Anti-Semitism - A Warning From History

The claims by the Community Security Trust of an alleged “engine of hate” within Labour Party supporters, the denunciation of Jeremy Corbyn by the Jewish Chronicle, the crowing by lawyer Adam Wagner at the campaign anonymously smearing left-leaning sites like The Canary and Novara Media, the dishonest attacks by the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, all have one target, and one alone.

(c) Steve Bell 2016

That target is the Labour leadership, and the objective of all those players is to associate it - and no-one else - with accusations of anti-Semitism. This is despite all the evidence showing that anti-Semitism has a lower occurrence within Labour supporters than those of all other major parties. It is despite the clear and disturbing rise of the far right, popularised by unscrupulous politicians flirting with bigotry in order to gain electoral advantage.

The game being played by some who claim to represent the Jewish Community is frighteningly naive. The far right may be targeting Muslims, but as sure as night follows day, they will come for the Jews later. They always do. They have to have a minority to demonise, to “other”, to use as a way of distracting their followers and frightening them into line. It is this naivety that Shaun Lawson has now picked up on. Here are his thoughts.

“If we are now in a situation in which accusations of antisemitism are thrown around like confetti against seemingly anyone on the left, we're going to end up in a situation resembling The Boy Who Cried Wolf … Antisemitism is increasingly being stripped of all practicable meaning by the very people in place to protect British Jews... all at the same time as the far right rises and rises in the UK to an extent not seen since the 1930s”.

“Does the Jewish Chronicle highlight the rise of the far right? Scarcely at all. Do the Board of Deputies of British Jews do so? Nope. Instead, it's all out war on Corbyn: taking on the mosquito and ignoring the elephant in the room … The extent to which British politics has imploded over the last 3 years has stunned many. Well - where will we be in another 3 years? Or another three after that? Especially if No Deal Brexit comes about?”

There is more. “The only party which will have the power or even the will to rebuild and heal Britain is the Labour Party. Its defeat would allow the far right to run roughshod over the whole country: immediately imperilling Muslims and ultimately, imperilling Jews too … At times of economic crisis, people always move towards the extremes. Always. The way to stop extremism, racism and fascism gaining a foothold has always been economic prosperity for all. Not for a few; for all. That's what creates social cohesion”. Indeed.

Then the warning. “So with things steadily getting worse and worse for so many, what's happening? The one party which could actually do something positive to fix things is being openly demonised, while the enemy within - fascism - is ignored and indulged … Nigel Farage is a menace. Tommy Robinson is a menace. Steve Bannon is a menace. Their supporters are a menace. Boris Johnson's indulgence of them - and of his institutionally racist, wantonly Islamophobic party - is a menace”. Tory bigotry is presently being ignored.

So to the conclusion. “And after these monsters come for the Muslims, they'll come for the Jews. That's what fascists have always done and always will do. The entire UK Jewish community should be standing in solidarity with British Muslims against this hideous threat: starting with its leaders”. But some in that community are not.

The casually sick Iran-Iraq war jibes of JC editor Stephen Pollard come to mind. Lawson ends with the clear and obvious warning “To instead obsess seemingly forevermore with a microscopic fraction of Labour supporters isn't just absurd. It's quite recklessly dangerous. The consequences if it continues could be grimmer than anyone could imagine”.

And to those who excuse right-wing bigotry, telling us that Farage and his pals, and Stephen Yaxley Lennon, are only echoing the views of ordinary people and standing up for them, that they just want to protect their community, I would commend Michael Rosen’s musing, titled “Fascism: I sometimes fear …”. Every word of it.

“I sometimes fear that 

people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress 

worn by grotesques and monsters 

as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis. 

Fascism arrives as your friend. 

It will restore your honour, 

make you feel proud, 

protect your house, 

give you a job, 

clean up the neighbourhood, 

remind you of how great you once were, 

clear out the venal and the corrupt, 

remove anything you feel is unlike you...

It doesn't walk in saying, 

‘Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution.’”

Supposedly populist politicians may not want to go there, but they are, consciously or otherwise, enabling the conditions that will in turn enable fascism.

We spent decades encouraging resistance against Benito Mussolini, the Nazis, then the totalitarianism of the Eastern Bloc, the Greek junta, Francisco Franco, and António de Oliveira Salazar. There is no way we should be enabling it by the back door in the 21st Century, while so many are distracted by attacks on the Labour left.

But that is where we are heading right now. If we go there, this will not end well.

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Brexit - The Polecat Speaks

What kind of Sunday headline, one wonders, would be both incendiary enough and stupid enough to spook the currency markets early doors the next morning, and indeed later the same day in the Far East? Wonder no more: the incendiary and stupid criteria have both been met by a source who gives every appearance of being not unadjacent to alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson’s chief polecat Dominic Cummings.

Which one is the real polecat ...

In fact, the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph names Polecat Dom as the source of its front page headline “MPs told: it’s too late to stop no deal … even no confidence vote in Johnson as soon as Commons returns after Summer cannot halt Oct 31 Brexit, says No 10 aide Cummings”. This is not an isolated incident.

It should be read in conjunction with the Murdoch Sunday Times signalling yet another pre-election bribe - “Boris drops £2bn NHS ‘cash bomb’ to woo female voters” - as well as telling readers the totally irrelevant news that “45 Senators back Johnson over Brexit”. Many Rice Davies applies. Their country isn’t the one about to be fouled up.

And it should be read alongside a magnificently delusional Op-Ed for the Mail on Sunday by Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay, headlined “You don't have a mandate now, Monsieur Barnier. Go back to your EU masters”. Monsieur Barnier’s mandate does not come from Stephen Barclay. And the Withdrawal Agreement is still not going to be reopened.

But do go on. “The Irish backstop led to deadlock, the machinery of Government gummed up with the same arguments we had in 2016 … We needed a fresh approach and we’ve got one. With a change of Prime Minister, we have the combination of determination and optimism we need to end the impasse”. There is no fresh approach. All that Bozo The Clown, under the control of Polecat Dom, is doing is to play chicken with Brussels.

Barclay is supremely dishonest: “We have a clear and unambiguous position – we will leave the EU on October 31, whatever the circumstances. We would prefer to leave with a new deal, but will be ready to leave without one, having made all the necessary preparations”. We haven’t made the necessary preparations. Have another go.

... nah, Dom looks far nastier

“Mr Barnier needs to urge EU leaders to consider this if they too want an agreement, to enable him to negotiate in a way that finds common ground with the UK. Otherwise, No Deal is coming down the tracks”. He’s said his piece. Sounding off in the MoS will change nothing. Nor will the tiresome repetition of the latest untrue Tory soundbite.

But out it comes anyway: “There is simply no chance of any deal being passed that includes the anti-democratic backstop”. The backstop, as I’ve previously told, was devised by the UK Government’s representatives. He is calling his own side “anti-democratic”.

Worse still is the sheer effrontery of allowing Cummings to run this game of chicken. As former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger mused, “A man who literally holds Parliament in contempt tells MPs their views are irrelevant ... in the cause of restoring national sovereignty. I hope MPs will show what Britain thinks of people who behave like that”.

The EU negotiators will also know what to think of that. And it won’t include reopening the Withdrawal Agreement. That’s what you get for playing chicken with a polecat.

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CST Goes Through The Looking Glass

The Community Security Trust has done excellent work over the years, both in protecting Jewish communities in the UK, and educating the wider population on the continuing threat from anti-Semitism. So it has been both baffling and disappointing to see it produce a report which effectively claims the “Labour Party’s anti-Semitism crisis” has some kind of conspiracy behind it. It calls the apparent conspiracy the “Engine of Hate”.

At the very outset, those it claims are part of this “Engine” are cast as “online networks”, and the report contains several diagrams not-really-hinting at links between them. It is the kind of nudge-and-wink that, were it written about people who are Jewish, would be condemned as anti-Semitic, and rightly so. It is a bizarre exposition.

One Tweeter has pointed this out: “This is the most bizarre report and this dubbing of Twitter accounts as interconnected and in some sort of 'engine room' is disingenuous and full of holes … By suggesting that there is some sort of mechanical operation gives this whole narrative a whole new meaning. That a number of different and entirely unrelated or connected accounts could be working together suggests some sort of conspiracy”.

Shaun Lawson has looked at the CST report and found it wanting. “I've just browsed through the report. I'm startled by what I found. The report claims to have identified 36 Twitter accounts responsible for propagating antisemitism. And, to be fair to it, it does highlight at least some antisemitic tweets and accounts”. There is more.

“Yet it's also done the most extraordinary thing. In effect, the CST have come up with a new definition of antisemitism …The CST appear to be suggesting that you're 'antisemitic' if you’ve: 1. Angrily criticised Rachel Riley … 2. Angrily criticised Tom Watson … 3. Used the hashtag GTTO (Get The Tories Out) … 4. Referred to what al-Jazeera exposed in their film, The Lobby … 5. Criticised Luciana Berger”. Yes, really.

He gives this summary. "Far and away the worst thing the report does is accuse those who've highlighted: 1. That Labour's 'antisemitism crisis' has been openly weaponised for political gain … 2. That a great deal of it is indeed a smear, because it's not backed up by these awkward things called facts … Of antisemitism. Outrageous and disgraceful. What the report's authors need to account for is: 1. Why antisemitism has been repeatedly found to be considerably LOWER on the left than on the right … 2. Why it's been found to have FALLEN on the left since Corbyn became leader”. And his conclusion?

“The final bullet point in CST's mission statement is as follows: ‘To speak responsibly at all times, without exaggeration or political favour, on antisemitism and associated issues’ … Folks: from a British Jew and grandson of a Holocaust survivor... you could've fooled me”.

And one Tweeter who the CST included without any evidence to do so has told them “I said NOTHING antisemitic. I can support my views on [Luciana] Berger with evidence. I'd like my tweet removed and my account name redacted from this reply which had NOTHING to do with me”. There may be others.

Worst of all is the inference that the Labour Party is somehow involved, but it is not. It is difficult to see what the CST’s report hopes to achieve. Other then smearing Labour.

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Giles Coren - Right Royal Racist

As if the not-really-racist-but-nudge-and-wink-know-what-I-mean attacks on the Duchess of Sussex were not bad enough, we now have forthright and indeed crude bigotry to add to the output of our free and fearless press. Not only that, but we have the reappearance of monkey “jokes”. And that reappearance is down to someone who could, and should have known better. Worse, he most likely did know better, but went ahead anyway.

Giles Coren ...

Giles Coren tells us he is a restaurant critic. He is also blessed with an intellect so towering that mere mortals cower at the prospect of being crushed beneath it. His shafts of wit are the stuff of legend - well, in his own lunchtime, that is. He is also a columnist for the Murdoch Times, and in this role he informed his adoring followers yesterday “Meghan raises the drawbridge so Harry pretends it’s all about climate change”.

... and his target

Those not subscribing to the Times should, moreover, not be downhearted, as Coren had an alternative to offer them. “If you want to hear the kitchen chat this morning’s Prince Harry column came from (and I can’t imagine why you would), then it’s the rump of this week’s podcast. Warning: ‘bad’ language, disrespect of belief systems, talking over each other, marital rows”. For some reason, he missed the Times column’s racism.

Author Priyamvada Gopal did not miss it. “Lol. Funny not funny white guy who is also clever not clever and racist not racist [Giles Coren] repulsive but above all, fantastically lacking in wit” she concluded. This is the passage on which she was commenting.

“‘Two, maximum!’ Prince Harry promised in an interview with Dr Jane Goodall (the couple had hoped to see a family planning expert but a primatologist was all the cash-strapped NHS could muster) and the world sat up and raised an eyebrow”. So a Prince, and his wife Who Is Not White, would not see a “family planning expert”, but someone who studies monkeys. Intellectual? It’s not even in the Top Cat league.

Lecturer Meg Roughley was unimpressed. “That is utterly despicable.  Does privilege now come with a 'play racism for free' voucher? Is this what Brexit has done for us?” Also, it was another act perpetrated under the editorship of John Witherow, who has overseen rather a lot of Muslim bashing recently. Like the “Muslim Fostering” fiasco.

Writer Anita Butler had a prediction. “Based on [Danny] Baker, I’m guessing it’ll play out something like: denial, double down, issue a non-apology saying that’s not what he meant, retweet white friends’ supportive tweets, issue a second non-apology, make it all about him. Because he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body”. Well, quite.

Pragya Agarwal, who you can tell as she’s a doctor, was thinking along the same lines as Ms Butler. “Did he actually say this? Why do I still get shocked? This is how it will go: ‘it was just a joke’, and then..ok ‘I shall put out a feeble apology (which wouldn't really be an apology) and trust that everything will be smiles and sunshine after that’”.

From Coren there has so far been silence. But he will have to say something, even if he attempts to cover his tracks by pretending he didn’t mean what he clearly did mean.

Attempts to normalise racism are worrying. Attempts to normalise racism coming from a supposedly quality paper are not just worrying - they are totally inexcusable.

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Top Six - August 4

So what’s hot, and what’s not, in the past week’s blogging? Here are the six most popular posts on Zelo Street for the past seven days, counting down in reverse order, because, well, I have mission preparation to do later. So there.

6 Meghan - Dan Wootton’s Racist Revenge It wasn’t about Vogue, it was about the Sun hack lying - and getting caught.

5 Wiggy And Banksy Sweating On New Info The alleged “Man who bankrolled Brexit” and his oily sidekick were not at all happy at the release of information from emails volunteered by Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Brittany Keiser.

4 The Brexit Revolution Is Eating Itself It was open warfare between Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage and Bozo The Clown’s newly appointed polecat Dominic Cummings.

3 Mark François - Death By Brexit The MP for Rayleigh was so unhappy about not being given a job by Bozo The Clown that he resorted to death threats against protesters.

2 Mr Gove The Butcher Wastes Half A Billion Buying up all that lamb that could not be sold because of a No Deal Brexit? How much would be bunged to the automotive industry to keep them sweet, then? Pretty soon this would exceed our EU contributions - so what was the point of Brexit?

1 BBC Promotes White Supremacist AGAIN Steve Bannon’s extended promotion for the Radio 4 Today Programme was yet another misuse of airtime.

And that’s the end of another blogtastic week, blog pickers. Not ‘arf!

Brexit Party Irish Border Idiocy EXPOSED

The brains trust that is the Brexit Party, newest political vehicle for Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, has once more been showing off its expertise on those problems which have thus far bedevilled all those namby-pamby ordinary politicians not gifted with the arch-Brexiteers’ superior insights. And once more, those arch-Brexiteers have shown that they are gifted only with the ability to talk out of the backs of their necks.

Ben Habib, CEO of First Property Group, has gone to the Irish Border to show that he knows more than everyone else about it, telling his followers “I am on the border between NI and ROI. Travelling in a straight line, one enters and exits the RoI a number of times. There could never be a hard border here. The UK has declared it would never seek to impose one. The whole thing is a red herring”. This is total tosh.

Ben Habib

Not only could there be a hard border there, there was a hard border there for many years, and until comparatively recently. One Tweeter with some local knowledge responded “I can only presume you mean there *shouldn't* be a hard border again, since I grew up with a customs checkpoint at the top of my garden. I lack the imagination to have made up the time the IRA bombed it, propelling a section of wall (with sink still attached) into our field”.

John Doyle of Dublin City University went into some detail, posting a border crossing complete with guard posts and watchtower, telling “In response to day-trippers to the Irish Border who say the back stop is not necessary, here is the main road from Dublin to the North West at Aughnocloy, during the conflict”. One hard border. And there was more.

He then proferred “or a road where queueing was not an option”, with a stock photo of a road blocked at the border. There were, for these kinds of hazards, “a few helpful warnings”, and Doyle shows a photo of a “Danger - Bridge Cratered” sign.

Having all those roads closed was not popular with locals: “There were of course protests … A group of locals called themselves Border Busters re-opening roads, usually to have them re-closed fairly quickly”. The hard border was, then, swiftly re-imposed.

As Doyle also tells, “one consequence of the security presence and the conflict was that the Irish Border also hosted one of europe's largest heliports”. And what about traffic delays? You guessed it, “the queues were often very long”.

If Ben Habib was still in any doubt that a hard border could be, and was, imposed, and that it could be a very bad thing indeed, the conclusion of Doyle’s thread should prove instructive: “and inevitably led to attacks. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar used this photo an an EU meeting to make the point”. A border post where the Dublin to Belfast rail line ran alongside. Both severely damaged in a terrorist attack.

There are good reasons why the Irish border issue should be taken seriously. There are also good reasons why the Brexit Party should cease trivialising the issue. Suggesting that this is some kind of, to use Habib’s happy phrase, “red herring” is a scandalous misrepresentation. It is a dereliction of duty of jaw-dropping proportions.

The Brexit Party needs to take issues seriously. Or leave it to those who will.

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Latest Labour Anti-Semitism Scandal ISN’T

As the Jewish Chronicle has reported, the Community Security Trust (CST) has told in a new report that “Between January and June 2019, there were 892 incidents of anti-Jewish racism recorded by the CST - a rise of 10 per cent on the first six months of 2018”. More worryingly, “The CST’s report, published on Thursday, confirms that social media accounted for 36 per cent or 384 of the incidents”.

Feared. But only by rickety furniture

The JC also notes that “The highest monthly totals seen during the first half of 2019 were February and March, with 182 and 169 antisemitic incidents respectively … These were months when issues relating to Jews and antisemitism were prominent in news and politics due to the continuing controversy over antisemitism in Labour”.

Stephen Pollard - totally OTT

That is the full extent of what the CST says about Labour and accusations of anti-Semitism. But it is enough for a JC leader - which, one has to assume, enjoys the imprimatur of editor Stephen Pollard - to rant “Are these antisemitism figures high enough for you, Mr Corbyn?” It gets worse: “the cause of this ongoing record increase in antisemitism is no mystery. It can be summed up in two words: Jeremy Corbyn”.

Another Fawkes pack of lies preserved for posterity

Evidence? Where Pollard’s going, they don’t need evidence. Nor do they need it at the Murdoch Sun, where readers are told “The document also makes specific reference to the Labour Party, saying that 55 incidents related directly to the Opposition in February and March”. That’s not true (see above). Nor is the headline, “Labour’s anti-Semitism row led to record number of hate incidents in first half of the year”.

But the biggest lie came from the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, where new boy Christian Calgie has quickly got himself up to speed on The Great Guido’s tradition of talking well, but lying badly.

Under the headline “Labour Anti-Semitic Incidents Hit Record Number”, he tells readers “Almost 20% of anti-Semitic incidents across the whole UK were linked to the Labour Party in March, with the CST report noting that Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis ‘clearly has an important bearing’ on the record-high number of incidents recorded”.

How many incidents did the CST claim were linked to the Labour Party? Have a guess. It’s a nice round number. It is, in fact, zero. No incidents at all were linked to the Labour Party. And after Tom Mills pointed out “There’s no breakdown of these incidents, so without more transparency from CST we can only speculate. But there’s no evidence linking any of them to Labour. Rather, these appear to merely be incidents of antisemitic abuse *related* to the controversy”, James Wright had bad news for the Fawkes massive.

“CST confirms that no Labour members/ representatives are implicated in its antisemitism report: 'Other than the one... justified passing reference... to "support”, the report does not refer to Labour “supporters” or “members"...nor...perpetrators... “linked” to the party’ … CST also says 'The report repeatedly refers to incidents “related” to Labour’s antisemitism controversy. This is the terminology that appears throughout the report. Any suggestion to the contrary is entirely misleading and irresponsible.’” Fawkes pants on fire again.

And before The Great Guido pulls that post, or amends it, I’ve taken a screen shot and got the link. It’s not called a borderline Fake News site for nothing. Another fine mess.

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