This is a quite brilliant open letter from a 90 year-old Jewish doctor to
that unashamed self-publicist John Mann MP.
Two days ago, along with many others, I posted a letter from a 90 year old Jewish doctor Sam Glatt. The Zionists led by a gleeful Mann are now claiming that Dr Glatt did not write the letter. Below Dr Alan Maddison claimed, on Twitter, that the letter is genuine. In private conversation with me, Dr Maddison, elaborated on his claim.
Regardless, the content and sentiments which were expressed in the letter cannot be faulted and they captured the mood of thousands of people who have been outraged at the attempt by John Mann and people like him to libel supporters of the Palestinians and opponents of anti-Zionism as anti-Semites. At a time when the House of Commons Select Committee has proposed criminalising those who accuse Zionism of being an abusive movement, I have no apology to make to MPs John Mann, Wes Streeting and co. who are perfectly happy to keep company with racists.
The Zionists though are the last people to talk about the false attribution of letters. For years Zionist groups like the Anti-Defamation League/Bnai Brith (I’ve never understood why a group opposed to defamation specialises in defaming people!) have used and quoted Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend, a forgery purportedly written by Martin Luther King that equates anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
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| narcissistic and attention-seeking |
Dear Mr Mann, 18/10/2016
It is with a sense of deep
distaste personally, and an even deeper concern for the future of our freedom
of speech, generally, that I have viewed your recent antics. In my opinion,
your behaviour appears both narcissistic and attention-seeking, in the extreme.
Whether it is at a level at which one could view it as pathological, I am not
sufficiently qualified to say, but it is my view that ‘the man on the Clapham
omnibus’ may, reasonably, harbour suspicions.
Your ambush of Ken Livingstone,
with pre-arranged media presence is a case in point. Any less reasonable man
may have told you to ‘clear off’. Instead he tried, in a calm manner, to point
out the historical evidence to support what he had said. His words fell on
(your) deaf ears, for you, of course, had decided already that he ‘would float
if you threw him in the river’ (the test applied, historically, vis a vis
witchcraft). Cynical observers too, may, possibly, take the view that you are
attempting, on behalf of others, to airbrush history, in the name of
anti-Semitism.
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| John Mann at the centre of an ‘anti-Semitic storm’ despite not being Jewish! |
Are you not aware of the
potential of historical resonance here? Let’s, for the sake of argument, turn
history on its head and assume that the Nazis had won WW2. You can imagine, can
you not, that they would want to stamp out any reference to the ‘Final
Solution’? After all, political opponents in actual historical fact had already
gone to the extermination camps, along with the mentally ill, those with
learning difficulty, Roma and the Jewish community. So, one might imagine that
the Nazis might encourage the denunciation of those who would wish to speak the
truth, as ‘Jew lovers’ and make them targets for ‘neutralisation’. Do you take
my point? Thankfully, such a situation never came about, thanks to the
sacrifice of over 400,000 people, including my own brother, (and many more from
other nations) who gave their lives to preserve our freedom of speech.
Let me now refer to matters In
connection with Jackie Walker, the former vice-chair of Momentum and with whom
we share membership of the Labour Party. I do not wish to refer to the
specifics of the matter as her appeal against suspension from the Party is pending,
(although the issue of the circumstances of her ‘entrapment’ and
‘denunciation’, are deeply worrying to me). However, your comments that all
Labour members who supported her “should be expelled from the Party,” which
were reported in the media, absolutely appalled me. The implied ‘guilt by
association’ is akin to the ‘fellow traveller’ accusations made during the
McCarthyite era in the USA. Shame on you.
There seems to be a desire, on
your part, to conflate (i.e. run together as if they represent the same
meaning), the words and concepts of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Or perhaps
you are just confused? I never have been. To me anti-Zionism represents
political opposition to a style of social and political expression stemming
from a particular religious interpretation of Judaism. Anti-Semitism, on the
other hand, refers to a dislike of Jews, which is rooted in the same xenophobic
soil as other forms of racism. When this is openly displayed, we, in Britain
have anti-discrimination laws, including those relating to hate speech.
Now…the application of and efficacy of our legislation is a matter open for
debate and is something you can, potentially, influence as an MP. Why then, at
this present time, are you focusing your attention on the Labour Party?
That brings me to the issue of
the political motivation for your actions. It has been suggested that your
prime motivation, given your position on the right-wing of the Labour Party, is
to attempt to undermine the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and all that he stands
for. I was a committed and experienced member of the Socialist Medical/Health
Association (affiliated) since 1946 and have been a member of the Labour Party
since 1972, or thereabouts. As such, I find it difficult not to agree with such
a conclusion, in the current circumstances. No doubt your fairly regular visits
to Israel (as a consequence of your documented links with organisations and
individuals there) must be enjoyable for you on a personal level, but would
not, surely, be sufficient incentive, in of themselves?
No…. my view is that, to use
military terms, you represent a sniper with a long range rifle, ‘softening up’
the enemy, causing confusion in the opposing ranks, picking off individuals and
making people afraid of putting their head above the barricades. You are,
however, in my view, waiting for your ‘General’ a.k.a. Tony Blair to come and
rally the troops for a counter-offensive. I admire your loyalty to him, but
would point out that he doesn’t have an awfully good record militarily. That
poor record had quite a lot to do with the allies he chose, or was coerced by
(in that regard it was interesting to see Mr Blairs’ presence, almost as if he
were still a head of state, at the recent funeral of Shimon Peres, in Israel).
So there we have it….I have
concern about the nature of your personal behaviour: I am a Corbyn supporter,
and have great sympathy with the situation of Ken Livingstone and Jackie
Walker, to whom I offer my solidarity: I am also not afraid to look to history
for lessons and I view your actions as being ‘McCarthyite’ in nature: I refuse
to conflate Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism and I see through your cloak of
justification and heap scorn upon your underlying political motivation……
So, please feel free to denounce
me, though, I suspect, that you lack the moral and political courage to do so.
Throughout my 90 years, I have
always held to a belief in the essential goodness of people. That belief has
been severely tested in recent times, as I have witnessed your machinations and
those of the Labour PLP.
Today, the mere demands of day
to day living tax me greatly, but with all the energy I can muster, at the age
of 90 years, I offer you, Sir, unfortunately, not fraternal wishes, but my
heartfelt derision.
Dr Sam Glatt MCRS LRCP MB ChB
British, Socialist Jew.
John Mann MP,
House of Commons, London, SW1A
0AA
Cc Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of
the Labour Party, [email protected]
Ken Livingstone, Jackie Walker
