How far my people are falling; racist right embraced by Zionist mainstream

The current trial in Norway of far-right murderer Anders Breivik is a disturbing reminder of his horrific crimes last year.

I was involved in an e-book in 2011, On Utoya, that aimed to deconstruct the event and place it into context of the growing connection between hardline, Zionist supporters and the European racist Right.

This latest news, via Richard Silverstein’s blog, merely adds yet more evidence to the idea that hating Muslims and loving Israel, for many in the mainstream Jewish community, are perfectly acceptable:

Stephen Sizer reports that the UK national Jewish community’s Jewish Chronicle has… offered a regular column… to… Carlos Cortiglia, a leader of the British National Party, the nation’s leading white supremacist political party. … Cortiglia is the BNP candidate in the London mayoral race.

I asked Electronic Intifada’s Asa Winstanley to put BNP’s politics in a U.S. context, and whether it could be compared to the Tea Party. … He replied that BNP carries more political weight, but its politics are more extreme:

“Although they have moved towards a focus on Islamophobia and the counterjihad movement in recent years, their background is in the more traditional European neo-Nazi context and the National Front”¦

“They used to be solidly anti-Semitic and it’s said [their national leader, Nick] Griffin used to deny the Holocaust. In recent years and especially since 9/11, they’ve decided they hate Muslims more than Jews or blacks so have put the focus on agitating against Muslims”¦

“As part of their appeal to unite against Islam, they’ve made more recent attempts to distance themselves from anti-Semitism (although it can’t be far underneath the surface). Interestingly they are also now very pro-Israel.”

This seems part of the growing convergence of the European far-right and pro-Israel ultranationalists. … A perfect representative of this is of course Anders Breivik, who’s just gone on trial for murdering 77 young Norwegians. … I’ve also written here about a group of… Russian neo-Nazis who were welcomed to the Knesset… by two far-right Jewish MKs. The operative concept here seems to be that the enemy of my Muslim enemy is my friend, even if he’s a Nazi.

But white supremacists? … Is this how low the mainstream UK Jewish leadership are prepared to go? … To make common cause with those who only a decade or so ago admired Adolf Hitler and denied the Holocaust?

On a somewhat related subject,… Electronic Intifada reports… that the faux progressive UK Jewish rights group, Engage, surreptitiously accepted funding from the UK Jewish Board of Deputies in order to mount an anti-BDS campaign. … All the while Engage touted itself as an independent Jewish progressive voice when it was a paid shill of the monied pro-Israel interests of the UK Jewish leadership. … When you’ve been doing this as long as I have you develop a sense of smell about groups like this. … They make a pretence of believing one thing and do something entirely different. … Engage is one, as is StandWithUs.

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