ANTI SEMITISM, GAZA, ISIS AND THE 'STOP THE WAR' CROWD
Two articles in the Guardian this week on Monday and Tuesday
respectively. On Monday Owen Jones addressed the growing trend of anti-Semitic
attacks and hostility to Jews in general. The other a piece by Lindsey
German addressing the issue of the left’s
silence on the terrible violence of ISIS, the so called Islamic State,
amongst others.
 |
| Owen Jones |
Owen’s piece consists of a number central threads.
a) Anti-Semitism
exists and is a bad thing.
b) Criticising
Israel does not make you anti-Semitic
c) That
those protesting the latest Israeli assault on Gaza are being smeared as
anti-Semites
d) That
those who accuse the protestors of being indifferent to atrocities committed by
ISIS, or Basher Assad are guilty of “whataboutary.”
Since the article so often lacks coherence this is the best
that I can do by way of a summary. The gist of the article seems to be that
whilst anti-Semitism is bad, falsely accusing someone of anti-Semitism is worse.
Well it’s a point of view. Whilst addressing the fact that anti-Semitism is on
the increase, -though is short on solutions, - he restricts himself to focusing
on wider European manifestations.
‘…Last
month a synagogue and Jewish-owned businesses were attacked in the Parisian
suburb of Sarcelles… Greece, where the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn has thrived amid
economic trauma…a recent study, 69% of Greeks had anti-Semitic views; in Poland
– despite suffering some of the Nazis’ worst horrors – it was 48%, Spain 53%.
In Hungary the anti-Semitic party Jobbik won a fifth of the vote in April’s
parliamentary elections. Like most of Europe’s far right, France’s Front
National focuses its bile against Muslims, but the party’s roots are deep in
anti-Semitism; and a few months ago it topped the country’s European
parliamentary elections. Hatred against Jews is a clear and present danger.’
Not
though in the UK it would seem if you read this. One may speculate why he
focuses so sharply only on the rest of Europe. Possibly it is the fact that
should he directly address anti-Semitic attacks here he would have to confront
the fact that the majority of these attacks no longer emanate from the traditional
far right but are being perpetrated by Islamacists. To go there would be to
open himself up to accusations of ‘Islamaphobia.’
In truth points a) and b) are self-evident truths, mere platitudes.
As to point c), as a long-time critic of Israel and supporter of the Palestinian
cause, (before Mr Jones was born as it happens, though I will not hold that
against him), I am sensitive to the use of the accusation of anti-Semitism to
silence criticism of the state of Israel,[1] however
the rise in anti-Semitism and the clear link with the assault on Gaza should
galvanise the anti-fascist left. Instead we are getting dreary apologia or
worse.[2]
As to point d), as someone who has pointed to the deafening
silence on the likes of the so called Stop the War Coalition on the violence perpetrated
by the likes of Boko Haram, Isis, the Taleban, I can reasonably say I have a
dog in this fight. I must say though that it is a bit rich being accused of whataboutery anyone from the Stop the War crowd. Over the last few years it has proved
impossible to raise crimes committed by the likes of Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein,
Putin, or any number of anti-western demagogues without the what about…. charge.
It is not hard to see that ‘the west’ has been inconsistent,
hypocritical, duplicitous and sometimes downright criminal. This seems to me
all the more reason to support western governments when they behave well, or do
things for the right reasons. (The puerile belief that every action that emanates from the US or British governments is
always dictated by malign motives I leave to those still inhabiting the
Trotskyite kindergarten). I also do not believe that any fair minded reader of
this blog could accuse me of seeking to deflect criticism of Israeli actions in
Gaza. No, my criticism of so much of the self identifying left is far more serious, it is of a failure of
solidarity.
This failure Owen Jones and Lindsey German now seeks to
present under a new principle.
‘…ISIS and Boko Haram,
on the other hand, are (quite rightly) opposed by our rulers. Demonstrations
and protests are generally a means of exercising influence over supposedly
democratically accountable governments.’ Owen Jones
‘The point of a mass
demonstration is to put pressure on our government and to alter public opinion
in this country.’ Lindsey German
This principle has most recently, and notoriously been
elucidated by Noam Chomsky.
‘The ethical value of one’s actions depends on their anticipated and predictable consequences. It is very easy to denounce the atrocities of someone else. That has about as much ethical value as denouncing atrocities that took place in the 18th century.’[3]‘Even if, he says, America were responsible for only two per cent of the violence in the world rather than “the majority of it”, he would still concentrate all his criticism on American crimes because as a US citizen he can do something about American policy, but nothing about the crimes of others…’[4]
This is a new, sordid and disgusting principle indeed. In
1975 I was a member of the Chile Solidarity campaign. I later marched in
solidarity with the Chilean working class, this despite the fact that
the then Labour government was opposed the Chilean junta. We marched to put
backbone into that government and so that our Chilean comrades could see they
were not alone.
Now as the Kurdish Peshmerga, a force with a noble history
of fighting for freedom and justice, a force once celebrated by the Socialist
International, takes on the medieval fascists of ISIS, will it witness the
solid support of comrades in the west? No it will not, it will hear only
silence from the left, or worse finding itself smeared as American stooges by
the likes of Lindsay German and the so called Stop the War Coalition.
 |
| Lindsey German |
German’s piece by contrast to Jones’s is slightly more
coherent though much more disingenuous. She makes one important point ‘…there is a deep and longstanding movement
in solidarity with the Palestinians that encompasses trade unions, community
groups, faith groups and activists.’ This is true, as I can testify having signed a great many petitions and attended a good number of demonstrations*, though I always felt this did not exclude my support for other
groups, such as the Kurds for example.
German however, as they say, has form; a long-time member of
the fractional far left, she was a member of the SWP for 37 years, and is currently the
Convenor of the so called ‘Stop the War Coalition,’ When reading anything
written by her one needs to keep a close watch for sleights of hand, outright untruths,
distortion, dis-ingenuity, and whole buckets of crocodile tears, ‘…the terrible plight of the Yazidis,
trapped by Isis and fearing a terrible fate if captured, is heart-rending but
will not be helped by further military intervention in Iraq.’[5]
She speaks of ‘The
West’ as a monolithic imperialist monster, ironically greatly exaggerating the
degree of power and influence of the British Government,[6] going on
to misrepresents events in Libya to make it sound as if David Cameron single
handily dismantled the Gaddafi regime, making no reference to the popular uprising
that toppled him. (Though one suspects she may believe this uprising was
engineered by the CIA and MI6 – as she believes the more recent events in Kiev
to have been). Indeed Ms German is not very fond of popular uprisings, nor of
any democratic movements if they enjoy any degree of support from the US or EU.
Witness her attempts to smear the Ukrainian protest movement that overthrew the
Yanukovych regime, a smearing job brilliantly dissected here.
 |
| German appearing on the Iranian propaganda channel PRESS TV |
Ms German is an apologist for any creepy authoritarian
regime that is opposed to western ideas of free speech, democracy and freedom
of assembly, from Assad’s Syria to Putin’s Russia and theocratic Iran. By all
means let her have space in the Guardian, but do not imagine that if she ever was
placed in a position of real power, as opposed to the make believe world of the
far left, she would extend the same freedoms to her enemies.
*I have not attended any demonstrations for some time, I was
becoming increasingly concerned with about some of the people I was rubbing
shoulders with.
[1]
Though the far left is of course no stranger to smear tactics, as witnessed
most recently by the smearing of the Ukrainian uprising earlier this year by the
so called Stop the War Coalition, (see below)
[3]
Quoted in http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/03/chomsky-in-the-crimea/
this article is worth reading in full for its forensic analysis of double
standards on the left.
[4]
Ibid
[5]
Those currently trapped on a mountainside might beg to differ, they might say shove your 'heart rending' where the sun does not shine.
[6]
It may well be that some retired admirals and generals, falling asleep on the
benches of the House of Lords, and members of the Stop the War Coalition are
the only people who still believe Britain to be a great imperial power.
