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Yet, there were Jewish groups who didn’t want them to come, but excluding them was a decision entirely in keeping with the government’s practice of trying to suppress views that it deems extreme. Just a couple of weeks ago, right-wing figures critical of Islam and supportive of Israel saw their visas revoked.

The British government isn’t a tool of the Zionists. It is a left-of-center Labour government. The Home Secretary is a Muslim of Pakistani origin who has attended anti-Israel protests. The government has said it would jail Bibi Netanyahu if he travels to Britain, sanctioned Israeli officials, restricted arms sales to the Jewish state, and recognized a Palestinian state.

If the revocation of the visas is an Israeli op, it’s a profoundly counterproductive one. In authoritarian societies, people can truly be suppressed — if China wants to get rid of a nettlesome figure, it simply disappears him or her. In an open society, in contrast, there are many channels for expression, and official hostility tends to make the targeted voices more famous and interesting, whether it’s James Joyce or the Sex Pistols.

Surely, Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker are better known in the U.K. now than they were a few days ago, and that’s not, as they say in Britain, conducive to the public good.

Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review.

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