Once upon a time, a man called Alan had a successful television career. Then it all went wrong and he took to spending his days living in a travel tavern, recalling past glories and gulping down grapefruit juice to break down troublesome Scotch Eggs. Rejection can be hard to take.
If only more broadcasting has-beens named Alan responded with such dignity. Alan Hart was once a player, too. But nowadays he rails against Zionism on the web, in print and on the obscure but horrible televisual backwater of Press TV (a station funded by the Iranian government which promotes Holocaust denial, hangs gays in public and has pledged to wipe out Israel).
It will be Press TV that broadcasts (at a later date) a debate that Hart chaired this afternoon. The motion was ‘Antisemitism Is Rising: Why?’ On the panel was Jonathan Hoffman (co-vice chair of the Zionist Federation), brilliant author and passionate Israel supporter Carol Gould, Ilan Pappe (Israeli revisionist historian) and Dr Hajo Meyer, a survivor of Auschwitz and fierce critic of Israel. Due to Hart’s chairing style – a kind summary would be ‘amateurish’ but I suspect it’s a lot more deliberate than that, this man’s extraordinary views are well-documented if obscurely published – the event was a farce. On this evidence one is relieved – but unsurprised – at the level of Hart’s current standing in the broadcasting and publishing industries.
I’ve written before on this blog about my admiration for Hoffman and in Not In My Name about my admiration of Gould. I take my hat off to them afresh this evening. Their dignity and eloquence in the face of Hart’s at times manipulative, bullying chairing – and the baiting of an audience well-stocked with Jew-haters – was magnificent. “That’s propaganda, and I don’t want that,” was Hart’s stock, furious response to Hoffman’s points. He never once complained about Pappe’s – nor any other Israel-bashing contributors’ – propaganda, though. Funny that.
Mr Partridge always concluded his shows with an “Aha”, but Hart signed-off “From this ‘Hart’ to your heart.” And off he shuffled, his best broadcasting days long gone but the state of Israel still standing proud.
I only hope Hoffman and Gould realise how wonderful they are.
Kol hakovod!
Lynne
I could be Lynne from Alan Partridge!
12 June 2009 at 7:44 PM
Jonathan Hoffman
Thanks Chas and thanks for coming. Amazing to see so many Israel-bashers in one room – it must be a record.
12 June 2009 at 9:10 PM
Marion
I could not keep a straight face when he claimed that Bibi has been quaking since Obama’s Cairo speech and does not have a clue what to say on Sunday. I wonder if Bibi knows about his confidante Alan Hart ….
12 June 2009 at 9:21 PM
Marion
The audience was an antizionist’s wet dream. Sizer (’It’s antisemitic not to try to convert Jews’), Greenstein, Maccoby, Al-Hibawi (of the Muslim Brotherhood – he thinks Israeli children are legitimate targets), Kahn, Neturei Karta x4 … and those were just the ones I recognised
12 June 2009 at 9:27 PM
Carol Gould
Chas, Bless you for this. I am still in shock from the experience. Shabbat Shalom
Carol
13 June 2009 at 12:16 AM
Chas Newkey-Burden
I thought it was very telling when Hart said *jokingly* to Al-Hibawi “so that makes you a bad guy” in reference to his Muslim Brotherhood connection. Yes it does, actually.
13 June 2009 at 3:44 AM
Stephen Sizer in attendance at Press TV « Seismic Shock
[...] commenter notes who was in the audience: The audience was an antizionist’s wet dream. Sizer (’It’s [...]
13 June 2009 at 10:57 AM
Proud Zionist
I truly admire anyone who tries to argue with raving antisemi-, sorry, sorry, anti-Zionists. So frustrating when they don’t address your points. At least it wasn’t George Galloway though, I trust you were actually allowed to talk and weren’t called liars every time you said something pro-Israel!
14 June 2009 at 12:31 AM
EdwardT
Hart’s wrap-up closing comment was something like “If only there had been more disussion of antisemitism before the Holocaust, then it might not have happened.”
This is obscene on many levels. First – the suggestion that the perpetrators of the most vile antisemitism in history would have been receptive to the truth about antisemitism. Second, the suggestion that biased non-debates (such as that which took place on Friday) would have helped to save any of those exterminated by the Nazis is revolting. This is the man who dismisses the truth as ‘propaganda’ and threatens to remove those who speak the truth.
14 June 2009 at 5:58 AM
Jonathan
Proud Zionist – thanks. Hart threatened to throw me out about four times – he asked one of the studio people if he had the authority to remove me. We’ll see what gets edited out.
14 June 2009 at 7:27 AM
Chas Newkey-Burden
Anne Widdecombe meets Neturie Karta: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Egly_8wA-RY/SDV9yzKBfxI/AAAAAAAAAr4/RMOlv3yxlxs/s1600/alan+hart+and+rabbis.jpg
14 June 2009 at 8:06 AM
Jonathan
Technical point: If Neturei Karta were genuine Orthodox Jews they would not allow a woman to whom they were not married to put her arms round them. I agree that the assumption of authenticity is questionable (for example they seem not to bother about carrying on the Sabbath eg at the ‘Enough’ demo in London on 9 June 2007).
14 June 2009 at 10:53 AM
Proud Zionist
He threatened to throw you out?! So he is almost as bad as Galloway then, they literally cannot handle the truth.
Re Neturei Karta, I also noticed that about them going to Trafalgar Sq on Shabbat. Whether or not they actually walked there (most Jews don’t live very close to Central London), it’s not ‘in the spirit of Shabbat’. You wouldn’t expect them for example, to leave the TV on in their house over Shabbat, even though it’s not technically breaking it. Very Orthodox Jews don’t do that. So why do they dress like Chassidim?
14 June 2009 at 11:35 AM
Chas Newkey-Burden
Proud Zionist: “So he is almost as bad as Galloway then.”
He is far worse than Galloway. He’s a silly, nasty piece of work.
14 June 2009 at 12:15 PM
Proud Zionist
I’d never heard of this guy till now, worse than Galloway!?! Scary.
14 June 2009 at 1:41 PM
Chas Newkey-Burden
I’d never heard of him until this either. Apparently he was somebody ages ago. Worse than Galloway, yes. But not in a scary way. Whereas Galloway is nasty but very effective and influential, this guy is just nasty.
14 June 2009 at 2:08 PM
Chas Newkey-Burden
PS – Hart really is Alan Partridge. He is convinced that he is under threat of assassination because of his views – something Partridge too became obsessed with as his television career fell apart.
15 June 2009 at 6:01 AM
Carol Gould
Jonathan Sacks on the new anti-Semitism:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6540466.ece
20 June 2009 at 2:13 AM
Pajamas Media » War on Want, a.k.a. War on Israel
[...] Federation; he is a gentle and self-effacing man with whom I appeared on Press (Iranian) TV on June 12 in a debate against Ilan Pappe, Hajo Meyer, and moderator Alan Hart on anti-Semitism and Israel. [...]
29 July 2009 at 8:55 AM
Israpundit » Blog Archive » War on Want, a.k.a. War on Israel
[...] Federation; he is a gentle and self-effacing man with whom I appeared on Press (Iranian) TV on June 12 in a debate against Ilan Pappe, Hajo Meyer, and moderator Alan Hart on anti-Semitism and Israel. [...]
29 July 2009 at 9:52 AM