ICAHD founder, Jeff Halper, on the recent “anti-Semitism” Frenzy
As my Facebook friends well know, I am against all conspiracy theories and conspiracy thinking,
which only serves to deflect our attention from real political issues and which dumbs us down.
One of the most common of the conspiracy theories, of course, is that of "world Jewry," the
Elders of Zion, the Rothschilds and all that. But I do have to point to an insidious world-wide
campaign formulated, sponsored and in many cases funded by Israel through both Jewish and
Christian evangelical groups abroad.
And it has its effect. Most visible today is the ferocious attack mounted, supposedly, by Jewish
members of the Labour Party (and Blairites) concerned with anti-semitism in the party and
especially with the critical positions towards Israel of party leader Jeremy Corbyn, but actually
fomented by the Israeli government and its "pro-Israel" allies – unfortunately included the liberal
Guardian newspaper. Just this week former British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks entered the fray,
issuing a blistering attack on Corbyn, comparing him to one of Britain’s most notorious racist
politicians. Below is the statement issued in response by ICAHD UK.
The issue is really not anti-semitism at all (in fact, anti-semitism has always been endemic in the
Conservative, not the Labour Party). It has to do with a world-wide Israeli campaign to get
governments to adopt a definition of anti-semitism that define it as any criticism of Israel. The
British government under Theresa May has already done so — and Congress is on the way, led
by a group liberal democrats like Ron Wyden (see article below). To his credit and bravery —
moral as well as political — Jeremy Corbyn has refused to allow Labour to adopt such a
skewered position and has retained (and used) the right to criticize Israeli policies.
At stake is far more than Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party and the possible future of Britain, as
high as those stakes are. The meaning of this vicious campaign is to warn all politicians, parties
and governments that we, the Israeli government and its agents, will crush you and destroy your
political future if you dare criticize us. Just this week Netanyahu was in the Baltic countries
attempting to split them away from the EU in its criticism of Israel — working closely with the
fascist forces in Europe, primarily the Visegrad Group (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and
Slovakia, the first two latently anti-semitic, which shows how cynical Israeli diplomacy can be) —
against liberal parties and countries whose concern for human rights require criticism of Israel’s
Occupation.
A lot at stake here, way beyond the Israel-Palestine issue itself. Not conspiracy, but certainly a
focused, well-financed, global campaign of subterfuge and subversion of liberal forces.