From the start all Stop The War demonstrations have inherently being opposed to the 'War on Terror ' in general, & any focus upon one war within it is purely a matter of having a convenient title for the latest phase of opposition to the 'War On Terror'.

Jews need to grow up & realise that the Zionist state are engaged in state sponsored atrocities against humanity. If this is an anti-semitic statement, then all Jews who argued against Nazism, on the basis that it was state sponspored atrocities against humanity, must themselves by definition have also been anti-semetic.

... trying to hi-jack the rally.

Perhaps they need to be a bit clearer about their real agenda:

1) Do they support or oppose the occupation?

2) Do they defend the right to freedom of expression?

3) Are they using potential "anti-semitism" as a device to stop action for the ending of
the occupation?

4) Are members of the Jewish community in Britain at greater risk of violence that the
people of Occupiued Palestine?

At the moment it looks like another cheap attempt to stifle debate over Palestine by using the "anti-semitic" whip.

:(

What is this "Jews need to wake up"? I happen to be Jewish and I also happen to oppose many of the policies of the Israeli government. I happen to be a British citizen and I oppose many of the policies of the British government. I resent being lumped into a generic racial group who are all supposed to have the same political opinions. Jews did not all think, talk and act the same, but neither does any group of people. The comparison to the Nazi regime is a simplistic and flawed analogy. The same grouping of all abuses (in this case curfews, checkpoints, political assassinations, the killing of over 1000 civilians and a whole litany of crimes) under a generic heading ("just like the Nazis") shows the same simplistic way of thinking about people or events as talking about what Jewish people think as a collective single entity and demonstrates a refusal to think about the complexities of individual situations.
I agree that the Israeli state is behaving atrociously. I do not think fatuous comparisons to Nazism or telling Jews to 'wake up' contributes in any meaningful way to understanding or having dialogue about the situation. Is slogan shouting preferable to dialogue? How much does it solve?

JoMo

Well said Mo Jo.

My Fatuous comparison to Nazi's was largely intended to underline that to simplistically call anti-war demonstrators Anti-Semitic can be met with something equally simplistic & sweeping. Obvious Jews aren't anti-semetic, but if you superimpose the 'Board Of Directors' view of anti-semitism, then they must be by their own weak definition of it.

I'm very pleased that you've done the job of opening this debate up further, as this 'Board Of Deputies' seem to think that all Jews can be portrayed as single entity with the same simplistic, & deeply offensive analysis of anti-war demonstrators. It's always refreshing, reassuring & hopeful to hear otherwise.

Isn't the Board of Deputies of British Jews supposed to be the voice of British Jews or is this wrong? If not then who are they supposed to represent?