Evening Standard's Album Review (4 Stars)

http://www.standard.co.uk/l

GILAD ATZMON & THE ORIENT HOUSE ENSEMBLE
Songs  of the Metropolis
(World Village)
****
The fiery Israeli who hit London with a jazz-and-politics double whammy in  2000 has mellowed into a souvenir-collecting world traveller. Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Moscow and Manhattan are among his new titles here, each appropriately seasoned with local flavourings which add accordion, soprano sax and clarinet to the leader’s meaty alto saxophone. Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv, Scarborough Fair and even Somewhere in Italy also make the cut, but surprisingly not Cricklewood Broadway. Faithful Frank Harrison adds lyrical flourishes from the piano and the whole dish is  heated by Yaron Stavi’s mellow bass and the sizzling drums of rookie Orienteer Eddie Hick. Their album-launch UK tour calls at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Dean Street tonight and tomorrow.
JACK MASSARIK

An Argument in Defense of Haredi Jews and Against Secular Zionist Militarism

GA: This is a very interesting piece by Prof James Petras who gathers that, as far as Zionism is concerned, it is actually the secular Jewish ideology that poses a grave threat to peace. I totally agree with Petras. in The Wandering Who I contend that  it isn't Judaism and  it isn't the 'Jew'. It is actually Jewish ideology as performed by those who identify politically as Jews (Zionists as well as Jewish 'anti' Zionists). 

By James Petras

            Israel is heading towards a profound internal crisis: a Jew-on-Jew confrontation, which has major implications for its relations with the Palestinians, as well as its Arab neighbors.  The conflict is between the highly militarized Zionist state and the Haredi religious movement over a number of issues, including recent proposals by the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to end the religious exemption of Haradi youth from serving in Israel’s colonial armed forces.

Haredim and the Zionist Colonial State

            Even before the forcible imposition (‘founding’) of the state of Israel, the Haredim were opposed to Zionism.  Today the vast majority of Haredim in Israel remain staunchly opposed to the Zionist state for religious, ethical and political reasons.  Haredi religious teaching claims that the Jewish people are bound by three oaths: (1) not to settle in Israel by using force or violence, (2) not to make war with other nations and (3) not to act as if the other nations of the world would persecute Israel.  Haredim opposed Israel’s violent ethnic cleaning of over 850,000 Palestinians in the course of establishing the Israeli State and continues to oppose Israeli settlers’ violently land grabs against Palestinians.  Unlike other so-called ‘ultra-Orthodox’ sects, who support Zionist colonialism and bless the Israeli military, the Haredim maintain that militarism corrupts the spirit and that Zionists have transformed Jews from righteous followers of the Torah into rabid ethnocentric supporters of a militarist state.  For the Haredim, ‘state worship’, especially the waving of the Israeli flag in the temple, is a sacrilege comparable to the renegade Jews condemned by Moses for worshipping the Golden Calf.

            The majority of Haredim boycott elections, organize their own schools (Yeshivas), encourage students to deepen their religious studies, emphasize community and family values (of a profoundly patriarchal sort) with numerous children and strongly reject the Zionist state’s efforts to conscript Haredi youth into their colonial occupation army, the so-called Israeli Defense (sic) Force (IDF).  All major Zionist political parties and the ruling colonial regime unite to demonize the Haredim, claiming they are shirking their patriotic military responsibilities. Via the mass media and public pronouncements Zionist politicians and the state incite Israeli hatred against the Haredim:  A study in 2006 claimed that over a third of Israeli Jews identified the Haredim as the most unpopular group in Israel.

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Gilad Atzmon on Jason Liosatos' Radio Show

http://www.blogtalkradio.com

A very interesting interview with a fellow artist and humanist Jason Liosatos.  We explored many familiar topics as well as  new ones: we spoke about  Jewish progressive politics as an extension of Zionist supremacy. We discussed the dangers involved with marginal identity politics and The Guardian's  role in pushing this discourse. We  examined the embarrassing fact that it is actually Jewish secular and socialist  politics rather than Judaism that are responsible for the plunder of Palestine. We spoke about Jewish political attitude towards history and time, the role of the holocaust, anti-gentile ideologies, Jewish pressure groups, Zionist lobbying, BDS being an extension of Jewish power (Soros, Open Society), Spanish Civil War being the first Neocon war,  the Occupied Palestine Solidarity movement and more.

Listen to internet radio with JasonLiosatos on Blog Talk Radio

Washington JCRC launches legal fund to help 'wrongfully imprisoned' Jews

By Gilad Atzmon

JTA (The Global News Service of the Jewish People) reported yesterday on a "new legal defense fund for Jews seen as being held wrongfully because of their Jewishness"

The fund will help cover the defense of Jews in the United States and throughout the world who the Jewish Community Relations council believes have been wrongfully charged or imprisoned. Funds also will be used to cover costs associated with advocating for the prisoners.

And I think that time is ripe for the Jewish Community Relations council to launch a fund that will help cover the legal defense of millions of Palestinians who have been wrongfully imprisoned by the Jewish State in the name of the Jewish people.

BDS at Brooklyn College: the Benefits of Pro-Israel Overkill

http://www.deliberation.info/

by Jay Knott

Sunday, February 10th, 2013

On February 7, Omar Barghouti and Judith Butler defended the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) movement in front of an audience of over 200 at Brooklyn College. Far more than 200 people have heard about it, because the college’s decision to host the talk was publicly denounced by renowned lawyer Alan Dershowitz, and other Jewish supremacists, using their customary hyperbole. For example:

Hate orgy… second holocaust… hostility towards the vast majority of Jewish students at BC who identify with the Jewish state… the department’s sponsorship serves to condone and legitimize anti-Jewish bigotry… a hostile environment for Jewish students on our campus.

Jewish students oppose the meeting

As a result, it got a lot more publicity than if he’d left it alone. This led a columnist in Israeli newspaper Haaretz to complain about “the perils of pro-Israel overkill”:

Overzealous Israel defenders used a five-megaton bomb to swat a fly, and it blew up in our faces. But Brooklyn is only a harbinger of nasty things to come. (haaretz)

He’s accusing Dershowitz of making a tactical mistake. But, though the Dersh may be accused of many things, no-one ever said he is dumb. The columnist may not realize it, but I suspect Dershowitz does – over-the-top attacks benefit Zionism. They move Israel’s goalposts closer together, making it look as if people like Barghouti are militant opponents of Jewish supremacy, strengthening their effectiveness within the Palestine solidarity movement.

Now thousands of people have heard about Barghouti and Butler’s brave stand against censorship. What most of them haven’t heard about is the BDS movement’s quiet abandonment of the right of return for the Palestinians. Without consulting its affiliates, the movement changed the wording of its mission statement from demanding that Israel ends

• its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands

to

• its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 (al-awda-withdrawal-of-endorsement-from-bds)

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Rainlore's Review: Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble - Songs Of The Metropolis

Songs Of The Metropolis

http://www.rainloresworldofmusic.net/

Released on 21st January, Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble's Songs Of The Metropolis is their second release on the prestigious World Village label, and their first in nearly two and a half years.

By way of a preamble, as it were, I feel compelled to note the following. It is curious to note how two great jazz musicians, both very much belonging with the giants of the past, one in Britain, Gilad Atzmon, and one in the States, Mark Weinstein (reviewed app. a week ago), one primarily known for his alto and soprano sax and clarinet, the other a jazz flautist, both fierce, fiery improvisers, both from totally different musical backgrounds and with totally different styles and approaches, are releasing albums within a few short weeks of each other that have so much in common, in spite of taking entirely different directions. Fundamentally, and most strikingly, both albums mark a fairly radical departure from each of the artists' usual directions and styles, and have both venturing well outside of their 'comfort zones.' Both albums are about heart, and beauty, and seem to question the soullessness of our modern world. Both almost force the listener to stop everything and listen to a more serene, sublime sound, to listen to their heart, each in its own different way of course. This is, perhaps, where the similarities end...

As ever, this demonstrates, elegantly, how our commonalities outweigh our differences, and how those little differences make life interesting of course.

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Best Propaganda Film (OSCAR 2013 SPOILER! LEAKED CLIP!!)

Spielberg v. Tarantino

Hollywood and the Past

By Gilad Atzmon

http://www.counterpunch.org/

History is commonly regarded as an attempt to produce a structured account of the past. It proclaims to tell us what really happened, but in most cases it fails to do that. Instead it is set to conceal our shame, to hide those various elements, events, incidents and occurrences in our past which we cannot cope with. History, therefore, can be regarded as a system of concealment. Accordingly, the role of the true historian is similar to that of the psychoanalyst: both aim to unveil the repressed. For the psychoanalyst, it is the unconscious mind. For the historian, it is our collective shame.

Yet, one may wonder, how many historians really engage in such a task? How many historians are courageous enough to open the Pandora Box? How many historians are brave enough to challenge Jewish History for real? How many historians dare to ask why Jews? Why do Jews suffer time after time? Is it really the Goyim who are inherently murderous, or is there something unsettling in Jewish culture or collectivism?  But Jewish history is obviously far from being alone here: every people’s past is, in fact, as problematic. Can Palestinians really explain to themselves how is it that after more than a century of struggle, they wake up to find out that their current capital has become a NGO haven largely funded by George Soros’ Open Society? Can the Brits once and for all look in the mirror and explain to themselves why, in their Imperial Wars Museum, they erected a Holocaust exhibition dedicated to the destruction of the Jews? Shouldn’t the Brits be slightly more courageous and look into one of the many Shoas they themselves inflicted on others? Clearly they have an impressive back catalogue to choose from.

The Guardian vs. Athens

The past is dangerous territory; it can induce inconvenient stories. This fact alone may explain why the true Historian is often presented as a public enemy. However, the Left has invented an academic method to tackle the issue. The ‘progressive’ historian functions to produce a ‘politically correct’, ‘inoffensive’ tale of the past. By means of zigzagging, it navigates its way, while paying its dues to the concealed and producing endless ad-hoc deviations that leave the ‘repressed’ untouched. The progressive subject is there to produce a ‘non- essentialist’ and ‘unoffending’ account of the past on the expense of the so-called ‘reactionary’. The Guardian is an emblem of such an approach, it would, for instance, ban any criticism of Jewish culture or Jewishness, yet it provides a televised platform for two rabid Zionist so they can discuss Arab culture and Islamism.  The Guardian wouldn’t mind  offending ‘Islamists’ or British ‘nationalists’  but it would be very careful not to hurt any Jewish sensitivities. Such version of politics or the past is impervious to truthfulness, coherence, consistency or integrity. In fact, the progressive discourse is far from being ‘the guardian of the truth’, it is actually set as  ‘the guardian of the discourse’ and I am referring here to Left discourse in particular.

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Jazzmann-Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble in Abergavenny

Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble / Ruby Rose, The Swan Hotel, Abergavenny 10/02/2013.

http://www.thejazzmann.com/

Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble

Manic energy, earthy humour and political comment all topped off by superb musicianship, there's never a dull moment at an Atzmon gig. 

Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble / Ruby Rose, Black Mountain Jazz, The Swan Hotel, Abergavenny, 10/02/2013.

The large crowd was testament to the enduring appeal of Gilad Atzmon who has been a frequent and popular visitor to the town appearing at a variety of venues as the guest of the peripatetic BMJ club. This time round Atzmon was stopping off as part of a jaw droppingly comprehensive British tour in support of the new OHE album “Songs of the Metropolis”, his most mature work to date and an album that rates among his best.

GILAD ATZMON & THE ORIENT HOUSE ENSEMBLE

“Songs of the Metropolis”, the new album from Atzmon’s “working band”, the long running Orient House Ensemble, is arguably less obviously political and confrontational than some of Atzmon’s previous recordings. Instead it’s a paean of praise to the nomadic lifestyle of the travelling musician and of the sense of place to be found in both the world’s great cities and in the quieter corners of the globe (witness “Scarborough” and “Somewhere In Italy”, tunes that both featured in today’s set).

Not that Atzmon has mellowed out on us, In performance he’s still a larger than life character, sometimes challenging, sometimes surreal and more often laugh out loud funny as he jumps from subject to subject like a bee in a particularly colourful flower bed. His adrenaline fuelled between tunes verbiage is matched by his brilliant playing on a variety of instruments, today alto and soprano saxes, clarinet and accordion. Atzmon is ably supported by his trusted lieutenants Frank Harrison (keyboards), Yaron Stavi (double bass) and relative newcomer Eddie Hick (drums).

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Gangnam Gaza Style