"J'Accuse!": Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor's Latest Superb Speech To The UN

The United Nations' hypocrisy and double standards ... The shameful stance of the European Union ... Palestinian Statehood without peace ... Arab antisemitism ... Lies about Jerusalem ...

Listen to it, every impressive point of it.  Or, if you'd rather skip the video (20 minutes long), read the transcript, and relish every word.

For here is another superb presentation (24 November) of the truth by Israel's ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor:

"I stand before the world as a proud representative of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. I stand tall before you knowing that truth and morality are on my side.  And yet, I stand here knowing that today in this Assembly, truth will be turned on its head and morality cast aside.

The fact of the matter is that when members of the international community speak about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a fog descends to cloud all logic and moral clarity.  The result isn’t realpolitik, its surrealpolitik.

The world’s unrelenting focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an injustice to tens of millions of victims of tyranny and terrorism in the Middle East. As we speak, Yazidis, Bahai, Kurds, Christians and Muslims are being executed and expelled by radical extremists at a rate of 1,000 people per month.

How many resolutions did you pass last week to address this crisis?  And how many special sessions did you call for? The answer is zero. What does this say about international concern for human life?  Not much, but it speaks volumes about the hypocrisy of the international community.

I stand before you to speak the truth.  Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, less than half a percent are truly free – and they are all citizens of Israel.

Israeli Arabs are some of the most educated Arabs in the world. They are our leading physicians and surgeons, they are elected to our parliament, and they serve as judges on our Supreme Court.  Millions of men and women in the Middle East would welcome these opportunities and freedoms.

Nonetheless, nation after nation, will stand at this podium today and criticize Israel – the small island of democracy in a region plagued by tyranny and oppression....

Our conflict has never been about the establishment of a Palestinian state.  It has always been about the existence of the Jewish state.

Sixty seven years ago this week, on November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted to partition the land into a Jewish state and an Arab state. Simple. The Jews said yes.  The Arabs said no. But they didn’t just say no.  Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon launched a war of annihilation against our newborn state.

This is the historical truth that the Arabs are trying to distort. The Arabs’ historic mistake continues to be felt – in lives lost in war, lives lost to terrorism, and lives scarred by the Arab’s narrow political interests.

According to the United Nations, about 700,000 Palestinians were displaced in the war initiated by the Arabs themselves.  At the same time, some 850,000 Jews were forced to flee from Arab countries.

Why is it, that 67 years later, the displacement of the Jews has been completely forgotten by this institution while the displacement of the Palestinians is the subject of an annual debate?

The difference is that Israel did its utmost to integrate the Jewish refugees into society. The Arabs did just the opposite.

The worst oppression of the Palestinian people takes place in Arab nations.  In most of the Arab world, Palestinians are denied citizenship and are aggressively discriminated against.  They are barred from owning land and prevented from entering certain professions.

And yet none – not one – of these crimes are mentioned in the resolutions before you.

If you were truly concerned about the plight of the Palestinian people there would be one, just one, resolution to address the thousands of Palestinians killed in Syria.  And if you were so truly concerned about the Palestinians there would be at least one resolution to denounce the treatment of Palestinians in Lebanese refugee camps.

But there isn’t.  The reason is that today’s debate is not about speaking for peace or speaking for the Palestinian people – it is about speaking against Israel.  It is nothing but a hate and bashing festival against Israel....

The European nations claim to stand for Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité – freedom, equality, and brotherhood – but nothing could be farther from the truth.

I often hear European leaders proclaim that Israel has the right to exist in secure borders.   That’s very nice.  But I have to say – it makes about as much sense as me standing here and proclaiming Sweden’s right to exist in secure borders.

When it comes to matters of security, Israel learned the hard way that we cannot rely on others – certainly not Europe.

In 1973, on Yom Kippur – the holiest day on the Jewish calendar – the surrounding Arab nations launched an attack against Israel. In the hours before the war began, Golda Meir, our Prime Minister then, made the difficult decision not to launch a preemptive strike.   The Israeli Government understood that if we launched a preemptive strike, we would lose the support of the international community.

As the Arab armies advanced on every front, the situation in Israel grew dire. Our casualty count was growing and we were running dangerously low on weapons and ammunition.  In this, our hour of need, President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, agreed to send Galaxy planes loaded with tanks and ammunition to resupply our troops.  The only problem was that the Galaxy planes needed to refuel on route to Israel.

The Arab States were closing in and our very existence was threatened – and yet, Europe was not even willing to let the planes refuel.  The U.S. stepped in once again and negotiated that the planes be allowed to refuel in the Azores.

The government and people of Israel will never forget that when our very existence was at stake, only one country came to our aid – the United States of America.

Israel is tired of hollow promises from European leaders.  The Jewish people have a long memory.  We will never ever forget that you failed us in the 1940s.  You failed us in 1973.  And you are failing us again today.

Every European parliament that voted to prematurely and unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state is giving the Palestinians exactly what they want - statehood without peace.  By handing them a state on a silver platter, you are rewarding unilateral actions and taking away any incentive for the Palestinians to negotiate or compromise or renounce violence.  You are sending the message that the Palestinian Authority can sit in a government with terrorists and incite violence against Israel without paying any price.

The first E.U. member to officially recognize a Palestinian state was Sweden. One has to wonder why the Swedish Government was so anxious to take this step.  When it comes to other conflicts in our region, the Swedish Government calls for direct negotiations between the parties – but for the Palestinians, surprise, surprise, they roll out the red carpet.

State Secretary Söder may think she is here to celebrate her government’s so-called historic recognition, when in reality it’s nothing more than an historic mistake.

The Swedish Government may host the Nobel Prize ceremony, but there is nothing noble about their cynical political campaign to appease the Arabs in order to get a seat on the Security Council.  Nations on the Security Council should have sense, sensitivity, and sensibility.  Well, the Swedish Government has shown no sense, no sensitivity and no sensibility.  Just nonsense.

Israel learned the hard way that listening to the international community can bring about devastating consequences.  In 2005, we unilaterally dismantled every settlement and removed every citizen from the Gaza Strip. Did this bring us any closer to peace?  Not at all. It paved the way for Iran to send its terrorist proxies to establish a terror stronghold on our doorstep.

I can assure you that we won’t make the same mistake again.  When it comes to our security, we cannot and will not rely on others – Israel must be able to defend itself by itself....

The State of Israel is the land of our forefathers – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  It is the land where Moses led the Jewish people, where David built his palace, where Solomon built the Jewish Temple, and where Isaiah saw a vision of eternal peace.

For thousands of years, Jews have lived continuously in the land of Israel.  We endured through the rise and fall of the Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek and Roman Empires.  And we endured through thousands of years of persecution, expulsions and crusades.  The bond between the Jewish people and the Jewish land is unbreakable.

Nothing can change one simple truth –Israel is our home and Jerusalem is our eternal capital.

At the same time, we recognize that Jerusalem has special meaning for other faiths.  Under Israeli sovereignty, all people – and I will repeat that, all people - regardless of religion and nationality can visit the city’s holy sites.  And we intend to keep it this way.  The only ones trying to change the status quo on the Temple Mount are Palestinian leaders. 

President Abbas is telling his people that Jews are contaminating the Temple Mount.  He has called for days of rage and urged Palestinians to prevent Jews from visiting the Temple Mount using (quote) “all means” necessary.  These words are as irresponsible as they are unacceptable.

You don’t have to be Catholic to visit the Vatican, you don’t have to be Jewish to visit the Western Wall, but some Palestinians would like to see the day when only Muslims can visit the Temple Mount.

You, the international community, are lending a hand to extremists and fanatics. You, who preach tolerance and religious freedom, should be ashamed.  Israel will never let this happen.  We will make sure that the holy places remain open to all people of all faiths for all time....

No one wants peace more than Israel.  No one needs to explain the importance of peace to parents who have sent their child to defend our homeland.  No one knows the stakes of success or failure better than we Israelis do. The people of Israel have shed too many tears and buried too many sons and daughters.

We are ready for peace, but we are not naïve. Israel’s security is paramount. Only a strong and secure Israel can achieve a comprehensive peace.

The past month should make it clear to anyone that Israel has immediate and pressing security needs. In recent weeks, Palestinian terrorists have shot and stabbed our citizens and twice driven their cars into crowds of pedestrians.  Just a few days ago, terrorists armed with axes and a gun savagely attacked Jewish worshipers during morning prayers.  We have reached the point when Israelis can’t even find sanctuary from terrorism in the sanctuary of a synagogue.

These attacks didn’t emerge out of a vacuum.  They are the results of years of indoctrination and incitement.  A Jewish proverb teaches: “The instruments of both death and life are in the power of the tongue.”

As a Jew and as an Israeli, I know with utter certainly that when our enemies say they want to attack us, they mean it.

Hamas’s genocidal charter calls for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews worldwide.  For years, Hamas and other terrorist groups have sent suicide bombers into our cities, launched rockets into our towns, and sent terrorists to kidnap and murder our citizens.

And what about the Palestinian Authority?  It is leading a systemic campaign of incitement.  In schools, children are being taught that ‘Palestine’ will stretch from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.  In mosques, religious leaders are spreading vicious libels accusing Jews of destroying Muslim holy sites.  In sports stadiums, teams are named after terrorists.  And in newspapers, cartoons urge Palestinians to commit terror attacks against Israelis.

Children in most of the world grow up watching cartoons of Mickey Mouse singing and dancing.  Palestinian children also grow up watching Mickey Mouse, but on Palestinians national television, a twisted figure dressed as Mickey Mouse dances in an explosive belt and chants “Death to America and death to the Jews.”

I challenge you to stand up here today and do something constructive for a change.  Publicly denounce the violence, denounce the incitement, and denounce the culture of hate.

Most people believe that at its core, the conflict is a battle between Jews and Arabs or Israelis and Palestinians.  They are wrong.  The battle that we are witnessing is a battle between those who sanctify life and those who celebrate death.
Following the savage attack in a Jerusalem synagogue, celebrations erupted in Palestinian towns and villages.  People were dancing in the street and distributing candy.  Young men posed with axes, loudspeakers at mosques called out congratulations, and the terrorists were hailed as “martyrs” and “heroes.”

This isn’t the first time that we saw the Palestinians celebrate the murder of innocent civilians.  We saw them rejoice after every terrorist attack on Israeli civilians and they even took to the streets to celebrate the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center right here in New York City.

Imagine the type of state this society would produce.  Does the Middle East really need another terror-ocracy?  Some members of the international community are aiding and abetting its creation....
As we came into the United Nations, we passed the flags of all 193 member States. If you take the time to count, you will discover that there are 15 flags with a crescent and 25 flags with a cross.  And then there is one flag with a Jewish Star of David.  Amidst all the nations of the world there is one state – just one small nation state for the Jewish people.

And for some people, that is one too many.

As I stand before you today I am reminded of all the years when Jewish People paid for the world’s ignorance and indifference in blood.  Those days are no more.

We will never apologize for being a free and independent people in our sovereign state. And we will never apologize for defending ourselves.
 
o the nations that continue to allow prejudice to prevail over truth, I say “J’accuse.”

I accuse you of hypocrisy. I accuse you of duplicity.

I accuse you of lending legitimacy to those who seek to destroy our State.

I accuse you of speaking about Israel’s right of self-defense in theory, but denying it in practice.

And I accuse you of demanding concessions from Israel, but asking nothing of the Palestinians.

In the face of these offenses, the verdict is clear.  You are not for peace and you are not for the Palestinian people.  You are simply against Israel.

Members of the international community have a choice to make.

You can recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, or permit the Palestinian leadership to deny our history without consequence.

You can publicly proclaim that the so-called “claim of return” is a non-starter, or you can allow this claim to remain the major obstacle to any peace agreement.

You can work to end Palestinian incitement, or stand by as hatred and extremism take root for generations to come.

You can prematurely recognize a Palestinian state, or you can encourage the Palestinian Authority to break its pact with Hamas and return to direct negotiations.

The choice is yours. You can continue to steer the Palestinians off course or pave the way to real and lasting peace."

(Transcript from here)

"We Are Not Occupiers & We Are Not Settlers .... ": Israel's UN Ambassador Prosor

Below is Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, delivering a kickass speech a few days ago before the UN Security Council Emergency Session on Jerusalem:

The main points of his speech, as summarised here:

'It says a great deal that the international community is outraged when Jews build homes in Jerusalem, but doesn’t say a word when Jews are murdered for living in Jerusalem. Throughout history, Jerusalem has been the capital for one people and only one people – the Jewish People.

 •    I am here to convey one simple truth. The people of Israel are not occupiers and we are not settlers. Israel is our home and Jerusalem is the eternal capital of our sovereign state. 

•    There are many threats in the Middle East, but the presence of Jewish homes in the Jewish homeland has never been one of them.

•    It says a great deal that the international community is outraged when Jews build homes in Jerusalem, but doesn’t say a word when Jews are murdered for living in Jerusalem. The hypocrisy is appalling. 

•    Throughout history, Jerusalem has been the capital for one people and only one people – the Jewish People.

•    Jerusalem is central to our identity and our tradition. The holy city is named more than 900 times in the Bible. On holidays we sing לשנה הבאה בירושלים – "Next year in Jerusalem."

For thousands of years, through persecution and massacres, expulsions and crusades, blood libels and pogroms, Jews turned their hearts in prayer towards Jerusalem. The connection between the Jewish People and our capital cannot be denied. 

•    The Palestinians and others have had the audacity to accuse us of trying to alter the historic Jewish character of our ancient city. Really? The truth of the matter is that Jerusalem had a Jewish character long before most cities in the world had any character. It was the capital of the Jewish People long before Homer composed the Iliad, before Romulus and Remus founded Rome, and before the armies of Alexander the Great swept across the Middle East. Jerusalem is steeped in Jewish history. 

•    Earlier this month, he [Palestinian President Abbas] called on Palestinians to prevent Jews from visiting the Temple Mount using (quote) “all means” necessary. Are these the words of a leader committed to making peace?

•    The video of his hateful remarks was broadcast on official Palestinian Authority television 19 times in three days – 19 times in three days. The results of these inflammatory remarks were almost immediate. Hundreds of Arabs rioted in Jerusalem damaging the light rail system and a Hamas terrorist deliberately drove full speed onto a Jerusalem train platform and killed two people. Did President Abbas express outrage or remorse over the senseless killings?  Of course not. He couldn’t even muster the courage to denounce an attack that left a three-month-old baby dead.

Rather than trying to extinguish the flames of conflict, the Palestinian leadership is adding fuel to the fire. First they incite violence on the Temple Mount and then they run to the Security Council to complain about the consequences. If this isn't manufacturing a crisis, I don't know what is. 

•    Following Israel’s victory in 1967, Israel reunited Jerusalem. Since then, all people - and I mean all people – regardless of religion and nationality can visit the city’s holy sites. 

And while we were victorious and assumed control over all of Jerusalem, Israel extended a hand in peace to the Muslim world. According to the status quo brokered between Israel and the Waqf [the Islamic religious authority], Muslims would enjoy access to pray at their holy sites, while all other religions would be allowed access to the Temple Mount.

Israel went one step further and decided that Jews would not be allowed to pray on the site. I want to make sure you understand this. The Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest place, but we were willing to restrict our own freedoms for the sake of peace. Can you think of another nation that would make this compromise? Can you think of another religion that would make this sacrifice?

 Today, Jerusalem under Israeli authority is united for Muslims, united for Christians, and united for Jews.  As Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated this week (and I quote), "We are maintaining the status quo and allowing everyone access to the holy places, and we will continue to do so." 

Israel is doing everything in its power to minimize tensions. Even when riots break out, Israeli security forces, acting in coordination with the Jordanian government, refrain from entering the mosque and its courtyard unless there is an imminent threat to the site and its visitors. 

The Palestinians, on the other hand, are doing everything in their power to inflame tensions. The Waqf has violated the status quo agreement by restricting access to Judaism’s holiest place – the place where we believe that God began the act of creation, where Abraham brought his son Isaac, and where Jacob fell asleep and dreamed of angels. 

Today a Jew who wishes to visit this sacred site is threatened with violence. But you don't have to take my word for it. Earlier this month, Hanan Ashrawi, a prominent member of the PLO Executive Committee, said that allowing Jews to visit the Temple Mount is a "declaration of war against Islam."  

There are the irresponsible words of a person trying to ignite a religious war. You don’t have to be a Catholic to visit the Vatican. You don’t have to be a Jew to visit the Western Wall. But the Palestinians would like to see the day when the Temple Mount is only open to Muslims – and that will not take place.

•    It is time for the Palestinians to realize that the children of Abraham - all the children of Abraham – Jews, Christians and Muslims alike
– are not doomed to live together in war, but rather destined to live together in peace. 

•    And so today I issue this promise from the people of the Promised Land - under our watch, Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people, will remain a free and open city for all people and for all time.'

"There Are No Bystanders To History": Steven Spielberg on remembering the Holocaust (video)

At the UN General Assembly on Monday:

 Read more about that and about Ron Prosor's speech here
A thought-provoking article by Caroline Glick here

Anti-Israel Activity on British Campuses

The Israeli Ambassador to the Court of St James, Ron Prosor, who in my humble opinion, and that of countless others, is a truly superb envoy (one of the very best that his country could possibly field, especially to the hub of Israel delegitimisation that is Londonistan) has in a speech to the Royal Institute of International Affairs (aka Chatham House) described the "hate and hypocrisy" towards Israel at British universities as being at an all-time high. See http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/47183/ron-prosor-israel-hate-uk-universities-worst-ever

Anti-Israel activity at such London campuses as LSE and SOAS has been well documented, and today the case of a provincial university is the focus of an incisive essay on the CiF Watch site: http://cifwatch.com/2011/03/30/a-case-study-in-anti-semitism-within-british-academia/#comments

"Arrest Ron Prosor! ... He represents an apartheid state" (video)

Oh no he doesn't, guys and gals!

Clearly, these Israel-defaming whooping, screaming, scoffing deniers of free speech protesting Israel Ambassador to the UK Ron Prosor's visit to Edinburgh University at the invitation of the university's Politics Society on 21 February need to read my previous post, "Beware the Lies of March".

At least Mr Prosor's talk passed off without too much in the way of incident, unlike Ishmael Khaldi's recently.  See:
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/45714/ron-prosor-ignores-silent-palestinian-protest

“You’re a Filthy Tory Jew”

Here’s video footage of a student protest in Manchester on 29 January against the Coalition government’s policy on tuition fees , in which marchers hurl abuse at National Union of Students’ president Aaron Porter.

Notice how chants of “Aaron Porter, we know you, you’re a f*cking Tory too” quickly morph, amid laughter, into “You’re a filthy Tory Jew”.

The fact that Mr Porter is not, in fact, Jewish, and whether or not the marchers knew that, is immaterial.

The fact that such taunts are chanted on the streets of Britain today is deeply shameful, and shows the depths to which some extreme leftists – no less fascistic than the extreme right, be it remembered – are prepared to sink. 

I wonder how many of the raucous angry people screaming antisemitic abuse at Porter are also in the vanguard of the repulsive delegitimisation movement against the Jewish State.

I wonder, too, how many of them read that darling of the left, the increasingly judeophobic Guardian, about which Israel's ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, wrote so aptly this week – a must-read; he has the measure of the Guardian down pat: it's out-Hamasing Hamas!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-prosor/the-guardians-assault-on-_b_817701.html

The Sad Old State of Cloud Cuckoo Land – British Jews, the Right, and Islamophobia

The Reform Club is a famous gentlemen’s club in the heart of London’s Clubland. Founded in 1836 by Whigs and Liberals, the kind of people responsible for the Great Reform Act of 1832 that swept away "rotten boroughs" and enfranchised the (male) urban middle class, it looks very much as it did in this illustration of 1840, except that some of the women there nowadays are members in their own right rather than members’ guests. The fictional Phileas Fogg’s celebrated journey in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days started from the Reform Club, and the club’s sumptuous interior has served as the backdrop for a number of movies – I recognise it in early scenes in The Bounty, starring Anthony Hopkins as Captain Bligh and Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian – and I know it has featured in others since then.

It was at the Reform Club that I once had tea with a Jewish former MP, Harold Soref (pictured, 1916-93) as his guest, seated in a corner of a library where ladies were permitted. Soref was, indeed, a most unlikely member of a club stocked with marble busts and oil paintings of the great and good of the Liberal Party – Cobden, Bright, Daniel O’Connell, Gladstone, and the rest – for he was known as the most rightwing Tory MP in the House, and there are rumours (I’ve never got to the bottom of them) that as a youngster he’d been a member of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists. After two unsuccessful attempts to enter Parliament in the 1950s, he became Conservative MP for Ormskirk in 1970, only to lose his seat in 1974 owing to boundary changes that assured Labour of victory.

A proudly loyal Jew, he was on the Council of the Anglo-Jewish Association and from 1947-51 he’d edited its fiercely anti-Zionist periodical, The Jewish Monthly. He also contributed articles on Anglo- and Commonwealth Jewish history to a number of journals. In the British Museum (now the British Library) I’d read some of his old anti-Zionist editorials, which were based, among other considerations, on the fear, common among right-wingers at the time he wrote them, that Israel would be a puppet of the Soviet Union, abetting that country's rivalry to British interests in the Middle East. However, in 1973, at the time of the Yom Kippur War, when the Heath government despicably refused to supply spare parts for British-made Israeli tanks, Soref had joined most other Jewish Conservative MPs as well as a few non-Jewish ones in crossing the floor to vote with the Opposition over the issue.

I was interested to learn, during our conversation at the Reform Club, that he’d visited Israel not long after Independence was declared, along with another Jewish future Conservative MP (whose subsequent marriage to a Christian provoked a pointed article from Soref – who never married at all – on intermarriage, headed, if I recall correctly, "Bad Jews and Mad Jews"). And it was clear that his anti-Zionism had been laid to rest by events. Perceiving Israel’s interests to have dovetailed with Britain’s, he was agreeably pro-Israel, and when I asked him what he thought of the wisdom of this or that Israeli policy he refused to be drawn, declaring emphatically: "It’s all very well for me, sitting in the comfort of this club, to presume to tell the Israeli government what to do!" (Quite so. Got that, Mick Davis?)

Soref headed a firm of Africa merchants founded by his Romanian-born father and uncle; he greatly feared the spread of communism in Africa and was an unswerving apologist for white rule there. This made him anathema in most Jewish circles – and in leftwing ones generally. In 1974 he had to scale a six-foot wall to escape a mob of howling students yelling “Death to Soref!” when he arrived to speak as scheduled at the Oxford Union. And he was apparently the intended target of IRA gunmen who, lying in wait outside his London home, killed a man who looked similar to him.

Following increasingly fraught relations with other members, Soref at length resigned from the Board of Deputies of British Jews in protest at its pursuit of alliances with other minority groups – he vehemently argued that Anglo-Jewry’s place was with what he called "the indigenous people" of Britain, whom he felt were betrayed by mass immigration and given a raw deal by "the race relations industry", and he maintained that it was futile to forge links with ethnic groups who were no true friends to Jews anyway. An "Empire loyalist", he was staunchly opposed to Britain’s membership of the Common Market – let alone the EU – holding that it was a betrayal of the Commonwealth and of Britain’s interests. At his memorial service in Westminster Synagogue the address was given by Enoch Powell, whose views on non-white immigration to Britain and its consequences, as on so many other matters, were matched by Soref’s.

Soref remains a controversial figure; Jews on the political right would probably not wish to be thought to resemble him, while those on the political left continue to demonise him. For example, in a recent biographical dictionary of Jewish MPs in Britain, of which the Labour life peer Lord Janner of Braunstone is a co-author, his entry contains a scathing value judgment unworthy of such a work, as well as politically-loaded factual inaccuracies.

I thought of Soref today, when I read on the Jewish Chronicle’s website (thejc.com) that a new parliamentary group, of which Conservative MP Kris Hopkins is chairman and Lord Janner (pictured) is a co-vice-chairman, established to tackle Islamophobia has – though evidently not without misgivings from its LibDem co-vice-chairman, Simon Hughes – been shamed into curtailing its foolish ties with Engage, an explicitly anti-Zionist Muslim organisation that has also defended radical Muslim preachers and opposed moderate Muslim groups concerned about Islamist extremism, following an exposé of Engage by former Conservative MP Paul Goodman (the Roman Catholic son of Jewish parents) in the Conservative Home website that he edits.

To quote the JC:

‘In June, Mohammed Asif, chief executive of Engage, wrote to Education Secretary Michael Gove to express his opposition to Zionism being taught in Jewish schools. "Zionism is not part of the Jewish faith," he wrote. "It is a political ideology which has its roots in the works of Theodor Herzl and subsequent ideologues that have advanced the idea of a national struggle to establish a homeland for the Jews in the modern era."

The Engage website described Sunday Telegraph reporter Andrew Gilligan as “deranged” after he raised questions about whether the organisation was independent enough to perform the functions of secretariat to the all-party group. In recent years the group has defended the right of radical Muslim preachers to come to Britain and express their views and opposed the ban on extremist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir from university campuses.

Engage has also challenged those who condemned the Muslim Council of Britain’s Daud Abdullah for signing the Istanbul Declaration, which urged attacks on the British navy.

One comment on the Engage post announcing the establishment of the Islamophobia group said: “Jews and Christian scholars, the so called Western Orientals have always tried to mispresent Islam in their writings. They have always tried to spread baseless lies against Islam in a very authentic and scholarly style, hiding their deep rooted hatred against Islam.”’

According to the Tel Aviv-based Reut Institute (and it’s not wrong!), London has become a “Mecca of Delegitimisation” – a hub of hate for proponents of a concerted assault on Israel’s very right to exist – composed of a “Red-Green Alliance” of hard leftists and Islamists who liaise with like-minded groups throughout Europe (or Eurabia, as it's been dubbed by the Egyptian-born writer Gisèle Littman – aka Bat Ye’or). In 1973, Soref was already warning that London was home to some 50 revolutionary movements – a prophet ahead of his time, effectively anticipating Melanie Phillips’s characterisation of the British capital as “Londonistan”.

Some Jews, fed up with the current situation, and heeding an English Defence League (EDL) call to help "lead the counter-Jihad fight in England", have joined the so-called Jewish Division of the EDL, an organisation widely seen as composed at its core of football hooligans and National Front types.

'An exasperated friend tells me his father, a fearsome Jewish anti-Fascist in his day, now spouts near-the-knuckle canards about "illegal immigrants" and "asylum seekers". This phenomenon is known as "pulling up the ladder" – as each wave of migrants grows to feel at home "aboard" their new country they identify evermore with the host community, sharing in its resentment towards newcomers and not recognising any empathetic connection with their own historical experience", the Daily Telegraph blogger Julian Kossoff has observed blogs.telegraph.co.uk/.../the-english-defence-league-the-jewish-division-and- the-useful-idiots/:

'But when I heard that there were Jews actively supporting the English Defence League (EDL), I thought: "pull the other one". The EDL claims to stand up for Englishness against Islamic extremism, but in truth it is largely a hodgepodge of football hooligans, lumpen boot-boys and cast-offs from seedy neo-Nazi outfits, such as Combat 18.

....While many in the Jewish community have understandable concerns about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism – so often streaked through with virulent anti-Semitism – it is important to remember that the EDL are not our friends. They are part of the problem, not the solution.'

The EDL’s avowed support for Israel and brandishing of the Israeli flag at anti-Islam rallies has met an icy reception from communal leaders. Mark Gardner, communications director of the Community Security Trust, has observed: "The EDL intimidate entire Muslim communities, causing tension and fear. Jews ought to remember that we have long experience of being on the receiving end of this kind of bigotry." Similarly, Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies, has said:

"The EDL's supposed 'support' for Israel is empty and duplicitous. It is built on a foundation of Islamophobia and hatred which we reject entirely. Sadly, we know only too well what hatred for hatred's sake can cause. The overwhelming majority will not be drawn in by this transparent attempt to manipulate a tense political conflict."

Certainly, the fact that, following the poppy-burning ceremony on Armistice Day (11 November) by a group of Islamist extremists linked to firebrand extremist Anjem Choudary, the mosque in Portsmouth, which was in no way associated with the poppy-burners, was surrounded by EDL members and daubed with graffiti, lends credence to the view that the EDL consists largely of racist thugs.

But while holding aloof from it is one thing, holding aloof from all denunciations of Islamic extremism is quite another. The antisemitism spawned by a diabolical alliance of leftists and Islamists must be robustly countered – why, only last evening there was yet another grotesque antisemitic meeting on a British campus, as an Islamic extremist, Abdel Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper (who in 2007 had declared on MEMRI TV "By Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight if the Iranian missiles strike Israel") addressed the theme "How much influence does the Zionist lobby exert in the US and UK?" During the lecture he allegedly accused Jewish students of "bombing Gaza", referred to the "Jewish lobby" and refused to condemn Hamas: "Would you want me to condemn those who are resisting the occupation?" ("To invite Atwan to a British university should be inconceivable”, says Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor. "That in 2010, situations are allowed to develop where Jews are called 'Nazis' on British campuses, should appal and concern Britons in equal measure.")www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/42342/police-probe-antisemitic-speech-lse

"It is surely high time for Diaspora leaders to stop living in denial and get their act together. Instead of competing with each other in oozing political correctness, they should display some backbone and call a spade a spade," Isi Leibler has observed – and, boy, Anglo-Jewry desperately needs a leader of his vision and calibre! What a sorry lot most of them are!

'We are currently witnessing the greatest revival of global anti-Semitism since the Middle Ages. This permeates all classes of society, and, ranging from academics to illiterates and European leaders who retain office despite making unabashed neo-Nazi remarks about Jews to mobs at anti-Israeli demonstrations carrying placards "gas the Jews".

It encompasses the entire political spectrum, but is spearheaded by liberals and Muslims. Muslim radicals relate to Israel in a manner reminiscent of the Church’s medieval attitude toward the Jews. They promote popular TV programs depicting the blood of Muslim children being used for baking matzot, and have revived The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a best-seller. They certainly compare favorably with the worst Nazi Jew baiting, with imams quoting genocidal religious texts to the faithful, inciting them to murder Jews, "the descendants of apes and pigs".

It is macabre to observe the alliance between liberals and jihadists who represent the antithesis of everything the Left purports to represent. The extremist Islamists are the most reactionary elements in the world. They reject fundamental human rights, proscribe freedom of expression and religion, promote the degradation of women and, to this day, implement barbaric laws including stoning of adulterers and homosexuals and the amputation of limbs for petty crimes. More than 50 Muslim countries deny Judaism or Christianity equal standing with Islam....

Alas, Jews who exaggerate the presence of Islamophobia become leading proponents of the campaign to sanitize and understate Islamic extremism. This is especially bizarre, given that Jews, especially in Europe, but also increasingly in the US, are facing far greater threats of violence than Muslims. It is also synagogues, rather than mosques, which are continuously being desecrated and vandalized, in many cases by Islamists.

In that context, the relative tranquility which Muslims experience in Western societies is a great tribute to tolerance – a tolerance unlikely to have been extended to Jews in similar circumstances. Imagine the response if Israel had a track record like some of the Arab states, or if Jews in Western countries were blowing up their neighbors.

While genuine interfaith relations are to be commended, many Jews persist in engaging in "dialogue" with Muslim organizations that refuse to dissociate themselves from hard-line Islamic attitudes. Some of the leading Saudi groups promoting international interfaith conferences are directly engaged in the promotion of anti-Semitism, yet Jews participating in these bogus meetings naively babble on about love and coexistence and ignore realities. By doing so, Jews undermine the few moderate Muslims courageous enough to speak up.

All religions incorporate texts and concepts which encourage violence and aggression, but it is the interpretation by religious leaders that determines actual behavior. Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism today are overwhelmingly supportive of peace, and seek coexistence while condemning extremists.

In contrast, only a few Islamic moderates have the courage to criticize extremism within their own circles. Those brave enough to do so are marginalized, condemned by their kinsmen, and their lives are frequently endangered. The overwhelming majority remains silent or defends the Islamic excesses of Islamic regimes.... There is indeed a desperate need to encourage moderate Muslims. But appeasing the extremists and groveling to Muslim bullies merely emboldens them. There is not a single instance in history in which appeasing religious fanatics of any faith has brought about progress. If we allow ourselves to be intimidated or fail to confront Islamist jihadists, they will succeed in destroying the very tenets of our civilization.

This is an area in which Jews, who have the most to lose, must surely stand up and be counted."
www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=189444