In my last blog I revealed who really runs Scotland and the UK Parties and now as an extension to this we find out the other people currently influencing how Scotland and Israel is run.
In October 2016 two SNP MSP's joined with five Tory MSP's, Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie and New Labour MSP Mary Fee to form a cross party Israel supporting group called "Building Bridges with Israel." in the Scottish Parliament.
Most of these Israel supporting MSP's worked in the banking, legal and accountancy fields (and car sales) before they decided being an MSP representing the interests of the few could be an even more rewarding career.
The cross party group of Israel supporting MSP's is led by their convener, Tory MSP Jackson Carlaw, an ex car salesman.
This Tory's fellow Israel supporter and deputy convenor is SNP's Richard Lyle, who like Alex Salmond and so many other SNP officials used to work for RBS.
Another of the Tory MSP's involved in this Israel support group is Adam Tomkins who advised Tory MP David Mundell at the Scotland Office and was an advisor to the House of Lords Constitution Committee as well as a member of the Smith Commission for the Tories prior to becoming an MSP in 2016 - he called Ian Duncan Smith's benefit reforms "outstanding".
The three other Tory MSP's who helped set up the "Building Bridges with Israel" group, shown together below, are Alison Harris a former self employed Chartered Accountant, Jeremy Balfour a solicitor and Baptist Minister along with fellow solicitor and Tory chief whip John Lamont.
New Labour MSP Mary Fee is also a member of this Pro-Israeli group. She worked briefly for the Bank of Scotland before going on to work for Tesco.
Chartered Accountant and Baptist, John Mason is the second SNP representative in the group - he also "suggested IRA members who murdered three Scottish soldiers could be considered “freedom fighters”.
Last, but not least, we have Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie - working with this "Better Together" leader, despite his pro-UK stance, for the good of Israel it seems, is now the priority for these two SNP MSP's.
But it's not just MSP's who get to be members of this so called cross party "Scottish Parliamentary Group", of Israel supporters, as these MSP's asked for the following powerful men to be allowed in the group, to help further their Israel agenda.
Edward Green is part of the group, a very powerful man with friends in the "highest" places in London, as well as within these four Scottish "political parties" and the Scottish Government.
Green boasts he was "honoured to be elected a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths." which is one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of the City of London with the Financial Times giving us an insight into these powerful City of London clubs.
He also boasts "he was appointed by Her Majesty the Queen as a Deputy to the Lord Lieutenant for Edinburgh" - for the UK privy council.
The Lord Lieutenant is the Lord Provost of Edinburgh - so this Israel supporting City of London boy gets to stand in for Edinburgh's Lord Provost (at home and abroad) when it suits London despite no one electing him.
So who is he?
Green, is an international high end Jewellery trader and exporter, who used to be managing director of Garrard the Crown Jewellers "with the responsibility for caring for the Queen’s and other members of the Royal Family’s personal collections".
Pro Israeli Green's profile has a gushing endorsement by former Tory MSP Cameron Buchanan stating Green is
"A man of wide ranging talents and always reliable and strictly on time. Highly suitable for and recommended for a variety of roles as he has a great depth of knowledge in many fields. Very widely traveled as well."
And it's not just Royal appointments and City of London appointments Green has had bestowed on him.
In 2014 Scotland's Culture Secretary, Fiona Hyslop, appointed Green to the board of trustees of our National Galleries of Scotland - for four years (culture is the trojan horse used to promote any oppressive regime and their supporters interests in Britain) funded by the Scottish Government with corporate support from Tesco Bank.
SNP's Fiona Hyslop also appointed banker, Benny Higgins, to be on the board of Scotland's National Gallery of trustees with Green.
Benny Higgins helped set up Tesco bank when he worked for RBS and then "took the helm at Tesco Bank in 2008 following Tesco’s buyout of the RBS share."
Higgins states he likes to underpin his ideas with what he calls "Tesco Values". What are "Tesco Values" ?
Paying off 5,000 staff while spending £18,000 in taxis, in less than 8 months in his frequent lavish London trips ? Four times married Higgins attempting to reduce his child support payments while earning colossal sums? Charging the poor and pensioners £5 a month for "Tesco Banking" while money disappeared from 20,000 Tesco "Bank" accounts recently - a first for any British bank with questions asked was this an inside job - with up to £17million reported stolen from accounts while
Where does he get "Tesco Values"?
Is it from Tesco heiress Shirley Porter fled the UK and hid in Israel for 12 years after she was found guilty in court and fined £millions after she forcibly decanted council tenants with children into a tower block known to be contaminated with asbestos - just so she could sell their homes instead to Tory voters when she led Westminster Council?
This is the banking, city of London set who MSP's very quietly choose to be on public boards and in Parliamentary Groups of Scotland - just like Westminster.
So who else has this pro-Israel MSP's group asked to join them and Edward Green?
Ziv Dotan, an Israeli national, working as a computer programmer and currently living in Glasgow was on the list of "non-MSP" members on the application to set up this "parliamentary group".
Another "non-MSP member" is Stanley Lovatt, who is long time chairman of KKL-JNF Scotland - "an independent Committee within the worldwide KKL-JNF Family raising funds in Scotland exclusively for KKL-JNF Projects in Israel."
Nicola Benedetti performed at one of KKL-JNF fundraisers where it was said "“When you help KKL-JNF, you are helping the State of Israel, our children and the future of us all.”
KKL-JNF was originally known as the Jewish National Fund - it was set up in 1901 to "buy" land in Palestine region for Jewish settlement.
By 2007 it owned 13% of the total land in Israel after the Israeli government began to sell "absentee lands" to the JNF.
"Absentee land" in this new Israel was land confiscated or seized from Palestinian refugees of the 1948 War of Independence.
The JNF have been attempting to change the meaning of "absentee" to grab homes and land for Jews when non-Jews die if the heir is living abroad - even if family members are still living in the house.
"The JNF purchased the land from the state with "Then prime minister David Ben-Gurion initiated the sale of land to the JNF to prevent any possibility of international pressure forcing Israel to restore it to the Palestinian refugees according to the article "Buying The State of Israel".
The article goes on to say even the Israeli government's Attorney General at the time doubted the legality of the sale - where in 1949 1000 km² of 3,500 km² of Palestinian refugees land was "sold" to JNF for £11million, with a further 1,000 km² sold to JNF in 1950 with the JNF land "administered" via the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) where only Jews could lease JNF land.
Demands were made to stop this discrimination policy yet in 2015 it was reported the JNF would split from government ILA control (while the Minister responsible was under investigation), which would allow the JNF to market its lands at its own discretion free of control of government.
Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron have been Honorary Patrons of the JNF-UK arm, like all British prime ministers before them since its formation in 1939 - where all funds go to projects in Israel.
Other current patrons of this Zionist UK charity listed as "our people" are David Bellamy (OBE) and powerful Scottish lawyer and judge "Lady Cosgrove".
Another of JNF's people supporting Israel for Life is Scottish Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank, Blair's Chief of the Defence Staff until his retirement in 2001, when he became a non-executive Director of NM Rothschild & Sons, after advising Blair on his Kosovo war.
From the board of Rothschild he used his position in the Lords in 2002 to support the invasion of Iraq - Rothschild family fortune, we are told, connected to Napoleonic and UK war and now Iraq's oil according to Forbes magazine.
Guthrie actually wrote a book on the ethics of modern warfare with Michael Quinlan, former Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defense -yet he is criticised for statments in the Lords supporting the illegal invasion of Iraq and appearing to support launching "surpise wars", something forbidden by the UN Charter.
Tory MP Michael Howard (now also in the Lords and known as the Lord Howard of Lympne) is also one of JNF's powerful people supporting Israel for Life, along with other "honorary patrons", the Israeli Prime Minister and Israeli President, the Ambassador to Israel, Marquess of Reading (banker friend of Prince Charles).
They are joined by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks whom Prince Charles called "light unto this nation", "a steadfast friend" and "a valued adviser" - Sacks appointed as the "Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth" in 1991 where Sacks called for a Decade of Renewal which would "revitalize British Jewry's great powers of creativity" based on five central values: "love of every Jew, love of learning, love of God, a profound contribution to British society and an unequivocal attachment to Israel - what about love for Palestinians and everyone else in this world?
Just four weeks ago the Jewish Chronicle reported trees have been planted in the "JNF UK Lord Sacks Forest near Jerusalem, " - must be nice for Prince Charles Rabbi friend to have a forest named after him, planted on land siezed from Palestinian people.
The Jewish Chronical says "Through JNF UK, the Conservative Friends of Israel planted trees to recognise his" (Eric Pickles) "support for the Jewish community and Israel" with Pickles saying it is good to put down roots in this bastion of democracy.
While the goal of the 2011 e-book "Greenwashing Apartheid: The Jewish National Fund's Environmental Cover Up" was to show "Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid are served by and depend on the environmental racism and destructiveness of the Jewish National Fund"
The JNF UK website explains in their "About Us" section
"JNF UK is Britain’s oldest Israel charity and has supported the Zionist pioneers since the days of the Second Aliyah" i.e. taking over other people's land where 42.9% of the world's Jewish population now occupy "Israel and Palestinian territories" as of 2014.
With the help of every UK prime minister since 1939, the JNF website also goes on to explain
"JNF UK is active in every area of Israeli life. We are supporting schools and hospitals, bringing high-tech industry to remote desert towns and ensuring that gifted children do not have to settle in Israel’s overcrowded centre in order to pursue their passions."
And now we find the Scottish Lib Dem Leader along with five tory, two SNP and one New Labour MSP all colluding with representatives of KKL-JNF in Scotland to further JNF's Israeli land grab interests aong with ex UK Prime Ministers.
"Peter Speirs of the Jewish Leadership Council had offered to provide secretariat services to the CPG"
The Jewish Leadership Council brings together "the major British Jewish organisations to work for the good of the Jewish community." and in July 2009 Conservative Party Treasurers Howard Leigh and Stanley Fink joined the Council as individual members.
In December 2010 the Jewish Leadership Council advised the Tory Government on its Big Society agenda - as the council met with David Cameron to discuss this and other items on their Jewish agenda - sign of Sacks Jewish "great powers of creativity" and "a profound contribution to British society" agenda to exert their influence on the Tory party for decisions made which impact the entire nation.
The minutes of the first meeting of the Scottish Parliament's "Building Bridges with Israel Group" also reveal Edward Green "reminded the group that a Jew started the Edinburgh Festival in order to use culture to build bridges with the world".
The minutes of the next meeting in January revealed Nigel Goodridge, of Confederation of Friends of Israel Scotland, "stated that he is working to bring the Shalom Festival back at the 2017 Edinburgh Festival. Tory MSP Carlaw made clear his and other MSPs’ support for its return".
This appears to back up the claims reported last year by Palestine solidarity campaigners who accused Edinburgh fringe of showcasing Israeli propaganda by promoting Israeli government funded Standwithus group performance at the Shalom Festival in Edinburgh’s central Hall.
With Common Space reporting Mick Napier of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) saying
“Yet now we have an openly political propaganda stunt, clearly aimed at promoting the interests of the Israeli state."..."“Napier said that the event was not an accurate reflection of life for Palestinians in Israel and Palestine..”
With this group of MSP's who are working in a Scottish parliamentary group with Confederation of Friends of Israel to promote it this year after SNP's Richard Lyle stated at the first meeting he
"wants the group to represent the Jewish community’s voice in the parliament."
To demonstrate how this "Parlaimentary Group" is being used to further Israeli interests in the Scottish Parliament, by February, the new electronic version of the Edinburgh Star (of David) reported
"On Thursday 25 February, in a first for the Scottish Parliament, Jackson Carlaw MSP secured a debate on a motion proposing cultural bridges, not boycotts, with Israel. Concluding the debate, Cabinet Secretary for Europe, Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop MSP, stated that the Scottish Government supports cultural freedom and does not advocate a policy of boycotting Israel. FOI groups from all over Scotland attended to show their support both outside and inside the Chamber. The Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign held their demonstration on the other side of the water feature in front of the Scottish Parliament building"
these MSP's building walls between the groups in Scotland purely so they can build Bridges with Israel including the same Fiona Hyslop who appointed pro-Israel parliamentary group member Edward Green to be on the board of Trustees of all Scotland's national galleries.
An Israeli National, Itamar Nitzan was also at the first meeting expressing his desire to promote tourism between Scotland and Israel highlighting there are currently no direct flights to which Tory Chief Whip MSP John Lamont noted "he hopes there will be progress on that topic" with a Rabbi Rose in attendance stating he agreed with this.
Sammy Stein of Glasgow Friends of Israel suggesting "the use of exchange programmes between youth groups" (which youth groups?) "as well as between the Scottish Parliament and Knesset" while SNP MSP John Mason "suggested that such exchanges be broader, and include business and community leaders."
At the second meeting the of the Building Bridges with Israel Scottish parliamentary group in January 2017 the minutes state Tory MSP Jackson Carlaw gave thanks for "the Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation and Mark’s Deli for providing cakes for the meeting."
Rabbi Rose and Israeli national Itimar Nitzan were in attendance again and "asked about the Scottish Government’s position on anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism." with Tory MSP and convenor Jackson Carlaw stating he had "asked the Scottish Government if they intend on adopting the same definition of anti-Semitism that the UK Government has" and Carlaw "and others noted their intention push the Scottish Government on this".
Another two Tory MSP's appeared on the minutes of the second group meeting.
Chartered accountant Bill Bowman is the 6th Tory MSP who now appears to be part of the group.
The seventh pro-Israeli MSP is Ross Thomson and during his university career, Thomson was the Vice-Chairman of University of Aberdeen Conservative and Unionist Association.
the list of Pro Israeli MSP's growing fast as well as the list of Scottish and UK Jewish and Israeli interest groups attending these "parliamentary group" meetings.
The Jewish groups listed in the initial application to be part of this Scottish Parliament Pro-Israel power group were:-
The Jewish Leadership Council - secretariat, Centre for Scotland and Israel Relations, Confederation of Friends of Israel - Scotland, Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, Parliamentary Prayers Scotland, Christian Friends of Israel, Glasgow Friends of Israel, Edinburgh Friends of Israel, Glasgow Jewish Representative Council, Bridges for Peace, Israel Britain Alliance and Scottish Friends of Israel.
- no need to pay lobbying firms when your organsiations can be part of a "parliamentary group" with MSP's for the price of some cakes and secretarial services.
But it is not just the groups listed on the application that are involved - as a glance through the minutes of the first two meetings show this list of Jewish interest groups attending these "parliamentary group" meetings is not restricted to the initial list submitted.
The minutes of the first to meetings reveal Rabbi Rose and Tory Malcolm Rifkind's sister in law, representing the Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation as well as Israeli nationals attended the meeting(s).
At the second meeting Director of External Affairs for the UK Jewish Leadership Council was in attendance - a powerful man with "an established and strong network in Whitehall" and according to the Jewish Chronicle Bernard Hughes is former head of public affairs at Tesco and Walmart who was also on the board of the Green Deal Finance Company (which was funded by Cameron's government).
It seems the Scottish Parliament Pro-Israel power group established last year has attracted powerful people from the tiny UK Jewish community, with friends in Westminster and the UK privy Council and Royalty - demonstrating how a handful of Pro-Israel MSP's within SNP, Tory, Lib Dem and Labour Parties can ensure together the interests of Israel and the tiny number of Jews in Britain are looked after by MSP's in the four main parties as well as Westminster and the UK Privy Council (of which Nicola and Alex and Angus Robertson are members for life) above the interests of everyone else in Scotland.
Thatcher, Blair and Brown did the same and this is why Blair, funded by Jewish Lord Levy forced Scotland to have "list MSP's" - to ensure pro-Israeli candidates placed on party lists can represent and look after the rich, powerful few rather than directly representing a constituency in Blair's Trojan Horse parliament.
As these SNP, Tory, Lib Dem and Labour MSP's would rather form a parliamentary group together to represent powerful Israeli supporters across the UK and support Israeli land grabs from Palestinian people than do the job we elected them to do which is support all their constituents and work for the interests of Scotland.