SHORTS: Breaking News: Mexico agrees to pay for wall – Israel’s Proposed Death Penalty is for Palestinians only - Save Ahmed from being hanged

Scottish Police Arrest Protestor For Holding “Nae Nazis” Sign at Bannon Event

There has been a history of Scottish Police and the Scottish Legal Establishment trying to demonise the Palestine solidarity movement. When the Jewish Quartet played in Edinburgh the concert was disrupted. The same happened elsewhere in Britain. In London 6 of us disrupted the JQ  at the Wigmore Hall in London.  However in Scotland the authorities have made every effort to criminalise Palestine protestors as ‘anti-Semitic’. Charges of “racially aggravated conduct” levelled at 5 members of the Scottish Palestine Scottish Camapign were thrown out by Sheriff James Scott at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday 8th April 2010.

Scottish Police say it is illegal to call fascists Nazis

Scott said the prosecutor's "attempts to squeeze malice and ill will out of the agreed facts were rather strained". The sheriff upheld the defendants' arguments that their protests, in which they accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, were simply against the behaviour of a state and its army, not an attack on Jews or any ethnic group.

The protesters had clear rights to attack a state's behaviour under the European convention on human rights, he said.

"If persons on a march designed to protest against and publicise alleged crimes committed by a state and its army are afraid to name that state for fear of being charged with racially aggravated behaviour, that would render worthless their Article 10 rights," he said.

Mick Napier of Scottish PSC said demonstrations against Israel's policies would continue.

"As long as the ethnic cleansing of Palestine continues, Israel's political, cultural, and sporting ambassadors will face boycott protest similar to that faced by the racist apartheid South African regime in the last century,"

The fact that the Scottish legal authorities  failed is immaterial to the fact that they tried very hard to prevent Palestine protest actions.  It seems that the Police are once again acting as the long arm of the Zionist movement.

BBC gives American fascist Steve Bannon a platform

When a protest was held at a media conference in Edinburgh this week, when the BBC interviewed Stephen Bannon, the former editor Breitbart and an open fascist who is attempting to co-ordinate European far-Right parties, which was yet another example of the BBC giving publicity to racists and fascists, a protest was held.

Bannon, the former chief exec of Trump’s presidential campaign, and the strategist behind Trump’s attack on refugees, was given the oxygen of publicity by the BBC.

In 2010 Scottish Police arrested PSC activists demonstrating at the Jerusalem Quartet concert in Edinburgh

About 100 protestors assembled outside the Edinburgh International Conference Centre this week.  Bannon was one of the star speaker’s at the European Broadcasting Union’s annual News Xchange conference. Nicola Strugeon withdrew from it when Bannon’s attendance was brought to light by The Ferret. Sturgeon blasted the BBC – who helped to organise the event – as running the risk of the “normalisation” of fascist views. The BBC tried to justify his inclusion by telling the First Minister that he is “powerful and influential figure… promoting an anti-elite movement”. There is nothing anti-elitist about fascism although Hitler and many other fascists have always made this bogus claim.

The BBC’s report “Man arrested at Steve Bannon protest in Edinburgh”. revealed that a 56 year old man was “arrested and charged with threatening and abusive behaviour” holding a sign saying “Nae Nazis”.

“We were both asked to put them away by the police because it could constitute an offence.” They wouldn’t specify which offence,” a woman said. “When I put my sign down, another guy picked it up and was arrested by police immediately.”

“The police dragged the guy off further down the road and I don’t know what happened over there, although a large crowd were watching and filming.”

It’s understood the man was told he was being arrested for breach of the peace, which – unlike England – is a catch all offence in Scotland with no limit on the potential sentence. It is absurd that describing a fascist as a ‘Nazi’ should be considered threatening and abusive behaviour, and is an outrageous attack on freedom of speech. ‘We will, of course, keenly await the howls of outrage from all the free speech bros, Spiked columnists and assorted liberal commentators about it though.’

Inside, Bannon was pitted against the BBC Scotland editor Sarah Smith. As this thread from Buzzfeed’s Ryan Broderick shows, Bannon spent the entire time talking over her, evading questions, and bringing up his pet subjects, like ‘racism: actually good’, while Smith tried to nitpick about inaccurate things Trump had said.

“Bannon is basically delivering a monologue about the wonders of enthonationalism and sometimes asking Smith a question,” tweeted Broderick. Bannon rounded it off by calling the entire audience “the opposition” and saying how excited he is for the European elections – the same elections for which he is making a big shown of co-ordinating far right parties across the continent.

The man was arrested under Section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2000. It would be logical to assume that police officers were briefed ahead of the event over what would and would not be allowable in terms of protest signs and flags. The real question now is – who passed down orders that “Nae Nazis” is a breach of the peace?

Adalah: Israel's proposed death penalty intended for Palestinians only

13/11/2018

Well of course it makes sense that the proposed death penalty for ‘terrorism’ in Israel will only be applicable for Palestinians.  As we know that nothing Israel does is ‘terrorism’.  It is law and order and in any event you cannot expect a Jewish state to execute a Jew.

As the Knesset's Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee prepared to debate the first draft of the "Death Penalty for Terrorists" bill, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel feared it was intended for Palestinians only and demanded that it be struck down for violating international law and Israel's Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.

Haneen Zoabi of Balad speaking in the Knesset 

Adalah sent a letter on Tuesday, 13 November 2018 to committee chairman Nissan Slomiansky MK demanding that he shelve the bill.   However, unlike the Bill which was proposed by Balad to make Israel a state of its own citizens and which was rejected as unfit to be debated even before it got to the Knesset floor, this Bill has been approved. Knesset Council Bans Bill to Define Israel as State for All Its Citizens

Israel is the kind of democracy that is happy to discuss a racist death penalty for Palestinians only but which believes that the idea of a state where all are equal is unconstitutional.  But this doesn’t stop racist idiots like Labour MPs Emily Thornberry and Tom Watson signing up to this.

In his letter to Slomiansky, Adalah Attorney Rabea Eghbariah argued that the death penalty is an example of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and therefore contradicts the spirit of international law and the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.

Furthermore, the legislation of a death penalty would potentially lead, practically, to discrimination based on ethnicity and national belonging. The law would be imposed by the Knesset on the Israeli military courts in the occupied West Bank – in contradiction of the provisions of international law – and would create different norms of application on Palestinian residents of the West Bank."

Adalah Attorney Rabea Eghbariah commented on the bill:

"At a time when countries around the world are ridding themselves of the death penalty, Israel is seeking to legitimize it. This is a draconian bill that is not only futile in its declared purpose of creating a deterrent effect, but contradicts core legal rights and is overtly aimed at Palestinians exclusively."

Of course there is nothing in the Bill itself which says it will not apply to Jews.  It’s just that it can only be applied by the Military Courts in the West Bank. And who is subject to the Military Courts?  Why of course Palestinians as Jewish settlers are subject to the normal Israeli civil and criminal courts.

Ironically despite the Israeli government  introducing a Bill supporting the death penalty in the Occupied Territories, at the UN Israel supported a motion calling for the ending of  the death penalty! Clearly when it comes to hasbara the Israeli state is happy to oppose the death penalty.

Meet Ahmed: the schoolboy who was sentenced to death in Egypt for a crime that took place 21 days after his arrest

Meet Ahmed. He was just 17 when he was abducted by Egyptian police and tortured until he "confessed" to taking part in an assassination attempt.

But here's the thing: the attempt took place 21 days AFTER Ahmed's abduction. He couldn't have done it.

This is his story.

On 2 March 2015, armed officers kicked down the door of Ahmed’s family home in the middle of the night and took Ahmed from his bed. There was no warrant.

He was taken to an undisclosed location, where he was held for nearly three months. He was not allowed to contact a lawyer or even his family – who didn’t know if he was alive or dead.

While in detention, Ahmed was beaten with metal rods and subjected to electric shocks until he confessed to crimes he didn't commit.

The most serious alleged offence – involvement in an attempted assassination – took place on 23 March 2015, 21 days after Ahmed’s abduction. Ahmed simply could not have been involved in the assassination attempt, because he was already in custody and being tortured as it happened.

After 80 days, Egyptian authorities finally acknowledged Ahmed's detention and "officially" arrested him.

If you thought that Ahmed would be able to clear his name at trial, you’d be wrong. Ahmed was sent to a mass trial of 30 people, nearly all adults.

Officially, children in Egypt should be tried in special juvenile courts. But the authorities exploited a loophole in the law that allows children to be tried alongside adults in mass trials.

Mass trials are not fair trials – scores or even hundreds of people stand in the dock at once, unable to present an individual defence. This leaves children especially vulnerable.

Ahmed was convicted in a mass trial on the basis of his forced confession obtained through torture, which the court failed to exclude.

Ahmed has now been sentenced to death. Under Egyptian and international law, children should never be sentenced to death. Yet in Egypt, this is regularly ignored. Courts have recommended death sentences for at least 10 children since 2013.

A final appeal in Ahmed’s case is in December. But in the meantime, we’ve launched a campaign to end the appalling abuses like those Ahmed has suffered.

We’re calling on Egypt to release children sentenced to death, close the Child Death Penalty Loophole, and end the use of mass trials. You can read more and join the campaign to #EndMassInjustice here: https://act.reprieve.org.uk/page/content/egypt?source=eg1018fbthv1

You can sign the petition to end mass trials and death sentences for children here: https://act.reprieve.org.uk/page/s/egypt?source=eg1018fbthv2

The Neo-Nazi organiser of Charlottesville, Richard Spencer, declares that he is a White Zionist

The founder of the alt-Right and White Supremacist leader says Israel should respect him

Heil Trump - Richard Spencer Goes into Nazi Mode

Richard Spencer first came into prominence for his ‘Heil Trump’ rally held soon after Trump’s inauguration.  He is an open anti-Semite and White Supremacist and is credited with having first come up with the name Alt-Right. When Trump ‘forgot’ to mention the fact that it was the Jews who died in the Holocaust, Spencer wrote approving of Trump’s ‘de-judaification’ of the Holocaust.  

 Jewish activists, Spencer wrote in a short post for his new website Altright.com, have long insisted on making the Holocaust “all about their meta-narrative of suffering” and a way to “undergird their peculiar position in American society.”  White Supremacist Richard Spencer Hails Trump's 'de-Judaification' of Holocaust

Spencer asks a Zionist Rabbi Matt Rosenberg if he supports multi racialism in Israel

The Holocaust, in Spencer’s eyes, has become a sort of moral bludgeon — used against white nationalists like himself.  White Supremacist Richard Spencer Hails Trump's 'de-Judaification' of Holocaust

Trumps Fascist Trinity - Bannon, Miller, Gorka

Spencer was the organiser of last weekend’s demonstration at Charlottesville in which a variety of white supremacists and neo-Nazis attacked the unarmed crowd of anti-racists, anti-fascists and members of Black Lives Matter.  The attack, which killed one woman and injured several others, was the largest White Supremacist and neo-Nazi demonstration in living memory in the United States.

It is reported that 80% of the racists were armed and they were allowed by Police to wander unhindered around Charlottesville.

Anti-fascist demonstration at Charlottesville in favour of removing statue of General Robert Lee

The election of Trump has seen a coming together of a wide variety of White Supremacists, neo-Nazis and fascists under the banner of the Alt-Right.  They have in the White House three prominent advisors to Trump. There is Steve Bannon, Trump’s Strategic Advisor and former CEO of Breitbart News, an openly racist and White Supremacist magazine. Steven Miller, who has helped devise Trump’s immigration policy and who was mentored by Spencer. Some of idea of his views can be gleaned from this profile in The Telegraph:

He took to ringing his local radio stations to rail against multiculturalism and the usage of Spanish-language announcements, and wrote for his high school newspaper a column entitled “A Time to Kill”, urging violent response to radical Islamists.

Sebastian Gorka - Hungarian neo-Nazi and Trump adviser

The third member of the unholy trinity is far-Right Hungarian Sebastian Gorka who helped form the New Democratic Coalition in Hungary with ex-members of Jobbik, an openly fascist and anti-Semitic party.  Gorka also endorsed the Hungarian Guard, an anti-Semitic militia of Jobbik.  Gorka appeared at an inauguration ball for Trump wearing the Vitézi Rend, a medal of a knightly order of merit founded in 1920 by Admiral Miklos Horthy, Hungary’s anti-Semitic ruler and Hitler’s ally during World War II. Horthy presided over the deportation of nearly ½ million Jews to Auschwitz.  Gorka was up to his ears in fascist politics in Hungary, seeing Jobbik as too moderate. [EXCLUSIVE: Senior Trump Aide Forged Key Ties To Anti-Semitic Groups In Hungary]

Steve Bannon - Trump's anti-Semitic Breitbart adviser - Invited by the Zionist Organisation of America to its annual  gala dinner as a speaker

It is no surprise then that Spencer finds no difficulty in marrying his racist and anti-Semitic views with ardent support for Zionism and Israel.  In fact he sees Israel as a kind of model  for White Supremacism.  When Rabbi Matt Rosenberg of Texas A&M Hillel challenged Spencer at a meeting to be inclusive to others, Spencer threw the challenge back at the Rabbi.  ‘Would you want Israel to be radically inclusive’ knowing full well that Rabbi Rosenberg was like many Zionist ‘liberals’ – happy to support multi-racialism in the USA but opposed to intermarriage and equal rights for non-Jews in Israel.

Spencer’s declaration will no doubt be embarrassing to those like Rabbi Rosenberg who want ‘radical inclusion’ and tolerance in the United States, because that benefits American Jews but who would be aghast if the same principles were to apply to Israel.   The fact is that what Richard Spencer says is all too true – White Supremacists are only asking for what Zionists take for granted in Israel.  They are indeed White Zionists.

Tony Greenstein

WATCH Richard Spencer Tells Israelis They 'Should Respect' Him: 'I'm a White Zionist'

Spencer tells Israel's Channel 2 News: 'Jews are vastly over-represented in what you could call 'the establishment'

Richard Spencer, a white nationalist and de facto leader of the so-called “alt-right,” described himself to a reporter on Israel’s Channel 2 News as “a white Zionist” on Wednesday evening and argued that Israelis “should respect someone like me.”

The anchor had asked Spencer about the role of “alt-right” supporters in a march in Charlottesville, Viriginia on Friday, in which torch-bearing white nationalists shouted “Jews will not replace us!” in protest of the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

“Let’s be honest,” Spencer said, when asked whether such slogans constitute anti-Semitism. “Jews are vastly over-represented in what you could call ‘the establishment,’ that is, Ivy League educated people who really determine policy, and white people are being dispossesed from this country."

Asked how the mainly Jewish audience at home should take his remarks, Spencer responded:

 “... an Israeli citizen, someone who understands your identity, who has a sense of nationhood and peoplehood, and the history and experience of the Jewish people, you should respect someone like me, who has analogue feelings about whites. You could say that I am a white Zionist – in the sense that I care about my people, I want us to have a secure homeland for us and ourselves. Just like you want a secure homeland in Israel.”

This isn’t the first time Spencer has tried to wink at Israel. Last December, he told Haaretz that he “respects Israel” and that he would “respect” the decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

In an August 2010 article called “An Alliance with theJews,” published on his Radix Journal website, Spencer argued that Israel could become an ally of white nationalists in the United States. He wrote that in the face of the threat of nuclear weapons in countries hostile to Israel, there would be “hard-liners” in Israel who would prefer to see the extreme right in the White House.

Spencer, however, has also made headlines and sparked widespread outrage by making anti-Semitic remarks and engaging in Holocaust denial. Last December, for instance, the "alt-right" leader praised Trump's Holocaust Remembrance Day statement that failed to mention Jews and anti-Semitism as an important step, dubbing it the "de-Judaification" of the Holocaust.

Jewish activists, Spencer wrote in a short post for his website Altright.com, have long insisted on making the Holocaust “all about their meta-narrative of suffering” and a way to “undergird their peculiar position in American society.”

Spencer, a onetime Duke University PhD student, championed Trump through the presidential campaign – and though he has been critical of the president at times, seems to have come around to Trump. While he claims he's not a Nazi, Spencer also does not outright condemn Hitler, calling him a “historical figure.”

Why Israel isn’t shocked by anti-Semites in White House

YNet, Yaron London|Published:  21.11.16 , 13:48

Israel does not appear shocked by the appointment of racist anti-Semites to senior positions in US President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. There is no wonder there. First of all, it is not in our power to change it. Our complete dependence on the United States forces us to hold our tongue and restrain ourselves.

• Second, a world view which supports white supremacy matches our government’s interests. If Trump’s people are more disgusted by Arabs than they are by Jews (the liberals, the Wall Street people, journalists from the East Coast, lovers of black people, Hillary Clinton’s friends), we have struck quite a good deal. Trump and his friends see Israel as a forefront against the barbarians, and they are not exactly very observant.

To do the Netanyahu government justice, let me qualify my statement by saying that all forms of Zionism hold the perception that a certain extent of anti-Semitism benefits the Zionist enterprise. To put it more sharply, anti-Semitism is the generator and ally of Zionism. Masses of Jews leave their place of residence only when their economic situation and physical safety are undermined. Masses of Jews are shoved to this country rather than being attracted to it. The yearning for the land of Zion and Jerusalem is not strong enough to drive millions of Jews to the country they love and make them hold on to its clods.

Steve Bannon, Trump's controversial new chief strategist (Photo: AFP)

As the Jews in Israel long for immigrants with a certain affiliation to their people, and as Zionism—like any other ideology—needs constant justification, we have a secret hope in our hearts that a moderate anti-Semitic wave, along with a deterioration in the economic situation in their countries of residence, will make Diaspora Jews realize that they belong with us. Is proof even necessary? No one will protest the assertion that the rise in anti-Semitism in France gave us some satisfaction, in the sense of “we warned you, didn’t we?” Late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon did not hesitate to make such a declaration, angering the French government and many Jews who see themselves as unconditional French citizens. Thousands of Jews from France who see Israel as a lifeboat, as an insurance policy, purchased apartments here and raised real estate prices in the coastal cities. That’s good. It proves Zionism was right. Furthermore, no one can deny that the economic crisis in the Soviet empire, coupled with the nesting anti-Semitism there, were the cause of the immigration to Israel of about 1 million Jews and their non-Jewish relatives, most of whom have no affiliation to Jewish culture. Neither can anyone contradict the embarrassing fact that Israel worked to lock the gates to the US, the opening of which may have directed many of these Jews and their relatives there, and perhaps even most of them.

It was not the Jewish immigrants’ welfare that we saw before our eyes, but the state’s reinforcement. While the act of blocking and directing the Jews to Israel is ethically dubious, it was justified by the Zionist ideology which asserts that a normalization of the Jewish situation—in other words, concentrating the Jewish people in its own territory—is the only thing that will save us from another Holocaust and, according to some people, will even speed up the Messiah’s arrival.

The Jews’ comfortable situation in America raises doubts as to whether it was worthwhile to gamble on the establishment of a Jewish state. The normalization did not provide us, the Israelis, with a normal existence and did not lessen the anti-Semitism which is now drawing some of its arguments from the way we are managing the conflict with the Palestinians. There are Israelis whose parents or grandparents immigrated to Israel out a belief that this is where the agonizing historical journey will end, and now their offspring are learning that the promise has not been fulfilled.

In order to remove these malignant doubts, it would be good to have some anti-Semitism in America. Not serious anti-Semitism, not pogroms, not persecutions that will empty America from its Jews, as we need them there, but just a taste of this pungent stuff, so that we can restore our faith in Zionism. 

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.

Donald Trump Appoints an Open Anti-Semite, Steve Bannon, as his Chief Strategist

 Whilst Israel Loves Donald Trump  American Jews Loathe Him

Steve Bannon, Trump's Strategic Direct, ex-CEO of Breitbart News, a far-Right Islamaphobic and anti-Semitic site

In March Politico Magazine ran a story, Why Israel Loves Donald Trump.  Why indeed?  Well it’s not hard to discover why.  Trump is an anti-Muslim bigot.  He hates all things Muslim.  He also loves Israel since Israel knows how to deal with those Muslims and above all he admires Israel’s military strength and willinness to use it.  Gregg Carlstrom described how, a recent poll ‘found Trump was by far Israel’s favorite GOP candidate, and the second-most popular overall. A plurality even thought he would be best at “representing Israel’s interests,” better than Hillary Clinton, with her decades of advocacy at the highest levels of government.’  Strange that because Trump has also been a hero to America’s White Supremacists whose support he has consistently refused to disavow.

Jump forward a  few months and Israel’s headlines scream that ‘Netanyahu hails Donald Trump as a ‘true friend’ of Israel.  We read that Israel’s far-Right, in the form of Education Minister Naftali Bennett for the religious settler party, HaBayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home) is in ectasy.  Trump’s election is an ‘opportunity’ to scuttle Palestinian statehood’  It is ‘“Trump’s victory is an opportunity for Israel to immediately retract the notion of a Palestinian state in the center of the country, which would hurt our security and just cause,” Bennett said in a statement.

Hilary Clinton - a creature of Wall Street she had nothing to offer bar the fact that she is a woman - Democratic National Committee rigged the contest against Bernie Sanders

Yitzhak Herzog, leader of the Israeli Labour Party was no less effusive.  Herzog extended ‘warm congratulations to the president of the strongest and most powerful nation in the world: Donald J. Trump,” in a Facebook post published shortly after Trump celebrated his victory. ‘  Herzog went on to say that ‘“The American democracy today chose to place at its forefront an American leader who taught the analysts and doubters that we are in a new era of change and a replacement of the old ruling elites! You did the unexpected against all the odds, the polls, and the research, and the prophets of the old era,” he said. “I am sure that the defense and economic cooperation with our strongest and most important ally will continue even more so during your presidency.”

If you were to substitute Hitler for Trump you might savour the full effect of Herzog’s absurd statement.  But it is a different matter in the Jewish diaspora .  Trump has just appointed an anti-Semite, ex-Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon, to the post of his chief strategist.  How is this possible?  Well dear reader it’s very simple.  Despite the nonsense that Zionists indulge in, accusing their opponents of ‘anti-Semitism’, in fact the best friends of Zionism have always been anti-Semites – from Edoard Drumont, the leader of the anti-Dreyfussards to Alfred Rosenberg and Adolf Eichmann.  Today it is the far-Right – Pastor John Hagee, Glen Beck, Marine Le Pen, Nick Griffin – who are the best friends of Israel.

A B Yehoshua, a famous Israeli novelist and poet explained this very well in a lecture to the Union of Jewish students, which was reprinted in the Aliyah Edition of the Jewish Chronicle on 22^nd January 1982:  Yehoshua has no time for the lies of hasbara, the make believe propaganda that most Zionists indulge in.  He says it as it is and the whole lecture is well worth reading.  In it he said that:

A B Yehoshua's lecture to Zionist students - he explained to their naive ears that Zionism and anti-Semitism had always been best of friends.

Anti-Zionism is not the product of the non-Jews. On the contrary, the Gentiles have always encouraged Zionism, hoping that it would help to rid them of the Jews in their midst. Even today, in a perverse way, a real antisemite must be a Zionist.

So there is really no contradiction between not liking Jews and wanting to be rid of them and being a Zionist – in fact it is rather a advantage to be an anti-Semite if you are a Zionist.

But of course American Jews are in shock because of the appointment of Steve Bannon,  Breitbart is about as nasty a site as you can get.  The overtly Zionist Anti-Defamation League in the United States, which itself has covered for anti-Semites likes Pastor John Hagee in the past, has described Breitbart as ‘as "the premier website of the alt-right" representing "white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racists."

Below is an article from Israel’s Ha’aretz. See also a perceptive article in Mondoweiss Trump is bad because Israeli Jews will love him and US Jews will see it which sees the phenomenon of Trump, ardent Zionist and anti-Semite as increasing the gulf between America’s liberal Jews and Israel’ love of all things right-wing and fascist.

Aftershock President Trump Has Shattered Jews' American Idyll

American Jews have transformed virtually overnight from insiders to outsiders; the appointment of ex-Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon, an accused anti-Semite, as chief strategist, is bound to exacerbate the tensions.

Chemi Shalev (Washington) Nov 14, 2016 12:07 PM

Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Naples, Florida, October 23, 2016.Evan Vucci, AP

WASHINGTON – Those were the best of times, arguably, but these may be the worst of times. That’s the way most American Jews must feel as they wake up with a massive hangover from the shock election results and the reality that Donald Trump will soon be President of the United States.

Whatever differences American Jews may have had with Barack Obama over the Iran nuclear deal and Middle East peace, they’ve never had a president who was more in tune with their Jewish and liberal essence.

Obama was the realization of the American Jewish vision of a multicultural society, a dream come true for a generation of civil rights activists. He promoted and embodied the liberal ideals that American Jews are more attached to than any other religious group in America. And he was more knowledgeable about American Jewish culture and Yiddishkeit than any previous president, bar none. Even when they disagreed with him, most American Jews, with the exception of the vocal minority that hated his guts, viewed Obama as a mensch.

It is probably no coincidence that during his tenure, American Jews reached a pinnacle of social and cultural acceptance. Being American Jews was hip. It was cool. It was the thing to be. From Jon Stewart to Jerry Seinfeld, from Joe Lieberman to Bernie Sanders, Jews seemed to be more entrenched than ever before in the American mainstream.

Priebus and Bannon are the two most senior members of Trump's staff

Pew Research Polls repeatedly confirmed that Jews were the most loved and most admired religious group in all of America. Mashiach-zeit, old timers would say, but with a note of caution, because if Jewish history teaches anything, it is that all things must pass.

The election of Donald Trump has shattered the Jewish idyll, all across the board. Although one must give the president-elect the benefit of the doubt that he is not an anti-Semite himself, he has frequently promoted disparaging Jewish stereotypes in his personal statements.

Sunday evening’s appointment of former Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon as chief strategist in the White House is bound to exacerbate Jewish tensions. He is considered the standard bearer for the racist, anti-immigrant alt-right movement and has been accused of harboring anti-Semitic sentiments himself.

Trump has repeatedly and unapologetically disseminated white supremacist tweets. His campaign has used anti-Semitic symbols that Trump has failed to disown even when advised of their offensive content. He has distanced himself from his neo-Nazi supporters only under duress. And under his wings, America has seen an unprecedented outburst of blunt and naked hatred of Jews, which has only gotten worse since his election.

In recent months, most prominent Jewish journalists and other public critics of Trump have been harassed by anti-Semites on social media, in their mail at home and, in some cases, in close physical contact. Swastikas have been painted at schools. Jewish students have been threatened, taunted, told that Adolf Hitler was right all along. Along with Muslims, Hispanics, and African Americans, they are being targeted as the sworn enemies of the America First Weltanschauung that Trump is bringing with him to the White House.

The shock that many Jews are feeling now is partly of their making. In recent years, the American Jewish establishment has willingly enlisted in the Israeli government’s effort to depict ever-widening circles of anti-Israeli agitation on the left as anti-Semitism. The fight against BDS and the efforts to portray it as hatred of Jews in another form has consumed the time, energy and resources of the American Jewish leadership, with the possible exception of the Anti-Defamation League.

Meanwhile, virulent and classic anti-Semitism lurking just under the radical right’s surface was virtually ignored, concealed by the mainstream right-wing’s overwhelming support for Israel. Even mentioning it was considered to be an anti-Israeli provocation.

Trump’s triumph has unleashed the pent up resentment against Jews. His reluctance to tackle manifestations of racism and white supremacism among his supporters has energized and empowered it. If he and his advisers don’t take assertive steps soon, anti-Jewish agitators will feel they have a license from the White House to do as they please. They will get bolder, grow stronger, recruit new adherents and increasingly resort to violence: we’ve seen it before.

But even if brazen anti-Semitic incidents are quelled or die down by themselves, there is no denying that Jews have transformed virtually overnight from insiders to outsiders. Not only did they vote overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton, prominent conservative Jews who could have allayed their concerns are the ones who have distanced themselves from Trump over the course of the campaign and will play no role in his administration.

American Jewish liberals are bound to feel alienated from their own government in way they’ve never felt before. Most of the values, goals and policy objectives of the Trump administration, even if they turn out to be a paler and more palatable version of his campaign rhetoric, are diametrically opposed to those of most American Jews. They support immigration, pluralism, multiculturalism, social reform, government intervention, separation of church and state, gay marriage, abortion rights and on and on. It is easy to see, in fact, why so many of Trump’s radical supporters would view the Jews as their mortal enemies.

As Shmuel Rosner rightly points out for the wrong reasons, Trump may ultimately divide Israeli and American Jews. But the reason for that is not limited, as Rosner asserts, to the yet to be proven assumption that American Jews will resent their Israeli counterparts for liking Trump because he is pro-Israel. It is because Trump’s core message, his reactionary, nativist, chauvinistic, anti-foreigner, anti-immigrant and mainly anti-Muslim worldview is shared by far too many, though far from all Israelis, and is embraced by its ruling coalition. And because many Israeli Jews are indifferent to right-wing anti-Semitism and indeed share right-wing disdain toward the liberalism of American Jews.

Of course, all may not be bleak. Perhaps Trump will fight the anti-Semitism on his radical fringe with increasing vigor. Possibly his policies will be less offensive to American Jews. Perhaps the American Jewish establishment will produce a leadership capable of meeting these trying times. Who knows, maybe some American Jews will finally realize they should support Israeli Jews who share their worldview rather than a government that doesn’t.

And if worse comes to worst, to paraphrase Casablanca, liberal American Jews will always have Israel itself.  Moderate, liberal Israelis, beleaguered and on the point of despair, will flock to the airport to welcome them with open arms. Mashiach-zeit, they will tell themselves, in awe.