Has The JLC Sold Pro-Israel Activism Down The River Exe?

Some time ago I mentioned that in October the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, in the Devon cathedral city which takes its name from the River Exe, will be hosting a one-sided Israel-bashing conference consisting of  Professor Ilan Pappe and like-minded academics.


 Now, an official statement emanating from the Jewish Leadership Council declares that an acceptable and praiseworthy compromise has been reached that sets the template for future such events:

'The Jewish Leadership Council (JLC), Board of Deputies, Union of Jewish Students (UJS) and The University of Exeter can today announce a new approach to the debating of issues on campus pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, whilst upholding the principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech.

In the lead-up to the academic conference on ‘Settler Colonialism in Palestine & Workshop on the Naqab Bedouin’ the University and the JLC have worked together to adopt a plan which, it is hoped, will form the basis of an approach for future similar conferences.

In a constructive engagement, the JLC raised the issue that the call for papers and conference timing could give the appearance of a lack of opportunity to submit opposing views on the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The University understands this concern, and has worked with its academics to address it, while keeping at its heart the principles of academic freedom and freedom of enquiry. 

Therefore, on this occasion:

The JLC has been invited to nominate two academics to attend and participate in the conference in its current form which is scheduled for the beginning of October.

An academic event will be held later in the year and co-hosted by the University of Exeter and the JLC, which will provide an opportunity for further academic debate, ensuring that many topics are covered from a range of speakers on both sides of the debate. The JLC and the University will jointly agree the title, format and content.

The principles of academic freedom and open enquiry are fundamental. Those principles do not prevent academic conferences looking to offer as wide a range of academic evidence and argument as possible within the range of study and to actively seek out views which might counter perception of underlying bias.

Working with Universities UK, the University of Exeter and the JLC have benefitted from a constructive dialogue and this experience may benefit other universities to engage at the outset of any future conferences on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.'

The JLC's statement quotes many appreciative sentiments on the part of relevant campus organisations, including Jewish ones.  Also quoted is David Brown, CEO, Union of Jewish Students (UJS), who asserts:

"UJS are encouraged by the steps taken by the University of Exeter to secure the welfare of all their students whilst ensuring academic freedom. Academic freedom also requires that any students do not feel threatened or have their learning impinged due to their religious, ethnic or national identity. We are proud of the Exeter J-Soc and Exeter Friends of Israel Society for the determined and pragmatic way they have worked with their Guild and University leadership. We hope that Vice Chancellors and Students’ Unions across the UK will emulate this sensitive response to the needs and concerns of their students."

But some prominent pro-Israel activists are not placated.  One, for instance, comments on the above site, below the line:

'This is not an academic conference. It is an Israel hatefest. The phrase “Israel’s exceptionality” is deeply antisemitic. It means “Because of Holocaust guilt, Israel is exceptional – it is allowed to break laws with impunity”.

This event – financed with public money – should not be happening at a University. That is what the JLC should have aimed to achieve. Being ‘allowed’ to nominate two academics simply gives the hatefest a seal of approval.

“This approach should form a good model for future discussions on conferences which may cause controversy”

No it should not. It is unacceptable for Israel hatefest events to take place at Universities. Giving the event a seal of approval in this way makes it no better – worse in truth.'

Another argues:

"You cannot have a debate when one side sets the title for the conference and the terms of the debate. The October conference inverts the true nature of the struggle of the indigenous Jewish people against Arab and Muslim ethnic cleansing, colonialism and imperialism. The debate’s premise is founded on a lie. You cannot have dialogue when one side wants you dead and the argument is simply over the manner of the death – emasculation of Israel’s right to self-defence, diplomatic isolation and condemnation in the court of world opinion or demographic strangulation. The October conference is simply one more weapon in this Palestinian/Islamist war, under cover of academic respectablility. None of this must be allowed to go ahead and the Jewish establishment must not be party to it."

 Another, Professor Denis MacEoin, observes, inter alia  (read his entire comment here):

"The JLC compromise does not solve, but rather exacerbates the problem. Given the overall tenor of the conference and its clear bias, I would not feel confident in exposing myself to its atmosphere and a likely tirade against whatever views I might express, even though I am qualified to do so... A properly managed academic conference should not display such an exorbitant degree of pre-judgmental bias or a clearly one-sided panel of papers and individuals....The JLC approach is ultimately self-defeating. It is a mistake to argue that a non-academic body representing a single viewpoint can, in effect, appoint someone to take part in an academic conference. As a precedent, this will allow bodies like the Muslim Council of Britain and other Islamic bodies to appoint pious Muslims with degrees of vague relevance or none to take part in this or later conferences.... It is a dangerous direction to take and the JLC, regardless of its motives, should be made aware of the long-term threat it poses. It will undermine balanced academic work on this topic. Moreover, simply by taking part we are endorsing the conference, which should be halted on academic grounds for its one-sided approach. Read the description of the conference, the title, and the proposed papers and ask why on earth should we go along with an anti-Zionist and, by more than implication, anti-Semitic event by dressing it up as ‘open to all views’, something it clearly is not."

And please read this long robust piece  that concludes thus:

"The Jewish students have been sold out, Israel has been sold out, Jewish Academics have been sold out, Israeli activists have been sold out and many in the community have been sold out, probably so one Jewish group can score a few publicity points. Who knows and who cares, it doesn’t make this action any less wrong. I am no extremist, and this agreement shows clearly these groups do not have enough of a fundamental grasp of the situation to be able to make decisions, and they most certainly do not have the authority to speak in my name. They have just made everything a whole lot worse. I know that historians will one day look back in astonishment at the treatment Israel is currently being given within academic institutions in the West, just as historically we always retroactively analyse anti-Semitism in any time period; and now in addition, historians will once again analyse how the Jewish leadership simply put its head in the sand as the world around them began to burn. Anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism, there is no negotiation and no white flag. It was, is, and always will be unacceptable, however it wishes to dress itself up."

"If Kids Wish To Insult Each Other, They Now Use [The Word] Jew": Par For The Course At Parrs Wood?

Marcus Shloimovitz (1899-1986) began life in what was arguably the most antisemitic country in the whole of Europe, its institutionalised Jew-hatred seemingly outstripping even that of Tsarist Russia: Roumania.  But he spent most of his life in the great north-western city of Manchester, where he became a textile merchant.

A member of the Board of Deputies for 30 years, Mr Shloimovitz is still remembered for his long- and hard-fought campaign to have such definitions of the noun Jew as "extortionate moneylender ... miser" and of the obnoxious verb "to jew" as "to cheat, swindle or defraud" from English dictionaries.

In his struggle he was opposed, even mocked, by many of the lily-livered, don't-rock-the-boat types that have all too often bedeviled the "leadership" circles of the Anglo-Jewish community.

But he was supported by many non-Jewish public figures (including household names from Parliament and the judiciary), and his efforts were endorsed by successive Israeli prime ministers.

As a result of Mr Shloimovitz's tenacity and determination,  most dictionaries at last either removed the definitions objected to, or qualified their continuing presence with apologetic explanations.

Although such pejorative usages were in the dictionary, the Holocaust had already made utterance of them infinitely more shocking than they had been before, and they were accordingly shunned by all decent people, appalled at the depraved and murderous depths to which Judeophobia can lead.

Even so, the terms obviously continued in some households, for, shamefully, they have sprung into renewed life among schoolchildren.  

Notes the historian Professor Geoffrey Alderman in his latest column in the Jewish Chronicle:

'Last November, in my capacity as a visiting professor at York St John University, I had the privilege of hearing a presentation by doctoral student Joy Schmack. Mrs Schmack, an extremely experienced teacher and inspector of secondary-school religious education, is researching the use of the word "Jew" in teenage classrooms in the north-west of England. She presented chilling evidence of the unmistakeable revival of the word "Jew" as a common term of abuse amongst teenagers, who apparently habitually use it as a synonym for "cheat" or "swindler", or "snitch". "Don't you dare Jew me", one Merseyside youngster might say to another - perhaps hardly realising the significance of these words.

Scarcely four months after hearing this presentation I received a communication from a retired gentleman whose family escaped from Nazi Germany in 1934 and who now devotes his retirement to talking about antisemitism to youngsters in schools in Cheshire, Merseyside and Lancashire. He had been moved to write to me because of his experience at one such school, where his presentation was discourteously received and where a teacher confessed to him that the word "Jew" had now replaced the word "gay" as a playground term of abuse. The teacher said: "If kids wish to insult each other, they now use (the word) Jew" [Emphasis added].

The school in question is the notorious educational establishment located in the Manchester suburb of Didsbury and known as Parrs Wood. Readers of this column will recall that it was this very school that was the subject of my column on February 3, when I drew attention to the hostility to Israel and to the contempt for Jews displayed by its students, abetted by certain of its staff. Now we are told that its pupils routinely use the word "Jew" as a term of abuse and that this usage is (once again) becoming commonplace.'

This state school, which, as is obvious from its online videos, has an ethnically diverse student body, produced in its magazine a highly disturbing, in places downright mendacious, timeline of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the tone of which is indicated by the following outrageous inaccuracy in the introduction:

"The problem started with Palestine being an Arab, Muslim state [sic!]; however, over the years, more and more Jewish migrants have been settling there and creating their own state named ‘Israel’" 

Parrs Wood has also hit the headlines for other unfortunate reasons connected with the Middle East, being obliged in February to cancel a scheduled women-only event by Human Appeal International, a charity with reported links to Hamas. And in 2009 the same charity held at the school a "Day for Gaza" fundraising event.

In his earlier previously-mentioned column, written before the cancellation of the women-only event, Professor Alderman had some harsh things to say about the school and its headmaster:

'...Shakos has now brought himself to confess that, "it was perhaps a mistake to allow such an over-simplification of a complex issue to be addressed by one of our junior contributors and we certainly apologise for any upset caused by its publication".

But I'm afraid however many apologies are now issued as the complaints roll in, the matter cannot be permitted to rest there.

I am, for example, led to wonder just what sort of racialised rubbish is taught in the name of history at this school. I am led to ask why this school permits itself (as it will again, this month) to be used for the dubious fund-raising objectives of HAI. Above all, I am led to wonder whether, in showing such poor judgment and leadership, Andrew Shakos is really fit to be the school's head-teacher.'

Hadar Sela is one of the most perceptive and trenchant Middle East commentators in cyberspace: read her incisive piece regarding Parrs Wood, including her exchange with Parrs Wood headmaster Andrew Shakos,  here

As Ms Sela observed in relation to the timeline published in the school magazine:

'The problem of course is that almost 2,500 pupils have by now read and absorbed the politically-charged inaccuracies served up by the institution upon which they rely for knowledge. An apology will not remedy that disinformation.'

It seems reasonable to conclude that the "disinformation" in question will have confirmed many a pupil in the antisemitic attitudes inherent in the "Jew" slur that is apparently so widespread at Parrs Wood (and apparently at schools elsewhere).

Surely, headmaster Shakos should launch an investigation into the apparent Judeophobia, suggested by the racist use of "Jew" and "to jew" as insults at his school, and surely the official leadership of the Anglo-Jewish community should liaise with both him and the relevant educational authorities to ensure that he does so.

In tolerating such insults, the school may well be in violation of legislation regarding racial hatred and incitement to racial hatred.  It is certainly in violation of its moral and ethical obligations if it allows such repellent slurs to persist among the student body unchallenged.

Note: On 27 January 2014 Manchester Jewish community leader Joy Wolfe drew to my attention in a comment (qv) information unavailable to me at the time of writing the blog that puts a different perspective on matters. Please view that comment.

British Middle East Consultant's Antisemitic Rant On Iran's Propaganda Channel Website

The website of Press TV, Iran's 24/7 satellite progaganda news channel that recently lost its licence to broadcast in Britain, carries a long over-the-top antisemitic rant by a bloke called Peter Eyre, described as "Middle East Consultant".

The fact that the article is headed "BBC hikes up the Zionist propaganda machine" points to its crackpot nature.

Here's a taste of Eyre's ire:

"We now see another “Imperialistic Empire” taking its place know as the “New World Order” (NWO) with its headquarters firmly embedded in the City of London.

This evil satanic organisation, consisting mainly of Zionists and very senior members of the Freemasons have spread their evil tentacles over most of the UK and launched this country on a programme of continuous conflicts and war.

The NWO controls world finances, world politics, the UN, WHO, the ICJ, the judicial system, education, police and the military via its arm - NATO.

The heartland of the NWO are the Rothschild’s, members of the EU Royal Families, the Pilgrim Society, the very senior members of the Freemason´s (including many MP´s and members of the House of Lords), the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House London), Friends of Israel and The Bank of England etc.

There is a steady stream of politicians that pay regular visits to Chatham House to pledge their support for Israel with our current Prime Minister David Cameron, his deputy Nick Clegg and many others such as former PM Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, Ken Clarke, William Hague, George Osborne to name but a few. It is in the bowels of this building where they swear their allegiance to Zionists backed groups and Israel (their funders) instead of our own country.

Many people in this country do not realise that our dear BBC also forms part of this same satanic rot and is highly funded by the pro-Israeli groups that manipulate everything we hear and see....
 
.... It is common knowledge that students in the US, many being from Berkeley, are hired by either the CIA or Israel to participate in international unrest and frequently act as agents by infiltrating into the ranks of activists or even groups of militia. They have their education paid for in return for such activity and at a given time they pass on the names and locations of key figures to the CIA or Israeli secret service who then plan a drone attack or assassinate the person concerned.

Palestine is also a breeding ground for such activity (Gaza and West Bank) whereby the organisations are basically run by so-called “Jewish Sympathisers” who in some cases appear to turn their backs on their own faith and Israel. This is an entirely false front and these members - “Enemies of Israel”- are allowed to transit Israel to and from Gaza and West Bank without restriction having been previously deported for supporting Gaza (Palestinians) or for causing unrest. This in itself is evidence that they are carrying out undercover work for the CIA or Israel.

I could offer you a long list of names (traitors) and prove that many so-called charities have now been infiltrated by Zionist or Pro-Israeli supporters who are involved in such operations. I find this extremely upsetting when one considers the vast sums of money they obtain from the citizens of the world who want to help the Palestinians but in actual fact are feeding the money directly into Israel and at the same time are getting key Palestinians assassinated by their deceitful ways.

Back to the BBC propaganda machine, another bogus report also hit the headlines when the BBC stated the following: “Car bombs 'target Israel envoys' in India and Georgia” and immediately printed the following statement from Israel (their funders)....

Let´s recall the same style of assassinations that were used against the nuclear scientists in Tehran which was believed to have been the work of either the CIA, MI5 or Mossad. Exactly the same usage of motorcyclist etc clearly points to yet again another “False Flag Statement” that the BBC is so good at publishing!....

It was the same BBC that reported the following, on 25 December 2009, a Nigerian student smuggled explosives on to a flight from Schiphol to Detroit in the US after flying into Amsterdam from Lagos. He has pleaded guilty to trying to blow up the Northwest Airlines jet he boarded and is due to be sentenced on Thursday. He faces life imprisonment. I can assure you that this again was a false flag and it is an Israeli company that is responsible for security at Amsterdam airport....
 
In conclusion one must also remember that westered Special Forces, CIA, MI5, Mossad, hired militia and snipers are operating within Syria causing severe unrest and in many cases are directly responsible for the death of many innocent Syrian civilians. Such is the evil state of western foreign policy that is funded primarily by Israel.'

Read the entire mapcap rant here

British University Investigates Alleged Assault On Jewish Student During Nazi-themed Game

It seems that rehabilitating the Nazis for fun and frolics is becoming quite the trend in some British quarters, even (it's alleged) among members of the Athletics Union of  that bastion of leftism, the London School of Economics (LSE), during  a ski trip to Val d'Isère in December.

The LSE's student newspaper, The Beaver, reports:

'LSE students are facing disciplinary action after participating in a Nazi-themed drinking game during the Athletics Union’s ski trip... Later in the night, two students were engaged in an altercation, one of whom sustained a broken nose from the incident.

‘Nazi Ring of Fire’ involved arranging cards on the table in the shape of a Swastika, and required players to “Salute the Fuhrer.” A video featuring students making antisemitic comments was uploaded to Facebook, but has since been removed....

This incident is the latest in a series of antisemitic incidents at British universities. Last November, four of the most senior members of the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) resigned after accusing other members of engaging in antisemitic behaviour, including singing a Nazi-themed song.

In January 2010, the University of Huddersfield investigated claims that two of its students had created a Facebook group for a Nazi-themed drinking game they are thought to have invented.'

The report, which carries photographs of the game, quotes a Jewish student leader thus:

“LSE Students’ Union Jewish Society (J-Soc) and the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) are appalled by a reported antisemitic assault that occurred after a Jewish student objected to a Nazi-themed drinking game, that was being played by his fellow students on a recent LSE Ski Trip in France. Nazi glorification and antisemitism have no place in our universities, which should remain safe spaces for all students.

There is simply no context for what has happened here. Those who believe the game was all in good humour need to realize that when a Jewish student is subject to violence and the Nazi ideology glorified it is no joke but a spiteful, collective attack on a community.

 This incident highlights the worrying trends of contemporary antisemitism, but beyond all else indicates a depressing lack of education from students of an esteemed institution.”

Of Wet Dreams, & Chosen People ...

The following, entitled "RMT Senior Official Directs Tirade Of Antisemitic Abuse At Israel Advocate," is a crosspost by the prominent British pro-Israel activist Jonathan Hoffman.  It also appears on the Jewish Chronicle blogs and is crossposted here with the author's permission.

Writes Jonathan Hoffman:

'Astonishing scenes at SOAS [the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University] last night where a small group of Israel advocates managed to dominate a hostile meeting of BDS supporters, called by the RMT trade union (the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers - many of the staff on the London Underground are members).

The Israel advocates had the PSC [Palestine Solidarity Campaign] and RMT apparatchiks completely flummoxed with questions such as "why was Israel singled out by the RMT?" and "was the RMT's obsession with Israel not just a smokescreen to mask the Union's ineffectiveness at delivering jobs and pay for its members?"

PSC Chair Hugh Lanning was left squirming after being brought to task for making that tired old claim that all criticism of Israel is labelled "antisemitic". Hugh, you really must change your shtik, along with that hoary old one about taking pride that the Reut Institute calls London the hub of Israel hate. You need to get yourself a decent scriptwriter Hugh - surely the TUC can afford to get you one?

Moshe Machover - a tired old Israeli-born Commie whose lawyer son Daniel consistently abused the Universal Jurisdiction law against Israelis, until the Government recently close the loophole he exploited - resorted to obscenities:

"The wet dream of all major Zionist parties is ethnic cleansing"

Very astute, Moshe - we can see why you were a professor.

Ilan Pappe is another professor. Here is what fellow historian Benny Morris thinks of him:

"At best, Ilan Pappe must be one of the world’s sloppiest historians; at worst, one of the most dishonest. In truth, he probably merits a place somewhere between the two."

Pappe last night demonstrated astonishing ignorance about the economy of Judea and Samaria. Growth rates in recent years have averaged 6-9% but Pappe insisted on referring to the "impoverished people" of the West Bank.

Adam Hanieh is a lecturer in development at SOAS. We got from him the tired old dog-whistle words of the haters: "Bantustans" .. "apartheid" ... Does he not know that (for example) Arab women in Israel get the best education in the Middle East?

Things really heated up however when Steve Hedley (Bob Crow's right-hand man in the RMT...) let rip at one of the Israel advocates (me).

First he called me "one of the Chosen People" (this phrase used in an abusive manner is a favourite of antisemites: of course the phrase "Chosen People" in the Bible clearly means chosen for responsibilities and not chosen for privilege).

Then he referred to "your friends in the media" (the trope that Jews "control the media" is beloved of antisemites - it appears of course in that well known antisemitic forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion").

The Engage website has a timely piece by Eve Garrard about the "Chosen People" trope:

"Things are different now, and this trope has been resurrected for the same old use: to denigrate Jews and stir up dislike, or worse, against them. In fact it’s very effective for that purpose: most people (very understandably) dislike anyone who claims to be inherently superior to everyone else; and so to attribute such a claim to Jews is a very economical way of making people dislike and distrust them. By referring to the Chosen People you can, without saying another word, tell your listener that Jews are an arrogant supercilious bunch who despise the rest of the human race, and that you yourself don’t much like that kind of thing; and indeed your listener (or reader, as the case may be) probably doesn’t much like that kind of thing either, being a decent honest person; and so you and she together can enjoyably agree that there’s something pretty obnoxious about Jews, or they wouldn’t be claiming to be ‘chosen’, would they, or insisting that one Jew is worth 1,000 other people, which of course they must believe, since Gilad Shalit was exchanged for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, and there’s no other possible explanation of that ratio, is there, eh?

All that hostile implication from just two well-chosen (so to speak) words, or even in Orr’s case one word alone – she writes with casual familiarity about ‘the chosen’, apparently assuming that her Guardian readers use the term so readily that no misunderstanding can arise from the informal contraction. This is indeed real economy of effort in the business of producing Jew-hatred. Orr herself may not, of course, have intended to stir up dislike of Jews; but the language which she chose to use did all the work that was needed for that unlovely task.

What’s worrying about this use of the Chosen People trope is not so much its appearance in a little piece by Deborah Orr: a minor journalist making derogatory insinuations about Jews isn’t anything so very special. But with Orr as with Mearsheimer it’s the silence of the others, of those in the wider context – the colleagues, the editors, the readers at large – that’s the really chilling thing."

Richard Millett's account [Richard, indomitable chronicler of such meetings, a great photo-journalist of a blogger, was threatened with a "right hook"], with audio and video, is here'

The Obsession With Israel (video)

Not a new video, but still supremely relevant.

I dedicate this showing to the petty-minds of the small-town Palestine Solidarity Campaign coven whose latest puerile stunt has been to concoct the following squalid (and of course risible) little petition to lay before the UK government.

"With the Balfour Declaration of 2nd November 1917 Britain unleashed a series of events in Palestine that have not only caused enormous suffering and loss to the Palestinian people but also unleashed recurrent waves of terrorism affecting many parts of the world to this day. The British Government must accept its historic responsibility and issue an apology."

Watch out, ladies.  Your antisemitism is starting to show.  And have this one on me:

Mid Meshuggeneh Mob, Mr Millett Merits A Medal

Never again, most people assumed.

Yet, even while survivors of the Nazis' attempt to wipe Jews from the face of the earth still live, blatant Jew-hatred is back.

Literally, in some cases.

Outside the English-speaking world.

And within it.

From right-wing fascists.

And from their leftist and Islamic equivalents.

These photos of T-shirted antisemites were taken in Budapest and Melbourne respectively.

The pleasant scene below was snapped in New York, during a "Salute To Israel" celebration.

A group of psychopathic antisemites taunts the participants, in this case teenage Jewish girls.

Jew-hatred, less blatant but no less real, was present yesterday outside the Israeli Embassy in London, when a baying mob (abetted by Neturei Karta nuts) protested Israel's retaliation for the murderous attacks on its citizens in the south from what at least one commentator has described as global jihadists. http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/19/global-jihad-strikes-southern-israel/

The Israelis, it seems, are expected by the protesters to roll over and expose their soft underbelly to a deadly enemy.  Unlike the inhabitants of other nations, they are not permitted to defend themselves.

On hand to record the scenes outside the Embassy was blogger (photo-journalist  might be as apt a description) Richard Millett, that stalwart of many a counter-demo outside the Ahava shop in Covent Garden.  Don't miss his graphic description of the event.

He kept his camera rolling until a policeman, doubtless less afraid of Mr Millett than of the swarm of angry protesters, ordered him to stop filming or face arrest.

(It's not the first time Mr Millett has been confronted by Mr Plod: http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2010/07/its-unfair-cop-guv-mr-plod-shows-some.html)

I think the intrepid Mr Millett deserves a combined journalism/bravery award for filming those feral monsters who want Israel wiped from the face of the earth.
http://richardmillett.wordpress.com/2011/08/19/as-israelis-bury-their-dead-scenes-from-london/

David Cameron, Israel's False Friend ...

Despite his professions of solidarity with Israel before a Jewish audience in the prelude to last year's May election (well he would say that, wouldn't he, at a juncture when the keys to Number Ten seemed to be unexpectedly slipping beyond his grasp?) Britain's slimy prime minister David Cameron has accelerated his inexorable descent into the ranks of the Israel bashers which began almost a year ago, in the immediate wake of the Mavi Marmara affair (just look at this lot, some company, eh?).

Keeping company with him - and them - is the University and College Union, whose leftist hijackers have proved their malevolent intent by distancing themselves from that part of the EUMC Working Definition on Antisemitism that relates to Israel, about which I posted last week: http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/05/demonic-on-campus-british-students-and.html

See also  http://engageonline.wordpress.com/ as well as http://www.fairplaycg.org.uk/2011/05/fair-play-reacts-to-the-ucu-motion-on-antisemitism/

I've referred to Cameron in previous posts - this one conveys the flavour: http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2010/07/sick-man-of-europe-david-cameron-talks.html

On these latest measures, which only serve to further demonise and delegitimise Israel, she tells it best (with a masterly consideration of the legality of Israel thrown in), so I don't have to:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/6988095/cameron-drinks-the-koolaid.thtml

Update: Talking of "legality", watch this!: