Gaza conflict provokes the weak-minded to assault the innocent
Reality check: All you need to know about this issue is wrapped up in the fact that Vox Political had to add the words “NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY!” to an image that should – obviously – be treated as satirical.
What a paradox: While the Jewish state of Israel is criticised for treating Palestinian Muslims the way Hitler’s Germany treated them, history is repeating itself for British Jews who are being targeted for exactly the same treatment.
Gaza means Jews across the world may now be perceived as both perpetrators and victims.
Antisemitic attacks in the UK were up 42 per cent on the previous six months in July, because idiots can’t tell the difference between citizens of Israel and British Jews.
Attacks on Jewish people in the UK between January and June had already risen by 36 per cent.
Undoubtedly the increase in hate crime, described by Mark Gardner of the Community Security Trust (in The Guardian) as a “wave of racist intimidation and violence”, has been fuelled by media coverage of the Israeli military action in Gaza that began in early July.
Mainstream media such as the BBC and Sky News have been criticised for one-sided reporting in favour of the Palestinian political group Hamas, and condemnation of the Israeli government has been widespread.
It is easy to understand why, when one examines the casualty figures: Almost 2,000 Palestinians have died, while the Jewish casualties number less than 100. Tens of thousands of people attended a rally in condemnation of these deaths in London yesterday (Saturday).
What has gone unnoticed – especially by the antisemitic thugs – is that Jewish communities in the UK are also “filled with grief for the people of Gaza”. As Rabbi Miriam Berger states in The Independent, “No Jew in Britain could possibly relish this loss of life.”
While she also expresses the belief that Israel needs to defend its citizens from attack, this simply shows how confused the situation has become. As this blog has stated, the conflict is a squabble over land between political organisations – Hamas and the Israeli government. Religion has very little to do with it.
British Jews are citizens of the UK, not Israel. They have nothing to do with the political process in that – foreign – country and it is clear that many of them disapprove of actions that have led to such a marked loss of life.
It is to all our shame that they have fallen foul of the kind of people who cannot distinguish fantasy from reality. These thugs would probably attack a soap actor in the street if a storyline made a villain of their character.
Demonising people who have done nothing wrong will only make a horrifying situation even worse.
Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
Buy Vox Political books and help us
ensure that everybody maintains their sense of proportion!
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
You can make a one-off donation here:
I have not seen any reports of incidents of attacks against Jews in my local paper.
How robust are the figures being cited?
If it is true that Jews are being attacked in any way then that should be condemned.
They are not responsible for the racist and supremacist policies of the Tel Aviv regime.
Jews have marched with Muslims, Christians and Secularists against the Gaza bombing.
a reminder that not all the hate crimes are against jews in brritain.
we also have muslim bashing,immigrant bashing disabled bashing etc.
the right wing are on the rise in this country and europe too.
whipped up by OUR government and media.
what is to be done?
Agreed. This blog has mentioned hate crime against the disabled several times, I think.
Of course it should be noted that the article does not suggest in any way that all hate crime in the UK is directed against Jews.
Disappointed in you, Mike. For your assertion that ‘Mainstream media such as the BBC and Sky News have been criticised for one-sided reporting in favour of the Palestinian political group Hamas’, you link to an article in which a member of a Jewish congregation gives that opinion. Well, she would say that, wouldn’t she? The reverse is actually true – the BBC has been appallingly one-sided in its support of Israel and its anti-Palestinian reporting. Oh, and the source for that? Well, me. And my opinion is at least as worthy as an unnamed woman in the article you cite, wouldn’t you think?
You paint a picture of a conflict between equals; frankly, that’s what I would expect of Israeli propaganda, not a Welsh blogger. It is patently obvious to any impartial observer that it is a very unequal struggle. I am not anti-Semitic, nor would I castigate any British Jew for what the Israeli government is doing, but your bias is showing, hence my disappointment.
Disappointed in you, Peeve. You don’t appear to have read the article very thoroughly.
Have you not noticed all the support for Palestine being voiced all around?
Did you not notice that the woman in the article IS named, even?
Have you not noticed that the previous articles I mention make it very clear that this is NOT a conflict between equals?
Have you not even realised that I have made my position perfectly clear – that this is not a conflict between peoples at all, but one between political organisations?
My bias is against unnecessary bloodshed and for mutually-beneficial peace. Any other interpretation indicates your own bias, I’m sorry to say.
Oh, and I’m not Welsh either. I just live here.
I read your post very thoroughly, Mike, which is more than you did in respect of the article you quoted. The woman WAS unnamed, as in “One young mother, who is a member of the congregation, who declined to be named after one of her friends was called “Jewish scum” on the street, said: “The BBC and Sky News are so one-sided in favour of Hamas…”
But that’s a digression, since my point was that you used this random quote to illustrate your assertion that the BBC and Sky News are biased in favour of Hamas and Palestine, when the reverse is true.
I have certainly seen plenty of support for Palestine being voiced all around, just not in your blog, nor in the mainstream media (with the honourable exception of Channel 4). That is beginning to change, but only because the tide of popular opinion is at last being reflected in the media.
I have no problem with anybody having a bias – there’s nothing wrong with having an opinion and if you believe Israel to be hard done by, then you have every right to express that view, just as any of the followers of your blog have the right to disagree, providing they do so respectfully. I admire so much of what you have achieved and continue to achieve domestically, but no matter how detached I try to be when reading this post, your bias in favour of Israel is only too clear.
Your last paragraph is a lot of tommyrot.
If you think that I think Israel is “hard done by”, then you haven’t been reading this blog!
I’m astonished that anyone would draw such a bizarre conclusion after I have stated my position very clearly, in black and white, so many times.
” my point was that you used this random quote to illustrate your assertion that the BBC and Sky News are biased in favour of Hamas and Palestine, when the reverse is true. ”
I’ve checked the blogpost very carefully, Peeve, and Mike did NOT say that. What he said was the following; –
“Mainstream media such as the BBC and Sky News ****have been criticised for**** one-sided reporting in favour of the Palestinian political group Hamas, and condemnation of the Israeli government has been widespread.”
He was stating the mainstream media had been criticised for such supposed bias, he did not state that he was adding his voice to that chorus of disapproval, nor was he saying that he agreed with the criticism.
With respect, Peeve, I would venture to suggest that Mike is correct, and you did not read it properly.
Simon Cowell gave the Israeli army 90K. But that’s okay because he’s a British jew and has nothing to do with the forcible taking of land and Israel ignoring UN sanctions. Nice. Whenever you criticise any jew they have their own loud haler labelled “anti-semitism” that they use to blot out the truth. Or they bring up the holocaust. So I look forward to being called an anti-semite, again.
Congratulations, you’ve found one British Jew who supports the Israeli army. 259,999 to go…
You see, you can’t go tarring an entire faith group with the same brush, especially when referring to a conflict that is not theirs. I did not say that every Jew in the UK was against what Israel is doing, but they are taking a very particular POLITICAL stance that is not – by any stretch of the imagination – central to their faith. The targeting of ANY Jew by those responsible for the antisemitic attacks mentioned in the news reports is insupportable.
[email protected] said:
“Whenever you criticise *******ANY******* jew they have their own loud haler labelled “anti-semitism” that they use to blot out the truth. Or they bring up the holocaust. So I look forward to being called an anti-semite, again.” (Thorough emphasis of “any” is mine.)
The sad irony is that you have shown that you probably really are an anti-semite. What a ridiculous generalisation, to suggest that *any* Jew will call you an anti-semite just for criticising. Only an anti-semite is particularly likely to tar the brush over Jews so widely.
1st part v good
2nd part posted from Uranus ?
you must struggle to bend over far enough when taking selfies Zionists are NOT Semites , Palestinians are
do your homework before embarrassing your parents aka engage brain before fingers
As ‘Semite’ can refer to anybody speaking a group of languages including Hebrew and Arabic, you are mistaken – they are ALL Semites.
I have to admit I wasn’t aware of that before I looked it up. Interesting how it has been diminished to refer only to Jews.
being pedantic ,,, Semite was the language if the Palestinians and first jews ,,, Jesus was ( if he existed) a Palestinian Jew
The Zionists are mostly European and American converts who recognized a good business when they saw it
Something like 90+% of the Palestinians have origins in Palestine (some fools call Israel we call the Unholy land ) as opposed to only approx 17% of those that are Jews / Zionists
Israel want Jews to be targeted that allows them to continue to play the emotional “poor us , remember the holocaust ,,,pity us ,, send us your money , support us whatever we don as you owe us 6 million souls ”
Its pure crap of course as Rothschild Roosevelt etc profited from the extermination of Jews and continue to do so ,,,Zionist are NOT Semites they are business minded converts ,,wolfs in lambs clothing
btw simon cowells 90 k donation was his last one ,,he gave several million to the Zionist scum prior to that
The point was that he is still just one man in a community of more than a quarter of a million – and they don’t all agree with him.
my point was that i prefer a full story not little snippets , the Zionists exist because scum supports then
btw , have you nothing to moan about re my first comment ?
I thought I’d leave it to others.
Well here’s my moan then; –
ellie guest said: “simon cowells 90 k donation was his last one ,,he gave several million to the Zionist scum prior to that”
I am not a Zionist myself, I would never donate to a Zionist cause, and I despise Simon Cowell (for all that he, in particular, has anything to do with anything). Many Zionists, I would agree (though certainly not all of them), are scum, given how blinkered they tend to be. The manner of implementation of the new Israeli nation was a cack-handed crime against millions of Arabs who had had nothing to do with the Holocaust, and it shouldn’t have happened in the way that it did.
But the one thing I would say that I think anti-Zionists have never properly addressed is a very legitimate issue. As a Jew by birth, I have encountered quite a few people down the years who clearly don’t want the Jewish diaspora living in Britain. Many other Jews still encounter that feeling in countries around the world. Many people simply do not want Jews living in their countries. That is the reason why the Jews of the early 20th Century wanted Israel to be re-founded, because if they wouldn’t be allowed to live side-by-side with other cultures in other countries, they needed to have a nation of their own.
Here’s the crux of the problem with you saying “Zionist scum”. I’m assuming from that that you disagree with the whole concept. So what exactly *is* your solution to the whole issue of where Jews can settle? Even if you were happy to tolerate Jews living in the same place as you, many others will not. So if they can’t live in the same country as anyone else, but they also can’t have a country of their own… well, what else can be done?
I’d be a lot more comfortable with anti-Zionists if they could square that circle.
“1st part v good
2nd part posted from Uranus ?
you must struggle to bend over far enough when taking selfies Zionists are NOT Semites , Palestinians are
do your homework before embarrassing your parents aka engage brain before fingers”
Sorry, who are you responding to with that rather condescending sarcasm? It doesn’t seem to relate to anything I said particularly well – I certainly never said anything to imply that Zionists and Semites are exactly the same – but it’s been marked as a reply to me.
Just to point out though, some Semites *are* Zionists. There is no overwhelming correlation, but there is no complete separation either.
And whether the term ‘anti-Semite’ is supposed to mean specifically the same as ‘anti-Jewish’ is beside the point. The simple fact is that both mindsets are covered by the term, and quibbling over whether it can be used to mean something broader is just trying to change the subject.