The last time Yvonne Ridley posted on her blog (last June), she sounded like some of our more rabid rightwing commenters, calling Barack Obama “an out of control psychopath with a God complex.”
In 2010 habibi prepared a fact sheet documenting Ridley’s support for Hamas and other Islamist terrorists, her utter hatred for Israel and her use of antisemitic language.
Now she joins Lee Jasper and Catherine Higgins as another of the Respect party’s bizarre byelection candidates.
Ridley, a journalist who was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 and later converted to Islam, is running to succeed former Labour MP Denis MacShane in Rotherham in the November 29 election. MacShane resigned after he admitted wrongfully claiming expenses as an MP.
For all his wrongful behavior, MacShane was an outspoken opponent of antisemtism and a defender of Israel. The voters of Rotherham must have been aware of this, and at the very least it wasn’t an issue for them. So this means Ridley– for whom the elimination of Israel is a matter of the highest priority– doesn’t stand a chance of winning there.
Right?
Update: I haven’t watched much the videos of the announcement (in which George Galloway seems to play a more prominent role than Ridley), but if anyone cares to to subject themselves, feel free to post highlights in the comments.
