David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary recently rebuked Israel for supposedly borrowing British identities to carry out its anti-terrorism operation in Dubai. “Et tu, Tel Aviv?”, he cried when addressing the Parliament last month.
• [D. Milliband] told the Commons of the conclusion of the investigation by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and denounced Israel’s behaviour as “intolerable” and displaying a “profound disregard for the sovereignty of the United Kingdom”. “The fact that this was done by a country which is a friend, with significant diplomatic, cultural, business and personal ties to the UK, only adds insult to injury.” he said. The Times March 2010.
To assess the validity of Secretary Milliband’s lament it is instructive to examine how British political, economic, and media elites and the professional associations that represent them manifest their camaraderie towards the Jewish state.
Politicians:
• “Tam Dalyell [MP-retired], the Father of the House of Commons, has accused the Prime Minister of “being unduly influenced by a cabal of Jewish advisers””. The Independent May 2003
• “She [Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Tonge] subsequently told the Jewish Chronicle: “To prevent allegations such as these [Israel Defense Force -- harvesting body parts in Haiti] going any further, the IDF and the Israeli Medical Association should establish an independent inquiry immediately to clear the names of the team in Haiti.” The Guardian February 2010
• “Ian McCartney, the chairman of the Labour Party, opened himself to being accused of anti-Semitism yesterday by describing a Jewish Conservative Party politician as a “21st-century Fagin”. Fagin was the Jewish villain in Charles Dickens’s novel Oliver Twist.” The Independent February 2004
• “In 1997, Nick Griffin [British National Party Chairman and member of European parliament] published a booklet entitled “Who are the Mind Benders?”. It claimed to prove that Jewish people controlled the British media…Griffin [has] referred to the Holocaust as a “Holohoax”. BBC News Undated
Labor Unions:
• “The boycott, approved at the annual conference of the Trades Union Congress, calls for a ban on importing goods produced in some Israeli settlements, an end to arms trading with Israel and disinvestment from some companies.” Associated Press September 2009
Academics:
• “Britain’s largest lecturers’ union yesterday voted in favour of a boycott [later overturned by a small executive committee] of Israeli lecturers and academic institutions who do not publicly dissociate themselves from Israel’s “apartheid policies”. The Guardian February 2006
Media:
• “The National Union of Journalists has voted at its annual meeting for a boycott of Israeli goods.” The Guardian April 2007
• The editor of The Guardian has said a controversial editorial in the paper six years ago that compared the Israeli attack on the Palestinian town of Jenin to the terrorist attacks in New York on 11 September 2001 was a “misjudgement”.
• “BBC board of governors set up a panel, chaired by Sir Quentin Thomas, to provide an external independent review of reporting of Middle East affairs. The panel’s findings, published in April 2006, concluded there was “no deliberate or systematic bias” in the BBC’s reporting, but said its approach had at times been “inconsistent” and was “not always providing a complete picture” which had been “misleading”. The Guardian February 2009
Royal Family:
• “Prince Edward, the earl of Wessex and the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth, arrived in Israel Wednesday, marking the first royal visit here in more than a decade. But despite his high-profile four-day tour, the prince’s visit has been categorized as “private” and so the situation remains unchanged: not a single member of the British royal family has ever been to Israel on an official visit.” Haaretz June 2007
• According to the travelogue on her website, the Queen, who is Great Britain’s official head of state and makes formal visits at the request of the Foreign Office, has visited Yugoslavia, under Marshall Tito, Zimbabve, under Mugabe, the People’s Republic of China, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Turkey, and Malaysia.
Lest the above seem like an array of “selective” and “out of context” quotations please see below.
• “Britain’s Jewish community faces an unprecedented level of anti-Semitism and feels more threatened than ever, according to the report of the all-party parliamentary inquiry into anti-Semitism.” Times Online February 2009
Friends in deed.
