Tuesday 5 September 2006

Tony Blair's Secret Donors

On 17 November 1996, the front page of The Sunday Times ran a lead article titled: Blair's Secret Donors Exposed.

This is it:

"Tony Blair is receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds in undisclosed donations through a private account despite the Labour party's commitment to openness about its funding. A Sunday Times investigation has discovered some of Britain's richest tycoons have given donations under an arrangement made by Blair's office to disguise their identities.

They include Sir Trevor Chinn, chairman of Britain's biggest motor dealers who was knighted by the Tories, and Sir Emmanuel Kaye, a multi-millionaire...

The fund… is being used to help pay Blair's staff and other private expenses. No trace of the donations appears in the labour party's accounts…

The Labour Leader's Office Fund is particularly mysterious. It was established about a year ago and was manged by Blick Rothenburg, a City accountancy firm. Michael Goldstein, a partner in Blick Rothenburg, who looked after the fund, said, 'I really don't now anything about it. Where did you get our name from'?…

David Rothenburg, the firm's senior tax partner, was in Israel this weekend and unavailable for comment. Many of the donors are pillars of the British establishment and have long and distinguished entries in Who's Who…

Alex Bernstein, former chairman of Granada… is understood to have donated… Bob Gavron, a publishing millionaire who has publicly donated directly to the Labour party, has also given £35,000 to Blair's private office.

Chinn, 61, is chairman of Lex Service and President of the Joint Israel Appeal, Britain's biggest fundraising charity for Israel…

The Labour Leader's Office Fund was set up last year by Jonathan Powell, Blair's chief of staff and brother of Sir Charles Powell, an aide to Margaret Thatcher…

Blair is understood to have wanted to develop a source of finance that would give him independence from the Labour party… to help pay for his private office…

Labour has made great play of its new policy of declaring all donations of more than £5,000 to the party, and has challenged the Tories to come clean on their sources of funding."
The four businessmen named in The Sunday Times article, Sir Trevor Chinn, Sir Emmanuel Kaye, Alex Bernstein and Bob Gavron, are all Jewish.

David Rothenburg, Blick Rothenburg's senior tax partner, and Michael Goldstein, who 'looked after the fund,' are also Jewish.

In the May 2000, edition of On Target, the handbook of the Australian League of Rights, Alfred King told us this:

"Blair's Secret Donors Exposed... revealed the distinctive ethnic identities of those behind the scenes who have created Tony Blair and New Labour. All the major contributors to Blair's private office-fund are prominent members of the Jewish community...

Blair's involvement with such people is the result of a long established relationship going back over many years, not a recent result of advances made to the Labour Party.

The same individuals played a key role in creating the New Labour Bandwagon in the first place, and in grooming Blair for PM. Margaret Thatcher's former backer, Sir Trevor Chinn, finds it just as easy to support Tony Blair.

Blair also appointed film producer Sir David Puttman as a member of his business committee. Puttnam is a close friend of Edgar Bronfman Jr., owner of the massive MCA entertainment group and Universal Studios, and President of the World Jewish Congress.

Tony Blair's close ties with key personnel of the Zionist lobby go back over many years. He is an old and close friend of the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Eldred Tabachnik. Blair and his wife shared barristers' chambers with Tabachnik in London.

He has repeatedly reaffirmed his personal commitment to the implementation of legislation outlawing any communications in any way critical of the Jewish community - even though in practise these generally involve comments on the power and influence of the Zionist lobby, rather than hostility to Jews per se.

In December 1995, Blair addressed the Board of Deputies annual president's dinner and spoke of his party's 'very deep' links with Jewry. Again, at a charity dinner in September 1996, attended by Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sachs, Israeli ambassador, Moshe Raviv and Eldred Tabachnik, Blair promised that under his leadership, New Labour was committed to introducing stronger legislation against 'anti-semitism' (i.e. criticism of Jewish influence) and 'racism' (i.e. the suggestion that traditional British culture and identity should be preserved)…

Jarvis Astaire, the millionaire Jewish businessman who was a member of the circle behind Harold Wilson in 1974 and who nowadays supports New Labour, has complained that public knowledge of the ethnic identity of Tony Blair's backers, as revealed by the Sunday Times, might lead to 'latent anti-Semitism'.

Astaire's idea for preventing such a development is not to curb the undemocratic nature of activities implied in a need for discretion but to prevent any details of them from being made public.

Robert Gavron is a member of New Labour's most important fundraising committee and known to have himself contributed over a half a million pounds. Gavron explained 'if you are a businessman you can quite easily vote either way now, as you can in the United States'.

This statement is quite pertinent in the light of the presence on the Conservative's party's board of treasurers of men such as its chairman Charles Hambro, property developer Sir Geoffrey Leigh, Sir Basil Feldman and bookmaker Leonard Steinberg. It is also pertinent here in Australia.

It is well known that when he was Prime Minister, at Canberra cocktail parties, Paul Keating always gravitated towards the end of the room where the Jewish power brokers could be found.

Now The Age, on April 30th, tells us that our present PM has joined with the world's great leaders at the Bar-Ilan University of Tel Aviv to be given an honorary Doctorate of Philosophy for his support for the state of Israel. There John Howard, dressed in skull cap, recalled the great influence of Jews in his personal development and emphasised the contribution that Jews had made to Australia since the first of them arrived here; like his UK counterpart, he also enthusiastically supports 'anti-racist' legislation.

And so we see in our own country the same behind-the-scenes phenomena, of super-rich Jewish businessmen exerting considerable influence over both choices which are offered to the public at election time. This could help to explain the 'elected dictatorship' situation: why the policies of the main parties are so remarkably similar, and in total agreement on all the big issues.

Behind the TV smiles and the 'balanced' political reporting, it would appear that massive wealth has been employed to guarantee that the country is steered in a certain direction."
Besides contributing to Blair's private office fund, both Levy and Gavron were members of New Labour’s most important fundraising committee. East German refugee, Paul Hamlyn, donated £600,000 from his publishing fortune and Gavron is thought to have given around half a million pounds.

Gavron moves in a very influential circle, which includes Jeremy Isaacs, erstwhile boss of Channel 4, and Michael Green, former head of Carlton Communications. Gavron is also a long time associate of Peter Mandelson.

Mandelson, European Commissioner, erstwhile MP for Hartlepool and a former member of the Young Communists’ League, has been described as having 'notably firm roots in the Jewish community' including, according to the 31 March 1996 edition of The Sunday Times, a close relationship with the publisher, Lord Weidenfeld.

Weidenfeld acted as liaison between former Labour PM Harold Wilson and leading figures in Israel. He was also the first to inform the Israeli Government that Madeline Albright, Bill Clinton's Secretary of State, was Jewish. On 18 February 1998, Albright said the following in Columbus, Ohio:

"I am willing to make a bet to anyone here that we care more about the Iraqi people than Saddam Hussein does."
At the time she said this more than 600,000 Iraqis had been killed by US actions since the end of the first Gulf War.

In May 1996, 60 Minutes reporter, Leslie Stahl, interviewed Albright thus:

"We have heard that a half million children have died. (as a result of the US imposed sanctions in Iraq) I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?"
Albright replied:

"I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it."
I'd say Ms Albright 'cared' for the Iraqis every bit as much as Bush, Blair and Blair's secret donors. Oh, and if I'd been there in Columbus in 18 February 1998, I would've taken the bet.

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