By Barry Shaw.
A report from an ex-Member of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) yesterday claimed that during a meeting in the British Houses of Parliament, former Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary Jack Straw (Lab) peddled an anti-Semitic trope about Jewish control over U.S. and Germany foreign policy.
Straw also reportedly claimed that pro-Israel lobby groups such as AIPAC work with this “unlimited” funding to “divert American policy in the region” and stated that “Germany’s “obsession” with defending Israel” was a major problem.
Einat Wilf, who served as a Labor, the Independence Party Member of the Knesset between 2010 and 2013 wrote on her Facebook page:
“I nearly fell off my rickety British chair today when former UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw spoke at the Round Table Global Diplomatic Forum in the British House of Commons. Listing the greatest obstacles to peace, he said “unlimited” funds available to Jewish organizations and AIPAC in the US are used to control and divert American policy in the region and that Germany’s “obsession” with defending Israel were the problem. I guess he neglected to mention Jewish control of the media….”
The trope about Jewish money and control is recognised as anti-Semitism by EUMC Working Definition, which a part of states: “[Anti-Semitism is]… Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.”
Straw was recently featured in the international media expressing favourability towards the new Iranian president Hassan Rouhani. Straw has gone on the record in stating, “You could do business with him, and we were able to do business with him. I very profoundly believe that [this] is a new chance for proper negotiations.”
Straw’s maternal grandmother was from an Eastern European Jewish family, though his father was imprisoned in 1939 for opposing war with Nazi Germany. Both of Straw’s parents were “conscientious objectors” and met in the Peace Pledge Union – an organisation which favoured appeasement of Hitler.
Speaking on his time in the British cabinet, Straw said in 2009: “Clearly there were forces in the U.S. system that disagreed with my views on the Middle East and there were differences with Tony Blair’s Middle East policy, too.”
It is understood that Straw did not share the U.S. or Tony Blair’s passion for the war on terrorism.
Jack Straw’s office has not yet responded to questions on the matter.
