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Just as I’d expected and hoped for. The Channel 4 Dispatches program that investigated the Israeli Lobby in Britain is now experiencing the usual “hasbara” and “anti-Semitic” crapola. But, just as I expected this, I also expected the British people to come out swinging against what they surely saw as attempts to control Britain’s foreign policy, by and for a foreign power. And swinging they are. Why the pro-Israel writer at the Guardian wrote an Israeli Hasbara piece trashing Dispatches and as expected, hauled out the Anti-Semitic defence shield. This failed miserably, judging from the comments section under the article, a selection of my favourites which I will post below for your enjoyment, but first this:
C4's Dispatches on Britain's Israel lobby perpetuated the same old antisemitic myth.Before we get to the comments (below), I wonder just how it is that a person can “contextualise” genocide on an entire population. No doubt if one were to peruse the newspapers during Hitler’s reign perhaps we would see some Nazi Hasbara Spreader writing the same sort of thing. But since he wants "contextualisation" I'll give it to him without saying one word:
Aside from the shoddy research and the barely concealed antisemitic undertones (the idea of a shady, morally repugnant "cabal" of Jews seeking to control the world is a classic antisemitic myth)
But then, context is always the problem. There was no effort throughout the programme to contextualise Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.
CONTEXT #1:
CONTEXT #2:
Now, here are the responses from the British Public, enjoy:
• Mach1
18 Nov 2009, 4:12PM
“C4's Dispatches on Britain's Israel lobby perpetuated the same old antisemitic myth”
Oh, has someone been criticising Israel again?
• Constituent
18 Nov 2009, 4:41PM
Anti-semitism : opposition to people because of jewish ancestry or religion.
This is a form of racialism and completely unjustifiable.
Anti-zionism : opposition to the belief that people of jewish ancestry or religion are better than everyone else. This is a form of opposition to racialism and acceptable to all those who believe that all men are created equal.
• frangin
18 Nov 2009, 4:26PM
Charles Grant, in Friday's Guardian, asked "Why not tell the Israelis that if they forge a peace deal with the Palestinians, they could join the European Economic Area, giving Israel full access to the EU's single market?"
I have another suggestion. Why not tell the Israelis to get back to their pre-1967 borders as UN Security Council Resolution 242 demands, or face an EU embargo on their products and services? That would going a long way to defusing the criticisms of Israel, and public attitudes toward those who may appear to support a state given over to dividing people with Berlin-style walls and inhumanity of human relations akin to the old apartheid South Africa.
• stevehill
18 Nov 2009, 4:05PM
So in essence you can't actually contradict a single word of the Dispatches programme, so you resort to the default position (since you don't like it) that it is therefore by definition anti-semitic?
If all else fails, libel your critics. It's easier than acknowledging that maybe they have a point.
• sayonara2
18 Nov 2009, 4:31PM
Following the events of WWII, the world had sympathy for the Israelis. However they have behaved so abominably there is no sympathy left. Shouting anti Semitism is like South Africa claiming anti-white racism.
Any British citizen giving money to politicians to support a foreign country is committing treason and should go to jail.
• martinusher
18 Nov 2009, 4:10PM
Its all true. How does pointing it out make one anti-semitic?
The Israel lobby in the US is well known. Its far too powerful for our own good. Even mentioning it exists can get you into trouble.(note, he probably knows Pelosi LOL)
• corrocamino
18 Nov 2009, 4:10PM
"Anti-semitism" is a gag, not a statement.
• ShropsLad
18 Nov 2009, 4:14PM
Here we go I knew it would come sooner or later knock Israel and your antisemitic.
I watched Dispatches and thought it raised some great questions. Obviously it disturbed you that someone was asking questions about foreign nationals having greater access to OUR parliament than most of its subjects.
I saw nothing wrong with it
• BreakingIllusions
18 Nov 2009, 4:27PM
ummmm....
If you build a wall around a community, with robot snipers pointing at people in their own homes, assassinating doctors, blockading all imports and exports thereby creating an embarco, arresting west bank citizens and then sending them to gaza instead of their homes in west bank thereby treating gaza as a prison or concentration camp guess what?????
You'll probably get rocks, rockets and the kitchen sink thrown at you.
You think this is specific to palestine?
Go create an apartheid on Texas, see how texans respond.
You'll get rockets, missiles, shotguns and everything thrown at you.
Honestly, the sympathy card is really getting old!
• Hornstein
18 Nov 2009, 4:28PM
I was wondering when the apologist mob would be out claiming anti-semitism against the makers of this excellent and the very first expose of Israeli lobbies in this country.
Apparently, according to Channel 4's Dispatches programme on Monday night, there are some wealthy Jews out there bent on influencing British government policy on Israel.
What is so shocking about it Mr. Boyd is that these people lobby on behalf of a foreign power and buy its influence in Parliament to such an extent to completely skew UK's ME policy in favour of its client. This wouldn't be so bad if it was a foreign power that had an ounce of respect for international law or the Geneva conventions. It insists on its illegal occupation, receives $7m a day in military aid and then unleashes that on its neighbours under one pretext or another and then has the audacity to claim itself a victim. And anybody who criticises its behaviour is immediately smeared, with apologists like yourself, with its most powerful weapon - the label of anti-semitism - so much so that it did not even spare its own fellow Jew and a very well respected international judge.
• tuttinski
18 Nov 2009, 4:37PM
Lobbyist should lobby using the power of their argument, not by throwing their money about. That is corruption in my book.
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