Talk:Christopher Mayhew

Links
How can this be set up so it links automatically to the articles for Christopher Paget Mayhew and Baron Mayhew of Wimbledon?
 * By way of redirects. Christopher Paget Mayhew already redirects here. Baron Mayhew of Wimbledon doesn't, but has no incoming links. Baron Mayhew I'll do now. --kingboyk 18:57, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

Bergson Allegation
Following is highly improbable. Unless the story is checked against court records, it should be treated as an allegation or the entire reference should be deleted: "The case came before the High Court in February 1976. Bergson was unable to offer evidence of Nasser's alleged statement. Bergson acknowledged that, after thorough research, he had been unable to find any statement by a responsible Arab leader which could be described as genocidal."

Statements about destruction of Israel by Nasser, Aref el Aref of Iraq and others were reported in all the world media - not just "Zionist Sources." The statements were certainly "genocidal" Some of them began with "If Israel commits any military act." but the Egyptians had by that time closed the straits of Tiran, which was a military act. It is like a man choking you and then saying "If you yell I will murder you." Some of the known quotes and some sources for same:

“The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear - to wipe Israel off the map” - President Aref el Aref of Iraq - May 31, 1967 See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Views_of_the_Arab-Israeli_conflict and references.

"Taking over Sharm el Sheikh meant confrontation with Israel (and) also meant that we were ready to enter a general war with Israel. The battle will be a general one and our basic objective will be to destroy Israel” - Gamal Abdel Nasser speech to the General Council of the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions

“The existence of Israel is in itself an aggression…what happened in 1948 was an aggression – an aggression against the Palestinian people. …(the crisis had developed because) “Eshkol threatened to march on Damascus, occupy Syria and overthrow the Syrian regime. It was our duty to come to the aid of our Arab brother. It was our duty to ask for the withdrawal of UNEF. When UNEF went, we had to go to the Gulf of Aqaba and restore things to what they were when we were in Aqaba in 1956” - Gamal Nasser press conference, May 28, 1967 Warriors for Jerusalem: The Six Days That Changed the Middle East Donald Neff: Linden Press / Simon & Shuster 1984 ISBN-13: 978-0671454852

The problem today is not just Israel, but also those behind it. If Israel embarks on an aggression against Syria or Egypt, the battle against Israel will be a general one and not confined to one spot on the Syrian or Egyptian borders. The battle will be a general one and our basic objective will be to destroy Israel. I probably could not have said such things five or even three years ago. If I had said such things and had been unable to carry them out my words would have been empty and worthless. Nasser trade union speech - May 26, 1967 http://www.mideastweb.org/nasser26may67.htm [Also quoted here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Views_of_the_Arab-Israeli_conflict]

There is also a famous interview given by Ahmed Shokhairy, head of the PLO at the time, who said that he doubted there would be many Jewish survivors of the war. This is quoted in Churchill, Winston S., and Randolph S. Churchill. The Six Day War. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1967. I _heard_ this interview translated and broadcast in the USA in May of 1967.

There is also a quote from Hafez Assad, then Defense Secretary of Syria - “Our forces are now entirely ready not only to repulse any aggression, but to initiate the act ourselves, and to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland of Palestine. The Syrian army, with its finger on the trigger, is united. I believe that the time has come to begin a battle of anihilation.” (May 20, 1967).

Therefore it is highly unlikely that Bergson could not find any genocidal threats uttered by Arab leaders in 1967. and the assertion is very suspicious.

Mewnews (talk) 20:08, 21 January 2008 (UTC)


 * An oddity of the article as it currently stands is that no mention is made of Mayhew's involvement in creating support for the Palestinian's within the Labour Party in the 60s and 70s. The mention of the offer of a prize is totally divorced from any detail about the context. Organisations which Mayhew was involved with include the Labour Middle East Council (LMEC), established by him in 1969, and the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU).
 * A pdf version of an article titled "‘Mayhew’s Outcasts’, Anti-Zionism and the Arab lobbying Harold Wilson’s Labour Party" written in 2014 by Dr James R Vaughan of Aberystwyth University, which deals with Mayhew's career as an anti-Zionist and which was published in "Israel Affairs" in 2015, can be found online in the downloads section of the core.ac.uk site. A summary of the article appears here.
 * Detail may also be found in Mayhew's own writings, which include his autobiography Time to Explain (London: Hutchinson Ltd, 1987) and the book he co-authored with Michael Adams, Publish it not... The Middle East Cover-Up (London: Longman Group Ltd, 1975).
 * As far as the offer of a prize and Bergson's court case goes, I'm having difficulty finding sources which do not refer back to the current Wikipedia article. The best I have been able to do is page 3 of the April 1976 issue of AJR Information, the AJR being the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain. It says: Mayhew Action Dropped: Mr. Warren Bergson, a 22-year-old Jewish student from Salford, withdrew his £5000 claim against Mr. Christopher Mayhew, M.P. and apologised to him. Mr. Mayhew had publicly promised to hand that sum to anyone who could prove that a responsible Arab leader had ever threatened the Jews with genocide. Mr. Bergson who wanted to donate the money to charity, produced a statement by the general secretary of the Arab League in May 1948 that "this will be a war of extermination and momentous massacre, it will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the crusades". In court Mr. Bergson's lawyer admitted that the full text of the speech made it clear that the statement was not genocidal. (A pdf version of the issue may be found by doing a Web search at the https://ajr.org.uk site on the terms "› uploads › 2018/02 › 1976_april".)
 *    ←   ZScarpia  00:38, 10 April 2021 (UTC)

The Shamen
I've added a reference to The Shamen recording which I hope you don't consider out of place in the article. However, following the link provided to the transcript I don't see the words as spoken by Mayhew in the song. Did they perhaps sample a subsequent interview? --kingboyk 23:25, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Excuse me, I'm an idiot. He clearly refers to the trip in the past tense in one section, but in another he's being asked the date. A mish mash. --kingboyk 01:54, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Cambridge Five claim
The statement in the article that Mayhew traveled to Russia with Philby, Burgess, Blunt, and Maclean seems to me very improbable. I don't have access to Mayhew's memoirs and so can't categorically deny that he makes the claim, but I can find no corroboration elsewhere. I believe Mayhew did travel to Russia as part of a group with which Blunt was also affiliated, but so far as I know Mayhew encountered Burgess for the first time years later and promptly sacked him from the Foreign Office for misbehavior. If no one can provide other evidence to back up the assertion, I'll remove it. -- Zhuravlei (talk) 22:11, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Middle East International
I can't understand why I am having difficulty having this article accepted Draft:Middle East International Padres Hana (talk) 16:46, 22 July 2023 (UTC)