- Tarascon is as French as they come. A charming and tiny
Provençal village outside the high crenellated walls of an old chateau
on the high bank of Rhone lies in a pleasant country full of sunlight,
thistle, rough wine and Mistral poetry. But for the river, it is very similar
to my arid Palestine; and indeed, an ingenious and liberated Palestinian
girl Nicolette was wooed here by the heir to Beaucaire castle, young Aucassin,
in a 13th-century fable. Tarascon's church (bombed in 1940's by the ubiquitous
US Air Force) is old enough to remember their oaths. But Tarascon's chief
claim to posterity is due to a novel by the bard of the South, Alphonse
Daudet . There is a monument to its main character, Tartarin, an epitome
of a Southern peasant, a jovial, earthly but boastful type who is getting
carried away by his imagination and invariably gets cold feet.
-
- In a less-well-known sequel, Tartarin is told that the
Alps are perfectly safe, and ravines, avalanches and steep rocks are but
means for the local guides to squeeze hefty tips from naïve alpinists.
Armed with this knowledge Tartarin commits great feats of courage, crosses
abyss by walking a rope, climbs unvanquished heights and shocks his guides
by his foolhardy bravery; until Until he learns that the dangers of the
Alps are perfectly real. From that moment he is unable to walk even a broad
path for fear for his life, and the great hero of yesterday has to be taken
down by four strong men.
-
- This mishap of Tartarin reminded me the present U-turn
of French politics. Just a year ago, France courageously objected to the
US plans of aggression in Iraq. Jacques Chirac forged the coalition of
the brave, allying with Germany, Russia and China against the neocons'
drive to submit the Middle East to Sharon's mercy. But since then, the
US tanks reached Baghdad, and the neocons declared France their enemy No.1,
on a par with North Korea and Iran. Tartarin of Tarascon had had second
thoughts for he paid heed to the Alpine abyss in front of him.
-
- This U-turn is most visible in relation to Israel and
to Jews. Just a year ago, the feeling of French independence was so strong
that a French ambassador dared to wonder why 'a small shitty country' causes
so much mischief on global scale. Now, the president of the 'small shitty
country' entered Paris amidst the triumphal brouhaha normally reserved
for victorious emperors; and the butcher of Qibye, Sabra and Chatila is
about to visit the subdued France this summer.
-
- The Israeli newspaper Haaretz mused: "If you are
planning to visit Paris next week, maybe you should reconsider. Because
of the "rising tide of anti-Semitism"? On the contrary. Because
of the "I love Israel" parade. President Moshe Katsav will be
arriving in Paris for a state visit and his counterpart, Jacques Chirac,
intends to greet him with a big bear hug and even halt all the traffic
in the busy downtown area. In the 16th century, the Protestant King Henri
IV declared that "Paris is well worth a Mass" (i.e., conversion
to Catholicism). The sovereign sitting in the capital today believes that
warmer relations with Israel are well worth giving irritable Parisian drivers
a nervous breakdown."
-
- The best and biggest congress venue of Paris, Palais
des Congres, was allocated to the annual concert of ABSI, Association for
Israeli Soldier's Welfare (it was shifted at last moment to the Expo Park
at Versailles). The brave communists of PCN-NCP wrote in their ringing
Gallic prose: 'It appears that we have to attend to welfare of these sweet
guys who planted 200 000 anti-personnel mines in South Lebanon, of the
henchmen of the check-points, the destructors of Jénine and Palestine,
of back-up troops of the death squads, the pilots who bomb the Palestinian
refugee camps, of soldiers shooting at children armed with stones'.
-
- The PCN-NCP do not beat around the bush and do not attribute
this development to doubtful Israeli charms. For them, "the Zionist
lobby are the advance force of Yankee collaborationists who carry out their
old worn-down blackmail of 'antisemitism'," this equivalent of anti-Sovietism
in the Pax Americana. But the real problem is not 'antisemitism' but Judeophobia,
fear of Jews, not-too-irrational fear of their power. Many people in France
and elsewhere believe in their heart of hearts that it is the Jewish power
that brought American tanks to Baghdad, and can bring them to Paris, if
necessary.
-
- True or not, the idea has its own power. And while the
brave French people of the PCN-NCP reject what they call 'Kollaboration
with the American-Zionist imperialism', less brave trod the submissive
path of Vichy. France is not conquered yet, but Tartarin already warms
his cold feet.
-
- The Jewish lobby hates every reference to Christ and
objects to the epochal film Passion of Christ by Mel Gibson; and in all
Catholic France, once the beloved daughter of the Church, not a single
established distributor dared to screen this film. This suicidal task was
taken by a Christ-loving Muslim immigrant from Maghreb, thus stressing
that Christ is the unique figure uniting Arab Muslims, French Catholics
and Russian Orthodox in one anti-Mammonite front . Indeed , the Muslim
immigrants restored to France some of its indomitable spirit that was lost
with many young lives at Verdun.
-
- The Zionist lobby objected to the wild humour of Dieudonne
and this extremely popular stand up comedian found the halls of the country
locked in front of his face. The Zionist lobby objected to my book L'Autre
Visage d'Israel published by Balland, and its manager Denis Bourgeois,
this rightful heir to Tartarin, ordered to burn the book.
-
- Now, on 15 of March, 2004, in Marseille, the CRIF, the
shock troops of American-Israeli collaborators in France, take to court
the internet publisher of La Maison d'Orient, Pierre-Alexandre Orsoni and
the translator Marcel Charbonnier, dour friends of Palestine and my friends,
for 'provocation of racial hatred' for they translated and published in
the Web my essay Midas Ears (read it in French
, in Spanish
.
-
- In the essay, I attributed the Iraqi War to the concerted
drive of the organised American Jewry. "Oh no, it is OIL", wrote
some readers, "it is WMD", surmised others. A year passed by,
Iraq is conquered, but there is no oil coming out of there, as I predicted;
but oil and food is coming at good price to the bleeding American troops
in Iraq from Israel. There was no WMD in the Middle East, but in Israel,
the only beneficiary of the Iraqi War.
-
- King Midas also did put his barber on trial for disclosing
the terrible secret of king's donkey ears; but too late, the secret was
out. Likewise, the secret of Polichinelle of Jewish influence in the US
was out thanks to their push for war.
-
- The CRIF had an additional reason to attack Midas Ears.
In the essay, I quoted a French Jewish historian Simcha Epstein, who discovered
that French Jewish organisations secretly bought and subverted French media
for many years. This historical fact was too close to the dark heart of
CRIF's influence. Instead of arguing with it, or asking Simcha Epstein,
a leading Jewish historian with the Centre of Antisemitism Studies in Israel,
to enlighten them, they tried to silence it. Two newspapers Le Monde and
Libération (a.k.a. L'Immonde and L'Aberration) apparently felt concerned
and simultaneously attacked Orsoni, Marcel Charbonnier and me. None dared
to deal with the accusation of Epstein. Indeed, Le Monde had met the Israeli
President with a front page heading Zionist and Proud of It.
-
- The trumped-up charges of 'racial hatred' should not
mislead. It is our Zionist enemies who daily incite racial hatred, Alain
Finkielkraut ("What's good for the Jews is good for France")
to Arabs, Andre Glucksman to Russians, Daniel Goldhagen ("Hitler's
Willing Executioners") to Germans. In 1972, Bernard-Henri Levy applauded
summary executions of French lovers of German officers in the most racist
terms . But de Gaulle did not 'incite racial hatred' when he called for
Resistance to the German invader. Joan of Arc did not 'incite racial hatred'
when she fought for France against the English overlord.
-
- Our friends, noble Pierre-Alexander Orsoni and valiant
Marcel Charbonnier, belong to the same sort of French as Charles de Gaulle;
they fight for Free France against the encroaching shadow of Judeo-American
imperialism and its Fifth column in France. Friends of Palestine, they
know of the Cross of Lorraine presented by de Gaulle to Arafat; the embattled
Palestinian president still wears it on his heart as a sign of love to
Christ and to His French and Palestinian warriors. It will surely bring
victory to the fearless and deserving.
-
- The judges in Marseille should be fearless, too. For
a judge, as opposed to a peasant of Tarascon, cowardice is a sin; it is
the unforgivable sin of Pilate. They should not listen to the claque of
CRIF calling to crucify these men. After all, France is not occupied yet,
though you would never guess it by the impudence of the Fifth Column. The
writ of New York and Tel Aviv does not reach Marseille yet. Though Alps
are real, Tartarin can still walk this path.
-
- Write to Marcel Charbonnier marcel.charbonnier@industrie.gouv.fr
and to Pierre-Alexander Orsoni mailto:cpa.orsoni@wanadoo.fr !
-
- Responses:
-
- Well said but it is no wonder that France has to toe
the line if you keep in mind the very large and entrenched French Jewish
community, the largest on the continent I believe, which occupies top positions
in the Media and in the financial and political establishment, across the
right-left spectrum. You may remember that De Gaulle claimed that "the
Jews" forced him to leave office when he complained about their stranglehold
on the country.
- CCG,
- France
-
-
- I'm afraid there is NO real U TURN.
-
- Since 1967; there has been a steady increase in the VISIBILITY
of the "Jewish lobby" (probably fuelled by the young generation
of "pied noir" and the continuous "liquefaction" of
the Israeli left in an ever more "tough" Zionism. It reaches
a top every time "honest people" start opening their eyes in
front of the atrocities that Israel is "punishing" Palestinians
with. But every time, the summit is higher ..
-
- And this is a "sensitive point that is ALWAYS in
"filigree" when the Zionist media start screaming "anti-semite".
-
- France has ALWAYS been on the side of Israel and the
clear policy of de Gaulle after June 67 must not make you forget that if
Israel has an atomic bomb, it is thanks to the French , if Israel could
have such a superiority in the skies, it was thanks to the Mystères,
and Mirages of Dassault. Later of course, Israel COMPLETELY relied on the
USA and abandoned the "unsteady ally" that was France (it was
not yet "antisemitic" as it became today!)
-
- Ali,
- Paris
-
-
- An author (Ahmed Deedat) wrote that (paraphrasing) Muslims
are the most apt group in Europe (France included) and the West to stand
up to Zionist - Jews because they do not carry the burden of anti-Semitism
(which Anglo-Saxons do); so, when Muslims speak out against Zionism, it
is because they have a genuine grievance with Zionism, and not because
they are irrationally (or fundamentally) anti-Semitic. It is more or less
a point you're making here --an important one. The one thing Jews cannot
deny is that anti-Semitism in the Muslim world only began when Zionism
became a significant force; alas, though, Jews don't reflect on that enough.
-
- Till peace,
-
- Baha,
- Canada
-
-
- I just read your Tartarin which is very good... as a
matter of fact, the colonisaSION of France got really hard these times...
I wonder if you know that : [Palestinian ambassador] Leila Shahid &
[Jewish Israeli peace activist] Michel Warschawski were to present a conference
in a school (at Nice) but the CRIF called by phone the ministry which call
by phone the recteur d'academie, who called by phone the director of the
college, and the meeting was cancelled ! they are in charge...
-
- Christian,
- Marseille
-
-
- The PaRDeS, a new long essay by Israel Shamir is available
to donors or active contributors of this list just for asking. Send an
email to Shamir@home.se with subject pardes, to receive the PDF file.
-
-
-
- Responses to the PaRDeS:
-
-
-
- From Nancy Horn, Pennsylvania:
-
- Dear Israel Adam,
-
- I am reeling, with horror at the subject matter and awe
at what you have done with it, the depth and breadth not only of your knowledge
but, far more important, your brilliance.
-
- While I adore the elegiac prose you cannot NOT use when
describing Palestine, and had thought nothing could surpass Galilee Flowers,
I think -- no, I KNOW -- you have done so with this one.
-
- You have not only seen with greater clarity and depth
the very things we have noticed, you have explained their interconnectedness
with this abhorrent whole.
-
- My deepest congratulations to you on the production of
a really superb, monumental treatment of our world and what ails us.
-
- Thank you, Shamir, for making sense of things.
-
- Nancy
-
-
-
- From Hans Olav Brendberg, Norway:
-
- PaRDeS is a tour de force through your main themes.
-
- From Gerald Jugant, France
- With the reading of PaRDeS, I feel the spirit of Simone
Weil, but in a way even more conscious and obvious, you belong to the great
tradition of the Jewish mystic teaching, the Cabbala. Undoubtedly you attempt
to revive this very old, mainly lost, wisdom of humanity, who has as a
base the golden age, the original paradise, the very old time of the man
in harmony with nature and its own nature.
-
-
- From John Spritzler
-
- Dear Israel,
-
- I just finished reading all of Pardes. I found it fascinating
because it helped me understand (somewhat) -- for the first time actually
-- your overall world view. I see that you use the phrase "the Jews"
(without the quotation marks) to denote a world view embodied for thousands
of years in Jewish culture and writings -- a world view which individual
people (Jew or not) may adopt or reject, or serve (like the Messiah's Donkey)
without even being aware of it. I also see that your "the Jews"
concept has a lot in common with the modern capitalist ideology of individualism
and rejection of the dignity of all human beings (seeing them as objects
to be exploited). I think that the source of our agreement on things like
opposition to Zionism and support for a one-state solution where Jews and
non-Jews are all equal and opposition to oppression in general stems from
the fact that your "the Jews" and my "Capitalism" are
concepts that overlap a good deal.
-
- While I understand that your "the Jews" is
not a nationalistic (or racist) concept, don't you worry at all that the
phrase (especially without the quotation marks around it) encourages nationalistic
thinking? I do. Why not replace it with something less susceptible to misuse?
I think "the Jews" is a less useful concept than "Capitalism"
for understanding the world we live in. But I guess we will have to agree
to disagree about that.
-
- Thank you for sharing your very eloquently written and
fascinating-to-read Pardes with me.
-
- --John
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