Hadley Freeman was at that St Pancras and Holborn meeting last week, where Zack Polanski finally caved in to the “Zionism is racism” slogan so beloved of his fellow Greens. In today’s Sunday Times:
There was more curiosity about Polanski, “a gay Jewish man” as he introduced himself, and one whose views are more opaque. Even his own party isn’t sure what he thinks and some worry he is “struggling to overcome the Zionist indoctrination”, as one Green activist put it. (Lovely people these days, the Greens.) At this week’s conference they are debating the motion “Zionism is racism”, and Polanski has so far refused to comment. “Some of the supporters of the motion can be quite aggressive,” one senior Green said to The Guardian last week. Yes, it’s surprising that all those face-eating tigers you courted to join the party are now eating your face, isn’t it?
We had to submit questions in advance, so I bashed some out and sent them to the organisers. LJF’s chair, Amanda Bowman, kicked things off and, boy, did they kick off. Does Israel have a right to exist? All the candidates said yes except guess who, and he ducked the question three times. To say what should happen with Israel would be “imperialist”, Polanski declared. He referred to “tikkun olam” — a Hebrew phrase for healing the world. It rolled off his tongue as smoothly as Urdu. Is Zionism racism? “The problem with definitions is they mean different things to different people,” he said, mixing up “words” and “definitions”. Still, despite his objections to “definitions”, he had no trouble defining himself as an “anti-Zionist” because Zionism “depends on the displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people”. Which is a great way to get around an issue you find complicated: redefine it to make it really simple.
What does any of this have to do with Holborn & St Pancras? Not a darn thing. Polanski was using the hustings to make a point, reassuring his base he has overcome the “Zionist indoctrination”. More than once he said, “I can hear this is not a popular opinion”, smiling at the angry cries of Jews. So when it was my turn to speak, I decided to make my own point: did Polanski think the huge amount of security required for this event — policemen, a secret venue — reflected the Jewish community’s mere “perception of unsafety”, as he put it in April? And if I voted for him, could he promise to make my breasts bigger?
Pause. Palpable anger. He’d expected Israel, but not breasts — a classic mistake. “The media have misreported what I said … The amount of Jewish people who stop me in the street and say thank you,” he said, to much mirth. He tried again: “When I had my bar’mitzvah I was taught about mensch behaviour, and when we have debates, they’re conducted respectfully. Thank you.”
“What about the tits?” called out several people.
“I’m not sure the second part of the question was answered,” Bowman said. He stared back at her, possibly enlarging parts of her anatomy.
Greens sniped online about my audacity to ask such an unserious question, and fine, yes, I asked it because it’s hilarious. But I also asked it because it is obvious to me that this ex-actor, ex-hypnotist is an unserious, attention-seeking husk who will say anything to be famous, whether it’s telling journalists in 2013 he can enlarge women’s breasts, or reassuring party members he doesn’t see Israel as a legitimate country. And anyone who has claimed either should not be in public office.
Polanski is, in short, a grifter. The only way he can maintain his position as leader of the Greens is by pandering to their hatred of Israel, and of Jews. And boy, does he pander.
He says he cares about the cost of living, and yet the local Green leaflets are all about Palestine. How dare this Gaza-garbling boobs botherer use my constituency for his ignorant, self-promoting, populist crusade? Polanski exited, possibly to ponder when he can pursue his true destiny of reality TV.
Leave a Reply