Interesting to see the Liberal Democrat peer Jenny Tonge on Question Time last night. Well done to the marvellous Douglas Murray for putting her in her place. Tonge has a long track record of antisemitic remarks and of expressing support for antisemitic terrorism. In 2004, an era when Hamas suicide bombers were blowing up schoolbuses, pizza parlours and a Passover seder attended by Holocaust survivors, she said of the bombers: “If I had to live in that situation — and I say that advisedly — I might just consider becoming one myself.” Two years later she said: “The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the Western world, its financial grips. I think they have probably got a certain grip on our party.”
The above remarks were made before Nick Clegg became Liberal Democrat leader in 2007. Since then Mr Clegg has promised that he would discipline Tonge if she repeated such behaviour “on my watch”. In 2008 Tonge ranted at the IslamExpo about “the Jewish lobby” and asked: “How can we stop antisemitism if they [Israel] keep treating the Palestinians like this?” Last year she met Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and described him as “shrewd, plausible and actually very likeable”. She also had a meeting with Ramadan Shalah, head of Islamic Jihad.
So has Mr Clegg kept true to his ‘not on my watch’ promise? No. He refuses to deal with Tonge and erupted when questioned about this by the Jewish Chronicle’s Martin Bright. Clegg’s angry, defensive tone in that interview is familiar. Last year I saw him speak at an event organised by Jewish News. It was mostly a gentle, friendly evening but in the rare moments when Mr Clegg was properly grilled on his and his party’s shameful record on Israel, he was visibly uncomfortable and furious. Like many Liberal Democrats he wants to have it both ways: he wants to victimise and demonise Israel, but then pretend that he’s a friend of Israel too.
You can read a decent compilation of Clegg’s shameful record on Israel at the beginning and end of this CifWatch post by the wonderful Israelinurse. Most revealing is his cowardly U-turn on Jenny Tonge. He can raise his voice and (irrelevantly) remind us that he’s “married to a Spaniard” all he likes, but actions speak louder than words. If Nick Clegg doesn’t even have the balls or the will to deal with antisemitism and support for terrorism within his own party, why on earth should we believe he is in any way ready to be a leader of the country?
Shmuel
Lol – from “I can’t be antisemitic, some of my best friends are Jewish” to “I can’t be antisemitic, my wife is Spanish”.
29 January 2010 at 10:40 AM
DF
Well said, Sir N-B. I have to tell you, for such a small party the Lib Democrats have an unhealthy showing of Jew-haters, creeps and deviants.
29 January 2010 at 10:41 AM
Zionist
It’s the Liberal Democrats. Give a shit. *Shrugs*
29 January 2010 at 7:26 PM
DF
And the Lib Dems have suspiciously few non-white faces, have you noticed???
29 January 2010 at 8:03 PM
Nick Clegg on Israel
Chas, if you want to know the truth about Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats on Israel then read these:
Clegg calls for Brown to ‘unambiguously condemn’ Israel’s right to self-defence: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7815096.stm
Nick Clegg calls for Israel to be disarmed http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/07/nick-clegg-israel-gaza-war
Nick Clegg wonders whether the idea of Israel as a Jewish state is a new idea! http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/nick-clegg-israel-jewish%E2%80%99
Naive, distorted anti-Israel crap from Nick Clegg about the ‘blockade’ http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/22/lift-the-gaza-blocade-nick-clegg
Note also that Nick Clegg *lies* when he says that Jenny Tonge ‘does not speak for the party on Israel’. The Liberal Democrat website lists Jenny Tonge as ‘an expert on the Middle East’. She has been promoted since her pro-suicide bomber comments.
This is the truth about Nick Clegg and Israel. He is a nasty piece of work when it comes to Israel, so are many of the party’s candidates for the forthcoming election.
30 January 2010 at 10:31 AM
Ruth
An old point but worth repeating as it never seems to be addressed is that no one in any of the mainstream parties would get away with these sort of remarks were they directed at any other race or religion.
No party seems willing to address the anti-semitism in their own ranks. I recently made a complaint about a particularly nasty hate monger in the Labour ranks only to be palmed off with a very inadequate explanation that failed to address any of the points I made. The question is how can ordinary people tackle this? Complaining achieves nothing and voting against them is no guarentee of getting anything better in their place.
This is the charecter I complained about http://tiny.cc/mh9tl
In my opinion he manages to be worse than Tongue. Yet is free to publish the most poisonous, wicked rants againist Israel and the worlds Jews -even calling for Jews to be forced to act as they once did under the nazis -without so much as the mildest rebuke from the Labour party.
30 January 2010 at 6:53 PM
Duvid Crockett, King of DeLancey Street
Possibly pillow biter Jeremy Thorpe, rent boy renter Mark Oaten,lying “straight candidate” against Peter Tatchell, Simon Hughes, Paddy Pantsdown or Charlie “bottoms up” Kennedy could do better. Then there is Minger Campbell and Chris Davies and on and on and on.
31 January 2010 at 10:15 AM
Chas Newkey-Burden
Am loving your songs on CifWatch Duvid!
31 January 2010 at 10:58 AM
Duvid Crockett, King of DeLancey Street
Thanks Chas. Have just thought of another in the bath about “Shameless” and am waiting for the next opportunity to post it.
31 January 2010 at 11:29 AM
Ana
Ruth – I couldn’t get that link to work, however I presume you are talking about Cllr Terry Kelly. When I first encountered Mr Kelly he was (possibly drunk) and ranting on Harry’s Place. The original discussion is here http://www.hurryupharry.org/2010/01/22/ucu-lies-and-institutional-racism/ where he appears in the comments.
He re-appeared some time later claiming that he had been impersonated by someone who rather surprisingly had precisely his views and writing style. Unfortunately all he did was draw further attention to what he had posted on his own blog. More about that here http://www.hurryupharry.org/2010/01/26/imitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery/.
Hope those links work!
31 January 2010 at 6:13 PM
Ruth
Ana,
Yes Cllr Kelly the very same. The man is insane, literally insane. The last time I checked up on his blog he was claiming that Israel is worse than Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China and Nazi Germany. Funnily enough he didn’t produce any evidence to back up these extraordinary assertions.
1 February 2010 at 2:49 PM
cityca
Good call Chas. I really enjoyed watching Douglas Murray tear Tonge’s credibility to shreds, and with a passion. At a guess I’d say he really doesn’t like her, and it shows.
I think you’re right about the rest of the Lb Dem crowd, from Spitting Image David Steele, to Clegg himself. I can’t remember any Lib Dem having a good word to say about Israel – can anyone correct me on this?
Trouble is there are few politicians of any party who are prepared to put their money where their mouth is, and especially so if they have any sort of a Muslim voter base in their constituency.
1 February 2010 at 11:21 PM
Chas Newkey-Burden
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/27070/tonge-investigate-idf-stealing-organs-haiti
If Clegg does not act immediately in the light of this then that will speak *volumes*
11 February 2010 at 2:03 PM
Pete
Anyone who questions Israeli behaviour is labelled an anti-semite. Even Jews! I feel ashamed now how for so much of my life I admired your country.
13 February 2010 at 1:12 AM
Chas Newkey-Burden
Nice try but that’s a myth
13 February 2010 at 7:42 AM