Informed and Honest Debate With Zionism Is Impossible
A while after the publication of the UK hardback edition of Volume One of my book Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews, a producer for BBC Radio 4′s World Tonight called me to ask if I would participate in that evening’s programme, to discuss, among other things, the thesis of my book. I was more than surprised because I was fully aware that Zionism had red-flagged me with all broadcasting institutions and newspapers as well as the publishing world. At this point some background is essential.
As I have explained in the past, I had to publish the book myself because no publisher wanted to invite Zionism’s wrath. This despite the fact that my literary agent had letters of rare praise for my manuscript from the CEO’s of some of the major publishing houses. One letter, from which I quote in Volume One, described my work as “awesome… driven by passion, commitment and profound learning.” This letter added, “There is no question it deserves to be published.” I was not supposed to be able to get the book into the retail trade but I did.
Professor Ilan Pappe, Israel’s leading “revisionist” (which means honest) historian told me that Zionism was more frightened of my book than any other. Why? Because its title, Ilan said, is “the truth in seven words.” Truth that Zionism doesn’t want the world to know.
Zionism has only two non-lethal options for dealing with me.
One is to seek to discredit me and my work by accusing me of anti-Semitism. But Zionism’s professional propagandists know they can’t play this game with me because I would sue them if they did. I made a little bit of history three years ago when a report in the Manchester-based Jewish Telegraph defamed me. As an alternative to suing the paper, I demanded and obtained an apology, equal space for a rebuttal article and my legal costs. (Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about the anonymous and mostly moronic supporters of Israel right or wrong who make use of the internet to accuse me, falsely and maliciously, of anti-Semitism).
Zionism’s only other non-lethal option is to pretend that I and my book do not exist. This Zionist policy is out of the same stable as Nakba denial. In practice it came to mean that Zionism used its awesome influence to see to it that Zionists and other supporters of Israel right or wrong did not engage in debate with me, and that I was denied by the media even a sniff of the oxygen of publicity. Out of fear of offending Zionism too much or at all, not one UK media institution had the courage to review my book or talk to me about it.
Hence my surprise when a BBC producer called to invite me to be on the World Tonight. The proposition was that the programme could give me air time if I was prepared to debate with the Jewish American Alan Dershowitz, one of Zionism’s biggest guns (firing wounding words not bullets). He was in Europe and, later in the day, was coming London. I said to the producer that unless there had been a change of Zionist policy, Dershowitz would not debate with me because to do so would give me some oxygen of publicity. The producer said Dershowitz had already agreed. I said, “Call him back and re-confirm.” When I got the re-confirmation, I gave thought to how I would engage with Dershowitz. Then, about an hour before the World Tonight’s on-air time, the producer called to tell me the item had been cancelled because Dershowitz would not debate with me.
Though it’s speculation on my part, I think the following is what most probably happened. On arrival in London Dershowitz was asked by a Zionist lobby friend what his engagements for the evening were. He said something like, “At ten o’clock I’m debating with Alan Hart on the BBC’s World Tonight.” The friend said: “Oh no, you’re not! We don’t engage with that man and his book. So far as we’re concerned, he and it do not exist.”
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