Antisemitism and the reported world

[oberliner]

Apparently, according to Channel 4's Dispatches programme on Monday night, there are some wealthy Jews out there bent on influencing British government policy on Israel. What a shocking finding. I wonder what they will uncover next? Lobbyists trying to influence government health policy, perhaps? Pressure groups seeking to change government policy on the war in Iraq? Business leaders trying to alter government thinking on economic policy?

Aside from the shoddy research and the barely concealed antisemitic undertones (the idea of a shady, morally repugnant "cabal" of Jews seeking to control the world is a classic antisemitic myth), it was this lack of context that was most disturbing about the programme. As David Cesarani argued in his comment on the programme, there are numerous lobbying groups working with government and the media, trying to influence policy and opinion on a wide range of issues. Some of these even try to represent the Palestinian cause.

There are also numerous Jewish leaders and philanthropists who support and invest in Palestinian Israeli causes, including the single largest pro-Israel charity in the UK and – according to the Jewish Chronicle – the single most influential philanthropist in the British Jewish community. Jewish leaders differ on how best to support Israel, and the opinions range from unquestioning support to intense criticism. But Channel 4 failed to include such contextual framing in its hour-long documentary, presumably because that might have undermined its highly spurious argument.

But then, context is always the problem. There was no effort throughout the programme to contextualise Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. There was no mention of the Israeli government's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, and the fact that, subsequently, Hamas had used the territory to launch countless randomly targeted missile attacks on Israeli towns and villages. In its analysis of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, it failed to mention the thousands of missiles Hezbollah had assembled with Iranian and Syrian support on Israel's northern border, which it used with great effect to terrorise the Israeli population.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/18/dispatches-israeli-lobby-antisemitism