Milady's Cobber Down Under Pontificates on Antisemitism

Peter Garcia-Webb has apparently been a friend of Baroness Tonge since their respective medical training at Guy's Hospital.

Now living in Perth, Western Australia, the distinguished research scientist, London-born of Jewish parentage, is a derider of Israel, posting this on Facebook, for example, at the time of Bibi's highly successful visit to Australia early last year, when the recently deposed Malcolm Turnbull was prime minister:

 Nor does he like President Trump's Middle East policy.  For instance:

Or the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)'s working definition of antisemitism:

In fact, he dislikes the latter so much that he's now written a long screed of his own about the definition of antisemitism:

Which is very much liked by Baroness Tonge:

As I showed here, the talented Garcia-Webb's forays into "social fiction" make no secret of his antipathy to Zionism.

But that aside, some of his tweets have been eyebrow-raising:

Not as grossly startling, granted, as these social media sentiments (brought to public attention by Aussie Dave in his post here), by one of Tonge's Facebook friends, anti-Israel activist and "human rights"lawyer Simone O'Broin (aka Simone Burns).  The same woman whose drunken racist and sexist abuse of Air India cabin staff has gone viral on the internet (interesting take by David Collier here):

As has been widely observed, O'Broin's rant provides a stark reminder of the slime that lurks within the anti-Israel movement:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9XOioAAr7A

Here's the ghastly Pamela Hardiment aka Pam Arnold, for instance:

I wonder how Milady and her cobber Down Under would define that!

"Truly Shameful": Stench from the pits

For the victims see here

The loathsome Jenny Tonge has since attempted to tone down her remarks, made in reaction to the Pittsburgh synagogue tragedy, but her stench remains:

Meanwhile:

And

If you haven't yet read the article, by Colin Appleby, recommended by J.K. Rowling, please do so! 

'I’ve fallen out of love with Labour.

I’ve been called a Zionazi.

I’ve been asked if I was a Zionist.

I’ve been called a Tory Jew.

I’ve been told I’m good with money.

I’ve been told that I’m “obviously” rich.

I’ve been accused of being more loyal to Israel than the U.K.

I’ve been called a child killer.

I’ve been barred from attending a JVL [Jewish Voice for Labour] meeting.

I’ve been told “to shut the fuck up Jew”.

I’ve been screamed at in the street because I wanted JLM [Jewish Labour Movement] to address a local party meeting.

I’ve been told I only ever care about Jewish stuff.

I’ve been called Zio scum.

I’ve been told I’m worthless.

I’ve been told I’m a disgrace.

I’ve been told Hitler was right.

I’ve been told “it’s a pity all of your lot weren’t gassed”.

I’ve been spat at.

I’ve been threatened with physical violence.

I’ve reported every single incident.

I’ve been told it’s all lies.

I’ve been told I’m part of a conspiracy to get Corbyn.

I’ve been told I don’t belong in Labour.

They’re right about that, I’m a Jew and I don’t belong in Labour. I’m done. I resign my membership.'

In London, A Tonge-Lashing for Pro-Israel Protesters (video)

Outside the Israeli Embassy in London on 11 May, an anti-Israel "Solidarity With Gaza" rally staged by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (and others) is challenged by vociferous pro-Israel counter-demonstrators.

At 8:50 on the video enter, stage right, none other than the loathsome Baroness (Jenny) Tonge, whose tongue-lashing of the pro-Israel crowd is barely audible, since they all but drown her out.

                             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vcKjhJolOQ

Video by Alex Seymour aka Seymour Alexander (whose sentiments regarding this event are, of course, very different from mine).

Meanwhile, in the Emerald Isle:

BDS? Did She or Didn't She?

From a website dedicated to BDS:

Balloon Expandable Stent

B-Stent

Invented in Israel by an Israeli!

Preferably before an emergency situation (whereby your judgement may be clouded by urgency and the optimum medical response) please inform your Cardiologist to ensure that a Balloon Expandable Stent is NEVER used. Request open heart surgery!

First things first. B-Stent does not stand for Beyar Stent, although its inventor, Prof. Rafael Beyar, an invasive cardiologist and biomedical engineer at the Technion and former dean of its medical school, did come up with the original design for a metal stent, used to keep clogged arteries open.

“The B is for balloon expandable, not Beyar or best,” said Beyar, who developed the idea with his brother, Motti, a mechanical engineer.

It was 1989, and the Beyar brothers were considering a heart stent based on the stent used by urologists.

“People didn’t believe you could have a stent for the heart,” said Beyar.

“But our concept was, if you could do it for urology, why not for cardiology?”

The advantage of a stent, which is a wire mesh tube used to prop open an artery that’s recently been cleared, is its ability to hold arteries open while offering enough flexibility for “the tortuous path of arteries,” added Beyar.

The stent stays in the artery permanently, holds it open, improves blood flow to the heart muscle, and relieves symptoms such as chest pain.

“The results in patients were remarkable,” said Beyar. “You could see where the [diseased] artery starts and ends. You could get around curves and get good results. No one else had that.”

By then, Instent, the brothers’ startup, had been formed, and clinical trials in the early 1990s led to the final product in 1995. By that time, Instent merged with the American company Medtronics, which took the product to market worldwide.

“We were racing against the clock to get it out there,” said Beyar. “Some investors said we were wasting our time, that it was too risky. But we stuck with it because we saw the results and believed it would change the world.”

Other Israeli Stents to watch out for:

* InStent with American partner, Medtronic/beStent line and the crimper.

* Medinol with American partner, Boston Scientific/Nir cardiac stent line market leader.

* Angiosonics Inc. a catheter-delivered ultrasound for thrombolysis, a non-invasive therapeutic ultrasound in the heart; early studies have shown that it could break up clots in peripheral vessels.

* Laser Industries a Sharplan holmium/yag laser for unblocking multiply-occluded coronary vessels.

AND boycott – Diagnostic Cardiology tools:

* BioSense Ltd., CARTA & NOGA systems hardware-software non-fluoroscopic intrabody navigation and 3-D mapping system, hailed as the missing, real-time link between diagnostics and therapeutics.

There is something truly truly sick about boycotting products intended to save lives just because they are made in Israel, a leader in medical breakthroughs and scientific technology.

There is something truly truly sick about expecting a patient whose life depends on equipment to boycott it because it was the invention of Israeli hands and Israeli brains.

A patient requiring a life-saving operation would have to be fanatical indeed to comply with the above.

Nevertheless, on hearing through the grapevine that Baroness Tonge, who recently underwent cardiac surgery in London, required two stents, I can't help wondering, in view of her two most recent Facebook posts, whether she checked the provenance of those stents first.

Tonge in Place & "Nasty" Nick Cotton's Noxious Noise

The inevitable set of Mendacious Maps prominently displayed, the Richmond branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has been making merry with all the fun of the fair.

Among the Israel-haters saying their bit to camera in the following footage by branch honcho Alex Seymour (aka Seymour Alexander) is the incorrigible Jenny Tonge, looking and sounding as sour as always.

But the "star" of Seymour's video is a bloke with a Jewish name.  He's actor John Altman, best known for playing Dot Cotton's jailbird son "Nasty"Nick Cotton in the BBC TV soap "EastEnders".

The script that Altman spews is full of spite and venom, and woeful, disgusting ignorance.  Shame on him.

Meanwhile, north of the Border, where the Scottish Nationalists have trounced all comers, the Israel-haters of the Argyll branch of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign have been indulging in May merriment of their own.  They held a conference yesterday in Glasgow on the theme "Ending Scottish Arms Trade With Israel".

And talking of Mendacious Maps, as I noted briefly on this blog's Facebook page last week, there's a new set out.  This sleight-of-hand set, presumably intended for a British audience, is from a seemingly new kid on the block.  In his own way he's as ignorant as "Nasty" Nick Cotton: he  claims that the Britain promised Ottoman Palestine to both Jews and Arabs. But, of course, the Mandate was for the Jewish National Home, not an Arab national home or a "Palestinian" national home, not least since nobody, including the Arabs themselves, had any notion of a separate "Palestinian people" at that juncture.

The Hate & The Hypocrisy: London Rally Against Israel's Hosting Of UEFA Tournament (video)

"Israel is an abnormal country.  It's a country that depends for its existence on violence and cruelty and repression,"  So claims Alexei Sayle, lending his weight to demands that Israel should not be allowed to host the UEFA under-21 championship tournament next month.

Ironically, the Jewish comedian was speaking to a reporter from Press TV, propaganda channel of the cruel, violent and repressive Iranian regime.

Also in this video, of a rally in London when UEFA officials were meeting, is Baroness Tonge ...

A letter in today's Guardian expresses the case for Israel and the inherent hypocrisy in the boycott merchants' demands very well:

'Firstly, the reason Israel plays in European football tournaments is that, long before the 1967 war and the subsequent "occupation", Arab and some Asian countries refused to play Israel at any level. Secondly, if countries were stopped from hosting tournaments because of their human rights records, we'd probably have to hold the World Cup etc in Luxembourg every four years!

Lastly, the games played in Israel will be played in front of crowds unhindered by restrictions on race or gender, unlike the United Nations-sponsored Gaza marathon, which was cancelled due to the fact women were banned from running with men. The World Cup after next is in Russia which, last weekend, saw the arrest of dozens of gay rights activists in Moscow. I don't see any "show Russia the red card" protests.'

"Jihad Jenny" Quits Party Over Her Latest Remarks About Israel (with video)

So, rather than retract her latest abhorrent remarks about Israel, Baroness Tonge (pictured), aka Jenny Tonge, the virulently anti-Israel life peer dubbed "Jihad Jenny" by some commentators, has quit the Liberal Democrats (but will, of course, continue to sit in the House of Lords).

Known for a series of truly egregious remarks about Israel over the years, some of which have prompted allegations of antisemitism, for sharing platforms with people widely regarded as extremists, and for her unashamed appearances on Iran's PressTV, her remarks at the recent hate-fest against Israel at Middlesex University featuring the notorious Ken O'Keefe, drew a barrage of criticism from various sides of politics, with Labour leader Ed Miliband (hardly the warmest friend of Israel himself) joining the fray by tweeting:

"No place in politics for those who question existence of the state of Israel. Nick Clegg must condemn Jenny Tonge's remark and demand apology."

The remarks so widely condemned were these delightful sentiments:

"Beware Israel. Israel is not going to be there for ever in its present form. One day, the United States of America will get sick of giving £70bn a year to Israel to support what I call America's aircraft carrier in the Middle East – that is Israel. One day, the American people are going to say to the Israel lobby in the USA: enough is enough.

Israel will lose support and then they will reap what they have sown."

She also remarked that when the Israel lobby "decide to go for you, they will go for you in a big way. I bear the scars."

The Jewish Chronicle reports that

'[P]olice are investigating comments made at the event by former US marine Ken O'Keefe following allegations that he incited racial hatred when comparing Jewish audience members to Nazis.

Baroness Tonge was sitting next to Mr O'Keefe as he screamed at audience members, said Israel "must be destroyed" and claimed Mossad was "directly involved" in the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.

She made no attempt at the time to distance herself from his remarks, and launched her own tirade against Israel which has today been widely condemned from figures across the political spectrum.'

 Read more here

Britain Gets Rid Of The Press Gang, & More Good News, Naturally

"Press TV seems to have disappeared!" came the excited, if incredulous, voice on Friday. "I keep clicking on [Sky digital channel] 515 and there's nothing there!"

Knowing that a serious complaint had been filed with Ofcom about the Iranian satellite propaganda news and current channel, and that last month the channel had been fined £100,00 for multiple transgressions, I googled at once, and saw the announcement of the withdrawal of Press TV's licence to broadcast in Britain, effective immediately.

So it's goodbye to the gang who've graced its airwaves, putting the knife into Israel ... Yvonne Ridley, Lauren Booth (pictured), George Galloway (leaving little to the imagination when attired in a tight girly-pink leotard on TV, needless to say not Press TV) ...

The willingness of the western women, in particular, to act as presenters on a station that is funded by a regime which stones women to death and colludes in the gang-rape of virgin female prisoners prior to execution is especially repulsive and odious...

So, therefore, is the willingness of anti-Israel female activists such as Baroness (Jenny) Tonge to give interviews to Press TV.

And so, of course, is the willingness of so many common-or-garden female Israel-bashers to act as apologists for the Iranian regime.

Launched in 2007, Press TV, broadcasting 24/7, claimed a regular viewing figure of almost 10 million British homes.

Among those regular viewers, evidently, is the all-female coven that constitutes my local Palestine Solidarity Campaign branch.  A trio of these middle-aged/elderly women (whose antics range from harassing shoppers outside supermarkets stocking Israeli produce to initiating an online petition asking David Cameron to apologise for the Balfour Declaration) spent much of Wednesday beside a stall, bedecked with those four infamous maps (you know the ones), they'd set up in the town centre, complete with a huge banner inquiring "Whatever Happened To Palestine".  They were thrusting anti-Israel propaganda at passers by, and one rattled a collection tin.

Some weeks ago, between tweets decrying the United States and Israel and promoting BDS, their leader tweeted "Tell Ofcom that PressTV's the one UK channel reporting what the mainstream don't. And it's virtually trivia-free..."
Last week they carried the message: "....There's no proof Iran has nuclear weapons program!..."
And their latest tweet is: "Please campaign to get Ofcom to put Press TV back on Sky...." 

 I imagine the entire anti-Israel movement in Britain evinces similar indignation at the passing of the Press Gang.

And there was more good news for Israel's supporters in Britain this week.  As reported recently in the Jewish Chronicle,

"Filmmakers Ken Loach and Mike Leigh have condemned the Natural History Museum for collaborating with an Israeli firm on a research project.

They were joined by Liberal Democrat peer Jenny Tonge and a number of other critics of Israel in writing a letter to the Independent newspaper.

The signatories complained that the museum was guilty of breaking international law by working with cosmetics company Ahava on a research project into the possible risks of "nanomaterial" (microscope man-made cells which could be used to treat illness in the future)...."

 To its credit, however, the Natural History Museum has refused to budge.  Israel Matsav , following the Jerusalem Post, has the details.
(Hat tip: reader Shirlee)

The Lady and the Sheikh, and Other Snippets

The following, entitled "Jihad Jenny Threatens To Quit The Lib Dems Over Salah Detention" (see my previous post for the details of his arrest) is is a crosspost by prominent British pro-Israel activist Jonathan Hoffman.  It also appears at http://www.thejc.com/blogs/jonathan-hoffman/jihad-jenny-threatens-quit-libdems-over-salah-detention

At a meeting in a House of Commons Committee Room last night where I was present, “Jihad” Jenny Tonge spoke about “the power of the Israel Lobby”. Her remarks were in connection with the Home Secretary’s decision to arrest and deport Sheikh Raeed Salah (who had been billed to address the meeting). She declared herself “ashamed” at the action of a government of which the LibDems (her party) are a member and said “I am carefully considering my position in my party”.

Go on Jihad Jenny – I’ll lay odds that if you resign the words “Good Riddance” will be on Nick Clegg’s lips. I doubt he has forgotten your seemingly antisemitic comments in 2006:

"The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the western world, its financial grips. I think they've probably got a grip on our party."

 Most of the speakers at the meeting agreed that the banning of Salah was down to the all-powerful “Israel Lobby”.

Er ..how about the outrages catalogued here?
http://thecst.org.uk/blog/?p=2639http://hurryupharry.org/2011/06/29/raed-salah-sitting-in-a-cell-awaiting...


I for one congratulate the Home Secretary. As the CST [Community Security Trust] says,

"The Government, therefore, is to be congratulated on its Prevent strategy and its efforts to better control those who would import and promote such politics (with its attendant hatreds) into the UK."

Sarah Colbourne of the PSC claimed that the ‘Lobby’ had ensured Salah’s arrest in order to stop his legal actions (against Andrew Gilligan of the Daily Telegraph and Robyn Rosen of the Jewish Chronicle).; Diana Neslen (Jews for Justice for Palestinians - JFJFP) spoke about “those with certain influence”.

Other lowlights of the meeting:

[Manuel] Hassassian (Palestinian so-called “Ambassador”):

“Rightwing fascist Israeli government … Israel is above international law .. supported unequivocally by the International Police – the USA”

Ismail Patel:

'The watchword of the early Zionists was “a land without a people for a people without a land”' [False quote: no Zionist ever said this]

 Lord Dubs [Labour life peer]:

“Israel is its own worst enemy”.

 He spoke with horror about seeing 14- and 15-year old boys in shackles in a military Court in the West Bank but when I asked him what crime they were accused of, he didn’t have a clue .. he even suggested they were not accused of any crime …

Diana Neslen (Jews for Justice for Palestinians): JFJFP has issued a statement deploring the arrest and banning of Saleh. (This puts them firmly in the extremist camp). Her talk “as-a-Jew” was no more than a tirade of vilification of Israel and Israeli Jews:

“Jews do not see the citizens of the West Bank as worthy of human rights"

Yet Again, Baroness Tonge Demonises Israel and Hypes Hamas; The Chief Rabbi Responds in Able Fashion

There was a short debate about the Middle East peace process in the House of Lords on 4 May, prompted by a question from notoriously anti-Israel Lib Dem life peer Baroness Tonge (pictured).
Inter alia, the woman widely accused in the past of antisemitism, and whom some dub "Jihad Jenny" observed:

"The wall or security barrier has been built between Israel and the West Bank. Fair enough, I would say. I witnessed during the second intifada the sheer terror of Israeli citizens as they experienced the suicide bombers-the al-Aqsa martyrs as they were then-encouraged and supported by Fatah. Let us remember that Fatah is now Israel's chosen partner for negotiations. The barrier was quite understandable, but what was outrageous was that the course of that barrier grabbed a huge amount of land and water in the West Bank from Palestinian farmers and families."

The rest of her speech was true to form:

"I want to make an appeal that we all remember the Palestinians and the injustice that has been meted out to them since 1948. It is an injustice which lies at the very heart of Arab Muslim angst against the West and which has allowed one country, Israel, supported by the  USA and European Union, consistently to break international law since 1948, when it was decided that the Palestinians would pay the price of the Holocaust even if they had had nothing to do with it....

Palestinians have difficulty accessing healthcare and education, and humiliation continues daily at the check-points. The settlements go on expanding despite exhortations from the international community and repeated criticism from this Government. Farmers are attacked, crops are ruined and children are brutalised and imprisoned. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than at al-Walaja near Bethlehem. The town and its people are being strangled....

In Gaza, little has changed. Food is scarce if you are poor, as most Gazans are. Together with the terror of constant overflying and sonic bombing, and the poor education that the children are getting, the international community, by its inaction, is allowing a whole generation of children to grow up malnourished, undereducated and deeply traumatised by the actions of their neighbour, Israel....

We must not forget, in this overview of the situation, the plight of Israeli Arabs and Palestinians living in Israel, who are subjected to an apartheid-like regime of control and lack of freedom, let alone the 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners languishing in Israeli gaols....

Israel's fear of Hamas is based on the old Hamas charter, which is a relic, and on the fact that neither Israel's leaders nor ours have ever bothered to talk to Hamas leaders. On numerous occasions I and other parliamentarians have been assured by Hamas leaders, in particular Khaled Meshaal, that they will accept a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, and will maintain a truce. However, things are getting more difficult. The rockets fired recently were from dissident groups in Gaza, which get more numerous and better supported as Hamas is seen not to be able to make progress in its negotiations with Israel.

Finally, Israel has been indulged for too long in the interests of American foreign policy as well as its own. The rights of Palestinians under international law have been ignored, and much suffering and injustice have been endured. International law was not mentioned in the 2003 road map, which was meant to provide a framework for negotiations. The International Court of Justice ruling on the separation barrier was ignored, and President Obama, after he took office, ignored completely international law in his speech in Cairo on Israel and Palestine. Why?

International law is for everyone. It is for Israel, Palestine, Bahrain, Syria, the European Union-and even the United States of America. If we continue to apply it selectively, there will be no future for Israel, and the world order will ultimately collapse. I implore the Minister to tell the House that we will bring pressure to bear on Israel to co-operate with Egypt and the Palestinian negotiators in Cairo. We must not miss the great opportunity of the Arab spring-however difficult it is, and however many road blocks are put in the way-to bring justice also, at last, to the Palestinians."

During the debate, the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain, Lord Sacks, reminded fellow occupants of the red benches of some truths that should be self-evident, but unfortunately aren't:

"We, who pray for peace, understand by that word, a state in which I recognise your right to exist, and you recognise mine. That is what peace minimally means.

How then can we be speaking about peace when Hamas remains committed as a matter of principle to the elimination of the state of Israel, when it engages in missile attacks against innocent civilians, and uses its own innocent civilians as human shields; when it propagates some of the most vicious antisemitic myths ever to have inflamed the hatred and anaesthetised the conscience of human beings, and two days ago praised Osama bin Laden as a holy warrior; and when it refuses to agree to the fundamental principles laid down by the Quartet, not least of which is the recognition of Israel’s right to exist?

Until Hamas undergoes fundamental change, there may be a process but there will not be peace. Peace is more than a resting place on the road to war. I cannot make peace with one who denies my right to exist.

My Lords, no one unfamiliar with the history of the Jewish people through its four thousand years of history can fully appreciate how deeply Jews within Israel and outside long for peace, long for the ability to live as other people live, without fear, without hate, without being treated as a pariah, without being blamed for the troubles of the world, without being denied the right to exist. That is why I urge the government to be resolute in its insistence that the path to peace in the Middle East must begin with the unequivocal recognition of the state of Israel’s right to be. "

Read more here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/110504-0002.htm#110504106000135