Owen Jones, Israel and Numberwang
by Shams Pirani
[the problem of self-importance, racism and stupidity in white britain]
<< Presenter: Julie to play first Julie: three
Simon: nine
Julie: sixteen
Simon: twelve
Julie: eight point two
Simon: four
Presenter: That's numberwang, round two, Simon to play first. Simon: twenty seven
Julie: thirty
Simon: oh, eighteen
Julie: fifty four
Presenter: That's numberwang >> (Mitchell and Webb)
<< The way charges of anti-semitism are being used in Britain to undermine the Corbyn-led Labour Party is not only a disgrace but also .. an insult to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. The charges against Chris Williamson are a case in point. There is nothing even remotely anti-semitic in his statement that Labour 'has given too much ground' and 'been too apologetic' in defending its record of addressing "the scourge of anti-semitism" beyond that of any other party, as he himself had done, on public platforms and in the streets. >> (Noam Chomsky)
0. Infantile word games
The Mitchell and Webb sketch 'Numberwang', as you can see, is quite surreal. A quiz/game in which there are no discernible rules. The contestants just say a number randomly - off the tops of their heads - and the presenter declares the winner without any reference to anything measurable or real - also randomly, off the top of his head, apparently.
In other words the answer is right when and only when the presenter arbitrarily says it is. Just as today when 'the media' or various private institutions tell us something is 'anti-semitic', some of them actually require us to accept their view without question, without evidence, even when it has quite visibly been asserted in much the same way as the presenter of Numberwang may assert that a particular number is or isn't 'numberwang'.
Owen Jones recently declared 'anti-semitic' some statement by some NEC candidate who was asserting that the whole anti-semitism nonsense was a smear campaign cooked up by all sorts of racists, including jewish racists - in this regard Owen Jones basically said to his brainless fans "that's not numberwang" - the man spoke anti-numberwang, he claimed that if you call someone anti-semitic you may simply be trying to smear them and they may not really be anti-semitic - that was deemed 'anti-semitic' by Jones. So basically that's how bad it is. That's how similar these declarations of 'anti-semitism' are to declarations of whether something isn't 'numberwang'.
Owen Jones, in order to gain popularity and power, to preserve alliances with people who shamelessly support and promote white supremacist fascism (eg Bolsanaro's) labelled a man anti-semitic for asserting that allegations of anti-semitism levelled at the Labour party were in places entirely false accusations made up by far right racist Israeli Trump supporters. This is what Owen Jones calls 'anti-semitic' - if you claim that such a thing as a far right racist Israeli Trump supporter exists and that such a person may call you anti-semitic when you're not.
What then would Owen Jones say, if he ever had the balls to reply to any political point I make criticising him, to this response to the savage murder of Jews in the USA the other day in an event which is all too familiar a part of white American culture.
<< Hours after the massacre in Pittsburgh, a Likud Party email listserv pumped out talking points addressed to "ambassadors of the Likud" that claimed the anti- Jewish shooter "drew inspiration from a left-wing Jewish group that promoted immigration to the U.S. and worked against Trump." >>
Max Blumenthal writes: << As Israeli Minister of Education Naftali Bennett sets out to Pittsburgh, prominent members of the governing Likud Party have blamed the Jewish victims of the neo-Nazi massacre "for causing anti-Semitism." >>
Blumenthal explains: << Robert Bowers, the right-wing terrorist, targeted the progressive congregation on the basis of its partnership with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, or HIAS, a Jewish non-profit that helps refugees from conflict-torn regions obtain asylum in the US.
"HIAS likes to bring in invaders that kill our people," Bowers stated in a social media manifesto explaining his motives.
As Bennett departs for Pittsburgh, some members of Israel's governing Likud Party have issued talking points and statements blaming the victims of the anti- Jewish mass murderer for inspiring the attack. One especially prominent Likud member has even echoed Bowers' hate manifesto. >>
Blumenthal tells us: << In a Facebook post, Yoav Eliasi, aka The Shadow - a prominent Israeli hate rapper and Likud Party member in good standing - portrayed the massacre as a legitimate response to HIAS's progressive agenda.
According to Eliasi, Bowers "was a man fed up with subversive progressive Jewish leftists injecting their sick agendas" into his country. Explicitly echoing the neo- Nazi's manifesto, Eliasi added that "HIAS brings in infiltrators that destroy every country. The murderer was fed up with people like you. Jews like you brought the holocaust and now you're causing antisemitism." >>
So, unwittingly (he IS a moron, after all) taking sides with racist jews and right wing jew-hating american racists who claim that the holocaust was caused by jews who refuse to hate migrants, Owen Jones was asserting that it is anti-semitic to say that right wing racist Israelis label you 'anti-semitic' if you are not 'anti- immigration' and if you oppose Donald Trump. And yet there is the evidence. That's PRECISELY being called anti-semitic - indeed many racist jews are portraying it as the cause of the holocaust and more besides - I remember arguing on Facebook with a Californian jew who claimed that the holocaust victims had themselves to blame because they, he alleged, didn't stand up and fight. He hated the victims of the holocaust for being victims of racism. A proper right wing johnny.
Again, Owen Jones is playing Numberwang, he has no more of a relationship with reason and truth than some extra on a television advert.
Let us not forget, when considering the genocidal racism of right wing Israelis, that Salon reported in 2014: << The Times of Israel is under fire on Friday after publishing a blog post titled 'When Genocide Is Permissible.' The post, written by Yochanon Gordon, was quickly removed from the Times' website, but cached and screen-captured versions of the piece quickly proliferated on social media. >>
The racist blogger wrote: << Hamas has stated forthrightly that it idealizes death as much as Israel celebrates life. What other way then is there to deal with an enemy of this nature other than obliterate them completely? >> (I wonder what the average westerner would feel about that argument's being used in relation to the damage the USA, the UK and much of western Europe has done to the world, for centuries?!!)
Finally this Israeli then declares << If political leaders and military experts determine that the only way to achieve its goal of sustaining quiet is through genocide is it then permissible to achieve those responsible goals? >> (I guess that's what the terrorists who bomb westerners feel they are doing when they commit Israeli-style genocide in Britain, France, the U.S. etc).
Yes, those whom Jones aligns himself with, from time to time, for career-building reasons and to gain backing from powerful establishment forces no doubt, are people who sometimes openly condone genocide, using the word genocide, actually say that genocide is the answer to their problems. Owen Jones, you are a fucking pratt aren't you lad?
So here we have Jeremy Corbyn, some sort of anti-apartheid, antiwar, anti-racism activist and public servant, on the streets campaigning for every refugee and 'migrant', standing up to fascists' marches, marches by blackshirts, marches by loud and proud anti-semites (if we use the term scientifically, to mean 'people who hate jews') (although linguists may argue about the fact that semitic is a language group and moreover races don't even exist and are a fallacy and pseudo- science) - and these office workers, overpaid office workers, like Hodge and Johnson want to pretend it's Corbyn who's somehow racist.
David Graeber
@davidgraeber
Replying to
@margarethodge
Speaking as a Jew, let me say I consider your behavior so vile as to itself be anti-Semitic, since crying wolf like this for cynical political advantage means when the real anti-Semites start mobilizing no one will take the warnings seriously
>>
Click here for the view of a couple of hundred jews on this matter, mostly Israeli jews. And follow the links below to start to face the true picture of Britain's and the west's insane backward racist mentality which is so entrenched among the majority population here.
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