The true face of the organisation calling itself “Labour Friends of Israel” has been revealed today, in truly disgusting victim-blaming tweets reacting to the massacre of over fifty Palestinians – including yet more children – by the Israeli Defence Force in Gaza.
No Israelis were injured and no “border communities” attacked. This amplification of the worst extreme right wing zionist propaganda by the Likud government shows beyond doubt that “Labour Friends of Israel” is nothing whatsoever to do with the professed values of the Labour Party, but rather a well-funded entryist front solely intended to promote the interests of a violent, expansionist and aggressive foreign state.
I am not a Labour Party member and I do not know what institutional ties the “Labour Friends of Israel” has to the Labour Party, but whatever they are they should be cut off immediately.
The “Labour Friends of Israel” featured very prominently on our TV screens after the recent English local elections, beating the drum for their widespread accusations of anti-semitism within the Labour Party. They have been driving that agenda for many months. One would like to think that the mainstream media would, after today, cease to accept them as a genuine and well-motivated group and understand them for the hate-filled fanatics they truly are. Of course that will not happen, and they will be back on television shortly accusing yet more lifelong anti-racism campaigners who have the temerity to criticise Israel.
This isn’t about Hamas, it’s about tens of thousands of Palestinians with nothing left to lose but their lives https://www.facebook.com/PalinfoEN/videos/1959091204110338/
BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS against not only the rogue state of Israel, but also Labour Friends of Israel, Conservative Friends of Israel, Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel.
https://bdsmovement.net/
I didn’t know that Hamas was part of the IDF shooting at unarmed people 100 metres away from the border
“Labour Friends of Israel” is obviously a front/influence group for the israeli regime.
God knows how much money they are funneled from israeli government to spread this pro-murderous propaganda.
Probably Blair related to oust Corbyn because he seems genuinely left wing
Some info of the members here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Friends_of_Israel
But of course Tony Blair is listed there.
Yes and the zionist occupation is a front for American Caesar and his Euro-lickspittles.
“I didn’t know that Hamas was part of the IDF shooting at unarmed people 100 metres away from the border”
That’s disgusting, pretending that Hamas was responsible for the slaughter of unarmed people.
I note the Jennifer Gerber former special advisor to the government and now director of Labour Friends of Israel faithfully copies and pastes Israeli propaganda by pointing out that of more than 300 Palestinian children in Israeli jails, most are held for security offences.
Israel has been unfairly singled out, according to Gerber. She neglects to mention that Israel is the only state in the world which puts on trial more than 500 children per year in kangaroo courts administered by the military.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/why-does-labour-want-lecture-palestinian-kids-1029849753
Since the Smith regime and the Boer bastards were flushed round the u-bend of history, the zionist occupation is the only apartheid tyranny left; it isn’t singling out, it’s two down, one to go.
I think the reigniting of the phoney antisemitism in Labour rubbish was at least in part about dampening any backlash from today’s events.
Then there’s Eurovision. “I’m not your toy, you stupid what“?
Musical “soft power” to go with today’s live rounds.
Although the EVS has always seemed to me the antithesis of culture, I sometimes find it amusing to watch the performances with my family. (The marking is too sickening to watch).
When I saw and heard the Israeli song, I said, “Well, political correctness only goes so far; there’s one song that can’t possibly win”.
It just goes to show that even decades of sad experience cannot always teach one the truth.
(Incidentally, itsn’t it a bit of a faux pas to admit that Israel is a European state, when it is squarely on Asian land?)
Quite clearly that was the prequel to this appalling massacre. Intended to zip the mouths of Labour Politicians….
Time to come out and call it what it is..
I am sick and tired of the same old record being played over… and over … and over.
We know, they had a most terrible time on the last war… We know more about that than we do our own History? It is on our TV almost every week. The Vietnamese also had a dreadful time in the Vietnamese war and are still suffering birth defects today as are the Japanese, on account of what the Americans did. The Aborigines and American Indians are still displaced persons.. But I don’t recall any of them being offered a new homeland or receiving compensation from the rest of the world for their suffering?
The Palestinians are the new holocaust in the making and we are all standing for it…… the white phosphorous attacks and depleted uranium, used by the Zionists is going to have far reaching effects…Ahhh but that is the aim, isn’t it? .
Time for the Zionists to come out from under their stones. they already have their own Police Force in London, so time for them to form their own Party, and let’s see how many vote for them? Let them be open and honest about their intentions, if they dare.
The Ziionists have played their most vile card on the eve of the 70 year anniversary of the Nakba.. They have sown the wind and hopefully will reap the whirlwind.
We should all begin to boycott Israeli and US products… That is the LEAST we can do.
The most sickening thing about this is that we are all of us incensed by what has happened. But tomorrow, if Beckham shows off a new tattoo, or another Kardashian has a cartoon butt created, then we will forget…
The MSM whilst showing slight concern tonight, to keep us all from going ape sh** will tomorrow night be making excuse for the evil Zionist Government in Israel, and get round to blaming Jeremy Corbyn for it, again… When in point of fact they should be on this like a pack of dogs on a carcass, if they were real journalists.. but they won’t because they are all compromised IMO.
I would like to know why David Milliband has been brought back?
Maggie, you are absolutely correct – but with CFoI and LFoI, the USA, the UK and other countries being complicit and advocating the official narrative blaming Hamas, then the Palestinians will continue to be used as target practice by the IDF, the massacres will continue and the UN will stand by and do nothing. I note today the USA has vetoed a UN motion for an independent investigation into the events of the past week in Gaza. What hope? The White House has blamed Hamas when it has nothing to do with them – but I guess that’s easier than blaming Trump isn’t it. The UN needs to implement sanctions, an investigation and others and ignore the USA veto – the USA after all, blatantly ignores UN Resolutions all the time.
All spot on.
Israel likes to blame Hamas for all opposition to its murderous policies. During WWII the French Resistance fulfilled the Hamas role of legitimate resistance to oppressive occupation. The Palestinians have a duty to fight the illegal occupation of their lands. BDS.
Israel is certainly playing the role of Nazi Germany all too well.
I suspect the proportion between the casualties sustained by the Palestinians and those sustained by the I__aelis, not just in 2018 but in the whole period since 1948, is at least as high, if not higher, than the proportions for J_ws and Germans in the Warsaw Ghetto, or indeed for those same groups in some of the Nazi concentration camps where some of the guards eventually got killed by surviving prisoners. Today we have 2500 Palestinians reported wounded and more than 50 killed, and…wait a minute, perhaps one of the fascist soldiers hurt himself pumping the air too hard with his fist after a couple of kills of unarmed civilians and his eighth successful stomach or knee shot.
I suppose that’s a convoluted way of saying that the Israelis of 2018 are the Nazis of WW2.
That, of course, is an absurd and indeed evil comparison which would be rejected by all but anti-Israel extremists.
The only point of similarity between then and now is that the general public is as indifferent to what is going on Israel/West Bank/Gaza as it was to what went on in Germany in the 1930s.
And that, I suspect, will remain the case no matter how much the activists cheer one another along on the internet, organise marches on the HoC or call for BDS.
Nazi is as nazi does and the zionist antisemites do nazi so very, very well, as do many other tyrannies but this analogy is the only one called “antisemite” (by people who know better). Amon Goeth and Jurgen Stroop wouldn’t see anything wrong with the massacre either.
Look at David Avi’s comments, comparing Israel to nazism is “evil”, but killing protesters are ok and supported.
Its like the word ‘psychopathy’ doesnt cover this mentality we see by the supporters of israel.
What was going on in Germany in the 30s was hardly worse than what happens now in Palestine. It was not until the 1940s that the German govt engaged in genocide. It would be a brave forecaster who said that the govt of Israel will not engage in genocide some time in the future under cover of war.
David Avi,
Hate to rain on your parade, but Gaza represents the largest Concentration Camp the world has ever witnessed, Israel controls all routes to entering Gaza and has a rather large, imposing razor wire fence on its alleged border with Gaza Occupied Territory.
In both the Warsaw Ghetto and actual Concentration camps set-up during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in many Eastern European nations, those detained in said Camps were executed if they went near the barbed wire fences, fences erected to contain them and prevent them from escaping.
May I enquire, given the actions of the Israeli State and members of the IDF since late March this year, what is the difference between Concentration camp guards executing prisoners for getting to close to a fence and the IDF, carrying out the instructions of the Israeli State, in executing Palestinian’s who dare protest by, or move near a fence of their own incarceration erected by the Israeli State?
I look forward to a detail response, particularly given a quick comparative analysis suggests both horrors are equal given the uncanny resemblance they bare to each other.
Hi David,
Israel/Zionists are not ‘Nazis’ at present but are heading in that direction. Israeli politicians and the Israeli public are conditioned to acceptance of the genocide of the Palestinians. If, as you say, the general (world/western) public is indifferent and will remain so (and I suspect that you are correct in this observation) then a genocide of the Palestinians is almost inevitable. Then we can all safely say that the Israelis are Nazis and forget that we didn’t do anything to prevent the possibility of this outcome.
I suspect that if there is a larger war (e.g. with Iran) that is when the Israel will wipe out the Palestinians.
Prior to 1941, the Nazis had not yet proceeded to genocide. Does that mean that, up to that point, it would be wrong to call them Nazis, even though they already had the ideology that would lead them to genocide?
The Ha’aretz journalist David Sheen gave the Russell Tribunal a detailed review of the genocidal sentiments of some leading figures in Israel. It makes chilling viewing: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SDNFdjwolaI
You call in WWII when it suits you, but forbid others to do so?
In some (rich) Western eyes Gaza may look like a camp, but there are billions in Africa or Asia who would happily change place to get an apartment in one of the tower blocks there. More electricity, water etc. than at home now. Don’t want to get hurt? Stay away from the border, simple. Make export products instead of digging attack tunnels.
A Palestinian lifetime refugee status has many perks: subsidies from the oil Gulf, the EU, parts of North America: better than no documents at all or some shabby passport combined with no money.
Antonyl, my goodness, you really are despicable. What is it you don’t get? The Israeli Government control everything in Gaza, the EU has funded the development of businesses in Palestine which, when succesful the Israelis destroy by the use of force. What do you mean more water? Israeli’s control all essential resources into Palestine and cut these off at will. What do you mean, create stuff for export? the Israelis will destroy it – don’t you get it – they enjoy what they are doing and think and treat the Palestinians as animals not as human beings. How on earth can you justify or even attempt to justify massacres and genocide?
If your Palestinian genocide would have of the Nazi kind than their population would have been decimated; in contrast Gaza under Israel had one of the highest population growth rates in the world. No wonder it is so crammed there.
http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/post.aspx?lang=en&ItemID=1292
Anatoly
Its a slow genocide going on,
100 life just murdered by israel just like that, israel dont seek the apartheid solution, they seek genocide and ethnic cleansing.
“What is happening in the Occupied Territories is much worse [than apartheid south africa]. There is a crucial difference. The South African Nationalists needed the black population. That was their workforce…
“The Israeli relationship to the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories is totally different. They just do not want them. They want them out, or at least in prison.”
– Noam Chomsky
It’s not true that Israelis are Nazis.
Just that they behave like Nazis.
Perhaps a better anology is the theft of native american lands and the oppression that went with it, by the USA. Israel is using the same ‘model’, although because of the smaller land mass concerned, it is doing it quicker than it took the US democracy.
Weeks of righteous horror and smelling salts feigned over a few ardently sought-for Facebook posts.
Now justifying the targeting of 2000 unarmed people with live ammunition.
I believe the correct term is “wankers”
terrible that you call people being slaughtered “wankers”. That’s what Brexit does for you.
2500 Palestinans have been wounded today by the IDF, and more than 50 killed.
Presumably no IDF soldiers have been wounded or killed, otherwise we would have heard about it.
no doubt they were laughing alongside the machine guns they were firing.
N_ if Israeli soldiers had been killed – they would have bombed Gaza and other areas out of existence just as they did when they bombed Gaza for 54 days whilst the world stood by and watched – for the death of 8 Israeli soldiers. Laguerre – you are right about them laughing, look at Netanyahoo yesterday – he couldn’t contain his delight
At last they might get called out for what they are. I watch the events in Gaza and I think they must be seeing what I see. What false consciousness is operating here? Or what blatant self serving hypocrisy?
Dont bet on it, Israel have as you know commited the same violence for 60 years, western media, politicians alike, have even commited more support this regime, selling more weapons, defending the crimes.
EU will the coming days release a statement where they blame the palestinians.There is no end to this sickening act.
I asked David Lammy why he did not comment on todays slaughter. Now we know why, he and the rest of his cronies were waiting on their masters at the embassy of the apartheid regime giving them the spin.
What did he say?
David Lammy did comment, and quite clearly,
He said
“I condemn the brutal and lethal use of force on the Gaza border, killing and maiming unarmed protestors. The slaughter of unarmed protestors is unconscionable and the UK must be leading internationals efforts to call for a UN Security Council investigation”
https://twitter.com/davidlammy/status/996090452813275141?s=21
Joan Ryan, the chair, is the main player in the HoC. She leaps up when she sees an opportunity to introduce anti-semitism meme.
Tessa, exactly
The mute button is wearing out on my remote control….
It used to be that only the long programme breaks (which seriously annoy me) had me reaching for it.
But now I have to add wear to it when right wing bangheads in suits and Ivanka Trump speak.
There is nothing that any critic can say to a banghead that changes their ranting lying denials and accusations in a manner reminiscent of a parrot with a propoganda machine gun. Its no matter to them if the questions are of genocide or war crimes commited by their side, they just don’t care.
In Gaza 2000 protestors have been shot today and at least 55 of them are dead and this at the hands of a pariah nation that calls itself a democracy.
The deaths inflicted by its so called defence killers included 7 children and is explained by Israel that their snipers ‘think’ they saw 3 Palestinians who might have been trying to plant a bomb in their fence! THREE!!
Interviewers on Channel 4 News wasted their time with a suited moron from New York who ranted justification for the IDF murders as if he was himself on the side of the victims! He must be on funny dust pushed by Trump.
I’m so glad I don’t know Netanyahu’s children who must have to live in pools of cold sweat under his brand of authority.
Israel is only a pariah nation in the minds of people like yourself. For the rest of the world, it is a nation like any other, albeit one facing a lot of very nasty people in the not too distant vicinity. That is why almost all other nations have diplomatic relations with it, trade with it and so on.
And, by the way, it is a democracy although I suppose – judging from your comments – you would have difficulty advancing a sensible definition of a democracy.
No it’s not a democracy.
It’s beyond belief, bill
Perhaps you could elaborate on the reason that Israel feels the need to fund probably the biggest Lobby group in Westminster?
And likewise why the Israeli embassy is actively trying to recruit young Labour party activists to its cause?
80% of Tory MPs & around 70 Labour MPs all belong to the xxxx Friends of Israel.
Politics and money = power I guess.
Why should I elaborate, Al? You obviously have it all worked out. Don’t forget to attend the demo tomorrow!
David Avi.
Yet the Israeli Declaration of Independence states:
Ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex: It will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education, and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
Do you believe Israel has fufilled that?
“And, by the way, it is a democracy although I suppose – judging from your comments – you would have difficulty advancing a sensible definition of a democracy.”
The word democratic is absent throughout the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
Can you provide a sensible definition of democracy which incorporates the impunity to murder de facto second or third class citizens, the indigenous Palestinian population? Or 70 years of ethnic cleansing? Or the routine theft of homes, land and water from indigenous peoples? Or the routine burning of their orchards? Or the routine defilement of their homes and lives? Or the routine murder of men, women and children, military trial and detention of children, assassination, aggressive war, collective punishment etc, etc.
Of course you can’t. Which is why the reality has to be routinely denied.
All of what you say used to be true of apartheid South Africa.
“For the rest of the world, it is a nation like any other, ” With the exception of all others. Ethnocratic autocracy is the best description. Few would dispute it.
“For the rest of the world, it is a nation like any other.”
Not according to the BBC’s own polling: https://www.haaretz.com/bbc-poll-israel-among-world-s-least-popular-nations-1.5269605
But, of course, there is (according to Israel itself) no such thing as the Israeli nation. You can have Israeli citizenship, but your nationality is either Jewish or something else.
David, it is a rogue and pariah nation no question. It is not facing a lot of very nasty people in the vicinity as you claim. It is certainly not a democracy. Call it for what it is will you – it is a Fascist, apartheid State committing the same war crimes Germany did against the jews and the South African Government did against the blacks – Netanyahoo should be in the Hague being tried for the war criminal that he is. Israel neither respects or lives by the rule of law with regard to the Palestinians. It’s no good bleating on about the holocaust any more – they are now the perpetrators of something very very similar which will lead to the genocide of the Palestinians whilst you and the world think this is a jolly good wheeze and a lot of fun.
David, the most pathetic thing about most of these comments is that a lot of the people complaining about Israel here have been cheerleading for Assad and the Iranian regime in other posts.
“a suited moron from New York who ranted justification for the IDF murders”
An accurate description of the intellectually lazy Alan Dershowitz.
If I was an American I would feel deeply ashamed today. Whilst the staging of an elaborate opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem proceeds simultaneously Israel troops are killing unarmed Palestinians. Is there no live TV is this new Embassy to enable Ivanka Trump to witness reality?
Particularly if you are a Labour Party member and have a local Labour MP, I urge you to ask them to:
1. Publicly condemn the Labour Friends of Israel for blaming unarmed Palestinians for being killed by armed Israelis (see below)
2. Resign from Labour Friends of Israel if they themselves are a member
3. Join Jewish Voice for Labour (http://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/) if they themselves are Jewish
I would like to see some of these LFIers go to Israel to try to organise a Likud Friends of Britain or a Mapai Friends of Britain (as interchangeable as the Tories and New Labour). Maybe they would feel more at home with a Shas Friends of Britain (originating with the infamous Rabbi Ovadia Yosef).
And I would like to see how many of this blog’s armchair warriors will actually take part in the London demo tomorrow.
Most will have some excuse not to shift their backsides away from the keyboard, I expect (other engagements, temporarily financially embarrassed so can’t afford the fare, can’t leave the dog alone, etc…)
Of course most Jews in UK today are right-wing, even extreme right-wing. Why would they go to a demo?
I’d love to go but a bitty far for many. I just content myself with BDS and ensuring that *no-one I know helps an apartheid regime. How does a person live with themselves watching and condoning murder…
*they aren’t stupid
Will you be there David?
I mean a right thinking citizen such as yourself couldn’t possiibly be condoning the cold blooded murder of unarmed prisoners trying to escape from the wire fences of a concentration camp, could you?
I mean, really could you?
**
No David, some of us have to work for a living and don’t have enough annual leave to attend.
Wasn’t Labour Friends of Israel started by Tony Blair?
No. Labour Friends of Israel was around when Blair was still in short trousers. Read the list of members so thoughtfully provided by someone on the previous thread and you will see that the first Chairman was Labour MP Anthony Greenwood. He was a Minister in the first Wilson government.
Good try, though !
Maybe that was back in the day, before Israel became a fascist, apartheid state. Labour FoI might not have been such a disgraceful association back then, let’s be fair.
From your “maybe”s and “might”s I gather you’re too young for Lloyd George to have known your mother?
In other words, you have nothing to say. Understood, loud and clear.
“before Israel became a fascist, apartheid state” – that would be before 14th May 1948
They’re probably still smarting from defeats to Nebuchadnezzer II, the Babylonian ruler, and the Roman Emperor Vespasian.
Whitehouse has also just blamed Hamas for Israels mass murder of Palestinians, i hope Trump gets the ‘welcome’ he deserves on his coming visit to UK.
Labour Friends of Israel have shown their true colours, shifting the blame to the victim is the psychological trick of all abusers, inability to speak the truth should mean instant dismissal from any organisation claiming to have moral decent values.
noticed Joan Ryan posted 3-4 tweets celebrating the Israeli Eurovision victory but has stayed predictably silent on the massacre today.
The Israeli Eurovision victory is the only victory Israel ever achieved without a handout from Uncle Sam.
Disgusting clucking of that ‘not a toy’ fat chicken!
What’s wrong with belcanto? What’s wrong with good singing? Is it just politics to pass the prize to Israeli girl?
I stopped watching it, since Eurovision turned into Parade of Freaks, everyone tries not to sing better, but to be more freaky.
BBC just now
Gaza violence: Israel defends actions as 55 Palestinians killed – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-44116340
Netanyahu – ‘IDF were acting in self defence’!!
“Yeah, Israel needs to defend itself from sling-wielding guys like this… He lost his legs from previous Israeli shootings, today his life.”
https://twitter.com/BrettMacOps/status/996096008395395073
I trust all Trump supporters here are happy. There will be a lot more like this before he’s done.
Schizophrenia reigns. Both women are members of their party’s Friends of Israel groupings. Estimates vary but 80% of each of the main parties are said to belong to the FoIs.
Way back a group of us attempted to have these FoI groups abolished on the grounds that their members were giving allegiance to a foreign power. The Committee on Standards in Public Life squelched it. Several of their membership were FoIs! Our case relied on the Seven Nolan Principles.
‘Theresa May urges calm in Gaza while Emily Thornberry blasts ‘vicious slaughter’
Prime Minister calls for an end to bloodshed while Labour’s shadow foreign secretary berates Israel for killing Palestinians’
May 14, 2018
J**ish News
http://j**ishnews.timesofisrael.com/theresa-may-urges-calm-in-gaza-while-emily-thornberry-blasts-vicious-slaughter/
Perhaps, a counter lobby group within the UK Labour Party ‘The Labour Enemies of Israel’ might be legitimately set up. Of course, ‘enemies’ within the title would be denoted poetically ‘in parentheses’ as meaning not entirely ‘enemies’. It just occurs as I write the old call “Who goes there friend or foe”? Therefore ‘The Labour Foes of Israel’, perhaps?
I like your avatar Bobbie. ‘Morning Glory’ if I’m not mistaken. Lovely plant.
my morning glory is not quite so purple. No where near that big either. Good for you. Actually today mine is more like a miniature headless pansy. Actually just an oddly coloured shriveled stalk. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Although on second thoughts, perhaps my penis can be held up as a symbol to represent the current state of humanity on this planet. A tiny, life size, statue could be made of it, where people need to huddle close around to catch a glimpse, bringing people closer together, united afterwards, sharing in the displeasure of having to strain ones eyes so much for such a disappointing and sad sight. Ah an ode to humanity’s chode.
The Seven Principles:
Selflessness – Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest. They should not do so to gain financial or other benefits for themselves, their family or their friends.
Integrity – Holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organisations that might seek to influence them in the performance of their official duties.
Objectivity – In carrying out public business, including making public appointments, awarding contracts, or recommending individuals for rewards and benefits, holders of public office should make choices on merit and facts not on personal judgements
Accountability – Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office.
Openness – Holders of public office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the wider public interest clearly demands.
Honesty – Holders of public office have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest.
Leadership – Holders of public office should promote and support these principles by leadership and example.
I see the current chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life is Lord Bew. He is a fervent supporter of Zionist Israel!
Whole list of MPs who are members of Labour Friends of Israel here http://www.lfi.org.uk/in-parliament/
Name the last UK Prime minister who DIDN’T visit Israel shortly before being elected.
Oh. My. God. Can this be true?
Well said Craig..
Yes. Well said.
Walking near the Palestinian border is apparently now a capital offense, as far as the Israelis are concerned. Why aren’t Israeli ambassadors around the world being ejected from countries?
Apparently 1 russian spy equal, well how many dead palestinians? Sheer hypocrisy.
How can anybody try to justify this depraved and disgusting behaviour. Israel, the supporters of Israel and America should be deeply ashamed.
You have a reputable name.