Look at this paragraph by Daniel Finklelstein, described as "an editor and columnist with The Times".
(He's reviewing Deborah Lipstadt's Antisemitism: Here & Now, presumably for The Times, but it's just been recycled in The Weekend Australian Review under the capitalised headline NO DENYING IT, above a half-page photo of Arab demonstrators in Sydney carrying a large banner bearing an image of Netanyahu with a superimposed Hitler mustache and the word 'fascist' in English and Hebrew. And this in protest at Israel's serial Guernicas in Gaza. But I digress from the paragraph below.)
"[S]he stops short of calling either Trump or Corbyn anti-Semites. 'I don't know if either of these men is an antisemite, which is to say he harbours personal contempt for Jews'. This makes it all the more effective when she adds: 'While neither of them may be, both of them have facilitated the spread of antisemitism - they are directly responsible for the legitimisation of explicit hostility towards Jews'." (9/2/19)
If Finkelstein's review is anything to go by, Lipstadt's book seems merely part and parcel of the current Zionist campaign to cruel UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's election prospects by smearing his support for Palestinian rights as anti-Semitism.
As for the paragraph...
First, there's the obscene bracketing of Corbyn with Trump, the former a decent man of high principle, who has fought against racism all his life, the latter an unalloyed, narcissistic thug. And both in the same dock as far as their self-appointed judge and jury is concerned.
Then there's the statement, "I don't know if either... is an antisemite." This is along the lines of the classic loaded question, 'When did you last stop beating your wife?'
Following that comes the only ray of light in Lipstadt's utterance, the admission that anti-Semitism is "harbouring a personal contempt for Jews." I couldn't agree more. Ipso facto then, any forthright questioning, condemnation, or rejection of Israel, its Zionist ideology, or its practice, is clearly not anti-Semitic. Let me reiterate: anti-Semitism is hatred for Jews simply because they are Jews. Nothing more. Nothing less.
But no, Lipstadt cannot leave it there. "[B]oth of them" - the obscene juxtaposition continues - "have facilitated the spread of antisemitism..."
In what way?
Finkelstein cites a 2007 meeting with Palestinian-Israeli Islamist Raed Salah and quotes Lipstadt as saying of Corbyn "it seems that when he encounters [people like Salah], their Jew-hatred is irrelevant..." Presumably, and ludicrously, Corbyn is supposed to subject every one he meets to a McCarthy-style third degree: 'Are you now, or have you ever been, anti-Semitic?'
Meanwhile, Lipstadt's dark insinuations serve to distract many from the Zionist entity's ongoing crimes in Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere. Could that be their ancillary purpose?
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Let's see. Trump's daughter converted to Judaism and is married to a jew, Jared Kushner. On the other hand (since I don't equate being Jewish to support of Israel or for that matter hatred of Palestinians), he has moved the embassy from Tel Aviv and removed support from aid agencies for the Palestinians. He has also supported the Obama agreement to provide massive military funding to Israel and, in accord with Netanyahu, he has pulled out of the agreement with Iran. I'd say there's no point in worrying about criticisms of being anti-semitic or anti-Israel - they will come no matter what you do. You can never do enough for Israel.
On Corbyn, nobody says it better than another and much more learned Finkelstein.
https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3979-the-chimera-of-british-anti-semitism-and-how-not-to-fight-it-if-it-were-real
'Jeremy Corbyn is the democratically elected head of the Labour Party. His ascendancy vastly expanded and galvanized the party’s ranks. Corbyn has devoted a lifetime to fighting racism; like eponymous labor organizer Joe Hill, where workers strike and organize, it’s there you’ll find Jeremy Corbyn. By British and even global leadership standards, he cuts a saintly figure. On the opposite side, mostly unelected Jewish bodies have dragged Corbyn’s name through the mud, slandering and defaming him. They have refused to meet with Corbyn, even as he has repeatedly extended olive branches and offered substantive compromises. Instead they issue take-it-or-leave-it ultimatums. As it happens, Jews overwhelmingly do not support Labour, even when the head of the party list is Jewish (Ed Miliband in 2015). Nonetheless, these pious-cum-pompous communal leaders do not find it unseemly or even amiss to dictate from afar and from above internal Labour policy. This writer’s late mother used to muse, “It’s no accident that Jews invented the word chutzpah.” The transparent motive behind this cynical campaign is to demonize Corbyn, not because he’s a “fucking anti-Semite,” but because he’s a principled champion of Palestinian rights.'
Meanwhile in the US of A
AIPAC is compared to the NRA and no-one objects
I have written to Omar offering my support letting her know the attacks will be ongoing but she is not alone
‘Sorry, not sorry?’ Ilhan Omar apologizes for ‘anti-Semitic’ tweet, reigniting controversy https://www.rt.com/rtmobile/news/latest/451236/html/
In "Killing Gaza", independent journalists Max Blumenthal and Dan Cohen documented Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza.
Yet this film is much more than a documentary about Palestinian resilience and suffering. It is a chilling visual document of war crimes committed by the Israeli military, featuring direct testimony and evidence from the survivors.
https://killinggaza.com/
So while the BBC projects a
pro-zionist, conservative, Eurosceptic, pro-business version of the world, any takers on asking the BBC some questions on Palestine/Apartheid-isreal?
Quote
"If you are happy to be contacted by a BBC journalist please leave a telephone number that we can contact you on. In some cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. When sending us pictures, video or eyewitness accounts at no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions."
https://www.bbc.com/news/46103593?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c207p54m4rqt/israel-the-palestinians&link_location=live-reporting-story
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