Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Friday 9 September 2011

Fiddling With Israel's Truth

In London's East End during the era of the Great Migration of Jews from the Russian Empire, and for all I know on New York's Lower East Side as well, a small coterie of militantly atheist Jews would hold balls and eat ham sandwiches on Yom Kippur to mock the "benighted" ways of those who clustered into shuls and shtiebls on that, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

I see, in a sense, a parallel between those militant atheists and that small coterie of Jews today who make a fetish of demonising - I don't mean merely criticising, I mean demonising and helping to delegitimise - the State of Israel.

Several such persons, including former Children's Laureate, poet Michael Rosen, well-known for his intense hostility to Israel, are among those due to participate in the Tottenham Palestine Literature Festival, organised by the Haringey Justice for Palestinians branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which will encourage pupils from at least eight schools to write about "children under occupation," and which starts, incidentally, on the first day of Rosh Hashanah.  For more details see http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/54325/psc-target-primary-kids-lit-festival

And I guess Jewish anti-Zionists don't come much more extreme than this gentleman, a senior research scientist who also a violinist and as such is one of the signatories to that ignominious letter by musicians to the Independent urging cancellation by the BBC of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra's appearance at the Proms, a letter that has been widely denounced, not least by the distinguished music critic and writer Norman Lebrecht: http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/08/musicians-call-on-bbc-to-cancel-israel-philharmonic-prom.html  See also: http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/54319/soloist-suspended-after-israel-rant

3 comments:

  1. There always were and always will be Anti-Zionists Jews and collaborators with Anti-Semitism and that includes Jews who live in Israel. With all their selective picking at facts and re-rewriting of history, one thing is clear; they are all live and well and if they are no longer amongst us, Israel and/or Zionism has nothing to do with their demise.

    By comparison you would not find a single live anti-Palestinian Palestinian; those are killed as soon as they open their mouths unless they live in the West with 24/7 bodyguards.

    Yet they are talking about “human rights abuse” by the state of Israel.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I mean point!
    And sorry for the delay in posting.

    ReplyDelete

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