Congrats to Mike as Sunday Times Finally Retracts Anti-Semitism Smears

Very many congratulations to Mike, who has finally won his battle with the newspaper Private Eye refers to as the Sunset Times. Today Mike put up a piece over at his blog reporting that after over a year the rag has finally published a retraction stating that their accusations that he was an anti-Semite and a holocaust denier are false, and explaining what Mike really said and meant in his interview with them.

The Sunday Times is the last of the newspapers, which libeled Mike, to admit that it was wrong and smeared him. The other newspapers, which already made retractions and clarifications following the press regulator, IPSOS, ruling against them, were the Mail, the Sun, the Jewish Chronicle and the Express. Mike’s piece reporting this not only includes the text of the ST’s article admitting their piece on him was wrong, but also the relevant parts of the IPSOS ruling, as well as his own further remarks and clarifications.

This is excellent news, as it’s long past time that these newspapers finally told the truth and made it clear that they were wrong and that Mike is by no means any kind of Jew-hater or denies the terrible reality of the Nazi’s appalling murder of the Jews, along with millions of other victims. Mike states that ‘This is a huge victory for the fight against false allegations of anti-Semitism.‘ But the struggle against these malign accusations and the people who made and are still making them continues.

He explains that the Sunset Times smeared him after someone in the Labour Party leaked a confidential report about him to the Murdoch rag. The newspaper printed what they thought were the strongest parts of this vile document, parts which have now been disproven as lies and smears. This did not prevent Mike from being expelled from the Labour party at a kangaroo court last November, all because someone said that they were ‘upset’ by the articles he’d published. Mike states that the original accusations were made by the fringe extremist group masquerading as a charity, the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism. The CAA made their false allegations just before Mike was due to stand as a candidate in his local council elections, and which Mike believes was a corrupt attempt to prevent him being elected.

He concludes his article

This is what we must resist – false claims against innocent people, made to create political advantage. That is what this is about – not anti-Semitism, but power.

See: https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2019/01/13/at-last-the-sunday-times-admits-anti-semitism-allegations-against-vox-political-writer-were-false/

Mike’s entirely correct about this. The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism is seriously and deceptively misnamed. It isn’t remotely interested in tackling genuine anti-Semitism, but instead is part of the Zionists’ attempt to close down criticism of the Israeli government and military for the appalling barbarism inflicted on the Palestinians by smearing those, who protest against it and their defenders as anti-Semites. The CAA and the other people and organisations in this malign campaign have smeared genuinely decent, anti-racist women and men, who have frequently themselves suffered for their determination to combat racism and real, genuine anti-Semitism. These have included proud, self-respecting Jews, like Jackie Walker, Tony Greenstein and Martin Odoni, as well as passionate non-Jewish anti-Fascists like Ken Livingstone and Mark Wadsworth.

And just as decent anti-Nazis have been smeared, the Israel lobby has lent its support to real Fascists, like the Law and Justice Party in Poland, Viktor Orban and Fidesz in Hungary, and feted real Fascists like Richard Spencer of the Alt Right, Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka in Israel itself, to the horror of many thousands of decent Israelis.

Mike has won a profound victory, but the people, newspapers and organisations behind this campaign of lies and vilification are still continuing with their malign falsehoods, including the Zionist organization, the Jewish Labour Movement, previously Paole Zion, and the Blairites in the Labour party. It’s high time this smear campaign was utterly and totally discredited, and the decent people they have hounded out of the Labour party given a proper apology and had their membership restored.

Throughout his battle with the press, Mike has enjoyed the support of the very great people, who comment and enjoy his blog. Some of whom have posted their congratulations to him in the comments section of his article. One of the most interesting of these was from Alas Poor Uric, who remarked

Excellent news Mike, and well done! You have actually made a significant contribution to those of Jewish background (like myself) who have been disturbed by the misuse of anti-semitism for political reasons. The media Reform Group:

‘The Media Reform Coalition has conducted in-depth research on the controversy surrounding antisemitism in the Labour Party, focusing on media coverage of the crisis during the summer of 2018. Following extensive case study research, we identified myriad inaccuracies and distortions in online and television news including marked skews in sourcing, omission of essential context or right of reply, misquotation, and false assertions made either by journalists themselves or sources whose contentious claims were neither challenged nor countered. Overall, our findings were consistent with a disinformation paradigm. ‘

You have shown more discernment on this issue than some in the Jewish community itself.

This is interesting, as it confirms what many other people have been saying: that this is a deliberate campaign of misinformation. There have been articles elsewhere that have claimed that this is all being run by a section of the Israeli Foreign Ministry as part of their hasbara campaign of civilian propaganda.

And there are a very large number of people, not just Jews, who are like Uric in being concerned at the political misuse of accusations of anti-Semitism. It cheapens the term, so that it loses its power to warn and defend Jews against the threat of real anti-Semites and Nazis.

So congratulations to Mike, and thanks to everyone, who has supported him in his fight. And I wish it will not be long before everyone, who’s been smeared receives similar retractions and apologies from the liars, who maligned them.

Tags: 'Alas Poor Uric', Alt Right, anti-racism, anti-semitism, Anti-Semitism Smears, Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, Council Elections, Fidesz, Hasbara, Holocaust, Holocaust Denial, IPSO, Israel Lobby, Jackie Walker, Jewish Chronicle, Jewish Labour Movement, Jews, Kangaroo Courts, Ken Livingstone, Labour Party, Law and Justice Party, Local Councils, Mark Wadsworth, Martin Odoni, Media Reform Group, Mike Sivier, Palestinians, Paole Zion, Private Eye, racism, Richard Spencer, Rupert Murdoch, Sebastian Gorka, Steve Bannon, Sunday Times, The Express, The Mail, The Sun, Tony Greenstein, Viktor Orban, Vox Political, Zionism