Tit for Tat for Tatty Tirades (Don't you just love alliterations?)

In the past week or so, I have been clearing out my collection of newspaper cuttings from 1988 to 2004. Unlike Ann Widdecombe MP, who spent £900 of taxpayer money on her own personal newspaper cuttings service, I did mine all on my own. During my rummaging, I came across this article in the Sunday Telegraph of Oct 19 2003.
See this

This chastisement of Dr Mahathir Mohamad was written by John Simpson CBE (Commander of the British Empire), the BBC's well-known World Affairs Editor. His resume is formidable. Read this report by Jessica Hodgson of MediaGuardian, Tuesday 13 November 2001.

"The BBC's John Simpson claimed the glory for the Northern Alliance's rout of the Taliban today in Kabul when he joined other BBC staff in the Afghan capital.
Simpson told Sue MacGregor on the BBC's Today programme: 'It was only BBC people who liberated this city. We got in ahead of Northern Alliance troops. I can't tell you what a joy it was. I felt very proud indeed to be part of an organisation that could push forward ahead of the rest.'
Simpson, the BBC's World Affairs editor and a veteran journalist who has covered most of the most significant world conflicts of the last 20 years, has a reputation for tenaciousness and bravery."

Firstly a caveat before I proceed. I am not writing this to champion and defend Dr Mahathir Mohamad, a former PM of Malaysia. The article by JS was written 6 years ago on the retirement of Dr Mahathir as PM of Malaysia. I am more interested in looking at the modus operandi of journalists and writers as they diminish and demolish someone's achievement and character, especially someone who does not sing from their hymn book.

To be accused of anti-Semitism or of saying anything critical about Jews and Israel is like being given the kiss of death. There are no holds barred on writing anything derogatory about any other nation, or people or their beliefs. No one says it is anti-Muslim to criticise, mock and denigrate Islam, its institutions and its followers. Of course there are strict rules too about comments on race, gender and sexual orientation. But in the eyes of the world, anti-Semitism - in whatever shape or form it is devised by the 'victims' and their adherents - is the most vile transgression, totally unacceptable.

But there is, to me, another great misdemeanour - that of ignoring the old proverb: "People who live in glass houses should not throw stones". When it comes to anti-Semitism no one can hold a candle to JS's Motherland's hero : Sir Winston Churchill. Like JS he was also a journalist writing about wars in foreign fields. Ex-PMs of Britain like Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair look on him as their mentor, their political idol. The neo-cons regard him in the highest esteem and the Washington Post in November 2001 said : "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to the words of Winston Churchill."

HERE ARE SOME OF HIS WORDS.

1. Francis Fukuyama was not the first voice to talk about the clash of civilization i.e. the clash between the progressive West and decadent Islam. In his book "The River War" Churchill wrote:

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits,slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohamedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die. But the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa; raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science - the science against which it had vainly struggled - the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.

John Simpson, Anthony Burgess, Christopher Hitchens, Martin Amis and even our coloured brother V.S. Naipaul were all suckled on this Churchillian milk. We are the 'retrograde force' that sticks in their throats.

2. On Eugenics: WC told Lord Asquith in 1910, "The unnatural and increasing rapid growth of the feeble-minded and insane classes, coupled.......with a steady restriction among the thrifty, energetic and superior stocks constitutes a national and race danger." It's hard to see any difference between this and Hitler's 'racial hygiene'.

3. To quote Michael Lind: Churchill, a lifelong supporter of Zionism, was a social Darwinist who preferred Jews to Arabs..........he wrote of the legitimacy of displacing 'the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. . I do not admit that a wrong has been done....... a stronger race, a higher grade race, a more worldly-wise race, has come in and taken their place.'

4. As regards that mother of all tyrants, Saddam Hussein, and his use of poison gas against the Kurds, perhaps he learned from the precedent set by WC when he was Colonial Secretary in 1919 - WC wanted to use gas against the stubborn Arabs and added 'I do not understand the squeamishness about the use of gas against uncivilized tribes.'

5. Here comes the piece de resistance - the mother and father of The Great Thoughts of Winston Churchill. In the Illustrated Sunday Herald in 1920 he wrote that 'Jews were behind world revolutions everywhere.' He added:

This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun (Hungary), Rosa Luxemburg (Germany), and Emma Goldman (the United States) ..... this worldwide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality has been steadily growing.

If Jews who are the denizens of the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America could have their homeland , perhaps they would not conspire for the overthrow of civilization.

Dr Mahathir, President Mugabe, President Ahmedinejad - eat your heart out. In the accusations made against you for rabid anti-Semitism you have been outclassed by Sir Winston Churchill.

Thank you to Michael Lind for most of the details on the thoughts of Sir Winston Churchill

Mr John Simpson, do your homework.