Odd the heroes some people have

I challenged Richard Burden...

I was not deemed worthy of a reply but then I have been challenging Richard Burden about his 'pro-Palestinian' views. He hasn't replied to this either.

It is interesting that Richard Burden thinks that Eric Hobsbawm is worthy of praise, this being a man who:
' .. in 1994, in an interview with Canadian author and politician Michael Ignatieff on British television, Hobsbawm responded in the affirmative to the question of whether 20 million deaths may have been justified had the proposed communist utopia been created. The following year, when asked the same question on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, that is if "the sacrifice of millions of lives" would have been worth a communist utopia, he replied: "That's what we felt when we fought the Second World War". Hobsbawm has similarly argued that, "In a period in which, as you might imagine, mass murder and mass suffering are absolutely universal, the chance of a new world being born in great suffering would still have been worth backing".

I have mused before about the weird double-standards of the left who use 'Nazi' as a term of abuse to close down debate and would never allow any praise of any aspect of Adolph Hitler, yet will defend aspects of Soviet Russia or Mao's China.

The Palestinian Authority's latest demands prove that they don't want a return to 1967 borders

The claim that all the Palestinian Authority wants is for Israel to return to its pre-1967 borders is a lie.

The latest threats issued by the Palestinian Revolutionary Council (the joint PA/Hamas body) are that if Israel does not surrender all of the lands liberated in the Six Day War of 1967, set up an Arab state with Jerusalem as its capital and make accept as Israeli citizens descendants of the Arabs who fled Israel in 1948, then a third intifada should, and must, be conducted.

I'll address these demands from the last to the first. The demand for the 'right to return' makes a mockery of the demand for a Palestinian state. This is not a call for a two state solution, it is a call for the establishment of a Palestinian state and for the turning of Isrel from a majority Jewish state into a second majority Muslim state. The second demand for Jerusalem to be the capital of the Palestinian state is unacceptable for various reasons which I have touched on before in this blog, Jerusalem is the historical capital of the Jews and should remain so. All of the Muslim claims on Jerusalem are predated by the Jewish claims. Please remember that for the 19 years that the Palestinian state of Jordan controlled Jerusalem, Jews were prevented from visiting the holiest site of Judaism (the Western Wall). Since the recapture by Israel of Jerusalem in the defensive war of 1967, not only have Muslims had control of their holy sites, they even prevent Jewish access to them. This despite the fact that they are built on top of the Jewish Temple. The first demand of the PRC is that Israel surrender all of the lands that it took in 1967 is also not feasible to comply with. If Israel did this it would lose the defensible borders that the Jordan valley affords it.

This last point is well illustrated by the following video
The Palestinians' three demands are really saying 'either give up your defensible borders, your capital and your Jewish majority status or face more violence, terrorist attacks aimed at destroying you'. Do remember that Fatah and Hamas share the same aim of destroying Israel and turning the whole of what is currently Israel, along with 'the West Bank' and Gaza, into a country called Palestine. This is what both the Hamas and Fatah Charters say, what their schools teach, what their maps and flags make clear BUT what most of 'the West' chooses to ignore. Sometimes it is tough to admit that the Palestinian cause that you support is based on a lie and enforced by threats and violence but when that is the case then people loke @aarondellaria and Richard Burden MP should admit it.

For Labour MP for Northfield Richard Burden some deaths are worth remembering but not others

This morning a couple of tweets from British Labour MP Richard Burden caught my attention:

The death of Tom Hurndall was a terrible incident and an Israeli soldier was tried by an Israeli court, found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to a long prison sentence.

Since Richard Burden was so keen to remind us of Tom Hurndall's death, I wondered who else's death he considered worthy of remembrance.

Rachel Corrie's death, whilst sad and regrettable, was not the clear cut event that the supporters of the Palestinian cause/haters of Israel like to portray. Read around the subject please.

Since Richard Burden is so keen on remembering people killed in the Israeli - Palestinian conflict I looked to see if he had posted anything on the 11th March, he hadn't. I wonder if he even knows why that date is important? So why would Richard Burden choose to remember the manslaughter of Tom Hurndall and the accidental killing of Rachel Corrie but not the brutal murder of the five members of the Fogel family?

A man who calls Palestinian terrorists by the term 'resistance groups' has nailed his colours pretty firmly to the mast. I wonder what first interested Richard Burden in this subject area?

One final tweet of Richard Burden's caught my eye

Does Richard Burden not realise that Israeli attacks on Gaza are in response to incessant rocket attacks on Israel? If these rocket attacks ceased then Israel would not need to try and destroy the rocket launchers and their operators? Would he rather more Israelis were killed?


I have plenty more to say about Richard Burden and his interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Watch this space...

What is about it about some Labour politicians and Israel?

Just this week we have had the news of Ken Livingstone reaffirming his stand to invite and embrace, when London mayor in 2004, the Islamist cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who condoned suicide bombing against Israeli target. Since then Yusuf Al-Qaradawi has said the following:

"Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the (Jews) people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them – even though they exaggerated this issue – he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers."

The man Ken Livingstone embraced and still refuses to condemn has also condoned Palestinian attacks on Israelis. In 2005 defending bombings against Israeli civilians, al-Qaradawi said on BBC's Newsnight that:

"An Israeli woman is not like women in our societies, because she is a soldier."
"I consider this type of martyrdom operation as an evidence of God's justice."
"Allah Almighty is just; through his infinite wisdom he has given the weak a weapon the strong do not have and that is their ability to turn their bodies into bombs as Palestinians do".

I have also read that Ken Livingstone's embracee also considers pregnant women and their unborn babies to be valid targets on the ground that the babies could grow up to join the Israeli Army.

So that's Ken Livingstone, just an isolated senior member of the Labour party? Well no, there's also Paul Flynn who in December accused the British Ambassador to Israel of having "divided loyalties" because he is Jewish. Would Paul Flynn accuse a British Ambassador to a Muslim country of having "divided loyalties" because he is a Muslim?

But that's just two? Unfortunately not. Take a read of this piece from Harry's Place (posted last October) which lists the various Labour MPs who were scheduled to appear alongside Raed Salah. Who is Raed Salah I hear you ask?

' * He has claimed that Jews baked “the blood of children” into their “holy bread” – the ancient and vicious blood libel.
* He has claimed that 4,000 Jews skipped work at the World Trade Centre on 9/11 and suggested that Israel carried out the 9/11 attacks.
* He has cited so-called Franklin Prophecy: a Nazi forgery in which Benjamin Franklin supposedly warns America about Jews
* He attended the launch of the Mavi Marmara and incited violence on board. At the launch ceremony and on board Mavi Marmara passengers chanted a notorious extremist slogan, commemorating a massacre of Arabian Jews: “Khaybar! Khaybar! Oh Jews! The army of Mohammed will return!”.
* He chuckled at the memory of taunting a Jewish teacher with a Swastika in a friendly chat with fellow extremist Azzam “Kaboom” Tamimi on Al-Hiwar TV, a TV channel based in London that serves the Muslim Brotherhood .
* He wrote an antisemitic poem which used various theological references to Jews, including: “The Creator meant for you to be monkeys and losers … you are the bacteria of all times”, which clearly refer to Jews generally.
* He has admitted funding Hamas, for which he served two years in prison. Hamas leaders have hailed him and rallied to his cause. Recently the terrorist group named a football pitch after him.
* He has been named as a trustee of the Union of Good, a Hamas funding organisation, and has worked closely with Interpal, the British charity that serves Hamas.
* His hosts in the UK have included some of the country’s worst extremists, such as Daud Abdullah and Ismail Patel, and a fellow speaker on his ill-fated tour was to be Ahmad Nofal of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood. Nofal too has been banned from the UK.
* He claims that homosexuality is a “great crime” which signals “the start of the collapse of every society”.'

Which Labour MPs were due to appear alongside Raed Salah before the event was cancelled due to his arrest?
Jeremy Corbyn, Yasmin Qureshi and Richard Burden, along with Martin Linton who whilst no longer an MP does run Labour Friends of Palestine.

What is odd is that the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, a man who on occasions appears in the British Jewish press expressing his support for Jews in Britain and for Israel's right to exist in peace, has not uttered a word of reproach to these Labour politicians. Instead Ed Miliband, thought it appropriate to honour two of them and some others at the Labour party conference:

"I want to pay tribute to Simon Danczuk, to Andy Slaughter, and to Richard Burden, first of all, as well as Martin Linton, who is here, for the work they do."

So Ed Miliband are you going to take a stand now against these senior members of the Labour party that you allegedly lead? Not sure? Here's your party's candidate for London Mayor again...

So Ed Miliband is that a sentiment that you can go along with? So Ed Miliband is that the sentiment of someone you are happy to be Labour's candidate for London Mayor?

As for the Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Weekly News and the rest of the Jewish press in Britain; the next time Ed Miliband tells you of his support for the Jewish community, ask him about how he squares that with his support for Ken Livingstone, Paul Flynn, Jeremy Corbyn, Yasmin Qureshi, Richard Burden, and Martin Linton.