Israel Shamir: Difference between revisions

Israel Shamir

Israel Shamir is an Israeli scholar, writer, translator and journalist who is known as a controversial anti-Zionist. Critics have accused Shamir of anti-Semitism and of misrepresenting his background and career. He (and this article) is an object of a concentrated attack by many identity-concealing Wikipedia-based philosemites.

Career

Shamir's own account

The following account comes from Shamir's home page[1]:

A native of Novosibirsk, Siberia, a grandson of a professor of mathematics and a descendant of a Rabbi from Tiberias, Palestine, he studied at the prestigious School of the Academy of Sciences, and read Math and Law at Novosibirsk University. In 1969, he moved to Israel, served as paratrooper in the army and fought in the 1973 war. After his military service he resumed his study of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but abandoned the legal profession in pursuit of a career as a journalist and writer. He got his first taste of journalism with Israel Radio, and later went freelance. His varied assignments included covering Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the last stages of the war in South East Asia. In 1975, Shamir joined the BBC and moved to London. In 1977-79 he wrote for the Israeli daily Maariv and other papers from Japan. While in Tokyo, he wrote Travels with My Son, his first book, and translated a number of Japanese classics. TOP

After returning to Israel in 1980, Shamir wrote for the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz and the newspaper Al Hamishmar, and worked in the Knesset as the spokesman for the Israel Socialist Party (Mapam), but soon turned to more scholarly quests.

· He translated and annotated the cryptic works of S.Y. Agnon, the only Hebrew Nobel Prize winning writer, from the original Hebrew into Russian. His work was published and reprinted many times in both Israel and in Russia. The Haaretz newspaper called this “the best translation of Agnon into any language”. His Commentary to Agnon opened the oblique world of Jewish tradition to non-Jewish readers, said the newspaper. Shamir’s reputation as a Judaic scholar was further enhanced when in 2006 his mammoth annotated translation of a medieval Hebrew classic Sefer Yohassin (The Book of Lineage) was published by Zacuto Books. Shamir dealt also with modern Hebrew literature: his translation of an Israeli ultra-modernist Gabriel Moked’s book The Variations was published in St Petersburg. Another of his translations, the Israeli-Arab Wars by President Herzog, was published in London.

· Jewish subjects were not the only theme of his broad interests. Shamir translated selected chapters of Joyce's Ulysses, which were published in Moscow, Tel Aviv, New York and Austin, Texas. They were also included in the anthology of best Joyce translations by Moscow Raduga publishers. Shamir also translated the Odyssey, a second or third such endeavour in Russian literary history. Following an idea of Borges, Shamir attempted to translate the Odyssey as read by the eyes of Bloom, the hero of Ulysses. The Odyssey and selected chapters of Ulysses in Shamir’s translation were published in 2000 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

· But Palestine, its sad history and enchanting landscape remained his most important subject. His views were summed up in The Pine and the Olive, the story of Palestine/Israel, published in 1988. Its cover carried a painting by the Ramallah painter, Nabil Anani. It was republished in a new updated version in 2004 by Ultraculture, Moscow, and became a cult book among the readers.

As the first Palestinian Intifada began, Shamir had left Israel for Russia, where he covered the eventful years 1989-1993. While in Moscow, he reported for Haaretz, but was sacked for publishing an article calling to the return the Palestinian refugees and the rebuilding of their ruined villages. He wrote for various Russian newspapers and magazines, including the daily Pravda and the weekly Zavtra. His critical view of Gorbachev’s perestroika was published in Russian by the Communist Party and by Pravda newspaper under the title Letters from Moscow. In 1993, he returned to Israel and settled in Jaffa. He wrote for Russian newspapers both in Israel and Russia and contributed to various literary magazines.

The second Palestinian Intifada turned Shamir to his highly political and poetic pieces centred on Palestine. In the midst of the endless talk of a "Two State solution", Shamir, along with late Edward Said, has become a leading champion of the "One Man, One Vote, One State" solution in all of Palestine/Israel. As the battle for Palestine spilled over into Iraq, Shamir wrote more about the deeper, philosophical and theological meaning of the war. His essays have been circulating widely on the Internet and are posted on many prominent media sites. His English essays are collected in three books, The Flowers of Galilee , Our Lady of Sorrow and the PaRDeS They are also available in translations into Russian, Arabic, Norwegian, Swedish, French, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian etc.

In 2003 Shamir stated publicly that he had been received into the Church of Jerusalem and Holy Land (Byzantine rite).[2]

Career

In the early 1990s Shamir appears to have been based in Moscow, where he wrote several articles for Russian publications under the name "Robert David".

In an article from 1991 in Jerusalem Post Mikhail Agursky (bio) reflected on, what he saw as, Shamir's double identity. According to Agursky, Shamir was associated with far-left groups in Israel and denounced Russian right-wing nationalists for being anti-Jewish. At the same time he became associated with anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish right-wing groups in Russia. Agursky recounted how Shamir, under the name "Robert David", had written an article for a Russian right-wing magazine where Andrei Sakharov was denounced as a harmful Zionist agent. Agursky proceeded to give the following account of Shamir's background:

As Israel Shamir (Shmerling), he came to Israel in the late 1960s from Novosibirsk and soon became an extreme leftist.

He acquired an excellent command of Hebrew and published many articles in Ha'aretz, Al Hamishmar, and also The Jerusalem Post. He was also a Knesset spokesman for Mapam for some time. At the end of 1980 he published a violent article against Russian nationalism in Ha'aretz, accusing supporters of Solzhenitsyn of being the Jewish people's worst enemies. What was not known to Mapam and to other Israeli leftists and liberals was that Shamir also had close contacts with the Western and Israeli right.

Shamir now lives in Moscow under the name of Robert David; and, under his own name, he now loses no opportunity to claim that Zionists are the worst enemy of the Russian people, and to call Russian liberals Zionist agents. He equates Zionism with fascism and racism. He glorified Saddam Hussein and indirectly calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.[3]

According to an IPS story from August 14, 1992, Shamir was at that time associated with the group around Alexander Prokhanov and contributed to his extreme right-wing and anti-Semitic paper Dyen (spelled "Djim" in the IPS story). According to IPS, citing "Israeli sources", Shamir only "lived briefly in Israel", before returning to Russia.

When Dyen (meaning "today") was closed down by the Russian authorities, Prokhanov reopened it under the name Zavtra (meaning "tomorrow"). In recent years, Shamir has been a regular contributor, using the name "Israel Shamir". [4] [5]

Shamir is a founding Director of the Lausanne Based One Democratic State in Israel/Palestine’ [6]. He is also on the current Board of Advisors of Deir Yassin Remembered[7], an organization devoted to establishing a suitable memorial to the Victims of the Deir Yassin Massacre at the Village of Deir Yassin in 1948.

Shamir's controversial views

Jewish-Christian relations

Shamir is a strong believer that Jews should abandon Judaism and convert to Christianity. In The Marxists and the Lobby - Part II he states that "There is no tainted blood - acceptance of Christ is the Final Solution of the Jewish Question. … for the Jewish problem is an ideological, not a biological problem."[8] In his essay of April 15, 2001 called Take Two, he claims that Jesus "was hated by the Supply-side bankers and economist of his day. They sentenced him to death and the Empire obliged and carried out the execution, in order to keep peace with these all-important forces." He concludes by stating "The Jewish supremacy forces and the greed worshippers united again to crucify Christ. The US, this New Rome, again gives hand and agrees to become the executioner. Now it is our turn to decide... Two thousand years ago, the spirit of brotherhood rose again, to give hope for the second joust. If he is defeated again, we all shall become forever slaves to our faceless masters. They will destroy the Mother Earth herself, turn her into waste lands of Mordor."[9]

In his "Christmas Greetings to the Hellenes", Shamir addresses the Greek Orthodox Christian Community, and reveals that he was baptized. He deplores the fact that Hebrew speaking Israelis converts join the Catholic Church and the growing Evangelical Churches rather than the Greek Orthodox churches, claiming the Orthodox Church does not try to serve the Christian Hebrew-Speaking community, and that this is "a source of great regret" because "[t]he Jews are forever fighting Christ and the Church; there is no chance for peace in the Holy Land unless the position of the Synagogue is undermined and the Jews saved by the Church." He also states that Vatican II and the Evangelical Churches "agreed to the idea of Two Covenants... Thus they came to the weird idea of Two Chosen Peoples - Israel of flesh and the Church. The Orthodox Church is still safe from this dangerous heresy. Only the Orthodox Church can offer true salvation to the Jews escaping their supremacist creed."[10]

Anti-Semitic Stereotypes

Shamir makes frequent use of anti-Semitic stereotypes in his writings. Some of his supporters argue that Shamir merely makes use of these stereotypes for rhetorical purposes, without endorsing them, whereas critics argue that he actively promotes anti-Semitism.

To Shamir, there is something "something deeply pervert [sic]" about people who fight anti-Semitism. As he sees it, radical anti-Semitism may have a powerful effect in shifting public opinion, since, in Shamir's view, "Joe Public" will always "take his middle ground" between two opposite opinions. Therefore, by pushing anti-Semitism to the limits, opinions that were previously seen as anti-Semitic will be seen as "in the middle" and thereby become acceptable to the general public.[11]

Blood Libel

In Bloodcurdling Libel Shamir discusses the blood libels against Jews, false accusations that Jews sacrifice Christians, especially children, and use their blood in religious rituals. Shamir argues that many of these accusations were in fact true. According to Shamir, they are believed to be false mainly because Jews automatically assume that such accusations against other Jews are false. He also states that the phrase blood libel is a "Jewish battle cry", which is used by Jews as a group to further their agenda, and especially to stifle legitimate criticism of Jews. Shamir suggests that the kidnappings and ritual murders of Christians are carried out by a small group of Jewish "deviants", "magicians and sorcerers who would use human blood to wash off sins or to hasten Salvation". He maintains that these deviants have been protected by other Jews who automatically assumed their innocence. At one point Shamir appears to go even further, arguing that the testimony in medieval blood libel cases by Jews who had converted to Christianity has been unduly discarded. This would seem to imply that he believes in the entire conspiracy theory about Jews murdering Christian children in secret rituals (as some converts testified), and that the practice was secretly sanctioned by the Jewish leadership (and not just carried out by deviants). On the other hand, Shamir never makes these claims explicitly in his text, and he does allow that "it is possible that the connection of blood sacrifices and matzo of Passover or homentash of Purim is but a popular belief." [12]

Jewish Conspiracy

In The Spiders Web, Shamir claims that, as part of a "bigger and more dangerous Judaic conspiracy", Jews dominate the media, and that in the United Kingdom the media is controlled by "extreme Judeophiles." He describes Sunday Times articles as "part of a Judaic conspiracy to besmirch Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims", and posits that it is "quite possible" that the Beslan school massacre, genocide in Sudan, the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks, the terror attacks on Istanbul synagogues, and the August 31, 2004 suicide bombings on buses in Beersheba (for which Hamas claimed responsibility), were all "False flag" operations carried out by this conspiracy. He also claims that "powerful Jewish organisations" like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center, "are prominent tools for establishing the police state", and claims that "The ADL, a Judaic tool of ideological control, runs a network of informers, spies after activists and thinkers and supports every oppressive undertaking of the US Government". He also claims that "proof of Judaic conspiracy" is "the concerted Judaic drive to bomb Iran", and proposes "a new definition of a true member of Jewry (as opposed to an individual and reluctant Jew) - it's one who wants to bomb Iran."[13]

Jewish Lobby

In The Marxists and The Lobby, Shamir characterizes the "Jewish Lobby" as a "hard fact", and claims that "the Jewish Lobby is not a 'small group of pro-Zionist Jews', but an extremely powerful group of billionaires, media lords, and their supporters in the left and the right, from the New York Times to the Nation, from Wolfowitz of Pentagon to Rabbi Lerner of Tikkun. Shamir closes by stating that "Lyndon La Rouche the Democrat and Pat Buchanan the Republican should be supported in their fight against the Jewish Lobby."[14].

In another text, Shamir appears to downplay the importance of this alleged "Jewish lobby" and writes:

The American Jews created Hollywood, and Hollywood made vengeance its main subject. In a way, American cinema is an expression of the Jewish collective subconscious, and it was the main factor in creation of the American psyche. From Hollywood, vengefulness flew all over the earth, and certainly helped to create the world we inhabit. In other words, there was no need for a conspiracy. Rather immature America could not withstand the impact of Jewish mentality, and she became a Jewish State, the big sister of Israel[---]This explanation allows us to answer the question we posted previously, does America support Israel because of the Jewish lobby or because of the 'true interest of American corporations'. The answer is, the Jewish lobby is a superfluous body supportive of Israeli right-wing, while America as a whole is a grander Jewish state with interests outside the Middle East as well.[15]

Poisoning Wells

In Poisoning Wells, Shamir states "For over a millennium, we Jews were connected in the European popular mind with well-poisoning, to great chagrin of our ancestors. Now, the fantasies of past become true, as some dark minds turn tales of old into today’s reality." He claims a link between "Jewish behavior in Palestine and the Jewish behavior elsewhere" both in time and space: "Abba Kovner, a Jewish socialist (?) leader, had tried to poison the sources of Rein... He has received the virulent potion from a man who became afterwards the President of Israel." He claims that today a "mighty Jewish propaganda machine" promotes concepts "applied in past, notably by Adolf Hitler in his Mein Kampf, against the Jews". [16]

ZOG

In an article entitled The Shadow of Zog, Shamir promotes the notion that the American government acts at the behest of Zionists, using the imagery of the "Zionist Occupation Government" (ZOG) conspiracy theory; for example, he states that "[t]he Occupation Regime in Iraq was installed by the US army in the interests of Zionists, and it may be rightly called ZOG, Zionist Occupation Government if anything". In his view, ZOG is a "slave of Mammon, a servant of the Shadow, he is helping the Dark force fulfill its metaphysical task, to blot out the Light of Christ and to turn our world into Godless desert. That is why he sends bulldozers to wipe out flowers in Palestine, sends troops to sack Baghdad and Damascus, threatens Paris and Moscow, perverts Christianity."[17]

On Holocaust Denial

In 2001 a group of Holocaust deniers intended to hold an international conference in Beirut. Shamir made the following comments:

The "revisionist historians," who are considered by their adversaries to be "Holocaust deniers," are currently meeting in Beirut to compare their notes on Nazi genocide. [---]

The "revisionists" risked their lives and fortunes trying to undermine what they call "the Myth of the Holocaust." One can understand their interest. Nowadays, one may openly doubt the Immaculate Conception or (maybe) challenge the founding myths of Israel. Yet the cult of the Holocaust retains a unique, court-enforced prohibition against any investigation that might cast a doubt on its sacred dogma.[18]

In December 2005, the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Holocaust a myth fabricated by the West and Europe. An Iranian news agency asked Shamir and some well-known Holocaust deniers to comment.[19] Shamir wrote an ambiguous reply that was interpreted as support of the Iranian president's stance.[20]

On Religion and the Palestine Conflict

Shamir does not believe in the separation of church and state and has written:

Separation of Church and state, this much vaunted accomplishment of the French revolution and even more of the US founding fathers, cut off the anchors of the Western society and it drifted straight towards the rocks.[---] People live together united by an idea; this idea may (or indeed should) be their common worship and uniting communion.[21]

He has not made clear what kind of national church he envisages for Palestine, but Shamir's vision requires that the Jews abandon Judaism and convert to Greek Orthodox Christianity, or as Shamir puts it: "acceptance of Christ is the Final Solution of the Jewish Question"[22] (This refers to all Jews, not just the ones living in Israel.)

Opposition to migration

In a discussion with US Marxist historian Noel Ignatiev, Shamir declared

I share with national-socialists the belief in the existence of ‘organic units’, but I do not consider the ‘nation’ to be the basic organic body, nor ‘race’ as the building element, nor ‘blood’ as a defining factor. In my view, the organic unit is a much smaller territorial unit than the present ‘nation’ is. For instance, in the US I would envisage New England, Dixie or the Mid-West – as organic bodies. Maybe I am mistaken, and even smaller units – states, regions – are also organic in your country. In France, the provinces like Bretagne and Provence are organic bodies; in Germany – Bavaria, Saxony and other federal 'lands' (ie, länder). [---] That is why (and not because of ‘blood dilution’, as is the case with NS), I am against migration between organic units: for instance, a Parisian’s migration to rural Bretagne is as bad as a Virginia Black’s migration into Montana. Your racial problem is mainly a problem of migration between organic units.[23]

In his 2003 essay on this subject, On the Move, Shamir denounces large-scale immigration to Europe as part of the "Mammonite" strategy to undermine society.

Immigration destroys cohesiveness of the host society. Mammonites do not like their society being cohesive, they prefer it thinnish and liquescent, so it would be easier to drink it up. That is why Mammonites support immigration. Immigrants conceive them as their natural allies and fail to comprehend that the Mammonites like them as vampires like fresh blood. [---] Zionism is a local disease. Its big brother, Mammonitis, is a world-wide plague, that wants to turn the world into a “ Big Israel”, with shopping malls and destroyed villages, settlements for the chosen few, and many-many refugees as a source of cheap labour. Zionists ruined nature of Palestine, Mammonites ruin the world environment. Zionists uprooted Palestinians, Mammonites uproot all.[24]

Links with the Far-Right

Shamir is an active supporter of coalition and interaction of Far Left and Far Right. He maintains links with, and is supported by far right activists and in many countries [25], including Horst Mahler [26] in Germany, Martin Webster [27] and David Irving[28] in the UK, and David Duke [29] in the USA.

He has berated Arab-Americans for demonstrating against the National Alliance who demonstrated against Zionists saying; "I would bless whoever supports the cause of Palestine without checking their ideological credentials. I bless all supporters of Palestine full stop." This attitude was based on Shamir's concept of balance: "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."[30]

In Poisoning Wells, Shamir repeats: "The Jews and non-Jews would be able to live together happily, after the Jewish supremacy trend will be vanquished. However, until it is achieved, we, the friends of Palestine, should seek understanding and cooperation with all possible allies, black, white, red, green or rainbow, as blessed are the seekers of peace."[31]

Accusations of anti-Semitism

Two prominent Arab activists, Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish, have written an open letter regarding Shamir's Anti-semitism being unhelpful to the Palestinian cause. They cite a number of 'serious concerns' about Shamir's Anti-semitism, including this passage:

The Jewish supremacy forces and the greed worshippers united again to crucify Christ. The US, this New Rome, again gives hand and agrees to become the executioner. Now it is our turn to decide.[32]

They conclude by stating:

We do not have any need for some of what Israel Shamir is introducing into the discourse on behalf of Palestinian rights, which increasingly includes elements of traditional European anti-Semitic rhetoric. Such sentiments will harm, not help, the cause. We urge all our friends in the movement for Palestinian rights to seriously consider the long-term effects this rhetoric will have on the cause, and act accordingly.[33]

In November 2005, the French publisher of Shamir's book L’autre Visage D’israël (The Other Face of Israel), Abdelila Cherifi Alaoui, was sentenced to 3 months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of €10000 as well as €12000 in damages. He must also pay €1500 to the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism. Alaoui was found guilty of "incitement to discrimination, exhortation to hate and violence" by the regional court of Nanterre. The court found that Shamir was attached to the standard kind of ancient anti-Semitism, where the "Jews", always in plural, were portrayed as dominators of the world in line with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which Shamir referred to as "a political pamphlet".

Bibliography

Books

• Flowers of Galilee (in English), Dandelion 2004, ISBN 1-893302-78-4.
• Pardes, Surge Books 2005 ISBN 1-4196-0601-8.
• Our Lady of Sorrows, Surge Books 2005 ISBN 1-4196-0835-5.
• Сосна и Олива, (Pine and Olive, in Russian), Wahlstrom Publications, 1987.
• Путешествие в Египет, (Travel to Egypt, in Russian) Tel-Aviv, 1981.
• Потаенные Прелести Планеты Земля, (Obscure sites of Planet Earth, in Russian) “Glagol”, Moscow, 1996.
• Xozyaeva Diskursa, (Masters of Discourse, in Russian) Gilea, Moscow 2003.
• Сосна и Олива 2d edition (in Russian) Ultracultura, Moscow 2004.
• Carri armati e ulivi della Palestina – Il fragore del silenzio (Tanks and olives in Palestine, in Italian) – Editrice C.T.R. Pistoia 2002.
• Blomar frå Galilea. Essay frå kanten av avgrunnen, (in Neo-Norwegian) Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo, 2002 [translated by Hans Olav Brendberg].
• L’autre Visage d’Israël, (in French) éditions Balland-Blanche, Paris 2003.
• L’autre Visage d’Israël, (in French) éditions Al Qalam, Paris 2004.
• Pardes (in French) Paris éditions Al Qalam, 2005.
• Blommor i Galiléen, (in Swedish), Alhambra, Malmo 2004 (Övers. av Ingvar Rydberg). [34]
• La lluvia verde de Yassouf (in Spanish), Ojeda, Barcelona 2004.
• Rasszista Allam? (Racist State, in Hungarian) Kairosz, Budapest 2004 ISBN 963 9484 90 3.
• Blumen aus Galiläa, (in German), Promedia, Wien 2005 ISBN 3-85371-231-2.

Translations

• S.Y.Agnon, In the Heart of the Seas, Wahlstrom Publication, Jerusalem-Stockholm,1981 S.Y.Agnon, In the Heart of the *Seas, “Raduga”, Moscow, 1991.
• S.Y.Agnon, In the prime of her life, “Panorama”, Moscow, 1996 ISBN 45-85220-487-0.
• S.Y.Agnon, Collected Stories, Gesharim, Jerusalem 2004 ISBN 5-93273-148-6.
• J.Joyce “Sirens”, “Cyclops” (chapters from Ulysses ), “22” magazine Tel-Aviv, 1984.
• J.Joyce “Sirens”, “Cyclops” (chapters from Ulysses), «Vremja i my », New York.
• J.Joyce “Sirens”, “Cyclops” (chapters from Ulysses), Anthology « The Blue Laguna” (Kuzminsky ed.).
• J.Joyce “Sirens”, “Cyclops” (chapters from Ulysses), “Raduga”, Moscow, 2000 ISBN 5-05-005113-4.
• H. Herzog, Arab-Israeli Wars, OPI publication, London, 1986 [35] republished Moscow 2004. [36]
• R. Chandler, Playback, Tel Aviv, 1986.
• G. Mocked, Metamorphoses, Leningrad, 1992.
• Homer, Odyssey, “Aletheia”, St. Petersburg, 2000.
• Abraham Zacuto, The Book of Lineage, 608 pages, Zacuto Foundation 2006

ISBN 1-4196-1893-8 English annotated translation of medieval Hebrew chronicles.

External links

• The Home Page of Israel Shamir
• Israel Shamir lies about his background (in Swedish) (From the Swedish magazine Expo)
• The Israel Shamir Case
• Israel Shamir: Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing by Roland Rance. Socialist Viewpoint, September 2004, Vol 4, No. 8.
• Our friend Israel Shamir (in French) (Taken from the French Monthly L'arche May 2003, no 543.)
• Israeli writer is Swedish anti-Semite
• Lord Ahmed's unwelcome guest by Stephen Pollard, The Times Online.