My op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on the newly revealed “Jewish conspiracy” in Great Britain
This Monday, Britain’s Channel 4 TV aired a landmark documentary alleging that Jewish lobby groups have sunk their claws so deep into the British establishment that politicians have no choice but to toe their line, and that the media has been cowed into submission. It is easy to laugh, but we should not. The documentary has provoked a new wave of virulent anti-Semitism and threatens to silence Israel’s few supporters in Britain once and for all. I have an op-ed on the subject in tomorrow’s edition of the Wall Street Journal Europe which is now published on the paper’s website.
Click here to read it, and then please come back to my site to leave your own comments outlining what you think:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704204304574543671980025770.html
Tags: Israel
November 19th, 2009 at 8:30 am
An excellent article Mr. Shepherd. I think you described the problem very accurately, especially the point that Israel’s supporters will find themselves silenced or silence themselves. It is a situation that is playing itself out throughout the world, including in global institutions like the UN and NGOs. All of which just proves the very necessity of the existence of the State of Israel as a refuge for the Jewish people, which rather defeats the purpose of Israel’s denigrators.
As an ex-pat British Jew now living in Israel, I can’t thank you enough for your brave stand and for the articulate manner in which you express your support for Israel and the Jewish community.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:31 am
A fantastic article Robin.
November 19th, 2009 at 10:32 am
You need to produce a film about this and associated matters and post it at YouTube. Perhaps an outfit like PajamasTV might back it. You should speak to Roger Simon.
An example of just how bad things are. Two days ago, David Cesarani posted a piece about Oborne’s programme at the Guardian’s “Comment is free”. Cesarani makes the following points:
‘Just look at the comments that followed transmission of Oborne’s documentary and you can see why.
At 21.34 Stuart Downie posted his congratulations to the brave programme makers who showed that “the UK parliament has, like the USA senate and congress, become Israel’s occupied territory”. It showed that British MPs “buckle under pressure from people whose first loyalty is not to the UK but to the State of Israel”. So in a few lines this posting accused Jews of dual-loyalty and echoed the name ZOG ? Zionist Occupied Government ? that the far right in the US uses to designate Washington.
A few comments further on and Detta asked, “why does Israel have such power? Why do most of the world seem afraid of upsetting them?” Nazir, posting at 12.11, chimed in that it is “time to reclaim British policy from those working for a foreign country”.’
The response to this by poster “AllyF” at “Comment is free” (so little shame, he even posts his pic) is as follows:
‘In all honesty, I would not have used any of those turns of phrase, as they are hyperbolic and inflammatory.
But in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think they exceptionally unreasonable responses to the programme we saw, do you?’
http://tinyurl.com/ygjmv4f
Frightening stuff (far more frightening that the Guardian would actually publish AllyF’s comments). Taking on board peterthehungarian’s recent criticism, I am really starting to believe that although Britain’s anti-Semitism might be rather more subtle than the type prevalent in Central and Eastern Europe, it is in fact no less virulent or dangerous.
Aliyah anyone?
November 19th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Brilliant! You are one of a depressingly tiny number of British non-Jews that defends Israel. Oborne depicts anyone who attacks Israel in the media as brave, taking on the might of the powerful Jewish lobby. The reality is clearly the reverse. The Israel-haters are merely churning out the received wisdom of their friends in their cosy little British media establishment. You are one of the brave ones, Robin, for standing up to laziness, conformity and prejudice. Keep it up! We are all behind you.
November 19th, 2009 at 10:49 am
An excellent piece about Channel 4’s documentary by Jonathan Boyd (acting director of JPR, the Institute for Jewish Policy Research) at Cif:
Antisemitism and the reported world
‘But it is, apparently, much easier to trot out the old antisemitic myth. After all, the public deserves to know what these nasty, rich Jews are up to. And what could possibly be wrong in uncovering the truth? There cannot conceivably be a connection between the way Israel and Jews are presented in the media and antisemitism on the streets of Britain.
Or so Alan Rusbridger would have us believe. In the documentary, he maintained that he found it “difficult to believe” that any journalistic coverage of events in Israel could result in acts of violence against Jews on the streets of Britain.
Well, allow me to present myself as exhibit A. In April 2002, at the height of the Palestinian intifada, media reports began circulating that a massacre had been committed by the Israel Defence Force in Jenin, in the West Bank. Rumours circulated that hundreds of Palestinians had been killed. The BBC suggested 150. Saeb Erekat, interviewed on CNN, claimed 500. Yasser Abed Rabbo intimated 900. The overarching impression was that the IDF had committed a horrific atrocity.
On the following Saturday, I was walking to synagogue, wearing my kippah (skull cap) in the north London suburb of Finchley. On the way, I was punched in the face by a young man. It was an entirely unprovoked assault. We were simply crossing paths when he delivered a sudden, forceful, right hook. Taken aback, my first response was to ask why he had done it. “That’s what happens to Jews,” he responded, “when they behave like that.”
That is the only time in my life that I have been a victim of an antisemitic assault. It is possible, I suppose, that it had nothing to do with the events in Jenin, but I find that very difficult to believe. My attacker saw me as a legitimate target directly linked to the so-called “massacre”.
In the final analysis, it was established that no such massacre took place in Jenin. The United Nations report into the fighting concluded that, in fact, 52 Palestinians were killed, at least half of whom were militants; 23 Israeli soldiers were also killed. Of course, any loss of life – on either side of the conflict – is tragic, and serious mistakes have been made by both Palestinian and Israeli leaders over the years.
But the way in which the conflict is reported and analysed has a direct bearing on levels of antisemitism. And, thanks to Channel 4 and Dispatches, I wouldn’t be surprised to see those levels rise yet again.’
http://tinyurl.com/ygwo6sy
November 19th, 2009 at 10:59 am
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/5548186/the-still-strong-voice-of-a-vanishing-britain.thtml
Melanie Phillips on Robin’s book
November 19th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Terrific article, Robin.
November 19th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Listening to a clip of the Dispatches program one of the things I though worst about it was the deliberately evil tones of the voices of those doing the voice-over commentary, clearly designed to provide an audio sense of the evils of the lobby which - duh! as teenagers say - they “discovered”.
I’m not sure if its Oborne’s voice, but in the Dispatches documentary he curiously pronounces “nuclear” as “nucular” - as Bush always does.
See the documentary clip from HR here at about 2:00 minutes - that somehow ties the Iraq war to a “hard hitting investigation into Israel’s nucular weapons”
http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/Under_Attack_HR_Accused_by_UK_TV_Documentary.asp
November 19th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Good job Robin.
There is so much circular logic in their arguments they can convince themselves of anything.
The true irony lies in the fact that after Dispatches investigated mosques, Channel 4 was investigated by the British police. That’s lobby power for you.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Harry’s Place has been hacked. Do you have any news?
November 19th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Is Peter Osbourne a Paleo-Conservative?
November 19th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Excellently put, Robin.
The documentary although full of innuendo dressed up as specious “fact” was designed to play to the prejudices of the ignorant.
Were I younger and in better health, I would be thinking about emigrating to Israel. As it is, I must do my best to speak out against these scurrilous lies whenever I can
Thank you for not keeping silent
November 19th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Way to go, Robin.
To paraphrase an old TV series, I love it when courage, intelligence and articulation come together.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Ever heard of the Balfour declaration? Which made the creation of a zionist state possible. There are two zionist lobbies: the formal one, and the informal lobby. Of which this blog forms a part. Israel should be boycotted and it will. One day.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Robin, your article was very much needed, and long overdue to be published in the international media. The british media has over the past couple years blurred the lines between anti-Israel sentiment and what they call “anti-zionists.” Furthermore, through their demonization of Israeli policies, and severe criticsm of anybody that would dare to show support for Israel (the Jews), they are for all practical purposes fanning the flames of anti-semitism. For some, like the Guardian, it would seem this is actually a tool in their war to deligitimze Israel as a soverign nation with a Jewish character. For while they can’t physically attack Israel, they can, by “proxy” try to bring pressure upon Israel through the jewish community, which would seem to put british jews in either one of three position: publicly condemn Israel and its “criminal actions,” voice your support for Israel and make yourself the target of intimidation and harrassment, or keep your opinions to yourself. The Guardian is using their status as an international media outlet as a tool in the battle against Israel. You’re all welcome to visit my blog that discusses a number of issues, with many entries discussing the guardian’s disproportionate media war against Israel: http://anothermudpit.blogspot.com/2009/01/disproportionate-force-ii-media-war.html.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
you silly zionists really live in a bubble, a zionist bubble, and you don’t realise it, like all people who live in a bubble
open your eyes, and dare to face the truth: israel is the most despised nation on the face of the earth, while jews, living in Europe f.i. are not despised at all by the big majority, on the contrary (in contrast with other, more recent immigrants)
http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/960/Buitenland/article/detail/1029360/2009/11/14/Te-veel-migranten-in-mijn-land-vindt-helft-Europeanen.dhtml:
“Over joden is men wel positief: 62 procent vindt dat joden de cultuur verrijken.”
‘verrijken’ is ‘to enrich’
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=10395
“Israel’s brand is by a considerable margin the most negative we have ever measured in the NBI, and comes at the bottom of the ranking on almost every question,” states report author Simon Anholt.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
I cannot see any ‘mass critical acclaim’ for the ‘Dispatches’ programme. I did not see the BBC or Sky report on it nor, as far as I could see, did it get reported in the newspapers - apart from the Guardian - probably because it was such an amateurish production which did not prove anything.
If anything it might have given some publicity to Bicom and honestreporting - which can only be a good thing.
November 19th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Well-done, Robin!
November 19th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
A wonderful article Robin. Thank you. I had initially believed that this amateurish little film would simply fade away into insignificance, but it does seem to have hit certain nerves and taken on a life of its own. Its been a slow starter but the embers appear to be catching fire.
As much as anything, some of the reactions of posters to the Channel 4 Dispatches and posters to the Guardian CiF have been so vituperative and hateful that they have of themselves fanned the flames.
As a late middle aged Jewish Brit, I and my family have enjoyed decades of peaceful existence in the UK. The ongoing hatred for Israel and by definition, Jews, that is becoming more and more prevalent in the UK is a worrying phenomenon. As much as anything because it is based on totally faulty reasoning and irrationality.
And this same irrationality is making much of the western world hostile to Judaism and Israel, who are beneficial to western democracy, and yet overly sympathetic to the forces of radical Islam which seeks to supplant western democracy and has demonstrated in New York, Madrid, London and Bali that it is prepared to use extreme violence to achieve its goals.
An old description of a Jew was a person with a packed suitcase. I hope I and my family don’t need to adopt that guise.
November 19th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Thank you Mr Shepherd for an excellent article.
“Non-Jews who call for a more reasoned discussion of Israel—already a small and diminishing group in Britain—will likely face additional slanders against their integrity: Since there is supposedly no reasonable case to be made in favor of the Jewish state, we must have sold out to the “Lobby.”‘
Crazy making, isn’t it?
November 20th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Koen,
Israel is the second or largest Jewish community in the world, and certainly the most visibly Jewish.
Congratulations, you don’t despise the 12% of the world’s Jews that are European.
You just hate the community that consists in the majority of European, North African and Asian Jews who survived or were effectively driven out, post 1914, or their descendants.
You just despise them in the same way your predecessors despised the 80% of the world’s Jews that once lived in Europe.
You love (allegedly) the few Jews who are near, but hate the many that are afar.
You truly are a humanitarian.
November 20th, 2009 at 5:42 am
koen Says:
‘israel is the most despised nation on the face of the earth’
Strange.
Tourism actually increased last year. Non Jewish tourism.
Perhaps you live in a parallel universe.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Koen
Every year I travel to Israel to work at civilian tasks in the army with Jews and non Jews from all over the world, who only want to support Israel. Like me, these people believe in Israel and see as I do that Israel stands on the front line against militant Islamic fundamentalism.
Europe is partially, slowly and perhaps belatedly waking up to that fact that European civilisation is being supplanted by incomers who want to accept all that Europe has to offer, but impose their own laws and ethics.
And it is the European fellow travellers of the incomers who have made it their mission to demonise, delegitimise and practise double standards with respect to Israel that has shown only Israel in a bad light.
In reality, no-one, from fellow Arabs to European fellow travellers actually care at all about the Palestinian Arabs. If they did, they would not have allowed them to remain refugees for 61 years. No. What really motivates them is a tiny Jewish sliver of civilization on the edge of ‘their’ territory which has proved an irritant to their pride and for which reason they are prepared to sacrifice any number of Palestinian Arabs or Israelis.
Israel and Jews have given and created so much of value to the world while their detractors have given only hate and a promise of return to medievalism. If and when rationality returns to what is a mad world or more likely, when the oil runs out, those who are presently feted will be dropped so quickly our heads will spin. In the meantime, and until the world does come to its senses, I’ll carry on supporting Israel and thank our friends like Robin Shepherd for their friendship, support and clear thinking.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Long-term damage of this and other documentaries, essays and books on the subject of “Jewish lobby” is that it legitimises the claims made by many, especially the new muslim citizens of our countries, that there is indeed such a cabal of wicked Jewish conspirators working tirelessly to dominate the world!
On CiF, contributors and commentators (both above and below the line) now throw in the term “Jewish lobby” almost as a habit, often without an iota of relevance to the matter at hand. They try to bring in the plight of Palestinians into any topic they can thereby never missing an opportunity to demonise Israel.
It is this drip, drip effect on those who watch these programmes, read the web or newspaper articles, who never before would have given it a single thought, now not only begin to believe in the nefarious “Jewish lobby” but, more dangerously, start blaming - subconsciously at first then more openly and ultimately loudly, the Jews for their woes.
With the torrent of anti-Israeli sentiments poured at the public on daily basis from all directions – print, TV and web, the aim of the Left is to ensconce anti-Semitism into the minds of general public who then almost subliminally begin to hate Jews. This is the classic trick of Nazi propaganda – to alter the mindset of unsuspecting public which then led to the final solution.
The Left are having a second go, only now though, in muslims they have some very powerful friends.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Excellent article, Robin. Glad to see that you began by marshalling just a few of the facts that showed how ludicrous Oborne’s thesis is.
Have you seen Anshel Pfeffer’s latest on Ha’aretz? It tells us that Oborne got it wrong. The real power of the British Israel Lobby is– that it controls the Israel government, not vice-versa.
Far worse than Oborne, who will of course lap it up and use it to defend their approach.
Pfeffer is the main reporter on Israel used by Stephen Pollard at the JC.
He’s a typical Ha’aretz hard left writer–regularly writes articles claiming the religious right are subverting the Israeli army etc.
His line is laughable– the idea that the British pro-Israel lobbyists could control anything in Israel is ludicrous beyond belief, especially as the basic Oborne line is that the state of Israel controls the British pro-Israel lobby.
Of course, as you say of Osborne re Cameron’s “inexplicable” omission of Cast Lead from his address to Conservative Friends of Israel, Pfeffer can’t cope with the fact of his “obvious” and “inescapable” political solutions being rejected by the Israeli public and main political parties for rational reasons. He has to present the current rejection of the left/Obama/EU peace process as the result of pressure from rich Jews behind the scenes. And rich British Jews at that!
Wonder if the JC will carry any of this….
By the way, for the commenter who was worrying about why Harry’s Place was offline, don’t worry. It was a commercial rather than an ideological hacking operation. They’re back online now, with their “free speech” mantra giving this particular piece of anti-semitic conspiratorialism from one of their most notorious commenters a platform:
Unlike similar comments on the Guardian’s Comment is Free, this comment will not be removed by the Harry’s Place bloggers. Free speech, you see.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:10 am
Great piece Robin. Do keep exposing and debunking these pathetic and dreary Israel bashers. I have just bought your book and am sure it will be a fascinating read.
November 24th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Miles’ Vile Bile:
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/11/24/miles-vile-bile/
November 28th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
you
February 17th, 2010 at 12:35 am
You have to express more your opinion to attract more readers, because just a video or plain text without any personal approach is not that valuable. But it is just form my point of view