Daphne Anson: Brits & Pieces

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, 8 November 2019

Brits & Pieces

Under the heading "To our fellow British citizens", a heartfelt plea from the current issue of Anglo-Jewry's oldest extant newspaper, the Jewish Chronicle, edited by Stephen Pollard:

Meanwhile, a prominent rabbi, Jonathan Romain of Maidenhead Reform Synagogue, has written to his congregants as follows:

"I am writing to all members of the community regarding the forthcoming election. In past elections, never have I dreamt of suggesting which way one should vote. This election is different.

You may recall the ground-breaking decision of all three Jewish newspapers -- The Jewish Chronicle, The Jewish News and The Jewish Telegraph - to publish exactly the same front cover on 25th July 2018: taking a united stance to suggest that a Labour government under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn would prove “an existential threat” to British Jewry.

https://twitter.com/GillianLazarus/status/1192200467775930368

You may recall the Deputy Leader of Labour, Tom Watson saying he was “ashamed” of Labour being guilty of racism, or the fact that the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are currently investigating accusations of racism against Labour, the first time they have done so against a political party since their enquiry into the British National Party.

You may recall the Labour MP of 49 years, Louise Ellman, resigning in October 2019, because, as she put it: “Labour is no longer a safe place for Jews and Corbyn is a danger to the country”.

These are just a handful of examples from the last three years that make me feel that normal political allegiances are superseded by the unprecedented situation we face.

I should stress that the problem is not the Labour Party itself, which has a long record of fighting discrimination and prejudice, but the problem is Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn-led Labour, has, at best, let anti-semitism arise within its ranks, or at worst, has encouraged it.

This has never happened under any previous Labour leader, whether under Tony Blair on the right, Neil Kinnock in the centre or Michael Foot on the left, so the finger of responsibility really does seem to point to Jeremy Corbyn

I am therefore suggesting we should each put aside all other considerations and vote for whichever party is most likely to defeat Labour in whatever constituency we are in - even if we would never normally vote for that party.

If you, too, think that a Corbyn-led government would pose a danger to Jewish life as we know it...whether it be utterances that cause Jews to feel victimised, less secure and no longer at ease...or maybe even legislation that restricts Jewish life or relations with Israel in some way, then you may wish to vote to ensure Labour does not gain your local seat. Do not discount the power of your vote - many seats are won or lost on small majorities - while the issue of Brexit means that very different voting patterns will probably take place compared to previous elections ... so do not assume that a safe Labour seat will remain Labour, or that Labour might not win a seat that previously looked safe for another party.

Please feel free to share this with any family, friend or colleagues you think might feel the same.

Let me repeat that this is suggestion I would not normally make but for the Corbyn-factor -- and you are at liberty to disagree totally with my point of view. I appreciate, too, that you may feel that other criteria take priority when voting. You should vote as your conscience dictates ...while if you wish to discuss this with me, feel free to do so."

And Liberal rabbi Yuval Keren of Southgate Progressive Synagogue has followed suit, telling his members:

"We are less than five weeks before another early general election in the UK.

In the past I have steered clear of party politics as I saw it conflicting with my Rabbinic service to the community. However, there are times when involvement in politics is inevitable, especially when the welfare of the community is at stake. In writing to you now I have taken a great deal of courage and inspiration from my colleague and teacher Rabbi Jonathan Romain, who wrote in similar terms to his Maidenhead Reform community a week ago.

Since Jeremy Corbyn’s assumption of Labour leadership, the attitude of the party towards British Jews has changed dramatically, and the party has become riddled with antisemitism.

Ken Livingstone, a senior member of Labour and former Mayor of London claimed in 2016 that the Zionists collaborated with the Nazis. It took Labour two years to discuss his expulsion from the party. He resigned from the party before a decision was taken.

Jackie Walker, one of the founders of Momentum and a prominent member of the party, has accused Jews of financing the slave trade, and called for the abolition of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Labour members have been responsible for spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, such as calling Jewish members of parliament ‘Zionist infiltrators’, and blaming ‘Israeli Jews’ for the September 11 terrorist attacks. These Labour members were not suspended - let alone expelled from the party.

That "someone" is this fella, married to an Anglican vicar

Jewish Labour members of parliament were and are under immense pressure for fighting antisemitism. Luciana Berger, who was a life-long member of Labour and a Labour MP for nine years, recently resigned from the party, asserting that under Corbyn, Labour was plagued with "institutional anti-Semitism". I fully support her view.

Antisemitism in Labour is also affecting local politics. In the past there have been calls by local Constituency Labour Parties for enquiries into “improper Israeli interference into domestic politics”. More recently there was an invitation to the Jewish Voice for Labour network to conduct antisemitism training for local activists. Jewish Voice for Labour is far from representing the Jewish community, and in fact claims that allegations of antisemitism are merely a smear campaign against Labour.

These are just a few examples, a drop in the ocean of the anti-Jewish behaviour plaguing the Labour party since the change of leadership.

I would like to emphasise that there are many in Labour who do not share these values, and many who are dedicated to fighting inequality, racism and prejudice. The problem lies with Jeremy Corbyn and the present Labour leadership who tolerate and allow antisemitism to rise from within its ranks.

I would therefore like to join the call made by my colleague Rabbi Romain. If you too believe that a Corbyn-led government would be detrimental to Jewish life as we know it, you should put aside all other considerations and vote for the party that is most likely to defeat Labour in your local constituency. Do not discount the power of your single vote as in many constituencies seats are won or lost on small majorities.

Please feel free to share this with any family, friend or colleagues you think might feel the same. You are welcome to contact me ... should you, or others, wish to discuss the content of my letter.

Here, as well, is a certain marvellous lady, of perspicacity and courage sans pareil:

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Expose The Lies!

There is a war of lies and deceit on the internet generating unbelievable hate by denigrating and delegitimising the legal rights conferred on the Jewish people by the League of Nations in 1922 and the United Nations in 1945. The idea that there are two narratives on the Arab-Jewish conflict is rubbish. There is only one – the factual truth that details the return of the Jewish people to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in its ancient biblical, ancestral and historic homeland after 3500 years of dispersion with the unanimous endorsement of the nation states then comprising the League of Nations.... Generals can’t fight a war without soldiers. Jews around the world need to join the fight or vacate the internet to the Jew-haters and their lies that repeated often enough eventually become accepted as truth. David Singer (2016)

The "Apartheid" Slur

The division of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into three separate areas “A”, “B” and “C” was agreed on by Israel and the PLO pursuant to the Oslo Accords.
95% of the West Bank Arabs live in Areas A and B and their daily lives are under the total administration and control of the PLO since the Palestinian Authority was disbanded by Abbas in January 2013. The PLO has total security control in A and shares security control in B with Israel. Israel has total administrative and security control in C.
Israel is entitled to and will continue to take responsibility for the security of Jews living in the West Bank.
Jews were given the legal right to settle in the West Bank under article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter. They did so for decades until they were driven out in 1947 and not able to return there until 1967.
There are Arab roads only in the West Bank that Jews are not allowed to use. Jews are also forbidden from entering Area “A”. Selling land to Jews is forbidden by the PLO under pain of death. The PLO runs the daily lives of 95% of the West Bank Arabs and Hamas runs the daily lives of 100% of the Gazan Arabs. They have been under occupation – and subjugation – by these two evil groups for the last ten years and given no say in their future or any opportunity to elect others to lead them following the disastrous political decisions of their leaders over the past ten years. Hamas and the PLO do not accept the continued existence of a Jewish State and call for its disappearance.
The narratives did not begin in 1948 – they began in about 1917. How do you make peace with an enemy that has been obsessed with not recognising any Jewish national rights in former Palestine for the last 100 years? David Singer (2016)

The Jews of the Holy Land ... are surrounded by hostile states 650 times their territory and sixty times their population. Yet their last, best hope of ending two millennia of international persecution - the State of Israel - has somehow survived. When, during the Second World War, the island of Malta came through three terrible years of bombardment and destruction, it was rightly awarded the George Cross for bravery. Today, Israel should be awarded a similar decoration for defending democracy, tolerance and Western values against a murderous onslaught that has lasted twenty times as long. Andrew Roberts (historian)

Israel is understandably obsessed with security, but its greatest security lies ultimately not in the Israeli Defence Forces, but in political warfare.... Most of the world is not deeply interested in what happens in Israel, and probably does not want to be deluged with legalistic defences of particular actions. What it wants is a clear, calm, repeated case. It is a case – aimed more at public opinion than at foreign ministries – about freedom, democracy, a Western way of life and the need for the whole of the free world to fight terrorism. Sometimes you hear Israelis say: “It doesn’t matter what we say. The whole world is against us.” You can see why they say it, for they are indeed unfairly treated. But when they say it, they are uttering a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they won’t say what needs saying, no one else will say it for them. Charles Moore (2010)

Once again the armies of the Arab nations are coordinating their military efforts to destroy Israel - whatever they say about wishing merely to regain the lost territories.... [I]f the present Arab offensive had been launched at the pre-1967 frontiers, then the Israelis would indeed have been fighting to avoid annihilation. It seems now that the Israelis were right to maintain the ceasefire lines gained in 1967, and that to do so is the only guarantee of their continued safety.
Alan Sillitoe (The Times, 11 October 1973)

Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam... In this deadly game of thrones, there’s no place for America or for Israel, no place for Christians, Jews or Muslims who don’t share the Islamist medieval creed, no rights for women, no freedom for anyone... [T]he greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle, but lose the war. We can’t let that happen...[T]he days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over. We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves....Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand. But ... I know that America stands with Israel... You stand with Israel, because you know that the story of Israel is not only the story of the Jewish people but of the human spirit that refuses again and again to succumb to history’s horrors. Bibi Netanyahu (12 Adar 5775; 3 March 2015)

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions, of people, and there is no refugee problem.... [N]o one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees.... Other nations - when they are defeated - survive and recover, but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed.... [A]s it goes with Israel, so it will go with all of us. Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us. Eric Hoffer (1968)

Most of the present Arab countries were given their freedom after the 1914-18 War, or after the 1939-45 War.... Yet to listen to Arab spokesmen one might think that they had been cheated ... because they have not also got Israel. Israel is only .2 per cent of the land where Arab States have been established. Surely no fair-minded man can begrudge the Jews their own promised land when it is remembered that for every 2 acres that went to make up Israel, 1,000 acres became Arab.... Why is there an Arab refugee problem? The oil-rich countries have the money. There is no shortage of land, and the Israelis have the technical knowledge to show how it could be developed and made fertile. Bring those things together and the problem could be solved. 3rd Earl of Balfour (1968)

January 7, 2015 has already its place in the history of infamy, but also will be the date when the defenders of freedom and democracy will rise and pay tribute to those who died for their freedom and ours. Therefore, we must not forget on which side we are and who are our allies in the defense of the West and its values. Whether we admit it or not, the West is at war with an enemy who will not stop to destroy us...
The State of Israel boasts a commandment that, in one of the darkest hours in the fight for liberty Winston Churchill taught: "Never give up". Israel has proven to be a key ally in the fight against Islamism and also an example of how a liberal democracy can resist the jihadist stake and thrive as a Western nation ... Not only France but also all the West should look to Israel to defeat Islamism...
friendsofisraelinitiative.org

[I]t’s impossible to believe that an active antisemite wouldn’t – if only opportunistically – seek out somewhere to nestle in the manifold pleats of Israel-bashing, whether in generally diffuse anti-Zionism, or in more specific Boycott and Divestment Campaigns, Israeli Apartheid Weeks, End the Occupation movements and the like....[T]ell me that not a single Jew-hater finds the activity congenial, that criticising Israel can “never” be an expression of Jew-hating, not even when it takes the form of accusing Israeli soldiers of harvesting organs... Howard Jacobson (The Independent, 27 May 2013)

For Western countries to side with those who question Israel's legitimacy, for them to play games in international bodies with Israel's vital security issues, for them to appease those who oppose Western values, rather than robustly to stand up in defence of those values, is not only a grave moral mistake, but a strategic error of the first magnitude. Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is lost and Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Jose Maria Aznar

Israel is, for us, a normal and a special country. A normal country, because it is just like any other democracy. A special country, because the Jewish culture, which eventually became the Judeo-Christian culture of the dignity of man, is the conceptual foundation of liberalism and democracy. This is why attacking Israel is tantamount to attacking Europe and the West. This is also why disputing Israel's legitimacy and its right to existence means questioning democracy. And this is why we are Friends of Israel. By defending Israel, we are defending ourselves. Marcello Pera

Israel ... is beset today by a unique combination of threats. It must defend its people from attack while defending its very right to exist. No other nation in the world faces this dual challenge. To deny Israel's right to confront some of the world's most vicious terrorist groups in order to ensure the safety of its citizens is to corrode international norms from within ... The assault on Israel is one part of a more general assault on the West, on democracy, and on the moral and cultural heritage that grew from the fruitful interaction of Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome ... Should these efforts succeed, similar efforts will certainly be turned against other western democracies. George Weigel

Apart from America itself, Israel still stands as the world's brightest model of national self-liberation based on ideals of individual responsibility and human freedom. Israel's ability to withstand Arab attempts to destroy it in one of the longest and most lop-sided wars ever fought serves as an indelible testimony to the strength of democratic culture.... We know from the past that the West paid dearly for ignoring Hitler's war against the Jews. One can only hope it will not pay as dearly for having ignored or underestimated for so long the Arab war against Israel and the Jews. Ruth Wisse

I am duty-bound to defend freedom, culture, peaceful coexistence, the civic education of children, and all the principles that the Tablets of the Law have rendered universal. Principles which Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. This means that, since I am a Gentile, a journalist and a leftist, I have a triple moral commitment to Israel. Because, if Israel were to be vanquished, modernity, culture and freedom would also be crushed. Even though the world has failed to wake up to this fact, Israel's struggle is the world's struggle. Pilar Rahola

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Friday, 8 November 2019

Brits & Pieces

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