Antisemitism: the Stink Factor #1

Editorial

Antisemitism: the Stink Factor is intended to be a regular summary of antisemitic rantings or happenings over the past week or so. It will also cover antifascist material when deemed relevant.

It is far too easy six months after some bout of racism to forget what happened or who were the key players. We intend that our weekly posts should remedy that.

Its aim is to be informative, occasionally humorous even acerbic but relevant to tackling the rise of antisemitism and its themes in modern society.

Contributions welcomed, Direct Message @AntiNazisUnited on Twitter.

Jenny Tonge

Like David Ward, another failure from the Lib Dems, Baroness Tonge is never ever far away from antisemitism.

This week she passed on a nasty antisemitic cartoon from a friend of hers, who claimed it had been checked beforehand for racism, presumably by the BNP or David Duke?

The White House

Donald Trump managed to divest himself of two nasty characters in the last few weeks. Steve Bannon, a corpulent and decidedly unhealthy looking member of the master race, has return to Breitbart, the Alt-Right's favourite publication.

Steven Bannon, just before his regular workout.

Sebastian Gorka, a supporter of Hungarian neofascists, has more time to spend fiddling with his Vitézi Rend badge.

A younger Sebastian Gorka in the uniform and with the medal of Vitézi Rend.

Charlottesville 

There has been continued bouts of hand-wringing on the political Right and amongst wooly liberals on whether or not to physically opposed neo-Nazis. They actually debate who is worse? Neo-Nazis that deliberately crash a car into peaceful opponents, killing Heather Heyer. Or people who wear masks and oppose neo-Nazis.

Not exactly a tricky proposition.

But let us recall some lovely American antifascists of a bygone age.

US Twenty-Eighth Infantry Division march along the Champs-Élysées, Paris, France with l’Arc de Triomphe in the background, Aug 29 1944.

Labour

You might think that members of Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet, if they had an ounce of sense, would avoid the topic of antisemitism lest it comes back and bites them.

But alas they seem to have the political commonsense of Donald Trump's socks.

Shadow Minister for Fire and Emergency Services, Chris Williamson, himself no stranger to antisemites felt it was appropriate to argue that antisemitism had been weaponised.

There were many replies on social media, just a small selection:

Marlon Solomon replied:

21/ So then @derbychrisw - why don't you 'weaponise' that and do something about it instead of nurturing and provoking this toxic filth?

— Marlon Solomon (@supergutman) September 1, 2017

Miriam Mirwitch spelt it out:

It'd be a really big help to our movement if you stopped saying antisemitism is weaponised or overplayed, and instead listened to Jews.

— Miriam (@mrwtch) September 2, 2017

Dave Rich explains the basics to Labour members:

Antisemitism has always been weaponised by antisemites & those who use it to whip up the mob. Not by the Jews who are worried about it. https://t.co/NQGW8WA43F

— Dave Rich (@daverich1) September 1, 2017

Internet neofascists

In good news, Daily Stormer has struggled to keep its Internet presence alive in the wake of Charlottesville, first going to Russia and now is stuck on the Dark Web.

Even Stormfront, a deepest pit of KKK and neo-Nazi thought on the web, has gone off-line.

Good articles

Waiting for a Perfect Protest?

CST's HATE CRIME: A guide to those affected

In chat rooms, Unite the Right organizers planned to obscure their racism

There is No Position on Israel That Absolves or Excuses Your Anti-Semitism

The history, theory and contradictions of antifa

Odd antisemite in the news

White Supremacist Arrested for Charging Crowd at Hollywood Confederate Street-Name Protest

Events

The Jewish Labour Movement conference is on Sunday, 3rd September 2017, with sessions covering politics and lots of intelligent conversation. Tickets and details here.

The Lighter side

The weepy neo-Nazi, Christopher Cantwell, was finally arrested.

That Nazi who cried doesn't want to be labeled the 'crying Nazi'

David Irving, a Labour voter and the mystery of Holocaust revisionism.

[NB: The materials herein are freely available in the public domain, and this is produced as an educational resource for antiracists and antifascists.]

WW2

Since the 1950s supporters of National Socialism (Nazism) have tried numerous methods of repudiating its crimes.

Initially their tactic was straight out denial, but that never really worked. Decent people remembered how the Nazis started World War II, conquered Europe, slaughtered civilians, imprisoned and murdered Jews and brought destruction to wherever they went.

Next, the apologists change tact.

Outright denial of the Nazis barbarism was untenable in much of the postwar period, instead, apologists like David Irving try the tactic of diminishing the Nazis crimes. Slowly downplaying the extent of them, downplaying the Nazi's culpability.

A Labour supporter 

Typically, such views were confined to the fringes of the Extreme Right, to neo-Nazis thugs and their allies.

But now on social media it is perfectly possible to find a Labour supporter or member who subscribes to such views and makes a conscious effort to deny antisemitism within the Labour Party.

Naturally, the two go hand-in-hand, those who wish to diminish the crimes of the Nazis and deny the Holocaust will habitually argue that antisemitism is overblown.

So it is with this occasional Labour supporter, Mr Monday Night!‏ AKA @Ibsy1786.

He has over 700 Twitter followers.

[The details of his wider prejudices and racism towards Jews are kept on the Wordpress blog.https://antinazisunited.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/mr-monday-night%e2%80%8f-aka-ibsy1786/ This is just a small summary of his vile opinions.]

😂 its your claim that 6 million were killed. Prove it! We've been fed lies. I am not denying the holocaust I am questioning the numbers.

— Mr Monday Night! (@Ibsy1786) August 27, 2017

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We give you zionism pic.twitter.com/dIQzWwbbIq

— Mr Monday Night! (@Ibsy1786) August 9, 2017

David Irving tried that line of argument, Judgment of Mr Justice Charles Gray.

Left Wing Antisemitism Bingo: a guest post by Simon Myerson QC

Israel is a racist enterprise.	I’ve never seen antisemitism on the Left.	Zionism is contrary to Judaism.
Ian Millard has some interesting ideas.	Galloway was trying to save lives when he went to see Saddam.	Israeli settlements mean people are angry with Jews.
Polls saying most Jews identify with Israel are biased and wrong.	You are weaponising antisemitism.	There is a Zionist plot to victimise us (& oust Corbyn).
4,000 reports of antisemitism to Labour is proof there isn’t a problem!	Palestinians are Semites too, so!	They’re Zionists so they obviously aren’t loyal to this country.
Jeremy’s grandmother was at Cable Street, so!	That neo-Nazi on my timeline is a mistake. Every time.	I’m an ethnic Jew.
I don’t have a racist bone in my body.	Talking about leftist antisemitism comforts Nazis.	Jackie/Gilad/Wonderwoman is Jewish. How can they be antisemitic?
Everything is a trope these days. We don’t have to pay attention.	Some of my best friends …	George Galloway was right. Never debate with an Israeli. Or Zionist.

Racism towards Jackie Walker

I noticed this vile piece of juvenile racism aimed at Jackie Walker.

Anyone connected to this account should ostracize them until they give a full, unconditional apology to Ms. Walker.

This type of nasty racism is a relic of the 1960s.

It is stupid, predictable and unimaginative. It is the product of racist thinking, it has no place in modern political discourse.

Updated: If anyone I know defends this filth, or even tries to, I will block them on Twitter without hesitation.

Ken Livingstone’s historical source and the Extreme Right

Ken Livingstone’s knowledge of historical facts, in part, comes from a non-historian, Lenni Brenner.

Most will comment on Brenner’s supposed Marxism, etc

Lenni Brenner’s work published by the Extreme Right

But as I recall, Brenner was published by Noontide in 1986.

Noontide Press was the publishing arm of the Holocaust deniers, IHR.

Please study the Amazon reference and the ISBNs.

Yes, a “Marxist” was published by a bunch of neo-Nazis and their allies.

It follows therefore the question that anyone, moderately intelligent, should ask is, why would neo-Nazis publish a Marxist, to what end?

Obviously, because the work in question besmirches the good name of Jews, who are neo-Nazis’ primary target.

So when someone quotes Ken Livingstone at you, mentions history or Brenner, ask them why neo-Nazis would publish such a book? To what political end?

Well, Ken? Any ideas?

Published by Noontide Press.

The SPLC on Willis Carto founder of Noontide:

“After Wallace’s bid failed, Carto decided to build a more explicitly neo-Nazi organization. He took control of Youth for Wallace and renamed it the National Youth Alliance. The ousted directors of the Wallace youth group grew concerned when they discovered that the movers and shakers behind Carto’s political apparatus were part of a subterranean neo-Nazi cult known as the Francis Parker Yockey Society.” [My emphasis.]

[First published on Medium on 30 March 2017.]

Update 1: A visual reminder of Noontide Press's material.

Labour, Racism and Clive Lewis

In politics there are many potential obstacles and if you happen to disagree with a leader with sizeable support that can annoy his/her supporters.

But under no circumstances should racism be used to score points in political disagreements.

Clive Lewis is the butt of racism from a Labour-supporting account on Facebook, having resigned from Labour’s Shadow Cabinet .

“Red Labour” has some 36,000 followers, yet bar one, none of them spotted the racist overtones of this particular post [my emphasis]:

“Clive Lewis. Wasn’t he the one who recently appeared in the Al Jazeera documentary on the infiltration of the Israel lobby in British politics. Wasn’t he the one that the Israeli ambassador victoriously claimed as a new surprising asset in their active struggle to undermine Jeremy Corbyn?

We may also remember that this Israeli agent boasted that their aim was to “bring down” UK politicians to get a grip on them.

Who’s pulling your strings, Clive?”

The not too subtle implication is that Clive Lewis is a puppet of Israelis.

Irrespective of the stupidity of this comment anyone moderately conversant with history knows that a longstanding antisemitic motif was how Jews are caricatured as “puppet masters” or said to be behind the scenes manipulating events.

It seems that this particular Red Labour account shares those prejudices.

It is utterly disgusting.

But recently parts of the British Left have taken up the ideas of the Extreme Right in this critical area. It is conspiratorial antisemitism. Randall Bytwerk and Calvin College’s archives have similar examples of antisemitic thinking from the WW2 era: 

“Published after the invasion of the Soviet Union, this cartoon from Der Stürmer is tilted “The Criminal Trio.” A Jew is behind the three Allied leaders. The text states that they make it clear who their chief is today, and always was,

Source: Der Stürmer , #28/1941"

[First published on Medium on 10 February 2017.]

When you hear about antisemitism, don’t downplay it

Imagine the American NAACP commenting on the rise of racism in America?

Would you feel inclined to disparage them? Or say the NAACP are just “talking up” racism?

You might, if you were a hard-line Trump supporter, equally if you were stupid, insensitive to racism or a just a plain neo-Nazi.

However, those idiots aside, most intelligent or politically sophisticated people do not downplay racism. They certainly do not denigrate the reporting of attacks on ethnic minorities.

This is one British political activist commenting on the rise of antisemitic attacks in Britain.

McIntyre is explaining racism away, as a Trump supporter might, which is incredibly foolish, unfeeling and inappropriate.

Please read the Community Security Trust’s post: Record number of antisemitic hate incidents in UK in 2016.

And remember when you diminish the importance of tackling racism you are playing into the hands of Steve Bannon, Donald Trump and other assorted bigots.

When you belittle the struggle against antisemitism some neo-Nazi somewhere is smiling and thanking you for your idiocy.

It is not smart, it is not nice, don’t do it.

[First published on Medium on 2 February 2017.]