Gilad Atzmon: Self Reflection in Mondoweiss

I would like to draw your attention to an interesting thread on Mondoweiss, discussing my interview with Philip Weiss.

To read the Mondoweiss thread, click here.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that Philip Weiss didn’t feel very comfortable with the publication of my interview with him -- In fact no one, including myself, felt comfortable with it , and some editors told me they were more than a little surprised that Weiss had agreed to my publishing it. But the truth of the matter is that Weiss gave me a green light after reading it all, and I salute him for his courage.

In the interview Weiss admitted that Jews -- like himself – are, in his words, “concerned with a Jewish self-interest.” He was even honest enough to confess that, for him, a theory of political life based on “altruism or concern for victims purely is doomed to fail.” 

I would guess that such a view is not shared by most gentile Palestinian Solidarity activists, who are actually primarily and altruistically concerned about the victims of Israeli barbarism.  

In the interview Weiss also contends that “Jews is: a sense of difference…of elite identity”, and he sees “Jewish” as this “great civilization that he is part of”. 

I guess that Weiss could see for himself that these views may shed him in a dubious light, but he did not regret, or wish to amend his views.  

However, one should point out to Weiss that ‘Jewish’ does not fit into the traditional notion of ‘Civilization’, and the concept of civil is totally foreign to Judaism, for Judaism completely rejects civil law. In fact, Zionism, which Weiss opposes, was a radical attempt to civilize Judaism via a concept of statehood and an introduction of civil law.  As we know, even on that front Zionism totally failed, for Zionism could not transcend itself beyond Judaic exclusivism.

In the Mondoweiss thread you can read some very interesting insights about those issues, and, in spite of the all too familiar relentless attempts by Hasbara activists to derail the discussion, we still managed to engage in a fruitful exchange.

I am pretty convinced that Weiss came under a lot of pressure from his fellow Jewish (so called) ‘progressive’ activists to delete me, or to remove my posts, but so far, he has not surrendered, and again, I salute him for that.

Unfortunately, Nahida AKA the Exiled Palestinian was not as lucky as myself: yesterday I learned from her that soon after she joined in the online discussion, she was blocked by the site's moderator.

I find it saddening that a site that claims to be dedicated to the “War of Ideas in the Middle East” blocks a prominent Palestinian voice.

I hope that this is a mistake and this issue will be resolved soon.