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Exposing Britain’s Pro-“Israel” Lobby: Channel 4 Makes Bold Start

{Zionism} by Amer AL Zu'bi

By Stuart Littlewood, source

Last night Channel 4’s ‘Dispatches’ program set out to investigate the pro-Israel lobby in Britain, and to boldly go where no TV team had gone before.

On the Dispatches website we were told that the lobby “aims to shape the debate about Britain’s relationship with Israel and future foreign policies relating to it”.

So the program would be looking at “who they are, how they are funded, how they work and what influence they have, from the key groups to the wealthy individuals who help bankroll the lobbying”.

Political commentator Peter Oborne would explain how accountable, transparent and open to scrutiny the lobby was, particularly regarding its funding and financial support to MPs.

So it was with mounting excitement that countless thousands of citizens here in an increasingly Zionist-ruled Britain awaited the screening of this daring program. Some of the reader comments on the Dispatches website showed the expectant mood …

“Finally someone will take this issue on. British politicians should represent Britain not a foreign interest.”

“I expect the usual accusations of anti-semistism of any attempt to show Israel in its true light.”

“I hope the program would expose how lobbyists for Israel trample over the UK democratic process. I expect Oborne to expose the destructive role of the Labor Friends of Israel in British politics, but I hope he won’t stop there.”

“The Zionist Lobby counts many British politicians in its ranks where they function as a fifth column in support of Israel’s illegal actions.”

“I live in hope but I doubt this program will truly unmask the Israel lobby that has played a critical role in destabilizing the Middle East…”

“Expect numerous cries of “anti-semitism”. Le’ts hope the program doesn’t pull its punches.”

“We have tried for years to have this shadowy support mechanism for Israel exposed. Please do not allow this program to be pulled. Please do a proper exposé of all aspects…”

“It won’t change anything. Most of the British public are too stupid to realize how important this program is.” Mr Oborne reported that a large majority of Conservative MPs and half the shadow cabinet are signed-up Friends of Israel, and £millions flow into the bank accounts of MPs and parties although only a fraction of these “contributions” is visibly accounted for.

As Sir Richard Dalton, a former British diplomat who served as consul-general in Jerusalem, observed: “I don’t believe, and I don’t think anybody else believes these contributions come with no strings attached.”
Mr Oborne showed how Labor and Conservative Friends of Israel take dozens of MPs on free trips to Israel, where they are guests of the Israeli government.

He showed how one of the Conservative Party’s big donors has vested interests in illegal settlement development in the West Bank and in Bicom, an Israeli public affairs outfit, and how the party’s leadership is prey to foreign pressure.

Assuming the Conservatives win next year’s election Israel can rest easy in the knowledge that it continues to have sufficient stooges in place at the heart of our government.

Just as importantly, Mr Oborne showed how the BBC – or the ZBC, as it has become known for obvious reasons – allows itself to be relentlessly bullied by the Board of Deputies and the Zionist Federation who, the program pointed out, don’t represent anybody except an extremists section of the Jewish community.

But he forgot to tell us that director-general Mark Thompson has Zionist links through marriage and Thompson himself went to Israel in 2005 to “build bridges” with the then prime minister Ariel Sharon, considered by many a war criminal and mass murderer.

Interesting though the program was, it left out too much. For example, it didn’t name and shame enough individuals. It didn’t tell the nation that our most important security bodies – the Intelligence & Security Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee and Defense Committee – are all headed by Israel flag-wavers. How can that possibly be in our national interest?

It didn’t reveal that our Labor and Conservative leaders are both patrons of the Jewish National Fund or explain the sinister purpose of that organization.

According to Mr Oborne, ”the pro-Israel lobby, in common with other lobbies, has every right to operate and indeed to flourish in Britain. But… the present obscurity surrounding it can, paradoxically, give rise to conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact.” However, he spent the best part of an hour convincing us (well me, anyway) it is indeed a conspiracy and a very large and well organized one.

He didn’t mention that two years ago a group of individuals asked the Committee on Standards in Public Life to investigate the undue influence of the Friends of Israel lobbies.

Their main argument was that the lobbies existed in contravention of the Seven Principles of Public Life, which the Standards Committee had been formed to uphold. Some of those who signed the letter believed the strength of these alliances should be seen as bordering on treason.

They put it to the Standards Committee that “the activities of the Israel lobby in Westminster seriously undermine a number of those Principles as defined by the Committee itself, namely Selflessness, Integrity, Accountability, Openness and Honesty.

“A large majority of Conservative MPs and MEPs are Friends of Israel. The lobby also claims a very large number of Labor MPs and ministers. The Liberal Democrat FoI website brazenly states that its first aim is to maximize support for the State of Israel within the Liberal Democrats and Parliament, furthermore to develop and maintain a broad-based LDFI membership inside and outside of Parliament…

“All MPs (and many parliamentary candidates) are exposed to the lobby’s influence and a disturbingly large number apparently carry its message into their parliamentary work, causing great damage to our parliamentary democracy, harm to Britain’s reputation throughout the world and risk to our security because a just solution in the Holy Land is excluded by such partisanship.”

They even quoted George Washington: “The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave…a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils.”

But their concerns were rejected out of hand. Not surprisingly it was found that the Israel lobby had infiltrated the Standards Committee itself. Who could be summoned to investigate that?

Peter Oborne and the Dispatches team get an encouraging two cheers from me. It was a brave effort which went halfway and will no doubt draw considerable flak from Israel’s hirelings and admirers. A wholehearted third cheer will be earned if they go back and finish the job.

In the meantime it would be no bad thing if all our Westminster politicians had the Second Principle of Public Life tattooed on their forehead – Integrity: Holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organizations that might seek to influence them in the performance of their official duties. (Note to tattooist: Apply back-to-front so that they can read it every morning when they look in the mirror.)

– Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation.

Related articles and channel 4 show:

Pro-Israel lobby group bankrolling Tories, film claims

Friends in high places

Show

Turkey Tells “Israel” to End Gaza ‘Humanitarian Tragedy’

Turkey Tells Israel to End Gaza ‘Humanitarian Tragedy’

Al manar

16/10/2009 Turkey urged Israel Friday to end the “humanitarian tragedy” in Gaza, saying ties between the two allies cannot recover if Palestinian suffering continues and “peace talks” remain dead in the Middle East. “Ending the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza, reviving peace efforts — both on the Palestinian and Syrian track, and most importantly — reinstating a prevailing spirit of peace in the region… this is what we want,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters.

“When there is a return to the track of peace, these relations of trust (with Israel) will be re-established on the same level as before,” he said. The Zionist entity’s ties with its chief regional ally took a sharp downturn last week when Ankara excluded the entity from annual joint military exercises, prompting a rebuke from the United States. The row flared Thursday as Israel summoned the Turkish envoy to protest a Turkish state television series which it condemned as “inciting hatred against Israel” and “not worthy of being broadcast even in an enemy state.”

Davutoglu said that Israel’s war on Gaza at the turn of the year “killed the peace perspective” in the Middle East. He made it clear Ankara was still bitter that the war also disrupted indirect talks between Israel and Syria that Turkey had mediated “with so much effort.” “As long as the human tragedy in Gaza continues, no one should expect us to be part of a military picture” with Israel, he said, referring to the scrapped military drills.

“Although no single rocket has been fired on Israel from Gaza over the past eight months, children in Gaza have no schools to go to, people have no homes to take shelter in,” he said. Davutoglu rejected suggestions that his government was becoming anti-Israeli. “The humanitarian situation (in Gaza) should be improved in the shortest possible time. How can wanting this amount to being anti-Israeli? This is a humanitarian attitude,” he said.

Turkish TV Drama Adds to Turkish-Israeli Tension

Al manar

16/10/2009 Israel’s relations with Turkey plunged to a new low Thursday after Turkish state television aired a fictional series showing Israeli occupation troops murdering Palestinian children during last winter’s Gaza war…

Turkey, a country with a strong secular tradition, has for more than a decade been Israel’s key ally in the Muslim world. Officials and analysts see the latest disputes as part of a worrying historical shift that could lead to the decline of their military partnership.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, admitted Thursday that the move to exclude Israel from Operation Anatolian Eagle was motivated by the Zionist entity’s offensive against Gaza ten months ago, in which more than 1,400 Palestinians died, including 420 children and over 5300 others injured.

He said that Turkish public opinion had turned so much against Israel that he was unable to ignore it. “Anyone who exercises political power has to take account of public opinion . . . I can’t just put the calls from the public to one side, it’s a question of sincerity,” he said.

Turkish television has now started broadcasting a vehemently anti-Israeli series entitled Farewell, which depicts actors dressed as Israeli troops shooting Palestinian children dead at point blank range, killing a newborn baby after its mother goes into labor at a checkpoint and lining up captured men in front of a firing squad.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman summoned the acting Turkish Ambassador to protest. “A series like this, which has not the slightest connection with reality, which presents Israeli soldiers as the murderers of innocent children, would not be appropriate for broadcast even in an enemy country and certainly not in a state which maintains diplomatic relations with Israel,” Lieberman said.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Friday that Turkey is not “based on censorship” and that the state has no right to comment on the quality or opinions expressed in broadcasts. The series is appearing on Turkey’s state-owned TRT television, which is allowed some autonomy under the law.

There were also reports that Turkey planned to impose a stiff fine on Israel for the delay in delivery of unmanned drones, and has threatened to take the case to an international tribunal.

Anat Lapidot Firilla, an expert on Israeli-Turkish relations at the Hebrew University in occupied Jerusalem, said that the row went far beyond disputes over the Gaza war or a television show, and reflected Turkey’s “neo-Ottoman” desire to become a regional superpower in competition, rather co-operation, with Israel.

Ankara was looking to build closer strategic ties with other Muslim states in the area and in oil-rich Central Asia at the expense of ties with Israel, she said.

Israel had a similar diplomatic spat with Sweden this summer after a Swedish newspaper accused Israeli occupation soldiers of murdering Palestinians and selling their organs. Israel denounced the article as anti-Semitic and demanded that the Swedish Government did the same. Carl Bildt, the Swedish Foreign Minister, declined, saying that media reports were not a matter for government intervention.

Turkey on a roll! Show tells Israeli crimes against the Palestinians

Almost every day we hear Turkey is doing an action against the Israelis: refusing Israeli participating in drills, Erdogan criticism and accusation of crimes against the Palestinians, its deal with Syria, contemplating a fine against the Israelis for failing to deliver drones, and now this show on Turkey’s national TV. Obviously Turkey is sending a huge message to the Israelis that is not only about Gaza but could be a large turning point in strategy. It is really sad to say that while some Arab countries are aiming toward normalizing ties with the Israelis like the UAE allowing them to come and raise the Israeli flag there are others around the world who are advocates of Palestinian rights before fellow Arabs. We have a saying, what you sow you shall receive. [Just a note do you notice how some news fits in “Jewish state” as if it is a given, propaganda technique].

The show is just telling the truth, here is an example during the Gaza offensive.

“Israel” Alerted over Show Portraying Soldiers Shooting Children

Al Manar

15/10/2009 Israeli soldiers shoot at Palestinian children: a scene that takes place in a daily basis. Yet, a TV show portraying such scene is enough to make the Zionist entity be put on alert…

According to the Israeli media, Naor Gilon, deputy head of the Europe Department in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “reprimanded” the acting Turkish ambassador to Israel over a TV program portraying Israeli soldiers shooting at Palestinian children.

“We cannot stand by as blatant incitement against Israel and its soldiers is being aired which could lead to physical harm to Jews and Israelis,” Gilon told Jailan Ozen during their meeting Thursday.

“The use of stereotypes by a TV show that is viewed by children and adults alike must concern anyone who strives for peace and coexistence among nations and religions in the region and all over the world,” Gilon claimed.

“The soldiers who are depicted as bloodthirsty killers are the same ones who rushed to the aid of the Turkish people in the wake of the devastating earthquake in 1999,” he told the Turkish envoy.

The series is broadcast on the state-run TRT1 channel.

The producer of the fictional TV series “Ayrilik”, which shows Israeli soldiers shooting innocent Palestinian children, said Thursday that he has nothing against Israel.

On Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman summoned the acting Turkish ambassador to Israel to a meeting with high-ranking ministry officials. “Broadcasting this series is a serious case of state-sponsored incitement. Such a series, which doesn’t even have a weak connection to reality, and which presents the Israeli soldiers as murderers of innocent children, is unworthy of being broadcast in enemy states, let alone in a country which had full diplomatic relations with Israel.”

Previously ties between Israel and Turkey have deteriorated somewhat since Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian Gaza strip. Turkey barred Israel from participating in a NATO war exercise this week and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the move was a result of public concerns over the Gaza war.