A voice of decency protests

Robin Shepherd’s op-ed on that Dispatches in the Wall Street Journal is a cracker. Having dwelt upon the absurdity and sloppiness of its case, he concludes nevertheless:

Given the paucity of the arguments, it would be tempting to dismiss the whole thing as unimportant. Would that we could. The documentary has already provoked a torrent of abuse against British Jews... If this sort of language takes hold, a bad situation in Britain may be about to get a whole lot worse.

Jewish leadership organizations have long feared accusations of divided loyalty between Britain and Israel and, ironically given the charges now being made against them, are frequently criticized in their own communities for failing to be sufficiently robust in Israel's defense. The risk is that some may now be panicked into silence.

Non-Jews who call for a

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Still extreme

As has been pointed out here before, the idea that the Muslim Council of Britain spokesman Inayat Bunglawala is a reformed character who now espouses moderate and liberal attitudes was always risible. Now he himself has helpfully provided fresh evidence that the very opposite is the case. On the Islamist website Islam Online, he has again supported the Muslim Brotherhood religious authority Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who supports human bomb attacks against both Israelis and coalition forces in Iraq, not to mention the execution of homosexuals and other similarly fanatical positions. Bunglawala writes:

It is very unfortunate that Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi has been barred from visiting the UK since early 2007 by the British government, following pressure from pro-Israeli lobbies. Sheikh Al-Qaradawi is an Islamic scholar who commands huge respect among millions of Muslims worldwide. As a regular past

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The still strong voice of a vanishing Britain

I have not had a moment until now to post up a comment on Robin Shepherd’s new book about the relationship between Israel and Europe, A State Beyond the Pale: Europe’s Problem with Israel (Weidenfeld and Nicolson). It is a remarkable book by an author with a remarkable history.

Until a short while ago Shepherd, now Director of International Affairs at the Henry Jackson Society, was a senior fellow at The Royal Institute of International Affairs -- commonly known as Chatham House -- in charge of its European programme. After two years he left in bitter circumstances, claiming he had been forced out principally because of his publicly expressed support for Israel – a version of events that Chatham House contests.

The fact remains, however, that his attitude towards Israel is one that is indeed unsayable within Britain’s foreign policy...

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This sceptred isle

Reflecting on that Dispatches programme, Tom Gross writes:

I wonder whether the directors of Britain’s well-regarded Channel 4 television, or the program-makers, have read — or even care about — the European Union’s working definition of antisemitism, part of which reads:

'Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective – such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.'

The program — which may leave many viewers with the impression that Britain’s 290,000 Jews somehow control the rest of the British population of 62,000,000 — has been widely plugged by neo-Nazi and left-wing antisemitic groups.

Do the program-makers care? Apparently not.

Presumably they won’t care either about the hatred...

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Everything is now illuminated

After watching Peter Oborne’s ‘Dispatches’ programme on the power of the Israel lobby in Britain, the scales have fallen from my eyes.

I now see things in an entirely different light. I now realise that the power of this unique cabal is so vast and unprecedented in its truly demonic power – a power given to no other lobby – that both the Labour government and Tory opposition slavishly and unquestioningly support Israel’s military actions and that the Guardian and the BBC have found themselves totally unable to publish or transmit anything other than wholehearted support for Israel.

I now realise that, every day, a cowed and intimidated Guardian publishes story after story in support of Israel, focusing relentlessly upon the beleaguerment of its citizens under the onslaught from Hamas while never carrying anything in favour of the Palestinians, presenting...

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Britain's least effective lobby?

In respect of tonight’s TV programme on the allegedly malign influence of the Israel lobby in Britain -- previewed here in today’s Guardian by presenter Peter Oborne -- readers may find enlightening these comments by Robin Shepherd, who takes issue with Oborne’s claim that he is not peddling ‘Jewish conspiracy theory’, and Tom Gross, who observes that there is no effective British pro-Israel lobby.

A propos, in view of Oborne’s suggestion that pressure from pro-Israel donors upon the Tory party silenced criticism of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza by the Tories’ foreign affairs spokesman William Hague, it is instructive to see what Hague actually said about that operation.

He first called for restraint from Israel:

‘We deeply regret the loss of civilian life in Gaza today.  We call on the Israeli government to

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