For Israel’s Cause (and Hasbara) it was a Famous Victory, even though the Man Who Carried the Day has been Banned for Life!

In July this year, The Times (London) obtained from Iranian dissidents 500 pages of harrowing documentation regarding the Ahmadinejad regime’s gross violations of human rights, including the routine practice of punishing political dissidents with torture and rape. One case, as The Times revealed in a rather graphic leading article last Friday (29 October), concerned a young woman called Leyla, who for the “crime” of falling in love with and becoming engaged to a young man who questioned the legality of the country’s election result, was kidnapped by stooges of the regime, handcuffed and blindfolded at knifepoint, beaten, and gang-raped by five men.

But rape is not only a terror device used by a repressive state against women: men are subjected to it as a form of humiliation as well. The male victims include a human rights activist who in reprisal for putting up opposition posters was raped by members of the Basij militia; a journalist who was similarly treated while in custody was re-arrested for having the temerity to report the brutality. Despite these terrifying incidents, and the recent sentencing to death of an Iranian widow by stoning, Iran is – grotesquely – posed to secure a seat on the board of a UN agency formed to promote women’s rights, while those two British “feminists” Lauren Booth and Yvonne Ridley continue to take Iran’s filthy lucre for pimping the regime on Press TV.

Grotesquely too, it is not Iran that the Cambridge Union chose to characterise as a “rogue" nation for the purposes of a debate on 21 October – it was Israel. You notice I say “grotesquely” and not “amazingly”, for these days there’s nothing remotely amazing about Israel being hauled up in the dock of public opinion. Conning the world through years of inexorable, mendacious leftwing and Islamist propaganda has achieved the desired consequence, though not as yet the intended denoument. To such an extent, in fact, that blogger Ray Cook posted an uncomfortably plausible satire entitled “The Shape of Things to Come”:

'BBC news report June 15th 2020

From our reporter at the Parliamentary Select Committee:

“Are you now or have you ever been a member of a Zionist organisation? Name names or be blacklisted”, demanded Chief Prosecutor Galloway at the recent Zionist sedition hearings.

A succession of prominent Jewish MPs, businessmen and women, rabbis, scientists and journalists were put under the spotlight by Sir George Galloway and his committee of Tony Benn, Ken Livingstone and Baroness Tonge.

Several broke under the unremitting pressure and admitted buying trees for the Jewish National Fund. A sense of outrage permeated the room. Lord Sugar, accused of brain-washing young business hopefuls to spout Zionist propaganda, told the committee in no uncertain terms what he thought of them. His whereabouts are now unknown.

Meanwhile, coalition deputy Prime Minister, Salma Yaqoob, was explaining that there was no room in Britain for any Jewish refugees fleeing from West Hamastan. “We will turn back the boats. These people originally came from Poland and Germany, it’s their problem”, she opined.'

(To read the rest www.raymondcook.net/blog/index.../the-shape-of-things-to-com/)

At the Cambridge Union to argue in favour of the motion that “This house believes Israel is a rogue state” was Lauren Booth herself, while opposing it was Israeli diplomat Ran Gidor. The outcome seemed predictable, had not Gabriel Latner, a second-year law student at Peterhouse, made an absolutely brilliant speech that carried the day:

"The fact that Israel is a Jewish state alone makes it anomalous enough to be dubbed a rogue state: There are 195 countries in the world. Some are Christian, some Muslim, some are secular. Israel is the only country in the world that is Jewish.

The second argument concerns Israel's humanitarianism, in particular, Israel's response to a refugee crisis. Not the Palestinian refugee crisis – for I am sure that the other speakers will cover that – but the issue of Darfurian refugees. Everyone knows that what happened, and is still happening in Darfur, is genocide, whether or not the UN and the Arab League will call it such ....There has been a mass exodus from Darfur as the oppressed seek safety. They have not had much luck. Many have gone north to Egypt – where they are treated despicably. The brave make a run through the desert in a bid to make it to Israel. Not only do they face the natural threats of the Sinai, they are also used for target practice by the Egyptian soldiers patrolling the border. Why would they take the risk? Because in Israel they are treated with compassion – they are treated as the refugees that they are – and perhaps Israel's cultural memory of genocide is to blame. The Israeli government has even gone so far as to grant several hundred Darfurian refugees citizenship. This alone sets Israel apart from the rest of the world.

But the real point of distinction is this: The IDF sends out soldiers and medics to patrol the Egyptian border. They are sent looking for refugees attempting to cross into Israel. Not to send them back into Egypt, but to save them from dehydration, heat exhaustion, and Egyptian bullets....To call that sort of behaviour anomalous is an understatement.

My third argument is that the Israeli government engages in an activity which the rest of the world shuns - it negotiates with terrorists. Forget the late PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, a man who died with blood all over his hands – they're in the process of negotiating with terrorists as we speak. Yasser Abed Rabbo is one of the lead PLO negotiators that has been sent to the peace talks with Israel. Abed Rabbo also used to be a leader of the PFLP – an organisation of 'freedom fighters' that, under Abed Rabbo's leadership, engaged in such freedom promoting activities as killing 22 Israeli high school students. And the Israeli government is sending delegates to sit at a table with this man, and talk about peace.... That is the dictionary definition of rogue – behaving in a way that is unexpected, or not normal

.... Israel has a better human rights record than any of its neighbours. At no point in history, has there ever been a liberal democratic state in the Middle East- except for Israel. Of all the countries in the Middle East, Israel is the only one where the LGBT community enjoys even a small measure of equality. In Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, and Syria, homosexual conduct is punishable by flogging, imprisonment, or both. But homosexuals there get off pretty lightly compared to their counterparts in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, who are put to death. Israeli homosexuals can adopt, openly serve in the army, enter civil unions, and are protected by exceptionally strongly worded anti-discrimination legislation....

Israel's protection of its citizens' civil liberties has earned international recognition. Freedom House is an NGO that releases an annual report on democracy and civil liberties in each of the 195 countries in the world. It ranks each country as 'Free' 'Partly Free' or 'Not Free'. In the Middle East, Israel is the only country that has earned designation as a 'free' country. Not surprising given the level of freedom afforded to citizens in say, Lebanon- a country designated 'partly free', where there are laws against reporters criticizing not only the Lebanese government, but the Syrian regime as well.... Iran is a country given the rating of 'not free', putting it alongside China, Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Myanmar. In Iran (as Ms Booth I hoped would have said in her speech), there is a special 'Press Court' which prosecutes journalists for such heinous offences as criticizing the ayatollah, reporting on stories damaging the 'foundations of the Islamic republic' , using 'suspicious (i.e. western) sources', or insulting Islam. Iran is the world leader in terms of jailed journalists, with 39 reporters (that we know of) in prison as of 2009. They also kicked out almost every Western journalist during the 2009 election .... I guess we can't really expect more from a theocracy. Which is what most countries in the Middle East are. theocracies and autocracies. But Israel is the sole, the only, the rogue, democracy. Out of every country in the Middle East, only in Israel do anti-government protests and reporting go unquashed and uncensored.

I have one final argument – the last nail in the opposition's coffin – and its sitting right across the aisle. Mr Ran Gidor's presence here is the all evidence any of us should need to confidently call Israel a rogue state. For those of you who have never heard of him, Mr Gidor is a political counsellor attached to Israel's embassy in London. He's the guy the Israeli government sent to represent them to the UN. He knows what he's doing. And he's here tonight. And it's incredible. Consider, for a moment, what his presence here means. The Israeli government has signed off,to allow one of their senior diplomatic representatives to participate in a debate on their very legitimacy. That's remarkable. Do you think for a minute, that any other country would do the same?.... Once again, behaving in a way that is unexpected, or not normal. Behaving like a rogue state.

.... Israel willfully and forcefully disregards international law. In 1981 Israel destroyed OSIRAK – Saddam Hussein's nuclear bomb lab. Every government in the world knew that Hussein was building a bomb. And they did nothing. Except for Israel. Yes, in doing so they broke international law and custom. But they also saved us all from a nuclear Iraq. That rogue action should earn Israel a place of respect in the eyes of all freedom loving peoples. But it hasn't. But tonight, while you listen to us prattle on, I want you to remember something; while you're here, Khomeini's Iran is working towards the Bomb. And if you're honest with yourself, you know that Israel is the only country that can, and will, do something about it. Israel will, out of necessity act in a way that is the not the norm, and you'd better hope that they do it in a destructive manner. Any sane person would rather a rogue Israel than a Nuclear Iran. (Except Ms Booth.)" To read the speech in full see http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/11/why-israel-is-rogue-state-gabriel.html

And so, against expectation, the motion was defeated with 74% of the votes. A famous victory, but not one that the losing side accepted with grace. The President of the Union had Latner escorted off the premises and banned for life following a complaint from Lauren Booth that before rising to speak he’d told her: “I am going to nail you to the fucking wall up there.” Not that Latner is too perturbed. He told the student newspaper Varsity that he has no doubt that he offended Ms Booth, but doesn’t know whether it was his remark to her or the fact that he “actually nailed her to the wall” in his speech that offended her, adding “ I can guess though”. As for the ban, it was a “rash” decision of the President but “isn’t going to drastically change my life”. http://www.varsity.co.uk/news/2689/

Kol haKavod, Gabriel! Am Yisrael Chai!