Miliband did his level best today, in his parliamentary statement on the expulsion of the Israeli “diplomat” over forged British passports, to avoid mentioning the murder in Dubai at all. For those who criticised my decision to rejoin the Lib-Dems as “Zionist”, I point out that it was Lib Dem spokesman Ed Davey who first introduced the oppression of the Palestinians of Gaza into the debate.
William Hague also deserves congratulations for pointing out that formal assurances given by Israel in 1987 that such document forgery would never happen again, had been broken. He failed to press home the obvious point that it was therefore otiose of Miliband to ask for a further such assurance now. But in general the Tories have been less blindly pro-Zionist than Labour. I still recall the passion of David Mellor when an FCO minister, on seeing the suffering of Palestinians at first hand. There was a man with the same approach diplomatic as me!
Which brings me back on a stream of consciousness to the moment a few weeks ago that started me towards rejoining the Lib Dems.
Nick Clegg was speaking at Prime Minister’s questions in disgust that Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury was financed by a massive loan from the British taxpayer owned Royal Bank of Scotland. Clegg was visibly moved by real passion on the issue – a feeling I share. The sight of an MP moved by real emotion about the national interest, as opposed to how to make money for himself from expenses and consultancies, was viewed as so risible by both Tory and Labour MPs that they sought to drown him out with catcalls and gusts of forced laughter.
I assume Israel will throw someone out (or maybe not bother) and that will be the end of that.
Meanwhile, an interesting piece from Juan Cole regarding the history of Jerusalem (re: Netanyahu’s statement to the American Israel Public Affairs Council on Monday that, “Jerusalem is not a settlement.”) His knowledge of the history of the region is (obviously) 1,000 times mine.
“Top Ten Reasons East Jerusalem does not belong to Jewish-Israelis”
http://www.juancole.com/2010/03/top-ten-reasons-east-jerusalem-does-not.html
“Nick Clegg seeks to avoid offending the establishment consensus at all costs”.
No prizes for guessing who wrote that on March 8th.
Craig,
You are talking like a party-politician already and brown nosing on behalf of Nick Clegg. And where did you get the idea that the Tories are less pro-Zionist than Labour? You must be aware that 80% of Tory MPs are members of the Friends of Israel: a pro-Zionist lobby group. They have many Lib-Dems and Labour members as well. You are talking through your bum – chum.
From the Telegraph:
Members of the Israeli parliament likened the British government to “anti-Semitic dogs” and demanded the expulsion of Britain’s military attache in Tel Aviv after erupting in fury over the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat in London.
“I think the British are being hypocritical, and I do not wish to insult dogs here, since some dogs show true loyalty, [but] who gave the British the right to judge us on the war on terror?” said Arieh Eldad, a right-wing member of the Knesset.
The canine theme was taken up by a second MP, Michael Ben-Ari, who said: “Dogs are usually loyal, the British may be dogs, but they are not loyal to us. They seem to be loyal to the anti-Semitic establishment.
“We have learned that a dog must be called by its name. This is anti-Semitism disguised as anti-Zionism.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7506064/David-Miliband-Israeli-cloning-of-British-passports-was-intolerable.html
Milliband,like Hilary Clinton recently over Israeli settlements,is just trying to convince the home population that his government is not in thrall to its domestic Israeli lobby-bollocks with a capital B.
In both cases we know otherwise.
The Mossad assassination teams are financed by the British Hofjuden narcotic trade,especially via Afghanistan.The same families have been involved in the trade for centuries.
If Mellor saw the Palestinians’ suffering at first hand he obviously didn’t rely on the usual Israeli Government guided bus tour like most of the parliamentary dumb-asses. Doug Scorgie’s right – the Tories are Zionist stooges to a man. It’s a necessary step to high office.
Surely this is all purest humbug?
When the SAS travel undercover to assassinate people like they did to the IRA in Gibraltar, do they travel on their own legitimate passports? Or do they use whatever forged ID suits their purpose?
“in general the Tories have been less blindly pro-Zionist than Labour”
When? Mellor was right- but did the Major government change policy as a result? Cameron and the Conservatives were no more critical of the Gaza atrocities than the Labour front bench were – and just as many Conservative MPs are members of Conservative Friends of Israel as Labour MPs are of the equivalent in the Labour party – and the Conservatives take plenty of money from CFI too, just as Labour get millions from LFI.
At least there are some back-bench rebels on the Labour benches who oppose their party leadership’s blind support for the Israeli government – and a lot more than one of them.
The opposition spokesmen are always more willing to question government policy, so they sound more radical. ‘New Labour’ made lots of progressive and radical noises while in opposition too.
I don’t think it’s fair to say all Lib Dems are blindly pro-Israel. Some are, some aren’t – just as there are Labour MPs like Jeremy Corbyn who regularly criticise Israel and want the sanctions on Gaa lifted.
on the other thread I said Libs are as Zionist as the other two.
You are write, sometimes, on rare occasions people do let slip a bit of criticism.
But this can’t be used to say they are not blindly pro-Zionist. Zionism is their norm, and the slips are few and far between.
Let me put it this way, the Libs are as Zionist, as pro war and as pro torture as the other two. And all three are as Zionist as Israeli Labor, Israeli Lukud, and Israeli Kadima.
Maybe even more Zionist then their Israeli versions?
I do remember the mass murderer and convicted war criminal Arial Sharon being called an antisemite by the followers of Benyamin Netanyahu for not being Zionist enough.
There are Lib Dems and Labour MPs who are blindly pro-Israel – and threre are some who are highly critical of Israel.
Gerald Kaufman MP for instance. I’m pretty sure he voted for the Iraq war and backs the war in afghanistan (both of which i’m completely against), but you won’t find many people who condemn Israeli war crimes or settlements as strongly as he does.
George Galloway used to be a Labour MP too.
Duncan you are actually strengthening the point I was making.
My point is the Libs are as Zionist as the other two. The criteria lib supporters use to say that it isn’t can just as easily be used for the other two. or even Zionist Israel parties.
What I am talking about is the party line.
If Libs win enough to have leverage on issues like the war, torture and Zionism. will they use it?
Will we see soldiers out of Iraq and Afghanistan and in to occupied Palistine?
No we wont, unless they go there to help Israel.
That is because Libs like Labour and conservatives are a Zionist party.
two things can happen if Craig joins them, either he is made to shut up. Or they will kick him out once they have used him for leg work because he would say something against Zionism, torture or the wars.
I really think he is being very naive, and not for the first time. He has taken statements by the mainstream press at face value many times without bothering to scratch beneath the surface.
I think he is being a defeatist. It is sort of like saying, if you can’t beat them join them. I’m not accusing him of being a Qullam. Unlike them I believe he is sincere, just extremely naive.
I agree with him he should work with others. Others he may disagree with. But you have to draw the line somewhere. So he has to remember what are his major issues that he will never compromise, and what are the minor issues he is willing to compromise on.
And whether you like it or not, on the issues of Zionism, the Wars and Torture the libs and cons share the government line, not just share they have swallowed it hook like and sinker. Anything less would have been unpatriotic.
Oh God Craig.
OK, so you joined the Lib Dems for the reasons stated earlier, fair enough, but already you’ve slipped into “Everything is great about the Lib Dems and I will not helitate to promote them” mode.
Eugh!
Please Craig. Don’t do this to us.
In this Craig mentions that the government is lying when they pretend to attack Israel. But what he doesn’t mention, and I believe it needs mentioning are the people on our side who have bought the lie.
These people who celebrate the lie, as if victory has arrived, and all injustice has ended.
I think everyone knows nothing material has been gained by the Palestinians due to this pseudo telling off, and Israel has lost none of the weapons and money the these rulers give Israel while they give Israel a Pseudo telling off.
What I think people on our side assume is it is some sort of moral victory.
I don’t see it as a moral victory when mass murders like Brown and Obama tell Israel, “hay by all means kill but not even we would go that far, and we are mass murderers!”
What I see as the recent moral victory is the cooperation, mutual aid, love and respect and support that is constantly growing between Nazis and Zionists.
Has anyone else noticed that?
Knuckle dragging skinheads of the EDL covered in swastika tattoos waving the Israeli flag with one hand and giving Nazi salutes with the other?
That is what I call a moral victory, but it gets better!
There are photos of these crazy Zionists
in the same rallies with these knuckle dragging skin head Nazis. You can see them hugging and kissing each other!
We always stated that Israel is a Nazi state! Well know they are saying it too!
So you joined a party because of one speech by one member on one issue?
I suspect that Geoff Hoon, and his mates, accepted 5 million from the Conservative Friends of Israel, or whoever owns them, to discredit New Labour with some cheap sleaze. £5,000 for a question is rather too cheap a price for this trougher to tarnish his reputation.
No, Hoon’s loyalty to his Israeli paymasters, far exceeds his loyalty to the party which has given him power and infamy.
Arsalan – is that code for overheated, generalising nitwit? Right, lemme get this straight – if a political party has within it a faction that is pro-Israel, then the whole party is pro-Israel, that right? Even if there is a faction which is pro-Palestinian? Wow, who woulda thunk it! Please, Arsalan, give us more from your fount of ineffable wisdom!
So Mike, it’s incidental that the Ziolobby are the most significant lobby groups in ALL 3 parties?
Mike, Friends of Israel are by definition supportive of racism, lawlessness and the rule of the jackboot. Israel is not a democracy in the western sense but an ethnocracy with vile apartheid overtones. What sort of party allows such a group to thrive in its midst?
Dreolin
If anything can be considered a settlement it is the al asqa mosque which the Muslims built on top of our Jewish temple to establish facts on the ground
The jewish temple predates any Muslim,Christian claims to Jersualem I think yuo will find
Some years ago the Israelis exploded a car bomb outside their embassy in London. The police frankly admitted that the case was proven against them. The dirtiness of Israeli politics is now inside the UK security machine and very satisfied that it can control government, media, and police to their own ends. Israel has 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners in its jails.
When will we start to see UK citizens held as political prisoners in UK cells? First they falsify our identities, next they will be falsifying the evidence to imprison UK critics of Israel. Eventually there could be more supporters of the Palestinians in UK jails than in Israel. Why pay the bills of detaining your critics, when The Friends-es of Israel have already adopted your cause?
Anno UK prisons are full of political prisoners.
Berty
Of course the Temple of Solomon and the re-build after The Captivity in Jesus’ pbuh time pre-date Al-Aqsa mosque.
of course, of course. But why do people buy new cars, if the old ones were still going strong?
Muslims didn’t build Al Aqsa on a temple. they built it on a rubbish tip.
The gap between when the temple was destroyed by the romans and when it was rebuilt by the Muslims was more then 6 hundred years. within that six hundred years no Jew or Christian thought there was anything sacred about that site other then to use it as a rubbish dump.
The fact that Prophet Soloman PBH built is means it is a Muslim site, not a Zionist site. Because Prophet Soloman pbh was an Islamic Prophet.
He followed what was revealed to him while the Zionists have no God and no religion. So they have no connection to any holy site least of all this one.
Islam and our rebuilding of the temple is the fulfillment of the Biblical Prophecy stating it would be rebuilt after the coming of the Prophet pbh.
Arsalan,
You are entitled to your views. But not to attack other faiths. Your writings here have become increasingly irrational and intolerant. For what it is worth, I expect that the historical Solomon, if he existed, would be surprised to find he was a Jew, Muslim or Christian. He would not have called himself any of those things – that much is sure.
If you are still confused between Judaism and Zionism have a read of this.
http://www.jewsnotzionists.org/
I use the word Jew to refer to people who eat Kosher and pray in synagogues while believing in the whole of the Torah, not to pork munching Atheists.
Look at this, the Zionist Nazi Alliance!
http://www.inminds.com/img/qudsday2008.3361.jpg
Sorry to butt in but the Kraft takeover of Cadbury’s shocked me too when I heard that Kraft was already an estimated 4 billion dollars in debt and took out more debt to buy out Cadbury’s. A sad end to a great company, and this is the end, the brand name may continue, but the company’s DNA is gone.
Shocking that our MPs again fail to protect the interests of their citizens, I guess because the British are not really citizens, they are expendable subjects.
vote with your feet, leave.
“Craig, You are talking like a party-politician already and brown nosing on behalf of Nick Clegg.”
Yes Doug, but doesn’t he do it well!
“Clegg was visibly moved by real passion…” Craig makes a better Clegg apologist than any LibDem hitherto has ever been arsed to be.