Red & White & Black & Green: Moodey Hues of an English Summer

"Here we go gathering nuts in May ..."

Above: The Richmond Palestine Solidarity Group takes to the streets in their leafy part of outer London.  Look closely.  Recognise anyone? (No? Never mind. Clue below. Read on.)

Now that our old friend the ex-vicar of Virginia Water has cut loose from a rural setting and the censorious eye of the Bishop of Guildford, it's presumably full steam ahead for the Israel-ramming vehicle he skippers, Peacemaker Mediators, moored, so to speak, at the edge of Southampton Water.

And so Skipper Sizer has wasted little time after cutting loose in posting this nasty Michael Leunig cartoon to social media.

Employed by the Israel-bashing Aussie newspaper The Age (aka, from way back, "The Spencer Street Soviet"), Leunig, like Sizer himself, has often been accused of harbouring antisemitic views.

The above cartoon (first) appeared in The Age on 11 December 2012, prompting the following response (quoted inter alia) from academic Dr Dvir Abramovich ,head of of the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission [emphasis added]:

'.... Leunig's cartoon takes the noble words of anti-Nazi cleric Martin Niemoller decrying the passivity of bystanders in the face of Nazi evil and substitutes the Nazis referred to in the original poem with Israelis: "First they came for the Palestinians and I did not speak out".

Leunig obscenely equates the actions of Israel in Gaza to those of the Nazis and asserts the people who were once the objects of Hitler's extermination and their descendants are now committing genocide against the Palestinians and are thus the present world's Nazis. I wonder if Leunig paused to consider how a survivor of the Holocaust would react when they came upon his cartoon? Understandably shocked, they would ask, "How is it possible for anyone to compare the organised, industrial murder of six million Jews in gas chambers, in death camps, in ghettos and in open fields to what is happening in Gaza? Why would any person liken Israel's protection of its citizens from rockets to the genocidal and bestial liquidation of the Jews?"

Equating Israeli policies to those of the Nazis has been identified as anti-Semitic by the EU, the US State Department, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, since it calls for Israel's destruction.

.... Anyone with the vaguest knowledge of the Holocaust will know that by any measure comparing Israel to Nazi Germany is a kind of deliberate amnesia of the monstrous policies of the Nazis that minimises their genocidal extent and intent, and instead maligns Israel....

I wonder, did Leunig's "duty and conscience" compel him to sound the alarm all those years while thousands of rockets systematically fell on Israelis, attacks that Israeli author and peace activist Amos Oz called "a war crime and a crime against humanity"?

Did Leunig ever express the "unspoken grief" of Israeli families who lost loved ones to terrorism? Did he liken the actions of state genocides, brutal executions and large-scale massacres of civilians in Rwanda, Darfur, Congo, Nigeria, Syria, Myanmar, Somalia and Ethiopia to those of the Nazis? Did he call Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "excessively homicidal" for wanting to wipe Israel off the map?

 Or is this epitaph reserved only for Israel? Why does Leunig absolve Palestinians of all responsibility for their situation and ignore their behaviour against Israel?

....In his cartoon, Leunig also descends into parroting another anti-Jewish screed, that of the nefarious, all-powerful Jewish lobby that is lurking behind the scenes, ready to pounce and stifle critics of Israel....

Criticism of Israeli policies is entirely acceptable and Leunig is entitled to his views. But such cartoons not only poison public debate, they close it. After all, how do you discuss the conflict with someone who compares Israelis to Nazis?....'

(Read Abramovich's entire article here)

If my memory serves me correctly, Sizer has linked to that cartoon before.  The fact that he's trotted it out again, not long after the launch on 6 May of Peacemaker Mediators (whose skipper is warmly commended by a nice but apparently naive clerical gentleman called Richard Bewes here) must surely be interpreted as signaling the overriding direction and thrust of Sizer's new vehicle and into what seas it intends to sail.

Directly above (in the quoted text of Abramovich's piece) is  another of the ex-vicar's very recent postings, this time regarding the definition of antisemitism.  It too acts as a signal.  Tomlinson, by the way, was retained for his legal opinion by, to quote the senior barrister himself,

 'Free Speech on Israel, Independent Jewish Voices, Jews for Justice for Palestinians and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to provide an Opinion on the effect of the Government’s decision to “adopt” the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (“IHRA”) non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism (“the IHRA Definition”). I am also asked to consider the meaning and effect of the IHRA Definition and its compatibility with the obligations of public authorities under the Human Rights Act 1998 (“the HRA”).'

Indeed, here's a member of that vehicle's "International Board of Reference," Jenny Tonge, always eager to bash Israel, showing by that keffiyeh how she celebrated the month of May, in Richmond, Surrey, her constituency when she was a Lib Dem MP.

Like Sizer, she too has posted the link to Tomlinson's article (and so, with a suggestion that he. himself, is accordingly exculpated, has the disgraceful and disgraced Lib Dem politician David Ward, not, as far as I know, connected with Peacemaker Mediators, but for whose despicable remarks regarding Jews see here and here) 

With its course charted and steered by dyed-in-the-wool anti-Israel bigots, Peacemaker Mediators is flying false colours!

For most of the principal names associated with it so far see my blog here
 
Also preparing for an Israel-demonising occasion this northern hemisphere summer is another serial Israel-hater, the Reverend Lucy Winkett, incumbent of St James's Church, Piccadilly, notorious for its anti-Israel carol service  ('Among the guests were [sic] Baroness Tonge, the Liberal Democrat peer who was sacked from the party's front bench in 2004 after saying she "understood" why Palestinians became suicide bombers and that she would consider becoming one if she were Palestinian') and its replica "Wall" (see Douglas Murray here and Palestinian terror victim Kay Wilson's open letter here and my open letter to Lucy Winkett here):

"Join us this June for a challenging and thought-provoking lecture that explores Britain's historical and current relationship with Palestine.

We are privileged to welcome as our speaker Professor Avi Shlaim [pictured], Emeritus Fellow of St Antony's College and Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford. [Emphasis added here and below.]

2017 marks some significant and momentous anniversaries: 100 years since the Balfour Declaration, which committed Britain to support a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine; 70 years since the ill-fated UN Partition Plan for Palestine; 50 years since the Six Day War and the start of Israel’s occupation; and ten years since the start of Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Professor Shlaim will explore this topic in his lecture titled ‘Britain and Palestine: From Balfour to Blair and Beyond’.

We hope you can join us for this event."

We are told:

"Tickets are free but must be booked in advance. There will be a retiring collection for the work of Embrace. http://www.embraceme.org/events/annual-lecture-2017"

No attempt at balance on Lucy Winkett's part, evidently.  Just a diet of anti-Israel propaganda from a master chef at dishing it up.

I mean, where to begin on Shlaim? Here, perhaps. Or, better still, here, where the psychological origins of his hatred of Israel are apparently laid bare.


But what can we expect of Lucy Winkett, who following part of an all-women clerics' visit to "Israel/Palestine" under the auspices of Christian Aid way back in 2002 took a (premeditated?) swipe at Israel in the unhallowed pages of The Guardian and who chairs Israel-bashing NGO the Amos Trust, which, to quote NGO Monitor here,

 'Supports projects in India, Nicaragua, South Africa, Palestine-Israel, Uganda and the Philippines.

 Promotes a one-sided, politicized view of the conflict. Describes the “devastating impact of: the wall, settlements blocks and travel restrictions upon Palestinian life,” with no mention of terrorism or Palestinian corruption.

Uses “apartheid” rhetoric.

 In December 2008, the group marketed “poignant, ironic” nativity scenes depicting the Security Barrier, claiming that  “this year the wise men won’t get to the stable.” This project has been criticized for its anti-Semitic undertones. This theme is also evident in Amos Trust’s 2008 Christmas Cards, and similar cards in 2006.

 A trip to “Israel/Palestine,” “The Gospel Under Occupation“, scheduled for 2009, is designed for church leaders, and will work with radical anti-Israel groups such as Sabeel and ICAHD.

Joined 2006 anti-Israel divestment campaign along with Friends of Sabeel UK, ICAHD, and War on Want; listed as a member of the Joint Committee for Palestine which sponsored the 2004 event, “Remembering President Arafat.”

Partners in “Palestine-Israel”: The Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem, Wi’am Conflict Resolution Centre in Bethlehem, Al Ahli Hospital, Gaza, and the Open House Community Reconciliation Centre in Ramle, Israel'.

And as my header indicates this survey of a forthcoming summer of Israel-bashing is not complete without mention of our old mate Jeremy Moodey.

This former investment banker (Rothschilds, no less), former would-be Conservative candidate and former head honcho of Embrace the Middle East is now CEO of an outfit called Sons and Friends of the Clergy; established in 1655, it provides financial grants and other support to needy Anglican clergy, ordinands and their families.

But the baleful legacy of his time at Embrace the Middle East, formerly BibleLands  (see my post here) endures, as seen in the involvement of that body with the Shlaim event, and he's cock-a-hoop over the forthcoming (25-28 August) Greenbelt festival.

"Great to see Embrace the Middle East and Amos Trust team up with the Greenbelt Festival to focus on Palestine this year," he tells his Facebook faithful.  "Wonderful line-up!"

With the exception of Qaisy, the persons Moodey specifically mentions in that short encomium are listed in the "Ideas"section on the festival's website.  Below are a few of the people listed in that section, in the order given online.

I have linked only to those who appear to have form on Israel and will be in all likelihood focusing on Israel at Greenbelt.  (The list includes  activists in Guardianista-type causes, some calculated to have the average guest at an average vicar's average tea party calling for a tot of brandy, but not all will be focusing on "Israel/Palestine".  These I have omitted.)

 Baroness Sayeeda Warsi Baroness Warsi is an obvious darling of the organisers, for her criticism of Israel and especially her recent demand that Britons who serve in the IDF be prosecuted.  Here's part of a report co-written by none other than Israel-hater Peter Oborne (q.v.) of whom Moodey writes so warmly in the above post:

'Sayeeda Warsi, who resigned her cabinet post over the UK government’s failure to condemn Israel’s assault on Gaza, has called for British volunteers for the Israeli army to be treated as foreign fighters and prosecuted on their return to the UK.

The former foreign office minister, who now holds the title of baroness in the House of Lords, seeks to close a loophole she says is designed to protect Israel. It distinguishes between Britons who fight for state armies like Israel and Pakistan, and those who fight for non-state groups like Kurdish and militant organisations.

In an interview with the Middle East Eye, Warsi said: “One of the questions I asked the Foreign Office was that we have a distinction between state actors and non-state actors.

“If you go out there and fight for any group, you will be subject to prosecution when you get back. If you go out and fight for Assad, I presume, under our law, that is okay. That can't be right.”

“The only reason we allow the loophole to exist is because of the IDF [Israel Defence Forces], because we are not brave enough to say if you hold British citizenship, you make a choice. You fight for our state only. That has to go out strong.”

Warsi, the UK's first female Muslim cabinet minister, said that while public debate focused exclusively on demanding loyalty from British Muslims, the same rule should apply to all.

“You have to belong to something and belonging to Britain for Muslims is a thing we talk about a lot,” she said. “We don't talk about it in relation to other communities. We accept that other communities hold multiple identities. Let's just shut down this loophole. If you don't fight for Britain, you do not fight."....'

Peter Oborne Yes, he has form.  Plenty of it.  To quote Honest Reporting:

'Back in 2009, Oborne presented an episode of the Channel 4 investigative program Dispatches. The broadcast examined “one of the most powerful and influential political lobbies in Britain, which is working in support of the interests of the State of Israel”, directly attacking and smearing HonestReporting in the process.

Oborne and his cameraman even burst into HonestReporting’s Jerusalem office, with the camera rolling, looking for evidence of HonestReporting’s involvement in a shadowy “Israel lobby” operating in UK politics and media. Needless to say, Oborne’s conspiracy theories did not lead anywhere.

Oborne, however, continues his fixation with pro-Israel “lobby” organizations. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he goes after the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) group, affiliated with the UK’s ruling Conservative Party.

In it, he refers to briefing packs on the Iran deal given to Conservative MPs at a CFI luncheon as “propaganda.” Throughout his piece, Oborne portrays the efforts of legitimate organizations advocating for Israel as being of a malign and sinister nature...'

And to quote Tom Gross:

"If only.

Whereas there is a pro-Israel lobby with some influence in the U.S. (though not the kind of influence ascribed to it by anti-Semites), contrary to what Channel 4 and others think, there is no effective pro-Israel lobby in Britain.

The complete lack of any effective pro-Israel lobby in Britain (as opposed to well organized anti-Israel groups) goes a long way to explaining why some of the coverage of Israel in the British media is among the worst in the world, and sometimes rivals the Iranian and Egyptian media for its sheer nastiness.

It also explains why Britain failed to back Israel last week at the U.N. General Assembly vote on the Goldstone report into Israeli war crimes, while other democracies – including the U.S., Italy, Germany, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, Macedonia and the Czech Republic – did vote with Israel."

See also here

Natalie Bennett  This Australian-born leader (2012-16) of the Green Party of England and Wales is like the rest of the Greens mob a BDS supporter.  The Jewish Chronicle reported in 2015:

'....The Green Party manifesto [has] called for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which is worth more than £1 billion a year.

Ms Bennett, who has never been to Israel or the West Bank, said: “That agreement should be contingent on respecting human rights and international law. Until Israel is in compliance with international law, I don’t think we should have that trade deal.

“I believe we should stop arms sale to Israel. I believe that we should be using diplomatic pressure to push Israel to respect international law and UN resolutions.

“I believe we should also stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia.”

The Green Party has come under fire after Twickenham candidate Tanya Williams called Israel “a racist and apartheid state” on Tuesday and deputy leader Sharer Ali was filmed at an anti-Israel rally saying: “Just because you observe the niceties of Holocaust Memorial Day it does not mean you have learned the lessons of history.”

Ms Bennett said she would not make comparisons between the Holocaust and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but added: “When I am talking about the situation between Palestine and Israel, I focus on the behaviour of the Israeli government.

“Britain’s place in the world should be as a champion of human rights and democracy.”...'

Teresa Forcades i Vila Predictably, this radical Benedictine nun from Catalonia (how the BBC appears to love her!) has anti-Israel activism in her repertoire:

"...Teresa Forcades was deported from Israel on Saturday January 23, 2016 as she tried to enter the country. The reason for her trip was a two week teaching commitment she had at the Faculty of Teology at the Dormition Abby in East Jerusalem about the Holy Trinity. Montserrat Viñas, the emerita abbess of the Sant Benet de Montserrat monestery, Forcades travel companion, was allowed to enter Israel after being interogated. Forcades was sent back to Spain after her registration and interogation, but not before passing the night of Friday January 22 at the Tel Aviv airport detention facility.

In a statement given to the press, close contacts of Teresa's said that she was not given an explanation neither by immigration officers nor by security personnal as to the reasons she was not allowed to enter Israel, but informed that her presence there was considered 'dangerous'...."

Read the rest here

Robert Cohen A former BBC employee, he'a a trustee of the Amos Trust and runs the blog Micah's Paradigm Shift. The blog is dearly beloved of Sizer, Moodey and their ilk, and given its content it's not difficult to fathom why.
To quote the man himself:

"Robert Cohen lives in North Yorkshire in Britain and began writing on Israel-Palestine in 2011. His work has been regulary published at Mondoweiss, Tikkun Daily and Jews for Justice for Palestinians. Writing from the Edge broadens Robert’s remit to wider issues of Jewish interest from a British perspective. Expect some radically dissseting [sic] views on Isreal [sic!], commentary on Jewish-Christian interfaith issues and life as the Jewish husband of a Church of England vicar."

Better fix those misspellings, Robert.  And being published by the extremist antisemitic site Mondoweiss is nothing to boast about outside antisemitic circles.

Salma Yaqoob This political activist of Pakistani parentage is a former leader of the Respect Party, founded by George Galloway, and represented the party on Birmingham City Council, where her failure to stand to honour Britain's most decorated war veteran was widely criticised. She heads the Birmingham Stop the War Coalition.  Her rabble-rousing cries against Israel following the Mavi Marmara affair are no doubt sufficient to endear her to the Greenbelt crowd ("We are here to say this .... the days of this racist apartheid Israeli regime are numbered ... We want sanctions on Israel" which she characterised as "a terrorist state ... a rogue state").

Sahar Vardia She is a young radical Israeli who refuses to serve in the IDF.  It is of course significant that Greenbelt is evidently not interested in the viewpoints of mainstream Israelis, but only in those of dissident extremists, making no attempt at balance.

For more on Greenbelt see here 

Springtime, Piccadilly: Another Anti-Israel Bash At Lucy's Place?

On 20 May this year the London Anglican church that hosted the despicable anti-Israel "Wall" stunt, Rev. Lucy Winkett's St. James's Church, Piccadilly, is hosting an event in conjunction with the NGO Embrace the Middle East (formerly BibleLands), which is headed by an arch-critic of Israel, Jeremy Moodey.

To quote publicity material issued by the church and posted on the NGO's website:

"We are thrilled to announce that His Beatitude Gregory III Laham, the Syrian-born Patriarch of the Church of Antioch, will be the speaker at the Embrace Annual Lecture this year. Patriarch Gregory will be speaking on the role of Christians in Syria and in the Arab world and the challenges they face. The lecture will be chaired by His Eminence Metropolitan Mor Eustathius Matta Roham, Syrian Orthodox Archbishop of Jazirah and Euphrates...."

Now, it seems fair to say that in the West the 80-year-old Gregory is not exactly an household name, and information about him, in particular his attitude towards Israel, is seemingly sparse online.  Naturally, he, like Archbishop Roham, is centrally concerned with the welfare of Christians in the Near and Middle East, as this article indicates.

However, we might be forgiven for inferring, from some of the snippets of information that appear online, that he is, towards Israel, not the warmest of friends.

Wikipedia (providing footnoted sources for its statements) tells us that

'In December 2010, [he] was quoted by the Lebanon Daily Star as claiming that attacks against Levantine Christians, were part of a “Zionist conspiracy against Islam.” [He] reportedly stated that "All this behavior has nothing to do with Islam... But it is actually a conspiracy planned by Zionism and some Christians with Zionist orientations and it aims at undermining and giving a bad image of Islam.” He further added that media portryal of the attack the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad was "a conspiracy against Arabs and the pre-dominantly Muslim Arab world that aims at depicting Arabs and Muslims in Arab countries as terrorist and fundamentalist murderers in order to deny them their rights and especially those of the Palestinians.”....'

So, will the event in May prove to be an anti-Israel bash?  It's futile to jump to conclusions, and we may be in for a pleasant surprise, but if I was a betting person, given that Gregory seems to have form on the issue and given who will or will in all likelihood be present, I'd wager that Israel will come in for its unfair share of attention.

As for the vicar of Virginia Water, who I understand is expected to attend the event, he clearly does not support Israel's right to exist as the sovereign country it is; anyone who still believes that he does, take note of this:

By the way, there's a nice simply-expressed clerical Kiwi rejoinder to Sizer's anti-Israel nonsense here

Stephen Sizer's "Racists for Israel"

Yesterday, in a comment on my blog that I have not published, the blog's resident troll, a droll, wacky sort of bloke in the UK (who runs a scurrilous anti-Zionist website that I'm more than happy to help leave in the obscurity it so richly deserves by not naming or linking to it) tauntingly alerted me to this event:

Pastor Mike Fryer is no stranger to students of Christian Zionism, and I've mentioned him on this blog more than once for his sterling efforts on behalf of Israel.

In 2010, here, I drew attention to an impressive essay on Christian antisemitism that Mike Fryer wrote the previous year, which contains the following observations:

‘Many in Christendom today are using charity and good works to re-enforce in the minds of many Muslim fundamentalists that Islam has the right and even a duty to take land from the Jewish people and establish a homeland for themselves. They are referring to land, which the Jewish people by right, by international law and by religion are entitled to possess. 

“Christian” organizations such as Sabeel and Christian Aid speak openly in favor of a Palestinian homeland and use terms such as an “oppressive Israel regime” and “Israeli Occupation”; Church denominations such as the Church in Wales, the Anglican Communion, Methodists and Presbyterians have all spoken of divestment of Israel and support the Palestinian cause to create another state within the confines of the land of Israel. These and many other church organizations, such as the Vineyard, are encouraging governments to negotiate with terrorists ... [and] have eagerly moved away from the term antisemitism and now use the term anti-Zionism. What is the difference? By using the former you can be called a racist and prosecuted but the term anti-Zionism is not perceived in the same way and although it means the same it is, in this current political climate, “acceptable”....

In the [Welsh] town in which I live an anti-Israel play was performed at our local theatre. I led some other Christians for Zion supporters as we stood at the door to the theater and gave out leaflets, not criticizing anyone but stating facts. Many local church leaders and Christian groups attended the play and were obviously opposed to our stance. We found it difficult that many who teach from their pulpits that we are always to seek truth actually ignored the truths in our message….

Three years ago I attended a meeting at which a Church in Wales canon was speaking about the situation in Israel. There were a number of clergy present, none of whom knew me. I listened to lie after lie encouraging the audience to sympathize with Islam and the Palestinian people, and to see Israel as an aggressive regime, hell bent on persecuting the Palestinian people. At the end of the presentation there was a time for questions. At the conclusion of a stream of pro-Palestinian questions, I asked some pertinent questions which showed that the speaker was aware that he was not telling the truth about the actual matters he was referring to. The meeting was immediately stopped and worried clergy, thinking I was a journalist surrounded me in an effort to find out what the purpose of my attendance was.’

Last year, Mike Fryer condemned the anti-Israel Greenbelt festival (at which, be it noted, one of the speakers was the Reverend Lucy Winkett of St James's Church, Piccadilly, the woman behind the recent replica Wall stunt) in the following terms (read more of his remarks and about his efforts then here):

'During the years which preceded the Second World War Political and Religious meetings were being held throughout Europe during which Jews were condemned as a danger to society. Little was done by Christians to stop this teaching which incited the hatred which enabled the mass murder of men women and children to take place. Ordinary men who before the war were upright members of the community joined such units as Battalion 101 who were reservist Police officers and who became the most violent killers in history. Within five short years those men in that battalion, who numbered less than 500, originally defenders of communities, became the murderers of 83,000 Jews. They, who had families of their own, stripped and shot women and children at point blank range and the local Clergy watched. This happened for many reasons but one reason was that people were afraid to do anything to oppose such violence. If you were caught helping Jews you would be arrested and taken to the murder camps or executed on the spot, as were your family.

On Sunday the 25th of August the Greenbelt Christian Youth Summer Camp being held at Cheltenham Racecourse will host Reverend Lucy Winkett the Chair of the Amos Trust who will launch, on behalf of the trust, the Kairos Britain network of Churches. This network, which is also being launched in other countries around the world is targeting Israel as an oppressive unjust and racist nation who give no rights to the Palestinians. They condemn Israel and call out for Justice for Palestinians but they ignore the rights of Israel to defend herself and to live on land rightfully her own. They call for what they describe as an end to oppression and injustice by Israel but refuse to address the oppression of Christians in Gaza or the removal of Human rights of women and young men or the summary executions in HAMAS governed areas. They don’t condemn the firing of 29,000 rockets which have been fired at Israeli communities since 2000 or the suicide bombings which are now being prevented by the security fence. They don’t address the increasing teaching of hatred in Palestinian Arab schools. I could go on but I think I have made my point. 

Greenbelt are also hosting a number of other speakers who are anti-Israel, one of whom Mark Braverman who calls Zionism Racism. This conference attended by the big names in Christianity such as Graham Kendrick and Steve Chalk are inciting our youth to hate in the same way as European Church leaders did in the years preceding the Holocaust. This incitement is no less subtle and neither is it in any way less dangerous.

 The difference between now and then is that we are not going to be rounded up and shot for standing with Israel and speaking out when the rest of the Church is condemning her. So why aren’t we? In every genocide there are victims, perpetrators, bystanders and rescuers. Many Christians in Holocaust were classified as bystanders because of the real threat of being murdered alongside Jews. So today why are many in the Christian community bystanders when there is no threat except that of words from those fuelled by antisemtism?

We are conditioned to believe that by attending a conference or a meeting held by a pro-Israel speaker and giving our money to support such ministries that we are doing all we can to help Israel. We are conditioned because this is how it has always been done and we go home satisfied that we have done the work that God has called us to do. We have actually become by-standers even by-sitters unless we put the knowledge we gain from such meetings into real action. Why aren’t we rallying at Greenbelt or New Wine or any anti-Israel meetings? Why aren’t we gathering together to pray at such events and show these groups that their teaching is heretical and inciting hatred.

The first part of the definition of Hate Speech is “Speech which generates fear on the part of an individual or group” I believe the Jewish community here in the UK are not as much fearful of the anti-Israel meetings as they are of the apathy within Christendom which allows these meetings to take place without a challenge.

I have written to the BBC who will hold their Radio 2 good morning Sunday programme at Greenbelt when this network is launched  to point out that we will be attending because there is another side to the story, but they have not replied. I know the Jewish community have asked Greenbelt to allow them a speaker but that has been denied....'

Regarding the despicable Wall stunt at Lucy Winkett's church Mike Fryer wrote on Christmas Eve:

'I can only describe the 30 metre long and 8 metre high wall erected outside St.James Church Piccadilly last night as another warped and disgusting addition to the heretical life of this sad Church.

Rev Lucy Winkett of St. James and Chair of “The  Amos Trust” another organisation which spends its time lying about, and vilifying Israel was the person who launched the Kairos Network at the Greenbelt festival this summer and is backing this horrible construction .

The wall has been erected to try and tell a tale that it is a wall of occupation and apartheid and it is being connected to the Christmas story in Bethlehem which adds to the heretical message. The wall will remain in position for twelve days.The wall is another attempt to sow the seeds of hatred into to congregation members and those who pass by this central London Anglican congregation and is nothing less than despicable.

There is not one acknowledgement of the real security barrier in Israel being a construction for the protection of Israeli citizens from suicide bombings and terror attacks.

It is very sad to this happen in our time in our Capital city but it also sad that the Church leaders has not ordered that it be removed from Church premises.'

I don't know how Mike Fryer persuaded Lucy Winkett to afford him the small concession of holding yesterday's event at St James's Church, and I don't know how successful, or otherwise, the event was, given that there appears to have been little publicity about it. (Update: report by Nick Gray here)

My resident troll posted the above flyer for the event onto his Facebook page, together with a mocking screed of his.  Stephen Sizer, who follows the troll on Facebook, shared the link, and in so doing made a derogatory comment above the flyer:

"Racists for Israel"

I blinked hard when I read this, and double-checked to see whether the vicar had posted so un-Christian and unjustified a remark, or whether the troll had written it.  Alas, the words are the vicar's.

How very ironic it is that Stephen Sizer should label Christian Zionists "racists" when among his own Facebook Friends he has a number of people who have written antisemitic messages on his Facebook wall below links he has made.

He really should take more care regarding the company he keeps on social media.

A few, at least, of his Facebook Friends have an unfortunate history of what  by any fair assessment can be regarded as antisemitic track records.  They have been identified as such not by me (though I have indeed  pointed out a few particularly egregious comments by his Facebook Friends) but by other bloggers.  They themselves know who they are.  But does he?

Sizer cannot be expected to know what his Facebook Friends write away from his Facebook page, but it is surely unconscionable that a man of the cloth such as he allows messages that disparage Jews as Jews, including the racist canard that Ashkenazi Jews are not semites but rather of Khazar stock, to go unchallenged and unchastised.

http://www.newantisemitism.com/2012/03/truth-half-truths-and-lies-christ-at.html

Last week, below a video link that Sizer had made, one of his Facebook Friends linked  to an entirely different video, one of the Rothschilds-control-the-world variety.  The link in question had disappeared a few hours later.  Either the Facebook Friend who posted it had a twinge of conscience or he had been told by somebody that posting so unequivocally antisemitic a message brought the entire thread into disrepute.

If that somebody was the vicar, then, praise where it's due.

But in any case more dissociation from Friends who leave antisemitic comments on his Facebook page needs to be done.

"Racists against Israel"?

Quite so.

Update: see what the survivor of a ghastly attack by Palestinian Arab terrorists says here about Stephen Sizer (hat tip: reader Herb).

"The Laboratory Called Israel" & Other Tropes: A Quick Video Miscellany

Here's a mish-mash of video links I've been meaning to put on before but which I never got around to, beginning with this video in which American Muslims for Palestine review their anti-Israel initiatives so far, and foreshadow developments in 2014.


Then (hat tip: reader Ian) there's Chloé Valdary's excellently edited footage of anti-Israel speakers at Tulane University in New Orleans; to see this enlightening video, in which one speaker contemptuously refers to Israel as a "laboratory", click here

 In the following video by Richard Millett in December, Reverend Lucy Winkett, instigator of the disgusting replica Wall at St James's, Piccadilly declares that no messages on the replica Wall will be censured unless "abusive", an undertaking that of course rings disturbingly hollow in view of the fact that messages supportive of Israel were swiftly expunged by church personnel:

Here's footage of how the crowd of Israel-haters reacted when the replica Wall in Piccadilly came tumbling down (5 January):

To see Lucy Winkett receiving the adulation of the crowd, thanking them, and smilingly giving the thumbs up regarding her church's vile stunt, click here

Suffer Little Children: An Open Letter to Rev Lucy Winkett

Before

Dear Reverend Lucy Winkett,


Recently, for twelve days over the Christmas period, St James's Church Piccadilly, of which you are minister, hosted in its spacious forecourt an eight-metre high replica of the Wall.

The cost of this noxious stunt, seen by many people (and who can blame them?) as reeking of an antisemitism that they had assumed belonged to Christendom's past, was a staggering £30,000.  Many people might regard that figure as akin to the 30 pieces of silver for the sake of which Judas is said to have betrayed your messiah, Jesus.  After all, the expenditure of £30,000 on a replica Wall must seem to many people to be a tragic, wasteful betrayal of the needy and anguished, whether they be at home or overseas.

Now, the actual Wall (a separation fence for most of its length, truth to tell) is not the most picturesque of sights (nor is it, incidentally, unique in the world), but in the circumstances at present governing the Middle East, such a separation barrier that protects Israeli civilians from Palestinian Arab suicide bombers is a regrettable necessity. It does its job well.

After

As you know only too well, of course, when the replica Wall was standing members of the public were encouraged to write messages on it, and naturally availed themselves of that opportunity.   Many were intemperate attacks on Zionism and the State of Israel and some reflected Jew-hatred raw and savage.

A church official with a spray can was on hand to paint over messages deemed offensive.  The criteria for offensiveness was idiosyncratic, to put it kindly.  For instance, a swastika was left untouched until two Jewish sisters, naturally affronted by that symbol, scrubbed it out themselves.  One of the sisters then wrote "This Wall Saves Lives".  But her handiwork did not last long.

For your official moved with alacrity when messages sympathetic to Israel were spotted, as in the case of the reference to a baby girl, three months' old, whose head was virtually severed from her tiny body by Palestinian Arab terrorists who butchered her and her parents and siblings in 2011 (see the accompanying photos labelled "Before" and "After")

My reason for writing this letter is to suggest a new stunt that your church could  now undertake.  I'm sure you will be as enthusiastic about it as I am. Perhaps it could be your Easter project.  I certainly hope so.

You see, for this stunt you would not need, as you did in order to fund the costly replica Wall, to hold the begging bowl out to various radical (including, if I'm not mistaken, Islamic)  bodies.

All you would require for this stunt would be a number of cardboard placards and a thick black texta pen to make posters (Jill, a Christian lady  from Sussex Friends of Israel, is an expert in this area, and I'm sure would be glad to advise on how to make a good sturdy poster carrying true and effective information and slogans).

Apart from those props all you would require would be the big iron gates behind which St James's Piccadilly nestles (see accompanying photo, which depicts Sussex Friends of Israel kept firmly out on the pavement by that hefty barrier, securely locked against them by your checkpoint guards (I jest, I jest) – your church officials – when the replica Wall was standing on the other side).

Oh, and you'd also need a few chains.  I'm sure the church officials who kept the Sussex Friends of Israel out will have one or two, complete with padlocks.  Your members will doubtless have others: in garages, in bike sheds, that sort of thing.  And if worse comes to worst, string and twine will suffice.

"The church gates? Chains?  Why so?" you will ask.  

The answer, Reverend Winkett, lies with this very small, beautiful, anguished child.

Unless you understand Arabic, she could not begin to explain it to you herself, even if she were still alive.

You see, this little girl's parents were Syrian Christians, and like them, she became a martyr to her faith.  A martyr to her parents' faith, I suppose I should say in view of her tender years.  A martyr at the very hands of the cruel and ruthless Islamists and Jihadists who wish to wipe Israel and Jews and Christians and Christianity from the face of the Middle East.
 

The Facebook page of the Emmaus Group explains:

Child “crucified” in Syria.

The image ... shows a very young girl tied to railings in a crucifixion style position and left until dead. The image was sent to us via facebook from a contact in Syria. The girl’s crime, as if there could be one? Her parents were Christians. She was tied up and made to watch her parents being killed then left. This evil act was perpetrated by Syrian rebels. The same rebels the West continues to support financially, with training and technology and supposedly, “non lethal hardware.”\

 Sadly this practice is not new. Christian children have been crucified in Iraq in an attempt to terrify their parents and the Christian population in general. See link

I'm sure that you will jump at the chance for your church to express solidarity with persecuted Christians throughout the Islamic world by making this little girl a symbol of your protest.

By staging a demonstration at your church gates, with congregants tied to the gates in symbolism of this little girl and the agonies she and her parents suffered, you will be demonstrating that your church does not stage publicity stunts only in order to bring infamy upon the little State of Israel (where, as you will already be aware, Christians are well-treated and increasing in number).

I'd suggest that, to symbolise the little girl in the blue dress fully, congregants (the female ones, of course) beg or borrow a dress in that colour to wear during the twelve days of the demonstration.

"Twelve days!" I hear you exclaim. "Why twelve days? The Wall stood for twelve days because it was Christmas!"

Indeed it did.  And because it did, this stunt should be of comparable duration: one day for each of the Apostles.

Such a stunt by your church would also show that, contrary to widespread perceptions, the western Church does sympathise with the persecuted and martyred Christians of churches in the Islamic Middle East and elsewhere, and is prepared to be seen to do so.

You might also be the catalyst that spurs western governments from their shameful inertia regarding the plight of the Middle East's Christians into action.

For the Love of Lucy: Sizer rallies his troops

Sussex Friends of Israel protest the St James's stunt

(At left: the truth about Israel's much maligned separation barrier, by Sussex Friends of Israel.)

If, over the next few days, the Bishop of London, the Right Reverend Richard Chartres, receives a slew of identical or near-identical letters commending the antisemitic stunt at St James's Piccadilly, and defending its rector (and chair of the Israel-bashing Amos Trust), the Rev. Lucy Winkett, who broke her silence by making this weak and wretched excuse for the church's conduct, the reason will be not far to seek.

Perhaps alarmed at the progress that the petition (see my previous post; go on, sign it!) deploring the Israel-demonising shenanegans of the Rev. Winkett, and her Piccadilly church, in alliance with their dodgy allies such as Interpal, seems to be making, along with press articles condemning St James's grubby stunt, our old chum the Rev. Stephen Sizer is urging his followers to send the good bishop a letter in the lady's defence. 

Ever-zealous in the anti-Israel cause, he's helpfully suggested what they should write:

 Among those quick to respond on Facebook to the vicar's rallying call is this lady:

Surely this is not the lady who back in 2007 reportedly sent an email as follows [emphasis added] to the JCI (Jewish Community Information) at the Board of Deputies:

From: Pamela Hardyment

Sent: 26 May 2007 13:53

Subject:

Darfur

Ohmigod

You are worried about Dafur!!!!!!!!!!! Yet you have in a wonderful Nazi like killing machine (thousands of palestinians have died or are incarcerated in camps, including Gaza and the West Bank) backed by the world's richest jews and , you are joking about Darfur aren't you?

Whatever you say, and I don't want to hear what you have to say because it will be the same old rhetoric, we in the UK have had enough of Israel, we (the NUJ of which I am a member) have finally voted to boycott Israeli goods (I have been doing this since 1957 so it just legitimises it and spreads the word, all items with 7.29 in the bar code, Jaffa Carmel, etc) - universities will bring in an academic boycott and architects are now joining in too. It won't stop there, we will do all in our power to make sure that you do not take any more land (you have already taken mine and refuse to pay for it). We can no longer send money to the PLO or Hamas, but we are sending people, we are not afraid of your wall, your evil soldiers (and you worry about one missing soldier, ha!) and will continue. We used to be mild, respected you because of the so called holocaust (a nice round number 6 million, what about the homosexuals, gypsies, deformed, dissenters, they NEVER get a mention and my family were among them)

So yes, we are very angry, we are working against Israel whereas before we supported you, and we will do all in our collective power to make life as uncomfortable for you as you make it for the Palestinians, shame on you, shame on all jews, may your lives be cursed

Yours with no shame whatsoever and no fear

pam hardyment

 That email prompted Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard to observe:

'Those arguing for a boycott seek to present themselves as opponents of Israeli government policy rather than antisemites. Yes, it should go without saying that it is perfectly possible to oppose the policies of the Israeli government without being antisemitic. I do it myself. And it is, at least in theory, perfectly possible even to be anti-Zionist and oppose the very existence of Israel without being an antisemite.

But do not be fooled about what is going on. Some of those supporting a boycott are clearly the ‘useful idiots’ of the antisemites; they are not themselves antisemitic but are too blinded with hatred for to realise the real nature of their allies. But it is - and I'll put it no stronger than this - quite remarkable how many of those who call for a boycott, on whatever grounds, turn out to be plain old antisemites.

.... Her email gives the game away, exposing how much of the support for a boycott is suffused with antisemitism, pure and simple.

Ms Hardyment’s sentiments are representative of the underlying views of many boycott supporters. The references to the “Nazi like killing machinea¦ backed by the world's richest jews and America”, the “so called holocaust (a nice round number 6 milliona¦)” and “shame on all jews, may your lives be cursed”, may be more obvious than some of the more sly proponents of a boycott, who are careful to couch their arguments in apparently reasonable language; but antisemitism is antisemitism, whatever the tone in which it is expressed.'