{"id":17667,"date":"2012-02-27T12:26:06","date_gmt":"2012-02-27T12:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=17667"},"modified":"2015-03-09T12:28:17","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T12:28:17","slug":"tribalism-racism-and-projection-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/02\/tribalism-racism-and-projection-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribalism, Racism and Projection (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this part\u00a0 I\u00a0explore the misleading role of Jewish politics (both\u00a0 Zionist and anti Zionist) within the ‘anti racist’ campaign. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Racism is a big word with some very bad connotations.\u00a0 Being accused of racism is one of the most hurtful and potentially damaging labels around. And yet, how many \u2018racists\u2019 really think in \u2018biological determinist\u2019 terms? How many \u2018racists\u2019 out there really think in terms of \u2018genes,\u2019 or even \u2018skin colour\u2019?\u00a0I guess not that many.<\/p>\n

While acknowledging that racism had a significant cultural, and politically lethal impact between the late 19th century and the middle of the last century, in today\u2019s politics,\u00a0the word \u2018racism\u2019 is often misused, mistakenly used, or in some cases, consciously used to mislead and even to silence.<\/p>\n

Though discrimination against minority groups is unfortunately common and totally unacceptable, it is not necessarily always motivated by crude racism. Islamophobia, for instance, is commonly regarded as a contemporary manifestation of racism but I would challenge such an understanding. Islamophobia, I contend, is not driven by racism, but rather, it is\u00a0actually a crude symptom of intolerance — xenophobia manifested as hatred, bigotry and discrimination. My English Muslim convert friends are often subjected to abuse by Jewish campaigners (both Zionist<\/a><\/span> and \u2018anti\u2019 Zionists<\/a><\/span>) and the English Defence League — but not because of their \u2018genes\u2019, \u2018biology\u2019 or the colour of their skin, but rather because they are \u2018different\u2019; because they challenge Western value system and because they oppose Israel and its lobbies. Clearly, they are perceived by some as a ‘public enemy’ but that reaction cannot always be understood solely as \u2018racism\u2019 per se.<\/p>\n

Similarly, it is beyond doubt that it is not easy to be black in \u2018multi cultural\u2019 Britain. Being a jazz musician I see first hand\u00a0how my black friends are often treated in this country and I see plenty of evidence of institutional anti-black bigotry. I read about black youngsters being stopped and searched by police between one to four times a day. This is unacceptable and clear evidence of discrimination.<\/p>\n

But is this really always about racism? Is it driven solely by \u2018biological determinism\u2019? Is it really about \u2018genes\u2019, \u2018blood\u2019 or \u2018skin colour\u2019? \u00a0This is indeed an open question and obviously I would not rule out the possibility of anti- black (biological) racism. However, I tend to believe that in contemporary multi ethnic societies, most cases of anti-black bigotry and discrimination are various manifestations of deep, thuggish xenophobic feelings mixed with some examples of deep, and sinister cultural intolerance. In other words, often enough, the contemporary bigot is not concerned at all with biological matters but rather with social constructs and culturally driven symbolism(1).\u00a0 This is surely a matter of serious concern, and in some case it is driven by murderous inclinations<\/a> and\u00a0it must be dealt with, but it isn\u2019t necessarily (biological) racism per se.<\/p>\n

But if it is not racism, what is it then?\u00a0\u00a0I reiterate, that these are better understood as\u00a0different forms of deep cultural and political intolerance within the context of some severe and troubled ethnic interrelations.<\/p>\n

So one might ask, why do we restrict our understanding of what fighting \u2018racism\u2019 means, when it is actually more likely to be forms of\u00a0intolerance, ethnic tension and cultural discrimination which we should be protesting against?<\/p>\n

I suggest that the confusion here between \u2018deep intolerance\u2019, \u2018cultural discrimination\u2019 and \u2018racism\u2019 is actually no coincidence —\u00a0rather it is there to serve a clear Zionist political cause. Peculiarly enough, it is there to maintain a clear racial orientation and segregation at the heart of\u00a0the multi-cultural discourse.\u00a0 In many cases, those who \u2018oppose\u2019 racism must be able to think in racial categories first, otherwise their opposition would be in vain.(2)<\/p>\n

Paradoxically then,\u00a0\u2018anti racism\u2019 which many of us identify with, may in some cases evolve into a racially driven discourse. Often, it can even jeopardise the process of natural integration and the shift towards harmonious social relationships (3). \u00a0It may even dismantle true self-reflective and mirroring process amongst both the victim and the aggressor.<\/p>\n

For within a public discourse controlled by \u2018anti-racist\u2019 ideology, the victim of any racist slur is immediately redeemed. He or she does not have to self-reflect on his or her actions, for there is not much he or she can do about their \u2018biologically determined conditions\u2019. \u00a0Zionists and Hasbara campaigners(4), for instance, tend to dismiss any possible criticism of Jewish politics and Israeli actions as \u2018anti-Semitism\u2019. By so doing, they basically \u2018switch off\u2019.\u00a0 They are able to ignore their surrounding reality by referring to any possible criticism of their actions as just another example of blind, \u2018racially\u2019 driven hatred towards Jews.\u00a0 Instead of taking the criticisms on board and examining them by means of self-reflection, Jewish political discourse has evolved into an insular and window-less discourse.<\/p>\n

Equally, the so-called \u2018racist\u2019 or \u2018aggressor\u2019 can also dismiss the anti-racist call because\u00a0his or her criticism is largely ignored. The \u2018aggressor\u2019 knows that in most cases, the issue is not actually about \u2018race\u2019 per-se but rather about some acute political, cultural and ideological issues, so this enables him or her to ignore the issue altogether. In spite of the fact that within the contemporary anti Zionist discourse no one criticises Jews for being Jews or employing any racially driven ideology or terminology, Israeli Hasbara and Zionists agents attempt to silence Israel\u2019s political critics by tossing the anti-Semitic label in the air. This tactic obviously fails to silence Israel\u2019s critics but it certainly maintains an abyss of mutual deafness between Zionists and their critics. So we are left with two parallel discourses that have lost all hope of any future exchange.<\/p>\n

I believe that this fact alone emphasises how grave is the prospect of peace. \u00a0Anti-racist politics is in constant danger of erecting walls of deafness that maintain intellectual, political and ethnic segregation at the heart of our public\u00a0discourse. Rather than promoting hope, integration, tolerance, harmony, assimilation and dialogue – anti-racism could easily promote deafness and insularity exactly where attentiveness and exchange are most needed.<\/p>\n

It took me some time to realise that in many cases it is Zionist and Jewish lobbies that maintain and promote the \u2018anti-racism\u2019 political discourse, and they do\u00a0so for two main reasons:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Being submerged in a racially driven discourse themselves,\u00a0they are bound to think in terms of racial\u00a0political categories.<\/li>\n
  2. \u00a0Racism\/anti racism is convenient because it removes any responsibility from the victim.\u00a0If Jews are hated just for \u2018being Jews\u2019, then the Jew is ethically flawless.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The implications of all this are grave – as long as Jewish identity politics\u00a0 and Zionism are shielded by categorical\u00a0definitions of\u00a0‘anti-racism’, Jews can avoid any form of self-reflection.<\/p>\n

    But Jews and Zionists are not alone here: the Left\u00a0also is interested in an anti-racist discourse because it maintains the Left\u2019s relevance as being in the vanguard\u00a0of\u00a0progressive \u2018ethical insight\u2019. The Left has set itself up as the defender of the weak, and this is indeed adorable. Through the years the Left has sided with the \u2018blacks\u2019, with the \u2018Zionists\u2019, with the \u2018Jew\u2019, with the \u2018Iraqi,\u2019 and even with the \u2018Palestinian\u2019. But for some reason, the Left has failed to side with the leading contemporary anti-imperialist force — the Muslim. The Left has also failed to recognise that in Europe, the Muslim is the real oppressed working class and the Left clearly failed to side with the democratically elected Hamas or the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. I\u00a0suggest that the Left’s failure to side with the Muslim is symptomatic of\u00a0a deep and inherent Western intolerance: the Left is not racist, but\u00a0it is\u00a0fundamentally soaked with cultural and ideological intolerance — possibly a state of mind\u00a0related to the practicality and pragmatism\u00a0of being\u00a0\u2018a progressive\u2019 (5). \u00a0I guess that some people may feel very \u2018special\u2019 just because they believe in equality<\/p>\n

    Naturally, the ’cause’ of \u2018anti racism\u2019 binds together some elements within the Left with the Zionists and the Hasbara campaign. Arguably, so-called ‘anti racist’ politics has become just another symptom of the Zionification of the Western political discourse with the supportive Left seen as a mere Zionist instrument. \u00a0This may explain why the UK’s leading anti-racist campaign group Hope not Hate(6) is an offshoot of the \u00a0Zionist Searchlight Magazine<\/a>, \u00a0it also explains why the same\u00a0 Zionist Hope not hate<\/a> attempts to censor the freedom of speech of Muslim leaders in Britain. It explains why the alleged \u2018anti\u2019 racist Harry\u2019s Place \u00a0(closely affiliated with Hope not hate) won the UK section of the Islamic Human Rights Commission\u2019s \u00a0‘Annual Islamophobia Awards’ in 2006. \u00a0In Germany the \u2018anti\u2019 racist Antideutsche \u2013Anti Fa <\/em>coalition is openly pro-Israel, pro-Zionist<\/a> and also anti Islam. <\/em>\u00a0My guess is that these rabid Zionist and pro Zionist campaign groups planted themselves at the heart of the so-called Left just to make sure that from there they would be better able to fight Israel\u2019s enemies.\u00a0But it goes further. In the last UK Palestinian Solidarity Campaign’s AGM, two Jewish campaigners<\/a> who openly operate within an exclusive \u00a0\u2018Jews only\u2019 political cell (J-BIG) proposed a motion against racism. I guess that the absurdity of the situation is clear and doesn\u2019t need further elucidation.<\/p>\n

    So, as we can now see, some of the leading supremacist and intolerant forces within our contemporary political discourse have managed to locate themselves directly at the very\u00a0heart of the \u2018anti-racist\u2019 call.\u00a0 Furthermore, as it becomes clear that Israel and its\u00a0 lobbies are the driving force<\/a> behind Islamophobia, it is pretty astonishing to find out that Zionist bodies also dominate the \u2018anti-racist\u2019 discourse.\u00a0 The meaning of it is pretty simple – racism and its opposition has gradually become an internal Jewish affair.<\/p>\n

    The conclusion is simple. It\u2019s time for us to move on, to admit that racism and biological determinism have no significant role in today\u2019s public and political discourse. We must\u00a0 re-think and redefine exactly what it is that leads towards social discrimination and cultural intolerance. Racism in its crude form largely belongs to the past. Our multi-ethnic universe is not inherently racist and therefore anti-racism cannot be a universal call. \u00a0\u00a0In many cases, \u2018anti racist politics\u2019 is actually there to divert the attention from some institutional discriminatory policies and ideologies.<\/p>\n

    It is increasingly obvious that the anti-racism campaign, in its current form, is there to serve some clear political interests, and is largely controlled by racially driven Zionists, Jewish lobbies and Jewish pressure groups. It is there to silence any criticism of the Israeli lobby, Israel, Jewish politics and Zionism.<\/p>\n

    I\u00a0began this paper by asking why should\u00a0any Jew feel guilty for crimes that are committed by other people whom he or she does not\u00a0know and with whom he or she is not affiliated?\u00a0The answer should by now be obvious: Rather than liberating the rest of humanity from racism, Zionists, Hasbara campaigners and Jewish \u2018anti\u2019 Zionists should first emancipate themselves from their own racially-driven ideologies – And stopping projecting their own tribalism onto their surrounding reality would certainly\u00a0be a good place to start.<\/p>\n

    Notes<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. I tend to believe that clashes between ethnic and political groups in Britain are fuelled by social tension and demography rather than by hatred towards skin colour.<\/li>\n
    2. One cannot contemplate over the meaning of anti X without obtaining first a certain comprehension of X<\/li>\n
    3. Minority groups engaged in varied discourses of victimhood (for instance), may miss some opportunities to integrate into wider social, ethnic and political structures.<\/li>\n
    4. \u00a0Hasbara-Israeli propaganda<\/li>\n
    5. Which is in practice not different from Jewish secular sense of \u2018choseness\u2019.<\/li>\n
    6. According to its official website HOPE not hate is \u201cSearchlight’s campaign to counter racism and fascism.\u201d http:\/\/www.hopenothate.org.uk\/about-us\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Go to Original \u2013 gilad.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      In this part I explore the misleading role of Jewish politics (both Zionist and anti Zionist) within the ‘anti racist’ campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[197],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}