Chasing the Shadow

Am often asked by Muslimgauze fans what are the best ways to educate on what the music is about. Muslimgauze music covers much of the conflicts in the so-called Muslim world from 1982 to Jones untimely passing in 1999. That most of the conflicts have not ended, rather simmered well past his expiration is telling. Jones referenced the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the first gulf war (Iran-Iraq 1980 – 1988), Muammar Gaddafi-led Libya, but the focal point was always the Israel / Palestine conflict. To cover the conflicts referenced in Muslimgauze spans several posts, even just the Israel / Palestine conflict alone. To start, perhaps the best book to learn about Israel / Palestine during Jones’ life is Noam Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians (1999, Pluto Press).

While Fateful.. opens up with Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Chomsky then goes back to the inception of Israel in 1948, with the Europe-backed forced expulsions of Palestinians from their homes and land henceforth referred to as the “Nakba”. The British, who administered the land at the time, were also targets of Israel and many were killed by Israeli terrorists. Since inception, Chomsky then chronologizes documented Israeli atrocities that includes expulsions, multiple mass executions, herding surviving Palestinians into concentration camps for slave labor or expelling into refugee camps in surrounding Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.

Reading the layered atrocities, midway through the book I get physically ill and need to put it down for bits at a time. It is easy to see how any people can be radicalized after being subjected to a never ending conga line of horrors and injustice. The book went through multiple edition and I suggest you pick up the 1999 edition or anything after as it covers the sham that was the Oslo Accords

Key takeaway is the Palestinian willingness to accede to peace agreements and Israel/US staunch rejectionist position to any peace. Indeed, why should Israel agree to any peace when they have the nuclear armed upper hand with near limitless funds and arms from the US, UK, Europe and Canada? Any agreement that is reached between Israel / Palestine is then violated by the former. The Israeli lobby also works to buy off government representatives to have foreign policy in Israel’s favor at the expense of peace in the region. It is why Chomsky considers Israel a “Sparta state” geared to perpetual war and will be their eventual downfall.

It is highly likely Bryn Jones read Fateful Triangle and one can even source track and album title references within these books. In reading this work, I now know where much of Jones’ anger in interviews and the music came from. While there are other books to be mentioned, Fateful Triangle is a great primer.