Your Daily Nazi: Did Harper Israel Trip Participant Help Arrange Meetup With English Neo-Nazis?

David Akin has published a list of the folks accompanying PM Stephen Harper to Israel.  As Hardy notes in the comments here, one the people on the list is Julius Suraski.  If you click on the image below, you can see that he is given as the  "events coordinator" for JDL-Canada, and indeed there are mentions and pics of him on-line in regards to various JDL-Canada activities.

Presumably, given his title, Julius helped arrange the  bringing of American hate-monger Pam Geller (recently banned in the UK) to Toronto.  Even more disturbingly, he seems to have been part of JDL Canada's outreach to Tommy Robinson, leader of the  English Defense League, an anti-Muslim Group with deep ties to UK Neo-Nazis, these ties noted here, for example.  The EDL (although not Robinson himself) also apparently had connections with Norwegian mass murderer Anders Brievik, a story I broke here, and which was then widely pursued by the UK press.  Also in The New Yorker.

So, nice company you keep, Mr. Harper.

PS. FWIW, it looks like Ezra's dad is also on the trip.

PPS. Just to provide a bit of context on the JDL/EDL connection.  Why, some might ask, would a Jewish group sidle up to this crowd?

Basically, Suraski and JDL hooked up with English Defence League because of the latters alleged opposition to "radical Islam"  But in fact the EDL was largely a spin-off from BNP (British National Party), which was openly Neo Nazi. To put it bluntly, EDL founders figured that post 9/11 it was easier to hate Muslims than Jews. So alot of them opportunistically dropped beliefs they had espoused only a few years earlier and adopted anti-Muslim/pro-Israel rhetoric instead. But the change never really went that deep.  And the JDL knew all this at the time.

Anders Brievik/Paul Ray Update

As far as I know, I was the first person to note the possible connection between Norwegion mass murderer Anders Brievik and Ex EDL (English Defense League) leader Paul Ray. After that things got a bit confusing, with Ray cycling back and forth between denying the connection and admitting it. In any case, by last week he had convinced the Norwegian police:

Prosecutor Christian Hatlo said that if Ray hadn’t traveled voluntarily to Norway, investigators would have tracked him down for questioning.

“Paul Ray is an interesting person because Anders Behring Breivik says he is his mentor,” said Hatlo, who also said police have questioned others in “several countries” in connection with the July 22 terrorist attacks. The Oslo police are also receiving help from colleagues abroad in their search for international contacts of Breivik, who remains in full isolation at Ila Prison.

Apparently, the questioning is over and Mr. Ray has now moved from Malta to England to fight the Islamists on his home turf.

And Around And Around We Go: Just Who Is Breivik's English Connection?

While English Defense League co-founder Paul "Lionheart" Ray first fingered EDL money bags Alan Lake, another of the racist gang's leaders, Tommy Robinson, (buddy of JDL chieftain Meir Weinstein and the Shaidles) insists that, no, it was indeed Paul Ray that ushered the Norwegian Mass Murderer into The Knights Templar.  And now, weirdly enough, Ray is suggesting that maybe he was Breivik's role model, though he still claims to never have met the man.  All very confusing, but presumably the nice police officers investigating the various interactions of far right players in this case will be able to sort it out.

PS. Yesterday I was getting a ton traffic via Facebook from the UK to my original post on the topic.  I think folks within the EDL were using it as evidence of the Ray=Breivik=English Mentor connection.

UK Media Explore Possible Paul "Lionheart" Ray/ Ander Breivik Connection

 ...and that's good.  I've been banging away at the possibility-- that EDL leader Paul Ray might be the Norwegian killer's "English Mentor"-- for days now.  There's no mention of the "crusading Canuck" blogger who fed everyone the relevant links, but that's OK I guess.  At least Allah knows.

In any case, Paul Ray has denied any connection on his  "Lionheart" blog, suggesting that English Defense League financier Alan Lake is most likely the "Richard" named in Breivik's manuscript.

On the other hand, this fellow (who has followed the UK extremist scene for years) thinks neither Ray or Lake fit the bill, and speculates that "Richard" may be fictitious.  Which is just as likely.

EDL Co-Founder Paul Ray Denies Being Anders Breivik's "English Mentor", Names Names

Mr. Day objects to my speculation, and offers some of his own:

Ive been perplexed about this all day due to how serious the nature of being linked to a political mass murderer is (it’s no small thing), and now the penny has finally dropped on who the most likely person is, who ‘Richard’ the English mentor of Anders Breivik is.

Click through link for big reveal. 

Actually, this matter has taken on a degree of seriousness, now that there is talk of "other cells" and even attacks on London.  But I can't find a link for that now, so trust me.

Breivik's English Helper?

So here is some semi-informed speculation. In his manifesto, mass murderer Anders Brievik refers to his connections to members of the pan-European Far Right, in particular this weird group called "The Knight's Templar",  He says:

 I had or have a relatively close relationship with at least one of them, an Englishman, who became my mentor. He was the one who first described the “perfect knight” and had written the initial fundament for this compendium. I was asked, not only once but twice, by my mentor; let’s call him Richard, to write a second edition of...

So who is this English "perfect knight" named Richard?  The UK papers are wondering. Well Richard=Richard The Lionheart (see the manifesto through the link), and Richard the Lionheart = "The Perfect Knight".

Now, there's this crackpot English blogger, who has in past years tried to dodge hate-speech charges in the UK by fleeing to South Carolina, and whose real name is Paul Ray.  He's with the English Defense League, and he blogs under the name of Lionheart.  Here's a shot of him:

Note the dummy with the emblem of the Templars on its shirt.  Not the other dummy.

Again, this is hardly conclusive, but I'm not the only one whose thought of it either.

Pride Of The Speechies

You often hear about this U.K. blogger from various blogging Tories. Currently, "Lionheart" has run into trouble with the Bedfordshire Police for "allegedly stirring up racial hatred", based on material he's written for his blog (like: Moslems - The real neo-Nazi's).

Merits of the case aside, I found this bit hilarious:

Paul Ray, who uses the pseudonym Lionheart on his provocative online diary, was arrested two weeks ago after returning from South Carolina, America where he was seeking political asylum.

Too red neck for South Carolina? Wonder if he was wearing the dork outfit when he filled out his paperwork.