Gilad Atzmon, the UK-based saxophonist and antisemitic agitator, has once again succeeded in passing himself off as a progressive, appearing at a March 18 forum in Sweden at the invitation of that country’s Social Democratic Party. Ulf Carmesund, a party official, took the Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism to task for its condemnation of Atzmon:
Gilad Atzmon is himself a Jew, and when the Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism starts calling Jews anti-Semites there is a risk that they undermine the term anti-Semite and do the fight against anti-Semitism a disservice.
How touching: Carmesund is so concerned about “the fight against anti-Semitism” that he blows smoke on behalf of someone who has openly made common cause with Holocaust deniers. Atzmon is also an apologist for Nazi Germany, having argued that Israel is far worse: “Carpet bombing and total erasure of populated areas… has [sic] never been a Nazi tactic or strategy.”
Carmesund may want to note that Atzmon describes himself not as a Jew, but as an “ex-Jew” and a “Hebrew-speaking Palestinian.” But Atzmon’s identity is entirely his own business; it has no relevance whatsoever in the evaluation of his political opinions. Identity does not confer immunity — the very idea is ignorant. It’s like saying that the disgraced Christian right activist Ted Haggard cannot be antigay, because he is gay. It also brings to mind the petty, legalistic and ultimately malicious evasion that Arabs can’t be antisemitic “because Arabs are semites too.”
In fact, a [fill in the blank] can be just as racist toward [fill in the blanks] as anyone else. The proof is all around us.
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