Miko Peled, target of the latest Labour anti-Semitism allegations, is a Jewish Israeli, former member of Israeli special forces, son of a famous Israeli general and grandson of a signatory of Israel’s founding Declaration of Independence. You can object to his views, but he can hardly be anti-semitic in any sensible meaning of the term. Nor is he either British or a member of the Labour Party, nor was he speaking at an official Labour Party event.
Given all of the above, in what rational world can Miko Peled said spark newspapers from the Guardian to the Daily Mail to carry, as their lead stories, articles on anti-semitism in the Labour Party, centred entirely on Peled’s comments to a fringe meeting last night?
What Peled is alleged to have said is that discussion of the Holocaust ought to be allowed – with an apparent inference that means discussion of its existence or extent. Now we only have versions of what he said put out by his opponents, so I do not know the precise words he used or their context. I have always banned holocaust denial from this blog, because having had occasion to serve in Poland and both meet survivors and be involved in commemoration events, I have had much closer contact than most people with the overwhelming evidence for what happened. I also find it to be true that those who espouse holocaust denial are often using it as a vehicle for actual anti-Semitism and even for Nazi sympathy. So it is not allowed on this site. But neither do I think it should be actually illegal to hold that view. In context, Peled may have been saying no more than that.
If Peled was saying holocaust denial ought to be a valid subject for party political meetings, I disagree with him very strongly. It also contradicts what he is reported to have said immediately afterwards. He said that platforms are not given to neo-Nazis and were not given to supporters of apartheid South Africa, so they should be denied to Zionists too. I broadly agree with that – but would deny a platform to Holocaust deniers on the same score.
Peled’s remarks have been a great boon to the mainstream media who have had a great deal of difficulty in finding a way to denigrate Corbyn’s leadership sufficiently. They had fallen back on the old “Misogynist” charge related to Laura Kuenssberg, with the BBC’s extraordinary propaganda decision to give her a bodyguard in case she was yet again subjected to joking pantomime hisses.
Which brings me to one of the great unanswered emails of our time:
Jasper Jackson is the Guardian’s assistant media editor who had published a piece on online abuse of Kuenssberg. It seemed reasonable to ask whether he had actually seen any evidence, as I had been unable to find any. He did not reply – and I am willing to assert he did not reply because he had no evidence.
Jackson however is not in the same category as David Babbs of 38 degrees, who lied through his teeth about the existence of misogynistic comments on an anti-Kuenssberg petition. Babbs refused to speak to me but I did manage to interview their press spokesman on 11 May last year, and it is a piece of real journalism of which I am very proud:
Hello Craig
Hello Adam. I hope you are not quite so busy today? Has it calmed down for you?
It is a bit less busy. Well we are very busy on other important things. Did you see the article by David Babbs in the Guardian today?
I did, but it doesn’t really answer my question. I haven’t received the evidence of the abuse connected to the petition which you said you would consider sending me. Are you going to send it?
I don’t really have the time for this
But you must have this evidence. You took a well-supported petition down. You must have the evidence you based your decision on.
There were abusive tweets and commentsCan you send them to me?
You can search for them yourself online
I have done so. But you must have the evidence?
Look yourself online
This is a big story. In all the national press. You must have kept the evidence on the basis of which you made the decision?
You said yourself you had seen misogynistic comments
I said I could find a single one – very unpleasant but only one – out of hundreds of comments I read
So you did see misogynistic comments
One.
Search yourself online. There were tweets.So far I have been able to find one. That is one comment and one tweet. Have you seen more?
There were misogynistic comments and tweets
More than two? Out of thirty five thousand signatories? How many have you seen?
There was misogynistic abuse
How many have you seen. You personally Adam. You said yesterday you had seen the evidence. Have you, personally, seen more than two?
If you are going to start shouting at me
More than two? Simple question, yes or no?
I don’t expect you to be impolite and abusive towards me.
How much evidence did you see?
We had seen sufficient evidence.
Is that more than two? Is that more than two? That’s a very simple question.
We had seen sufficient evidence.
Have you seen more than two things? Have you seen more than two things? That’s a very simple question. I am recording you. Is that more than two things?
You can record if you like. We had sufficient evidence.
Is that evidence more than one tweet and one comment?
I could…I have got to go I have things to do here
Do you have more than one tweet and one comment?
Hangs up.
It is also worth stating that there was no evidence at all the two nasty comments – out of 35,0000 signatures – aimed at Kuenssberg had any connection to Corbyn supporters.
To threaten someone with violence is very serious, a crime. The police act on such complaints. Stuart Campbell of Wings over Scotland has been harassed by police over his non-threatening tweets. If there was serious abuse and threat made towards Kuenssberg, there would be police investigations and people would be appearing in court. Where is the evidence for all of this happening? There remains a complete dearth of evidence, yet that did not stop the Guardian alone from running five articles about the Corbynite threat to Kuenssberg this week – every single one of which was 100% evidence free.
That was before they diverted on to the story of the Jewish, ex Israeli Special Services veteran being an anti-Semite.
I do not doubt Kuenssberg receives some abuse. Everyone in public life does. I receive abuse including threats of violence. But if there is evidence that there is a genuine and unusual threat to Kuenssberg, that evidence has never ever been shown. God knows, I have very genuinely tried to access that evidence (I have also asked Kuenssberg if I can see it – she did not reply either). What does exist is a huge volume of complaint about her obvious right wing bias. The established media is desperate to portray this kind of challenge to their authority as illegitimate.
I am obliged to conclude that both the “anti-Semitic Corbynites” meme and the “misogynist Corbynites” meme are Fake News. They are Establishment media concoctions designed to protect the interests of the Establishment from political radicalism. I also conclude that the BBC gave Kuenssberg a bodyguard, not because there is any danger at all she will be assaulted by Corbynites, but in order to boost that propaganda.
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I continue urgently to need contributions to my defence in the libel action against me by Jake Wallis Simons, Associate Editor of Daily Mail online. You can see the court documents outlining the case here. I am threatened with bankruptcy and the end of this blog (not to mention a terrible effect on my young family). Support is greatly appreciated. An astonishing 4,000 people have now contributed a total of over £75,000. But that is still only halfway towards the £140,000 target. I realise it is astonishing that so much money can be needed, but that is the pernicious effect of England’s draconian libel laws, as explained here.
On a practical point, a number of people have said they are not members of Paypal so could not donate. After clicking on “Donate”, just below and left of the “Log In” button is a small “continue” link which enables you to donate by card without logging in.
For those who prefer not to pay online, you can send a cheque made out to me to Craig Murray, 89/14 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8BA. As regular readers know, it is a matter of pride to me that I never hide my address.
Linkk
http://www.mepc.org/about/our-leadership
Doh! Here’s the proper link.
http://www.mepc.org/anti-zionism-anti-semitic-jewish-critics-speak
Thanks . Very interesting and very topical.
Both Kurdistan’s international airports, and the border crossing with Turkey have been closed. 54% of the electorate refused to vote at all in the referendum on independence. Out of the 46% who did vote , 22% voted No to independence. So ex-president Barzani extended the opening times of the Polling Stations so that he could submit Yes votes in the names of those he now knew had abstained from voting.
Normally a closing of the borders signals imminent ethnic cleansing and quite frankly the local franchise-holders of USUKIS state terror, Erdogan and Barzani are capable of anything. The Muslim Brotherhood has been crushed in trying to take over Syria. Maybe these two tyrants want to replace the moderate imams of Kurdistan with the Muslim Brotherhood. Who is going to come to their defence? USUKIS sponsors of terror start another phase of the war against the people of Syria, using the non-Muslim YPG instead of Al Qaida and Daesh, who are now free to molest and attack Kurdistan, and evict the residents as they did in Syria. As I explained before Islamic State is run by USUKIS and was signed for by Barzani and Kurdish representatives of the CIA’s Al Qaida.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article198066.html
Giyane,
Do you happen to know to which school the first Treasury Minister and then Foreign Secretary (in the subsequent 3 governments) of the first 1917 Russian revolutionary administration went to school?
fwl,
I think the answer is probably in Solzhenitsyn’s ‘Two Hundred Years Together’, He covers the Ukrainian sugar barons quite well.Any idea how this book has been subject to a de-facto ban on publication in English and how the ban has been enforced?
Yes your on the right track with Ukrainian sugar baron. Try The Fall of Tsarism. What a story.
I don’t know about Two Hundred Years Together. There is said to be a fictionalised certain Ukranian sugar baron in Alex Piatigorski’s The Old Man, but I haven’t read it.
Erdogan’s association with the Muslim Brotherhood has generally been secondary to
that with the Pan-Turk/ Grey Wolf movement. This considers the Kurds to be ‘Mountain Turks’ and supports the long military repression of the Turkish Kurds which has been sweetened/alleviated somewhat by Erdogan’s flood of money.As such , I do not see a close connection between Barzani and Erdogan on anything like the scale of the Erdogan family;s(esp.Bilal) with the fake Islamist groups for the smuggling of oil.
Bernard Henri-Levy,of course, showed up for the referendum, but presumably quickly flew out again.(‘not a second Israel , but a second democracy’}John McCain did not attend this time, but is probably planning to pay a visit.
The Russian / Syrian army crossing of the Euphrates(despite the release of water from upstream dams) and relief of Deir ez Zor has , as Thierry Meysan points out,
forced a change of plan in the war against Syria and for control of the Syrian/Iraqi oil fields
Also interesting.
‘Z*on Declares War on British Jazz’:
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/08/01/zion-declares-war-on-british-jazz/
They are also trying to stop Gilad Atzmon from playing jazz in venues, by sending the host venues misleading information.
To read the article, it is best to cut and paste it onto ‘writer’, as adverts cover a lot of the text.
The BDS campaign is having an effect.
UN Sent Warning Letter to 150 Companies for Doing Business in Israeli Settlements
Israeli officials say some of the companies responded to the UN human rights commissioner by saying they won’t renew their contracts in Israel
Barak Ravid
September 28, 2017
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, shakes hand with delegates before the opening of the 36th session of the Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations.
U.S. trying to prevent UN ‘blacklist’ of companies working in Israeli settlements
At UN, Haley says rights council must ‘address chronic anti-Israel bias’ to remain credible
Israeli ministry trying to compile database of citizens who support BDS
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.814658
I wonder how many will comply. Note Ms Haley’s efforts to support Israel.
“The BDS campaign is having an effect.”
Perhaps but not the one you are looking for.
Israel Growth Rate up to 4% last year from 2.5% in 2015
Oh yes. Must be the growth in their sales of arms and weaponry including sales to Myanmar.
Bit of good news: ‘German arms manufacturer to stop selling guns to Israel’:
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/09/22/536056/Israel-Heckler–Koch-Jurgen-Grasslin-germany
‘Under pressure from rights activists, German weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch says it will end its sales to war zones or the parties that are corrupt and breach democratic standards, including the regimes in Israel and Saudi Arabia…..’
Two main sellers of weapons to Myanmar are Russia and China, with India also doing its little bit. You don’t hear much criticism and quite a lot of praise for the BRIC countries on this blog.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2017/09/selling-myanmar-military-weapons-170914151902162.html
@ Resident Dissident September 30, 2017 at 08:56
‘China and Russia Urge Diplomatic and Media Objectivity in Myanmar’:
http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/09/30/china-russia-urge-diplomatic-media-objectivity-myanmar/
Why on earth should we believe what we are being fed by our Western Governments and thier MSM propaganda outlets? How come the West kept very quiet when the Military Regime was in power in Myanmar, yet now lambasts them for clearly ‘False Flag’ ARSA terrorist attacks, just like they do in Syria?
‘…Russia warned of the danger of Islamist terrorism spreading throughout South East Asia. According to Syrian journalist Afraa Dagher, the ‘Rohingya Free Army’ is being formed in Syria for redeployment to Myanmar….’
Just more US ‘Balkanisation’ through their murderous head-chopping proxies.
‘….Many of the agencies financed by the US National Endowment for Democracy such as the Karen Women’s Organisation, have come out in opposition to Aung San Suu Kyi. To therefore suggest that US agencies are supporting Aung San Suu Kyi is patently false. Aung San Suu Kyi has criticised the US government for using the term rohingya; yet US-funded media and NGOS in the country continue to defy the State Councillor’s requests….’
The ‘National Endowment for Democracy’ have their blood-soaked paws in this? What next, the ‘White Helmets’?
‘….US Containment of China
As part of the US ‘Pivot to Asia’ strategy, the Pentagon seeks to establish military bases all along the South East coast of Asia. Many parts of South Asia Asia’s coastlines are heavily populated with Muslims. US militarization of those regions would serve to contain China’s growing economic and military power.
China has become Myanmar’s chief economic partner. Myanmar is a key strategic interest for China’s One Belt One Road initiative. Chinese gas pipe-lines and the construction of the Deep Sea port of PyaukPyu in Rakhine State have had huge benefits for the local population, who now have 24 hour electricity supply for the first time. Chinese access to the Bay of Bengal is essential for the development of the country’s Western and inland provinces. The Rohingya crisis is part of US psychological war to break up the Union of Myanmar and hamper China’s growing economic and military power in Eurasia.
Terrorists Burning Villages not Military
Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia began his speech by reminding the delegates that the cause of the violence was the ARSA terrorist attacks. He also pointed out that there were Muslims, Buddhist and Hindus fleeing the violence and not just Muslims as Western media outlets claim.
“In recent days we’ve received an illustration of the fact that ARSA were responsible for the massacre of civilians. What was also found were cashes of improvised explosive devices. There is information that the extremists forced members of the Hindu community in border villages to leave their homes and to migrate to neighbouring Bangladesh with the Muslims. Furthermore, there is information that terrorists burned entire villages and that evidence confiscated from the fighters.
Photographs were confiscated from the terrorists which were in all likelihood meant to be used as reports to the leadership of ARSA or its foreign sponsors. This information is confirmed by the earlier statement of Naypyidaw when they said that the initiators of the outbreak in Rakhine State had the objective of maximally increasing the scale of the humanitarian disaster and transfering the responsibility for it to the government.”….’
I must admit I did not understand what was going on in Myanmar, till I read this and some other articles.
I couldn’t believe Aung San Suu Kyi would stay silent if it really was the Myanmar Government committing the atrocities, though.
‘….In a clear reference to what Myanmar’s State Councilor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has called an ‘iceberg of misinformation‘, Wu politely criticised the aggressive media war waged by the international community (the US and its vassal-states) against Myanmar:
“It behoves the international community to view the difficulties and challenges confronting the government of Myanmar through objective optics, exercise patience and provide support and help.”….’
The problem is a big problem. It sits above governments and international organisations. It cannot be criticised. Many can see it but few are allowed to speak about it. Thank God for people like Julian Assange.
https://popularresistance.org/assange-real-threat-to-us-is-not-russia-but-israel/
Assange is not the first to expose Israel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K160yUlxaFM
That is one exceptional country.
I always loved the bit where the reputed Israeli military historian, Martin Van Crefeld, told us in 2003, that actually the Israeli nuclear missiles are aimed at Europe, in case we waver (as part of the Samson option). I have no doubt they wouldn’t hesitate.
“The problem is a big problem. It sits above governments and international organisations.”
The sky, space?
John Wight has written about the events in Brighton. Pretty scathing about the troublemakers/saboteurs.
September 29, 2017
Labour Party Conference and the Great Antisemitism Stitch-Up
This year’s Labour Party conference, held in the seaside resort town of Brighton on the south coast of England, left no doubt that after decades spent in a neoliberal, free market wilderness the Labour Party has been returned to its founding values as a mass party of the working class, advocating an unalterable shift in power in British society from those who own the nation’s wealth to those who produce it.
[..]
But no one should be under any illusions when it comes to Jonathan Freedland. As Ben White wrote in a 2014 article, “Liberal Zionists [such as Freedland] and their sympathisers obstruct the growth of Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaigns, and often try to define the boundaries of acceptable discourse.”
Fifty years into the illegal occupation of their land, defense of the apartheid State of Israel cannot possibly be supported on moral, legal, or ethical grounds. To not only defend this system of injustice but also attempt to smear those who dare raise their voices against the brutal oppression endured by the Palestinians, this is a species of mendacity for which history will not be kind.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/29/labour-party-conference-and-the-great-antisemitism-stitch-up/
The question is should the accusation of “anti-Semitism” be entertained or should it be dismissed and the accuser accused of the same offence! I mean if you are fair minded and make a valid point that immediately attracts the reply “are you anti-Semitic and/or racist” you may conclude its a fair question based on a misunderstanding. But if its done repeatedly its obvious the term is being used as a club to silence you and depending on context a very intimidating club.
When a presenter does it, they do so on the basis the guest is fair minded and will play by the rules of the interview and protest their innocence! But the right response is to ask the presenter if they, the broadcaster, their backers are anti-Semitic. But this requires a guest ready with the response, which is why such guests are seldom invited or given a very small slot to prevent time to answer. In other words if you can’t beat them, join them and accuse the accuser.
I mean the Palestinians are ethnically Semitic, so therefore the destruction of Gaza can be described as anti-Semitic, although surely not as bad as that suffered by certain Labour MPs!!!
And ironically the Zionists most effective weapon is being neutralized by their own pro-war madness forcing the taboo matter to be confronted, just as people defied the Globalist charge of racism to vote Leave.
In a supposedly free society there should be freedom of speech and no taboos or no-go areas. History books are littered with doctored narratives and there is a need for dispassionate honest revision.