Many thanks to John Hilley for keeping us up to date with the David Ward saga. Ward is the British MP accused by the UK Jewish establishment of anti-semitism for making the patently obvious point that most Israelis appear to have ignored the universal lesson of the Holocaust and instead gone from being members of a persecuted people to being a nation of persecutors (of Palestinians).<\/p>\n
Ward belongs to the Liberal Democrats, a liberal party currently in coalition with the Conservative government and one that has a dismal track record on allowing dissent about Israel within its ranks.<\/p>\n
Like the other two main (and bigger) parties, it has one of these strange “Friends of Israel” groups within the parliamentary caucus. These groups have been growing and becoming much more powerful within the three parties over the past decade – just as the rank and file members (like the British people) have, according to polls, become much more sceptical about Israel and its policies.<\/p>\n
Ward has effectively been disciplined by the party leadership and has now been sent to a re-education camp run by – yes, that’s right – the Liberal Democratic Friends of Israel (LDFI), chaired by Gavin Stollar.<\/p>\n
“‘LDFI has essentially been appointed as probation officers for David Ward,’ said Mr Stollar. ‘If we are not convinced that he is salvageable then we’ll be in the position to report back to the leader and the chief whip and express our views.<\/p>\n
‘Rather than making him a martyr, LDFI welcomes the opportunity to educate one of our MPs.'”<\/p>\n
This is great news for the UK’s Jewish establishment. Now they don’t need to dirty their hands terrifying the country’s elected representatives into silence on Israel’s crimes. They have outsourced it to the party machines instead.<\/p>\n