My world view changed forever when, after 20 years in the Foreign Office, I saw colleagues I knew and liked go along with Britain’s complicity in the most terrible tortures, as detailed stunningly in the recent Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee Report. They also went along with keeping the policy secret, deliberately disregarding all normal record taking procedures, to the extent that the Committee noted:
131. We note that we have not seen the minutes of these meetings either: this causes us great concern. Policy discussions on such an important issue should have been minuted. We support Mr Murray’s own conclusion that were it not for his actions these matters may never have come to light.
The people doing these things were not ordinarily bad people; they were just trying to keep their jobs, comforting themselves with the thought that they were only civil servants obeying orders. Many were also actuated by the nasty “patriotism” that grips in time of war, as we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. Almost nobody in the FCO stood up against the torture or against the illegal war – Elizabeth Wilmshurst, Carne Ross and I were the only ones to leave over it.
I then had the still more mortifying experience of the Foreign Office seeking to punish my dissent by bringing a series of accusations of gross misconduct – some of them criminal – against me. The people bringing the accusations knew full well they were false. The people investigating them knew they were false from about day 2. But I was put through a hellish six months of trial by media before being acquitted on all the original counts (found guilty of revealing the charges, whose existence was an official secret!). The people who did this to me were people I knew.
I had served as First Secretary in the British Embassy in Poland, and bumped up startlingly against the history of the Holocaust in that time, including through involvement with organising the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. What had struck me most forcibly was the sheer scale of the Holocaust operation, the tens of thousands of people who had been complicit in administering it. I could never understand how that could happen – until I saw ordinary, decent people in the FCO facilitate extraordinary rendition and torture. Then I understood, for the first time, the banality of evil or, perhaps more precisely, the ubiquity of evil. Of course, I am not comparing the scale of what happened to the Holocaust – but evil can operate on different scales.
I believe I see it again today. I do not believe that the majority of journalists in the BBC, who pump out a continual stream of “Corbyn is an anti-semite” propaganda, believe in their hearts that Corbyn is a racist at all. They are just doing their job, which is to help the BBC avert the prospect of a radical government in the UK threatening the massive wealth share of the global elite. They would argue that they are just reporting what others say; but it is of course the selection of what they report and how they report it which reflect their agenda.
The truth, of which I am certain, is this. If there genuinely was the claimed existential threat to Jews in Britain, of the type which engulfed Europe’s Jews in the 1930’s, Jeremy Corbyn, Billy Bragg, Roger Waters and I may humbly add myself would be among the few who would die alongside them on the barricades, resisting. Yet these are today loudly called “anti-semites” for supporting the right to oppose the oppression of the Palestinians. The journalists currently promoting those accusations, if it came to the crunch, would be polishing state propaganda and the civil servants writing railway dockets. That is how it works. I have seen it. Close up.
More on the evacuation of the WH brigade and other assorted criminals from Syria.
Israel helped evacuate fleeing militants to the US – Syrian envoy to US
31 Jul 2018 | 17:01 GMT
Syrian Envoy to the UN Bashar Jaafari has claimed that Israel helped to transfer militants fleeing from Syrian territory to the United States and other countries.
Jaafari said that a “decisive offensive” from the Syrian Arab Army had forced militants to “flee from the Syrian territory through the occupied Golan Heights” and into Israeli territory. From there, he said, the militants were “transferred to Jordan” and then to other countries, including the US.
Israel previously evacuated hundreds of members of the Western-backed White Helmets group, who advertise themselves as first responders, but who have been linked to Al-Qaeda. The Syrian government has accused the group’s members of cooperating with terrorist groups and plotting false-flag attacks in the country.
/..
https://www.rt.com/news/434760-israel-evacuated-terrorists-syria/
More on the roles played by Israel, Turkey and Jordan on the link. What a load of crooks.
Is there a complete mainstream media blackout of the Israeli attack on the freedom flotilla boat to Gaza? Or am I simply looking in the wrong places?
I am actually concerned now.
The corbyn attacks using nonsense, the BBc attacks on Scottish National voices, and brexit.
They are all three a symptom of something. The desire for change. Corbyn represents a break from the neoliberal consensus that has since thatcher gradually eroded living standards for the majority in this country.
The move for independence is a desire to break away not just from that, but also for self-determination.
Brexit, as much as I disagree with it (I run a business that pretty much relies on the single market to be viable) was for many simply a cry for something, anything to change. I realized long ago after spending some time around the midlands just talking to people, a lot of people voting out did so out of desperation, the reason tales of disaster after we leave makes no diofference to them is because things are already so bad for them, they think it can;t get worse. I think they are wrong there, but I can understand. No job prospects beyond crappy low paid, insecure employment, always relying on benefit top up for wages just for a roof over your head, and the uncertainty of knowing a tory government can take that help away at any time, no real prospects of owning a home or any of the dreams one may have. That is Britain for far too many people, its very different to the one I live in, and its like an alien world for the journalists, the media and vested interests who are now messing with the little hope they had.
The concerted effort to remove corbyn will not make that desire for change go away, if they succeed I am genuinely concerned for the future.
JFK was an arse, but he got some things right, this one in particular
:
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
Liberals insist all will be well if only we get rid of Corbyn (and Trump and Brexit) and the world returns to the conditions that produced them
Corbyn wants less war.
That makes him dangerous.
bj – that is very true. As I have said before, there is no money to be made out of peace. Just think how much money the global arms trade loses if everyone is happily getting on with each other.
And the British legislature and executive are currently pushing for a 50% increase in military spending.
So does Trump.
“WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one
international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the
losses in lives.”
― Major General Smedley D. Butler, War Is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America’s Most Decorated Soldier
Three great posts. I’ll raise my pint of Pedigree to all of ye (tastes like armpit but we must make do)
“Corbyn represents a break from the neoliberal consensus that has since thatcher gradually eroded living standards for the majority in this country.”
People keep telling me this without providing an atom of evidence that supports the idea that he represents meaningful change in some way. I’m so bored with it.
Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t seem to be able to say the words “J__ish racism”, when practically everyone knows that it is a strong force. Things might actually change if he did. There is nothing like calling a spade a spade. He has nothing whatsoever to apologise for in connection with “anti-Semitism”. And it is simply not true that anti-J__ishness is rife on the left. It is a lie. Call it what it is.
Is there an important reason that J__ish power is booting Corbyn out now rather than at another time?
It is possible – likely even – that Tory poshboy power and J__ish power are acting in cahoots to “rearrange” the Labour party. Certainly the former will never want something like the 2016 general election to happen again and they will have learnt their lesson. When power takes a hit, it seeks to heal and, if necessary, move. I remember thinking at the time of the Muhammad al-Durrah reporting in 2000 that that wouldn’t be allowed again.
To think that “Z__nism is a form of racism”, “Z=R”, used to be United Nations policy. And now practically no public figure in Britain is willing to espouse that position, for fear of being put in the same category as skinheads in swastika armbands who suffer from a right arm problem.
Always emotional hatuey.
Labour policies are ordinary for Europe, back a bit from uk recent years hopefully …. Less of the manic Privatisation, hostile environment, austerity etc
Corbyn difference is he’s long term support for peace and equality and less of an establishment insider which may cause problems for some. Seems to be upsetting people anyway.
And which people would that be?
Several groups might worry about their comfort changing …. Tax haven profiteers, arms trade, some countries , people making huge profits from government … And putting money behind smears and attacks is what companies like SCL were shown to be doing, though the press might do it unprompted.
Thanks, MAB, good summary.
MAB I think you are right.
What I am beginning to take seriously is what happens if we have a cliff edge Brexit and a lot of things are rushed through at the last moment. I am reading Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine where she lists times when a crisis has been used or engineered, like Chile in 1973, and a Chicago economics solution has been imposed. The other examples, Bolivia, Argentina, Poland, Russia etc have all needed repressive measures and left the majority worse of but a few with huge fortunes.
I don’t have a clear idea what could happen but I expect it would put more power and wealth into fewer hands.
Great article Craig. Trump was labelled a rascist during his campaign, and it did not harm him. He may or may not be, but that was not what the electorate was interested in. Neither, I think, will Corbyn be harmed by this disgraceful antisemite campaign. The voters know well that he is not an antisemite, and the movement against him is I think irrelevant. They have if anything helped his cause, and done the Jewish people a disservice. Most people who support Corbyn have had enough of elite and wealthy people, racists and nationalists, and wish to see policies that have the interests of society as a whole at their heart.
Must read:
The late Edward S. Herman’s review of Steven Pinker’s silly book on the decline of violence:
https://isreview.org/issue/86/steven-pinker-alleged-decline-violence
I read the review, it led me to wonder, why is Pinker writing a book about history? It’s way outside his own specialised field, and why did he restrict his definition of “violence” mainly to western countries that have not been to war, did he not realise that would skew the figures. And why did he exclude the proxy wars the west has encouraged? It’s a mystery.
Doesn’t sound mysterious, more propagandist.
Yeah, it’s somewhat of a mystery, unless you factor in the sociological factor (of the author himself),.
That is a bit of a cop-out, but it is also a bit justified since this is indeed an account and interpretation of history, which to a certain extent is personal by definition.
Maybe he wants to be ‘more catholic than the pope’, i.e. is vying for more acceptance –as a Canadian– within the Harvard or broader US intellectual community.
To belong means singing the song.
I don’t know — he’ll someday no doubt look back on it and think ‘what got into me — that wasn’t my finest hour’.
John A 19.12
I too am amazed at this not being reported anywhere.
If you google Mike Treen you do get some hits from New Zealand but little else. There’s nothing about Swee Ang the founder of MAP.
Apparently he was repeatedly tasered and beaten and he’s not a young man.
Our media is well and truly broken. This is an act of piracy in international waters and in any other circumstances would be headline news.
All 22 people have their passports and possessions removed and if you remember last time their credit cards were used fraudulently.
I suspect the same will happen here.
This is a disgrace.
Maybe if Craig blogs
I have been posting on here about this earlier. No response.
Sharp Ears it was your post that alerted me. I wouldn’t have known otherwise.
Thank you.
It’s also been reported on Consortium News and Mondoweiss.
Apparently a USS Liberty survivor is among the captured.
Piquant — the USS Liberty that was intentionally destroyed (34 killed) by the most moral army in the world, in 1967.
The most moral army in the whole wide world is also the most cowardly, hitting on defenseless peace flotilla’s, seventeen year old girls, and nurses.
Yes, yes, they’ve all been tasered and beaten. As much tasered and beaten as Ray McGovern had “his shoulder broken” after being “violently” expelled from a Senate hearing (it wasn’t broken at all, of course,and Mr McGovern was seen scampering around merrily only days after he had had “his shoulder broken”).
False news then and probably false news now, put out by Israel-haters who will resort to any deception, exaggeration and untruth to drum up support for their cause.
Those “freedom flotilla” people knew exactly what to expect if they tried that silly political stunt of “breaking the blockade”. They knew the risks, so let them now take the consequences. And armchair supporters should stop whining.
@ Caleb July 31, 2018 at 21:01
Ray McGovern’s shoulder was not broken, but his dislocated shoulder was re-dislocated, an extremely painful affair.
I**ael’s attack on the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ in International waters was piracy and criminal, and the fact that they killed people doing it makes the criminal piracy much worse. But I**ael doen’t give a hoot about International Law, the Geneva Convention or the UN’ it commits it’s abominations in the knowledge that the US and other Western governments will back it to the hilt, no matter what War Crimes it commits.
As for the ‘anti-Semitic’ ‘wolf cry’, especially as regards Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, ddwould you call the following’Fake News’?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LZNXNVL1G8
Deafening silence, I suspect.
Cheers Aidworker1.
Hope this latest e-mail content helps Caleb.
Update on condition of Mike and Flotilla detainees from Roger Fowler
Hi friends:
Update notes from FFC Skype call just now:
Latest reports: The IOF takeover of the boat was violent – conducted by armed and masked soldiers – many passengers and crew were assaulted, roughly handled and hit. Three were tasered, including Mike, as they refused to move from the wheelhouse. Mike and one other crewman were tightly handcuffed. Mike was repeatedly tasered on the body. Another was also tasered on the head. Mike received a scratch to his face and his head was bleeding. A 69-year-old female surgeon received a head injury. A senior Canadian passenger was injured on the foot and received hospital treatment. Apparently all are recovering OK in detention. Mike is in Givon Prison. Local civil rights lawyers met with all the detainees a few hours ago and report that all are OK and expect to be deported as quickly as possible. Two are on a protest hunger-strike (not Mike). They have been repeatedly lied to – such as: ‘if you co-operate, your belongings will be returned’. No belongings have been returned (including passports) and are unlikely to be returned until they have returned home. This is what happened to Marama Davidson too. I don’t know if the NZ Hon Consul has contacted or visited Mike yet – I emailed him earlier. Still no response from our Foreign Minister. Good support from Marama. Need to pressure Peters to make a statement.
I will send further updates as info received. The second Flotilla boat (Freedom) is likely to arrive within the next 2 days. Please also follow updates on kiaoragaza.net and facebook
We will have to organise a big ‘welcome home’ for Mike at the airport.
Roger
Many excellent statements of support and media coverage such as these:
http://www.unite.org.nz/mike_treen_imprisoned_in_israel_after_violent_attack_on_al_awda_in_international_waters
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/362976/nz-union-leader-detained-by-israeli-military
Of course like the two ‘ tough guy ‘ Israeli soldiers who ran to mommy because a young girl
kicked and slapped them ( I saw a bit of kicking but not much slapping) we should all take our
punishment.
She got a jail sentence and the tough guy soldiers got red faces.
Your a Sandflake.
I am a Israel-hater — and proud of it.
Anyone who doesn’t hate the murderous fascist apartheid state is a heartless criminal. Like you, Calb.
Their prisons are filling up.
Italian artist who painted mural of Palestinian heroine Ahed Tamimi arrested in Israel
https://www.rt.com/news/434555-tamimi-mural-artist-agoch-arrested/
Some survive, and …
I don’t know I was going to say more but I have a lump in my throat.
Watch this: Ahed Tamimi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsYfBRl1zYc
The strength, the resilience, the determination.
I’m still waiting for Israel to return the Golan Heights.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1348976/middle-east
“Israel seized the Golan Heights in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed it in a move not recognized internationally”
It seems Syria too is tired of waiting.
Britain must strike deals with ‘unsavoury’ elites, says FCO report
Study admits that hasty efforts to set up liberal democratic institutions are likely to fail
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/31/britain-must-strike-deals-with-unsavoury-elites-says-fco-report
The FCO speaks as if we have to learn new ways. We have been mixing it with unsavoury elites for decades.
“The FCO speaks as if we have to learn new ways. We have been mixing it with unsavoury elites for decades.”
Yes, we have our own elite who have often been responsible for creating the very unsavoury elites they criticise.
Sharp Ears,
” We have been mixing it with unsavoury elites for decades”
More like doing it for centuries and embracing for equally as long.
Sharp Ears
I read this whitewash piece by Wintour and marvelled at this creation by the ministry of truth. It contains paragraphs that indicate that the writer thinks that the reader is stupid and ignorant. Two glaring examples:
“It admits that hasty efforts to set up liberal democratic institutions from scratch are likely to fail, especially if any new arrangements do not reflect the political context and reasons for the existing distribution between the elite.”
This is so basic and yet has been the basis of British imperial foreign policy for hundreds of years.
“The report states that Britain needs to be more willing to deal with powerful unsavoury elements even if they do not share British values, or are guilty of war crimes.”
The report is rubbish then because it obviously ignores our home grown war criminals and those of our staunch allies and suggests that these so called foreign war criminals have already been convicted .
I also wonder whether these “British values” will need to be redefined especially after Brexit.
Wintour should go back to Vogue and continue his speciality: below the catwalk.
Watching from afar the Tory party in London’s Parliament, and their Tory-lite New Labour brothers, all government ministers who have slithered into position, a judiciary having the product of a Lord Widgery as their ideal of impartial justice, what strikes one with the greatest impact is the anality, (banality without the ‘bs’) of what passes as the British Establishment. But then, when there is a void of guidance at the epicentre of British politics, expect the ubiquity of evil to spread to all corners of British life. Julian Assange and what he has endured will go down as the iconic example of the British Dreyfus that will end British international credibility if not forever, for generations to come.
Thank you, Craig, for your courageous witness.
We have the same problem in the US with journalists and the Democratic Party buying into the Israeli propaganda that support for Palestinians is anti-semitic. In fact, the accusation is itself dangerously anti-semitic, since it implies that all Jews, wherever they are, are responsible for the atrocities of the current apartheid state. I won’t slander my friends by calling it the “Jewish State.”
Hopefully both countries will ultimately weather the current fit of McCarthyism. But it is certainly destabilizing both.
Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
Some other links:
https://m.facebook.com/2018-Gaza-Freedom-Flotilla-US-Section-1566625253380346/?locale2=en_GB
https://jfp.freedomflotilla.org/about-just-future-palestine
Nothing on the BBC or Sky websites. ‘It never happened’ – Harold Pinter
Another boat is on its way.
Neither is there anything in the MSM OR here on the going ons in Yemen, Baluchistan, Turkey-inside Syria, the last Yazidis, the last few Christians in the ME or Pakistan etc. In a word the fate of minorities in Sunni majority countries: their populations are decreasing, not increasing by 361 a day like the Palestinians http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/palestine-population/
More blatant hasbara is rare on Craig’s blog. A complete misinterpretation of what’s going on in “Sunni majority” countries, of course, but I wouldn’t expect actual knowledge from a hasbarist.
Oh, Sunni majority nations are beacons of diversity and tolerance now?
Please visit Saudi Arabia: leave your Bible and wine etc. behind.
OK Israel compares favourably with Saudi Arabia. Not a very high bar. But at least there are no separate roads for Sunni and Shi’a and no separation walls. Shia are not being shot in cold blood daily. Saudi Arabia has not indulged in high sea piracy yet.
“Oh, Sunni majority nations are beacons of diversity and tolerance now?”
Another demonstration of ignorance viewed with an imperialist eye. Other people have to conform to your blinkered point of view. The reason for your smug self-satisfaction is that Europe exterminated its minorities (e.g. Muslims) centuries ago; Islam tolerated theirs and let them survive, as they still do – which leaves them still alive to complain. Old Muslim communities in Europe have not survived to be able to complain.
Nobody, as SA says, would support Saudi practices (at least I have been there; you evidently know little about it); elsewhere Sunni fundamentalists are not very different from American fundamentalists, who closely control their communities, and settler fundamentalists in Israel, who carry out daily attacks on other communities.
Imperialist? Sunni Islam is till date the biggest permanent imperialistic / settler force in History. From Nigeria till Bangladesh: thousands of miles away from Medina or Mecca. Fundamentalist militant Jews have only conquered ~ 0.001% of what fundamentalist militant Muslims have managed and ventured no more than 150 miles from Jerusalem . They also don’t have the numbers (luckily) to take more, but Muslims do.
“Imperialist? Sunni Islam is till date the biggest permanent imperialistic / settler force in History. From Nigeria till Bangladesh: thousands of miles away from Medina or Mecca. ”
You really have a very strangely coloured view of facts. If you want to compare Sunni Nigeria or Bangladesh then you have to compare that with the catholic church. The muslims in Nigeria are not Arab settlers but converts, I guess they are entitled to settle thier own lands on conversion. Anyway I reached the conclusion that it is not really worth explaining things to you because you really don’t want to see.
I have answered your apparently innocent questions in a previous thread but of course you ignored it. Why do you not something constructive about Yemen and Pakistan as you seem so incensed that they are not being discussed rather than just by trying to create a diversion?
You an f-ing racist. I think you should be banned here on that ground.
Do you ever look in a mirror?
“As far as I can see the debate goes –
*The Labour Party is rife with #antisemitism!*
Is it?
*You are condoning it!*
No, I would just appreciate some evidence
*Antisemitism on the left is a fact*
How many? Who?
*You’re in denial, you’re anti-Semitic! This is bullying!*
#JC4PM
https://twitter.com/Sargent_Sellers/status/1024343313099448326
There is an old saying “He who lives by the sword, so shall he die by the sword”
Take a look around you – anyone that disagrees with the narrative of the day is routinely written off as “racist” or “fascist” or some other smear of the day all calculated by focus groups to have the maximum negative impact. Just look at the constant stream of infantile bile directed against President Trump. The same people whinging about the treatment of Corbyn are queuing up to heap opprobrium on people like Tommy Robinson – no facts are needed, no evidence required Robinson is the devil incarnate and anyone that even mentions his name must be in league with the ghost of Adolf Hitler.
Now the high Priests of such tactics find they are taking some return fire – and just see how they whine and whinge.
These tactics just serve to make Trump stronger, so why can they not also make Corbyn stronger?
They do. Don’t believe the noise. As Tom Waits once sang .. “there’s a world going on undergound”..
The corporate assault on culture, journalism, education, the arts and critical thinking has left those who speak this truth marginalized and ignored, frantic Cassandras who are viewed as slightly unhinged and depressingly apocalyptic. We are consumed by a mania for hope, which our corporate masters lavishly provide, at the expense of truth. Chris Hedges
The IFA. Have you heard of it? The continuing deception. http://veaterecosan.blogspot.com/2018/07/israel-flying-aid-ifa-have-you-heard-of.html
Maybe they have not heard the expression:
‘Charity starts at home’ and maybe they should direct some of this humanitarian aid to Gaza?
I feel a dislike for well adjusted confident people. And it’s not about jealousy.
Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable…
Got it.
Hatuey,
Word smart – or – smart words?
No. …Well yes, but no.
Guy/couple across from me in the pub the other day. Not at all fiendish. This article somehow relates.
“ordinary & decent”
I don’t like the “mindless” either, I don’t know about ‘evil’ but the harm comparative to organised society. What’s so ordinary about governments, etc? nothing. literally it’s a tiny part of our history. Yet it’s treated as normal. & if anything that we need to perhaps get back to some king of ideal that existed. As it “should be”. “great again” etc
It’s not the best frame for creative action based on facts on the ground. Nor education that emphasises only very near history, regards society as “modern” because it only looks back to permanent slavery etc.
It’s the most pernicious thing to normalise, even exult in the way things are.
On the theme of evil, I would like to point out that the UK press has given much coverage to tragic Ellie Souter’s father. He is demanding more support for young people in sport. The outpouring of his grief grief and references to his soulmate has diverted MSM attention away from the secrecy about the circumstances of her death and her intended cremation. The death was obviously not suspicious enough to trigger an autopsy, just the standard medical assessment by a doctor. However, mumblings in the sporting world suggest she may have been pregnant which led to her tragic decision. But then she had no boyfriend?
http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16066531.Police_close_Zizzi_in_Salisbury_in_Russian_spy_investigation/?ref=arc
Can anyone contact the Salisbury Journal and ask who took the photos inside Zizzis March 5tb as it was closed?
And if a higher resolution is available.
I am curious about the man is in the first image. I think it is DS Bailey.
From Dr Swee Ang’s sister-in-law.
‘Dearest friends of Swee Chai ,
I am her Sister in law , Christina.
Good news . She will be deported from Israel 8.30 Aug 1 and will arrive in UK at 11.50. Her personal assistant is meeting her at the airport with a physician . I pray she will be well and not suffered any permanent injury from her taser wound .
Thank you all for your support and prayers . We appreciate everything you all have done .
Christina khoo’
A further bulletin.
https://jfp.freedomflotilla.org/news/iof-violently-boards-and-attacks-al-awda-and-participants
July 31st, 2018
Really very good indeed. I agree that many of the journalists trotting out the daily garbage about Corbyn don’t believe it, but it’s been a long time since it was the job of anyone working for most of the UK’s overwhelmingly right-wing corporate media to speak truth to power.
As another example, the Brexit referendum decision in 2016 didn’t just appear from the natural resentments of a section of the UK population about the EU and migration, it was crafted over decades by a relentless stream of anti-EU garbage dictated by the offshore billionaire concerns that own our MSM ( EU laws on ‘straight bananas’ etc.).
For my money, one of the results of the fall of the Socialist Bloc in 1989-1990 was that corporatized media outlets in the liberal western democracies no longer felt they had to keep up a pretence of objectivity – Capitalism had won and media operations became a powerful weapon to pursue (increasingly right-wing) commercial objectives.
are you saying the EU stands for ‘good’ then? That is bizarre as the unelected mandarins of the EU commission are in full flight on their fascist dictatorship – all that is happening is that some layers of the corporate/statist/globalist onion have started to come off and media ‘pretence’ is highlighting the folly of it all – the media has always been a tool of the elites and they are showing up their stance very well indeed – the gloves are off – how you can say you don’t believe journalists mean what they say is truly remarkable – evidence – what they say sets their income and ‘credibility’ status – and they are failing badly.
“unelected mandarins of the EU commission are in full flight on their fascist dictatorship”
O please. Come down yourself.
& After all that’s going on, to simplify down to “good” is just children’s stuff. It’s thinking like that got us in this mess. Reality isun’t like story books.
…“unelected mandarins of the EU commission are in full flight on their fascist dictatorship”
Nothing incorrect about this particular statement. It should be added that it’s not just the Commission that is full of unelected mandarins of the higher neoliberalcon echelons. All EU institutions are full of ’em. And none of ’em can be held responsible for anything.
How many undemocratic commissions etc are there throughout every country or grouping of countries. It doesn’t mean they are on the way to fascist dictatorship.
No, though not without issues, it’s not the Europe as a whole heading toward that, it’s those who oppose where it is practical & sensible also, & say baby must go and all.
Surely the Greeks will have a story or two to tell about “practical and sensible”.
The EU – not unlike the CIA – is an entitity conceived and created by fascists for fascists.
wonky – ‘…“unelected mandarins of the EU commission are in full flight on their fascist dictatorship”
Nothing incorrect about this particular statement. @
The European Council consists of the heads of the 28 members of the EU:
‘the European Council voted 26-2 to propose Juncker for the position [president of the Commission]. Voting against were British PM David Cameron (Conservative Party / ECR) and Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán (Fidesz / EPP)’
The European Parliament is directly elected by the 28 EU countries:
“On 15 July, Juncker presented his political programme to the European Parliament in plenary. Following a debate, the MEPs appointed Juncker to the position of Commission President with 422 votes in favour, well over the 376 required, and 250 votes against”
“..the European Council voted 26-2 to propose Juncker”.. 26-2 (!) for Merkel’s puppet Juncker. What a vote!
A criminal drunkard who almost single-handedly robbed Europe of billions of multinationals’ taxes.
And a parliament that nods to the Council’s proposals. Tell me, what else does it do?
What about shadowy whisperers like Juncker’s handler Selmayr, who keeps slipping him notes from his mistress?
Or those “Troika technocrats”, the likes of which in a previous era were referred to as “economic hitmen”?
You also conveniently left out the “Eurogroup” from your tale of balance and democracy. The existence and function of which is not even mentioned in any of the European treaties! Anyway, what was your point again?
“one of the results of the fall of the Socialist Bloc in 1989-1990 was that corporatized media outlets in the liberal western democracies no longer felt they had to keep up a pretence of objectivity”
They never were objective, pretences or not. Manufacturing Consent was written in 1988, before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Leaving aside the fairytale of the communist threat, which in itself demonstrated that objectivity was never even a serious goal for most journalists, Manufacturing Consent was really a detailed analysis of how big business interests had corrupted the mainstream media’s core.
What changed and made it easier to forget objectivity was the capitulation of the Labour Party in the early 90s, not the Soviet Union. Since then politics has been a game of charades with those who were once offered some protection and representation by Labour left to rot.
Brexit is consequential, blowback. Corbyn and the left understand all that but it’s clear that many in the party don’t.
Through Angela Eagle’s tears, the impassioned speech of Benn demanding to bomb Syria (for humanitarian reasons), and now the anti-semitism crap, they clearly think if they get rid of Corbyn they can go back to playing charades.
Note their preference for emotional arguments and tears, lump in your throat stuff, switched on and off like a tap that draws from their sewer-like souls.
If the Brexit vote was a direct protest against any one group in British politics, it was against these New Labour types and yet here they are, desperately trying to get their snouts back in the trough, totally oblivious to the seething hatred that many working class people feel towards them.
Good post, Hatuey, but I’m afraid that even had the Labour Party of the 1990s not capitulated, we would still not have had a progressive government. And the same will be true should a Corbyn-led Labour Party be elected. This is because Parliament is a simply an arm of the ruling class, designed to give the appearance of freedom and democracy but in reality, it does what the City and capital generally requires of it.
Corbyn, McDonnell et al are, even in opposition, making plain that they won’t confront the City, Labour will be “business friendly” and basically, austerity will continue. So the choice will be the Tories or Tories-light. Whilst one may well find the personalities more acceptable in the Labour Party, their policies are not too different and once again, working people will be shafted as their choice is limited to “the lesser of two evils”. I remember a slogan painted on a wall near my home saying “if democracy could change anything, they’d abolish it”. So we’re tempted by the chimera of democracy when the reality is anything but.
Have you heard the Radio 4 Today lie platform today? Corbyn and his meeting with Palestinians in the HoC.in 2010 – the correlation between the Zionists and the Nazis. His apology. The charge is indisputable and goes back to the liaisons in the ’30s and to the ‘nazi’ British. Yet there are continual gatherings in both Houses of Parliament of the Friends of Israel lobby groups and their guests including Regev. There have been no consistent reports in the ‘British’/Tel Aviv media about the recent terrible wounding with Dum Dum bullets of thousands and the killing of more than 140 civilians in Gaza. NOTHING about the flotilla. A moral and legal desert. How many lawyers are speaking up bar a few like Daniel Machover?
Watching the careful management of hysteria such as this:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/07/30/labour-mps-should-wear-yellow-star-show-revulsion-jeremy-corbyn/
I’m very concerned about the level of clear incitement on display throughout the public media. What legal or political remedy is available? How can this despicable level of mendacity be resisted and countered without adding to the lies? Thoughts?
No, they should wear a blue 6-pointed star on a white background, to show their allegiance.
Agree wholeheartedly. The conclusion that the antisemitism issue is simply designed to weaken Corbyn is inescapable. As an indicator, I use the 7 pm news bulletin on R4, which covers what the BBC considers to be the top stories of the day. Antisemitic Corbyn made it every day for the last five days. There are in addition extended discussions on the topic, heavily weighted, daily on Today. The interviewee of the moment is permitted to evade the question if he is promoting the antisemitic trope, not if he isn’t.
This was particularly noticeable when John Mann was asked for his reaction to the proposition that this was indeed an issue fabricated to attack Corbyn (the first instance I have heard of the BBC even acknowledging the possibility), and he sidestepped the question completely, without any attempt to press him.
In passing, very little evidence has been provided for the accusations made and the ‘official’ definition of antisemitism is described as internationally accepted, whereas it has actually been removed from the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency’s website (the FRA developed it in the first place).
The current ruckus seems to centre on Corbyn’s hosting – before he became party leader – of a pro-Palestinian event entitled ‘Auschwitz to Gaza’. Certainly a bad choice of words on what has become a compulsory feature of every European’s life over the last decade or so; Holocaust Memorial Day. And a bad choice of comparison: Israel has as far as I know not built gas chambers. But the comparison of any aspect of Israel’s behaviour with any aspect of Nazi Germany’s is equally likely to be branded hate crime under the protocol being forced on Labour and adopted in full by the UK’s School of Policing.
Which would make it equally illegal, without bringing the death camps into it at all, to compare the Nazis’ isolation of and assault on the Warsaw ghetto with any aspect of what has happened to Gaza since it was left in limbo by Israel.
So sue me.
I thought this was balanced. Good take.
“What antisemitism does exist mostly takes the form of prejudicial attitudes; stereotypes that, while not pleasant, carry little or no material consequence”
https://twitter.com/jsternweiner/status/1024276208492716034
Calls for Corbyn to kick long term ally out of the Labour party for anti-Semitism.
“Peter Willsman a senior member, was secretly recorded at a meeting of the party’s ruling national executive committee, accusing those who have complained about anti-Semitism of making it up.”
Oh dear it doesn’t bode well.
http://www.thenational.scot/news/16389520.calls-for-corbyn-ally-to-be-kicked-out-of-labour-over-anti-semitism/
Great post. Ty.
Well said.
Sadly it would seem that the forces seeking to control the parameters of debate on MSM and ultimately shut it down have all but triumphed.
A little taken aback by reference to UK school of policing adopting the contentious definition of anti-Semitism in full and transposing it into hate crime. Firstly, the College of Policing applies to England and Wales only. Secondly, surely definition of hate crime will ultimately be determined by legal precedent.
It is interesting that this event from 2010 has now been picked upon. I thought something similar happened in 2016 during Corbyn’s re-election.
Anyway without wanting to promote any particular line I thought that those who may want to get more insight into the origins of this storm may want a bit more background, difficult to get at present from Google searches because of the current attack:
http://www.inminds.co.uk/never-again.php
Thanks, SA. That puts it squarely in context, and it is now on the Komodo Recommended Reading list.
Correction to mine: College of Policing it is, sorry. Check this, but I think the intention was to define hate crimes in the context of arrestable offences; that is, perhaps, charges which stand an average chance of being pursued by the DPP, whether or not legal precedent exists for any particular one.
A mass refusal to renew the ‘license’ fee – actually a poll tax on every household in the country – is in order.
Not a single mention of the Gaza flotilla, even on the usually fairer PM radio4 news, oh Eddie Mair, what happened to your conscience?
The BBC keeps chasing for payment having been told in person at the doorstep that i don’t watch live tv (no aerial,no sattelite dish) and confirming that i don’t use iplayer. A license is not required to listen to the radio. Or indeed to receive the whole BBC output by satellite when in Europe!
£4 BILLION PER YEAR – the poll tax collected.
Plus at least another £1 BILLION in commercial worldwide revenues!
It is time this establishment propaganda operation was culled.
A public service ought to be funded as any other via the public purse.
Don’t pay. Don’t watch. Demand BBC news 24 is turned off in pubs and other public places.
D: “Don’t pay. Don’t watch. Demand BBC news 24 is turned off in pubs and other public places.”
What will they put on instead – Sky News? Very much doubt they’ll be hip to Al Jazeera, although personally I think this is the best choice around these days : https://www.aljazeera.com/
Glenn_nl
Al Jazeera is not without its own agenda, Its coverage of Syria has been very partisan especially as Qatar had a big iron in the fire there. Look at this
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2018/08/russia-iran-backed-forces-withdraw-golan-frontier-180801140643907.html
This has been denied elsewhere and is not that straightforward.
But they do provide stuff that the BBC ignores:Like this example of attempting to hack into a phone.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/08/amnesty-international-staff-targeted-israeli-spyware-180801061659824.html
In fact, anyone with the resources to publish news has his own agenda. It’s essential to crosscheck accounts and employ critical thinking: who is saying this, and why are they saying it? Sources like Reuters, AP and AFP are probably more trustworthy than the outlets they sell news to: their reports are relatively free of editorial content. But even they only see what they are allowed to see on the ground. There is a huge hazard, too, in only reading news in your comfort zone: we’re all guilty of that to some extent. And the media are well aware that our already-existing opinions can be nudged down any track they choose in order intentionally to serve the political agenda of, let us say, without even mentioning RT, a state actor…
New book from Medialens – David Edwards and David Cromwell
‘Do you trust the liberal media? While the tabloid and right-wing press – the Sun, The Times, the Mail and the Express – are constantly criticised for dangerous bias, outlets like the BBC and the Guardian are trusted by their readers to report in the interests of the public. However, the reality is that all corporate media is systematically filtered by the powerful interests that own, manage and fund it.
Propaganda Blitz shows that the corporate media does not just ‘spin’ the news – it fundamentally distorts everything it touches, hiding the real issues from public view, and often completely reversing the truth. This book uncovers a storm of top-down campaigns behind war reporting from Iraq, Syria and Palestine, as well as the destruction of the credibility of figures on the left, including Jeremy Corbyn, Russell Brand and Hugo Chavez.
Exposing propagandists at the top levels of the BBC, as well as their reporting on the Scottish independence referendum, the dismantling of the NHS and looming climate chaos, Propaganda Blitz explains the real meaning of ‘objective’ journalism, exposes the fake news about ‘fake news’ and outlines a model for anti-business media activism.’
http://www.plutobooks.com/9781786803313/propaganda-blitz/
Thanks for that Sharp Ears. I’ll definitely order that book. Media Lens is an excellent website. I’ve bought a couple of their books before and they’re always eye-openers.
It is noted that the Russian embassy has made unseemly and scurrilous reference to the “early” cremation of the remains of the Novichok victim which, in the light of the authorities’ previously declared intention to retain corpus delicti for “several months”, is perhaps not be wondered at but certainly cannot be condoned. The authorities are to be congratulated upon the early conclusion of this part of the investigation.
It is further noted that the survival rate of Novichok, “the deadliest nerve-agent known to man” is currently ruuning at 80%. As any statistician worth his salt will tell you, five is far too small a sample of affected persons from which to draw valid conclusions.
A sample universe of several thousand is required. Should the “two groups” of persons have succeeded in importing several crates (or perhaps a container-load) of NoviSpray from Moscow Central we might not have to wait long before more robust statistical verification of outcomes is available.
Overall it’s been very illustrative, and disappointing from the left. Their actions demonstrate clear bias. We don’t hear about the “disease” of islamophobia in anything like the same way. Yet facts on the ground?
And when I pointed this out? Eg, that they are special to the left/labour? I get the respone “I don’t like where this is going” Eg, I’M spreading bigoted memes.
And I got told this is just “topic of the day (this was DURING the recent Palestine shootings) As “the left” where writing page after page, day after day on antisemitism. And they are still at it.
Why?
To be a victim pays.
It gets you 50 billion, to buy weapons.
I can’t believe people like Aaron bastani, on sky or wherever it was, saying they clearly have a right to a state? Does anyone have a right?. It was hotly contested at the time, yet now it’s just a given?
It’s a state like any other, a fact now. But I happen to agree with the principals of those who opposed it’s creation.
Sigh, the things people do on MSM. Never go against the consensus. Re-emforce dogma.
He did basically present it as unique. This sort of bigotry, & “when IT happens it REALLY happens” etc, “history tells us”.
Like it’s not based on any tangible set of things, circumstance etc, but some inexplicable like no other form of bigotry. Just grabs people like a godly act.
No, it’s just like any other form, it may have been taken further in history with some groups, but there is nothing unique about what went on thematically.
Another day and more evidence of the dark forces at work in the UK.
Tommy Robinson has been freed on bail by the Court of Appeal pending a retrial on a Contempt of Court charge.
This decision was protested by people operating under the umbrella of Stand Up to Racism. What more proof could be required that Stand Up to Racism does not believe in the rule of law? Who will ask these people how racism is to be combated in a society that despises the rule of law. The answer is no-one will ask these questions and the vacuous virtue signalling anarchists will continue to spew their bile and have each inane word dutifully recorded by the media.
In many cases the very same people who will either remain silent or actually support the rule of law hating “anti-racists” will be bemoaning the abuse heaped on Corbyn. Live by the sword then die by the sword. Not really the kind of society that most people would want – but seemingly deemed preferable than actually supporting principles.
Is it against the law to protest?
Dark forces freed him?
Dark forces freed him on bail?
Dark forces freed him on bail pending a retrial?
I am just a bit confused.
I am more than a bit surprised however that you’re joining the ‘Corbyn is an anti-semite”-chorus.
I think people with their head lost in a “patriotic” cloud are effectively racist. I mean that’s history right? We have been pretty racist states/govenment’s in the past.
& They explicitly want the world organised more along “racial” lines. Again.
Disputing Law has a rich history.
Blut und Bodem-mentality.
Everybody’s an immigrant, but no — they think they can trace their own ancestry back some 75,000 years to the very land that they live in now.
I’m afraid the genetic testing hasn’t been a great success – disparate diaspora.
It’s the same response to anything.
‘Let’z put all z yellow fisz together in a bowl, Zen all z blue fish etc, zZEN! we will be properly organised yA?
have to say that I watched the video he made of his attendance outside the court and he was very particular about not breaching the specific conditions of his bail.
Loony,
My main problem with Tommy Robinson, apart from the fact that he gives, the distinct impression of being a violent knobhead, is not his quite obvious racism, nor the fact that he is quite happy to be photographed on top of an Is ra li Tank, giving the impression he supports the genocide of The Palestinians…
It’s because, I think it highly likely that he works for British Intelligence Services, as have mamy supposedly on the opposite side to his point of view. But even despite, my general dislike of him, (though I would probably get on well with hime in a pub), I do support his courage, to for example confront some “posh” “liberal?” idiot, in Canterbury, who was advocating extreme violence against him.
I also totally disapproved of the recent court case against him, when so far as I could see he broke no laws whatsoever.
As regards ethnic displacement, of the indigenous, particularly in working class areas of England, then I can understand his point of view.
Ultimately, I think he is just another “intelligence” asset – who’s job is to sew conflict.
However, I don’t think such conflict is going to work in England, cos the vast majority of English people are not racist.
We even get on quite well with the unmentionables, a group of which are slagging off Jeremy Corbyn in the controlled press. I have no idea why they are doing it, cos their techniques are quite obvious, and just increase support for Jeremy Corbyn.
Tony
So, mentioning the deliberate malnutrition/ slow starvation of Gaza’s wretched population is now the most unambiguously racist thing you can do in 21st c Britain? A country that represents itself as a guiding light of humanitarianism, its core values justice and a sense of fair play? Please f*** off, Britain.
Yes, absolutely gut wrenching to hear Corbyn apologising to the hysterical Zionists and the craven BBC none of whom even condescending to explain why what was said was anti-Semitic. Is Corbyn so stupid or naïve as to think that apologising will result in these foaming at the mouth Israeli government supporters, backing off?
Please, crying “sorry” simply gives them more energy for renewed rounds of bullshit. He should just tell them to ‘fuck off’ and continue to support the Palestinians in their titanic struggle for basic human rights. He could hardly be worse off!
Yes, I agree. He should demand an apology from those who are trying to undermine him with smears and demand an investigation into why the mainstream media is under the influence of Israel government interference in our affairs.
He should show absolute anger and passion in his rejections of this evil nonsense and ram home the fact that there is no nation more racist than Israel at the moment. I get the impression that there are a lot of people out there who would support him. I read more and more posts in the media like the “Independent” who are totally fed up with this anti-Semitism b*****ks. However the TV and newspaper media, don’t even ask for evidence of anti-Semitism: They just accept what the Israel government lobbyists tell them.
The fact is, as David Edwards and David Cromwell of Media Lens say, the media massively distorts the truth so that the interests of the ruling elites are served well while even moderately left politicians like Corbyn are set upon by the establishment “dogs of war”. Anyway, I’m sure I’m “preaching to the converted”! Sorry if I’m in full rant mode but I find it difficult not to get angry about some things!
For years I have asked myself if I am anti-Semitic and reasoned that there is good and bad in all people and perhaps therefore, I am not. When I observe and read of the sustained tirade of anti-Semitic accusations levelled at Mr Corbyn by those who either are Jewish or with affiliations to the State of Israel I have begun to question my own stance on the issue.
In the past I had admired the work of Margaret Hodge when she chaired the Commons select committee; her religion was never a factor as she held to account those who came before her to answer her committee’s searching questions. I also recall John Mann grilling George Osborne on the Chancellor’s claim that the national debt was the highest in our nations history. He asked in-depth questions that the Chancellor couldn’t answer and made him look the incompetent fool he turned out to be.
This was a reasoned performance and was in marked contrast to his impromptu televised spat with Ken Livingstone on the same subject of anti-Semitism where he appeared to lose his own sanity. There is no visual record of the tirade in which Margaret Hodge unleashed upon Mr Corbyn, reportedly accusing him of anti-Semitism in the strongest of bad language and witnessed by others within earshot.
A significant proportion of our nation are ill-read and too readily accept the narrative put out by the MSM whose proprietors have vested interests in keeping it that way. To my mind, these are the individuals who persuade the less erudite among us to conflate anti-Semitism with the opposition to the political aspirations of the current Israeli government and its attitude towards the people of Gaza.
I think Mr Corbyn is between a rock and a hard place. If my memory serves me correctly, when he first stood for election as leader he didn’t particularly want it; everybody else ‘on the left’ had previously stood and I think he felt he’d better do his bit. Another case of unintended consequences.
So far we have had the demonization of Russia. Now being followed by the continuous demonization of Jeremy Corbyn. The pathetic news bulletins on BBC Radio 4 and on LBC include lengthy segments on the matter. We now have Stephen Kinnock weighing in saying that ‘the party is in crisis’.
I trust that the Blairites plus Messrs Mann and Austin, Mesdames Ellman, Berger, Cooper, Phillips and all the other members of the FoI and the CFoI are content.
Why is Corbyn being such a pussy.
Is he fighting back at all?
Commentary on the TLN on the utterly revolting headline in the Torygraph today on an Angela Epstein article –
‘Labour MPs should wear a yellow star to show their revulsion with Jeremy Corbyn ‘
Thankfully only a cartoon and one paragraph are visible as the rest is behind a paywall. Best place for the trash.
http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thread/1533119398.html
It’s a pity that Craig can’t say too much since that ‘case’.
Urrrggh!
I know we are supposed to love our neighbours and all that but Angela Epstein drives me completely up the wall.
She is such a bloody ‘know-all”, arrogant, biased, self-important so-and-so’s I’ve ever come across.
Fortunately, I’ve not met her personally – only come across her on TV – on which she is only too frequently paraded by the BBC on debating programmes like ‘The Big Question’. She really is appalling in the way she shouts down all opposition to her views.
Even Peter Hitchens doesn’t annoy me as much as she does – and we all probably know what Peter’s like! At least he sometimes makes quite good sense and a strong argument. I’m sorry, but while I’m on a roll, Carole Malone is another gobby one who annoys me intensely. On the Wright Stuff this morning she tried to completely shut down any opposition to her belief that Corbyn should have done more to get rid of anti-Semitism. The presenter and most of the rest of the panel were useless as well.
I do hope I don’t come across as misogynistic. I quite like most of the panellists on these shows – especially the ones with a bit of humility – male or female. (Oh, and as long as they don’t belong to the bloody Henry Jackson Society!)
People like Angela Epstein, Ruth Smeeth and Margaret Hodge complain so much about something that doesn’t exist, otherwise if it did they’d be forced to leave the Labour Party in protest. But they won’t leave the party to stand outside the tent pissing in, because they are right where they think they can do the most damage with their lies, standing inside the tent pissing in.
These friends of fascists should wear a blue 6-pointed star on a white background, to show their allegiance.
Party discipline, comrades, solidarity and sneering cowards. Why does someone go along to a meeting to discuss policy and issues of the day armed with a tape recorder? They should have been summarily expelled from the party as the only purpose could have been mischief and to smear colleagues. Ex-toad impersonator and Fiend of Israel MP newly slim Tom Watson likewise should be suspended from the party or a rope. Flinch cowards.
If you deem “racism and anti-Semitism” to be bad, then you have to deny being either, but who judges these matters. You have organised groups who do the accusing, but what are their bona fides? And if you think its all contrived and your accuser is a kettle calling the pot black, what do you do, do you call them out, which results in them saying your denial or counter claim is evidence of your guilt.
Corbyn response is to repeatedly say he is opposed to “racism and anti-Semitism” hoping the hate and humbug of his accusers become plain to see to a majority and burns itself out, but that’s unlikely as their neurosis illustrated by their audacious accusations runs deep.
As I write, the second item on the BBC news bulletin is Corbyn’s abject apology for attending an event in 2010 where a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz (whose parents died there) had compared some aspects of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to the actions of the Nazis.
The BBC website also leads on this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45027582
John Mann’s appearance on the Today programme is entirely predictable. He claims that ‘hosting an event called ‘Auschwitz to Gaza’ on Holocaust Memirial Day breached anti-Semitism rules’. Mann’s authority to interprete anti-Semitism rules is highly questionable. He claimed in a parliamentary debate in April 2018 that ‘Labour Marxist antisemites’ had recently sent his wife a dead bird through the post. It was subsequently revealed that this incident had taken place in 2012. The culprit was an eccentric member of Mann’s local Labour Party who had been rejected as a local election candidate by a panel which included Mann’s wife. He was aggrieved (perhaps understandably) when Mann’s wife was subsequently selected as the candidate, and won the election, and his unpleasant reaction was to send the dead bird to her home on the day of her first Council meeting. The man was subsequently prosecuted and made subject to a restraining order.
http://www.prole-star.co.uk/single-post/2018/04/20/Mann-Threatened-With-Libel-Action-After-Twitter-Rant
This, and the recent barrage of ‘Corbyn the antisemite’ stories, makes it abundantly clear that the intention of those driving this campaign is to stifle criticism of Israeli government actions, and in particular to frustrate the BDS (boycotts, divestment and sanctions) campaign.
This has already succeeded in imposing a virtual news blackout on events in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. The only source I know of accurate news, detailed analysis and balanced comment on these issues is the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. From this, it’s clear that there is huge opposition among Israeli Jews to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
A recent article was headlined ‘Israel’s Holocaust Credit Line Is Running Out’ :
http://www.haaretz.com/.premium-israel-s-holocaust-credit-line-running-out-1.6280267
Many of the statements made would be furiously denounced as anti-semitic here, but supportive online comments ratings outnumbered negatives by a ratio of about 3 to one.
Excellent points.
The shrill hyperbole of the attack on JC is modus operandi as perfected by AIPAC. The potential problem for JC’s detractors is that their shenanigans are the political equivalent of a Neymar dive. Everyone can see that the reaction bears no relation to the action. While this would not be an issue for them in an age of MSM hegemony, people now have the option of seeking an alternative narrative.
Another indication that their efforts are outdated and self defeating is Bibi and co.’s implementation of the Apartheid law. Presumably emboldened by Trump, Bibi is tearing the deepest fibres of his society asunder. The President is threatening to protest by signing the law into statute in Arabic. The Druze and Circassians are refusing to enter military service.
These people know no restraint and hopefully that will be their downfall.
The Israelis are Nazis and like Nazis they tolerate no opposition and have enshrined in law a racist state. We need to keep repeating this as we are not in a sensitive position like Corbyn, who should have countered these accusations with historical facts like the Stern Gang, the Irgun Zwai Leumi and the terrorist atrocity at the King David’s Hotel. Organize a conference with many speakers, crowdfund it if necessary, video it and publish it live on the web. A kind of “We need to talk about this seriously” response.
If the Zionist state ever gets to rule the world unchallenged we’ll all be treated like Palestinians, even worse than had the Nazis won WWII. That’s how Nazi they are.
Just to draw attention to the photograph of Corbyn now being used to head the antisemitism stories, most recently by the BBC this morning:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45027582
… Corbyn at a microphone, apparently snarling, wearing a black shirt…! Perhaps this will be the cover of the next Private Eye, with a speech balloon including some vile abuse of Jews.
The Jerusalem Post has an even better one, photoshopped to imply a Nazi salute. I won’t insult the man by linking there, though.
Didn’t need to ‘shop this one…
https://images.theconversation.com/files/147574/original/image-20161125-32004-1xepi04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=926&fit=clip
TBH I’m not much of a fan of Corbyn but the nonsense being spouted about him in the media is making me think he deserves my support. Ken Livingstone was run out of tpwn with some ridiculous nonsense painting him as a racist, they’re trying to do thesame with Corbyn.
Sadly most people lack the will or even the ability to think critically and will always be led around by the nose by the media. It’s very sad.