Afterwards, we resolved to ask the question: what are the rules of British political behaviour that cause the Tory leader,his mass of MPs and parliamentary candidates to flock to the Friends of Israel lunch in the year of the Gaza invasion? And what are the rules of media discourse that ensure such an event passes without even being noticed?

During an investigation lasting several months, we have been able to reach several important conclusions. We maintain there is indeed a pro-Israel lobby in Britain. It is extremely well-connected and well-funded, and works through all the main political parties.

It’s the British version of Walt & Mearsheimer. But here, in my opinion, is the single action that blows “The Israel Lobby” meme in Britain out of the water:

The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.

Gordon Brown’s government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.

“The Israel Lobby” contributes money to British politicians and supposedly affects the U.K.’s actions toward Israel. Yet the U.K. refused to vote on the Goldstone report, is refusing to sell arms and spare parts to the IDF for certain items, constantly chides Israel regarding the current situation, and British media (particularly the Guardian) regularly excoriates Israel. In the meantime, Muammar Ghaddafi offers BP an oil deal, and the Lockerbie bomber, who murdered 270 people, including 11 people on the ground in the U.K., goes free.

Tell me again how powerful The Israel Lobby is in the U.K., because I could really use a good laugh.

But he’s not sorry for any of it, really.

Are you sorry about anything?

“I’m sorry there are so many lies about me. Like for example that they say I wrote that the soldiers hunted for youths so as to take their organs. It’s obvious that’s a lie. Even the Palestinians don’t make a claim like that. And the other side attributes anti-Semitism to me. I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry I’ve become a political tool. I’m sorry the article caused damage to the struggle for human rights here. And above all, I’m sorry that no one took the article seriously and that they did not examine the suspicions. In Sweden too they didn’t take it seriously.”

What. A. Tool. The human rights he’s talking about? Palestinians being killed by soldiers. The fact that the Palestinian that was killed, the one that inspired his story, was a terrorist battling the IDF seems to have been conveniently left out of Bostrom’s narrative.

Note that he’s not sorry at all that Israel’s enemies have another Mohammed al-Dura club to wield. What a jackass. This guy is considered a journalist in Sweden?

Do you think the IDF killed people to get body organs?

“I don’t think soldiers behaved like that. I don’t think they killed in order to gather organs. The truth is that they kill them without a trial and their bodies are taken to Abu Kabir. We don’t know whether they take out the organs. That has still to be further investigated. No one opened up the bodies after they were returned and only one man knows the truth, Prof. Yehuda Hiss, the director of the forensic institute. “

Actually, any medical doctor knowledgeable in transplants could tell you the truth: The organs that were “harvested” in such a way would be useless. But don’t let the facts get in the way of your spreading lies.

You have already had scandals at your forensic institute with other bodies, he says, and there is illegal trade in organs, so there is a need to investigate.

In other words: Have you stopped beating your wife yet? Guilty until proven innocent. Except when Israel offers the proof, the world will still insist that Israel is guilty. And then there’s the fact that he’s being accompanied by a bodyguard, paid for, no doubt, by Israeli taxpayers. Why? Um. Because he was met by protesters at the airport. Oooh. Scary.

Then there’s the conference itself, where he was booed and challenged on his made-up facts:

Lapid shot back, “To say this without a shred of evidence, that Israel possibly harvested organs from Palestinians who disappeared, in other words, whom we kidnapped, killed, and robbed their organs, is a degrading and monstrous idea.”

In response, Bostrom said that he understands why people are angry, saying that everyone lies while at war. He said that it is difficult for reporters to distinguish between what is correct and what is a lie. “If it were just one family, fine. But there were many families. Mothers have a right to know what happened to their sons,” claimed Bostrom.

Bostrom was told to his face that he was an anti-Semite. Of course, he responded that not all critics of Israel are anti-Semitic. Kudos to Yair Lapid for this:

Lapid concluded, “You are an anti-Semite because you are prepared to believe that there is a possibility that the government and the authorities would take part in such a monstrous thing. The only thing I can say in your favor is that you don’t know you’re an anti-Semite.”

I don’t think that counts very much in his favor. In fact, let us all chant the Yourish.com mantra for our Swedish photographer who says he really, really, really likes Israel, no, really: Anti-Semites of the world, just die already.

Minister for Development of the Negev and Galilee Silvan Shalom will not be attending the Dimona media convention, in protest of the attendance of a controversial Swedish journalist at the event.

Shalom also directed his office to cancel funding for the convention, a total of roughly NIS 200,000 (about $60,000.)

Shalom’s decision came after he discovered that Swedish journalist Donald Bostrom, who claimed the IDF was trafficking Palestinian body parts, was slated to take part in the event.

“I’m unwilling to be a party to a convention that grants a platform to an enemy of Israel like Bostrom,” Shalom said. “I will not allow the State of Israel to fund a convention that grants a platform to such man.”

This is not a journalist. This is the man who said he had no proof whatsoever of the charges he was making, but that Israel should investigate them because a Palestinian brought them up. Except that the Palestinian he quoted in the article said they never even spoke to him.

Why, exactly, is this anti-Semitic jackass being invited to an Israeli media convention? Because too many Jews are stupid. Instead of shunning the scum who are giving our enemies the weapons they use to ustify killing us (cf: Richard Goldstone), we try to be evenhanded and fair, even to proven liars.

Good for you, Minister Shalom, for taking the official Israeli seal of approval off this event. Now watch Journalists Without Borders use this as another charge that Israel is mean to its press.

Several days after having lost the vote for UNESCO’s leadership, Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni declared Saturday his intention to “launch a culture war against Israel.”

In an interview with Egyptian newspaper al-Masri al-Yaum, Hosni charged that he lost the UN vote because of “radicalism, racism, and the Jews,” who he claied attacked him over his harsh views against cultural normalization vis-à-vis Israel.

That’s funny. I thought he swore up and down that he didn’t have a problem with Jews, that he only had a problem with, uh, well—not Jews. He never did say what the problem was. Oh, that’s right. We misunderstood what he said.

Um, no. We didn’t.

Schmuck.

“There are a group of the world’s Jews who had a major influence in the elections who were a serious threat to Egypt taking this position,” he said.

The Arab media, of course, carries the party line, and blames Jews and “the Zionist media” for the failure of their candidate.

Exhibit B: The Supreme Leader of Iran calls Israel “the deadly cancer of Zionism” while his hand-picked president denies the Holocaust and then tells the world he is proud of his Holocaust denial. He repeated the same filthy Jewish conspiracy accusations he raised last year in this year’s speech, and although this year a few Western nations walked out, Sweden (among others) felt that the following was not enough Jew-hatred to make their delegates leave:

The dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are a miniscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the US in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner. It is deeply disastrous to witness that some presidential or premiere nominees in some big countries have to visit these people, take part in their gatherings, swear their allegiance and commitment to their interests in order to attain financial or media support.

This means that the great people of America and various nations of Europe need to obey the demands and wishes of a small number of acquisitive and invasive people. These nations are spending their dignity and resources on the crimes and occupations and the threats of the Zionist network against their will.

The Swedish government also cleared the Aftonbladet of anti-Semitism over their lie-filled article about the IDF killing palestinians for their organs.

Neither am I surprised that the only place you can find the above lines is in articles with the full text of the speech. The media ignored Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitism last year as well.

Exhibit C: Spain disqualified an Israeli college team from an international solar power contest, not because the team broke the rules—but because the college is located in the West Bank. Apparently, global warming is an urgent cause, but the Palestinian cause is more important than even saving the earth from itself. (No, I don’t believe global warming is happening. But these people do. The Exception Clause reigns.) And of course, we heard only a few days ago that anti-Semitism in Spain is on the rise.

What do all these things have in common? They are claimed to be anti-Zionism. And yet, they resemble nothing so much as anti-Semitism.

You can put a wig and a fancy ball-gown on a pig, add earings and make-up, and yet, in the end, you still have a pig.

Yes, it’s anti-Semitism. Let’s stop pretending that it’s not.

Hypocrites of the world, unite! So, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the end of Israel, called the Holocaust a “myth,” and uttered myriad statements against Israel and Jews, and the world has basically stood back and tut-tutted in ones and twos, maybe in threes. Suddenly, the whole world is down on Mad Mahmoud? The EU issues a condemnation? Russia too? So, where were they last year when he was issuing the most anti-Semitic speech in the history of the United Nations—at the United Nations? I find this sudden anti-Iran bandwagon extremely suspicious. If they think this is the quid pro quo for settlement freeze, I’m thinking Bibi is laughing his ass off.

Peaceful, peace-seeking Palestinians burn down Israelis’ fields: Yeah, they want to live in peaceful coexistence. Just ask The One. Countdown to lefty NGOs saying that this is payback for Israelis cutting down olive trees in 3, 2….

ACORN? That’s a little nut, isn’t it? Obama is on record denying he knows much about ACORN. Huh. Funny, considering he defended them as a lawyer, steered funds to their coffers, and traded donor lists with them. But he has no idea how much federal money they get. Uh-huh. Sure. Right.

Don’t let facts get in the way of my blood libel! The Local publishes an article by a Jewish doctor explaining why the Aflonbadet charge of organ harvesting is not just wrong, but medically impossible. However, that won’t stop asshats like the Media Monitors Network featuring asshats like this insisting that the IDF prove that it doesn’t kill Palestinians to harvest their organs. Honest Reporting sums up the aftermath.

Egypt kills another African, world ignores another non-Israeli-caused death in Gaza. Double standard? The deuce you say!

Ew. Ew. Ew. Okay, Madonna is at least a decent singer. But Justin Timberlake and Madonna? What is Israeli being punished for now?

Jalal said that he and other villagers recall that a Swedish photographer was in the village during the funeral and that he managed to take a number of pictures of the body before the funeral. “That was the only time we saw this photographer,” he recounted.

Ibrahim Ghanem, a relative of Bilal, said that the family never told the Swedish photographer that Israel had stolen organs from the dead man’s body.

So the story is made up from whole cloth. The family admits it. And yet, in true Israel Derangement Syndrome fashion, they’re quite willing to believe the story.

Jalal and other members of the family said that “rumors” about Israel killing Palestinians to steal their organs have been circulating for a long time.

“I can’t tell you if these rumors are true or not,” the brother said. “But in light of the investigative report in the Swedish newspaper, we are demanding an international commission of inquiry into the case.”

Meantime, someone in Sweden invoked their “racial agitation” law and reported the Aftonbladet. Not that they care. Their CYA excuse? They didn’t say “Jews.” They said “Israelis.” And note the quote: Reporting rumors is now “solidarity,” not reporting.

“I think it is a shame that whenever solidarity is shown for the Palestinians and criticism is directed again Israel, someone cries anti-Semitism.”

“One has to have the right to ask questions,” Linderborg replied when asked if she or the newspaper regretted publishing the article.

Nils Funcke, one of Sweden’s leading experts on legislation pertaining to freedom of speech, said he expected the Chancellor of Justice to reject the case.

“The article can hardly be construed as racial agitation. There is no ethnic group targeted; the article focuses on the Israeli army, and Israel is not made up solely of Jews,” Funcke told The Local.

Nothing will come of this. And in spite of Sweden’s Jews insisting that if only Israel hadn’t made such a fuss, this would have passed without notice in much of the world, I’m with Yaacov on this one: The reporter is an antisemite, the paper is antisemitic, and this issue is a modern retelling of the blood libel. Even worse, it’s been proven false, and the paper is publishing more articles with the same lies. But it’s anti-Zionism, not antisemitism. Really.

A trip down memory lane: Remember this op-ed in the Times after Hamas took over Gaza? It’s titled “What Hamas Wants.”

We want to get children back to school, get basic services functioning again, and provide long-term economic gains for our people.

Our stated aim when we won the election was to effect reform, end corruption and bring economic prosperity to our people. Our sole focus is Palestinian rights and good governance. We now hope to create a climate of peace and tranquillity within our community that will pave the way for an end to internal strife.

The fox in the UN henhouse: I know you’re going to be shocked to discover that one of the “fact-finders” on the Goldstone Commission published a virulently anti-Israel letter insisting that Israel had no right to self-defense from Hamas rockets. And while I have the UN Watch in my blogroll, I have no hope at all that their letter will ruffle so much as a feather at the UN—your international home of anti-semitism masquerading as anti-Israelism.

Swedish paper double-dog-dares Israel to prove that they’re not harvesting organs: Yes, the Aftonbladet published a second article, this time with even more non-evidence: They went back and asked the Palestinians if they’re really, really, really sure that the IDF stole their son’s organs. Now that’s reporting!

Aftonbladet editor Jan Helin said: “It’s deeply unpleasant and sad to see such a strong propaganda machine using centuries-old anti-Semitic images in an apparent attempt to get an obviously topical issue off the table.

But he is either deeply ignorant, deliberately trying to deflect the subject, or lying. The libel against the IDF—saying that they are killing Palestinians to steal their organs—strongly resemble the centuries-old blood libel that Jews murder Christians to use their blood in religious rituals. But while the blood libel does date back to the middle ages, it is not we who are using centuries-old images, nor are we “propagandizing” the issue. Those who hate Israel and Jews have been utilizing these images since the twelfth century.

Yesterday, I published this copy of a Der Stürmer cover, which was published in 1934.

Photo of anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda rag Der Stürmer blood libel

But we don’t have to go all the way back to 1934 to find images of Jews drinking Christian (or Palestinian) blood. In 2006, Turkey released a film called “Valley of the Wolves,” which featured a Jewish American doctor harvesting organs from Iraqis during the Iraq war. (Turkey is considered a friend to Israel.)

In April of this year, Hamas aired a show depicting Jews drinking the blood of Muslims. In January, an Egyptian cleric accused Shimon Peres of having a helmet filled with the dried blood of Egyptian soldiers he killed during the Six-Day War. Images of Israelis drinking blood can be found all over the internet.

Anyone even remotely familiar with the history of Israel and Jews knows this. I suspect Jan Helin knows it as well.