The Nauseating Hypocrisy of Stephen Pollard, Editor of the Jewish Chronicle

Pollard's Crocodile Tears over Luciana Berger MP’s experience of anti-Semitism

Stephen Pollard, whose only claim to fame is having destroyed the reputation of the Jewish Chronicle as well as its circulation (down from over 32,000 when he began his reign of destruction in 2008 to under 20,000 and falling now) wrote to me and the Jewish Chronicle's readership earlier today saying that he can't imagine what Luciana Berger, the New Labour MP for Wavertree and ex-Director of Labour Friends of Israel went through when she was on the receiving end of anti-Semitic tweets and social media posts from the fascist Joshua Bonehill-Paine. 

Pollard's nauseating letter to the Jewish Chronicle's readership

Like most other people I welcome the aptly named Bonehill's prison sentence of 2 years and only wish it had been for life.  However Pollard's chutzpah and hypocrisy cannot be allowed to pass without comment. 

Pollard's attitude to anti-Semitism can best be judged by this defence of the anti-Semitic MEP Michal Kaminski

This is the man who wrote, in The Telegraph, of former neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic MEP Michal Kaminski, that "Far from being an anti-Semite, Mr Kaminski is about as pro-Israeli an MEP as exists."  Pollard wrote that

“Jonathan Freedland attacked Michal Kaminski, the Polish MEP; Roberts Zile, the Latvian MEP; and me (Once no self-respecting politician would have gone near such people, 7 October). Freedland seems to have decided that Kaminski is an antisemite; but, far from this, Kaminski is – as his record in Brussels shows clearly – one of the greatest friends to the Jews in a town where antisemitism and a visceral loathing of Israel are rife.”

 Joshua Bonehill-Paine was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment. 

Kaminski is the fascist who, as MP in the Sjem, opposed a national Polish apology for the burning alive in 1941 of up to 900 Jews in the village of Jedwabne by fellow Poles.  Undoubtedly this was under the aegis and probably instigation of the SS but the hands that committed this foul deed were Polish.  After books by Polish-Jewish historian Jan Tomasz Gross.[Neighbours: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, May 2000] and latterly Anna Bikont’s ‘The Crime and the Silence’ which was originally published in 2004 and won the European Book Prize in 2011, a movement grew up to re-examine what happened 60 years previously. 

Kaminski was in the forefront of those opposing an apology.  Pollard’s other hero, another MEP Robert Zile from Latvia’s LNNK distinguishes himself each March by marching in Riga, the scene of the first executions of German Jews in October 1941 when 5,000 were machine gunned as they descended from the deportation trains from Germany, with the veterans of the Latvian SS.  See Jedwabne – The Polish Village Where Up to 900 Jews Were Burnt Alive by Fellow Poles

Luciana Berger - the Jewish MP and ex-Labour Friends of Israel Director who received anti-Semitic posts from Bonehill-Paine

We should not be surprised by Pollard’s embrace of anti-Semites, after all his fellows in the Zionist Organisation of America and AIPAC have welcomed another anti-Semite, Steve Bannon, who has been appointed as Trump’s Strategic Advisor.  As more liberal Zionists are learning, Zionism has never had any problem with anti-Semites as long as they are pro-Zionist. See Israel Welcomes Donald Trump and his anti-Semitic advisor, Steve Bannon - Zionism has never had a problem with anti-Semitism

Pollard wrote to the Jewish Chronicle’s readership today thus: 

Dear Reader,It's difficult to imagine what Luciana Berger went through while she was under attack from Joshua Bonehill-Paine and his fellow thugs. No one should have to endure such behaviour, let alone a public servant. In this week's paper she talks exclusively about the emotional toll it took, and why others should follow her in reporting all incidents.Best,  Stephen Pollard, Editor

Pollard, who purports to be outraged at the social media posts that Berger received, is the same creature, who I wrote to over 6 years ago suggesting that maybe the Jewish Chronicle would like to cover, as part of its mission to tell the truth to its Jewish readers, a story about a 21 year old American Jewish girl, Emily Henochowicz.

It was a story that many papers had covered, not least Israeli newspapers.  What possible objection did the Jewish Chronicle have to running a story about an American Jewish teenager Emily Henochowicz?  Emily had lost an eye at the Qualandiyah checkpoint in Israel, where Palestinians routinely cross to the West Bank and back again, when she participated in a demonstration against the iniquity of forcing Palestinians to wait for hours in the hot sun for the ‘privilege’ of being able to cross over to work or return to their home again.  A soldier of the Israeli army, that beacon of moral righteousness, the most benign occupation in the world, had fired a tear gas shell directly at her face, blinding her in one eye.  And just to show just how wonderful the ‘Jewish’ state is, the government insisted that her family should pay the bill for her hospital treatment.

And what was the response of Pollard?  Bear in mind that Luciana Berger has suffered no injury or physical hurt.  She may have been upset, but she is a powerful person, who can call on protection from the media, the Police and her powerful friends, unlike the American Jewish girl who had been blinded in one eye for the ‘crime’ of demonstrating for justice?

Pollard wrote back to me that

Dear Mr Greenstein,

Thank you for your email, which will make a fine addition to my 'delete' folder.

Stephen Pollard

From that day on I had nothing but contempt for this vile lump of lard who is the confidant of the Express’s owner, Richard Desmond, Britain’s largest commercial pornographer. 

For Pollard, a member of the far-Right Islamaphobic Henry Jackson society, any display of concern over Berger’s experiences of anti-Semitism is just a calculated act of hypocrisy designed to sell his tawdry newspaper.