Forget Beinart, forget BDS. UK trade with Israel is up 34% on last year.
Get out and buy Israeli goods. You’ve no excuse. Loads of Passover stuff comes from Israel.
If you don’t celebrate Passover, buy anyway!
Category: Other (Page 4 of 17)
The blatant misreporting and misrepresentation of Israel’s self-defensive action against rocket fire from Gaza continues to be a national disgrace.
There’s something very rotten in the State of the BBC’s Middle East desk on its news website.
Only today did the continuing murderous barrage of southern Israel which puts a million lives at risk, not to mention property and treasure, actually make it to the website’s home page. Although even that small mention now seems to have disappeared.
And what was the headline to direct us to this sudden escalation in rocket fire from Gaza which has seen over 200 missiles launched since Friday? Was it “Miltitants in Gaza launch rocket barrage against southern Israel’?
Not bloody likely. This is the BBC, remember and they seem only interested, for the sake of balance, of course, to highlight Israel’s response in defence of its citizens.
‘Israel launches fresh airstrikes on Gaza’
This was the disgusting headline.
“Israeli (sic) says almost 100 rockets fired from Gaza have struck Israel since the exchange of fire began.”
Subtle, no? Israel ‘says’ – after all, you take what Israel ‘says’ with a strong dose of scepticism, no? And ‘since the exchange of fire’. Thus, in a sentence, neutralising and sanitising the assault on Israel and characterising it as morally equivalent that Israel’s fire, in response to the rockets, is somehow a justification for the rocket fire from the Gaza side. So, once again, cause and response are turned on their head.
In fact, the report lies and implies that Israel is responsible for the escalation:
“The latest flare-up began on Friday when an Israeli air strike on a car in Gaza City killed militant commander Zohair al-Qaisi, secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), and two of his associates.”
What it does not mention is that al-Qaisi was plotting a terrorist attack. When the British or Americans take out terrorist leaders in Afghanistan that is justified but because the BBC is ‘neutral’ about the Israel-Palestine conflict and terrorists are ‘activists’ or ‘militants’, taking them out is an ‘escalation’ not a defensive act.
The Arab League, which has proved useless in preventing the horrors in Homs in Syria, characterised the 15 deaths of terrorists and rocket firers as a ‘massacre’. I wonder what the minimum number of Palestinians is to be called a ‘massacre’ ? 5? 10? In Syria it appears to be several hundred. Are innocent Syrian lives worth so much less than Palestinian militants in the debased arithmetic of the Arab world?
And just to show how even-handed the BBC is, what picture do they show us? The school in Beersheva hit by a rocket? No, they show us the results of an airstrike on Rafah where one person was killed.
UN spokesman Richard Miron called the situation in Gaza “very fragile and unsustainable”.
“We deplore the fact that civilians are once again paying the price,” he said.
I wonder whose civilians he means? Could it be the 1 million Israelis who are indiscriminately targeted by rockets and mortars? Or those in Gaza who are unfortunate enough to pay the price for the actions of groups who care nothing for the safety of their own fellow citizens? Maybe he means both? But I doubt it.
And whilst Israel closes its schools (and it’s lucky it did, as one rocket hit a school in Beersheva as I mentioned above) to protect its children, in Gaza, no doubt as has always been the case, schoolyards and hospitals, mosques and residential areas are used as bases for rocket launchers with the callous, deliberate and cynical hope that Israel will strike and injure or kill ‘martyrs’ and bring opprobrium on itself.
It is instructive to muse what would be the situation if Israel were Syria and Netanyahu Assad. What response would there be to hundreds of rockets aimed at civilians? Israel’s restraint is in gross contrast to Assad’s brutal massacre of his own people. Indeed, as the rockets rained down, Israel was discussing how to continue to deliver humanitarian aid through its crossings.
Assad, lays a real siege to his own people cutting off electricity and starving the populace whilst Israel feeds its enemies and provides them with the wherewithal to live.
Yet, no doubt, sooner or later, the UN will be stirring itself to condemn Israel for defending itself
I’m off topic.
This morning I had the considerable privilege and pleasure to be entertained, because it was a performance when all is said and done, by Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks at the plenary of the Jewish Representative Council of Manchester and Region.
Lord Sacks was accompanied by Lady Sacks.
So entertained was I that I am moved to write a little something about Lord Sacks’ address.
Without notes and with disarming and engaging charm the Chief Rabbi took us through his achievements of 20 years in office. Indeed, with the very greatest respect to his predecessor, Lord Jacobowitz, it’s hard to remember a time when Jonathan Sacks was not Chief Rabbi. Indeed, the younger generation has grown up knowing only this one Chief Rabbi.
It is a little ironic that the proceeding began with Lord Sacks reading the opening prayer followed by the prayer for the Royal Famoly, a somewhat unusual event outside of a synagogue on Shabbat. Yet, this year and this month marks a milestone in the Queen’s reign and it was thought appropriate to read it. So who more apt than the Chief Rabbi whose reign, as it were, is also long and distinguished?
Unlike Her Majesty, Lord Sacks does not wish to carry on past retirement age. An amazingly youthful and trim Lord Sacks belies his years. However, when asked what he will do in his retirement he seemed a little non-plussed. He may be retiring from office but it’s not pipe and slippers for Dr Sacks.
In former times 65 seemed already pretty much old-age. Not now. Dr Sacks told us he had written 24 books and feels there are another 24 in him. His ‘retirement’ will be no such thing. In fact, he will work much harder teaching, writing, lecturing like an elder statesman.
When asked if he had any say in his successor the Chief Rabbi was adamant that not only does he not want anything to do with that choice but he believes it is wrong for him to have that choice. The next Chief should reinvent the role, not have to don the very large shoes left behind by the present incumbent.
Dr Sacks told us that at one time no-one really understood the role of the Chef Rabbi and there is in the office of the Chief Rabbinate a Victorian newspaper clip (I think it was if I recall accurately) which described the then Chief Rabbi as the ‘High Priest of the Jews’. Of course, he is no such thing, and the writer showed considerable ignorance of that role in Jewish history. Dr Sacks quipped that far from being the High Priest, he was more often the scapegoat that the High Priest would send into the desert in biblical times.
His best one-liner came as he was asked about his successor. He began his answer by referring to ‘he’ then said ‘I assume it will be a “he”‘, to much laughter from the audience.
The whole performance bespoke a man at the height of his powers, at ease with himself, grateful to the community and even, in a very unexpected and moving moment, grateful to his wife without whom, he said, ‘not a single day would have been possible’.
It all made me wonder why he is retiring, but then I realised that for a man like Jonathan Sacks, and he should live to 120, reaching 65 as he will shortly, must make him even more determined to fill his life with service and mitzvot, but just as importantly, to ensure to the best of his ability that the next generation of religious leaders are properly equipped to deal with the challenges of this century and not look back on or regress to the habits of the last.
Dr Sacks has been a Chief Rabbi covering the opening and closing decades of two centuries. I cannot imagine anyone remotely equalling his achievements and popularity, despite controversy and criticism.
I wish him and his wife, Elaine, well when they begin a new phase in their life next year.
Kol HaKovod, Yesher Koach vHatzlacha rabah.
Post Scriptum
Chief Rabbis featured in my early life; when I was about six I had a plastic canoe and inside were three Red Indians, one with a large headdress. When my mother asked me what the names of these three were I answered thus: “Chief Sitting Bull, Chief Geronimo..”, then coming to the third wearing the headdress, after a little pause “… Chief Rabbi”.
I was barmitzvah at St John’s Wood synagogue in London. As I rose to read my portion, facing me, either side of the Oren Kodesh were the Emeritus Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie and the incumbent Immanuel Jacobowitz.
You try doing your barmitzvah piece with two Chief Rabbis looking on!
According to the BBC, Islamists in Egypt have won the election.
All the warnings about Islamists and the Arab Spring which were so poo-poohed by over-optimistic Western leaders seem to be coming true.
Tunisia, the first country to experience a revolution, also returned an Islamist government which saw fit to invite Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to Tunis as a baying mob shouted ‘Kill the Jews’. Nice.
It is almost a year since I sat watching the upheaval in Egypt in my hotel bedroom TV in Eilat, Israel. I was impressed but cynical. I hoped the true secular democrats would win. I feared they would not. I also noticed the many banners which accused Mubarak of being a Zionist and others which said unpleasant things about Israel and Jews.
Israel was criticised for not embracing the changes across the region. Any suggestion by its politicians or supporters that this was an opportunity to unleash forces that had been held under control by dictators, was dismissed as Israel being a country that claimed to be a democracy but would deny such freedoms for its neighbours.
Soon after President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, Prime Minister David Cameron flew to Egypt to join in the crowds in Tahrir Square declaring how happy he was to see the Egyptian people free at last.
The BBC reported at that time the following:
He said Egypt had a “great opportunity” to push for democracy.
“This is a great opportunity for us to go and talk to those currently running Egypt to make sure this really is a genuine transition from military rule to civilian rule, and see what friendly countries like Britain and others in Europe can do to help.”
How naive was that. It’s typical of a government that is purblind to the real intentions of the Palestinian Authority to engage in the politics of wishful thinking.
If Cameron was so ignorant about the almost certain outcome of a democratic election in Egypt installing the Muslim Brotherhood as the party of government (and joined by a hefty number of Salafist extremists, apparently), then his and his government’s belief that the PA is moderate, just because they would like it be true, is pretty much indicative of the politics of hope and delusion that is now endemic in Europe.
But it is more toxic than delusion.
If you see events in the Middle East through a haze of hope instead of clear-eyed reality you can assert that the impasse in the Israel-Palestine peace negotiations are due to Israeli incalcitrance and the settlements, and not Palestinian rejectionism and Jew-hatred.
You also get involved in the hypocrisy of a UK government, as part of NATO, helping rebel Libyans to unseat a government that it and its predecessors have been cosying up to in order to protect their commercial interests.
It leads to the Gibson Inquiry into claims, as reported by the Daily Mail and othersthat:
MI6 was involved in the illegal transfer of two Libyans into the hands of Colonel Gaddafi.
Democrats are only worth supporting, it seems, when they have a chance of success. Otherwise, tyrants will do just fine.
So Mr Cameron should return to Egypt and Tahrir Square to view the new Egypt, the Egypt of reality where pipelines to Israel are blown up by out of control Hamas supporters in the Sinai, where the Israeli embassy can be attacked with almost lethal consequences, where international peace agreements are likely to be dishonoured.
I happen to be old enough to remember the last great victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt: the assassination of President Sadat who was bold enough to make peace with Israel and perhaps because he did so.
As a result the Brotherhood was suppressed and its activities deemed illegal.
Now it has won. It was the long game for the Brotherhood just is it is for the PA.
So, off you go, Mr Prime Minister, go and see the new Egypt and tell us now about that opportunity for democracy you saw last year.
It’s the same democracy that elects Hamas in Gaza or Ghannouchi in Tunisia.
It’s a strange democracy indeed where the people vote to be enthralled by religious fanatics in place of hardline military dictatorships.
Maybe they need a lesson in democracy from Mr Hague and Mr Cameron; or why not send Cleggy; after all, he is now an expert on the Middle East.
No doubt Mr Cameron will express his hope that the Brotherhood will be democratic and ‘moderate’. Then Hague will announce that it is in Britain’s vital interest to do business with the new regime in Cairo.
Yes, moderate; maybe only 50,000 Christians will have to flee the country this year instead of the 100,000 that left last year.
If there are 50,000 left, that is.
Those who risked their life to save Jews during the Shoah are almost by definition extraordinary human beings.
One such is “Mademoiselle” Andree Geulen.
These ‘righteous among the nations’ are honoured in Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem national Holocaust memorial.
I had not heard of Andree Geulen before. I have now.
She has just celebrated her 90th birthday,
I defy you not to shed a tear when you watch and listen to this amazing tribute to her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QR6PC74–1s
H/T @margieintelaviv
My wife shops near her school Fridays to get bread and stuff for Shabbat from the Jewish baker.
She then goes next door to the newsagent to get her Jewish papers.
The owners are devout Muslims.
They are always friendly, polite, respectful.
However, you never really know what they think of their Jewish clientele, after all, business is business, no?
Today I drove my wife to collect the bread and get the papers.
I stood beside her as she took the local Jewish paper to the counter where the young (20 something) son of the owner was serving.
On the front page was a huge picture of Gilad Shalit.
This is what the young man said, verbatim, unprompted:
“Thank God he is home safe”.
I don’t know why but I fill up just thinking about that.
We were both speechless. We expected a polite ignoring of this story, after all, why should he care? We always presume that the sympathy would be only with the Palestinians.
I was reluctant to tell this story that had moved me. Was it patronising or discourteous to Muslims to somehow believe they would not be relieved at the release of a young man? A Jew. An Israeli. Did it say more about my prejudices than those I am subscribing to them?
A Muslim friend advised me that it was a good story to tell. It shows us that if we really spoke to each other more, we might surprise each other.
Chag Sameach.
*Readers’ warning: some of these tales have been ever so slightly embellished for comic effect.
Well, this is a first for me: blogging from my succah.
Succot is just about my favourite festival. To any outsider the rituals of Succot (or Succos if you like) seem strange to say the least and give rise to many an amusing incident.
If you are not familiar with the festival please see the information at the end of this blog.
Succahs take many shapes and forms. Ours, as you can see on the right, is made of a metal frame and canvas walls with the roof made from bamboo slats. Other building and roofing materials are available.
A succah is a temporary dwelling but some people have permanent structures which are used for other purposes during the rest of the year. One such structure is my rabbi’s garden shed:
The Tale of the Rabbi’s Succah
My rabbi’s succah is a converted garden shed which can seat a surprising number of people. The roof has been specially adapted so that, using a cantilevered pulley system, it splits in two like the Space Shuttle’s payload bay and is then tied down to reveal the ‘schach’, the roof covering, which is straw thatch but must be sufficiently ‘porous’ to allow starlight to penetrate.
Some years ago, with the succah roof fully opened to a clear autumnal sky, the rabbi’s doorbell rang.
On opening the front door both the bell-ringer and the rabbi were surprised. The bell-ringer was not expecting a tall dark figure with a flowing beard, and the rabbi was confronted by a complete stranger rather than the half-expected visitation of a member of his congregation.
“Good evening,” said the bell-ringer, unfazed, “can I have look through your telescope?”
The Tale of the Succah and the Blitz
A good friend of mine tells me that his grandparents lived in the East End during the War. As observant Jews they would always build a succah for the Succot festival.
One night, the Jews of the East End, along with everyone else, had to take shelter in a different sort of temporary dwelling: the London Underground.
They lay huddled in a tunnel listening to the now all too familiar sound of the percussion of bombs and the shuddering of the ground above their heads.
Nothing could prepare them for the sight which met them on returning to ground level after the all-clear sirens.
Amidst burning rubble lay the ruins of their house.
Only one object was left standing: the funny little hut with its slatted roof.
My friend’s grandfather’s succah had survived the Blitz
The Tale of the Succah as a political symbol
As I look out into the garden I have noticed that everyday my succah is leaning further and further to the right. The gradient of the garden and the prevailing winds play havoc with its stability.
Is the succah like me I wonder? Am I, too, inclining further to the Right as I get older, buffeted by the prevailing winds of the new political orthodoxy and succumbing to the slippery slope of Neo-Con thinking? Am I gradually losing all contact with my socialist upbringing?
Then I enter the succah and look out. From this viewpoint my succah is leaning to the left.
So I guess the list of a succah depends on where you are standing, just like a political viewpoint, all is relative to the person doing the looking.
The Tale of the Succah Crawls
In years gone by it was a tradition in the community that between the morning service and mincha in the afternoon we would congregate at the rabbi’s succah and then plot a course through the neighbourhood visiting each others’ succah.
Each succah owner, or rather the wife of each owner, would prepare a little feast of pop, biscuits, fruit and cake. The group of itinerant succah crawlers would be accompanied by children who would be asked to make the correct blessing on each type of food whilst the men (and women) would each have a ‘l’chaim’ or two and enjoy a chat.
As the crawl proceeded, rather like its non-Jewish inspiration, the ‘pub crawl’, the ‘crawlers’ became increasingly convivial as the toll of whiskies, kosher liqueurs and assorted alcoholic beverages whose provenance could often be traced to the duty-free shops of Ben Gurion Airport, took their inevitable effect.
The orderly grouping of sober men and children in sober suits and sober winter coats ended up as a raggle-taggle loud assortment of observant Jews at various stages of inebriation.
When they finally descended upon the synagogue in time for mincha (afternoon service) I’m not sure that they (we) were in a suitably appropriate condition that met the prerequisites of halacha (law) for davening (prayer).
The Tale of the Succah that didn’t make it
Succot falls at the beginning of Autumn, more or less. The Jewish calendar is a lunar one and that means that the date varies from year to year in terms of the solar calendar.
On the whole, here in Northern England, succot heralds the advent of darker and colder days.
If you have a standalone succah like ours, unlike the succah which was the hero of the Blitz, it is very much at the mercy of the elements. It is not designed to resist extreme weather; the ‘roof” is particularly susceptible to collapse, made as it is from a few wooden planks and bamboo slats.
We used to have a wooden succah which I would assemble and then disassemble every year. We actually had a plastic cover for the roof to keep the rain out when we weren’t inside it. This cover could, under the right conditions, act like a hot air balloon or drogue chute.
One morning, after a particularly blustery night we discovered the plastic sheet draped across the fence and the succah itself had apparently ‘walked’ or flown a few metres across the garden threatening to end up in a neighbour’s back yard. The wooden beams had fallen inside along with the bamboo and a wall.
One can imagine the scene as the succah took flight like Grandpa Potts outhouse in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (or should that be Me Ol’ Bamboo?) or Dorothy’s house in the Wizard of Oz.
What must the neighbours have thought? Which leads me to:
What Do the Neighbours Think?
Succot is the time of year when we are most visibly Jewish in a non-Jewish country.
I often wonder what the neighbours make of the annual succah building, the strange night time meals when we parade into the succah wearing heavy coats and reappear immediately to wring out sodden towels used for drying chairs.
Then, long after we have returned to the house, the candles turn our seven foot square booth into a huge Chinese lantern well into the night.
Then there is the morning where we can be observed taking out our strange leaves and palm frond and a yellow citrus fruit the likes of which you never see in Tesco, then shaking them, popping them back into their receptacles and proceeding as if nothing completely weird just happened.
These days I carry my lulav in a transparent plastic sleeve. Not long ago the container was a metre-long cardboard box. As the men made their way to the synagogue with this long box in one hand a little box in the other (for the etrog) I fancifully wondered if our neighbours might rename our festival Snookot, as it would appear to the uninitiated that this was the season of the Annual Jewish Snooker Contest.
Chag Sameach!
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Additional information:
The festival has two main symbols, the Succah and the Arba Minim (the Four Species or Lulav and Etrog).
The latter relates to the festival’s origins as a fruit harvest festival, one of the three ‘Foot Festivals’ or pilgrimages which took place at the Temple in Jerusalem.
The former is a commemoration of the temporary ‘booths’ in which the Children of Israel dwelt during their sojourn in the wilderness on their way to the Land of Israel.
At the end of the festival we also celebrate the completion and, therefore, the beginning of the annual cycle of weekly Torah reading with Simchat Torah, the Rejoicing of the Law.
Every year for the last 15 years or so I have built a succah in my garden and every year I buy my lulav and etrog.
You can see what they look like on the right. We have to make a blessing on the lulav every day, except Shabbat, and in the synagogue we have special prayers during which the lulav is shaken in all directions of the compass and up and down and paraded around the synagogue in procession.
At the end of the festival on Hoshana Rabba willow branches are beaten against the ground, symbolic of the threshing of our sins. This links Succot to Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur as the day on which our fate for the year is finally delivered.
Thus the many symbols and the interweaving of many themes linking Succot, Hashana Rabba, Simchat Torah and also Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur is a very beautiful, joyous and poetic time of the year.
When you live in Northern England very few years go by where you can sit in your succah everyday. If Rosh Hoshana often brings an Indian Summer, as it did this year, then Succot is sure to bring rain and cold and damp. After all, this festival was designed for a late Israeli summer not a British Autumn.
This year, so far, has been good. We have been able to spend a lot of time in the succah. But as I write, the sky is greying and the temperature is dropping. If it becomes too uncomfortable to be in the succah then you can come back into the comfort of your regular home.
In warm climates you are obliged to do everything you would do in your home, including, according to some authorities, sleep, in your succah, as well as entertaining and working.
It’s hard to describe the experience of living in a succah but it seems to stir some atavistic instincts which, like camping, recall some embedded memories of cave dwelling and times before central-heating and flat-screen TV’s.
Taking a break till Monday for the Jewish New Year.
I wish all my Jewish readers Shana Tova u’Metuka – a Happy and Sweet New Year.
To the rest of you, well I hope the New Year brings all mankind peace and prosperity.
Thanks for listening.
See you next year 5772.
On Friday night, after prayers, a mob of several thousand Egyptians attacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
Previously, the Egyptian authorities had raised a defensive wall around the embassy but that seems to have acted like a red rag to a bull.
A determined mob broke down the wall and entered the compound, torching it and burning the Israeli flag for the second time in a month.
Some reports suggested that this group was Islamist, others that it was Communists trying to destabilise the country.
What is clear is that several thousand turned up to break in to the compound. More than a thousand were injured and 3 actually died, which is insane.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian police stood back and did nothing. As the mob hammered at the walls and door where the remaining few embassy staff members were huddled, the members of staff of the Israeli embassy were in contact with Prime Minister Netanyahu and asked him to convey their final messages to their loved ones. They were clearly in fear of their life.
According to some reports President Obama called the Egyptian government and demanded they honour their obligations under international law.
Some say Obama even threatened the Egyptians with dire consequences if they did not act to save the embassy staff.
Soon after, commandos rescued the remaining Israelis and smuggled them out of the embassy wearing Arab attire.
Avi Mayer (@avimayer) has reported via Twitter from several sources. Here are some snippets:
I don’t get it. When Netanyahu/Barak called, Tantawi was unavailable. When Obama/Panetta called, he picked up. Is he screening our calls?
Walla: Fearing
#Cairo protesters would pretend to be rescuers,#Egypt commandos used “secret sign” and#Israel emb guards opened door.
When I tweeted about the incident earleir this evening a received a couple of brusque rejoinders including this one which I answered vias a retweet:
RT @fat_lam: @RayPCook at least no Israeli was killed, #israel on other hand did kill innocents<<what do you think would have happened to the #Israelis if they had not been saved by #Egyptian army?
This links in to the presumed spark to this incident. Over a week ago now 8 Israelis were killed in separate incidents near Eilat on the border with Egypt when terrorists fired automatic weapons and artillery rounds at a car, a bus and IDF soldiers.
As the IDF pursued the perpetrators and despite every effort not to hit anyone on the Egyptian side, several Egyptian soldiers were killed by Israeli fire. One of the reasons given is that the terrorists were actually dressed in Egyptian uniforms or something similar.
The tweeter above is not concerned with Israeli deaths just the Egyptian ones despite an expression of regret from Israel.
This is the cover story for the Egyptian mob.
The truth is that no excuse is required for a mob raised on an anti-Semitic diet of Jew-hatred.
Egyptian clerics are often very keen to demonise Israel and the Jews.
Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion appear to be standard reading and are freely available.
Israel is blamed for every calamity in a press which is often hysterically (in both senses) obsessed with Israel hatred: when a tourist was attacked and killed by a shark in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Mossad were blamed;
an Israeli is currently under arrest for spying even though there does not appear to be a case to answer;
during the demonstrations in Tahrir Square foreign journalists were accused of being Israeli spies and the CBS reporter Lara Logan was brutally sexually assaulted and accused of being an Israeli in February.
Even yesterday the appearance of a female journalist was met with accusations that she was Israeli and she had to be rapidly whisked away.
So it appears that the Arab Spring has become an excuse for mob rule and taking the law into ones own hands in certain sections of Egyptian society.
These same people who accuse Israel of breaking international law are only too quick to do the same themselves.
There are some positives:
The Egyptian authorities have arrested and arraigned several of the trouble-makers
A Bahraini government spokesman tweeted:
Not protecting the Israeli embassy in Cairo is a clear violation of the Vienna Convention of 1961 on diplomatic relations
I’m not completely au fait with the relations between Bahrain and Israel, but given the almost uniform hatred of the Arab world against Israel, this is a very decent thing to have said, and it constitutes a reprimand.
But here’s the ‘whatif’ bit. The guards inside the embassy had guns. They even fired some warning shots in the air according to Avi Mayer (@avimayer). They were given permission to open fire on the crowd should their lives be in danger.
Now here’s the thing; imagine that – they asked permission to save their own lives knowing that if it came to this the diplomatic fallout would inevitably go against Israel.
So, what if the commandos were a little late and the mob had battered down a wall and there were the guards, guns drawn, and the mob attacked them, presumably filled with jihadi zeal and the prospect of paradise for dying whilst trying to kill some Jews.
Does this sound familiar? Think Mavi Marmara, a somewhat different arena, yet, nevertheless, armed Israelis with no intention of lethal conflict are faced with a baying mob ready to lynch them.
So what if the Israelis fired, killed nine or ten of their attackers and then the Egyptian cavalry arrived and saved them.
What would the world have said? Would they be condemned for using excessive force as the Palmer report found?
With more Egyptian blood on their hands would Israel have been blamed for its citizens defending what is, in international law, sovereign territory?
What would all the leftists say? What would the Guardian say? I can take a pretty good guess; they would have found a way to condemn the Israelis. They would quote members of the mob saying that they had no intention of hurting anyone.
Some elements in Israel would call for an end to the peace treaty. The UN would have demanded an investigation.
Yet, the situation is not dissimilar to the Mavi Marmara. If a mob is coming at you with clearly lethal intent, what is a proportionate response?
And, ‘what if’ the Egyptian commandos got there too late and six Israelis were lynched? General rejoicing across the Arab and Muslim world whilst their governments would disingenuously condemn the deaths and, at the same time, try to ‘explain’ them in the ‘context’ of the ‘incident’ near Eilat.
Israelis would demonstrate outside the Egyptian embassy – maybe. But as now, and as always, Israelis would respect the Egyptian embassy physically.
It should be noted that before the mob attacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo, a man was arrested in Tel Aviv for throwing a stone at the Egyptian embassy. Throwing a stone. One man. So much for the evil, murderous Israelis so often characterised across the world.
If the Israelis had killed anyone we would have a third incident, along with the Flotilla and the terrorist attack on the highway near Eilat where Israelis killed those trying to kill them and were condemned for doing so.
With a poll showing the majority of Egyptians wanting to end the 32 year treaty with Israel, despite the commendable, but somewhat belated actions of the Egyptian government, it is clear that when a new government is elected it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that it will do so on an anti-Israel ticket.
Additionally, 60%, according to another poll, want to restore Sharia Law.
The prospects for a continued peace with Israel look fragile and would only be maintained for strategic reasons rather than a wish for peace.