From A to Zion & The Jewish Solidarity Spin

May 18, 2015

Gilad Atzmon is a British jazz artist and author born in Israel and trained in composition and jazz at the Rubin Academy of Music, Jerusalem. He is a member of the Blockheads, founded the Orient House Ensemble in London, and has recorded and performed with many rock music legends. Gilad also writes on political matters, social issues, Jewish identity and culture. Atzmon has written three books, and he returns to speak with us about his new publication, “A to Zion – The Definitive Israeli Lexicon,” a fictitious satire co-authored with cartoonist Enzo Apicella. Gilad gives a synopsis of the book and tells about his impetus for engaging the issues of Jewish ideology in Israel politics using aphorisms and humor. Gilad underscores some of the pressing themes he covers, most notably the solidarity movement that has destroyed the Palestinian people, as well as the political advancements that have been achieved through the military institution’s murderous wars against innocent civilians. Gilad emphasizes the bamboozling effects of identity politics among various discourses, and we relate this cultural tactic to the notion of the oppressed vs. the oppressor as a trick to lead victims into the hands of more oppression. In the second segment, Gilad illustrates the approach he created in “A to Zion” for explaining the control of language in Jewish identity politics. We look at the Jewish Palestinian Solidarity Movement’s Right of Return policy, which lies at the core of the Palestinian plight. We also examine some of the faulty terminology planted within various concepts in the movement that further misleads the discourse and legitimizes Israeli’s occupation of the West Bank. Gilad defines the roots of the Hebrew language, and we consider how terminology can be used to turn societies into dysfunctional multiplicities that are dictated by the need to be politically correct. At the end, we spend some time reflecting on the growing opposition to Zionism, the anti-Semitic crime of too much knowledge, and redefining the questions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in order to pursue the truth.