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
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