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  1. World
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29 October 2009updated 27 Sep 2015 5:42am

Kaminski and the Israel angle

Can we deal with this red herring, please?

By Mehdi Hasan

Here is the Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, in his latest email on the subject of the Polish MEP Michal Kaminski:

There is no doubt that Kaminski is a strong friend of the State of Israel.

Sorry, why does that matter? As I have pointed out before, why do so many people indulge this nonsensical and simplistic view that being pro-Israeli and being pro-Jewish are the same thing? As the former Jewish Chronicle reporter Julian Kossoff pointed out in a guest blog this month, Jewish supporters of the Polish MEP have “been left balancing on the pinhead argument that Kaminski is pro-Israel. However, many on the European right admire Israel as a bulwark against Islamic militancy, and not because of any feelings of fondness towards Jews in their own backyard.”

Here’s the BNP’s Nick Griffin, speaking on Question Time last week:

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I have brought the British National Party from being, frankly, an anti-Semitic and racist organisation into being the only political party which, in the clashes between Israel and Gaza, stood full square behind Israel’s right to deal with Hamas terrorists.

Is he now considered a friend of the Jews, too?

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