Banned! The (blurred) photo of Lord Phillips they didn't want you to see.
“The Jews” were once again singled out by one of our lawmakers last night in the shape of Lord Andrew Phillips. Not Israel, not Israelis, not Israeli Jews, but “the Jews”.
Phillips was chairing a Middle East Monitor event at Senate House; The Palestine Papers: Under the Spotlight.
Lord Phillips has form. He has not denied that he previously said that “America is in the grip of the well-organised Jewish lobby”.
Kathleen Christison, former CIA political analyst and author of Palestine in Pieces, told us how Obama is unbelievably craven in the face of the Israel lobby.
The example she gave was last friday’s US veto of the UN resolution on the illegality of settlements when Susan Rice, America’s UN ambassador, told the UN that America thought the settlements are illegal but America couldn’t vote for the resolution because the Israeli lobby and Israel wouldn’t like it. Lord Phillips responded (listen to audio at end):
“Everything I hear from the platform speakers makes me think that the world we are now moving into has been turned upside down and that, er, the Jews aren’t lacking in intelligence, they may be deeply prejudiced, many of them, but they are going to be saying the same sort of thing as you on the panel are saying. It seems to me that it is not at all safe to rely on the past to interprete the future and that American, indeed American Jewry, quite apart from the progressive elements within Israel, who have been overshadowed in recent years, all of this could change quickly and rapidly in the face of a Middle East that suddenly becomes hostile.”
The anti-Israel rhetoric was slightly diluted due to the absence of Clare Short (broken bone) and Seumas Milne (ill). Some might call it divine intervention but Christosen more than made up for their absence.
Christosen told us that everything America does in the Middle East it does to safeguard Israel from its Arab and Muslim neighbours who don’t like Israel’s treatment of its subjects.
She said that the Palestine Papers showed that the Palestinian Authority treated the Palestinians with humiliating derision and that America represents Israel in negotiations despite claiming to be an honesy broker: “The Palestine Papers laid bare the Israel-America relationship in all its obscenity”.
She said that people can’t even mention Israel in America for fear of being called “anti-Semitic”. Lord Phillips agreed. He said it was like McCarthyism and a good way to silence people. “We have a bit of that starting here, I’m afraid,” he said.
In answer to a question on the viablitity of the one state solution Christosen felt it was “the only just solution” and called for the dismantling of Israel as an “exclusivist Jewish state” and for the “Jewish exclusivist government” to be dismantled. But, she said, she had nothing against Jews as individuals.
Even J Street came in for criticism from her because its logo is “Pro Israel, Pro Peace”.
Tim Llewellyn, a former BBC Middle East correspondent, said he supported boycotts. He said that if Israel wants to be accepted as a European state it must be told that it is a pariah state: “The government is uncivilised and Israelis who support it take part in that uncivilisation. Israel is a rogue state in the Middle East,” he said.
Clayton Swisher, an Al Jazeera reporter, felt sanctions won’t work because the EU and America are feckless but the Arabs could make it difficult for Israelis as many travel on Arab airlines and if, after looking at their passports, they find they live in the settlements they should not allow them to travel.
The only conciliatory voice came from Oliver McTernan, director of Forward Thinking, who felt that sanctions were hypocritical as he has worked to remove the sanctions against Gaza. He also felt that the price of the one state solution would be too great, although he thought that Hamas should be brough into the negotiating process.
The story of the photo above was that we were told that there was to be no photography or filming unless authorised. There were about four or five photographers and the event was being filmed. Towards the end, and in light of the comments by Lord Phillips, I thought I would try to sneak a photo after seeing a woman behind me taking one on her IPhone.
But as I snapped away I was surrounded by two men from the World Ju-Jitsu Federation who stopped me, one of whom snatched by audio recorder and wanted my camera also. I managed to grab back the recorder.
So there we were in a British University discussing the leaked Palestine Papers, which have basically killed off any hope of peace in the Middle East for a generation, listening to a rant about Jews from one of our lawmakers, yet I was harassed when wanting to take one lousy photograph of the event (which came out blurred anyway).
RichardMillett's Blog 
I liked the football injuries style, re Short and the hideous Milne.
Phillips makes my flesh crawl
Phillips’ offensive comment is at 12:18
It was good to see the full page ad, today from Jews for Justice for Libyans-just joking
Well done for some top reporting Richard!
Is it possible to be antisemitic today? OK, Lord Phillips ‘slipped’ when he said Jooos. Not they he didn’t mean Jews but had his speech been proofed beforehand he ‘probably’ would have changed it.
OTOH he ‘probably’ would deny being antisemitic. It’s still offensive – as for fear of being called “anti-Semitic” indicates.
So what do you have to do so even Baron Phillips of Sudbury would recognise it as antisemitic? Supporting those who consider killing Jews as an appropriate punishment for Israel’s sins doesn’t seem to be enough.
… if it’s offensive to refer to Jewish supporters of Israel as ‘Jews’ – (or Jooos as David puts it), then what term would be acceptable and inoffensive?
Jonathan asked the very next question. If he was so very offended, as a supporter of Israel, by being referred to as a ‘Jew’ why didn’t he take the opportunity to say so directly I wonder?
Phillips didn’t say jewish supporters of israel. he just said “the jews”. Jonathan was cut off abruptly after one question. I had my hand up the whole way through but wasn’t called.
My favourite bit is what Tim Llewellyn said about Israel being uncivilized and a rogue state in the Middle East. Did this event take place on another planet where current events in the Middle East are not covered?
So your point is that Israel has like-minded bedfellow neighbours?
Painful to behold.
But at least the absence of the execrable and deranged Clare Short can be considered a blessing.
Come on Richard – have the strength of your convictions.
There was no woman behind you taking a photo with her iPhone…
You decided that the rule of ‘no photos’ did not apply to you.
The other 190 attendees decided to respect the rule however.
Stephen, how do you know there wan’t? and why not take photos anyway? i spoke to people afterwards, including Oliver from the panel, and they couldn’t understand that rule either. Isn’t it ironic that I couldn’t “expose” a talk about exposure?
Rubbish Stephen. Loads of people were taking photos.
Reading my notes of my visit to Pune last February 2010 when Islamic terrorists blew up a restaurant in error as they waited there for their courier to deliver it to the Chabad House across the road, I found the following and it strikes me that the ME and North Africa prove this point:
“………..I am reading an amazing book called Shantaram. The story is based in Mumbai and on some truth as the author, Gregory David Roberts, lived here for 8 years. It is an incredible book. There is a passage in which he explains that the world is run by 1 million evil men, ten million stupid men and a hundred million cowards. He says that the very richest and most powerful whose decisions really count number only 1 million evil men. The stupid men are the soldiers of some 12 countries and policemen of twenty or so more who enforce their rule. They are very brave but also stupid as they give their lives for the very rich and powerful evil 1 million who rule the world who always betray and abandon them. The hundred million cowards are the managers, mayors and pen pushers who permit the rule of the evil as they turn the other way saying they are only following orders. The rest of the 6 billion simply do what they are told.
I don’t know about the numbers, but he has the principle right!………”
It seems the Lord Andrew Phullips of Sudbury is one of the hundred million cowards who are managers, mayors and pen pushers who permit the rule of the evil as they turn the other way saying they are only following orders.
Here’s a refreshing antidote to all this poison. Mordechai Kedar tells the truth.
Actually JOnathan and RIchard – if you noticed (and i asked) there were four people with cameras – and all of them were MEMO staff or hired by MEMO. I recognised three of them and i found out that one of them was a professional hired by MEMO.
so next time just stick to the rules and perhaps you would have had a pleasant evening after all. i certainly did 🙂
I had a lovely evening, Sarah.
Richard
as usual thank you very very much
in this context I wish I understood what qualifies a British citizen for Baroness-ship http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y1x96
This one sounds to me like it is awarded to people “they” want in but who prove unable to win elections i.e. it is used as a side-entrance. Does that apply to Baroness Ashton also?
Your audio link doesn’t work, Richard.
are you sure? it seems to be working ok. It takes time sometimes.
Sarah – you had as lovely evening listening to hatred and racism?
oh stop your crying….there was no racism or anti-semitism ….why people start running around calling legitimate disapproval of ISrael and the Zionist regime anti-Semitic is pathetic and beyond me!
Thank you so much Richard for sitting through this garbage – I’ll say it out loud, Phillips is an anti- (you are probably right but i don’t want the risk of being sued by someone with far more money than me – RM)
There.
Lord Phillips is a courageous and honourable man who stands up for justice and human rights … don’t try to tarnish someone you have no clue about.
So you think that someone saying “the Jews aren’t lacking in intelligence, they may be deeply prejudiced, many of them,” is disapproval of Israel? If someone said this replacing “Jews” with “Muslims” you and your hard-left friends would be be screaming Islamophobia. The hard-left is riddled with anti-Semitism but you are so caught up in it you can’t even see it. You are in denial. But then again, you wouldn’t admit you are an anti-Semite even if you know you are.
Man, that guy Kedar, is just awsome! I´d love to see him crushing those hypocrites of BBChit.
As for leftist antisemites: antisemitism is ingrained in left-wing ideology, from its inception, no matter how much they try to deny it. The reason is historical and, moreover, ideological as they conceive of humanity as a homogeneous empty blob, made of equal plastic beings devoid of individuality, so they can´t tolerate the fact that people cherish their culture and traditions. For them this is a threat to their “harmonious humankind” fantasy and so all difference should be eliminated, exterminated. That was the whole issue of Stalin and the “nationalities” (while all the time being a Georgian autocrat all the way). So with Jews. The left can only tolerate non-jewish Jews, as any tiny sign of jewish culture is already a capital treason of “special interest” , of difference, of individuality. Moreover they are such coward, dishonest and consumate liars that they´ll never admit they are antisemites to the core. As they never admitted their countless mistakes and lies that cost the lives of millions of people, the same people they arrogantly claim to defend. At the same time, truth, honesty and decency are not real universal human values for them, that they feign to spouse for tactical purposes in their opportunistic crazy schemes; when not necessary anymore they just discard them as “bourgeois” values. Same with democracy. So much for “dialectics” and “marxist self-criticism”. It´s pure BS. Fortunately, another trait of the left is their addiction to internecine petty wars. I wished they just kept busy killing off each other and let the rest of humanity live in peace.
I’m afraid I find myself in complete agreement with Sarah on this one.
It is beyond me why a Jew would wish to live his life in a place where the population doesn’t really like him and some of whom obviously hate him but if that’s his choice then he certainly has no reason to complain !
“It is beyond me why a Jew would wish to live his life in a place where the population doesn’t really like him and some of whom obviously hate him ”
Perhaps you would be kind enough to point out a place where that DOESN’T apply? The UK clearly matches your description, for starters.
“It is beyond me why a Jew would wish to live his life in a place where the population doesn’t really like him and some of whom obviously hate him”
Perhaps you would be kind enough to point out a place where that DOESN’T apply?
My father (Z”L) was a fifth generation Anglo-Jew and like most of his generation was educated in a non-Jewish school. He would smile when he’d recall the fact that he had been the only Jew in his year, but was top of the class in New Testament studies.
He told me of the time that a member of the clergy visited his class and quizzed his class regarding who was responsible for a relatively obscure quote. One student offered Jesus and another Moses. Then Yosef-Moshe (Gerald) Marks raised his hand and said, “Was it Paul sir?” The guest was pleased, but one of his classmates was angrily passed him a note, “Why don’t you go back to your own country?”
For 2,000 years that question was the most cruel and hurtful utterance that there was. It struck at the very soul of every Jew had no home to go back to. Jews would smile when they heard their neighbours shout, “Hip, hip, hooray!” but they knew the “hip” to be a hideous acronym for “Hierosylma Est Perdita” , Jerusaulem is lost, the “war” cry of the Hep-Hep two hundred years ago against German Jews. For 2,000 years we wondered the world from pogrom to inquisition to expulsion. We knew our exile to be a terrible punishment and prayed to G-d for it to finally end; to return us to Zion in mercy.
Then just as all seemed lost, after a third of our nation had been gassed by Hitler because they had had no country to go back to, a miracle happened. We were returned to Zion in mercy. We were granted one tiny spot on the map where Jews are really wanted. Nobody can tell us to go back to our own country anymore, because we’re already here.
So I’ll ”be so kind” CBA. There is one miniscule area, so small that on maps of the world the word Israel invariably appears in the sea because there is no room to write it, where we all have a home. It may only be one four-hundredth part of the Middle East, but for all its problems it’s beautiful and it’s all ours.
Daniel, that was pretty much the point I was trying to make to Michael Goldman. Perhaps I misunderstood him, but I took his comment to mean that Jews shouldn’t live in the Middle East where they’re not wanted.
My attitude towards that is identical to yours. Which is how come I’m living in Israel myself–and yes, there’s no other place on earth I’d rather be.
Yup CBA, I think we misunderstood each other. Goldman also lives in Israel as do I. I think we’re all pretty much in agreement here.
Shavua Tov
Daniel
Serjew
truth, honesty and decency are not real universal human values for them
I beg to defer I think they truly believe in all those just like a surgeon believes that humans are entitled to unharmed bodies. But when the choice is between letting the patient die of appendicitis or cut him open, the surgeon cuts him open. By the same logic they put aside or rather defer to a later date any value or logic that might prevent mankind from reaching their kind of paradise. (i.e. beware of saviours)
Somehow I think that reminds me of what I was told Jesus would do for me. BTW Arnold Toynbee claims that communism and/or socialism is a “derivative” from Christianity i.e. Christianism provided the fertile ground for it to sprout from
Oh and the latest I’ve heard on radio peddled by academia is that Christianity and Judaism evolved at the same time i.e. are contemporaries, next they’ll tell me that both are unthinkable without a draft-Koran.
I would like to take issue with Lord Phillips about his contention that Jews are not lacking in intelligence. He obviously has never met Yoni.
Having said that I would like to commend Richard on his tireless work in clandestine photography as well as for exposing and confronting all those horrible people who do not like Israel, the Jews, or both, and am sure that he will join me, alogside Daniel, Michael and Silke, in calling upon Colonol Gaddaffi in urging him to exercise restraint when slaughtering his subjects involved in the uprising.
It’s hard to explain the venom coming from the so-called critics without calling it antisemitism.
If you support a group, like Hamas, that openly calls for the killing of Jews how can you simply be a critic?
If you distribute baseless medieval-type accusations, for example, stealing organs or subverting governments how can simply be a critic?
If you distribute 15th century accusations against the Talmud to show how evil Israel is how can you simply be a critic?
If you voice-over or subtitle Arabs accusing ‘Jews’ as if they had used the word ‘Zionists’ how can you simply be a critic?
If you ad hominem attack critics of Arabs/Palestinians/Islam because they are Jews, married to Jews or even have Jewish friends (even if that accusation is false) how can you simply be a critic?
If the only country that simply ‘has no right to exist’ just happens to be the only country that calls itself the Jewish State how can you simply be a critic?
Read Nick Cohen, Jesus! I’m turning Jewish http://nickcohen.net/2009/02/12/jesus-im-turning-into-a-jew/
Sarah: In what way is Lord Phillips ‘courageous’ and/or honourable? Unless you have a better definition, courageous means able to face and deal with danger or fear without flinching
He’s sitting in a hall full of sanctimonious, like-minded people where any dissenters will be intimidated by the World Ju-Jitsu Federation. What does he have to be afraid of? Is it that someone will throw a shoe at him? Perhaps that someone will characterise his attacks on Jews, American Jewry or the Jewish Lobby, antisemitism?
Outside of the hall, what is he afraid of? Losing his job? He’s a life peer of the House of Lords, how can he lose that? Life peers are unable to renounce their titles and continue to hold them for life. Not being invited to the BBC? Obsessive attacks on Israel with or without accompanying attacks on the Jews, practically guarantees a welcoming reception. Perhaps find himself out of what is essentially an figurehead post at the University of Essex? That seems unlikely. Can you name one chancellor who was sacked for misbehaviour from his or her non-job?
Perhaps it’s a fear for his life? This isn’t Libya or Iran or Egypt or Lebanon he’s talking about but not criticising. Inside or outside Israel can you name even one critic of Israel or Jews who suffered physical harm for his or her criticism?
Perhaps all critics of Israel are not antisemites butAll antisemites are critics of Israel. I can’t really think of ANY prominent individuals or groups who are known to be antisemites and are not critical of Israel.
Can you think of anyone? I asked in an earlier comment if it is possible for a critic of Israel to do or say anything they would admit to be antisemitic today? From your answers, I must conclude, NO.
Bravo David, I rarely say this, but I agree entirely.
Where have all the anti-Semites gone? Try googling “anti-Semitic societies”; there doesn’t seem to be a single organization left in the world that defines itself as anti-Semitic. Have all the people who were once Jew haters changed their minds? Have they all become bashful?
Anti-Semitism is like a disease that mutates. In every generation it reinvents itself with a new name and a new ideology. Today it is called anti-Zionism.
Terrorist organizations will announce their objective of going for Jewish targets abroad, but heaven forbid should anyone call them anti-Semitic. “Human rights activists” will ignore Kaddafi as he massacres his own people and focus on attacking Israel for shortages of spinach lasagna in Gaza, but call them anti-Semites and they’ll indignantly explain that they just care about Palestinian babies. In an obscene lie Gert accuses Israelis of wanting to throw Arab babies to ovens and anti Ahava activists scream about Palestinian blood, but they aren’t anti-Semites, they’re all just anti-Zionists.
Where have all the anti-Semites gone? How I miss the good old Jew hater who looks you honestly in the eye and calls you a Jew Boy, a Kike or a Christ Killer. With them at least, you know what to do.