{"id":17670,"date":"2012-02-27T12:28:24","date_gmt":"2012-02-27T12:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=17670"},"modified":"2015-03-09T12:28:39","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T12:28:39","slug":"tribalism-racism-and-projection-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/02\/tribalism-racism-and-projection-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribalism, Racism and Projection (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this paper and the one to follow, I\u00a0expose the misleading aspect that is, unfortunately, inherent to some ‘anti’ racist ideologies. I will elaborate on the role of anti racism in maintaing both Zionism and the Left discourse.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t see things as they are; we see them as we are.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>\u2015\u00a0Ana\u00efs Nin<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t take a genius to see that people who are identified as Zionist and Jews are, somehow, over represented in many blunders in today\u2019s world affairs. The pro-war, Neocon think-tanks were overwhelmingly saturated with Zionist Jews, and the \u2018moral interventionist\u2019 advocates within the media are also\u00a0largely Zionist Jews. The \u2018brains\u2019 behind the so-called Bush doctrine<\/a> i.e. The \u2018War Against Terror\u2019, were Paul Wolfowitz and Scooter Libby, and if that were\u00a0not enough, at the heart of the financial turmoil we also find Jewish persons, and financial institutions that are clearly\u00a0recognizable as Jewish \u2013 such as the Lehman Brother, Goldman Sachs, Alan Greenspan, Bernie Madoff, and many others.<\/p>\n

Here one must ask an obvious question \u2013 why should any Jew anywhere in the world be concerned in any way with these facts? Why should any Jewish person be concerned with actions or ideas that he or she probably has nothing to do with? Why should my Jewish neighbour, also subject to the financial turmoil and with no connection whatsoever with Madoff, Wolfowitz, David Aaronovitch<\/a> or Lord \u2018cash point\u2019 Levy<\/a>, be at all concerned\u00a0 with current financial or imperial blunders for which he has no responsibility? Why should my Jewish musician friends who have no ties to Israel, AIPAC, CFI<\/a>, CST<\/a>, Nick Cohen<\/a> or Alan Greenspan\u00a0feel guilty for crimes or actions taken by others just because they also happen to be Jewish? Would a Frenchman or an Irishman in America\u00a0feel threatened or potentially discriminated against because of revelations that a few of their expatriates had been involved in a major colossal scandal?<\/p>\n

So, the question I\u00a0raise here is\u00a0a simple one: why should\u00a0any Jew feel guilty for crimes that are committed by other people \u2013 people he or she does not know and is\u00a0not affiliated with? And the answer is equally simple \u2013 Jewish individuals have no reason to assume responsibility\u00a0for actions committed by other Jews. But the truth of the matter is, that many Jews are extremely concerned\u00a0about the current blunders:\u00a0some feel guilty, and many \u2013 potentially at least \u2013 feel threatened. I\u00a0would say\u00a0that\u00a0such a\u00a0reaction\u00a0merits our attention.<\/p>\n

Amongst my other sins, I regularly monitor the Jewish media, and it is\u00a0obvious to me that Jewish institutions are put on alert by any scandal that is even\u00a0mildly associated with Jewish protagonists or institutions. Jewish media outlets give the impression that every blunder associated with a Jew\u00a0is highly likely to\u00a0turn itself into a wave of vile anti-semitism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We are left to wonder then\u00a0whether the Jewish fear of anti-Semitism is actually\u00a0justified, or whether it is simply driven by a \u2018fantasy of destruction\u2019.<\/p>\n

In my latest book The Wandering Who<\/a> I contend that Jewish fear of anti-Semitism is largely self-inflicted and has very little to do with the surrounding reality. Jews tend to regard themselves as a tribe and most Jews are subjected to a degree of cultural and racially driven indoctrination. On the one hand, the religion of Judaism teaches its followers that \u00a0\u201call of Israel are responsible for <\/em>one another\u201d (1) (Kol Yisrael areivin zeh l\u2019zeh)<\/em>; while on the other hand, the non religious,\u00a0secular, emancipated Jews who identify politically, ideologically and socially as Jews they also<\/em> operate within Jewish ethno-centric settings. Even within the Palestinian solidarity movement we find Jews who operate within \u2018Jews only\u2019 cells such as JBIG (Jews for Boycott Of Israeli Goods) and IJAN (International Jewish Antizionist Network). Somehow, they also feel primarily \u2018responsible for one another.\u2019<\/p>\n

This reading of contemporary Jewish communities may reveal why many Jews are alarmed by crimes committed by other Jews \u2013 Jews whom they don\u2019t even\u00a0know.<\/p>\n

I can think of three reasons for such a situation:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Projection: Because some Jews regard themselves as a racially exclusive tribe, they tend to believe that others –\u00a0non Jews –\u00a0will also regard them as such. In other words, many Jews project their own ethno-centric symptoms onto the Goyim i.e. They think the Goyim are as racially driven as they are.<\/li>\n
  2. Guilt: Because some Jews tend to regard themselves as a racially exclusive tribe, they feel guilty for not stopping those members of the tribe who are involved in some major blunders.<\/li>\n
  3. Conjunction \u2013- both 1 and 2.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It is increasingly clear then, that at the heart of the Jewish fear of anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish bigotry we find Jewish racial orientation, manifesting itself in various forms of projection and guilt. Though it is\u00a0clear that Jews do not actually form a race, there is little doubt that Jewishness –\u00a0and especially Jewish secular discourse –\u00a0is racially, or at least tribally driven. \u00a0Not many people are aware of the racial tension<\/a> between different Jewish communities such as Ashkenazi<\/em> and Sephardi<\/em> Jews. In Israel the blood donation of Black citizens with Ethiopian background is disposed of for \u2018medical reasons<\/a>. \u00a0Israel legal system is saturated with discriminatory racist<\/a> and supremacist laws against the Arab and non-Jewish population.<\/p>\n

    To a certain extent then, the fear of anti-Semitism inherent\u00a0to the Zionist and Jewish secular political discourse is fuelled by the\u00a0belief that the \u2018other,\u2019 i.e. the Goy, may\u00a0well\u00a0be equally\u00a0driven by a similar racist ideology.<\/p>\n

    Some Jews, it must be said, might offer reasons to reject the above explanation: they\u00a0might argue that Jewish history (i.e. that endless chain of Shoas),\u00a0proves that \u2018the sons of Israel\u2019 would be justified in being on a constant state of alert. Jews, they\u00a0might say,\u00a0should\u00a0be\u00a0constantly aware that their neighbours\u00a0might turn against them at any given moment.<\/p>\n

    I\u00a0suggest that we are dealing here with a \u2018chicken and egg\u2019 situation: while some Jews would agree among themselves that anti-Semitism is largely an \u2018irrational disease<\/a>\u2019, \u00a0a few historians such as Bernard Lazare<\/a> were brave and honest enough to ask why and how exactly, Jews have managed to bring so much pain on themselves.<\/p>\n

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

    In this paper and the one to follow, I expose the misleading aspect that is, unfortunately, inherent to some ‘anti’ racist ideologies. I will elaborate on the role of anti racism in maintaing both Zionism and the Left discourse.
    \n\u201cWe don\u2019t see things as they are; we see them as we are.\u201d \u2015 Ana\u00efs Nin<\/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-17670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17670","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=17670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}