Jihad Jenny theatens to quit over Sallah arrest
Liberal Democratic MP
Jenny Tonge has threatened to quit her party (which is part of the coalition) over the
arrest of Islamic Movement Northern Front leader Raed Sallah in London on Monday. Anyone want to bet on what the
reaction to her resignation would be?
At a meeting in a House of Commons Committee Room last night where I was present, “Jihad” Jenny Tonge spoke about “the power of the Israel Lobby”. Her remarks were in connection with the Home Secretary’s decision to arrest and deport Sheikh Raeed Salah (who had been billed to address the meeting). She declared herself “ashamed” at the action of a government of which the LibDems (her Party) are a member and said “I am carefully considering my position in my Party”.
Go on Jihad Jenny – I’ll lay odds that if you resign the words “Good Riddance” will be on Nick Clegg’s lips. I doubt he has forgotten your antisemitic comments in 2006: "The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the western world, its financial grips. I think they've probably got a grip on our party."
Most of the speakers at the meeting agreed that the banning of Salah was down to the all-powerful “Israel Lobby”.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Jenny Tonge, Raed Sallah, UK Liberal Democrats
Jenny gets her tonge cut out
It took over a year, but Baroness Jenny Tonge has finally been
removed as Britain's Liberal Democratic party's spokesperson on matters of health (Hat Tip:
Solomonia). Tonge
accused Israeli rescuers of harvesting organs in Haiti during that country's earthquake a year ago. This is from the first link.
In a statement issued this evening, the leader said the peer ''apologises unreservedly''.
''Following discussions with the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, Lord McNally, I have decided that Jenny Tonge will stand down as Liberal Democrat health spokesperson in the Lords following her unacceptable comments suggesting an inquiry into highly offensive allegations against the IDF humanitarian operation in Haiti,'' Mr Clegg said.
''The comments were wrong, distasteful and provocative and I recognise the deep and understandable distress they have caused to the Jewish community.
''While I do not believe that Jenny Tonge is anti-semitic or racist, I regard her comments as wholly unacceptable. Jenny Tonge apologises unreservedly for the offence she has caused.''
Lady Tonge was a Lib Dem MP between 1997 and 2005, when she entered the Lords. She has regularly run into controversy for her critical stance towards Israel.
In 2004, she was sacked as a Lib Dem spokeswoman on children's issues after suggesting she could consider becoming a suicide bomber.
Then leader Charles Kennedy dropped her after she told a pro-Palestinian meeting in Westminster: ''If I had been a mother and a grandmother in Palestine living for decades in that situation, I don't know, I may well have become one myself.''
Two things aren't clear from here. One is whether she remains an MP. The other is that if you go to the third link at the top, you will find that she was supposedly fired a year ago. Anyone in the UK who can enlighten us is invited to pipe up.
Labels: anti-Semitism, blood libel, Jenny Tonge, UK Liberal Democrats
A moonbat brays over Britain
The insufferable Liberal Democratic MP Jenny Tonge is back in the news again, claiming in the House of Lords that Israel's 'treatment of the Palestinians' is the
cause of terrorism worldwide.
Possibly “Holocaust guilt” allows this treatment to go unchecked, Tonge said, adding that it might also be the “power of the pro-Israel lobby” in the UK and US.
The Liberal Democrat peer was speaking in the House of Lords at the Strategic Defense and Security Review, which sets out how the British government will deliver the priorities identified in its national security strategy.
On the issue of world conflict prevention, Tonge then said: “It is a disgrace to us all that problems such as Kashmir and Palestine are still alienating Muslims all over the world.
“The treatment of Palestinians by Israel is held up as an example of how the West treats Muslims,” she said, “and is at the root cause of terrorism worldwide.”
“Even [the Quartet’s Middle East envoy] Tony Blair has now admitted this publicly,” she claimed.
“Why do we let it continue? Is it Holocaust guilt? We should be guilty – of course we should. Is it the power of the pro-Israel lobby here and in the USA?” The peer went on say that “cynics might think” Britain is at the ready to help Israel attack Iran.
“Or is it the need, maybe, to have an aircraft carrier called Israel in the Middle East, from which to launch attacks on countries such as Iran? The cynic might think that that is why HMS Ark Royal and the Harriers [fighter jets] can be dispensed with [as part of UK defense cuts] – [since] we already have a static “Ark Royal” in a strategic position, armed to the teeth and ready to fight, provided that we do not offend Israel,” she said.
Tonge, a lifelong anti-Israel activist, continued: “I feel sorry for the people of Israel sometimes. Their government’s policies have made that country the cause of a lot of the world’s problems, yet now they are seen in the middle as the remedy and the base for the West to fight back.”
The party has distanced itself from Tonge’s comments, which “do not reflect the views of the Liberal Democrats,” a spokesman told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday. “Indeed, last week [party leader] Nick Clegg stressed that Israel’s right to thrive in peace and security is non-negotiable for Liberal Democrats.”
But the excuse that Tonge 'doesn't represent' Liberal Democrats is getting a bit tired. You see, Tonge was the second Liberal Democrat MP to attack Israel last week.
Last week, Liberal Democrat peer Lord Phillips told a meeting of the radical fringe group Palestine Solidarity Campaign in parliament that “Europe cannot think straight about Israel because of the Holocaust, and America is in the grip of the well-organized Jewish lobby.”
Frankly, the
Conservatives haven't been much better lately either.
Labels: Jenny Tonge, Lord Phillips, Nick Clegg, UK Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democratic MP Jenny Tonge has threatened to quit her party (which is part of the coalition) over the arrest of Islamic Movement Northern Front leader Raed Sallah in London on Monday. Anyone want to bet on what the reaction to her resignation would be? 
