Review: “The Secret Chord” By Geraldine Brooks. Palestinian Genocide
By Israelites In 1000BC And By Zionists Today
By Dr Gideon Polya
30 May, 2016
Countercurrents.org
The Secret Chord is an historical novel by Geraldine Brooks, an Australian convert to Judaism and a Zionist assertedly loathing the ongoing Occupation but opposing BDS against democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel. The Secret Chord is a work of faction (fiction based on fact) that is based on the assertedly factual Biblical account of the life of a genocidal mass murderer and racist psychopath King David whose Star adorns the flag of genocidal Apartheid Israel. This novel is implicitly Zionist and like Zionism is based on egregious falsehoods – there is no non-Biblical evidence for the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt, an Empire of David and Solomon or mass Jewish Exile from Palestine, and almost no evidence for the very existence of King David.
“The Secret Chord” by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks [1] reinforces the central Zionist notion that a Chosen People were granted Palestine and mercilessly violent protection by their God (referred to as “the Name” in the novel) who in return demands obedience to a race-specific monotheisrm and other commandments of Judaism – if Chosen Ones disobey these commandments then the Name will punish them just as He punishes non-Chosen Ones for the asserted crime of being non-Chosen inimical to the prosperity of the Chosen.
In “The Secret Chord”, the narrator is David's prophet Natan [Nathan in the Bible] who spells this out clearly in relation to the deadly withdrawal of Divine sanction of the kingship of Israel from David's predecessor Shaul [Saul] who had failed to fully carry out the genocidal Divine order to completely exterminate the non-Chosen Amalekites and their animals (Shaul kills all the men, women, children and poor quality animals, but spares the king and the best animals): “I think he [David] learned from what passed between Shaul and his prophet, Shmuel [Samuel]. He saw that the kingship of a people such as ours could not be fashioned after the kingships of other nations. It is, instead, a fragile and mysterious gift, and what is given by such a mighty hand [the God of Israel] can be snatched back in less than an eyeblink” ([1], page 35; [2-5]). David's prophet Natan [Nathan] reminds us of the “little Israel” claim of the Zionists when he says “We could not pass freely even in the territory we claimed, that scant strip from Dan to Beersheva” ([1], page 36). Natan reiterates this God-Chosen People relationship when he says in relation to the sacred Ark of the Israelites: “We look at it, and remember who we are: the people of the One, the children of the great Breath of Life” ([1], page 57).
The Old Testament of the Holy Bible puts this God-Chosen People“deal” bluntly in Deuteronomy chapter 7: “1 When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; 2 And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: 3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. 4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. 5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth” ([2], Deuteronomy, chapter 7).
The peaceful Orthodox Jewish position is vastly more respectable in stating that God will help you in this life if you obey His commandments but will withdraw support if you disobey. When a more universalist Judaism and Christianity were proselytizing in the Roman Empire CE, this “reward in this life” notion was quite a competitive position as compared to that of pre-Calvinist Christianity that merely offered a happy life after death, a happy life everlasting in heaven if you obeyed His will in dealing with the travails of an earthly existence. The Orthodox Jewish position was that the Exile of Israel from Palestine was God's punishment for disobedience. I was instructed as a child that Orthodox Jews for about 2,000 years have held to the beautiful notion of the Kingdom of the Mind (that finds expression today in the international communities of humanitarians, scientists and scholars) and to the belief that pious Jews can only return to Zion (Jerusalem) when the Maschiach (Messiah) comes to proclaim the glory of Adonai (the Lord) to all peoples of the world [6-7].
Thus the Orthodox Jewish Neturei Karta on the blasphemy of the Zionist State: "The founding of the Zionist State is in direct contradiction to the teachings of the Torah, which forbids the establishment of a Jewish State and commands Jews to remain in exile until released from that exile by G-d Himself without any human intervention. At which time all Nations of the world will live together in peace. Two thousand years ago, at the time of the destruction of the holy Temple, the Jewish people were commanded by the Creator (kesubos 111a) not to go up en masse to the land of Israel; not to rebel against the nations; and not to in any way attempt to end the exile. Torah faithful Jews are to behave in a civil, honest and grateful manner towards their host nations throughout the world. The Zionist intervention against G-d's will by establishing the ‘State of Israel', represents a direct rebellion against G-d and the Torah, a rebellion which has generated untold pain and suffering, to Jew and non-Jew alike” [7].
From a secular perspective, numerous outstanding anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish scholars and leaders have declared their opposition to racist Zionism and Apartheid Israel's ongoing Palestinian Genocide [6-18]. Thus, for example, the outstanding anti-racist Jewish American scholar Professor Jared Diamond in his best-selling book "Collapse” (Prologue, p10, Penguin edition) enunciated the "moral principle, namely that it is morally wrong for one people to dispossess, subjugate, or exterminate another people" [8] – an injunction grossly violated by racist Zionist (RZ)-run Apartheid Israel and its racist, genocide-committing and genocide-ignoring US Alliance backers [17-23]. Anti-racist Jewish Canadian activist and writer Naomi Klein: “There is a debate among Jews - I'm a Jew by the way. The debate boils down to the question: "Never again to everyone, or never again to us?... [Some Jews] even think we get one get-away-with-genocide-free card...There is another strain in the Jewish tradition that say[s], 'Never again to anyone.”” [13]. And Nelson Mandela in an address at the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (1997): “The UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians” [16].
Born in Sydney, Australia, Caroline Brooks was raised a Catholic but converted to Judaism when she married her husband in the 1980s. Caroline Brooks on Israel and the Palestinians: "I think it's very important — I think vibrant Jewish life and culture, the Hebrew language, a literature (a modern literature in Hebrew), a vibrant society where so many different points of view are reflected — I think that is very important culturally, to not just Jews all over the world, but I think Israel has contributed a great deal. I think that the dichotomy between love of Israel and Israeli culture and loathing of the occupation and the suffering that it is causing every single day to so many Palestinians is one of the paradoxes, and a very painful paradox" [24].
However despite her “loathing” of the Occupation, Caroline Brooks is firmly against the approach of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel and its racist supporters, an approach that was ultimately successful when applied against Nazi-style Apartheid South Africa and its racist supporters: “I understand why Palestinians feel they want to use every means at their disposal and we have urged Palestinians to use non-violent means, and boycott is I think a legitimate non-violent means. But I am not in favour of it, because I think that peace will only come if people talk to each other, if people interact with each other. I think anything that pulls people apart and shuts down dialogue and shuts down cultural exchange is only going to slow the process. I'm a bit of a free speech absolutist, so I would hate to see a situation where a novelist will be disinvited or there won't be able to be free exchange if ideas, because I think you fight bad ideas with better ideas" [24].
Caroline Brooks is no doubt well-intentioned in her position of “loathing” the Occupation but is pathetic in opposing BDS, the only effective international action against the genocidal racism of US-, UK-. Canada, EU- and Australia-backed Apartheid Israel. Caroline Brooks must be condemned for her “free speech absolutist” anti-BDS stance just as the progressive, anti-Apartheid American singer and musician Paul Simon was condemned for flouting the international boycotts of Apartheid South Africa, no matter his good intentions to help and popularize African musicians. Paul Simon's “Graceland” album involving South African musicians was accused of breaking a UN-approved cultural boycott, which had been in effect since December 1980, with Resolution 35/206 stating: "The United Nations General Assembly request all states to prevent all cultural, academic, sporting and other exchanges with South Africa. Appeals to writers, artists, musicians and other personalities to boycott South Africa. Urges all academic and cultural institutions to terminate all links with South Africa" [25].
Indeed Caroline Brooks is visiting Palestine this year to research for a joint book on the occasion in 2017 of the 50th anniversary of the illegal, war criminal Apartheid Israeli Occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In gambling-mad Australian parlance, Caroline Brooks “is having a bob each way” (simultaneously backing a horse to win and to lose) – she is no doubt a “nice” person and “nice” in expressing her “loathing” of the Occupation, but is “not nearly nice enough” in opposing the only effective peaceful means (other than truth-telling) to counter the appalling ongoing Palestinian Genocide by nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, democracy-by-genocide, neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel.
Zionism and BDS aside, “The Secret Chord” by Geraldine Brooks is a rip roaring, sex and violence, blood and guts telling of the story of David that was first told in the First and Second Books of Samuel in the marvellous English of the King James version of the Holy Bible [2]. For a simplified version see Biblical scholar Paul Roche's “The Bible's Greatest Stories” [4], a 482 page book that when read in one sitting provides the powerful experience of going from the invasion, mass murder and genocide by the Chosen People authorized by a vengeful God in the Old Testament to the peace, joy and “love thy neighbour as thyself” advocated by that wonderful Palestinian humanitarian Jesus in the New Testament.
The story of David is recounted in “The Secret Chord” by Natan [Nathan] who is ordered by David to talk to key players to get the story. However history is written by the victors as well exampled by the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million Jews killed through violence or deprivation) that has become known as The Holocaust whereas comparable or vastly greater holocausts of WW2 have been sidelined from public perception such as the WW2 Polish Holocaust (6 million killed, half being Polish Jews), the general WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed) , the WW2 Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million Indians deliberately starved to death by the British for strategic reasons with Australia complicit by withholding food from its huge wartime grain stores), and the Chinese Holocaust (40 million Chinese perished under Japanese occupation , 1937-1945) [22, 26, 27, 28]. In the 21st century, lying Mainstream media ignore the horrendous dimensions of an ongoing Zionist-promoted US War on Muslims in which 32 million Muslims have died from violence (5 million) or deprivation (27 million) since the US Government's 9-11 false flag atrocity (3,000 killed) [23, 29, 30, 31].
Indeed Geraldine Brooks has Natan confess such censorship at the outset in a conversation with Nizevet, the Talmud-ascribed mother of David who says “ I know my son has sanctioned this, for reasons that must seem wise to him. But the common people know his story so differently … Do they need. I wonder , to know what came before?” Natan replied: “That will rest with the king… He will decide what will be recorded, and what will be left out” ([1], page 65).
To her credit, Geraldine Brooks pulls no punches in describing the appalling crimes of David. Thus, for example, David cold-bloodedly kills the father and uncle of shepherd boy Natan [Nathan] who survives by having a fit in which he talks like a God-inspired prophet to the killer, who is so impressed that he takes Natan on as a prophet just as Shmuel [Samuel] was the prophet of Shaul [Saul]. Insurgent David under threat from King Saul becomes a mercenary ally of the Plishtim [Philistines, and hence the term Palestine] and after attacking and destroying Canaanite towns pretends to the Plishtim that he has been attacking Israelite towns – however to prevent the secret emerging, David orders that the Canaanite populations be totally exterminated. David successfully impregnates Batsheva [Bathsheba], wife of Uriah the Hittite, and then arranges for Uriah to die in battle (the child dies associated with Divine curse but a second child grows up to eventually be King Solomon). As part of a political deal, David betrays 5 grandsons of Saul via Merav to the Givonites who hunt them down and kill them. David the unwisely protects his son who has raped his own sister.
Geraldine Brooks describes David's appalling treatment of his wife Mikhal [Michal] (history repeats and a 20th century Michal very dear to me was discarded and died prematurely). King Saul gave Mikhal as bride to David (the bride price being 100 Plishtim foreskins) but after Mikhal enabled David to escape assassination by her father, King Saul gave her to Palti, with whom she subsequently had children in the Brooks account. After King Saul is killed, as part of peace with King Saul's son Ish Boshet [Ish-boeth], Mikhal is returned to David. However when Mikhal is angered by David dancing semi-naked after a victory she is sidelined from the harem and has no children by David.
Necertheless, for all this asserted brutal honesty Geraldine Brooks variously whitewashes or hugely exaggerates the historical record in a way that accords with the Zionist narrative. The names familiar to English tradition via the wonderful King James Bible (a foundational work of English literature even according to atheist scientist Professor Richard Dawkins) [32] are confusingly transmuted into modern Hebrew (“ Shaul, Shmuel and Shlomo, for example, rather than the perhaps more familiar Saul, Samuel and Solomon” ([1], page ix) .
Brooks begins the book with a map that shows “the Kingdom of David c 1000 B.C.E.” that extends northerly from the Sinai (100 miles from the Nile) to north of Damascus (100 miles from the Euphrates) and easterly to encompass much of Jordan within 100 miles of the Mediterranean. Zionist historian, Bengali Holocaust minimizer and Bengali Holocaust denier, the late Professor Martin Gilbert [33] was only slightly more expansive than Brooks and has a map of “the Kingdom of David and Solomon 100-925 BC” that stretches north from 20 miles short of the Nile to the very bank of the Euphrates, and stretches east to encompass all the non-desert regions of Syria and Jordan [34]. According to Israeli historian Shlomo Sand that kingdom, if it ever existed, was the captured Jebusite stronghold of Jerusalem plus some hilltop villages in Judea and Samaria. The farthest extent West of present-day serial war criminal Apartheid Israel has been to the Suez Canal, and it now encompasses all of Palestine (now 90% ethnically cleansed of indigenous inhabitants) and a slab of Syria, the Golan Heights, that is now also 90% ethnically cleansed. Genocidally racist Apartheid Israel needs water and the present stealing from West Bank aquifers will not be enough, this ultimately necessitating the US Alliance-backed ethnical cleansing of Syria (so far, 0.5 million killed and half the population made refugees) that is opposed by Russia and Iran.
For all her brutal honesty about genocidal mass murderer David, Brooks is soft when it comes to genocidal mass murderer Yehoshua [Joshua] who she describes as “the brilliant warrior” ([1], page 289). Professor Richard Dawkins in his book “The God Delusion” ([32], pages 253-257) reported the findings of Israeli psychologist George Tamarin: “Tamarin presented to more than a thousand Israeli school children, aged between eight and fourteen , the account of the battle of Jericho in the book of Joshua [which states] Then they utterly destroyed all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and asses, with the edge of the sword … Tamarin then asked the children a simple moral question: “Do you think Joshua and the Israelites acted rightly or not? They had to choose between A (total approval), B (partial approval) and C (total disapproval). The results were polarized: 66 per cent gave total approval, and 26 per cent total disapproval, with rather fewer (8 per cent) in the middle with partial approval … Tamarin ran a fascinating control group in his experiment. A different group of 168 Israeli children were given the same text from the book of Joshua, but with Joshua's name replaced by “General Lin” and “ Israel ” replaced by “a Chinese kingdom 3,000 years ago”. Now the experiment gave opposite results. Only 7 per cent approved of General Lin's behaviour, and 75 per cent disapproved… It was religion that made the difference between children condemning genocide and condoning it” [32].
Of course brain washing children into supporting genocide is merely one aspect of horrendous child abuse in Apartheid Israel - thus the annual per capita GDP is a crippling $2,900 for Palestinians (half of whom are children) , 13 times lower than for Israelis ($38,000), noting that Apartheid Israel continues to steal land, steal water and impose a Nazi-style Apartheid regime on Occupied Palestinians of whom it kills 1,000 violently each year and kills a further 4,000 non-violently each year through imposed deprivation. 2 million Palestinians, half of them children, have died from Zionist violence (0.1 million) or from Zionist- imposed deprivation (1.9 million) since the mid-1930s. Of 12 million Palestinians , 6 million are forbidden to step foot in their own country under pain of death, and of 6 million Indigenous Palestinian subjects of Apartheid Israel, 4.5 million are highly abusively confined without charge or trial to the Gaza Concentration Camp (2 million) or to West Bank ghettoes (2.5 million) under IDF guns. Half the Palestinians are children and most of the 1 million Palestinian children in the blockaded Gaza Concentration Camp are badly traumatized by repeated Israeli Gaza Massacres involving shelling, rocketing or bombing from IDF tanks, ships or planes. Of the now majority of Indigenous Palestinian subjects of democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel, 73% are forbidden from voting for the government ruling them. One notes that it is not just Occupied Palestinian and Palestinian Israeli children who are being violated and traumatized by child-abusing, neo-Nazi Apartheid Israelis – a recent survey of Israeli children provides shocking evidence that 48.5% have suffered physical psychological or sexual abuse, with 18% suffering sexual abuse [35].
Nevertheless Brooks courageously reports the circa 1000 BC genocidal atrocities of David (see above) and of Shaul. Thus of Shaul's extermination of the Israelite town of Nov [Nob] : “ They killed everyone in that town – women, babes, the frail elderly} ([1], page 149). Indeed she recounts the fall of grace of Shaul in the eyes of “the Name” because he disobeyed God's command to completely destroy all the Amalekites and their livestock (Shaul spared their king and the best of the livestock) . Shmuel declares “As you have rejected the Name, so has he rejected you as king... So has the Name torn kingship from you” ([1[, page 58). In this the Iron Age God of the Chosen People of Israel shows Himself to be far worse than his Chosen People. Natan describes himself as “A man like me, held safe in the fist of a jealous god” ([1], p105). However Brooks includes a “politically correct” admission from Natan who has been living with David with the Plishtim as ostensible allies of their enemies against Saul: “In time, I became ashamed of the baseless hatred I had harbored for these people” ([1], page 104).
As a child I borrowed British imperial books from a kind elderly lady up the road on our hill, Mount Stuart, overlooking Hobart, Tasmania. The general theme was of heroic Britishers like “Sanders of the River” going out Old Testament-style to conquer new lands for the British Empire with the help of machine guns and cooperative Indigenous people. God was an Englishman. The genocidal atrocities of Joshua, Saul and David inspired those of the genocidally racist Western colonialists (in particular see Sven Lindqvist's “Exterminate All the Brutes” ) [36], and thence of the US-, UK-, EU-, Canada- and Australia-backed racist Zionists (RZs) involved in the ongoing Palestinian Genocide [17, 37-40]. Of course today the Western-imposed genocide through violence, introduced disease and deprivation continues in the ongoing Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust in which 17 million people (half of them children) die avoidably each year from deprivation on Spaceship Earth with greedy One Percenters, most notably the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-dominated Americans, in charge of the flight deck. 1950-2005 avoidable deaths totalled 1.3 billion and such deaths in countries occupied in the post-1945 era by Europeans are as follows (Occupier country in brackets): 727 million (UK-occupied), 142 million (France), 72 million (Netherlands), 82 million (US), 37 million (USSR), and 24 million (Apartheid Israel).
Geraldine Brooks repeatedly expresses the deadly pragmatism of the genocidal Israelites that is reflected in the merciless pragmatism of the nuclear terrorist, genocidally racist Zionists (RZs) today. Thus David's prophet Natan states: “ I wish I could write that this night marked tan end to the bloodshed. It did not… Whatever it takes. What was necessary. Ten violent years, and then, at last, our vassal states stretched from the border of Mitzrayim [Egypt] to the edge of the Two Rivers [Tigris and Euphrates]. Finally we were notorious enough to give our enemies pause “ ([1], pages 224-225). And later one of David's wives Maccah on the murder by her son Avshalom [Absolom] of his half-brother Amnon for raping his sister Tamar: “He acted like a man. It was necessary” and Natan observes: “How many times had I heard David justify killing with those same three words” ([1], page 326). Avshalom later revolts against David and is killed, this leading David to utter the utterly tragic words that are best expressed in the King James version (Book 2 Samuel, chapter 18, verse 33): “ O my son Absolom, my son, my son Absolom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absolom, my son, my son!” [2]. 2 million Palestinians, half of them children, have died from Zionist violence (0.1 million) or from Zionist- imposed deprivation (1.9 million) since the mid-1930s whereas 4,000 Zionist colonizers have been killed since 1920 [17].
Geraldine Brooks also softens the fall of the Jebusite city of Jerusalem. She recounts how the Jebusites brought to the walls “a sad army of the deformed , the lame, the blind, the leprous… our men believe that to kill an accursed person – one afflicted by illness and disfigurement – is to invite the same curse down upon oneself … Even the blind and lame can defeat an army that is too afraid to shoot them. And behind that unhappy vanguard, he [the Jebusite king Araunah] arrayed his true army, the archers and pots of oil”([1], page 218). Pro-Zionist Geraldine Brooks invents an uncharacteristic, merciful ending of a capture of Jerusalem not involving the usual mass murder: “There would be no rapes this night, no wanton killings. He had already renamed the town. It was Ir-David now – the City of David. It was our home, the heart of our nation, the seat of his kingship … All who surrendered had been allowed to go to their homes, Knaanite [Canaanite] and Hittite alike. He had spared even the life of Araunah” ([1], pages 223-224).
Compare Brooks' elaborate account of the capture of Jerusalem with that of the Bible (Book 2 of Samuel, Chapter 5): “6. And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither. 7. Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David. 8. And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house. 9. So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. 10. And David went on, and grew great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him” [2]. John Wesley has interpreted “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house” to mean “That is, whence it became a proverb, or a common saying, used by David, and others, the blind and the lame Jebusites, were set to keep the house, that is, the fort of Zion; and to keep others from coming into it; but now they are shut out of it, and none of them, either of the Jebusites, or of blind and lame persons, shall be admitted to come into it again. Which David might ordain, to keep up the memory of this great exploit, and of the insolent carriage of the Jebusites” [41] i.e. genocide of the Jebusites that mirrors the exclusion of 6 million Palestinians today from entering Palestine and exclusion by the Apartheid Wall, the Gaza Concentration Camp, razor wire and road blocks of many of the majority 6.2 million Indigenous Palestinian subjects of Apartheid Israel - and most physically or mentally damaged by the Occupiers - from actually or readily entering Jerusalem.
Apartheid Israel is remarkable among countries for having in living memory (a) got away with continuing genocide; (b) stolen and renamed cities, towns and countless villages; (c) stolen a country and ethnically cleansed 90% of the land; (d) stole as its capital city a city sacred to 1.5 billion Christians and 1.6 billion Muslims; (e) stolen its national anthem (from the theme of “Vltava” (the River Moldau) in “Ma vlast” (“My country” ) by Czech composer Smetana), and (f) stolen the human rights of all its Indigenous Palestinian inhabitants.
Finally, some comments on the name “The Secret Chord”, the most insidious element of this implicitly pro-Zionist work of faction. David played the harp, sang and danced, but Geraldine Brooks offers the following obscene commentary by David's prophet Natan: “Those who know or loved music found an instant bond with him [David]. You cannot harmonize in song or play instruments together without listening one to the other, sensing when to be loud and when soft, when to take the lead and when to yield it. I think that few grasp the connection between waging war and making music, but in the long evenings , when the firelight flickered on the cave walls, and the voices joined and rose with his, I learned the unity between the two” ([1], page 90). Beethoven thought otherwise when he ripped his dedication to a now war-making Napoleon from his Third Symphony, the Eroica. Shostakovich thought otherwise when he composed his “Leningrad Symphony” for the heroic civilians holding out against the Nazi war machine. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (formerly the Palestine Orchestra) , the Weizman Institute, the Hebrew University, the Technion, Tel Aviv University, and the living language and literature of Hebrew are adornments of Israeli Palestine but are countered by the awful reality of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide by a nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel.
Concluding comments.
I first encountered Geraldine Brooks through her book “The Year of Wonders” about the 1666 plague in England. It was a terrific read but the end of the book departed radically from the rest and involved a rapid succession of highly implausible adventures in America and North Africa. One sensed the possibility of an editorial input to cover numerous additional topics. I also read Geraldine Brooks' “People of the Book”, a work of faction involving a succession of radically different scenarios and events concerning the adventures from 15th century Spain of the ancient Sarajevo Haggadah, an illustrated text of the Passover Haggadah which accompanies the Jewish Passover Seder. Just as “The Secret Chord” is based on a religious fiction of a David and Solomon Empire, the ultimate basis of the Passover Haggadah is the asserted Israelite Exodus from Egypt, an event for which there is similarly no non-Biblical evidence [6]. In reading all 3 historical novels I felt that I was being variously subject to non-articulated agendas. This feeling was strongest on reading “The Secret Chord” which has an implicit Zionist narrative of some kind of Jewish ownership of Palestine based on Biblical assertions of genocidal Israelite conquest in circa 1000 BC that have scant non-Biblical evidential support. Do genocidal Nazi atrocities in the Soviet Union and actual German expansion to the River Volga provide a case for a latter day German Empire in Eastern Europe to the detriment of the present indigenous inhabitants? Do present-day Italians have a claim on England to the detriment of the present indigenous inhabitants because 2,000 years ago the Romans brought sophisticated infrastructure and social organization to Britannia?
There is enough warped historiography without works of faction such as “The Secret Chord” further decorating and supporting historical events for which there is scant evidence. Geraldine Brooks asserts that she has “loathing” for the Apartheid Israeli Occupation, but her position of opposing Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel means that her attitude lacks practical substance and is actually in opposition to the one peaceful mechanism that has proved successful in the fight against the evil of Nazi-style Apartheid. “The Year of Wonders” implicitly supports Zionist historical claims of the last century or so that are religious fictions - there is no non-Biblical evidence for the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt, an Empire of David and Solomon or eventual mass Jewish Exile from Palestine under the Romans, and almost no evidence for the very existence of King David [6]. Indeed, while most Jewish Israelis descend from Berber, Yemeni and Khazar converts to Judaism, the present-day descendants in Palestine of the former Jewish inhabitants of Palestine are actually the sorely oppressed Indigenous Palestinian [6]. Indeed recent genetic studies have shown that there is substantial prehistoric European ancestry amongst Ashkenazi Jewish maternal lineages [42].
Geraldine Brooks declares herself opposed to Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel because she is a “free speech absolutist” [24]. However, while her factional account of Israelite genocidal atrocities will no doubt become a lauded best-seller in the pro-Zionist West, the Zionist Lobby in the UK and Australia has censored an Australian academic for making the obvious connection between Palestinian Genocide by Israelites in 1000 BC and Zionist violation of Palestinian human rights today. Thus Dr Sandra Nasr, lecturer in Middle East politics at Notre Dame University, Western Australia, published an article on the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) website uncontroversially linking Old Testament Biblical imperatives of violent occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine in circa 1000 BC to ongoing Zionist colonialism and gross human rights abuse over the last century. Dr Nasr was immediately attacked and falsely defamed by Zionists and the Fairfax-owned WA Today newspaper as “racist” and “anti-semitic”, and the article was removed from the LSE website. To its shame, rather than defend Dr Nasr, Notre Dame University said it “apologizes” for her article which it is now “addressing” [43].
The bottom line is that racism, war and genocide are unacceptable, whether 3000 years ago or today. As exposed by “The Secret Chord” and its source, the King James Holy Bible , David (if he existed) was a racist, warring and genocidal psychopath in his day, but unfortunately his conduct as reported in the Holy Bible inspired genocidal European colonialism in past centuries and the present Zionist-backed US Alliance War on Muslims, Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide in the present century. What can decent people do? Decent people around the world who are opposed to racism, Apartheid, war and genocide must (a) inform everyone they can, and (b) urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against not only Apartheid Israel and its supporters but also against all the US Alliance racist warmongers presently devastating the Muslim world.
References
[1]. Caroline Brooks, “The Secret Chord”, Hachette, Sydney, 2015.
[2]. “The Holy Bible” (King James version).
[3]. “Saul”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul .
[4]. Paul Roche, “The Bible's Greatest Stories”, Mentor, New York, 1990.
[5]. G.W. Bromily, “The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia”, Volumes 1-4, William Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1979.
[6]. Shlomo Sand, “The Invention of the Jewish People”, Verso, London, 2009.
[7]. Neturei Karta, “Israeli Independence Day”: http://www.nkusa.org/activities/Statements/20090429IID.cfm .
[8]. Jared Diamond, "Collapse” , Penguin, 2011.
[9]. “Boycott Apartheid Israel”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/.
[10]. “Gaza Concentration Camp”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/gaza-concentration .
[11]. “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ .
[12]. “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ .
[13]. Naomi Klein quoted in Yotam Feldman, “Naomi Klein: oppose the state not the people”, Haaretz, 2 July 2007: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097058.html .
[14]. Sir Isaac Isaacs, quoted by Wikipedia, ”Isaac Isaacs”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Isaacs .
[15]. Bertell Ollman, “Letter of Resignation from the Jewish People”, Dialectical Marxism, 2004: http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/docs/resignation.php .
[16]. Nelson Mandela quoted in “Nelson Mandela quotes: A collection of memorable words from former South African president”, CBS News, 5 December 2013: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nelson-mandela-quotes-a-collection-of-memorable-words-from-former-south-african-president/ .
[17]. “Palestinian Genocide” : http://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .
[18]. Gideon Polya, “Book Review: “Age Of Fools” By William Cook – Stop Neocon & Zionist Palestinian Genocide, War On Muslims & War On Humanity”, Countercurrents, 3 November, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya031215.htm .
[19]. Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .
[20]. “Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ .
[21]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .
[22]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, that includes a succinct history of every country and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ .
[23]. Gideon Polya, “Paris Atrocity Context: 27 Million Muslim Avoidable Deaths From Imposed Deprivation In 20 Countries Violated By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 22 November, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya221115A.htm .
[24]. Sophie McNeill, “Geraldine Brooks returns to Middle East to gather facts for new book””, ABC News, 16 April 2016: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-16/author-geraldine-brooks-returns-to-the-middle-east/7328834 .
[25]. Robin Denselow, “Paul Simon's Graceland: the acclaim and the outrage”, Guardian, 20 April 2012: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/apr/19/paul-simon-graceland-acclaim-outrage .
[26]. Gideon Polya (2008), “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2008 edition that is now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ).
[27]. Gideon Polya (2011), “Australia And Britain Killed 6-7 Million Indians In WW2 Bengal Famine”, Countercurrents, 29 September, 2011: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya290911.htm .
[28] “Bengali Holocaust (WW2 Bengal Famine) writings of Gideon Polya, Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/bengali-holocaust .
[29]. “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .
[30]. “Mainstream media censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/home .
[31]. “Mainstream media lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/ .
[32]. Richard Dawkins, “The God Delusion”.
[33]. Gideon Polya, “UK Zionist Historian Sir Martin Gilbert (1936-2015) Variously Ignored Or Minimized WW2 Bengali Holocaust”, Countercurrents, 19 February, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya190215.htm
[34]. Martin Gilbert, “Jewish History Atlas”, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1969.
[35]. Gideon Polya, “Horrendous Pro-Zionist, Zionist And Apartheid Israeli Child Abuse Exposed”, Countercurrents, 21 April, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya210414.htm .
[36]. Sven Lindqvist, “Exterminate All the Brutes”, Granta, London, 2002
[37]. Gideon Polya, “Academic Free Speech Under Zionist Attack At Notre Dame Australia And LSE, UK”, Countercurrents, 16 December, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya161215.htm .
[38]. UN Convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide, UN: http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html .
[39]. William A. Cook (editor), “The Plight of the Palestinians. A Long History of Destruction”, Palgrave Macmillan, London , 2010.
[40]. Gideon Polya, “Review: “The Plight Of The Palestinians. A Long History Of Destruction”, Countercurrents, 17 June, 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya170612.htm .
[41]. John Wesley, commentary on “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house”: http://www.christianity.com/bible/commentary.php?b=10&c=5&com=wes .
[42]. Martin Richards et al, "A substantial prehistoric European ancestry amongst Ashkenazi maternal lineages", Nature, 2013: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2013/131008/ncomms3543/full/ncomms3543.html .
[43]. Gideon Polya,”Academic Free Speech Under Zionist Attack At Notre Dame Australia And LSE, UK”, Countercurrents, 16 December, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya161215.htm .
Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript
) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ; Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home ; Gideon Polya Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/ ; Gideon Polya, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Polya ) . When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya's huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .
