Thank you for your excellent paper and your analysis. We appreciate your writing on issues not many people would like to write because it requires your sincerity. The issue of ‘universalism’ has been used by many including famous French film director, Jean Renoir. He promoted anti fascist propaganda films, ‘Grand Illusion’ and ‘This land is mine’, where he manifested his opposition to occupation and oppression against European population, but at the same time I have not found anything on his objection to French colonialism in Africa and Asia and oppression of the indigenous population and occupation of their lands.
At the congress of 1913 Francois Thalamas spoke of the need to cooperate with the people of the colonies, to develop the colonies economically, and to exercise a humane policy guided by the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Although they did not want to expand the empire, probably was too expensive, they did not want to loose what they had already acquired. When the Socialist came to power in 1936 they had to assume imperial rule. Jean Renoir was working with the ‘Popular front’ the Front pushed for ‘civilizing mission’ which they thought it can be done peacefully. Later the socialist spoke of French rule as the “educator of the People” overseas. Renoir believed in “universalism” yet as far as I know he did not raise his objectionto the policy of the “civilizing mission” of the empire , although he was member of the “popular front”, and did not show his objection to the occupation of Africa and Asia which is against the spirit of universalism.

“He would like to see them fighting the anti-Semites in the Palestinian solidarity discourse. He would like to see them operating as Sayanim.”
“As bizarre as it may sound, once again we notice that Jewish universalism appears to operate as a maintenance project of Jewish chauvinism and tribalism.”

Many Kurdish, many Jews, provided information on Iraq and Arabs since 1950’s for Mossad and many went to Israel. Now some of the “Israeli” Kurds are buying land in North of Iraq to expand the apartheid state, at the same time the indigenous population of North of Iraq, Arabs and Turcoman, are forced out by violence by Kurds.
Noam Chomsky defends of a state for Jews who are the majority is interesting. Chomsky does not support one state for all which is the only solution to an apartheid state.
This ‘tribalism’ is not limited to Jews. Today, we see it with the constructed “minorities” in the Middle East which are mainly directed and supported by the Zionists. Leslie Gelb is the mastermind behind the soft partition of Iraq and like Kissinger and other Zionists supports partition of countries in the region that are larger than Israel to help Israel expand its influence against other groups especially Arabs and Iranians. Chomsky is totally silent against the Kurdish terrorism and their activities against Arabs and Turcoman in Kirkuk and other parts of Iraq trying to force them out, like Zionists did in 1948, of their land and their houses to bring the oil wells under Kurdish control so Israel can be independent in terms of energy. He is also silent against the Kurdish terrorists, PEJAK and Komoleh, who are receiving military training by Israel against Iran and the neighboring countries.

A good part of your tirade is based on a false premise. The IJV is not a defunct organisation, more a petition launched in such a way as to attract as much media attention as possible. Not ‘bombastic’, rather ‘media savvy’. Not ‘collapsed’, rather ‘job done’.

The IJV’s function was, and still remains, simply to demonstrate clear blue water between the broadly pro-Zionist UK Jewish establishment and the many British Jews (however as individuals they choose to define the term) who want the world to know they hold alternative views. Why bother? Because others have claimed authority to represent the views of UK Jews and to stay silent is to be complicit in this claim.

Your willingness to cherry pick aspects of Julius’s work that accord with your own anti-liberal views while dancing on the head of a pin to distance yourself on other matters is as pathetic as it’s intellectually dishonest.