Tag Archives: israel

First Jewish ambassador to Israel has divided loyalties, says Labour MP

By Nick Thornsby | Published 1st December 2011 - 7:28 pm

A Labour MP has caused outrage by suggesting that Britain’s first Jewish ambassador to Israel has divided loyalties because he has “proclaimed himself to be a Zionist”.

Challenged by the JC to clarify his comments about Matthew Gould, who took up the post last year, Paul Flynn, the Labour MP for Newport West, said ambassadors to Israel had not previously been Jewish “to avoid the accusation that they have gone native”.

Britain needed, he said, “someone with roots in the UK [who] can’t be accused of having Jewish loyalty”.

The Foreign Office and MPs from across the political spectrum

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Posted in News | Also tagged alistair burt, matthew gould, paul flynn | 26 Comments

Opinion: How not to further the Palestinian cause

By Matthew Harris | Published 2nd September 2011 - 2:55 pm

The other day at a London Underground station, I saw a man who was visibly distressed. A 50-something Asian gentleman in a suit, he’d been waiting for his wife when a man asked him to move out of the way on a narrow path. Except he hadn’t just asked him to move – he’d abused him racially and pushed against him.

I could see that he was upset, so I stopped and he told me what had happened. Imagine, however, if, instead of expressing sympathy, I had told him that he was in the wrong for having been in someone’s way …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged andrew donnachie, chanan reitblat, palestine | 21 Comments

Opinion: a Palestinian state cannot wait

By Daniel Furr | Published 7th December 2010 - 11:26 am

The superstition and messianic belief, that Israel was founded on in 1948, has helped to establish an apartheid esque society. Now I do not deny the existence of Israel, of course not. Many nations have been founded on injustices but Israel’s demagogic lie has done enormous damage. The schism, which can be summarised by the phrase “A land without a people for a people without a land” suggested that the people in Palestine did not really exist or were a coherent genuine people. Refusal to acknowledge the Palestinian ethnic group has been a problematic area for Israel, especially since …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged palestine, settlements, two state solution | 13 Comments

Opinion: The automaton body-politic

By Kerry Hutchinson | Published 10th August 2010 - 11:20 am

Not for nothing was England once known as ‘Perfidious Albion’ – it would change policy stances more often than a modern quick-change model on a catwalk. Ah yes, those days when foreign policy was as reliably firm as blancmange in a microwave set on high. But not nowadays, of course.

No, Foreign Secretaries and their FCO policy officials who devise and draft policy these post-Great Game days can be relied upon to issue policy that is robustly embedded in the nine points of policy-making as set down by the Cabinet Office and the Better Regulation Executive (BRE). To which all Government …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged william hague | 24 Comments

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone calls for peace in Jewish Chronicle

By NewsHound | Published 25th April 2010 - 10:35 am

Lynne Featherstone has a balanced piece in the Jewish Chron this week:

In Hornsey & Wood Green in North London, there is a strong pro-Israel lobby and a strong pro-Palestinian lobby. When Jenny Tonge made her disgraceful and ignorant comments in the JC, calling for an inquiry into Israel taking organs in Haiti, I got emails from the pro-Israel lobby saying that the Liberal Democrats were pro-Palestinian.

When Nick Clegg then rightly sacked Baroness Tonge from the front bench, I received emails claiming that he had only done so because the “Zionist conspiracy” had got to him. Both were symptomatic of the

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged jenny tonge, lynne featherstone, nick clegg, palestine | 17 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 24 March 2010

By Iain Roberts | Published 24th March 2010 - 8:05 am

It’s budget day, and with the General Election just six weeks away, the big question is whether Darling will pull something out of the hat to make us all feel happier (in the short term, at least) or whether – as he’s suggested so far – it’ll be steady as she goes.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Jennie Rigg launches her election campaign – we wish her every success
Conservatives – arrogant and wasting our time and money, says Mark on Liberal Bureaucracy.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

The clamour to ban mephodrone continues

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged jennie rigg, mark valladares, mephodrone | Leave a comment

Daily View 2×2: Jenga special

By Mark Pack | Published 21st March 2010 - 9:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 9am. It’s time for jenga, but first the news.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

A failure of scrutiny on digital bill: Peter Black blogs about the letter signed by, amongst others, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidates Bridget Fox and Julian Huppert. Danger of Parliament rushing through legislation without proper debate? Who would have thought it.
Elementary errors: Giles Wilkes on the important difference between a stock and a flow. More interesting and useful than I’ve made it sound.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

BA fights to limit the impact of cabin crew strike

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged benjamin netanyahu, bridget fox, british airways, canada, digital economy bill, jenga, julian huppert, UNITE | 1 Comment

LibLink … Nick Clegg et al: An appeal for the victims of Gaza

By NewsHound | Published 27th December 2009 - 3:30 pm

Nick Clegg is a lead signatory for a letter in today’s Observer calling on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to abide by UN security council resolution 1860 and bring an end to the suffering of the people of Gaza. Here’s what it says:

One year on from Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government continues to imprison 1.5 million Palestinians and prevent the rebuilding of its shattered infrastructure.

Israel’s blockade of Gaza, described by the UN fact-finding mission as “collective punishment”, stops reconstruction materials and humanitarian aid from reaching those who so desperately require it.

As a result

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged gaza, nick clegg, palestine, the observer, united nations | Leave a comment

LibLink … Clegg on Gaza

By NewsHound | Published 24th December 2009 - 2:01 pm

Writing in the Guardian two days ago, Nick Clegg highlighted Palestinian suffering in Gaza:

On 27 December last year, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, an overwhelming exercise of military force aimed at silencing the Hamas rockets which had terrorised Israeli towns and villages. The immediate effects of the invasion are well known: 1,400 Palestinians dead, mostly civilians, with many more wounded or displaced; 10 Israeli soldiers and three civilians killed, dozens more injured; and thousands of families in southern Israel forced to flee to other parts of the country. The rocketfire from Gaza into Israel has slowed but

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged gaza, nick clegg, operation cast lead, palestine | 4 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 20 September 2009

By Mark Pack | Published 20th September 2009 - 7:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 7am. It’s time for the Daily View, today with a special Trojan Horse supplement.

2 Big Stories

Obama attempts to revive Middle East peace efforts

So reports the BBC:

Mr Obama will first hold separate talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the White House says.

The three men, who will be in New York for the UN General Assembly, will then hold joint discussions.

The move comes after US envoy George Mitchell’s latest round of shuttle diplomacy ended without agreement.

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged barack obama, david cameron, nick clegg, palestine | 2 Comments

Nick Clegg: angry liberal

By The Voice | Published 18th September 2009 - 7:25 pm

Drama and political passion over at the Jewish Chronicle, where Nick Clegg vows to Martin Bright that he will not silence controverial Lib Dem peer Baroness (Jenny) Tonge, whose outspoken comments on the Israeli-Palestine conflict have in the past landed her in hot water.

Nick Clegg is angry. No, it’s beyond angry. Incandescent almost gets it, but that still doesn’t capture the full fury of the man as he leans forward from his chair in the Liberal Democrat leader’s office in the House of Commons.

The accusation that Mr Clegg had failed to honour his commitment to act against the pro-Palestinian Lib

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Posted in Europe / International | Also tagged jenny tonge, jewish chronicle, nick clegg, palestine | 5 Comments

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Jonathan Fryer – What Hope for the Middle East?

By The Voice | Published 15th April 2009 - 6:30 pm

Over at Society Today, Lib Dem blogger and London candidate for the European Parliament Jonathan Fryer examines the prospects for peace in the troubled region. Here’s an excerpt:

… the prognosis for the future need not necessarily be as grim as the pessimists fear. First and foremost, the arrival of Barack Obama in the White House should provide a whole new dynamic to the Washington-Tel Aviv axis. In the past, US administrations – including that of George W Bush – have allowed Israel to get away with murder, literally and figuratively. That has included the ongoing expansion of Jewish settlements in

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Posted in Europe / International, LibLink | Also tagged barack obama, european union, jonathan fryer, middle east, palastine | Leave a comment

“Women Erased in Israel, Flogged in Pakistan and Restricted in Afghanistan”

By Mark Pack | Published 4th April 2009 - 9:12 am

The New York Times headline neatly wraps up three stories about the at times grim, and in the photoshopping case verging on farcical, struggle for women’s rights across much of the Middle East:

On Friday, The Associated Press reported that Israeli newspapers “aimed at ultra-Orthodox Jewish readers” digitally manipulated a photograph of the new Israeli government, to remove two female cabinet ministers, Limor Livnat and Sofa Landver…

The Pakistani newspaper Dawn reports on Friday that Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, is “taking serious notice of the public flogging of a girl in Swat” [footage of which was broadcast by Channel 4]

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Posted in Europe / International | Also tagged afghanistan, pakistan | 1 Comment

Does the Israeli election result prove PR just doesn’t work?

By Stephen Tall | Published 12th February 2009 - 8:22 pm

Whenever electoral reform – ie, proportional representation or ‘fair votes’ – is debated, those who oppose it will almost inevitably use a variation on the following arguments:

• it produces coalition governments which are weak, divided and indecisive (far better, obviously, to have strong government regardless of whether a majority of people actually voted for it);
• coalition are created by political deals in “smoke-filled rooms” which the voters have no control over (unlike our Parliamentary system of whipping and Prime Ministerial patronage, of course);
• The government which emerges bears no relation to the individual parties most voters support (compared with …

Posted in Europe / International, News | Also tagged electoral reform, make votes count, middle east, proportional representation | 4 Comments

Opinion: Israel has no option but to defend itself against Hamas and Iran

By Matthew Harris | Published 13th January 2009 - 4:10 pm

Lib Dem Voice has invited both the Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine (article published here yesterday) and the Friends of Israel to submit articles looking at the current Middle East crisis. Today we publish this contribution from Matthew Harris, Secretary of Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel.

At the pro-Israeli peace rally on Sunday 11 January, Trafalgar Square echoed to the sound of speaker after speaker calling, as the thousands of placards read, for “peace for the people of Israel and Gaza”. As a Liberal Democrat who believes in human rights and the rule of law, I cannot echo those …

Posted in Europe / International, Op-eds | Also tagged friends of israel (Lib Dem), gaza, middle east, palestine | 40 Comments

Tag Archives: israel

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