‘Anti-Semitism’ trumps Collier’s Far-Rights links
Times have not been good to the cold war site, Harry’s Place. Having supported every war in the Middle East they have bathed in the Islamaphobic afterglow.
HP is a place where any racist and any warmonger can take part with pride, just as long as they support Israel. That is why you have the imperialist warmongers of the ‘left’ like Andrew Coates posting there.
Most of the comments are juvenile, public school racism laced with a hefty dose of anti-communism. Reflex support for Israel and an automatic demonization of any Palestinian or BDS is essential to politics there.
I guess I should be flattered that they reprinta post I did on the Facebook group Palestine Live, which was the subject of an ‘expose’ by far-Right Zionist blogger David Collier. ‘Lucy Lips’ devotes all its attention to one phrase in particular: ‘Antisemitism doesn't hurt Jews but it does hurt the Palestinians.’
How can this be the little neo-cons ask themselves. Surely he doesn’t mean it. In fact I did mean it as my response below explains (I posted it to Harry’s Place but despite their banner motto that ‘Liberty if it means anything means the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear’ doesn’t seem to want to extend it to me. I was banned some years ago and I guess the ban is still in force as my comment hasn’t appeared.
My point, which is a simple one, is that the kind of anti-Semitism which occasionally graced the Palestine Live Facebook group, i.e. social media anti-Semitism doesn’t hurt Jews but does hurt the cause of Palestinians. Obvious actual anti-Semitism in the real world does hurt people who are Jewish although even then, anti-Semitism prejudice in the Palestine solidarity movement, occasional and rare as it is compared to the virulent anti-Muslim racist of Zionists, hurts the Palestinian cause more than the Zionists.
Response to Harry’s Place
Let me put viewers of Harry's Place out of their misery. I don't usually post here but someone drew my attention to this absurd piece of nonsense.
Any fair minded person, anyone who is not interested in deliberate distortion of someone's views would see that I unequivocally condemn all manifestations of antisemitism. After all, unlike virtually all members of this site I have actually put myself on the line in the fight against fascist groups. People here only talk about 'antisemitism' when they are defending the apartheid society of Israel.
On the day of the death of Steven Hawking let us remember that he too, like most reasonable anti-racist people, supported BDS and the Palestinians. After all how can anyone who is an anti-racist support a state where 93% of the land is barred to Arabs or non-Jews, where Rabbis issue writs against leasing land or apartments to Arabs (Safed etc.) of where there are marches chanting 'death to the Arabs'. All the circular wordplay on this site is devoted to defending the greater racism and of course most people except the elites in society and their echo chambers here know that.
What I meant about antisemitism not hurting Jews above is meant to be understood in the context in which it was said. Of course it has nothing to do with the Holocaust, fascist attacks on the street etc. It refers solely to what I refer to as the 'fruitcakes and loony tunes' who post on social media groups like Palestine Alive. Social media anti-semitism, unless it is used to organise attacks on Jewish people, is anodyne. It doesn't hurt a single Jew. It is nothing more than people venting their frustration against Jews because of what the 'Jewish state' does in the name of Jews against Palestinians.
Such people are politically backward and reactionary and I called out Atzmon, Greta Berlin and Alison Weir. My comments should not be understood as meaning I agree in any way with them but t o simply point out that they aren't hurting Jews, which they might like to do, but the very people they are purportedly supporting.
I suggest that if those who wish to ascertain 'antisemitism' in every crack or crevice were to turn their attention to the vicious racism in Israel, racism which people like Zeev Sternhell, a childhood survivor of the Holocaust, have compared to the Nazi era, then I would take their witterings over 'antisemitism' seriously.
Instead most of the posters here are serially dishonest in that they defend racism in the name of 'antisemitism', the new anti-communism.
Any fair minded person, anyone who is not interested in deliberate distortion of someone's views would see that I unequivocally condemn all manifestations of antisemitism. After all, unlike virtually all members of this site I have actually put myself on the line in the fight against fascist groups. People here only talk about 'antisemitism' when they are defending the apartheid society of Israel.
On the day of the death of Steven Hawking let us remember that he too, like most reasonable anti-racist people, supported BDS and the Palestinians. After all how can anyone who is an anti-racist support a state where 93% of the land is barred to Arabs or non-Jews, where Rabbis issue writs against leasing land or apartments to Arabs (Safed etc.) of where there are marches chanting 'death to the Arabs'. All the circular wordplay on this site is devoted to defending the greater racism and of course most people except the elites in society and their echo chambers here know that.
What I meant about antisemitism not hurting Jews above is meant to be understood in the context in which it was said. Of course it has nothing to do with the Holocaust, fascist attacks on the street etc. It refers solely to what I refer to as the 'fruitcakes and loony tunes' who post on social media groups like Palestine Alive. Social media anti-semitism, unless it is used to organise attacks on Jewish people, is anodyne. It doesn't hurt a single Jew. It is nothing more than people venting their frustration against Jews because of what the 'Jewish state' does in the name of Jews against Palestinians.
Such people are politically backward and reactionary and I called out Atzmon, Greta Berlin and Alison Weir. My comments should not be understood as meaning I agree in any way with them but t o simply point out that they aren't hurting Jews, which they might like to do, but the very people they are purportedly supporting.
I suggest that if those who wish to ascertain 'antisemitism' in every crack or crevice were to turn their attention to the vicious racism in Israel, racism which people like Zeev Sternhell, a childhood survivor of the Holocaust, have compared to the Nazi era, then I would take their witterings over 'antisemitism' seriously.
Instead most of the posters here are serially dishonest in that they defend racism in the name of 'antisemitism', the new anti-communism.