Zionists outnumbered at their own demo

As far as I can tell from the Jewish Chronicle and its twitter account Zionists were outnumbered by Palestine solidarity supporters on a demonstration outside the Palestinian mission in London organised by some major Zionist groups for last night (13/10/2015).  Here's the JC:

An estimated 70 pro-Israel supporters gathered outside the Palestinian Mission in London on Tuesday evening to protest against the lack of condemnation for recent terrorist acts in Israel.

Is that the BNP and EDL in the background?

And here's a tweet retweeted by the @JewishChron account:

About 80 now on the pro-Palestinian side. 6 police officers stand in front of the crowd to stop any trouble. pic.twitter.com/OH459t2qze

— Josh Jackman (@josh_jackman) October 13, 2015

So not UK Zionism's most successful outing.

ZFUK invites rape advocate to address meeting in the UK

I just got this email from Tony Greenstein:

The Zionist Federation & Sussex Friends of Israel Have Invited Professor Mordechai Kedar to Speak at Ralli House, Brighton at 7.00 p.m. Monday 8^th December 2014" http://www.sussexjewishrepresentativecouncil.org/an-evening-with-mordechai-kedar/

THERE WILL BE A PICKET FROM 6 pm ORGANISED BY PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

Mordechai Kedar is a Professor at Tel Aviv’s Bar Ilan orthodox religious university.  The statement by Kedar that the mothers or sisters of ‘terrorists’ should be raped breaks new ground, even for the religious Orthodox.  Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper reported on 22^nd July 2014 that 'Professor' Kedar called for the sisters or mothers of 'terrorists' to be raped as a deterrent.  Leaving aside the fact that 2,000 Gazan civilians, including over 500 children, were murdered by Israeli  bombing during the summer.  The idea that someone’s sister or mother should be raped as a deterrent or punishment is so abhorrent that it defies comprehension.

But this has not stopped the Zionist Federation  locally and nationally inviting Kedar as a speaker to meetings, including one at Ralli House, Hove tomorrow at 7 pm.  http://www.zionist.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/An-Evening-with-Mordechai-Kedar-ZF-copy.jpg   Palestine Solidarity Campaign is picketting this meeting from 6 pm onwards and invites you to join us in a picket against this misogynist and racist.  Kedar’s views on immigration are also no different from that of the EDL/BNP.  He was quoted in Israel’s widest circulation newspaper, Yediot Aharanot as saying that Islam is taking over Europe. News - Expert: Islam taking over, Europe soon to be unrecognizable

This Nazi style pronouncement is just one of the barbarous and misogynist announcements of the settler and religious right in Israel today.  It follows the pouring of petrol inside the mouth of a boy aged 16 because 3 settler teens were kidnapped and killed, as if one in any way justified the other.  It comes as a reign of terror is being instituted by settlers, with the support of the Israeli army, across the West Bank. Israeli Arabs are also now being killed regularly by the Police on demonstrations, whereas Jewish demonstrators are never met with live bullets.

At uch short notice it will be interesting to see how many Palestine Solidarity supporters join the picket.

Zionist Federation on the Frontline

See this from the Zionist Federation aka ZFUK (can you see it?  It's supposed to be a web version of an email they sent out)

‘Israel-bashing’ Event Cancelled

after ZF Announces Protest

An event discussing media coverage of the recent Israel-Hamas conflict has been cancelled, following plans by the ZF to protest outside it. “Reporting the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict – Emotion, Bias and Objectivity,” organised by the Frontline Club, was scheduled to be held on Sept 3 at the Shaw Theatre.

The three speakers who were to discuss this issue were Jeremy Bowen, Jon Snow and Martin Bell. Jeremy Bowen, Middle East editor at the BBC, recently wrote an article in which he dismissed claims that Hamas uses civilians as human shields. Jon Snow, presenter of Channel Four News, went viral when he recorded a plea for action over Gaza which again whitewashed Hamas. Given their failure to hold the terrorist group to account for the conflict, it seems unlikely that they would be able to identify anti-Israeli bias in the media.

Following the ZF's consultation with the police and the theatre, the event has now been cancelled.

Alan Aziz, ZF Director, commented:

“The failure of the media to explain the actions of Israel, which is a democracy with the obligation to defend its citizens, and Hamas, which is a terrorist organisation committed to genocide, is one of the most pressing issues for those who care about the Jewish homeland. The ZF decided to hold a protest against an event which instead of tackling this subject properly would have simply been another forum for Israel-bashing, and we hope a more balanced panel can be found if the event is re-scheduled.

Here's what the Frontline Club says about itself on its home page:

It exists to promote freedom of expression and support journalists, cameramen and photographers who risk their lives in the course of their work.

Were they really going to be intimidated by a bunch of Zionists in London?  And if they were, should Zionists be bragging that they are scarier than the wars these frontline journalists cover?

Well let's see what the Frontline Club itself says about the event:

 This event has been postponed. A new date and venue will be announced soon.

 Ok, but why has it been postponed?  Well it's not often you'd turn to the Jewish Chronicle's Marcus Dysch to get the facts of a case but tucked away in one of his recent articles was this:

An event organised by the Frontline Club looking at media coverage of the Gaza conflict has been cancelled by police after the Zionist Federation announced it would demonstrate outside.
The session was due to feature journalists Jon Snow, Jeremy Bowen and Martin Bell at the Shaw Theatre in central London, next week.

ZF director Alan Aziz said police had notified him that the event would not go ahead due to safety concerns.

The Frontline Club said the event had been postponed because the planned speakers were unavailable.

So what really happened. Did police cancel the event?  Was the Frontline Club frightened of the Zionist Federation?  Or were the speakers unavailable?

Did less than 750 Jews attend London Zionist Rally?

Here's an interesting report in The Times of Israel about the psychos London rally for Israel on Sunday just gone.

Oh, first up, let's see what The Jewish Chronicle had to say under its headline, Thousands turn out to support Israel in London rally:

An estimated 5,000 Israel supporters – many wearing blue and white outfits for the event – held up placards that called for an end to Hamas terrorism.

Now that's already not a great turnout but now let's see ToI:

1,500, the number that the police estimate attended the rally, needs to be placed in a communal context:

Actually there's another context, the police usually inflate the numbers for the rallies they like and divide the estimate by ten for the one's they don't.  So this rally may have only attracted hundreds but less than 2,000 doesn't quite deserve to be called "thousands" as per the JC.

Now, that communal context:

• Around 200,000 Jews live in London, thus the figure that attended represents less than 1% of the London Jewish population.
• Every summer, including this one, around 1,500 16-year-olds are visiting Israel on organised summer tours. Even if we assume that each family has only 2 children, and around 10% are single parent units, this would equate to approximately 4,350 close family members who currently have a child in Israel.
• In 2008, over 26,000 Jewish children were attending Jewish schools, and with extra places opening in the subsequent half-decade, this will now be close to 30,000 students.

The point of these figures is to place into context just how small 1,500 people are within the Jewish community of the UK.

So questions need to be asked, and there are no easy answers.

All of the questions pre-suppose that Israel is a popular cause among London Jews and Jews elsewhere.  Now this may increasingly not be the case.  Also, it could be that even among Israel enthusiasts, Gaza has been an embarrassment.  And of course given the increasing frequency of Israel's war crimes against the Palestinians some supporters might just be blasé.  I mean a headline like, Israel kills civilians, is hardly shock news now, is it?

There is another point regarding the numbers.  There was a ragbag of Christian zionists at the rally so the number of Jews present was very possibly less than 750.  It would be nice to think that Jews of conscience are growing in number but statistics are fickle things.

Another Laughable Propaganda Site sticks boot into Ben White

Ben White's book launch tonight should be good. The zionists are going full tilt to trash his reputation.  Now it's the JC on his case:

Mr White has repeatedly been criticised after he wrote in 2002: “I do not consider myself an antisemite, yet I can also understand why some are”. [a movement calling itself the Jews is persisting in the colonisation, conquest and ethnic cleansing of Palestine and a ragbag of self-styled experts on antisemitism have no clue why there is such a think as antisemitism]

He also encouraged Twitter followers to protest against an Israeli theatre company’s performance in the UK in 2012 by posting a picture of Jewish author Howard Jacobson.[this was after anti-BDSrs posted a picture of Jacobson's face on an ad opposing BDS]

He said the Booker Prize winner’s face was “another reason to support the boycott”.

But I mentioned in an earlier post that the book launch at Amnesty International's office tonight was sold out.  Actually that is because a zionist group has taken up as many tickets as it could get to prevent people from hearing Ben White speak.  Here's the JC again:

Representatives of one group of Israel advocates said they had booked free tickets for the launch but had no intention of attending.

They said they hoped to ensure that the event at the 200-capacity venue took place in front of as small an audience as possible.

 Have these racists no shame?  Apparently not.

Zionists not Zionist enough for Zionist Federation UK

Here's an interesting piece on the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's website.

Britain’s Zionist Federation defended its decision not to admit a dovish group that defines itself as pro-Israel but opposes Israeli settlements. 

Paul Charney, the federation president, said in a statement Thursday that the application by Yachad was rejected by "a clear majority" of the umbrella group's national council. 

"You need to show you are supporters of Israel and will defend Israel where needed," Charney told the London Jewish Chronicle. "Yachad have not shown enough,” he said, adding: “If you look at their website, their visits to Israel [sic] are only to Hebron and east Jerusalem. They supported the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations.”

So here's a group that might actually mean it when they say they support a two-state solution though about this time last year, Antony Lerman wasn't convinced of how effective Yachad might be.

But Yachad is hopeful of eventually being accepted by ZFUK (my favourite acronym btw):

In his statement, Charney wrote that Herut, a center-right organization, was also initially rejected but was admitted after re-applying. Yachad may re-apply for admission in six months.

Now that's interesting.  Herut was the party of Menachem Begin and was the subject of an open letter in the New York Times signed by various self-described zionists including Hannah Arendt and Albert Einstein:

Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine. (...) It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin's political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents. (...) Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.[from Wikipedia]

Now Herut is in the lobby and Yachad are waiting in the lobby to the lobby.  There is a crucial difference.  Herut were Israel's future.  Yachad is a thing of the past.