David Ward tweet - upsets people

[tzijlstra 11]

"The big question is - if I lived in #Gaza would I fire a rocket? - probably yes"

 

is what @DavidWardMP tweeted last night. This is what some critics came out with in reply:

 

Louise Mensch and Grant Shapps (both Jewish one must add) call it vile and insist he must be kicked from the Commons.

 

The head of Politics for the Independent calls for his resignation - again calling the tweet vile. The BBC reports that he is accused of making 'vile comments' they updated the text now, it was rather more inflammatory when it first came out late last night. (Got woken up by someone trying the door, hence I picked up on this.)

 

There are many, many others who do the same - as well as many, many more who defend his right to speak out.

 

Funny, as a Liberal and a Democrat I thought it was his job and right to have an opinion, especially as an MP for Bradford where he holds a narrow seat. He was condemned last year for stating that the Israelis were indeed in need of remembering the Holocaust - and cease what they were doing to the Palestinians. He just said what lots of his voters say, how is that bad? Isn't he supposed to represent them, not to toe the party-line?

 

If the Liberals decide to throw him out over this than they have seen the last of my vote. Not a clue what I will vote for instead, but this is just not on.

[blake 10]

he is going to get kicked out of the Commons anyway, although in a seat like Bradford East with a large Asian vote then he may be thinking it as a desperate last gambit to stay in situ.

 

it won't save him. Like all the other Lib Dem/Labour urban marginals, Labour are going to gain Bradford East next May.

[natjack 10]

The last throw of the dice for a man desperate to hold onto his job enough to compromise his principles? Waste of time, it'll probably be a Labour shoo-in and probably a Muslim one at that.

 

I thought it was his job and right to have an opinion, especially as an MP for Bradford where he holds a narrow seat. He was condemned last year for stating that the Israelis were indeed in need of remembering the Holocaust - and cease what they were doing to the Palestinians. He just said what lots of his voters say, how is that bad? Isn't he supposed to represent them, not to toe the party-line?

So you think that everyone in Bradford wants to 'wipe Israel off the map' because a lot of them happen to be Muslims? He's supposed to represent all his constituents, not just a proportion of them, and what concern is it of a British MP anyway? He should keep his violent views to himself and stick to sorting out his own backyard.

[blake 10]

all those Labour votes that went the LibDems way following their opportunist stance on Iraq in the 2005 election and stayed there when Labour's vote haemorraged in 2010 are coming back.

 

in fact they started to come back even in 2010, despite the huge nationwide cut in the Labour vote. Labour lost a lot of seats in 2010. But they still gained a few against the tide. One of them was Rochdale, an urban northern Labour-LibDem marginal not disimilar to Bradford East.

Edited July 23, 2014 by blake

[tzijlstra 11]

The last throw of the dice for a man desperate to hold onto his job enough to compromise his principles? Waste of time, it'll probably be a Labour shoo-in and probably a Muslim one at that.

 

So you think that everyone in Bradford wants to 'wipe Israel off the map' because a lot of them happen to be Muslims? He's supposed to represent all his constituents, not just a proportion of them, and what concern is it of a British MP anyway? He should keep his violent views to himself and stick to sorting out his own backyard.

 

He didn't say he wants to wipe Israel of the map, he is saying that if he was a Gaza resident he would fight back as well. Judging by your avatar that is something which will be hard to comprehend for you.

[Mister M 1,632]

I remember when MP Dr Jenny Tonge said that she could understand why Palestinians were driven to become suicide bombers - she was similarly censured

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3421669.stm

 

I also don't think it is helpful for pro Zionist MPs to demand the sacking of anyone who seeks to understand where suicide bombers are coming from. She wasn't excusing their actions - just trying to explain them from the Palestinian perspective

[natjack 10]

He didn't say he wants to wipe Israel of the map, he is saying that if he was a Gaza resident he would fight back as well. Judging by your avatar that is something which will be hard to comprehend for you.

What do you think Israel is doing? They're just supposed to lie back and take it? The Palestinians want to live in peace and security? They should kick Hamas out then.

 

... the Hamas Charter affirmed in 1988, that Hamas was founded to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation (and) to establish an Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip ...

 

Everything that is happening there now is all a consequence of allowing a recognised terrorist group to run their country. Hamas don't care about the wellbeing and lives of the people they purport to represent, they're just pawns in the game of bringing down Israel.

[tzijlstra 11]

What do you think Israel is doing? They're just supposed to lie back and take it? The Palestinians want to live in peace and security? They should kick Hamas out then.

 

 

 

Everything that is happening there now is all a consequence of allowing a recognised terrorist group to run their country. Hamas don't care about the wellbeing and lives of the people they purport to represent, they're just pawns in the game of bringing down Israel.

 

I am not going into a pointless debate about who is right or wrong in this conflict, my point is that Ward has a right to tweet that opinion and shouldn't be deemed unfit as an MP because he did.

[blake 10]

I remember when MP Dr Jenny Tonge said that she could understand why Palestinians were driven to become suicide bombers - she was similarly censured

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3421669.stm

 

 

how many do you want to wheel out. Cherie Blair also made an idiot of herself with that one. It only showed that she was totally at sea and didn't have a clue about the Israel/Palestine issue and spent too much time nattering with her Islamist half-sister Lauren.

 

arguably it was Hilary Clinton who made the biggest idiot of herself here when she was the president's wife. She sat there besides Arafat's wife at a press conference saying nothing while Suha Arafat spouted a lot of antisemite garbage about the Israelis poisoning wells. When she should have just given Suha Arafat the finger and walked off the platform.

Edited July 23, 2014 by blake

[milquetoast1 10]

Louise Mensch and Grant Shapps (both Jewish one must add) call it vile and insist he must be kicked from the Commons.

 

Louise Mensch is a Roman Catholic. A rather conservative one unfortunately.

[rickiethecat 10]

Why is he commenting on a conflict that's got nothing to do with us at all? He should be dealing with issues that affect the people of Bradford East not going on about some tinpot little country on the other side of the world.

[Michael_W 11]

I am not going into a pointless debate about who is right or wrong in this conflict, my point is that Ward has a right to tweet that opinion and shouldn't be deemed unfit as an MP because he did.

 

Here lies the problem with what is commonly known as political correctness (his own party is a tad implicit there), if anyone can be offended then some opinion will be deemed offensive