Another Case of British Leftist 'Lobby Envy', by Solomonia

Posted by Solomon @ Solomonia:

"...Even the pro-Israel Brits often wind up only a hop and a skip away from the Jew baiters and conspiracy-theorists -- providing them, sometimes naively, sometimes callously, with more useful ammo for their belts.

Adam LeBor, writing at Harry's Place, is proud to announce he'll be posting at one of the internet's premier locale's for rampant Jew-hatred: The Guardian's Comment is Free: Commenting is free.

No anti-Israelite, he. LeBor was asked to write for CiF after they heard him on TV "opining on one of my perpetual themes: why the United Nations needs to start suspending and expelling member states who are guilty of the worst human rights abuses." Great! They need that at CiF.

So what's the object of attack in his first piece? Why, AIPAC, of course -- "a rather creepy organisation..." He should fit in at CiF rather well after all. You see this is the left's idea of being "pro-Israel.":

"I remember ten years ago when I was making some radio programmes for the BBC on Israel at 50 trying to interview one of their officials. Trying to get any information out of her about how AIPAC worked reminded me of interviewing suspicious ex-(not really)-Communists in eastern Europe."

That just shows they're an effective organization -- in contrast to officials of the Israeli government itself who just can't seem to stop themselves from bragging about their latest PR efforts -- an awfully silly thing to do. LeBor relies on a quote from Israeli David Kimche, both in the Harry's Place post and in the comments, to support his assertion that AIPAC is no good for Israel. An appeal to authority on issues around which a great deal of divergent but well-informed opinion circulates is a sure sign that the author himself is not quite able to forward a position sufficiently well-informed to stand on its own. A David Kimche quote -- just another opinion among many -- buys you nothing.

LeBor's idea? Encourage the British left to lay off the boycotts and support J-Street instead. There's a poetry to that somehow. Somewhere between his attacks on the extremism of AIPAC, someone may want to remind him that J-Street is brought to us by some of the same people who brought us the Geneva Accord -- so in tune with political streams of thought it was DOA in both Israel and America.

May he have all the success in his efforts to influence the American lobbying scene as The Guardian itself had in trying to influence the voters in Ohio last time out. Remember? Dear Limey assholes"