Tommy Robinson sees UK’s right-wing Reform party winning power, says leader won’t be ‘friend of Israel’
[IsraelTimes] Far-right, anti-Islam activist says Nigel Farage would need to be pushed on policies regarding hostile Muslims; tells supportive Tel Aviv crowd that Israel is also ‘flooded with migration’.
British anti-immigration campaigner Tommy Robinson said he believes the Reform UK party is poised to win Britannia’s next general election, even as he questioned the credibility of its leader, Nigel Farage.
Addressing an audience in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, Robinson, who rose to prominence in Britannia more than a decade ago by organizing protests against Islam, was met with a standing ovation before a two-hour speech criticizing immigration, the media and the British government.
"I think Reform will win the next election," he said of the populist right-wing party, which holds just five of the 650 seats in Britannia’s parliament but is leading in public opinion polls.
Robinson’s prediction for the general election, to be held by 2029, drew loud applause. But he also told the audience, which included members of Israel’s government, that he doubted Farage would be a "great friend of Israel."
"He is the best we have. But I think we have to push Nigel Farage," he said. "Nigel will go whichever way the wind flows."
Robinson, 42, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, said he did not want to get into a "slagging match" but then cited past comments by Farage, who helped champion Britannia’s exit from the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, that warned against politically alienating Britannia’s Moslem community.
"How do you not alienate the Islamic community? You’re going to have to throw the Jews under the bus," Robinson said, before repeating that he expected Reform would win the next election.
"But if you’ve got a leader already putting up the white flag to a hostile community, then it doesn’t bear much hope in Nigel Farage unless he’s pushed and forced by public opinion."
Immigration has become one of Britannia’s most contentious political issues, overshadowing concerns about the faltering economy. Farage has pledged to make it harder for foreign nationals to move to the country, while the Labour government has unveiled measures aimed at tightening migration rules.
Robinson in September organized a nationalist rally in London that attracted more than 100,000 people, with some demonstrators carrying signs with anti-immigration slogans.
ISRAEL ALSO ’FLOODED WITH MIGRATION’
In Tel Aviv, Robinson said that, like "every single Western nation," Israel was being "flooded with migration," referring to thousands of Sudan
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
ese and Eritrea
...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age...
n asylum seekers in the country.
He criticized the British government’s recent decision to recognize the State of Paleostine and spoke about his admiration for Israelis as he stood in front of a backdrop featuring the UK’s Union Jack and an Israeli flag.
Shortly after he began speaking, a man interrupted, shouting that Robinson was a racist. Several people in the audience attacked the heckler as security removed him from the venue, with some following the man outside, punching and kicking him.
The event otherwise passed without incident as Robinson spoke to an audience that frequently applauded and cheered, at times chanting "Tommy, Tommy Robinson."
He also criticized Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, which has been a frequent target of criticism by the Israeli government but is a close US ally and has mediated between Israel and the Paleostinian terror group Hamas
 ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
Organizers had said more than 1,000 people were expected to attend the event with Robinson, who thanked the Israeli government for inviting him to Israel.
Robinson went on trial in Britannia last week, accused of refusing to give police his phone PIN when stopped under counter-terrorism laws. He has called the trial "absolute state persecution" and said billionaire Elon Musk was funding his defense.
Tommy Robinson draws crowd of 1,000 in Tel Aviv amid controversy; protester attacked
[IsraelTimes] Supporters praise free speech while critics denounce antisemitic past; heckler violently accosted by attendees after calling the controversial figure a ‘racist’.
British far-right and anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson drew a crowd of over 1,000 people at a Tel Aviv event on Saturday night that saw an incident of violence when a single heckler was assaulted by attendees.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, arrived in Israel on Wednesday in response to an invitation by Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli of the Likud party, who attended the event. The invitation was denounced by the UK’s Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council, which called Robinson a “thug who represents the very worst of Britain.”
Speaking to reporters ahead of the event — hosted by the Tel Aviv International Salon, a self-described nonpartisan speakers’ forum for young adults that “provides a platform for debate and discussion with leading voices from across the political spectrum” — Robinson said he was in Israel on a “fact-finding mission” amid what he decried as “a major propaganda campaign against the State of Israel and against Jews.”
He rejected claims of a genocide in Gaza, saying his trip included tours of Jerusalem, a Palestinian refugee camp, and an upcoming visit to the West Bank, which he referred to by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria.
Explaining his support for Israel, Robinson said he viewed it “as a beacon of democracy surrounded by totalitarian, sharia-driven hellholes.”
At the same press conference, Robinson lashed out at the British Jewish leadership, saying: “They’re attacking me because they’re political establishment figures.”
“The Board of Deputies, who are now attacking me, they’re not attacking me because they’re Jews, they’re attacking me because they’re political establishment figures,” he said, claiming that every Jew who has condemned him works for a mainstream British broadcaster or newspaper and that they “do not represent British Jews.”
“The Jewish community needs friends, and just because of accusations against me, I’m not going to walk away,” he added.
Robinson is best known in Britain as the founder of the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim English Defence League, which the former soccer hooligan set up to protest against Islamic demonstrations in his hometown of Luton. The group quickly became a magnet for far-right activists, developing into a nationwide movement.
He has long campaigned against what he says are crimes committed by Muslim migrants, and has been imprisoned five times in the last 20 years for a range of offenses spanning from fraud and drug offenses to, most recently, libeling a 15-year-old Syrian refugee.
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