New Antisemitism

Understanding the Conspiracy of MuralGate
“MuralGate” refers to the allegations of antisemitism that dogged Labour and especially Jeremy Corbyn when it was revealed in March that he seemed to approve of an antisemitic mural in 2012. Early on it was countered that this fabrication of outrage was a conspiracy (rather than a “Last Straw” to which exasperated Jews said “enough is enough”). This new analysis substantially vindicates the conspiracy theory.
1. By closely examining the number of “comments” on the screenshots of the incriminating images taken from the Facebook page I show that the shots were taken in 2012 – though only published for the first time in 2015, and that the 2018 image used was a composite.
2. By closely examining the tweets of the person concerned who re-released the data, and who accidentally published himself playing guitar at his wedding to @absoluteradio, I identify @CQuilty52 (his name, address, alter-egos, and so on).
3. By collecting and sequencing @CQuilty52’s relations with: (a) other antisemitism activists (and Douglas K Murray), (b) significant journalists (Nick Cohen, Isabel Hardman, Dan Hodges, Melanie Philips, and Guido Fawkes), (c) the Jewish establishment (BDBJs and JLC), (d) politicians especially Luciana Berger, I provide an account of @CQuilty52’s role in what was a carefully planned plot.
4. I show that @CQuilty52 is a “friend” of David Baddiel and David Schneider and look at their role in this story.
5. I provide highly probable reasons for thinking that @CQuilty52 was behind Guido Fawkes’ revelations regarding Naz Shah (2016), the coordination of the two inquiries into social media, the pressurising of the Jewish establishment, and liaison with politicians in the plot.
6. By examining at deliberate silences and feigned ignorance, I construct an argument that shows how an artificial calm was created before an artificial storm, one which implicates Luciana Berger, Sajid Javid and others (in setting up the antisemitism debate in April) but which was probably planned in February.
7. I decisively undermine the “authorised version,” the myth of the last straw, for example, by showing how the “enough is enough” narrative was already being constructed two weeks before enough officially became enough.
8. I probe the relations between others such as Alex Rubner and Victoria Freeman, Sarah (daughter of Baroness) Deech and others who appear in this story giving reasons why one but not the others was involved.
9. I give a brief but telling analysis of the comparable figure, Shai Masot, whose tweets show a similar concern to undermine critics of Israel by infiltrating UK politics.
10. On the balance of probabilities I argue that such also were the motives of the plotters.
The essay has six parts. In the first I examine the visual images that permit me to “carbon date” the time of capture. In the second I identify the alter egos of the chief protagonist and give an ideal type for his role (“The Production Manager”). In the third I look at the strategy and tactics of the Production Manager including the feigned ignorance of Corbyn’s comment and, as well, I undermine the opposing narrative. This permits a fourth part in which I present an informed sequence of events. The fifth and concluding part considers motive. Part six is an appendix taking the form of a time line which, with some repetition, assembles key events (with endnotes now as opposed to footnotes).

Extract:

I approach the issue of faith communities and racism from the perspective of having done historical and sociological research on British Jews. Jews are one of the oldest ‘minority ethnic’ populations in Britain, although their presence in the country was interrupted for a few centuries when they were expelled in 1290. The modern Anglo-Jewish community dates from the period of ‘resettlement’under Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s. Its long history has meant that it is both a useful lens for examining faith communities in Britain, and that it has been treated, in different ways, as a model minority by both sociologists and in public discourse. And because of the long history of racism against Jews in Britain,it provides a useful optic for understanding British racism and its changing nature.

"Was the antisemitism crisis in the UK Labour Party designed as a distraction from Gaza? Very early on some complained that Jeremy Corbyn was a victim of a smear campaign, but might it be more accurate to say that UK politics witnessed a deliberate smokescreen? As controversial as this narrative is, I think that all the evidence points in that direction."

In this paper I raise the question of whether the antisemitism crisis in the UK LP was an exercise in purposely timed hysteria to distract from Gaza, and by investigating open sources draw attention to the pro-Israeli activists orchestrating the smokescreen. I identify the real reasons for Jewish concern regarding Corbyn as Israeli legitimacy and the fear of BDS, especially should violence flare up - a concern that became more acute in 2018 - and indicate the strategy implemented as a result of this challenge. I note the extreme reluctance of the media in spelling out facts of the smokescreen, and locate this reluctance within a broader unwillingness meriting truth and reconciliation.

This short case study looks at a particular pro-Israeli hawk on Twitter, @GillianLazarus. Lazarus, of course, is a very human person whose twitter feed reveals a humane and intelligent personality. Nevertheless, I show how her involvement with the so-called “Gnasher Jews” leads to a polarising and monochrome mind-set, indeed, participation in a conspiracy. I identify the political philosophy behind the hawks as no less than that of Carl Schmitt, defender of Hitler’s political murders, and show how his Concept of the Political informs the meanings and values of the hawks’ way of life.

My complaint to the Jewish Chronicle now with IPSO. It gives a simplified version of my long argument in MuralGaga, namely, that MuralGate was not a "last straw" to which exasperated Jews said "enough is enough" but a calculated plan to fabricate outrage.

This file is essentially the same as my long essay MuralGaga renamed “MuralGate and Gaza.” It seems from the searches I have performed that MuralGaga has been deprioritised by Academia’s search engines so that it actually appears lower in searches than many other essays of mine on the same topic – despite the fact that with over 3,000 views MuralGaga is by far my most “popular” essay. I suspect that the pro-Israel activists have been complaining about my essay, something that Academia have not denied. I should point out that in this essay I was too Quilty-centric. Now I tend to think of Ben as more of a messenger boy. My later thought puts more emphasis on those behind the Twitter handle @GnasherJew.

This short report commissioned by the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism examines the 2014 protests over Israel's war in Gaza, exploring the extent and degree of antisemitism in the anti-Israel protests, as well as the reporting of this antisemitism and its impact on the Jewish community. It focuses in particular on the 50 days of Operation Protective Edge.

The research questions which this report attempts to address are:
• What were the predominant discourses in the UK protests relating to Operation Protective Edge?
• Were antisemitic discourses present? If so, how prevalent were they?
• Are UK protests relating to Operation Protective Edge comparable in scale and in discourse to protests relating to other conflicts?
• How do these issues relate to mainstream and Jewish media reporting on the conflict and on the demonstrations?
• How do these issues and their media representation affect Jewish feelings about antisemitism?

Muslims in Europe face discrimination on social, ethnic and religious grounds. They have also been accused of harboring stronger antisemitic attitudes than the general population. This paper is based on interviews with young male Muslims from Paris, Berlin, and London and relates the results to representative surveys. It explores: a) experiences and perceptions of discrimination and exclusion, b) antisemitic views, and c) the relation between them. While young Muslims experience discrimination in all three countries, the perceptions of inclusion and exclusion differ from country to country, shaped by concepts of nationality. Patterns of antisemitism, however, are similar across the three countries. They indicate that sources of antisemitism are multi-faceted and cannot be reduced either to religious influences or to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Anti-Muslim discrimination does not seem to be a relevant factor influencing antisemitic attitudes. Other sources are also explored.

In this bibliography I have compiled fifty essays on MuralGaga published between mid-July and mid-January. They detail my efforts of investigative journalism into the "info-wars" conducted by pro-Israel groups against the UK Labour Party immediately prior to the massacres in Gaza.

MuralGaga refers to the essay I published on my academic page “Chris S Friel” at Academia.edu and tweeted @ChrisFriel7 from July 2018. GagaPhooey refers to the reception of MuralGaga. The overt reception may be considered prior to publication and after, both positive and negative. However, the CSV data file for the visits to the academic site permits an analysis of the covert reaction, one that can shine a light on the overt reaction, one that can tell us “what’s going on.”

Betty Basan
Reflections on Last Newsletter

Jerusalem

Bloody Friday – March 30, 2018
Bloody Friday2 – April 6, 2018
Yasser Murtaja
Bloody Friday3 – April, 13, 2018
Bloody Friday4 – April 20, 2018

Israel Reaches Landmark Deal with UN to Resettle African Migrants. But then Retracts. 

David Grossman: Voice of moderation, of sanity, of wisdom
 
Spin Doctoring

British Labour and Antisemitism
Israeli Labour Party Suspends Relations with UK Labour Party

Millicent Fawcett

Zuckerberg’s Testimony in Congress

My New Article - Raphael Cohen-Almagor and E. Wesley Ely, “Euthanasia and Palliative Sedation in Belgium”, BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care (2018).

Wes Ely’s CNN Article

New Books – Amos N. Guiora, Earl Warren, Ernesto Miranda and Terrorism

Gem of the Month – Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Playing Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2

Spring Please
Guess
Monthly Poems
Light Side

Current data show that antisemitism is on the rise in the United States, yet there are few studies that show how antisemitism effects the personal and professional lives of Jewish university professors. This article discusses the concept of antisemitism and how it can be perceived by American Jews who teach in the academe. This mixed-method study investigates Jewish university professors’ (n = 93) experiences with antisemitism in both their past and present-day lives. The data shows that the majority of study participants have had personal experiences with anti-Jewish harassment and discrimination at some point. In addition, a large number of the study participants have also faced antisemitism on their own university campuses. This study reinforces the notion that antisemitism not only exists but continues to have negative consequences for Jewish members of U.S. society.

https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/NRUPR2YK9JIM4PCCDNYU/full?target=10.1080/13501674.2020.1877497

While Michael Checinski's anonymously-published piece “USSR and the Politics of Polish Antisemitism, 1956-1968” from the first issue of Soviet Jewish Affairs in 1971 can be read as both an analysis of antisemitism in Communist Poland and as a scholarly artifact that illustrates the manner in which the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Jewish communities in the region were studied and understood at the height of the Cold War, it also tells us much about the study of East European Jewry and other, related fields over the past fifty years. Indeed, key parts of Checinski's analysis including its focus on the Soviet Union's anti-Jewish policies, its emphasis on the corrosive if not inherently evil nature of the Soviet Union, and its examination of antisemitism in Poland remain central topics in the study of Soviet and East European Jewry. Moreover, while the Soviet Union has long passed into the annals of history, many of the same historical themes, narrative tropes and scholarly frameworks that once helped researchers frame the study of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are now critical parts of scholarly efforts to construct and explicate another important sub-field in the realm of Jewish studies, the study of antisemitism, including debates regarding the “New Antisemitism.” In this and other ways, Checinski's essay exemplifies not only the manner in which Cold War tensions, ideologies and anxieties shaped the study of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe for generations but also how they continue to influence the study of Soviet and East European Jewry and other, related fields to this day.