Things Noticeable this week

[Greenman]

One thing you have to admire about her is that she spanned many decades and recorded with some big stars including George Michael and Annie Lennox-not many singers get that sort of recognition from a new generation of fans. You might not like her singing, but you cannot fault her popularity and staying power.

[Brecht]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

Mr Corbyn is opposed to all forms of racism, just as he is opposed to all violence. This is why he goes to Tunisia to share a platform with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, endorses Hamas, and more recently the Mahdi Army in southern Iraq when it was killing British soldiers there. Its all to express his devotion to peace and opposition to anti-semitism.

Q: Mr Corbyn - do you condemn the massacre of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.
A: I condemn all acts of violence.
Q: Mr Corbyn - do you condemn random rocket attacks on Jewish civilians in Israel?
A: I condemn all acts of violence.
Q: Mr Corbyn, do you oppose anti-semitism.
A: Naturally I condemn all forms of racist discrimination, as do all my friends in the SS Totenkopf division.

A very balanced and enlightened comment, mate. I thought I was reading a Daily Mail article. The treatment of Corbyn by British presstitutes is an unprecedented example of hypocrisy.

In 2014, Corbyn accepted an invitation of Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki to attend a conference arranged to bring peace between the various Palestinian factions. The conference concluded with the laying of a wreath at a memorial dedicated to the victims of the Israeli bombing in 1985 during which many civilians were killed, too. Even Margaret Thatcher condemned the bombing and considered it illegal according to international law (as if it ever meant something).

Whatever one might think of the PLO, they are not a terrorist organization and have been recognized as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people since 1974, even by Israel, although two decades later when the PLO decided to abandon armed struggle in favor of a diplomatic solution.

Why does showing some solidarity with the Palestinians result in condemnation from all sides while complicity with the Israeli occupation is always acceptable and even desired? Are the Palestinians cattle animals who can be butchered at any time like recently again? Those rocket attacks on Israeli civilians are cowardly, stupid and meaningless. They are just killing innocents without doing anything to help the Palestinian cause. But those attacks may be their only means of resisting expulsion from a land on which Israel keeps building its illegal settlements, not giving a damn about international opinion and law. Sure, those pathetic rockets and rocks thrown at Israeli security forces have no reason whatsoever and pose a real existential threat to a military superpower, armed and backed by the west.

Jeremy Corbyn understands that just like everybody else in the west but he has the balls and decency to say it. It's just one aspect of his activism but your establishment, big business press makes it look like it's his main agenda. When Jack Straw, who was British foreign secretary then, laid a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat in 2004, no one said a word. When Tony Blair did the same at the grave of Ariel Sharon in 2014, no one cried scandal either. Sharon was personally responsible for the Sabra and Shatila massacres in 1982. Even an Israeli commission came to that conclusion. An article in the Jerusalem Post from the mid-1980s called him a "Jewish Nazi" to which he responded by saying that this may very well be an accurate description of what he is.

When was the last time Israel had something like a moderate government? It's constantly praised as the only democracy in the Middle East. It certainly is compared to its neighbors but not compared to the average European country. Israel has an impressive high tech sector but other than that, it's a backwater run by racist lunatics. Thousands of young Israelis have already left for Europe or the US because they're sick of that kind of "democracy".

It's amazing that a corrupt war criminal like Netanyahu has the audacity to attack Corbyn in a recent tweet or that a very privileged and multi-millionaire MP like Margaret Hodge calls Corbyn "a fucking racist and antisemite". At the same time, supporters of that moron Tommy Robinson march on the streets of London giving Nazi salutes but that's barely "an existential threat to Jewish life" but a possible Corbyn government is. You've got to be kidding me!

Fortunately for Corbyn, the Labour basis stands behind him and so do a lot of young people. It seems to me that your generations' only perception of Mr. Corbyn is that he's a "IRA-loving traitor". Let me remind you that Britain was to the Irish what Israel is to the Palestinians. You expel people from their homes, kill their families, ruin their means of existence and treat them sub-humans: you better expect some backlash.

Now I'm not exactly Palestinian-friendly like Mr. Corbyn maybe. It's just common sense. The only way to stop the violence is to talk to both sides. Jeremy Corbyn understands that.

[DTravel]

Today I noticed that sometimes the universe wants you to go "Dafuq????"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbnfCsAI0ps

[otokonomidori]

Originally Posted by Brecht

a very privileged and multi-millionaire MP like Margaret Hodge calls Corbyn "a fucking racist and antisemite".

What does her wealth or her privilege have to do with anything?

[otokonomidori]

Originally Posted by SanteeFats

Looking at these last few posts I wonder what has happened to respecting the dead

I'm sure Aretha Franklin and other similarly dead pop stars and celebrities were wonderful human beings, good to their old mothers and dumb animals etc etc

I simply contend that the demise of these no doubt excellent persons is not of such earth shaking consequence as to merit top spot on the BBC World Service News. Although I suppose the coverage does help shift the back catalogue - must be of benefit to somebody

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by Brecht

A very balanced and enlightened comment, mate. I thought I was reading a Daily Mail article. The treatment of Corbyn by British presstitutes is an unprecedented example of hypocrisy.

In 2014, Corbyn accepted an invitation of Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki to attend a conference arranged to bring peace between the various Palestinian factions. The conference concluded with the laying of a wreath at a memorial dedicated to the victims of the Israeli bombing in 1985 during which many civilians were killed, too. Even Margaret Thatcher condemned the bombing and considered it illegal according to international law (as if it ever meant something).

Whatever one might think of the PLO, there are not a terrorist organization and have been recognized as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people since 1974, even by Israel, although two decades later when the PLO decided to abandon armed struggle in favor of a diplomatic solution.

Why does showing some solidarity with the Palestinians result in condemnation from all sides while complicity with the Israeli occupation is always acceptable and even desired? [snip]

Now I'm not exactly Palestinian-friendly like Mr. Corbyn maybe. It's just common sense. The only way to stop the violence is to talk to both sides. Jeremy Corbyn understands that.

Mr Corbyn does not need to socialise with terrorists in order to be able to negotiate with them when that should become necessary. You can learn a lot about a man from the company he chooses to keep.

Before the PLO it used to be the Provisional IRA - both he and Ken Livingstone. Later, the Palestinian cause became fashionable and he decided to associate with the PLO.

This is the same bunch of people who were behind the Munich Olympics atrocity, behind the attempt to seize Jordan by force after the Jordanian government gave them asylum, tried to seize Lebanon by force after the Lebanese gave them asylum and even had to be thrown out of Syria. They are the suicide bombers attacking school buses and trying to overthrow civilisation in Israel - I too would have built a massive wall for no other purpose than solely to shut these murderers out. Kuwait was a long standing supporter of the Palestinians - look how they behaved towards Kuwait in 1990. These are not nice or trustworthy people and I would have as little to do with them as possible and only as much to do with them as necessary.

On a not dissimilar basis I would not be very keen to have close relations with Israel either. They are land stealers, bullies and oppressors. I thought their recent declaration that Israel is a state primariliy for Jewish people is an odious racist insult to the Israeli Arabs, Druse and other minorities who have just as much a stake in their own country as any Jewish Israeli citizen and who often serve in Israel's military.

Keep out of it and let bad people fight one another would be my own approach. My problem with Corbyn and others like him in the Labour Party (e.g. Ken Livingstone) is that they express their anti-semitism symbolically by their ridiculous bias in opinions and their half-baked meddling in matters which do not concern them. I dislike Israel; but it does not stop me from intensely disliking the Palestinians and their vicious and backstabbing behaviour, in which they serially betray their own friends and mount cowardly and murderous terrorist attacks on civilians. Israel and the Palestinians deserve one another and should be left to get on with it. Corbyn on the other hand takes the anti-Jewish side habitually, just like Livingstone and plenty of others on the Labour hard left - it is automatic, knee-jerk anti-semitism, not political analysis which informs this behaviour.

Just to be quite clear. I consider Jeremy Corbyn to be a hissing shame and a disgrace.

[charliels531]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

This is the same bunch of people who were behind the Munich Olympics atrocity, behind the attempt to seize Jordan by force after the Jordanian government gave them asylum, tried to seize Lebanon by force after the Lebanese gave them asylum and even had to be thrown out of Syria. They are the suicide bombers attacking school buses and trying to overthrow civilisation in Israel - I too would have built a massive wall for no other purpose than solely to shut these murderers out.

Scoundrel, please leave the overblown rhetoric to Tory politicians. They are much better at it than you are.

The Munich Olympics happened in 1972. Which current members of the Palestinian Arab organizations were involved in that sad episode? Menachim Begin organized the bombing of the King David Hotel, which killed a number of your countrymen, but nobody complained when he was elected p.m. of Israel. So I guess that in your world terrorist acts 50 years old are a basis for current policy, but terrorist acts 70 years old are meaningless?

On a not dissimilar basis I would not be very keen to have close relations with Israel either. They are land stealers, bullies and oppressors. I thought their recent declaration that Israel is a state primariliy for Jewish people is an odious racist insult to the Israeli Arabs, Druse and other minorities who have just as much a stake in their own country as any Jewish Israeli citizen and who often serve in Israel's military.

So is this your idea of even-handedness? Corbyn is evil for talking to Arabs, but you agree with his appraisal of Israel?

Just to be quite clear. I consider Jeremy Corbyn to be a hissing shame and a disgrace.

So you must deeply admire Ms May?

[haroldeye]

Charlie, I can remember plenty of people in the UK having reservations about Begin though we Brits have become used to dealing with nasty people as we left the Empire. Scoundrel is perfectly right in his assessment of some Palestinian factions. Gamal Nasser encouraged the Arab states to make sure that those Palestinians who had fled the Israeli's were not treat well so that they maintained their sense of grievance. Palestinians were badly used in most ME countries, cheap labour and supporting Ba'ath pan Arab Nationalism in one go.

The Munich massacre was an affront to all civilised behaviour and the perpetrators deserved to be judged and executed, not least for what they did to the Bulgarian weightlifter, slow painful death and castration.

I condemn both the extreme Israelis and the extreme Palestinians, the trouble with Corbyn is that he merely condemns the Israelis. Were he to attend memorials for anniversaries of both Palestinian and Israeli atrocities I might believe him more. Were he to invite UVF terrorists to tea in Parliment alongside the PIRA ones, I might find him credible.

I find Corbyn to be a shame and a disgrace. A festering cancer in the heart of a once great party, a two faced little shit.

Oh and I don't like May either.

[Mal Hombre]

My father was in Palestine in '48,His opinions with regard to the state of Israel were robust to say the least..

[Brecht]

Originally Posted by otokonomidori

What does her wealth or her privilege have to do with anything?

In her case everything. She clearly doesn't work for the "many" but the "few". Makes you wonder why she's in Labour. Must have been a great career opportunity when she joined. "Lady Hodge", as they call her ffs, seems to be some sort of anti-tax avoidance crusader while avoiding to pay taxes on her own shares in her family's steel-trading company Stemcor through some scheme in the silly state of Liechtenstein.

Sure, you might say that a person's wealthy and privileged background doesn't mean that said person cannot be socially caring. I'm just not sure that's the case here. She's even hired some ultra-expensive, top law firm to counter the "bullying" she's allegedly subjected to in "her" party. If Labour is to become credible, it needs to get rid of the Blairite fifth column in its ranks or it will be history like so many social democratic parties in Europe.