30 August 2006

With Friends Like This?

I like the Engage web site, and found an interesting article on Sue Blackwell and some videos posted on YouTube.

I wondered to myself "what type of people make these videos and what are their underlying motives?", here's what I found.

I took a look at the various images posted under the user: israelpalestine on YouTube, who posted Sue Blackwell’s original video.

One video caught my eye, a small film by Ryan Dawson, called the Reality in Israel and Palestine

It is a polished piece of propaganda with very stark imagery of bodies or body parts, IDF soldiers continually pointing guns and acting aggressively. Plenty of sad looking children, parts of houses demolished, etc. and an evocative soundtrack.

And towards the end of the video there is the statement ”it is not anti-Semitic to disagree with the current government of Israel" and "fighting Zionism is no more anti-Semitic than fighting the Nazis would be anti-white"

Then plenty of strong evocative images and at the end an American flag overlaid with "anti-Neocons"

Powerful stuff, but I wondered who was Ryan Dawson? And Google came to my aid!

Ryan Dawson seems to run a forum for “anti-neocons” and in his introduction he expressly states that “Anti-Semitism is NOT the goal of this website."

A quick inspection reveals: Holocaust denial, David Icke followers and 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Using the inbuilt search facility brought up a Holocaust denial article by Edgar J. Steele

Also, a weird topic "David Icke: The Lizards and the Jews"

Finally, plenty of stuff on 9/11 and guess who they think did it?? the Dancing Israelis, of course.

Ryan Dawson comments on the article "good find"

The Palestinians seem to have some allies amongst the David Icke "Lizards exist brigade," backed up ably by the "9/11 was an inside job" crowd.

I cannot say that I am surprised, the most persistent and aggressive anti-Semites tend to articulate many of the weirder conspiracy theories as well, that make the protocols of the Elders of Zion look fairly mild by comparison.

I do feel tempted to ask Sue Blackwell and her pro-boycott friends about their views on Lizards, 9/11 and dancing Israelis.

Humm, still not too sure what they'd reply!

No comments: