Tommy Robinson, the British far-right agitator whose proper name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, visited Israel at the invitation of Amichai Chikli, the Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs. Chikli and Yaxley-Lennon presented the latter's trip as representing solidarity with Israel against Islamist extremism. British Jewish organisations condemned it outright.
Anyone who saw the Channel 4 News report by Lindsey Hilsum on this visit, which included many profoundly contemptuous comments by Yaxley-Lennon, will know that Robinson himself is unimportant, being little more than a thug posssessed of the deliberate intent to wind up crowds to a fervour of hatred, but that what happened is also important because of what it reveals, which is a growing alignment between parts of the far-right, elements of Zionism, and sections of the Israeli government, all united by the language of fear.
Across Europe, far-right movements have discovered a surprising and politically convenient enthusiasm for Israel. They imagine it as a model ethno-national state defending its borders against a Muslim “other”. Supporting Israel does, in that case, allow them to deny racism while promoting anti-Islamic sentiment. For Robinson, it offers legitimacy: if an Israeli minister welcomes him, how can he be called an extremist?
For those in Israel's government promoting this link, cultivating people like Yaxley-Lennon is tactical. As criticism of Israel grows among progressives, they are seeking new allies who are nationalist, populist, and uncritical. Such alliances do, however, come at a moral cost. They associate Israel with intolerance, and in doing so, they alienate the diaspora communities whose safety depends on pluralism, not populism. That cannot help the Jewish cause.
The evidence that it does not already exists. British Jewish leaders have been clear that Robinson's approach endangers Jewish security and does not defend it. He was contemptuous of them in the Channel 4 report, asking who elected them when no one did, of course, elect him. He instead rated popularity on the number of YouTube views his videos could secure.
That, of course, deliberately misses all issues around legitimacy when his movement thrives on division, and not solidarity. It is part of a wider Western grouping of populists trading in fear for whom decency is sacrificed for short-term gain. Trump fits firmly into the pattern, his contemptuous responses to those marching against his attempt to seize absolute power in the USA this weekend being exactly of this type.
Real safety, whether that be for Israel, the USA, Britain or anyone, lies not in exclusion but in justice and cooperation. When democracies appear to endorse those who stand up for violence and exclusion, they blur the boundary between defenders and destroyers of freedom. That, in the end, is the true danger. And what is worrying is that some in government in the USA, Israel and even here in the UK may already be blurring that boundary.
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What might be the purpose/s of so much of the main stream media’s (specious) publicity for Mr. Yaxley Lennon/ Robinson?
To reinforce negativity.
See the post I have just published on solution-focused thinking. He is the opposite of that.
It’s the equivalent of clickbait. It attracts viewers. Human beings will ignore 1000 items of good news and focus on 1 item that is shocking. It’s a sort of survival mechanism because the one shocking item might contain a nearby, physical threat and is thus to be avoided. Unfortunately this encourages the media to disproportionately broadcast stuff that is shocking, distasteful or menacing. Even more unfortunately there are fragments of society that thrive on this negativity and use it to stir up more of the same. It’s a bind.
Your point about focus on the negative is discussed in the Compassion focused Therapy literature. ( CFT had a lot of influence on my therapy work although I had come to similar conclusions) Their point is e.g. that rustling bushes may be birds or small animals but could also be a large predator like a lion. Our brain wants to keep us safe so we act as if it was a lion or sabre toothed tiger.
The way to deal with it is by use of reason and control of the emotions. We find out more and assess, drawing on experience and while noting the emotions, are not controlled by them.
The media you describe often aims at emotions over information. It is quite successful. I feel any constitutional reform such as PR voting, abolition of the Lords, restriction of political donations etc. has to be accompanied by a reform of the media, especially the press, to be effective.
Thanks. Noted.
“Patriot” Yaxley-Lennon supports Maccabi Tel Aviv rather than their opponents, English team, Aston Villa. Presumably he’ll be leaving his St George & Union flags at home for that match if it ever does get played. Perhaps we need to update the “Tebbit cricket test” and call it the “Yaxley-Lennon” football test.
Keir Starmer has unwisely but predictably dived headfirst into the Maccabi Tel Aviv football controversy in support of encouraging football hooliganism, although he looks a bit foolish now even the Israeli authorities have acted by banning a Tel Aviv derby match after violence and attacks on police. Perhaps he will criticise the Tel Aviv police for “antisemitism”?McSweeney seems to be giving him very bad advice, again.
The whole edifice of support for Israel seems to be fragmenting. I also note that Israel’s appeal against the arrest warrants issued by the ICJ for several of its government ministers including Netanyahu, was rejected by the court.
As you rightly point out, diaspora Jews are endangered by the actions and statements of the Israeli government, the British government, the Far Right fascists, and Israel-defending organisations in the UK. Many British Jews are outraged by the Israeli government’s lionising of Yaxley-Lennon.
Starmer is trying to ride the rapids on two logs – one is Israel, the other being British Jewry. They are drifting apart.
Then there is Trump…
The whole thing is getting very unpredictable. It would be farcical if it didn’t involve so much human suffering.
One final bit of news, a poll in Shabana Mahmoud’s constituency puts YourParty in first place, just ahead of Labour, with Reform way down the rankings.
The last is very telling
Laxley-Lennon is a bit of a tool to be honest – a very well funded one, a plaything for the rich who dabble in politics with their fantasies. He must be lapping it up.
I’m sure the media support is because of well-paid support feeding the media stories about him, the media then unthinkingly just reports it because it looks important and its messages will be plain and simple, not requiring too much work on their behalf.
This is how the zone gets filled with shit.
You need to reflect on anti semitism and anti jewish rhetoric and violence in the UK. Only this week Aston Villa announced they are not allowing Maccabi TA fans into their ground for fear of their safety. This is terrible but tells us how bad the situation really is and most of this is coming from the nutters on the far left.
Maccabi rioted on their home ground against Jewish neihghbours in Tel Aviv this weekend, requiring the match to be abandoned.
Please stop talking ninsense about antisemitism when this is simply a case of football thuggery.
Being Jewish does not let people (and Jews are just people, like all the rest of us, after all) off required standards of behaviour. It is anti-semitic to think it does. It looks to me as though you may be completely guilty of that whilst trying to blame others for your own prejudices that are utterly unacceptable.
100% agree.
With Tel Aviv police’s banning Maccabi hooligans, Sir Keir “this is the wrong decision” Starmer has egg all over his face (yet again).
Starmer’s Reverse Midas Touch is without limit.
Nice twist to fit your zionist position. The fear is at least as much about Maccabi fans being violent and causing mayhem – as they did in Amsterdam for example.
Is THIS down to antisemitism? Or are the Tel Aviv police far left nutters?
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cgr4n07509wo
Thuggery is thuggery, and you seem to want more of it.
Maccabi supporters have got a well known reputation. That’s the reason Birmingham City Council SAG has banned them. They caused trouble in Amsterdam last season but came unstuck. Frankly, they’re lucky they weren’t playing PSG or Marseille.
And, I didn’t notice any prominent politicians whining when Celtic supporters were banned from Ibrox Park.
Read the reports as to why and the decision was taken last week. it has nothing to do with football aggro and all to do with the far left.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/13451567/maccabi-tel-aviv-why-have-israeli-clubs-fans-been-banned-from-aston-villa-europa-league-game-key-questions-answered
Very politely, since when was opposing gthe fascist ethnic cleansing of a civilian population just being a decent human being – even a good Jew – and nothing to do with the far left – who I usually condemn, although finding anyone to meet that description is now exceptionally hard?
You reveal yourself as a Tommy Robinson aligned racist.
Why was the Tel Aviv derby between 2 local Tel Aviv teams called off by the local Tel Aviv authorities?
You ignored that question.
Why?
What the police have said is that the ban has been imposed because of safety concerns. Nowhere do they say that they are concerned specifically for the safety of Maccabi supporters.
There is nothing worse than a legitimate concern – Antisemitism – being hijacked and used as a cloak to air other so-called ‘grievances’ and dodgy causes like Zionism.
Appalling. Flooding the zone with shite, yet again.
Geography.
Israel is not in Europe. Why is its football teams playing in European competitions (could ask the same question wrt Turkish teams). Perhaps it is time that the middle east had its own footy competition. I am certain that Israeli footy fans would show the same sort of constraint they did in Amsterdam as in bastions of democracy such as Saudi Arabia & Egypt…………oh er hang on a sec…..
“Perhaps it is time that the middle east had its own footy competition. ”
It already does. Middle Eastern – or more properly West Asian – states are part of the Asian Football Confederation, 47 states split into 5 regions.
The West Asia section is the one Palestine play in. Israel WAS a member, between 1954 and 1974,
I read the report you cited (the Sky news report) . While rather confused- the report seems to imply that the Maccobi thugs were the victims; based on the kneejerk reactions of the Dutch establishment (like the Mayor) most of whom retracted their initial statements when confronted with the filmed evidence that the thugs rampaged through Amsterdam calling “death to the Arabs” and tearing down Palestine flags- nowhere does the report claim that (your fictional ) left wing fanatics are behind the ban on the thugs. Do you believe that the West Midland Police have suddenly adopted extreme left wing ideology?
“Read the reports…” you say.
Here’s the latest – those who made the decisions about the Birmingham match have told us WHY they acted as they did.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/21/police-intelligence-on-extreme-maccabi-fans-with-history-of-violence-led-to-villa-park-ban
Seems to have been the risk of violence from a thuggish hard core of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters after all. What a surprise.
Time for Starmer to merge quietly into the background while Lisa Nandy washes her mouth out with soap and water and considers apologising to some MPs for her personally abusive remarks to them in the chamber yesterday.
Entirely agreed
This weekend there were reports of masked settler thugs clubbing an elderly Palestinian woman taking part in the annual olive harvest on the West Bank. All happening in plain sight with total impunity – Israel as the occupier is supposed to keep the peace but their police and military either stand aside or aid and abet.
Its sort of amazing they have the hubris to almost celebrate this – and maybe the Yaxley Lennon invitation was a way of doing it.
They think they have already wrecked any prospect of a Palestinian state and they are going to finish the job to make greater Israel a reality.
Disturbing. I was wondering about the football decision, thank you for the comments. Thugs is thugs. I remember the 70s and 80s, when you didn’t go near the grounds at the end of matches. The terraces are far pleasanter these days I understand.
I assure you, they are. Not that I go that much now, but I do occasionally.
Tommy Robinson has his funding from Robert Shillman. It is the same person who funds Geert Wilders in the Netherlands. Charlie Kirk was another in this group along with others such as Katie Hopkins, Laura Loomer. In the US money is speech, and they obviously have the law on their side. I think anti-islamism is going to remain in our culture for decades to come.
Do you have evidence of that?
It’s not the far left the Maccabi thugs would attract in Aston, rather there are some residents who don’t take kindly to racists and would not be merely looking for fisticuffs. Most of my wife’s family are Villa fans and know the area well, and that was their second reaction.
Worth remembering that Yaxley-Lennon’s EDL was between July 2011 to June 2014 officially known as the the English & Jewish Defence League.
By Jewish they presumably meant Zionist.
Its not new. As Aljazeera noted in 2011 : ““Far-right parties are professing a new found love of Israel as a way of escaping their past anti-Semitism and racism, and to justify their prejudice towards European Muslims as not being racist,”
They add : ” The EDL has gained notoriety for its aggression against British Muslims and its links with neo-Nazi groups. Last year [2010] , it moved to garner support within the Jewish community by officially opening a Jewish Division open to “represent the Jews who are fighting against Islamisation,” according to a statement.
“Tommy Robinson, a spokesperson for the EDL, said one of the group’s fundamental beliefs was that as a “shining star of democracy”, Israel has the right to defend itself. ”
Full article : https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2011/12/29/jdl-and-far-right-parties-find-common-ground
Starmer,as you pointed out a fair time ago,doesn’t have a vision as he just reacts to events.His pro Israeli bias suspended any search for the facts behind the banning of the Maccabi fans.
Some research would have found that Maccabi fans also caused another Israeli league match to be abandoned in January.
Barney Ronay’s article in “The Guardian” called the ban ‘a depressing decision” and attacked the local MP,Auyoub Khan.
I wonder if Ronay and politicians like Starmer,Miliband,Nandy,Ed Davey and Badenoch will apologise for their vociferous calls for the ban to lifted.
The good news is that I might attend the game now.
This ban makes total sense to me.
We do not want to go back to the old days of football thuggery, wherever those undertaking it come from.
Starmer’s , Nandy’s and Moribund’s line seems to be that the Jewish community identifies with the Maccobi fans, so banning them is a threat to the Jewish community. This claim – that Jewish people identify with the thugs who celebrate the killing of Palestinian children and call for more of the same is deeply anti-Semitic.
The Reform Party have been very careful to distance themselves from Yaxley-Lennon and his racist friends because they realise he is electorally toxic.
Zionists should recognise that they are following an ideology that almost exterminated their religion in Europe. They try to label opponents as terrorists while conveniently forgetting that Israel was founded by acts of terrorism, some of which were aimed at UK officials in Palestine.