The dumb Jewish supporters of BLM
Jonathan S. Tobin of JNS wrote a reasoned article panning the recent ad in the NYTimes supporting Black Lives Matter and signed by 600 Jewish groups. There were no Orthodox umbrella groups, haredi or centrist, such as OU, Igud Harabanim or the RCA among the signers.David Collier: Toxic. BBC journalists as antisemitic trolls and the battle for academia
I, in contrast, will be less polite.
What is the Jewish street terminology for those who egregiously give support and comfort to their enemies? One word.....well, Arutz Sheva won't print it (those with a penchant for rhymes can figure it out at the end of this article.)
And so, trusting to your imagination, I'll apply this adjective to the 600 Jewish groups that signed on to a full-page ad in this past week's New York Times supporting and gushing over the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) and its leaders.
We'd expect such radical self hating Jewish groups such as T'ruah, Jewish Voice for Peace, J Street and Bend the Arc to stand strong with any Jew/Israel hating bunch of common street thugs. But to have the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the national umbrella group and spokesperson for such normally credible organizations as Hadassah, Jewish War Veterans, ORT, B'nai B'rith, and our Jewish Federations, join in the parade to glorify the horrific platform of the BLM, blows one's mind.
To begin with, recall please, the demonstrations down the streets of NYC, led by thousands of BLM supporters chanting, "Kill the cops!" along with shouts of "What do we want? Dead pigs in blankets!" and "Fry 'em in bacon!"
Those signed Jewish groups support such outrageous, dangerous, calls-for-murder-of-cops statements? And what of the 2016 BLM platform accusing Israel of being an "apartheid" state committing "genocide" against Palestinian Arabs and claiming that Jewish supporters pushed the U.S. into wars in the Middle East?
The BLM platform also officially joined forces with the BDS campaign to "free Palestine from the River to the sea" and to "dismantle (destroy) the State of Israel." They said it, they mean it and they will stick to it.
The sickness of the PSCSenior BBC journalist used pseudonym account to back attacks on Emma Barnett after Shoah speech
This week exposed the weakness and failure of the anti-Israel movements more than most. The deal between the UAE and Israel is a historic one. Whilst the lies of the PSC may persuade a foolish pensioner in Newcastle to stop buying Israeli avocados, the Arab boycott itself is crumbling. So it was no surprise that the latest online event put on by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign was a depressing affair.
The online ‘demonstration’ was hosted by Director Ben Jamal and lasted 90 minutes. Yes, of course Jeremy Corbyn was a keynote speaker. Two other MPs made an appearance, along with a couple of trade unionists. As PSC events go, it was relatively tame. They had a few political propagandists speak from Gaza and coincidentally, there was no problem with Gaza’s electricity supply when they did so. There were the usual smears but nothing too outlandish. The only surprising thing was that the ageing crowd did not fall asleep.
One of the hardest parts of my research is putting names to faces, so for me an online Zoom event like this which does the work for me, is like receiving an early Chanukah present:
They claimed over 1000 people watching, which is a bit silly when these online apps give an accurate headcount. There were roughly 430 on Zoom and 50 on Facebook. What made it even sadder is that every Zionist activist I know was in the crowd too. What was also clear was the demographic of the online viewers. One of the cases that I have been making for years is that ‘PSC’ people are mainly older, majority female and very white. For most of these sad individuals ‘Palestine’ is the cause they picked up as they would a bridge or chess club. Something that gets them out of the house to meet people at a local coffee evening.
Their online weakness was also exposed. During the event they ran two ‘online’ campaigns using #hashtags. #endthesiege and #stoparmingisrael. They both only received a few dozen tweets and almost all of these were a direct copy and paste comment from empty trolls. The same type of thing we see coming from online Gazan troll factories. This exact comment, word for word, made up over 90% of the tweets made:
There was almost no original input whatsoever.
It is time to undress the toxic BBC
Far more worrying is what is taking place elsewhere. Yesterday the news broke that a senior BBC journalist had been running an antisemitic sock account. Nimesh Thaker used the Twitter account ‘Not That Bothered‘ to belittle antisemitism and promote posts by people such as Jackie Walker and Kerry-Anne Mendoza. The account was also used to ‘support attacks on the organisation’s Jewish presenter Emma Barnett after she spoke out about the personal impact of antisemitism on her life’. By the time I went looking, the journalist appeared to have completely disabled all his social media accounts.
The horror of this should not be understated. This news brutally exposes the mindset we know exists at the BBC – childish, supremacist and Jew-baiting. For years we have complained about the bias and clearly distorted reporting taking place. We don’t need to wonder anymore about why the fringe group JVL were so often given BBC airtime. People like Thaker write the news that millions of people read each day. They’ve been doing so for decades. Nothing in the UK bears more responsibility for the spread of the false anti-Israel narrative than the BBC.
I have never been of the ‘defundthebbc’ bloc, but I am finding it harder and harder to justify that stance. I used to argue it needed reform rather than a complete rebuild, but I no longer oppose those that think the entire structure should be taken down. Pay the license fee – why on earth should I pay for this. BBC journalists have become antisemitic trolls. How do you repair that?
A senior BBC World News journalist used an anonymous social media account to support attacks on the organisation’s Jewish presenter Emma Barnett after she spoke out about the personal impact of antisemitism on her life.
Nimesh Thaker also used the Twitter account set up under the pseudonym Not That Bothered to support posts written by Kerry-Anne Mendoza and Jackie Walker, both of whom have been at the centre of antisemitism allegations themselves.
In posts from the account, the BBC reporter also suggested Israel was a “racist” and “white supremacist state”. He also branded the BBC Director General a “white male Tory”.
The JC has been given evidence showing that Mr Thaker had used the Not That Bothered account to attempt to make contact with individuals for reports he was making for the BBC – exposing the fact that he was behind the account.
New BBC Director General Tim Davie is expected to outline his disapproval of partisan journalists as he sets out his plans for the Corporation later this week.
Mr Thaker – who has reported for BBC World News for over ten years - was openly critical of BBC 5 Live presenter Ms Barnett after she delivered a widely praised speech about the impact of the Holocaust on her family on the day that Twitter was being boycotted over its failure to act against rapper Wiley’s antisemitic outbursts.
The JC has been sent screenshots showing that the Not That Bothered account retweeted a post sent to Ms Barnett which accused her of using “the same old ‘antisemitism’ excuse whenever people criticise Israel”.