The increasingly cosy relationship between the extremist, racist EDL movement and the ultra-racist Zionist movement in the UK is becoming more and more visible with each passing demonstration that they attend. It is now a common sight to see a mass of Israeli flags at an EDL rally and a mob of EDL members at a pro-Israel rally. This is an association which is at once revealing as to the true nature of the Zionist movement whilst also a source, one would assume, of much distress and embarrassment to right minded Jews who would blanch at such a self-defeating and counter-productive association.
For their part, the EDL clearly scrape the bottom of the barrel for members. It is hardly a thinking man's organisation. Typically comprised of thugs and louts it is scarcely a group that any sane individual would be proud to be a member of; and yet hundreds of Zionists have signed up to be a part of the new EDL "Jewish Division". This includes individuals such as Roberta Moore, who makes a habit of inciting hatred against Muslims while running around with an Israeli flag tied around her neck like a cape. Exposing her ignorance with statements such as "Islam is not a religion but a cult" she does seem to fit the EDL's low criteria for membership. The foul vitriol she spewed at one recent EDL rally not only betrayed her ignorance of Islam but her desire to incite hatred against more than 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide.
This is nothing knew and many have been forced recently to openly recant their spurious statements about Islam and Muslim organisations. Take for instance, the apology issued by The Spectator last week following Stephen Pollard's grossly absurd statement that Islam Expo is a racist, fascist and genocidal organisation! When challenged in court he claimed the remark was unintentional. Justice was served in this instance and Islam Expo won their case against The Spectator including an apology, legal costs and damages.
It is surely not hard to see why a fascist organisation recruiting Jewish Zionists seems like such a strange association at first. In their minds however, the Zionists have convinced themselves that they are manipulating the EDL, which may very well be the case. As Roberta Moore said in an interview with Haaretz recently, "They think the league is exploiting us, while it is really we who initiated the Jewish division. If anything, we are exploiting them." Funnily enough this is a claim that some BNP members also share. According to one report, "BNP leader Nick Griffin has claimed that the English Defence League is being manipulated and directed by Zionists to create a race war on the streets of Britain."
OK, so regardless of who is manipulating whom, we now have Jewish Zionist members of the EDL, and EDL members taking up Israeli flags as a standard part of their protest apparel, but who else do they associate with? A photo taken on 14th August this year shows Jonathan Hoffman, the Vice Chair of the Zionist Federation, waving an Israeli flag at a counter protest outside Ahava in Covent Gardens, standing side by side with none other than Roberta Moore. At first Hoffman tried to deny any association between them and insisted that the picture was photo shopped; a lie he had to apologise for on his blog on the Jewish Chronicle website last week (24th August). Given the fact that Roberta has reportedly said "she used to support Rabbi Meir Kahane's far-right Kach party in Israel", (a group so extreme that it has even been banned in Israel and has been designated a terrorist organisation by Israel, the USA and the EU among others), this only further exposes the extremist element present within the Zionist demonstrations that people like Hoffman so regularly attends.
Hoffman should stop being so surprised and acting so wounded when he is excluded from public events given such associations. He has whined on many occasions about being ejected from or excluded from public meetings on Palestine. He complained for instance when he was stopped by police at the House of Commons from entering a meeting co-hosted by the Middle East Monitor (MEMO) and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), despite the fact that he was ejected for trying to get into the meeting firstly without registering and then by using a false name. However, as Sarah Colborne, director of campaigns and operations at PSC, pointed out, ‘moreover, like any organisation, we cannot welcome people who disrupt meetings, shout down speakers, refuse to let others speak, and fail to halt their disruptive activities when politely asked to do so by the chair. Such behaviour is contrary to the principles of democracy, and is actually an attempt to shut down free speech. Jonathan Hoffman, in several previous meetings, has behaved in the manner described, leading to his ejection by the police.'
Such behaviour has become the staple norm for those such as Hoffman and his cabal. Shouting down speakers as he did at the Amnesty International meeting held for Haaretz writer Gideon Levy, chaired by Jon Snow last week (24th August), was only the latest example of Hoffman's predictable and feeble attempts to disrupt any public meeting that dares to point out the human rights violations and moral inadequacies of his great nation of Israel.
The fact that people such as Moore allegedly had or have associations with the extremist terrorist groups such as Kach and are joining forces with the EDL should be a cause of concern not only to British society as a whole but to Jewish people in particular who are at risk of such extreme elements claiming to speak for them.
Zionists may temporarily revel in their acceptance by groups such as the EDL and they may be temporarily united under the banner that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", but they should ask themselves, who is next on the bigoted hit list of groups such as the EDL after Islam? The memory of any Jew who joins the rank and file with the likes of the EDL seems short indeed and they do a grave disservice to all the Jewish men and women who have spent their lives tackling racism and anti-Semitism. Before they begin to rant and rave about Muslim extremism, Zionists should check out their own associates first and perhaps be more discriminating as to whom they allow to speak for them.
Uncovered: the unholy Zionist-EDL alliance
