Sunday February 26th 2006, 5:03 pm
In Britain, using certain metaphors will get you suspended from
your job. Case in point, the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who was
suspended for the crime of "comparing a Jewish reporter to a
concentration camp guard," according to the BBC.
"A three-man disciplinary tribunal unanimously ruled that Mr.
Livingstone was 'unnecessarily insensitive and offensive’ when he
compared the Evening Standard’s Oliver Finegold to a Nazi concentration
camp guard." In other words, Livingstone did not consult the Holocaust
orthodoxy handbook or the Jewish Board of Deputies, instrumental in
Livingstone’s suspension, before speaking his mind. As it turns out,
the Jewish Board of Deputies, described as a voluntary association of
synagogue representatives, also known as the London Committee of
Deputies of the British Jews, is chartered to take "such appropriate
action as lies within its power to advance Israel’s security, welfare
and standing," according to Focal Point.
As
such, the Deputies are allowed to slander and libel the enemies of
Israel, or those perceived as enemies of Israel, for instance Interpal,
one of the largest Palestinian charitable funds in Britain (in late
2003, the Deputies characterized Interpal as a "terrorist
organization," according to Haaretz,
and erroneously and slanderously linked the independent charitable
organization to Hamas, and did not bother to apologize for the insult,
even after it was determined by the British commission responsible for
nonprofit organizations that Interpal is not connected to Hamas or
terrorism in any way, unless of course you consider malnourished
Palestinians terrorists).
Obviously, in Britain there are
double standards afoot—it is fine and dandy to slander Palestinians
(and viciously attempt to close down organizations that care for the
welfare of the needy) but it is a punishable offense to metaphorically
characterize journalists as concentration camp guards.
It
would appear the sole purpose of the Jewish Board of Deputies, as a
foreign agent of Israel, is to make sure Britons are unable to exercise
free speech. Examples of speech and free expression attacks engaged in
by the Jewish Board of Deputies include opposition to Mel Gibson’s
film, the Passion of the Christ, its incessant meddling in reportage on
Israel, its attacks against filmmaker and journalist John Pilger, its
complaints against "violently anti-Israel and anti-Jewish" poetry on
the BBC’s Prom website, and most notably its virulent attacks against
the convicted revisionist historian David Irving, including an effort
to meddle in his private banking business at Barclays and intimidate libraries and bookstores carrying Irving’s books (in the latter, a Nottingham bookshop stopped carrying Irving’s book after a brick was pitched through the shop’s front window,
a situation reminiscent of Salman Rushdie’s problems after his book,
Satanic Verses, was deemed apostasy by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini).
"The
Board of Deputies of British Jews on behalf of Oliver Finegold, the
Jewish journalist, brought the case against Livingstone but only after
the Board made concerted efforts to convince Mr. Livingstone to
apologize," writes Anthony David Marks
for the Israel Hasbara Committee. "Mr. Livingstone, ever the
intransigent, made it clear he would not apologize. Mr. Livingstone
could have avoided the Adjudication Panel’s ruling with the expression
of a few simple words." However, Livingston’s comment is of secondary
importance to his affronts to Israel. "This case is not an isolated
incident in Mr. Livingstone’s behavior but rather part of a pattern. In
the past, Mr. Livingstone has identified himself with radical Islam and
hosted Muslims extremely hostile to Western culture to the detriment of
not only Israel and British Jews but also of Great Britain," Marks
continues. "Mr. Livingstone’s behavior does not consider the dignity
that he owes his public office as the Mayor of London," in other words
he should realize deference to Israel is of paramount importance.
It
would appear the problem here is Livingstone’s attendance at a rally
held at Trafalgar Square earlier this month. "The rally, 'United
against Incitement and Islamophobia’, has been organized by the Muslim
Council of Britain, the Muslim Association of Britain and a number of
Christian organizations," the BBC
reported. "They say it is designed to explain the views of the
mainstream Muslim community in condemning the publication of the
Islamophobic cartoons" in the neocon-linked Danish newspaper
Jyllands-Posten (see Webster Tarpley’s The Mohammed Cartoons: Recruiting Europe for Bush’s Attack on Iran).
Ken Livingstone had used his influential position to speak out against
a Muslim-hating provocation engineered by the Straussian neocons,
closely aligned with the Jabotinsky Likudites in Israel—and thus
connected to the attack dog Jewish Board of Deputies in London—and so a
retaliation was cooked up after Livingstone made his comment about
Oliver Finegold’s aggressive journalistic behavior.
Nothing
will be allowed to stand in the way of the Holocaust Orthodoxy—in
effect an immensely profitable shake down operation for Israel, as
documented by Norman Finkelstein—and
the Zionist master plan to decimate Muslim society and culture as put
forward with horrific results so far in Iraq by the Straussian neocons
and their Jabotinsky collaborators in Israel. If the Jabotinksyites and
Straussian neocons can effectively attack the elected mayor of London
through the pit bull attack organization calling itself the Board of
Deputies of British Jews, it can effectively attack nearly anybody
opposed to their plan for Zionist supremacy in the Middle East and a
zero tolerance for questioning the Holocaust Orthodoxy at home.
Addendum
Since
Irving’s conviction, I have witnessed an increase in virulent anti-free
speech attacks on the part of Jabotinksyites, Straussian neocons, and
Israeli cheerleaders. In fact, over the last week, I have been a victim
of this concerted effort to squelch speech and tarnish those of us
opposed to the prosecution and conviction of David Irving for the crime
of making arguments against the official Zionist historiography. I was
labeled a "Holocaust Denier" on numerous blogs and web sites for
defending Irving’s right to write and speak. As usual, the attacks are
ad hominem and predictably childish, more akin to playground insults,
thus demonstrating those in favor of persecuting Irving—and wanting to
use Irving’s conviction in Austria as a template to go after other
critics of Israel and Zionism—are completely and utterly bankrupt
intellectually. Fortunately, for the moment, we have a Bill of Rights
protecting speech in this country, although the Straussian neocons, who
hate natural law and centuries of legal protection of liberty going
back to the Magna Carta, are working overtime to trash the Constitution
and turn America into a no free speech zone such as Austria, Germany,
France, and other nations bowing to Zionist intimidation and
terrorism.
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