Red Ken Strikes Again (Not anti-Semitic, just hate Israel, don't you see?

The Jerusalem Post ^ | March 6, 2005 | Editorial

[quidnunc]

A few weeks ago London Mayor Ken Livingstone likened a Jewish journalist to a Nazi concentration camp guard because he didn't approve of the reporter's employer. Despite the furor, the mayor remains unrepentant.

Offensive as this comment was, abetted by his lack of minimal remorse, it could have been dismissed as a momentary indiscretion that he was psychologically incapable of retracting. Livingstone, after all, has a long history of putting his foot in his mouth.

But on Friday Livingstone dispelled any lingering doubts. This time his bile couldn't be ascribed to an off-the-cuff gaffe. It was carefully premeditated and formulated in writing for a Guardian op-ed. Among repeated calumnies against the Jewish state, Livingstone opined that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is "a war criminal who should be in prison, not in office."

Not only is Livingstone not seeking to extricate himself from the mess he got himself into last month, but he's clearly out to pick an even greater fight. Moreover, he does so at a time in which Britain's Jews face increased hostility both from homegrown hate-mongers and from the UK's growing, sometimes extreme, Muslim community.

We haven't forgotten the fact that the terrorists who attacked Mike's Place on Tel Aviv's beachfront in 2003 came here from Britain, where they were exposed to anti-Israeli diatribes of the sort Livingstone dispenses so generously. Moreover, recent statistics show that in 2004 anti-Semitic incidents in Britain rose by a whopping 41%.

If he were a responsible politician, Livingstone would spend his energies calming intercommunal tensions and combating anti-Jewish libels, which further feed the blazing fires of anti-Semitism. To refrain from doing so is grossly negligent. To fan the flames — as Livingstone blithely does with no provocation — is outrageous.

The distinction Livingstone presumes to draw between being anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic is itself threadbare.

Anti-Semitism couched in ostensibly anti-Israeli mantras is as commonplace as the "some of my best friends are Jews" affectation — which Livingstone indeed reiterates.

-snip-

[Arpege92]

Someone should send this idiot some photo's of DEAD Israeli's who were turned into hamburger by the Palestinians.

I really do fear for Europes future.

[prairiebreeze]

Do you mean Eurabia?

[Reactionary]

Leftists are hysterical lunatics. To equate a journalist and a prison camp guard is an exercise in being mentally deranged.

[austinmark]

So the Limey's- ... Hate the Jew's, are scared of the Muslim's, and envy the United States.

"An Englishman will burn his bed to catch a flea."
-Turkish proverb.

[sgtbono2002]

I would presume the people of London elected this fool so they feel the same way.

[familyop]

Ping!

"Livingstone opined that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is 'a war criminal who should be in prison, not in office.'"

Livingstone again tells the media what his friends try to keep between themselves. There's no excuse for such hatred and dishonesty, whether it's voiced only in the UK or where we in the USA will see it (that is, in the two or three London publications allowing posting here).

[kingsurfer]

I would presume the people of London elected this fool so they feel the same way.
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Nope. The unions, the lefties and the muslims elected him.
The views of Bill Clinton did not represent his electorate just as the views of Red Ken do not represent London.
He only represents the Lefties.

[familyop]

Ping!

This time, "Livingstone opined that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is 'a war criminal who should be in prison, not in office.'"

So there's no mistake as to where his loyalties lie--with the terrorists.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[SJackson]

It's time he took a nom de guerre like everyone else.

Abu Ken would work. Separate Mayor Ken from Abu Ken. Too bad you guys only speak English, he can't pull the " ignore what I said in Arabic" stunt.

[free_european]

He wouldnt care. As head of the Greater London Council in the 1980s, he invited the head of Sinn Fein/IRA to London despite the fact that it had recently concluded a bloody bombing campaign in the city.

[Marano NYC]

I wish this were an isolated incident but I have been reading the lefty blogs from the UK. I got an attack on my own blog that led me to the source.My head is still shaking from the blogs. An example Syrian Jews were pressured by the USA Jewish community into leaving.There is a mass insanity over in Europe.

[FreeReporting]

Livingstone said worse things about Bush but you don't see him getting worried about it.

[kingsurfer]

He wouldnt care. As head of the Greater London Council in the 1980s, he invited the head of Sinn Fein/IRA to London despite the fact that it had recently concluded a bloody bombing campaign in the city.


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PING. This guy knows no boundaries. At the run up to the next election hopefully some newspapers will comment on his track record. Some things need repeating.