ZIONIST APOLOGY

NOVANEWS

August 25, 2010

Many thanks to an anonymous contributor calling themselves “zionist thug” in the comments to an earlier post for drawing my attention to this astonishing apology by Jonathan Hoffman, a Co-Vice Chair of the UK’s Zionist Federation, in his Jewish Chronicle hosted blog:

On my Jewish Chronicle blog I described a photograph taken on 14 August 2010 at the pro-Ahava demonstration as “fraudulent”. I also wrote “That photo was ‘Photoshopped’ — and it is bloody obvious that it was ‘Photoshopped’ I do not discuss but I do identify lies and fraudulent Photoshopped photos.”
These statements were entirely without foundation and I had made no attempt to check their accuracy. I accept that the photo was absolutely genuine and had not been tampered with in any way. The photographer, David Hoffman, is a well known and respected photojournalist and I apologise to him unreservedly for my hasty and unfounded comments and for the distress and embarrassment caused.

Now what photograph would that be? Could it be the one that appears quite prominently on Tony Greenstein’s blog? This one:
Or are there other pictures that the Co-Vice Chair of the Zionist Federation takes issue with?  

 Guess who’s coming to dinner

There’s yet another conference, supposedly on antisemitism, at Yale at the mo’. It started a couple of days ago and finishes today. It’s called Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity.
Follow the link and have a look at the programme. It includes a “gala dinner” and a star studded cast of right-wing Israel advocates.
Shaul Maggid, blogging at The Forward, is none too happy about its right-wing tilt:

While the title of the Yale conference “Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity” implies a broad spectrum, when one peruses the paper titles, antisemitism in the Muslim world predominates. The first plenary session has papers entitled, “Arab and Islamic Antisemitism Today,” “Conspiracy Theories, Antisemitism, an Jews in Turkey Today,” “The Jihad Flotilla to Gaza: Provocative – Antisemitic – Not Humanitarian,” “ and “Nazi Propaganda to the Arab World and its After Effects in Postwar Militant Islam.” While all worthy topics, one gets the idea.

Of approximately 91 papers (I exclude keynote addresses), at least 23 are explicitly about Arab or Muslim Antisemitism, 3 are explicitly about Christian Antisemitism, 6 are about the Holocaust, and 3 are about self-hating Jews (all included in a panel called “Self-Hatred and Contemporary Antisemitism” – the title of the panel is itself worthy of a panel). The others are about antisemitism in other parts of the world, are more theoretically oriented, or have titles that are too non-descript to define.

I wonder where Dr.David Hirsh’s (yep, that’s the one) speech fits into these categories. He is billed thus:

• Dr. David Hirsh, Goldsmiths College, University of London: “Struggles Over the Boundaries of Legitimate Discourse: Antisemitism and Bad-Faith Allegations”

This seems to fit with Dr Hirsh’s claim that allegations (I think he means any allegation) of bad faith accusations of antisemitism are themselves antisemitic. It wasn’t always the case with him but he’s obviously still evolving.
Other speeches at the conference include the following:

Keynote: Itamar Marcus, Director, Palestinian Media Watch: “The Central Role of Palestinian Antisemitism in Creating the Palestinian Identity” and

• Professor Phyllis Chesler, City University of New York: “The History and Psychological Roots of Antisemitism Among Feminists, their Gradual Stalinization and Palestinianization”

Philip Weiss notes that the conference appears to be an attack on “Palestinian identity, ’self-hating’ Jews, and anyone who criticizes Israel”. In other words he is doing exactly what Dr Hirsh is going to be speechifying against. He is accusing the conference of bad faith. He is also disturbed that this conference bears the imprimatur and presumably some funding from Yale itself, not the Israel advocacy community.
I don’t find that so strange; bang out of order but not strange. What I do find very strange is that Dr Hirsh hasn’t mentioned his role in this conference anywhere on the Engage website. He usually announces his attendance at these things and gives a report back afterwards. Perhaps he didn’t want to spoil the surprise for when he reports back.  

August 24, 2010

Lying abroad for Israel

Ron Prosor had an yet another article in the Guardian yesterday. You can guess what it said from some of today’s responses: What did he say again?

Ron Prosor’s defence of Israel‘s continued blockade of Gaza (Before we talk to Hamas, August 20) is deeply flawed. Based on research published by The Lancet-Palestinian Health Alliance – a group of health scientists from the occupied Palestinian territory, the UK, US, Norway, France and Canada – several statements by the Israeli ambassador need immediate correction.

Gaza is not a terrorist enclave. It is a vigorous community of 1.4 million people struggling to exist under what the UN still considers to be occupation by Israel. Operation Cast Lead did not target “terrorist infrastructure”. On a visit to Gaza that I made in March this year, with colleagues from the UK, I witnessed the results of indiscriminate bombing of residential communities across the Strip, as well as the results of civilian casualties. These civilian attacks have left families rebuilding homes out of the debris left by the bombing with their bare hands, thanks to the ban on transporting building materials into Gaza.

Gaza is not “a golden opportunity tragically missed”. The people of Gaza are experiencing continued declines in child health, unchecked burdens of chronic disease, shortages of life-saving medical supplies and equipment, and the dramatic erosion of mental health. These unprecedented hardships are a direct consequence of Israel’s disregard for the health and security of people who they, as occupiers, have a legal duty to protect.

Hamas has not “directed every resource to enslaving its people while attacking” Israel. Readers should make up their own minds by visiting Gaza for themselves. What I have seen during my visits is a dignified people who are anxious about the future of their children, seek the best care they can for friends and relatives, and look for work that will sustain their families. In the classrooms I visited, there was no incitement against Israel. Instead, there was pride in being Palestinian, a plea for the facts of their lives to be told against the propaganda that Prosor repeats.

On one issue, Mr Prosor and I agree. Many Israelis are sceptical and do fear for their futures. But this is largely because it suits politicians to manufacture the scepticism and fear that destroy hopes for peace and justice. If the full truth about the health of people living in the occupied Palestinian territory was more widely known, the international community would no longer tolerate Israel’s apparent indifference.

Dr Richard Horton

Editor, The Lancet

• It is simply not worth commenting on most of the vitriol written by the Israeli ambassador. Those parliamentarians who visited Gaza and talked to Hamas leaders in Damascus have formed a very different view of the situation, and know that there will be no peace process unless Hamas is included in negotiations.

What is worth commenting upon, however, is his assertion that “Gaza was a golden opportunity tragically missed”. A much greater missed opportunity was the creation of Israel itself. The gift of land, backed by support from the US in particular, was a chance for Israel’s new citizens to create a land of milk and honey for all the people of Palestine, living in peace and prosperity. With their policies of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, together with harassment and ethnic cleansing of the remaining Palestinians, the Zionists have squandered that chance.

Jenny Tonge

Lib Dem, House of Lords