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Why was London targeted by terrorists?By Gilad Atzmon* Gilad Atzmon searches for the reason why "a very small cell of cold-blooded, murderous terrorists" targeted London with a series of bomb attacks on 7 July. Addressing an audience at the Marxism 2005 conference, he argued that Blair's adoption of a Zionist agenda and his support of Bush's adventure in Iraq had doomed Britain to being a terrorist target. He bemoaned the fact that, rather than speaking out against Blair's policies, the British people appear to have accepted their fate as terror victims as a hazard of modern life. "Let's see how the Israelis cope with the threat of terror," said the BBC presenter in a London studio. Seemingly, we are now supposed to be learning from the experience of the Israelis. Ask yourselves why. The answer is: simply because we are now fully Zionized; we are fighting the Zionist wars and we are paying the heaviest price for it. A second later we are watching a news item from Jerusalem; the local BBC correspondent is interviewing three American settlers. They are all overwhelmingly confident. They are telling us that, thanks to security officers located now at every bus stop in town, Jerusalem hasn't experienced a suicide attack for over 18 months. Let me tell you, the reality is somewhat different. The Palestinians are now locked behind separation walls, within enclaves, Bantustans and concentration camps. I do hope that you all realize that, if we give Tony Blair enough time, this will be the reality of Birmingham, Bradford or any other mixed city in the United Kingdom. Racial hatred is the biggest danger for a multiethnic society, and we are such a society. But then, it isn't that surprising that the BBC suggests that we may have to learn from the Israelis. Blair's ties with Zionism are now more than established. At the time of the Israeli re-invasion of the West Bank in 2002, I remember some reports from Israel that MI6 and CIA officers were there among the IDF [Israeli army] forces who flattened Jenin refugee camp, they were looking for Palestinian "links with al Qaeda". There have been credible reports that Israeli officers were advising the American and British armies in Basra and Fallujah, but even if this wasn't true, we can clearly see that the invasion armies in Iraq are applying the various IDF tactics. The UK (following the USA) is operating as a Zionist mission force. It fights the last pockets of Arab resistance. Let's face it, we were pooled into this Zionist-led "cultural clash". In the name of the "Judaeo-Christian" myth, we are fighting the Muslim world. We are daily engaged in the destruction of Iraqi lives and, it would seem, this clash is about to expand. We all agree that Israel is operating as a colonial state motivated by racial, supremacist views. But then, isn't the case of Blair's Britain very similar? If Tony Blair isn't a white supremacist, how dare he suggest that Western-style democracy is the only way forward for the Muslim world. How come he knows better than the Muslims what is good for them? When you come to determine other peoples' lives, you must believe that you know better. You must assume that you are better. Last week, a very small cell of cold-blooded, murderous terrorists managed to ruin the false image of civilized Western brotherhood. Their message is clear: the issue isn't African poverty. Rather, it is the Zionized Anglo-American domination of the Middle East. It is the support for Israel. It is the fact that we elected by popular vote a war criminal. We are the ones who do not respect other people's lives. And we pay the price for it. The message of the terrorists is clear: You kill us, we kill you. You bomb our towns, we bomb yours. It would seem that our image of reality is shaped by TV operators and media moguls. Reality in itself is delivered as a self-referential fictional theme. On the day of the attack I was sitting frozen in front of my TV screen. It was very hard to learn what was really going on. As usual, we saw the very same pictures for the next 24 hours. Although the attack took place at about 9 a.m., at 5 p.m. they were still talking about two fatalities. We saw the emergency services praising themselves. Everything was wonderfully under control, except the miserable commuters who were sentenced to death by Tony Blair. They were down there in Russell Square tube station and, as far as I am aware, they are still there. The emergency services cannot get there. Ladies and gentlemen, the Piccadilly line is a death trap. But was it a death trap before the attack? Was it a death trap before Blair voluntarily joined the "war against terror"? Mr Tony Blair, next time, before you take your country into a war you must find an alternative solution to your death traps at home. Let me tell you, if you can't find an alternative, then just forget about starting wars. And yet, hardly anyone in the UK is daring to open his mouth. We are facing a real crisis here. We do not operate as a community. We act as a bunch of isolated, wounded animals. We regard ourselves as statistical figures. The calculations are very simple: 3,000,000 commuters use the tube every day. Some 100-1,000 of them may die in the next attack. Therefore, it is unlikely to be me. In fact we have all joined Blair's game of Russian roulette. If people in this room are concerned about privatization, then this is the ultimate form of privatization. We have now managed to detach ourselves from our innermost sense of being in the world. We are not searching for meaning, we are merely concerned with paying the bills. This is the ultimate form of alienation. We forgot what life is all about. Empathy has gone out of the window. How can you ever feel for the other if you cannot even feel for yourself? Clearly, from now on Londoners will regard death caused by terror as another aspect of modern life. In a way, we internalize the values of a murderous society. We are the murderer awaiting his punishment. This doesn't leave us with much hope for any better future, unless we initiate our search for beauty. Why beauty? It is because, unlike technology, beauty is the ultimate manifestation of humanism, whether it is poetry, a theatre play, a piece of sculpture, a painting, a symphony or even just a simple melody. It is the artist: the poet, the composer and the painter who can change our prospects of reality. It is the artist who always presents an alternative discourse. This may sound to you overly poetic but let me tell you: there are too many people out there who are craving for a free dialogue. Being a performer, I meet them everyday. They are all tired of politics and politicians. They want to read some real subversive texts, they want to fight the world order. They want to be overwhelmed by beauty and they are searching for a new song. *Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli musician and writer, and a proponent of a secular and democratic one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which the two peoples live in one state as citizens with equal rights and responsibilities. Copyright © Redress Information & Analysis. All rights reserved. |
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