George Osborne publishes and promotes anti-Semitic cartoon. Deathly silence from BoD and the media
JVL Introduction
Martin Odoni raises the issue of double standards as the Evening Standard publishes a hook-nose cartoon of a prominent Jewish politician, Ed Miliband.
Had it appeared anywhere on the left it would undoubtedly been called out as yet another sign of rampant antisemitism. Where are the Board of Deputies, the CST, the CAA and the JLM, normally so quick off the mark?
Why have they given a free pass on this one?
Is antisemitism only an issue if you can pin it on the left? Innocent good fun when it comes from the right?
As Michael Rosen said last November: “If people combatting antisemitism in the Labour Party are not combatting antisemitism in the Tory Party then they’re not combatting antisemitism. They’re combatting the Labour Party.”
Could have been talking about the BoD, the CST, the CAA and the JLM, couldn’t he?
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We’ve been sitting on this article for a week, wondering if Passover would be offered as a reason for none of these organsiations posting an immediate, angry response at the time.
But we can still find no hint of a murmur or protest on any of their sites. Please let us know if we have overlooked any…
This article was originally published by The Critique Archives on Tue 7 Apr 2020. Read the original here.
George Osborne publishes and promotes anti-Semitic cartoon. Deathly silence from BoD and the media
Recalling the ridiculous, and obviously-orchestrated media ker-fuffle from two years ago about a mural that had long-since been painted over, because it was a (very tenuous) pretext to condemn Jeremy Corbyn; –
Why is no one on the Board of Jewish Deputies, or the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, or anyone in the mainstream media, blowing their tops about this cartoon that has been published in the Evening Standard?
If anyone wants to try the old “Not-necessarily-endorsed-by-the-newspaper” excuse, let me assure you, George ‘Gidiot’ Osborne has been promoting the image with almost drooling enthusiasm; –
If you really believe that the Brick Lane Mural was anti-Semitic, how can this be anything else?
Now, the pretext for claiming that the mural was anti-Semitic was because it portrayed someone with a large, somewhat hooked nose, and that is supposedly an anti-Semitic trope. As I pointed out in response, it is a trope used against many races, and even against many professions, therefore making it a good deal less likely than people were assuming. But if centrist ‘anti-racism-posers’ like James O’Brien wish to stand their holier-than-thou ground on that, then let us accept that as the (pun unintentional) standard.
So. This is Ed Miliband in profile; –
There’s a very mild prominent bridge to Ed’s nose, but certainly no hook.
And this is a nice big zoom-in on how Christian (oh dear! Unfortunate name in this context!) Adams has portrayed him; –
I have no idea whether Ed is offended. But I know I am
Come on, BoD, come on, David Collier, come on, Jonathan Hoffman, and all you other self-righteous Zionist squealers cheaply using Jewish identity as a cover story for Israeli political gain. We know that the Evening Standard is a Tory newspaper, and therefore an ally of yours. But if you ever want to retain the slightest remnant of credibility, you need to protest this more loudly than any deed by anyone you have attacked in the Labour Party over the last five years.
Because unlike almost all of the deeds you have attacked, this is absolutely explicit. It is an outrageous racial caricature, by the very standards you have insisted on imposing. You cannot apply them selectively.
Ball is in your court, BoD et al. If you ignore this, it will come back to haunt you.
Some other source (pun unintended) mentioned the red fluid dripping from the (?very treif? and so arguably Christian?) meat product…..
well, well, well…back to Brick Lane for the start of a rethink….
They’re never going to let Ed Miliband forget the bacon sandwich, are they? And of course their harping on about it just might, possibly, have a little bit of antisemitism involved…
Would have been a first class piece had the author resisted reference to that mural.
Julius Streicher lives!
I too was waiting for Margaret Hodge and the BOD or the cheif Rabbi or any newspaper to make a complaint….. but the silence is defining….pun intended..
The Labour Party is dead now. We need a new one. A real New Labour with old socialist values. Corbyn led and with Williamson and Livingstone behind him along with all the cast out and smeared socialists it would attract the 300k that Corbyn brought into Labour and who are now leaving in droves.
A disgusting offensive, racist cartoon. Nasty hypocrisy from MSM and BoD.
Badly drawn nose so must be antisemitic.
This is an example of the left being oversensitive and prejudiced. Internalising hysteria again. That the BoD are irrational doesnt mean we have to emulate them.
Evidence required for leaving in droves. What I hear is stay and organise.
Doesn’t this also portray Ed as struggling with a BACON sandwich, i.e. the antisemitic trope that was spread widely in the media in 2010?
I think this is very serious and not just because of the double standards alluded to. Antisemitism has been used as a weapon to attack and undermine the Party under Jeremy Corbyn. It was also used as a weapon against Ed Miliband. It seems such weapons can be useful to those who defend the Israeli Apartheid regime. They can swing it either way; to accuse others of antisemitism and also to support/turn a blind eye to antisemitism when it appears such as in this case; a very sad impasse. In whose interests does this serve?
Yes Jeremy Drinkall it is an antisemitic trope – viz the context of the bacon sandwich of 2015.
This is not the only cartoon referring to the bacon sandwich – I believe there was one in the Telegraph too – albeit less blatant.
of course it was intentional anti-semitism, I live outside London so would not have seen this prior to now. Deffo Anti-semitic, nose and the old bacon sandwich, which is now ten years old and definitely rancid.
Why not an immediate formal complaint to the Press Council?
It isn’t so much double standards as just sticking a finger up to Jeremy and the left and, in effect, saying: “Yes, we can do exactly as we like, and condemn something that isn’t remotely anti-semitic as anti-semitism – as with Ken Livingstone alluding to an historical fact – whilst WE on the other hand – ie those who have done all the false accusing and vilifying – can do something which IS anti-semitic no problem. That’s the power that we have – ie complete control over the narrative – because we own and/or control the MSM”.
Steven Burgess, the BoD are not irrational, and irrationality has nothing whatsoever to do with their part in the Smear Campaign against Jeremy Corbyn and the left during the past four years or more. And the point is of course that had someone on the left drawn such a cartoon and posted it on social media, the BoD et al would have been up in arms – acting as if they were, that is – spewing forth their faux outrage.