"I Love Israel ... Free People Need to Unify against Islam as a Belief System": Son of Hamas leader (video)

At the Jerusalem Post Annual Conference Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a prominent Hamas commander, pays warm tribute to Israel as "the only light in the Middle East", condemns BDS, the "apartheid" slur, and the political correctness that muzzles expressions of fear regarding Islam ("the Muslim people have a problem"), and issues a stark  warning that the danger from Islam endangers the whole world, not just Israel.

(Full speech lasting 15 minutes.)

Meanwhile:

 Read more here

"An Answer To The Flotilla": French Pilots Supporting Israel (includes video)

Parlez-vous française?  If so, you'll find the following example of support for Israel by over 40 non-Jewish French pilots of small aircraft, who've been visiting the Jewish State,  a welcome relief: from negativity (if your French is rusty, click here):

'Dix-sept avions légers ont atterri en Israël, transportant 46 pilotes français et des membres d’équipage, venus pour soutenir le peuple israélien et visiter le pays, dans un geste, que certains considèrent comme une opposition aux activités de la flottille pro-palestinienne.

Ruby Spiegel, Président des Bonds de l’Etat d’Israël de la Belgique :

« Nous avons pris soin d’avoir une permission spéciale pour voler à l’intérieur d’Israël, de Haïfa à Massada. Massada est un point très attractif de débarquement pour les pilotes. Lorsque l’altimètre fonctionne en sens inverse, c’est quelque chose que seul un pilote peut comprendre. »

Ce groupe de pilotes sera en visite en Israël quelques jours, visitant les lieux saints et terminant leur voyage par un vol spécial à Massada, l’un des sites historiques d’Israël et le plus bas aérodrome sur terre.

Yigal Merav, Webmaster de AOPA Israël :

« Nous avons pris soin d’avoir une permission spéciale pour voler à l’intérieur d’Israël, de Haïfa à Massada. Massada est un point très attractif de débarquement pour les pilotes. Lorsque l’altimètre fonctionne en sens inverse, c’est quelque chose que seul un pilote peut comprendre. »

Nick Haze, Co-pilote :

« Je suis impatient de visiter tous les principaux sites, Jérusalem, Tel Aviv, nous allons visiter toutes les attractions principales ces trois prochains jours et apprendre autant que possible. »

Patrice Leclerc, Pilote français :

« Nous avons parcouru un long chemin avec ces avions et ces avions ne vont pas très vite, mais c’est un voyage intéressant. C’est très rare, je suppose, que des avions légers comme ceux-là viennent vous voir et je m’attends à ce que de plus en plus de gens viennent ici comme nous le faisons aujourd’hui. »

 L’initiative a été bien accueillie par les responsables israéliens et français, qui estiment que cela peut aider à changer l’image d’Israël dans le monde entier....'

Read more here (hat tip: reader Rita)

Zionism Is Not Racism (video)

Here's a new short video that ably makes the case:

"In Israel, Even This Agnostic Can Glimpse The Eternal"

So declares the prominent Australian columnist Andrew Bolt, in a rather wonderful new piece. (Hat tip: reader Shirlee)

'What a country. How small the world seems from it, and how connected. How short history seems, but how long its spans.

In Sinai, an Egyptian called Moses once had a vision, and now two thirds of the world's peoples  share some part of it, too, from Reykjavik to Hobart.

Whole empires have come and gone in the time between, and the only thing that's lasted is an idea. In Israel, even this agnostic can glimpse the eternal.'

 Read the entire article here

This is Israel, Stand with Israel (video)

An awesome video that pulls no punches:

Some of the language might strike people as hyperbolic, but the video is a tour de force; I don't like the blanket denigration of Muslims and Palestinians, though.

This is the Way to Defend Israel and Western Values against the Islamic Foe! – an American Congressman’s Magnificent Speech

Last month, at the “Americans Against Hate” pro-Israel Conference, Congressman Allen West (Republican, Florida) made a magnificent speech, notable for its clear realism and its engaging, non-bombastic, eloquence, about the threat to Israel and the West posed by Islamist extremism and by continuing appeasement and denial of who the enemy is and what the enemy intends.

A genuine philosemite, he's a retired lieutenant-colonel and decorated war hero; you can read and hear more of this great man on Israel here:
http://www.seraphicpress.com/archives/2010/02/lt_col_allen_we.php

We need more politicians of his kind.  On both sides of the Herring Pond.  May he and his party prosper!

And may those American Jews who still laud Barack Obama come to their senses soon!

For Israel’s Sake, Let’s Have Some Variety – Faces and Voices of a State under Siege

Israeli diplomat and statesman Abba Eban (1915-2002; pictured), born Aubrey Solomon in Cape Town, took his stepfather’s surname following his mother’s move to Britain following his father’s death. A Zionist from his youth, Cambridge-educated Eban served in 1947 as liaison officer with the UN Special Commission on Palestine and was a member of the Jewish Agency delegation to the UN General Assembly. On 18 May 1948 – just four days after the proclamation of statehood – Israel’s provisional government appointed him as its representative in the UN.

His mellifluous eloquence and conciliatory persuasiveness, assisted by his urbanity and command of many languages, proved highly effective at critical moments in Israel’s formative and subsequent history. For decades he was for millions around the world the face and voice of Israel, which was undoubtedly fortunate to have such a spokesman. 

But there were other symbols of Israel ...

If you can’t remember the '60s, you may be unaware that among the icons of that decade, particularly in Europe, were the attractive and talented Israeli husband-and-wife singing duo, Abi and Esther Ofarim. Abi, born Abraham Reichstadt in Safed in 1937, provided the exquisite-voiced Esther with guitar accompaniment and backing vocals. Also a native of Safed, born there in 1941 into a Sephardi family called Zaied, Esther had a small role in the major movie Exodus (1960). She married Abi around that time, and they performed in Ivrit at international folk festivals, later taking Europe by storm – here they are performing Morning of My Life in Germany in 1967:

And here’s a video of them lip-synching and dancing to their big international hit, Cinderella Rockefella, in London in 1968.

Those were the days, my friend ... we thought they’d never end ... (as another '60s singer sang...)

In 1968, Israel, freshly victorious from a miraculous swift victory over the armies of the rejectionist Arab states, basked in a glorious well-deserved hero status; the Palestinian Arabs had yet successfuly to reinvent both themselves and the historic narrative in order to accomplish what repeated aggression by Arab states had failed to do; the British capital’s transformation into Londonistan was years away, and probably not even a glimmer in a jihadist’s eye. After all, it was the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that set the crazies in motion – and which promises to be even more far-reaching in its effects on other nations than was the French Revolution of 1789 if the West does not fully awaken soon.

But I digress.

If a couple of Israeli entertainers attempted a variety routine on the streets of London today, they’d require a thick cordon of police to protect them from a howling mob of usual suspects – unless, of course, their act consisted of denigrating their country.

During the 1960s, when you thought of Israel, you were liable to think not only of Abba Eban, Yigael Yadin, Moshe Dayan Golda Meir – but also of Abi and Esther Ofarim.  They captured the imagination.  They symbolised a nation.

Judging by early photographs of her, definitely raven-tressed, Esther by the time she made it big in Europe she had – how shall I put it? – somewhat modified her “exotic” mizrachi looks. But she was still a stunning dark beauty – in fact, a breath-taking one. (I’m not a bloke, but I defy any red-blooded male to disagree!)

In 1961 Esther recorded the beautiful, haunting Avi Avi (“Father, Father”):

And here she is singing the Yiddish folksong Oyfn Pripetchik (“At the Fireplace”):

Those two videos are worth a look, because they contain some interesting – and in the case of the last,  poignant – photographs.

So – why am I making a song and dance about the Ofarims?

Well, in my very first blogpost, back in June, I expressed my long-held conviction that Israel needs to establish its own satellite television station in order to counter the demonic, delegitimising propaganda being spewed out over a myriad airwaves. I stand by that view. Israel simply must explore every avenue in order get its just case through.

Among other challenges, it’s imperative that Israel gives the lie to the erroneous impression, encouraged by the demonisers who refer to it as a European colonial-settler state, that Israel is a homogenous "white" nation  – it needs to confound its enemies and kindle some cognitive dissonance by opening a new window on reality through choosing to represent itself with as wide a variety of spokespeople as possible.

We have such people as Mark Regev and Avital Leibovich, and it’s a fine, arduous job they do, countering malice and misinformation in their calm, masterly way. But we need a much wider variety of spokespeople, so long as – for this is absolutely crucial – they also speak fluently in today’s lingua franca, English.

The beguiling double act of Esther and Abi Ofarim reflected the dual make-up of Israel: the ingathering of the exiles from both east and west. Today, some 50 per cent of Israelis are of Sephardi heritage, yet the outside world rarely gets to see or hear them – they do not, as a rule, figure as Israeli media spokespeople. It is vital that this situation changes.

The world needs to hear the voices and see the faces of Jews whose families were not light-complexioned Ashkenazim - people who reflect the reality of Israel’s richly diverse composition and whose very appearance transmits the message that Israel is an integral part of the Middle East and is in the region to stay. So let’s see and hear more of the descendants of around 800,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands, that exodus so conveniently overlooked by Israel’s mortal foes, and  let’s see and hear Israelis of Ethiopian and Indian background too.

Oh – by the way, there’s a fragrant, full-petalled orange-blend rose known as “Matador” in some countries. But in others it’s known as “Esther Ofarim”, named as such on its introduction in 1970 by Reimer Kordes, of a well-known German firm of rose hybridisers. The variety’s name honours the renowned Israeli singer (here posing, appropriately enough in the colours of the blooms, for a German magazine in 1969).

But what to do if you’re a member of the barmy BDS brigade and – quelle horreur! – you suspect or discover that the orange-blend rose growing in your garden is “Esther Ofarim”? Well, you can always change its name to “Esther O’Farim”, as some clueless rose firms in their catalogues have done. But don’t worry unduly. You can still enjoy its beauty, guilt-free. For the royalties for the rose went to the German firm that bred it – not to The Zionist Entity.

Anatomy of an anti-Israel Petition

Assuming all has gone to plan, a petition containing about 1800 signatures, which made its way by a vintage motorcycle from Lancashire to London, was delivered to 10 Downing Street by its organiser, Bruce Burgess, at noon today.  For many weeks Burgess has been hawking the petition among a familiar batch of Israel-demonising groups, explaining: "I'm a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. I've been disturbed by the activities of the Israeli government for years. But just recently the attacks on Lebanon, Gaza and the massacre on the boat delivering aid have really made my blood boil.” No matter, of course, that Israel is defending itself against existential threat. No matter that Hamas is suffused with judeophobia and that its genocidal charter avows “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” No matter that “the boat delivering aid” was full of Islamist activists and would-be martyrs belonging to the terrorist organisation IHH, who yelled chilling anti-Jewish slogans before setting off on their deliberately provocative voyage to Gaza armed with knives and iron bars.

Groups supporting the petition are the Palestine Solidarity Campaign; the Friends of Lebanon; the Campaign Against the Arms Trade; Jews for Justice for Palestinians; the Muslim Public Affairs Committee; Quaker Peace and Social Witness; and War on Want. Among others who have provided online links to it are the Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine and branches of the Green Party. On the petition Lib Dem Councillor Richard Brett, alternate leader of Leeds City Council, comments: “I can't understand how those defending Israel think that their treatment of Palestinians in Gaza has no bearing on events like 9/11 or 7/7. It is in our own interests to stop selling arms to Israel, and the humanitarian case is overwhelming.”

Indeed, the number of Lib Dems and Greens, including town councillors, among the petition’s signatories is striking, underlining the distrust that Israel’s British well-wishers feel regarding those parties, particularly the former given its rather disproportionate role in the Coalition government. In a piece for the Guardian’s “Comment is Free” (9 January 2009) Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg wrote: “[Gordon] Brown must ... halt Britain's arms exports to Israel, and persuade our EU counterparts to do the same. The government's own figures show Britain is selling more and more weapons to Israel, despite the questions about the country's use of force.... I want an immediate suspension of all arms exports from the EU, but if that cannot be secured, Brown must act unilaterally.”

Cameron himself has boasted:
“Unlike a lot of politicians from Britain who visit Israel, when I went I did stand in occupied East Jerusalem and actually referred to it as ‘occupied East Jerusalem’. The Foreign Office bod who was with me said most ministers don’t dare say [that].” And of course more recently this slippery opportunist declared that "The Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable .... Let me also be clear that the situation in Gaza has to change .... Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp." That this remark has encouraged the petition’s signatories is obvious from some of the optional comments, which directly allude to it.

The signatories, as proudly cited by its organiser on his rideforpalestine blog, include, at Westminster, two Labour MPs, Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) and Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton), and, in the European Parliament, Chris Davies, Fiona Hall, and Graham Watson (all Lib Dems), Keith Taylor (Green Party), and Jill Evans (Plaid Cymru).

Senior academic signatories include Emeritus Professor Steve Baker (University of Central Lancashire), an art historian; Emeritus Professor Richard Hudson (University College London), a specialist in linguistics; Emeritus Professor Peter Spufford ( University of Cambridge), a medieval and early modern historian; Dr Wolfgang Decker (Richmond University, London); Professor Moshe Machover (King's College London); and Dr Claudia Prestel (Reader in Modern European and Jewish History, University of Leicester). Israeli-born Machover, long resident in Britain, is a veteran anti-Zionist warhorse who helped to found the Israeli anarcho-socialist group Matzpen; his son, British “human rights lawyer” Daniel Machover, is infamous for attempting to have visiting Israeli public figures arrested for “war crimes”. Dr Prestel, an Israeli who has publicly endorsed Ilan Pappe’s "One State Declaration", has resided in Britain since the 1990s; she is active in Friends of al Aqsa, and has added her name to various Israel-delegitimising initiatives conceived both in Britain and overseas.

There is also a batch of Christian clergy – Sue Calveley, H. P. [Hazel?] Barkham, Marion C. White, Andrew Dawson, Graeme Dodd, Tony Graham, Dave Hardman, Dr J. Barr, and Fr John Harris-White. The latter writes alongside his signature: “The call to stop arms to Israel is long overdue. Throughout my life time the state of Israel has ignored United Nations resolutions, and hels [sic] in bond the Palestinian people in their own land.” (I’m not sure what denominations are represented – Rev. Calveley is an Anglican – nor whether all of these are in fact British.)

A sizeable proportion of signatories have Arab/Muslim names. The optional comments on the petition, across the range of signatories, Muslim and non-Muslim, are of the predictable kind – Israel as colonial occupier, Israel as America’s stooge, Israel as apartheid state, Israel as terrorist state, Israel as “rogue state”, Israel as illicit, Israel as persecutor, Israel as land-grabber. Look at this, for instance, from a John Bannon: “As bulk of ruling MP’s are signed up ‘Friends of Israelhell’ there is little prospect of success ... This action and boycotting the produce of the apartheid, genocidal regime are proper ways to condemn its evil ways.” Similarly, from a Robin Goodchild: “The pirate apartheid state should be suspended from decent company until it learns to follow international law.” From a Simon J. Brown: “Signing this petition is but a token. Israel lacks legitimacy and must be held to account for its continued war crimes and theft of Palestinian property and land.” From an M. Cook: “Israel has been a rogue state almost since its founding, and as such should not be armed by the UK or by any other opportunist country.” Ahmad Ismat: “Lets stop the largest terroriests group on earth together.”

Fern: “The UK Government is not the only one that has a lot to answer for but as a country that considers itself 'civilized' it should be taking the lead in opposing Zionism in all its racist manifestations.” Peter Brown: “We should obviously not sell arms to Israel. They are illegal occupiers and hijackers who should be totally isolated. There should be a complete boycott of Israel.” Ron Gray: “Many people are under the illusion, that if you support Palestine,then you must be Anti Semetic.This is not so! The Zionist Movement & Mossad is the real enemy of not just Palestine,but many other countries who are against their agressive tactics.Sainsburys openly support Israel & should be boycotted,as should others,who support them,including the British Govt.” Naveed Zafar: “Not only stop arming Israel, boycott all imports from that illegal colonial settler state and arrest every functionary of its terrorist governments, past and present and put them in the dock for war crimes.”

This comment from an Alan Pritchard represents another leitmotif of the petitioners, Israel as ethnic cleanser: “It is bad enough that Britain bears the ultimate guilt for the creation of Israel in the betrayal of the Arabs that stood alongside us against the Ottomans. It is worse that we actively held the coats of the Zionist Militia whilst they ethnically cleansed Palestine in 1947 and 1948, looked the other way when villages were massacred, even deliberately refusing to help those being massacred.”

A Pam Hardyment writes: “ they [exported armaments] are used against innocent civilians against all Geneva Conventions and MUST be stopped, we are party to a genocide happening right now and for 62 years!!!!” Robin Kinrade: “Further, this Government needs to review Israel's relationship with the Pales[t]inians. They have been bound, gagged and whipped, metaphorically speaking, have had their lands systematically stolen, and when, in deep frustration, they have lashed out, the Israeli Government commit war crimes against them.” And, from a Crystal Robert, the risible “Israel is a threat to the rest of the world.”

Those four mendaciously misleading maps of Jewish versus Arab territory in the Holy Land ("Israeli Expansion 1946-2000") that anti-Israel groups love to publish in their brochures and on their websites have evidently done yeoman service in duping some people to sign (they are on Burgess's blog and mentioned in some comments).

A Heather Stroud is among those signatories who accuse Israel of deliberately targeting civilians - “Israel has a policy of arresting and torturing children for fabricated crimes or sometimes the crime of throwing a stone.” Jewish Israel-basher Mike Cushman, a pivot of the grotesque – and essentially antisemitic  –  movement to boycott Israel, warms to the same theme: “The Israeli Army regularly attacks civilian targets and therefore the UK Government should take all steps to prevent them getting the arms and equipment to carry out these breaches of international law.”

Some of the comments are unashamedly antisemitic. Here is a selection, warts (in the shape of grammatical and spelling errors) and all. Rick Sylva (an American, by the looks of it): ‘It's time to rethink our arming & financial backing of "ISRAEL" ... LET'S TAKE BACK WHAT RIGHTFULLY BELONGS TO US , "OUR" GOV'T & DO AWAY WITH THE ZIONIST CONTROLLED "FEDERAL RESERVE BANK!’ F.E.: “Zionist state is not a reliqious entity, but a voracious sadistic parasite on the world map.” Kelly Elshafey: “The jewish lobby is to powerful to in the USA, Britain and Europe. They have the money to finance the politcal parties.” Dean Smith: “remember tyhe late 40s and early 50s when the israelis turned on our own people after we helped them??plus the first suicide bomber was a jewish woman”. Edward Glynn: “We are told that World terrorism is the work of Islamic extremists but the terrorism engaged in by the Israeli Government is far worse .... The continued support by the West of Israel makes them accessories to the criminal activities of the Jewish State in Palestine.” Barry Selby: “I think that Israel's warmongering pays no attention to the suffering they cause. The pretence that Hamas must be eliminated is just a cover so that their expansionist and subsequent commercial activities can continue. I find them to be a totally immoral nation.”

Val Shadowhawk: “Signing this Petition will send a message to Zionists that their days of running the Show are over. The World has had enough. Blackmailing, bribing, extorting, and murdering innocent people while playing Victim are Crimes. Israel is Guilty of these and more. Enough is enough” Brian Powell: “A country born out of terrorism that still terrorises not only its neighbour but the rest of the world needs stopping. Take the first step in stopping these Nazi Jews.” Robert Persson: “Israel has now demonstrated that it is an extremely aggressive, capricious and paranoid state run by people who have total contempt for anyone, whether Arab, European or anything else, who does not conform to their definition of an ethnic Jew. This lunatic state already has 200 nuclear weapons. It is completely insane to allow it access to any more weapons.” Linda Collins: “ISRAEL SHOULD BE EXTERMINATED.” Mike Casner: “Investigate MOSAAD involvement in 9/11/01. Never mind the knee-jerk anti semitic labels, there is ample evidence.” Graham Jessop: “Totally agree with all the comments. They are complicit in 911 also, check it out.”

I wonder how the members of Jews for Justice for Palestinians feel about being in such company.

The Sick Man of Europe: David Cameron talks Turkey

I'm a paid-up, card-carrying member of the Conservative Party.  I didn't vote for David Cameron as leader.  I distrusted him then.  I despise him now.  One of the pithiest definitions of a Conservative that I've ever seen is "someone who jumps back when they see a precipice at their feet".   

David Cameron is not a Conservative.  He is a smooth unprincipled opportunist, and, moreover, one who appears to bear the impression of the last man to sit upon him.  In his case, there are the imprints of two men - his appalling coalition partner Nick Clegg (whose antipathy towards Israel, like that of all too many of Clegg's Lib Dem colleagues, is a matter of public record), and the equally appalling Barack Obama (who in appeasement's cause seems willing to sell Israel down the Jordan river).

Cameron's speech in Ankara could have come straight from Obama's teleprompter. With a lunatic disregard for the fact that Erdogan is no secularising Ataturk but an Islamist puppet, Cameron will "fight" for Turkey's membership of the European Union - thus pitting himself against wiser counsels such as Nicolas

Sarkozy and Angela Merkel. With a cavalier contempt for the facts of history, he ignorantly likens opposition to Turkey's membership of the EU to de Gaulle's veto of Britain's bid to join the Common Market in 1963 (back in the days when the EEC could be considered the economic arm of NATO, by the way, and not the villainous bureaucratic tyranny that has been forced on the peoples of Europe by stealth).  The reason for de Gaulle's veto was the general's fear that if Grand Bretagne was to be accepted into what was then a club of six, British influence in the EEC would rival and perhaps eclipse that of France.  The reason so many Europeans today view with alarm the prospect of Turkey's membership of the EU is the fact  that Islamic influence in Turkey is growing, and that membership would give Turks - not only secularist or moderate Muslim Turks - the right to settle anywhere in the EU.

But Cameron is seemingly nonplussed at the potential arrival of millions of Muslim fundamentalists in Europe's heartland.  He lashed out in his speech at people who "think the values of Islam can just never be compatible with the values of other religions, societies or cultures".  I'd love to believe him, but the treatment of women, gays, dissenters and apostates  in Islamic societies makes me wary; I think it should make Cameron wary too.

And then there's the question of the Gaza flotilla, in which nine Turkish activists belonging to an Islamist organisation with terror links called the IHH lost their lives when violently resisting Israeli commandos.  Cameron insists on a rigorous enquiry into Israel's actions.  Never mind that Israel has a right to defend itself, and ensure that arms for Hamas aren't smuggled into Gaza.  Never mind, too, that there is plenty of evidence - such as that newly opened Gaza Mall - that Gaza is not exactly the "prison camp" that Cameron says it is.  Certainly, the lives of the people of Gaza could be improved, but tell that to Hamas. 

I could go on.  But instead I'll refer you to the splendid commentary on this subject that Ray Cook has on his blog today.  Cameron should read it too.  Compulsorily.

Judah's Lion and the Judge: the scandalous courtroom remarks of George Bathurst Norman

In the old days, when Anglo-Jews of a certain status relished the appellation "gentlemen of  the Mosaic persuasion", and often preferred the term "Hebrew" or "Israelite" to "Jew" with all its unpleasant stereotypical connotations, communal concerns tended to be raised sotto voce. The approach achieved results, but it was despised by more forthright  newcomers.

There are still critics who characterise Anglo-Jewry's elected leaders as "trembling Israelites".  But that charge could never be brought against the esteemed Vice-President of the Zionist Federation, the extraordinarily active and fearless Jonathan Hoffman (pictured, at a recent pro-Israel demonstration in London).  His willingness to play Daniel in the lion's den is legendary; indeed, his courage is itself leonine.

Now, Mr Hoffman has obtained the 87-page transcript of the case of Regina versus Robert Nicholls and Others, heard at Lewes Crown Court on 28-29 June, which after a scandalously biased-against-Israel summing up by Judge George Bathurst Norman resulted in the acquittal of all seven defendants, who successfully argued that in illegally breaking into and smashing up an armaments  factory they believed to be supplying Israel, they were preventing a greater crime.

Mr Hoffman's masterly blog here http://cifwatch.com/2010/07/14/the-judge-who-thought-he-was-defence-counsel/shows with analytical precision just how offensive, mischievous and improper Judge Bathurst Norman's summing up was - far more scandalous than at first imagined, although that was scandalous enough.

The blog's a must-read, and a must-do is the action that Mr Hoffman suggests.

From an English Courtroom - a Charter for Anti-Israel Criminality

Judge George Bathurst Norman raised eyebrows in the Anglo-Jewish community in 2001, when he blamed the collapse of a fraud trial he was hearing on the plaintiffs, the United Synagogue organisation, which he claimed had been "so casual as to offend the very name of justice".  The United Synagogue's president expressed "incredulity, a burning sense of injustice" at the judge's remarks, adding "It is extraordinary that the victim in this case can be made to appear the villain".  Bathurst Norman duly apologised.

Nearly a decade on, and the same judge was trundled out of retirement (we are surely entitled to ask "Why?") to preside at the trial of a number of people charged with conspiracy to commit criminal damage - £180,000 worth of it - to a Brighton factory believed to be exporting arms components to Israel.  The damage occurred in response to Operation Cast Lead.  Last week, Bathurst Norman effectively directed the jury to deliver "Not Guilty" verdicts, telling them in his summing up: "You may well think that hell on earth would not be an understatement of what the Gazans suffered at that time".  He added, of the ringleader: "The jury may feel his efforts investigating the company merit the George Cross" (Britain's highest civilian award for gallantry!).

The defendants' acquittal, then, rested on his subjective agreement (presumably deriving from his assimilation of Hamas propaganda via such sources as the BBC) with their defence argument, namely that their actions against the factory were justified in order to prevent a greater evil - war crimes by Israel.  Said the jubilant defence lawyer of the verdict: "It sends a clear indication that sometimes direct action is the only option when all other avenues have failed".

Similarly, Brighton MP Caroline Lucas, head of the Israel-demonising Green Party and herself a pro-Palestinian activist, expressed her delight "that the jury has recognised that the actions ... were a legitimate response to the atrocities being committed in Gaza" and that the defendants had clearly "exhausted all democratic avenues and, crucially, that their actions were driven by the responsibility to prevent further sufferings in Gaza".  Outside the courtroom one of the defendants reiterated that "it was necessary for ordinary people to take action like we did" - and vowed that the factory would continue to be targetted until it closed down.

So there we have it.  An English judge has given  a virtual carte-blanche to violently-inclined anti-Israel fanatics.  Apparently, there can be no appeal against an acquittal.  But there should certainly be a protest against Bathurst Norman's biased and blockheaded summation.  You can complain to the Office of Judicial Complaints on the form which can be accessed here:

http://tinyurl.com/2appu3d

Blame Barbarism, not Bibi!

The agony and anger of Gilad Shalit's family is understandable; all normal hearts must bleed for them.  But blaming Bibi Netanyahu for their son's continued detention is unfair.  He has declared his government's willingness "to release 1000 Hamas prisoners, but not the most dangerous ones, and not to Judea and Samaria", from where they can attack Israelis again.  This is prudent; indeed, perhaps not prudent enough. 

Many Israelis would caution against any deal with terrorists, recalling, for example, that the exchange in January 2004 of 400 Hezbollah prisoners for Elhanan Tannenbaum, kidnapped in Dubai in 2000 and taken to Lebanon, and for the bodies of three soldiers ambushed on the Israeli-Lebanese border, resulted in the subsequent deaths of around 30 Israelis at the hands of some of the beneficiaries of the deal.

 Since the start of this century freed prisoners have murdered almost 180 Israelis, and have wounded and permanently incapacitated many more.  Hamas, responding to Netanyahu's offer, is insisting that before any deal can be done regarding Sergeant Shalit Israel must hand over 450 hard-core terrorists currently held; this is someting that the Israeli prime minister has declined to do, avowing that there is a price that Israel will not pay.  However painful this appears, it seems the correct course.  Bibi is not to blame for the impasse; a brutal and barbaric organisation with a mindset that would thrust us all back into the Dark Ages is. 

Blondely pimping brand Iran

While Israel has been foolishly neglectful of connecting with a global audience by exploiting satellite television broadcasting to its advantage, the Islamic Republic of Iran has grasped with fervour the chance to showcase the image that it wants the world to see - both of itself and of the Zionist entity.  The state-funded Press TV, Iran's propagandistic news channel, was set up in 2007, and has bureaus in Teheran, Beirut, Damascus, Seoul, Washington - and, inevitably, Londonistan.  Its broadcasts reach most parts of the world, and for most viewers it is free-to-air; it also has a website. 

And it has not been short of western abettors.  Its regular presenters include such "feminists" as journalists Lauren Booth, Tony Blair's embarrassing sister-in-law, and Yvonne Ridley, kidnapped by the Taliban in 2001, who in 2003 converted to Islam. Both women, who also broadcast on London's Islam Channel, are heavily active in the Free Gaza Movement and other anti-Israel initiatives.

 Ms Booth recently addressed an outdoor demo in London, in which to wild cheers she shrilly condemned Mark Regev as "an Israeli killer Zionist" and, in an apparent rallying cry for jihad, exhorted the green, red, black and white-bannered throng to take up arms against Israel, while Ms Ridley has been active in the Respect Party, that curious mixture of radical Muslims and radical Socialists united in their loathing of "Zionists".

On screen, Ms Booth (pictured in a Gaza souvenir shop) appears with a veil not quite covering all of her blonde hair; Ms Ridley's blonde locks are totally concealed beneath a particularly forbidding version of the hijab.  I've always found it intriguing how avowed feminists - who would no doubt rant and rave and scoff and sneer at fundamentalist Christian explanations (you can find them on the web, from strict old Calvinists and others) that wives must cover their heads as a symbol of their subjection to their husbands - meekly don the veil when required to by Islam. 

But it is positively obscene that such people - who are quick to accuse Israel of human rights violations - continue to pimp brand Iran despite the odious Ahmadinejad regime's horrendous oppression of its people. It has now come to light, courtesy of one of its own, that to oblige the Iranian government  members of the ruthless Basij militia  forcibly marry - and rape - virgin prisoners the night before those women's scheduled executions.  This enables the death sentence, forbidden in the case of virgins, to be carried out.  Will this shocking revelation (you won't find it in the leftist press) of a particularly repellent crime against women finally wean these Israel-hating pro-Iran female broadcasters away from their role as handmaidens of Hamas's sponsor?  I wouldn't bank on it.

    

The not-so-Midnight Cowboy: A Zola for our times?

Decades ago, a distinguished cinema and television critic observed that Jon Voight, "who became famous for playing a dumb Texas stud ... is actually a university-educated, self-conscious New York intellectual".  A staunch Republican, Voight is also a long-standing supporter of Israel, and like the most steadfast champions of the Jewish people he is a genuine philosemite who stands with Israel not merely out of regret for Jewish victimhood but out of admiration for what Jews have given to the world. 

In Israel to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its foundation, he glowingly described the Jewish State as a "moral beacon", and the following year, having seen Hamas rockets landing in Sderot, he castigated Jane Fonda and others who had signed a petition denouncing Operation Cast Lead: "Did Israel not give the Palestinians of Gaza hope that there could be peace?  In response, did Hamas not launch rockets from Gaza into Israel, killing many innocent people?". 

A week ago his "Open Letter" to President Obama  appeared in the Washington Times (22 June 2010), and reflects the fear, fury, and frustration that many Israel-supporters within and outside the United States feel as they contemplate a White House administration that seems to lack empathy with Israel's legitimate interests and well-founded concerns, that seems determined to pursue a naive and futile engagement with the Islamic world at Israel's expense and which in the pursuit of appeasement seems meekly to have accepted the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran :

You will be the first American president that lied to the Jewish people, and the American people as well, when you said that you would defend Israel, the only democratic state in the Middle East, against all their enemies.  You have done just the opposite.  You have propagandized Israel, until they look like they are everyone's enemy - and it has resonated throughout the world.  You are putting Israel in harm's way, and you have promoted anti-Semitism throughout the world.  You have brought this to a people who have given the world the Ten Commandments and most laws we live by today.  The Jewish people have given the world our greatest scientists and philosophers, and the cures for many diseases, and now you play a very dangerous game so you can look like a true martyr to what you see and say are the underdogs.  But the underdogs you defend are murderers and criminals who want Israel eradicated.... I pray to God you stop... With heartfelt and deep concern for America and Israel.

 Surely it is not hyperbolic to suggest an echo here of "J'accuse!", Emile Zola's famous letter in L'Aurore in 1898 to France's President Faure during the Dreyfus Affair? Many learned pundits around the globe have repeatedly warned in all kinds of media about the danger that the tone and thrust of Obama's foreign policy poses for Israel.  There are suspicions that Obama is currently softening his line on Israel in order not to alienate the "Israel Lobby" ahead of November's congressional election, and that once the election is out of the way his line will harden perilously.  Who knows?  Perhaps, given today's cult of celebrity, a letter from an ageing movie star -  who is, after all, Angelina Jolie's father - will be the catalyst that crystallises public opinion in Israel's favour and sees the expected betrayal of Israel averted.  If so, a latter-day Zola will be the Midnight Cowboy's finest role!

      

Bravo Senor Aznar and the Friends of Israel Initiative!

Amid the irrational and ominous hubbub of hatred for Israel that has followed the defensive raid on the flotilla vessel Mavi Marmara, a compelling voice of sanity has emerged from Spain.  On 17 June The Times of London carried a splendid, stirring op-ed piece from Jose Maria Aznar, the tough-on-terror realist who served as Spanish prime minister from 1996-2004 (pictured with Ehud Barak in Israel in 2001).

The title of his article speaks for itself, "If Israel goes down, we all go down".  True to his word, Senor Aznar - with nine other prominent people including British statesman and Nobel laureate David Trimble and America's ex-ambassador to the UN John Barton, has formed a group called Friends of Israel, which recently issued a petition robustly and movingly defending the Jewish State and inviting "all men and women of goodwill to join us".  In sum, the petitioners pledge themselves

To combat the delegitimization of the State of Israel at home, abroad and inside the institutions of the international community; to publicly show our solidarity with Israel's democratic institutions - the legitimate expression of the Jewish people's milennial [sic] aspiration to live in peace and freedom in its national homeland; to support Israel's inalienable right to secure borders  unmolested by terrorists or tyrannical regimes so that its citizens can continue living with the same guarantees that our own societies enjoy; to consistently and firmly oppose the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran; to work to ensure that Israel is fully accepted as a normal Western country, an essential and indivisible part of the Western world to which we belong; to reaffirm the value of the religious, moral and cultural Judeo-Christian heritage as the main source of the liberal and democratic western societies.

The petition - this clarion call to justice - already has over 5500 signatures.  It is available here:
http://www.friendsofisraelinitiative.org/index.php

She'll be right, mate! Good vibes on Israel from Australia's Julia Gillard

During a recent interview, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, spoke of the close relationship between his country and Australia.  "We see Australia ... as ... a very good friend and ally which has historic ties here in Israel", he said. 

Australia can indeed boast strong links with Israel.  In Palestine during the First World War an Aussie soldier, Lieutenant-Colonel Eliezer Margolin, led in succession two Jewish volunteer regiments; his ashes lie buried in Rehovot, where there is a memorial to him.  Australian jurist and politician 'Doc' H. V. Evatt,  President of the UN General Assembly during 1948-49, took a key part in negotiations that led to the creation of Israel.

 In 1965, owing to the indefatigable efforts of the well-known Jewish leader  Isi Leibler, then of Melbourne and now of Jerusalem, Australia became the first country in the world to raise before the United Nations the plight of Soviet Jewry.  And in 1991 Isi Leibler's brother Mark, at that time President of the Zionist Federation of Australia, played  no small role in getting the UN General Assembly to rescind its shameful Resolution  3379, passed in 1975, which declared that "Zionism is a form of racism". 

The outstanding support for Israel of Aussie prime ministers Bob Hawke (Labor) and John Howard (Liberal) is legendary, while today Liberal Opposition leader Tony Abbott seems as staunch a friend of Israel as his immediate predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull.  In May, when Kevin Rudd's Labor government expelled a Canberra-based Israeli diplomat in retaliation for the use of four Australian passports by the team wanted over the assassination in Dubai in January of a ruthless Hamas arms dealer, Abbott's deputy, Julie Bishop, who had been a minister under Howard, accused the government of over-reacting and pointed out that Israel had not been definitely implicated in the affair; she added that in any case 'It would be naive to think that Israel is the only country in the world that has used forged passports, including Australian passports, for security operations', and suggested that Australia itself had done so.  Abbott, who shared her view that the expulsion was unwarranted, resisted furious demands from the government benches that she be sacked.

There are hopeful signs that Australia's new Labor Prime Minister, Julia Gillard (pictured with Bibi Netanyahu, whom she met in July last year when she led the Australian delegation to the inaugural Australia-Israel Leadership Forum in Jerusalem), will be a firmer friend of Israel than was the ousted Rudd.  She is on record as saying that she looks forward to fostering ties between Australia and Israel at various levels: political, business, scientific, and social, and that Australia has much to learn from Israel in the high-tech field. 

A supporter of a two-state solution who has called on Israel to freeze West Bank settlements in pursuit of peace, she has no illusions about the  terrorist nature of Hamas.  During Operation Cast Lead she defended Israel's actions, a view she has since reiterated: "We made it clear ... that we understood Israel's need to defend its people .... I think we do need to remember that this was an Israeli response to continued rocket attacks out of Gaza into civilian areas.  There was no pretence that the rockets coming out of Gaza were heading for strategic targets or military targets; they were aimed at civilians.  And in those circumstances obviously a nation state is going to respond to the continued shelling of its people."

Tie a Yellow Ribbon for Gilad!

Come this Friday, 25 June, the abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, now 23, will have been held in captivity by Hamas somewhere in Gaza for four years.  During that time his captors have allowed no international aid agency, including the Red Cross, access to this unfortunate young man.  Blindfolded, bound, and barefoot, he appeared on a Hamas propaganda poster; a cruel animated 3D film under Hamas's auspices mocked his father's attempts to have him released, and depicted Gilad in a coffin as his distraught father looked on; Gilad appeared, looking thin, in a video which his captors made available in exchange for the release by Israel of a number of Palestinian women prisoners.

There have been reports that the Free Gaza Movement, which took part in the recent "humanitarian" flotilla, refused to grant the Shalit family's request that the movement's representatives urge Hamas to allow Gilad regular visits from the Red Cross and letters and food packages from home.  In view of Benjamin Netanyahu's easing of the Gaza blockade with nothing in return from Hamas regarding the fate of Gilad Shalit, it is not surprising that his family are now accusing the Israeli government of effectively forsaking him. 

Yet Gilad is not forsaken: across the world, there have been gestures of support for him ranging from the conferral of honorary citizenship by Paris and other metropolises to rallies and marches.  The Knesset has announced a new initiative to ensure that he is not forgotten, and the Jerusalem Post has opened a petition calling for his release.  Irrespective of our own personal views on the Israel/Palestinian question, it would surely be a noble gesture if on Friday we all wore yellow ribbons to show that we are thinking of this young man, and to write to our lawmakers reminding them of his plight, as well as joining in any demonstrations that may be arranged in our areas to express solidarity with him and demand his immediate release and return to his country and his family.  If the unthinkable has occurred, and Hamas has put Gilad to death, then by that action we shall know them.

Israel needs a satellite English-language TV station - Now!

Can you remember the 1960s? I can! It was a time when the entire western public seemed to be in love with Israel. The state now so reviled was the miracle nation which, against all odds, had survived repeated onslaughts by surrounding countries bent on its destruction; it was the land of plucky pioneers who had made the desert bloom; it was the land of Jaffa oranges, of kibbutzim, of the venerable Ben-Gurion, of Yigael Yadin, Daliah Lavi, and Esther and Abi Ofarim.

How my entire class of girls yearned to follow the example of our young non-Jewish teacher, who had spent her summer vacation picking fruit on a kibbutz! How vividly I recall the thousands of non-Jewish young men who on the outbreak of the June 1967 War volunteered - nay, clamoured - to fight for the little Jewish State; how vividly I recall the numerous non-Jewish men and women (many of them of very modest means) who - with touching spontaneity - sent unsolicited gifts of money to Israeli embassies and Jewish communal institutions for the war effort of a people that appeared to be on the brink of a second Holocaust. When, in just six days, the imperilled David achieved a stunning victory against Goliath, most of the western public appeared to rejoice. A one-eyed general captured the imagination; so did the now iconic press photo of Israeli troops at the Western Wall, awed and exhilarated at having liberated the Jewish holy site to which Jordan had forbidden access since 1949.

Forty-three years later, although plenty of people can see through the false guise of Islamic fundamentalists posing as "peace activists", decades of subtle and not-so-subtle bias against Israel by left-liberal media outlets has worked its mischief. Not only do such outlets give scant coverage to the Israeli governmental viewpoint, in many instances they ignore it altogether.

Inexplicably, Israel has been singularly maladroit in meeting this challenge. Once upon a time it had an effective and urbane spokesman in the late great Abba Eban, whose mother tongue was English. Then came an unfortunate period in which the voluble Hanan Ashwari made a personable communicator for the other side, while with the notable exception of Bibi Netanyahu a series of lacklustre spokesmen with a poor command of English were trotted out by Israel. It is, of course, in English, the lingua franca of our times, that the battle for hearts and minds is won or lost.

And while Israel now has a cogent and unflappable media spokesman in Mark Regev, his advocacy is not enough. Fine representatives of Israel's cause such as he can only be as effective as the airtime they are allowed. Israel's pressing need is for its own English-language television channel broadcasting to the world, a channel countering lies, misconceptions and distortions by detailing Israel's history and showing the true image of Israel's vibrant democracy and culture in all its aspects - not least the medical breakthroughs and humanitarian initiatives of which few people outside Israel are aware because a media obsessed with portraying a mere sliver of a country facing existential threat as a ruthless and imperialistic military leviathan seldom if ever reports such developments.

An English-language TV channel acting as the world's window on Israel would be expensive. But in a world which receives the bulk of its Israel-related news from the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera and Press TV, failure to go ahead with such a project will prove costly in ways that no friend of Israel would wish to contemplate.