Irate Over Iran

Foreign Office Arabist Sir Richard Dalton ( a former British ambassador to Libya and to Iran), seen in the above footage telling the BBC's Jane Hill that "Israel exaggerates the threat of Iran" and that last year's nuclear "deal" will be honoured"conscientiously" by Iran not merely for 15 years but indefinitely, is set to chair an event at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) addressed by the Iranian Foreign Minister, Dr Mohammed Javar Zarif.

Protests Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews:

“To give Zarif a platform to speak at a prestigious London venue like Chatham House is nothing less than an insult to British values. This is a man who has publicly supported Hezbollah, an Iranian-funded organisation which is widely believed to have perpetrated acts of terror around the world including the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural centre in Argentina which killed 85 people and the bombing of a tourist bus in Bulgaria in 2012 which killed six.

 Hezbollah has also been found to have used funds from drug trafficking operations to buy arms.

Zarif represents a regime which has been complicit in massive violations of human rights beyond its borders, including in Yemen, where it supports the Houthis, whose flag proclaims ‘Death to the Jews’.

 His is a government which sponsored a Holocaust cartoon competition, condemned around the world and notably by UNESCO. Zarif is the representative of a vile regime and a pariah terrorist state. His presence at Chatham House is an affront to anyone with a belief in peace and justice.”

Meanwhile, here in Australia, prominent pro-Israel federal Labor MP Michael Danby has denounced Aussie  foreign minister Julie Bishop’s decision to lift sanctions against Iran:

“Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism, a source of instability in the Middle East and violates UN Security Council resolutions, such as Resolution 1929, which prohibits Iran from testing nuclear warhead-capable ballistic missiles. Dropping sanctions against Iran will serve to increase instability in the Middle East.

While the US Congress has debated the Iran deal and sanctions, Julie Bishop arrogantly refuses to allow a parliamentary debate as Australian Labor continues to ask for one on this major shift in Australian foreign policy. It’s extraordinary that under the Turnbull-Bishop government, Australia learns of major policy shifts by press release. The opposition has been continuing to call for a Parliamentary debate on this deal with Iran and the lifting of sanctions.

I have asked Ms Bishop to explain to Parliament what benefits to Australia there will be in providing intelligence to Iranian-sponsored militias in Iraq, which are now increasingly fighting in Syria.

 I have asked Ms Bishop to explain why she is in favour of allowing Iranian consulates in Melbourne and Sydney, when Iran has repeatedly used the diplomatic cover provided by consulates and embassies to enable Hezbollah terrorist activity in South America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

 I have also asked whether Ms Bishop has already decided to remove Australia’s autonomous sanctions against Iran, since she has been narrowcasting on ABC Rural radio the benefits of trade with Iran. She has not bothered to reassure Australians that she has a peaceful Middle East or Australia’s best interests at heart. Since the Vienna nuclear deal was concluded in July, Iran has fired ballistic missile tests in September and November. Unlike the United States, Australia has failed to even protest these violations of United Nations resolutions.

Iran has a history of aggressively breaking the rules or pushing the envelope. Whatever slim hope there is that the nuclear deals working will work is dependent on us ensuring Iran does not get away with breaking the rules. We are failing miserably, and so will the nuclear deal. The ramifications of that is a nuclear Iran and more nuclear proliferation across the Middle East.”

See more regarding Danby's concerns here

"Rev Sizer’s Attendance & Active Role At Such A Hate-Filled Event Is Irreconcilable With His Position As A Minister In The Church of England": British Board of Deputies

Well, he would, wouldn't he?  Go from Teheran to de Nile:

Remember my detailed post here, regarding Stephen Sizer's participation in the second New Horizons Conference in Iran choc-a-bloc with Holocaust Deniers, 9/11 truthers (yeah, guess who did it?) and notorious antisemites?

Well,  British Board of Deputies vice-president Jonathan Arkush has issued the following statement:

"I am appalled that Rev Sizer participated in a conference of antisemites in Tehran, sponsored by the Iranian government, which ranks among the most vicious persecutors of Christians and others, and is sworn to the destruction of the State of Israel.

Rev Sizer’s attendance and active role at such a hate-filled event is irreconcilable with his position as a minister in the Church of England.  The Board is currently considering all the information reaching it concerning the conference and is keeping all its options open regarding any future action.  Meanwhile, the Board anticipates that the Church of England will wish to conduct its own investigation into the matter.” [Emphasis added]

 As the  British Daily Telegraph reports, the vicar has denied any wrongdoing, explaining in part:

“Jesus called his followers to be ambassadors of reconciliation – and ambassadors work on foreign soil.

Iran is foreign soil and I was there as an Englishman but also as a Christian leader where Christians and Jews are a minority and ambassadors are needed.

I was seeking to build bridges within a faith context to help to improve relationships for minorities and between our countries."

And adding, with terrific chutzpah:

"Those who criticise this kind of conference must think very carefully of the consequences of their words for Jews and Christians in countries like Iran.”

As a Christian analyst noted last week:

'When Sizer is confronted about his attendance at conferences organized by Holocaust deniers, he responds by saying he is merely interested in telling his audiences about Jesus Christ.'

And went on to say:

'Dr. Sizer’s participation in this conference is a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the mediation agreement he signed with  his Anglican superiors and with the Board of Deputies in 2013.

There is simply no way  Dr. Sizer can square his participation in this conference with his promise not to promote anti-Semitism, even if this promise was made in the context of his postings on the Internet. Traveling to Iran to participate in a conference where Israel and its Jewish supporters are demonized is simply beyond the pale, or should be.

Dr. Sizer was given an opportunity to change his ways. He wasted that chance. He has returned to his Jew-baiting ways and must be sanctioned, in a big way.

Now the Church of England must act and it should not require another complaint from the Board of Deputies of British Jews to do the right thing.'
 [Emphasis added; see full article here]

More in the Jerusalem Post here

Has one of Sizer's Facebook friends just let the cat out of the bag regarding a new anti-Israel project?

(Sizer has "liked" that post by Salih, I'm told.)

Postscript: As for 9/11 conspiracy theories, I wonder whether the Board of Deputies knows of the vicar's squalid linkage to the "Five Dancing Shlomos" canard, shown in screenshot on my above-mentioned post?

PPS: (Facebook, 7/8 Oct. 2014):

Bound First For A Persian Market: Sizer's lowdown on the "Lobby"

Regular readers of my blog may recall that our old mate the vicar of Virginia Water announced back in May that he had been asked by a publisher (name undisclosed) to write a book on the "Zionist Lobby in the UK" and that he was seeking information from his Facebook faithful regarding

"published sources that elaborate on the influence of the Zionist Lobby in the UK on the media, press, business, banks, universities, politics and Parliament".

And that much more recently he asked his Facebook faithful for help with the proofing.

Well, it seems that the opus is complete:

And its author, who of course is no stranger to Iran or  Iran's propaganda channel Press TV, reveals further:

I wonder whether it will also eventually find its way into Chinese and Korean, as do, it seems, works by the vicar attempting to undermine Christian Zionism.

As for the publisher, as far as I'm aware the identity is still tightly under wraps: maybe I was right when I guessed "The Rouhani Press" ...

Update, 6 Sept. (our old friend is truly scraping the bottom of the barrel!):

"Israelis Want To Maintain The Idea That ... The Church Is Siding With Zionism Against Islam": anti-"Islamophobia" Christians gunning for Israel

"Over the course of its history, the WCC [World Council of Churches] – an umbrella organization of 350 Protestant and Orthodox churches – has worked assiduously to demonize the Jewish state while remaining silent about the sins of its adversaries. It has also made bowing and scraping in the face of Islamic violence a central plank of modern-day ecumenism. Speaking up forcefully on behalf of the victims of such violence is simply beyond the ken of the WCC. The organization is simply incapable of speaking the truth about this problem."

That justifiable indictment is made by the Christian Media Analyst at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, Dexter Van Zile, in his article (hat tip: reader Ian) about the WCC's just-concluded conference in Lebanon.

Van Zile goes on:

'The WCC set itself up for failure even before the conference began. Prior to the conference, which lasted from May 21st to May 25th, the WCC described the upcoming meeting about Christians in the Middle East as giving voice to “ecumenical Christian concerns about the presence of Christians in the Middle East” which the organization stated, “differ from those who seek to kindle Islamophobia.”

The May 15th press release announcing the meeting also reported that the speakers would include Palestinian diplomats Afif Safieh and Samir Morcos, and a former assistant to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, a man who has utterly failed to protect Coptic Christians in their homeland.

This pre-conference press release, issued on May 15th, served as fair warning that meeting’s attendees would sweep the problem of Islamist violence under the rug and then accuse anyone who would talk openly about the impact of jihad against Christians in the Middle East of being Islamophobes. It also served as fair warning that the attendees would try to steer the conversation toward Israel.

And that is exactly what happened.

In the statement issued after the conference, the attendees lamented the kidnapping of two Christian clergy in Syria and said they “pray and hope that their speedy release, and assistance of the leaders of Muslim and Christian communities, will strengthen inter-religious co-operation.” The leaders in question are still in custody.

The reference to the captivity of these two leaders was about the only mention of Muslim wrongdoing in the document, which condemned Christian Zionism as an ideology that enables “the manipulation of public opinion by Zionist lobbies, and damage[s] intra-Christian relations.” ....'

Read the entire article here

As reader Ian added, regarding a book mentioned in the article and published, in 2000, with the WCC's assistance (Jutta Sperber’s book Christians and Muslims: The Dialogue Activities of the World Council of Churches and their Theological Foundation):

'The book is also pretty revealing. In her assessment of the WCC’s dialogue with Muslim leaders, Sperber gives the game away:

“The solution of the Palestinian problem in the sense of the West’s abandoning its pro-Israeli attitude became the criterion to judge the credibility of the Christian/Muslim dialogue, and indeed, of inter-religious dialogue in general. This attitude was not only adopted by Muslims but also by Arab Christians.”

In other words, if the WCC was going to have good relations with Muslim leaders, it needed to attack Israel’s supporters in the West.'

On reading the above article I thought, inevitably, of the recent, notorious Church of Scotland report that seeks to undermine Jewish claims to Eretz Israel by disavowing Scripture itself.

I see that anti-Christian Zionism crusader, Anglican vicar Stephen Sizer ("Don't bother blogging about him, he's not worth a pitcher of warm spit" advises one friend), has been talking up the report's significance to a reporter from the propaganda channel of the Ahmadinejad regime, on which he (who's visited Iran twice, I understand) not infrequently appears.

"It's news that the Israelis don't want because they want to maintain the idea that they have the Church in their pocket, that the Church is siding with Zionism against Islam – well, this report questions that premise," the clerical anti-Israel warrior explains to the already highly opinionated Amina Taylor in that deceptively soft voice of his:

And he appears on Press TV a little later to help justify BDS:

But what, I wonder, do Sizer and the rest of the Israel-demonisers (sorry, human rights activists), religious and secular, who readily give interviews to Iran's Press TV excoriating the little Jewish State and attempting to justify BDS make of such reports as this, and this:

'The attacks against Baha'is in Iran represent one of the clearest cases of state-sponsored religious persecution in the world, said Heiner Bielefeldt, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.

Speaking 6 March 2013 in Geneva at a side event during the 22nd session of the Human Rights Council, Dr. Bielefeldt discussed the release of a new report by the Baha'i International Community, which documents rising violence against Iranian Baha'is and the utter impunity enjoyed by attackers.

 "It's really one of the most obvious cases of state persecution," he said, noting that the repression faced by Baha'is spans "all areas of state activity, from family law provisions to schooling, education, and security."

He asked participants at the side event – which drew some 50 representatives from governments, the UN, and non-governmental organizations – to visualize the impact such wide-ranging persecution has on an individual as he or she moves through the stages of life.

 "Imagine what that means for a child, in school, maybe even kindergarten, sometimes even in the preschool phase, of young life. To be exposed to the stigma, to be told there is something wrong with your family, that you have to change, you have to adapt ...Then, as the child gets to the age of higher education, now the problem is how to get access ... We have lots of cases of Baha'is who have been expelled from universities and other sectors of higher education. Imagine what it means if a person wants to gather position in life, to get a job. There is not the slightest possibility for a Baha'i to take a position in any public sector [job]. But even in the private sector, there is mobbing and stigmatization."

"How can a person start a family life, if in family law there is no official space for Baha'is to conclude valid marriages?" he asked, noting that this deficiency affects concerns ranging from inheritance to rights of custody.

 Attacks do not even end with death, he added. "There is the experience of desecration of cemeteries... [of] cemeteries being also bulldozed down by someone."

Pointing to the report, titled "Violence with Impunity: Acts of aggression against Iran's Baha'i community," Dr. Bielefeldt said that the increasing violence against Iranian Baha'is – and the degree to which attackers escape prosecution for their crimes – is clear.

"Not only do Baha'is have to expect a lack of protection – government agencies are very often inimical, hostile forces."'

Iran Says Harry Potter is a Zionist Plot!

Now that's plain potty!

Happy New Year, everybody...