Our favorite self-hating Jew dislikes Borat

Gilad Atzmon, that legendary jazz musician in his own mind, has decided that Borat's lampooning of anti-semitism is in fact a malicious way for him to shield Israel from legitimate criticism.

As best as I can tell from his latest rant, much of today's anti-semitism is really legitimate anti-Zionism, and therefore making fun of it serves to shield Israel from its crimes. Or something like that:

However, after last summer’s Israeli extravaganza of brutality in Lebanon and the seemingly endless and daily flood of Palestinian blood made to spill by the IDF in Gaza and the West Bank, anti-Jewish feelings seem to be fuelled by Zionist crime. Moreover, nowadays, when the Jewish State’s influence within the American administration is academically and historically established (The Israel Lobby, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html), when the support for Neoconservatism that has lead to a genocide in Iraq is largely endorsed by the Zionist intellectual and ideological voice (The Euston Manifesto http://eustonmanifesto.org/joomla/), some forms of anger against the ‘Jew’ should be comprehended as a political criticism rather than merely a primitive irrational outburst. This is, of course, not justifying ‘throwing Jews down the well’ but rather trying to explain from where such anti-Jewish feelings are originating.

Borat is set to present anti-Semitism as a backward reactionary tendency. By doing so Baron Cohen and his team are there to block or even to shutter any form of criticism of global Zionism in general and of Israel in particular. This is indeed a non-violent legitimate political agenda, yet something to keep in the back of your mind while having an evening out at the cinema.

As usual, Atzmon looks at the world through his usual evil-Jews lens and everything he sees confirms his views. One hopes that his clarinet playing is somewhat more competent than his articles are. (Then again, his usual publishers in the indymedia and Arab worlds will print anything he has to say, as the token Jew-hating Israeli.)