Britain's Channel 4 exposes 'power' of pro-Israel lobby

A television program purporting to expose the unknown power and influence Britain's pro-Israel lobby has triggered a wave of condemnation by British Jews, some of whom accused the report of stoking anti-Semitism.

The report, Inside Britain's Israel Lobby, was aired on Monday evening by the British broadcaster Channel 4 on its flagship investigative program, Dispatches.

The Community Security Trust, an anti-Semitism watchdog, issued a blistering attack on the program on its blog, which warned that the presenter's stern admonition that "there is no conspiracy" was a case of shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted.

This was after, the CST said, "one hour of innuendo about 'pro-Israeli' moneybags controlling the Conservative and Labour Parties; 'pro-Israeli' intimidation of British media; premeditated 'pro-Israeli' abuse of anti-Semitism; and sinister music accompanying photos of 'pro-Israelis' blurred across Israeli and British flags."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1129102.html

but Channel 4 is inclined to be controversial for controversy's sake. E.g. they screened that rubbishy 'science' documentary 'The Great Global Warming Swindle'.

Yes, man-made global warming exists; and no, the Jews don't control the British government.

Personally, I WISH I controlled the British government; I would stop it from going Tory next year!

<snip>

"A new documentary on the UK’s Channel 4 television looks into the reach and influence of what the filmmakers say is Britain’s most powerful political interest: the Israel lobby.

Documentarians Peter Osborne and James Jones uncovered obscure funding patterns of British members of parliament by members of pro-Israel groups and also revealed the pressure the lobby exerts on the media. The show first aired on Monday evening.

In a pamphlet published on the website OpenDemocracy Osborne explained that the concept was born out of a marked silence in the British media when exploring the extent of Israel’s influence on Westminster, noting that, oftentimes, those who broche the subject or criticize Israel are accused of anti-Semitism.

"Whether as a result of these pressures or for some other reason, mainstream political publishing in Britain tends simply to ignore Israeli influence … However, many people just don’t want to speak out about the Israel lobby. So making our film at times felt like an impossible task."

When approaching MPs and senior journalists, Osborne and Jones were met with reservation and fears, with few offering to speak on the record. One willing interviewee, Michael Mates, a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee and former Northern Ireland minister remarked that "the pro-Israel lobby in our body politic is the most powerful political lobby. There’s nothing to touch them," adding, "I think their lobbying is done very discreetly, in very high places, which may be why it is so effective."

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Whew, thank goodness this has been exposed!

What should we do now?

Not that not having watched it is going to stop some from commenting on it as though they have watched it, but I think if you haven't watched it, it'd be wiser to actually watch it before passing judgement the way you have...

Equally evil and pernicious!

What is the next step?

btw, have you bothered to even watch the documentary yet?

This guy has a very fast and loose definition of antisemitism....

Antisemitism and the reported world

Apparently, according to Channel 4's Dispatches programme on Monday night, there are some wealthy Jews out there bent on influencing British government policy on Israel. What a shocking finding. I wonder what they will uncover next? Lobbyists trying to influence government health policy, perhaps? Pressure groups seeking to change government policy on the war in Iraq? Business leaders trying to alter government thinking on economic policy?

Aside from the shoddy research and the barely concealed antisemitic undertones (the idea of a shady, morally repugnant "cabal" of Jews seeking to control the world is a classic antisemitic myth), it was this lack of context that was most disturbing about the programme. As David Cesarani argued in his comment on the programme, there are numerous lobbying groups working with government and the media, trying to influence policy and opinion on a wide range of issues. Some of these even try to represent the Palestinian cause.

There are also numerous Jewish leaders and philanthropists who support and invest in Palestinian Israeli causes, including the single largest pro-Israel charity in the UK and – according to the Jewish Chronicle – the single most influential philanthropist in the British Jewish community. Jewish leaders differ on how best to support Israel, and the opinions range from unquestioning support to intense criticism. But Channel 4 failed to include such contextual framing in its hour-long documentary, presumably because that might have undermined its highly spurious argument.

But then, context is always the problem. There was no effort throughout the programme to contextualise Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. There was no mention of the Israeli government's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, and the fact that, subsequently, Hamas had used the territory to launch countless randomly targeted missile attacks on Israeli towns and villages. In its analysis of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, it failed to mention the thousands of missiles Hezbollah had assembled with Iranian and Syrian support on Israel's northern border, which it used with great effect to terrorise the Israeli population.

Perhaps most important, it failed to mention in any detail why some Jewish leaders may feel compelled to support Israel. Leaving aside the politics of the region, the notion that Israel is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, or that Israel is the only nation state in the world in which Judaism is mainstream, Jewish culture is the norm and the Hebrew language is widely spoken and celebrated, were all ignored.

But it is, apparently, much easier to trot out the old antisemitic myth. After all, the public deserves to know what these nasty, rich Jews are up to. And what could possibly be wrong in uncovering the truth? There cannot conceivably be a connection between the way Israel and Jews are presented in the media and antisemitism on the streets of Britain.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/18/dispatches-israeli-lobby-antisemitism

Melanie Phillips rips it apart. It's not often I have any use for Ms Phillips, but here I tend to think she has a point. But as with the fellow you posted, the entire argument assumes its conclusion, so in the end, to be fair, I would have to watch it and judge for myself. But fortunately, in this case, I see no need for me to be fair, so I don't expect I will watch it.

Say, that Scientology investigation you have going on down there looks like a good show too.
:hi:


After watching Peter Oborne’s ‘Dispatches’ programme on the power of the Israel lobby in Britain, the scales have fallen from my eyes.

I now see things in an entirely different light. I now realise that the power of this unique cabal is so vast and unprecedented in its truly demonic power – a power given to no other lobby – that both the Labour government and Tory opposition slavishly and unquestioningly support Israel’s military actions and that the Guardian and the BBC have found themselves totally unable to publish or transmit anything other than wholehearted support for Israel.

I now realise that, every day, a cowed and intimidated Guardian publishes story after story in support of Israel, focusing relentlessly upon the beleaguerment of its citizens under the onslaught from Hamas while never carrying anything in favour of the Palestinians, presenting the Middle East entirely through a pro-Israel prism and never even reporting the Palestinian point of view except for a few contemptuous references suggesting that they are always lying.

I now realise that every day a cowed and intimidated BBC transmits only the most admiring reports of Israeli soldiers being put in harm’s way by their commanders in order to avoid killing Palestinian civilians wherever possible, and that its Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen is guilty of the most flagrant admiration for the Israel Defence Force and of presenting a version of Israel’s history which is drawn entirely from a Jewish perspective.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/5544851/everything-is-now-illuminated.thtml

I was just amused at how slapdash that guy who wrote that article was with what he considers to be antisemitism. I kind of get the feeling either that because he didn't attack what was on the show itself, but danced around going on about Operation Cast Lead and context, that it was a very poorly thought out article, or there actually isn't all that much wrong with the show itself.

It all depends on how you want to frame it. As I said, your guy and Ms Phillips both assume what they want to show, i.e. that this is classic antisemitism and not, for example, English nationalism or an English political fight over support for Israel.

But I think it's going to be a really ugly argument, and I don't think I want to participate.

it was this lack of context that was most disturbing about the programme.

Again, I havent seen this programme. It could be garbage for all I know. It should be noted that the same programme was responsible for the "Undercover Mosque" series, which showed various imams in Britain making rather unpleasant comments, so perhaps it is the kind of show that enjoys baiting controversy.

Nevertheless, it seems silly that any criticism about Israel has to be properly "contextualised". For one thing, Im pretty sure most members of the British public already know that Hezbollah has artillery rockets and that they fired them at Israel, although they fired very few of them between 2000 and 2006. Despite what Jewish groups say, Im not sure whether it is necessary to remind readers of that fact in every paragraph of a news story.

There seems to be a double standard in that were a news agency to "contextualise" a suicide bombing, by pointing to the poverty and desperate circumstances of Palestinians they would be accused of appeasement, apologia, anti-Semitism and so forth.

Despite all that, from my POV I don't think pro-Israel groups hold much sway in British politics compared to the US. I think to portray the Israel lobby in Britain as one of the most powerful political groups in that country is wild hyperbole.

Which of course has nothing to do with context, and everything to do with hitting people over the head with what they think is important.

I agree with what you said in yr last paragraph. I get the impression that pro-Israel groups in the UK are little minnows in the political power pool in a very similar way to what they are here. Every now and again they'll do a lot of yelling and screaming (eg the hysterical and very dishonest carrying on they did when the Sydney Peace Award was given to Hanan Ashwari), but apart from that they're just not of interest to many people at all compared to the big ticket issues that powerful lobby groups are dedicated to, like farmers, firearms etc...

It is always worth remembering that there may not be anybody at all that is trying to keep you well informed so that you may arrive at your own opinion. You might be on your own. The TV show is interested in a bit of exploitation for ratings, and the "pro-Israeli" spokespersons are interested in hyperbole about British antisemitism, which is nevertheless a very real thing.