In the Wake of Flotilla Incident, Business as Usual for Israel Haters in Great Britain
Not a week goes by in Great Britain without a noisy and often malevolent demonstration against something Israeli, including this week’s tsunami of unprecedented Israel-hatred after the “Gaza flotilla” incident. But let’s go back in time a little bit.
I will hold readers in suspense about an extraordinary event that occurred on April 28 in Manchester, but suffice it to say that the most bizarre and far-fetched of demonstrations took place not long ago at the Natural History Museum in Kensington, London.
We have a reliable rubbish collection service in London called Veolia; they seem to work 365 days a year and even pick up our trash on holidays. They are a vast improvement on Onyx, the previous firm, and I always smile when I see their trucks around the city.
On a recent busy Saturday, outside the Natural History Museum where the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition was taking place, a large demonstration — roughly a thousand people — was taking place. Families trying to enter the museum were stopped by activists holding leaflets and banners about the criminal, genocidal behavior of “apartheid Israel.”
Alongside the banners, signs told all of us to “Boycott Veolia.”
As it happens, Veolia is a French company participating in the building of a tram system in Israel. It is also a sponsor of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum. Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, and other Israel-bashing activists with nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon converged on Kensington to chant and distribute leaflets condemning the excellent trash collectors.
What I found disturbing about the demonstrators was their visceral anger. One man started screaming at me when I said there were fifty-odd Muslim countries in the world and just one Jewish state. He went into a paroxysm of rage, calling me an Islamophobe and racist.
A few days later the same young fellow was busy shouting and jumping about outside Ahava, the Israeli salon and skin product manufacturer. Its main London spa is in Covent Garden; a tiny group of stalwart Israel supporters led by Jonathan Hoffman, vice chair of the Zionist Federation UK, assembles there every other Saturday to counter the large crowd that gathers to denounce the “genocidal apartheid state.” Some of the pro-Palestinian protestors can barely contain their rage and they try to stop tourists and Londoners from entering the store.
What is irksome is that the Israeli woman who runs the Ahava shop complains every other Saturday to Jonathan not about the loud, drum-pounding, hateful anti-Israel demonstrators but about the “noise” the small contingent of Jewish activists makes. Her beef is that she “loses business” during the two hours of the rally, 12 noon until 2 PM. She bitterly moaned to me that her “massage clientele” go crazy from the noise generated by Hoffman’s megaphone.
Carol,
Get out of Britain — before either the Islamonazis butcher you or a dying Israel explodes H-bombs over the UK in a Samson Option.
Your money is not important now.
Eric R,
I am looking into it — somewhere safe — thank you for your good wishes and wise advice.
Carol G
It seems that Israel is also full of “Israel-haters” as many public demonstrations have been held there by jewish activists yet your article makes no reference to them. Criticism of Israel and its policies does not make one a “hater”. Get over it.
“Criticism of Israel and its policies does not make one a…”
But does mean you are stupid and probably a…
You know, I’m eternally hearing “one can criticize Israel and Israeli policies without being a Jew-hater.” And I must concede that this is possible, on paper. I must also point out that the next REAL-WORLD examplar I encounter of this principled breed will be the first.
Criticizing Israel for doing things that every country does, does make you a hater.
Britain is to blame for the ferocity of Anti-Semitism in it’s lands!
Carol, I have just also read your 2004 article reprinted in the Guardian about the treatment you and your fellow countrymen have received here in the UK. I am ashamed. I have to confess that I too fell into the anti-Israel, anti-US mindtrap (but never to that level of hatred). I know better now, thank goodness, although I have no idea what can be done to change this insane situation.
I am glad that you did not, after all, decide to move back to the US. As far as I am concerned you are more than welcome here
I have a question for you, and I would love a very detailed response. What changed your mind? I am also American and have lived in Britain twice. I found the place absolutely wonderful until it came to discussing either the US or Israel, at which point some of the most reasonable people would turn into slobbering pit bulls that were impervious to facts or logic. The truth is, I have found maybe a handful of British supporters of Israel. Even David Cameron and Tony Blair both recently called on Israel to end the blockade, which any quasi-reasonable observer can predict that this will help Hamas increase the deadliness of the arsenal with horrendous consequences for both sides.
You’ll find that same attitude in America – but only in whispers. My friends and family are highly conservative – but from the old Buchanan wing of the party.
they hate Jews for what they’ve done to our foreign policy. the people I know blame Israel for 9/11 and both world wars.
So it isn’t just England… the difference is that Jews control press over here. so every American who questions Israel and Jewish influence thinks they are alone because they never see that opinion in print.
Watch what happens to this comment…. Jews won’t allow it.
“Jews won’t allow it.”
?
?
Seems like “they” are allowing it, you POS.
‘Jews control the press’?! You have imbibed more anti-semitic claptrap in your mother’s milk than you are aware of. Have you ever actually investigated this canard? The NYTimes, Washington Post, and LATimes are three of the most powerful papers in America. They all are left-wing and anti-Israel, like virtually all left-wingers. And if their owners’ families were at one time Jewish, and still consider themselves Jewish today, one must remember that Torquemeda also came from a Jewish family. The New York Times is a paper which even buried reports of the holocaust during WW2 in its back pages.
blame Israel for 9/11 and both world wars.
I always knew you were an anti-semite, I never realized you were a total moron as well.
Not so much a change of mind as a discovery of the truth. Up to the beginning of this year my information came from the national newspapers and the BBC so of course I have been getting half the facts and those mostly distorted. Since February I have had time to explore online. I came across blogs and sites such as PJTV that give another side to the story. Gates of Vienna for example and, in the UK, EUReferendum. Maybe it started with checking out the EDL, I don’t know. My son thinks I’m an idiot for falling for all the spin. As he puts it “An island of democracy surrounded by an ocean of people who want to obliterate that island and all who live on it – and Israel is the bad guy??”
It’s not comfortable, knowing the truth. There’s the anger at the deceptions, the feeling of powerlessness and the daily digust at the lies. But I would rather know than not.
BTW great idea G Marks, blaming Israel for the two world wars when the country did not even exist then!
The best deprogramming, just the facts ma’am!
http://www.debka.com/
http://carolineglick.com/
and best of all for you is to read their archives (look back a few years) and you will know who has been telling the truth,
The facts and nothing but the facts! Thank you for those links, Duerf.
After reading your article perhaps you could help us understand your point. We do understand that Brits are usually on the wrong side of these Israel issues. Perhaps Israelis who travel to the UK don’t always get it right as visitors to the UK (where people hate their guts). Maybe that hatred makes them feel a bit ackward. What I would like to know is the root cause of British Israeli hatred that is morphing into a broader hatred of Jews in general and soon will morph again in Anit American sentiment as we Americans rise up to the blatant lies and the facist muslims who are stirring this pot. Apparently even when the stark video of the recent flotilla boarding by Israli commandos was shown to the EU counsel, they as a group denied what they saw with their own eyes. That takes some doing. Maybe we should show these same idiots the images of the concentration camps and let them deny these now too! Unbelievable and unacceptable to civilized people. How do EU citizens not express their outrage at such mendacity!!
My own feeling is that the muslims have money and the UK is a place where money talks whether it is some muslim building a mosque who needs a lawyer or arab oil money buying off professors and academics with the Chair here at Oxford or the Chair there at Cambridge. They spread their money around to the political class and they ARE organized at the flip of a cell phone to deliver a howling band of thugs to your doorstep when you slight their precious Allah. So we get this part of it. How about the BBC which also likes money and to feel superior to all the punters? They have a knee jerk reaction too because the big money muslims buy adverts and payoff the staffs and broadcasters and the like. Tell me they are not biased and I note that you are a regular contributor to their discussions. What? They need a conservative on command.
So we Americans get it to some extent but are left with the nagging conclusion that the British people are just taking bribes and believing what they hear from the EU and BBC propaganda machine. Is that the difference?
Any UK folks out there who feel this way might advance our understanding because we Americans do get it on Israel and are going to back them up now more than ever knowing that another conspiracy is underway with the same ugly motivation. Unlike most Brits and EU so called citizens we stand with Israel and will never forget.
What you have to realise is that Ms Gould is a member of the Guardian Reading Classes. The GRC, a few Islamofascists and a handful of Jews are the only people interested in Israel and the Arabs. Most of us (99%) don’t give a stuff about Israel or the Palestinians. The BBC of course is run by the GRC, hence their interest.
But when Brits do think about it, they are indistinguishable from the Jihadists — or the Nazis.
It looks as though 300,000 of your soldiers died in vain in WW2 fighting the Nazis — when in fact you people wanted Hitler all along.
What bothers me is I now realize that 250,000 Americans are also buried in Europe who died in vain.
Well, I am in my 7th decade and I’ve never met anyone outside of Germany who wanted Hitler.
You mean, that openly admitted they wanted him.
Looking at the frothing anti-Semitism in Britain today, I can’t help but think he’d be very welcome there today, and not just among your “Asians” and the Guardian crowd.
I suspect that England, like the rest of Europe, will be Judenrein in 30 years.
And Brits will consider that a cause for celebration as they face Mecca.
Even when I had the wrong ideas, I still cared what happened to Israel. I’m not in any of the three categories you list. You do not speak for me.
I speak only for myself.
No you didn’t!
“Most of us (99%) don’t give a stuff about Israel or the Palestinians.”
The spirit of Oswald Moseley and Lord Haw-Haw is alive and well in Old Blighty. Then again, Great Britain has always been anti-Jew to one degree or another.
Sad, sad, sad.
The article was way too kind to Britain. Jolly ol’ England is now hate central. Check out any British newspaper article on Israel and the reader’s comments for confirmation. Odd, the people who stood up against have descended so far into the gutter.
Letting muslims immigrate en masse into Britain is the single biggest mistake made there since World War II. Welcome to the wonderfully stupid world of multiculturalism which gives endless headaches for the host country while benefiting that country in no measurable way.
I recently left some comments in response to a great article by Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post, who argued that the Gaza “Freedom” flotilla and the bungled Israeli raid on it has rekindled anti-Semitic demonstrations (and naturally anti-Israel rhetoric). There were some 1,700 responses or comments to that article, about half of them hare-brained but about a quarter of them explicitly anti-Semitic in nature (these are beside the ones that accused Krauthammer, a conservative, of being an Israeli Nazi, a fool, ignorant of history, etc.). My own comments supported Krauthammer’s contention that it seemed that the world was working itself into a lather to launch a second “final solution.” Ahmanutjob of Iran claims the Holocaust never happened. It seems that people want one to happen anyway. I say: Damn them all.
Weakness or the perception thereof inevitably attracts predators. And cowards protect themselves by noisily siding with bullies against the weak for their own self protection.
There are other reasons why Briton side with the Muslims against Jews–the Muslims are engaged in a religious war and their religious prejudice against the Jews brings out like religious prejudice, ordinarily suppressed, by adherents of another populous faith–but religion is not a subject for polite discourse and such reasons must remain unspoken. For purposes of public discussion,the reasons for rising anti-Semitism in the West–hatred of Jews and Judaism– are entirely political, social and economic.
I most humbly submit that the “terrorist” flotilla is a decoy operation.
1) to keep Israel from dealing with Iran
2) Other equally as treacherous terrorist attacks.
This war is as phoney as a three dollar bill and follows a script.
The USA is obviously “scheduled to be “hit”, should be obvious where.
The repeal of “don’t ask don’t tell” is obviously telling us the “draft” is imminent.
N Korea (China’s Hizbully) rolls over S. Korea only after the war starts, not as the Lusitania/Pearl Harbor.
So far, in the “preseason” of play:
1) The USA has succeeded:
a) in installing a Sharia government in Afghanistan (yes Karzi)
b) Destabilized Pakistan and brought the Al Qaeda/Taliban close to victory
c) Destabilized Iraq and created a nice civil war with no end in sight
d) Kept Iranian dictators, that parade as religious, in power.
e) Kept Iraqi/Iranian oil production to a minimum; to keep the price of oil high/finance the war against ourselves.
f) Refused to create a “Manhattan project” to get the USA off oil.
g) elected a radical/liberal/Marxist/Moslem who in his heart of hearts is desperate to
destroy “white” America; even as he uses useful idiot self hating…to accomplish.
h) Destroyed the American economy and sent our jobs to China.
i) Brought itself (America) to near bankruptcy.
Out if time …
Anti-semitism in Britain has a long and venerable history, including the Massacre at Clifford’s Tower in York, the expulsion of Jews for centuries, and up to the present day of course with Israel-hatred. The latter, in part, is because the Brits backed the wrong horse in ’48. There is some kind of irrational admiration for the Arabs, typified by Lawrence of Arabia, even including the present Prince of Wales. They expected the Jews to be massacred (like everyone else) and when that didn’t happen, have sulked about it ever since. When I lived there in the 90s, our ‘friends’ were seriously puzzled why we didn’t have horns. Britain is one strange place.
What gets me is that the Euros (and that includes the Brits) must believe the common wisdom that Israel has 200-400 nukes, many thermonuclear (thus anywhere from 5-15x the Hiroshima bomb), and the ability to deliver them thousands of miles.
Yet, the Euros are so crazed with hatred of Jews, they insist on destroying Israel even though it might mean the end of their existence.
Europeans are obviously sick, sick hate-filled people and if the end comes, deserve such a fate.
All who revile Israel and the diaspora Jews who support it are heavily censored on these websites. PJ media is pretty much a megaphone for radical Zionism.
Americans have been on lockdown on this subject since WWII and before! If allowed to speak openly and honestly – many many Americans would say the USA is under occupation as well.
Nobody likes a bully. And Jews are bullies on this subject. Watch these jackals go after Helen Thomas, all she owns, and her family.
They love collective punishment – unless of course it’s aimed at them.
When we want to hear the daily msm propaganda we can listen to:
CNN (terrorist ministry of propaganda)
or NPR, where the radical left debates the ultra left: liberals with mental disorders!
or Al Jazero: translates: just rubbish.
This site seems to focus on people seeking clarity on a variety of issues, and the comments can offer excellent insights as well as an occasional post by an oil industry rep.
Butt those seeking to talk till they believe their own politically correct BS are not attracted here because it is hard to face the truth when you are brainwashed.
If the anti-semites were indeed heavily censored, I wouldn’t be reading your vile garbage.
Well, G Marks, I don’t see that your remarks have been censored, disgusting though your remarks are.
As for Helen Thomas, her comments were disgusting and i do revile her. Why shouldn’t I? She reviled Jews and you think she shouldn’t get any comeback?
Why not?
It’s absolutely extraordinary and a sign of your hyatred that you can’t understand anyone who does NOT feel hatred for Jews. You hate them , therefore everyone should hate them. What a limited, repulsive creature you are. Notice I didn’t recommend all your family should be punished for knowing you, I am just criticising you.
I do extend my sympathy to your family for having to endure your presence among them though.
I must correct you – people LOVE bullies. Look at the way they flock to Islamofascists. It’s that whole bad boy thing, they practically salivate when they’re around them. No wonder – they have nor personality -like you – and have no idea of world affairs – also like you.
Now go get a brain transplant and a personality stem cell.
G Marks, I’m insulted by you. Not because I’m a Jew, but because I’m not. There are 300 million Americans – only about 5% of them are Jewish. But according to you, the vast majority of Americans are so stupid, so sheeplike, so cowed by Jewish masterminds that they’ve unwittingly permitted themselves to be led by the nose by the Jews for generations, even before the creation of the state of Israel. What a bunch of dumb oxen you imagine American gentiles to be!
Just because you and your friends and relatives have mashed rutabagas or something besides brains between their ears (or else you want to blame the eternal scapegoats for your own failures), please don’t believe that the rest of us are as deeply dopey as you and fellow conspiracy-minded kooks and rancid bigots. And no, you’re not a “conservative” – nobody who sounds like the President of Iran or Hamas terrorists is a conservative. You’re the fringe right who is so far off the deep end that you are exactly the same as the loony left.
And yeah, Mr. Way-Off-the- Marks, the fact that your comments are permitted to stand kinda shoot holes in your “The-Joooooos-won’t-permit-criticism!” theory. Not that lack of logic ever troubles anti-Semites.
Given that British Banks, French Banks, German Banks, Italian Banks, Austrian Banks, and I am sure other banks in Europe, are in very rough shape thanks to lending out money to governments which simply found it easier to spend, rather than cut redundancy (and I am not referring to low level personnel), you can be sure that those who are willing to prop up the insolvent will be the one’s writing foreign policy for those governments. I guess that is the newest step for the transformation of Great Britain to Londonistan and Europe to Eurabia.
Frankly, NATO is too politicized to do any good. The same can be said for the IMF, the World Bank, and the UN. So, what about those parts of the world which aren’t as far down the road as Londonistan and Eurabia, uniting to conquer, at the very least, Constantinople, so that it is under Orthodox Christian control. Why? Because new management of the city would do a better
job of ensuring freedom of worship and freedom of religion for all, instead of
only some.
The Ahava boycott is spreading over here in Los Angeles. My son noticed that Ahava products were missing at the local CVS pharmacy along with other Israeli products that used to be featured there. When we asked the management of the CVS pharmacies about the missing items, they came up with a benign answer. All we know is that, all of a sudden, Israeli products are no longer being sold at CVS after years of being featured there.
Sceaming at you that you’re an Islamophobe? I can’t say I’ve been all that upset about being an (anything)ophobe. Csrtainly I qualify as an Islamophobe, Satanistophobe, Thugeeophobe, and an -ophobe of phony, hate-filled nonsense such as Islam, Socialism, and Obamunism. Too bad all the insults can’t be printed on a t-shirt and worn proudly.
My brother recently told me that my absence from Britain, where my GI father and Czech refugee mother met, has been the mystery of my Anglophile family (BBC News, Times Literary Supplement, “the lot”) for the past 17 years. There’s no point in trying to get in the last word. I’m happy to say “live and let live,” and leave it at that.
Oh, and one more thing that will REALLY piss you Brits off….
We’re going to beat you next Sunday.
Just as we did in 1950.
I thought the Wailing Wall was a remnant of the temple that Herod built.
Somewhat of topic. Still I believe there is a weakness from Israel that creates the tension and indirectly leads to the unrest described in this article. The underlying problem I believe is that the instigators believe that there is “something” to be won.
Therefore I have one wish for Israel. I hope they will make a statement loud and clear that Israel has a final and unchangeable border line. And once and for all say “this is Israel” no more no less. And demand that the rest of the world approve that exact territory or go to hell. No negotiation, just a decision. It would be nice to be free of the perception that there is ambiguity about what is Israel and what is settlements. The perception that the border is fluctuating and up for negotiation makes one uneasy. It seams weak and makes the wolves smell blood. If that final borderline includes territorial prizes won in wars (Israel didn’t start), so be it. Just make a decision. Then make a big fat impenetrable borderline with big fat signs saying: “This is Israel” and protect it with a solid military presence. The perceived fixedness and symbolism is key. No ambiguity. And then stop for good the joke that is called “Negotiations” with a nonexistent Palestinian government. This of cause will cause tremendous uproar in the short term and perhaps even be dangerous. This Israel should accept and simply ride it out. It can only become more dangerous in time with nuclear proliferation. And contrary to what many might think, this will actually stop the hate fest, which, I believe, primarily exist because of this perceived flexibility/weakness.
(By the way isn’t this what Jordan and Syria did?)
Another lie from Gould:
“…unless it is meticulously explained that these locations are not in Israel but in disputed territories.”
WRONG! – those locations are in illegally OCCUPIED territories, and ‘occupied’ is what any explanation must say.
However, Gould does tell the truth occasionally:
“The Israel boycotters score another victory.”
YES WE DO! With plenty more to come. LOL LOL LOL!
Great music video about the world reaction to the ‘aid’ ships.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KUcv452KbU&feature=player_embedded
Carol, you still here? Why?