In Ynet News, Yaniv Halily writes:
In his new book he states that he is “proud to be a self-hating Jew”, and says that his “insights” are based on the writings of Jewish Austrian philosopher Otto Weininger, who he describes as “an anti-Semite who loathed almost anything that wasn’t Aryan manhood.”
Atzmon says he is a strong opponent of “Jewishness” and clarifies, “I despise the Jew in me.”
“To be a Jew is a deep commitment that goes far beyond any legal or moral order,” he explains in the book, a commitment which he says draws an increasing number of Jews into a dangerous, unethical and vague partnership.
Eventually, he writes, a nuclear war will erupt between Iran and Israel, which will lead to the killing of tens of millions of people. “Some brave people will say that Hitler was right after all.”
His reference to Hitler is not accidental. Atzmon often compares the Holocaust to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Holocaust, he writes, is “an ancient religion as old as the Jews themselves”, and “even if it is accepted as the new Anglo-American liberal-democratic religion – people should be allowed to be atheists.”
The text also includes some of the most classic anti-Semitic accusations. Atzmon claims that American Jews are trying to control the world, blames them for the global financial crisis, and rules that high-ranking Jewish officials in the United States – like Rahm Emanuel and Paul Wolfowitz – “stayed abroad instead of moving to ‘Zion’ in order to serve the Zionist interest in the best way possible.”
He even accuses American media of failing to “warn the American public of the danger from within.”
Moreover, Atzmon even addresses the classic blood libel, claiming that children should be allowed to ask their school teachers “how do they know that the accusations that Jews used the blood of gentile children to back matzot are indeed empty or groundless accusations.”
Halily points out:
Atzmon’s statements are not troubling just because of their content, but mainly because of their surprising approval. Researchers from leading US universities, including Richard Falk of Princeton and John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, have adopted the book and saluted Atzmon for his “courage”.
James Petras, Bartle Professor of Sociology Emeritus at Binghamton University, praised the text, calling it “a series of brilliant illuminations”.
Mearsheimer, who is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, concluded that Atzmon “has written a fascinating and provocative book on Jewish identity in the modern world”, which he said should be read by both Jews and non-Jews.
