A-Infos (en) US, NY, Open City Anarchist collective: Statement on "Rock of Dissent" by Israel Shamir.

[christinekaratnytsky@juno.com]

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Below is an article by Israel Shamir (who turns out to be quite a
shady character despite his eloquent attacks on zionism, see the
Electronic Intifada at http://www.nigelparry.com/issues/shamir/ for
the real scoop on Shamir) and below that is the Open City Anarchist
Collective's reply to him. His broadside was in response to calls to
action put out in response to the Nazi National Alliance's "Rock
Against Israel" called for DC on Aug. 24. (go to leftturn.org, under
event calendar to find calls to action).

---------------------------------------------------


Rock of Dissent

By Israel Shamir

A victim can develop mental attachment to the tormentor. Patty
Hearst, a millionaire's daughter, was kidnapped and fell in love with
her kidnappers. In the Night Porter, the dark movie by Liliana
Cavani, an ex-inmate of a Nazi camp and an ex-SS-man, her tormentor
of past, run a passionate love affair.

Now something similar happens in the Palestinian American community. 
The most reviled and wronged group of American population is called
to defend the most prosperous and powerful one against their own
supporters. On 24th of August '02, there will be an event in
Washington, Rock for Palestine, or Rock against Israel, as it is also
called. The event is organised by some right-wing Americans, loosely
connected to a small group called National Alliance (NA). Whatever
one thinks about NA, one would expect a satisfied shrug, at least, if
not outright support coming from Palestinians and their friends in
the US.

Instead, in the emails there is a hysterical letter addressed to 
"all my Arab sisters and brothers", calling to violently confront the
event in a military manner (!) "in several different contingents with
various risk levels". The letter is extremely violent and is written
in intemperate language of hate, the like of it we have not seen
before: "We have to stop this racist scum from polluting the
Palestinian cause", no less. The organisers of the event are
described as "neo-Nazis", "fascists", "Nazi enemies" and
"anti-Semites". It is composed by a mysterious East Coast
Anti-Fascist Network, and has some Arab names attached to it, though 
for sure it isn't written by an Arab.

Now, nobody likes Nazis, but I wonder why this militant Anti-Fascist 
Network did not go out to confront gatherings and demonstrations of 
Judeo-Nazis? What is so wonderful about us Jews that so many people
wish to go out and fight for us "in different contingents with
various risk levels"? Why this fighting Uruk-hai does not describe
Mort Zuckerman or Richard Perle, "racist scum"? Not even Israeli
settlers, as racist as anybody, were ever described as "racist scum"
that "should not pollute Palestine".

It is a mistake to describe anybody as "scum". We should promote more
tolerant discourse, accepting or arguing, not fighting somebody
else's war. The letter of this "anti-fascist Network" looks like an
attempt of the Jewish lobby to make its adversaries to fight each
other.

This thing has no end. Today they want us to fight NA, tomorrow they 
would ask us to condemn Farrakhan, and next day - to reject Hezbollah
and Hamas. Maybe some of us would like to be approved and promoted
only by the Yale professors. But we live in real world. Israel
accepts support of every racist that extends its support: be it South
African apartheid of old, or present-say fundamentalists, and it does
not hurt its "credibility".

It does not mean that one should run forward and endorse the NA
get-together. But these people should be worked with, not rejected
out of hand. Some of their erroneous ideas could be corrected. If
they would just say "affirmation of European legacy" instead of
"white supremacy" you would discover that the arguments against them
collapse. It is like saying "let us make love" instead of 'fuck you'
- the meaning is quite similar, but wording is important.

I do not intend even to enter discussion, whether the organisers of 
the event are good guys or bad guys. They can't be more racist than
the present Israeli government and the American Jewish community
leadership. They can't be more racist than Pat Roberson and his bunch
of (anti-)Christian Zionists. Let this anti-fascist (and surely
crypto-Jewish) network go out and fight them first. I would bless
whoever supports the cause of Palestine without checking their
ideological credentials. I bless all supporters of Palestine
full stop.

However, navigating to the home page of the NA, one finds a 
cartoon to sympathise with. It is rather crude depiction of a
Neo-Con, looking like a cross between Kissinger and Perle, asking
America to kill his enemies: Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and so forth.
Yes, these guys are short of finesse, some of their ideas are weird,
but they came to correct conclusion: America should not fight the
WWIII for the Zionists' sake.

In our Togethernet, "the freest discussion group in the known 
Universe" J, we had some people who will attend the concert. One of
them wrote: "I don't know of ANY white "supremacists" outside of a
couple of fantasizing juvenile delinquents in the World Church of the
Creator and some Hollywood Nazis. And a section of the Republican
Party personified by George Bush. "Supremacist" is a label created by
the Zionists of the ADL and kindred spirits. It was used for the same
purpose as calling all Palestinian opposition to Zionist occupation
and invasion, 'terrorism'. Methinks the Zionists engage in a lot of
projectionism when they cast their epithets".

If we go out now to defend the powerful American Jews and to fight 
these 'White' guys, because we do not like their ideology, our next
step should be to go out and defend Israel with our own bodies
against possible attack from Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Saddam is also
supposed to be a bad guy, and I am ready to accept he is. In 1991, I
wrote in the leading Russian newspaper, "Probably Saddam is a bad
guy, but the Middle East needs a strong bad guy to counteract other,
Zionist bad guys".

The world is full of bad guys, and things are good only if and when 
the bad guys balance each other. Saddam would balance Sharon, while
the White supremacists would balance the Jewish supremacists. If
indeed these men are not supremacists, but cultural separatists, as
they claim, we certainly can do things together with them, and with
another group of cultural separatists, the Black Muslims, too.

The author of the epistle offers, with his low grade cunning, an 
additional reason for Palestinians to go and fight for Jews: "If we
don't do this, our Nazi enemies will claim our noble cause and our
Zionist enemies will try to present them as our face". Let him rest
assured. In Israel, and in Jewish communities overseas, Palestinians
are presented as Nazis on daily basis. Menachem Begin called Arafat,
"Hitler" years ago. If there is a nasty thing that the Jewish-owned
media could say and print about Palestinians, they already did it.
When Palestinian children are shot, Palestinians are blamed
that they let their children out. The Palestinians are already
smeared so much that they can not be smeared more: they are already
described as Jew-haters and baby-killers. How come we Jews do not
become "discredited" because of Kahane terrorists or Sharon's
assassins? Because people understand: not every Jew is a Judeo-Nazi.
In the same way, Americans can distinguish between different
opponents of the Israeli apartheid.

Let us suppose for the sake of argument, that these 'white 
supremacists' are real Nazis. (They are not). It would be enough for
them to cease attacking Jews, and they would become perfectly good in
the eyes of the US media. After that, they would be permitted to say
whatever they wish against Muslims, Palestinians, Blacks. All this
talk against fascism lasts only as long as the fascists are against
Jews. The moment they switch sides, they get kosher approval. Now, an
Israeli government delegation participated in deliberations of
European extreme right ("fascists") in Brussels. In the US, the
"pro-white" people are not courted by the Jewish community, but
it still could happen, if we do not watch out.

Probably you had seen this last Bruce Willis movie, Last Man
Standing. In a small Texan town there are two gangs, and Willis helps
them to fight it out. The Jewish supremacists are a million times
stronger than all White supremacists put together. Elementary
strategy calls us to avoid giving any support to the Jewish cause,
until the apartheid in Palestine is dismantled.

As for the concert, probably some Palestinians and their friends 
will get there, and the rest would stay away. The organisers did not
ask for anybody's endorsement. Let the anti-fascists keep their
strength for more worthy cause. And whoever will go to fight for the
American Jewish community, let him be prepared for disappointment.
His chivalry will not be reciprocated.

-------------------------------------------------------------


Statement of the Open City Anarchist Collective (NYC) of the 
Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists, with Bilal El-Amine.


We condemn Israel Shamir's unprincipled and dangerous article, "Rock
of Dissent", which seeks to malign the demonstration against the nazi
white power rally by the National Alliance at the US Capitol building
on August 24th.

Through a shroud of unsavory and often tangled rhetoric, Israel
Shamir takes the honorable position of opposing the State of Israel's
oppression of Palestinian Arabs who are fighting Zionism. 
Unfortunately, his political preferences are disoriented.  His chosen
allies, enemies of both Palestinians and Jews, as well as of all
working people, are suspect. Shamir makes clear that he will support
any political force, no matter how vile, if it will oppose Zionism. 
He praises Saddam Hussein as a strong "bad guy" who is needed to
oppose Israel.   In a public statement brought to our attention by
Tim Hall of Struggle magazine, Shamir cheers the French vote 
for the fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is hostile to both Jewish and 
Arab immigrants.  (Shamir agrees about the need to limit
immigration.)  In these remarks, which anticipate his coziness with
nazis in "Rock Of Dissent", Shamir gives advice to them of ways to
appear less offensive.  In "Rock of Dissent", Shamir adopts an
"enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend" posture in an attempt to fool the
naive and neutralize the militant.  We repudiate him.

Israel Shamir lies.  Arguing that Palestinians and the Palestinian 
solidarity movement should be grateful for the backing from them, he 
denies the National Alliance is nazi or white supremacist.  This is
important for his argument, given that white supremacists in the
United States are known to despise Arabs and Muslims.  But the
temporary, opportunistic support of racist extremists for Arabs in
other countries does not change this. Shamir's denial that the
National Alliance is racist runs counter to documented facts.  

The National Alliance has been the largest nazi group in North
America for years.  Founded by the late William Pierce in 1974, 
it has built an organization of over a thousand members.  Pierce's
novel "The Turner Diaries" has served as a blueprint for many white
supremacist mass murders, from those of the Fort Bragg nazi gang "The
Order" to Timothy McVeigh's Oklahoma City bombing.  Furthermore, with
the acquisition of Resistance Records and Nordland Records, two well
known white supremacist labels, the National Alliance not only earns
millions of dollars annually from music sales but, more importantly,
enacts a greatly expanded involvement in the fascist youth
subculture.  Finally, the National Alliance maintains one of the most
technologically sophisticated web sites on the Internet, bringing
hate to a mass audience.  Shamir's facile dismissal of these virulent
murderers and would-be murderers ("Now, nobody likes Nazis") is a
contemptible understatement.

Shamir vilifies the U.S. Arab anti-fascists who call for
participation in the demonstration against the nazis.   On no
evidence whatsoever, in a bizarre claim they are not even Arab, he
calls them a front group for Jews, part of a "crypto-Jewish"
"network".  He falsely implies that they and other members of the
anti-fascist movement have not opposed Zionism in the past.  
In fact, the activists who wrote the call for Arab opposition to the 
National Alliance are indeed Arabs.  

We are long-time activists for the Palestinian cause who do not
intend to fight on anyone's behalf but our own. Our view is that the
National Alliance is a very dangerous and sophisticated nazi
organization that must be stopped.  We will not stand by to allow the
Palestinian issue to be exploited for racist ends--not only against
Jews but against all immigrants, including Arabs and Muslims. 
Furthermore, the anti-fascist, anti-Zionist movement has worked in
mutual support and solidarity, with numerous examples of public
opposition to the State of Israel's brutal, illegal occupation of
Palestinian land, including, in New York City, at the most recent
Salute to Israel Day parade. But anti-fascist anti-Zionists are
united in yet another area: against anti-Semitism. We will not
dehumanize or denigrate any group of human beings for the noble cause
of Palestinian liberty.  We will not ally ourselves with those who
do. 
  
We reject Shamir's notion that fascists, nazis and racists are 
acceptable if they manufacture a reason to support the cause of
Palestinian liberty. We are aware that Shamir has become notorious
among people of principle for explicit anti-Jewish statements.  We
stand with them in opposition to him.

Shamir argues that pro-Israeli U.S. Jews are more influential than
U.S. Nazis.  This is true, for now. Yet, all around us, we see cities
and towns infested with racism. Racism against Jews.  Racism against
blacks. Against Hispanics, Asians, South Asians, Arabs and Muslims. 
Hatemongering and institutional racism are far more widespread than
support for Zionism. The National Alliance understands this.  In a
climate of governmental and social hostility, amid everyday problems
of poverty, homelessness, drug abuse and police brutality, the nazis
appeal through this widespread racial tension in an attempt to expand
their ranks.  The fascism of white racists, and of all those who
advance their cause, is a threat to any "non white" people, as well
as to women, queers, and people with disabilities.  It is a threat to
their declared enemies--liberals, progressives and anarchists.  It is
a threat to the empowerment of the working classes.  Shall we wait to
oppose the National Alliance until their sadistic redistribution of
power becomes more of a threat?  Shall we wait to oppose the National
Alliance until they become more numerous and dangerous?

We say no.  We affirm our intention to defeat racism in all its
forms, from the front steps to the back rooms of the U. S. Capitol.

In true solidarity with the Intifada,

Bill Bachman, Christine Karatnytsky, John Korber and Wayne Price  
opencity45@hotmail.com

Bilal El-Amine  zaloom33@yahoo.com


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