“If a young Jewish boy in this country goes and joins the Israeli army, and ends up killing many Palestinians in operations and can come back, that is wholly legitimate,” he said. “But for a young Muslim boy in this country, who might think: I want to defend my Palestinian brothers and sisters and gets involved, he is branded as a terrorist. And I think it is this that has infected the attitude about how we deal with these problems.”

There is a level on which ken has a point, although he should have made his anti-suicide bombing views more clear.

oh yes and how can you really describe Ken as a lefty? he’s part of labour

I think all ken has been trying to say is that the illegal occupation of parts of palestine by israel and the indiscriminate slaughter and repression of palestianians by the isreali government and army has gone on too long.

You would think he’d have enough political sense to be able to hold his tongue and define his thoughts clearly to the world.

but apparently not.

and by the way stop stereotyping and badmouthing the left there are far less racists on that side of the political equation than on the right.

i am an anti racist far left winger by the way, and i hope everyone makes an effort to protest against the bnp in general, and in particular the red white and blue festival they want to hold on the 16th of august.

i hope to see you outside.

Okay, story straight: It is somehow Israel’s fault that Palestinians are too pissweak to raise an army. Funny that the Left didn’t sympathise with Israel in 1967 and 1973 when she fought Arab armies that vastly outnumbered her own.

in the UK the left have been traditionally anti-zionist and frequently anti-Semitic. I’m not saying there aren’t elements on the right who are also anti-Semitic (of course there are, and not just the facists) but we’re talking about Ren Ken here, and the Troskyist left wing, like the SWP (now the Respect Party) all the way to the intellectual left, like the BBC and the “Independent”.

The socialist line which all these organisations tow is that Israel is western colonialism and as such bad. The anti-capitalism movement too is strongly anti-Zionist – not because Israel is the bastian of capitalism but because the folks involved in the anti-capitalism movement are heavily drawn from Marxist and socialist movements and have brought their anti-Zionist beliefs with them.

Trust me, in the UK, left wing (to its shame) equals anti-Zionist (even if it doesn’t acknowledge the fact itself). And by the time you get as left as Ken or George Galloway, you’re into anti-Semitism territory. George Galloway’s win in a Bangladeshi-dominated east London district is a perfect example of how the left is uniting with a non-traditional voter base against a shared enemy. I really wish it was just opportunism by the left but check out George’s or Ken’s or half the Labour party’s back catalogue and you’ll see their true colours.

I agree in the US it isn’t as much a left right issue though the more right wing media like Fox News are more pro-Israel and the more left wing media is less so (would the W Post be an example?).

The Mayor of London claimed he had never supported any kind of violence

…

‚ÄúNow I don‚Äôt think that justifies suicide bombing…”

…

the Mayor said he supports banning anyone who “is in any way equivocal” about condemning the atrocities here, adding that he believed the cleric had actually condemned the events of 7 July.

…

The Mayor said he himself opposed suicide bombings

Although you might be right that Livingstone is antisemetic. You are wrong about making this a left right issue. As I have said previously about 80 percent of American Jews are left leaning. We have been and continue to be strong supporters of Israel. I know of many right wing people (as well as left wing) that are anit Israel and antisemetic.

Stan

Yes, people pander to their constituents all the time, but this is really depressing and scary–there is a lot of Muslim hate out there against Jews.