Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Sunday 30 September 2018

Corbynistas? You betcha! (video)

See?


In leafy suburban London, flaunting falsehoods (those four mendacious maps for starters: watch some unsuspecting young passers-by lapping those up) the elderly bourgeois types from Richmond PSC (seemingly with a renewed spring in their step as a result of the anti-Israel activism at Labour Party conference last week and Corbyn's pledge that a government led by him would recognise Palestinian statehood) work their mischief, a mischief incidentally aided and abetted by the BBC.


(A MrAlexSeymour video)

Thursday 27 September 2018

David Singer: Trump’s PLO Shutdown Paves Way for Jordan-West Bank Reunification

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

President Trump’s decision to close the PLO mission in Washington, cancel the visas of the Palestinian ambassador and his family and order their bank accounts be closed – mark the PLO’s final humiliation for condemning Trump’s proposed peace plan before its contents have even been published.

Strangely however the United States still maintains that direct negotiations between Israel and the PLO are the only way forward.

The PLO will be fortified by this latest statement – mistakenly believing it:
  • remains in the box seat to stymie any peace plan Trump wheels out,
  • can blunt Trump’s reputation as a highly successful deal maker and
  • reinforces the PLO’s right to continue as sole spokesman for the Palestinian Arabs although Hamas governs Gaza and Jordan exercises sovereignty in 78 per cent of former Palestine.
Direct Israel-PLO negotiations on Trump’s peace proposals are a pipe dream.

Jordan remains the key to resolving – with Israel – Trump’s plans involving the future of the West Bank for the following reasons:
  • Transjordan occupied the West Bank from 1948 to 1967.
  • Transjordan and the West Bank were unified in 1950, the new entity was renamed “Jordan” and Jordanian citizenship was extended to the West Bank Arab population
  • Jordan continued to retain legal and administrative control and extend citizenship between 1967 and 1988 until King Hussein announced Jordan’s termination of its role in the West Bank in the PLO’s favour for the following reasons:
“Lately, it has transpired that there is a general Palestinian and Arab orientation which believes in the need to highlight the Palestinian identity in full in all efforts and activities that are related to the Palestine question and its developments. It has also become clear that there is a general conviction that maintaining the legal and administrative links with the West Bank, and the ensuing Jordanian interaction with our Palestinian brothers under occupation through Jordanian institutions in the occupied territories, contradicts this orientation. It is also viewed that these links hamper the Palestinian struggle to gain international support for the Palestinian cause of a people struggling against foreign occupation.
In view of this line of thought, which is certainly inspired by genuine Palestinian will, and Arab determination to support the Palestinian cause, it becomes our duty to be part of this direction, and to respond to its requirements…”
  • Jordan’s retirement from the West Bank moved Abu Iyad – PLO-leader Yassar Arafat’s deputy – to declare on 15 December 1989:
“I say that on the day immediately following the establishment of the Palestinian State, we will begin unity with Jordan. I am not concerned what kind of unity this may be, because we are one people and have the same history. You cannot make a distinction between a Jordanian and a Palestinian. It is true that we encourage unity between Arab peoples, but the relation between Jordan and Palestine in particular is clearly distinctive; all those who tried in the past and are still trying to create divisions between the Jordanian and Palestinian people have failed. We indeed constitute one people… when the Palestinian state and unity is established … The Jordanian will be a Palestinian and the Palestinian a Jordanian”
Reunification of the West Bank with Jordan never required the creation of a second Palestinian Arab State in the West Bank – in addition to Jordan.
Reunification of a large part of the West Bank with Jordan is now once again tantalisingly within Jordan’s grasp following Trump’s spectacular undermining of the PLO after it defiantly refused to negotiate on Trump’s still-unannounced peace plan.
Trump will not be pandering to the PLO and repeating the same mistakes made by former American presidents.

(Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog)

Wednesday 26 September 2018

Corbynistas Step Up Their War on Da Joos (updated)

As reported here:

At its annual conference, this year in Liverpool,
'The British Labour Party has decided to support a freeze on arms sales to Israel, a first in the country's history.
As the proposal was put forward, hundreds of pro-Palestinian Labour delegates stood and waved their flags inside the conference hall in Liverpool, chanting "Free Palestine!" and turning the hall into a sea of Palestinian flags.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) had handed out more than a thousand flags to delegates.
"We have witnessed extraordinary scenes of solidarity today and the Labour Party has done the right thing by recognising the longstanding injustice of Israel's violation of Palestinian rights," said PSC chair High [sic; i.e. Hugh] Lanning.
"This is an important step forward in building solidarity with Palestinians within Labour and we hope the leadership will listen to the will of the party on this issue."
.... The motion - moved by Harlow Constituency Labour Party (CLP) and seconded by Wolverhampton South West CLP - is the first on Palestine to be heard at the party's conference in many years."
Here's the spiteful motion:


And here's how delegate Hilary Wise (a former editor of Palestine News) spoke in its favour (watch the video here):






 Another speech

 Voila! A celebratory 45 seconds from Iran's PressTV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2fv3B8Eo2Q

Mark Regev (hat tip: Ian):

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNKlm1TPjLA

Earlier:

See Corbyn slither and slide re the above in an interview with Jon Snow here (topic begins at 4:45):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtqLiNE5fcs

Meanwhile, here's Pat Condell on Jew-hatred (hat tip: Ian).


Tuesday 25 September 2018

Oh Marr! "Jeremy Corbyn, are you an antisemite?"

Gorgeous George's tweet at left, retweeted by numerous Israel-hating Corbynistas and others,  is a reaction to the interview Jeremy Corbyn gave a couple of days ago to the BBC's Andrew Marr.

To quote the Jewish Chronicle inter alia here, accompanied by a still of the Labour leader addressing the Palestine Return Centre in London five years ago (see a video of that mischievous talk here or see it in the video below):
'Jeremy Corbyn ducked an invitation to express personal remorse over Labour’s antisemitism crisis in a TV appearance on the eve of the party’s conference.
Interviewed on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning, he was asked by the presenter if he would look into the camera and apologise to Jewish viewers....'
See the interview below.  "Jeremy Corbyn, are you an antisemite?" asks Marr at 8:00, introducing a topic that occupied almost 50 per cent of his interview with Corbyn. 

Stiff but polite questioning by Marr, who drives home the point that Jews can best determine what is antisemitism, and plays back to Corbyn an interview Marr did with Lord Sachs, the former Chief Rabbi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GHGV__mKq4

Among the Corbynistas who have got themselves into a twist over Marr's interview is a chap called Giles Leveson-Gower.  Now, the Leveson-Gowers are a patrician English family, not, one would have thought, the type to join the Labour Party in order to vote in Corbyn as leader.  Whether Giles is using a pseudonym I know not, but he's certainly no fan of the Zionist Entity, as his Twitter page and this too indicates.

With regard to the Marr interview, Giles in an exchange on Facebook:

 And


Upwards of 85 per cent of British Jews with two passports?  What's prompted that idea?

Aha!  Could this Jewish Chronicle article (read it in full here) have been misinterpreted by our double-barrelled friend?
'More than 85 per cent of British Jews think Jeremy Corbyn is antisemitic, according to polling carried out for the JC. A similar percentage believe there are significant levels of antisemitism at all levels of the Labour Party.
The survey, undertaken by polling company Survation between August 12 and September 4, shows that 85.9 per cent of British Jews regard the Labour leader as antisemitic, while just 8.3 per cent believe he is not.
In a recent Survation poll among the general public, 39 per cent said Mr Corbyn was antisemitic.... 
In a poll earlier this month among the general public, 43 per cent said there were “high” to “very high” levels of antisemitism within Labour.
The poll was conducted after the Labour leader was at the centre of further rows. In July, photos of Mr Corbyn surfaced from a 2014 event in Tunis, where he laid a wreath commemorating the terrorists behind the Munich massacre of the Israeli Olympic team in 1972. In August, a video emerged of him speaking at a 2013 event, during which he said of British “Zionists”.
“They clearly have two problems. One is they don’t want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don’t understand English irony either."'

Sunday 23 September 2018

Betrayal of the Netherlands (video)

Here's a fresh warning from Geert Wilders about the fate of the Netherlands under the lunatic policy of Open Borders, a policy that is equally applicable to the other countries whose political elites seem hell-bent on destroying European civilisation, true liberalism, and their children's futures in what many hapless observers are calling "The Great Betrayal".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=FJOQPR7wWBI

Friday 21 September 2018

"These Two Battlegrounds Are Part of the Same Story" (video)

An incisive and sobering look at the West since 9/11 by Mark Steyn, pointing out that since 9/11 Muslim immigration to the western world has doubled, leading to "a great demographic transformation" that has empowered Islamic extremism in Europe's heartland while the West has spent 17 years "dithering around in the Hindu Kush".  A very worthwhile, if disturbing, view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=Ua8KIbPuGtc

Thursday 20 September 2018

Hobson's Choice! (video)

Oy! Here's a cheery guy in Oz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjMsJ94XgKk

Monday 17 September 2018

Hoary-headed Haters Harangue HSBC (video)

Here are some more of those bourgeois silver-haired types who seem to proliferate among PSC branches in genteel parts of the UK.  This bunch are spending a nice sunny Saturday (15 September) in Kingston-on-Thames spreading hate against the Jewish State. 


To quote the video maker and uploader, Jewish BDSer Seymour Alexander, aka MrAlexSeymour, they are: 
"Part of a nationwide protest organized by PSC calling on HSBC through demos outside its high street branches to stop facilitating the deadly arms trade with Israel." 
All in all, although these fanatics seem to be be distributing their anti-Israel propaganda to a large number of passers-by, they may hardly be said to be doing a roaring trade, considering how many people walk briskly past them with hardly a glance.

Still, such dedicated Israel-haters have the power to poison young minds, as this recent video by David Collier demonstrates.


Incidentally, another excellent article by pro-Israel Parisian scholar Guy Millière here

Among its points:
- Twenty-five years after Oslo, the balance sheet is more like what in 2003 the historian Efraim Karsh called the start of the "Oslo war". In this war, he wrote, Israel had conceded from the beginning a major victory to its worst enemies by giving them a respectability they did not deserve, and thus placed itself in a losing position from which it never fully recovered.
 - "Contrary to Rabin's slogan, one does not 'make [peace] with very unsavory enemies' but rather with former very unsavory enemies. That is, enemies that have been defeated... Wars end, the historical record shows, not through goodwill but through defeat. He who does not win loses. Wars usually end when failure causes one side to despair, when that side has abandoned its war aims and accepted defeat, and when that defeat has exhausted its will to fight. Conversely, so long as both combatants still hope to achieve their war objectives, fighting either goes on or it potentially will resume." — Daniel Pipes, Commentary, January 2017.
-"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism." — PLO leader Zuheir Mohsen , interview in Trouw, March, 1977.

Friday 14 September 2018

David Singer: Trump Squeezes UNRWA, Checkmates PLO and Incentivises Jordan

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

President Trump has created a veritable diplomatic tsunami affecting the political fortunes of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Hamas and Jordan – with his decision to cease all future donations to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) – currently US$360million per annum and comprising about 30 percent of UNRWA’s budget.

The numbers of UNRWA-registered Palestinian Arab refugees in Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza have been increasing in leaps and bounds annually because they include all the descendants of those Palestinian Arabs caught up in the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israel wars.

Currently:
  • 2,175,000 live in Jordan – 370,000 of whom reside in 10 camps
  • 810,000 live in the West Bank – 200,000 of whom reside in 19 camps
  • 1,300,000 live in Gaza – 580,000 of whom reside in 8 camps
UNRWA only provides services to the camps. UNRWA does not administer or police the camps, as this is the responsibility of the host authorities.

Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza comprise 83 per cent of the territory of former Palestine.

For UNRWA to count as “refugees” people who are now living in Arab-controlled parts of the same country where their forebears once resided – is really an insult to one’s intelligence.

For UNRWA to tolerate a system of apartheid and segregation that allows those “refugees” to be divided into camp dwellers and non-camp dwellers makes a mockery of the humanitarian principles espoused by the United Nations and the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Struggling under an accumulated deficit of US$271 million before Trump’s hammer blow – UNRWA had already shut down or slated for closure many programs and laid off large numbers of employees – mainly Palestinian Arabs.

The further cuts UNRWA will now be forced to make following America’s defunding will be critical to the PLO, Hamas and Jordan – as “refugees” coming under their respective jurisdictions affected by substantial cuts to their well-established entitlements see others not similarly subjected.

UNRWA funding decisions cannot possibly please all these “refugees” – and those receiving UNRWA aid in Lebanon and Syria.

The PLO, Hamas and Jordan will be lobbying furiously for UNRWA funding cuts to not be made to “refugees” living under their governance. Serious political consequences could ensue if they fail.
Jordan – enjoying a long-standing peace treaty with Israel – currently houses 50 percent of the total of UNRWA registered Palestinian Arab “refugees” in the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan.

Jordan – 70 per cent of whose population comprises Palestinian Arabs or their descendants formerly living in Palestine west of the Jordan River – is eminently qualified to enter into direct negotiations with Israel to recover territory lost by it in the West Bank to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

Successful negotiations would enable Jordan to:
  • close the 29 refugee camps in Jordan and the West Bank currently housing 570,000 “refugees”
  • fully rehabilitate and integrate all 2,985,000 “refugees” within the general Arab populations residing in the West Bank and Jordan
  • extend Jordanian citizenship to all West Bank Arab residents
Trump’s promise of direct American bilateral assistance to Jordan would facilitate this outcome.
In one fell swoop – Trump has:
  • Squeezed UNRWA into making refugee-relief choices that could affect the political futures of the PLO, Hamas and Jordan
  • Checkmated the PLO’s claim to continue to be the sole spokesman for the Palestinian Arabs because it lacks absolute authority to influence how UNRWA reduces current funding to the Palestinian Arab “refugees” living in Gaza and Jordan
  • Incentivised Jordan to fill the diplomatic void left by the PLO by agreeing to begin negotiations with Israel on Trump’s peace plan without any preconditions
Bucking – not backing – Trump is a sure-fire recipe for committing political suicide.

Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article—is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators –  whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog

Wednesday 12 September 2018

Rogues with a Brogue (video)

In Belfast on Tuesday, heavily outnumbering pro-Israel counter-protesters, dozens of raucous members of an outfit calling itself BDS Ireland (part of part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement along with Sinn Fein) yell their opposition to Northern Ireland's first friendly football match against Israel in Windsor Park. Over 5,000 Israel-haters signed a petition demanding the match's cancellation, but the match went ahead, the home team winning by 3 goals to nil.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFZDo7r5AuI

Monday 10 September 2018

Shana Tova from me ... & Corbyn ...

To my Jewish readers ...




Pass the sick bag, please.




Meanwhile, read the incomparable Howard Jacobson's new take on Corbyn's antisemitism here:
"....We know what an antisemite look like. He wears jackboots, a swastika arm-band, and shouts Juden Raus; Jeremy Corbyn wears a British Home Stores vest under his shirt and is softly spoken.  Antisemites accuse Jews of killing Jesus; Corbyn is an atheist and seems not to mind if we did or didn't. Whether that's because Jesus was Jewish and killing him meant one less Jew in the world, is not for me to say.  And - and - he doesn't deny the Holocaust...
 Mind you, he knows a man who does.  In fact he knows a surprising number of men who do. That he denies ever having been in their company - until photographs turn up of him rubbing noses with them at the gravesides of mass murderers, offering to show them his belief systems if they'll show him theirs - 'Gosh, they're the same size!' - should come as no surprise. You can't spend your whole life in the company of blood-libellers and holocaust-deniers and expect to remember them all by name...
I will spend my remaining seconds - I don't mean in life, I mean of this speech - telling you why it matters to everyone, not just Jews, that a man so spiteful, sanctimonious and obdurate should never be allowed to do to the country what he's been doing to his party...."   [Emphasis added]

Friday 7 September 2018

David Singer: Jordan’s Re-entry into West Bank Looms Large as Trump Dumps PLO

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

Two major developments this past week could see a large part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) being reunified with Jordan – as existed between 1950 and 1967 – or becoming a Jordanian enclave – under President Trumps’ yet-to-be- announced “ultimate deal” intended to resolve the100 years-old Arab-Jewish conflict.

Those developments were:
  1. Trump immediately stopped all further American financial aid to UNRWA:
The PLO refusedto have anything to do with Trump’s slowly-gestating peace proposals after Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017.

This PLO anti-Trump stance has continued unabated despite US Ambassador to the United Nations – Nikki Haley – publicly warning the PLO last January when asked about future US funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian Arab refugees:
“The President has basically said he doesn’t want to give any additional funding, or stop funding, until the Palestinians agree to come back to the negotiation table. We still very much want to have a peace process. Nothing changes with that. The Palestinians now have to show they want to. As of now, they’re not coming to the table, but they ask for aid. We’re not giving the aid. We’re going to make sure that they come to the table.”
This week Trump gave up waiting – ending all future donations to UNRWA including $300 million pledged for this year.

More than 2 million UNRWA registered Palestinian Arab refugees live in Jordan – most of whom have full citizenship. Nearly 370,000 – or 18 per cent – live in 10 refugee camps.

The West Bank has nearly 775,000 UNRWA registered Palestinian Arab refugees – a quarter of who live in 19 camps.

Trump’s proven propensity for financially helping those States that help him achieve his goals could well see a large part of this retired UNRWA funding being redirected to Jordan – if Jordan replaces the PLO and enters into direct negotiations with Israel on finally resolving sovereignty in the West Bank.
  1. The PLO announced it had refused Trump’s proposal to create a Jordan-West Bank confederation:
Israel and the PLO have been unable to agree on the creation of an additional Arab State between Israel and Jordan after fruitless negotiations conducted over the last 25 years.

Rejecting a Jordan-West Bank confederation now sees the PLO hoisted by its own petard– leaving Jordan to fill the yawning diplomatic void by stepping in and negotiating with Israel to engineer Jordan’s return to a large part of the West Bank – occupied by Jordan from 1948 until its loss to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

Restoring Jordanian citizenship to the West Bank Arab population – as existed between 1950 and 1988 – would once again see parity of rights re-established between the Arab populations spanning both sides of the Jordan River.

The 29 refugee camps in Jordan and the West Bank could be closed and their inhabitants integrated into the general population. “Palestinian refugees” would be relics of the past.
No Arab or Jew living in the West Bank would be forced to move.

Palestinian Arabs residing in other Arab countries could emigrate to this newly-merged Jordan-West Bank entity – which might even choose to rename itself “Palestine” – comprising as it would about 80% of the territory contained in the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine. Israel would end up exercising sovereignty in about 19 per cent – leaving sovereignty in the remaining 1 per cent – Gaza – to be determined by Israel, Jordan and Egypt.

As with any good settlement – no-one would be 100 per cent happy – but 100 years of conflict would be ended and Trump would have pulled off yet another stunning success.

(Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article—is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators –  whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog)

Thursday 6 September 2018

Some Corbynistas' Petty Vengeance

A tweet by Wales-based international relations academic and UK-Israel relations specialist James Vaughan ("Would talk less about antisemitism if there were less of it about"):


At several London bus stops today:

Image: Evening Standard/Aine Lagan 

Inter alia:
',,,,The Met tweeted to say police in Lambeth were investigating reports of fly-posting and that "offensive material will be removed".
The posters shocked Londoners making their way home from work, with many describing them as “vile” and “terrifying”. Others claimed the adverts were a “hate crime”.
A TfL[Transport for London' spokesperson said: "These adverts are absolutely not authorised by TfL or our advertising partner JCDecaux.

“It is fly posting and therefore an act of vandalism which we take extremely seriously. We have instructed our contractors to remove any of these posters found on our network immediately.”....'
 


Back to Vaughan:





Wednesday 5 September 2018

"We Will See What They Come Up With, Maybe in the Next Hour, Gideon" (updated; more videos)

That's how BBC presenter Huw Edwards closed this interesting interview with the excellent Gideon Falter, chairman of the Campaign Against Antisemitism:


And so it soon proved.






Anti-Israel Labour ferals including as-a-Jews demostrate (a MrAlexSeymour video); sorry, the video insists on aligning itself to the right!  (What fun to see the ferals this furious!)

                                           
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYpgYdhr4TM

More, insisting on staying left this time:


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiC9ghNZ9jo

Full marks for integrity, by the way, to the BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones.  

In 2007 he campaigned against the National Union of Journalists pro-BDS initiative, and here he is again, challenging the NUJ to state where it stands on antisemitism:




Monday 3 September 2018

Corbynista Antisemitism: Ray's beams of light

Antisemitic trash spruiked on Facebook today by Tony Gratrex
Although I've always considered him to the political left of myself, I've a soft spot for British blogger Ray Cook.

Despite probably considering me to the political right of himself, Ray, who's Jewish,  was the person who, in 2010, suggested that I start a blog of my own, and persuaded my hesitant self to do so.

Ray's is a calm, rational voice in the pro-Israel blogosphere, and on the subject of Corbynista antisemitism he is all the more effective because of that.  His literary skills are evident in the following sardonic commentary, posted to Facebook last week, and reproduced here with his permission

The accompanying images have been gathered by me, and those from the 'secret' Facebook group known as 'Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party Forum' come from the collection of Gillian Lazarus, who explains, inter alia:
Well, with friends like Gratrex Sizer should be an expert!
 '.... There is an almost obsessive antagonism to Israel and to Jews, making an exception for Jews who actively denounce Israel; Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein and the late Hajo Meyer being much cited. 
These views do not usually get challenged by other members. 
They are permitted by the administrators. Calling the Talmud Satanic is not reasoned criticism of Israel. 
The administrators post articles and videos, usually from Mint Press, Russia Today, Palestinian news channels, Evolve, Mondoweiss and Skwawkbox which are universally hostile to Israel.
Within a short space of time, these posts attract comments denigrating Jews in general.
 If anyone disagrees, they are abused by other members of the group.
 On the few occasions when I have posted something questioning the totally negative coverage of Israel, my comments were deleted by administrators.
The Al-Jazeera film ‘the Lobby’ is posted most days as an educational resource.
The literacy of forum members is diverse. I find it hard to imagine that Tories and Zionists would infiltrate these forums and employ so many different levels of orthographic competence.
It is argued every day on the forums that Israel is murderous, sadistic, criminal and internationally puissant. The videos are not usually clear and one cannot see what is happening in them, so a member will insert a tagline, explaining that the video depicts some monstrous behaviour inflicted on Palestinians by Israelis. I’m not saying that this never happens but that, in the videos shown, anything could be happening. It is like looking at an abstract painting.  The explanatory text next to it tells you that the painting shows the artist’s inner turmoil when choosing between a tuna baguette and an avocado wrap. Without the text, one would not know....'
 Over to Ray Cook: 
'It seems the more we Jews complain about antisemitism the more people reveal their distaste for Jews and make every excuse to pooh-pooh, dismiss, ridicule and trash our fears.
If you are Muslim, gay, black, trans, disabled, the same people are tripping over themselves to stand with you to signal their virtue. All the more reason to cherish those who are not Jews yet stand with us in these troubled times.
Geoffrey Robertson, for the Palestine Return Centre!Click here
Of course, we must understand that were it not for the existence of Israel there would be no antisemitism. It's Israel's existence that is the problem because it has to compete for virtue with one of the groups so beloved by the not-antisemitic, anti-Zionists. Anyone who can claim to be a) a victim b) oppressed c) not white d) not colonialist e) not European f) all of the above but with a propensity for murder and/or religious/political fanaticism, misogyny, homophobia or Holocaust denial is embraced and welcomed to the fold of the International Socialist Solidarity Movement. But not ISIS - ooh no. They are too clearly worse even than the Zios - therefore they must be covert Zios!! So you mustn't like them, but it is also ok to explain their existence as a reaction to the imperialism of the West which was/is financed by Jews. Nothing to do with religion.
A reference to Margaret Hodge, MP
You cannot be an antisemite, anyway, because not all Semites are Jews. The word was coined to include the ancient Egyptians and Hittites, of course
To qualify as a full member of the Righteous against Zion you must also understand Jews better than Jews themselves. You understand their thinking and their psychosis. You understand their motivation. You are far better placed to define who is a Jew than Jews. Judaism is purely a religion, not a people or a nation. What do we know, eh?
And, if it happens, you can claim to be a Jew, even if you don't practise Judaism and, therefore, are not a Jew by your own definition, you are, however über-qualified to pontificate about Judaism, Zionism and Jewish history, even if you have not the slimmest connection to the Jewish community. And not only that, If you can claim to be an anti-Zionist Jew you are guaranteed a place in the pantheon of the Virtuous.
You have to support murder or, preferably, genocide to get full approval as a victim. Do not subscribe any moral agency to those you support - they are immune and have no responsibility for their actions. This is why Maoris, Aboriginals, Native Americans, Tibetans, Crimeans, Rohingya, Kurds are not on the radar. But above all, don't defend Israel - at all. Physically, in writing, politically.
You have to regularly compare Israel to Nazis and claim they are committing genocide against the 'Palestinians'. This reinforces your Group credentials. It's purely a coincidence that this is deliberately offensive to all Jews. These lies are necessary because facts are fluid when it comes to class war.
It has nothing to do with Jews. It's that terrible idea - Zionism - that is the problem. Zionism, the movement which became necessary due to unhinged, illogical hatred against Jews so that they sought to find peace and self-determination away from antisemites, is now used as an excuse to attempt to deprive them of the refuge which they made Jews need in the first place. After all, we were so safe in Europe, weren't we? We were so safe in the Arab world, weren't we?

So we should just shut up, leave the Middle East, stop being successful, stop being too clever for our own good, stop slaughtering animals, stop circumcision, stop wearing funny clothes, stop being too white and, well, stop being Jewish, I guess; then we'll be safe. Sounds like a good deal to me. Any takers?
Disclaimer: this post does not contain any irony because, as a British Zionist, I cannot fathom its intellectual nuances.'
 Futhermore:
'My response to a Times comment on an article about Corbyn's leading the party into a nightmare of its own making.
The comment in question ran as follows:
 "A balanced article, but with a flaw. It is rather dodgy about Hayo Meijer. It says that Meyer “likened the Israeli government to the Nazis” without further comment. The meeting where this picture was taking is one in the sequence of international meetings organised by IJAN (International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network). IJAN condemns the misuse of the Holocaust by the Israeli government to abstain the Palestinian population of its legal rights. Meyer always started his lectures by explicit pointing out that you can’t compare the fate of the Palestinians with the ‘endlösung’. A lot of Jews who survived the concentration camps have later declared that the period before the ‘kristallnacht’ was the most severe, because of the enormous uncertainty about what was going to happen. After the ‘kristallnacht’ everything was clear. The issue is loss of identity. Secular Jews saw themselves not as Jew, but as German. Suddenly this identity was taken away from them. Soon after that they even lost their human identity and they were classifies as ‘untermensch’. This process of dehumanisation was Hago Meijer’s subject. A famous quote of him is: “before you can dehumanise someone else, you first have to dehumanise yourself”. And it is exactly this process of dehumanising the Palestinians of which he was afraid would damage the Jewish community on the long term."
My response:
"The idea Israel 'dehumanises' Palestinians is at best an exaggeration, at worst a libel. The opposite is definitely true, in fact; you only have to pay close attention to the filth spewed out by the PA media and Hamas and the brainwashing of children to see it is the Jewish Israelis who are dehumanised and this aids the ease with which Palestinians can be persuaded to stab, run over, blow up and shoot Jews.
Whereas it is true that restrictions on movement, being at the mercy of soldiers etc. has a demoralising effect, the response is not a desperate push for negotiation about borders and settlements, but a murderous rampage.
Prior to the First Intifada there was no security fence, no checkpoints and free movement. That Intifada came after agreement on final borders and other issues was so close that Arafat had to do something to change the status quo or he would have to agree to a state. Since then, at least 3 more offers have been rejected because no offer would ever be enough for those who dehumanise Jews daily and seek their destruction.
The idea that the State of Israel uses the Holocaust to justify its 'treatment' of Palestinians is pure antisemitic hate. 20% of the population of Israel is Arab Muslim and they have the highest standard of living and the most freedom of any Arabs anywhere (and yes, there is prejudice and, yes, there are problems, but these can be politically resolved over time). The only reason the Arabs of the territories don't have the same freedom is because they refuse to accept the existence of a Jewish State and are brainwashed into believing such historically illiterate lies that the Israelis only arrived after '48 and that they are all Europeans or Khazars and they have no connection to the land etc. etc. and it's all the result of the Holocaust (Tel Aviv was founded in 1909, for example under the Muslim Ottoman Turks). A Holocaust many of them, including Abbas, either deny or belittle.
If you want to negotiate a State and you really want a 2 state solution then you don't go about it by seeking the destruction of the other side. Corbyn supports these views, whatever he says, and he is especially keen to embrace Jews who share these egregious views because it gives cover to his own prejudices. [Emphasis added]
This is not to say Israel is completely innocent, but the rhetoric against it from the Muslim world and the far Left in this country and outside is so shrill and disproportionate, not to say frequently mendacious, that reasoned and honest discussion of a very complex historical and legal problem is virtually impossible in the media and online.
Corbyn aligns himself with, and is the cheerleader for the politics of the bully and the antisemite who broach no discussion or questioning because they might be confronted with the truth. This is why so many of the meetings he has are behind closed doors or exclude 'Zionists' who might challenge lies and exaggeration or half-truths and conspiracy theories as well as blatant antisemitic tropes.
Former PM Gordon Brown attempts damage control
Corbyn is a vicarious 'insurgent'. He goes around appropriating international conflicts in Israel, Ireland, Iraq, Syria etc. and local politics to his own internationalist, anti-capitalist anti-colonialist, anti-West world view. He then tells us with delusional hubris he does it in the pursuit of peace without a scintilla of evidence to support that statement.
All that would be acceptable in terms of free speech, but the problem is that in so doing he befriends murderers and terrorists and enemies of this country and sanitises them.
He may soon be Prime Minister of this country. Alarmingly, there appear to be millions that don't see him for what he is, or worse, do see it and don't care or actually agree with him. For Jews, perhaps more than most people, that is a scenario that is burned into their psyche and that is why their response is so anguished."'

Saturday 1 September 2018

Stephen Sizer's Misadventures

"Truly, I have never known a man to find himself alongside antisemites so often and not realise until it is publicly pointed out to him. Someone ought to make a sitcom about his misadventures with the antisemites."

So observed Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman back in March when she reminded readers, inter alia, that "he defended the Rev Stephen Sizer, who was later banned by church authorities from social media for sharing antisemitic material blaming Israel for 9/11."

An editorial note at the end explained "Jeremy Corbyn defended the Rev Stephen Sizer before Sizer was banned by church authorities from social media for sharing antisemitic material blaming Israel for 9/11 " 

Look again at that sentence "Truly, I have never known a man to find himself alongside antisemites so often and not realise until it is publicly pointed out to him". 

 Does it not also bring to mind the ex-vicar of Virginia Water?

This chap, still going strong:


Earlier this week Sizer posted the following plea to his Facebook faithful regarding an article (by Dominic Kennedy) that appeared in The Times on 24 August:



And was duly obliged:
'Jeremy Corbyn claimed that Zionists in Britain “don’t understand English irony” in a speech that appeared to portray Jews as an alien culture. Luciana Berger, a Jewish Labour MP, said that the Labour leader’s comments, caught on camera at a pro-Palestinian event, were “inexcusable” and made her feel unwelcome in the party.  Mr Corbyn has been fighting claims of antisemitism in his party for most of the three years of his leadership. The latest disclosure is the most damaging blow yet to his claims that he opposes prejudice against Jews. Jamie Susskind, a former speechwriter for Ed Miliband, called on the Labour leader to resign.
In the 2013 speech Mr Corbyn referred to a speech by Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian Authority representative in Britain. Mr Corbyn said that the envoy’s words had been “dutifully recorded by the thankfully silent Zionists who were in the audience on that occasion and then came up and berated him afterwards for what he’d said. “So clearly two problems. One is that they don’t want to study history and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don’t understand English irony either. Manuel does understand English irony and uses it very, very effectively so I think they need two lessons which we can help them with.”
.... Mr Corbyn faced a backlash after the video of his speech was published by Mail Online. MPs piled pressure on their leader. Ms Berger, the Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree, tweeted that the video of Mr Corbyn “making inexcusable comments — defended by a party spokesman — makes me as a proud British Jew feel unwelcome in my own party. I’ve lived in Britain all my life and I don’t need any lessons in history/irony.” She was supported by Labour colleagues. Catherine McKinnell, the Newcastle North MP, tweeted that she was “standing right with you”. Phil Wilson, the MP for Sedgefield, added: “Right beside you.”
Marcus Dysch, who works for the Jewish educational charity World ORT, said that it was clear that the remarks targeted Jews. Tweeting in a personal capacity he said: “Unambiguous antisemitic hate from Corbyn, a terrorist-sympathising, purge orchestrating, fear-mongering, unaccountable piece of work who should never have been allowed to lead a once-great party. Is it any wonder British Jews despair as this saga drags on?”
Mr Susskind, the former chairman of the Oxford University Labour Club, said: “Corbyn is not criticising Israel or supporting Palestinians. He is saying that Zionists (read Jews) who have lived in England their whole lives are somehow not fully English in their sensibilities. He has to go.” Jeremy Duns, the novelist, responded with a display of English irony: “Love the idea of the world’s most humourless man offering to teach Jews about irony. I mean, Zionists, sorry! He meant only Zionists, of course he did, silly me.”
Jennifer Gerber, director of Labour Friends of Israel, described Mr Corbyn’s comments as “despicable”.  John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: “I think this has all been taken out of context: whatever Jeremy has said throughout the years has always been about how to secure peace, particularly within the Middle East and also peace with justice for all concerned — both members of the Jewish community and also members of the Palestinian community. In that context Jeremy has devoted his life, so I think this would take expressions out of context in that way are not helping.”
Nick Griffin, former leader of the far-right British National Party, weighed in behind the Labour leader. He tweeted: “Go Jezza! I wonder how many Labour activists the hysterical Zionist media campaign against Corbyn is re-pilling?”
Mr Corbyn made his comments at Friends House in Euston during an event publicised on the propaganda website of the military wing of Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades, which has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the Home Office since 2001. A spokesman for Labour said that he was there to support peace. Among the speakers was Daud Abdullah, a former deputy general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, who has been accused of calling for violence against Israelis and condoning attacks on British troops. Stephen Sizer, a vicar who has suggested that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks, also spoke.  (Emphasis addded)
It has also emerged that Mr Corbyn accused Israel of genocide at a rally in 2014. The Daily Mail reported that he was recorded at a protest near the Israeli embassy in London, saying: “This is an occupation, this is a genocidal attack on Palestinian people.” ....'
As the pictured examples above indicate Sizer is rather fond of posting links to conspiracy theories regarding the Jews of Israel. 

And as left-leaning Zionist and London academic David Hirsh and the well-known Anglican blogger Archbishop Cranmer have both pointed out in recent days, Sizer posted this version of the antisemitic trope "the Jews control the media" on Facebook last week:



(Read Hirsh here and Cranmer here)

As I've observed countless times, it is curious that Sizer fails to defriend the many antisemites among his Facebook followers.

People like the notorious Tony Gratrex, long associated with the Reading PSC branch. 


In recent days:



Sizer posted this statement on Facebook a few days ago:



But he also posted this, and, hey presto, what do we find when following the link?



Why, an offering from a hate site about which we are reminded here:
 'If Americans Knew (IAK), a non-profit founded by activist Alison Weir, has the rare distinction of being condemned for furthering anti-Semitism by the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation.
Weir earned this remarkable wall-to-wall opprobrium by promoting anti-Semitic myths, working with white supremacists, and publishing anti-Jewish content on IAK’s web site.'
Not a good look, Stephen Sizer.

Speaking of the Campaign Against Antisemitism:


One of Sizer's Facebook faithful, the scurrilous clown who calls himself Harriet S Place,  has defended Sizer thus:


Ah, but would Harriet and other apologists be so understanding of a public figure on the right of politics who linked to propaganda material by David Duke or the Ku Klux Klan and claimed that they had no ulterior motive in doing so?  Would they not condemn such a person as a racist and a fascist?

Answers on a postcard, please.