Fury as Dalyell attacks Blair's 'Jewish cabal'

By Colin Brown and Chris Hastings

TAM DALYELL, the Father of the House [Senior member of the British House of Commons in Parliament], sparked outrage last night by accusing the Prime Minister of "being unduly influenced by a cabal of Jewish advisers".

In an interview with Vanity Fair, the Left-wing Labour MP named Lord Levy, Tony Blair's personal envoy on the Middle East, Peter Mandelson, whose father was Jewish, and Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary (far right, with unidentified friend), who has Jewish ancestry, as three of the leading figures who had influenced Mr. Blair's policies on the Middle East.

Mr. Dalyell, the MP [Member of Parliament] for Linlithgow, told The Telegraph: "I am fully aware that one is treading on cut glass on this issue and no one wants to be accused of anti-Semitism but, if it is a question of launching an assault on Syria or Iran . . . then one has to be candid."

He added: "I am not going to be labelled anti-Semitic. My children worked on a kibbutz. But the time has come for candour."

The Prime Minister, Mr. Dalyell claimed, was also indirectly influenced by Jewish people in the Bush administration, including Richard Perle, a Pentagon adviser, Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defence secretary, and Ari Fleischer, the President's press secretary.

"They very much have captured the ear of the President of the United States. I said [to Vanity Fair] I thought that Blair was very sympathetic to them. I cannot understand why," Mr Dalyell said.

MR DALYELL'S claim caused fury last night. Mr Mandelson said: "Apart from the fact that I am not actually Jewish, I wear my father's parentage with pride. As for Tam, he is as incorrigible as ever."

David Irving comments: LORD Janner, the former Greville Janner, is a recent president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. He has worked for over fifteen years to pressure publishers like Macmillan Ltd to violate their contracts to publish my works of history; he was spotted in the High Court in London on several occasions during the £6 million Lipstadt libel trial, and he sat next to the Israeli Ambassador and his armed security guards and other VIPs in the courtroom on the day that Mr Justice Gray read out his perverse judgment against me in my action against Lipstadt.    Well-versed in gagging techniques, Janner has successfully kept out of the press the charges circulated against him by a rent-boy, who has tried in vain to have police investigate his allegations. Lord Janner has always denied these allegations as shameful and scandalous. Related file: How Janner's Holocaust Educational Trust tried to get Macmillan's to dump Mr Irving as an author

Lord Janner, a Labour peer and the chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust (right), said: "I think these comments are sad and unfounded. Tony Blair is his own man. He will follow advice if he considers it correct and not otherwise. He has been a good friend of the Jewish people and the Jewish state."

Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain of Maidenhead Synagogue and a spokesman for Britain's Reform Synagogues, said: "Tam Dalyell is not being candid but misguided. Concerning Iraq it was crystal clear that Tony Blair was not swayed by popularity or anyone else but by his own deep convictions. It is also obvious that the majority of President Bush's circle (see below) are Christian Evangelicals rather than Jews."

Ned Temko, the American-born editor of the Jewish Chronicle, said: "I just think these sort of comments are offensive and are a profound misunderstanding of the way foreign policy is made in the United States or here."

A spokesman for Lord Levy said he was not available for comment. A spokesman for the Foreign Secretary said: "If these reports are accurate, these remarks are too unworthy to be worth a comment."

Arab sources tie US General Jay Garner, candidate for Governor of Iraq, to ruling Likud party in Israel | As we revealed earlier [1][2]: US general with Iraq role linked to hardline Israelis

Richard Perle (right) resigns from Pentagon policy board in corruption scandal  | accused with Goldman Sachs of war profiteering 

Christopher Deliso: Suing in England, Vacationing in France: the Misplaced Patriotism of Perle 

New York Times: "Mr. Perle, who as chairman of the Defense Policy Board has been a leading advocate of the United States' invasion of Iraq, spoke on Wednesday in a conference call sponsored by Goldman Sachs, in which he advised participants on possible investment opportunities arising from the war. The conference's title was "Implications of an Imminent War: Iraq Now. North Korea Next?" [Note that Richard "Spiv" Perle is also on the Board of a UK company, Autonomy: they deserve a dishonourable mention].

Eric Margolis: The hijacking of America

Richard Perle told German chancellor Schröder to resign

The Israeli lobby's influence: appointments of advisors to White House and Executive Branch

A disturbing Beirut report on Douglas Feith, Bush's new "Dr Goebbels"

Pentagon hawks make haste

Robert Fisk exposes President Bush and his pro-Israel lobby by name

The Guardian also unmasks Richard Perle and his gang: "When he is not too busy at the Pentagon, or too busy running Hollinger Digital -- part of the group that publishes the Daily Telegraph in Britain -- or at board meetings of the Jerusalem Post, Mr Perle is "resident fellow" at one of the thinktanks -- the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)."

The Guardian exposes a US "Arab" news agency as a clandestine Israeli Intelligence operation

Time To Get The Facts Right, By David Welch (Ambassador of the United States of America

For additional information, visit the Web site of PBS' "Now With Bill Moyers."