Tonight In San Jose, University of Costa Rica

Gilad Atzmon explores the meaning of Jewish Identity Politics.

Conferencia "El significado de Israel. Judaismo, Identidad judía y Sionismo"

http://www.fcs.ucr.ac.cr/

La Facultad de Letras, la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y la Cátedra de Estudios de Medio Oriente Ibn Khaldum, tiene el agrado de invitarles a la conferencia "El significado de Israel. Judaismo, Identidad judía y Sionismo", impartida por Gilad Atzmon, activista político, novelista, escritor y saxofonista.

Día: Miércoles 09 de abril

Hora: 6:00 p.m.

Lugar: Auditorio Abelardo Bonilla, Escuela de Estudios Generales

Jonathan Pollard, The Lobby, Palestinian Political Paralysis & more

Alimuddin Usmani interviews Gilad Atzmon

http://www.egaliteetreconciliation.fr/

Alimuddin Usmani: Gilad Atzmon, on the 20th of March in Geneva you gave a talk which was a success. People of all ages, different ethnic origins and social backgrounds came to listen your thoughts on Jewish identity politics. Do you feel that more people are interested in your ideas? 

Gilad Atzmon: I have no doubt  that my ideas are becoming increasingly popular and reach new circles. Yet, often people who claim to follow my thought process appear not to understand where I come from or what I try to achieve. I am not a political person nor  am I an activist.  I am an artist and a thinker and I believe that my intellectual responsibility is to reinstate the spirit of Athens, which is the ability to think freely, to seek truth, to ask questions, to make judgments, to think ethically and to revise our thoughts as we progress. As such, I am an opponent of Jerusalem, the attempt to reduce the universe into a set of binaries, by means of castrating laws that defy the natural aspiration for freedom, always in the name of one form of correctness or another.

Alimuddin Usmani: During your speech you mentioned that some young American Jews are fascinated by the Israeli way of life and immigrate to Israel. Do you think that most of them are disappointed after spending some time in that country?

Gilad Atzmon: Some are interested and then some of those immigrants are disappointed. I suggest that we stop judging Jewish politics on the basis of individuals or statistics - it is not about Moishe or Haim. We are engaging in an ideological discourse. What I argue in the talk as well as in my latest book is that we detect a counter flow of aspirations between the ‘Diaspora’ Jew and the Israeli. The ‘Diaspora’ subject is thrilled by the image of the Israeli who shoots from the hip, flies an F-16, drops bombs from afar and then relaxes on the beach on Sabbath. The Israeli, so it seems from afar,  fills the hollow emancipated Jewish identity with content which the Diaspora Jew lacks. The Israeli, on the other hand, is happy to leave  everything behind and move to LA or Brooklyn, make money, marry a shikze and have BBQ on Sunday. The reason is very simple. the Israelis, are like the French, the Americans and  the Brits, their identity is geographically oriented. Sometimes they move away from Israel and adopt a new nationality, just  like other migrants. In other words, Zionism has managed to plant geographic orientation in the Israeli Jew and this orientation is subject to replacement by new geography.

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Serge Gainsbourg Reimagined

Below is a film made about an album that I musically produced last year together with the OHE and friends. The man behind the project was Glenn  Armstrong.  Philip Bagenal took care of the sound and Ros Stephen took care of the strings arrangement and beyond.

For more details: http://www.coupperdu.com/

2014: Live Events, concerts, talks, workshops (April-May)

UK, Costa Rica, Turkey, France, Germany, USA, Greece

April

4^th With The Blockheads

5^th Gilad Atzmon & OHE at St Davis Hall, Sherborne Jazz Club, South Petherton. Somerset

6^th Gilad Atzmon & OHE at Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester

7 -13 OHE Concerts, Workshop and Lectures, San Jose International Art Festival, Costa Rica

16 With She Raja @ The Pizza Express Jazz Cub London

17 With She Raja @ The Pizza Express Jazz Cub London

18 With Chris Ingham trio Hunter Club, Bury St Edmunds

19 With the Blockheads

21-25 Turkey (Talks and Book related events)

26  With the Blockheads

29 Gilad Atzmon + Terry Collie’s trio - Jazz@retro, South London

May

3  Gilad Atzmon 4tet, 606 Jazz Club London

4-8 NYC, recording project

9   Gilad Atzmon & the OHE , Crypt Jazz, London

13 May Gilad Atzmon & the OHE, Canolfan Ucheldre, Holyhead

14 May Gilad Atzmon & the OHE, Galeri, Carnarfon

15 May Gilad Atzmon & the OHE, Gwyn Hall, Neath

16 May Gilad Atzmon & the OHE, RWCMD, Cardiff

17 Gilad Atzmon & the OHE @ Calstock Arts, Devon

19-21 Touring Devon with Craig Milverton’s trio

23 Gilad Atzmon & the OHE @ Fleece Jazz, Suffolk

24 With the Blockheads

25 With the Blockheads

26-28 A Talk and book related events in Lyon, France

29 Gilad Atzmon & the OHE, Stroud Festival, Gloucester

30-31 Gilad Atzmon & the OHE, Jazz Nights, Megaron, Athens

June

1 Gilad Atzmon @ Shetland Islands Jazz Festival  

Don't Miss: International Jazzworkshop: Concerts from 08 - 14 august 2014

Beauty For A Change: Thelonious Monk - Straight No Chaser

Inside the BBC's Uprising: Hand in Hand for Propaganda

Eugene Schulman: What Heidegger Hysteria Tells Us About the Press

Comment by Gilad Atzmon: I am delighted to see the dichotomy between Athens and Jerusalem being discussed and I am very happy to see my writing at the centre of that debate.  However,  I do not agree with the opinion of Schulman and others that Athens and Jerusalem are the ‘two roots of Western civilization’. I see Jerusalem as a corrosive force that is there to castrate the Athenian West by means of ‘correctness’ (law and righteousness).  However, Schulman is spot on, The Guardian of Judea is a mere symptom and far from being alone.  In fairness,  The Guardian often criticises Israel, yet,  its criticism is vetted by Kosher considerations. You won't find The Guardian’s criticising Jewish political power within British politics.  The paper limits its discourse to politically correct anti- Zionist discussion.  As such the Guardian, like most progressive outlets, operates as a control opposition and should be exposed for what it is.   

Jerusalem v. Athens

http://www.counterpunch.org

What Heidegger Hysteria Tells Us About the Press

by EUGENE SCHULMAN

Jerusalem and Athens are the two roots of Western civilization, with Jerusalem representing biblical revelation and Athens representing philosophical rationality. Their relationship is one of “fundamental opposition,” an opposition that constitutes the vitality of western civilization. According to Leo Strauss, to choose between Jerusalem and Athens is to choose between “life in obedience to divine law or life in freedom.”  Martin Heiddeger seemed to express the same philosophy.

In a recent article published at the Veterans Today website   controversial author of “The Wandering Who?”, Gilad Atzmon, takes to task The Guardian newspaper for an article criticizing the publication of Martin Heidegger’s ‘black notebooks’.  Heidegger was one of the 20th Century’s most famous philosophers, almost best known for having joined the Nazi party during the war years and, thus, gaining the reputation for being anti-Semitic.  Heidegger’s reputation seems to have become an important subject of late–Prospect magazine recently devoted an article to him which attracted several hundred comments from readers disputing not only whether he was anti-Semitic, but also the importance of his philosophy

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March in Numbers

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

“Entrenchment” is the word that best describes the Middle East in March.

In Egypt, coup leader Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi “hung up” his military fatigues to announce his candidacy for president. Meanwhile, those opposed to Sisi and the coup continued to face the bloody consequences, as an Egyptian court sentenced 529 Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers to death.

In Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued his authoritarian trend by blocking access to Twitter, where his opponents had been releasing damning audio recordings that apparently revealed corruption in his inner circle. Despite the harsh reaction to this move, Erdogan’s AKP party emerged victorious in the country’s March 30 municipal elections.

In Syria, the killing continued and little progress was made on a diplomatic solution to the civil war. The flow of Syrian refugees into Lebanon also continued, causing significant logistical and social problems for the fragile nation.

Israel continued to show its defiance throughout the month by advancing plans to construct settlements in the West Bank. New statistics also show that the country is killing Palestinians at an alarming rate.

Below is a summary of March in numbers:

529 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood were sentenced to death by a judge in Minya, Egypt for the death of a single police officer. This is the largest capital punishment conviction in the history of modern Egypt.

3,143 Egyptians are estimated to have been killed since the July 3 military coup, according to a new Carnegie Endowment for International Peace report. The report also noted that 18,977 Egyptians have been arrested for political reasons during the same time period.

150,000 people have died in the Syrian civil war, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

1 million Syrians are now residing in Lebanon, increasing the country’s total population by more than 20 percent.

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More Quenelle Victims In Britain

Footballers Sagbo and Assou-Ekotto face FA bans for 'quenelle' sign comments

Hull's Yannick Sagbo and QPR loanee Benoit Assou-Ekotto are facing possible bans after they were charged with improper conduct for social media posts relating to the 'quenelle' gesture.

Last month Nicolas Anelka was banned for five games and fined £80,000 for quenelling  after scoring against West Ham in December, and was sacked by West Brom.

to read more:http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26841690

The quenelle salute is an anti establishment sign but it is described by Jewish organisations as an inverted Nazi salute.

It may soon come to the point where the Nazi salute is described as an inverted quenelle.  

He’s back again! (And he’s no Holocaust denier)

By Gilad Atzmon

He’s Back Again: A new Hitler Satire Tops Germany’s Best-Seller List

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Adolf Hitler woke up and found himself in modern-day, vibrant, multicultural, metropolitan Berlin?

Well, this is the precise theme of a new bestseller by German journalist Timur Vermes. It’s called Er Ist Wieder Da (He’s Back Again).

The Germans love the book but the Brits and the Jews are a bit confused. After all, no one ever expects the Germans to crack jokes and certainly not about  the war, the Holocaust or Hitler.  And, as you may expect, the Guardian of Judea is not one bit impressed: “the opening chapters of He’s Back Again in particular can be a bit of a slog,” writes Philip Oltermann,  the paper Berlin’s correspondent.

http://youtu.be/GRhoo7YFlcs

Last night, BBC Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxman hosted a discussion between the author Timur Vermes  and writer Sophie Hardach. Ms Hardach, a relatively unknown Jewish writer was definitely not amused. She advised the best selling German author how best to develop his plot and, surprise, surprise, to incorporate the plight of the Jews. Never was the word Chutzpah more appropriate!

But Timur Vermes  just seemed to be amused by it all and confirmed that his fictional Hitler is no Holocaust denier - on the contrary, he is pretty proud of it all.

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