KOSHER CONSPIRACY (New Statesman)

Member Name: nona

Product:	New Statesman
Date:	18/01/02 (690 review reads)
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Advantages: Everything from Islam to Existentialism

Disadvantages: -

The shoe-bomber spent some time in Israel. The FBI are holding in custody 100 Israelis who are allegedly part of a massive Israeli spy ring who were present in the USA around 11 September. A Mr Mohammed Atta trained at a US military base. A Mr Mohammed Atta spent some time in Israel. A Mr bin Laden, according to Le Figaro, was a recent patient at an American hospital. A former German government minister has declared that he does not believe the CIA version of the events of 11 September. Do any of these strange events get banner headlines in our British press? Has the BBC been got at?

One of the pillars of Israel's military industrial complex is a firm founded by billionaire arms dealer Schlomo Zabludowicz. The Zabludowiczes had top US government official Richard Perle on their payroll. And Poju Zabludowicz is the Mr Moneybags behind the Zionist organisation which tries to persuade the British media to be pro-Israel and to believe the 'big lies'.

That was one of the interesting things I learnt from reading Denis Sewell's fascinating New Statesman article "A kosher conspiracy?" You see, the New Statesman writes about the issues perplexing the top non-conformist brains.

Sewell reminds us that William Dalrymple, A N Wilson and Piers Paul Read wrote a letter to the Spectator complaining that "under (Conrad) Black's proprietorship, serious critical reporting of Israel is no longer tolerated in the Telegraph Group.

It seems The Times, according to Sewell, may be like the Telegraph. Sam Kiley, a foreign correspondent, resigned from the Times because he was ordered not to mention "the dead kid" in an article he was writing about the Israeli soldiers who had shot dead 12 year-old Mohammed al-Durrah as he took shelter in the arms of his dad. (Of the approximately 1000 dead in the recent troubles, 90% were Palestinian civilians and 60% were shot while in their homes, schools and workplaces.)

Deborah Orr of the Independent complained
she was fed up being called an anti-semite because she dared to criticise Israel.

Former Labour MP Eric Moonman runs one of the organisations which allegedly send vituperative letters and e-mails to critics of Zionism.

Robert Fisk of the Independent complains he has been the victim of an anonymous smear campaign. 'What The Papers Say' chose Suzanne Goldenberg as their Journalist of the Year for her honest reporting on Israel. She has been bombarded with insulting mail.

As well as Sewell, the New Satesman has John Pilger, the multi-award winning journalist. From Pilger I learnt that Mr Blair is Sharon's best friend in Europe.

Blair chose as his 'special envoy' in the Middle East a certain pal of his called Michael Levy. Lord levy is a wealthy Jewish businessman. He is the owner of a house and business in Israel. He was once accused of not paying a lot of tax. He is the Labour Party's chief fund-raiser.

Pilger points out that Blair (friend of arms dealers the Hindujas and supporter of the export of expensive military equipment to debt- ridden Tanzania) approves of selling arms to Israel and buying arms from Israel.

Pilger tells us : "Foreign Office minister Ben Bradshaw said there was 'no evidence' that British arms and equipment had been used against the Palestinians.'" Bradshaw is an active member of the 'Labour Friends of Israel' (a surprisingly vast group!) which has recently arranged for 57 Labour MPs to visit Israel (Probably the largest number of MPs getting free trips to any country).

Pilger points out that the Apache helicopters used to attack and kill Palestinians have a British connection!

Pilger's biggest revelation concerns an Israeli plot to take over all the Palestinian land. "The British government was shown a plan for an all out Israeli invasion and reoccupation of the West Bank and Gaza," writes Pilger.

The Israeli plan required an incident, or incidents, which would
give the Israelis an excuse to invade. On 23 November, Israeli agents murdered Hamas leader Abu Hunud and sparks began to fly. Now Arafat and his Palestinian authority seem all but destroyed.

The New Statesman has a lot of politics, but much of it is refreshingly astute and well-written. Nick Cohen quite rightly tells us that it is OK to be anti-American. Cohen writes that America has "institutionalised the debasement of politics by business donors." (Think of Enron.)

Cohen points out that "rampaging corruption has in no way inhibited America's growth into the world's superpower."

Cohen writes, "If America, with 3% of the world's population, produces 25% of the world's greenhouse gases, it isn't New Age silliness to condemn it, but an urgent duty.....If America wrecks international controls of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, it needs to be fought.

"If the richest country in the world prevents the developing world from creating its own industries....it is a crass rhetorical trick to pretend that criticism is bigotry."

Now, that last point is of extreme importance. (America wants the Third World to be full of American factories paying slave wages. America wants control of the world's oil and mineral wealth.)

The New Statesman is not all politics!

Almost half the magazine is devoted to -
The Arts, Television, Food, Wine, Books, a competition, Events and Heartsearch.

There's even a reference to sport. Robert Winder, in his column about football, wrote "They could drop the offside rule...." Now that sound so sensible. There would be lots more lovely goals! Writing about football should avoid being pedestrian.

And in a review of a new ITV drama called "Footballers' Wives" Andrew Billen wrote, "The fun of trash TV, as Terry Wogan discovered with Dallas twenty years ago, is that its humourlessness leaves you the space to make your own jokes. Unless you actually find inflata
ble dildos at stag nights intrinsically hilarious, you have to work a little to find Footballers' Wives funny..." Thank goodness someone is laughing at the efforts of the TV companies.

Books? The New Statesman has lots of reviews, all by top-class reviewers.

For example, Jennifer Szalai reviewed Gilbert Ryle's 'Dilemmas.' She writes, "In just 129 pages, Ryle succeeds in saying what all of those existentialists were trying to say in that opaque language of theirs: that we are 'condemned to be free'....." That seems pretty clear.

The New Staesman looks like TIME magazine: lots of photos and very clear print. However, while TIME has vocabulary suited to twelve year-olds, the New Statesman is appealing to a rather better educated audience.

The New Statesman is published weekly and, with a subscription, each copy is no more expensive than a cup of coffee.

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