Come meet BellaM, one of the Guardian’s biased anti-Israel Mods

I think I should sign up to CiF and join the fray.

The other thing that strikes me is how puerile it is.

Vaporized

Actually, I think shamelesshussy went too far even for the BellaMs of the Guardian this time (Jeremy Sharon thread), and has been consigned to the legion of the damned – er. banned.

But it took about two years of virulent anti-Semitism and CW drawing attention to how the Guardian provides people like her and the others you listed witha supportive environment to get her there.

The employment application must ask are you an anti-Semite? if the answer is yes you are hired. The same approach determines whose comments get published in the Guardian and whose disappear.

“Of course, and some of the below the line commenters that have written above the line have had some of the best threads on Cif. ”

Yeh , right- like Tehrani Kid
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2008/10/03/the-guardian-sacks-racist-blogger/

These two Beautifulburnout,and Beatonthedonis,should do stand up comedy.
They could get paid by the rotten eggs that would get thrown at them.

Vaporized:

These comments are probably what you were referring to, specially the second and third:

ShamelessHussy
01 Nov 09, 1:36pm (10 minutes ago)

I’ve witnessed first-hand how the Muslims are prevented by the Jews from praying at Al Aqsa.

I’ve seen first hand how Muslim worshippers at Al Aqsa have been fired on by Jews.

I’ve seen first hand how Muslim lands around the Aqsa area have been stolen and given over to Jews.

i’ve seen a huge scale model built by Jewish extremists in the new ‘jewish quarter’ of the new Temple Mount they plan to build once they destroy Al Aqsa. These plans and models are all sanctioned by the Israeli state.
These Jews, it should be said, have as much connection to their ‘Temple Mount’ as English Christians have claim to Jerusalem or Indian Muslims have claim to Jerusalem.

That is, these Jews have no connection and no claim to Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish commentators, like Jeremy Sharon, are European and have as much right or claim to speak about Jerusalem as you or I do.

Jerusalem is Palestinian and despite the attempts of these Jewish immigrant interlopers with their colonial attitudes, it will return to Palestine, both Muslim and Christian. The Jews have made too many enemies for their presence to remain viable in the long term.

ShamelessHussy
01 Nov 09, 1:40pm (5 minutes ago)

JeremySharon

the Palestinian body politic has never reconciled itself to the fact that the Jewish people have deep-rooted historical ties to the land and are not simply foreign invaders who wandered in a few decades ago

Both Muslims and Christians can claim the same right to Jerusalem. Yet neither English Christians (apart from the Crusades, which no-one is now justifying) nor Indian Muslims have invaded Jerusalem and laid claim to it in the same way that Jews from all over the world have.

What makes you Jews so special that you can claim exclusive right over everyone else? Your attitude is racist. If you tried the same thing here matey, you’d be up against race hate charges.

ShamelessHussy
01 Nov 09, 1:50pm (2 minutes ago)

deewhy

“”"What makes you Jews so special?????????”"

Yes the Shameless Hussy sure knows a lot about race hate.

That’s what Jeremy Sharon is saying: I am a Jew therefore I have a claim on Jerusalem, therefore I am special.

Why, as a non-Palestinian Jew, is he so special and claim exclusive rights over a non-Palestinian Muslim or Christian?

So I ask him again: What makes you Jews so special?

That’s what it boils down to. The only race hate here is against the non-Jews of Palestine by people like Jeremy Sharon.

Crime pays:

http://www.onejerusalem.org/2009/10/united-nations-agency-boosts-a.php

vaporized

Despite everything that appears on CiF – Israel’s a free country!! Stupidly, sometimes, but isn’t that the nature of a free country?

Actually, I doubt anyone except a few Guardian readers in israel even know about CiF, let alone there ghastly people. Moeran and others may preen themselves on CiF, but from israel’s perspective they are meaningless.

I think BellaM is not a moderator – I seem to remember she wrote a CiF article herself on something to do with Israel.

The way it works is something like this – you are a young, inexperienced, semi-educated ‘journalist’; you need to establish yourself, to make a name for yourself and therefore you choose to write on that (ahem) easy to understand and under-reported topic – Israel. All the journos I knew all felt – straight from university having studied English lit – that they were suitably qualified to become instant experts on Israel.

It is easy to have an ‘opinion’ on Jews and Israel – every (wo)man and his dog has an opinion on it. With other parts of the world -eg. India/Pakistan/Kashmir-Sri Lanka-Chechnya-Afghanistan-Iran these solipistic amateurs are vaguely aware that they know nothing, that they would need to read the history books, study the culture and learn the language, visit the country many times and so on. This would require hard work, the need to study. But with Israel, there is no need to learn anything, to study anything, to be ‘aware of the complexities’. You just ‘know’ and you ‘know’ it all – and from this position of ignorance, you can then ‘judge’.

For a certain type of European (sensitive, naturally!), to mark Israel as an object of ‘hatred, ridicule and contempt’ is to absolve (her)himself from the inchoate sense of shame and guilt about their own history and own their culture. The rationalisations are endless: “Israel is a modern country like us; but we would never behave in the brutal, murderous way they do; we are not colonialists but they are; we are not war-mongers but they are; we are post-religious but they aren’t; we meddled in the Middle East and we were wrong to do so and the Israelis should just abandon their state to make up for our mistakes” and so on.

Add to this the self-serving ‘love’ for the ‘exotic’ Middle Eastern Muslims which has been bolstered by their education in Said influenced humanity departments and you get your BellaMs. The Palestinians and Israelis have to pay for BellaM to feel good about herself – the former to be encouraged to pursue the war against the Jews and Israelis, the latter to be shamed into disappearing.

Because they are ‘conflicted’, they must deny it when you tell them that about half of the Israelis are refugees from the Middle East not European ‘colonialist interlopers’; that Jews and Jerusalem are as one; that the Muslim Ummah’s hatred for Israel is religiously based. Religious hatred? Nothing to do with Christians; nothing to do with Muslims. It’s all the fault of those Zionists.

Looks like Bella fits belissima into her work environment!
John, great comment.

Yair Lapid’s article in Yediot Aharonot last Friday:

Just sue them
Yair Lapid offers new tactic in international struggle against new anti-Semites
Yair Lapid

We sat in the small and well-kept backyard at the home of Israel’s ambassador in London, Ron Prosor. Light rain was falling intermittently, leaving behind it fresh English air, yet the expressions around the table remained grim. The conversation focused on the British media’s takeover by anti-Israel elements.

Prosor is a large and smiling man, with a soft base voice, but his smile was gone when he spoke of the way he is being welcomed by pro-Palestinian protestors every time he arrives for a lecture at a British university.

You need to read some of the things they write about us here, he sighed. I don’t even know how to start responding to them.

Don’t respond, I said. Sue them.

One of those present, an influential London attorney, raised his head: What do you mean sue them? He said.

What’s so complicated? I replied. Just like they threaten to sue IDF officers, we need to sue them. Every journalist who refers to us as “war criminals” or “child killers” needs to know that the next day his newspaper will be slapped with a million pound lawsuit on behalf of the State of Israel.

What will we gain from it? Someone else asked.

Newspapers don’t like lawsuits, I said. It takes time, it costs money, the paper’s insurance company raises their premium, stockholders are wondering why they got into this mess to begin with, and the editor in chief is infuriated after he discovers that he needs to waste two days on testifying in respect to an article that he didn’t even read.

The press won’t come out against us? Prosor asked.

There is no such thing as “the press,” I said. This is the most competitive profession in the world, and everyone is just waiting to see the others fall. Do you really think that The Independent cares whether we sue The Guardian? They’ll be happy about it.

And who will represent us? Asked someone else.

Him, I gestured at the lawyer sitting with us, and a hundred others like him. If the Jewish people has one reservoir that will never run out, it’s lawyers. Every Western capital boasts at least five successful Jewish law firms, and most of them will be glad to represent the State of Israel against the new anti-Semitism.

The lawyer in the group suddenly looked up. It will work, he said. I’m willing to take London upon myself.

We’ll be attacked over this, said Prosor. So? I responded. Aren’t they attacking us already at this time?

John, I agree with your explanation of the mechanics of how such Israel/Jew-hatred comes about. It is, in effect, a full-blown projection on the parts of people like BellaM and her disreputable chums on CiF.

The give-away, of course, is the black-and-white nature of it – Israel is ALL bad, there is nothing good about her, according to these intellectually and emotionally challenged specimens. Israel and Jews HAVE to be all bad in order for the BellaMs of CiF to split off the bad inside themselves and put it onto Israel so as to keep themselves comfortable. They can only function if they perceive themselves to be “all good” and they cannot be that way unless Israel is “all bad.” This is dysfunctional to say the least.

They are not aware that they are doing this – it is unconscious – but it is evidence of deep and enduring psychological conflict, and when CiF mods and writers are challenged about their dichotomous views they act out in the most bizarre ways and then deny that they are conflicted/biased/anti-Israel.

I could write a case study about Bella M alone.

(Bella M, what about it? I could get published easily and you would be far more famous, although anonymous, than you could ever be on CiF?)

MITNAGED

They are not aware that they are doing this – it is unconscious – but it is evidence of deep and enduring psychological conflict, and when CiF mods and writers are challenged about their dichotomous views they act out in the most bizarre ways and then deny that they are conflicted/biased/anti-Israel.

My understanding of the ’splitting’ involved is that immense amounts of psychic energy are devoted to maintaining this defence of (the good) self at the expense of authenticity and integrity.

We’ll be attacked over this, said Prosor. So? I responded. Aren’t they attacking us already at this time?

Will it get worse? Most certainly. Now we have
“The Zionists use their power/influence/money/ownership of media/control of institutions to censor and prevent truthseekers from exposing their murderous agenda”- blahblahnormanfinkelsteinblahblahmingmenziescabaljennytongerichardingramsblah.

If lawyers sue the wretched and lying newspapers and their amateur journos for libel, we’ll get: “”The Zionists use their power/influence/money/ownership of media/control of institutions to censor and prevent truthseekers from exposing their murderous agenda and now they are trying to suborn those of our judges who aren’t already fifth column Zionists”.

John, re the second part of your post:

Don’t forget that we’re talking paranoid projection here. Whatever we do or don’t do there will be this accusation. So why not do it?

Of course it will get worse.

And if the Zios are so accused, then we/they can counter with the number of times court actions have been brought by Islamists and their fellow travellers too.

MindTheCrap

Finally!

Suing papers like the Guardian is something I’ve been advocating for a couple of years now – even if you don’t win on technicalities, you tie them up and make them a lot more careful about publishing the endless anti-israeli tirades and permitting the sort of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic comments that are the daily fare on CIF.

There must be a British Allen Dershowitz out there who is willing to do this, and enough money in the Jewish community to pay his fees.

AKUS:

“There must be a British Allen Dershowitz out there who is willing to do this, and enough money in the Jewish community to pay his fees.”

Unfortunately the Jewish community in Britain is one of the most disorganised and timid in the world which is probably the main reason the Guardian publishes wiith impunity. Can you imagine an important American newspaper doing the same? They know that the ADL and the Dershowitzes won’t give them a moment of peace.

I agree that the British Jewish community is timid but do you read the comments at the Washington Post and the New York Times? They can also be pretty repulsively anti-Semitic although not so entrenched as at CiF.

Let’s definitely organise a fighting fund in order to engage a litigator to sue the pants off The Guardian and The Independent. It’s about time that we came out of the shadows.

HairShirt – MindtheCrap, I agree with Yair Lapid and am surprised at Prosser’s attitude. I have a lot of respect for him, but hasn’t he realised that playing “nice” with these people means that they will walk all over us? No, it’s time that the Israeli government dealt with them in the only language they would understand – back at them, tenfold..

For the first time after being directed to CIFWatch, I feel that the subject of legal action against The Guardian should not be discussed on a public forum such as this.

I certainly ain’t a lawyer but a gut feeling ‘has indicated this to me’.

Even if an action against the Guardian was successful, the more pertinent question would be if public opinion had registered such an action positively or not and I cannot answer that.

‘Nuf said.

Sergio

Thats below the belt. I prefer we focus on the substance here. We don’t have to stoop to their level.

Hawkeye,

FYI, the term ‘bella’ means good-looking and nice, too. I ended my comment with ” nasty like the rest of them.”

Thank you.

Good afternoon all

Sorry this doesn’t relate to the current post but I found it when I was browsing the site and it’s a response from Guardian Hates Jews to something I’d posted on an earlier thread.

GHJ says I suspect sheffpixie knows full well the anti-Semitic mantra of “I don’t hate Jews, only the policies of the Israeli government.”

GHJ – There are a lot of governments around the world I have reservations about (including my own). Some I even despise utterly – in that category the governments of Zimbabwe, Iran, Egypt, Russia spring to mind – I think they’re corrupt, brutal and self serving. That does not mean I despise or am prejudiced against people from those countries, or any people from those countries who live in their own diasporas.

The same goes for Israel and the Jewish people. The reservations I may personally have about the wisdom of Israeli government policies does not make me an anti semite which is what you appear to be suggesting.

I don’t very often post on cif I/P threads as I find them incredibly depressing. They seem to generate far more heat than light and lots of abuse which I don’t like and find counter productive, although I do have an interest in middle east politics which is why when I found this site I thought I’d have a look.

Bu it seems apparent that this is not the place for me so I’ll leave it at that. Sorry to have butted in. Shalom.

JerusalemMite

I think because the moderators view the conflict from their political point of view. Jews stole Palestinian land, or the Palestinians are the victims of colonialism, etc. This “justifies” anti Semitic remarks to the moderators. The truth is “beside the point”.

I’m not sure how they come up with carpet bombing in Gaza, however. I suspect that if independence day fireworks crosses over the green line, that’s carpet bombing to some of the posters.

Thanks

TomWonacott: This political attitude of the moderators has to do with sympathy for the underdog. They are presented with Israel, a technologically advanced country (and btw Jewish) versus a bunch of tribesmen with homemade weapons. They don’t see that being technologically advanced doesn’t grow us each a suit of armour and automatic invincibility. They don’t bother to think themselves into the skin of people living in the Negev who suffer the terror of being the target of missiles, no matter how old or young, how well or ill they are.

There seems to be less sympathy for the West Bank than for Hamas if the attitude of the commenters are any guide. I was wondering whether this had to do with the fact that Abbas and his advisers are presenting themselves as Westerners lately, dressed in suits and wearing ties. Hamas representatives always look more nomadic and like a desert tribe.

Margie

A right-wing blogger you might not like says that if you refer to the “West Bank” rather than “Judea and Samaria” then you should refer to Jerusalem as “al-Quds” since you are promoting the Arab imperialist nomenclature.

Please don’t shoot the messenger!

Margie: I’m not sure that wouldn’t be misunderstood or twisted. About ten years ago one could correct “occupied territories” to “disputed territories”, or even better, use “the Territories”.

Now however the use of the deceitful “(belligerent) occupation” is so predominant that I think you’d have to produce the history every time you used “territories”.

The anti-semitism is shocking, but the pro-Muslim slant of CiF is equally so. I had made a number of comments on the history of Mohammed and Islam, all deleted, then i got banned. The Guardian’s ‘narrative’ is that Islam is a religion of peace, no facts that might question this are allowed.

Any comment along these lines will get you banned:

According to the NSA, 50% of the world’s known terrorist groups are Islamic, no other religion comes close.

Mohammed assassinated his political opponents and allowed his followers to lie to achieve this.

Mohammed had 600 Jews beheaded at Medina market.

Mohammed annihilated the 3 Jewish tribes of Arabia.

The Koran has a unique theological idea called abrogation, where the earlier more peaceful verses, written in Mecca, are superceded by the more violent verses written in Medina.

All of these are easily checkable facts, but they don’t fit the narrative of Muslims are innocent, so they are banned. Guardian writers don’t seem to read any books criticising Islam, or even the Koran for that matter.

Jimster

For the Guardian, fiction is preferable if it promotes tolerance – at least for Muslims. Ironically, fiction is also preferable if it promotes hatred for the Jewish state (AIPAC, carpet bombing, etc.).

To the Guardian, the fact that 50% of the conflicts involve Muslims just shows how pervasively the west has meddled into the affairs of the third world. Its not their fault.

Margie: Perhaps we should use “Shtahim” in English?

Suing the Guardian is a big mistake. For a start it perpetuates the stereotype of the Jew as professional money-grabber. Second, any action is unlikely to succeed as lots of the bile is op-ed. Third, a failed action would buoy the Guardian and its peers and mostly likely increase the amount of anti-Israel guff being churned out.

The Guardian as an institution is a short term problem anyway. It’s going bust.

I find it extremely interesting that it is necessary to monitor what is said in the Guardian newspaper. When I was subscriber to the overseas edition, many years ago, I used to describe it as the Guardian Weakly but having visited the UK on a number of occasions, I find the column “Comment is free” to be viciously biased and at times to presenting arguments which have no basis in fact and little in the way of substance. Perhaps they should say: comment is free but talk is cheap and that about sums it up.

However, the ferocious attacks on Melanie Phillips and some of the blogs appended thereto, which you have highlighted, is absolutely appalling. Do the British people live in cloud cuckoo land? Do they not realize even after so many uncovered terrorist plots, which mercifully did not reach fruition, that the UK as a modern Western liberal democratic society is a target for Islamic extremists?

Down here in Sleepy Hollow, educating the public is an important but difficult task. A friend of mine who writes on terrorism considers that the great Australian public will not be roused from their stupor until we experience a 9/11 or a 7/7. There have been to several major terrorist trials and half the judiciary appears to believe that putative terrorists are somehow victims. Melanie Phillips does her best to expose these people for what they are and we are the richer for her comment. The sad fact of the matter is that multiculturalism is doomed to failure when you permit a hostile counterculture to exist in your midst, whose sworn aim is nothing less than the destruction of all the freedoms fought for over centuries, such as parliamentary democracy (however bad that may be) freedom of speech, freedom of worship and so on. We share the Judeo-Christian ethic and as such, Al Qaeda and allied organizations have declared war on us: not just the US but every Western country that regards itself as democratic.

Melanie Phillips does not need me to rise in her defence but as the saying goes, the only necessary thing for the triumph of tyranny is that good men remain silent. In my own way, I’m certainly not silent and I appreciate your efforts in trying to roll back what appears to be a horrible tsunami to be visited on our populations.