Channel 4 Dispatches investigates – Inside Britain’s Israel Lobby
I have noted that this Channel 4 documentary investigating the British Israeli lobby, which is being aired tonight, is causing some concerns. Some fear that this will be used as just another opportunity to throw more crap at Jews. Judging by some of the comments on the C4 website, they may be right. The anti-semitic Guardian has also previewed this.
The Jerusalem Post mentioned this program this morning and then Melanie Phillips, Biased BBC and now even Cranmer has covered this one:-
Cranmer does not know what Peter Oborne intends to say on tonight’s C4 Dispatches programme, Inside Britain’s Israel Lobby, but judging by many of the histrionic comments beneath the publicity spiel, one might think they are about to broadcast a revised version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The recurring theme is that of ‘Global Jewish Conspiracy’: and C4 are permitting an ignorant crowd of amoebic anti-Semites to propagate their vile gospel of Jew-hatred with impunity. The thread is impeccably timed to help assuage the rising tide of anti-Semitism in the UK. No doubt The Guardian will be delighted (update: they are).
Cranmer has received an email from a communicant member of the Anglican Friends of Israel, who observes that few people are aware of the European Union Monitoring Centre for Racism and Xenophobia’s Working Definition of Antisemitism . Certainly, it appears that C4’s moderators are not, for the comments are punctuated throughout with examples of what the EUMC calls ‘the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media’. They say that current anti-Semitism ‘… charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for “why things go wrong”. It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative character traits.’
It continues:
‘Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include…
‘Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations…
‘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.’
Moderators of the C4 comment thread have approved numerous examples of these forms of anti-Semitic discourse. For instance:
‘We are being attacked from within by 5th columns in our parliament for this murderous regime.’
‘It is disgraceful that C4 is intending to expose the pro-Israel lobby. Surely it is a signatory to the “National Press & TV Zionist Agreement”, which stipulates in paragraph one: “Thou shalt not print nor broadcast any reference to the undemocratic control by the agents of Israel over the House of Commons &/or the House of Lords”.’
‘.. the Israel lobby works to subvert the British political process and foreign policy to serve not British interests, but the interests of a foreign occupying tyranny, a left-over from the colonial era.’
‘Let’s see the hand of global Zionism at work.’
‘We want our country back. The agents of a foreign power embedded at all levels of our government and politics need flushing out.’
‘The Zionist Lobby counts many British politicians (who) function as a fifth column in support of Israel’s illegal actions. The powerful impact of the Zionist Lobby on British politics is more damaging to our country than that of the ghastly BNP.’
No-one claims, least of all Cranmer, that the State of Israel and its religio-political policies should not be rigorously examined and critically scrutinised, and some of the comments make legitimate, hard-hitting criticisms. However, many of these comments revive the discredited Global Jewish Conspiracy theory, thereby stoking anti-Semitism in the UK, and their presence on C4’s website is unworthy of a television channel which prides itself on exposing and challenging racism wherever it is to be found.
November 16th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Attempted to be objective but should have started off with a background, without being patronising, about what lobbying is, and a sample of the array of powerful lobbies because the lack of that backdrop gave much of what the presenter said sinister undertones and ultimately diminished the integrity of the programme.
The clear lack of balance in the standpoints of the interviewees also refelected badly on the integrity of the programme.
Were enough attempts made to interview UK based members of the pro Israel lobby?
It would have been helpful to explain the feeling in many segments of informed British Jewry that there has been a history of institutionalised anti Semitism that in turn spawned the need for a pro Israel lobby to promote their case.
Isn`t lobbying just democracy in action as long as it`s done within the rules because that didn`t come across in the programme which at times verged on sensationalism?
November 16th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Some questions – why the Union Jack with the Sign of David superimposed on it? What was that intended to suggest? Why the choice of an ex-ambassador to Iran to make comments? Why the assumption without argument that settlement in Judea and Samaria lacks legality? Why the choice of a Liberal rather than an Ortgodox Rabbi to make comments agreeing with the programme makers? Surely like the President of Iran they could have secured some ultra-orthodox anti-Zionist Jews who believed that only the Messiah could bring about the State of Israel? Why the suggestion that responding to years of rocket attacks with a careful military campaign rather than by obliteration from the air was disproportionate? Why the ignorance of the fact that Honest Reporting is very much a grass roots organisation composed of Jews and non-Jews? Why the lack of recognition that many support the State of Israel because they see it has having little choice in foreign policy being surrounded by states which regard it as an intrusion into the Muslim sphere?
I watched the programme and felt that it was an appendix to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. I found myself humming the appropriate musical accompaniment “Die Fahn Hoch”.
November 16th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
What an extraordinary piece of paranoia this blog is. To suggest that the Guardian is anti-semitic is fantasy. The Israeli right continues to insist that anyone who engages in even the mildest criticism of Israel’s policy is anti-semitic. I am utterly ant-racist, am appalled by anti-semitism and would support most vigorously Israel’s right to exist. But I would heavily criticise her illegal occupation of neighbouring lands and her treatment of the Palestinian people. Doing so, please understand, does not make me anti-semitic. The ‘Dispatches’ programme struck me as one that badly needed to be made. The exercise, or attempted exercise, of influence over our politicians and media is something that we need to be aware of.
November 16th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
There is nothing Christian about supporting Zionism. There is nothing anti-jewish in criticising Zionism. Zionism is a nasty racist right wing facist and most importantly secular and Anti-God.
It is the work of the Devil. Real believing and practising Jews all over the world know this. Israel as a concept and state was financed by Baron Edmond James (Avrahim Binyamin) de Rothschild (1845-1934) who is the known as the “Father of the Settlement”. Rothschild’s bank is world famous for owning half the world. It isn’t a conspiracy it is a fact that Zionism is Rothschildism. If you call yourself a Christian, believe in God Almighty and Jesus Christ, then you would be well advised to distance yourself from these Satanic forces for your own sake and stop sticking up for Israel.
November 17th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Why is criticism of Israel automatically linked with criticism of Jews? Admittedly some of those against Israel are also anti-Semitic, but a sizeable majority of people think Israel’s actions are disgraceful without having a problem with Jews. I respect the Jewish community, and have many Jewish friends. I hate the state of Israel and their actions since creation.
Why is the Guardian anti-Semitic? Because they’re one of the few media outlets in this country who aren’t incredibly pro Israeli? Same with the BBC.
November 17th, 2009 at 8:45 am
I enjoyed Melanie Phillip’s article this morning:-
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 the Middle East entirely through a pro-Israel prism and never even reporting the Palestinian point of view except for a few contemptuous references suggesting that they are always lying.
I now realise that every day a cowed and intimidated BBC transmits only the most admiring reports of Israeli soldiers being put in harm’s way by their commanders in order to avoid killing Palestinian civilians wherever possible, and that its Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen is guilty of the most flagrant admiration for the Israel Defence Force and of presenting a version of Israel’s history which is drawn entirely from a Jewish perspective.
I now realise that Britain has been forced to endorse the most drastic and gung-ho action possible against Iran to stop it from going nuclear – part of the approach to the region which, in the memorable words of no less an authority than the former British ambassador to Iran, has been promoted by British Jews who are acting against the national interest of Britain and in the interests of another country.
I now realise that both Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Tory foreign affairs spokesman William Hague have done nothing other than mouth off in support for Israel’s actions in Gaza or in the settlements, with Miliband in particular denouncing the Goldstone report and voting against it at the UN, and are loud in their grotesquely lop-sided and obsessional condemnation of the Palestinians and the Arab world for being the cause of the Middle East conflict.
I now realise that Miliband, Hague, the editor of the Guardian and the Director-General of the BBC are all tragic, broken figures who have been so badly traumatised by the truly diabolical power of this lobby that they are helplessly unable to do anything other than pump out pro-Israel propaganda, and weakly protest at the truly demented and hysterical frenzy of smears, libels, insults, ad-hominem attacks, fabrications, distortions and, well, sheer undiluted bigotry and hatred that are daily hurled at these defenceless individuals by these rich and powerful Jews.
I now realise just how successful the British Israel lobby has been in — as the programme so brilliantly conveyed — treacherously subverting British politics and intimidating the media to realise its diabolical aim of harnessing politicians and journalists to Israel’s cause, an aim in which it has which it had such conspicuous success.
And just how has this lobby managed to gain so much power over Britain’s ruling and media class, far more so than the poor old Arabs have ever managed? Ah well, there’s one vital thing Peter Oborne forgot to tell us.
You see, the Jews have all the oil.
November 17th, 2009 at 8:50 am
If the lobby on bhalf of the State of Israel, exercising its democratic right to forward its cause with politicians, has so much power then why did the British Government not vote against the resolution , sponsored by such “democratic” states as Zimbabwe, Libya, Saudi Arabia, China, and Russia, seeking to suggest that Israel was guilty of “war crimes” in its military campaign against the terrorist organisation Hamas in the Gaza strip? All powerful organisations have enough power to prevent that sort of thing.
The New Anti-semitism is not racial , religious, or biological, it is opposition to the idea of Jews as a people with the right to have a state, in their historic land, and to defend hemselves. Christians would be well advised to read the Old Testament, that splendidly Zionist book, and to reflect that when asked whether the promises made to the Jews were of none effect, St Paul answered “God forbid”.. So intimate are the ties between Christianity and Judaism that both the present and the past Popes have referred to “our elder brethren in the faith”.
November 17th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Judaism is NOT Zionism and the terms are NOT interchangeable.
Thousands of Jews worldwide are absolutely appalled at the killing of hundreds of women and children by the Israeli army in Gaza.
Killing civilians, particularly women and children, is a war crime and those responsible must be brought to justice.
The IDF must be prevented from carrying out these crimes in the name of Jews like myself around the world. WE OPPOSE THE GRATUITOUS KILLING OF CIVILIANS ON THE PRETEXT OF SELF-DEFENCE OR ANY OTHER PRETEXT. We are ashamed of the Israeli government.
November 17th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Thank you very much for your dispatches last night about the Israeli’s lobby and how they are driving the media and the politicians all over the world to cover and hide their genocides against all other people, whether they are Christian or Muslims, the Israeli’s machines for more than 60 years killing people (old, women, infant civilians), trees and animals indiscriminately in the middle east under the flag of fake democracy.
I would like to thank you again, and we want more like these programs to expose all these people who are behind the seen and making the whole world suffering, for their sake not to suffer and they can live in harmony on the blood of other people.
Yours truly,
A Abdallah
November 17th, 2009 at 11:22 am
While a good case can be made for the entire issue of political donations, and non declared vested interests to be investigated . This was nothing more then a hatchet attack upon the ancient scapegoat.
The title caption of the star of David, pressing against the union flag, was most insensitive, as for Jewish people this provokes memoires of innuendoes and slander used against them in times past.
When was the last time any British television company produced a documentary concerning the power of the Saudi Arabian lobby?.
Would any be so brave as to show the Saudi flag pressing against the union flag?.
” I would like to see it!.
November 17th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Here is a quick taster of the sort of emails we are currently receiving as a result of the above post:-
“Its people like you who give christianity a bad name…
Israel is a disgrace, and christian support is a support for an aggresive, warmongering land grabbing, and lying govt..
The palestinnians mostly living in refugee camps, is a disgrace to every israeli loving bigot..
peace comes with justice and dignity..
Israel offers none of this, while building more settlements on occupied land, and you have a site promoting them.
Im ashamed to be assosiated with christians like you..
fellow christian. Raymond”
Nice!
November 17th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
This is from the JC this morning:-
A row over the Channel 4 flagship investigative programme Dispatches, which examined the influence of the Israeli lobby, has erupted after the programme was broadcast last night.
The programme, Inside Britain’s Israel Lobby, had already attracted criticism for the antisemitic comments posted on the Channel 4 website.
Zionist Federation chairman Jonathan Hoffman denounced the programme on the website CiF Watch, claiming: “The lack of substance was amply demonstrated by the people who were prepared to go ‘on the record’ – namely the usual as-a-Jew suspects accompanied by representatives of the Guardian, the (ex)BBC and the Foreign Office.”
Melanie Phillips, who wrote a response to the programme in The Spectator, said: “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.”
The Liberal Jewish synagogue chairwoman Rita Adler has distanced herself from comments that the synagogue’s Emeritus Rabbi David Goldberg made in the programme, claiming he was speaking in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the synagogue.
The director of the Conservative Friends of Israel told the Guardian newspaper that the programme’s claim that CFI donated £10m to the Conservatives over the last eight years was “deeply flawed”.
Stuart Polak, CFI Director said: “It is fictitious, misleading and damaging to the reputation of CFI and its supporters.
“CFI as an organisation has donated only £30,000 since 2005. Each of these donations has been made transparently and publicly registered. In addition to this £30,000, it is undoubtedly the case that some of our supporters have also chosen, separately, to donate to the party as individuals.”
November 17th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Copyright © 2009 Difference Between
Zionism vs Judaism
There is a big difference between Zionism and Judaism. Judaism describes the Jewish faith whereas Zionism defines the philosophy behind an exclusive Jewish state which is the physical and spiritual homeland meant exclusively for the Jewish people. The latter is a very fundamentalist outlook, and is much reviled, particularly amongst the Arabs.
All Zionist are Jews, but not all Jews are Zionists. There are Jews in many parts of the world. Most of them live in Israel and America. Now all of them certainly believe in Judaism, but not all of them would subscribe to the hard-line exclusivist vision of the Zionists. The Zionist movement arose in Europe in the late nineteenth century out of a desire to end the exile of the Jewish people and return them to the holy land by force if necessary. Initially they found very little support among the Jewish populace but could make some impression after the horrors of the Second World War, as perpetrated on the Jews, made them pay heed to this notion. Judaism on the other hand simply means living by the tenets of the Jewish holy book, the Torah. Whatever befell them was the will of God, as expressed through the Torah and there never was any attempt to forge any sort of a national, political or sectarian agenda.
Judaism as a religion is really a simple way of life, where man lives his life quietly and with dignity, while observing the traditional Jewish rituals that are ordained in the Torah. Zionism on the other hand speaks of the exclusivity of the Jews, their right on the holy land, the acquisition and conquest of lands held by other people, which is rightly their own. As opposed to a practitioner of Judaism, for whom a Jew is a person who believes in God, and strives to carry out his word, as passed down to him in the Torah. He does not think in terms of the lineage of a Jewish race which is separate from that of the others.
A practitioner of Judaism will have a more nuanced approach towards life, as he would know that Jewish history is a rich, checkered and much splendored tapestry which plays out over many nations and regions. A Zionist on the other hand would have very little factual information about his people, but a fanciful notion about the origin of his race.
The Jewish people or the followers of Judaism have often suffered persecution at the hands of European nations down the ages on account of their race. It is ironic that the Zionists among the Jews would show the same kind of hatred to other people, namely the dispossessed Palestinians. This is even more ironic for the reason that Asian nations were generally very tolerant of the Jews’ presence down the ages.
According to the traditions of Judaism the task that God set before Jews was to set standards in the realm of spirituality and piety, and not to excel in military might or the mastery of high technology as a driver of force, as the Zionists proclaim. All in all Judaism is all about spirituality and piety while Zionism is about racism and expansionism.
Summary:
1. Judaism describes the Jewish faith. Zionism defines the philosophy
behind an exclusive Jewish state.
2. All Zionist are Jews, but not all Jews are Zionists.
3. Judaism is more about spirituality but Zionism is more about racism.
http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-zionism-and-judaism/
November 17th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Well done channel 4…
November 17th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Dispatches only repeated what most people in the UK already knew.
If you think it (the jewish lobbying and sponsored control originating from Israel) is rife here- then another programme should be done in the USA.
That’s if those controlling the US media will allow it to happen!
November 17th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I am a refugee from Nazi Germany. My parents suffered persecution and the most terrible death.
But they would be grieved to see that their suffering should be used to justify the suffering of Palestinians by Israel. Even more saddened that any criticism of Israel should be suppressed. There must be many Jews who are critical of Israels cruel policy but who are afraid to speak out , afrais of the Isreali Lobby’s vicious accusation. Accused of anti-semitism? Hardly possible, Or ‘self hatred ? Any other country’s suppression of critical comments would be accused of human rights violation
November 17th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Absolutely, Rose Knight! Unfortunately, a majority of opinion on the net is from people who were born after 1945 and have not the slightest idea about war, or death, or suffering.
It is immeasurably sad that there is so much ignorance, so much arrogance and so little experience of life. Many lives today revolve around sex and alcohol, similar in a way to the 1930s Berlin of the Weimar Republic. Then there was more violence than now – but the world is changing, fast. When war crimes are committed in the full view of world TV and the perpetrators are allowed to go free by western governments – then we know that our society is regressing. On both sides of the Atlantic.
November 17th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
R.G. has an excellent point, but it will not happen, they obviosly rule the U.S.A. just as in the U.K.
November 17th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Excellent and timely programme from Channel 4.
It was good to hear the views of Jewish people who are not uncritical supporters of Israel.
It also highlighted how the BBC is very sensitive to accusations of “anti-semitism” by the pro-Israel Lobby, decided to “investigate” Jeremy Bowen, and refused to broadcast the Gaza Emergency Appeal.
Interesting that the boss of the BBC who did this had no problem giving a political platform to the leader of a racist political party, claiming that he had to be “unbiased”.
November 17th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
A politically bised view of reality was obvious by making little reference to the LFI which certainly is active daily through Labour MP`s regular questions relating to Hamas and Palestine.
Those Labourites such as A.Gwynne LFI Chairman and Louise Ellman are certainly ensuring Israel remains on the UK`s political agenda.
October 3rd 2001 saw Ariel Sharon`s anger towards Sharon Peres,stating
“every time we do something you tell me Americans will do this and will do that.I wanty to tell you someting very clear,don`t worry about American pressure in Israel,we the Jewish people control America and the Americans know it.”
And remember the call for America and the UK to invade Iran and destroy any atomic weapons comes from Israel who use their relationships to foster threats to Iran.
The programme showed and explained little of the persistant lobbying by Israel in our House of Commons,so why not implant a few UK MP`s into their power centre to balance the situation up.
No mention of the always alert body of UK monitors of media comments towards Israel which unleashes robust and aggressive references towards anyone being critical of Israel.
The UK jewish organisations also include one to safeguard and protect the safety of any Jewish person who may be challenged.
This is no game being played out whatsoever,its the focus on controlling major Political institutions
that creates my concern,especially when we have to oblige Israel by the post 1945 treaty which provided them with a homeland on the only basis that God told them it was his will.
Scrutiny of this assertion would not be upheld by any logical and objective person,and the world
accepted it .
I am not anti semetic regardless of others opinions,but simply one who has chosen to observe the reality and facts pertaining to external political pressures.
November 17th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is considered Israel’s most corrupt minister, according to the results of a survey conducted Tuesday at the Israel-Sderot Conference on Social Issues.
According to the poll, taken among over 550 people, Interior Minister Eli Yishai is believed to be the second most corrupt, followed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz.
The Presidency of the European Union expressed grave concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza on Tuesday 17 November.
The European Union remains gravely concerned by the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Calls for urgent measures have not been sufficiently answered.
The European Union continues to urge that prompt and concrete measures be taken to solve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and to allow for reconstruction and economic recovery.
The European Union notes with concern that the situation on the ground has not improved since January 2009. The continued policy of closure, which has been in place since 2007, has devastated the private sector economy and further damaged the natural environment.
The poor water quality is particularly worrying. The essential reconstruction of homes, schools and health facilities to which the international community, including the European Union committed itself at the Donors Conference in Sharm el Sheikh, is still prevented. While extremists stand to gain from the current situation, the plight becomes worse for the civilian population, half of which are children.
The European Union reiterates its calls for an immediate and unconditional opening of crossings for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons to and from Gaza. The Agreement of Movement and Access of 2005 should be implemented. The EU urges Israel to facilitate the transfer of material and financial resources into Gaza for the implementation of the UN Pilot Projects. The EU calls for the full implementation of UNSCR 1860.
November 18th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Two main points were made in Peter Obornes Dispatches programme on 16th Nov.
One was the implication that politicians across the parties are bribed to be supportive of Israel. Did it not occur to him that fair minded politicians might support Israel because it is a democratic country, being constantly threatened and attacked by unelected terrorist groups – clearly it did not.
Secondly he said that when the media criticised Israel, complaints were received about bias. Again, did it not occur to him that perhaps media coverage of Israel could be biased, and that therefore such criticism might be justified – again, clearly not. Ironically his biased view is exactly what is complained about, and no doubt he will dismiss criticism as further intimidation from a Jewish lobby. However I do not belong to any lobby/fund raising/pressure group. I am just what I hope is a fair minded person, frequently surprised and dismayed at the anti Israel bias in the media – this Dispatches was a typical example. Shame, as Dispatches usually presents intelligent and balanced material.
November 18th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Considering the posts regarding this programme are quite emotive, is it not strange that the Sun, Mirror, Mail, Times, Independant etc., etc., etc. have made no mention of it. Coincidence, or very successful lobbying?
November 18th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I would just like to congratulate Channel 4 on an excellent programme i.e. the power of the Israeli Lobby in relation to the role they play in British politics. I found this very informative. I was also pleased to hear from Jewish people who highlighted that just because people criticise Israel does not mean that they are anti-jewish.
Well Done!
Keep up the good work Channel 4.
November 18th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
I would like to see the national of this country who has invested in the shopping mall in the illegally occupied territory by Israel to be prosecuted here in the court of law in the United Kingdom. Why? Because he has invested in the country which has contrary to the International and the United Nations laws is in an illegal occupation of the territory.
November 18th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Following on from my previous comment, I have advise for anyone making a documentary entitled , ” Inside Britain’s Saudi Lobby.
, each time before you turn the ignition key in your car, look underneath the vehicle first!.
November 19th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Thank God that somebody finally got the courage and risked everything (Career,image, and even his life) by letting the world know a’glimse’ of reality. Lets consider any western country such as UK as a company. In this company if our representative politicians are considered directors then the pro zionist lobies are major shareholders excercising their power through unimaginable wealth they control. Is it a co-oncidence that chairman of US federal reserve and majority of his predecessors were jew? American senate take days off on jewish festival days. Somebody tell me why american senate doesnt take days off on muslim festival days even though there are as many muslims there as there are jews. Somebody also tell me why every US presidential candidate have to appear before AIPAC (Israeli lobby) and pledge loyalty before he could be elected (by their money). What about israeli attrocities in Gaza earlier this year. Somebody tell me what would have happened if those attrocities would have been done by a muslim country. Iraq’s attrocities towards kuwait in 1990 was in much smaler scale but still iraqis are bearing consequences(100,000 children died by sanctions in 1990s and further 100,000 died as a direct consequence of a war in 2003). Why iraninan nuclear program is so important and why israel’s 500 nukes ignorable?
I THINK THE QUESTION TODAY IS NOT ANTI-SEMITISISM BUT ANTI-NON-SEMITSISM.
According to the definition of semites Arabs and palestinians and even iranians are also semites like jews then why only the feelings of jews have to be taken into consideration. Why commenting on holocaust (i believe in holocaust) is punishable by imprisonment and why hurting muslims by making offending cartoons of prophet Muhammad(pbuh) is free speech. If holocaust is sensitive to west then west should also consider other’s sensitivities and if it cannot do that then should not be sensitive to anything. We all sympathise with jews on holocaust but it shouldnt be used as a licence to kill. Gentiles should be as equal as jews.
November 20th, 2009 at 4:56 am
Well why did I think you were smarter channel 4 than you join in on israel bashing. I can’t believe the disgusting biased SLANTED negative view you put israel in!! SHAME ON YOU! You are helping create more antisemitism based in paranoia and lies! I am no longer going to watch any of your channels and I will make sure to spread the news of your disgusting behaviour against innocent jews!
November 20th, 2009 at 7:36 am
This was in the Wall Street Journal Today and is spot on:-
Another Vast Jewish Conspiracy – British media and society are gripped by lies about a “secret” Israel lobby controlling foreign policy.
Here is a small selection of events that have taken place in Britain since the end of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year.
The government has imposed a partial arms embargo on Israel and failed to vote against the Goldstone report in the U.N . The charities War on Want and Amnesty International U.K. have both promoted a book by the anti-Israeli firebrand Ben White, tellingly called “Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide.” The Trades Union Congress at its annual conference has called for boycotts of Israeli products as well as a total arms embargo.
In the media, the Guardian newspaper has stepped up its already obsessive campaign against the Jewish state to the extent that the paper’s flagship Comment is Free Web site frequently features two anti-Israeli polemics on one and the same day. The BBC continues to use its enormous influence over British public opinion to whitewash anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Middle East. Its Web site, for example, features a profile of Hamas that makes no mention of the group’s virulent hatred of Jews or its adherence to a “Protocols of Zion”-style belief in world-wide Jewish conspiracies.
Readers may be surprised to learn, therefore, that the British media and political establishment is apparently cowering under the sway of a secretive cabal of Zionist lobbyists who have all but extinguished critical opinions of Israel from the public domain.
Such charges have been aired to mass critical acclaim this week in a landmark documentary, “Inside Britain’s Israel Lobby,” on Channel 4—the same outlet that offered Iran’s Holocaust-denying president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an uninterrupted, seven-minute propaganda slot on Christmas Day last year.
The makers of the documentary—top Daily Mail columnist Peter Oborne and TV journalist James Jones—have also written about their program in the Guardian. Both furiously deny that they are peddling conspiracy theories. But the mindset we are dealing with was neatly exposed by the authors’ own explanation on how their suspicions were aroused that something sinister is at work in the corridors of British power.
It all transpired, they told readers ominously, during an address earlier this year by Conservative Party leader David Cameron at a dinner hosted by the Conservative Friends of Israel.
“The dominant event of the previous 12 months had been the Israeli invasion of Gaza,” they wrote. “We were shocked Cameron made no reference in his speech to the massive destruction it caused, or the 1,370 deaths that resulted, or for that matter the invasion itself. Indeed, our likely future prime minister went out of his way to praise Israel because it ‘strives to protect innocent life.’ This remark was not intended satirically.”
Since it is inconceivable, the authors obviously believe, that anyone could honestly credit Israel with anything other than the most damnable motives it must therefore follow that those who do in fact praise the Jewish state must be being paid or bullied into doing so.
If you think this all sounds familiar, you’d be right. Messrs. Oborne and Jones produced an extensive pamphlet accompanying the documentary, which openly claimed inspiration from none other than John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, authors of “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy”—another conspiracy theory alleging malign Zionist influence in the United States.
But if Messrs. Mearsheimer and Walt at least felt the need to dress up their polemic in pseudo-academic wrapping paper, the sheer amateurishness of the British documentary they inspired is breathtaking. There was the endless superimposition of the Israeli Star of David on to the British flag, which, along with some absurdly melancholic background music, was presumably designed to prepare viewers for an astonishing series of revelations. But of course such revelations actually never materialized.
It turns out from the documentary itself that the allegedly secretive Jewish donors have been quite open in declaring their interests in accordance with the law. One of them, Poju Zabludowicz, the billionaire funder of the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) is good friends with Madonna—not exactly the kind of company you’d choose if you were trying to hide behind a veil of obscurity.
Much is also made of the influence of Friends of Israel groupings in the British Parliament. Such allegations are, of course, rendered ridiculous with a moment’s reflection on the countervailing influence of vast amounts of Arab oil money, not to mention the fact that membership in such groups for many parliamentarians is either purely formal or outright meaningless. Michael Ancram, for example, a former Northern Ireland minister and a member of Conservative Friends of Israel for more than 30 years, is famous for calling for talks with Hamas.
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, not least on Channel 4′s widely read Web site, whose moderators have seen fit to approve dozens of postings about the Zionist lobby’s “seditious behavior,” its “disgusting attack on British democracy,” “the hand of global Zionism at work,” and several along the lines of the following, which said flatly: “We want our country back. The agents of a foreign power embedded at all levels of our government and politics need flushing out.”
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 more reasoned discussion of Israel—already a small and diminishing group in Britain—will likely face additional slanders against their integrity: Since there is supposedly no reasonable case to be made in favor of the Jewish state, we must have sold out to the “Lobby.”
Such calumnies cannot be allowed to stand. Now more than ever, the forces of reason and decency must continue the fight to be heard.
Mr. Shepherd is director of International Affairs at the Henry Jackson Society. His new book, “A State Beyond the Pale: Europe’s Problem With Israel,” has just been published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
March 16th, 2010 at 5:31 am
can any jew tell me how you can justify in killing defenceless women and children you reap what you sow you zionists.as for america and uk we all know you supply them the israeli zionist jew with weapons of mass distruction,its pure hatred of the muslims of palestine.the jews break every law in the book whilst the whole world sit back and do nothing.its pure hatred of the religion of islam its everywhere iraq,afganistan,sudan,ethiopia,chechenya,india where ever the muslim live.i can go on and on and finally can any jew tell us how does palestine belong to you?how?is it in the old testement because i have not come across it.the jew is taking every christian as a fool.