British Labour MP Naz Shah resigned Tuesday from her unpaid post as an aide after a virulently anti-Israel post and one that was plain anti-Semitic, both written on Facebook in 2014, were highlighted this week on the Guido Fawkes political website.

She apologized publicly Tuesday (April 26) on Twitter for both.

I am truly sorry and I will be putting out a more detailed explanation later. pic.twitter.com/x74FDKNCJE

— Naz Shah MP (@NazShahBfd) April 26, 2016

She was careful, however, not to resign from her position on the parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee – which is set to investigate rising anti-Semitism in Britain.

The first offensive post was displayed within the context of an article on the Guido Fawkes political website that explained Shah had “argued Israel should be ‘relocated’ to America and praised the ‘transportation costs’ of deporting Israeli Jews out of the Middle East.” (italics courtesy of Guido Fawkes site) “As these stories go, it is at the more controversial end of the scale…” the writer noted.

Shah had shared a graphic showing an outline of the State of Israel, superimposed on to a map of the United States with the headline “Solution for Israel-Palestine Conflict – Relocate Israel into United States.” The graphic adds:

• “America has plenty of land to accommodate a 51st state;
• The transportation cost will be less than 3 years of defense spending; Palestinians will get their land and life back;
• Middle East will again be peaceful without foreign interference;
• Oil prices will go down, inflation will go down, whole world will be happy.”

Shah added a comment to the graphic: “Problem solved and save u bank charges for 3 billion pounds you transfer yearly.” In the comments section she wrote: “Only problem with that is Israel would need to return all the land and farms it has stolen and give the Palestinians rights which is not possible.” She then added: “Therefore I will tweet Barack Obama and David Cameron and put this idea to them? Save them pocket money?”

All of her 2014 Facebook posts have since been deleted, prompting one to wonder just what else she had opined during that year in which Israel had been forced into another defensive counter terror war with Hamas in Gaza.

For example, Shah had also posted a link on Facebook to a newspaper poll asking whether Israel had committed war crimes, urging her constituents to vote “yes.” Her post screamed in capital letters, “URGENT ACTION… WILL TAKE TEN SECONDS (link) The Jews are rallying to the poll at the bottom and there is now 87% disagreeing and 13% agreeing. CLICK “YES” I AGREE WITH JOHN PRESCOTT THAT ISRAEL IS COMMITTING WAR CRIMES.” FORWARD ON TO ALL CONTACTS RIGHT NOW.”

As the Guido Fawkes site noted, she had also tweeted a link to a blog post comparing Zionism to Al Qaeda, and accusing Zionists of “grooming” Jews to “exert political influence at the highest levels of public office.”

Shah, who is Muslim, was elected to the British parliament the next year, in 2015.  She defeated incumbent George Galloway, who had declared his district off-limits to all Israelis, including tourists.

As she stepped down Tuesday from her unpaid position as Parliamentary Private Secretary to shadow chancellor John McDonnell, the virulently anti-Israel post and a another deeply anti-Semitic one were both made public.

It was the British Jewish Chronicle who had published that second post, reporting that in August 2014, Shah had tweeted the link to a blog called ‘Walk Together.’

On that blog an article entitled “Colonization, Israel, Palestinian resistance and…”, claimed Zionism was “like Al Qaeda.” This was the article that claimed Zionism is used to “groom” Jews to “exert political influence at the highest levels of public office.”

When the Home Affairs Select Committee publishes its report on its investigation into Britain’s rising anti-Semitism, the findings should be most illuminating.

Perhaps the committee members can begin with a mirror as an initial exercise.

A Labour MP said earlier this month the party is starting to look as if it doesn’t care about prejudice against Jewish people.

“We have now got a problem where too many of our Jewish members and people out there in the country think the Labour Party is apathetic to anti-Semitism,” said MP Wes Streeting.

Former Labour parliamentary candidate Vicki Kirby was suspended twice last month over tweets in which she called Hitler a “Zionist God” and said Jews have “big noses.”

Prominent British politician Lord Michael Abraham Levy sounded the alarm in March that anti-Semitism is rising in the Labour Party. Levy has threatened to leave the fold if something is not done to stem the tide.

The Jewish peer has been a chief fundraiser for Labour, and is a longtime friend of former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein is set to visit the British Parliament in London on Wednesday at the invitation of his counterpart, John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons.

Edelstein will address a joint session of peers and Members of Parliament in the first-ever official visit by an Israeli Knesset Speaker. He will also meet with Prime Minister David Cameron.

However.

The visit has already raised a ruckus among British opponents to Israel and those in the Palestinian Authority as well, because Edelstein lives in part of an area that British leaders claim is “occupied” by Israel.

Edelstein maintains, “It’s a disputed territory. We didn’t take it from any other country. They claim it’s theirs, we claim it’s ours,” he told media at a briefing in Israel.

He told media he hopes to develop closer bonds between the Israeli and British parliaments.

“Governments come and go but parliaments stay,” he told The Telegraph. “If you’re smart enough to base the relationship bipartisan then it doesn’t matter who is in power.”

Paul Alster, writing on the Fox News website, asks a question that – had it been asked – would have done credit to the news teams of the BBC, Associated Press, Reuters and/or the New York Times who, though they have their people scattered all over the Middle East, somehow are unable to formulate things quite this way:

A single Syrian missile strike on a bakery near Hama killed more than 60 innocent civilians last week, so how did Israel manage to fire more than 1,500 high powered missiles into densely-populated Gaza in November, with the total loss of 161 lives, of which 90 have been acknowledged by Hamas itself as active combatants?

About that bakery attack, and numerous other bakery attacks, we posted our thoughts just four days ago [see “25-Dec-12: Know your barbarians“]

Alster’s answer, certainly worth your click, starts this way:

The numbers speak for themselves, but very little credit has so far been given by foreign governments, NGOs, and the international media for the care taken by the Israeli military to avoid collateral damage during its recent vicious engagement with Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters. [more]

Framing an article this way does not mean Israel should be compared in any way to the loathsome, blood-soaked Syrian armed forces. Most thinking people aware of the realities of the Middle East know that. On the other hand, individuals with an ideological predisposition to kicking out at Israel at every opportunity will see things differently; the facts tend to be less urgent for them.

Case in point #1: The faded rock singer Roger Waters whose glory days included his being a lead member of the Pink Floyd band. He plays a different style of gig these days, including an appearance last month at the UN’s annual Israel-bashing “observance” of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People [pictures here]. In his own words, Waters appeared there “representing global civil society” (no less); called for greater understanding of the Hamas side of the argument; demanded action against Israel’s “illegal apartheid regime”; and warned his audience never to assume that “I support the launching of missiles into Israel.”

Case in point #2: Colonel Richard Kemp, a thinking person’s senior soldier, served in the British military from 1977 to 2005 rising to the role of Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan and completing 14 operational tours of duty around the globe. When asked about Israel’s conduct vis a vis civilians in Gaza in 2008, he famously said

“based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: during operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in the combat zones than any other army in the history of warfare”. [Wikipedia]

A little less famously, he explained:

“of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes. There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes…” [Wikipedia]

And this explanation by Kemp after the November 2012 Pillar of Defence battle conducted by Israel against the Hamas forces. Concerning the bias of certain media outlets when it comes to reporting on Israel and its military, he said:

“It was clear to me that there was a great deal of propaganda that was being generated against Israel, and then being exploited by people who didn’t understand military matters and didn’t want to question it, it suited their agenda to vilify Israel… People ask me why I have a pro-IDF point of view. I consider myself as having an objective view of what’s happening over here. The IDF does not need me to defend them; they have proven it over the years… It’s the dispassionate military perspective that I bring.” [more]

Case in point #3: Certain political figures in the British parliament. This snippet comes from a report published Thursday:

According to the online [UK] parliamentary archive, 21 EDMs (formal motions submitted for debate in the House of Commons, although not necessarily discussed) relating to Israel have been put forward since the 2012-2013 session began. In contrast, just two refer to the situation in Syria… [more].