Love of the Land: The EU Lobby In Israel

The EU Lobby In Israel

Backspin/Honest Reporting

02 December 09

Not so long ago, Britain's Channel 4 investigated the existence of an unsavory Israel lobby in the UK. They said it's accountable to nobody, lacks transparency, and places its loyalty to foreign governments.

After seeing the Jerusalem Post pick up on NGO-Monitor's examination of EU funding for Israeli non-governmental organizations, I'm wondering: Is there some kind of tawdry EU lobby in Israel that's accountable to nobody, not transparent, and places its loyalty to foreign governments?

Imagine the outcry if Israel were to press for the division of, say, Belfast, and provide the majority of funding for an Irish NGO pushing that very agenda.

Well, the EU is pressing for the division of Jerusalem and provided 67 percent of the 2007 budget of Ir Amim, an organization pushing for the city's division.

As Daniel Fink argues, the EU's lack of transparency worsens the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Love of the Land: The EU Lobby In Israel

Love of the Land: 'Myself As Exhibit A'

'Myself As Exhibit A'

Backspin/Honest Reporting
18 November 09

Jonathan Boyd says MSM coverage of Israel has a direct bearing on the levels of anti-Semitism. That's in spite of what The Guardian's editor, Alan Rusbridger, told Channel 4's Dispatches program.

Boyd writes:

Perhaps most important, it failed to mention in any detail why some Jewish leaders may feel compelled to support Israel. Leaving aside the politics of the region, the notion that Israel is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, or that Israel is the only nation state in the world in which Judaism is mainstream, Jewish culture is the norm and the Hebrew language is widely spoken and celebrated, were all ignored.

But it is, apparently, much easier to trot out the old antisemitic myth. After all, the public deserves to know what these nasty, rich Jews are up to. And what could possibly be wrong in uncovering the truth? There cannot conceivably be a connection between the way Israel and Jews are presented in the media and antisemitism on the streets of Britain.

Or so Alan Rusbridger would have us believe. In the documentary, he maintained that he found it "difficult to believe" that any journalistic coverage of events in Israel could result in acts of violence against Jews on the streets of Britain.

Boyd goes on to describe being attacked by a Briton in 2002, thanks to irresponsible media coverage of Jenin:

Well, allow me to present myself as exhibit A. In April 2002, at the height of the Palestinian intifada, media reports began circulating that a massacre had been committed by the Israel Defence Force in Jenin, in the West Bank. Rumours circulated that hundreds of Palestinians had been killed. The BBC suggested 150. Saeb Erekat, interviewed on CNN, claimed 500. Yasser Abed Rabbo intimated 900. The overarching impression was that the IDF had committed a horrific atrocity.

On the following Saturday, I was walking to synagogue, wearing my kippah (skull cap) in the north London suburb of Finchley. On the way, I was punched in the face by a young man. It was an entirely unprovoked assault. We were simply crossing paths when he delivered a sudden, forceful, right hook. Taken aback, my first response was to ask why he had done it. "That's what happens to Jews," he responded, "when they behave like that."

Mitch Bard reached a similar conclusion to about rising levels of anti-Semitism in 2002:

(Read full article)

Love of the Land: 'Myself As Exhibit A'

Love of the Land: Another Vast Jewish Conspiracy

Another Vast Jewish Conspiracy

British media and society are gripped by lies about a "secret" Israel lobby controlling foreign policy.

Robin Shepherd
Wall Street Journal
19 November 09

Here is a small selection of events that have taken place in Britain since the end of Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year.

The government has imposed a partial arms embargo on Israel and failed to vote against the Goldstone report in the U.N . The charities War on Want and Amnesty International U.K. have both promoted a book by the anti-Israeli firebrand Ben White, tellingly called "Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide." The Trades Union Congress at its annual conference has called for boycotts of Israeli products as well as a total arms embargo.

In the media, the Guardian newspaper has stepped up its already obsessive campaign against the Jewish state to the extent that the paper's flagship Comment is Free Web site frequently features two anti-Israeli polemics on one and the same day. The BBC continues to use its enormous influence over British public opinion to whitewash anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Middle East. Its Web site, for example, features a profile of Hamas that makes no mention of the group's virulent hatred of Jews or its adherence to a "Protocols of Zion"-style belief in world-wide Jewish conspiracies.

Readers may be surprised to learn, therefore, that the British media and political establishment is apparently cowering under the sway of a secretive cabal of Zionist lobbyists who have all but extinguished critical opinions of Israel from the public domain.

Such charges have been aired to mass critical acclaim this week in a landmark documentary, "Inside Britain's Israel Lobby," on Channel 4—the same outlet that offered Iran's Holocaust-denying president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an uninterrupted, seven-minute propaganda slot on Christmas Day last year.

The makers of the documentary—top Daily Mail columnist Peter Oborne and TV journalist James Jones—have also written about their program in the Guardian. Both furiously deny that they are peddling conspiracy theories. But the mindset we are dealing with was neatly exposed by the authors' own explanation on how their suspicions were aroused that something sinister is at work in the corridors of British power.

It all transpired, they told readers ominously, during an address earlier this year by Conservative Party leader David Cameron at a dinner hosted by the Conservative Friends of Israel.

(Read full article)

Love of the Land: Another Vast Jewish Conspiracy

Love of the Land: UK TV documentary alleging Zionist conspiracy brings torrent of anti-Semitic abuse into public view

UK TV documentary alleging Zionist conspiracy brings torrent of anti-Semitic abuse into public view

Robin Shepherd
RobinShepherdOnline.com
17 November 09

The airing last night of a rambling and analytically threadbare documentary alleging a secretive Zionist conspiracy against the British political establishment has immediately had the predictable effect of bringing anti-Semites and assorted Israel-haters right out of the woodwork.

The documentary shown on Channel 4 — the same channel which on Christmas Day last year gave Iran’s Holocaust-denying president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a seven minute, uninterrupted propaganda slot — was preceded by a primer in the Guardian which I wrote about yesterday. It effectively argued that since there is no sane or rational case to be made for Israel, the rare occasions when British politicians offer words of praise for the Jewish state can only be explained by the presence of a vast and wealthy Zionist lobby which is paying them or pressuring them to toe their line.

The Channel 4 website is now awash with adulation for the documentary and its makers — Peter Oborne and James Jones. Since Channel 4 is leaving all of this up on its site for public consumption, it is clear that they see nothing wrong with what is being said. Here is a small selection of the comments, some of which were published before the programme went out:

Read the rest of this entry »

Love of the Land: UK TV documentary alleging Zionist conspiracy brings torrent of anti-Semitic abuse into public view