Baroness Tonge gained notoreity after saying that if she was a Palestinian, she would consider becoming a suicide bomber. Inspite of the power and influence of the “pro-Israeli lobby” Baroness Tonge was subsequently made a Lib Dem peer , and in a meeting in September 2006 said the following :

“The pro-Israeli Lobby has got its grips on the Western World,” she said. After a short pause she went on to explain exactly what sort of grips she was referring to: “its financial grips.”

She then said “I think they've probably got a certain grip on our party." One of the people who commented on Engage’s post on the episode here perceptively asked,

“How long before Tonge's comments are defended by.
1. Typical Zionist trick, casting a critic of Israel as antisemitic.
2. She meant Zionist and not Jewish
3. Even if there is an aura of antisemitism that attaches to her comments it was Israel's actions that led her to make these comments.”

As the Jewish Chronicle reports here, we had to wait just under two years before Baroness Tonge defended herself in just those terms:

“I am beginning to understand the power of the Israel lobby, active here as well as in the USA, with AIPAC, the Friends of Israel and the Board of Deputies."
“They take vindictive actions against people who oppose and criticise the lobby, getting them removed from positions that they hold and preventing them from speaking — even on unrelated subjects, in my case.
“I understand their methods. I have many examples. They make constant accusations of antisemitism, when no such sentiment exists, to silence Israel’s critics.”

When challenged on these comments, Baroness Tonge further defended herself by saying:

“One of the things I’ve discovered over the years is that whenever anyone criticises Israel in a positive way they get accused of antisemitism,” she said.
“But it is not antisemitism, it is anti-Israeli-governmentism. Politicians who criticise Israel are sidelined due to pressure on party leaders to remove them.”
Baroness Tonge added that the reason she was so outspoken on this matter was in order to stop antisemitism from increasing.
“Jewish people in this country and all over Europe are being targeted because there are people out there who do not distinguish them from the Israeli government. I don’t want that to happen. It’s a tragedy,” she said.
“We do not want antisemitism to come back. It’s the worst thing that ever happened in the history of the human race. But it will return if Israel continues doing what it’s doing."
“I have so many friends and colleagues who are Jewish and I don’t want to see them suffering in this way.”

So there we have it: a powerful lobby, which operates on both sides of the Atlantic, takes “vindictive actions against people who oppose and criticise the lobby”, it makes “constant accusations of antisemitism, when no such sentiment exists, to silence Israel’s critics”; “whenever anyone criticises Israel in a positive way they get accused of anti-Semitism”. Indeed, Baroness Tonge claims to have “many examples” - but, strangely, fails to cite a single one (at least according to the report in the JC). (This is of course a classic articulation of the Livingstone Formulation). So powerful is this lobby that it gets people “removed from positions that they hold and prevent[s] them from speaking — even on unrelated subjects”; “politicians who criticise Israel are sidelined due to pressure on party leaders to remove them.”

Needless to say, if antisemitism ever was to return (as if it had not returned already), this would not be because of senior politicians such as Baroness Tonge articulating a classic antisemitic trope, it would be because of Israel’s actions. Baroness Tonge had no excuses for her language in 2006; she has no excuses in 2008 either.

James Mendelsohn, University of Huddersfield