"Unemployment is soaring and youth unemployment sickeningly high, the poor are being targeted and humiliated with housing benefit and a hundred other cuts, public services are being decimated...
"Education and health are being broken up and commercialised.
"New Labour paved the way for all this.
"Democracy is weaker and inequality greater after the biggest majorities Labour has ever had...
"You can't humanize the market by giving in to it...
"Ed Miliband is right about responsible capitalism...
"The in-balance approach of David Miliband just leaves us hoping the coalition fails and the party gets back having learnt the right technical lessons, recalibrating and tweaking this or that policy - expecting things to work out differently next time. They won't..."
"There were big cheers for Edward Miliband in the Commons. There really were. The only trouble for the Labour leader is that they came from the Government side. Ooooh dear.
"The moment Mr Miliband’s name was uttered by the Speaker at PMQs, a big ‘hooray!’ rose from the Coalition benches, mainly from Tory ya-booers who camp in the near corner of the Chamber, under the press gallery.
"It was beastly of them but horribly effective. Mr Miliband blinked, stung by the satire.
"He somehow had to try to collect himself and open his remarks, as form dictated, with a tribute to British service personnel who had died over the Christmas recess. He made a couple of minor fluffs.
"Poor, exhausted Ed. He must be finding this a wretched time. Everything tastes of dust and distemper. Nothing is going right. Nobody loves me, everyone hates me, might as well go and eat Quorn..."
Marcus Sheff with UK Shadow Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Yvette Cooper, UK Labor Party leader Ed Miliband and Israel’s Minister of Minority Affairs Prof. Avishai Braverman
Shadow home secretary and minister for women and equalities - Yvette Cooper
Robin Ramsay has spoken about spooks and politicians.
Former Labour party leader John Smith was "life-long chums with a senior MI6 officer, now Baroness Ramsay. Lady Smith, his widow, is now on the board of an MI6 front company."
John Smith took on an advisor Ed Balls, who studied economics at Harvard .
"Like ... Yvette Cooper MP, whom Balls later married, and David Miliband... Balls had spent a year in America as a Kennedy Scholar. Virtually all of the new Labour people have some connection to America and American money..."
Jim Murphy is a key member of Labour Friends of Israel and he has 'ingratiated himself' with the large Jewish community in his constituency in Glasgow.
1. The UK Labour Party lost 4 million working-class voters between 1997 and 2010.
Most of these people simply did not vote in the last election.
2. Globalisation is the problem.
Jobs have been lost overseas.
Cheap labour has come in from abroad.
3. If it wants its voters back, the Labour Party has to oppose the excesses of capitalism.
The Labour party should be: "a party that defends the ordinary working people against the ravages of the free market; a party that holds those who wield great financial power to account; a party that provides people with a sense of security in an ever-changing world."
Baldwin has now been appointed by the UK Labour Party leader Ed Miliband as his new director of strategy.
Baldwin's wife Rebecca is a rich heiress.
Lord Ashcroft wrote of Baldwin: "I found Baldwin was not only a binge drinker, but also that he was a habitual user of cocaine, the Class A recreational drug."
Is the Pope a Catholic; and did Pope Julius III sleep with young boys with names like Innocenzo?
The UK Labour Party has been choosing candidates for certain parts of the UK.
There is a suspicion that friends of Blair have been selected as candidates thanks to fraudulent 'postal votes'.
1. On 18 April 2009, the UK media reported on 'voting irregularities' in a candidate selection process which could lead to the daughter of one of Tony Blair’s 'cronies' being given a safe seat.
"It was discovered that the seal on a ballot box containing previously received ballot papers for the selection of Labour's parliamentary candidate for Erith and Thamesmead was broken."
Georgia Gould, 22, is the daughter of 'one of the architects of New Labour', Philip Gould.
About a third of the local party members registered to vote by post.
There have been reports that Ms Gould’s campaign has been giving out postal vote forms "pre-filled with voters’ names, addresses and telephone numbers."
Stephanie and Tony Booth .. "He left his first wife with two young children to bring up and ran off with another actress. He had a child with her, but didn’t stick around for long." (Tony Booth's wife selected as prospective MP. Anna Raccoon)
2. In the constituency of Calder Valley, in Yorkshire, Steph Booth, one of the stepmothers of Tony Blair's wife Cherie, lost the vote among those who voted in person, but, she was chosen as the candidate thanks to a large number of postal votes.
Peter Kenyon, a member of Labour’s governing National Executive Committee, said he had concerns about the number of postal votes being cast.
It has been claimed that Steph Booth's supporters approached Labour Party members and helped them fill in their postal voting forms, which is against the rules.
Reportedly, UK hospitals have too many managers and too many of these managers do a very poor job.
According to Sir Gerry Robinson, "There are 5,000 more people now employed to tend to organisation than there are consultants (senior doctors).... in the case of the NHS, what we need are far fewer – albeit far better – managers. " 'Cure the NHS with far fewer managers'
Just as the UK education system has been ruined by bad management, by both local and national governments, so the UK National Health Service has been damaged by idiot officialdom.
Recent government ministers in charge of the UK health service:
John Francis Smith died in the Royal Free Hospital in London.
"From the paperwork retrieved from his Hampstead home and confirmation of his employment details with the NHS which began in February 1977, I was certain that John had been involved with or exposed to a very significant occurence in shadow government between 1974-1976. There is little doubt that as a time-served Government Service employee during that turbulent period in British history, he would have had some knowledge of The Wilson Plot, Wallace and Clockwork Orange." (Director General of MI5 humiliated in whistleblower battle against ... )
VIDEO: "Exposing the Royal Free Hampstead NHS 'Trust' [London's dirtiest 'hospital'] for MRSA infections and foreign born staff who conveniently claim they cannot speak !English" when they have been caught out!
"The editor of www.news-alliance.com has been trying to obtain a copy of the post mortem report on his uncle [British Government whistleblower] John Francis Smith and has been met with a wall of silence, dirty tricks and blocking tactics ordered by the corrupt New Labour regime....
"In another NHS body parts scandal his heart and lungs were removed to advance "medical science". J F Smith died of heart disease and cause of death was known before death and therefore no post mortem was necessary.
"But in the event, the post mortem left J F Smith's body so badly disfigured that his family could not view him in the coffin before his funeral!"
VIDEO: "NHS Chief Executive Andrew Way proved a serial liar by a News Alliance sting to expose corruption at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
"But News Alliance showed that Moore did work at the hospital by telephoning the switchboard several times on different dates to prove Moore still worked at the hospital. But even after proving Moore works at the hospital, Andrew Way continues to deny this fact in an act of typical New Labour clinical delusion.
"The toothless Healthcare Commission upheld the complaint against Andrew Way and the hospital but took no action against anyone. This investigation shows it is time to clean-up the NHS by getting New Labour out of power permanently!"
Derek Simpson is joint General Secretary of the UK's giant Unite trade union. Unite has given £13.4 million to the pro-war Labour Party since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister. Simpson will be allowed to stay in his £800,000 'grace-and-favour' house until he dies. His pay package recently rose by 17 per cent. Simpson was at one time a member of the Communist Party of Britain. Derek Simpson is standing for re-election as joint leader of Unite (Feb 2009).
Is Derek Simpson a champion of the poor who is being undermined by the rightwing press?
Or is Derek Simpson secretly working for the rich elite?
Why are trades unions so useless at protecting poor people?
"One of the leaders of Britain's largest trade union has enjoyed the use of a £399-a-night hotel suite within yards of his office - to save a 35-minute journey to his £800,000 grace-and-favour home.
In a talk to Labour Party branches in 1996, Robin Ramsay (Lobster Magazine) pointed out some interesting links between New labour and the USA.
According to Ramsay: The CIA ran the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the ICFTU and by the mid 1950s nearly a quarter of the TUC's annual budget was going to the ICFTU, a CIA operation. - aangirfan: BRITAIN RUN BY AGENTS OF FOREIGN POWERS?
A BBC investigation, True Spies, revealed that Joe Gormley, former president of the National Union of Miners, was a Special Branch (security services) informant during the 1970s.
Truscott suddenly became very rich. He was made a Lord by Tony Blair.
Are the western democracies run by a bunch of crooks and spooks?
In the UK, it is being alleged that members of the UK parliament can be bought.
It is being alleged that they earn vast sums of money by influencing laws in return for cash.
Lord MacKenzie of Framwellgate, who was linked with a prostitute in 2003, was paid £616,000 by Inter TV, owned by exiled tycoon Vladmir Gusinsky, who is a wanted man in Russia. (Peer's £600k secret payout )
Lord Truscott is one of four Labour peers being investigated by police after he was recorded by undercover reporters claiming that for £2,000 a day he could influence legislation by 'identifying people ... meeting people, talking with people'.
Lord Truscott has secret links to Soviet Russia, a Mail on Sunday investigation has revealed.
Truscott married Svetlana, an active member of the Communist Party.
Svetlana's father, Nikolai,on the left.
Svetlana's father was a senior Red Army officer with connections to the Soviet special forces.
Truscott has a £1million home in Mayfair, a country home in Bath and property in Russia.
Truscott was a member the Labour party's defence team in parliament before becoming a government minister.
Prior to 1991, Truscott was an obscure borough councillor (local politician) in Colchester, Essex, in the UK.
Truscott met Tory MP Rupert Allason, better known as spy writer Nigel West.
In 1991, Truscott met his wife Svetlana in Russia, just before the Soviet Union collapsed.
Who was Truscott working for? The security services?
Truscott became "a well-known figure in defence and intelligence circles in Russia, Brussels and Britain."
An official who worked with him in the Labour Party said: 'He was a slippery character. He was like a bar of soap. He would be Left-wing talking to one person and Right-wing talking to another.
'He was a very average councillor. Nobody was more shocked than I to discover he had become a Lord.'
A former friend of Truscott says Truscott had "an interest in Russian women."
'I remember seeing him with a brochure containing mail order Russian brides,' said the friend.
Svetlana's father, Nikolai Chernikov, linked to Russia's special forces, died in mysterious circumstances in 1994, three days after he dined with Lord Truscott and his wife in Brussels.
Truscott has been an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, whose members include many past and present MI5 and MI6 agents.
Truscott has business interests relating to Russia.
Truscott criticised Georgia for attacking its neighbour.
Truscott is reported to be sympathetic to Vladimir Putin, who is disliked by certain Jewish oligarchs.
Has Truscott been outed by these Jewish oligarchs?
The Sunday Times, which has led the way in attacking Truscott, is part of the Rupert Murdoch empire and Rupert Murdoch is said to be very close to Israel.
This whole affair may be part of a struggle between different factions of the elite.
Tzipora Livni is Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs.
She is the daughter of Eitan Livni, born inPoland, and Sara Rosenberg, both of whom were members of the anti-British, Jewish terrorist organisation called Irgun.
"Eitan Livni was not a leader of a militant Jewish independence movement.
"The Irgun Zwai Leumi was a terrorist oganization, and a particularly nasty one.
"Even its defenders, who argued that the end could justify the means at decisive moments in history, were horrified by the massacre at Deir Yassin and the hanging of the British sergeants."
Irgun killed British people.
Marvin Paice and Clifford Martin, the two british sergants who were hanged in Palestine, 1947, by the Irgun.
"Tzipi Livni, 47, is ... the daughter of Zionist guerrillas - terrorists in some eyes -who met in the Irgun, the underground organization that fought the British... and that blew up the British headquarters in the King David Hotel in 1946, killing 91 people.
Jewish terrorists bombed the King David Hotel, killing many British people.
"Her father, Eitan, was the Irgun's head of operations, and on his gravestone is the map of greater Israel, extending over both sides of the Jordan River...
"She served in the army, becoming a lieutenant, and at the age of 22 began working for the Mossad, the intelligence service, where she stayed for four years."
Greater Israel
According to The Times Obituary, 5 February 1992:
"Eitan Livni was born Yerucham Bzozowitch in Gerodna, Poland, in 1919.
"On the night of April 2, 1944, a few dozen Jewish insurgents sabotaged railway stations and bridges along 25 miles of line in Palestine.
"They belonged to the Irgun group, headed by Menachem Begin, which had begun a campaign of violence against the British administration in Palestine at the beginning of that year...
"Livni... in August 1947 was dispatched by Begin to organise Irgun's military activities against British targets in Europe...
"Following independence Livni became chairman of the Irgun veterans organisation but in the 1970s, as a result of pressure from Begin who was by this time the leader of the parliamentary opposition, he was elected a member of the Israeli Knesset."
Jews tried to bomb the British parliament
The Jews were prepared to use terrorism against Britain.
The Stern gang (Lehi) were Jewish terrorists. They tried to bomb the British Parliament.
In 1946 the British security services issued this warning:"Members of the Stern group are now being organised and are under training. It is expected that they will be sent to the United Kingdom to assassinate important members of his majesty’s government, particularly, Mr Bevin."
In 1946 a number of bombs exploded in London and an attempt was made to drop on a bomb on the House of Commons from a hired plane.
The House of Commons was saved when French Police discovered members of the Stern Gang preparing to fly across the channel in a plane containing a large bomb.
1. The West Bank and the Gaza Strip are illegally occupied by Israel, and have been since 1967.
Israel maintains complete control of the territory by sea, air and land and there is a blockade of essential supplies, backed by the US and the European Union.
2.During the last seven years, 14 Israelis have been killed and more than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed.
3.No rockets are fired from the West Bank, but 45 Palestinians have died there at Israel's hands this year alone.
4. The ceasefires was sunk by Israel's assassination of six Hamas fighters in Gaza on 5 November and its refusal to lift its siege of the embattled territory as expected under an Egyptian-brokered deal.
Why don't the US and UK politicians tell us the truth?
No doubt many of them are in bed with their Jewish mistresses or are receiving cheques or holiday trips or campaign contributions from their Jewish or Mossad friends.
The following was written on 15 July 2006:
The following LabourFriends of Israel should be kicked out of the UK parliament.
Chair
Iain Wright MP
Vice Chairs
Andrew Dismore MP
Louise Ellman MP
Barbara Keeley MP
Gary Titley MEP
Policy Council
Rt Hon Stephen Byers MP
Rt Hon Jane Kennedy MP
Dr Denis MacShane MP
Parliamentary Executive Commons
Chris Bryant MP
Wayne David MP
Fabian Hamilton MP
Joan Humble MP
Eric Joyce MP
Ashok Kumar MP
Andrew Miller MP
Dan Norris MP
Nick Palmer MP
Terry Rooney MP
Siôn Simon MP
Dari Taylor MP
Some of the MPs, who had their trips to Israel sponsored by Labour Friends of Israel in recent years include:
Ivor Caplin, Paul Clark, Oona King, Ashok Kumar, Ivan Lewis, Anne McGuire, Rosemary McKenna, Margaret Moran, Jim Murphy, Sandra Osborne, Gareth Thomas, Frank Roy, Joan Ryan, Angela Smith, Graham Stringer, Rudi Vis, David Watts, Gillian Merron, Peter Pike, Lorna Fitzsimons, Louise Ellman, Caroline Flint, Linda Perham, Douglas Alexander, Fabian Hamilton, Anthony Colman, Dan Norris, Andy Burnham, David Cairns, Tony Cunningham, Eric Joyce, Huw Irranca-Davies, David Wayne, Parmjit Dhanda, Meg Munn, Mike Gapes, Stephen Twigg and Andrew Dismore.
The Labour Friends of Israel has become a powerful lobbyist for Zionist and Israeli interests in the UK. This article is an introduction to the new Spinwatch Profile, telling a hidden story of power and influence.
The Organization
Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a Westminister based pro-Israel lobby group working within the British Labour party.
It is considered one of the most prestigious groupings in the party and is seen as a stepping stone to ministerial ranks by Labour MPs.
LFI boasts some of the wealthiest supporters of the party, and some of its most generous donors, such as Lord Sainsbury of Turville, Michael Levy, Sir Trevor Chinn and Sir Emmanuel Kaye[1].
The committee wields considerable influence in Westminster and is also consulted routinely by the Foreign Office and Downing Street on matters relating to the Middle East...
The body also has Tory and Liberal Democrat sister organizations...
A small time player during the Thatcher years, LFI first made it into the news when one of its erstwhile guests, Mr Erwin Van Haarlem, a Czechoslovakian art dealer turned out to be a spy for the Czech intelligence services.
The 1987 gathering, to which Van Haarlem was invited because of his 'apparent support for Jewish causes', was also attended by members of the House of Lords, leading trade unionists, industrialists, and the former chief of staff of the Israeli army.[3]
Buying Influence
While Labour originally carried a reputation for having more voices sympathetic to the Palestinians – especially during the Thatcher years – the New Labour government of Tony Blair has reversed this orientation.
Although one of Tony Blair’s first acts after becoming an MP in 1983 was joining LFI, the relationship truly developed in the early 90s, when as shadow Home Secretary, Tony Blair met Michael Levy at a private meeting at the latter’s house.
Michael Abraham Levy is a former chairman of the Jewish Care Community Foundation, a member of the Jewish Agency World Board of Governors, and a trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust.[4] According to Andrew Porter of The Business, Levy expressed his willingness “to raise large sums of money for the party” which led to a “tacit understanding that Labour would never again, while Blair was leader, be anti-Israel”.[5]
The partnership proceeded as Levy started inviting potential donors for tennis at his palatial home where Tony Blair would join them for a set or two. Levy would then proceed to ask the guests for donations after Blair had left.[6]The genius of Levy’s fundraising strategy ensured that most of Labour's election funds came from private sources, rather than its traditional source – the trade unions, thereby weakening their say over policy.[7]
Levy’s investment eventually paid off, with Blair’s accession to power. The reward was not long in coming as Levy was ennobled and subsequently retained as a “special envoy” to the Middle-East, leading predictably to the development of a strong pro-Israel line.[8]
Given the fact that Levy has both a business and a house in Israel and his son Daniel used to work for Yossi Beilin – the former Justice Minister of Israel – speaks of a serious conflict of interest, especially when he is the man assigned by Blair to negotiate impartially with Palestinians and Israelis.[9]
The fact that Levy acted as a fundraiser for former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak casts further doubt on his capacity for impartiality.According to Neil Sammonds of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in 2002, Four of the previous five ministers with Responsibility for the Middle East had been active members of LFI.[10]
Membership and Funding
LFI currently has a burgeoning membership in the Commons and it is seen as a certain ladder for success by aspiring politicians. Receptions hosted by the lobby usually boast a huge turnout, with such powerful guests as Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, the Israeli ambassador and the Israeli Deputy Minister of Defence.[11]
LFI has found staunch allies in the current Labour government in the shape of Blair, Brown and Straw. The influence of this committee is quite evident in Blair’s frequent comments in support of Israel, particularly at a time, when its actions have been widely condemned.
Addressing a meeting of the body, Blair urged the British public not to forget the suicide attacks to which Israel has been subjected when criticizing Israeli aggression towards the Palestinians.[12] That is indeed a remarkable observation given that - as is well known - the Israeli Human Rights Centre, B’Tselem, reports that the overwhelming majority of the victims, even in the current phase of the conflict, have been Palestinian civilians.[13]
In 1997, prominent members of LFI contributed generously to the coffers of Labour, including Lord Sainsbury, who donated £1 million – the biggest single donation ever – Michael Levy, who raised 7 million pounds, Sir Trevor Chinn, who was reported to have donated a six figure sum, and Emmanuel Kaye, who donated a sizable sum to Blair’s blind trust.[14]
According to one party official, by 2001, Levy had raised up to 15 million pounds for the party.[15] David Goldman – the Chairman of an Israeli telecommunications equipment company BATM Advanced Communications – is also reported to have made several 5-figure donations.The amount of influence such money could buy in today’s politics cannot be discounted, and from Britain’s unconditional support for Israel’s brutal policies, it seems like the government is keen to deliver.
Trips to Israel
LFI sponsors trips of parliamentarians to Israel, purportedly to educate them on issues central to the conflict. One recent trip included a “tour of Jerusalem and the route of the separation fence, plus meetings with Labour MKs, senior Foreign and Defence Ministry officials”.
These trips are invaluable in cultivating relationships with members of the British parliament who can then be counted on to support legislation favourable towards Israel.
These loyalties usually transcend moral barriers, as David Cairns – the organizer of one such tour – exclaimed after professing his deep commitment to Israel, "No one ever said being a friend of Israel would be easy", since his view of the “peace process” was at odds with Israel’s operative policy[16].
A Labour campaign advert in the Jewish Chronicle boasted:
Since 1997 a record 57 Labour MPs have visited Israel, mostly with Labour Friends of Israel, swelling the number of MPS willing to ensure balance on the Middle East in the House of Commons. More Labour MPs have visited Israel than from any other party.[17]
The advert also boasted that the new Terrorism Act of 2000 – for which LFI actively lobbied – “proscribes terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hizbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad”.[18] Predictably enough there was no mention of the mutli-million pound military aid to Israel’s occupying forces.
Some of the MPs, who had their trips to Israel sponsored by LFI in recent years include Ivor Caplin, Paul Clark, Oona King, Ashok Kumar, Ivan Lewis, Anne McGuire, Rosemary McKenna, Margaret Moran, Jim Murphy, Sandra Osborne, Gareth Thomas, Frank Roy, Joan Ryan, Angela Smith, Graham Stringer, Rudi Vis, David Watts, Gillian Merron, Peter Pike, Lorna Fitzsimons, Louise Ellman, Caroline Flint, Linda Perham, Douglas Alexander, Fabian Hamilton, Anthony Colman, Dan Norris, Andy Burnham, David Cairns, Tony Cunningham, Eric Joyce, Huw Irranca-Davies, David Wayne, Parmjit Dhanda, Meg Munn, Mike Gapes, Stephen Twigg and Andrew Dismore.[19]
Taming the Media
LFI has used its influence to intimidate British media into adopting an openly pro-Israel position. A recent study by the Glasgow University Media Group revealed the systematic bias in BBC and ITV’s coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict which often reproduces the official Israeli narrative uncritically, whereas very little time or detail is devoted to the Palestinian side[20].
Some, who dared to criticize the Israeli position have faced bans, as Faisal Bodi, of BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight did.
According to Bodi, LFI members play a "crucial propaganda role, carrying the flag for Israel in parliament, and lobbying editors to toe the Israeli line".[21]
Tim Llewellyn, a Veteran Middle East correspondent for the BBC, has gone to the extent of calling BBC’s reporting on the Israel-Palestine conflict downright “dishonest”.
He has attributed it to the “unremitting and productive” efforts by “Israel's many influential and well organised friends”.[22] However, this still did not preclude LFI’s Andrew Dismore from expressing “concern” about the BBC for being “anti-Israeli and biased towards the Palestinians."[23]
This charge could not have been more frivolous given that BBC has referred to Jerusalem as Israel’s ‘capital’ – a view otherwise shared outside of Israel by two out of the world’s nearly two hundred countries. [24]
A key association in LFI’s powerbase is Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The strategic alliance between News Corp. and New Labour was formed just before the 1997 election when Murdoch’s The Sun and The Times switched sides to support Blair’s election bid against the Tories, who had been discredited by a series of scandals.
Murdoch has been a regular visitor to the Downing Street ever since. In a keynote address to an LFI meeting in London, the Northern Ireland Secretary and New Labour luminary Peter Mandelson praised Thatcher’s intolerance towards the siege of Murdoch’s union-busting Wapping plant by protesting printers. [25]
In the past Mandelson has appeared at pro-Israel rallies with the far-right former Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Mandelson also happens to be a close friend of Elisabeth Murdoch – Rupert Murdoch’s daughter, and given Murdoch’s own investments in Israel and his close friendship with Ariel Sharon, the orientation of Murdoch’s newspapers is predictably pro-Israel.
Journalists have complained of extremely narrow editorial parameters favouring Israel, and having to adopt official Israeli formulations like “targeted killing”, “crossfire” and “closures”.[26]
Another natural ally in this enterprise was Conrad Black, whose Daily Telegraph and The Spectator magazine are two of the most influential pro-Israel voices in Britain.
He was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hollinger Inc. which owns the right-wing Israeli Jerusalem Post which openly advocated the killing of Yasir Arafat in 2003.
The leading Neo-con and pro-Israel hawk Richard Perle is also a top executive at Hollinger. Black’s wife Barbara Amiel is a famous right-wing Zionist columnist. Both are known for their unbridled support for Israel. Apparently as a reward for his contributions, Black has also been ennobled by the Blair government.[27]
Obstacles to Peace
Given the hard line position of its donors, LFI has grown increasingly tendentious in its approach towards any resolution of the Middle East conflict. In 1990, two principal donors withdrew their financial backing for holding a joint meeting with the pro-Arab Labour Middle East Council.[28]
While LFI has consistently excused Israeli atrocities in the occupied territories as “self defence”, it certainly can’t feign ignorance. One of its visiting members got a first-hand glimpse of IDF tactics when he got shot at in Rafah even though he arrived in a clearly marked UN vehicle.[29]
The three British MPs, surrounded by 20 children got shot at in the presence of UN officials, which led to a demand for investigation by the MPs into the IDF’s “outrageous behaviour” bordering on “lunatic”.
One of the MPs, Crispin Blunt, concluded “If they are prepared to do this to people who come out of two clearly marked UN cars, what do they do when there is no one there?” He added “They are building up levels of hatred that will take decades, if not centuries, to erase."[30]
Such insights into have not precluded Blair from making significant contributions towards the maintenance of the illegal Israeli occupation. According to the veteran Journalist John Pilger:
Under Blair, British support for Israeli repression has accelerated. Last year alone, the government approved 91 arms export licences to Israel, in categories that included ammunition, bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, combat vessels, military electronic and imaging equipment and armoured vehicles.[31]
While Foreign Office minister Ben Bradshaw – an active member of LFI – said there was "no evidence" that British arms and equipment had been used against the Palestinians, the Pilger article cited an Amnesty International report claiming abundant evidence that the Apache helicopters used to attack the Palestinians are kept flying with British components made by Smiths Industries.
Merkava tanks are serviced with parts from Airtechnology Group; BAE provides parts for Israel’s F-16 fighter jets while converted British Centurion tanks are used as armoured personnel carriers. Land Rovers are an Israeli Army mainstay and British transponders are employed to coordinate helicopter attacks.[32]
Pilger provides further insight into how the Israeli occupation is kept liquid:
The Blair government has also backed the Israeli military-industrial complex by buying bullets, bombs, grenades and anti-tank missiles. The Metropolitan Police and the South Wales police buy Israeli ammunition. An Israeli combat aircraft training system was bought by the RAF. In 1999, a joint UK-Israeli high-technology investment fund was established to pump funds into joint research and development.[33]
The war on Iraq also received enthusiastic support from senior LFI members. An LFI gathering was reassured by Blair that “a stable Iraq will be good news for Israel." Israel security needs were also cited as a rationale by the Neo-con dominated US administration in its decision to go to war. In an exclusive interview with Israel’s daily Yediot Aharonot Condoleezza Rice said “security of Israel is the key to security of the world.”[34]
The economic dividends for Israel from this venture were not discussed as openly – except in Israel’s own press.[35] This led Tam Dalyell, the longest serving member of the House of Commons, to comment on the undue influence of the 'Sharon-Likudnik' agenda pushed by advisers such as Michael Levy (and the US neocons)– on Blair’s decision to go to war.[36]
He commented on the Neo-conservative “Cabal”, particularly the “Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs combined with neo-Christian fundamentalists” urging America on towards a “Likudnik” policy of attacking Syria.[37]
Anti-Semitism
A common refrain in the rhetoric of all pro-Israel groups is the ‘combating of anti-Semitism’. More often then not, this leads to voices critical of Israeli policies being labelled anti-Semitic. While more circumspect than its American counterparts, LFI – like most pro-Israel groups – has often tried to discredit criticism of Israel by conflating it with ‘anti-Semitism’.
LFI has not shied away from describing general resentment against Israeli policies as being rooted in, or contributing towards anti-Semitism. Lord Greville Janner, former president of the Jewish Board of Deputies and an LFI vice-chair has commented on the surge of anti-Semitism among the "viciously and often notoriously anti-Israel" left liberal media.[38]
An alleged comment by the French ambassador to London, referring to Israel as that “shitty little country” immediately elicited a demand by LFI (in a letter from Chair Jim Murphy and president Gwyneth Dunwoody) for his sacking, and the charge of anti-Semitism by Barbara Amiel in the Daily Telegraph.
The Ambassador denied making the remark.[39] For good measure, Dunwoody also added “These comments are eerily familiar from the French.” Ironically enough, the alleged remark was made by the ambassador at a dinner hosted by Conrad Black.[40]
Black’s newspapers and magazines have regularly intimidated other media for their criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic. Black’s The Spectator features articles by Melanie Phillips who is notorious for her extreme views, and has gone as far to suggest that Bishop Desmond Tutu’s criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic.[41]
During the elections for the seat of the Mayor of London, LFI compiled a dossier of the alleged “anti-Zionist bias” of the candidate Ken Livingstone.[42]The feud came to a head, with Livingstone’s comments to an invasive reporter, accusing him of acting like a ‘concentration camp guard’.
Whereas LFI itself was more guarded in its statements, its pro-Israel allies in the press were far less inhibited as they cited various unnamed ‘critics’ and ‘protesters’ who found the comments ‘anti-Semitic’ as the reporter in question was Jewish.[43] Livingstone’s refusal to apologize and his subsequent publication of an op-ed openly critical of Israeli policies drew further ire from the lobby and its media surrogates.[44]
This tactic has been criticized, most notably, within the Jewish community. Rabbi David Goldberg has called the claims of a resurgent anti-Semitism “paranoid and exaggerated”, he added “it is far easier and safer to be a Jew than a Muslim, a black person or an east European asylum seeker”.[45]
James Purnell of LFI believes, however, that “anti-Semitism is a virus that once again has started to infect [British] body politic” while Stephen Byers added that anti-Israeli criticism should not be used as "a cloak of respectability" for racist views. He went on to warn against dangers of the development of an "intellectual argument" bolstering anti- Semitic feeling.[46]
When the British buy American or European goods or holidays, they notice that the pound has been devalued and so most prices have gone up.
The policeman's pension or the teacher's pension will not buy as much as it once did.
George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, said: "As Gordon Brown himself says, a weak currency is a reflection of a weak economy and a weak government. Labour is bankrupting Britain again and the rest of the world knows it."
The Times reported, on 14 October 2008, that gas prices in the UK had risen 49.9 % in a year.
Ed and David Miliband.
