It is now an archive for my newspaper and magazine pieces. My blog can now be read at: www.spectator.co.uk/stephenpollard
Politics, economics and culture from the master. Unmissable.
Melanie Phillips home page
Melanie Phillips' peerless blog. Read, and learn.
Daniel Finkelstein's Times Comment Central
A daily must-read.
Tim Worstall
Lots of interesting nibbles - and a ruthless swatter of economic gibberish.
Harry's Place
Must-read left of centre blog from writers who understand the threat to the West.
Clive Davis
Always interesting selection of culture and politics, from an Anglo-American bent.
Samizdata
Libertarian blog, packed every day.
Norm's blog
The thoroughly sensible thoughts of renowned left-wing academic Norman Geras, Professor of Government at Manchester. And cricket, too.
Public Interest
Peter Briffa's inimitable take on The Yazzmonster and other assorted demons.
Reform
The public sector reform group; their website is an invaluable source of data and ideas.
Centre for the New Europe
The leading European public policy think tank.
Developed by:
| April | 26 |
| 2007 |
So frequent, and so rabid, is the antisemitism which the Guardian allows on its Comment Is Free site that it often passes without further ado. But it shouldn't. The Guardian's comments section has become a shockingly blatant bulletin board of antisemitism.
Some of the comments after this piece are entirely unambiguous antisemitic rantings, and the Guardian hasn't lifted a finger to deal with them, despite being alterted to them hours ago. I'm going to print a lengthy sample just to show how relentless it is, and how incredible it is that the Guardian is allowing this sort of thing to be published under its auspices. It can't, as it has before, claim that the odd comment has snuck through. The entire comments section after this piece is suffused with it:
'Mr Cockburn, you are a courageous and an excellent writer who is absolutely spot on. Is it pure coincidence that both Perle and Wolfowitz plus others of their neocon cronies are Jews, some of them with Israeli passports? Could they have been doing Israel's bidding, diverting and corrupting US policy to suit Israel's murderous agenda? Perhaps acting to influence the simpletons Bush and Rumsfield and then turning against them as Perle did, when his mission was accomplished. Talk about rats abandoning ship! How has the same Jewish/Zionist manipulation through Lord Levy and his money raising efforts in the Jewish community influenced British policy? Is that why Blair and Brown always attend the Friends of Israel annual rally where they drink the Toast to the President of Israel? Can we now have another article Mr. Cockburn, on the Israeli/Jewish malign influence on British politics through the Jewish fifth columnists in the UK?''Wolfowitz is Jewish isn't he? Are you saying just because he is Jewish Andrew Cockburn shouldn't be allowed to write an article about him? I take it you belong to that camp who think anybody who is remotely critical of Israel or indeed any jewish person has to be a Jew hater.If you are really so distressed about the Guardian blogs perhaps you should start reading the Jewish chronicle, I'm sure the journalist on that newspaper will be able to confirm all your paranoid prejudices.'
'SarahLeah asks:
- "Is anyone else tired of all this Guardian obsession with Israel/Palestine and alleged Jewish power?"
No. It's THE key issue to be resolved in the world today and is a factor in what's happening in Iraq, Iran and internally in the US.
There are people who would like the rest of us to turn our attention away but we won't fall for the old ploy that it's boring and that we should all move on to something else.'
'Why can't we take it as a settled matter that Zionists had a huge hand in planning the Iraq War? Maybe the US would've attacked even if there were no Israel Lobby, no Wolfowitz at the number 2 spot at the Pentagon. Maybe it's pure coincidence that the US is so obsessed with the Middle East and the Arabs, JUST like Israel is. Maybe if Wolfowitz weren't there some non-Jew with no ties to Israel would've been up to the same mischief. But all these "maybes" are pure speculations (and, in my opinion, poor ones). The simple, unavoidable fact of the matter is that whether the US could've done without them or not, the Zionists were there with their hands on the levers of power.'
'The most interesting point in this first-rate piece is the link made between the military-industrial-congressional complex and the Israeli Lobby/Likuddists, especially the neocons. The pattern of imitation/cooperation is striking:
1. preemptive war
2. torture
3. walls
4. refusal to negotiate
5. demonizing enemy
6. exaggerated threats and responses
7. manipulation of public opinion
8. etc,etc,etc''Wolfowitz only answers to Israel. The point of the attack on Iraq was to eliminate one of Israels enemies and the Americans were useful idiots to do that. I am glad that they are beginning to see that and protest against it.'
'As heinous as Wolfowitz obviously is, he wasn't alone in plotting his pre-meditated crimes of state. He was part of a tightknit, sinister cabal of Likudniks who wormed their way into positions of power in Washington in order to further Israeli interests. The nefarious Richard Perle was a ruthless ringleader but their exacrable numbers include others past and present such as Doug Feith, Eliot Abrams, Dennis Ross, Martin Indyk, Mark Grossman, et. al. that overlaps administrations but is united by their common fealty to Israel first. Not at all surprising that these cunning schemers should now try and "bite the hand that fed them" by using the hapless Rumsfeld to take the heat for the disastrous consequences of their insidious policies, while they scurry for cover. These sniveling little cowards have wreaked havoc with American foreign policy for years - and aren't done yet.'
'SarahLeah asks:
- "Is anyone else tired of all this Guardian obsession with Israel/Palestine and alleged Jewish power?"This 77 year old man as been waiting a long time for some one to stand up for the shmuckes of this world, As that is what we are to the rich Zionist doners who drive their foreign policy. Zionists have hijacked conservative christian opinion in both US and UK. being called an anti-semite, racist, is a big part of their head game, Keep repeating a lie over and over, And we all get a gilt trip ,we have the Jewish genocide constantly shoved down our throats and other genocides ignored, eg holocaust also should not be used as a cover for every human rights violation by the Israeli government. When the media and the US Congress begin to recognize that Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians aren't acceptable, we may have a chance for stability in the Mideast, Having said that, You can call me an anti-semite, That puts me in good company,
So to all you anti-semite out they ,keep the good work up, Remember The power and extent of the Israeli Money Lobby is all pervasive. This giant must be slain, And thank's Guardian ,Please don't let Murdoch by you out.'
MessageSpace
Tonge Mk.II ?
Unbelievable.
Thank you for posting this Stephen. I look at CIF every day and even comment there occasionally, but every time the reaction is so vile that I almost feel physically sick. I too have reported comments to the moderators and nothing has been done, whereas my own comments HAVE been deleted.
Not only that, but not a day goes by without an anti-Israel post there. Because some of them are written by Anglo Israelis like Seth Freedman or Alex Stein they can claim they are not anti-Israel because - look! - they are written by Israelis. The fact that they are self-hating Israelis who can find almost nothing good to write about Israel is deemed irrelevant. I cannot understand why those writers made Aliya in the first place, or stay in Israel if it's as bad as they write.
I have reported CIF to Honest Reporting but they said that they only focus on the print media. Keeping an eye on online blogs would be too time consuming, which may be true but is awfully sad. They also said that they consider CIF to be a lost cause, which is true.
As I said in my comment on your post about the NUJ boycott, I find the amount of antisemitism absolutely frightening, especially if it is indicative of the level of antisemitism in Britain, which I sincerely hope is not true.
Either way, I am so glad I made Aliya a long time ago.
PS......I just wikied Andrew Cockburn. Not much there....
Good grief al-Guardian is insane! Alexander Cockburn makes Robert Fisk seem rational. I wish to God that Israel would bar al-Guardian from its territory. Is there any future for the British Jewish community?
"Alexander Cockburn makes Robert Fisk seem rational"
This piece was by his brother, Andrew Cockburn (He is the father of OC actress, Olivia Wilde. One wonders if she shares his prejudices; if she does, it must be very difficult for her to be surrounded by all those Jewish plotters):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cockburn
Alexander Cockburn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Cockburn
The monster responsible for the Cockburn dynasty:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claud_Cockburn
No surprise to learn that Claud Cockburn's cousin was Evelyn Waugh:
"The anti-Semitism of Evelyn Waugh went beyond mere literary characterization. A study of Waugh's attitudes toward Nazism, Zionism, and World War II provides evidence that the Jewish characterizations in Waugh's work were underlined by stable and settled negative convictions regarding the Jewish people. Waugh's anti-Semitism had surprisingly little to do with Christian religious teaching but may almost entirely be attributed to upper-class British snobbism and his view that Jews were agents of capitalism, democracy, and secularism. Before the Holocaust Waugh gave his anti-Semitism free and unrestrained rein in his novels. After the Holocaust Waugh tried to blunt anti-Semitism in his novels, but the anti-Semitic outlook was so ingrained in him that he was not entirely successful. There are ample signs of old prejudices at play in his post-war writings. Waugh also denied many of his Jewish characters an authentic Jewish voice."
http://digitalcommons.fau.edu/dissertations/AAI1336334/
It is men like Waugh who would have headed up the UK branch of the Sicherheitsdienst had the Germans invaded Britain in 1940.
The comments you've saved are appalling. But I can only find one of them on CiF now. The tardy response is equalled only by the appalling judgement of those who moderate the comments.
A similar incident occurred a few weeks ago on the BBC Editors' blog when one contributor recommended that readers check out the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to learn more about the Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.
This comment stayed on the site for over 24 hours before being removed, despite numerous email and telephone complaints from people alerted by websites such as Biased BBC.
I phoned the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit and spoke to a young woman who had never hearf of the Protocols. Here, I think, is the root of the matter. The people moderating the comments are young, poorly paid and poorly educated. They just don't recognise what they are reading.
By the way, the comment was removed very promptly after I suggested that if it was still there at 5pm I would report the matter to the Police as a race hate crime.
Food for thought.
The comments on Comment Is Free may be a little overwrought (what else do you expect from leftists) but they do raise - albeit sometimes in offensive form - an important point. The Israel lobby was important in pushing the U.S. towards war in Iraq, just as its currently pushing America towards conflict with Iran; and the true loyalties of Perle, Feith, Wolfowitz etc is an interesting question - one with a likely troubling answer for anyone who calls themselves a patriotic American.
It was a Ha'aretz columnist, Akiva Eldar, who wrote that Feith and Perle were "walking a fine line between their loyalty to American governments...and Israeli interests." Just as it was Barry Jacobs of the American Jewish Committee who in March of 2005 acknowledged the belief that Israel and neoconservatives had conspired to get the U.S. into a war with Iraq was "pervasive" in the intelligence community. Oh well. I guess these are all just glaring examples of lurid antisemitism to be shouted down by all right-thinking (and left-acting) people.
Neoconservatism is rooted on the Left, so its probably not surprising that neocons resort to the classic leftist smear of "racist" when anyone dares to point out these obvious facts. Stephen, I'm no expert on your views, but if a cabal of British Muslim politicians and government officials with familial and religious ties to, say, Saudi Arabia did the same thing that these American fifth columnists are doing, I have no doubt you - correctly - would question their loyalty and suitability to craft British foreign policy.
Loyalty to Israel is fine and dandy if you are an Israeli. But to pretend that British or American interest are synonymous with Israeli ones is rubbish, and the writers on Comment Is Free are right to point this out.
Akiva Eldar, Gideon Levy, Amira Hass are to Israeli journalism what Robert Fisk, Jon Pilger and Cockburn are to to British journalism. Nice try but no cigar!