Regarding Goldstone’s renewed demonizing of Israel, this is all we need to know about him, his modus operandi and anyone who takes him seriously.
Next!
Update: Although, as if the above isn’t enough, you can read this from Tom Gross about another of Goldstone’s ’star witnesses’.
Is it just me, or is Wham! star Andrew Ridgeley starting to look like Menachem Begin? (I’m not saying this is a bad thing.)
This week, I’m giving away a signed copy of my recently-published book Michael Jackson: Legend 1958-2009. It is the full story of Jackson’s life and the aftermath of his death. To enter, please leave the name of your favourite Michael Jackson song as a comment below. It should be interesting to see people’s choices. I’ll choose a winner at random on Friday. Good luck!
As well as this book about Jackson, I’ve also written biographies of other stars including Simon Cowell, Alexandra Burke and Amy Winehouse.
What a week Bibi had. It’s a privilege to live in the time of such a great leader. Here, in an interview after his UN speech this week, he tells of a meeting he had in 1984 with the Lubavitcher Rebbe. (Incidentally, I recently read a book called The Rebbe’s Army, which was fascinating. I recommend it.)
The winner of this week’s competition is Caroline Dalzell.She wins a signed copy of the brilliant Don’t Tread On Me by Carol Gould. I’ll be in touch, Caroline, to get your address and find out what you want on the dedication.
Thanks for entering everyone, I’ll run a new competition very soon. In the meantime I wish everybody a lovely weekend. I wish my Jewish readers Shabbat Shalom and G’mar chatimah tovah. I wish you well over the fast.
Well said, Bibi.
Those who routinely and uniquely demonize Israel always deny they are antisemitic. Of course some of them are not – but with so many the evidence makes it hard to conclude otherwise.
Foreign Office civil servant Rowan Laxton was watching a news report about the Middle East while exercising in a gym. He shouted that Israelis should be “blown off the f***ing earth” and ranted about the “f**king Jews”.
Yet his counsel told the court that Laxton “is not an anti-Semite”. No, he doesn’t sound like one at all, does he?
I really admire Michael Neill and have written before about how much I’ve benefited from trying out his ideas.
This Saturday he’ll be in London for a one-day talk about how to reinvent your relationship with money. Most people have beliefs and blocks that get in the way of them getting what they really want. So this day is about getting out of your own way.
The multi-millionaire Paul McKenna credits Michael with helping *him* make a lot of money, so I look forward to seeing what he can do for me.
Maybe you’d like to come too?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust. He publicly executes women for even suspected adultery and gay people. He brutally suppressed the peaceful demonstrators who opposed his theft of the Presidential election. He bankrolls the terrorism of Hezbollah and Hamas. He has vowed to wipe Israel off the map.
So it seems beyond belief that he has been invited to speak at the United Nations General Assembly this Wednesday. But it’s true. After all this is the same organisation that invited terrorist Yasser Arafat – complete with gun holster – to address the General Assembly in the 1970s and 1980s. (And we all remember Dorothy Byrne and her successful courting of Ahmadinejad to deliver Channel 4’s Christmas message.)
Please read this, about a Twitter campaign related to his UN appearance.
And please watch this video.
The rumblings over the Goldstone report continue – even the Obama administration has criticised it. The report was commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council (which has adopted more resolutions condemning Israel than against all the other 191 member states combined) and its fundamental bias and flaws are transparent.
* There were known anti-Israel people on the panel, including one who had made her position clear long before the investigation even began.
* It elevated unverifiable testimony given by Hamas sympathisers to the status of ‘fact’.
* It accepted evidence from a man who wears Nazi t-shirts and has a track record of making later-disproved allegations against Israel.
* It ignored evidence in Israel’s favour and all evidence of Hamas crimes during Operation Cast Lead.
* It included a Jew on the panel as a fig-leaf to antisemites.
* Unsurprisingly, it produced a biased report with distortions and mistakes from the title page onwards.
So let’s use the Goldstone report as a test of the sincerity of Israel’s critics. Anyone who tries to lend the report any credibility is surely not a sensible, fair critic of Israel but someone with a sinister agenda. Things could get very revealing.
(Thanks to Tom Gross, who has compiled a typically brilliant dispatch on Goldstone, including an open letter a Dachau survivor has written to Goldstone.)
Following the success of the 2007 and 2008 quizzes, the Talia Trust for Children is delighted to invite you to its ‘2009 quiz…with a twist’ on 22 November at 7.15pm.
The Talia Trust for Children is a UK and Israeli charity that supports children and teenagers suffering from psoriatic arthritis and learning disabilities. It was set up in memory of 21-year-old Talia Hyman in 2006, following her tragic death in a road traffic accident.
The quiz, which will take place in north London, promises to be a fantastic evening with an Israeli-style supper including felafel, pitta, houmous, a variety of salads, and dessert. All food will be under the supervision of the London Beth Din, so please come along and help us raise thousands of pounds for needy kids and teenagers.
If you would like to buy a ticket for this event, or host a table of twelve, please email dschogger@gmail.com or buy tickets online via JustGiving – http://www.justgiving.com/damianschogger All tickets must be paid for by 6 November. We wil send you a confirmation email once you have paid for your ticket.
Tickets are priced at a credit crunching £18 each.
For further information, including full details of the venue, please email dschogger@gmail.com or visit the Talia Trust for Children website – http://www.taliatrust.org/page5.html
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=119918968465&ref=ts
http://www.justgiving.com/damianschogger
http://www.justgiving.com/taliatrust
So I had coffee with the very lovely Hardeep Singh Kohli today – at The Ivy, not that I want to go on about it or anything. I gave him a copy of my Gunners Lists book (to which he contributed a hilarious list) and I am now looking forward to reading his book, Indian Takeaway: A Very British Story.
Memo to TV-land: bring back Meet The Magoons.
I’ve written before about the brilliant Don’t Tread On Me: Anti-Americanism Abroad, written by Carol Gould. It’s a juggernaut of a book that exposes and dismantles the growing prejudice of anti-Americanism and its vile, incestuous relative – antisemitism. Don’t Tread On Me… is such a powerful, gripping read. I particularly love how amid her understandable horror and exasperation Carol also writes so lovingly of America and the sheer brilliance of its people.
You can read my post about the book here.
Carol has agreed to give away a personally-signed copy of the book through this very blog. To enter the competition leave a ‘pick me’ comment below. I will choose the winner on Friday. Good luck!
