A few days ago, British Labour MP Jo Cox died after being shot and stabbed multiple times by a man who apparently shouted “Britain first” as he launched the attack. And while she was certainly no friend of Israel – being a proponent of BDS – I was shocked by her savage murder.
There are those who have tried to politicize her murder, like anti-Israel douchebloggerTM Richard Silverstein, whose immediate thought after hearing of Cox’s murder seems to have been “How can I blame this on Israel?”
Alas, Silverstein was informed Mair was a “dedicated supporter of the National Alliance (NA), the once premier neo-Nazi organization in the US.”
And indeed, it looks like Mair was a vile Jew hater, in addition to being a vile murderer.
Thomas Mair was also known to have bought books from a US-based neo-Nazi group, including guides on how to build homemade guns and explosives, according to an anti-hate campaign group in the US.
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In the US, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) published receipts that appeared to show Mair bought, among other books, a manual on how to make a homemade pistol from the National Alliance.
The receipts, some of which date back to the 1990s, showed Mair spent more than $620 (£436) on literature from the group, which advocates the creation of an all-white homeland and the eradication of Jewish people.
Which you’d think would be a showstopper for any idea that he murdered Cox because he was pro-Israel.
But not to someone like Silverstein, who’s hatred of Israel trumps logic and reason.
And sure enough, in a post in which he also states the Orlando terrorist was not a radicalized Islamist but rather just a self-hating gay man, Silverstein continues to try to tie Cox’s murder with Israel.
(http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/06/18/orlando-killer-not-racicalized-rather-motivated-by-gay-self-hatred/)
In recent days, Britain has seen the horrific assassination of pro-immigrant activist and MP, Jo Cox, by a white supremacist, Thomas Mair. The most salient element of the story appears to be his repeated shouting of “Britain First,” as he killed her and was being subdued by law enforcement. The slogan is the name of a white supremacist political party campaigning against British membership in the EU (Cox was an ardent supporter of continued membership).
One of Cox’s most well-known missions was supporting Syrian refugees and encouraging their resettlement in Britain. This was a position adamantly at odds with British far-right groups like the English Defense League and Britain First. Cox was also a member of the parliamentary Friends of Palestine caucus.
One of my Twitter followers tweeted to me a telling YouTube video (above) in which Britain First leader, Paul Golding, shouts at his detractors his admiration for Israel. This is a view common to the entire UK far-right. It derives in part from its devout Islamophobia. Thus, it sees Israel as a Middle Eastern bulwark against the evils of Islam.
At this point, the full range of Mair’s motivations for this crime are not known. While it’s clear that his hatred of Cox’s support for immigration and EU membership were primary motives, it’s too early to know whether Israel and Palestine also played a role.
No matter whether this is true or not, it’s important to note that the most murderous elements of the European far-right have a deep and abiding affection for Israel. Not because they love Jews, but because they hate the same enemy as Israel’s: Muslims.
Note how Silverstein admits he has no proof of the killer’s affection for Israel, yet still tries to make the connection. What he does not mention in his post is the killer’s disdain for Jews, something he was clearly aware of from the tweet he received and acknowledged above. Alas, mentioning that destroys his thesis.
Silverstein’s pathological hatred of Israel is already well-known, but publishing a post in which he tries to suggest a neo-Nazi may have murdered someone for opposing Israel shows just how far gone he really is.
