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)

Wednesday 26 October 2016

Can a Vicar Change his Spots?

This is a little postscript to my previous post regarding Stephen Sizer's "Peacemaker Mediators" charity.

Will that organisation be an "Israel Bash society?" wonders a commenter on that post.

That, I suppose, depends on the correct answers to the questions posed in Jeremiah Chapter 13 verse 23.

If that commenter is a betting man, he might want to consider these latest posts from Sizer:


The above initiative appears to be the brainchild of the Palestine Return Centre (you can see its poster directly behind event chairperson Baroness Tonge's head). (She has since parted company from the Lib Dems over her chairing this event: see here.)

From the Palestine Return Centre's website:
The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) invites you to the House of Lords to discuss the Launch of the Balfour Apology Campaign: Time to Say Sorry
The Palestinian Return Centre is hosting an event inside the UK Parliament a week ahead of the 99th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration which will be on November 2nd. The Balfour Declaration, which had no basis of legal authority, promised the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, where the indigenous Palestinians amounted to 90% of the total population.
After the Balfour Declaration Palestine became the victim of colonialism and Britain’s legacy is still evident today as Palestinians continue to be denied the right to self-determination and suffer from living under military occupation or as refugees. As the 100th year since the Balfour declaration approaches, the Palestinian Return Centre has decided to re-launch its campaign which started in 2013 called Balfour Apology Campaign which asks the UK Government to officially apologies for its past colonial crimes in Palestine.
Committee Room 2a, Houses of Parliament
Tuesday 25th of October at 7pm
Hosted and chaired by Baroness Jenny Tonge
Panel Includes Professor Manuel Hassassian, Ambassador of the Palestinian Mission to the UK
Betty Hunter, Honorary President of Palestine Solidarity Campaign
"Britain's legal and moral obligation"
Karl Sabbagh, Historian and Writer
"How successive British governments fell in love with Zionism, until it was too late"
Majed Al-Zeer, President of the Palestinian Return Centre
"On the Balfour Apology Campaign"
 See footage here

(Update: Eyewitness account by David Collier here)

 Balfour Apology Campaign's Facebook page is here

And Sizer's take on things?  Some hints below.

(Incidentally,  Dr Shambrook is "historical consultant" to the Balfour Project, with which the vicar has been involved and which, as will be seen from the link, is holding an event at Southwark Cathedral on 5 November.)


 Not "spot on" but "same spots on", I'd say.

Update: Sequel to this present post here

10 comments:

  1. Not this vicar.

    Evil usually presents as a sanctimonious appeal to a higher order and a smiling face. We all know this.

    Those are not spots you see. It is a black mark. That is there forever.

    ReplyDelete
  2. On Nick Gray's post re the Balfour Project dating to 2013 there are some salient points, including in the comments:

    http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3715/prepare_for_war_over_the_balfour_declaration

    ReplyDelete
  3. All these people that wax lyrically over the "illegality" of the Balfour Declaration NEVER mention the fact that the Balfour Declaration was subsequently adopted (with some minor changes) by the "UN" of the day (the League of Nations)...

    And these are some of the same people that claim that the UNGA makes "international law"...

    It's not about "human right" or about "international law"... It's about the oldest hatred in the world!...

    ReplyDelete
  4. David Collier attended the Tonge chaired event that Sizer went to. David's unmissable post at http://david-collier.com/?p=2388

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tonge's comeuppance:
    http://news.sky.com/story/baroness-tonge-resigns-from-the-liberal-democrats-following-suspension-10634539

    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-37792129

    https://bbcwatch.org/tag/jenny-tonge/

    ReplyDelete
  6. The Times (report by Dominic Kennedy, Investigations Editor, October 27 2016) 'A spokesman for the Israeli embassy described the House of Lords gathering as “a shameful event, which gave voice to racist tropes against Jews and Israelis alike”.
    An audience member was applauded after suggesting that Hitler only decided to kill all the Jews after he was provoked by anti-German protests led by a rabbi in Manhattan. The speaker, described on a blog as an ultra-orthodox Jew, said that in the 1930s Rabbi Stephen Wise, whom he described as a heretic, “made the boycott on Germany, the economic boycott . . . which antagonised Hitler, over the edge, to then want to systematically kill Jews wherever he could find them”.
    The speaker went on: “As opposed to . . . make Germany free of Jews, a Jew-free land. He became a madman after this boycott. Judea declares war on Germany. In Manhattan they had 100,000 people marching in the economic boycott in 1935, it was the same heretic rabbi who caused that.”
    The speaker also said that Rabbi Wise told the New York Times in 1905 that there were “six million bleeding and suffering reasons to justify Zionism”. He urged the audience to note the number. This famous quotation is regularly used by Holocaust deniers to suggest that the figure of six million Jews later killed by the Nazis was a myth.
    The speaker compared Israel to Islamic State, and said the best way to atone for the declaration was to prevent such things happening in future. “Just as the so-called Jewish state in Palestine doesn’t come from Judaism, this Islamic State in Syria is nothing to do with Islam. It is a perversion of Islam just as Zionism is a perversion of Judaism.”'

    ReplyDelete
  7. BBC Watch on the PRC meeting, Tonge, the BBC's whitewash, and other relevant factors:

    https://bbcwatch.org/2016/10/30/bbc-news-gives-a-whitewashed-account-of-controversial-meeting-in-house-of-lords/

    ReplyDelete
  8. By going to the meeting and then writing about it, Sizer broke his previous undertaking to his bishop:

    http://hurryupharry.org/2016/10/31/a-challenge-for-bishop-andrew-watson/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for that link, James. Cats and nine lives leap to mind.

      Delete
  9. So insightful:
    http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2016/10/28/introduction-to-dexter-van-ziles-submitted-under-protest/

    ReplyDelete

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