Hadley Freeman in today’s Sunday Times on the West Midlands Maccabi Tel Aviv farce:
There has been a very “don’t mention the war” approach to the liberal media’s entire coverage of this story, although the BBC and Guardian are more adept than Basil Fawlty at sidestepping the elephant in the room. They determinedly avoided the word “Muslim” in their reports, even though the West Midlands police consulted eight Muslim organisations about the ban (in the game of Muslim versus Jewish groups consulted by the police about banning Israelis, the score is 8-0). Nor was it mentioned that the SAG committee included two local councillors who said banning the Israeli fans was a “proportionate response to Israel’s actions in Gaza”. You’d have thought liberal media organisations might have learnt from their experience of covering trans issues that ignoring the obvious truth out of fear of looking bigoted never works. But, of course, they have not….
Muslims outnumber Jews in this country by more than ten to one, and while the vast majority are lovely and peaceful, domestic Islamist terrorism is real, and Jewish terrorism is not. To placate the violent thugs, and the sectarian local politicians, West Midlands police kowtowed to some of the most fanatical antisemites in this country, who use Gaza as an excuse to bully Jews.
[West Midlands chief constable] Guildford is too cowardly or too stupid to understand this, but British Jews do. We already knew we don’t count, as David Baddiel’s book put it. And now we know the police will throw us under the bus so willingly they will be shocked to be called out on it.
Not only using Gaza as an excuse to bully Jews, as here, but actually getting pro-Gaza MPs selected by bringing out the Muslim block vote.
Meanwhile, the plot thickens:
A controversial mosque involved in a police force’s decision to ban Israeli football fans from a match in Britain was represented on the panel that appointed its chief constable.
Kamran Hussain, who was chief executive of Green Lane mosque, was part of the interview team that assessed Craig Guildford before he was made chief of West Midlands police three years ago.
Last autumn, the force consulted the mosque before banning Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from attending a Europa League fixture against Aston Villa. This was disclosed by Guildford in a letter to MPs on the home affairs committee.
Quite why the panel to appoint West Midlands chief constable should include the leader of a mosque which hosted antisemitic preachers, including one who said that it was fine to beat disobedient wives, remains something of a mystery. But it does help to explain a few things…
Added:
Mick Hartley 
Leave a comment