In a story that is well-known, former UKIP Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage was prone to making blatantly anti-Semitic remarks in his schooldays, referring crudely to the techniques used by the Third Reich to massacre Jews and others whom they had declared to be Untermenschen. But then, we are assured, he matured and shunned such crude bigotry. Sadly, though, this maturation has not been without its lapses.
Squeaky bigoted finger up the bum time
Farage’s European Parliament group, the EFDD, needed to recruit MEPs from seven different member states in order to unlock more of those EU expenses that he slags off when others get them, but willingly trousers himself. Jonathan Arkush, deputy head of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, was ashast at Farage’s willingness to welcome a far-right Polish MEP into the EFDD ranks - and said so.
“The Board is gravely concerned by reports that UKIP may sit in the same parliamentary grouping as a far-right Polish MEP in a bid save its funding. Robert Iwaszkiewicz belongs to an extremist party whose leader has a history of Holocaust denial, racist remarks and misogynistic comments … Extremists and racists should be roundly rejected, not embraced. Even France’s far-right Front National rejected the JKM as being too extreme ... For Ukip to choose such a figure as Robert Iwaszkiewicz as a bedfellow, apparently for money, is beyond belief”. Too extreme for Marine le Pen.
(c) Steve Bell 2016
Then, during the EU referendum campaign, came Farage’s “Breaking Point” poster, which echoed Nazi stereotypes. He was called out for it: in reply, he told Robert Peston he was a victim, and told Dermot Murnaghan “That poster reflects the truth of what’s going on”.
That much was bad enough, but last night live on LBC - still giving him a platform, despite all the lying - Mr Thirsty was off and running again. As Labour councillor Adam Langleben has told, at around 1930 hours he told listeners “there are other very powerful foreign lobbies in the United States of America, and the Jewish lobby with its links to the Israeli Government is one of those strong voices”. And there was more.
“Well, in terms of money and influence, they [the Jewish lobby] are a very powerful lobby … There are about six million Jewish people living in America, so as a percentage, it’s quite small, but in terms of influence it’s quite big”. Where do we start with that?
The howler that leaps off the page is the idea that the “Jewish lobby” in the USA is a “foreign lobby”. Someone at LBC should have had a word in his ear as soon as he had said that. Many Jewish families can trace their time in the USA back two centuries - or even more. The “foreign” slur feeds into the anti-Semitic “disloyal Jew” trope.
Following right along, we get another old anti-Semitic trope, “Jews are all wealthy”, and then it’s on to “Jews are running everything behind the scenes”. All he needs to chuck in after that are “Goldman Sachs”, “globalists”, and a reference to George Soros.
The maturing out of Nigel Farage’s Jewish Problem seems to have been incomplete. Whether we see a more complete retraction and apology this evening is also doubtful. But don’t forget, some of his best friends are Jewish. Allegedly.
Farage is a loathsome embarrassment to this country. If he could be bothered to do the theory he’d probably be a fascist. He has a history as an anti-semite and very probably still is one. He is an opportunistic self-server who will say anything if it is to his advantage.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if he says that in the UK we drive on the left he is stating a fact, even if his motivation for saying it might be a desire to demonstrate British exceptionalism, our way is best, tradition, the buccaneering spirit of past ministers of transport or some other bollocks. To deny that we drive on the left just because Farage has claimed we do would make no sense.
To deny that there are strong national lobbies in the US is foolish. To deny that one of them is a pro-Israel lobby would be foolish. To deny that it is well-funded is foolish. To deny that it is influential is foolish.
Farage lies for sure, but there’s no point attacking his occasional facts for being facts. It what he tries to do with those facts that deserves our attention. Otherwise you end up trying to convince a Brexit voter concerned about immigration that there in fact has not been any immigration, after which he’s unlikely to listen to your arguments about the benefits or necessity of immigration. Isn’t that type of thing partly what got us where we are now?
Yep, tend to agree with the comment above here. Not sure what point Farage was trying to make as I don't have the context but many moderate, reasonable voices have pointed out that the USA has often been less than even-handed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because of the well-funded and well-organised pro-Israel lobby in the US. Not all Jews support that lobby of course, but it does exist.
ReplyDeleteIsrael is a strange one for the right - obviously traditionally Jews were different so they didn't like them, but these days you'll see Israeli flags at EDL demos - presumably because Netanyahu's government does a nice line in Muslim-bashing, which pleases them. Given that Netanyahu is one of Trump's few friends on the international stage, it's not unreasonable to suspect Farage agrees.
You think Farage is bad? (And he is, very).
ReplyDeleteLast night's Channel 4 Dispatches, fronted by aptly named Buerk, claimed the way to restore fair balance in the British economy is to "target visa" immigrants to locations outside London.
The only difference between Farage and the dick head meff responsible for that pile of steaming turds is the shape and smell of the turds.
But that's our extreme right wing media and their government for you.
Now it seems "control of our borders" is limited to the M25. You couldn't make up this shit.
Dear Nigel's Mum,
ReplyDeleteDoes your lad have anything to say about the well funded Russian lobby?
Anonymous @ 1847.
ReplyDeleteHelp us out here.
Who is in, where is, and what are the total funds in this "well funded Russian lobby"?
In your own time. Many thanks.
The Friends at Vauxhall Cross would like to know since they're obviously out of the loop on this one.