UK TV documentary alleging Zionist conspiracy brings torrent of anti-Semitic abuse into public view
The airing last night of a rambling and analytically threadbare documentary alleging a secretive Zionist conspiracy against the British political establishment has immediately had the predictable effect of bringing anti-Semites and assorted Israel-haters right out of the woodwork.
The documentary shown on Channel 4 — the same channel which on Christmas Day last year gave Iran’s Holocaust-denying president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a seven minute, uninterrupted propaganda slot — was preceded by a primer in the Guardian which I wrote about yesterday. It effectively argued that since there is no sane or rational case to be made for Israel, the rare occasions when British politicians offer words of praise for the Jewish state can only be explained by the presence of a vast and wealthy Zionist lobby which is paying them or pressuring them to toe their line.
The Channel 4 website is now awash with adulation for the documentary and its makers — Peter Oborne and James Jones. Since Channel 4 is leaving all of this up on its site for public consumption, it is clear that they see nothing wrong with what is being said. Here is a small selection of the comments, some of which were published before the programme went out:
Timothy Williams:
“It is disgraceful that C4 is intending to expose the pro-Israel lobby. Surely it is a signatory to the “National Press & TV Zionist Agreement”, which stipulates in paragraph one: “Thou shalt not print nor broadcast any reference to the undemocratic control by the agents of Israel over the House of Commons &/or the House of Lords.”
EDDIE G
“Bravo!!! another great, eye-opening expose by the dispatches team. Its a national tragedy that the Israel Lobby has such a tight grip on our parliament and press. Lets hope our so called ‘free’ press and our ‘elected’ representatives, can break free from the Israel lobby shackles soon.”
GORDON ANDERSON
“Congratulations to Peter Oborne and Channel 4 for this excellent programme. Long overdue, if we are not to find freedom of speech as compromised here as it is in the US. Please stay on the case.”
BOB
“Well done channel 4. We’ve had a gut full of these lies that portray Israel always as the wronged instead of the wrong doer. You can’t fool all of the people all of the time. When will the Israeli system be regularly referred to in the media as an apatheid and not a democracy.”
JIM KEARNS
“Well done Channel 4 –I have personal experience of the corrosive influence of the Israeli lobby in the US and hope this programme may stop the rot here –but with 80% of Conservative MP’s already under the influence of the lobby I fear it may be too late.”
MALAIKA
“Thank you channel 4 and Peter Oborne for exposing pro-Israeli lobby which hijacked the British politics and media for so long! We have lost our trust on BBC long time back, they should learn from Channel 4. ”
MATTEO D’AGOSTINO
“expose what is hidden and dark. thank you.”
ROSIE
“Well done to channel 4 for having enough guts to tell the truth. The truth is very hard to come by these days. Peoples lives mean nothing in front of the media propaganda of israel. I hope Mr Oborne does not lose his job for showing the real and ugly side of people with agendas to shut people up from reporting injustice done by israel on a grand level. Israel is made of land taken by genocide. The USA gives Israel aid in nuclear weapons, tanks, helicopters, guns and bombs free of charge to help them to kill off the people round about as quicly as possible so there is no one left to ask for help from israels killing of women children and babies.Well done channel 4 for showing how far israels reach is.Keep up the good work .”
MARK SMITH
“I love this channel, you guys are great. One of the best shows in years Show the truth!”
DICK HARVEY
“My congratulations to Channel 4 and Peter Oborne. The involvement of so many of our parliamentarians in this almost seditious behaviour is not only staggering but truly sickening. It places the “expenses scandal” in the shade! Who can we vote for with any confidence that our elected representatives will place this country’s interests first and not subjugate them in favour of the paymasters of a foreign power? Do not be surprised if the BNP make hay with peoples outrage.”
N. M.
“Well done to Channel 4 for exposing this disgusting attack on British democracy. Surely, an independent investigation should now be launched to further expose the effects the Israeli lobby has on British foreign policy. How can this be allowed to happen in the modern age?! Once again, channel 4 has done us Brits proud. Thank you!”
BB
“well done for taking the courage to highlight what lots of us feel…courageous..good on channel 4″.
SIDTHESEXIST
“The US has exactly the same problem with the Israeli lobbyist’s (AIPAC) where they buy bribe or seemingly blackmail the US government to get whatever they want.”
CLEM ALFORD
“Let’s see the hand of global Zionism at work. Please do keep and show ALL the information and don’t fall for the old accusations of racism when doing programmes like this, to marr any unpleasant truths that may be found.”
KENBAKER
“This is remarkable. We have tried for years to have this shadowy support mechanism for Israel exposed. Please do not allow this programme to be pulled. Please do a proper expose of all aspects. It isn’t just the media and MPs this monster controls, it also has a mechanism to attack any individuals who oppose Israel, in any way.”
NOISY TAPPET
“Good. We want our country back. The agents of a foreign power embedded at all levels of our government and politics need flushing out. They are a menace to our foreign policy, security and reputation abroad. I hope this programme isn’t ‘pulled’ at the last minute due to overwhelming pressure from the usual suspect. If it does what it should do, some very big names are going to be shamed, and not before time.”
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There is much, much more of this sort of thing. To see the website, click here:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/episode-guide/series-42/episode-1
To purchase my recent book on the subject of Israel-hatred in Europe, click here:
Tags: Israel
November 17th, 2009 at 11:51 am
The programme itself had no substance whatsoever. Not once did the supremely pompous Peter Oborne expose any incident where a politician or journalist has been influenced by the “Israel lobby”. As you said Robin, Oborne and his team are so knee-deep in bigotry towards Israel that they can’t conceive that anyone could support Israel without being paid off. A very enjoyable hour for all those sad little anti-semites out there, and little more.
November 17th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
http://cifwatch.com/2009/11/16/inside-channel-4%e2%80%99s-conspiracy-factory/#comment-5525
Myview of the programme, on CiFWatch
November 17th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
From the pamphlet - how’s this for a convoluted and internally contradictory sentence:
“It is impossible to imagine any British political leader showing such equanimity and tolerance if British troops had committed even a fraction of the human rights abuses and war crimes of which Israel has been accused.”
Great journalism guys: Take an unproven accusation, assume it’s true, and add a hypothetical!
November 17th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Herzl had the answer. Nothing has changed.
‘Around this time [the rise to power of anti-Semitic demagogue Karl Lueger in Vienna in 1895] Herzl grew to believe that anti-Semitism could not be defeated or cured, only avoided, and that the only way to avoid it was the establishment of a Jewish state. In Der Judenstaat he writes:
“The Jewish question persists wherever Jews live in appreciable numbers. Wherever it does not exist, it is brought in together with Jewish immigrants. We are naturally drawn into those places where we are not persecuted, and our appearance there gives rise to persecution. This is the case, and will inevitably be so, everywhere, even in highly civilised countries—see, for instance, France—so long as the Jewish question is not solved on the political level. The unfortunate Jews are now carrying the seeds of anti-Semitism into England; they have already introduced it into America.” ‘
http://tinyurl.com/ypoqxc
“I believe that the question of the Jews is a very grave matter. Those who imagine that the incitement against the Jews is merely a fashionable phenomenon that may disappear from the world, are badly mistaken.” - From Theodor Herzl’s Diary Volume I (1895-1898)
http://tinyurl.com/yfgenqd
November 17th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
“It is impossible to imagine any British political leader showing such equanimity and tolerance if British troops had committed even a fraction of the human rights abuses and war crimes of which Israel has been accused.”
Second Anglo-Boer War
Ireland
Dresden
Palestine
Malaya
Kenya
The General Belgrano
Serbia
Afghanistan
Iraq
November 17th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
As far as I can see the programme contents has not been picked up by the BBC today, nor does anything feature on the BBC website. Even the BBC knows there was no substance to the programme. Some good may have come out of it - free publicity for honestreporting and cif watch
November 17th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
It was all there to see last night Robin: “Apartheid” (Carter/Goldberg), “self-hating Jews”(Goldberg, Lerman), “disproportionate force”(Hague), “zionist conspiracy” (the ZF, the Board of Deputies, BICOM, Honest Reporting,the Jewish leadership Council, Lord Levy, CiF watch). And all in less than one hour.
Then there was Alan Rusbridger’s hysterical account of the visit made by “good cop” (Gruenwald) “bad cop” (Ronson) to warn him about concerns they had about over-inflammatory “news “being published in his Guardian, that might lead to violence against Jews, recounted by Rusbridger in such a manner that was meant to lead the viewer to believe that he was under threat from the Mafia, and not a visit by couple of well meaning members of the Jewish community.
Channel 4: Let’s also not forget Jon Snow’s tirades against Mark Regev and Israelis when on the news and his biased documentary on “honest reporting” of the Gaza conflict, earlier this year.
Not usually my favourite moment on TV, but the best part of this programme has to be when the commercial break came on!
November 17th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
1) “Then there was Alan Rusbridger’s hysterical account”
If you want the true measure of the man, you should read this excellent piece by Tom Gross:
New Prejudices for Old
http://tinyurl.com/yc23eft
2) “Let’s also not forget Jon Snow’s tirades against Mark Regev”
Nor his mendacious attack on Israel during an interview with Zvi Ravner in 2006:
“You’ve cut off the water, you’ve cut off the petrol, you’ve cut off the electricity and you’re starving the hospitals out”
“Rockets - pretty pathetic things, nobody gets injured, they’re homemade”
http://tinyurl.com/hqewg
November 17th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
The very fact that a major UK broadcaster saw fit to put out such a shamelessly biassed, dishonest and third-rate programme represents a defeat for supporters of Israel. By preferring to engage in rational argument, we’re being too intellectual. This one’s all about gut-feelings, such as sympathy for the perceived underdog and visceral dislike of the devious, wealthy and cosmopolitan yehudis. I’m a fifth generation Brit and have spent most of my life in the UK. I’ve been fortunate in barely having experienced anti-semitism, but last night’s programme was a shocker. It was the first time I’ve felt that my personal beliefs were under sustained, malicious attack from a mainstream British organisation. It was the first time I have felt uncomfortable in this country.
November 17th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
When the CST blog first wrote about the upcoming program I visited the Channel 4 website and saw for myself the ghastly comments there, many of which Robin has quoted above. There is a “report” button next to each comment, and I used that button profusely, reporting for abuse all the antisemitic comments that were up at that time (the vast majority). To the best of my knowledge and memory, all those comments are still there - which means that either the site is not moderated, or its moderators don’t see anything wrong with the tone of the comments.
Obviously the all-powerful Jewish lobby was sleeping on the job…
November 18th, 2009 at 4:28 am
This is shocking. One has to wonder, where to from here?
November 18th, 2009 at 4:42 am
The statement from the pamphlet that several have mentioned:
“It is impossible to imagine any British political leader showing such equanimity and tolerance if British troops had committed even a fraction of the human rights abuses and war crimes of which Israel has been accused.”
must be one of the greatest of the many great lies that have been hurled at Israel and its supporters.
A few seconds on Google looking for examples of British troops abusing, killing, and raping civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan is all it takes to show, once again, the relative superiority of IDF soldiers’ behavior in time of war.
The fact that Israel has “been accused” does not make it so, and even isolated cases, if proven, do not make it so for the thousands of other Israeli troops, or millions of Israelis who have served and continue to serve in the IDF.
Nor does the charge of equanimity used here justify the implication that somehow, British leaders are in thrall to Israel or Israeli lobbies. In fact, British leaders have shown, and are showing, “equanimity and tolerance” towards the actions of British forces that would never be tolerated towards political leaders in Israel. This has been shown by the various inquiry commissions set up whenever there have been a suspicion of behavior that di not meet the high moral standards demanded of Israeli troops that are enshrined in IDF standing orders and repeated every time troops go out on a mission.
If Oborne and company feel that British leaders should be vocal about what they see as Israeli abuses, these same leaders should be screaming abuse at Britain itself from the very rooftops of Parliament.
This weekend I visited an exhibition (in Washington, DC) of AP photographs from Iraq and Afghanistan. There is nothing to compare with that horrific, extensive exhibition of 7 years of photographs of raped women, children and adults missing limbs, torture survivors, destroyed property and lives, that can be laid at the door of Israel, no matter what polemicists in the UK say. “Cast Lead” was a three week episode that would go unnoticed in the daily carnage that British (and US, but Osborne’s documentary is about Britain) troops have been visiting on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan for years with very little, if any opposition from politicians or even the public in general. Anyone who remembers the public and political opposition to Vietnam can attest to the difference.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
In programs like the one mentioned here [I did not watch it] the question of truth is irrelevant. Some media do not deal with facts or balanced views anymore and “investigative reports” are pure propaganda with one message “________ is bad”.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Robin, your op-ed in the Wall Street Journal very neatly sets out the issues raised by the program . In your excellent book you referred to a sickness that is pervading in Europe that is putting it beyond the pale. The current very deep recession I believe, has created a new climate for this lethal bacteria to proliferate rapidly. Your concerns, and mine are that this cannot be good for Britain or elsewhere, and that by picking on Jews, by picking on Israel in such programs as Dispatches, creates a hostile environment for Jews; the litmus test of a society’s moral fibre in its ability, or lack of it, to be able to withstand the pressure to scapegoat the defenseless and to avoid confronting real issues and failures it has to deal with. If allowed to continue it not could, but will lead once again to tyranny.Reason must not be allowed to be silenced.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Robin Shepherd quotes the programme on a previous entry thus:
“Meanwhile, a parallel operation is carried on against media organisations that criticise Israel’s foreign policy. In particular, the Guardian and the BBC suffer from a barrage of complaints and emails, many from outside the UK. The BBC has proved unable to cope.”
So there we have it out of the horses mouths of fellow anti-semites. The BBC takes an editorial line against the Jewish nation in complete contravention of its Duty to impartiality. Thank you Mr Oborne and Mr Jones for your unintended candour.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:40 pm
I believe there is a Zionist conspiracy, but I hope people can realise that as always, it’s orchestrated by those at the Top, so Leonard Berstein, Barbara Streisand, Richard Feynman, Murray Gell Mann, etc etc etc are not the enemy.
and let’s not forget, Bush and Blair are not Jewish.
January 25th, 2010 at 5:16 am
* Episode 1 H.A.A.R.P.
February 23rd, 2010 at 5:06 pm
If there is a Jewish/Zionist/Israel conspiracy, judging by the bad press Jews, Israel and Zionism get, it’s not very successful!