Two-minute hate at the Guardian

Rob-NY

Israel is the great litmus test. Anyone who cannot accept an Israeli democracy is too far gone.

Baron Pipin II

Melanie, life's too short to worry about fruitcakes of whatever shape and colour. You stick to the main course, you're doing just fine.

Wilhelm

Yasmin Ali Baba Brown is the worst , she wrote a hateful piece in the Independent in January called '' spare me the tears of the white working class,'' Can you believe it ? If she wrote '' spare me the tears of the blacks or say muslims, it wouldnt have been printed.

I, Wilhelm and a few other brave souls took on the noble task of correcting the odious garbage spewed out by Yasmin Alibaba because she needed to be corrected and I was the one to do it.

The next day, the harpy Brown was screeeching to the media, how unfair it was.

The moral of the story is , Yasmin can dish out her poison, but she cant take it.

Brian Moshe

Melanie,

As one of your devoted fans and supporters I am absolutely nauseated that a London newspaper can carry such juvenile statements and barely concealed anti-Jewish animosity aimed at your character, your innate decency, your motivation and your courageous wielding of your brilliant pen.

With typical left-wing timing the Guardian ran this attack on you on the Jewish Sabbath. Few practicing Jews will want to write comments on Shabbat, let alone spend the morning looking at Cif's slicks.

Apropos of nothing: it's funny how annual party conferences tend to time their fringe pro-Arab debates for Friday evenings and anti-Israel demos tend to occur on Saturdays.

I have reproduced below a few culled accusations from the unbelievable comments that Cif carried (courtesy of CiF Watch):

BellaM
31 Oct 09, 9:53am

Staff

I imagine she’s like that character in Little Britain who is violently sick every time she hears the words ‘black or gay.’ Except for Melanie, the word would be ‘Muslim.’

MilesSmiles
31 Oct 09, 9:20am

Melanie Philips’s zealotry and ignorance frighten me. How did we produce a public commentator filled with such anger, venom and hatred?

I suspect that, like Ann Coulter, she doesn’t believe most of this claptrap. But it does make her a lot of money.

To be honest, she should be prosecuted for inciting racial and religious hatred. She’s hardly better than Mr Griffin and his friends in that regard.

Voon
31 Oct 09, 9:27am

She’s certainly rather dangerous and aggressive and in a bad mood most of the time.

She ought to drive a Golf. It would suit her.

HerrEMott
31 Oct 09, 9:36am

Not for nothing has she earned the soubriquet Mad Mel.

gondwanaland
31 Oct 09, 9:46am

Melanie Phillips is pure poison. A racial supremacist who would be dangerous if she wasn’t such a cartoon bigot.

Better to laugh at her Ed.

BeautifulBurnout
31 Oct 09, 9:56am

Contributor

She is, to all intents and purposes, a British Ann Coulter, as MilesSmiles pointed out.

However, whether she believes the stuff she spouts or not is neither here nor there, really, because the effects of what she says remain.

So much hatred. So much spleen vented. Truly sad.

LordSummerisle
31 Oct 09, 10:03am

Funny how quite a number of writers change tack depending on who they’re writing for. Were I a more cynical man I might come to the conclusion that they’ll write anything provided there’s a cheque at the end of it.

Janissary
31 Oct 09, 10:08am

Melanie Phillips accusing Obama of being a secret Christian is world-class comedy.

As for anti-semitism, Melanie Phillips would accuse her husband of anti-semitism if he didn’t do the dishes on time – nothing she says is credible.

Care in the community has gone too far – keep the mad away from the media.

WilliamAshbless
31 Oct 09, 10:22am

So why so you think her nickname is mad Mel? Because she’s called Melanie or …

JamesDickins
31 Oct 09, 10:26am

Melanie Phillips is one of the most vacuously aggressive people I have ever come across.

Moeran
31 Oct 09, 10:43am

I assume Ms Phillips will taking over Our Nick’s chair on Question Time before long. They have so much in common though maybe Our Nick is the intellectual one.
(end of quotes)
------------

Melanie, keep your head up and continue to fight the good fight.

You're world class and you have a blog that any gifted journalist/columnist would be justly proud of.

George R

The tacit political alliance of SWP-Respect-Labour Party-Guardian-BBC- and Islamic organisations aims to further Islamise Britain and to turn the EU into Eurabia.

Adam B.

Melanie, you know you're on the right track when one witnesses the mindless viciousness of these attacks. It is noteworthy that almost every comment on Cif is an ad hominem attack - I couldn't find one which provided a substantive example for their demented accusations. Unfortunately debate on the left has now degenerated to a point where if you don't slavishly follow every politically correct twist and turn, and actually dare to criticize, you must be a "racist", a nutcase, a dinosaur etc. The accusation that Melanie always shouts "antisemitism" (where in fact it is these lefties who always go on about racism) is an invidious and itself antisemitic accusation (those Jews are always whining and crying wolf, you see).

Sick.

As for BellaM, how utterly unprofessional. Tell me Bella, would you have got the job at theat sick place if you didn't wear the right political colours? I guess you would vomit when anyone says "Jew"?

What's it like to be the target of a baseless accusation?

gary ashton

keep the faith melanie
for those people who can think for themselves you are a great example. the comments singled out in CiF are amazingly predictable in a zombie kinda way. the undead read the guardian.

Adam B.

Alan Rusbridger needs to look at himself very closly. Is this what you've become Mr Rusbridger, director of an orgy of hate and bile? I know he likes music, I used to have a belief that appreciating fine music makes one a better person. I don't anymore.

workie ticket

Maybe we should ask every non Jewish anti-Israel anti-jewish poster the question. If you had to pick a Middle-Eastern country to live in, what would it be and why? A simple question. Lets hope they are reading and i look forward to the answers, particularly from inverterbrate Guardianistas.

Tuthtriumphs

Well done to CiFWatch, an EXCELLENT site, long overdue.
It's about time that someone holds that cesspit, otherwise known as CiF, to account.

CiFWatch is so good that it should be eligible for government funding, for fighting the hatred , bigotry and anti-semitism that the Guardian pumps out on a daily basis, and for combating the extremism incubated and nurtured by their so-called journalists.

Mjolnir de Jersiaise

Adam B: "I used to have a belief that appreciating fine music makes one a better person. I don't anymore."

Yes, well, Reinhard Heydrich was a cultured, highly-trained classical violinist...

Adam B.

If Ed Husain has any decency he should condemn these disgusting attacks.

I wait to see...

Charlie

Perhaps it is time to answer the question "How is that a The Guardian, a product of free trade Liberal Manchester came to it's present situation?". The practical common sense born of having learnt from one's mistakes, which is required to run a factory seems to have completely vanished from the Guardian.

terry malloy

Anonymous posting on the internet is a double-edged sword. One the one hand it allows for untrammeled, uncensored opinions. On the other hand, that very anonymity masks some deeply disturbed and often psychologically damaged individuals, who by their sheer numbers appear to represent far more like-minded people than is actually the case. I suspect that if I were to meet in person some of the individuals who post at CiF they would be the sort of people that one would quickly move away from in public settings, public transportation, etc. To be sure, not everyone posting there fits this description, but I'm certain that many do. That's one of the reasons why my seeing large numbers of anti-semitic and hateful posts, while troubling, does not cause me major concern. These people are just not representative of a very large sampling of the populace.

Brian O'Connor

You certainly don't need me (or anyone else) to tell you that only an effective voice can draw that kind of invective.

Nasty as the comments are, they are nonetheless a shining testimony to your effectiveness, and a measure of their authors impotence when faced with your insights.

You go, girl. They're scared to death of you.

gareth

agreed Rob-NY.

Margaret Muller-Johansson

The Guardian is like trash container and the people who write and read that container belong in somewhere somewhere? please help

Remember you are what you read..

Murgatroyd

Der Stuermer lives.

There is no hope of reasoning with anti-semite fascists such as those in place at the Guardian.

The prognosis is bleak.

Henry Sidgwick

The comments on CiF are certainly gratuitous and offensive. They mirror many comments on this site. Would it not be better if both sides confined themselves to discussing points of substance?

steve

The guardian, CIF nothing new there then :-D,
Bleating on the same old bile about you Mel, about jerusalem, about zionist oppressors etc etc etc
come come, forget about it, lets all, book a nice week in Mecca, that wonderful example of multicultural tolerance
:-D.

Isreal, the only democracy
there, surrounded on all sides by dark jihadist fervour, driven by an insane ideology
Does the hamas charter still state a will to obliterate
israel?
Oh yes come on guardian-istiados,(is that the right word:-), lets vent some more, rampant Qu ranic antisemitism

As for mr devious, E Hussein his book, lol near the end he turns misty eyed about the great Muslim 'achievements' such as the occupation of Spain??.
His "front" drops and he immediately relapses to secretive barbarism incubating in his shuttered mind.
Aw shucks!...no contest,
Mel keep up the sterling work

Larry in Tel Aviv

Melanie also came in for ad hominem attacks at Harry's Place over this exact thing, her head-to-head with Husain. Quite a few posters came to Husain's defence and made snide attacks on Melanie. Now remember this is Harry's Place, it sells itself as the decent Lefty blog, above the fray of anti-Semitism and apologetics for the Jihad. Well not quite.

HP tries to reconcile objectivity on the Middle-East and anti-anti-Semitism with PC multi-culturalism and cultural relativism as a whole ie commonly held sacred cow beliefs of the Left (and Right). This cultural relativism is shared by HP bloggers and most commentators there, and so HP fails miserably, sinking into contradictions and non-sequiters routinely. There is really no decent Left in the UK, a handful of people here and there only proves the point - the Left are morally bankrupt in the UK, and a dead corpse cannot be revived.

And yes the Tories are just as bad.

SHIM

These people are irrelevant. We have great influence across most of UK media, who cares about the guardian terrorist sympathisers. The proof is in the not wanting to condemn Israel for Gaza, backing down for fear of us, this shows the guardian counts for nothing. For Israel, everything is going just fine

R Mitchum

The great consolation of this trash being in the Guardian is that so few people will read it, and those that do are beyond help.

Dave C

Dear Melanie,

You must be something very right to provoke their ire so much! Keep it up!

Joan

Melanie has become the biggest fish of all in Britain when it comes to defending the values of the free world.

That's what makes her such a target.

Sounds like a job well done to me.

Keep it up.

Joshua

I do like this comment:

"The baying of the crowds on cif against Israel, the Jewish homeland, reminds me of the thugs of 1930’s Germany"

So very true: New Left = Old Nazis.

Liz

This is appalling. But, alas, not surprising whatsoever. Guardian readers have been notoriously anti Israel and anti Jewish for many years. I once shared an office with one such person at the Imperial War Museum. The person concerned was always vilifying Israel but really came out in the open with the following comment - made in front of me and two other people, "I'm sick and tired of Jews coming to look at holocaust material. I just wish Hitler had done a better job on them." Well, was that person a mere secretary? No. that person was the assistant keeper of the department of film. Was that person sacked? No. A wee tap on the wrist and all was forgiven. The truth is, the trendy left wing are probably more racist than the BNP. Sorry, Melanie. Don't get despondent and please keep up the good work. You are brave, truthful and you write brilliantly. That's why these people can't stand you.

Robert Saintfield

You should feel vindicated by this opprobrium. Would you really want these people to like you?

To be serious though, it seems to be that the UK is practically ungovernable. There is no longer a strong centre and power has shifted to predominantly public sector special interest groups.

Perhaps the non-Guardian tendencies should create an independent statelet and secede.

But where could it be located?

just Louise

Essential reading to try to fathom the leftist Guardianista-type Israel-loathing mindset: Robin Shepherd's recently-published book "A State Beyond the Pale - Europe's Problem with Israel".
Meanwhile, what of the "Jewish leaders" who at a grand banquet a fortnight ago farewelling outgoing Board of Deputies President Henry Grunwald (with Boy Miliband of all people as guest of honour)? Why, in order not to embarrass The Boy they decided that talk of Israel was off-limits. So doubtless The Boy has informed Brown and Co that Anglo-Jewry's leadership are "on board" with the government's policy to Israel and despite care not a hoot about Britain's disgraceful failure to vote on the Goldstone Report.
For those who do care,
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NoToGoldstone/

Tiberius

I don't imagine these a**eholes trouble Melanie at all, but it is worth remembering that if it comes to civil unrest on the streets of Britain, Guardian readers will be the first to expect their ideological enemies to come and rescue them from the bearded man with the curved sword.

The Gateless Gate

Robert Saintfield: Time for an inner migration - surely the only way to avoid the sanctimonious do-gooders and know-nothings of the Guardian tendency.

ES

Look. It's what one expects from the Grauniad. However, one need look no further that the High Life column of the Spectator to see where else anti-Semitic rantings are tolerated.

stanley Jerusalem

The Gateless Gate
November 3rd, 2009 2:01pm

Robert Saintfield: Time for an inner migration.

Precisely what does this mean? Does anyone else know?

phil

Henry Sidgwick
November 3rd, 2009 9:24am ---I think this must be a record ,but twice in 24 hours I totally agree with you ,personally I do not give a damn about the anti-Semitic bile ,it emanates from disturbed people whose opinions are an irrelevancy to me , but I do thoroughly object to we Jews handing it back and demeaning ourselves -I did it once as a kid in retaliation and when my father heard about it I had a lesson I have never forgotten -he told me to give respect and then I could expect it back -for those who do not agree -do not bother with them -they are worthless .It has stood me in good stead as I know you have noted .Personally I do not care either what a persons colour or religion is ,it is what is in their hearts that count.- ok speech over but sadly I do not think it will have much effect here .

,But for all those wonderful people who defend us regardless of their religions ,I understand your outrage and appreciate your wish to defend us -I just believe you do not need to argue with trash ,you will not change them and you will feel dirty for engaging with them .

Romo

You only had to read the comments section at The Daily Mail yesterday on a piece about Israel/Settlements/Hillary to note the venemous lies and bile and anti-Semitism that this provoked. It's not just The Guardian, folks. It's also at Sky News Online and The Times.

EDDIE

I find it strange as to why this site needs to repeat in detail all the nastiest of the posts to the Guardian blog. it gives this slime a double exposure.The problem could be tackled in other ways.

zkharya

How old is BellaM? Does the Guardian normally employ sub-undergraduates still on rag week?

Augustus

Radical movements, whether religious or secular, follow a trend: Over time their intensity increases. Their adherents demand equal time. You cannot say this or that on the air, or in public discourse.
You are not allowed to speak of us in a bad way. You are a racist. You fear my religion. We are the religion of peace.
And when these tactics do not work, they go after one person and harass them. They use pressure tactics to get their way. They are after power and control, so some media and certain journalists are not safe. The radicals flood inboxes and telephone lines with demands. Their aim is to get the person fired or severely reprimanded. If this fails they go to the Human Rights Commission, or start lawsuits. For they are not just after power and control, and are above money. All of this is done in the name of God. But God doesn't ask people to harass and control others into doing His will. God gave us freedom of choice, and those radicals, in the name of God, take that freedom away.

Kahina

I just want to post my public support to Melanie too. I was one of the first people to go to the defense of Melanie of Saturday morning, but within half an hour it was deleted and a couple of posts down was the sick one from BellaM. I rarely write on blogs but the comments against Melanie on Saturday's article really felt like a personal pogrom against her.

Fortunately the post was saved by CIFwatch and it's on their site.

There is a small hardcore who write on this site, but I know I represent the many tens of thousands who read quietly everyday just nodding their head in agreement with Melanie not feeling the need to add anything as she has put everything so clearly herself.

Kahina

Oh.... this is what I wrote:

Kahina

31 Oct 09, 12:11pm

I will stand up for Mel anyday. Cif readers amongst their own may feel very comfy bullying her from the protection of their homes, but in the real world she is very, very well respected. She says things as they are and will not conform to political correctness.

Ed, it is easy to write from your computer but when confronted with Melanie Phillips face to face on live tv you run. Melanie is not only articulate with the pen, but pretty powerful on live debates. She can dish out the facts and any opponent that doesn’t have their wits about them will be made into mincemeat.

Yes sabraguy, it is shame we don’t have more like her. The baying of the crowds on cif against Israel, the Jewish homeland, reminds me of the thugs of 1930’s Germany. They all deserve each other. Is it some coincidence that this piece was put out on Saturday morning, when a lot of people who might debate this article aren’t at their computers?

Nick

Like the majority of Right-wing bloggers, Melanie Phillips is negative, phobic and hostile. I'd say ignorant too, given her extremely shaky grasp of science and the scientific method (MMR, Creationism, climate change, et al.).

Philo

"...the verbal pogrom against me..." - pogrom? Is this not a bit self-dramatising, not altogether in the best taste, perhaps just plain silly?

jdude

It's ok Melanie, fools will be remembered as fools, goodmen will be known by their name.

J. Isaacs

Excellent work from Melanie Phillips, as usual. Keep it up.

Paul B

Mel, take solace in the fact that you must be doing something right to "inspire" such hateful passion. We love you.

steve

Right wing,(sure you don t want to add "far", everybody who seems to have any semblance of a vertebrae, gets called that these days:-).

Phobic, aw... gone on slide, "islama" in front of that
won t you, we can all have another laugh, at that, proven manipulative lie.

Hostile, if pointing out facts and truths, and er! defending yourself,(do you remember that?) instead of appeasement to the permaneantly offended, well maybe so.

There is nothing too negative.. in speaking up for israel,
and our declining democracy, and against those who put it under siege,
(who some might even call guardian-istiado s :-)
for your sensitive ears i hope :-D
laughable, a perfect example of why Mel your voice should be louder, your words spread further, than at present.

Guardianista

Phobic because it's the Right who live in fear. They fear change. They fear 'different' people. They fear outsiders. They fear debate. They fear anything and anyone who jar with their narrow view of the world.

Joan

Guardianista, November 4th, 2009 11:15am,
"Phobic because it's the Right who live in fear."

'Phobic'? That's just a smear word used to close down debate. Live in fear of what? Explain yourself.

"They fear change." Change to what? You don't want to say, do you? It's just a load of phoney rhetoric. You want debate but can't even be bothered to turn up with a fact in hand.

"They fear 'different' people. They fear outsiders." Eh? It was America's Right that fought to end slavery, America's left that fought to expand it. Democrats even seceded from the Union to preserve slavery. Democrats fought against civil rights, Republicans for civil rights.

"They fear debate." No, that's the Left. That's why The Guardian deletes things even when they're factually correct. That's why you've turned up here with nothing but spiteful, empty rhetoric and don't dare bother yourself with the detail of any issues.

"They fear anything and anyone who jar with their narrow view of the world."

That's it? Just a sweeping, empty generalisation? And you tell us you want debate!

workie ticket

Guardianista.

I fear you and your thousands on the public payroll distorting or burying inconvenient facts, evading debate, and your mantra of 'my countries enemy, right or wrong'. I fear the dominance you have on the media, politics, schools, culture etc where you prevent discourse and hound out dissident voices.

Debate is the last thing your kind want or need.

Guardianista

Joan, isn't it the Right who created 'Fortress America'? The Right who incarcerate foreign nationals in Guantanamo Bay without charge? The Right who start illegal wars in the name of oil? The Right who equate free healthcare for all with Communism? The Right who promote the teaching of the fallacy that is Creationism? The Right who hate atheists, homosexuals, Muslims and ethnic minorities?

George R

'Jihadwatch' today has piece:

" 'Crystal Night' and Beyond"

[Opening Extract]:

"Prof. Robert S. Wistrich is the director of The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the author of 'A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad' (Random House, January 2010).

Kojak

Guardianista,

Are you for real or just a WUM?

phil

Guardianista -it is no shame to be on the left ,it is the hatred that emanates from that source that we have a problem with -the original socialists merely wanted a better world ,--your,s is so far removed now from their original thoughts -You people are no different from the extremists on the right wing -mods and rockers from a different era -does kindness and love for your fellow man ever enter your heads ? Sometimes I wonder why do I bother here it is so filled with hate .and I know I cannot change it .

Tiko

One thing at a time, Guardianista. I know that paper has a habit of papering over facts it doesn’t like but you’re in the real world now. You said:

“It's the Right who live in fear. They fear change. They fear 'different' people. They fear outsiders. They fear debate. They fear anything and anyone who jar with their narrow view of the world.”

That is demonstrably untrue.

It was put to you that: “It was America's Right that fought to end slavery, America's left that fought to expand it. Democrats even seceded from the Union to preserve slavery. Democrats fought against civil rights, Republicans for civil rights.”

Are you denying this is true?

Dirty Old Leftie (D.O.L.)

Tiko
In the 1860s the Republicans believed in the 'Republic' or Federal rule and the Union, ahead of 'States' Rights', while the Democrats believed in the 'Democracy' of 'States' Rights' ahead of the Union. In short the Democrats were 'Right' and the Republicans were 'Left'.
Over the years this changed as the Republicans became the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP party and the northern Democrats were influcenced by the incoming immigrants, principally the Russian Jews and the Irish and moved to the 'Left' under Roosvelt. As someone put it: 'Democrats ranged George Wallace and Lyndon Johnson'.
And don't forget Labour was originally the anti-Europe party and the Tories were pro-Europe, until Mitterand's speech to the Labour Party conference and Thatcher's volte-face after signing the Maastrict Treaty.

Philo

Joan and Tiko,

"It was America's Right that fought to end slavery, America's left that fought to expand it. Democrats even seceded from the Union to preserve slavery. Democrats fought against civil rights, Republicans for civil rights."

I believe if you read your history you will find that parties called by these names stood on very different platforms in the nineteenth century. There is no easy equivalence between the Republicans or the Democrats in the nineteenth century and now.

Janet

Dirty Old Leftie and Philo,

So Republicans aren't Republicans when they're not fitting your sterotype of Republicans.

How very convenient.

In other words, stuff the facts of history and replace it with your opinions.

Philo

Janet, "...stuff the facts of history..." On the contrary, I urged a greater sensitivity to the facts of history. The comments by Joan and Tiko were anachronistic. The notions of "Left" and "Right" cannot readily be applied to nineteenth century American political parties who defined themselves with reference to very different questions, as Dirty Old Leftie made clear.

Evan Carter-Ruck

Melanie, I suggest you take legal action against BellaM. What an outrageous slur.