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)
"Long ago, August Bebel gave a name to left-wing anti-Semitism: “the socialism of fools.” , Emeritus Professor Michael Walzer, of Princeton, reminded us back in March, adding, "Now the fools are in Congress".
His focus, no prizes for guessing, was on Representative Ilhan Omar, and he wrote, inter alia:
"A congressional resolution condemning all forms of bigotry is no
doubt commendable, but it doesn’t serve our political purpose. What is
necessary is a fierce and detailed expose of all the lies about the
Jews. And it is important that the word be used: lies. Many of Omar’s
critics prefer to be offended, hurt, and distressed by her repetition of
anti-Semitic tropes rather than outraged by the dishonesty of the
tropes.
And they are, in turn, afraid to offend Omar’s supporters, who
seem to think that the lies Omar repeats are simply her opinions; they
are just like everyone else’s opinions. Indeed, Omar is entitled to her
falsehoods; it is, as we say, a free country. But the falsehoods have to
be given their proper name. If Jewish Democrats don’t get tough about
this, they will soon find themselves unable to be tough about anything.
They will be pushed out of the Democratic Party just as Jews are being
pushed out of the Labour Party in the U.K."
Now, in the Fall 2019 issue of Dissent magazine, Professor Walzer wows with an article entitled "Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism". A taster, in his summing up:
"Why not Zionism? Because the Jews aren’t a people; because they should be more cosmopolitan than anyone else; because the Zionist state has had some terrible governments; because no one should have a state (even if almost everyone does). Each of these claims can be made and reasons given, but the way they are made in the world today is bound to arouse suspicion. It is at least possible, and sometimes it seems likely, that the people making them also believe that Jews ran the slave trade, that the Zionist lobby controls U.S. foreign policy (as Representative Ilhan Omar has said), that Jews are disloyal to every country in which they live except Israel, and that Jewish bankers control the international financial system.
There are too many men and women who believe these things—on the left as well as on the right. They are anti-Semites or fellow travelers of anti-Semites, and their anti-Zionism is probably tightly connected to their anti-Semitism (though there are now pro-Israel anti-Semites among, for example, American evangelicals and Eastern European right-wing nationalists).
Men and women on the left need to be sharply critical, especially critical, of other leftists who hold these views. It is obviously easier to condemn right-wing anti-Semites and pretend that anti-Semitism doesn’t exist on the left. But it does ... It may well be true that right-wing anti-Semitism poses the greater danger to Jewish well-being, but the leftist version should not be underestimated.
Still, I am sure that a lot of anti-Zionists and many leftist anti-Zionists don’t believe any of the anti-Semitic fables. Maybe they are willfully ignorant about the Jewish people, maybe they are peculiarly focused on the Jewish state; maybe they just don’t like Jews (as George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, said about Jeremy Corbyn). Maybe. But when it comes to leftist debates about Israel, Zionism is the issue, and it is Zionism that we should talk about. For all the reasons I’ve given, what’s wrong with anti-Zionism is anti-Zionism itself..."
On 16 August this year people in the great UK city of Manchester turned out to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the city's tragic "Peterloo Massacre", when a two-year old boy and at least seventeen other people (male and female) lost their lives, and around 600 others were injured. These victims of the charging militia were among a vast crowd of peaceful demonstrators gathered in St Peter's Field to demand repeal of the Corn Laws and the extension of the suffrage.
The incident is well-known to people who take an interest in history. But this year, as this report from the BBC shows, more and more people swelled the ranks of those who gathered to commemorate the event, including, I suspect, a number of fairly fresh members of the Labour Party.
You know: Corbynistas.
That the story of Peterloo tugs at the heartstrings is not surprising.
So, of course, does the story of the "Tolpuddle Martyrs", six agricultural from a village Dorset, who in 1834 were transported to Australia, having organised themselves into a proto-trade union.
But
among those exploiting the Peterloo event for their own ends were the ratbags
pictured.
And the annual Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival, which occurs each July?
Well, the Unite union, which is one of the UK trades unions that is anti-Israel, calling it "an apartheid state" and calling for sanctions, is well-involved with that event.
Here's a familiar demagogue at this year's Tolpuddle event:
We can, no doubt, expect more of this hijackery in the years ahead. Don't be surprised if the 1692 massacre at Glencoe is next!
On Iran's propaganda news channel shortly before Christmas, this indictment of "Zionist fanatics" protesting antisemitism and its aplogists in the Corbynistas' Labour Party:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGyV9BGZYGY
(The antisemitic comments below the video on that site tell their own tale)
Meanwhile, it seems the mates of the mullahs have been gobbling up all the spoils in Ayatollahland: see here
Today's British Sunday Times reports that having approached Jeremy Corbyn with "a dossier" of antisemitic posts on social media by the Labour Party's senior organiser in the English West Midlands, a key swing area at general elections, Mohammed Yasin (pictured, with Jezza, at the party's national conference in September), Mr Yasin has been suspended from his position and an investigation launched.
The paper informs us:
"For more than two years Yasin, not to be confused withthe Labour MP with a similar name, shared anti-semitic posts and 9/11 conspiracy
theories, praised a homophobic preacher and described his former leader
Tony Blair as a “child-killer”.
His Twitter feed, now removed, suggests he was working for Labour when he made most of the posts.
Labour
has been riven by allegations of anti-semitism among members and
activists, but Yasin is believed to be the first paid member of staff to
be implicated."
According to the paper, Yasinin 2014wrote:
“US imperialism needs Israel to keep the masses permanently at war”, accusing the Jewish state of “genocide”.
In 2015, the paper claims, he
"shared a cartoon showing the BBC and CNN ignoring butchered
Palestinians while training their cameras on a crying baby with a Star
of David round its neck."
In 2016, it alleges, he shared a video on the“Rothschilds, the world’s most wicked and wealthiest family” and
'shared a post from the Lord Dreadnought site, headlined with a quote from the actor Mel Gibson, “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” Attacking “Zionist madness”, the post showed two people laughing uproariously at the suggestion that anyone else could be to blame, in the line “when someone tells me it’s not the Jews”.'
He also allegedly shared a post headed “Why Israel is a problem”, which stated that
'“due to Holocaust propaganda” America had provided Israel with $233.7bn in aid and allowed it a nuclear arsenal. He shared a picture showing a rabbi next to the words: “Goyim [non-Jews] were born only to serve us. They have no place in the world — only to serve the people of Israel.”'
In 2017 he 'shared a post saying western governments had “lied about 9/11”.'
'Asked whether he denied sharing the posts, Yasin said: “I’m not aware. Before I make any comments I need to check.” Asked about the Mel Gibson post, he said: “I don’t agree with that.”
A Labour spokesman said: “We take all allegations seriously and fully investigate them in accordance with our rules and procedures.”'
A bunch of lefties, mainly media studies academics, have signed this delightful letter to the Grauniad, defending Corbyn against charges of, yeah, you know what.
Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?
And how superbly they prove Jonathan Freedland's point! (See box below)
'We believe that significant parts of the UK media have failed their audiences by producing flawed reports that have contributed to an undeserved witch-hunt against the Labour leader [Jeremy Corbyn] and misdirected public attention away from antisemitism elsewhere.’ Photograph: Thierry
We have long had serious concerns about the lack of due impartiality and accuracy in the reporting of allegations of antisemitism against Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party. The recent report by the Media Reform Coalition examining coverage of Labour’s revised code of conduct on antisemitism shows that we are right to be concerned.
The research examined over 250 articles and broadcast news segments and found over 90 examples of misleading or inaccurate reporting. In relation to the IHRA definition of antisemitism that was at the heart of the dispute, the research found evidence of “overwhelming source imbalance” in which critics of Labour’s code of conduct dominated coverage, with nearly 50% of Guardian reports, for example, failing to include any quotes from those defending the code or critiquing the IHRA definition. Moreover, key contextual facts about the IHRA definition – for example that it has only been formally adopted by eight countries (and only six of the IHRA member states) – were consistently excluded.
The researchers conclude these were not occasional lapses in judgment but “systematic reporting failures” that served to weaken the Labour leadership and to bolster its opponents within and outside of the party.
It is of course entirely appropriate and necessary for our major news outlets to report on the horrors of antisemitism, but wrong to present it as an issue specific to the Labour party.
In covering the allegations that Labour is now “institutionally antisemitic”, there have been inaccuracies, clear distortions and revealing omissions across our most popular media platforms. We believe that significant parts of the UK media have failed their audiences by producing flawed reports that have contributed to an undeserved witch-hunt against the Labour leader and misdirected public attention away from antisemitism elsewhere, including on the far right, which is ascendant in much of Europe.
Prof Annabelle Sreberny Soas, University of London
See how she blows? Here's the prof on video, at a Jewish Voice for Labour demo in London, blaming "a manipulative Israeli propaganda outfit" for instigating perceptions of antisemitism in Corbyn's party:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxjpK2ZC3FU
Prof Greg Philo University of Glasgow
An inveterate knocker of Israel. With fellow-signatories to the present letter Loach, Fenton, Miller, Petley and Berry, as well as a gaggle of other Israel-demonisers,was one of the original signatories to this mind-boggling petition beginning:
'We are concerned at the very partial nature of BBC reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While some reporters have shown great bravery in war zones, much home-based journalism lacks context and is unable to report the Palestinian perspective. The attacks on Gaza are presented by Israel and the BBC as being directed at militants, while for Palestinians they are an extension of military rule and collective punishment by a brutal apartheid state....'
Prof David Miller Bristol University
His Facebook buddies include such Israel-haters as Tony Greenstein, Mick Napier, Stephen Sizer and Ben White. (That's fellow-signatory Tom Mills in the first pic below)
Prof Julian Petley Brunel University
Petley, like a few of the other signatories (Hickel, Cushman, possibly Berry) were among the numerous signatories to this letter, which alleged, in February last year:
'The spike in far-right antisemitic incidents on UK campuses that you report (UK universities urged to act over spate of antisemitic stickers and graffiti, 18 February) seems to reflect the increase in xenophobia since the Brexit vote. Yet the government has “adopted” the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which can be and is being read as extending to criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights, an entirely separate issue, as prima facie evidence of antisemitism.
This definition seeks to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.Now Jo Johnson, the government minister whose brief includes universities, has written to Universities UK asking for this definition to be disseminated throughout the system. His letter specifically mentions Israeli Apartheid Week (a worldwide activity at this time of year since 2005) as a cause for concern. The response has been swift. Late last week, in haste and clearly without legal advice, the University of Central Lancashire banned a meeting that was to be addressed by journalist Ben White as well as by academics. The university statement asserted that the meeting on “Debunking misconceptions on Palestine” contravened the definition of antisemitism recently adopted by the government, and would therefore not be lawful.
Meanwhile, the Campaign Against Antisemitism, a body set up during the Israeli assault on Gaza in 2014, cites this definition in asking its supporters to “record, film, photograph and get witness evidence” about Israeli Apartheid Week events; and “we will help you to take it up with the university, students’ union or even the police”. These are outrageous interferences with free expression, and are direct attacks on academic freedom.
As academics with positions at UK universities, we wish to express our dismay at this attempt to silence campus discussion about Israel, including its violation of the rights of Palestinians for more than 50 years. It is with disbelief that we witness explicit political interference in university affairs in the interests of Israel under the thin disguise of concern about antisemitism.'
Stephen Cushion Cardiff University
Unlike many, not overtly or obsessively anti-Israel, it would seem.
Jason Hickel Goldsmiths, University of London
Einar Thorsen Bournemouth University
Among his tweets:
Jenny Manson Jewish Voice for Labour
Watch her at the launch of Jewish Voice for Labour, and note (also at the beginning) the adulation greeting Ken Loach's arrival:
'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):
Regarding Boris Johnson's recent remarks about the burqa, condemned by Theresa May and a bunch of trembling Tories as well as the usual suspects, I was looking at this Twitter page admiring the forthright views of true feminists such as the page owner herself when I spotted this:
Corbyn's an atheist. Strange to see him at prayer. But has he been traduced? Here's more on that story.
Among Suzanne Evans's tweets and retweets regarding Boris's criticism of the burkha, such as those by Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, who's in a spot of trouble over one tweet, there's this delight:
Splendidly, British broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer tells a Muslim female caller that the burqa's "a horrible, ghastly dehumanising garment" and a lot else besides.
A fabulous set of arguments on Julia's part! She's clever, polite and relentless!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-hiphhw0PY
Meanwhile, Guardianista columnist Polly Toynbee, an atheist, parades her "Islamophobic" credentials yet again. Too bad she lumps Judaism and Christianity in with the "primitives".
"The pens sharpen - Islamophobia! No such thing. Primitive Middle Eastern religions (and most others) are much the same - Islam, Christianity and Judaism all define themselves through disgust for women's bodies. There are ritual baths, churching, shaving heads, denying abortion and contraception, arranged marriage, purdah, barring unclean women access to the altar, let alone the priesthood, letting men divorce but not women - all this perverted abhorrence of half the human race lies at the maggotty heart of religion, the defining creed in all the holy of holies."
As Taj Hargey, an imam in Oxford put it, inter alia, in a letter to The Times:
"Boris Johnson should not apologise for telling the truth. His evocative analogy is unfortunate but he is justified in reminding everyone that the Wahhabi/Salafi-inspired fad of female facial masking has no Koranic legitimacy. It is, however, a nefarious component of a trendy gateway theology for religious extremism and militant Islam. The burka and niqab are hideous tribal ninja-like garments that are pre-Islamic, non-Koranic and therefore un-Muslim. Although this deliberate identity-concealing contraption is banned at the Kaaba in Mecca it is permitted in Britain, thus precipitating security risks, accelerating vitamin D deficiency, endorsing gender-inequality and inhibiting community cohesion."
Update:
O, the irony! Al Beeb (among others) reports:
"Christine Hamilton has been removed as a charity ambassador after comparing burkas to the hoods of the Ku Klux Klan. The broadcaster and wife of UKIP Welsh Assembly member Neil Hamilton sparked outrage on Twitter with her comments. Muscular Dystrophy UK said it opposed "prejudice and discrimination" and had severed all links with Mrs Hamilton."
"Prejudice and discrimination", eh? For the prejudice and discrimination against women involved in enforced veiling try this for size, and be sure to look at the comment that links to this: http://www.faizaneraza.org/islamic-article-read.php?article_id=31
What a rum lot! It sounds like a dirge to me, a wail of derision against the execrable Labour leader. But alas, it's a tribute to him, on the part of old and not so old lefties, anti-Americans and unilateral nuclear disarmament advocates at a "Don't Bomb Syria" demo in London recently:
"I'm a servant of the Lord," explains British businessman Gerald Ronson, a Jew "in my soul and in my heart". His two oldest grandchildren live in Israel.
From 2:20 in this J-TV video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mffNvF8QR3g) he tells what compelled him to found the Community Security Trust (CST) and from 3:20 he declares his belief that were Jeremy Corbyn to become prime minister antisemitism in Britain would increase:
That antisemitism has become more brazen in Britain than at any stage since the Second World War is seen in this article by the great Melanie Phillips regarding Corbynista Jackie Walker's shameful one-woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
To the previous post, by David Singer, entitled " Syria and Islamic State – America Capitulates, UN Security Council Procrastinates," I've appended a video in which Islamic monsters threaten the United States.
Here are three further videos:
This one from British Home Secretary Theresa May, declaring in the House of Commons that the Paris atrocities have "nothing to do with Islam:
This one, in which Al Beeb's Andrew Marr (too prone to inject his own five cents' worth, in my view) interviews Labour heavyweight (although not literally so heavy as he once was) Lord Faulkner about Jeremy Corbyn's reactions to the Paris atrocities and what the Labour Party's policy really is, and after Lord Faulkner Marr speaks to Theresa May about where relevant governmental policy is headed:
And this one, showing some Turkish football spectators showing marked disrespect during a minute's silence for the Parisian victims of the terrorists; remember the video here showing more Turks behaving badly?
Our old friend Sandra and other anti-Israel activists, some wearing fashionable Corbynistic "Jez we can" badges, rant outside the Labour Party's autumn conference headquarters in Brighton regarding the party's employment of guards from security firm G4S, which evidently also provides security for representatives of the Zionist Entity, and demanding that the new leader give G4S its marching orders. Joining in the action is Labour MEP Julie Ward.
Below is a guest blog regarding Jeremy Corbyn by Professor William Rubinstein, who has published widely in the fields of British and Jewish history:
The election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British
Labour Party is obviously a matter of great concern to many people around the
world.An extreme leftist, possibly the
most leftwing member of Parliament, he is hostile to every aspect of the West’s
attempt to defend itself and friendly to every radical movement in the world,
including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the IRA.He has never held any government office of any kind, and it would have
seemed utterly inconceivable, even a few weeks ago, that he could have been
elected leader of the Labour Party.
That
he was elected is as if the late Bill Hartley, the socialist left extremist of politics
in Victoria, Australia, who was known as "Baghdad Bill" for his pro-Arab
proclivities, had been elected leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP).
Corbyn was enabled to become leader of the British Labour Party because Ed
Miliband changed the voting system to eliminate Labour MPs choosing their own
leader, and substituted a system whereby the leader was elected purely by a
vote of individual members of the party, anyone who paid £3 to join.This virtually made certain the election of
an extreme leftist, especially given that the other Labour MPs who were
contesting the leadership was especially uninspiring and little known
Ed Miliband, who was leader of the Labour
Party from 2010 until he left after the May 2015 general election, will surely be
ranked as the worst leader of the party in its history, with the possible exception of Michael Foot; his legacy is the selection of someone totally outside of mainstream British politics as his successor.
It may be assumed by some that Corbyn has not attacked Israel in the visceral way commonly found on the Western left and has no real track record in the area, other than declaring Hamas and Hezbollah to be his "friends".
Wrong, as his demagogic rant at the Al Quds Day rally in London three years ago starkly shows:
He wants to abolish the British Army (I'm serious), strip Britain of its nuclear deterrents, exit from NATO, and stop bombing ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
His other proposals are a hodge-podge of ultra-left measures of confiscatory socialism, old-style nationalisation, and empowerment of bloody-minded, Marxist-dominated trade unions of the kind which virtually destroyed the British economy and British democratic society in the 1970s. Everyone had assumed that Thatcher followed by Blair had laid these monsters to permanent rest, but, evidently, like Dracula, they arise at midnight. In part, Corbyn's ascendancy is a delayed product of the 2008 world recession (when Labour was in power in Britain under Gordon Brown), although the statistics on unemployment and other indices in the UK are largely back to where they were before the recession.
The best thing that can be said about Corbyn is that he has no chance of election as prime minister, since he would have to win 100 or more seats from the Tories at the next General Election, not due until May 2020. In all likelihood, Labour will lose many seats if he remains Labour leader. It is now incumbent on David Cameron and the Conservatives not to trip up when they are ahead.
[The above interview, in June, with anti-Israel former Press TV hack Hassan Alkatib, covers, in the Youtube uploader's words, Corbyn's "life, activism and role as a politician in creating a more just society in Britain and beyond. Corbyn revisits his role in bringing about a peace settlement in Northern Ireland; his experiences in Gaza; his opposition to the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria; his support for Chilean, Palestinian and Irish independence; Britain's role in Zionism and much more." The Middle East content starts at 11:34 ... D.A. See also here and, concerning his son Ben Corbyn's abysmal attitude to Israel, here]
As reported in theJewish Chronicle, Alison Chabloz, a performer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, will incur no penalty for making the "quenelle" salute, widely regarded as antisemitic.
On her blog, Ms Chabloz has stated her reasons for making the gesture, meant as a taunt to "hardline Zionists" whom she claims harass her online.
Declaring her support for Jeremy Corbyn, whom most anti-Israel Leftists fervently wish to see voted in as Britain's Labour Party leader, she has also written in that blogpost:
'Nobody denies that the Jews and other groups suffered horrendous atrocities at the hands of the Nazis nor that millions died in camps. It is the method of murder which is under question and if people dug a little deeper into the issue they may discover some interesting facts regards the presumed existence of homicidal Nazi gas chambers.
Indeed, the French Gayssot-Fabius law only came into existence when Professor Robert Faurisson (whose mother, by the way, was a Scot) published his findings on the lack of any physical proof regards homicidal Nazi gas chambers. Faurisson has suffered no less than ten physical assaults by thugs associated with the LDJ (League des Juifs – French equivalent of the JDL, Jewish Defence League) and, like Dieudonné and others, has been punished financially in the French courts for expressing views based on in-depth intellectual and scientific research.
“Did six million really die?” Ernst Zündel published a pamphlet posing the question in 1974 and after two high-profile trials in 1985 and 1988 was eventually sent to solitary confinement for two years in a Canadian jail. Zündel was then extradited to Germany where in 2007 he was finally convicted and jailed for another five years. Like Faurisson, Zündel suffered physical attacks as well as having his home destroyed by a pipe-bomb.
I don’t know the answer to Zündel’s question. With an establishment corrupt to the core and police obfuscation regarding high-profile child abusers ( the Labour peer and former chairman of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Lord Janner, springs to mind ) – is it surprising that so many people are now starting to question official versions of history?'
