Aaronovitch on anti-Semitism

"There is no all-powerful Jewish lobby," writes David Aaronovitch in the Wanker. Aaronovitch writes for one of Britain's most anti-war, pro-Palestinian newspapers, but for some "progressives" it doesn't matter: he has a Yid last name, so he (and other Jews who write for the Guardian) must be in Sharon's pocket.

Last March an Ian Henshall, who describes himself as "chair of the UK's alternative media umbrella group, INK", wrote an open letter to the editor of the Observer, to complain about the journalist Nick Cohen's support for an attack on Iraq. "Cohen," said Henshall, "has written publicly about his loyalty to his Jewishness, so (is) there is any connection between this and his apparent support for the coming war?" Henshall continued, "Just before anyone calls me anti-Semitic, could I point out that my current hero is Uri Avneri, and the bravest people in the world are the Jews who are resisting the occupation and Sharon's ethnic cleansing." Henshall, incidentally, is also a disseminator of internet stories with headlines such as, "What were 120 Israeli spies doing in America a few months before the 9/11 attacks?"

This month J Hall suggested to me that the infamous Galloway documents could have been the work of "the Jewish lobby". A Medialens regular, David Bracewell, posts this week to criticise "Israeli fascism" and adds, "if ever there was an inflammatory, racist, insidiously exclusive term, 'anti-Semitism' is it. It baffles me why the supposed victims of racism would want a term all for themselves." Supposed? And not one of the assembled lefties took him up on it.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by damian at May 30, 2003 12:38 PM