The only reason the question of UK Jewish leverage matters is in relation to Israel. Are we in the UK able to comment on Israel without fear of retribution? Since 2014 there has been a massive change in how we might comment on the apartheid regime there. This is due to the wholesale adoption by many British institutions of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. Now, to declare Israel racist is tantamount to Jew-hate. How did this happen? 

The IHRA definition can be studied here and here. It has been at its most successful in silencing debate within the Labour Party which, for many, represented the most important place to explore and discuss the nature of Israel and what it does to Palestinians. But any Labour Party member who criticises Israel as a racist endeavour will now be investigated by the party’s compliance unit. How on earth did we give up such a fundamental right as on our freedom of speech? The people who foisted the IHRA definition upon us were the Jews in the UK who support Israel, so the question arises: do Jews in the UK have significant leverage within the bodies that represent our interests – our courts, our media, our trade unions, our political parties, our government?

The simple answer is yes, of course they do. Some use it to the power of good – examples would be the barrister Michael Mansfield and Sir Geoffrey Bindman. Ahron Cohen, spokesman for Neturei Karta. Bloggers such as Tony Greenstein and activists in Jewish Voice for Labour too, when they are not being vindictive.

But others use their leverage to silence us: those who support Zionism and believe Israel must prevail. While they do it out of solidarity with their co-religionists there, they are essentially supporters of the principle that their cousins in that colony are entitled to greater rights than Palestinians. Lord Grade is a good example of this. 

At some risk, below we examine their disproportionate position and representation within the overall population. Staying below the radar and eschewing such publicity is fundamental to their maintaining and increasing the control, the leverage, that they have.

Rich Jewish bankers

Right from the outset, rich Jewish bankers such as Lord Rothschild backed Zionism. It is unlikely we would have Israel now were it not for his influence. It was to this person that our UK Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour promised Palestine in 1917 (Note that Jews are quick to declare their innocence on the matter of their influence – see “The myth of Jewish power”):

Exactly 100 years after the above letter was written Jews were still fighting for – and winning – the battle for ongoing control of Palestine. The Zionist David Collier says “the Palestinian refugee” – dehumanised as an “it” – was “a weapon” which was “created as an artificial entity”. (See “How racist blogger David Collier infiltrated the Labour Party”.

The media

It cannot be denied that there are plenty of Jewish celebrities who bat for Israel (see “Performers and Israel”). And top Jewish journalists, such as Jonathan Friedland and Hadley Freeman in the Guardian, will never loudly condemn Israel.

At the BBC, 38 per cent of the corporation’s executive hoard is pro-Israel or Zionist (see “Jewish and Zionist influence at the BBC”). Glaswegian Jew Laura Kuensberg, for example, was the BBC’s political editor in the years that mattered (up to 2022) and was instrumental in Jeremy Corbyn’s downfall. She knows she can relax into her new chat show now, secure in the knowledge that her work in “fixing” the Labour Party, into the crippled beast we see today, has been done.

Plenty of politicians too – in both the Labour and Conservative parties – are Jewish and support Israel (see below).

‘Lefty” Jewish Zionists

Add to this the lefty Jewish activists who are proud Zionists. John Lansman is a millionaire property owner – a champagne socialist who lives at Butler’s Wharf and who steered Momentum at a crucial time. He spent his formative years in an Israeli Kibbutz and assisted in the demolition of Corbyn by foisting the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism on Labour. He worked with Rhea Wolfson, former president of the Oxford University Jewish Society and now organiser of the union GMB Scotland, from which she aims to become a Labour MP in Livingston North, and holds joint honours in promoting Zionism among the left in the UK (see “How did Israel get everyone to adopt the IHRA definition“). These two people were key players in stopping Labour members from campaigning for Palestine. Now that they have achieved what Israel wanted them to do, it is no surprise both have taken a back seat from Labour’s National Executive Committee politics. Both these Labourites are senior members of the Jewish Labour Movement (formerly Paole Zion) and both are driving forces behind ensuring Israel remains immune from criticism. They used their tribal background shamelessly in 2018 to successfully remove our freedom of speech on Israel. What better cover for Lansman to undermine Corbyn than to put himself at the head of Corbyn’s praetorian guard? Of course, the right wing of the Parliamentary Labour Party hitched itself up to Lansman and Wolfson in their successful bid to take down Corbyn. These people together robbed us of a great leader, one who would have both led a socialist Labour Party and called for sanctions against racist Israel.

We see the Zionists and the Labour right working together successfully in this article “Rhea Wolfson and Emily Thornberry: Pro-Zionist sisters in arms”. Emily Thornberry basically said Jewish campaigners such as Tony Greenstein were fascists. At this point, the battle for freedom of speech on Palestine was at its height. To quote Chris Williamson MP at the 2018 fringe meeting organised by Labour Against the Witchhunt:

The only way you stop a playground bully is to stop running. The monster is getting bigger, the more you feed it. Stop feeding the beast! They are trying to pick us off, one by one. Which is why we need to call this campaign out for what it is: a pile of nonsense.

As we all know, the Zionist bully won. Willimson was soon booted out of the Labour Party on bogus anti-Semitism charges.

Beginnings

The onslaught on our freedom of speech on Israel was first planned and promoted in 2011, at the Big Tent for Israel event in Manchester. This is when Jeremy Newmark persuaded so many Jews to sign up to actively promote Israel.

The event was hugely successful. The order was sent out for Jews to immerse themselves into the executive committees of the political parties, the trade unions and the upper echelons of local authorities. Their mission was clear: to prevent British citizens from criticising Israel, and to do this by holding such criticism to be an example of “anti-Semitism”.

Around 75 per cent of the UK’s 300,000 Jews support Israel (if they didn’t, we wouldn’t have the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism). Unfortunately, an overwhelmingly majority of UK Jews feel grotesque loyalty to the racist Israeli colony. In the UK en masse Jews have significant leverage. And the majority of them throw their wealth and personal resources into ensuring Israel maintains its immunity from criticism.

Jews do not control the world

Of course, we at the Campaign Against Bogus Antisemitism certainly do not see Jews as one monolithic power block. To do so would be anti-Semitic. When people make generalisations like that about Jews, this is anti-Semitic.

But to pretend that Jews in the UK do not have significant leverage is to ignore the obvious. Is Lord Alan Sugar some kind of impoverished leftie? No – his celebrity status ensures that whatever he says will instantly hit the headlines. A Labour peer, he has consistently supported the Tories in smearing Corbyn and complaining about non-existent Labour “anti-Semitism”. On 31 March 2018, after complaints from Labour politicians, Sugar deleted a tweet showing an edited image of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in a car with Adolf Hitler. In December 2018 he announced during a television interview that he would leave Britain if Corbyn became prime minister.

There are many rich Jews – but just a few poor ones. And many orthodox Rabbis are not wealthy. The poor Jews often oppose Zionism.

But it was the wealthy and influential Jews in politics and the media who foisted the IHRA definition upon us, the tool now widely used to silence pro-Palestine campaigners and used by the Labour Party to expunge activists. If Jews had not been behind demanding the new definition and claiming it was essential for their safety, we would not have it. Since 75 per cent of Jews support Israel, it is fair to say that 75 per cent support the IHRA definition. These are the same Jews who ousted Professor David Miller from his job at Bristol University and who got the director of the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester sacked for promoting Palestine.

The 25 per cent of Jews who do not support Israel, including Mansfield, Bindman, Greenstein, Moshe Machover and some Orthodox Jews, are to be applauded. Unfortunately, they are hugely outnumbered by the many wealthy Jews who will do all in their power to maintain Israel as their dream bolt-hole in the sun.

To say Jews in the UK have great leverage is not anti-Semitic, it is just a statement of fact.

Like saying an Eton education gets you into Parliament.

Or Muslims don’t like alcohol and fear speaking out about Islamophobia.

Or Scots are “good with money”, i.e. not profligate.

Or Germany has an enormous collective guilt over the holocaust, while Austria, its partner in crime, has not

Or London has many rich Russian oligarchs…

The data

Let’s look at more data: how many Jews are rich, well-educated and in Parliament? Stuart Littlewood has observed that Jews are eight times over-represented in the UK Parliament. The truth is they are powerful, in proportion to their share of the population (300,000 out of 66 million), comprising 0.4 per cent of us. This is a tiny, tiny proportion, yet this tiny proportion has won the propaganda war for Israel. It has convinced all our political parties (bar the Greens), the Scottish and Westminster governments, all the major trade unions (bar the PCS), the police and 40 per cent of local authorities to declare that to call Israel racist is an example of “anti-Semitism”. (More on this here.) 

Put “influential Jews” into Google – what do we get? Ten of the 50 people on this year’s Forbes annual billionaires list are Jewish. Of the 802 Nobel prizes handed out to date, 162 have gone to Jews. In Michael H. Hart’s book, The 100: A ranking of the most Influential persons in history, seven are Jews.

Not bad for 0.4 per cent of the population, eh? It’s clear Jews have leverage and success far greater than what you’d expect for their numbers within our population. They are incredibly well-educated, well-organised and ambitious in securing this prominence.

On the other hand, there are 2 million Muslims in the UK. What do you get when we put “Influential Muslims” into Google? Muslims Ice Cube (American rapper and actor) Hafez – Persian poet; Osama bin Ladin – terrorist leader of Al-Qaeda; Ibn Sina, philosopher and physician Zinedine Zidane – French footballer. Virtually none in the UK. None is wealthy. None is at the top of the professions. Yet Muslims outnumber Jews seven times over. There is no doubt they wield far less power in our government and in our bodies of state.

This is not anti-Semitism – just facts on the ground, as the Israelis like to put it.

The loss of our freedom of speech

It is because of these wealthy Zionist Jews, steered from the British Board of Deputies of British Jews and the like, that nobody in this country, including our media, dare point out the blindingly obvious: that we have utterly lost our freedom of speech on Israel because everybody is frightened of what Zionist Jews will do to them. Cancel culture – vilification, sackings, expulsions, suspensions – these are the tools employed to silence would-be critics.

The courts, of course, look the other way, so they are no answer. See “Legal Battles lost and won (and ongoing!)“.

Liberty, the organisation established to protect human rights and defend free speech in the UK, appears to support Zionism, in spite of it being forced to adopt motions to the contrary. Jewish Voice for Labour activist and Jewish Liberty Committee member Jonathan Rosenhead persuaded their 2018 annual general meeting to adopt a motion against the IHRA definition, to no great effect. This was exposed by Tony Greenstein when he asked in his blog of October 2018. In 2019, Campaign Against Bogus Antisemitism Chair Pete Gregson repeatedly emailed, then struggled at the Liberty AGM, to get some action, with no more success. He detected widespread support for action among rank-and-file Liberty members, but steadfast refusal by the executive to act. Liberty Director Martha Spurrier is active in promoting many of our freedoms but is utterly silent on Israel’s influence on our domestic affairs.

That the Israeli embassy is at the core of Zionist support in the UK is undeniable. It has a massive budget and, in association with the Board of Deputies of British Jews, coordinates action among British Jewry whenever any celebrity or media organisation condemns Israel’s actions. BBC journalists say they dread running a piece on Palestinian abuses, because as soon as it is printed their switchboard is jammed by angry Jews condemning their “anti-Semitism” in not giving Israel’s perspective on “security” full honours. Few journalists in 2022 have the bravery to risk their career by talking about Israel in less than glowing terms.

Holocaust guilt

There are, of course, plenty of misguided Christians, luminaries such as Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who support the IHRA definition. And not just Christians. The Mayor of London, Sadie Khan, too, as well as most right-wing Tory and Labour MPs. They do this because, possibly, there is a great deal of holocaust guilt in the UK. There is so much that we did not do to prevent the mass executions of the Nazi regime; Churchill, like most Tories until the 1950s, did not give a fig for the Jews – they were fine as long as they were in Palestine, but the fate of European Jewry was very low on his agenda. There were many, many Jews seeking refuge from the Nazis – Britain rejected many. The few Kindertransports we did allow to enter the country were the exception rather than the rule. So, support for Zionism and getting Jews to move to Palestine falls neatly in line with our widespread anti-Semitism, from the early 1900s right up to the late 1940s. And we have a lingering national shame, thanks to Churchill, of our very own holocaust denial, which the Zionists endlessly exploit – for the benefit of Israel.