UK politics dominated by Israel lobbyists: Commentator

Press TV has conducted an interview with Gilad Atzmon, a musician, author and political commentator in London, about a Jewish community’s recent criticism of Britain’s “complicity” in Israeli war crimes.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Numerous rights bodies and rights groups have criticized the UK’s arms trade with Israel, now a Jewish community in the UK is also pitching in on the calls of condemnation. Give us your thoughts.

Atzmon: Yes, it is about time that the Jews say something. We learned from Jewish news here and from British news that the vast majority of Jews in this country do support Israel, actually support Netanyahu, actually do not support Miliband, they support Cameron and now we understand why, because the conservative government was indeed very supportive of Israel and actually complicit in the Israeli crimes.

What I find out slightly strange is that this Jewish body - Jews for Justice in Palestine - tried to avoid the core of the problem and the core of the problem is the fact that the British foreign affairs is dominated by the Jewish lobby. We have a very powerful lobby we call the Conservative Friends of Israel, 80 percent of the British conservative MPs are members of this club and this is the problem.

We have to target the core issue and this is the power of the Jewish lobby and it is here, it is in America, it is in France and it is very dangerous for world peace and it is also very dangerous for British Jews.

Press TV: Mr. Atzmon, you speak of the power and influence of the Zionist and Jewish lobbies in the United States, France and Britain. My question is how can this status quo change? And by changing the situation, I mean first of all the Israelis violating and defying international law on a daily basis and coupled with that, those very countries, the supporters and allies of Israel continue to support these actions or at least turn a blind eye to what is taking place.

Atzmon: I am not an optimist; I am as you mentioned yourself a commentator. I believe that the ability to “call a spade a spade” is the remedy of the situation. The ability to talk about the Jewish lobby and its impact on British politics would eventually resolve the situation because at the moment, if those who oppose this lobby - like this Jewish group - and support Palestine - and I obviously respect their call… even they tried to avoid talking about this issue.

So as long as we are trying to spin around things, we are not going to get them any farther and the situation will get more volatile and eventually very, very dangerous.

AHK/HJL

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