Stephen Pollard, writing on page 3 of the 21 Tishrei (9 October) edition of the JC, claims that the accusations of anti-semitism made against Prawo i Sprawiedliwość politician Michal Kamiński have "nothing to do with anti-semitism," going on to point out the all-too-true fact that Israel has few friends within the EU government but that Mr. Kamiński is one of the few.
I'm not convinced. An Israeli friend of mine, now living in the Netherlands, pointed out in conversation a few days ago that he is "Israeli first and Jewish second," a clear demonstration that Israelis and Jews are not always the same thing. Indeed, we must assume that - since around 297,000 of us here in the United Kingdom have not made aliyah and remain resident in this country - not all of us even want to be Israeli, and in many cases may take issue with certain Israeli policies. I know I for one don't want to live there, despite the fact that I would prefer to do so than live in any other Middle Eastern nation. After all, at least if I was an Israeli I'd be able to talk openly about my reservations concerning the government - you most definitely wouldn't want to do the same in Saudi Arabia or Iran. Plus I hate hot weather, so Britain suits me far more. But that's by the by.
With that in view, why do so many people assume that a friend of Israel is by definition also a friend of Jews? The two are not always the same thing - in fact, it is perfectly possible to be both an anti-semite and pro-Israel. I've always wondered if that might have been the case with one or two European and American politicians prior to the formation of Israel back in the days of the British Mandate, in fact. Most of the world, Jewish or gentile, was shocked by the unprecedented horror of the Shoah and nobody in their right mind would want to in way resemble the people who did those terrible things, so anti-semites suddenly became highly loathe to express their true feelings for risk of being equated with the Nazis - but if you dislike Jews, and want to get rid of them from your country, what better way than to set up a Jewish homeland and encourage your Jewish residents to move there? Perfect solution - you get rid of those you consider undesirable and get to look like a friend of the Jews at the same time. Maybe I'm cynical; but I wonder if Israel would ever have existed as the modern nation that it is had the Promised Land have been the South-East of England, or Florida? I can't help but doubt the Western Powers would have been quite so keen to provide a Jewish homeland had it have been a big chunk of their own real estate they stood to lose.
Let's have a look at Mr. Kamiński. He seems really rather an unsavoury character all in all. Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, the party he represents in the EU, have been accused of homophobia in addition to anti-semitism - party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński is on record stating his belief that "the affirmation of homosexuality will lead to the downfall of civilization. We can't agree to it." Kaczyński's twin brother, Lech, is now the president of Poland but was previously the Mayor of Warsaw. Whilst in that position, he notoriously banned a gay rights parade (http://www.thegully.com/essays/gaymundo/051110_poland_election.html) but permitted a homophobic "parade of normality." I hope the UK's gay community will be asking David Cameron why he chooses to make political allies of a group who do things like that, because under his leadership the Tories have recently been holding all sorts of events designed to prove they don't hate homosexuals. Maybe he thinks that by being the only overtly gay-friendly party he'll be guaranteed the mythical pink vote, or perhaps I'm being too cynical again. Either way, we all know that the sorts of people who have such violent feelings towards homosexuals are very often racists and anti-semites too, and any party that does not support equal rights for gays must be suspected of not supporting equal rights for other groups in society too - other groups such as black people, Asians and Jews.
Martin Bright, author of the JC article on pages 2-3 of the same edition mentioned above, brings up the issue of Kamiński wearing the Chobry Sword, an emblem of the undoubtedly far-right National Radical Camp Falanga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Radical_Camp_Falanga) - a group that based its philosophy on Falangism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falangism), an anti-democratic ideology that shares much in common with Italian fascism, and which openly espoused anti-semitic policies and was responsible for physical attacks on Jewish students and businesses. I'm a committed vegetraian and have been for many years, but if I decided to wear a badge bearing a MacDonald's logo people might very well start wondering why I chose to associate myself with a group not known for their contributions to vegetarianism. If Mr. Kamiński - and Mr. Cameron, for that matter - really wants to convince people that he is not an anti-semite, why does he wear the emblem of an anti-semitic group?
Kamiński denies wearing it in the JC. "No, I never wear it," he claims. "I don't even know which symbol you are referring to."
Unfortunately, he has worn it, and he does know what it means. Very shortly after the JC interview, he issued a clarification (http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2009/10/kaminski-admits-wearing-fascist...) in which he states: "I did wear the sword, which was used around a millennia ago to crown Polish Kings, on my lapel on occasions. After 1989 it was used as one of the symbols of the Christian National Union and many Conservative politicians would wear it, including politicians now in the Civic Platform. In recent years it has been taken as a symbol by the Far Right. Although it is not the same, there are similarities with how the BNP in Britain has taken the Union Jack as their symbol. When I felt the symbol started having this meaning I stopped wearing it and I asked the rest of my party to stop too." So, he admits to telling an outright lie during the interview. Also, the Chobry Sword has not only recently been adopted as an emblem by the far-right - National Radical Camp Falanga began using it in 1935.
Edward MacMillan-Scott, Conservative EU representative for Yorkshire and the Humber (the same region that also chose to elect the British National Party's Andrew Brons), was disciplined by his party in July after voicing his fears about Kamiński and Prawo i Sprawiedliwość. Timothy Kirkhope, the leader of the British Conservatives in the EU Parliament, had ordered that all MEPs step aside to make way for Kamiński during the election of a vice-president of the European Conservatives and Reformists group to thich both the Conservatives and Prawo i Sprawiedliwość belong; an order with which Mr. MacMillan-Scott declared himself to be unhappy and so he took a stand against what he saw as the Tories' willingness to associate themselves with dangerously right-wing groups. It worked rather well in his favour, too - he was voted in as an independent vice-president, which surely must have caused much embarrassment for Messrs. Cameron and Kirkhope.
"Despite what David Cameron has said there are already indications that some of the members have links with extremist groups and I feel very, very uncomfortable with that," Mr. MacMillan-Scott later said. The people of Britain - be they British Jews, homosexuals, black, Asian, left-wing or part of any one of the many groups that have reason to be wary of far-right and extremist politics - should also be feel uncomfortable about Michal Kamiński and the Conservatives who choose to think of him as a friend. He most certainly does not seem to be a friend to us, even if he does support Israel.
Martin Bright, in his analysis of the article, rightly states that Kamiński's "opinions should ring loud alarm bells" and goes on to say that he has spoken to Conservative figures who believe that it was a mistake for the party to pull out of membership of the centre-right European People's Party that includes other liberal conservative parties such as Poland's Platforma Obywatelska, Angela Merkel's German Christian Democrats and the French UPM - all conservative parties with policies far closer to actual British Conservative ideologies rather than the seemingly distasteful and highly dubious political philosophies of the more right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists. Those sources are quite right - and until Cameron steers his party in a different direction, we as Jews must think very carefully if we are considering voting Conservative.