This morning's Sunday also featured an interesting interview with Labour MP John Mann about his new book, Antisemitism: The Oldest Hatred.
Mr Mann spoke about the recent growth in semi-veiled anti-Semitic language, especially surrounding depictions of Jews as being wealthy, powerful and in control of the media and the U.S. government. He was especially startled by the rise of such language in the Baltic States, saying that imagery that echoes that used in Nazi Germany is now becoming mainstream there (i.e. within the EU).
William Crawley asked him about anti-Semitism's links to Christianity but, puzzlingly, no mention was made of what appears to be the main reason for the recent upsurge in anti-Semitism in Europe - and especially its violent manifestations: the growth of large Muslims populations within many European countries.
Such bias by omission isn't nothing new at the BBC of course. Hopefully John Mann's book will be more forthcoming.
Update by Sue:
Excuse me for butting in, but did you notice John Mann saying you should start by addressing the antisemitism in your own backyard?
Update by Sue:
Excuse me for butting in, but did you notice John Mann saying you should start by addressing the antisemitism in your own backyard?
I really think Mr. Crawley might have mentioned the antisemitism in John Mann’s particular backyard. “It can be subtle” said Crawley. During the Labour party’s recent parliamentary debate on Gaza, which we featured here, some of the speakers came close to crossing the line.
Several Muslim MPs, Grahame Morris, Debbie Abrahams, Stephen Kinnock, Andrew Slaughter and Richard Burden, not to mention Gerald Kaufman, managed, explicitly or implicitly to state some dodgy views which crossed that subtle anti-Zionist / antisemitic line.
Neither John Mann nor Robert Halfon seemed to be present at that spectacle.
If people like Corbyn plead that they’re not antisemitic, then they certainly share the views of those that are.
It’s not only the Labour party of course. There are plenty of other MPs that fit that profile, including the new batch of SNPs.
Although he seemed to know it can be subtle, Crawley somehow gave the impression that he was a little surprised at the very idea that antisemitism was alive and well and living in a street near you.
You’re never more than 6 ft away from a rat, spider or an antisemite.
Some of the "subtle" things Mann mentioned are evident in BBC broadcasting and the on air words of Beeboids: too much influence on the US government, media, etc. Of course, as Tim Willcox accidentally admitted, the groupthink at the BBC is that most of what appears to be anti-Semitism these days is really an understandable consequence of Israel's bad behavior. Mann didn't bring it up at all, and if Crawley or his producer had planned on asking it, an editor probably censored it.
ReplyDeleteThe worst part of the segment was Mann suggesting that regulation was necessary to stop people from expressing anti-Jewish sentiment. It ruined the whole thing for me.
Yes, that was something I should have demurred from too. That was an outrageous thing for a politician in a democracy to say.
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