David Miller has crossed a line
We find what David Miller tweeted on August 7th unacceptable. He stated:
“The facts:
1. Jews are not discriminated against.
2. They are over-represented in Europe, North America and Latin America in positions of cultural, economic and political power.
3. They are therefore, in a position to discriminate against actually marginalised groups.”
He presents these three bald statements as “facts”. They are overstatements at best, flattening and homogenising Jews, ignoring any historical, international or social context and creating an impression of Jews exercising power as a cohesive force.
Many were distressed by some of Miller’s statements in the past which seemed to exaggerate Israeli power but we believed they fell within the terrain of academic freedom. This recent tweet, focusing on Jews, is of a different order and has crossed a line.
Isn’t this the same man who said ata zoom meeting that we shouldn’t be supporting the equal gender rights protestors in Iran because Iran is anti-imperialist?
David Miller should perhaps study the Spain of the 14th Century. At the time through marriage Jewish women made it to the Royal Households of Aragon and Castille by the end of the 14th Century, Jews were compelled to either convert to Christianity or leave Spain.
In the following Centuries the Inquisition was busy finding Jews blood for anyone deemed too dangerous to the status quo.
I am a non-Jewish (though my father was Jewish) anti-Zionist. I agree with your assessment and don’t understand why Miller would make such statements. It’s true that in some places Jews wouldn’t be subjected to ethnic based harassment by police as black people but there are right wing antisemites who pose real danger to Jews. In some European countries anti Jewish prejudice is common even though their governments support Israel. It’s true in US and UK that some Jewish organisations because of their support for Israel oppose those campaigning for Palestinian rights but they consist of a minority of Jews. Also Jews are outnumbered by non-Jewish Zionists. US has about 5.5 million Jews, not all Zionists. CUFI (Christians United For Israel) has 7.5 million members in US. Pretty much the whole US and UK establishment are Zionist. Outside of Palestine issue most US Jews don’t support discrimination of marginalised groups. If anything the contrary: The members of the Hill Street Synagogue were targeted not just because they were Jews but because they gave assistance to refugees in their locality. Of course most Jews aren’t in positions of power.
I am puzzled by your comments. My reading of DM’s statement was that in the present era Jewish people are not subjected to state repression. Also I think it is the case the Jewish people in the West as a group are economically more prosperous compared to other ethnic groups.
Of course one can only discuss the position of various ethnic populations in terms of groups as opposed to individuals.
I hope JVL will not label DM as anti semitic.
The reality is that compared to others ethnic groups Jewish are more prosperous. There is nothing wrong with this. This should be a matter of pride. There could be many reasons for this apart from them being Jewish of course.
I am disappointed in David Miller not because I don’t believe there is an element of truth in what he says but because it is stupid and unkind to cause unnecessary distress and I don’t want unnecessary distress to be caused to my brave Jewish comrades in JVL. But I do think we have to remember that Professor Miller was hounded out of Bristol University by a very real Israel lobby and he is probably reacting to the nonsense of “Jews don’t Count”.
Please JVL can you try and engage with Professor Miller because we are on the same side and it would be tragic if Anti Zionists started to fall out.
“Jews are not discriminated against” as much as is claimed.
“Jews probably are over-represented in Europe, North America and Latin America in positions of cultural, economic and political power.” but what is wrong with that Professor Miller ? What is absolutely certain is that “ZIONISTS are over-represented in Europe, North America and Latin America in positions of cultural, economic and political power.” But the vast majority of those Zionists are not Jews why not say so ?
“ZIONISTS They are most certainly, in a position to discriminate against actually marginalised groups.” But most Zionists are not Jews.
Professor Miller is in need of some holiday reading over what remains of August I suggest Shlomo Sand, Gideon Levy and Ilan Pappe for a start.
But PLEASE JVL attempt to talk to Professor Miller that would be a really important thing to do.
…ipso facto….they are in a position to discriminate against….But they are still a small minority within these structures. What if Jews make up 7% of people in the top positions of the state, industry, banking, media, but only make up 3% of the total population? Obviously they are relatively over-represented, but they are still outnumbered by 93%!!! It’s that bad, it doesn’t even make specious! Why do these hysterics hate Jews so much?! There’s got to be something quite wrong with them. How can they draw conclusions that Jews are so “harmful” to society? The mind boggles.
That is pretty dreadful. To use a current example, it appears to conflate both Michael Rosen and Rachel Riley under these 3 ‘facts’. Which is of course ludicrous.
Who is David Miller?
Hi
You say this tweet is of “…of a different order and has crossed a line”.
Can you clarify precisely which line it has crossed as it isn’t wholly clear what you mean.
Well he has had a very bad time of it. But if this is genuinely his quotes word-for-word then he has made a very bad mistake.
For one thing, the right-wing fanatic Pittsburgh Synagogue shooter has only recently been sentenced so this shows a great lack sensitivity.
The other thing is that he appears to treat Jews as a monolith, which means he doesn’t seem to be able to reference the hundreds Kier Starmer has chased out of the Labour Party, or their distress at their ordeal.
It is a sad indictment of our era that even David Miller doesn’t’ seem to temper his observations with socio-economic considerations, like what class and position in capitalism and is hierarchies do the Jews he is referring to occupy?
For example Tony Greenstein is a severe critic of Zionism, but he is also very good on issues of Jewish gentrification/class-mobility and how this effects debates.
And it’s advisable if you are going to say something about Jews, ask yourself would you equivalently say something similar about Catholics, Protestants, Atheists, etc? Perhaps a direct comparison is helpful? Also a commentator might wish check if historic issues of west-European sectarianism have any impact on what he/she is attempted to describe.
I really hope David Miller is quoted out of context here or sees fit to issue a clarification.
These are not “overstatements”. They’re statements. Fictitious ones. Plain, old-fashioned lies about Jews and power. So what line has he crossed? Between what and what? I really don’t think JVL should be so shy about naming antisemitism.
OMG ! So maybe Bristol University were right to sack him, after all?…
“They are overstatements at best” ~ I feel that you need to clarify what you mean. Implies that the statements are correct, but *overstated*. Seems self-contradictory to me.
I’m very disappointed by this statement, which strips Miller’s tweet of all context, meaning and intent. Tweets do not normally materialise out of nowhere and after a grotesque smear campaign of 8 years – more if you count what they did to Miliband – here we have someone countering disinformation in a way that if we’d done it from the start we wouldn’t be in this mess. It’s as if you haven’t watched the Corbyn Big Lie movie.
Miller is responding to Zionists who exaggerate antisemitism to further their agenda of oppression. His tweet is entirely fact based and would be uncontroversial in other hands – you are playing the man not the ball.
For the record, Jews do not suffer significant discrimination, certainly the vast majority, who live in western nations. Keith Kahn-Harris, no friend of the left, says: “…one of the most striking aspects of the monitoring of antisemitism in the UK, US and many other countries is how far certain issues that appear frequently in the monitoring of other racisms are largely absent. Discrimination in the job market, access to housing and social services, differential outcomes in the education system, confrontations with immigration authorities — these are not, in the main, the principle manifestations of antisemitism in Western countries today.”
Second, Jews do occupy more privileged positions on average in many societies. This is simply fact and there are many references.
And third, most British Jews vote Tory and are more likely to support discriminatory policies (migrants on barges, for example).
The point is that making false claims of the negative impact of antisemitism reverses the truth of who is actually more likely to be in the discriminatory seat. This is a context we’ve seen for many years and plays out in the hierarchy of racism, which you can hardly have missed.
And this isn’t to deny the existence of hate crime against Jews, which no one, least of all Miller is doing. But it’s not discrimination.
Let’s have a Marxist, class based analysis – is Graham Bash still with you?
What was the context of this tweet?
I think one can let Miller’s statements one and two pass, with some caveats. Many Jewish people hold extremely powerful positions in the USA and UK: in Ukraine, the nazi Azov battalion is funded by Jewish billionaire Igor Kolomoisky. Many of Putin’s oligarch associates are Jews.
Statement 3 is the more problematic. Had he said “Jews in a position of power are therefore…” that might just have passed muster.
I don’t want to get into knocking Miller because I think his analyses are often correct but here he is, at the very least, guilty of sloppy language.
I would reference Modest Mussorgsky’s wonderful musical rendition of Viktor Hartmann’s painting “Two Polish Jews,” composed immediately after he saw an exhibition of Hartmann’s work in 1874, the year after the painter’s death at the age of only 39.
Hartmann spent a month (c.1866) in Poland sketching and painting, especially around the town of Sandomir. Mussorgsky’s inspiration is likely the two pencil drawings “A rich Jew wearing a fur hat: Sandomir”, and the second as “A poor Sandomir Jew”. Later the piece was titled Samuel Goldenburg and Schmuyle. The contrast between the two is evident from the music: Goldenberg brash, loud and conceited, Schmuyle reticent and humble. Miller would do well to listen to it before branding all Jews with the same mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id-70LQxlq8
I was also minded of this yiddish song from the Crimean USSR describing life on a Jewish collective farm in Zhankoye before the Great Patriotic War. Miller might also listen to this.
On the road to Sevastopol,
Not too far from Simferopol,
There’s a railroad station.
Why go looking high and low?
There’s no finer station, no!
Than Zhankoye, zhan, zhan, zhan.
Refrain:
Hey zhan, hey Zhankoye,
Hey Zhanvili, hey Zhankoye,
Hey Zhankoye, zhan, zhan, zhan.
Tell me brothers, if you can,
Where’s Abrasha? Where’s that man?
His tractor’s racing like a fan.
Aunt Leye is at the reaper,
And Beyle is at the thresher,
In Zhankoye, zhan, zhan, zhan.
(refrain)
Who says Jews can only trade,
Eat fat soups and not create,
Nor be sturdy workingmen?
Enemies can talk like that!
Jews! Let’s spit right in their eye!
Just you look at zhan, zhan, zhan.
1. I saw anti Semitism in my secondary modern school. (I am not Jewish) The ex German Jew who was a workmate for 4 years met anti Semitism (under Hitler). The Russians I met in Sheffield’s twin city of Donetsk met anti Semitism. (Sadly they felt they may have a better life in Israel)
2. “They” are over represented…Who on earth cares? In my opinion our task is to create a world where peoples ethnicity is irrelevant. It is true that there are millions of Israeli supporters, including Christian fundamentalists, fascists, right wingers who are anti Semites. And I have definite proof that some Jews support Israel and some don’t)
3. “They are in a position…to discriminate. Well everyone in power is in a position to discriminate. So we have to have organisations to oppose those with power who abuse it. It makes no sense to go for people on the basis of their ethnicity.
I have in the past, read Professor Miller’s published articles etc. I have also viewed his videos. This led me to post comments supporting David Miller’s right to academic freedom and free speech generally.
So I was shocked by the Jewish Voice for Labour statement.
But as someone who has myself, been the victim of anonymous lies and distortions leading to “administrative suspension” from the Labour Party, I make it a practice to double and treble check what I read. Even when the source is JVL in which I have considerable trust.
Looking up Twitter I found a highly confusing couple of entries. Has David Miller been contacted directly and asked to comment on or clarify his brief comments?
Thank you. Miller crossed the line into anti-Semitism. In the past, he had stayed within the bounds of anti-Zionism. Those who had gone out on a limb to defend him in the past, such as Moshe Machover, undoubtedly feel dismayed. But, this is a necessary risk in the fight against Israeli apartheid.
I agree that discussing Jews as a whole can be problematic if you are intending to draw the conclusion that Jews act in a co-ordinated manner to exclude and oppress others but by themselves there is little I find problematic in David’s statements, bearing in mind they are tweets which clearly can’t give the background.
1. It is perfectly fair and accurate to say that Jews in Western Europe and the USA are not discriminated against. Discrimination being state inspired discrimination. I would be interested to know how Jews are discriminated against if that is what the JVL statement is arguing.
2. Are Jews over represented in cultural, economic and political positions? Well if you take Jews as a percentage of the population and then measure this as against the number of Jews in say parliament then clearly they are overrepresented. That does NOT mean that they act as a uniform body but given that most Jews describe themselves as Zionists then it is unsurprising that politically Jews are going to form a major part of any Zionist lobby.
We have to face up to the fact that Jews in the UK are overwhelmingly on the right. Under Ed Miliband just 22% of Jews voted for the Labour Party as opposed to 60%+ for the Tories.
As for being in a position to discriminate against
Let us not forget that a fascist party called Jewish Power is the 3rd largest block in the Knesset.
It was Geoffrey Alderman who wrote that ‘London Jewry is ‘arguably more bourgeois now than at any time since the mid-nineteenth century.’ And in his book The Jewish Community in British Politics he wrote that:
The rise of Western Jewry to unparalleled affluence and high status has led to the near-disappearance of a Jewish proletariat of any size; indeed, the Jews may become the first ethnic group in history without a working class of any size.
William Rubinstein stated that British Jewry had migrated into the upper middle class.
I don’t believe David is saying anything different. Clearly it is true that many Jews are in a position to discriminate against actually marginalised groups.
That is what happened with Ruth Smeet and Marc Wadsworth. That is what the Board of Deputies was doing throughout. This is indisputable.
It is also the case as I have argued that the level of Islamaphobia and Anti-Arab racism among British Jews is very high. I would argue that Jews are the most racist section of the White community.
We have to be open and honest about these things. Zionism has pulled Jews to the right politically and its wake racism has reared its ugly head
I refer readers to the thoughtful wisdom of Tony Booth in his comment in March 2021 underneath a letter of support for David Miller on this website:
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/letter-from-jewish-people-in-support-of-david-miller/
David Miller has for some time been an embarrassment for the left. On the one hand his dismissal by Bristol University has, prima facie, the hallmarks of an abuse of process conducted under the extreme pressure of a scurrilous media campaign, the aim of which was to delegitimise any support for Palestinians and to discredit the left as a whole. On the other hand, while much of the public criticism of Miller was dishonest, relying on a conflation of antizionism and antisemitism, this is not the first occasion on which Miller has shown intemperate stupidity by peddling crude aphorisms as “facts”, in harmony with conspiracy theorists, seemingly oblivious to the harm which he is causing to the antiracist struggle in general.
Statement (1) above is anodyne, though unhelpful in its generality. However statements (2) and (3) are insidious. Unfortunately (2) espouses a position which is a logical consequence of a prevalent type of identity politics which ignores class and which plays into the hands of the ruling élite.
It is a bothersome arithmetical fact that unless every ethnicity is represented in a country’s power structures in an identical proportion to that ethnicity’s proportion in the country’s population, then at least one ethnicity will be over-represented and at least one will be under-represented. Miller doesn’t tell us how he would rectify this or his chilling claim in (3). Would Miller perhaps introduce a numerus clausus for Jews in universities, as in imperial Russia? Where does this lead? Perhaps a numerus clausus for UK Asian students at the University of Oxford whose proportion currently exceeds the Asian population proportion in the UK by some 50%? Positive discriminated for under-represented “white” students – as long as they are not Jewish?
Miller’s recent tweets having an unpleasant racist undertone, though certainly far less so than that displayed by many academic islamophobes whose positions are quite secure. Nevertheless that does not invalidate his claim that his dismissal by Bristol constituted a violation of academic freedom.
I’m horrified by what David Miller said. His statement constitutes anti Jewish racism and no socialist should defend him just because he criticizes Israel. Most Zionists are not Jewish; they are self defined atheists who are in reality Islamophobes, or even Christian fundamentalists or other religious fanatics who have a problem with Muslims. Many Jews reject Israel in whole or part and what Miller wrote seems deliberately calculated to alienate them from us. Miller is tone deaf to divisions within the Jewish community, and is coming down like a ton of bricks against all of them indiscriminately. His attitude towards this ethnic group is as racist as is Hitler’s who claimed Einstein was the head of ‘Jewish science’ despite being practically the only Jewish physicist who rejected quantum mechanics. It’s disgusting to say there’s a problem with the over-representation of any ethnic group in a way that implies we need positive discrimination against them. Do we have to burn books by Marx? Trotsky? Luxemburg? Abram Leon? Must we stop laughing at Jewish comedians’ jokes? Must Einstein be condemned for being over-represented in physics text books? This is utterly insane. No ethnic group deserves to be treated as a stereotype. Until Miller learns that lesson he’s got nothing to teach any of us. Any socialist defending these latest statements are damaging our cause and they need to grow up. They too have crossed a line.
Its astonishing that Professor Miller can make such statements without reflecting and considering just what his “facts” actually mean. His homogenisation of all Jews is equivalent to the racist assertion that Israel and Zionism represents the views of all Jews. The disparity between his “facts” and reallity are completely at odds with each other. To say that Jews arent discriminated against is opening the door to anti-semitism. Which planet does Professor Miller live on? Has he not been paying attention to the attacks on anti-racist, anti-zionist Jews in the Labour Party over the last five or six years? Doesnt that raise some questions for him? I`m Astonished.
Thanks to everyone who’s contributed to a civilised discussion on a difficult subject. A couple of points from the JVL team: our intention was very deliberately to play the ball and not the man. What David Miller may have had in his head when he wrote that tweet is unknowable; a tweet can only be read as it appears in front of the reader, as anyone using twitter knows; the words he published are unacceptable in our view – very different to the nuanced and carefully contextualised statements we have made ourselves in the past – and that is all we think it appropriate to say. This comment thread will remain open until tomorrow.
So what was the context of Miller’s tweet.
I very much agree with Tom Delargy’s careful analysis in his comment, which is uncompromisingly antiracist. The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. People who defend and turn a blind eye to the bad politics of individuals, simply because they have been attacked by our political opponents, are a liability to the struggle against racism and fascism, as well as to the Palestinian struggle.
These are the points I made on Twitter re David Miller’s tweets which as well as the one that the JVL statement addressed, also included one that talked of “imaginary judeophobia”.
Not impressed by David Miller’s recent posts about “imaginary Judeophobia”; Jews being “over-represented” in Europe and America (N&S) “in positions of cultural, economic and political power” and being “in a position to discriminate against actually marginalised groups” 1/6
He casually removes antisemitism from “actually existing racism”?and seems to homogenise and stereotype Jews as if they have a common and nefarious political agenda. He seems to ignore socio-economic differentiation among Jews, and their political, cultural and ethnic diversity. 2/6
I think about Jewish friends who are shop assistants, receptionists, cab-drivers, social workers, teachers, barbers, hairdressers, or unemployed, and wonder how much political and economic power they have and how they use it collectively. 3/6
In continental Europe, especially central+E. Europe, antisemitism rides alongside Islamophobia, anti Roma and anti-refugee racism at gov’t and street level. Our gov’t allies with theirs eg Poland/Hungary. The far right in UK and beyond still hold to “World Jewish Conspiracy” theories. 4/6
Orban’s election campaign in Hungary a few years back was based on classic Jewish conspiracy attacks on George Soros. The Far Right “Great replacement Theory” attacks Muslims as “the enemy within” and blames Jews for the presence of Muslim migrants and refugees in the West. 5/6
No doubt false/distorted charges of antisemitism, and labeling critics of Zionism/Israeli actions as antisemites, have blurred understandings. But that is no excuse for serious anti-racists. Real a/s is alive and kicking. It must be combated today alongside all forms of racism. 6/6
NB this comment has been edited at David Rosenberg’s request
Naomi, I really think you are on the wrong tack here. Saying what he had in mind is unknowable is not true as he was replying to a Zionist and propagandist called Hen Mazzig (who ironically has written a book, The Wrong Kind of Jew, about being Mizrahi).
And the wider context is the past 8-10 years of endless disinformation about antisemitism. So here is a relatively mild counter about Jews actually more likely to be in the discriminatory seat – the great majority in the UK vote Tory – and somehow this crosses a line – as if the opposition hasn’t marched over it and disappeared into the distance with the scalps of Corbyn, Abbott, Driscoll, Loach and indeed many JVL members…
I’m dismayed that some people take things like tweets in isolation and without context. For me it displays a lack of critical thinking that led Corbyn and co down the capitulation road, as detailed in The Big Lie and in Asa Winstanley’s book. I think these and Miller are a belated wake-up call as we face further deterioration in conditions for the Palestinians and increasing marginalisation of the left in Britain.
One more thing – I know people don’t like Miller’s use of the word Judeophobia. But this is a counterpoint to the widespread establishment-propagated and very real Islamophobia. If anything I’d say what we’ve seen recently is philosemitism from the political and media establishment, not antisemitism (or Judeophobia) although that of course could be suppressed in favour of the smears but then I wouldn’t expect people such as Richard Sharp to be in the engine room of the establishment as BBC chair.
This is not to deny antisemitism in British society and elsewhere. But the antidote to this is socialism not exceptionalism and calling out and campaigning against disinformation that aims to divide and rule.
1. Jez Myers: The line crossed was targeting Jews, an ethnicity, instead of Zionists or Israelis.
2. Tom Delargy: Einstein did NOT reject QM, he was one of its founders. He merely claimed it must be “incomplete”.
3. Simple maths: if you have tiny minority, e.g. Jews in UK (<<1%) or US (<2%), and that minority is overrespresented, that still doesn't come close to that minority being anywhere near dominant or even numerically influential.
Jan Brooker: Here’s an overstatement: “Jews support Israel”
80% or so of UK Jews do but not 100%. The above statement (favoured by many Zionist propagandists an Israeli government officials) is in fact extremely antisemitic: it politically discriminates against non- and anti Zionist Jews purely on the basis of their perceived ethnicity.
Stating it may well be the numerically most common antisemitic act in the UK.
These statements do indeed cross the line.
I don’t “do” twitter so I don’t know if Miller was challenged
about these statements and if so how or if he responded.
I would be very interested in this – and hope JVL do a follow-up
article.
I thought Miller was dismissed for bringing the University into disrepute, having been cleared of anti-semitism ?
Thank you for your considered statement about David Miller which I agree with. My main criticism of him is that he uses what feels very much like deliberately inflammatory (and cruel?) language. I acknowledge that his career has been attacked publicly and he may now be responding from justifiable anger. There is certainly a valid discussion to be had about whether we’re still discriminated against as Jews (I suspect we’re not in any systemic way). But Miller’s language is not that discussion; it inflames rather than helps.
Hes right. He didn’t mention historically. He means now. There is no jewish Windrush. No jewish refugees demonised and put on prison ships. Sure antisemitism exists. It always will. But muslims are now the target. Jews have put themselves in positions to write laws, against anyone attacking zionist murders. I think you are grossly wrong on this. It happened to him. As a muslim its happened to me too. Well done Miller.
I think that forcing two million people into a open air prison in Gaza and allowing conditions to deteriorate to the point where over 90% of the water is contaminated and children are developing brain damage due to lead poisoning “crosses the line.” I do think that David Miller’s Tweet is unfortunate, but it’s just a Tweet and no one’s human rights have been destroyed as a result. One of the problems with Twitter is that the character limit makes it impossible to add any caveats. In view of this it’s impossible to know what David Miller meant or didn’t mean without further discussion.
I wish JVL had shown some discretion and sense of proportion, and made the effort to reach out to him personally and engage him in dialogue, rather than publishing an article that impugns his reputation and supports the cause of those who would defame all advocates of Palestinian rights as antisemites.
Three short comments on this deeply troubling matter.
First, I find it baffling that someone who takes politics seriously should even attempt to deal with sensitive social issues by Tweet. It is a reflection on our society – and the direction in which we are heading – that intellectual discourse is increasingly reduced to this level.
Second, I have forgotten whether, when Professor Miller was sacked by Bristol University, JVL published an article condemning the way he had been treated. Could someone please remind me?
Third, those who now rush to ridicule or condemn Professor Miller should perhaps revisit the list of donors to Keir Starmer’s election campaign in early 2020.
This is our statement made at the time: https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/statement/david-millers-sacking/
I do think that David’s Tweet is problematic, but I don’t think that JVL should be taking on the role of publicly adjudicating on things like this unless and until it is something that is being talked about in the mainstream media. There is an alternative course of action that JVL could have taken which is to privately reach out to David Miller and seek to engage with him in conversation.
I think that David Miler’s comments are, at the very least, unwise and open to misinterpretations (or interpretations that he didn’t intend), but clearly there are a range of views on this subject, as Marc’s comments show.
Thank you for responding so promptly to my request to be reminded of what JVL said when Professor Miller was sacked.
I notice that the last paragraph of the JVL statement (above) refers to “some of Miller’s statements in the past which seemed to exaggerate Israeli power.”
This is clearly a repetition of the point JVL made at the time Professor Miller was sacked, that “Jewish Voice for Labour does not endorse formulations of critiques of Zionism and of Israel that promote an exaggerated view of Israel’s reach.”
Why has JVL thought it necessary to assert, in two important statements issued two years apart, that Professor Miller “exaggerates” Israeli power and reach ? What are you implying?
Having been concerned by the issue of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people for more than 30 years, my experience has been that Israeli influence over the British and American media and British and American governments has consistently been under-reported and downplayed. For good reason.
Most people in Britain only became aware of the true extent of Israel’s political power internationally when the London Review of Books had the courage to publish the Mearsheimer and Walt exposure of how AIPAC effectively controlled American foreign policy.
The problem is not exaggerating Israeli power but getting people to understand just how pervasive and controlling it is.
In reply to Jake Ecclestone: the problem with Miller’s and Mearsheimer and Walt’s views on the Israel lobby is that they underplay the extent to which the western imperialist powers have (or have had) their own interests in supporting Israel. The role of pro-Israel groups in these countries has been to keep a few troublesome elements in line. Getting this issue out of balance leads conspiratorial thinking and David Miller has shown this for some time, for instance in his views on Syria and Ukraine. He should be defended against Bristol University, but he doesn’t help his own defence with some of the views he has expressed.
All statements about ‘Jews’ need to be regarded with suspicion and statements about ‘Jews’ having ‘power’ particularly so. What I think is true however is that Jews in some contexts have a high level of credibility, which in practice can give power. More specifically, allegations of antisemitism made by Jewish people are generally given a weight disproportionate to the evidence on which they are based. This only seems to apply to the right sort of Jews saying the right sort of thing. Logically one might think that denials of antisemitism by Jews might also be given disproportionate weight, but this does not seem to be the case.
Ieuan Einion said:
“Many Jewish people hold extremely powerful positions in the USA and UK: in Ukraine, the nazi Azov battalion is funded by Jewish billionaire Igor Kolomoisky. Many of Putin’s oligarch associates are Jews.”
These are just terrible arguments – generalizing about a whole ethnic group because of the behaviour and/or status of a few individuals. I’ll give you another example: “people of colour are ‘overrepresented’ in the US Supreme Court and one of them is among the most reactionary members”. I presume you would agree that using such a statement to bolster an argument about all people of colour in the US is racist? Then why make a similar statement about powerful Jews in the US, a corrupt (ex?)Ukrainian billionaire and a few alleged associates of Putin?
Apart from any other consideration – these 3 statements they do not make any sense to me.
Statement one: There is evidence that there is indeed discrimination – in the current Labour Party from which Jews been expelled in disproportionate numbers. Further evidence can be obtained from a search of the Criminal Courts and cases of violent attacks against Jews.
Statement two: He says Jews are “over-represented” not making clear if this is a value judgement or if not what does it mean?
Statement Three : He uses “therefore” almost as if he is using a “Modus Ponens” form of argument but there is no explanation or justification as to why this is appropriate.
I’ve already expressed my concerns about DM’s crude generalisations but it is probably worth issuing a note of caution to JVL in particular about potentially reinforcing the tactics and smears of ruthless political opponents.
One of the seemingly cut-&-dried cases of the recent A-S moral panic was that of the uneducated rapper, Willey. He fell out with his Jewish management who he accused of ripping him off – and in allegedly vile language – suggested this was part of long established historical practices. He was not quoted directly as evidence but it would seem as media claimed his language was probably anti-Semitic.
The lobby went into high gear claiming he was invoking notions of Jewish media conspiracies.
However Israel Haaretz not only acknowledges a prominent Jewish presence in the music media but cites it Jewish moguls and management as organised as a pro-Israel lobby who Israel expects to do more in quashing pro-Palestinian sentiments among their artists. It cites…
“The Creative Community For Peace (CCFP), a group formed two years ago by a number of music moguls to counter the BDS movement.”
See link at end.
The Israel lobby gains if activists are prevented from referring to its existence.
Also there has been a tradition of Black musical artists being economically ripped-off and having their work culturally appropriated that goes back way beyond Tin Pan Alley in which Jewish capitalist entrepreneurs were prominent. Is religion are veto on critiquing this?
So are complaints about bad-language from the uneducated or politically career abused actually going to over-write structural issues of territorial and economic oppression?
In our media Tony Blair can be referred to without reference to the people of colour that are dead because of him. Israel’s annual death tolls of Palestinian children are largely similarly censored. Dead victims of colour of Alistair Campbell and his ‘dodgy-dossier’ are not mentioned when he makes an appearance.
There is a difference between someone being offensive and someone who’s an oppressor with all the structural privilege that goes along with that position.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/2014-07-27/ty-article/.premium/the-silence-of-the-music-industry/0000017f-e59e-da9b-a1ff-edff5a2f0000
Think that Jacob Ecclestone has made a very good point – Miller should not have chosen twitter for such an important subject.
This should have been treated seriously or not at all.