Martin Bright

Jewish divided loyalty: the old lie

In all the furore over Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘joke’ about shooting strikers, people can be forgiven for missing a second row over outrageous remarks made by a public figure.

Paul Flynn is Labour MP for Newport West and known as a reasonable man of the left. Flynn is a campaigning MP who has asked some difficult questions about the Werritty-Fox affair. He speaks passionately about the Iraq War and UK intervention in Afghanistan, which he feels were terrible errors. Having read reports that Werritty and Fox met in Israel with Mossad in the presence of the UK ambassador to discuss a military strike on Iran, Flynn became worried about a neo-con plot. What’s more, the ambassador, Matthew Gould, happens to be Jewish.

As a member of the Public Administration Select Committee, Flynn raised his concerns during the questioning of Sir Gus O’Donnell, head of the civil service, who conducted an inquiry into the Werritty affair.

His remarks can be seen in the minutes of the hearing on Wednesday 23 November. The Welsh MP, who proclaims himself a friend of Israel said:

‘I do not normally fall for conspiracy theories, but the ambassador has proclaimed himself to be a Zionist and he has previously served in Iran, in the service.’

Flynn said doubts had been raised about Mr Gould’s independence by two of his constituents who had been held in Israel in July during the ‘flytilla’ demonstrations over the blockade of Gaza.

He was challenged on this by his Conservative colleague on the committee, Robert Halfon, who suggested that it was out of order to suggest that Mr Gould was working for a foreign power.

Mr Halfon later commented on the matter in an article in the Jewish Chronicle:

‘The subtext, of course is that Jews by nature are not loyal to the country that they serve but are working for foreign powers, This has been the habitual accusation of anti-Semitism throughout the ages.’

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