Because not all British-Jewish actresses with a first name starting with ‘M’ are Israel- bashing feminincompoops.
Maureen Lipman, the actress, has announced she is ending five decades of support for the Labour Party, as she furiously denounced Ed Miliband’s stance on Israel.
Mrs Lipman said she will vote for “almost any other party” until Labour is “once more led by mensches” – the Yiddish word for a person of integrity.
In a deeply personal attack on Mr Miliband, Mrs Lipman said his support for a motion recognising the state of Palestine “sucks” at a time of rising anti-Semitism in Europe.
In a dim assessment of the shadow Cabinet, she said: “I rather liked David Miliband and have a sneaking suspicion he may return strengthened by his time out in the real world. But this lot? The Chuka Harman Burnham Hunt Balls brigade? I can’t, in all seriousness, go into a booth and put my mark on any one of them.”
Mrs Lipman, a self-described socialist, said she supported Neil Kinnock, Tony Benn and Tony Blair, and is the “number one fan” of Alan Johnson.
Labour imposed a three-line whip on a backbench vote to recognise the state of Palestine. The vote left a number of shadow ministers deeply uncomfortable, because they regarded the move as lacking nuance and tantamount to taking sides in the conflict.
Israel said the “premature” move undermined the peace process.
Mrs Lipman, writing in Standpoint Magazine, said: “I’m an actress, Ed, and I am often commended for my timing,” she wrote of the Commons vote.
“Frankly, my dear, yours sucks.
“The world is exploding around us. Isis is beheading our civilians while raping and pillaging across Syria and Iraq. Presidents (Vladimir) Putin and (Bashar) Assad are playing such heavy-handed games that we don’t know which rebel group to support.
“Hong Kong may be about to see a replay of Tiananmen. Islamist terrorism in every spot on the globe and if one Jew had been responsible for any of those bombings, there would, I am afraid to say, have been another Kristallnacht.
“At this point in our history you choose to back these footling backbenchers in this ludicrous piece of propaganda?”
She went on: “May I remind you that no one is tunnelling into Dover or sending rockets into Coventry, yet we seem to have every right to bomb the living daylights out of Iraq.
“Again. Conclusion: one law for the Israelis, another law for the rest of the world. Plus ca change.”
She also attacked Mr Miliband, a secular Jew, for eating a bacon sandwich in public, days after saying he wanted to join a Shabbat dinner at her house.
Maureen Lipman has a long record of supporting Israel, and is even on record as having launched this zinger at Miriam Margolyes:
Miriam Margolyes has been accused of having a big mouth by Maureen Lipman.
The star of the Harry Potter films publicly stated that she was unhappy that the Habima, Israel’s national theatre company, was performing at the Globe in London as part of its Cultural Olympiad event. Margolyes felt it will associate the revered theatre with the “policies of exclusion” practised by the Israeli state.
“Come on Miriam,” retorts Lipman. “You’re not short of a loud opinion. You must have an answer to allowing China to play at the Globe, but not the only democracy in the Middle East. The Jewish community waits with oft-baited breath.”
I doubt those two will be working together again anytime soon.
http://youtu.be/vqErXHFfR20?t=5m58s
