Reply #62: I am much less keen on MacShane than Hirsh, though I agree with him on some key points

[LeftishBrit]

Especially that:
'
Why is Jewish nationalism a bad thing when, say Kurdish nationalism or Irish nationalism or any other variety you care to name are as right on as the niqab? And why is the panoply of invective directed against Israel so replete with obfuscations, myths, half-baked stories, and outright lies? Why is it smarter to believe the Palestinian PR machine than the manifestly less dramatic Israeli accounts? Why are people so easily taken in by the myth of an all-powerful Jewish/Israeli lobby when this is such a well-known anti-Semitic trope (stemming from the Protocols), and why is it so easily forgotten that lobbying is hardly unusual in politics. Everybody has a lobby, but only the Jews control governments, the media, and the world of education. That's both stupid and anti-Semitic.'


Agreed. (I do not think that everyone who is influenced by these views is personally antisemitic; but I think that the views have roots in old antisemitic themes.)

But he loses me when he makes his general accusations against 'the left'; and in particular when he supports Nick Cohen's views on the left's 'betrayal of Iraq' through their opposition to the war. Nor is this just an opinion on his part: MacShane is a New Labour MP, who has strongly supported Blair throughout. His views are just as biased and selective on this and related matters as those of the extreme anti-Israelis about Israel.