I shared a platform in Dewsbury with Baroness Warsi’s current husband in a meeting against persecution of British Muslims through “anti-terror” legislation. While that particular persecution was under the New Labour brand of Conservatives, and nothing has changed under the official Tories, it nonetheless always seemed slightly strange to me that the family has such strong and sensible views and yet the Baroness, who has described her husband as her “political rock”, is a Tory.
I offer this thought as some background to the principled and highly praiseworthy action of Sayeeda Warsi in resigning from the Cabinet over Britain’s acquiescence in the appalling massacre of Gaza. A politician who believes in anything other than their own career and bank balance is a rare thing indeed today. I offer her my congratulations and sincere good wishes for the future.
Amen.
What Israel does is so nasty even some Politicians have to disagree with it.
I thought it significant that Osborne was chosen to deliver the head prefect’s slapdown to Warsi, while the polypropylene PM merely equivocated quietly to himself on the sidelines.
At the 2011 census there were 2,786,635 Muslims in the UK. There were 263,346 people who answered ‘Jewish’ on the form.
Someone hasn’t done the demographics, hey?
Yes, Ba’al: but it seems that it’s not the head count, but the bank balance that counts in today’s democracy…
“If you’re looking for an explanation of why the government and many MPs have been quite so pusillanimous … go no further than the reaction to Hague in 2006, when he had temerity to call Israeli action disproportionate. There was opprobrium poured all over William*,” said one former Tory minister, who would like to see the government condemn Israel’s shelling of Gaza but believes that is highly unlikely.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/03/david-cameron-dilemma-criticising-israel-gaza-offensive
*Not least by Stanley Kalms, sometime party treasurer, largely responsible for appointing Jonathan Sacks as Chief Rabbi – yes, that Israel-aligned – and major Conservative donor. Ennobled by Tories for being very rich, but thrown out after voting UKIP. He went to town on Hague’s comments in 2006.
I am aware of that, Peacewisher. But it still doesn’t matter if every town is encrusted in Party X’s slogans written in gold and diamonds, courtesy of our greatest financiers, if the polling booths are full of Party Y. And Jewish money is unlikely to buy Muslim votes.
What a principled and brave stand Baroness Warsi has taken; I’d like to see her go even further now and renounce the ridiculous title. After all, as with kings, queens, princes and princesses, barons and baronesses belong in fairy stories, pantomime or Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Time to get real.
Moderators
I notice that commenter Komodo uses the handle Ba’al Zevul (with Gaza) when commenting about Israel/Palestine.
Am I correct in recalling that under the previous dispensation commenters were invited to use only one handle (and to announce any intended change of handle, which should be used for all comments in the future)?
Could you please let me (and perhaps others) know whether I too can be allowed to use different handles according to the theme I’m commenting on?
Thank you.
Yes, I know that too, Ba’al, but have they forgotten? Do they now just see it in terms of business and money/shares in private hands, according to company rules.
Why else would they want to reprivatize a railway that is working efficiently and making a healthy profit for the people?
Rose – Agree as usual. The logic is inescapable on another count: there’s over 700 peers, and seats for only 250 in the Lords. Old peers never die, they simply rot on the benches, and there’s another lot of cash cows for Plastic Man to reward shortly.
They’ll be packing them in like the Tokyo subway soon.
And, Ba’al, the latest polls are showing a distinct move away from the Conservatives:
http://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/08/06/update-labour-lead-5/
Comments on that link also interesting… mention of Lynton Crosby, and that Cameron may “play dirty” to stay in No. 10 if labour are “merely” the party with the most seats. [as Bush was, of course, in the 2000 US election]
ASIDE-
Rather than get in the way of Scottish independence, and to try for a little continuity, I’ll try and keep tabs on Tony Blair on the ‘Apocalypse Blair’ thread. He seems to be a little shy of publicity at the moment,and it will be good for him.
Ba’al Zevul (With Gaza)
6 Aug, 2014 – 8:28 am
“At the 2011 census there were 2,786,635 Muslims in the UK. There were 263,346 people who answered ‘Jewish’ on the form.”
—————————
If, like the Tory Party, 80% of Tory voters are Zionist supporters (10.7 million voted Tory in 2010) that might explain, to some degree.
I don’t think any but a small minority of the Tory vote on the street has any permanent lasting loyalty to Zionism, or that it figures much in their choice of who to vote for. Whereas, the Tories’ repeated flaccidity over atrocities in Gaza (and their obvious deference to dual-allegiance paymasters) will certainly shift some Muslim and Christian votes away from them. To be encouraged, anyway.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !
6 Aug, 2014 – 9:36 am
“I notice that commenter Komodo uses the handle Ba’al Zevul (with Gaza) when commenting about Israel/Palestine.”
“… can [I too] be allowed to use different handles according to the theme I’m commenting on?”
——————————————-
Yes Habbabkuk, if you’re commenting on Israel/Palestine you could use:
Habbabkuk (uccidere gli Arabi)
Ah. Tony’s got rid of his head Jerusalem honcho –
http://icct.nl/news/new-icct-director-mr-mark-singleton
Obviously got good references, then. Sound pair of hands on counter-terrorism, years of experience hating OQR-designated terrorists Hamas…without ever talking to them.
Craig, while praising Baroness Warsi, let us not forget Lord Nazir Ahmed who was chased by the “British Friends of Israel” in 2012 for suggested that both Dubya Bush and Tony Blair should be tried as “War Criminals” at ICC for invading and occupying Iraq.
http://rehmat1.com/2012/04/17/uk-jewish-lobby-after-lord-ahmad/
Dear Friends,
I am writing to share with you an e-mail I received from my mother, Dina Khoury-Nasser, who is now in Gaza. She went five days ago with a team of Palestinian medics from the Augusta Victoria Hospital and other Palestinian hospitals in Occupied Jerusalem in response to the emergency appeal that the Gaza hospitals have issued. The extent of the carnage brought about by Israel has left them incapacitated.
My mother, for those of you in Britain, is a Nightingale (St Thomas’s) theatre nurse; she was trained at the Royal College of Nursing and St Thomas’ Hospital in London (Ironic, given that it is that very hospital, and the reason she is now in Gaza, overlooks Parliament, which has its own responsibility towards this ongoing War).
You are very welcome to share this if you want.
Best,
OmarJ
***
>From Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza. 01:55 am 5th August 2014
Today was day four in Gaza. The first two days were like limbo. We felt we were in Gaza but not yet feeling what was happening around. We live in the hospital compound: eat in the compound, work in the compound, sleep in the compound. We see the injured, hear the ambulances, see the bodies and people strewn around everywhere – still it does not sink in. Yesterday evening things started to get real when I saw a child sleeping with his father in the open air on a piece of cardboard. He was there in the morning, there in the evening, and again this morning and this evening. I wonder where is his mother, where is his family? The stories one hears about entire families being annihilated, completely erased from the national registers of citizenship makes your hair stand on end! But still, it does not sink in. Perhaps because I am in the operation room and used to seeing people injured. Then reality hits when the shelling in Jabalia starts. At ten in the evening we receive a lady in her sixties. She is full of dust, full of earth and full of holes throughout her body. Head lacerated, thighs lacerated, leg crushed. I think of where she could have been sitting, what were her thoughts when the shell hit…I thought of mom, I thought of all the older women I know.
When the bombing started this morning, it was children. Our first patient was a little boy around six years old. He had massive lacerations to his groin, abdomen, face and head. He had burns all over his body as well. We were able to manage him in the theatre. I wait to see how he is doing. Then comes Haneen. She is an eight year old; my colleague from the emergency room, Dr. Haytham informed me that a child is coming up with her hand hanging on her side. I went up to Haneen who was waiting calmly in the holding bay. Her eyes were closed. She had a bandage across her head; her eyes were closed because of the swelling from the oedema and the burns to her face. I approached her and held her, and greeted her, and informed her of my name. I held her little hand on the injured side. I told her that I will be with her – she held my fingers. She informed me that her hand hurts. I told her that it was injured and that we will try and fix it. She then asked me about her father and two sisters. I told her that her father was waiting for her. I could not tell her that her sister had died. I still could not tell her that later that evening, her other sister was brought in dead from under the rubble…they were both less than four years old.
I saw Haneen in the ICU later. She was awake and extubated. I greeted her and told her that I was Dina. One eye was now open. She asked me if I had a daughter, I said yes. She asked me what is her name. I said Haya. She said that is a pretty name.
It was a tough day that ended with hopeful news. The plane up above, called zanana (drone) keeps buzzing all around. My colleagues from Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem arrived today with supplies. I felt proud to greet them. The Hospital had done an excellent job sending supplies and individual packs to each of us. They were greeted and their support appreciated. Being there is all that matters. On a personal level, I feel responsible for a big group now. It is very nice to have Dr. Haytham here; he is a wonderful professional colleague. My other colleagues are in Nasser Hospital in Rafah (South of Gaza), treating the injured and witnessing the toll of martyrs. One other colleague is at Al Aqsa Hospital working in surgery.
The smell of blood and death is around the young and the old. Each day we are greeted with the car coming to take the martyrs. Our room is close to the mortuary. You look at the faces of people here – they are all stunned. A nurse on duty looks deeply sad – her son comes with her to work. My friend Bassam from Gaza came to visit me and brought me a lot of goodies to eat. I distributed them among our team and colleagues. I was worried when I looked into his eyes and saw how red they were. The strain on his face was apparent. His son had a close call, and his nephew has ben injured. They are children. They were playing in the street and had just stepped into the house….
The nursing director here had to take a deep breath as he recalled all the children that he had seen. We will need time to heal she said, the pain will take time. The stories are overwhelming and the loss has not yet stopped.
http://lwfjerusalem.org/2014/08/augusta-victoria-hospital-dispatches-a-medical-team-to-gaza-strip
Ex Medialens
Great Direct Action: activists shut Israeli arms factory in Birmingham!
Posted by alquds43 on August 6, 2014, 12:09 pm
Latest info from this brill Direct Action:
http://www.facebook.com/events/424596647679367/
A ‘self-hating’ Jew’s guide to answering Zionist talking points
Mail and Guardian (South Africa) 30 July 2014
Jared Sacks
‘I grew up being indoctrinated by Zionists throughout my life. As a child, I was told that the state of Israel is somehow “necessary” to prevent another Holocaust. I was also told that Palestine/Israel was empty and uninhabited when Jews began emigrating there in the late 1800s, and was still sparsely populated after World War II. I was taught that the Jews are a chosen people with the right to their own homeland.
Eventually, however, I started to see the contradictions and began questioning this ideology.
Every time I make my views on Zionism heard, there is a backlash from Zionist Jews who know me and who take it as their responsibility to educate me – as though I am somehow naive about the history of the colonisation of Palestine.
I often hear arguments such as, “… but Hamas uses children as human shields” or “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East”. Eventually, when these arguments are addressed, I’m inevitably dismissed or declared a “self-hating Jew”. But as someone born into a Jewish background, with the knowledge of thousands of years of persecution that this entails, it is also my obligation to identify with the persecution of others – especially if it is being done in the name of my ethnic identity.’
/..
http://mg.co.za/article/2014-07-30-a-self-hating-jews-guide-to-answering-zionist-talking-points/
I wish you wouldn’t quote the idiot, Doug. It’s never got anything substantive to say, or any sources for its all-too-predictable assertions. However, I am happy to respond on this occasion: it’s wrong as usual.
For the record I reserve the right to use whatever nick/s I am permitted to use by the blog (not by a dumb cunt trying to take the piss, Hasbaracook) whenever I choose. Though, obviously (? Well, for honest folk, obviously) not for the purposes of deception.
….Hasbaracluck (Uccidere gli Arabi!)
Good one, though. 🙂
Why was Sayeeda Warsi a Conservative in the first place? Who knows? But ‘I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance…’ (Luke 15:7 King James Bible).
With her resignation she did a very honourable thing, giving up a prestigious and doubtless lucrative position. I don’t know if she has just resigned her Ministerial position, or the Tory Whip, or as an MP. I hope just the Ministerial position and Whip, and that she will continue as an Independent MP.
But for all those who are incensed by the abominations carried out by Israel against the Palestinians, not just now in Gaza, but for more than seventy years, there is to be a huge Demo in London on Saturday, with people coming from all over the country. It starts at 12.00 this Saturday at the BBC, Portland Place (Oxford Circus tube) then marches to Hyde Park via the US Embassy. There have been some very large Demos over the last few weeks at the BBC and Israeli Embassy, but this is going to be a massive one. For more details go to the Stop the War website, and please try to join the protest.
And so the Israeli carnage in Gaza all but disappears from the news agenda. Very quickly, the corporate media are turning to the talks in Cairo, which everyone knows are an utter charade. Surely even Abbas knows that! The intention is to make Israel look like a reasonable partner once again, and it enables our media to show signs of progress. That’s the narrative now. The BBC are delighted that they’ll no longer have to show photos or footage of bloodied children, massacred by the child-killers.
Also disappearing from the BBC agenda is the disquiet within the coalition that Warsi’s departure exposed. That’s quickly being covered over.
Will we see John Simpson wandering round Gaza, staring in disbelief at the destruction of basic amenities, interviewing the families of some of the 430 children murdered by the Zionist war machine?
No. We won’t be seeing Jeremy Bowen either. He tried to report the truth and was shunted for his trouble.
What a damnable disgrace the BBC has become.
It is disgraceful that the state broadcaster in the form of James Robbins can say such stuff.
Gaza conflict: Is Israel’s mission accomplished?
Posted by scrabb on August 6, 2014, 1:58 pm
BBC World News website:
Gaza conflict: Is Israel’s mission accomplished?
6 August 2014 Last updated at 00:05 BST
A 72-hour humanitarian truce is holding in Gaza, halting four weeks of conflict that has claimed more than 1,900 lives.
Israel and Gaza militants maintained fire up until the truce started at 08:00 local time (05:00 GMT).
James Robbins considers whether the ceasefire is a victory for Israeli tactics – and looks at the long term chances of lasting peace.
Re: Gaza conflict: Is Israel’s mission accomplished? – bmcnally Today, 2:38 pm
“Mission Accomplished” – a disgusting reference… what might ‘Hamas’ mission’ be, and could it be –
http://boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1407329889.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Robbins
~~~~
Note it is still a CONFLICT and that there 4 uses of the word MILITANT below. Israel have TROOPS 1 match or SOLDIERS 2 matches or MILITARY 3 matches.
Gaza: Israeli-Palestinian indirect talks begin in Cairo
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28671776
Look at the photo of the family huddled round a few belongings and some plastic crates. How we have betrayed the Palestinians so cruelly in supporting the Zionist entity.
James Reynolds (son of Paul Reynolds) has been reporting from Jerusalem sounding very much like a member of Israel’s Ministry of PR. Much about the rockets, the support from within Israel for the attack on Gaza and the funeral of the Israeli militant, Lt Goldin.
For example
Gaza conflict: BBC assesses Israel’s military campaign
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28634883
His journalist ‘education’ was completed at Harvard where he is a fellow of the Nieman Foundation.
http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/NiemanFoundation/NiemanFellowships/MeetTheFellows/AlumniFellows/ClassOf2010.aspx (second row – end right)
About http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/NiemanFoundation/AboutTheFoundation/History.aspx
Disgusting. Yet another BBC employee shilling for Israel.
Ba’al Zevul (With Gaza)
6 Aug, 2014 – 11:45 am
“I don’t think any but a small minority of the Tory vote on the street has any permanent lasting loyalty to Zionism, or that it figures much in their choice of who to vote for.”
——————————————————
Ba’al, what do you consider a small minority? Ten percent?
Ten percent of 10.7 million is 1,700,000. That’s a lot of votes and potential donors.
The pressure on British Ministers and MPs is from Zionist organisations that have millions of members worldwide. British Jews form a very small voter base.
I was upset to hear the Beeb has shunted Jeremy Bowen, for whom I have always had a soft spot.
Apparently Bowen himself, and the Beeb claim that he is on holiday, and that he will soon be back in his normal posish. I hope this is true.
The spiv currently on holiday in Portugal with his wife and family will have been made aware of the rising groundswell of opinion against his support of Israel.
viz
Impose arms embargo on Israel, says Andrew Mitchell
Former international development secretary warns that misery in Gaza will ‘poison goodwill in Middle East for generations’
Patrick Wintour, political editor
theguardian.com, Wednesday 6 August 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/06/arms-embargo-andrew-mitchell-gaza-goodwill-middle-east
and
UK minister resignation over Gaza fuels Tory revolt
August 6, 2014,
Following the resignation of UK foreign office minister, Baroness Warsi, Prime Minister David Cameron is struggling to quell a growing revolt over his contentious handling of the Gaza crisis.
UK minister resigns over ‘morally indefensible’ Gaza policy
Warsi’s dramatic departure on Tuesday sent shockwaves through the Tory party, bringing to the forefront disputes over both the UK government’s stance regarding the ongoing Gaza crisis and the party’s future election prospects.
A number of senior British political figures, including Tory Party MPs, have begun to publically join the chorus of those demanding the government take a harder line towards Israel.
Israel must end restrictions on Palestinian lands, UK MPs say
Conservative MP Dominic Grieve, who was sacked as Attorney General in Cameron’s recent reshuffle, was among those questioning the proportionality of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza – calling for the Prime Minister to condemn Israel’s airstrikes in the region. Grieve’s sentiments were echoed by communities secretary, Eric Pickles.
Cameron’s response to Ms Warsi’s resignation was measured. The Prime Minister wrote he understood her “strength of feeling on the current crisis,” emphasizing the crisis in Gaza is “intolerable”.
/..
http://rt.com/uk/178436-tory-revolt-gaza-crisis/
“The BBC’s Jon Donnison said Gaza had “come back to life” during the ceasefire”
All ok now, nothing happened!
——————————
[Ban Ki-Moon] said that while there were reports of Hamas rockets being fired from near UN premises, the “mere suspicion of militant activity does not justify jeopardising the lives and safety of many thousands of innocent civilians”.
His remarks over this crime show clearly his pro-US/Israel stance; he should be kicked out!
———————–
“Mr Kerry told the BBC that the situation could “concentrate people’s minds” on the need to negotiate a two-state solution.”
What a liar and cunt! He knows full well, as does Obama and Cameron, Israel has no intention of allowing a two-state solution!
————————————
“Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans have been returning to their homes.”
“The BBC’s Jon Donnison, in Gaza City, says many people have found nothing left.”
Of Course there’s nothing left you tosser!
But he says:
“Gaza had “come back to life” during the ceasefire”