The backlash against Palestine solidarity w/ Hil Aked

Hil Aked joins PTO to talk about their new book, Friends of Israel:
The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity, the first book length
treatment of the pro-Israel lobby in Britain. We talked about the
strategies that Israel and pro-Israel organisations in Britain have
adopted to deflect criticism of the ongoing occupation and the
dispossession of the Palestinian people, and their efforts to
undermine the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. Hil
explained why they characterise contemporary Zionism as a "social
movement from above" and how apartheid-era South Africa was a
forerunner for some of the public relations techniques adopted by
Israel and its outriders. We also talked about John Mearsheimer and
Steven Walt's 2007 book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign policy
and where Hil's analysis differs from theirs. We also discussed the
pitfalls of writing on this topic at a time of increasing
anti-semitism. And finally, we talked about why parliamentary
support for Israel was once stronger within the Labour party than
the Conservatives, and what the role of the Labour and Conservative
friends of Israel groups is today.