The weakest link
You’ve maybe heard the old saying “when elephants fight it’s best to stay well away, to avoid getting squashed.” Well this is something that the Green Party of England and Wales don’t seem to understand. Let’s hope they do get it before they are well and truly sunk.
Someone called Toby Greene has apparently resigned from the party, helpfully leaving a lengthy explanation for his action, which appears on Bob from Brockley’s blog, here. He starts off with this:
“The crisis in the party is caused by several factors. The first is that the active membership is really very small - definitely less than 1000 people. In this situation, it is very easy for a relatively small interest group to hijack it for its own ends. This is what has happened with GreenLeft.”
So entryists are at the root of the problems. No surprise there then. And so he progresses, via John Gray, Freud and the Christian - Jewish nexus.
There’s clearly a big push on to win over left-wing opinion. At Liberal Conspiracy Ben White, author of the provocatively titled 'Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide' has this to add:
“Over the last year, Tel Aviv-based think tank The Reut Institute has offered a lot of advice to supporters of Israel in the West on how to respond to “the erosion in Israel’s diplomatic status” (aka ‘deligitimization‘), including a focus “on engaging the hearts and minds of liberal progressive elites”.”
“A recent report looked specifically at London saying “liberal and progressive left” voices are the ones “most effective” in shielding Israel. Reut urged Israel’s defenders to “substantively engage liberal and progressive circles” by “responding to their concerns and building personal relationships”.”
No-one on the site has challenged these quotes, or called their veracity into question.
Which takes on to the painful Maoist self-criticism exercise held at Greens Engage some 15 months ago, where Mira Vogel leads the inquisition; “Can we please stick to talking about Rupert’s actions, and their effects?” and Rupert Read gamely plays along until he becomes exhausted by his abject failure even to grasp the nature of the crime he has committed - encouraging people to read a Glad Atzmon piece - eventually disappearing, having managed to rope in his friend Adrian to try to help him out.. Come on now, feel sorry for the poor guy, he’s only a professional, paid philosopher who, so say, specialises in one of the most abstruse thinkers in the known universe!
“Rupert … Please do the right thing and write a further self-appraisal in which you reflect upon how antipathy against Zionism (as opposed to lucid criticism) can prejudice anti-Zionists and corner them with antisemitic thinkers. We will make sure it is the last thing people see on this post. It will of course be subject to criticism (analysis, I mean), but if it’s good it will draw a line under this episode.”
“Antipathy to Israel leaches out and hurts Jews again and again and again. And we have been trying for a long time now to get this phenomenon addressed in the organisations of which we are members, but it has not been addressed.”
Food for thought indeed.
So then, Between, what are you thinking?
ReplyDeleteOur beautiful planet is getting trashed while these fools fight each other over the wrecking ball.
ReplyDeleteHow about you, SG?
So what IS your view on the whole debate?
ReplyDelete1. Is there antisemitism in the Greens, in your view?
2. Should there be a policy against it?
1. I haven't a clue Mod, I'm not in the Green Party. Ask Derek Wall, if you haven't already. He's usually so vocal on these issues.
ReplyDeleteHas Derek made a statement on Toby Greene's resignation?
2. All parties ought to have a policy against discrimination of all kinds, whether on grounds of race, sex, sexuality, disability and so on, rather than singling out any one particular interest group. I'd have thought that was a sine qua non.
Steamed Green and Mod, since you are interested in my outsider's view of what is going on in the Green Party and the Left, this is my comment on Weggis's latest post:
ReplyDeleteThis phenomenon is a function of the take-over of the Green Party by the far left, who are as nasty as bunch as you could hope to meet. They like nothing better than to harass and vilify anyone they disagree with because they are incapable of seeing divergence from their party line as anything other than Evil Incarnate.
It seems to me that from the far left point of view being Jewish or Israeli is no longer fashionable, as it was back in the days when the left fawned over Zionism (just as they now do over Muslims) and flocked to kibbutzim. Sorry, but as far as they are concerned, especially since 9/11, being Muslim or Palestinian is now the in thing, and so, in their narrow little mindset anyone disagreeing with that is, necessarily, Evil.
Read and Wall are always banging on about the Jews and Israel. They are patently obsessed. Quite why is something I've been pondering for a couple of years.
ReplyDeleteThey are also, coincidentally(?), the sort of people I want to punch without ever having met. Very un-PC I know.
Until the greens kick out the hard left that have unsurprisingly used them as a trojan horse for their mad outdated nonsense, the greens will be regarded by the voters as just another faction driven group of monomaniacs counting the number of angels on a pinhead.
ReplyDeleteThe foaming end of the hard left have tried this time and again, CND, Rock against racism, the unions, local councils and now the Green Party. Each time, the target organization has been damaged, often to the point of extinction. Why the Greens, who claim to stand for a better, fairer society would have any truck with a bunch of power mad authoritarians, why they give house room to those who excuse the worst excesses of theocracies simply on the basis they hate the West and why they are happy to turn a blind eye to open antisemitism is something the voters will certainly ask themselves. And vote elsewhere as a result.
The British don't like extremists or their apologists. Changing the voters, as the terminally deluded would like to do is not an option. Change yourselves.