In a genuinely outrageous piece of victim blaming, BBC News just blamed Palestinian intransigence in refusing to accept Israeli annexation of the West Bank for the deaths of Palestinian children caused by the Israeli blockade of medical supplies to Gaza.
This is a precise quote from the BBC TV News presenter headline at 10.30am:
“The lives of hundreds of sick Palestinian children are being put at risk because of the latest downturn in relations between their leaders and Israel last month. The Palestinian President said his government was giving up on past peace agreements because of Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank. That decision stopped co-operation on many security and civil matters including medical and travel permits.”
There followed a heart rending piece by BBC Middle East correspondent Yolande Knell featuring Palestinian children in Gaza dying of varous medical conditions and their distraught mothers.
The entire piece very plainly blamed Palestinian officials for the situation.
The BBC did not blame Israel for placing a blockade illegally preventing pharmaceuticals and medical supplies from entering Gaza – the basic reason the children cannot be treated at home.
The BBC did not blame Israel for blockading in illegally the civilian population of Gaza, so that these children cannot freely leave for treatment in Europe without Israeli clearance.
The BBC did not point out that the proposed annexation of the West Bank is illegal, has been condemned by the UN Secretary General and by 95% of the governments of the world, and will precipitate great violence.
No, the BBC blamed the Palestinians.
“Accept the illegal annexation of still more of your land, or small children will die and it will be your fault”.
That is a line the BBC are perfectly happy to push out on behalf of Israel. It is an astonishing moment for the UK state propagandist. It is important we do not ourselves become complacent at this absolutely unacceptable behaviour.
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One more mirage yesterday in the phony Labour antisemitism “crisis.” The real reason Sir Starmer dispatched RLB is of course because she wouldn’t parrot his support for the schools reopening policy of our government; a government whose mismanagement of the pandemic is among the worst in the world and has already cost 65,000 lives.
Maybe coincidental to Sir Starmer’s thinking, the push to fully reopen schools is also being loudly championed by a figure who places a famously high value on human life.
https://mobile.twitter.com/bbcnewsnight/status/1262506909606739968?lang=en-gb
“The real reason Sir Starmer dispatched RLB is of course because she wouldn’t parrot his support for the schools reopening policy of our government”: That is certainly the view of Skwawkbox: https://skwawkbox.org/2020/06/25/excl-long-bailey-sacked-after-massive-row-over-schools-return-as-news-emerges-that-starmers-support-for-return-has-seen-infection-rate-double/ – which also predicts that it will lead to a challenge to Starmer’s leadership in 2021: https://skwawkbox.org/2020/06/25/exclusive-starmers-cynical-actions-lead-to-unintended-consequences-as-left-begins-preparations-for-leadership-challenge/ (oh happy day! if it did).
However, Starmer has proved an improbably willing tool of the Israel lobby since even before winning the Labour leadership election – the £50,000 he received from Israel lobbyist Trevor Chinn (not declared till after he won that election) probably helped: https://www.thecanary.co/exclusive/2020/04/17/keir-starmer-received-50000-donation-from-pro-israel-lobbyist-in-leadership-bid/
While proving ever willing to find ‘antisemites’, Starmer has said nothing about Israel’s forthcoming annexation of 30% of the West Bank, and the catastrophic effects which that will have on the Palestinians; https://www.facebook.com/theIMEU/photos/a.208566852493571/3796186847064869/?type=3&theater
The same thing happened with David Cameron. The Jewish Chronicle published an article titled “Team Cameron’s big Jewish Backers” at the time as a reveal on who funded his leadership campaign. Now seems to have been completely disappeared from their website.
What galls me about Starmer is earlier in the year when the country really needed an opposition to call the government out on its Covid failing’s – I didn’t hear a word out of Starmer. (it was Corbyn’s great failure too IMO). Now with 65000 unnecessary dead and the incompetence obvious probably even to the government themselves… he’s apparently got this forensic mind on it… except he’s now reverted back to supporting the government. They are withdrawing support from the most vulnerable who have been self-isolating – Labour’s not shouting and screaming about that at all.
And he voted against investigating the invasion of Iraq. Iraqi lives don’t matter then Starmer?
Here they are in 2009, whingeing as per usual.
‘Jewish organisations have reacted angrily to a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary claiming to expose an “Israel lobby” working to buy influence with UK politicians and journalists. The Board of Deputies has raised concerns that the programme has already sparked a slew of antisemitism.
Inside Britain’s Israel Lobby on Monday night claimed that Conservative Friends of Israel has funded the Tory Party to the tune of £10 million and has shifted Tory policy on Israel. The programme targeted Bicom, which takes journalists on fact-finding trips to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The BBC was also criticised for allegedly bowing to pressure from the Israel lobby.
A statement from the Board said: “After an hour of unfortunate imagery and unfounded suggestions that UK supporters of Israel conspire to influence Parliament and the media utilising financial leverage, Dispatches finally admitted that this is not the case.’
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/dispatches-israel-lobby-%EF%AC%81lm-the-reaction-1.12462
Cameron and Clegg went into a coalition in May 2010 and Clegg got the order of the boot in May 2015. Cameron continued at No 10
Cameron is probably still in his shepherd’s hut or down in Cornwall in one of his five homes as he is having trouble with his $1bn China investment fund. https://www.ft.com/content/a0b3858e-4e92-4db2-83fd-a6550d0b1427
Cleggover went to the US with his knighthood and is now with Mr Zuckerberg as VP with Facebook.. Clegg currently slamming Trump as abhorrent. Takes one to know one.
Whichever one of them. They ALL feather their own nests.
His funding by the Israel lobby musn’t have been considered germane to this story cause I saw no mention of it at all in mainstream coverage. They obviously felt it would be crass and highly dubious to refer to such a thing.
“His funding by the Israel lobby mustn’t have been considered germane to this story cause I saw no mention of it at all in mainstream coverage. They obviously felt it would be crass and highly dubious to refer to such a thing.”
And they were no doubt right, of course. “He who pays the piper calls the tune” must be the daftest proverb ever – I’m sure corporate lobbyists across the world would agree.
You can’t even mention Trevor Chinn’s donation to Starmer’s campaign in a comment on the Guardian – it will be moderated out. I wasn’t aware of it, and so found the above comment useful. It sets a context – whether you think it might have influenced Starmer’s actions or not. But if the mainstream media censor it people will never know.
People largely don’t know about the connections of the Israeli lobby to the UK’s invasion of Iraq, because the mainstream media don’t mention/investigate it and posts on it are pulled.
Any other lobby group and the question of he who pays the piper calls the tune would be raised. But with the Israeli lobby even asking the question is disallowed.
Its an anti-semitic trope to suggest that the Israeli lobby influence anything with all the money they shove the way of politicians. Its equivalent, they say, to saying Jews control the world. Conflating Jews with Israel – offensive to those who don’t support that state. And morphing a legitimate question about buying influence through donations into an exaggerated charge of controlling the world which isn’t being made.
“You can’t even mention Trevor Chinn’s donation to Starmer’s campaign in a comment on the Guardian – it will be moderated out” – Trevor Chinn being a majorIsrael lobbyist, who made a £50,000 donation to Starmer’s Labour leadership campaign, money which Starmer failed to declare until after the election was over:
https://www.thecanary.co/exclusive/2020/04/17/keir-starmer-received-50000-donation-from-pro-israel-lobbyist-in-leadership-bid/
https://powerbase.info/index.php/Trevor_Chinn
“Facts are sacred” – but not all facts. “Comment is free” – but not comment which exposes the operation of the Israel lobby (or otherwise goes against the Guardian party line). “What do you think we are, a liberal newspaper??!!”
I’ll add that the charge that people buy influence and decisions directly… as in the person thinks they’ve payed me money so I must do xyx for them… that’s not how people’s minds work. Its often much more subtle than that: people give you money, you have a sympathy for their point of view. It becomes your point of view.
Tory MPs almost to a man voted for the invasion of Iraq. Over 80% of them were in Conservative Friends of Israel. They didn’t think they were voting how Israel wanted them to do for Israel’s sake. They’d been told Saddam Hussein was “a threat to the world” by a lobby who had their sympathies. British security was conflated with world security and the British dealt with Israel’s enemy for them…
Why? She prostituted herself to the antisemite definition of antisemitism; hoist by her own petard.
Squeeth – true enough, shades of Corbyns appeasement that led to his downfall and f*cked it for the rest of us.
‘We’ need a true socialist who will stand up to the establishment shills, US puppets and Zionist fifth columnists. Labour is finished time for a new party ?
A democratic electoral system would be a good idea.
Why what?
Long Bailey? She called herself a Zionist and sign the egregious BoD 10 ‘Pledges’ she was an idiot. Much of the left are when it comes to identity politics. So scared to be seen to say the wrong that they contort themselves into ludicrous positions and get taken out easily by the cynical right.
Been trying to get on Wings Over Scotland but it’s coming up Bad Gateway 502 ingx/1.6.2
Unusual for the Rev’s site to be down?
Hope OK for you today. This is their front page cartoon. https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-shining/
It occurs to me Keir Starmer is an unconscionable coward in not letting RLB see him first before she decided taking down her tweets was propitious. Instead, he sacked her without the basics of or toward regard of an adherence, lawyers such as Keir Starmer know all about, with natural justice. This despicable popinjay of a new Labour Party leader is playing to a gallery of MSM’s and BOD’s ravenous anti-Corbyn lobbyists wanting blood and guts out of what’s left of Corbyn’s Left.
Serves her ****ing right.
After being DPP, and all that went on during that time at the CPS : Jimmy Savile not charged; Julian Assange pursued relentlessly. Sir Stooge was either going to end up heading MI6, MI5, GCHQ or leading the Labour Party?!?
Unlucky Labour.
Starmer is guilty of breaching one of the examples attached to the working definition of Anti Semitism “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel”. Maxine Peake criticized the Israeli security services [a perfectly legitimate thing to do] to which Starmer has conflated this criticism ‘ i.e, actions taken by the state of Israel with ‘Jews’, a conflation condemned by the IHRA as antisemitic. Will action be taken against Starmer? I’m not holding my breath. In my opinion telling the truth about Israel is incompatible with being a Labour party member.
Excellent point.
Thank you, Harry. One could go further and point out that this fake fury on the part of the Israel lobby and its servants in the MM (in particular the Guardian) and on the Tory wing of the Labour party risks trivialising the real discrimination against Jews which was perpetrated over centuries throughout Europe and which culminated in the Nazi Holocaust. Starmer should be ashamed of himself. But is he capable of shame?
I am a Labour Party member. For how long I don’t know. The party has suddenly shot to the right and the dilemma is whether to look for another political home or stay and fight. At my constituency meeting in which nominations for leadership were discussed I spoke on behalf of Rebecca Long-Bailey and against Keir Starmer, but not convincingly enough.
You are right Harry. The truth about Israel cannot even be discussed in the Labour Party (or any other party I know of). It raises the question as to who owns the media, which is perpetually banging home a message that anti-Semitism is rife everywhere when, outside a few extreme right groups, it isn’t. Obviously the message is to close down debate to detract from the evil of Israeli settlements, apartheid and other disgusting practices of the State of Israel. Pass the sick-bag or an anti-emetic!
“perpetually banging home a message that anti-Semitism is rife everywhere”
I think it’s simpler than that John. The expression “anti-Semitic” has become a Pavlovian noise that is used like a kind of psychic electric shock to warn people away from genuine critique.
Most Western liberals are obliged to write their regular anti-Israel piece: you’ll never see them write similar about other nations trying to secure their borders in a hostile area where they are the underdog.
Craig is alas no different: Islam is his blind spot.
You think it’s “anti-Israel” to denounce crimes against humanity?
Fascinating. What do you consider pro, or anti-Israel, and what is your criteria for such judgements?
The “Palestinian” Arabs are still a fast growing population; a crime against humanity would be a (fast) violently declining population. Could be the Yazidis ,Yemenis, Balochi, Tibetans or Uyghurs.
To argue that a growing population proves there is no crime against humanity is hard to describe as anything other than cynically bizzare.
To pretened that those who care to write about the Israeli government’s crimes will write about them and no other is untrue.
Taken together, it looks very much like you don’t give a fig for the Yazidis etc, but are simply using them in an attempt to deflect attention.
Peter Hall
I know what Antonym was saying and if it had been more explicit it might have been deleted. Just because somebody writes something challenging is not a good reason to misinterpret it.
Anyway , the main target of CM’s post was surely the BBC which can repeat total tripe without having to get taken to court, and be groping in the dark up Israel’s rectum, like Stupid Starmer, without anybody taking any notice.
Since Starmer was advised to be ruthless with Corbynites, and the easing of lockdown has allowed him to do precisely that, he is no longer a leader of anything. Just a fag-end of a fag-end of a fag-end of a noble institution.
Might just as well have a Parakeet.
Pieces of ‘ate. Pieces of ‘ate.
.
Antonym’s whataboutary is well known here. Because the Palestinians are not conveniently just silently disappearing from the scene is proof to him that the occupiers are benevolent.
“To (pretend) that those who care to write about the Israeli government’s crimes will write about them and no other is untrue.”
Yes indeed. That kind of lying “defence” of Israel gives a person away immediately. It’s as if a white Nazi has just petrol bombed a party where most of the guests are black, shouting “Take THAT, you n***** scum!” and when he gets denounced he complains he is being victimised because he is white, and asks why you don’t criticise a group of black thugs who murdered a white person in Lagos last week.
“Arguments” advanced by those who don’t even believe in them themselves should generally speaking be treated with nothing but contempt.
N_
It’s certainly possible to construct a false argument out of true statements. I wrote off your beautiful carlast night. Fortunately nobody was hurt. Presumably you can claim on the insurance.
There is nothing wrong with Israel annexing Palestinian land if you happen to believe it was given in perpetuity to the Children of Israel.
Absolutely nothing wrong with rigging the election against Jeremy Corbyn if you happen to believe that all the wars Britain has fought since WW2 were just and right.
” There’s a big wide world out there boyo. Might is right.”
Inverted commas indicating inverse of truth.
What sticks in the gullet about BBC propaganda is their taking of a high moral tone after arguing against morality. If salt loses its flavour, with what will you salt it?
Isreal has no border so they ‘secure’ wherever they feel like. Go back to ’67 borders is the only reasonable aim. Let them secure that border, not the loose ever expanding land grab.
It occurred to me that an alternative solution could be to integrate Israel and the unoccupied Palestinian lands into one new state with a new neutral name and give everyone completely equal rights. Of course equal rights would lead to democracy and the demise of the apartheid zionists so wouldn’t be allowed to happen, but it’s a thought …
Stevie, a humane addition to any solution there, would be the equitable distribution of Water. I believe it’s currently about an 80/20 split, with the illegal occupants, fewer in number, taking the big portion. I had a look at the maps linked with this supposed Peace Plan, and guess where all the Aquifers are…certainly not in Palestine’s control.
Stevie Boy,
What you are saying has long since been thought of and articulated – here for you to read:-
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/10/magazine/the-one-state-solution.html
The (up to) 1967 borders were established in 1948-49 as the limit of where Zionist forces could advance to, having terrorised residents to the maximum extent and “cleansed” hundreds of thousands. To call them the Naqba borders would be accurate.
Incidentally the heavily armed murder squads of “kibbutzim” were key in establishing those borders.
“Kibbutzim” have done some very successful advertising in the west for 60 years and more. Apparently they are hippy, communal, “socialist”, whatever you want to believe. But only in the west, not in the Arab world – I wonder why.
My guess is the kibbutzim did a renewed spate of advertising in the late 1960s and early 1970s, around the time Woody Allen was pushing the idea of the “weak Jew” and leading up to 1979 when the ever-so peaceful “Halleluyah” won the Eurovision Song Contest for the ethnic-supremacist killer state. (Perhaps someone had watched “The Producers”?)
As far as I am aware, not one single kibbutz has ever had an Arab as a member. They are akin to German Nazi settlements in Chile, not hippy places where everyone’s welcome to come and share stuff.
underdogs?with billions of American military arms provided annually,plus over 200 atomic weapons they must be terrified.
I wonder if the average Israeli is embarrassed that they live in a state that couldn’t and wouldn’t exist without US support. As evil as its government is it’s the US, yet again, who funds terror, torture, segregation and corruption.
Don’t forget the Israeli role in providing security at US nuclear installations both civil and military.
That’s practically the definition of a client state – a country that can’t even protect its own most important weapons and has to have another country come and do it.
The :murder of 169 unarmed men, women and children plus medical first aiders, many of whom were shot in the back by explosive bullets fired from sniper rifles, the illegal eviction of people from their homes and the continue use of murder plus violence by the IDF, is a justification for trying to “ secure their borders “?
And shot in their knees. That joint is especially difficult for an orthopaedic surgeon to repair. Most likely, the unfortunate injured will be crippled for life. Abject cruelty by the snipers who were lying prone on the earth banks created for the purpose..
’42 Knees in One Day’: Israeli Snipers Open Up About Shooting Gaza Protesters
Over 200 Palestinians were killed and nearly 8,000 were injured during almost two years of weekly protests at the Israel-Gaza border. Israeli army snipers tell their stories’
6th March 2020
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-42-knees-in-one-day-israeli-snipers-open-up-about-shooting-gaza-protesters-1.8632555
That’s probably because Arab countries don’t have the type of hold on western politicians, certainly nothing equivalent to AIPAC:
Mehdi Hasan wrote in the Intercept:
…the New York Times’s Tom Friedman, a long-standing advocate for Israel in the American media, once described the standing ovations received by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, from members of Congress, as having been “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby”?…..
J.J. Goldberg, former editor of the Jewish weekly newspaper The Forward, said in 2002, in reference to AIPAC, “There is this image in Congress that you don’t cross these people or they take you down”?
These aren’t ‘conspiracy theorists’, they’re the Israel’s biggest supporters, stating Israel has disproportionate influence on US law makers.
nice quotes. i wonder what the going rate for ovations is (there’s polite but tepid applause, there’s enthusiastic clapping, there is our premium option of wild enthusiasm accompanied by calisthenics, cheer leading (give me a b!!), and, for a small additional fee, blowing of kazoos.)
I think his blind spot may be more for the noble savage.
Two of the three apartheid tyrannies have been flushed round the u-bend of history so the last one to go has no analogue. As for the rest of your post, well, zzzzzzzzzz.
Antonym: “you’ll never see them write similar about other nations trying to secure their borders in a hostile area where they are the underdog”.
Utter bollocks.
Israel is not a nation: it is a planted population (mainly) from eastern/cental Europe, the middle east, the former USSR and the USA on the land of an existing nation, put there for (Anglo-American) geopolitical purposes, and sustained for the same purposes by the USA.
They are not trying to secure “their” borders – they are insulating the occupying planters from the justified anger of those whose land they have stolen.
As for being “underdogs” Aye, right!
Nuclear armed “underdogs” and armed to the teeth with conventional weapons illegally occupying large tracts of Palestinian land – having stolen greater Palestine (with US/UK connivance) from the indigenous people, scattering them (those they haven’t murdered) across the region and the globe, to live in misery in refugee camps and “Isreal’s” bantustans.
“Israel” is purely and simply an imperial project, operating a racist apartheid system, cynically placed there by imperial machinations and cynically milking the (well-justified) guilt of those who recognise the abomination that was the Holocaust. Part of the Ango-American imperialist project, whose methods are well-known to the students and victims of the British Empire.
The Nakba is the other side of that appalling product of European antisemitism, exploited by imperial game players.
Stop the propaganda and don’t treat us as fools. We know what you are up to.
I’m not surprised!! It was Great Britain in its last years as an empire that left the the world stage with its shameful Balfour Declaration. It was Great Britain that allowed for Zionist gangsters to come and settle in Palestine. They are complicit!! We Palestinians shed no tears on Britain’s retreat just as we will shed no tears on America’s decline … the more recent Zionist instrument… Neither power will succeed in its designs; for we are the people with the claim to the land… our culture, both of our religions: Islam and Christianity are deep seeded in Palestine so is our history.
Palestinians are among the bravest people on earth I’m sure you’ll prevail in the end. God bless!
Mamoun hijjawi: the British Empire staggered on for another few decades years after Balfour, but the writing was indeed already on the wall by WW1. It’s worth noting that Edwin Montagu, who was a Jewish member of the British cabinet that produced the Balfour declaration, described Zionism as ‘a mischievous political creed’ and, according to Wikipedia’s mini-biography, considered that the declaration itself was antisemitic. It was certainly a convenient ploy for the British elite to encourage members of this minority to emigrate.
There’s no MSM coverage of Jordan’s response to Israel’s annexation, which is likely to turn into a significant conflagration. Jordan is of course a close UK ally. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/jordan-warns-israel-massive-conflict-annexation-200516035706236.html
This is crazy stuff. The British political elite suck so much Israeli arse that they’re putting the counties own Allies at risk. I find it stunning. Thatcher, major and even Blair would have given Israel a slapping down years ago, but our ex-spas politicians have made Zionism the boss, Israel really have taken over this country. I don’t blame them, I blame our idiotic politicians for not pushing back, without the west Israel would be dust tomorrow.
Starmer has falsely accused a colleague and one of her constituents of Anti Semitism, a very serious accusation,
1/ It is not Anti Semitic to criticize Israel, in this case part of the security services. It is not an Anti Semitic trope since this is a well documented fact, the Israeli state and Jewish groups in the USA actively cooperate in sharing these techniques [as detailed below].
2/ Starmer is guilty of breaching one of the examples attached to the working definition of Anti Semitism “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel”. Maxine Peake criticized the Israeli security services [a perfectly legitimate thing to do, this is definitely not Anti Semitic] to which Starmer has conflated this criticism ‘ i.e, actions taken by the state of Israel with ‘Jews’, a conflation condemned by the IHRA as antisemitic.
Starmer is unfit to lead the Labour party, he is a racist bigot who is using the no tolerance approach to not only suppress free speech but to tell lies in order to appear a strong leader and accumulate brownie points with the most reactionary parts of the Jewish community, while at the same time breaching the IHRA in the most cynical fashion.
Below is part of an article from https://israelpalestinenews.org/minn-cops-trained-by-israeli-police-who-often-use-knee-on-neck-restraint/ ….
A favorite technique used by the Israeli police to subdue an Arab is the very knee on neck used by Derek Chauvin that killed George Floyd. Minnesota has been actively involved in training its police with the Israelis, to include participation by over 100 officers in a 2012 conference in Minneapolis hosted by Israel’s Chicago consulate.
There, they learned the “restraint procedures” employed by Israelis. The conference was jointly hosted by the FBI, the facilities were provided by the city, and the meeting itself was funded by the federal government and the state. Israeli deputy consul Shahar Arieli claimed that the half-day session brought “top-notch professionals from the Israeli police” to share knowledge with their U.S. counterparts. https://peoplesworld.org/article/israeli-forces-trained-cops-in-restraint-techniques-at-minneapolis-conference/
5-311 USE OF NECK RESTRAINTS AND CHOKE HOLDS (10/16/02) (08/17/07) (10/01/10) (04/16/12)
DEFINITIONS I.
Choke Hold: Deadly force option. Defined as applying direct pressure on a person’s trachea or airway (front of the neck), blocking or obstructing the airway (04/16/12)
Neck Restraint: Non-deadly force option. Defined as compressing one or both sides of a person’s neck with an arm or leg, without applying direct pressure to the trachea or airway (front of the neck). Only sworn employees who have received training from the MPD Training Unit are authorized to use neck restraints. The MPD authorizes two types of neck restraints: Conscious Neck Restraint and Unconscious Neck Restraint. (04/16/12)
Conscious Neck Restraint: The subject is placed in a neck restraint with intent to control, and not to render the subject unconscious, by only applying light to moderate pressure. (04/16/12)
Unconscious Neck Restraint: The subject is placed in a neck restraint with the intention of rendering the person unconscious by applying adequate pressure. (04/16/12 https://archive.fo/Avjb5
A quote from that second link suggests that Israel was already doing neck kneeling in 2006, so that’s possibly where the American police learnt about that technique:
“Neta Golan, co-founder of International Solidarity Movement (ISM), said: “When I saw the picture of killer cop Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd by leaning in on his neck with his knee as he cried for help and other cops watched, I remembered noticing when many Israeli soldiers began using this technique of leaning in on our chest and necks when we were protesting in the West Bank sometime in 2006.
“They started twisting and breaking fingers in a particular way around the same time. It was clear they had undergone training for this. They continue to use these tactics—two of my friends have had their necks broken but luckily survived —and it is clear that they [Israel] share these methods when they train police forces abroad in ‘crowd control’ in the U.S. and other countries including Sudan and Brazil.”
The training of U.S. police officials by Israeli forces is widespread.”
https://peoplesworld.org/article/israeli-forces-trained-cops-in-restraint-techniques-at-minneapolis-conference/
I believe, though don’t have references available, that the UK Police (and military) also have links to Israeli ‘training’ !!
You should also believe that the security systems on London Underground were being run by an Israeli company when 7/7 happened…..
The Guardian have put Freedland’s article : ‘The sacking of Long-Bailey shows that, at last, Labour is serious about antisemitism’… at the top of its opinion page. Freedland, or the Guardian(?) of course, won’t open it up to reader comments.
There’s no getting away from the fact that accurately claiming Israeli forces are training US police(they are) ,is in no way peddling an anti-Semitic ‘conspiracy theory’.
Upon realising the claim by Peake was broadly accurate, those defending Starmer’s decision have tenuously shifted ground and claimed it is wrong to claim this particular neck kneeling method of restraint was taught, they’re winging it on that assertion however, because they’re having to investigate whether or not it was and the jury seems out on the claim.
Why does any British person bother reading the Guardian any more?
It was taken over by American neoconservatives and it is no longer a UK newspaper serving UK interests.
Every sentient human being in the UK should boycott it. We cannot stop it becoming a US/Australian yap dog, but we can refuse to buy it and ensure that it’s role in the UK shrivels up.
You occasionally get a good opinion piece still, and I think the cartoonists are still where they were politically.
But basically I agree, it’s declined dramatically as a source for critical, domestic investigative reporting, it’s been pacified for sure. But that was only to be expected after Snowden’s revelations about Five Eyes. That reporting gave too many powerful people sleepless nights over what Rusbridger’s paper was going to drop next.
Don’t forget MI5 infiltrated
The surprising thing about Starmer’s sacking of Long Bailey is that people are surprised and shocked. Starmer is doing his loyal duty in further entrenching fascism in this country by his support for the government’s, and compliance with, the attack on fundamental rights. What should never be forgotten is that Labour is pro capitalist, pro imperialist, pro colonial party to the core and it’s role in suppressing various anti imperialist and anti colonial movements are second to none. They have one of the worse records in the world for such suppression and aggression against other countries and peoples. The British road to imposing fascism is well under way and all the Labour party can focus on is not opposing Johnson in any meaningful way. Starmer is an establishment lackey who has got on because he is the establishments lackey. The real intention of Starmer is to turf out and squeeze out any ‘radicalism’ from the Labour party to show the ruling class he definitely hasn’t lost his pro capitalist pro imperialist agenda. This could well be the turning point when Labour splits asunder and no amount of ‘organise’ from ‘the left’ will halt the steady shift towards backing Johnson’s British fascist renaissance. Capitalism is heading for the rocks and the trade wars will intensify as will the shooting wars which is the only way capitalism knows to get out of slump as was shown by the First and Second World Wars. and intermittently since 1945 when capitalism gets in crisis the warmongers bang the drum for internal repression and external aggression. The only way to end such barbarity is to bring down the dictatorship of capital and replace it with the dictatorship of the proletariat and therefore plan and build socialism.
Yes, basically what this article on his sacking of Rebecca Long Bailey concludes. “His political project is to present Labour to the British establishment as a safer pair of hands, a less disruptive force, than even the Tories.”
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/06/how-keir-starmer-sabotaged-rebecca-long-bailey
The problem for him is he ran as someone ‘on the left’ and that will come back to bite him if hundreds of thousands feel they were deceived. Also, his 10 pledges are disruptively progressive especially:
1. Economic justice
Increase income tax for the top 5% of earners, reverse the Tories’ cuts in corporation tax and clamp down on tax avoidance, particularly of large corporations. No stepping back from our core principles.
*The next is very specific. An illegal war, certainly in a Labour context (after the Iraq mess), is one conducted without a Security Council resolution to authorise use of force.
4. Promote peace and human rights
*No more illegal wars. Introduce a Prevention of Military Intervention Act and put human rights at the heart of foreign policy. Review all UK arms sales and make us a force for international peace and justice.
5. Common ownership
Public services should be in public hands, not making profits for shareholders. Support common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water; end outsourcing in our NHS, local government and justice system.
8. Radical devolution of power, wealth and opportunity
Push power, wealth and opportunity away from Whitehall. A federal system to devolve powers – including through regional investment banks and control over regional industrial strategy. Abolish the House of Lords – replace it with an elected chamber of regions and nations.
It also promises to support the abolition of tuition fees. Some are very specific and he’ll struggle to wriggle out. These aren’t comparable to Ed Miliband’s vague, meaningless drivel on the Ed Stone.
He will abandon all of that and be cheered for it across the media, just as he has been for abandoning his claim to be a unifier.
Tend to agree.
Have to admit, it seems it’d be a ‘cold day in hell’ before an establishment man like Sir Starmer pushed through that lot.
Tarla
I think you might have that the wrong way round?
The principle aim of any British government is colonial war and how it can be achieved without the electorate knowing anything about it.
Driving around Oxfordshire and Buckingham shire this week I was surprised to see so many vast mssions in.pale yellow stone going up in some parts. How can planning permission be given for do many green field projects? Obviously because the land has also been bought. I don’t think executives are going to live miles down single track roads in their 4 x 4s , so these must be the status symbols of people who want to get away, like city bankers.
When they have achieved their principle aim of defrauding or colonising others, then they need mansions to show people as the motivation for their criminal endeavours. Wealth was the outcome , not the motive, which was pure hatred of the entire human race.
One of the most bias pieces I have ever seen was a BBC report on one of the ships that was trying to break the Israel blockade on Palestine and deliver medical and other supplies. The Israel special forces had come down on ropes from helicopters in international waters. They killed a number on the ship. But the BBC concentrated on the fightback from those on the ship. Who had according to the BBC deliberately provoked the situation and were prepared for trouble. They interviewed a Israeli from the attack who had been stabbed and thrown overboard. The BBC concluded by saying the medical supplies were out of date and poor quality and the wheel chairs were not needed and would just be stockpiled.
The Mavi Marmara Brian. Craig wrote about it several times.
This is the most recent.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/05/the-mavi-marmara-murders/
I notice Jenrick is in the news again today – this time over his shady connections to an Israeli billionaire. Better not go any further than that lest I get rounded up for anti-semitism.
I know, the truth may often offend…
The billionaire is Idan Ofer, based in Monaco.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idan_Ofer
The Mail on Sunday carried a long piece on Jenrick and co. There are certainly a lot of sticky fingers in the Westferry pie.
Craig made some good points on Twitter over annexation moves.
Starmer posted this on Friday 26 June:
‘Labour will always be committed to the ideals embodied in the UN Charter, signed 75 years ago today: peace, justice, the international rule of law and the full protection of the human rights and dignity of all. #UN75′
Craig this, a day earlier, on 25 June:
Here is a prediction for you.
Next week, when Israel illegally annexes much of the Palestinian West Bank, Keir Starmer will join Boris Johnson and call on “both sides” to “enter dialogue” to “avoid violence”, as the iron will of the occupier is brutally enforced upon the victim.’
—————-
Sure most would agree here, that the real and only test for Labour, is whether they lead calls for sanctions, condemnation isn’t enough. Israel has developed an incredibly thick skin to international criticism over many decades, and some UK opposition’s criticism won’t even register on their ‘concern’ scale. It’d be priced in, and Starmer may even have tacit permission to complain.
No, the real and only test, is calling for sanctions if they go ahead with the annexation of parts of the West Bank. And Lisa Nandy signing a ‘strongly worded’ letter will simply cause minor Israeli bemusement.
Goose
Lisa There Are No Fit Men Nandy wiill judge the issue on the biceps of the IDF. It might be a knee-jerk reaction but Corbyn’s knee action obviously didn’t paas the test.
This from the Irish Times in mid-May this year :
Diplomats say France, backed by Belgium, Ireland and Luxembourg, is urging member states to threaten punitive economic measures if Israel extends sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank, which has been occupied by the Israeli military since a 1967 war.
So Labour could be put in an awkward position. As for the Tories and Johnson, they’ll try to just follow what ever the US says.
Many European politicians are refusing to turn a blind eye to the annexation, because they know how significant it is. One of them is the long-serving diplomat, Jean Asselborn from Luxembourg, who is generally fairly conformist in his views (anti-Russia and anti-Assad). He was interviewed a couple of weeks ago:
DER SPIEGEL: (…) Should the EU impose sanctions on Israel if annexation takes place similar to the punitive measures taken against Russia?
Asselborn: I don’t want to speculate about sanctions at this time. It is too early for that. At the moment, we Europeans are still trying everything to change the Israeli government’s mind before July 1.
DER SPIEGEL: At present, there is little to suggest that this effort will succeed.
Asselborn: We can only try. But if we do not succeed, we would have to consider tougher measures. To simply write reproachful letters would be a humiliation for the EU and would significantly weaken its credibility.
DER SPIEGEL: EU sanctions against Israel are considered extremely unlikely, if only because the German government would almost certainly use its veto. What other options are available?
Asselborn: The recognition of Palestine. This debate would gain a whole new dynamic, I would even consider it inevitable. So far, nine out of 27 EU countries have recognized the state of Palestine. In contrast to sanctions, this does not require a unanimous decision by all 27 members. Each country can decide for itself. Sweden, Malta, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Slovakia have already done so. If others were to follow, it would likely achieve much more than economic sanctions.
DER SPIEGEL: What would the implementation of Israel’s annexation plans mean for the Middle East peace process?
Asselborn: That it would no longer exist. The two-state solution, on which the EU also insists, would no longer be a theoretical possibility. Everyone who is familiar with the region knows that if Israel annexes the entire Jordan Valley, there would no longer be any room left for the state to which the Palestinians are entitled.
https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/jean-asselborn-on-israel-s-plan-annexation-is-a-gross-violation-of-international-law-a-7f11734d-2f04-4587-809f-11b3b877141f
Many believe Corbyn’s plan to recognise Palestine drove much of the almost fanatical opposition and highly organised hatred and smears directed at him.
The Labour party membership is overwhelmingly in favour; as are other parties in the HoC and their memberships. The Socialist Campaign Group should raise it with Starmer in parliament.
Goose. There are 120 members of Labour Friends of Israel. In favour of a Palestinian state? I doubt that these MPs ( listed by name) would support it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Friends_of_Israel
This news has gone up at the guardian @ 18.55 :
Lisa Nandy leads calls for sanctions on Israel over West Bank annexations
Labour hardens stance to apply imports ban if highly controversial proposals go ahead in face of mounting international opposition
Is hell freezing over?
BBC pro Israel bias was shameful even before it became anti semitic to express concern for Palestinians. Tread carefully.
Propaganda can be downright dangerous:
‘Outrage mounts[in US] over report Russia offered bounties to Afghanistan militants for killing US soldiers.’
‘Unnamed sources’ again?
It seems highly unlikely, as no one needs a financial incentive to fight an occupier, do they? But even were it true, in the 1980s the US bankrolled the Mujahideen (Arab guerrilla groups) who’d arrived there, to fight against the Soviet forces, later they toppled the Afghan govt. How was that any different?
….or the supply of around 1000 US made Stinger shoulder launched surface to air missiles that resulted in the loss of 270 Russian aircraft.
https://www.businessinsider.com/32-year-anniversary-of-first-stinger-missile-use-in-afghanistan-2018-9?r=US&IR=T
Complain to your MP and OFFCOM
A hundred years ago, at San Remo in Italy, the allied powers of World War I agreed to grant all the land from the Mediterranean to the River Jordan (including the now disputed territories) to the Jewish people, thus incorporating Britain’s Balfour Declaration of 1917 into international law.
That is how the situation remains; no subsequent resolution has altered that political reality. What muddied the waters was Jordan’s illegal annexation of these territories in 1948 which was duly reversed by Israel in 1967, leaving the impression among some that once in Arab hands, they should remain so. But Israel won back this land in a defensive war which threatened their very existence.
Just thought I’d put that out there,
Let the vitriol commence…
No vitriol from me. Indeed that’s how the situation remains: a little loyal Jewish Ulster; a crucial neocolonial strategic gem at the centre of a web of some of the biggest lies ever told, with a permanent dependence on those who use them to their ends. And the poor bastards celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut as if they ever gained it.
The allied powers had no buisness ‘granting’ that land to anyone since it was not theirs to grant.
Thus you mean, it was not and is not “international law”, as Mitchell claims. The legal position was established by the League of Nations grant of a mandate to Britain, i.e. a temporary custodianship.
Neither was Palestine the League of Nations possesion to grant. If ‘International Law’ said it was anybody other than the Palertinian People’s to grant then International Law is the law of thieves.
thanks for that David. And after being granted to share this piece of land, they began to hang the bodies of English soldiers into barbed wire blew up the hotel wete most officers were staying, and whence the English ran away from the zionist mercenaries, they began their long history of Apartheid against those they pledged to live peacefully in harmony with.
by stealing their land , incarcerating over a million inside Gaza and forcing them to live in an extended much bombed concentration camp guarded from outside via drones, air raids, 24hrs non stop air surveillance and rationing of every essential service/food/ medicines, they ensured that generations of Palestinians would hate them forever.
Palestine was taken over by a zionist cabal and much can be read about it. There never was a need to ignore and flaunt international laws of the sea and land, to treat the UN as their beating boy.
Re “the allied powers of World War I“
It may be a rhetorical question but by what authority did the allied WW1 powers, that is the imperial juggernauts who presided over the mass slaughter of millions, get the right to carve up lands not belonging to them to give them to people with weird religious beliefs?
The treaty of Sevres which included the deliberatons of the San Remo conference was never ratified. It was that original Balfour declaration of 1917 that the Zionists were to refer to when forming the Israeli state. The operative phrase is “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. This followed the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916, which carved up the Ottoman empire much as the Berlin Conference carved up Africa between imperialist European powers.
” This followed the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916, which carved up the Ottoman empire”
The real reason for WW1. Where the oil was.
David, you might speculate that when God gave the “promised land” to Israel it was where Israelis were when Moses passed away. However there were people living in Palestine for centuries before Joshua laid siege on Jericho after the death of Moses. How far would you like to go back to legitimise land possession?
Not too vitriolic I trust!
Those would’ve been the Canaanites, I guess. Or even the Philistines, a sea faring, non semitic race that occupied much of the coastal area of what is now Lebanon and Israel. Being non semitic, there is no connection to either Jews or Arabs there.
As for how far back do you go to legitmise land grabs? Good question. Isn’t that what many in the US are arguing about now? How much land should the US government return to the native american Indian? And how do you distribute it? Before the Mayflower settlers, Sioux, Apache, navajo, Komanche etc, were busy slaughtering each other and making land grabs. Does America give back Texas?
What do we do with jamaica, now the original inhabitants are no longer there? Where do we repatriate?
Right, because Zionists are second-to-none in their scrupulous adherence to International Law. They are famous for it.
We remember he UN General Assembly decisively backed a resolution effectively calling on the US to withdraw its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
However UN ambassador Nikki Haley said:
“The United States will remember this day, on which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation,”
“America will put our embassy in Jerusalem. That is what the American people want us to do. And it is the right thing to do. No vote in the United Nations will make any difference on that.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q01msxfeyLI
Britain will pay as Trump suggests in $billions for the Trident program together with blueprints of the W93 DIAL-DOWN to tactical nuclear bomb costing £31 billion. A nasty device that blurs the line between HE and nuclear.
https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2020/02/22/uk-plan-to-replace-trident-nuclear-warheads-is-revealed-by-us-officials/
Nobody uses blueprints anymore. The drawings are done on a computer screen and printed off as required.
The term blueprint continues to be used less formally to refer to any type of plan esp. nuclear secret drawings. The ‘heads up’ was.trivial.
While Friends of Israel pumps thousands into MPs pockets.Jenrick has a liking for projects byJewish oligarchs. Idan Ofer enters stage left and joins Jewish billionare Richard Desmond, whose pornography empire stretched from the Fantasy TV channel, later Channel 5, across 40 magazines, a well equipped film studio producing vile pornography, to a telephone sex operation. .However, his health lottery now needs some rules to be relaxed to stack up more millions which he can park in his Jewish Care account. Can Jenrick help out?
The telephone sex operation; a nice earner that stacks up £pounds on telephone bills and credit cards. Better move the emphasis towards charity and so many old and ill-supported with a chicken feed compared to director’s compensation. A tasered testicle might be applicable here.
The threat to annexe the West Bank is still being carried by the Observer today. Harriet Sherwood, who is based in Jerusalem, is the author.
Israel’s cabinet meets to finalise annexation plans
Calls for sanctions are intensifying as the cabinet meets and Netanyahu awaits US approval
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/28/growing-hostility-may-force-israel-to-pause-annexation-plan
King Abdullah sees the dangers.
‘Starting in July, Israel wants to implement Trump’s Middle East plan, which includes, among other things, the annexation of settlements in the West Bank. Abdullah II warns that if Israel really does move to change the borders, it would set off a massive conflict with Jordan.’
https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/jordan-s-king-abdullah-ii-the-danger-of-people-starving-to-death-is-greater-than-the-danger-from-the-virus-a-4b220928-7ff9-4219-a176-ec380ec16cf3
Israel probably wants to carry out more weapons testing on the Palestinians, trapped in their enclaves.
Another big Israel-Arab conflict starting In July? I wonder how the timing decision relates to the US presidential election. Generally speaking, fascist leaders such as Trump love wars.
Today Trump posted and approvingly commented on a video of a white man shouting “White Power!”…which he then deleted. Probably about one in three US citizens will think “Hell yeah! All we hear about is ‘black power’; it’s about time for some white power.” If they’re male, they’ll probably fondle their gun (or one gun in their collection) while they’re thinking it. Trump’s office, aka “The White House”, say he didn’t notice what was in the video, which contains the “white power” call at 8 seconds in. Note the following fact very carefully: neither Trump nor his office have APOLOGISED. Why not? Because it wasn’t a mistake, that’s why.
Trump may soon pardon Roger Stone too, another man who likes making “white power” references as dogwhistles. See this image. For those who don’t know, the “OK” symbol spells out “WP” for “white power”. This is certainly what Stone meant when he and his friends in the Proud Boys, a white fascist group, put their index fingers and thumbs together and enjoyed their collective hand movements. (Did I mention that the Proud Boys is male-only?)
Looks like 2020 will be one heck of a year…
Trump *must be stopped*.
There’s at least 225 UN Resolutions on Israel, I doubt they’ve ever heeded any of them, nor will they heed the warnings of conflict if they go through with Netanyahu’s and Trumps preposterous plan.
That is true, but it’s worth pointing out that for the last 15 years whenever a motion criticising Israel has come up at the UN Security Council, the US has vetoed it. Until about 20 years ago, even though the UN wasn’t doing a thing to discourage Zionist terror, murder, and land theft, at least on paper it took the line that “Zionism is a form of racism” (“Z = R”). That line was buried at the 2001 Durban conference, when most of the western media portrayed those who wanted to retain the “Z=R” policy as a bunch of Nazi-style mouth-foaming anti-Semites.
The Independent gave Aunty a run for her money in the disingenuous stakes last week. It said Labour was right to sack Rebecca Long-Bailey for sharing an “antisemitic conspiracy theory,” even though it was the Independent itself who edited, verified and published the supposed “antisemitic conspiracy theory “!
All makes sense when you hate and fear the left enough.
I don’t think the Right fears the Left much at all. Why should they? The next election is way off. They have plenty of support from our right-wing media. They have a majority of 80 in the House. Come on!
At present the only credible opposition to Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings with any potential authority they need to worry about is sitting in the back benches of the Conservative Party. How much more they can take of Johnson’s pantomime performances and reckless incompetence must weigh heavily on their self-respect and sense of responsibility. 65000 dead so far, lawlessness on the streets, hundreds of thousands swarming drunk on Dorset beaches – it beggars belief that Tory backbenchers can sit there yahbooing, cheering on clueless Boris. Clarke was spot on when he said Boris couldn’t run a whelk stall – the only people who can sort him out are in the Conservative Party, and they should get on with it as a matter or urgency.
We need a strong opposition in Parliament at all times – especially now. Starmer is doing his best, and managing immediate colleagues’ student-style juvenile jibes at Israel makes his job ten times more difficult. We do not need a party of banner-waving protest, we need a party which wants to govern.
On a final thought. Do we think Dominic Cummings is Boris Johnson’s “fag” (public school parlance not Americanism)? Or is Boris Dominic’s fag? Whichever it is, it is not healthy in a democracy.
I wasn’t referring to the Tories but to dishonest centrist neoliberals and their press.
@Xavi
Yes, the Independent’s lack of self-awareness in agreeing with her sacking over retweeting their article, is mind boggling.
On the subject of those lacking self-awareness….
I typed ‘SNP’ into twitter’s search box today to read about what the excellent Joanna Cherry’s suggestion is on a Plan B (possible UDI) only to be presented with dozens of extremely bitter, vitriolic and often abusive comments from unionists about the SNP & Cherry: attacking MPs, MSPs – it’s often really personal playground level stuff too – mocking intelligence and appearance. Most hilariously, their favourite complaint by far though, is bemoaning the fact the SNP are sowing ‘division’.
These anti-SNP and independence malice-filled unionist posts outnumber pro-SNP or pro-independence posts, by at least 10 to 1. On this evidence, it’s clearly it’s they (the unionists) who are creating all the rancour, that they then label as ‘division’. Ultimately they know, they’d lose any independence debate conducted in a mutually respectful atmosphere. Generating aggro then blaming the SNP for the foul mood, is their only hope.
As an experiment type : SNP
…in twitter’s search box… and tell me someone isn’t manipulating to make so many negative posts pop up as the leading results.
No tactics are too cynical for some, Goose, a fact the past few years have rammed home. I dread to think what Scots would be subjected to if they were given another chance to end the insanity.
There was a time in 2016 when any Google search result including the word “Hillary” put her official campaign website first on the results.
I noticed because I was looking for an old archive from a publication called Progressive Review, who during the 1990’s had kept up a compendium of the Clinton crimes while in office. So as the ’16 elections were beginning, I decided I wanted a review of Vince Foster and the White House Travel office and so forth. Specifically, I wanted the mentions of Hillary is that archive of Clinton Crimes to pop up from my search.
The only way to get even close was to omit the name Hillary completely. If that was there, you got official campaign sites at the top of a lot of other noises. Omit the name, then you got a little closer, but strangely that old archive never quite showed up. I knew the name of the website, Progressive Review , but I couldn’t get google to point me to the old pages I wanted.
Just for google-giggles, I tried the same search a few months after the election, and on the first attempt I put in a search term that put that old website at the top of the list.
Hannah: Put the website you’re interested in as a condition of the search. For progressive review (http://prorev.com/) add the text “site:prorev.com” to your search, and you’ll primarily get search results from that site.
Also try using something other than google, which is pure poison anyone concerned for even the tiniest bit of privacy in one’s life.
It’s a bit like the US and the GoP, and how they’re so quiet about Trump’s often outrageous behaviour.
The Tories didn’t expect to win the last election based on polling, throughout 2016, 2017 incl. GE, then throughout 2018 and early 2019, they had no reason to. The capability to win a majority only came when Johnson took over and made ‘Get Brexit Done’ his central, clear message. Labour MPs and centrist pundits like to trash Corbyn’s record as if the 2019 result is the definitive verdict on his time, but it’s far more complicated than that; with Labour’s muddled Brexit position (thank Starmer & Watson) and red wall Brexit voting seats being far more decisive, than they’d like to admit.
As for Johnson, stunned by the party’s unexpected success his MPs have been stunned into silence. Any predictions of an 80 seat majority made in early 2019 would’ve seemed absurd.
Corbyn’s “mistake” was in trying to keep the party together.
I remember reading Guardian’s blog the night of the European elections. They loved to post items blaming Corbyn for, well just about anything. So, one minute, there’d be a post about a politician a comment made on the results that blamed Corbyn because the correct policy was to be Remain. Then a few minutes later a post about a politician’s comment that they blamed Corbyn because the correct policy was Leave. Half the party wanted one, half wanted the other.
Corbyn was trying to hold the party together, and to move from the opposition to the government. In most era’s, that seems to be a party leader’s basic job description. In Corbyn’s case, there was probably a point where he should have said that if he can’t hold this thing together and win an election, then what good is it anyways? I suspect he was saying that in the first week of the election, so why not have some fun and take some shots and the Tony Blair crowd on the way out?
Hannah
Jeremy Corbyn , bless him , has not grown up from being a lefty student trying to harness the Labour Party with compromise and unity. That worked even up to Theresa May who used compromise and unity even to get Brexit through.
That era is finished, principally because of night club bouncer Dominic Cummings whose message is ‘ we don’t ask nice people into night clubs, we just hit them if they misbehave.’
As a result , the nice people from the civil service are no longer welcome at Westminster. Cummngs says he wants white supremacist cranks and bitches like Priti Patel running the show.
Cummings is Hitler, a populist thug. He certainly intends to make Britain a Fascist state by removing the checks and balances of compromise and unity from the political toolbox.
Jihnson is offerring sweeties for all , if we are stupid enough to be led by an unelected thug into Fascism. But , sadly , Johnson is a liar who has been consciously selected as a liar in order lie and give us false promises.
I personally sm wary of eating any of Johnson’s sweeties, renewables, roads business grants etc so long as Night club bouncer Cummings is in No 10.
If he went, we would revert to normal British pragmatism, but as he has no intention of going, he must be subjected to a higher authority than the code of night club bouncers, of which Derek Chauvin and the IDF are fully paid up members.
I would advise all politicians, much though they adore sugar, to smell the coffee and get rid of him, before we’re all forced to raise our right hands in salute: Heil Cummings, the caveman Neanderthal who has just sacked Mark Sedwill, while threateming him with something personal to say he has voluntarily resigned.
“They have a majority of 80 in the House.”
They won the postal ballot. I wonder if they’ll win it next time.
” Starmer is doing his best, and managing immediate colleagues’ student-style juvenile jibes at Israel makes his job ten times more difficult”
Is it victory if our torries beat their tories? Personally I don’t want to vote tory so I won’t be voting Labour in its present shape.
Johnny Conspiranoid
” They won the postal ballot ”
I don’t think so. I think they won the non-voters, which ironically may mean the ones who are most disaffected with Tory policy. Whatever the algorithms predicted would not be used was transferred to Tory. They got Brexit done, by pinching their opponents’ votes. It’s seriously impossible for them to have leapt from -20 to + 80, from buying N. Ireland to binning them without cheating.
That said , arch Tory Peter Lilley has executive powers to unilaterally declare postal ballots ineligble. Tory MPs are hardly going to pick up a lost tenner from the floor and hand it over to the shopkeeper. The BBC’s continuous rabid attacks on Corbyn before the election have morphed into a continuous vomiting of Tory wish-list policies for post Covid.
” Darling, don’t you know , nobody thinks the Palestinans have a right to live in Israel any more.
says the post-woke Archer listener to her pre-woke husband. Everybody knows about that. You should get out more, { by listening to the BBC} “
“student-style juvenile jibes at Israel makes his job ten times more difficult. We do not need a party of banner-waving protest, we need a party which wants to govern”
Classic reactionary framing of brutal settler-colonialism. And say you did get your “sensible Tory” or Labour Right government — what do you expect them to deliver but further austerity and disastrous wars?
“Sir Mark”
Who?
BBC – Explain clearly to us who Mark Sedwill is and why he is referred to as “Sir Mark”
What next – Dame Leslie Evans?
He is not going until September. A lot can happen in three months in Tory ‘politics’.
Sir Mark Sedwill: UK’s top civil servant steps down
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53210773
I don’t think Johnson should get on the wrong side of the Civil Servants.
There are many gambles Johnson is taking I think and he will need to rely on the Civil Service to do them.
Trump may not be the President of the USA.
He thinks the Trade Talks can be done by the end of July with the EU.
He is ‘ re-opening ‘ schools on pain of fines for not sending your children.
Furlough and general support for business is ending.
The only crowd gathering allowed is in Dim Weatherspoon’s pubs -i.e. – if your are paying it’s OK but if you are protesting – it’s not.
Plus if it all goes terribly wrong he can now co blame Starmer and the Labour Party.
As the scientists are backing away Starmer walks in to take their place.
That’s not leadership – that’s stupidity and that’s why Long Bailey had to go.
She is no longer an obstacle to re-opening the schools which is in actuality what it always was – a babysitting service for the employers so that their parents can work not so that children can be educated.
IIRC, that’s the sort of logic Adolf Hitler used to use.
As in, we just had to kill 100 of the villagers because a villager took a shot at our brave troops. Its the villagers own fault that they died.
Considering that back in those days, there were British conservatives who thought Hitler was right, at least before the war, I don’t imagine that it is much of a surprise that the voice of the British conservative movement today tends to sound a lot like Adolf.
In 1938, most European leaders acquiesced to Germany’s illegal annexation of part of Czechoslovakia. We all know what that led to . . .
This week, Europe’s leaders are acquiescing to another illegal annexation.
The omens are not good . . .
British politicians and media are even more aligned with the oppressors this time than they were with the Nazis, and that’s saying something.
Netanyahu dials into American evangelical group Christians United for Israel to ask that they lobby the White House to give the green light to annexation.
https://www.axios.com/netanyahu-lobbying-evangelicals-annexation-trump-fa71b0dd-340d-4355-9554-58989803b477.html
CUFI are a faction. Most evangelicals are at best indifferent to Zionist goals. A smart evangelical wouldn’t adopt a fringe position that puts distance between themselves and potential “born agains”.
Pence and Pompeo however are not smart. Extremists nutters salivating at the prospect of the rapture. I fear the un-holy trinity of Pence, Pompeo and Kushner will win the day.
Faced with diabolical poll numbers in the must win, purple states, the strategy from the White House is becoming clear. They’re going to pull down the Temple on their way out.
Trump’s posting White Power videos, Pence is asked three times on CBS to repeat the phrase “black lives matter” and won’t.
Looks like the green light for recognition of West Bank annexation is all but certain.
But will the US Democrats oppose any of it?
They tend to say very little and offer quiet support. When the United States outrageously recognised the Golan Heights as part of Israel through a presidential proclamation, they were silent.
Even the UK has been silent, despite it being against UK policy. And it happened 25 March 2019 – for all his much vaunted, alleged antisemitism (bogus nonsense) did Corbyn say anything?
There are only two measures that concern Israel: international sanctions and countries officially recognising Palestine.
Not an unreasonable question and I don’t have a confident answer. I guess the DNC and Biden would be minded to mutter their disapproval of annexation without actually getting round to doing anything concrete about it (assuming they take the White House).
That assumption is however less certain with the odious Eliot Engel out of the way and the influx of younger, more radical Democratic Party representatives in 2018. Cenk Uygur has a grasp of the harsh mechanics of Democratic Party politics. Individual politicians that would unquestionably adopt the DNC line can be swayed by the fear of being Primaried from the left. They are after all political hacks and career politicians with no dyed in the wool fealty to the Zionists.
An outstanding and much-needed article here that clarifies the reasons for the mainstream media’s unconscionable silence about Israel’s illegal annexation of the West Bank . . .
readpassage.com/uncovering-canadian-medias-devastating-pro-israel-bias/
I’ll try again . . .
https://readpassage.com/uncovering-canadian-medias-devastating-pro-israel-bias/
Oh Craig Don’t give the ones who are on your case on a daily basis any more ammunition , the alphabet mob are enough just now , I guess Humza Yousef ( not sure of the spelling) any way I would have thought assistance might be offered in this clear case of a vindictive prosecution , with clear political undertones
Robert Graham
Maybe you are assuming that the Scottish Court is against Craig, but I personally think they would be even more fed up than Craig at being told what to do by Whitehall. When the Civil Service is bypassed, it won’t be veiled threats to the Queen’s provincial Fisculator, it’ll be body bags zipped from the outside, signed DC, dropped from a great height over the Irish Sea.
Good piece on the career costs of honest reporting on Israel. This is Canada, probably even worse here.
https://readpassage.com/uncovering-canadian-medias-devastating-pro-israel-bias/
Whether it be media pro-Israel bias or the incredible disproportionate number of openly Zionist individuals in news editorial/reporting positions on TV, radio and print. Both subjects are impossible to comment on without being labelled anti-Semitic and possibly facing career ruination. This, even if you hold absolutely no enmity towards Israel or the Jewish people.
Among media folk It’s like the first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: you DO NOT talk about Fight Club!
I don’t know whether Craig still posts his excellent articles on FB. I have not seen any for days/weeks.
FITWAC!
Fuck Im thru with antisemitism crap!
As the (bedouin) Israeli diplomat (Ishmael Khaldi) said to the four Israeli security guards who knelt on his neck (you could not make this up) when he recorded their behaviour in al-Quds central busstation on his phone…
“I cant breathe” (in Hebrew, of course)
It’s not conspiracy, it’s racism!
Could you send a link to this incident please?
by way of example…..
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200618-report-i-could-not-breathe-says-arab-israeli-diplomat-beaten-by-jerusalem-security-guards/
There were media reports in Israel, throughout the arab Middle East, even the Washington Post.
So arch mandarin Jonathan ‘Pole’ is tweeting like Trump! Claiming that ConDom is perpetrating ‘a running coup’ , re the ‘ousting’ of Sado.
Crocodile tears.
The coup happened last year. It was perpetrated by these who have regularly staged coups across the world using their foreign intelligence agencies. Some fail.
It was announced and recorded and broadcast as the Gauntlet against Corbyn.
No tears at that Foreign state interference, eh pole dancer?
This appears to be a further attempt (the last was the Ambassador) to appease the gorilla after poking it with a sharp stick never thinking it may survive to retaliate and now being scared of being mauled to death as it comes for revenge. That is my opinion.
Mr stick-man must know it, he may know there are others in the chain that could also be handed over as sacrificial goats.
The game is filthy, always has been, Dom and his BS’ers know they are over a barrel if they want a ‘quick deal’ and whatever anyone thinks of Trump – he certainly knows how to be a ruthless deal maker. Especially against these who were conspirators in a coup against his election. I expect to see a few more heads roll, as events across the pond get daily more acrimonious and legal charges against their top ‘civil servants’ become more likely, as the election gets dirtier.
We got another 5 months to go yet!
The propaganda machine at the beeb is still shovelling for Hillary & co (that includes Powell) even as they hand the Yanks the post hard BrexShit deal of the century.
Talking of full spectrum propaganda- I claim the prize for being first to be barred by the Off-G echo machine! ???
Barred for doing what?
They don’t seem to like it if you go against their shtick that the CV pandemic is not ‘real’ and the excess total deaths were not caused by the CV but by the lockdown!!
They are fairly ambivalent towards the author of this site too.
They don’t ‘ban’ – but the comments ‘disappear’ into some gremlin blamed folder apparently- for no reason at all.
If you persist eventually they are ‘rescued’ with a claim they don’t censor!
Meaning they are well past being read in context of other commentators.
The current whizz is not sending autoemails when anyone replies to my comment including the admins. Which means I am unable to respond unless coming across such replies.
This after i was unable to use my Iphone 5 (this one) at the site.
Censorship by stealth, joins the censorship by ‘downvoting’ trolls and bullying of posters with views that don’t echo with the ‘majority’.
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Propaganda is full spectrum narrative management – it works in mysterious ways! ?
But I rersist, politely, wherever I find it, not just at that site.