www.the7thfire.com/new_world_order/zionism/justin_raimondo_does_not_go_far_enough.htm

(4) http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17310

(5) join: shamireaders-subscribe@yahoogroups.com The items published in the group can be seen on
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shamireaders/messages