Okay, I got a few minutes this morning before I head out, so although, as I said in my previous post, I think this article is a non-story, you do raise some points worthy of addressing.
I think it is fair to point out that the people who started the campaign to get the posters removed don't even recognise Israels right to exist and they use a map that includes Israeli territory in their own logos. These people don't care about the truth or British law they just want to stick it to the hated Israelis. I guess from the one sided rhetoric you display you are firmly in that camp.
Although you have a point about the advertising laws but whether these are Islamist or secular leftist organisations they don't care about the law or false advertising they just hate Israel.
Again, are you saying the Tube shouldn't enforce violations of their "truth in advertising" regulations (which presumably was the justification for removing the ads) simply because of the political motivations of those reporting the violations?
Anyway what about The Palestinian "Holocaust" Museum spreading their erroneous meme through advertising on the internet? Would you be happy if they were penalised or would that be a blow to free speech and anti imperialism?
And again, there is a difference between commercial and non-commercial advertising, as well as a difference between what ads get displayed in official, paid ad-space on government property and those that are not. Why do you continue to ignore these vital distinctions?
Beware thinking that you are talking to an American.
Too bad, because then we could at least discuss baseball or my next handgun purchase.
In the UK it is possible to support the Palestinians right to self determination and support the Israeli's right to exist in peace. It is possible to condemn Hamas as a racist genocidal entity and criticise Israeli heavy handedness and illegal settlements and still be on the left.
Agreed 100%
As someone from the left I am mostly concerned with the way the left has made bed fellows of the Islamist far right at the same time as swallowing whole the modern versions of the Nazi Jewish conspiracy theories.
I also agree with this. When I run across revolutionary socialists who consider Hizbollah to be allies of some sort (the last one I had this discussion with was a Jewish Trot, incidentally), I have to remind them of what happened to the Iranian Communist Party after they supported the 1979 Revolution. The Islamists are not friends of the left, or anyone else for that matter, even if they pretend to be in the short-term.
Recently far left activists, Islamists and white racists united to share a panel to discuss the evil of 'Jewish' power in banking and the media.
I'd need some more info on this to make a judgment call.
The British left in the name of justice and anti imperialism (anti Americanism) have become racist and totalitarian as they march in lockstep with Hamas supporters singing "Jews Jews Jews to the gas" As members of the UCU activist list openly re-post Jewish conspiracy bunk from Klu Klux Klan and white power websites.
Again, specifics and links would be helpful.
As famous left wingers like British film director Ken Loach say that a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe since the Gaza crisis is ?not surprising and understandable?
Basically if British synagogues are burnt to the ground and Jews in Golders Green are kicked to a pulp it's "understandable"
Racist? For sure.
Do you have the full context of this quote, please?
There is something rotten at the heart of the lefts discourse on Israel when they befriend Hamas, Hezbollah and The Muslim Brotherhood and refer to Gaza as a holocaust when they barely make a squeak about the real genocide in Sudan. In light of all of this you cannot absolve the left of antisemitism.
The problem, as I see it, with the, I'll call it, "First World Far Left" is NOT an active hatred of Jews-- it should be noted that many of these people are Trotskyists (Trotsky was a Jew and was the victim of an anti-Semitic campaign by Stalin himself), and many of them Jews themselves (in fact, when I had some contact with the pro-Palestinian groups while living in Boston, I'd say, by a rough estimate, upwards of 30% were ethnically Jewish).
The problem, in my opinion, is that having lost a base of support in the working-class of their own countries, their entire
raison d'etre has become "anti-imperialism", which is fine but they've started adopting an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" approach, which, unlike the revolutionary socialists in Arab and Muslim lands, costs the First World Far Left nothing. The situation was a bit different when the Soviets were still kicking around that area and secular Pan-Arabist and Arab Socialist movements still represented the anti-imperialist movement in the Middle East, but those days are long gone and it's the Islamists who are leading the fight against the US and, arguably, its neocolonial proxy Israel.
In the process I think many in that movement have become desensitized to anti-Semitism as it is viewed, at least implicitly, as a problem of the petit-bourgeoisie/bourgeoisie, and in any event is considered (again, implicitly) as lower on the scale of importance than fighting Western imperialism. Also I think a lot of people in those organizations are young and naive and probably don't even recognize it when they spout anti-Semitic rhetoric. But what I don't think it is, is people who actively and consciously despise Jews-- in America at least there are too many Jews in the pro-Palestinian/far left movement for me to believe that's the reason/motivation.
Now I offer none of the above as an excuse, but merely an explanation, which is important if the problem is to be addressed. It should be noted that most of what I wrote above is based on my experience with leftists/pro-Palestinian activists in the US, but I'm betting that it isn't all that much different in the UK (though I do recognize there are more openly-operating Islamists there than here).
It is there glaring you in the face. To deny it is to stick your head in the sand. Please feel free to start digging a head sized hole now and accusing me of being a Mossad agent but if you want to know my stance on the whole subject read this, it sums it up pretty well.
Again, the Israeli State Department thing was meant as sarcasm.
Finally, it may be helpful to note that while I am generally sympathetic towards the Palestinians, I don't really have a dog in this fight because I've become so cynical towards the whole situation there that I really don't see any good solution to the situation over there in the foreseeable future. The only permanent "solution" would be the expulsion or liquidation of the Jewish population in the region-- and obviously that's something I would never support. But the bottom line is, someone's gonna be fucked, whether that's the Palestinians or the Israelis, right now it happens to be the Palestinians. There were a couple of windows there for peace, but they have long since passed and I fear they may never come again. What a horribly depressing situation.
Topic: Israeli Map Removed After Complaints!