Mary Rizzo – Atzmon’s Useful Idiot

Mary Rizzo is the indefatiguable helper and accomplice of notorious anti-Semite Gilad Atzmon, with whom she runs the Palestine Thinktank.

Indeed she is a friend and supporter of any and all the anti-Semites hovering on the fringes of the Palestine solidarity movement – Israel Shamir, Paul Eisen, Atzmon of course. And on the blogs she runs, first Peace Palestinian and now the Palestine Sink Tank – she does her best to provide them with a platform. Which isn’t surprising because the Sink Tank makes it clear what its view of Jewish participation in anti-Zionist politics:

‘We truly think that Jewish tribal politics has absolutely no place within the Palestinian solidarity discourse. Palestinian solidarity is primarily about Palestine rather than prosaic wars against imaginary anti-Semitism. However, we suggest that if the proponents of Jewish ideology and tribal interests insist upon interfering with Palestinian solidarity activism, they really should invest a lot more effort into hiding their crude agenda.’

Shades of conspiracies or what?

Likewise she is a great believer in the idea that all Jews have common interests, although these are rarely defined:

‘You are safe as milk, Tony, since you are a blog that protects Jewish interests’

But if Ms Rizzo is challenged about the fact that she is anti-Semitic then she has a stock response.

‘You call me rabidly anti-semitic. Come out with one thing I have ever printed as such. Just one will do!’
However there is a catch. If you do come out with 1 (or 20) anti-semitic things she’s said, she’ll deny their anti-Semitic!

But then Mary is no intellectual. She leaves that to Atzmon, who believes himself to be a great philosopher, alongside Israel Shamir and Paul Eisen. So, when, not so long ago, she was asked, in view of her association with Atzmon, to at least distance herself from Atzmon's svengali, Israel Shamir, she reacted with her normal outrage when asked to condemn any manifestation of anti-Semitism:

‘But, PLEASE don't bother with your argumentation, because just as much as you have on your view, others have on the other,… I never saw Shamir on this list, Tony. … So, since I don't believe Shamir is an anti semite, it is not "incumbant" upon me to demonstrate diddly squat to you about my support of the Palestinian cause.’

Of course this is true. It is not incumbent upon Rizzo to criticise anything, least of all racism. But some of us find it difficult to oppose racism against the Palestinians and support it against Jews. Indeed most people find it difficult to know how many Jewish people, themselves the victims of racism, can defend Zionist racism. Which is why those of us who are anti-Zionists also oppose anti-Semitism. Not so Rizzo who believes that criticism of Shamir was nothing buit a ‘smear campaign’. She asks:

‘Why should I be obligated to join in on the smear campaign? …. I am convinced that there are indeed attempts made at ritutal defamation both against Shamir, and oftentimes on this board, against myself, Paul, Gilad, Chris Ledbetter, hell, far too many people for my Taste

And what of Israel Shamir, who Rizzo is convinced is anything but an anti-Semite? Well we are spoilt for choice. We could cite his views that the British National Party is not anti-Semitic enough!

Or his comments about Auschwitz.

Another go of Zionist propaganda. The camp was an internment facility, attended by the Red Cross (as opposed to the US internment centre in Guantanamo). If it were bombed, the internees would die – or as a result of the bombing, or due to starvation for the supplies would not arrive.

Anti-Semitic? Perish the thought.

But if she resented having to criticise Shamir, she was very much in favour of defending Paul Eisen.

I am very much annoyed that people have been carrying on with a badmouthing of Paul Eisen. It is actually pretty disheartening.

This is the Eisen who writes, on the web site of Deir Yassin Remembered that:

The Holocaust too has come under assault. Over the last fifty years, revisionist scholars have amassed a formidable body of substantial evidence, which runs in direct opposition to the traditional Holocaust narrative. "Where is the evidence," they say, "for this alleged gargantuan mass-murder? Where are the documents? Where are the traces and remains? Where are the weapons of murder?" These revisionists all acknowledge of course, that there was a terrible assault on Jews on the part of the National Socialist government, but disagree as to the scale, motive, and methods cited in the typical narrative, a narrative that most of us choose or are obliged to accept. "What befell the Jews", they say, "was a brutal ethnic cleansing accompanied by dispossession, pillage and massacre.

And when she posted an article with a photo of myself and ‘JEW’ printed underneath her ‘defence’? That this was copied from the Zionist campaign to free Gilad Shalit. And that’s true. Her racism is a reflection of Zionist racism.

Unfortunately Mary has developed both an oversized ego and a feeling that she is persecuted because of all the criticism she gets. So she hit on the idea, with Atzmon, of running a petition in support of herself (which she duly signed, although the signatories seem to have disappeared from the Redress site where it originated). The petition praises her and Atzmon as 'two outstanding personalities'!!!

Below are a sample of the anti-Semites who have signed this ‘petition’, including Daniel McGowan, a supporter of Ernst Zundel, Wendy Campbell and The Radical Press (alongside a survivor of Auschwitz, Hajo Meyer who along with Ellen Rohlfs couldn’t remember signing!).

Wendy Campbell, California, USA, MarWen Media
Daniel McGowan, Geneva, NY, Exec. Director, Deir Yassin Remembered
Dr Hajo G. Meyer, Heiloo, the Netherlands, survivor of Auschwitz
The Radical Press, Canada

Let us have a look at one of the signatories, one Wendy Campbell who runs her own web site.

Eernst Zundel is one of the foremost holocaust deniers. He is currently in gaol in Germany. Now I happen to oppose criminalising holocaust denial, not least because it makes martyrs of those who justify the murder of millions of Jews and non-Jews by the Nazis. But I can think of people far more deserving of sympathy and support than defenders of the most barbaric regime the world has seen. Asylum seekers for example, prisoners of conscience. But for Campbell and the DYR brigade it is Nazi sympathisers who are the world's most persecuted species. Of Zundel she asks:

‘Why is Ernst Zundel in jail?’ Campbell asks, ‘Because the Zionists want him there, since he has publicly questioned aspects of their favorite obsession and political war-time propaganda tool: the Holocaust…. as far as I can tell, he is not advocating violence against anyone, and furthermore, has never committed violence against anyone.’

And like Rizzo, Campbell is a supporter of Paul Eisen, the sensitive ‘intellectual’ of Rizzo and Atzmon’s anti-Semitic clique. In his article ‘Holocaust Wars’ he quotes Zundel’s wife’s letter to him:

Dear Paul,

Many WWII soldiers (now very old) have told me that World War II - that is, the war against the East - was really a preventive/defensive war against Communism, which was Jewish. Europe was about to be overrun by the Red Terror - Stalin had amassed his assault troops at the border, and it was only a matter of weeks, so Hitler hit first. ….
Ingrid

In one short paragraph we have the Bolshevik-Communist conspiracy and a justification for Hitler’s wars of expansion. Eisen is visibly moved, writing:

How do those Germans now nearing the end of their lives, feel when told that what seemed so right then and perhaps even still seems so right, was in fact so wrong?’ Clearly there’s no sympathy with those trade unionists, socialists, democrats who died in places like Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald etc:

And when Eisen posted a comment on her blog fantasising about the murder of Jews:

The Ukrainian peasant listens (for a couple of hundred years) about why the Jewish tavern keeper, tax farmer, landlord or whatever is doing what he's doing for the sake of 'tolerance' freedom' or 'human rights' But the time comes when he's just had enough. He lifts his axe and splits the Jews head - it's what they call a pogrom.

Jewish power needs to be confronted - peacefully and intelligently - and the sooner the better for everyone.Paul Eisen 01.13.08 - 9:16 pm #

What was Rizzo’s response? Condemnation? No, a gentle reminder that he may be misquoted!!!
‘Paul, you realise that statement of yours is going to me misquoted, out of any context and interpreted as your approval of pogroms…. Just so you understand why these attacks are as they are. People just want to do it and they will twist your words in order to do so.'
thecutter 01.13.08 - 9:45 pm #

And if there is any doubt, then Eisen makes his views clear in a posting of 26th February 2007. ‘Regarding gas, again I am not sure but the evidence for the use of homicidal gas-chambers is not good at all. The evidence against it is much, much stronger.’

It would be tedious to list all the anti-Semitic articles on Campbell’s site, but 9-11 Truth and The Holocaust which is on The Radical Press site is a particular gem!

But the Jewel in the Crown of signatures was none other than Canada’s Radical Press. Its site is a wonder to behold. We are informed that:

'Judaism is a “chameleon” culture/religion. It “becomes” whatever is necessary in order to deceive and trick non-Jews'
It has whole sections on 'Jewish Banking Cartel (82) Jewish Holocaust Industry (77) Jewish Lobby (112) Jewish Media Monopoly (105) Jewish Porn Industry (50) Jews (148) Jews Behind Bolshevik Revolution'

and of course an obligatory article entitled:
AMERICA IS RUN BY JEWS By Brother Nathanael Kapner:
'AMERICA IS NOW A JEW-RUN NATION. Here is a list of the prominent Jews who run America:' and more and more, yawn. And Atzmon writes and contributes articles to it for example

Gilad Atzmon - The Primacy of the Ear
Thursday, January 10th, 2008

[Thanks to Gilad for sending along this wonderful article. Ed.]

But as with Israel Shamir, Rizzo had a different take on matters:

‘THIS is what I wrote in support of Radical Press: Jan 17, 2008
Dear Editor,
The issue of peace in the Middle East is far too important for anyone to attempt to think it can only be dealt with between other “more important” issues such as sporting events and what Paris Hilton is doing these days. Yet, I do understand (as I am a journalist myself) that people do like to read things they already agree with that don’t challenge anything they think they already know, and especially, they don’t get encouraged to think out of the box.
At any rate, The Radical Press presents thought-provoking and intelligent information and analysis. It is absolutely NOT anti-Semitic, but many who might not agree with its harsh critique on Israel might try to label it as such, so that people will create confusion between the two, and things never change.
I hope you realise that it is a valuable resource, and any campaigning made to insinuate that it is a racist site is not at all accurate.
Mary RizzoComment by thecutter — 10 February, 2008 @ 9:57 am

She further commented:

If we are talking about other sites, The Radical Press had come under pressure by some people who wanted it to be closed down. Knowing who most of these people are, it was easy enough for me to assume they were considering things in a way that was jaundiced. It was odd that it was Anti-Zionist Jews doing it, not Zionists… This happens far too often for me to believe it is simply accidental. The Radical Press explained to me that they were an anti-Zionist site and that they were dedicated to the Palestinian cause. So, I went to the site, took a look, not deeply, basically into a few issues on Palestine that were good, because I don’t have all the time Tony, andy and Goodwin have, and it looked fine to me. I am not responsible for the content they have, nor am I their editor. I am another blogger and I defend the rights of bloggers dedicated to the Palestinian cause to do what they do, who come under attack far too often. If they are being forced to change because of pressure, I will defend them to NOT have to endure pressure. I don’t see Tony running around to close ZIONIST blogs and sites, not in the slightest, so I am not going to campaign to have Pro-Palestinian ones shut down. Each blog or site is the image of the creator, not the reader, so I believe that if we value the fact that creators select material that they wish, this is their right. Why should I feel ashamed to defend an editor in a site? I can’t vouch for the entire site, and why should I? Who am I, the thought police? I can find Brother Kapner’s article a total piece of shite, and it probably is, but I am not about to waste time to investigate every article on Jews, nor read them because someone wants me to express some opinion. It simply is not that interesting to me. I look at the value of a site in how they are able to express the Palestinian cause as being the result of Zionism and of the lack of awareness as to what Zionism is. I am not going to delve into the rest, because my time is limited. Comment by thecutter — 12 February, 2008 @ 7:08 pm

you see, her time is limited. And anyway why don’t I try and close a few Zionist sites. Presumably my involvement in the Boycott Campaign doesn’t count. But why should it since her friend Atzmon considers a Boycott of Israeli Universities to be an example of ‘book burning’.

‘interfering with academic freedom isn’t exactly something I can blindly advocate. Unlike some of my best enlightened friends, I am against any form of gatekeeping or book burning. But it goes further, I actually want to hear what Israelis and Zionists have to say. I want to read their books. I want to confront their academics. If justice is on our side we should be able to confront them.’

And on the same thread she later said:

Hey, you want me to denounce a site I came into contact with a few weeks ago? The site owner was directed to me by someone who told me that the site was receiving heavy threats from someone like (probably) Goodman. The webmaster, who is not even the author of the piece wrote me telling me they were a site that was anti-Zionist and defended Palestinian rights. I am not anyone’s judge, just like no one is mine, but I went in, the home page looked ok, I clicked on the articles that interested me, and I found them of value. What more can I say. In fact, now you can dance around claiming victory because I tell you I didn’t read the whole site and my views were expressed on the articles that are relevant to Zionism and Israel, which is what I am interested in. If there are things that are questionable, I regret that I defended a site I do not know like the pockets of my jeans, knowing that anything and everything will be used by those trying to attack me who have nothing to do all day but plug my name in on Google. It is tiring being stalked guys, you can stop now, unless you think this is political activism. I think it is sick in the head and deranged. I however am not going to grovel for you, and I’m not going to denounce any sites, not even this “sewer”!!! Let it be! I mean, what the hell, we are in a free world where people can write what they want and others comment as they feel. Or aren’t we? Comment by thecutter — 12 February, 2008 @ 10:42 pm

So Mary Rizzo, who is happy to denounce me, even to try and persuade Palestinians to sign a petition denouncing me, is unwilling to denounce an anti-Semitic sewer. And why? Well I’ll leave it to you to draw the obvious conclusion.

On 14th February Mary Rizzo removed the link to The Radical Press and in addition removed her link to a site run by Klan Wizard David Duke, however Wendy Campbell remains: