“Two brothers they confessed that they had killed poor Emmett Till
But on the jury there were men who helped the brothers commit this awful crime”
In the UK, other than the ongoing Andrew saga, the big story is football, and the police decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv’s fans from their game with Aston Villa, was based on intelligence and risk assessments that have not been made public.
However, sources with knowledge of the details of the intelligence and risk assessments have told the Guardian that the Maccabi fans were considered likely to be the perpetrators of trouble.
Now, in order that we have things in context, Macabi’s Ultra’s, the Fanatics, don’t have the best of reputations; their weekend derby with Hapeol Tel Aviv was abandoned before kick-off, and then there is the near riot in Amsterdam last season.
When the team signed Maharan Radi, an Israeli international midfielder, the Fanatics responded with racist slurs and death threats. Mediation by his teammates ended with them telling Radi, “There’s nothing we can do. They just hate Arabs.”
Other games, such as Napoli’s home tie with Frankfurt and Ajax’s visit to Marseille, are subject to local authority bans on away fans.
“There’s nothing we can do. They just hate Arabs.”
Despite this, opportunistic politicians led by the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, and swiftly followed by Reform’s Nigel Farage, were quick to blame the decision on antisemitism. Clearly, feeling left-out, and fearing a backlash, the PM quickly followed suit.
Even Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, urged the decision to be reversed, saying: “You don’t tackle antisemitism by banning its victims.”
Now the first two need no excuse to jump on anything vaguely feeling like antisemitism, and the PM has no idea what the thinks, so he will just follow the herd. I am, however, surprised by the LibDems, I had hoped they might have something more about them!
The latest bandwagon jumper is Tommy Robinson, who I would imagine is well acquainted with football hooligans, certainly many of his followers are. These are lads whose love of country has seen them tear-up bars and stadiums around Europe.
Their “finest hour” came in Dublin on February 15, 1995, during a friendly football match against the Republic of Ireland at Lansdowne Road. The match was abandoned after English supporters ripped up seats and threw missiles, leading to widespread violence, over 70 injuries, and the eventual escorting of English fans from Ireland by the army.
Of course, this was all patriotism, “No surrender to the IRA”, and embracing the protestant cause in Northern Ireland.
It’s sad that politicians have stooped so low, the decision to ban Macabi’s “fans” (I use the word loosely) was clearly based on policing and their reputation.
With the exception of the LibDems, the other parties have been conspicuously silent over Israeli war crimes, unlike 460 prominent Jewish figures from around the world, including former Israeli officials, Oscar winners, authors and intellectuals who have signed an open letter demanding accountability over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
I can’t help but wonder if the Maccabi fans “death to Arabs” chant doesn’t find favour with a small but significant part of our country.
This has nothing to do with antisemitism; there is racism at play but from the Macabi fans with their vile chants. This is no different to the dark days when black players were booed and the victims of racist chants, it’s why we have the “Kick it Out” campaign.
One point that never ceases to amaze me, is how, 80-yrs on, the hard-right had gone from the holocaust to full on love for Jewish people.
My research found that Israel’s trend toward partnering with Europe’s right, started when Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in 1996.
’80-yrs on, the hard-right had gone from the holocaust to full on love for Jewish people’
This was followed-up by the Ariel Sharon government in the early 2000s, who invited Italian post-fascist Gianfranco Fini to visit Israel.
Fini and his party were short lived, however their voter alliance shifted to the far-right League Party under the leadership of Matteo Salvini.
Salvini visited Tel Aviv in March 2016, saying: “Israel embodies the perfect balance of different realities, while ensuring law and order. It surely is a role model for security and anti-terrorism policies.”
Elsewhere, Belgium’s Flemish Interest party, tarnished by Nazi collaboration and Holocaust scepticism, which met with Israeli settler leaders in 2010 and issued the “Jerusalem Declaration”, confirming their support for “the existence of the State of Israel” and its right “to defend itself against any aggression, especially against Islamic terror”.
Israel struck a similar relationship with the infamous Islamophobic Dutch Party for Freedom, whose anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian, pro-Israeli settlers views were welcomed by Israel.
There were advantages for both sides, Israel was getting support for its settlement policies in the West Bank, whilst the European far-right by engaging with Israel hoped to legitimise themselves and overcome claims of1 anti-Semitism.”
Israel’s open embrace of European right-wing extremism also helps to continue their push to drive a wedge in the EU over Israeli policies. Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban’s support of Israel helped stifle EU criticism of Israel after they unilaterally annexed swaths of the West Bank in 2020.
‘Israel’s open embrace of European right-wing extremism also helps to continue their push to drive a wedge in the EU over Israeli policies’
In February this year, Israel, led by their Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar decided to begin talks with right-wing extremist parties which, until then, have been boycotted by Israel due to their fascist roots and anti-Semitic affiliations.
This included Frances’ National Rally, and Spain’s Vox, both who have histories of Holocaust denial and involvement in Nazi organisations. There is also Sweden Democrats, the country’s second-largest party in parliament, was founded in 1988 by Nazis and neo-Nazis and has allied with white nationalist groups like David Duke’s National Association for the Advancement of White People.
The hard-right continues to gain voters support in Europe and the US. This seismic shift also aligns with Israel’s political climate, which elected the most far-right coalition in its history in 2022.
As we have seen in recent years, right-wing parties and their fawning media have been equally quick to embrace Israel, and twist the narrative to the extent that anyone anti-Israel is antisemitic, however it is totally acceptable to be Islamophobic.
Whilst the racism charge has been headed by Farage and Reform, the Tories have been doing their level best to catch-up. However, as the latter are so discredited after fourteen disastrous years in government, they have been usurped by Reform as the party of the right.
Despite this the Tories continue their attempts to be relevant.
The latest to try their luck is Katie Lam, a Home Office shadow minister and a whip for the party. Lam was previously a special adviser to Boris Johnson and is often described as a rising star of the new intake.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Lam said she believed large numbers of people with legal status in the UK would need to have their right to stay revoked and should “go home”.
She said: “There are also a large number of people in this country who came here legally, but in effect shouldn’t have been able to do so. It’s not the fault of the individuals who came here, they just shouldn’t have been able to do so.
“They will also need to go home. What that will leave is a mostly but not entirely culturally coherent group of people.”
As a result, the Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, suddenly remembered who he was, and wrote to the Tory leader, saying it was “deeply concerning and unpatriotic. People who have come to the United Kingdom legally, played by the rules and made it their home do not need to ‘go home’. This is their home.”
By this point the whole far-right patriotism contradiction was beyond me. Clearly they, we for that matter, have crossed the line from patriotism to nationalism.(1)
If standing alongside far-right foreign football hooligans and against the local police force is what British patriotism looks like in 2025, count me out!
‘If standing alongside far-right foreign football hooligans and against the local police force is what British patriotism looks like in 2025, count me out!‘
Before signing off a brief look at the tangle the government is in prior to the forthcoming budget. Interestingly, it highlights the Tory’s obsession with power, and shows how they put party ahead of country
In 2024, the then chancellor Jeremy Hunt cut employee NIC twice, reducing it to 8% and hinting that it might be abolished altogether. It was a too much too late election bribe that cost the exchequer C.£10bn p.a.. Adding cynicism to bribery, as Hunt knew full well that the Tories were unlikely to be re-elected and it was someone else’s mess.
Hunt knew full well that whoever was elected would have had to recoup the tax revenue, either by raising taxes or by further austerity.
Hunt then twisted the knife, following his highly irresponsible tax cuts, challenging Reeves as to whether, if she became chancellor, she would reinstate them.
Needless to say, Reeves fell headlong into the trap, promising not only that she would not reinstate his cuts, but incredibly going further and promising not to raise any of the main sources of revenue: income tax, VAT or national insurance.
The following election saw labor win the battle and lose the war.
She was beyond naïve; every poll told her labor was going to win, and with Reform splitting the right-wing vote, they would win big
This was the opportunity, rather than trying to out-Tory the Tories on tax, there was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for an honest conversation with the electorate about tax.
The result, I am afraid, is history. Reeves inherited a fiscal blackhole, and despite her efforts it’s going to swallow her up.
‘The following election saw labor win the battle and lose the war. She was beyond naïve’
labor have been reduced to trying to out-do Reform on immigration, but have succeeded only in disenfranchising their more progressive supporters.
The last few weeks has seen a new strategy, blaming Brexit.
There is indeed much to blame, not least the fact that the OBR calculates that our long-term productivity is 4% lower than it would have been had we voted “remain”.
In addition, there was sustained impact on business investment caused by political tumult and regulatory uncertainty, and the opportunity cost incurred as the government’s energy was wasted on something one was prepared for, primarily because none of the Brexiters had seriously considered what might be involved in making it happen.
But, the criticism has been somewhat half-hearted, avoiding blaming Brexit pre se, and citing its implementation; blaming the politicians who did it, not the ordinary people who willed it.
We can expect this to be amplified in next month’s budget, as Reeves attributes some of her grim fiscal predicament to a bad deal that Boris Johnson negotiated, without appearing to denigrate the aspirations of leave voters.
As I wrote in “The End of the Trilogy”, Brexit is Farage’s big claim to fame and, therefore, his Achilles heel. Whenever the subject is raised, the Reform leader will argue that the heroic liberation dream was traduced by cowardice in the implementation, but even that defense puts him in complicity with disappointment. Instead, he usually changes the subject.
The goal is to connect Farage to an infamous case of political mis-selling, to show he cannot be trusted, and does nothing more than exploit discontent and sows division, whilst not having a clue how to govern effectively.
Perhaps it’s just as well labor are soft-peddling on undoing Brexit, as we may only find that our priorities aren’t those of the EU
Damn foreigners!
“If you’re black you might as well not show up on the street
’Less you wanna draw the heat”
Notes:
- Patriotism is a love for one’s country that includes acknowledging its flaws and striving for improvement, while nationalism is a belief in the superiority of one’s nation, often at the expense of other nations. Patriotism is typically seen as a positive force of love and devotion, whereas nationalism often carries a negative connotation of exclusivity and blind arrogance
‘This week we delve into those times when patriotism is obscured by nationalism.
Tommy Robinson and his mob have jumped on the antisemitism bandwagon caused by the police banning some Israeli football hooligans. But then, most of his lot are just that, too.
Obviously, the Tories and Reform were blowing the dog whistle furiously, followed by the PM who has no idea what he is, what he thinks, or even, what he really believes in.
The big surprise was the LibDems, but then I guess it’s lonely being the sole dissenter.
There is, perhaps, a simpler explanation; a lot of politicians are Islamophobic.
What was missing from all this breast-beating was the fact that their anti-Arab chants would see them ejected from any football stadium; it’s called “Kick it Out!”
Research was conducted by Kick It Out Israel, which is funded by a civil society organisation, Givat Haviva, that works towards the “creation of a shared society for Jews and Arabs”. It found 367 instances of racist chanting at Israeli Premier League matches in the 2024-25 season, a record and an increase of 67% on the previous campaign.
Of those incidents 118 were observed in stands containing Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters and the most commonly recorded chant was “Let the IDF win, fuck the Arabs”, a slogan sung by Maccabi fans during unrest that preceded the club’s match against Ajax last season.
What fascinates me is how Israel and the hard-right have buddied-up 80-yrs after the Holocaust. Somehow, it feels wrong!
The prince Andrew saga rolls-on, but it’s still very touchy-feely, no one is really going for him. Still, he’s innocent, £12m worth of innocence.
I see that his brother, the King, is going to the Vatican to pray with the Pope. Perhaps, he will hear the King’s confession too? Perhaps, like Michael Corleone The Godfather: Part III
“I ordered the death of my brother. He injured me. I killed my mother’s son. I killed my father’s son.”
Lyrically, we look to racism for inspiration. I have chosen two classic Bob Dylan songs about racism in the US; we start with “The Death of Emmett Till” and end with “Hurricane.”
Even the weather isn’t enjoyable!
Philip
@coldwarsteve
Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.
Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s
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