Could Zack Polanski be any more of an obnoxious twat?

[HeadDeskHeadDesk]

Just seen him saying this:

'I am concerned about the rise in antisemitism and we know Jewish communities are saying they feel unsafe. There is a conversation to be had over whether it's a perception that they feel unsafe or whether they are actually unsafe.'

WTAF? Can you imagine if a politician said that to Muslims after a series of absolutely awful targeted attacks where people have died?

🤣

I think a Muslim politician could easily absolutely say this about Muslims and not get as much backlash as a non-muslim saying the same thing.

You’re half right but not for the reasons you may be assume.

Shabana Mahmood, a Muslim,
got huge criticism from the Muslim community and Muslim MPs for her position on immigration. She didn’t get as much pushback from non Muslims because people are understandably wary of criticising a Muslim thanks to our government’s repeated attacks on free speech on this topic.

So overall she didn’t get as much backlash but only because the non Muslims were reluctant to speak out.

Zack Polanski is Jewish, he defines himself as culturally Jewish.

To diminish/discredit/minimise someone’s Jewishness is the very essence of anti semitism.

Sorry what’s the outrageous part of that? I expect as a Jewish person he has a better understanding of antisemitism than the majority of people getting het up about something or other on here.

Ah, that makes sense. I was about to comment that the government are not only working closely with various Muslim groups, they convened a working group to make a definition of Islamophobia and have already adopted a non statutory definition as a result.

This was done undemocratically and with no mandate or consultation of other groups affected (ie. the rest of the country) and the EHRC are slightly worried and have asked for a public consultation, which doesn’t seem to be forthcoming.

I hope that makes nomas feel better.

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/working-group-on-anti-muslim-hatredislamophobia-definition

I think ZP is a dangerous lunatic and his plans are horrendous. Open borders (he apparently anticipates an extra 5 million people per year according to a leak), legalising all drugs including date rape drugs and obviously his anti semitism problem.

The Islamist section of his party appear to be using him to obtain power.

Again, why does he keep selecting antisemitic candidates then?

So these bad antisemites run away from Labour and … join a party led by a Jewish man? You do know that criticism of Israel doesn't make people antisemitic right?

He’s just not coming across as very pro Jewish if he supports Jews and their state being eradicated though.

I guess in the same way that some women are extremely misogynist, so Jewish people could support anti semitism. I don’t think he has removed any of the terribly anti semitic people in his party?

I can't take anyone who would label the concern about the growing level of threat and violence towards the Jewish community as being 'het up' seriously.

I think the thread title needs amending, not Polanski, more accurately “the tit whisperer”. Spot on.

Calling for an end to the genocide being carried out by the state of Israel isn’t the as calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.

Yeah this. All they do is gas on about how Muslims are rapist scum. That's like their entire raison d'etre.

But what's that got to do with Polanski being an obnoxious twat (to put it mildly)?

The issue is that people like Polanski think they can protect themselves from anti-semitism by cosying up to the anti-semites and trying to prove to them that they are a 'good Jew', which, for the purposes of some elements of the Green Party and their ilk means not speaking out against blatant anti-semitism, just nodding and smiling politely when your 'mates' insist that Jews are responsible for all the world's ills and agreeing that all this 'so-called anti-semitism' is just 'legitimate criticism of Israel' and that Jews expressing fear for their safety are making a fuss over nothing. As we all know, making comments to British Jews about bringing back gas chambers and what a great man Hitler was are definitely 'legitimate criticism of Israel' and not absolutely vile pure racism.
When people like Polanski pal up with the anti-semites to prove they are not one of those 'evil genacidal Jews', they think they are making themselves safer. However, these self-hating Jews and apologists for anti-semitism should always remember that their new mates still hate them, because they are, in fact, rampant anti-semites. These racists are only tolerating Polanski as a useful idiot so they can say:
"See, I know that are party is rife with people making awful comments online that reek of Jew-hatred but we're not anti-semitic, honest. How could we be when we have an actual real-life Jew for a leader?"
Polanski, when you've done throwing your fellow Jews under the bus to placate your fellow party members, please don't forget to many of them you will always be a 'filthy Jew', no matter how useful a smoke-screen for their bigotry you are currently providing.
Polanski is by no means the first and will, sadly, not be the last, to think that sucking up to the bullies who want to harm them will protect them in some way.

Exactly. I remember watching an interview with Hannah Pearl Davis, an American political commentator and self-proclaimed anti-feminist, where she was arguing against women's voting rights.
Would people argue that’s that not misogynist because she’s a woman herself?

Of course not # stupid argument

“From some muslims”.

Exactly.

To OPs post yes a muslim politician could make such a comment easily. A non-muslim could not. Same as with Polanski. A non-Jewish politician saying this would face a tsunami of criticism.

You can say things about your own group and get less pushback.

Twas ever thus.

(Although the claim that people are wary of criticising muslims is self-evident nonsense.)

Excellent post, @Everlore
Thank you 👌

Were the Greens always this weird? When I was a teenager in the 00s, they were very much a fringe party, but I always assumed that was because the environment wasn't a priority for most. Now they appear to have moved away from environmentalism for the most part. They just seem to be a bunch of misogynistic anti-Semites now.

No, up until recently they seemed reasonable and were concerned about climate change and the environment. God knows what's happened.

Just wanted to expand on my previous post. Polanski and other people who think that attempting to engratiate themselves with people who hate them because of their race should heed the cautionary tale of the French author Irène Némirovsky.
Irène Némirovsky was a celebrated novelist who had also authored a number of anti-semitic articles for far-right publications prior to WWII. She renounced Judaism, converting to Catholicism and conspicuously steered clear of including Jewish characters or themes in her work.
She may have thought that all this was enough to distance herself from the type of troublesome, subversive Jews the nazis were trying to eradicate and that by doing so she would ensure her safety. Unfortunately, she soon discovered that she was quite wrong when she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz where she was murdered in 1942. It turns out that, even though they were willing to use some of her writings for anti-semitic propaganda purposes, the nazis still viewed her as a filthy Jew who needed to be disposed of, meaning all of her attempts to appease the people who were always going to hate her for her ethnicity, no matter what she did, completely pointless.
This phenomenon is not exclusive to Jews. I am sure that Reform have members from immigrant backgrounds and that the BNP had non-white members who are likely labouring under the apprehension that their fellow party members like and respect them and that, when they bang on about asylum seekers, they're talking about the other type of asylum seekers or people of colour, the bad kind, not good upstanding people like themselves. They are, of course, quite wrong and their co-members probably hate them as much as Polanski's anti-semitic colleagues hate him, but, like the Green anti-semites they are willing to use these useful idiots as a defence against accusations of racism. The very definition of tokenism.

Shocking. The Greens are embarrassing and sadly going to win lots of seats in May.

They don't seem the slightest bit concerned about actual green issues anymore ...

I'm not convinced they ever were, @BunfightBetty - most likely they just jumped on the "in thing" to get themselves noticed, but I wouldn't worry

Like Reform they may pick up protest votes at the local elections, but come a general one and I believe they'll be an irrelevance

It’s kind of similar to Mamdani it’s a type of politics that does win votes. Not sure how he’s going.