Media took place of the Church in the godless
society
Interview with Israeli-Russian author Israel Shamir

Kourosh
Ziabari
– “Media took place of the Church in the godless society. If
once, the Pope would send Crusaders upon a crusade, now it is
done by Mr. Sulzberger of the New York Times,” Israel Shamir, a
Swedish author and journalist says. Shamir made the remarks in a
recent interview with the Tehran Times.
“We should
build alternative news stream, including news agencies and
analytic papers; it will speed up freeing us from the clutches
of the Matrix,” he added.
Shamir is an
expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is opposed to the
occupation of Palestinian territories by the Israeli regime and
has published a number of books on the subject. His articles and
books have been translated into French, German, Swedish,
Russian, Italian, among other languages.
Q: On
November 24, 2006, you delivered a lecture at St. Petersburg
State University titled “The Tyranny of Liberalism.” In this
lecture, you argued that while the liberalists claim to be
against the dominance of any ideology, they think in a rather
ideological way. Therefore, liberalism is itself a certain kind
of ideology which Carl Schmitt believed to be more dangerous
than communism. Do you agree with Schmitt? Would you please
expand on that?
A:
Liberalism meant different things in different times. Today it
is another name for denial of God and worship of money and
worldly success. It is a cruel ideology, and people all over the
world reject it. Liberalism is not only an ideology, it is also
a certain practice, and a very narrow one. It treats ordinary
people like dirt, considers them disposable. It is a creed for
top managers, never for workers. It is good for landlords, bad
for tenants. It is good for bankers; it is rule of financial
capital over the industrial one. It hates God and forbids
Christ, because Jesus Christ, Issa al Mesih, is a way of Man to
God common to Christians and Muslims. It rejects Art, and
enforces its own “art” of destruction. Probably it is the most
dangerous ideology the world ever knew and it is likely to
destroy the world unless we stop it.
Q: What
do you think about cultural imperialism, as explicated by Prof.
James Petras? It seems that today, the role of the media wing of
imperialist and hegemonic powers in dealing with other nations
has become rather important and determining. The mainstream
media help their respective governments dominate the minds and
souls and depict the events and developments the way they wish.
What’s your take on that?
A: Media
took place of the Church in the Godless society. If once, the
Pope would send Crusaders upon a crusade, now it is done by Mr
Sulzberger of the New York Times. This began in mid19-th
century, when the society became more democratic and there was a
growing need to convince masses. Before that, a King could send
his soldiers against another king without any explanation; after
that, people had to be convinced that it has to be done in order
to save women and kids, or rather Jews and Gays. There is a
powerful image of Matrix, and many people feel that the media
misleads and lies.
We should
build alternative news stream, including news agencies and
analytic papers; it will speed up freeing us from the clutches
of the Matrix.
Q: Is
there any way to resist imperialism and defeat it? After all,
it’s intolerable to continue suffering the hardships the
imperial powers impose on us, whether economic, social,
political or even psychological. How is it possible to overcome
the sophisticated machinery of imperialism?
A:
Absolutely! The Talmud teaches that the Lord sends us no
affliction we can’t overcome, and it is true. Imperialism must
be defeated, and it will be defeated. We have now a new ally
which we have not had for sixty years: the imperialists decided
they do not need to take care of their own population and began
to treat Americans and English, French and Germans as bad as
they treated their colonial subjects. So now we can build a
front against the imperialists like it was planned in 1920s,
fully inclusive of their own underprivileged.
Q: Our
world is experiencing a moral decline because of the dominance
of materialist mindset over the public sphere and
marginalization of religion. In the name of separating religion
from politics, the secular states don’t allow the illuminating
teachings of religion to rule the societies and as a result,
morality and ethics are eliminated from human interactions.
What’s your viewpoint in this regard?
A: Indeed I
witnessed it now in Russia, where I have spent last winter. The
most pro-Western and pro-Israel circles fight the Christian
faith and Church; they encourage such affronts to public as
Pussy riot, they call to kill priests, they chop down crosses
and destroy icons. And naturally they prefer filth they spread
on the TV. It is good that the people stand by the Church and
support it. In Europe, the Church is in difficult position. In
the UK, it is forbidden to wear cross; in France, it is
forbidden to have a cross in class rooms. The only kind of
Christians our enemies support and encourage are those who
promote strife with the Muslims. We need a broad understanding
for God and for Faith.
Q: Let’s
deal with some important contemporary issues. What do you think
about the United States’ unconditional support of the Israeli
regime? The international community has so far failed to hold
Israel accountable over its criminal actions, simply because it
is a staunch ally of the United States. When will the time
arrive for administering justice to Israel?
A: This time
certainly will not arrive until the US Presidential elections
are over. Though the vast majority of the US Jews vote for
Democrats whatever happens, rich American Jews who supply the
funds for all candidates, are voting with their dollars for
Israel. So it is not easy to free the US from its subservience
to their cause. In order to do it, an American administration
and people should fight their own bankers and financiers, and we
do not see they are ready for that. After elections, Obama will
have a window of opportunity to correct their excesses, but will
he use it?
Q: You
have the experience of serving for the Israel Defense Forces as
a paratrooper and fighting in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. How was
the general attitude of the high-ranking officials of the IDF
toward the Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular?
From what I’ve read on different sources, the IDF troopers are
trained in a way and brainwashed to consider Palestinians as
inferior and low-grade creatures. Is this true? Would you please
explain more about your experience with the IDF and your
viewpoint toward those years?
A: In my
days (say, forty years ago), Israelis still had some sympathy
towards Palestinians and tried to emulate them; we wore their
kaffieh and ate their hummus. Now the communities drifted apart.
As the result, the army gets youngsters without any experience
of peaceful encounter with Palestinians. This is very sad; it
has to be changed if our aim is to create conditions for
peaceful living-together.
Q: It has
always wondered me how the Jews have taken control of the
majority of mainstream media outlets in the U.S. and Europe. You
once said that “in the US, even in Western Europe, no view can
be proposed to the general public unless approved (after being
vetted and corrected) by a Jewish group.” What has really made
the Jews so powerful and influential in the media? Why have the
U.S. and European nations surrendered their media to the
well-off Jews altogether? This is complicated question; I wrote
a lot about it. Let us give there reasons.
A: The
very-rich people who pay for the Matrix being produced, trust
Jews because Jews (as a rule) do not have much feeling and
compassion for the ordinary non-Jews. The Jewish media people
are used like the Janissaries or Albanians were used by the
Ottoman Caliphs; as a sort of foreigners who will not be misled
by compassion. (It is interesting that the US and NATO promoted
creation of an Albanian statelet in Kosovo, relying upon the
pro-imperialist position of the Albanians.)
2. The very Neo-liberal matrix or ideology is “neo-Jewish” or
“post-Jewish”, because it uses Jewish stereotypes: despises
ordinary man, loves money, and admires Chosenness.
3. Media has owners; all important US media is owned just by
five persons, all but one Jewish, and that influences their take
on the world.
My attitude
is like that: Jews like media; they are to media like blacks to
basketball. The problem is their lack of compassion for ordinary
people. If some Jews overcome this problem and identify with the
ordinary people, let them work the media. But that is true for
non-Jews as well: in 1989, the USSR had very few Jews in the
media, but the rich guys and their Western sponsors quickly
found ethnic Russians with lower-than-normal compassion and used
them. The Jews came later.
So while
being aware of traditional lack of compassion among Jews, we
should be aware that this is not uniquely Jewish trend.
Q: Iran
has been accused by Israel, the United States and their European
allies of trying to build atomic bombs, while the whole world
knows that Israel is the sole possessor of nuclear weapons in
the Middle East. What’s your viewpoint regarding the claims that
Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons and should be penalized for
that? What’s your idea about the anti-Iran sanctions which are
excessively affecting the innocent citizens?
A: As far as
I know, Iranian leaders said they do not want to have nuclear
weapons. Israelis do not believe them, because every one judges
the world by one’s own measure. If Israelis wanted to have
nuclear weapons, the Israeli leaders think, why Iranians do not?
I see no problem in Iran’s possession of nuclear weapons; after
all, her neighbours have A-bombs.
As an
Israeli, I’ll say: we must promote better understanding and
friendship between people of Iran and people of
Israel/Palestine. Iranians are not our enemies; let them decide
for themselves what sort of weapons they want to spend their
money on.
Q: How
much do you know about Iran, its culture, civilization and
ancient past? Is there anything special which you want to share
with the Iranian readers of this interview? Of course many
Iranians appreciate your steadfast resistance and your
viewpoints about the suffering of the Palestinian nation. What
do you want to tell them?
A: It is
long time since I visited Iran, in the last days of the Shah’s
rule, but I still cherish wonderful memories of Shiraz rose
gardens and of Persian poetry. Saadi and Rumi are an important
part of my background and of human heritage. I like Iranian
people, their strong and masculine men and their so-exotic and
delightful women. I meet some Iranians in exile, and I know they
also miss their beautiful land. Iranian leadership has difficult
choices to make: they should allow the Syrian people to make
their own choice without fear of NATO-armed intervention; they
should support the brave resistance of Hezbollah, this shield of
Lebanon; they should try and make peace with their neighbours
Turkey and Iraq; they should play a positive role in bringing
Jews and Palestinians to living together in peace and equality.
But the most
important task of the Iranians is to build a just society, where
labour is valued more than money; where the rich ones do not
devour the poor ones, a society whose members are united in God.
God bless you and let you to fulfil this task.
Excerpts of
this interview were published on
Tehran Times daily.
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