Thursday, April 06, 2017

"As a Jew" David Baddiel did not like me criticizing him ....

In a FaceBook essay today ex-comedian David Baddiel decided to enlighten us plebs with the benefit of his wisdom and insights into the Ken Livingstone row. David tells us he is very concerned about antisemitism but this has nothing to do with anti-Zionism. To emphasize his non-Zionist credentials he says:
I do not support the appalling actions of the present Israeli government. 
And he follows this up by using a quote from his own 'comedy' film as evidence that Israel is not even really Jewish:
I don’t even think it’s a very Jewish place. In The Infidel, my film, a character whilst describing various types of Jews, says “And then Israelis – Jews without angst, without guilt – so not really Jews at all.”
I replied to Baddiel's post with a link to an article I wrote about him in 2014. Here is his reply and note that my own response was blocked (in fact he has blocked me from accessing his Facebook page):


Here is the article from 2014:

The Infidel (October 31, 2014)
David Baddiel: leftist hypocrite and self-hating Jew
A number of friends have asked me to go and see the stage production of David Baddiel's 'The Infidel'. To understand why I will not go to see this (I saw the film incidentally and it was pretty poor) here is the relevant self-explanatory snippet from a blog posting I wrote back in 2010 about anti-semitism ingrained in the world of  'the arts':
To give another flavour of this same argument, I found something very illuminating in the latest issue of the Jewish Chronicle magazine. There is an interview there with the Jewish comedian David Baddiel about his new film "The Infidel" (about a Muslim who discovers that he is Jewish). One question asks:
What can the film teach audiences? 
Baddiel answers: "The main Muslim characters in the film are not suicide bombers or fundamentalists, they are just ordinary people and the film tries to show them as such".
OK, but the very next question is: 
What does being Jewish mean to you religiously and culturally?
Baddiel answers: "Probably the key speech in the film is when the rabbi, played by Matt Lucas, doesn't let Mahmud in to see his father, who is dying, because he can't say the Shema. That is the definition of Judaism."
Obviously Baddiel does not see the irony of his determination to portray Muslims as 'just like us', but to portray Jews as religious fanatics.
It is also worth pointing out that Baddiel - whose TV career effectively ended several years ago when he stopped being funny - tried to get himself some much needed publicity last year; he was the person who led the ludicrous campaign to stop Spurs fans calling themselves 'Yids' - a campaign that was fiercely opposed by 97% of Spurs Jewish supporters (and 91% of all Spurs supporters). Baddiel is a Chelsea supporter who has never campaigned to stop the genuine anti-semitism that Chelsea fans always direct at Spurs (the gas hissing sounds, Hitler salutes etc).

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Well, well Edgar. He did the same to me. By the way you had the dubious honour of a reply. And this is the sum of what I wrote:

"- as all Jews have to.... -. Yes, David you do. Particularly when the likes of Jon Arkush regard Lab as 'obsessing over Israel."
(This in reply to his statement in the Guardian that he always had to justify himself.)
and this:
"As I have to say 'I'm not anti Semitic.' when I attack Israel"
Upon which he banned me from his site.

Apart from his bizarre logic, I do think he needs to be less precious. A surprising failing for a stand up comedian I would have thought.