By Gilad Atzmon
Yesterday I had a twitter exchange with David Collier, the ardent Zionist activist who ‘reported’ to the British media about the ‘secret’ (actually, simply private) pro-Palestinian FaceBook groups that included Jeremy Corbyn along with such ‘unsavoury characters’ as Paul Eisen, yours truly and others.
I have communicated with Collier in the past. I believe in open channels despite the abuse Collier and his ilk like to subject me to.
I asked Collier to explain to me the recent findings by the Kantor Institute. Apparently “anti-Semitic violent incidents have dropped worldwide by 9% in the last year and by almost 50% compared to the 2006-14 average.” Yet the report found that Jews are somehow more fearful than ever. I was curious about these findings. In my article on the Kantor report I asked whether women would feel more or less vulnerable if we learned that rape incidents dropped by 10%. Would Blacks react negatively to a study revealing that anti-black violence dropped by 10%? And what about Muslims, wouldn’t they welcome a drop of 50% in Islamophobic violence?
I presented the same questions to Collier. Why are Jews different, I wondered, why aren’t they cheered up by the reduction in violence against them? It took a while and a bit of zigzagging for Collier to address the question. But eventually Collier was kind enough to lead me through the corridors of Jewish trauma.
According to Collier the relationship between Jews and Goyim resembles domestic violence. “The violent husband is either beating his wife or she is delusional because today, his anger hasn’t made him raise his fists.”
I wasn’t sure that I understood Collier correctly so I continued with his metaphor. “Let’s stick to statistics Mr. Collier: The husband actually stopped beating his wife, yet she is becoming more fearful. This won’t happen unless the wife is begging to be abused. Normal people would actually expect to see a second honeymoon…”
Collier’s reply left little room for imagination. “You’re crazy if you say its delusion without the physical abuse. He (the husband) could be drinking again, back in the gang, the verbal abuse has returned and his temper is back. I think most normal people would trust the wife to recognise the signs. They’d tell her to run before she is hit.”
I told Collier that I thought his metaphor revealed an embarrassing worldview. The Goy is a reckless temperamental ‘drunken man.’ The Jew is a hopeless ‘beaten wife.’ This view fails to respect either the Jew or the gentile.
But while Collier’s apparent worldview is troublesome, it is consistent with the Kantor findings and with the core Zionist philosophy. One explanation for the surge in Jewish fearfulness despite the drop in anti-Semitic violence might be that many Jews actually agree with Collier’s metaphor. They may not trust the Goyim. This mode of thinking echoes Herzl’s Zionism. Zionism was born at the peak of a successful wave of Jewish assimilation. Max Nordau’s address at the 1st Zionist Congress in Basel reflected the same sentiment: the Goyim’s tolerance towards Jews is a misleading notion — It is there to support gentile self-perception.
Although consistent with core Zionism, Collier’s view doesn’t leave much prospect for hope forJew/Goy harmony. Like the tormented beaten wife, the Jew is pushed into the corner awaiting the inevitable outburst of aggression to hit again. Within such a bleak worldview dominated by PRE TSD, the Goy (drunk husband) is beyond repair and the Jew is a hopeless victim who can’t do much to save the situation. Jews who subscribe to this dark vision of realty are left with no other option but making Aliyah– immigrating to Israel. Yet if the Jew/Goy relationship is a dead end, why did Mr. Collier waste his time trying to ‘fix’ the British Labour Party? He would be better off investing his energy in saving the Israeli labour party.
I made it clear to Collier that I intended to publish his tweets. He probably realised that such an expose could be slightly problematic. He attempted to backtrack. He wrote to me, “I didn’t compare them Gilad. I exposed your misunderstanding of how victims of any abuse or discrimination can be intimidated without violence. You do yourself no favours when you misrepresent me in this fashion. It shows how dishonestly you operate. Athens? You? Lol.”
I wonder whether Collier, who claims to be an expert in ‘abuse and discrimination’ grasps that domestic violence and discrimination are different phenomena. I wonder if Collier is so knowledgeable about abuse and discrimination, why did he show so little concern, let alone empathy or compassion, for our opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn. I guess that people who see themselves as victims fail to take responsibility for their own actions.
By the time I went to bed, Collier was abusive once again.
“You haven’t got the ethical grounding, nor the intelligence to represent me accurately Gilad. Beyond a greatly overstated opinion of yourself, you have nothing.”
I tried to assure him that I would represent him accurately. My task is to bring Jewishness to light and vice versa. The search for truth and truthfulness is what drives me forward.
If they want to burn it, you want to read it!
Being in Time – A Post Political Manifesto,
Update: a few hours after publishing the above commentary one Ari Zighelboim, presumably, one of Collier’s supporters, suggested that it was me who actually “came up with the stupid metaphor and then attributed it to Collier.” I am afraid to report to Mr Zigelboim that Collier himself admitted making the analogy as we can read here:
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian 
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!
