Israel Flag Wavers Plan to ‘Re-educate’ MP David Ward
by Stuart Littlewood
Tuesday, March 5th, 2013
If reports are true, UK Liberal Democrats have appointed the pro-Israel lobby as ‘probation officers and educators’. They will judge if David Ward is ‘salvageable’ and lay down precise language rules.
British MP David Ward, champion of the oppressed, is to be put on probation and ‘re-educated’ after ruffling Jewish feathers with his controversial “use of language”.
Ward, you’ll remember, wrote on his website: “I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.”
Chiefs of the Holocaust Educational Trust and the Board of Deputies of British Jews loudly complained that Ward “deliberately abused the memory of the Holocaust” and his remarks were “sickening” and “offensive”.
The Liberal Democrat Chief Whip, Alistair Carmichael, agreed that Ward’s remarks were “wholly inappropriate” and that singling out ‘the Jews’ in that way crossed a red line.
Carmichael demanded an undertaking from Ward that he would never again use the phrase ‘the Jews’ in this context. “I am strongly of the view that your use of the phrase ‘the Jews’ in this context was unacceptable,” he said, “and I formally censure you for that.” Ward is reported to have given the undertaking and that should have been the end of the matter. But it wasn’t enough for the Jewish top brass who called for the whip to be withdrawn or for Ward to be expelled… as if they run the party.
Well, maybe they do.
LibDem leader Nick Clegg has apparently buckled under this unwarranted interference and ordered Ward to meet the party’s Friends of Israel group and remove the offending material from his website. But it’s still there.
According to a news update on John Hilley’s blogsite
Ward is now on probation and the Friends of Israel are doing the surveillance and monitoring. In other words Israel’s stooges have been appointed censors and educators.
Could something so grotesque be true? The Jewish Chronicle reports that Clegg told Ward he must work alongside LDFoI
to identify and agree language that will be proportionate and precise
in future debate. He should attend meetings with LDFoI representatives in order to achieve a better understanding of “the legitimate concern” that his comments caused within the wider Jewish community. Disciplinary steps will then be reviewed.
In short, they are treating the courageous MP like a juvenile delinquent and piling on the humiliation.
So what exactly is the problem? Is it necessary to make a distinction between Jews generally and ‘the Jews’? And how will this new language rule work? In precisely what circumstances mustn’t David Ward, or the rest of us for that matter, use that dreaded phrase ‘the Jews’?
If we’re talking about who’s responsible for the ethnic cleansing in Palestine and the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and farms, is the answer ‘Jews’ or ‘the Jews’? If we just say ‘Jews’ we might have to explain which Jews, which is tedious. If we say ‘the Jews’ the meaning is obvious – the occupying Jews and the Jews who fund and arm them, clearly not the Jews at home in Golders Green minding their own business.
Who’s to say David Ward wasn’t grammatically or linguistically correct? If somebody asks who massacred the Jews and Muslims of Jerusalem in 1099 I don’t care, as a Christian, whether you say ‘Christians’ or ‘the Christians’. However ‘the Christians’ would at least suggests to me that the culprits were the Christians with the Crusader army who were there at the time, not the Christians who were attending El Cid’s funeral in Spain.
Fans of racist Israel to judge if Ward is ‘salvageable’?
Gavin Stollar, Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel chairman, says:
LDFoI has essentially been appointed as probation officers for David Ward. If we are not convinced that he is salvageable then we’ll be in the position to report back to the leader and the chief whip and express our views. Rather than making him a martyr, LDFoI welcomes the opportunity to educate one of our MPs.
How’s that again? A gang of Israel-firsters “welcomes the opportunity to educate one of our MPs”? Since when was David Ward an employee of Mr Clegg or a servant of the Liberal Democrat party, or a plaything of the LDFoI to be brainwashed, groomed or disposed of at their whim?
Ward, if he belongs to anyone, belongs to the people of Bradford East who elected him. He is their representative. Do they know about this contemptible plan to re-educate their man?
Who is Gavin Stollar, anyway, to instruct elected representatives to the British Parliament and decide their fate? He’s not even an MP. In 2005, according to the Bucks Free Press Stollar was reported to the local government watchdog for saying “Nazis are not welcome in our town” when addressing a group of people during his failed campaign to get elected to Parliament. He seemed none too fussy who he branded with the N-word, knowing as he should that not all members of the BNP (British National Party) think or behave like Nazis. Luckily for him the ethical standards officer ruled that Stollar’s views fell “within the normal and acceptable limits of political debate”, even if they lowered the tone. He should acknowledge that the same acceptable limits apply to David Ward’s views.
Here is Stollar again, warmly shaking the bloody hand of Tzipi Livni, who is on several wanted lists for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Livni, Israel’s former foreign minister, was largely responsible for the terror that brought unspeakable death and destruction to Gaza’s civilians over Christmas and New Year 2008/9 – an act of infamy which slaughtered 1,400 Gazans (including 320 children and 109 women) and horribly maimed thousands more, and which is regarded by many as a holocaust in its own right. Livni’s office issued a statement saying she was proud of Operation Cast Lead (codename for the murderous blitz she had unleashed).
If Ward succumbs to this outrageous bullying he risks breaching one of the key Principles of Public Life – that of Integrity, which ought to be indelibly etched on every MP’s memory: “Holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organisations that might influence them in the performance of their official duties.”
One option for Ward is to ‘do a BDS’ adopting the George Galloway Boycott Formula, i.e. no normal contact with individuals or organisations who support the Apartheid creed of Zionism; no engagement with those who speak for Israel; no normalisation until the Israeli regime ends its illegal occupation and complies fully with international law. But that could get him de-selected for the next general election unless colleagues with backbone rally round. All the same, the party’s bully-boys had better watch their step. Ward’s Bradford East constituency is one-quarter Muslim.
Letters of support for Ward: “Holocaust Memorial Day should sear our consciences…”
What also seems to have stung the moaners is a letter from Leslie Bravery in New Zealand addressed to Nick Clegg. It is posted on Ward’s website and says, among other things:
The reality is that the Palestinians are suffering in their own homeland, because they are not Jews, at the hands of a state that arrogantly claims to represent all Jews. There are, of course, many Jewish individuals and organisations, their voices sadly muffled by the mass corporate news media, that are horrified by Israel’s conduct. As Elizabeth Morley, writing from Aberystwyth [in Wales] put it: ‘What’s wrong with saying that the Jews in Israel commit atrocities in Palestine? They do. Is one not allowed to use the word Jew in any negative context? Is that it?’
The letter ends with the thought that “Holocaust Memorial Day should sear our consciences and, more to the point, it should inspire us to defend all who continue to suffer injustice and oppression. I believe that you should be supporting David Ward and moreover, expressing your admiration for him.”
Elizabeth Morley herself has written to Karen Pollock, CEO of the Holocaust Memorial Trust, inviting her to recognize that however ill-chosen the phrasing of David Ward’s comments may have been on Holocaust Memorial Day, he did not set out to ‘deliberately abuse the memory of the Holocaust’.
I am certain that the only Jewish people Mr Ward would probably not mind too much if he HAD offended, would be those who have been and are responsible for the treatment of the Palestinian people…
She added that over-reaction to Mr Ward’s comments
had sickened many fair-minded people who want to see two peoples living peacefully side by side, as Jews, Christians and Muslims once lived in harmony in Palestine before the Balfour Declaration.
She has also written to the Board of Deputies of British Jews expressing her concern about the way they exploit the memory of the Holocaust in order to gag criticism of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people.
I cannot find evidence of the Board having ever issued its own criticism of Israel’s policies…
“Several of my relatives died in the concentration camps but that has not made me insensitive to the suffering of the Palestinians, who have been made to pay the price for what the Christian world did to the Jews. Oh, sorry, I said ‘the Jews’!”
Elizabeth tells me that she is part of that “wider Jewish community” whose sensitivities Clegg is so concerned about, yet she is not at all distressed by David Ward’s remarks.
Israel’s misconduct “is paid by Jews throughout the world”
The lady’s excellent summing-up is good enough for me. And I‘m content to let one of Israel’s top military intelligence men, Yehoshafat Harkabi, have the last word. He simply warned that,
“Israelis must be aware that the price of their misconduct is paid not only by them but also Jews throughout the world”.
Those who don’t wish to be tarred with the Jewish state’s brush might consider doing something about it. A good number of Jews, to their great credit, already have.
As for the LibDems, how does surrendering David Ward to the pro-Israel attack-dogs square with the party’s pledge to defend the right to speak freely, support international law, hold individuals to account for crimes against humanity, and back international community action against governments engaged in large-scale violations of human rights?
The people who are entitled to feel insulted by this silly row are the Palestinians who, after 65 years, still languish in refugee camps or remain prisoners within the shredded remnants of their wrecked, plundered and impoverished homeland. Their unimaginable suffering is endless under the longest and most brutal occupation in modern times. And the ethnic cleansing continues.
When will Mr Clegg find the courage to slap down the ‘AIPAC Tendency’, expel those who support the racist regime responsible for the Holy Land horror, and end the impression that they pull the party’s strings?
Stuart Littlewood
5 March 2013
Posted by 29 Responses to Israel Flag Wavers Plan to ‘Re-educate’ MP David Ward
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Blake
March 6, 2013 at 1:28 am
Re-education….mind boggles at what that entails.
Somoe
March 6, 2013 at 10:07 am
Indeed! Perhaps, a guided trip to Israel, to show him what horrors poor Israelis have to put up with.
Somoe
March 6, 2013 at 10:05 am
It increasingly looks like David Ward will have to make an ethical stand against this zionist bullying by leaving the Lib Dem party if Clegg means to force his hand. Although that means losing his voice as an MP – and Britain really can’t afford to lose any MP who has the courage and wisdom to stand up to the bullies in Parliament and speak out for the oppressed in Palestine.
You may well be correct, Stuart – A ‘Galloway style’ boycott of all supporters of the racist, zionist entity would be quite a radical move, and one that others might adopt, as I’m sure there are many in parliament who abhor the racist and immoral policies employed in the usurped land of Palestine (thereby insulating them from the ‘re-education’ efforts by their respective Friends of Israel).
Stu
March 6, 2013 at 5:19 pm
If he quit the LibDems he would remain an MP until the people of Bradford East decided otherwise. Note the Muslim population. The LibDems might never regain that seat. David is possibly in a strong position and Clegg would be unwise to push him too far.
Somoe
March 6, 2013 at 7:21 pm
Well that is encouraging news, but which party would he join? What are the choices? Respect, Green or go Independent seem about the only options for an MP with any ethics and courage. What do you know, Stu? Is that right – are there any decent ethical political groups left or do they become infiltrated and corrupted as soon as they gain popularity?
Stu
March 6, 2013 at 7:34 pm
I think you hit the nail, Somoe. Much depends on the local people and local party management. Their moment has come, will they use it? With nerve and promotional skill there could be enough mobilisation of anger and determination to make this a turning point. Is anyone from Bradford???
Somoe
March 8, 2013 at 12:26 am
i think David Holden is.
fool me once...
March 8, 2013 at 1:11 am
@Somoe
Here’s a clue;
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j118/hoverFrog/Posters/BradfordBingley.jpg
David Holden
March 9, 2013 at 7:37 am
i wrote an email of support to David Ward some time ago, but received no reply. i also breiefly shoved my awkward shoulder to the unlikely wheel of a forum chat in the local paper’s online section (which was encouragingly well-informed about the evil deeds of the khazarians, but gradually dribbled away into B-hasbara). nowt much, as we say “up here” in’t'Baa’t'at country. however my pioneering work at the Bingley Virtual Holohoax Memorial Centre continues – despite our being refused funding for a third successive year by the Board of Deputies – outrageous antigoyitik prejewdiss, but that’s the world we live in.
Roy Bard
March 7, 2013 at 9:35 am
Somoe: “but which party would he join?”
Well, I don’t know what he thought the Lib Dems stood for when he joined them, but the moment they were able to acquire power they abandoned their promises and fucked over their voters….
Green or Respect don’t really make a lot of difference, do they? Its tinkering on the edges whilst the power mongers continue to oversee the transfer of even more wealth to the ruling classes.
Somoe
March 8, 2013 at 12:00 am
Well said, Roy! Harsh but true
Voters(in the UK, and most other places in the world) are usually always sold a lie. and this time in bandying together the two parties are able to excuse their broken promises as a necessary compromise, niftily getting around the problem of eternally broken promises of politicians once they have your vote.
There really is nowhere to go within the system. It is all so corrupt that anyone trying to work from within is rendered nigh on useless and sooner or later becomes marginalised, demoralised and leaves or is recruited into its rotten core.
Blake
March 7, 2013 at 1:29 pm
I was thinking the same and they cannot afford to lose any seats that they have right now.
Roy Bard
March 6, 2013 at 5:39 pm
MP’s anger at Lib Dem bosses in ‘Israel’ website comments row
Stu
March 6, 2013 at 7:16 pm
They didn’t tell the victim of their cunning plan? It gets more and more bizarre.
igloo660
March 6, 2013 at 7:56 pm
If the Israeli right-wing continue to identify the state with the religion and Jews as a whole then they must accept the consequences if Israel’s opponents of the Palestinian dispossession identify Israel with Jews.
Blake Alcott
March 6, 2013 at 8:56 pm
There’s a double standard. If you’re pro-Zionist you can use ‘the Jews’. If you’re critical, you can’t. I found these quotes:
Judah Magnes, Zionist propounder of ‘bi-nationalism’ in Palestine and first president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, speaking before the UN Special Committee on Palestine on 14 July, 1947 at a public meeting chaired by Mr Sandstrom of Sweden: “The Arabs have great natural rights in Palestine…. The Jews, on the other hand, have great historical rights in Palestine…. Moreover,… the Jews have, by their sacrifice, by their scientific ability, by their love of the soil, by their hopes for its future, built up a national home of which in many respects they may well be proud.”
From Nancy Pelosi: In Saree Makdisi’s excellent book Palestine Inside Out (p 308) I just ran across this quotation from Nancy Pelosi when she was Democratic Speaker of the House from California ca. 2009: “The Jewish people know what it means to be oppressed, discriminated against, and even condemned to death because of their religion [sic].”
So Magnes was talking about ‘all Jews’, as was Pelosi. Right.
Blake Alcott
March 6, 2013 at 10:03 pm
Here’s another use of ‘the Jews’, etc, this time by Uri Avnery: “In Europe, Jews have learned over the centuries that it is not wise to be too conspicuous and to display their wealth and influence. But in America, the very opposite is happening: the Jewish establishment is practically straining to prove that it controls the country. § Every few years the Jewish lobby “eliminates” an American politician who does not support the Israeli government unconditionally. This is not done secretly, behind the scenes, but as a public “execution”. In 2002 this was done to the black congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, a young, active, intelligent and very sympathetic woman. § Anyhow, the conspicuousness of the Jews in the United States, especially in the media, and their disproportionate influence over the Congress and the White House, can backfire one of these days.
Chuck Hagel said ‘the Jewish lobby’ and almost got dropped. I guess Uri should really say ‘the Israel lobby’, shouldn’t he? I myself actually avoid ‘the Jews’ and ‘the Jewish lobby’. But if that lobby calles itself ‘Jewish’, in its title, on its homepage, what is the PC language rule? Or the other, ethnically-defined double standard takes over: Uri Avnery and Judah Magnes can say thing that non-Jews can’t. Weird.
Roy Bard
March 7, 2013 at 7:42 am
BA: “Chuck Hagel said ‘the Jewish lobby’ and almost got dropped. I guess Uri should really say ‘the Israel lobby’, shouldn’t he?”
Uri is unapolegetic
desertson
March 7, 2013 at 12:18 am
It sounds Orwellian but is actually more reminiscent of the Ceaucescu regime. “Mind Control Readjustment” was carried out in dungeons in Pitesti Prison, now a museum, on those who would not accept “the system”. Who would have thought that a party with the word “liberal” in its name would have anything to do with this kind of atrocity? The Friends of Israel have almost total control of British foreign policy, with the Prime Minister only recently and reluctantly giving up as Patron of the Jewish National Fund, and both the Foreign Secretary and the Middle East Minister members of Conservative Friends of Israel. What hope is there for any kind of impartiality? As for the decent and honourable Mr. Ward, he is a victim of both this influence and the tidal wave of political correctness that has dogged this issue since 1967.
If the Board of Deputies of British Jews can use that word, why can’t the rest of us, including Mr. Ward? And if anyone believes the Israeli government members are not Jews, then there is something wrong. My only issue with Mr. Ward is that he was wrong on one point. The Jews DID learn from the 1940s, only too well. In 2010 there was even a rabbinical council urging the buiding of concentration camps for Palestinians. Ghettoisation, blitzkrieg, deprivation and the use of gas are just some other manifestations, and both occupations were based on the idea of colonising land for a master race or chosen people. The suffering of Palestinians cannot continue unabated whilst Mr. Ward’s language is being reconstructed. This is a nightmare scenario which must be shown up for the hypocrisy it is, world-wide.
Elizabeth Morley
March 8, 2013 at 3:11 am
I find it hard to believe that mature, intelligent people at the HMT or on the Board really believe that David Ward “deliberately abused the memory of the Holocaust”. Their refusal to read his comments with even a modicum of common sense puts them beyond the pale of rational discourse.
Blake
March 8, 2013 at 11:22 am
MP Ward denies being disciplined for comments on Jews
Lib Dem MP David Ward has denied he was ordered to attend “language classes” after making controversial comments about “the Jews”.
The party had said Mr Ward agreed to work with the Lib Dem Friends of Israel to identify “proportionate language” to use in the future to express his views.
But the MP said that this “does not reflect what I believe was decided”.
The Bradford East MP was forced to apologise last month after saying on his website that he was “saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps, be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza”.
More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21664702
Blake
March 8, 2013 at 12:32 pm
Ed Milliband admits he is a zionist:
Ed Miliband: ‘I’m a Zionist and oppose boycotts of Israel’
Ed Miliband has pledged to protect Jewish customs including brit milah and shechita if he becomes Prime Minister.
Speaking at a Board of Deputies event the Labour leader said he was opposed to boycotts of Israel and warned of the need to be “ever-vigilant”against antisemitism.
Asked whether he would work to ensure religious slaughter and circumcision practices could continue in Britain, Mr Miliband said: “Yes, these are important traditions. The kosher issue has recently been brought to my attention. Ways of life must be preserved.”
He added: “I take antisemitism very seriously. Any kind of delegitimisation of Israel is something we should call out for what it is and not tolerate it.
But Mr Miliband warned the audience that while he was opposed to anti-Israel activities in this country, people must “understand the anger and dismay about settlements”.
He said that he considered himself a Zionist but was critical of some Israeli government policies. Asked about Labour’s support for the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations, Mr Miliband said he wanted to “encourage moderate” Palestinians and work in an “even-handed” way.
The politician made repeated reference to his support for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict and said he hoped Britain could be an “honest broker” in the peace process.
Mr Miliband said former Labour MP George Galloway’s refusal to debate with a British-Israeli student at Oxford University last month was “shameful behaviour”.
“I was shocked by that. It’s one of a long line of things he has done and that’s the sort of behaviour we should not tolerate. The idea that he would refuse to debate him because he was Israeli is totally wrong and disgraceful.”
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/103221/ed-miliband-im-a-zionist-and-oppose-boycotts-israel
Somoe
March 9, 2013 at 10:41 am
Eddy wants to get a sense of perspective if he thinks not debating an israeli is totally wrong and disgraceful. What really IS totally wrong and disgraceful is vilifying ministers who speak out, on behalf of the british people that voted them in, about the injustice and horror in Palestine.
fool me once...
March 8, 2013 at 6:21 pm
Following on from Blake’s comment, I think Eddy had already declared his love for israel;
Martin Bright 17th November 2011
“Labour leader Ed Miliband used a Labour Friends of Israel lunch this week to emphasise his family connection to the country that gave refuge to his grandmother. In a highly personal speech to mark the publication by LFI of a collection of essays entitled Making the Progressive Case for Israel, he said: “I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the state of Israel”. His mother’s family were sheltered by Polish Catholics during the Holocaust, and his grandmother later settled in Israel. Mr Miliband also spoke about an emotional visit he had made to Yad Vashem with his mother to memorialise the Polish rescuers on the “Avenue of the Righteous”.
In a speech clearly aimed to allay fears that Mr Miliband did not have the same commitment to Israel as his predecessors Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, the Labour leader emphasised his admiration for Israeli democracy.
.
The audience included key members of the New Labour aristocracy, including Douglas Alexander, Ed Balls, Yvette Cooper, Tessa Jowell and Alan Johnson as well as rising stars such as Luciana Berger, Mary Creagh, Michael Dugher, Rachel Reeves and LFI chair John Woodcock.
Mr Miliband tackled the issue of his support for the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations, which he recognised had been difficult for some in the room to accept. He said the task of leadership was to make difficult decisions, but in the context of the Middle East he always hoped he would make “the decision that will further the cause of peace”. He added that the decision to back the change in the law of universal jurisdiction had also been a difficult and had also been unpopular in some sections of the party. He did not mention Labour’s candidate for London mayor, Ken Livingstone, who continues to be a divisive figure in the Jewish community.
.
Israeli ambassador Daniel Taub revealed that he had met Mr Miliband two weeks ago and welcomed his “willingness to engage”.
The LFI essay collection, which includes contributions from Ms Reeves and Mr Dugher, was inspired by the work of former LFI chair David Cairns, who tragically died earlier this year. Mr Cairns’s powerful final speech is also included.
This ended with a challenge to opponents of Israel on the left: “It is not left-wing or progressive to ally oneself with those that seek Israel’s destruction, or those who don’t value one iota the type of society we strive for in this country. So I am appealing for all those who value peace and justice to support our values where we see them lived out, and to assist – not obstruct – those people working on the ground to resolve their conflict and build their progressive society.”
fool me once...
March 8, 2013 at 6:59 pm
Above from;
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/58414/ed-milibands-links-israel
Blake
March 9, 2013 at 10:58 am
Thanks. And he goes on about a Palestinian statehood but where would it be? What would their borders be. Lol
David Holden
March 9, 2013 at 7:49 am
KNOW YOUR OWN JQ
by Hans Jurgen Eysenck
Pelican Books, 1964
Q. 666: which is the correct simile?
aliyah is to “return” as “dog” is to:
(a) end
(b) biscuit
(c) fetch!
(d) his own vomit
fool me once...
March 9, 2013 at 11:32 am
(e) days
(f) shit
(g) gone
(h) doo
(i) breath
(j) dirt
Ooops I think I might have got the wrong end of the stick with the JQ test and just got carried away!
Jonathon Blakeley
March 9, 2013 at 10:02 am
all of the above