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AP: British Diplomat Who Screamed For Israel To Be Wiped Out Was "Criticizing Israel's Conduct" (Plus: British Anti-Semitism Now Kind Of An Everyday Thing)

Everyday

Oh please:

A British official says a U.K. diplomat has been suspended following his arrest for an alleged anti-Semitic rant in a London gym... He allegedly used foul language and criticized Israel's conduct during the conflict in Gaza and allegedly made an offensive comment about Judaism. Merron says the police investigation continues.

Technically he said that Israelis should be "wiped off the face of the Earth" and was physically unable to stop shouting "fucking Israelis, fucking Jews." But why let details get in the way of writing "allegedly" over and over again? It's not like calling for the destruction of Israel is outside the spectrum of acceptable British public discourse:

Here's the ever delightful Azzam Tamimi watched by George Galloway in London "Today we are all Hamas", "Israel has dug his grave", "That Embassy there will one day be a Palestinian Embassy" (So no return to 1967 borders but the destruction of Israel?)... Here's George Galloway's "speech" from the same rally calling on the crowd to "shut down the Israel shops in those shopping centres, selling stolen goods grown on stolen land". Is all Israel "stolen land"? "We hope the great people of Egypt will have risen up and swept away the dictator Hosni Mubarek" How welcome will George Galloway be in Egypt now?

This is a country where public intellectuals take the existence of subversive Jewish cabals as a simple matter of fact:

A top British scientist drew fire from American Jewish organizations on Monday, after remarking that the American Jewish lobby is "monopolizing American foreign policy." Professor Richard Dawkins, a leading evolutionary biologist at Oxford University, was quoted by the British Guardian newspaper as saying last week: "When you think about how fantastically successful the Jewish lobby has been, though, in fact, they are less numerous I am told - religious Jews anyway - than atheists and (yet they) more or less monopolize American foreign policy as far as many people can see. So if atheists could achieve a small fraction of that influence, the world would be a better place."

This isn't the Walt-Mearsheimer-Duke move, where you spin a conspiracy fantasy as a pretext for anti-Semitic cant. It's even more basic: anti-Jewish conspiracy theories are just everyday in Britain. They're part of the collective pool of cultural facts and resources. They're what there is.

British newspapers are printing anti-Semitic cartoons that are so vulgar that the State Department calls them out. London playwrights - when they're not creating new anti-Jewish plays - are actually innovating on Dickens's anti-Jewish Fagin depiction.

Make anti-Semitic tropes respectable enough, of course, and the inevitable result is open pathological hatred. So London street protesters have taken to depicting "The Jew" eating babies:

No wonder British Jews are hiring ex-soldiers to guard their kids.

References:
* UK diplomat suspended following arrest [AP]
* High-Ranking UK Diplomat Not As Good At Nudge-Wink Anti-Zionism As Other Foreign Policy Experts, Arrested For Anti-Semitic Incitement [MR]
* Azzim Tamimi and George Galloway's recent speeches [Not A Sheep]
* 'Jews monopolize American policy' [YNet]
* The Legacy of Der Stuermer: Arab Cartoons, Anti-Semitism and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion [CounterKnowledge]
* UK Jews brand 'Play for Gaza' libelous, anti-Semitic [JPost]
* New depiction of Fagin on London stage sparks fears of anti-Semitic stereotypes [Ha'aretz]
* Jew-hatred in London: Protesters depict "the Jew" eating dead babies [Jihad Watch]
* Ex-soldier guard for Jew pupils [The People]

Previously:
* British Muslims Doing Their Best To Cleanse Britain Of Jews
* I'm Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Britain Hands Itself Over To Radical Islam, Blames Israel
* Israeli Flag Now Functionally Illegal In Germany And Britain Because It "Provokes" Violent Anti-Semitic Mobs

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  • Omri Ceren is a PhD candidate studying Rhetoric at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. He lives in downtown Los Angeles.

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