Israeli art at the Tate Modern

A number of independent Israeli artists were among many avant-garde artists presenting their work at the Tate Modern "No Soul for Sale" exhibition today. Fortunately (perhaps due to the low key nature of the event) there were none of the usual anti-Israel demonstrations that now accompany almost any such cultural activities.

But ironically, just as one of the Israeli exhibitors was telling us how there had been no trouble at all and everybody had been very nice, a stereotypical moonbat woman started haranguing us with the usual "the Zionists have stolen Palestinian land" rubbish. My partner tried to argue with her - always a mistake in my view - to which the woman's trump card response was to say "You are just Zionists" like we had no right to live let alone have an opinion that should be listened to. My response to these kind of people is to say something completely distracting (I remember Maureen Lipman writing about how she does this) so I told the woman that there was some paint dripping down the back of her jumper. Any suggestions for better ways of handling such situations are welcome.

Election: the bad and the good

Bad news

• By far the most depressing and alarming result was the election of the Green Party leader Caroline Lucas in Brighton. If you had to make up a fictional moonbat character endowed with every irrational anti-Israel prejudice then you would end up with someone like her. But she is beyond fiction, as evidenced by her infamous appreance on Any Questions when she blamed Israel for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai (also see the analysis here). Even putting aside her anti-Israel obsession, if the Government has to rely on her as being a member of a coalition, then any concessions to her insane Green party policies spells disaster for the whole country.
  

Good news:

• George Galloway is finally out of Parliament after his spectacular failure in Poplar & Limehouse. His odious Islamafascist (oops I mean Respect Party) colleague Salma Yaqoob (so loved by the BBC) also failed to get elected.
  
• Jacqui Smith - who never responded to my letter to her asking why she was banning Israelis from coming to the UK while welcoming Islamic hate preachers - has been booted out. The worst Home Secretary ever, she was also responsible for the most sickening pandering to Islamists when she banned Geert Wilders from the UK and even banned American Jewish radio host Michael Savage (who had never intended to even come to the UK but was considered a threat to the country because he had criticised Islamic terrorists).
  
• Government Minister Shahid Malik - who dreamed of the day when the whole of the British Parliament would be filled with Muslims and praised charities raising money for Hamas (as well claiming money for a massage chair, plasma screen television, and cost of insuring his wife’s £8,000 diamond engagement ring) is out.
  

Conservatives and Israel

I've reported previously my concerns about the future relationship between Britain and Israel if Cameron is elected Prime Minister. Labour under Brown has been no friend of Israel with its backtracking on the lawfare issue and its expulsion of an Israeli diplomat after the Dubai affair. And there are plenty of ferocioulsy anti-Israel MPs in the Labour Party. However, at least Brown himself has said nothing to disprove his previously stated heartfelt admiration for Israel. In contrast, Cameron made the one of most (ignorant) anti-Israel statements ever made by a British party leader when he recently boasted about how he would take a strong stand against Israel's 'occupation':

• ‘Unlike a lot of politicians from Britain who visit Israel, when I went I did stand in occupied East Jerusalem and actually referred to it as ‘occupied East Jerusalem,’ he says. ‘The Foreign Office bod who was with me said most ministers don’t dare say [that].’

Moreover, the foreign minister in a Cameron cabinet would be Wlliam Hague who was infamously one of the biggest critics of Israel during both the Lebanon and Gaza wars with his obsession about Israel's 'disproportionate response'.

But what is truly shocking (and is reported in, of all places, the Guardian) is the contents of a leaflet that the Conservative candidate in Jack Straw's Blackburn constituency has put out:

• The leaflet urged voters not to fall for Labour's "hollow claims" about what it had done for Muslims. "We have in front of us a whole saga of atrocities committed in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Palestine and as if this was not enough, the Labour government allowed the Israeli government to create havoc in Lebanon and Gaza in Palestine, destroying their infrastructure and killing and maiming thousands of innocent civilians," it said. "The Labour government did nothing, absolutely nothing, for a number of days while Israelis carried on their inhuman killing of innocent men, women and children."
• The leaflet also claimed Straw's criticisms of Muslim women for wearing the veil "shows he does not care" for his Muslim voters. "Today they are criticising our women's veil, tomorrow it will be our caps and our beards they will attack."
• The leaflet suggested: "If you want to see an end to unnecessary and very expensive wars, shedding of innocent blood and save Britain from bankruptcy, vote for your Conservative candidate."

Although the leaflet has since been withdrawn Cameron has refused to condemn it.

Because of his disgusting role in blocking attempts to reform the lawfare legislation used against Israelis I was previously hoping that Straw would be booted out of Parliament. But, clearly, compared to the Conservative candidate he is positively a friend of Israel!