Politics

NOVANEWS by truthaholics ANTI-ATZMON ZIONIST PROPAGANDA Mary Shepard Recently the Palestine activism community was rocked by the circulation of a letter written by The Electronic Intifada’s editor, Ali Abunimah, calling for the “disavowal” of fellow activist Gilad Atzmon and his recently published book, “The Wandering Who?” To say that I am astonished at the content of this letter, and even more so at who authored it, is an understatement.  I have read the book – twice – and found it challenging, daring and evocative, but not once did I find anything hateful or anti-Semitic within its pages. What I do find, however, is that this whole episode just stinks of hypocrisy.   I’m aghast that Atzmon and his book have been labeled anti-Semitic, ostensibly out of a concern for the integrity...

NOVANEWS A response to Ali Abunimah’s attack on Gilad Atzmon by Rich Siegel Following in the footsteps of Israel Shahak and the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, many humanists have questioned the political ideology stemming from Jewish religion and culture. This is a delicate debate since it can be exploited for anti-Semitic purposes, hence the importance of approaching it rationally. The controversy that surrounded Shahak is blazing again today around Gilad Atzmon, whose last book is disseminated by Voltaire Network. Without taking a position with respect to his  arguments, all of which deserve to be presented and discussed, we reaffirm the legitimacy of this debate. From his vantage point, U.S. musician Rich Siegel deplores the witch hunt unleashed against Atzmon, including...

NOVANEWS   By: Mary Shepard Recently the Palestine activism community was rocked by the circulation of a letter written by The Electronic Intifada’s editor, Ali Abunimah, calling for the “disavowal” of fellow activist Gilad Atzmon and his recently published book, “The Wandering Who?” To say that I am astonished at the content of this letter, and even more so at who authored it, is an understatement.  I have read the book – twice – and found it challenging, daring and evocative, but not once did I find anything hateful or anti-Semitic within its pages. What I do find, however, is that this whole episode just stinks of hypocrisy.   I’m aghast that Atzmon and his book have been labeled anti-Semitic, ostensibly out of a concern for the integrity of the activist community, yet not a ...

NOVANEWS [Alison Weir While people are suffering in Israeli prisons and being killed in Gaza, it is sad to see time and energy expended in a campaign against Israeli author and saxaphonist Gilad Atzmon. I respect and like people on both sides of this controversy and am troubled over this distracting and destructive (but, I hope, temporary) split. I, of course, come down on the side of open discussion, even when the  subject matter is difficult or troubling – in fact, that's probably when it's most needed. I believe in such old fashioned but critical concepts as the free marketplace of ideas, and I oppose censorship and would-be "thought police" telling others what they may or may not do, even when those attempting to do this have created valuable work that I admire. The Washington Rep...

NOVANEWS by PAUL WOODWARD ZIONIST FREE SPEECH Zionist '' Palestine Soli-dirty Campaign'' PSC Speaking at a panel discussion  on “Jewish identity politics” in London last October, shortly after the publication of his book, The Wandering Who?, Gilad Atzmon made this observation: Identity drifts you far away from what you are. This is the issue. This is one of the most important [issues raised in the book] — I wouldn’t like to call it a revelation because maybe I’m not the one who brought it up — but people who know who they are, they don’t need identity. Identity is actually a form of identification. This book is now endorsed very widely by a lot of people, a lot of Muslims and Muslim converts wrote about it, like the one I have in mind at the moment is Kevin Barrett who wrote, th...

NOVANEWS Conflict for Profit?  Nothing So Innocent!  by  Gordon Duff, Senior Editor   I woke up today faced with a John Pilger piece defending Julian Assange.   I had heard Pilger speak in Australia, at what was supposed to be a peace conference.  I thought the crowd was going to get torches and pitchforks and begin killing Muslims almost immediately. I was puzzled.  There was something enigmatic, more likely something that didn’t pass the ”sniff test” going on here.  Simply put, if Pilger told me the sun was out and it was nice outside, I would get a flashlight and umbrella.  Assange was, long ago, exposed as a professional stooge of intelligence agencies.  Then, why would someone try to resurrect him?  Do we all forget that two consistent tales Assange stuck with were that 9/11...

NOVANEWS by Gilad Atzmon   Ali Abunimah & Co tend to present themselves as advocates of “One Democratic State in Palestine.” This leaves me puzzled: what kind of democracy do they have in mind, exactly?  For by calling for my “disavowal,” they prove beyond a doubt that they cannot tolerate even some elementary cultural criticism—criticism that is endorsed and praised by some of the most respected thinkers within our movement and beyond. In fact, I am pretty delighted with the outraged reactions to my thoughts. I guess it enables us to map the discourse and its boundaries—and means that those boundaries are now official. Not only has my latest book, The Wandering Who?, rocked the boat, but it also has managed to unite Alan Dershowitz and Abe Foxman with Ali Abunimah and Max Blum...

NOVANEWS by Gilad Atzmon     Introduction by Gilad Atzmon: The following is a deconstruction by Kevin Barrett. Barrett takes the time and the effort and dismantles each of the arguments  against myself and my work. Barrett exposes the intellectual lameness at the core of my detractor’s argument . Once again, it seems as if my critics actually project their own symptoms onto me.  I would like to thank Kevin for his time and effort. Kevin Barrett – Why Hate Gilad Atzmon Pt. 2 Last Thursday’s essay “Why Hate Gilad Atzmon?” has been bouncing around the internet. (The title currently gets 780,000 Google hits). In that piece I suggested that the anti-Atzmon brigade is defending sacred boundaries against Atzmon’s fearless questioning. The two taboo questions are: Is the whole notion of a Jewi...

NOVANEWS Employees of the English-language satellite news channel Al Jazeera work in the control room in Doha February 7, 2011 (Reuters / Fadi Al-Assaad) Key staff from Al Jazeera’s Beirut Bureau have resigned citing “bias” in the channel’s stance on the conflict in Syria. Bureau Managing Director Hassan Shaaban reportedly quit last week, after his correspondent and producer had walked out in protest. A source told the Lebanese paper Al Akhbar that Al Jazeera’s Beirut correspondent Ali Hashem had quit over the channel’s stance on covering events in Syria. "… his position [which] changed after the station refused to show photos he had taken of armed fighters clashing with the Syrian Army in Wadi Khaled. Instead [Al Jazeera] lambasted him as a shabeeh [implying a regime loyalist],” a...