Indigo Jo Blogs

Johann Hari wrote this article in today's Independent, regarding the tendency of supporters of Israel to smear their opponents with accusations of anti-Semitism. Hari wrote an article last week about his travels in the West Bank where he witnessed, among other things, the discharge of untreated sewage out of Israeli settlements into Palestinian areas with predictable consequences for the water supply and local people's health, and has in response been compared to the likes of Goebbels and Ahmadinejad. The names of Melanie Phillips, David Aaronovitch and an outfit called Honest Reporting, which demands what amounts to pro-Israel bias in the media, come up. The victims have included people with opinions friendly to Israel but who aren't willing to go all the way.

Meanwhile, in response to Melanie Phillips's outpouring of dumb clichés in last week's Observer, the present edition has printed a letter from one John Draper Nordelph from Norfolk (England), which brings out the old chestnut that, while Israel is a historical nation, there never was a Palestinian nation before the present time; the name, he says, was derived from the kingdom of Philistines which was established by the Romans to punish the Jews for rebelling against them. That may be so regarding the origin of the name, but the use of the name in modern times appeared during the British Mandate and the Palestinians of today are called that because they were the natives of the British Mandate territory. It is as simple as that; most of the names of the modern Arab states are of relatively modern appearance, at least in terms of applying them to Arabs. The fact that there was no king or president of Palestine before the appearance of Israel is neither here nor there.

(More: Mere Islam.)

Posted by Indigo Jo at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Spectator this week led with a "Happy 60th Birthday, Israel" feature by Melanie Phillips. Perhaps there is nothing unusual about that, given that it repeats a whole load of the usual pro-Israeli claims which seek to deny anyone else's claim over the land, but it displays a breathtaking ingratitude towards the western countries which are the country's main allies and have been for decades.

Continue reading "Here's gratitude for you" »

Posted by Indigo Jo at 12:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The book version of Mearsheimer & Walt's The Israel Lobby is now out in the UK (I got it for £22 in Blackwell's in Charing Cross Road; Borders didn't have it at all, several days after I found it (full price, £25) in Foyles. Amazon are doing an even bigger discount, so if you're in the UK you can buy it from the link on the right and make me some money, insha Allah.

There have been a few articles about it in the British press as you might expect - it was on the front page of the New Statesman, with this article by Andrew Stephen, their usual US correspondent, which backs up most of what the book says and offers a couple of examples of his own, such as that of his friend who was branded an anti-Semite for suggesting that the US offer Israel American fighter planes rather than fund the development of Israeli ones. He makes a passing reference to "the deranged letter-writers and threat-merchants", which exist in this country as well, but those are the people who cause the most difficulty for ordinary supporters of the Palestinian Arabs' rights to their own country. I looked in the book's index and, for example, there was no listing for Front Page Magazine or the likes of David Horowitz or Joe Kaufman, for example.

Also see this article by Ed Pilkington in today's Guardian.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Naomi Klein (of No Logo fame) has an article in today's Guardian about the current success of Israel's economy, apparently despite its present "difficulties" and having lost out after the "dot com" bubble burst in 2000. Klein's thesis is that this success is because of the Palestinian situation rather than because of it: Israel is able to sell the world weaponry already field-tested on the population it occupies.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 8:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

Here are a few pictures I took at yesterday's Enough Occupation demonstration in London to mark the 40th anniversary of the Israel seizure of the West Bank and Gaza. The demonstration wasn't massive - there was plenty of room to spare in Trafalgar Square - but it was good-natured and there was no trouble and with no racist overtones. I may post more later today, insha Allah.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Melanie Phillips’s Diary; The Islamic duty to respect Israel

Melanie Phillips, courtesy of "Arabs for Israel", has found a selection of Qur'anic verses which supposedly enjoin Muslims to respect Israel - not the prophet (peace be upon him) of that name, but the modern-day state. You can read them all at the link above.

Do people never think of the history before they quote verses (or bits of verses) out of context? The verses quoted are intended to demonstrate that Islam supports the notion of Israel (and, incidentally, all of what they called Judea and Samaria, i.e. the West Bank) being the Jews' promised land, when in fact we believe that this promise has been delivered on and is no longer valid. (You might notice the use of the past tense.) Several of them are clearly phrased as invitations to the Jews to embrace Islam (as might have become obvious if the surrounding verses were also quoted), which would have been recited by the prophet Muhammad (sall' Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) to the Jews of his time in Madinah.

Continue reading "Our alleged duty to respect Israel" »

Posted by Indigo Jo at 9:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (1)

Anglo-neocons are slaves to America and not serving us (Guardian Unlimited)

Geoffrey Wheatcroft (The Strange Death of Tory England, Yo! Blair) on the clique of "Anglo-neocons" surrounding David Cameron whose position on the Iraq war, relations with the US and Israel are completely at odds with both the party's own history and with the pattern of right-wing parties in Europe, which tend to support their own national interest rather than those of foreign countries. Among those cited are Michael Gove (MP for Surrey Heath) and Douglas Carswell (Harwich & Clacton, Essex), who has opined that the British army in Iraq and Afghanistan are fighting on behalf of Israel.

Technorati Tags: douglas carswell, geoffrey wheatcroft, tory, israel, iraq, conservative party

Posted by Indigo Jo at 7:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier this week, Leeds University cancelled a talk and a two-day workshop which was due to be delivered by the German academic and former adviser to his country's Green Party, Matthias Küntzel, on what he calls "Islamic Antisemitism" in the Arab world and Iran, which he argues is a legacy of Nazi propaganda (reports: Times, Telegraph; blogs: Harry's Place, Drink Soaked Trots). The talks were cancelled for security reasons, according to the University, "because - contrary to our rules - no assessment of risk to people or property has been carried out, no stewarding arrangements are in place and we were not given sufficient notice to ensure safety and public order". Others are saying they bowed to protests from Muslim students; the president of the college's Islamic society remarked that he had searched for his writings on the internet and found them "not very pleasant".

Continue reading "Jews, Muslims and free speech" »

Posted by Indigo Jo at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (42) | TrackBacks (0)

The Guardian's readers' editor responds to speculation on various websites and blogs that a report, accompanied by photographs, of an attack on a Red Cross ambulance (which prompted Melanie Phillips to write this entry hailing the downfall of the "mainstream media") in July this year was a hoax, as alleged by various websites including pro-Israeli lobby sites known for crying bias. While there are some inconsistencies in the way the story was reported across the media, the fact that an ambulance was attacked by Israeli munitions still remains.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The Stop the War Coalition have organised a demonstration for a ceasefire in Lebanon and against "Blair's support for Bush's wars" for tomorrow (5th Aug), consisting of a march from Hyde Park (tube: Marble Arch) to Parliament Square. Anyone taking part should be at Hyde Park by 12 noon. No word on speakers as far as I can tell.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 6:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The BBC is commonly accused of being biased against Israel and of being unwilling to call terrorists what they are, but an interview with a representative of the Muslim Brotherhood on yesterday's Today programme on Radio 4 showed that Israel is as likely to benefit from the BBC's biases as anyone else. The interviewee was Dr Hazem Farooq Mansour, a Muslim Brotherhood MP in Egypt, and it was obvious to anyone listening that his English was not very good - so bad that the BBC should have found someone else or sent an interpreter - and the presenter used this to put words in his mouth time and again.

Continue reading "BBC puts words in to Brotherhood rep's mouth" »

Posted by Indigo Jo at 6:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (33) | TrackBacks (0)

From Thursday's Times, a report on a meeting by Israelis including former PM Binyamin Netanyahu to "commemorate" the bombing in July 1946 of the King David Hotel, in which 92 people died, unveiling a plaque which reads:

The hotel housed the Mandate Secretariat as well as the Army headquarters. On July 1946, Irgun fightres (sic), at the order of the Hebrew Resistance Movement, planting explosives in the basement. Warning phone calls had been made, urging the hotel's inhabitants to leave immediately. For reasons Known only to the British, the hotel was not evacuated, and after 25 minutes, the bombs exploded, and to the Irgun's regret and dismay, 91 persons were killed.

Clearly to them this was a "model" act of terrorism because a warning was given and contrasts are sanctimoniously drawn between Irgun's warnings and their "regret and dismay" at the casualties caused and modern day Arab terrorists (as Israel's supporters routinely express "outrage" at comparisons between Israeli and Arab actions which kill civilians). I don't doubt for a minute that if Arabs managed to pull something like this off in Jerusalem, killing that number of people, they would be condemned in the same terms used to condemn suicide bombings and rocket attacks. (Hat tip: Osama Saeed with more by Kashif; also Lenin has a report and some pictures from today's demo in London against the Israeli aggression.)

Also Harry's Place has a map of Israel with occupied territories superimposed onto a map of the UK. This is presumably meant to show how small Israel is, but it actually shows Israel occupying a large swathe of England all the way from Yorkshire down to Dorset.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The Guardian's Education section today reports on how recent debates on boycotting Israeli universities produced a flood of often abusive emails:

Following a heart attack earlier this year, Paul Mackney, then general secretary of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (Natfhe), was lying in hospital last month flipping through emails on his Blackberry. A proposal calling on the lecturers' union to encourage an academic boycott of Israel had just been made public, and flooding his inbox were messages accusing him, among many things, of being a "Bin Laden-oriented supporter of Islamic terror and propaganda" and an "ultra anti-semitic Nazi". Later, at the union's annual conference, he leaned over during a debate to show the most recent: "Subject: Jew Hater!" it read. "It's nice to hate Jews and single them out for everything! It's called ANTI-SEMITISM you disgusting piece of shit."

Continue reading "Guardian: Israel boycott debate triggered email attack" »

Posted by Indigo Jo at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Harry's Place: Which side were the Nazis on?

In which Gene notes that the Nazi leadership sought to support the Palestinian resistance to a Jewish state being established there because they believed it was not in Germany's interest because "a (Jewish) Palestinian state would create additional national power bases for international Jewry such as for example the Vatican State for political Catholicism or Moscow for the Communists".

Gene sanctimoniously says he hopes that "Palestinians will some day come to terms with this part of their history". That of taking help from whence it was coming when faced with the very real threat of being forced off their land? I am sure this gives Palestinians many a sleepless night (not).

Posted by Indigo Jo at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

New Statesman - NS Profile - Omar Sharif (you can load this once, and then it goes into pay per view).

Our old friend Shiv Malik writes in the New Statesman with a profile of Omar Sharif, one of the two British Muslim men who were involved in the Tel Aviv pizza parlour bombing in April 2003. Sharif appears to have been a devotee of Omar Bakri Muhammad, although this of course does not demonstrate in any way that OBM was responsible. Malik can't let go of his dog-and-bone obsession with Hizbut-Tahrir, however:

At about this time, Omar Bakri fell out with Hizb ut-Tahrir's international leadership, based in Lebanon. Bakri says the party told him that since Britain was not part of the Islamic world, he could not work to establish sharia here. He disagreed and in January 1996 set up al-Muhajiroun.

Continue reading "Shiv Malik on HT and the Tel Aviv bombings" »

Posted by Indigo Jo at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)