Dalyell
may face race hatred inquiry
By Nicholas Watt, political
correspondent
Monday May 5, 2003
The Guardian
Tam Dalyell, the veteran Labour MP
and opponent of countless wars, faces an investigation for inciting
racial hatred after he accused Tony Blair of being unduly influenced
by Jewish ministers and officials.
As leading British Jews criticised Mr
Dalyell for his "misguided" remarks, a former Labour MP said he would
refer the father of the Commons to the commission for racial
equality.
Professor Eric Moonman, president of
the Zionist Federation, who was a Labour MP from 1966 to 1979, said
he was seeking advice on whether there was a case for referral. "I
believe there is," he said.
"I will be distressed to do it
because of a relationship with a man I admire enormously," Prof
Moonman said. "But he made the statements and he knew what he was
doing."
The row started when Mr Dalyell, who
for 20 years has opposed every war involving British soldiers, told
Vanity Fair magazine that Mr Blair relied too much on Jewish figures
in Britain and the US. Mr Dalyell named the former cabinet minister
Peter Mandelson, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, and the prime
minister's Middle East envoy, Lord Levy. Only Lord Levy is Jewish. Mr
Mandelson's father was Jewish and Mr Straw had a Jewish
grandfather.
Mr Dalyell said: "I am worried about
my country being led up the garden path on a Likudnik,
[Ariel] Sharon agenda", adding that "Straw, Mandelson and co"
were leading "a tremendous drive to sort out the Middle
East".
Mr Dalyell's critics took exception
after it was claimed that he felt Mr Blair was influenced by a
"cabal" of Jewish advisers. But Mr Dalyell said he used the word
cabal only in reference to the Bush administration, not Downing
Street.
"The cabal that I referred to was in
the US," he said. "That is the Jewish Institute for National Security
Affairs. I was thinking of [Paul] Wolfowitz, [deputy
defence secretary], [Richard] Perle, [John]
Bolton, assistant secretary of state, [Douglas] Feith,
[Ken] Adelman, [Elliott] Abrams and [Ari]
Fleischer, [Mr Bush's press secretary.] Those people drive
this policy."
But Jewish figures were furious.
David Garfinkel, the editor in chief of the London Jewish News, said:
"Coming a few days after the BNP won council seats in the north of
England this is the kind of menacing candour which the country
certainly does not need."
Ministers were also aghast. One said:
"Quite apart from how offensive his remarks are, Tam is wrong. Tony
and Jack have faced strong criticism in Israel because of their
pressure for the road map to be published."
Mr Dalyell denied he was
anti-semitic. "If I were anti-semitic I would not have spent a
holiday in Israel, I would not have gone as a young man to stay on a
kibbutz. To say I am anti-semitic is preposterous."
He also said he had been
parliamentary private secretary to former cabinet minister Dick
Crossman, who was something of a hero in Israel. Crossman became
close to Chaim Weizman, who was Israel's first president. "Would Dick
Crossman have had an anti-semitic gentile as his PPS? I identify with
the Weizman tradition. This is not about being anti-Jewish,
anti-Semitic or anti-Israeli."
