On the appropriate response to antisemitic lies and blood-libels directed at Israel

Following my report on  Sunday's counter-demo against an antisemitic 'pro-Palestinian' attempt to spew lies and hatred in London and close down a Jewish-Israeli store a commentator expressed concern at the (well-meaning) banner here held up by one of the pro-Israel demonstrators, feeling it was far too defensive.

Indeed this is a subject I've addressed before - notably here - but it seems few people understand it so I will attempt to make this very simple using the following hypothetical analogy:

Jackie White looks after her 80 year old mother Iris who has been house bound in London with dementia for 10 years. One day a man Patrick Bates with a history of psychopathic violence and delusions, tells the local media that Iris has been murdering street children in Brazil every day for the last 10 years and that he plans to kill her to stop this. 

What should Jackie's reaction be? Should she:

a) Attempt to counter the accusations of Patrick Bates by providing proof of Iris's long-term disabilities and explaining what a caring woman she has always been.

or

b) Expose Patrick Bates as the liar and dangerously insane psychopath that he clearly is.

If she chooses a) she has already entered into a narrative in which 'both sides' are talking about whether or not Iris is a child killer. A reasonable 'headline' for the media would be:

"Jackie White denies her mother is a child killer"

If she chooses b) she has put the focus solely on the dangerous Patrick Bates. A reasonable headline would be:

"Lying madman threatens to kill 80-year-old housebound woman with dementia"

Given the obvious preference for b) can anybody explain to me why, in response to the obvious lies and blood libels about Israel originating from psychopathic killers like Hamas, Israel supporters choose the equivalent of option a) above and hence ensure that:

1. The lies and blood libels ("Israel massacres children", "Israel is an Apartheid state" etc) become the focus of the discussion
2. The lies and blood libels get repeated ad nausea and hence become intrinsically associated with Israel
3. The systematic lying and psychopathic behaviour of the Palestinians and their supporters is totally ignored.

So, in future, Israel supporters must avoid saying what Israel 'is not' and focus on exposing the lies and psychopathic behaviour of the Palestinians and their supporters. Since almost all of the lies against Israel are simply a reflection of what her accusers really do, the accusations should be turned back against them; for example, here are the kind of things that the banners should say:

"There are 58 apartheid countries in the world: they are the 58 Islamic countries."
"Palestinians glory in the murder of Jewish children"
"The greatest honour in Palestinian society is to kill a Jew in cold blood"
"Believing Palestinian lies inhibits peace"
"Accepting Palestinian lies encourages them to kill"
"Arabs ethnically cleansed Jews from every one of their countries"
etc

We should also be telling the stories and showing the faces of the many Israelis murdered by Palestinians including the hundreds of children.

See also:

• Responding to the Israel is Apartheid State lie 
• The day the Jews of London fought back

All these progressive thinkers, intellectuals and peacemakers cannot be wrong

The day the Jews of London and their friends fought back

Update: see this follow-up for people who think none of this has anything to do with antisemitism.

Today, like so many days in London over the last 10 years, a group of antisemites who go under the laughable guise of 'Palestine supporters' planned to:

1. March through the streets of London shouting despicable lies against Israel without being challenged
2. Hand out leaflets spewing more lies, hatred and antisemitic blood libels to unwitting Londoners trying to enjoy a day out in the sunshine; and finally
3. Lay siege to a modest Jewish Israeli-owned shop with the explicit intention of forcing it out of business, without a murmur of protest against them.

But NOT today. They met their match because, thanks to outstanding work by Gemma Sheridan (see update* about this below), Paul Besser, Joseph Cohen, Yochy Davis,  and others, Israel supporters had found out their plans and, at short notice, got together an impressive counter demo. And for over 3 hours Israel supporters were right in the faces of the antisemites ensuring that not a single Londoner or tourist heard their lies unchallenged.

It all started when the antisemites gathered in Soho Square and were about to serenade the visitors there trying to have a peaceful lunch with their classic tune "From the river to the sea Palestine will be free".  They were greeted first by Ishmael Sali, who they assumed would be joining their hatefest.


The look on their faces was quite something to see when Ishmael pulled out a large Israeli flag (see more pictures of Ishmael below), followed by others doing the same. Within seconds the terrorist supporting goons were surrounded by more people with Israel flags (more people in fact than the antisemites) and for the 20 minutes they stayed there singing the Israel supporters drowned out their noise with their own, including with some impressive shofar blowing.

When the antisemites started their march toward Covent Garden they were surrounded and followed all the way. For the 2 hours they were outside Sabon Israel supporters made sure to counter their lies. In particular they made sure the lies in these leaflets they were handing out did not go unchallenged:

And their ludicrous stunts - like letting off smoke bombs in red and then in the colours of 'Palestine' and attempting to throw a bag filled with shit were muted.

Even when their demo outside Sabon ended (to a rousing rendition of Hatikvah) the antisemites were followed all the way back. For once they did not have the streets of London to their own and they did not like it one bit.

Although still relatively small in numbers today's direct action by Israel supporters was a thousand times more effective than anything done in the last 10 years by the entire set of organisations run by Britain's 'official Jews' combined (UPDATE: Note I am referring to those 'official' demos and not other direct action events like today of which there have been quite a few). In fact I have no doubt that if the Board of Deputies and CST were aware of what was going to happen they would either have tried to stop it or would have made sure the Israel supporters were penned in as far away from the action as possible (which they manage to do every time) to maintain the image of the 'trembling Jew' **(UPDATE: see below comments about this from the President of the BoD).

Every time the 'Palestine Solidarity Committee' plans one of these stunts I can't help thinking of this. And it's about time they are shown up for the bigots they are.

UPDATE: Look at the antisemitic abuse after a video of the counter demo was posted.


PS I like these photos from today (courtesy Sharon Zacks):

and this one courtesy of Israel Advocacy Movement which perfectly sums up the day:

And here is what Israel Advocacy Movement says about today:

***TODAY WE SCORED A DECISIVE VICTORY***
London Palestine Action tried to close down an Israeli cosmetics shop in London called Sabon, their reason? Because the Sabon factory is in Kiryat Gat, a city well within the 1949 Armistice Lines, this was not a protest against "settlements", disgracefully this was a protest against the very existence of Israel.
London Palestine Action promoted this event for over a month, yet without advertising we were able to mobilise far more activists than they had. For one of the first times in years, our chants of "1, 2, 3, 4 stop the boycott, stop the war, 5, 6, 7, 8 stop the boycott, stop the hate", drowned out their screams of "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"... a call for the destruction of Israel.

With our activists and supporters robed in Israeli flags we were successful in obscuring their message of hate.
The cherry on the cake, was when Chloe organised our supporters to end the day with a shopping spree in Sabon... the perfect response to a boycott.
For those that couldn't make it today, please take 5 minutes to head over to https://www.sabonuk.co.uk/en/ and support a great business that has found itself the focus of a vile and bigoted hate campaign.
Thank you so much each and everyone who came and continues to support Israel with us.

UPDATE: Wow it seems we REALLY got to them:

..and check the antisemitic abuse on the view comments

*UPDATE: Gemma Sheridan was working solidly on this - and the counter-demos that took place the day before - for six weeks and deserves special credit.

**UPDATE: Following my posting of this article the President of the Board of Deputies (Jonathan Arkush) wrote this response (which he is happy for me to share here):

Dear Edgar

I was very pleased indeed to read about the counter-demonstration.  You rather did the Board a disservice with your wide-of-the-mark comment.  The Board has always supported demonstrating and indeed has organised many of the leading ones.  The very last thing we would do is to have restricted this type of event !  Provided, obviously, any demonstration is conducted within the law I can assure you it will have the Board’s support.
I think you are aware that under my presidency the Board has spoken up and acted loudly and clearly for British Jews and Israel and I assure you will continue to do so without fear or favour.
What we need to do is to act with unity.  Let us support each other strongly and steer away from making derogatory comments – we can save those for the real opposition.
Regards  

Jonathan

UPDATE: a commentator expressed concern at the (well-meaning) banner saying "Israel is not an apartheid state etc") held up by one of the pro-Israel demonstrators, feeling it was far too defensive. I have written about this here.

See also:

• On the appropriate response to the lies and blood libels against Israel
• Israel's 'apartheid' system does not seem to be working too well ...
• Making Frinton-on-Sea a Zionist-free zone. 
• The antisemite test

Today's pro-Israel 'rally', Muslims attack Jews in London, and the media playing the numbers game again

Some photos above and below from this evening's event that I attended. It was supposed to be outside the Palestinian Mission in London to protest against the ongoing Palestinian terrorism but, as is common when Jews organise this kind of event, the anti-Israel mob (laughingly called 'pro-Palestinians') not only turn up in force but got prime spot outside the 'Mission', while the pro-Israel crowd were assigned to an alley far away and out of sight. Well I guess it is a perfect analogy for the way the British media represents the ongoing terrorism in Israel. And so - instead of seeing any kind of revulsion (or even mild protest against their direct support for terrorism) - the Palestinian Authority people in that mission (like their leaders in Ramallah) will be comforted to know that no matter how much terrorism they carry out and no matter how gruesome and indiscriminate the slaughter they inflict, they will continue to get great support from all over the world and never be called to answer for their crimes. That's some incentive to stop isn't it?

I would have thought that with both a real war being conducted against the Jews in Israel and a simultaneous media war to cover it up (or blame the Jews) there would have been a very good turn out, especially as it was promoted by some of the 'official Jewish' organisations including the Board of  Deputies. But the turn-out was very poor (I counted about 80-90 people) and the Board of Deputies were - like their presence throughout the current crisis - invisible.

After the rally I met a young orthodox Jew called Efrayim Goldstein from Stamford Hill. As if to confirm what I have been saying (e.g. to my MP) about the impact of  the inverted reality reporting by the British media (which turns Muslim terrorists into victims and slaughtered Jews into oppressors) he told me that there has been an upsurge of antisemitic attacks in Stamford Hill over the last two weeks. Just today there were three attacks including Muslims shouting all Jews must die at a coach load of children and an attack on a Jew whose car window was smashed. I have since seen reports confirming this here, but again of course it is ignored by the main stream media, especially as the attackers were Muslims.

Finally I was waiting for this to happen and it has started. Finding it more difficult than usual to pin ALL the blame on Israel for the wave of terrorism against it the media has started to play the numbers game - something which is unique to coverage of Israel.  So, for example, prominent in tonight Evening Standard is this statement:

"Six Israelis and 27 Palestinians, including nine alleged attackers and eight children, have died after almost two weeks of street attacks and security clampdowns"

So, apart from understating the Israeli dead and ignoring the hundreds of Jews injured, the Standard fails to state that ALL of the Palestinians killed were attackers and that includes the 'eight children'. But, hey they play the numbers game now because it fits their narrative. A number like 750 Muslim attacks against Jews in the last two weeks compared with 1 Jewish attack against Muslims (which incidentally was carried out by a 16-year-old and hence is as much as a 'child' as the 8 Palestinians above who, by virtue of being 17 and under are not classified as 'attackers') does not fit the media narrative.

In the distance here are the anti-Israel protesters

See also:

• These videos must be seen as they expose the lying Palestinian narrative
• Nick Ferrari: Jews killing Palestinians for no reason again
• Perfect illustration of anti-Israel bias in the media
•  How the media sees the timeline of events in Israel
• Letters to MP and Downing Street about anti-Israel media bias
• Compare and contrast responses to terrorism in Israel
• Rules and Guidelines for Western reporting on Israel 
• Media ignores or dehumanizes murdered Israelis
• BBC ignore attacks against Israel
• Martians attacking Jews again
• Arabs massacred by Americans on day of tit-for-tat violence
• Reporting attacks against ISIS and Hamas
• Another dedication to the useful idiots at CNN and the BBC
• If the response to Pearl Harbour had been the same as that of modern Islamic attacks. 

On the hypocrisy of the Golders Green demo threat

It seems like the only thing of concern to British Jews at the moment is next week's planned demonstration by a handful of neo-Nazis in Golders Green to "end the Zionist occupation of Britain". Never before has the community been so united.

While the people behind the demo are clearly despicable attention-seeking antisemites deliberately trying to provoke trouble, I am somewhat bemused as to why this tiny piece of antisemitic theatre has so grabbed the attention of the Jewish community. On almost every day of the week on the streets of the UK there are much better planned and coordinated displays of antisemitism that use exactly the same pretext as the one planned in Golders Green (i.e. 'ending the Zionist occupation'). Just look at the future events on websites of organisations like the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Socialist Workers Party, the UK Boycott Israel Campaign, and the dozens of other trade unions and students associations. These events range from weekly (and even daily) protests against shops and businesses with any connection to Israel and those selling Israeli products through to protests to stop any Israeli performer from appearing or any person at all speaking in public in support of Israel. Often they are quite elaborate, lavishly funded pieces of real street theatre with the sole intention of convincing normal Brits that Israeli Jews are the most demonic and evil people in the world. Every one of these events has more antisemitic participants than the number likely to turn up in Golders Green. And, of course, these events pale into insignificance when compared to the daily mass (often violent) rallies of antisemitic hatred that fill the streets of London whenever Israel dares to defend itself from terrorist attacks.

What is common about all those antisemitic demonstrations (apart from the fact that they, like the Golders Green demo, are dressed up in the language of anti-Zionism) is that (unlike for the Golders Green demo) there has NEVER been any significant coordinated counter-demonstrations by the "official Jewish community" (such as the Board of Deputies, CST or the Jewish Leadership Council). Instead, in the small number of cases where there are counter-demonstrations they are organised and attended by the same small groups of heroes from independent organisations like the Sussex Friends of Israel.

What it comes down to is that Britain's 'official Jews' feel comfortable demonstrating against anti-semitism when the proponents are white racists, but will not get involved when the proponents - -in far greater numbers - are Muslims and socialists. By making the Golders Green counter-demo such a 'big event' we also now have the bizarre situation whereby among the fellow counter-demonstrators will be some of the very people and groups most prominent in the anti-Israel demonization (such as the dubiously named United Against Fascism and Hope not Hate**, as well as some Muslim Brotherhood fronts and even members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign). It has even been rumoured that George Galloway will attend the counter-demo (although, interestingly, he has been formerly invited to speak by the demonstration organiser Joshua Bonehill in his capacity as a 'fellow anti-Zionist').  In fact, the event even gives these people the publicity to claim that they are 'not antisemitic, only anti-Zionist'.What is also troubling is that the 'official Jewish community' has used up a lot of its political currency lobbying against the demo when there are far more robust legal grounds for lobbying against the multiple 'boycott Israeli goods' demos (something the 'official Jews' have never done - in part because some of them support the boycott of Israel).

So while I am not demeaning those who are organising counter-protests at Golders Green, perhaps we can hope that the thousands of Jews who have said they are going to Golders Green will also make the effort to counter-demonstrate at the many anti-Israel events (of which there are several planned in London even before next week).

**Update: A Facebook friend has posted this about Hope not hate (Hnh): "Hnh had a major project to discredit UKIP during the May general election. Hnh also teamed up with the BoD and LJF in July to run their joint "Golders Green Together" project, a module in the Hnh national "together" scheme, that said an attack on Jews is an attack on all ethnicities, thus diminishing the increasing rise of Antisemitism in the UK. Hnh is run by Haredi Jemma Levene. The BoD is elected by the Jewish community to represent its interests. Being a diverse community, Jews span the political spectrum.
Hnh received in 2013 £63,000 in government funding. Think about it: the representative organisation elected by UK Jews from all walks of life joins forces with an ultra left wing organisation that uses government funds to discredit a legitimate political party. So not only is the BoD remiss in its duty to represent all of the diverse Jewish community, but it supports a group of anti Israel lefties that abuses government funding to influence the outcome of a UK general election. It couldn't get worse."

See also: anti-semitism v ant-Zionism

Update 28 June: I posted the following question on the CST facebook page in response to one of their many postings about the Golders Green event:

Can somebody at CST explain why the Golders Green demo is seen as so much more of a threat than, say, the multiple (and much better planned and attended) antisemitic events that take place daily under the guise of 'anti-Zionism'

This lead to the following dialogue:

CST:

Probably because it involves neo-Nazis in Golders Green using explicitly anti-Jewish language.

Me:

Dear CST: By far and away the most serious threat to the Jewish Community in the UK comes from Islamists who are also explicit in their antisemitism. Yet CST's response to that is to 'engage with the Muslim community' which has involved teaming up with Muslim Brotherhood front organisations. The only difference between the MB and ISIS is that the former claim to want a non-violent shift to an Islamic state. Using CST's logic the way to respond to the Golders Green event would be to reach out to all 'non-violent' neo-Nazis - which curiously is what Bonehill claims to be. Also when it comes to the 'boycott Israel' events these often result in violence against Jewish owned businesses and have the very explicit aim of destroying the Jewish State by isolating it economically. Why is that not a concern for British Jews?

CST:

We agree that the most acute threat comes from jihadists and tackling that threat is our top priority. We do this in lots of different ways, including counter-terrorist security for the community, pressing for appropriate policies from police and government, and working with Muslim allies who are trying to reduce extremism and antisemitism within their own communities. We do not work with Muslim Brotherhood front groups and if you read the CST blog you will see we have written extensively about the problems posed by the MB and their supporters.

Me

I'd be very interested to know exactly which 'Muslim allies' you work with. The Muslim Council of Britain most certainly is a Muslim Bortherhood front organisation and since the BoD certainly works with them, I obviously assumed CST did. I know for sure you have worked with the disgraceful frauds "Tell Mama" - even after they were exposed by the Daily Telegraph. I also understand you worked with Baroness Warsi long after both her family's Muslim Brotherhood links and her anti-Israel obsession were exposed. I'd also be interested to know how working with the 'Muslim allies' has reduced the threat against the Jewish community. It also seems to me that, by stressing the concern about "anti-Jewish language", the CST is explicitly allowing itself to ignore the 'death to Israel' rhetoric of the leftists (and many Muslims).

CST

We aren't going to start listing here all our interactions with Muslim allies. Many of them are confidential for obvious reasons. But several of your assumptions are incorrect. More generally, we do not accept your inference that we are soft on Islamist extremism. We have spent 25 years trying to raise awareness of this problem and we continue to do so.

Me

Don't get me wrong - I have tremendous respect for the work CST does in keeping the Jewish community safe. If CST really has never worked with the MCB, Tell Mama, or Warsi then I'd like to know that, but it is a matter of record that the BoD has worked VERY CLOSELY with every one of those, and the new Chair of the BoD Mr Arkush has gone on record as saying he plans to extend the dialogue with Muslim groups. My concern is that groups and individuals which appear to be moderate (such as Tell mama and Warsi) turn out to be very much part of the problem. And there is also the unanswered question about why CST has never really been interested in confronting the 'boycott Israel' events. 

Londoners remember the murdered Israeli teenagers while the world sympathises with their murderers and villifies Israel

Last night several hundred people - crammed into a tiny narrow side street in Kensington - attended a vigil/remembrance service for murdered Israeli schoolboys Eyal, Gilad and Naftali.

The setting was in many ways symptomatic of everything to do with Israel and British Jewry. Apparently not allowed by the Police to hold the vigil in the main road opposite the Israeli embassy - where every anti-Israel demonstration always takes place - the Jews and their reasons for mourning were firmly out of sight and out of mind. The case of the murdered boys - still largely unreported and unknown to the British public - was not even made to the shoppers in Kensington who would have been completely unaware of why all those people were crammed into a tiny side street.

What those shoppers would have known about -  as it was one of the main news items all day in all parts of the main stream media - was the story of the kidnap and murder of an Arab boy in Jerusalem. As I wrote here, despite the lack of any real evidence the media has rushed to blame this on Israelis as a 'revenge attack' (when it is at least as likely to have been a family 'honour killing') and it has led to more violence against Jews which has gone unreported. Meanwhile world leaders - who were ambivalent in their concern about the Israeli boys - rush to condemn Israel and offer sympathy to the Palestinians who universally celebrated the kidnapping and murder of the Israeli boys and whose government now is officially aligned with Hamas who committed the murders and who continue to launch multiple rockets from Gaza into Israel (50 in the last 48 hours).

And finally, if Britain's 'official Jews' had any kind of balls whatsoever this vigil would have been held outside either the Iranian Embassy (since they are the state sponsors of the Hamas murderers) or the American embassy since it is Obama's Jew-hating administration which has massive responsibility for the current situation.

Irony of the anti-Livni demonstration in London (including interesting revelation about Neturai Karta)

The ignorant Israel haters demonstrating tonight outside a Knightsbridge hotel against Tzipi Livni (who was guest speaker at a JNF event there) calling her a ‘war criminal’ presumably do not understand the irony of their protests. Her behaviour in seeking to undermine Netanyahu’s government in her role as ‘chief negotiator’ in the peace talks (where she has acted more as Obama’s chosen representative than Israel’s) means that she may be doing more to damage the long-term security of the State of Israel than the Israel haters would dare dream of.

motley crew of 'human rights' campaigners - click on the pictures to enlarge	no interest in Palestinians - only hatred of Jews
Good turn out of Israel supporters

Fortunately there was a very good turn-out (about 150) of Israel supporters to challenge the standard lies (“Israel is an apartheid state”) and genocidal chants (“from the river to the sea Palestine will be free”) of the bigots opposite.

Neturai Karta goons - funded by Iran	..and not even Jews as they desecrate Shabbat
The usual Marxist Jewish 'kapos'	Eerily similar Arsenal and Spurs anti-Zionist flags - and nobody there to claim ownership

The obligatory ‘stars’ for the bigots were, as usual, the Neturai Karta goons who were out in force. I have blogged before about my belief that they are not even Jews because I have seen them demonstrating – and carrying banners – on Shabbat. So I went up to their leader and questioned him about this (referring specially to the last time this happened at Trafalgar Square). He gave a truly remarkable response. He said they were allowed to carry banners in ‘that special place’ on Shabbat. It really is amazing what a barrel load of Iranian cash can buy these days.

Update: A report on that actual meeting with Livni inside the hotel

Thousands turn out for Israel 65th parade and rally in London: Pictures

Here are some photos (more to follow tomorrow) I took from today's parade and rally to celebrate Israel's 65th birthday. The parade started from Hyde Park and filled more or less the length of Piccadilly (probably about three thousand people with several hundreds more Israel supporters lining the route). It ended up in Trafalgar Square which was filled for a celebration that involved Israeli singers, and speeches by various religious and political leaders (inlcuding Michael Gove). The inevitable anti-Semites were present outside Trafalgar Square (including 'Jews' from the Neturei Karta and 'Jews for Justice for Palestinians') chanting their peaceful anthem "From the river to the sea Palestine will be free"). How sick they must have been to hear the Hatikvah sung with heart from thousands inside the Square led by outgoing Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (who, unlike the bland 'Kumbaya' speeches by the religious leaders of the Reform and Masorti movements, gave a remarkably inspiring and robust speech calling out the hypocrisy of the 'Israel apartheid state' claims of the anti-Semites).

Massive turn-out for pro-Israel rally

The organisers estimated there were 35,000 people at today's rally in Trafalgar Square. The BBC (for reasons partly explained below) estimated a much lower number - 4,000. That number is impossible since not only was the entire square packed but there were also many people on the outside. I would estimate the numbers as about 10,000 - a fantastic turnout so early on a cold Sunday morning.

More than anything this was a response to the despicable media campaign that has created the perception that the whole British public is outraged by Israel's actions in Gaza. I felt that there was a real determination by so many Jews to set the record straight.

Today's rally will, of course, be given only a fraction of the media coverage of yesterday's pro-Hamas hatefest. But I'd like to think that anybody who witnessed both rallies will have been struck by the difference in the message today (Peace for Israel and Gaza by stopping Hamas terror) with that of yesterday ("Destroy Israel"). Today: dignified with compassion for all victims. Yesterday: violent, with compassion and love for the terrorist perpetrators and hatred for the Israeli victims.

Yesterday Lindsey German of the "Stop the War Coalition" said that the sheer number of people protesting meant that the government had to do what the protesters demanded and this included boycotting Israel and expelling the Ambassador. Think about that for a moment. It is a bizarre statement on so many levels. On the one hand this woman, who claims to speak for the "weak", the "oppressed", and the "disenfranchised" is advocating that a count of the number of activists on the streets should dictate government policy. That sounds a bit like "might is right" to me - the very thing they accuse Israel of. Also it means that if you can get enough Islamafascists and their useful idiots of the Left on the streets then you have to not only listen to what they say but you must also do what they say. So I suppose that means that if next time they demand the public execution of all Jews then that is what the Government should do to make the mob happy. It is also ironic to note that the "peace protesters" (as the media portrayed them) openly support a terrorist organisation and openly called for the violent destruction of the state of Israel. Peace for everybody else but violence against Israel. And of course never a mention of the suffering of the Israelis under daily bombardment.

Update: Just seen the CNN news report about the rally this evening and it was breathtaking in its misrepresentation. According to this report there was as many anti-Israel demonstrators protesting the rally as there were pro-Israel demonstrators (whom they described as 'several hundred'). Moreover, their angle was that the bulk of the anti-Israel demonstrators were Jews. They duly interviewed one of the Jews for Justice for Palestinians fruitcakes and then focused on the obligatory Neturei Karta lunatics. They also stated that a massive police presence was necessary to keep the two sets of demonstrators apart. For organisations like the BBC and CNN it is clear that even if one million people had turned out for a pro-Israeli rally with a half a dozen counter-demonstrators, their spin would have been to present it as some kind of a tie in numbers. Theydo not want the public to know that there a large number of decent people who understand and support Israel and who are prepared to reclaim the streets from the Hamas supporters.

Pro-Israel Rally London: nice people versus the nasties

We attended the pro-Israel rally outside the Israeli Embassy in Knightsbridge this evening that was arranged only within the last 24 hours as a counter demonstration to the nightly demos by anti-Israel thugs. I understand the demonstration was originally arranged by the Christian Friends of Israel and was going to be fairly low key, but word got around - especially among the young Jewish community via Facebook and the result was a very impressive turn-out that clearly took the anti-semites (and yes that is what the vast majority of them were) on the other side by surprise. Some poor quality images are shown here and don't really give a feel for the size and density of the crowd. which I would estimate as at least 3,000.


When we arrived at Ken High Street tube station we were greeted by a middle-aged white Englishman standing in the street and screaming relentlessly and with total hatred "Murderers" at a small group of elderly people being escorted along the road by policemen. It turned out that this was the first group of pro-Israel demonstrators and was ironically probably mainly the Christian Friends. It was difficult to comprehend the hatred of this guy. I wondered why people like that would not show the same pure hatred at, say, the Sudanese for the massacre of black Africans, the Sunni and Shia groups massacring eachother in Iraq, the Chinese for their brutal oppression of the Tibetans, the Sri Lankans for their treatment of the Tamil Tigers, or dare I say it Hamas for their continmued attacks against civilians or even for the brutal massacre of their Fatah opponents. No, for this guy - and so many like him - none of those real murderers stirred his conscious. Al Quada, the Taliban? No - what consumed this guy with rage was Jews finally defending themselves against terror.

Anyway, we joined the small group and had to pass the violent anti-Israel mob (who had George Galloway apparently leading the chorus). The police described them as a bunch of very nasty people. This was the only time we really got to see them because we were shepherded to the other side separated by a couple of police lorries (and at the end of the rally we were not allowed to go back to Ken High Street tube but had to walk in the opposite direction). The pro-Israel crowd very quickly grew (the slow start was due to the fact that although we had heard
it was scheduled to start at 7.30, most others heard 7.45 or 8.00). We were packed in very tightly about 30-40 deep across a length of pavement about 100 metres long (hence the estimate of at least 3,000). As you would expect, in stark contrast to the other side, our crowd were polite and dignified, singing the occasional Hebrew songs about peace, interspersed with renditions of both the Israeli and British national anthems. On the other side they cursed and threatened, promised death to Israel and honoured the Hamas terrorists. One guy walked along in front of us waving a Hizbullah flag. We heard that on a number of occasions the thugs tried to break through the police lines to attack and that they were verbally abusing the police continually. I guess it was little surprise then, when at the end a policeman came up to us and said that we were the nicest group of demonstrators he had ever encountered.

So there you have it. In the Alice in Wonderland world of the UK and its media, the anti-Israel demonstrators (who glorify terrorism, fight the police and call for the destruction of Israel) are apparently the 'opponents of the war' i.e. the peace lovers. And the pro-Israel demonstrators who sing songs of peace are the fascist Zionists supporting a genocidal war. At least the police (and any other passers-by in Kensington) know different.

Islamafascists walk through centre of London demanding Israel's destruction

A demonstration of about 400 Islamafascists - organised by the Iranian Government sponsored "Islamic Human Rights Commission" marched through central London today calling for death to Israel. Waving banners of Ayatolla Khomeini and Hezbollah flags, the Islamafascists were 'celebrating' Al Quds Day, which was introduced by Khomeini as an annual day where all Muslims demand the 'liberation of Jerusalem' and the destruction of Israel. The Islamafascists were joined by the inevitable group of Neturei Karta 'Jews' and a small handful of useful idiots from the far left (who would be sure to be among the first to be exterminated under an Islamic regime).

We joined a counter-demonstration at Eros (Piccadilly Circus) that consisted mainly of Iranian dissidents opposed to the Islamic regime. The march was supposed to come past Eros at 12.00 but was delayed. A couple of us decided to take a walk down Piccadilly to see what was going on. We eventually came to the start of the march just past Green Park station. What amazed me was that, on what should have been a lovely Sunday afternoon for London's tourists and shoppers alike to enjoy the centre of town, the police not only allowed this demonstration but actually closed the whole of Piccadilly and the streets around it for what turned out to be several hours. Anyway, when we got to the demonstrators we held up some Israeli flags; the police told us to put them away (although, to be fair, they did tell us that there was a counter-demonstration we could join). But it is a bit ironic that the Islamafascists are allowed to carry Hizbollah flags and placards inciting terrorism (all funded by a regime that is killing British soldiers in Iraq) but the police would not allow an Israeli flag to be held up for 'fear of inciting them'. I cannot begin to describe how disgusting were the scumbags on this march. Their contempt for Western values and hatred of Israel, was accompanied with a barrage of vicious anti-semitic abuse. Make no mistake this lot (despite the Neturai Karta idiots walking alongside them) were openly calling for death to Jews (not just Israel). They chanted "Kill, kill kill the Jews at us when they saw us with the Israeli flags.

We decided to return to the counter-demo at Eros. Although the Islamafascist demo was organised by an Iranian funded organisation, its sole message was anti-Israel, so it was a bit disappointing that the only other counter-demonstrators there were those who wanted to get across their anti-Iranian government message (and nothing else). If ever there was a cause for the entire Jewish community to be out in force it was this one. In many respects what happened today characterised everything that is wrong with the Western approach to Islamafascism:

1. The fact that, presumably in the 'interests of free speech', the authorities allowed this disgusting hate-fest to take place. We the taxpayers had to pay for its policing, and thousands of ordinary Londoners and tourists were massively inconvienced by the disruption.
2. That the authorities seem to think that the freedom to call for the death of millions of non-muslims is important; and that the offence that this causes in the streets of London is irrelevant. After all it's the Muslims' 'right' to incite hatred - but nobody has the right to even slightly upset Muslims.
3. The fact that these people were simply allowed to walk through our streets spewing their hatred totally unchallenged. The thousands of non-political passers-by presumably think it is normal for people to be demanding the destruction of Israel. It is just another part of the process of deligitimisation of Israel.
4. The fact that a march like this (focusing uniquely on the destruction of Israel) can take place with a total absence of any organised Jewish opposition. Nothing from the Zionist Federation; nothing from any of the Youth Groups or students; not even a mention in the Jewish Chronicle that it was happening.

Update: another report at Harry's Place and a couple of videos here.