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"What makes the EDL’s former leader, who says he is a friend of the Jews, tick?"
thejc.com
"What do you really know about Tommy Robinson, the founder of the English Defence League who claims that he is an advocate of the Jews and Israel?
I assume you know that the 32-year-old, born Stephen Yaxley-Lennon to a working-class family in Luton, was notorious for setting up the 'street protest' movement, which attracted neo-Nazis and football hooligans, to attack what the EDL called the 'ideology of Islam'. The rise of radical Islam in his Bedfordshire town, he says, made him want to tackle it head-on.
For five years, he was the EDL's Golden Boy. His oratorical skills and media appeal thrust him and the EDL into the spotlight...
Two years on, here I am, in a Luton hotel off the M1, waiting to meet Robinson...
I've come to meet the ex-leader of the EDL in spite of initial protests from within the JC newsroom. 'Why would we give a racist a platform?' asked one colleague.
Well, Robinson has apparently adopted the Jewish cause - whether or not his support is wanted. He has held up Israeli flags at EDL rallies; he has worn an 'I am a Zionist' badge and he has condemned the rise in UK antisemitism...
That's why I'm here, waiting to meet the man whose stand with the Jews and Israel many would wish away; the man who could have gunned for the Jews, if he wasn't so busy gunning for the Muslims.
'That argument - Muslims now, then Jews - is pathetic,' retorts Robinson...
'Because I'm against Islam, it's all... oh, I'm against Judaism, I'm against Sikhism'. Nonsense! The only Jews I've ever met have been great. My barrister was a Jew, my accountant, too. The point I always make is that there's no Jews that are involved in any radicalisation, there's no Jews that are involved in any gangs, or selling heroin, there's no Jews jumping out of cars beating people up – all the things that affect us here.'...
So, I ask, do Jews and the white working man share the same gripe with the rise of radical Islam in the UK?
'No,' he pauses. 'They want to kill you. I know they want to kill everyone with their guns and their bombs, but Jews are more at risk.... The rise in antisemitism is out of control and it comes from the preachers of hate, it comes from the mosques... "We are sleepwalking into oblivion in Britain, and the Jews are, too. The Jews need to be vocal, demanding of the government that they fix these problems, it's not right that you've got speakers and imams giving hate speeches...'...
But with so many issues facing persecuted communities around the world, why does he care about Israel?
Surprised by the question, Robinson leans back, as though the answer is obvious.
'If Israel falls, we all fall in this battle for freedom, liberty and democracy... The media would have us believe that everyone in this country hates Israel, that Israel is this big monster. That comes from this whole left-wing mindset, this whole victim thing with Palestine which is inbred into students at university. It's not inbred into anyone I know – white working-class people.'
And then, Robinson reveals his holiday plans. 'I'm going to Israel as soon as I get off licence in July,' he says, with a touch of schoolboy excitement. Robinson is currently on licence for a mortgage fraud. 'My uncle went last year, did the tours and everything - he said it was an amazing experience... I never thought of Tel Aviv as a holiday destination. You know, when the DJs finish in Ibiza, they go to Tel Aviv – the more I looked at it, I thought, 'right – this looks really good'...
It's hard to pigeonhole Robinson. On the one hand, he once considered flying to Israel to meet Pamela Geller, the anti-Islam campaigner who's been banned from the UK; and on the other hand, he wants to go clubbing in Tel Aviv...
He reams off emotional stories, some that have brought him to tears, of Jewish men and women in Europe who have been hit by antisemitism.
He started the EDL - to which he is clearly still loyal - as a result of discontent. He says the number of grassroots communal protests or controversial movements like the Jewish Defence League are 'good' - even though last week the leader of the JDL's UK branch was found guilty of assaulting two people at a pro-Palestinian event in Haringey."
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