Anti-Fascism or Anti-Zionism? by Jay Knott (01/23/09) ⇌ (The Mass Psychology Pamphlet)
This picture shows anarchists at a protest in Britain
against the Gaza attack with an anti-fascism banner
The purpose of this article is to argue that anti-fascism is incompatible with effective opposition to Zionism, which I define as the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Jews and the prevention of opposition to this crime by means of Jewish power in Western countries.
I argued this first in my pamphlet 'The Mass Psychology of Anti-Fascism':
'It is an inconvenient truth that for a section of the Western public, an increase in anti-semitism would lead to a decrease in support for Israel, so Zionism and anti-semitism are sometimes on opposite sides of the fence, rather than two sides of the same coin. It follows that it is impossible to be equally opposed to Zionism and to anti-semitism.'
Some readers, either out of carelessness or malice, may take this to mean advocating anti-semitism as a way of combatting the influence of Israel. I can only suggest they read what I actually wrote, rather than what they wish I'd written.
The point of the argument is to counter the prevailing apologetic attitude to Jewish baby-killers, sorry I mean Zionists, among many of those in Western countries who claim to oppose Jews killing babies, I mean, Israel's breaches of international law. The apologetic attitude I refer to aims to
The crudest examples of these attempts to convince the ethnic cleansers of Palestine that we are morally fit to criticize them can be found among American anti-Zionist activists. Whenever there is a protest in New York about Israel's crimes, the media shows pictures of a small number of Orthodox Jews who oppose Israel - as if to say 'See! not all Jews are Zionists!'. The Palestinian solidarity movement makes a big issue of how many of its activists are Jewish. An extreme example can be found in this article - 'Jews Shut Down Los Angeles Israeli Consulate!':
la.indymedia.org/news/2009/01/223869.php
Why Jews Against Zionism? We never had Aryans Against Apartheid. The reason for all this effort to turn Jews against baby-killing and prove that we are not racist is that we tend to half-believe the Zionists have a point. After all, the Nazis did kill a lot of Jews. So anti-semitism did happen. So we have to prove that we are not anti-semitic. This approach only helps Zionism, by implicitly confirming the idea that we have something to apologize for. That is why we should not be concerned about anti-semitism. If we ever do encounter real anti-semitism, either from white identity types or Islamists, we should not make a big deal out of it. In particular, the purist attitude towards Muslims among ultra-leftists makes me retch - I prefer the opportunist approach of orthodox leftists. The point is to disable one of Zionism's most potent weapons - guilt. We should flaunt our contempt for Jewish supremacy, not carefully explain why we don't agree with it. Our taxes go to their country - in a sense, we are occupied too.
The picture with this article shows a group of anarchists in London protesting against the Israeli assault on Gaza. The protests in Britain were quite positive, with serious attempts to get close to the Israeli embassy. But why does the banner say 'AntFa' which means 'Anti-Fascism'? Didn't they have time to make a banner saying 'AntiZi'? These anarchists spend more time trying to get into fights with 'fascists' than they do protesting against Zionists. Yet fascists are a miniscule issue compared with Jewish power. Western countries don't finance anti-semitism, they finance pro-semitism. It is perfectly legal to raise money for killing Palestinian babies - yet you never see activists protesting outside a synagogue. But when a historian who underestimates the Nazi holocaust wants to speak, he will either be arrested or attacked by anarchists.
Anarchists refer to the crimes of 'the Israeli state', as if the state is worse than the people. In Israel, that is certainly not the case. Most Israeli Jews supported the attack on Gaza. One of the reasons for the attack was to attempt to win the forthcoming election by proving the government isn't soft. Anarchists and ultra-lefties cannot choose between a one-state and a two-state solution, since both involve states. In fact, a two-state solution is much worse than a one-state solution, which means giving the right of return to the whole land of Palestine to the Palestinians. A two-state solution, which Obama wants to implement, consists of Bantustans and ghettos like the Gaza strip surrounded by heavily-armed Jewish racist baby-killers.
Some lefties employ convoluted arguments to try to prove that Israel is an example of white supremacy, because its founders came from Europe, ignoring the fact that many of its most violently racist citizens came from elsewhere. Israel is not anti-semitic, it is not an example of white supremacy - it is pro-semitic, and it is an expression of Jewish supremacy. Israel is not primarily harmful to Jews - it is primarily beneficial to them. Any Jew in the world can travel to Palestine, take part in the ethnic cleansing of its natives, and live on a piece of their land. Jewish privilege, Jewish supremacy, Jewish power - these are problems that have to be confronted, not wriggled out of.
Anti-fascism means greatly exaggerating the danger from white supremacists, dwelling in particular on their anti-semitism (which is why they all get labelled as 'Nazi', no matter how critical their reading of Mein Kampf). This obsession with anti-semitism is a key component of the psychological complex which underlies the West's support for Israel. If we are to save the Palestinians from genocide, we must abandon anti-fascism.