Too extreme for UCL but not for Parliament

Now the circus of hate is off to Ireland, so the torch of truth passes to our antiracist friends there:

Let us hope that our antiracist friends are many and strong

To paraphrase Monty Python: He's not an anti-racist, he's a very naughty friend of the racists of Yisrael Beiteinu.

It was a travesty of the truth and an insult to the memory of the Holocaust.

The pathetic, elderly 'as a Jew', survivor they wheeled out to promote their spiteful message was clearly past his best and rambled for far too long, losing the attention of many of the audience.

The message from Dr Eid in Gaza, when it finally worked, was clearly a pre-recorded message (I had listened to the identical speech on YouTube the same day) but was met with enthusiastic applause by the legions of gullible supporters who apparently would be happy to come under the rule of Hamas, or perhaps they just think Hamas are ok for Palestinian Arabs.

Many usual suspects there, including two Jewish women who loudly spoke out, just as they did at the Bloomsbury Baptist Church, against mainstream Jewish thought and Israel. They both called for boycott of all things Israeli, and of course Tony Greenstein made an appearance - what would an anti-Israel hatefest be without him?

Last night was yet another example of how we are our own worst enemies.

Don't feed the trolls

"Perverted"? Good job Jonathan's not litigatious, innit, Iain.

Bravo again, Jonathan! ♥

Yes, Bravo Jonathan for giving the anti-Zionists a boost. They love you and think you are an absolute star.

Not sure perverted is libellous, but all right, the pathetic person posing as an anti-racist whille all the time supporting the racist and fascist thugs of Yisrael Beiteinu and never criticising the apartheid-like policies of Israel.

Jonathan is, to quote Macbeth, "a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

Don't believe the pathetic person posing as an anti-racist despite supporting the racist and fascist thugs of Yisrael Beiteinu.

'Now the circus of hate is off to Ireland, so the torch of truth passes to our antiracist friends there:'

I wouldn't hold your breath: Irish nationalists are increasingly going down the road of anti-Jewish national prejudice of most other European nationalisms; but congratulations for your resistance in parliament.

http://www.robinshepherdonline.com/british-parliament-hosts-anti-zionist...

On the subject of universities, the latest "Times Higher Educational Supplement" has an excellent article on Holocaust Denial by Dan Cohn-Sherbok (who with Free Palestine badge in lapel foolishly marched to the Israel Embassy with the Great Unwashed last January and made the appalling comparison of Gaza with the Warsaw Ghetto in the "Western Morning News"). He's showing more sense here:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode...
"More recently, it has been promoted by various Arab leaders throughout the Middle East. Mahmoud Abbas, for example, who was a co-founder of Fatah and president of the Palestinian Authority, published The Other Face: The Secret Connection between the Nazis and the Zionist Movement, in which he stated that the Zionist movement inflated the number of Holocaust deaths to gain international support. In 2005 Mohammed Mahdi Akef, at the time the leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, denounced what he called the myth of the Holocaust in defending Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's views about the destruction of the Jews."

Perhaps Cohn-Sherbok's reminder of Abbas's espousal of Holocaust Denial is a timely one - for despite his seeming moderation there are many Israelis who are convinced that Abbas is untrustworthy. I'd love to believe otherwise, for he seems an avuncular fellow.

So, Dan Cohn-Sherbok is OK when it suits you…

The only one here insulting the memory of the Holocaust and making a travesty of the truth is the pathetic "anti-racist" who attacks Holocaust survivors because he disagrees with them on Israel. Adding insult to injury is the fact that we hear nary a peep about his racist friends in Yisrael Beiteinu. Ain't that right, cityca/Jonathan?

"So, Dan Cohn-Sherbok is OK when it suits you…"

He's more than OK, but in marching with the foes of the Jewish people and of western civilisation and repeating the Gaza/Warsaw Ghetto analogy he showed a lamentable lapse of judgment. He is, after all, a rabbi and a professor - and for that reason his words are apt to carry weight with students and readers.

What "foes of the Jewish people"? Just because he has different views on Israel doesn't make him a foe of the Jewish people.

If Israel falls, it won't be because of a few marchers in London or elsewhere. It'll be because of its short-sighted policies in the occupied territories and its attitudes towards its non-Jewish minority. And Western civilisation survived without Israel until 1948 and will probably continue to do so if it falls.

(I didn't call him a "foe"!)
If Israel falls, the Jewish people are undermined, and so is western civilisation - anyone who marched with those demonstrators and values the future of Jews and Judaism was, to be polite, most unwise.

Western civilisation was almost destroyed through appeasement of the 1930s enemies of Jewry, and appeasement of the present-day Islamofascists is an exact analogy.

In the 1930s, there was no Israel. The appeasement was of the enemies of democracy. And Israel isn't synonymous with Jews.

Oy vey iz mir!!! You could argue for Britain - or should that be Iran? :~[
Today's Islamofascists are, like yesterday's Nazis, the deadly enemies of democracy, of which the Jews were/are beneficiaries and the State of Israel is a major exemplar.

Islamofascist is a strange construct since in order to have fascism a society has had to undergo at least some semblance of industrial revolution. So they can't be like the Nazis. But be that as it may, Islamists do indeed pose a threat to some countries -- but not the democracies, however, despite the fearmongering.

That sounds like semantics - or pilpul. Islamosupremacist then. Given that powerful demographic weapon they wield in the West, their encroachment upon public polity (even at a secular civic function, a mayoral investiture in Tower Hamlets, they insisted on the segregation of women - all women!), and the appeasing nature of western governments, I don't think it's fear-mongering but plain commonsense to be very wary of them.

Yvetta, you must have etta lot of bagels laced with something. The Muslims in the UK represent about 3 per cent, about the same as the Jews did at the turn of the 20th century.
Orthodox Jews also insist on segregation of women -- all women. (In Israel, they can get arrested for praying as they wish at the Western Wall. And there has been a whole kerfuffle over women singing at a Bnei Akiva event).
I don't see any apeasement. Where is there appeasement?

You're a hero, Jonathan. Huge respect to you and the others who stood up there.

The praise on this post is once more vindicated http://www.oyvagoy.com/2010/01/18/the-brilliant-jonathan-hoffman/

Thanks Chas!

The following is in tomorrow's JC;

Gaza ethnic cleansing talk attacked as ‘an appalling offence’

Jewish and pro-Israeli organisations have attacked a talk given at the Houses of Parliament comparing Israeli action in Gaza to the Shoah suffering of Jews. Chaired by Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, it featured Auschwitz survivor Hajo Meyer and Palestinian activist Haidar Eid, on a speaking tour organised by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. Dr Meyer spoke against “Nazi genocide of Jews to justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the state of Israel” while Dr Eid spoke by via link from his Gaza home. Organisers said they had invited communities to “remind us of their resistance to the mass taking of life, in this way honouring all resistance and undermining the racist Zionist view of Jewish exceptionalism”. The Zionist Federation said holding the event, Never again — for anyone, at Parliament on Holocaust Memorial Day was an “appalling offence” to the Jewish community.

Speaking beforehand, Mr Corbyn said the Shoah was an “appalling period in history which will never be forgotten”, adding: “Hajo has survived and spent the rest of his life working and campaigning for justice for people all over the world. He has spoken out against the dehumanising effects of occupation very forcefully. Sadly, for much of this he has been condemned, which I regret.”

Gili Brenner of the ZF said: “The shameless abuse of freedom of speech to demonise Israel on a day which commemorates the biggest tragedy in human history crosses a dangerous line.”

Jon Benjamin, Board of Deputies chief executive, said: “This latest attempt to exploit the most painful chapter in Jewish history in order to berate and demonise Israel is among the most despicable.”

Corbyn has a shameful record, but I do think this might be his lowest point.

Corbyn's body language at the meeting last night suggested to me a man who knew he had made a mistake.

Read my lips, Iain: the segregation I mentioned was at a civic function, not a religious one. Furthermore, Judaism is not a proselytising religion, and its members live by the premise "The Law of the Land is the Law". No polygamous unions for them in Europe since the early Middle Ages.
Compare and contrast.

I just wanted to thank you, Jonathan, for your incredible work in countering the lies and racism. Corbyn and Iddon have obviously paraded this token Jew around, whilst ignoring the overwhelming majority of Jewish opinion as a transparent means of trying to insulate themselves from criticism. Well, it hasn't worked, and their obsessive hatred is clear for all to see!

Corbyn, please note more Holocaust survivors live in Israel than anywhere else!

Thank you again!

Jonathan Hoffman
28 January, 2010 - 17:50

"Corbyn's body language at the meeting last night suggested to me a man who knew he had made a mistake".

I think you're right Jonathan. He walked over to the back of the hall very near to where we were sitting later - I got the impression that he was embarrassed to be associated with the nonsense going on at the front.

And the worst part of it all was that the people making the most noise and telling the worst lies were Jewish.

My friend Michele who was there with her Holocaust survivor husband last night, wants to compile a list of these Jews and suggest to the Israeli government that their names be part of a list of Jews who do not merit the Right of Return - I have to say I support that idea.

I see the giyyus is up and running for Jonathan Hoffman's shameful offence of posing as an anti-racist. It's all a sham since he will not condemn the racist and fascist thugs of Yisrael Beiteinu or the settlers who attack Palestinians.

And you fool no one cityca/Hoffman from the Orwellian Cifwatch

THE DAY AFTER HOLOCAUST DAY SHOULD BE CALLED NAKBA DAY SO THAT WE CAN REMEMBER THE DREADFUL CRIMES THAT WERE AND ARE BEING COMMITTED ON THE PALESTINIANS.
THE QUESTION WE SHOULD ALWAYS ASK IS HOW WE WOULD FEEL IF WE HAD BORN PALESTINIAN?

tomeisner2
How would I feel if I'd been born a Palestinian?

I'd be wondering how it was that while 700,000+ Jews expelled from Arab lands could be absorbed into the tiny state of Israel by their own people, yet the 700,000+ Palestinian Arab refugees of the 1948 could not be found permanent homes in the vast expanses of Arabia, by their own people.

I'd be wondering how come my people were the only people in the world to be refugees for 63 years.

I'd feel as if 'my own people' had completely washed their hands of me and were using me as a stick with which to beat the Jews.

And I'd wonder why these European 'friends of Palestine' kept encouraging us to fight and hate the Israelis, instead of encouraging us to come to an accommodation that would allow us all to get on with our lives.

I would wonder who our real friends are - the Jews who treat us in their hospitals or the European supporters who raise clenched fists and enjoy our 'struggle' from their comfy homes in Islington.

P.S. Posting in caps is considered shouting and is very bad form.

cityca

I WILL POST IN CAPS -

I must tell you not all 'Arabs' are the same, nor should they wish to be grouped together artificially by you. Unless you also considered all 'blacks' the same, all who speak 'English' throughout the world as 'all the same'.

Plus, not all Jews who have migrated to Israel were forced out of their host countries, they migrated for various reasons, some were offered financial incentives.

Why should other states resettle these Palestinian refugees just because Israel have expelled them from their own land to try and create an exclusively Jewish state? Why is it acceptable in your eyes to expel these Palestinians, when if we swapped the word 'Palestinian' in your post for 'Jew' this explusion would be totally unacceptable?

Well said ibrows! good to see someone is reasonable and doesn't lie about the facts of the past the way the whole Israel lobby has done

You see the point I am making is that we have no choice over who we are. Our parents decide that.

Israel decides that Jews are good and that Palestinians are not
The solution is that Jews and Palestinians should marry don't you think?

I was present at the hate-fest at Portcullis House last night and was thoroughly disgusted by the proceedings. The room was filled with palpable anti-Jewish hatred disguised as anti-Zionism. Martin Luther King said at Harvard: "You declare my friends that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely 'anti-Zionist'. And I say let the truth ring forth, when people criticise Zionism they mean Jews"...

Anyone daring to raise his voice was immediately escorted out by the police on Jeremy Corbin's orders, thus those remaining were gagged. We were promised to be given a chance to ask questions at the end. I went up to Corbyn and quietly explained that I was a survivor from Poland and that I wish to be given a chance to question fellow survivor Hajo Meyer. They are making use of the feeble 86-year-old by parading him up and down the country like a prize trophy, before the show goes international. Mr Corbyn promised me that I would be given the chance to do so, but of course no questions were allowed - that much for free speech in this country today.

The slogan on their flyer was 'Never Again', above the famous image of Jewish women being led out of the burning Warsaw ghetto with their hands up, escorted by Germans in steel helmets. Alongside it was a picture of ululating Arab women with their hands up showing the 'V' sign. All this on Holocaust Memorial Day - a revolting insult to the memory of the Six Million.

'Never Again' was coined by Jews for Jews. After the war, survivors pledged that never again will we let this happen to our people. This pledge is today deliberately bandied about by contemptible anti-Semites, that makes a mockery of this solemn pledge.

Glad to see Cohn Sherbok, of my alma mater, Lampeter, is showing more sense these days. But his piece has been pulled from the TES.

Why?

But that was what was so sick about operation cast lead. Jews killing an oppressed people in a Ghetto area. AND they started it. Luckily there are still some great people in Israel who refuse to serve in the IDF. They are heroes

@tomeisner2
"THE DAY AFTER HOLOCAUST DAY SHOULD BE CALLED NAKBA DAY"
"nakba"
N ot A nother K ind of B ackward A rab country
There are already 21 Arab States, how many more do you want?

"AND they started it"
So, the thousands of missiles raining down on Sderot and the Negev over an 8 year period were a figment of Israels imagination were they?

"Turning the other cheek" is a Christian idea not a Jewish one. Neverthless, Israel let it go on for 8 years before acting.

ibrows
I didn't suggest all Arabs were the same any more than all the Jews expelled from Arab lands were. The difference is that every Jew expelled is no longer a refugee, but most Palestinian Arabs still are.

Your comment about not all Jews being forced out is less than honest. I've spoken to Jews from across the Arab world and their stories are all the same - forced out, their lands and possessions stolen and their lives at risk.

As to it being 'acceptable', that's your word, not mine. The fact is that following the 1948 conflict, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs had lost their homes, both as a result of following the instructions of the Arab High Command to move out and clear the path for the Arab armies, and having been forced out by Jewish terror groups.

Is it therefore in your opinion, acceptable that their brother Arabs should leave them to rot in camps for 63 years?

tomeisner2
Your suggestion that Jews and Palestinians should marry says everything one needs to know.

Ketzele
It was a privilege to sit with you and your lovely wife - thank you for coming and having the spirit to fight back against the liars and haters, so many of whom were born Jewish and who have turned on their own people so viciously.

You are a real inspiration.

Well, cityca/Hoffman, so along with supporting the racist fascists of Yisrael Beiteinu you also justify ethnic cleansing. Time to resign from the ZF.

cityca

It appears i have to continually make this same point on this blog, due to the one sided view by many of the Nakba/War of Independence. Your use of language is very revealing, all the Jews 'were forced out... risk to their lives', while do you truly believe that 750,000 Palestinians all fled due to a call to do so from the 'Arab High command' and a few 'Jewish terror groups', come on, this totally uncritical and romantic view of the creation of Israel not longer holds. I will quote Avi Shlaim, a serious historian, comments upon 'The Birth of the Palestinian refugee problem':
'Morris found no evidence of Arab leaders issuing calls to Palestinian Arabs to leave their homes and villages or any trace of a radio or press campaign urging them to flee' (Avi Shalim, 'the debate about 1948, p.149).

Benny Morris, who although he relies purely on Israeli archive sources concludes there was no systematic attempt directed from Israeli high command to expel all Palestinians, nevertheless he confirms some Palestinian villages were destroyed and razed to the ground, while in others Palestinian fled in fear after news of Deir Yassin atrocities began circulating, see the conclusion to Morris 'birth of the Palestinian refugee problem revisited'.

http://www.doingzionism.org/resources/view.asp?id=252

by Efraim Karsh:

"None of this is to deny that Israeli forces did on occasion expel Palestinians. But this occurred not within the framework of a premeditated plan but in the heat of battle, and was dictated predominantly by ad-hoc military considerations (notably the need to deny strategic sites to the enemy if there were no available Jewish forces to hold them). Even the largest of these expulsions—during the battle over the town of Lydda in July 1948—emanated from a string of unexpected developments on the ground and was in no way foreseen in military plans for the capture of the town. Finally, whatever the extent of the Israeli expulsions, they accounted for only a small fraction of the total exodus."

In other words ... There are consequences to starting a war and then losing it ...

Ketzele

Thank you and your wife so much for coming on Wednesday night to bear witness to the lies, demonisation and antisemitism of that perpetrator of hate

I assume that ibrows and tomeisner who show such concern for the Palestinian Arabs but couldn't care two hoots about the Arab ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab lands are as concerned about the ethnic Germans who were expelled from Prussia and the Sudetenland after WW2. If not, why not?

Ah, while you are all being so lovey-dovey, let's not forget that Jonathan Hoffman is only posing as an anti-racist. Supporting the racist, fascist thugs of Yisrael Beiteinu must have some consequences.