Muslim Congresswoman forced to apologise

Ms. Ilhan Omar, the newly elected Democrat Congresswoman from Minnesota, made the gravest error a politician in the US can make: she pointed out to the fact that pro-Israel lobby money is behind US politicians’ unquestioning support of Israel.

She soon enough got her first lesson in how American democracy functions.  She was hit by a shitstorm, in which even her own party deserted her and forced her to apologise.

Omar apologised, yet cleverly added “At the same time, I reaffirm the problematic role of lobbyists in our politics, whether it be AIPAC, the NRA or the fossil fuel industry.” 

AIPAC probably did not even have to work hard to enforce Ms. Omar’s apology. Her “colleagues”, who are all drip funded – some more, some very much more – by a variety of lobbies, do not want this funding shindig to be scrutinised, or god-forbid, to ever end.  

Is it permitted to say that the NRA gun-lobby buys influence with money, but prohibited to say the same thing about AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby – just because of the anti-Semitic trope about Jews and money? So, what can one say about AIPAC? Preferably nothing, must be the answer.

I have no idea whether Ms. Omar is an anti-Semite or not but calling out AIPAC and pointing to their influence is not anti-Semitic. Forcing Omar to apologise is dishonest and shameful.

Israel accuses Ireland of Antisemitism

The Irish parliament is passing legislation that would ban Israeli goods produced in the Occupied Territories.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called the Irish ambassador for a “reprimand” and has stated 

“At the meeting it was made clear to the ambassador that the hypocritical and anti-Semitic legislation will have severe ramifications on Israel-Ireland relations and Ireland’s standing in the region should the legislation be promoted”. 

Once again, Israel is using its favourite weapon, the accusation of Antisemitism, in its attempts to push back any opposition to its occupation of the West Bank.

Brexit and “Fair Play”

I recently spoke to a friend of mine in the City and asked him about the likelihood of a second referendum on Brexit. He told me that he had voted remain in the referendum in 2016. But he added, that were there to be a second referendum, he would vote to leave. 

His very British explanation was that he considered it undemocratic to vote until the right result is achieved. So fair play was more important than the damage to Britain caused by Brexit. Yes, he said.

Interview for Holocaust Memorial Day

I was interviewed by the German radio station hr-Info for Holocaust Memorial Day.

Here’s a link to the podcast. I can be heard from minute12:12.

Stop the (Brexit) Bomb

In yesterday’s Guardian, Margaret Thatcher’s Deputy Prime Minister, Michael Heseltine, writes about three times in his life in which he has lived through “momentous history”.  Heseltine refers to the 1939 announcement by Neville Chamberlain that Britain is at war with Germany, the 1945 street party in London, when “delirious crowds celebrate the end of the second world war” and finally in Berlin in 1961, when the Russians closed the wall.

In his article, Heseltine – who calls for another vote on Brexit – speaks of the third week of November 2018 as another “encounter with history of our time”. 

  

Before it is too late: Those in Britain who oppose Brexit should cause the necessary discomfort – strikes and any other legal means – to enforce a second referendum.  

Mind your language

A friend posted the following on his Facebook wall:

Four years ago today, two Palestinian Arab murderers entered a synagogue during morning prayers in Har Nof, and brutally slaughtered the praying congregants with axes, knives, and a gun.
They killed praying Jews and one heroic police officer, a Druze, who died taking down the terrorists.

Some tend to describe nationalistic killings of Israelis that are carried out by Palestinians as anti-Jewish acts. This serves to instil the feeling that we have a phenomenon akin to Antisemitic pogroms of the Christian kind. This is both wrong and misleading.

Murder is terrible, whether brutal or not. It is even terrible when those who have drones at their disposal carry it out from the luxury of their comfortable faraway operation centres.

There are Palestinians who use murder in their fight against Israel and against the occupation their land. This is unpardonable, but we should not confuse the issues: This is not about killing Jews in their Synagogues but about fighting occupation.  Deplorable but not Antisemitic.  

Green Card Lottery

Last week I was in Chicago for a few days. It was wonderful to visit an old friend of my parents, I also met one of her sons, as well as the son of another of my parents’ friends, went to a delightful jam session in a jazz club and ate an amazing steak. When distances were too long to walk, I used Uber in order to get from place to place in that beautiful city.

Conversations with drivers are a well-known means of informing one-self about a country/city/political situation etc. And thus, I had some interesting conversations with my drivers. Invariably they were immigrants and when it came to the question how they had managed to come to the US, the response was often that they had applied for a visa in the Green Card Lottery and won. I recall having had the same experience on previous visits to the USA.

The Green Card Lottery, the real name of which is “Diversity Immigrant Visa Program”, makes available 50,000 visas annually. Do they all become Uber drivers? Or is that a now established “get off my back and don’t ask me whether I am legal” response?

Bollocks to Brexit

I didn’t specially fly in for the demonstration, but I happened to be in London and joined the almost 700,000 calling for a second referendum.

It was an impressive show, which made “remainers” feel good about themselves. But will it make a difference? No. The Tory government does not want a second referendum and Corbyn, the leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition, is not opposing: He’s is a brexiter himself.

So, we have no opposition fighting the government for something that half of the British population has voted for. Half of the country’s population, who do not want Brexit. has been hung out to dry.  

Without political representation, the only solution is a show of force. If Britain was France, we would have strike actions bringing London to a halt – the only thing that politicians understand. But Britain is not France and we are unlikely to see violent action.

In this placard they only thing French they are worried about is Brie…

I particularly liked the arrogant look of disdain of these two men, whose Saturday shopping was disturbed by the demonstration: 

They may not have seen the warning on this placard:

The Prince is not a Fairy

So, it turns out that the young prince, everyone’s hope, who has even allowed Saudi women to drive, gets rid of people he doesn’t like. And there we were led to believe that he was going to be the great reformer. Finally – we thought – Saudi Arabia was going to be like “one of us”.

So, why the big surprise?  He is, indeed, like “one of us”. Others do it too. Perhaps not so brazenly and normally without causing so much media attention. Killer-drones are constantly out and about getting rid of whoever the US, Israel, Saudi-Arabia and various other countries consider worthy of such attention. Does anyone think that Guantanamo, or any of the other outsourced CIA bases were any gentler? Have I mentioned Russia yet?

Consider the poor prince: We sell them all those sophisticated weapon systems, which are just right if you want, for instance, to obliterate a whole continent. But what to do if all you want to kill is one man in Istanbul? You need to get your hands dirty.

It is a bit inconvenient as there is so much money involved but they will get over it and everyone (that is almost everyone) will continue with their business deals happily and profitably.

Israel – Slippery Slope – now Very Steep.

A former head of Israel’s internal security service, shabak, Ami Ayalon has come out in a rare statement criticising the willingness of the shabak to question people, whose views they do not approve of.  He warned: "This is no longer a slippery slope ... This is what is called a very steep slope. The Israeli security agency is becoming a problem of democracy."

There has been an increasing number of reports that shabak as well as Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs have intensified the questioning of left-wing and human-rights activists at the country’s borders. Ayalon explained that it should not be the secret service’s role to arrest or question people who have not acted clandestinely, but openly participated in a demonstration or in a tour organised by Breaking the Silence.

Israel – Even Steeper

The Israeli government is promoting a new law, that will tie public funding of the arts to loyalty to the state. 

How will they call art, which does not suit the Minister's wishes?