Re the Freemasons: it’s usually been the case, historically, that the enemies of the one have been the enemies of the other – remember those three “métèque ” elements within France always seen as working to undermine the national interest by the extreme Right, the third being the Protestants?
I think the first to link Jews and Freemasons together as alleged allied forces in a nefarious conspiracy was the Jewish apostate Jacob Brafman in a terrible publication in Tsarist Russia about 1860 that seems to have inspired the later Protocols.

I now realise that, every day, a cowed and intimidated Guardian publishes story after story in support of Israel, focusing relentlessly upon the beleaguerment of its citizens under the onslaught from Hamas while never carrying anything in favour of the Palestinians, presenting the Middle East entirely through a pro-Israel prism and never even reporting the Palestinian point of view except for a few contemptuous references suggesting that they are always lying.

I now realise that every day a cowed and intimidated BBC transmits only the most admiring reports of Israeli soldiers being put in harm’s way by their commanders in order to avoid killing Palestinian civilians wherever possible, and that its Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen is guilty of the most flagrant admiration for the Israel Defence Force and of presenting a version of Israel’s history which is drawn entirely from a Jewish perspective.

I now realise that Britain has been forced to endorse the most drastic and gung-ho action possible against Iran to stop it from going nuclear – part of the approach to the region which, in the memorable words of no less an authority than the former British ambassador to Iran, has been promoted by British Jews who are acting against the national interest of Britain and in the interests of another country.

I now realise that both Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Tory foreign affairs spokesman William Hague have done nothing other than mouth off in support for Israel’s actions in Gaza or in the settlements, with Miliband in particular denouncing the Goldstone report and voting against it at the UN; and that both are loud in their grotesquely lop-sided and obsessional condemnation of the Palestinians and the Arab world for being the cause of the Middle East conflict.

I now realise that Miliband, Hague, the editor of the Guardian and the Director-General of the BBC are all tragic, broken figures who have been so badly traumatised by the truly diabolical power of this lobby that they are helplessly unable to do anything other than pump out pro-Israel propaganda, and weakly protest at the truly demented and hysterical frenzy of smears, libels, insults, ad-hominem attacks, fabrications, distortions and, well, sheer undiluted bigotry and hatred that are daily hurled at these defenceless individuals by these rich and powerful Jews.

I now realise just how successful the British Israel lobby has been – as this ‘Dispatches’ programme so brilliantly conveyed – in treacherously subverting British politics and intimidating the media to realise its diabolical aim of harnessing politicians and journalists to Israel ’s cause, an aim in which it has had such conspicuous success.

And just how has this lobby managed to gain so much power over Britain ’s ruling and media class – far more so than the poor old Arabs have ever managed? Ah well, there’s one vital thing Peter Oborne forgot to tell us.

You see, the Jews have all the oil.

(I wish I had written this, but I didn’t. Thanks, Melanie.)

Here is someone who was beaten up as a result of a false report about Israel.

If you are reading this Alan Rusbridger – you said in the programme you found it “difficult to believe” that any journalistic coverage of events in Israel could result in acts of violence against Jews on the streets of Britain.

You no doubt do not want to believe it.

TO : snigger and bobby inter alia The chances of Peter Oborne doing a documentary on any of the topics listed are about as likely as the BBC or Channel 4 broadcasting it and my chances of becoming the next Chief Rabbi.

Dispatches is now up on the Internet. It’s bed time for me, but the intro seemed rather ridiculous …

Hawkeye said

Avi Shlaim … told us that the UK Jewish Community is ‘split’ on Israel (it isn’t – there is a tiny minority who did not support Cast Lead)

Being outside the UK I was unable to watch Dispatches.

Was Shlaim’s “split” quote specifically about Cast Lead – or about e.g. WB settlement policy?

“….The Liberal Jewish synagogue chairwoman Rita Adler has distanced herself from comments that the synagogue’s Emeritus Rabbi David Goldberg made in the programme, claiming he was speaking in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the synagogue….”

Unless I am mistaken, this character left the original committee of IJV because he said it lacked direction. Unless he’s very careful he’ll go the way of Tony Lerman.

What is it with these people who, as Chas N-B says quite rightly of Rusbridger, have zero self-awareness?

I am waiting for a grand announcement by Matt Seaton about computer glitches, whereas it’s more likely that their mods are running around in headless chicken mode because all of their preconceived ideas about what should remain on the page are now in a constant state of flux.

I am glad your post went up, though. However, I still maintain that CiF is run along Stalinesque lines.

And you go on to describe what you call “the torrent of hateful comments” on two of CiF threads.

Does that mean, in fact, that you believe that Jonathan, Hawkeye and the many others may be correct in at least some of what they argue?

Peterjjackson, no there isn’t, but remember CiF exists in its own Stalinesque bubble, where any challenge to its world view or the people who run it is ruthlessly extinguished.

(pretzelberg, was that hyperbolic enough for you?)

Apologies to Cif if so.

I’ve been removed entirely from the Oborne thread, for posting (in its final version, after removing reference to another airbrushed commenter) this:

“It looks odd to me that anti-Israel posters on here, who it seems are in a vast majority, regularly claim that they are silenced by a professional force of lobbyists represented by a handful of contributors who don’t believe Israel is automatically evil. What silencing where?

As for the pressure on Mr Rusbridger, shown in the programme, it doesn’t seem to have caused him to change anything in the paper. So Gerald Ronson said he’d ‘crossed the line’? It didn’t make him pull any articles, change editorial policy, or instruct Cif moderators to let only pro-Israel comments through. Unless you have evidence to the contrary?

I’d expect editors in the national press to have enough backbone to stand up to the barrage of PR, complaints, political attacks and the like that must arrive every day. I’m sure Mr Rusbridger can take care of himself.”

Is there anything, repeat anything, wrong with that? I guess I could keep posting it until the moderators or I run out of patience, but I can’t figure out what the objection is.

But I certainly agree re. the torrent of hateful comments on the two CiF threads.

The poster TruthBeToldToAll says Israel’s “citizenry are predominantly European migrants”.
a) That’s BS even counting people descended from European immigrants.
b) This would suggest that the poster considers e.g. black and Asian Brits to be “migrants”. I’ll be bringing this up tomorrow …
c) He’s since (after I challenged him) changed his tune to “How would you describe the ethnic origins of the majority of people migrating to Israel?”

This really is desperate stuff.

Having said that, I agree that all foreign interest groups should be regulated – our politicians being as morally challenged as they are – and yes, let’s have another programme by Peter Oborne about the influence of the Saudis on the Foreign Office and on our universities.

If Oborne wants to convince us that his programme last night was not born of antisemitic conspiracy theory this is the best way that he could do it.

Actually you’ve reminded me of a Jewish joke from, I think, “The Joys of Yiddish:”

The scene is one of the Nuremberg Rallies in Nazi Germany. Goebbels is on the podium doing his thing, frothing at the mouth in his hatred of the Jews. At the rear of the arena are two Jews who have managed to sneak in:

Goebbels: Who is responsible for all this country’s disease, difficulties and woes?

The crowd is silent.

First Jew shouts: The bicycle riders!

Goebbels: Why the bicycle riders???

First Jew shouts: Why the Jews?