When he (Obama) wants to speak to a European leader, will he call Merkel, who can connect him to the Europe which values democracy and human rights, or Cameron, who can connect him to the Europe which abhors gay elephants and has difficulties with Jews?The Europe which abhors "gay elephants and has difficulties with Jews" is the one that also apparently votes for such parties as Law and Justice in Poland- one of whose number, Michal Kaminski, now leads the UK Conservatives and Unionists in the ECR grouping in the European parliament.
An attempted defence of Kaminski today in the Daily Telegraph is, to be honest a more disturbing follow-up than the original, slightly hysterical, polemic:
"I have never done anything improper or that I should be ashamed about. Indeed, I have spent a lifetime supporting the Jewish community in my country."Which reads very much like, "How can I be anti-semitic, some of my best friends are Jewish"- which may or may not be true (corroborating evidence and soon would be helpful if he’s going to follow that line).
But the fact that this kind opf topic is even being discussed about (Rabbi Barry Marcus, of the Central Synagogue in London, has called on David Cameron to severe all links with Kaminski) is, or, at least should be, worrying for a Conservative leadership wishing to portray themselves as a modernising force for change. It’s a situation also that you would have expected the Conservative blogosphere to be paying much more attention to, but other than Conservative Home (which linked into the DT article), as far as I can see, nothing.
Update:
As I said, it's getting worse by the article
In Poland, he continues to cause alarm at the highest levels of Jewish society. Now, the chief rabbi of that country, Michael Schudrich, tells me: "It is clear that Mr Kaminski was a member of the NOP, a group that is openly far-right and neo-Nazi." Asked about the Tories' new alliance with Kaminski, the chief rabbi said: "Anyone who would want to align himself with a person who was an active member of NOP and the Committee to Defend the Good Name of Jedwabne, which was established to deny historical facts of the massacre . . . , needs to understand with what and by whom he is being represented."
Also in Poland, Rafal Pankowski of the Holocaust campaign group Never Again said: "Kaminski has an extreme-right background. To have him, of all people, the chairman of a group that legitimises far-right tendencies across Europe, is somewhat ironic. [Especially] for a leader like Cameron, who domestically opposed the BNP, for example . . . I would call on David Cameron to sever links with Kaminski."
In London, Rabbi Barry Marcus of the Central Synagogue told me: "Any politician of any political party should have the moral courage to clearly distance themselves from those who espouse and promote anti-Semitism, racism or any attitude that fosters intolerance." And, in Paris, the European Jewish Congress said: "We remain extremely vigilant. We have communicated [our concerns about] this to the president of the EPP [Wilfried Martens] and the new elected parliament president [Jerzy Buzek, the former Polish prime minister]."
Of politicians such as Kaminski, the congress told me: "We know them to make racist comments even in parliamentary gatherings. We are alarmed at the fact that they are given a venue to be outspoken." And he called for British Jews to express their concerns to the Conservative Party. "I would call on the British Jewish community to contact David Cameron over this."
5 comments:
I am afraid I disagree with your evaluation of the piece in question. I don't think that trying to block and apology by the government is proof of anti-Semitism as Mr Kaminski points out his reasons for doing so were.
"All I said at the time is that we should punish those responsible and not make the whole Polish nation responsible for the acts of a small group of criminals."
Does this make the man an anti-Semite I think not. A lot of people in the UK thought that Tony Blair's apology for the famine was insincere as neither he nor any other Briton alive today could remember the famine or be in any way culpable for the events of the famine. Perhaps Mr Kaminski feels the same way.
I am not going to try and justify Mr Kaminski’s actions as I for one have no problem in admitting that I do not have a great enough understanding of the facts of this specific situation. I also find it strange that many on the political left (O’Neil this of course does not refer to you) have suddenly become experts on everything and anything to do with the Polish Law and Justice Party.
Cohen's article was subtitled:
"Rather than work with Sarkozy and Merkel, the Tory leader courts the company of extremists"
I thought at the time that this was hysterical guff.
More realistically:
"When he is PM, Cameron will work and negotiate with Sarkozy and Merkel quite happily.
In the meantime, he has sent his Euro-MPs off to form a new grouping which includes some odd birds. No-one cares about this other than political anoraks."
"In the meantime, he has sent his Euro-MPs off to form a new grouping which includes some odd birds. No-one cares about this other than political anoraks"
Spot on.
"Rather than work with Sarkozy and Merkel, the Tory leader courts the company of extremists"
It might also be worth revealing the skeletons in the Lib Dem's and Labour's closets. Ian Dale wrote
“Before Labour throws too many stones on this perhaps they ought to look at their own PES Group in the European Parliament. The majority of the Democratic Left Alliance MEPs (Labour’s Polish sister party, allies in the Party of European Socialists (PES) in the European Parliament) were Communist Party members in the 1980s. The Czech Social Democrat MEPs also include a number of people who were active Communists in the 1980s. Mr Bogdan Golik of Samoobrona is a member of the PES. Samoobrona are a populist nationalist left wing party led by the former farmer Andrzej Lepper. Andrzej Lepper rose to prominence by populist grand-standing. He once accused the liberal conservative Civic Platform of having met members of the Taliban in a small Polish village to sell them anthrax. He is said to have worked with the anti-Semitic publisher Leszek Bubel (Stephen Roth Centre). At one point Jean Marie le Pen was his role model (ibid.). He has even, in a qualified way, praised Hitler. He said he ‘At the beginning of his activities, Hitler had a really good programme. He put Germany on its feet and eliminated unemployment … I don’t know what happened to him later ... who had such influence over him that he moved toward genocide’ (Zycie Warszawy, quoted in the Financial Times, 15 April 2004).
And before the LibDems say too much, consider some of the people who they sit with. They sit in the same group in the European Parliament as Latvia’s First Party/Latvian Way. They have demonstrated against gay pride parades in Riga, attempted to ban discussion of gay issues in the media (Agence France Presse, 7 September 2006) and have used exceptionally violent language against homosexuality - one of their leading figures, Janis Smits, whom they succeeded in appointing as Latvia’s human rights commissioner, described homosexuality as a ‘plague’ (Guardian, G2, 1 June 2007). They were re-elected to the European Parliament in 2009. The LibDems are also allied to extreme feminists: In the last European Parliament the Liberal Democrats sat in the same group as the Swedish Feminist Initiative, who believe that marriage is a form of male oppression and so should be banned and that there should be a special tax on men to recompense women for the violence men exclusively inflict on society.
Nice, eh? I only point this out to underline that all groupings in the Eurpopean Parliament contain one or two pretty strange characters. But the platform to which all 55 MEPs in this new group have signed up is straight down the lines mainstream conservatism...”
I am not going to try and justify Mr Kaminski’s actions as I for one have no problem in admitting that I do not have a great enough understanding of the facts of this specific situation.
The fact that I don't speak Polish hampers me somewhat with this as well (;), but despite the fact that Joe Public (and in all probability Obama, Merkel, sarkozy etc) couldn't give a fig about who the Conservatives link up with...there could/should still be a moral question to answer to all this depending on what else we find out in dribs and drabs about not only Kaminski and the rest of odd bunch signed up to the ECR.
In which case where do we draw a line? Is it enough to justify by saying "it's a different political environment in Poland, Latvia etc" or "look at the rest of the other groups, full of ex-francoists, anti-semites etc"?
I agree that there could be a moral dimension to this problem. At the core of the issue lies the problem do we want to advice views we don;t approve of.
The easy answer to this is No. That is why there is this taboo surrounding us working with other groups who DO come from different political environments and who ARE products of that political system.
However in europe it is a different matter. The ECR is alone amongst the european groups in that it opposes the rampant federalism of the EU. I personally don;t believe equality or Human rights are areas that should be within the competencies of the EU. Many in the ECR agree with me. Therefore the chances of the British conservatives being pressured into supporting anti gay measures for example in the EU parliament will never arise as all participants recognise that this is not an area the EU should be working in.
However the federalists in our midst especially the Lib Dems have more pertinant questions to answer. As a party that does believe that issues like gay rights or gender equality should be the responsibility of europe how can they justify their association with the groups I have mentioned.
Short answer they cannot.
Post a Comment