Al Jazeera
anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, BDS, general, Islamic terrorism, The I/P conflict, UK, United Nations, USA

Al Jazeera brings Middle Eastern antisemitism to the UK

Al JazeeraToday was the fourth and final installment of the Al Jazeera ‘documentary’ called ‘The Lobby’. The “undercover report exposing how the Israel lobby influences British politics”.

For those that haven’t seen it. The show came in four, 25 minute videos (1, 2, 3, 4). Highly repetitive, extremely drawn out, with about 5-8 minutes of content in each one. The sinister music and hidden footage feel, create the atmosphere you are watching something illicit. After a while you realise that despite the eerie music, the accusation itself is empty.

Viewing figures tend to agree with me. Whilst the first show on YouTube has already reached nearly 100,000 views. The Second sits at 24,000, the third 16,000 and currently the last show has only been viewed 3,000 times. Everyone soon realised there was no meat on this bone.

The antisemitic premise

Far too often, as I watched, I simply couldn’t understand what was wrong with what I was seeing. This difference, between my recognition of everyday political actions, and the attempt to suggest that we were witnessing the inside actions of a powerful conspiratorial story, highlights exactly what was wrong with the show itself.

The idea, the premise, could only have been formulated within an antisemitic mind-set. The ‘undercover reporter’, Robin Harrow, spent six months looking for evidence of something that quite simply does not exist. His findings are disjointed pieces of a picture of a UK Jewish community that is deeply connected to Israel, put together haphazardly by the mind of an antisemitic conspiracy theorist.

In a excellent take down of the ‘expose’, Marcus Dysch, Political Editor at the Jewish Chronicle, called it “harassment of Jews dressed up as entertainment”. Jonathan Hoffman, in a piece on Harry’s Place, broke his analysis into three central complaints, brilliantly summing up the show as ‘voyeurism For antisemites’.

In essence, the entire show hangs on a single sentence. Six months of undercover work, numerous events, scores of meetings, untold hours of networking, and they caught one ‘take-down’ comment on camera. Even then, it was spoken by a junior member of the Israeli Embassy staff with an over-inflated opinion of himself and a dubious command of English.

Trust me, undercover work is what I do. If I had six months, professional assistance and proper funding, I know that what I would put together would do major damage to the anti-Zionist camp in the UK.  They had six months and found nothing. I have real material to work with. They don’t.

Andrew Billen in The Times said this:

“For the life of me I could not see what Israel was doing wrong here. The Lobby sensationally exposed the existence of, well, a lobby.”

Al Jazeera attacks British Jews

So, what was this all about? Yes, the focus was on one embassy employee, but that was not the point. He was just the eventual conduit and you cannot write history backwards. An important point to remember is this: when they started, they could not have known which way this was going to go. The intention was to damage the grassroots, the strategy to weaken the fight against antisemitism, and the goal was to suggest British Zionists, one way or another, are all paid puppets of the Israeli State.

The anti-Israel (pro-Palestinian) movements in the UK have been damaged over the last 18 months, due to their inability to separate themselves from rabid antisemites. If they did not want to operate from a drastically weakened platform, they needed the tools to protect the antisemites. The ability to deflect the accusations, to continue to work unhindered by such ‘petty’ issues such as racist abuse against Jews.

Therefore, this was a deliberate attack on British Jews by a state funded, state owned, news outlet from Qatar. And in return, those who have found themselves politically weakened by antisemitic accusations, such as Jeremy Corbyn, are clamouring for the government to investigate Al Jazeera’s baseless conspiracy theory. The first opportunity Corbyn had to sell out the Jews to regain some political power, he has taken with both arms raised. Dancing with him on the table are people like Jenny Tonge, Ben White and Jackie Walker. I hope he enjoys the company.

This type of antisemitic suggestion, that Jews conspire and rule the world, is still common in the Middle East. Yet, Al Jazeera was operating inside the UK, attacking British Jews with a highly antisemitic brush. If I had one major accusation outside of the Al Jazeera team, it would be that the Mail on Sunday promoted the Al Jazeera ‘expose’ with front page cover just four day before broadcasting.  What on earth possessed the Mail on Sunday to jump into bed with Qatar, antisemitism, Electronic Intifada and Jenny Tonge against what is just a group of people who all share similar western values together?

There’s no antisemitism here guv

The two details worthy of note came in the second and third installments.  The first was a confrontation between Labour MP Joan Ryan, and Jean Fitzpatrick an anti-Israel activist. The entire confrontation in my opinion, was a set-up. Fitzpatrick is a hard-core activist. If she was politely asking questions about settlements, it was because she was on a mission. In any event, we also only see part of the footage.

What we do know is that Fitzpatrick, who was investigated and cleared, was not the only incident. We hear that “”one nutter came up and basically said that the coup was run by Jews, and Jewish MPs and Jewish millionaires.”  we know also that “others suggested the creation of the antisemitism scandal was merely part of a plot”. Even if the comments from Fitzpatrick are arguable, the atmosphere surrounding the stall may have already been toxic.

In any event, consider this, we have two non-Jews arguing over what they consider is antisemitic, and a state funded Arabic TV station showing some of the footage of the exchange to suggest a conspiracy in which antisemitism in Labour does not even exist. I am sure that Jackie Walker would be horrified, if someone tried to use the inability of two white people to ably identify the boundaries of racism, to discard all claims about the existence of all racist abuse.

Bullying the victims

The second incident left me feeling physical sick, and was the conversation between the reporter and Jewish Labour Movement Director Ella Rose after the antisemitism meeting at the Labour Conference. As David Hirsh put it “Al Jazeera’s spy pretends to comfort a Jewish woman who is in tears after experiencing antisemitism, secretly videos her exasperation, then runs off to his pals to help them edit his footage into an antisemitic documentary.”

Ella Rose “formerly worked” at the Israeli embassy. Apparently, if you work at any time for the Israeli embassy, you are forever tainted. According to Al Jazeera, Jackie Walker and co, this is proof positive you are of evil intent.  Once this ‘horrifying’ detail about her past life was uncovered by Asa Winstanley, Ella suggests Jackie Walker  ‘slammed her all week’ on social media. This is the life of those that choose to work within the Jewish community in this way. They become stalked, investigated, the prey of the antisemite.

Then much was made of her post abuse comments. When I saw this footage, it seemed to be that of a victim, trying to rebuild, to retake ownership of her pride. So I asked an expert. This from psychotherapist Amanda Perl:

“This fantasy or rehearsal that she talked about is simply a way of overcompensating for feeling dis-empowered, scared, humiliated, inferior and ashamed – it’s as if she has been left looking like a coward, not dealing appropriately or how she wanted to in a situation – she is simply with such words trying to overcompensate for being seen as ‘weak’. This overcompensation its a coping mechanism”

So, not only do Al Jazeera take hidden footage of a victim of antisemitism. They then use a natural response of a victim, a response nurtured in clinics for abuse victims around the country as a way of overcoming abuse, and they turn her into the abuser as part of an antisemitic documentary. Currently, because of Al Jazeera, some antisemites are further fueling the abuse against Ella. Everyone involved in this, including those who commented on it, or sent vicious messages via social media, are assisting in further abusing a victim. This Al Jazeera action needs to be thoroughly investigated.

Thoughts

This was a heavily funded, antisemitic attack on British Jews by a Qatari funded state news agency. As at times, we saw footage from different angles in the restaurant, we know there was more than one cameraman involved.  We know that Shai Masot was probably drunk on at least one of the occasions he was on camera. After six months of investigating, it is safe to say they found nothing.

We know that sending MPs to Israel is a lot better for ‘fact finding’ than sending them to ‘Palestine’. We know that MPs that go to Israel are at least given a grounding in the truth of the conflict. Why don’t Al Jazeera investigate themselves? Or better still Caabu:

“In 2013 Caabu took three delegations to the West Bank including former Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw; Shadow Business Secretary, Chuka Umunna; Jake Berry MP; Karen Buck MP; Cathy Jamieson MP; and Mark Pawsey MP.”

At many events I go to, I hear of MP’s having been taken by anti-Israel groups to Palestine. I hear of groups taking them. It never crossed my mind to take the footage, edit it, and turn it into a conspiracy. Others have written the bottom line already about this antisemitic show.  It is a disgrace. It is also disgusting that some politicians are using the product for their own political gain. We know these people bully Jews and they further smear them, by pretending the victims are the abusers.

We are a community at war. In an environment that is deteriorating. There is nothing imagined about it. We are now entering an atmosphere in Europe where torching a Synagogue is no longer seen as an attack on Jews, but rather an expression of frustration against Israel. We are no longer at the top of this slippery slope, but have begun a descent. Be alert.

 

Follow, like, donate

Please if you can, consider making a donation. Mine is an independent action and research is expensive and time consuming. Even producing just one of these piece does take days, sometimes weeks, and whilst I do what I can, there are serious constraints that impact on what is possible. Your assistance can and does make a difference. Every contribution is greatly appreciated.

Keep up to date, subscribe to the blog by using the link on the page. Follow the FB page for this blog: and follow me on Twitter.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

30 thoughts on “Al Jazeera brings Middle Eastern antisemitism to the UK”

  1. One must not forget the British Government, nearly every state in in mainland Europe and the EU are funding many groups sach as B’Tselem, Breaking thee Silence, Adalah and more that are directly attempting to influence and change the Israeli Government.
    That is true interference by foreign lobbies into another state’s affairs
    Obama and co complain about Russian interference in the US elections. He has a short memory. The US government as led by him, channeled money to an organization that actively worked to try to prevent Netanyahu from being able to form the current Israeli government
    Time the Israeli government pulled its head out its a**e and started going on the offensive instead of always reacting and apologising after the event
    Netanyahu is de facto Foreign Minister and is not being particularly effective

  7. You are a pretty good poet David.

    Let’s just take the Ella Rose issue.

    Ella claims she had been subject to a whole week of antisemitic abuse on social media by Jackie Walker. Well we have different views on Jackie Walker but even putting aside my instinctive admiration for Jackie I find this very hard to believe.

    There is absolutely no reason to accept the argument that because Ella says it it must be so.

    Particularly since……..

    I) She is an acolyte of the notorious ” preposterous liar ” Jeremy Newmark who has a proven track record of melodramatic attempts to stitch up pro Palestinian organisations and people.

    2) Ella is clearly an extremely nasty piece of work.

    Anyway this so called abuse by Jackie Walker, having taken place on social media should be very easy to evidence. Maybe, you, or Ella, could provide us with this evidence ? The people want to see it.

    1. And as for the psychology bit I think that is best left uncommented on except it is just too funny and desperate for words.

      1. Now I am surprised at you. But then I was surprised at Jackie Walker. I thought the left was big on the victim / abuse issues. Two kids, get beaten up.. as they walk away… what are they going to do? They’ll repair their ego’s that’s what. What we saw was a classic response to abuse (she clearly considered herself abused, even if you don’t buy her thinking). I recognised it, even before I asked for help from an expert. It is so obvious. She doesn’t make a threat, she seeks to rebuild her own position. Stephen, even if there are animals you do not like, every now and again they do something normal that you should just accept. You don’t need to try and make capital from every little event.

        1. But David Jackie Walker has rights too. Ella claims Jackie subjected her to a whole week of abuse on social media. There will be evidence of that. It should be produced.

          Ella keeps getting referred to as a ” kid” being abused. I am not sure if that is motivated by sexism or ageism.

          Ella is no ingenue. She was president of the UJS. An employee of the Israeli Embassy. And now she is chair of the highly manipulative JLM If she is too female or too yoing to have that role she should get out of it.

    2. Unable to refute the substantive basis of the post, you resort to trying to smear. Unfortunately, all that it shows, is your disdain for David.

      The late 19th century German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer wrote a book, “The Art of being Right: 38 Ways to Win an Argument.” Here, all that is necessary is to put David into some “odious” category and then attack.

    3. Oh Stephen. I admit I did think of you when I finished watching the fourth episode. How disappointed you must have been. Six months. Can you imagine? If I said to you, that someone had managed to ‘infiltrate’ the embassy anti- BDS lot, hook up with JLM, grass roots and so on, and spend six months gathering footage, I am sure your imagination would have gifted you far more than this. What a let down. It is empty. Your social media idea unfortunately doesn’t hold. I remember when the antisemitism scandals started breaking, there were 1000’s of people busy deleting history of posts. That is all it takes, a click of a delete button. Still.

        1. clearly. You even had Jackie Walker sharing your blog on FB last night. Well done. Spangle and Smith liking it too. You are certainly part of the ‘in crowd today.

          1. Well I don’t have anything to do with anybody’s FB account . I have never heard of anyone called Spangler . I have heard of a few Smiths but I don’t think any of them are the Smith you have in mind.

            I just think it is important to establish whether the l’enfant terrible, Ella is telling the truth. I am betting she just made it all up.

            Other questions of veracity are raised in the doc too. For example here….

            http://wp.me/p5W2a1-St

            As for being part of the in crowd. That would be a new one for me. It is going to take a bit of getting used to.

            1. Never been one to use guilt by association, so it wasn’t my intent to do so here. I simply wanted to highlight that Jackie must be in pretty dire straits if they are using your post (no offense) to support their non existent argument. What are they going to do to push for a governmental inquiry over a conspiracy theory without merit, play a game of “Stephen says”?

              As for evidence on social media, it is too easily deleted. As soon as anyone gets wind of a possible issue, they clean their account. Interesting you seem to place Jackie’s word over Ella’s. Jackie has spent three days running around post after post about how Ella ‘threatened her’. Can you point me to such a threat please? There is no way in that footage, you could even begin to claim a threat was made, even if you personally do not like the politics of the girl caught on film. Jackie seems to be being deliberately deceptive. Hardly an honest character then.

          2. (no offense)

            None taken.

            David, Jackie having ” slammed ” Ella on social media for the whole week preceding the LP conference is frantically becoming established as a received wisdom. A bit like the LP being a hot bed of antisemitism. So far this is based only on Ella stating that it is so.

            You are right I am not inclined to just take Ella’s word for it, and don’t see why anyone else should. The whole Zionist analysis of the Rose/ Walker issue sits on this. I understand that social media stuff can be erased. So at least Ella might be persuaded to give further details.

            Further, Ella makes clear that physical violence was a favoured and comforting option. I think most people would feel pretty threatened by that.

          1. Stephen
            After six months under cover work and not far south of a six figure pay out , this is all AJ produced . One low ranking embassy staff informing us there are counter BDS operations in place and a girl evidently distressed by the antisemitic harassment she had received . Not much bang for the buck I would suggest . As David mentioned , I too watched the first episode, realised there was nothing there and didn’t bother wasting my time with the other three.

            It has been dismissed in Parliament save for the increasingly sclerotic Jezza who managed to rouse himself when he heard the words Jew and Israel . No MoS follow up . In fact no MSM interest whatsoever .
            Why even Ben ‘ I’m not an antisemite but understand why others might be ‘ White is only tweeting the ocassional hook .
            In football terms I would say’ they ve all gone quiet over there
            However I m looking forward to the AJ sequel investigating the plethora of Pro Palestinian lobby groups such as Labour and Conservative friends of Palestine and where their funding comes from . EI too but then we already know and it wouldn’t take six months of No ‘sh@t Sherlock investigations to come up with Arab money + Soros

          2. Harv there is much in that I would take issue with but its all such hard work.

            I agree in so far as it didn’t actually tell us much we didn’t know except for some details. Details are less important then the gist which we already knew. We heard some stuff we already knew from some horses mouths so to speak.

            That much is quite empowering I think. For one thing, for example, it totally sinks the moves against Malia Bouattia. We won’t hear any more about Malia being taken down I think.

            Interesting that you refer to Ben White’s little faux pas from a few years back. I guess you noticed a more emphatic faux pas by Mike Whine of the CST ? ( at the LP conference again).

            ” It is understandable that people don’t like Muslims “

  8. Whilst Joan Ryan fabricates antisemitism in the Labour Party real antisemitic beliefs held by the far right get a free pass.

    For example, it was recently reported UKIP’s youth wing used a closed Facebook group to propagate antisemitic ideas and bigotry. And all we hear in the news is about so called antisemitism in the Labour Party.

    Joan Ryan needs to fight the real perpetrators and end the proxy war on Corbyn using fake antisemitism that is undermining the Labour Party’s reputation in the process.

    https://antisemitism.uk/ukip-facebook-group-posts-claim…/

    1. John,
      I am sick and tired of people saying that Jews are fabricating anti-semitism for political purposes, sick and tired of hearing what is and what is not antisemitism from people who have never experienced antisemitism and sick of people saying that calling for the eradication of Israel is simply criticism of Israel, and not antisemitism.

  10. Bouattia will doubtless retain her position but not because of this non starter of an exposee . It’s more to do with the make up of the NUS and her supporters who will keep her in power .
    As for White , his Jew hating comment will always follow him like a bad smell. As they say if it barks and has four legs it is almost certainly a dog . White’s racism is there for all to see and probably the reason why he never gets a gig beyond AJ ,MEMO and the occasional Comment is Free polemic . Some would say a waste of a talented writer . I would simply say Meh – another in a long line of Jew haters , not unlike you , who will be unremembered except by a few like minded bigoted non entities

Comments are closed.