This week’s postings @JfJfP.com


January 15, 2017
Sarah Benton

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This week, January 9th-15th, 2017, the dominant story should have been the revelations from Al Jazeera about the extent of Israeli interference in British political life and the methods used to achieve this. The investigative unit of Al Jazeera took their material to the Mail on Sunday which duly published it with bravado. But otherwise, with a couple of exceptions, the story was largely ignored. The British FCO head, Sir Simon McDonald, declared the matter closed. Mrs May appeared to ignore the whole issue even though Israeli agents were trying to ‘take down’ her deputy FCO minister, Sir Alan Duncan, and another Conservative MP, Sir Crispin Blunt. Free Speech on Israel upbraids our nonchalant PM for her complacency:
May turns blind eye to Israeli subversion UK politics

A former CIA chief asks what are the boundaries to the espionage of a ‘friendly ‘ nation? ‘Blackmail and political subversion are clear enough: It is the insidious threats that are more to be feared’. Britain is at risk.
The real threat which Israel poses

In terms of effects on British political life however the greatest damage of this Israeli manipulation was on student life. Seen from this perspective the juggernaut of ‘Labour antisemitism’, which led to the Chakrabarti inquiry (if only she had called Shai Masot to give evidence) was being propelled by agencies established by the Israeli embassy in London:
Israeli corruption of British student life

It is possible the apathy of most media on this issue may be due to fear of being labelled ‘antisemitic’ by Israelis or conservative British Jews. The response of Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard was:

In Israel, four people were murdered by a Palestinian terrorist. But much of the British media was instead focused on a ludicrously silly story: that a junior contract official at the Israeli Embassy had said some stupid things over lunch with a minister’s part-time aide. Such is coverage of Israel in Britain today.

Thus speaks a man who cares more about horrible Palestinians than the political integrity of the country of which he is a citizen.

The much-maligned Jeremy Corbyn was the only MP to recognise and speak out against this subversion of our political life. We need a public inquiry he said. Hear hear.
Israeli subversion is issue of national security says Corbyn

Former diplomat, expert in state skullduggery, Craig Murray also asks why the British FCO did not expel Shai Masot, the organiser of Israel’s ‘useful idiots’. It is paralysed by its peculiar relationship with Israel:
UK is held in Israel’s ‘golden chains’

The Vice-President of the NUS, Richard Brooks, was a victim of Al Jazeera’s serious probe; he happily admitted to trying to oust the NUS president Malia Bouattia. Of course, if British media/MPs were more willing to investigate and less willing to jump unquestioningly on the ‘Labour antisemitism’ bandwagon the supposed toxicity of life for Jewish students would be exposed as an invention. A collective letter from Palestinian students in Britain demands the resignation of Richard Brooks:
Palestinian students in UK demand resignation of V-P

This posting is put up before a full account of the Paris conference on the 2-state solution is available. So far, we know from the French initiators (Britain did not want to join in) that the EU feels it must take the lead in opposing the transfer of embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and that Netanyahu and Trump should be aware of the European hostility to occupation and settlements:
Messages from Paris for Trump and Bibi

The EU has taken on the leadership of opposition to Israeli settlements and occupation – rather feebly, just through more stringent demands on labelling settlement products, relying on consumers to do the (not very arduous) work of refusing to buy products of the occupation:
EU leads action against settlements

The tweets of Donald Trump do have to be, at least, recognised although he has been most inconsistent on the Middle East. He seems to have settled on blind loyalism to Israel. His team says his declaration that he will order the move of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, is a priority and will happen. They seem to have no knowledge of international codes or of the likely response of Palestinians and Arab states:
Trump has no authority to set up embassy in Jerusalem

We know that Trump is dependent on his family for getting things done. That is, his ignorance of political life means he knows only family. Hence it is son-in-law Jared Kushner on whom the job of making Trump coherent, especially on the MidEast, has fallen:
Jared’s job – manage your father-in-law

The affair of Elor Azaria’s killing of Abdul Fatah al-Sharif is far from over, despite the court’s verdict that Azaria is guilty of manslaughter. The majority of Israelis (opinion polls) hotly disagree. He may not have acted according to the law but he acted for the true spirit of Israel: Palestinians are worthless. The Israeli political establishment are rushing to re-assure and comfort him. Yet there are dozens of Israeli soldiers who have shot Palestinians dead – none prosecuted. The difference is simple: Azaria was filmed by someone who was there at the time, using a camera donated by Human Rights Defenders and publicised by B’Tselem.

This contingency is rare but has propelled the contemptuous Israeli attitude towards Palestinians into the headlines, most of them now about the support for Azaria. Many Palestinians have said – such killings are commonplace. When do they make the news?
Azaria is the only indicted killer out of 100s

Emad Abu Shamsiyah, the Palestinian who filmed Azaria’s killing and gave the video to B’Tselem is now receiving death threats from the right wing:
Settler death threats to user of camera

There have been countless reports on the poverty of Palestinians, all of them concluding their level of poverty, especially in East Jerusalem, is unnecessary – were it not for the impenetrability of Israeli bureaucracy and the deliberate restrictions imposed on Palestinian trading. This is an upbeat analysis from Al Shabaka pointing to the ways in which the economy of E. Jerusalem could be invigorated. It is an unspoken demand that the PNA gets serious about economic development:
Enforcing poverty in East Jerusalem

Settlers may set off for Palestinian territory out of nationalist megalomania or they may set off out of a romantic desire to live outside modern urban life. Whatever the case, they are defended by Israeli soldiers. This is a photographic commentary on their life and dependence on state support, text by David Shulman, photographs by Margaret Olin:
Pictures from an illegal outpost

NOTE:

We note with sadness and deep appreciation the end of Zygmunt Bauman’s life. He lived in Britain, was a great intellectual, and was a JfJfP signatory. We await a proper obituary.

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