Nailing the EDL-Zionist lie

In the Huffington Post, Salma Yaqoob (ex leader of Respect) has written about Tommy Robinson, former leader of the English Defence League. Apparently, prior to quitting the EDL, Robinson complained to Yaqoob that “Zionists” had failed to support the anti-Muslim group:

he bizarrely admitted the EDL had a pro-Israel stance to attract funding from Zionists but complained to me that it had not materialised in the way he hoped.

Yaqoob did not write any more about Robinson’s “pro-Israel stance to attract funding from Zionists”, or expand upon how “it had not materialised in the way he hoped”. Had she done so, we could have had further ammunition to help nail the dangerous and eagerly transmitted lie that Zionists are somehow in bed with the Muslim haters of the EDL.

Of course, the lie is propelled by the sight of the EDL flying Israeli flags alongside British ones, but it falls upon hugely fertile ground that has been seeded many times over by utterly hateful depictions of Zionists. This, despite the basic reality that most British Jews self-identify as Zionists and have no truck with racism against Muslims, or anyone else for that matter.

Indeed, when this June the Bravanese Muslim community centre in Muswell Hill was destroyed in an arson attack, it was nearby synagogues and a Jewish school that immediately rushed to their aid: with CST’s backing, they provided their premises for religious services during Ramadan, and helped provide educational facilities for the childrens’ exam studies.

In our enemies’ hateful imaginations, all of these Jewish organisations would likely be condemned as “Zionist”, because they have basic mainstream Jewish attitudes to Israel, Zionism and Jewish rights to self-determination and self-definition.   

Like most UK Jewish representative bodies, CST is regularly attacked as “Zionist”, as if this somehow proves that we and our partner groups are embroiled in an anti-Islam campaign involving everything from the street thugs of the EDL, to the portrayal of Jihadist terrorism by the mass media, and the actions of the US military. 

In fact, CST and other UK Jewish representative groups have consistently argued against the racist dead end logic and hate of the EDL. We are glad, but not at all surprised, that British Jews have refused to be taken in by the EDL.

Jewish rejection of the EDL is an established fact. Now, the former leader of the EDL has admitted that their flying the Israeli flag was intended to attract Zionist (or Jewish?) support. It may well disappoint those who want so desperately to tie Israel and Zionists with the EDL, and who care nothing about the consequences of that for Muslim-Jewish relations, but the truth is simple: Robinson’s stupid plan fell flat on its stupid face.

Finally, there is the irony. When Robinson says "Zionists", he makes exactly the same stupid assumptions as his far Left and Islamist enemies. Namely, that Zionists simply hate Muslims and will dip into their deep Zionist (or Jewish?) pockets in order to support anything that opposes Islam.