Merely characterizing Gilad Atzmon as antisemitic simply doesn’t do justice to the degree of hatred he spews. Atzmon advances demonizing rhetoric about Jews which is on par with the most vile Judeophobic charges that have ever been leveled, and which is often as crude and malevolent as what would be heard at a meeting of neo-Nazis.
In brief, he repeatedly refers to Judaism as “supremacist” faith, a term popularized by David Duke, and has questioned whether the Holocaust occurred, while simultaneously arguing that, if Hitler’s genocide did occur, it can partly be explained by Jews’ villainous behavior. On this latter point, he claimed that Hitler’s views about Jews may one day be proven right. Atzmon also has suggested that Jews are indeed trying to take over the world, and has endorsed of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, arguing about the notorious antisemitic forgery that “it is impossible to ignore its prophetic qualities and its capacity to describe” later Jewish behavior.
(The Guardian’s history with Atzmon – the “Jazz Saxophonist” – includes their decision, in 2011, to publish his letter defending the ideas in his book, The Wandering Who? – a work which the CST characterized as one of the most antisemitic books published in the UK in years.)
Yesterday, July 23, Atzmon wrote the following at his blog, in a post titled ‘Farewell to Helen Thomas’.
Helen Thomas, one of the last truth tellers, died last Saturday. Thomas was the longest-serving White House correspondent, she grilled 10 USA presidents in an astonishing career that started in 1943. She was 92.
The heroic lady survived 10 American presidents but was cornered by a single Rabbi who videotaped her suggesting that Israelis should “get out of Palestine” and “go home” to Poland, Germany and America. This truthful comment brought down widespread condemnation that ended Thomas’ White House career. The way in which Thomas was treated was just another indication of the power of the Jewish Lobby and the manner in which it interferes with freedom of speech and other elementary freedoms.
I met Thomas last year in Washington DC, she attended an event with Norton Mezvinsky [Connecticut State University Professor of History Emeritus, at Washington’s Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church] and myself that was organised by The Washington Report. Thomas was very weak but her brightness and humanism were shining.
The event, which took place in March, was organized by The Washington Report. As you’ll see in the video below, which was posted on Atzmon’s blog, Thomas launched the Q&A session.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaAvhG7yf7E&w=560&h=315]
In case you couldn’t hear her, Thomas asked Atzmon:
What motivated you to change your views [about Zionism and Judaism]?
Atzmon’s answers, reflecting on the problem of “structural Jewish indoctrination” and the difficulty many Jews evidently face in not adequately understanding their role within what he terms the larger “Jewish organism”, are actually relatively tame in contrast to his previous meditations on Jewish malevolence.
Note also that Thomas asked one more follow-up question at the 5:42 mark in the video. She asks:
Do they [Jews] have any morality?
Anti -Semites, of course, have been asking such “questions” about Jews throughout the ages, and it’s not surprising that Thomas, who has accused Jews of “owning” Congress, the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street, chose to query Atzmon on whether there were any exceptions to Jews’ seemingly immutable villainy.
Finally, however, let the record note that Thomas (praised by many of her peers for asking the tough questions, ‘grilling’ U.S. Presidents and, more generally, standing up to authority), when offered the opportunity to challenge a loathsome Nazi sympathizer threw two softball and decidedly friendly questions.
If there is any justice, this display of craven deference to an extreme racist will serve to define the legacy of this ‘icon of American journalism’.