David Aaronovitch reports:
On Monday evening, as I was thinking about this article, I received an email in my Times account from the managing editor of a small book publisher, which she runs from her farm-cum-organic herb business in Wiltshire.
She wanted to know whether I would like to take part in a discussion on “Jewish Identity Politics” with one of her authors.
I looked at the company’s website. “A cretinous anti-intellectualism presides,” it proclaimed, “cheerled by hacks in the pay of multinational corporations who reassure their bored readers that there is no need to rouse themselves from their stupor.” Since I am a hack in the pay of a multinational corporation, I would have been suspicious of the invitation, were it not for the fact that I had already decided to turn it down. This was mainly because my fellow-panellist was to be that motor-mouthed sack of egoism, the Judeophobic jazzman, Gilad Atzmon. It is hard to complain about cretinism and then promote Atzmon.
A secondary reason was the description of the forthcoming event as a “lively debate about Jewish political attitudes, the role of the holocaust, anti-Gentile ideologies, Jewish pressure groups, Zionist lobbying and much more.” Refusing, I emailed my unhostess and asked her what “anti-Gentile ideologies” were. Her reply: “Dear David, It’s my view that it means Israeli exceptionalism, which of course is a bed fellow of Zionism.”
Now that Aaro has turned down Zero Books’ kind invitation to participate in a Jew lynching, who else will they get to discuss the evils of the Jews with Atzmon?
How about one of their other celebrated authors? Richard Seymour, Nina Power, Laurie Penny and Owen Hatherley must surely be worth a try. Richard Seymour, in particular, has been an outspoken critic of Atzmon’s Nazism.
Particularly as Atzmon now believes that Marxism “is a form of supremacy that adopts the Judaic binary template; it replaces the notion of Kosher with ‘progressiveness’”, perhaps these celebrated Marxist thinkers will want to take issue with their fellow stable-mate in Zero Books’ roster of authors.
Although why Seymour, Power, Penny and Hatherley would want to have anything to do with a publisher who publishes books and hosts talks on the Jews and their “anti-Gentile ideologies” beats me.
