| THE HANDSTAND | JUNE2009 |
Corruption runs far
deeper than fiddling MPs' expenses
By Stuart Littlewood
1 June 2009
"Mucking out" British politics
http://www.redress.
UK politicians are currently reeling from a public
lashing for fiddling their expenses big-time. Such is
their arrogance that many, when confronted with their
crimes, don't see that they have done anything wrong.
The guilty ones who step down will be further enriched
with a lavish resettlement allowance and a big pension
pot. To appease voters' anger Parliament and government
are now promising anti-sleaze reforms. They are calling
on the impressive-sounding Committee on Standards in
Public Life to investigate and make recommendations.
Conservative leader David Cameron, who has expectations
of becoming the next British prime minister, talks of
purging his party of its cheats and racketeers.
But swindling the taxpayer over MPs' expenses is nothing
compared to other corruption that's rife in Westminster.
It is said that becoming a Friend of Israel is a
necessary stepping-stone to high office. As a result,
supporters of that foreign power are embedded at all
levels in the fabric of British political life and at the
heart of the government. Eighteen months ago a group of
concerned academics wrote to the Standards Committee
complaining about Israel's "deep penetration"
of our political system and how it prevented Britain from
taking a principled stand on Middle East affairs,
including the Iraq war and the never-ending violations of
Palestinian human rights. They asked the committee to
consider the activities of the Friends of Israel as a
matter for urgent investigation.
(THE FRIENDS OF ISRAELWe are a ministry with a twin focus.We
seek to:1. Bless Israel by means of practical and moral
support.2. Serve the Church with teaching and resources
about God's love and purposes for Israel and the Hebraic
roots of our faith. https://www.cfi.org.uk/index.php CFI Charitable Trust
is a Company limited by guarantee, No. 04984515.
Registered Charity No. 1101899)
The chairman, Sir Christopher Kelly, refused. Why? He
wouldn't say. But some members of his committee were
found to have close links with Friends of Israel. Even
this inner sanctum of British correctness and fair play
is compromised.
Yet the authorities turn a blind eye to the various
Israel Lobby organizations, which go to great lengths to
influence not only those in power, but those wishing to
achieve power in the future. Conservative Friends of
Israel (CFI) claim that, with over 2,000 members and
registered supporters, alongside 80 per cent of the
Conservative MPs, it has become the largest affiliated
group in the party. Its website states that the CFI, in
the run-up to the last general election, supported
candidates up and down the country. As candidates are now
being continuously selected for target seats, CFI has
developed a special programme of weekly briefings, events
with speakers and a chance to participate in delegations
to Israel. CFI encourages all members to help campaign
for parliamentary candidates and also for local council,
London and European elections.It also "fast-tracks"
candidates fighting target marginal seats. Senior
Conservatives try to justify the turning of would-be MPs
into Zionist stooges by insisting that Israel is "a
force for good in the world" and that in the battle
for democratic liberal values against repression "Israel's
enemies are our enemies and this is a battle in which we
all stand together..."
A top Conservative Friend of Israel confidently predicted
there would be no investigation by the Standards
Committee, his cocksure attitude adding to the view that
his like are a protected species within the Westminster
village.Security and defence are underminedBut there are
deadly serious consequences. The Israel lobby is even
more heavily represented at the centre of Britain's
security establishment since the appointment of Kim
Howells, formerly minister in charge of Middle East
affairs and a one-time chairman of Labour Friends of
Israel, to the chair of the Intelligence and Security
Committee. This committee has oversight of the Security
Service (MI5), the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), the
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the
work of the Joint Intelligence Committee and the
Intelligence and Security Secretariat, which includes the
Assessment Staff in the Cabinet Office. The committee
also takes evidence from the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS),
part of the Ministry of Defence.
These people have access to highly classified material.
How can we trust them? Another member of the committee is
Sir Alan Beith, president of the Liberal Democrat Friends
of Israel, whose aims and objectives are stated thus:To
maximize support for the State of Israel not only within
the Liberal Democrats but within Parliament itself. To
influence the party's Middle East policy. To liaise with
Israeli politicians and government. To provide
parliamentarians with briefing material for parliamentary
debates, questions to ministers and public appearances.
To rebut attacks on Israel in the media, Parliament and
the party.
To arrange and accompany Liberal Democrat Friends of
Israel delegations to Israel. To keep in regular contact
with the Embassy of Israel. Other pro-Israel groups have
similar objectives. British citizens would horrified to
know that Zionist tentacles have spread everywhere in
Westminster and that our most important security bodies
– the Intelligence and Security Committee, Foreign
Affairs Committee and Defence Committee – are all
chaired by Israel flag-wavers. They inhibit a proper
British response on issues such as the cruel and unlawful
blockade of Gaza, and more recently the 22 days of lethal
terror unleashed by Israel in an attempt to crush the
trapped and half-starved men, women and children of the
Gaza Strip.
Cameron has painted himself into a corner by declaring he's
a Zionist, leaving one to wonder if he actually knows the
meaning of the word and all the nastiness it implies. His
ideas about the situation in the Middle East seem
confused. Take this gem: The West has to understand that
there isn't an equivalence between a democratically
elected government of Israel, a state of Israel that is a
democracy, that's a member of the United Nations, that
has a totally legitimate right to exist and defend itself
– there is no equivalence between that and a group
like Hamas...Hamas was democratically elected in 2006.
Why not acknowledge and respect that?
Israel, of course, is no Western-style democracy but a
racist ethnocracy. It flouts dozens of UN resolutions and
defies international law. Its every act is designed to
make the illegal occupation permanent and realize the
Zionist dream of a "Greater Israel" at the
expense of world peace. The Israeli cabinet has just
approved a draft law to ban Palestinians from marking the
Naqba – the "catastrophe" of 1948 widely
regarded as the Palestinians' holocaust, when the state
of Israel was declared and some 700,000 were subjected to
an Israeli campaign of terror and ethnic cleansing, and
subsequently lost their homes and lands, including the
land on which the much-mentioned town of Sderot was later
built. To this day, they and their descendants, an
estimated 4.5 million, have been denied the right to
return to their homes.
And the Israeli gestapo this week closed down the
Palestine Festival of Literature, sponsored by the
British Council. Does any of this sound like the work of
a democratic government, Mr Cameron? Do you seriously
think your party is fit to govern if it aligns with an
apartheid regime that has no regard for the rights of
others or for the sanctity of human life, and uses
depleted uranium and white phosphorus bombs against
civilians in densely populated areas? Did you and your
colleagues learn nothing from Gaza 2009? And how does it
look, standing shoulder to shoulder with religious
fanatics who horribly persecute the Christian communities
in the Holy Land? Why do you condemn Palestinian
resistance when Israelis are killing Palestinians at the
rate of nearly 12 to 1? Why insist that they "recognize"
Israel while Israel's boot is on their necks?
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's conduct is equally odd.
Brown, like Blair before him, also seems indifferent to
the 90 years of British betrayal and the Palestinians'
present plight. He was "delighted" when invited
to become a patron of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in
the UK. Set up to help establish a Jews-only state in
Arab Palestine, the JNF is a principal tool for Israel's
programme of land theft. The JNF's constitution requires
it to benefit Jews exclusively; therefore, it promotes
and implements policies that discriminate against the
Arab population of Israel. The JNF stands accused of
ethnic cleansing, the destruction of hundreds of
Palestinian villages and the expropriation of Palestinian
land on a massive scale – war crimes in anyone's
language. And yet – can you believe it –
Cameron too has become a patron.
It is not enough for party leaders to sack a few
scoundrels, reduce a few perks and claim to have cleaned
up the system. There's a mountain of mucking out to do
before the British parliamentary system can call itself
"fit for purpose".
Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free
Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians
under occupation. For further information please visit www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk.