The EU Lobby In Israel

Backspin/Honest Reporting

02 December 09

Not so long ago, Britain's Channel 4 investigated the existence of an unsavory Israel lobby in the UK. They said it's accountable to nobody, lacks transparency, and places its loyalty to foreign governments.

After seeing the Jerusalem Post pick up on NGO-Monitor's examination of EU funding for Israeli non-governmental organizations, I'm wondering: Is there some kind of tawdry EU lobby in Israel that's accountable to nobody, not transparent, and places its loyalty to foreign governments?

Imagine the outcry if Israel were to press for the division of, say, Belfast, and provide the majority of funding for an Irish NGO pushing that very agenda.

Well, the EU is pressing for the division of Jerusalem and provided 67 percent of the 2007 budget of Ir Amim, an organization pushing for the city's division.

As Daniel Fink argues, the EU's lack of transparency worsens the Arab-Israeli conflict.

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Are We Part of the UK Israel Lobby?

Backspin/Honest Reporting
25 November 09

Simon Plosker, HonestReporting's managing editor, was interviewed on JNet Radio, where he discussed Dispatches: Inside Britain's Israel Lobby. Listen to it on Humyo or by clicking below.

Related HonestReporting links responding to Channel 4:

• Why We Didn't Talk to Channel 4
• 'Myself As Exhibit A'
• Under Attack: HR Accused by UK TV Documentary
• HonestReporting Responds to Channel 4
• Oborne's Opening Shots at the Israel Lobby
• A Warped Look at Britain's 'Israel Lobby'

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Another Vast Jewish Conspiracy

British media and society are gripped by lies about a "secret" Israel lobby controlling foreign policy.

Robin Shepherd
Wall Street Journal
19 November 09

Here is a small selection of events that have taken place in Britain since the end of Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year.

The government has imposed a partial arms embargo on Israel and failed to vote against the Goldstone report in the U.N . The charities War on Want and Amnesty International U.K. have both promoted a book by the anti-Israeli firebrand Ben White, tellingly called "Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide." The Trades Union Congress at its annual conference has called for boycotts of Israeli products as well as a total arms embargo.

In the media, the Guardian newspaper has stepped up its already obsessive campaign against the Jewish state to the extent that the paper's flagship Comment is Free Web site frequently features two anti-Israeli polemics on one and the same day. The BBC continues to use its enormous influence over British public opinion to whitewash anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Middle East. Its Web site, for example, features a profile of Hamas that makes no mention of the group's virulent hatred of Jews or its adherence to a "Protocols of Zion"-style belief in world-wide Jewish conspiracies.

Readers may be surprised to learn, therefore, that the British media and political establishment is apparently cowering under the sway of a secretive cabal of Zionist lobbyists who have all but extinguished critical opinions of Israel from the public domain.

Such charges have been aired to mass critical acclaim this week in a landmark documentary, "Inside Britain's Israel Lobby," on Channel 4—the same outlet that offered Iran's Holocaust-denying president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an uninterrupted, seven-minute propaganda slot on Christmas Day last year.

The makers of the documentary—top Daily Mail columnist Peter Oborne and TV journalist James Jones—have also written about their program in the Guardian. Both furiously deny that they are peddling conspiracy theories. But the mindset we are dealing with was neatly exposed by the authors' own explanation on how their suspicions were aroused that something sinister is at work in the corridors of British power.

It all transpired, they told readers ominously, during an address earlier this year by Conservative Party leader David Cameron at a dinner hosted by the Conservative Friends of Israel.

(Read full article)
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Under Attack: HR Accused by UK TV Documentary

Honest Reporting
18 November 09

HonestReporting responds to a Channel 4 investigation of the UK's 'pro-Israel lobby'.

On November 16, the UK Channel 4's flagship documentary program, Dispatches, broadcast an investigation of "one of the most powerful and influential political lobbies in Britain, which is working in support of the interests of the State of Israel", directly attacking and smearing HonestReporting in the process.

"Despite wielding great influence among the highest realms of British politics and media, little is known about the individuals and groups which collectively are known as the pro-Israel lobby," the program noted.

Aside from inventing a non-existent "lobby" that conjures up images of some of the worst forms of anti-Jewish prejudice, the documentary attempts to discredit and delegitimize HonestReporting and the thousands of its subscribers who care about accurate reporting of Israel in the media.

The documentary is available to view in full on YouTube or by clicking on the video below to see the specific segment concerning HonestReporting.)

While the program had been in the making for several months, it was only in the few weeks prior to the transmission when those UK Jewish communal and pro-Israel organizations targeted by C4 were contacted by Hardcash Productions and political commentator Peter Oborne.

We at HonestReporting found the premise of the entire program to be highly offensive and prejudiced. For, as commentator Tom Gross notes:

Whereas there is a pro-Israel lobby with some influence in the U.S. (though not the kind of influence ascribed to it by anti-Semites), contrary to what Channel 4 and others think, there is no effective pro-Israel lobby in Britain.

The complete lack of any effective pro-Israel lobby in Britain (as opposed to well organized anti-Israel groups) goes a long way to explaining why some of the coverage of Israel in the British media is among the worst in the world, and sometimes rivals the Iranian and Egyptian media for its sheer nastiness.

Others, including individuals and organisations targeted by C4 have already commented on the nature of the program, which we do not intend to dissect in its whole.

We do, however, wish to respond to the content aimed directly at HonestReporting that appears in the program from 35-42 mins.

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