Ray Cook - As I See It

Israel, Zionism and the Media

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Newsreel of my grandmother in 1947 emerges

30/08/2015 / / 0 Comments

In 1972 my late uncle Alf was snoozing in front of the television when he heard his mother’s voice. She had passed away three years earlier.

The voice was coming from the television and his mother was giving a short vox pop on the 1947 meat-workers strike.

The interview was filmed for British Pathé news in the Angel, Islington, London – just around the corner from where my grandparents and their four children were then living.

The programme was All Our Yesterdays and some older readers may remember its presenter, Brian Inglis, who looked back a quarter of a century using newsreel of the day.

My uncle tried to get a copy from the BBC but to no avail. When British Pathé went online I hunted without success for many months trying to find the clip.

Two days ago my brother sent me a link asking me – ‘is this Booba?’ It most certainly is.

In 1947 Britain had been gripped by the coldest winter for fifty years to be followed by one of its hottest summers. Austerity – real austerity, was the post-war order of the day in Britain. The, now-lauded, Attlee government was in mid-term. Britain was a bleak place of rationing and food-shortages and London smogs.

My grandmother, Yetta Phillips, or Booba as we called her, had always been a staunch Socialist and supporter of ‘working people’. In the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 she had availed herself of a chair leg and set off to confront Mosely and his Blackshirts, only to find herself in Leman Street nick, presumably for her own protection.

Born in Poland in 1893, in my remembrance, she always had a pronounced East European accent. In this newsreel we hear her speaking fluently and with little trace of an accent. She actually sounds quite ‘posh’.  According to my brother, this was what we might now call her ‘telephone voice’. I never heard it.

It was, and remains, an emotional experience, seeing her and hearing her forty-six years after she died, in her prime aged about 54, as I never saw her. Life had prepared several hammer blows for her and her family in the years ahead, but watching her in this clip I feel an unexpected pride that someone, who, at the time, was still an ‘Alien’ and not a naturalised citizen, spoke ‘posher’ than the other interviewees. A hint of her whimsical sense of humour which passed to her daughter and then, I like to think, to me, is also detectable.

She begins to speak about 59 seconds into the clip.

Text:

Well, I think it’s very disgusting about the strike because I have a family of six and I have nothing to feed them on and we’re all getting run down and probably end up in a hospital! Well, this is not fair and the strikers, if they do want a little more pay, they should really get it, because we’re paying enough for our food, Dear enough!

Well said, Booba!!

My connection to Napoléon Bonaparte

18/06/2015 / / 0 Comments

Shows: Napoleon Source: drew gardner For the sake of ‘sholem bayit’ – I don’t want anyone to think I am prejudiced against the French or Bonaparte. Having just posted a connection to Wellington, I need to be even-handed here.

Unlike Wellington, Bonaparte had, it seems, a better opinion of Jews. He believed in Jewish emancipation, after all. Égalité was one of the the pillars of the revolution.

Indeed, we could see Napoléon as a progressive fighting the forces of conservatism which wanted to retain hereditary monarchies and the privileges of class.  Napoléon’s army was led by the sons of the petit-bourgeois, not by dukes and princes.

Anyway, notwithstanding, I think Boney, despite his good points, was, at the core, a more successful version of Mussolini: an Italo-Frenchman who thought he was Julius Caesar but without the fasces, as it were.

But I digress.

The connection, you say, what’s the connection?

Well it’s even more tangential than Wellington. You may be surprised to know that my great-grandfather – my father’s father’s father was born in around 1800. He lived to 102 and my grandfather was the offspring of his third marriage. My grandfather was born in 1880. Do the math, as they say. the old boy was still at it when he was about 80 years old!

However, do the math again. When he was about 12 there was a bit of a war on. the French had marched on Moscow in 1812, succumbed to the Russian winter and the Grande Armeé marched all the way back again – including through Poland.

And that’s where Koppel Kuchcik comes in – he’s my great-grandfather. The family story is that he witnessed part of that terrible retreat, as a boy, in Poland, probably in Kalisz or somewhere nearby.

So there you have it – a connection to both great men.

My connection to the Duke of Wellington

18/06/2015 / / 1 Comment

220px-Arthur_Duke_of_WellingtonOn this momentous anniversary of the greatest battle in European history, I thought I’d go a little off-piste and tell you a personal story.

My late father was a gentleman’s hairdresser in Maddox Street, Mayfair in London during the 1960s and into the 1970s.

Being near to both Regent Street and Piccadilly, where the BBC’s Paris studios were located on Lower Regent Street, he had a celebrity clientele. The clientele not only included media stars, well-known names from television, the radio and the cinema, but also one or two members of the aristocracy.

One of these was the Duke of Wellington. Not the current Duke, of course, but his father, the 8th Duke. However, His Grace did not pop into the salon like everyone else (including a Prince of Siam),  my father had to go to Apsley House to cut the Duke’s hair.

One can only imagine how the little Jewish man from the West End must have felt the first time he showed up with his bag at Number One, London and, no doubt, marvelled at the splendours within.

At least, I have always assumed it was Apsley House and not Stratfield Saye. By the 1960’s the house had belonged to the nation for over a decade but the Wellesleys still occupied apartments. I’m pretty sure my father would not have travelled all the way to Berkshire or be required to do so.

On one occasion, he told me, he arrived at the house and the Duke’s butler directed him to a side entrance. When ushered into the Duke’s presence he somehow knew the direction from which my father had come. He glowered at his butler, who had confirmed that my father had been told to use the tradesman’s entrance, and rebuked him, ‘Mr Cook comes through the front door!’

I should also add the Duke was four years younger than my father and in a few days time it will be the 8th duke’s centenary.

This story would always fill me with some pride that the Duke regarded my father above the station of a tradesman and was embarrassed to have him treated so rudely. On reflection, and I know this was 50 years ago, it was a rather patronising attempt at conferring some measure of status on my humble, scissors-wielding father. Nevertheless, His Grace was most gracious on that occasion and I thank him for it. The fact that I often tell the story shows that I am proud of the association, however slight, with such a great name. Even though I know the first Duke was no philo-semite, and regarded our people with a certain disdain, I can’t help admiring the old goat.

The 8th Duke would send notes to the salon ordering toiletries. Here’s his autographed request for just such an item, sent from Stratfield Saye in 1967, in case you think I am fibbing.

wellington-sig

‘Please send me a guinea bottle of “Kara” to this address

Wellington

May 31 ’67’

I have no idea what “Kara” was but it seems the Duke thought it worth sending a postcard for it from his country seat.

The Battle of Waterloo is a seminal moment in European history where a mainly German army led by an Irishman defeated a Frenchman from an Italian heritage – but only just; had it not been for the timely arrival of the Prussians – more Germans – under Blücher.  Strange thing, history.

I recommend that you watch the BBC documentary ‘The Scots at Waterloo’ which gives a vivid portrayal of what it was like to take part in the battle. It’s on iPlayer for a while yet. Hundred of books have been written about Waterloo but one I have recently read takes you through the day hour by hour and transports you to the Regency period in a way few history books achieve – ‘Went the Day Well?: Witnessing Waterloo’ by David Crane.

Fifa Palestina – politicising sport

27/05/2015 / / 0 Comments

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Slideshows/_production/ss-120724-munich-1972/ss-120724-munich-1972-tease.380;380;7;70;0.jpgSo the Palestinian Football (Soccer) Association is trying to get Israel suspended from international and European football because, they claim, Israel is deliberately trying to prevent Palestinian footballers the free movement they need to engage in their sport.

As CNN report:

The Palestinian group objects to Israeli teams playing in the West Bank. They also say Israel restricts movements of Palestinian players between the West Bank and Gaza as well as for international matches.

“They keep bullying here and there, and I think they have no right to keep being the bully of the neighborhood,” Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub said of Israel. “If the Israelis are using the issue of security, I can say that their security concern is mine. I am ready to fix parameters for security concerns, but security should not be used … as a tool in order to keep this racist, apartheid policies.”

But as the Israeli FA says, these are political issues not policies of the IFA. If political issues were reason to suspend a national team not only would there be very few countries represented at international level but far fewer in European  competition, too.

Remember, the only reason that Israel plays in the European area of international football is because so many Asian countries refused to play them – which is a form of Apartheid and racism itself, is it not?

In fact, Israeli football, though not free from racism by any means, actually enables Jews, Muslims and Christians all to be represented at club and international level. There is no Apartheid or racism in the IFA.

And who is PFA President Jibril Rajoub? Well, this article tells us.

NGO Shurat Hadin is calling on FIFA to expel the head of the Palestinian Football Association for serving as a member of a terror organization at the same time while heading the PFA, calling it a blatent violation of basic FIFA principles.

The letter by Shurat Hadin’s President Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, sent on Tuesday to FIFA head Sepp Blatter, gives examples of PFA president Jibril Rajoub calling for terror against civilians while serving simultaneously in Fatah.

Shurat Hadin provided a slew of examples of Rajoub’s calls for violence and discrimination against Israelis which violates Article 3 of the FIFA Statutes and of Article 53 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code.

“It is outrageous that FIFA would allow a senior official of a terror organization to serve in a public position,” the letter stated.

It pointed out that Fatah is the parent organization of the murderous al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade, and that Fatah was the organization behind the killing of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich.

“Rajoub, personally, and in combination with others on the Central Committee of Fatah, actively supports and renders aid to AAMB and engages in public conduct designed to foster discrimination and terrorist violence against Jews and Israelis, in
violation of the FIFA principles and of the FIFA disciplinary code.”

Remember, the government of ‘Palestine’ is run by Mahmoud Abbas, one of the leaders behind that same Fatah/PLO organisation that perpetrated the Munich Olympic massacre. The Palestinians have a long history of politicising sport. Please read the rest of that article.

So, a non-state, ‘Palestine’ which manipulates the world’s sympathies as a self-perpetuating victim culture to infiltrate all sorts of organisations in all fields of human activity, not to improve the lot of its people but only to delegitimise, victimise, dehumanise and destroy another people – this is what the soi-disant State of Palestine is doing in every sphere that it participates in.

Its claims are ridiculous – if Israel is a transgressor than surely ‘Palestine’ is too – after all, its ‘unity’ government consists of terrorists (Hamas), and some of its footballers have indulged in terrorist activities and, as we just read, even its President supports terror and terrorists.

If Israel is suspended this will have serious repercussions on Palestinian football because all co-operation with Israel will surely cease. The PFA want this – so they can blame Israel for that, too. They care nothing for football or sport except as another means to attack and isolate Israel.

The Palestinians are world-class hypocrites.

But, then so is FIFA as it faces two corruption charges.

28/05/2015 – PMW have a thorough analysis of the PFA’s involvement in terror here where they call for the PFA itself to be suspended.

29/05/2015 Rajoub withdraws the motion to suspend Israel H/T Avi Mayer on Twitter

 

 

The Holocaust must never be consigned to history

28/01/2015 / / 2 Comments

Today was Holocaust Memorial Day.

Today was the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

I have been extremely gratified by the BBC’s coverage of the day’s events which has been sensitive and sincere. Today’s memorial service in Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, attended by the Prime Minister, leading politicians, the Chief Rabbi, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, broadcast on BBC2, was also a profoundly moving occasion.

Yet this same BBC, on Sunday, put out a programme, The Big Questions, with the question ‘Is the time coming to lay the Holocaust to rest?’

What does this even mean? ‘Lay to rest’? Is the memory of the greatest crime in human history to be buried?

Yet, it is the implication behind this question that is disturbing. It is suggesting we have to move on, move on from something. But what is that ‘something’ that is to be, by its laying to rest, somehow reduced, diminished, waved away from our collective memory. Yeah, it happened, awful, wasn’t it. Let’s tuck it away so we don’t have to be embarrassed any longer by the stench that worries our collective guilt.

But let me take this a little further. Does the question mean, perhaps, that it is we, the Jews, that really need to GIVE it a rest; is it that we should be done whingeing and making everyone feel guilty.

And let me take it yet a little further still: does it mean the above AND quit your whining because look at what you are doing now in Palestine! Have I inferred too much?

As noted by BBC watch:

No less contentious than the wording of that tweet was the fact that the programme’s subject matter was allowed to be exploited for opportunistic promotion of political propaganda by Nira Yuval-Davis of the University of East London.

In a programme with two huge elephants in the room, namely Israel and widespread and endemic Islamic antisemitism and Holocaust denial, both were assiduously avoided until Yuval-Davis was given a platform to accuse Israel of exploiting the Holocaust to cover its crimes, and attacked Bibi Netanyahu for taking all visiting dignitaries to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial Museum in Jerusalem. But, as BBC Watch points out, surely the BBC researchers would be well aware of the views of Yuval-Davis. Maybe, they would argue, her views represent the minority ‘yes’ vote for the programme’s motion.

It was, therefore, also good to hear from the (apparently) only Muslim (or maybe ex-Muslim) in the audience speak and denounce Jew-hatred and Holocaust denial in the Muslim community.

It is ironic that a programme can ask its provocative question with the clear evidence that a second Holocaust is the devout wish of so many in Europe and beyond; a time when Jews are leaving France in droves, where we have a Europe in which Jews feel increasingly threatened, where they are physically attacked and even killed.

An historian on the front row tried to make the point that too much is made of the Jewish Shoah, and that it is too prominent when there have been so many other holocausts and genocides.

I reject this suggestion which was mentioned or hinted at so frequently in the programme. No-one was brave enough to say that the Shoah is THE worst genocide, or that other events are NOT equal in human evil. David Cameron was not so coy today at the memorial service I mentioned earlier.

It is not about suffering or numbers killed, it is about the impact on the entire world, the depths of depravity, the centuries of persecution which preceded it. It is so fashionable to be PC and to find equivalence everywhere. Sorry – I just don’t buy it.

Killing people is one thing – but that was not the only objective of the Nazi genocide. It was an attempt to eradicate a civilisation, a culture. It was an attempt to eradicate memory itself. The camps were not called vernichtungslagen for nothing. It was about erasure and oblivion.

It was also about what Daniel Goldhagen called ‘Hitler’s willing executioners’ because they were by no means all German. The Nazi empire unleashed centuries of suppressed enmity in almost every country in Europe.

Most importantly, the defeat of the Nazis did not destroy antisemitism; it was merely ground into the mud of post-war Europe from which it germinated again fed by Islamic judeophobia and anti-Zionism. The holocaust denial trope of much of the Islamic world, which is a mental holocaust, provides its believers with a fig-leaf for the delusion that their hatred is somehow justified.

Someone posted this on Facebook:

fb

As someone pointed out, he clearly learned nothing. This speaks so eloquently of the cognitive dissonance associated with Jew-hatred and the reasons why any genocide can happen.

Finally, Auschwitz is not the Holocaust and the Holocaust is not Auschwitz. If we just concentrate on one death camp, however terrible, it risks missing the rest of the story, and it is that story which tells us why the Nazi genocide of the Jews (and others, yes, but mostly Jews) is, and will remain, the greatest crime ever committed, and those responsible for the BBC’s efforts in this programme to dumb it down into some politically-correct moral equivalence must never succeed.

Responses and Replies to My Open Letter to Councillor Andrew Burns, Leader of Edinburgh Council

25/08/2014 / / 0 Comments

In my previous post I shared my open letter to the leader of Edinburgh Council, Andrew Burns (Lab) in response to his motion supporting raising awareness of the Disasters and Emergencies Committee’s appeal for aid for Gaza, it’s seeking of an agreement to raise the Palestinian flag over a Scottish Town Hall and its political attack on Israel.

The motion can also be viewed on that previous post.

I sent the letter to all 58 councillors. Their names and affiliation can be found on the Council website here: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/councillors/name

Since sending the email as an open letter I have had five replies: three from Conservatives and two from Labour, including Mr Burns himself.

I was initially a little wary of posting the names of those responding, but as they are public figures, I cannot see why I should not do this.

The first to reply was Cameron Rose (Con):

Ray,

Thank you for copying me your email to the Leader of the Council.

Some of the points you make are the very points I made a I, and my 10 Conservative colleagues, opposed the decision.

You may wish to check out the webcast of what I said (11mins) and the blog posts below.

WEBCAST & LINKS

·         Council meeting 21/8/14 http://www.edinburgh.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/144748/tab/speakers#speaker_18501
·         Cameron’s blog page link http://cameronrose.blogspot.co.uk/
·         Edinburgh Conservative blog page http://edinburghconservativegroup.blogspot.co.uk/

Best wishes,

Cameron

The link to the debate demonstrates the complete ideological blindness, lies, misconceptions, distortions which plague the conflict. Mr Rose’s speech echoes much of what I wrote. His speech can be found around 1hr 49min.

As you can see it’s not just about Gaza, it’s about BDS. That video is worth posting on its own. Gaza is completely confused with the PA territories. The entire narrative of terror is ignored. A Palestinian is asked to speak but the other side is not given at all. This is basically a PSC meeting.

My reply to Cameron Rose.

Thank you, Cameron, I shall certainly do that.

Many thanks for your quick response.

Ray Cook

The next email was from Joanna Mowat:

Ray
Thank you for this – on this occasion we let the Group Leader, Cllr Rose, speak for the group as he made the points that needed to made well and we were keen that not too much time was expended on this matter given where our duties lie which is not in resolving the Middle East’s problems but delivery of good services for the people of Edinburgh.
Regards
Joanna Mowat

Joanna Mowat
Conservative Councillor City Centre Ward
City of Edinburgh Council
0131 529 4077
07718 666 454

My response:

Thank you Joanna, I quite agree. He has already responded to me.

It seems only Conservative councillors are willing to respond so far.

I appreciate your reply.

Ray Cook

The next email was from Mark McInnes:

Dear Mr Cook

Thank you for your email.  I along with the other Conservatives voted against the flag proposal.  Unfortunately we were outvoted by the other parties.

Kind regards,

Mark
Councillor Mark McInnes
Meadows /Morningside Ward

My response:

Thank you, Mark

I appreciate your response.

Only Conservatives are responding to me – this is telling.

Ray Cook

Next up was Robert Aldridge (Lib Dem) with whom I had an interesting exchange:

Thanks for your email.

The flying of the flag is a gesture of sympathy for the innocent civilians killed in Gaza. Whilst the precise numbers quoted are to be treated with caution it is clear that innocent civilians are being collectively punished for the actions of their government. I think every speaker in the debate was balanced in recognising that Israeli citizens had been subject to rocket attacks, but it is the scale of the bombardment in Gaza and the large numbers of innocent casualties which has it raged so many throughout the world.

I am proud that Edinburgh has shown it stands up for innocent victims and against the disproportionate approach of the Israeli State.

Robert Aldridge

My response:

Thank you for your reply.

I would make the following points.

Collectively punished? Do you understand the legal meaning of that slur? Hamas chose to fire rockets at Israel after it evacuated Gaza in 2005. Hamas is dedicated to Israel’s destruction, Hamas uses schools and hospitals and disregards all protected buildings. Hamas builds tunnels in people’s kitchens and under mosques.

Israel tries to minimise casualties with warnings, phone calls, leaflets. What other army in history has done that?

Hamas built dozens of tunnels to infiltrate Israel to terrorise its citizens.

Hamas fires indiscriminately every time it launches a rocket – each firing is a war crime. it even fires at Jerusalem.

By all means criticise Israel’s tactics and allow it to explain why it uses the methods it does, but I would ask you – what would you do in response to thousands of rockets being fired at your family, your schools? How would you like to be running to a bomb shelter with your kids and your elderly? How do you stop this when Hamas embeds itself deliberately in civilian infrastructure in order that YOU have this natural reaction to Israel’s attempts to stop it?

You say a large number of casualties. Let’s say it is 1000 innocents or 1250 innocents. This is appalling. I agree. But as I said in my letter, there need not be ANY.  Israel made thousands of attacks, yet ‘only’ 1,000 people were killed – compare to Syria. Is this deliberate targeting or indiscriminate? Name one conflict of this kind where SO FEW have been killed.
I repeat, one death is one too many, but if Israel did not have the defences it has to protect its citizens would you be so glib? 10s of thousands would be killed or injured in Israel. It is Hamas who are indiscriminate, it is Hamas who are collectively punishing Israelis.

Go listen to Col. Richard Kemp who says Israel has done more tha any other army in history to avoid civilian casualties.

So, I agree with your concerns for Gazans, but their plight is mostly due to the actions of their government. Israel is not beyond criticism, but I think that the Left in this country all too easily aligns itself with this particular cause and not so many other deserving causes. Hamas is an Islamist regime that wants to wipe out all Jews.

Think again about where your sympathies lie – it should be EQUALLY with both sets of citizens and not predisposed to demonise Israel defending itself against murderous, genocidal fanatics who hold their own people to ransom with no regard whatsoever for their safety.

Kind regards

Ray Cook

And:

Thanks for the email. Without wishing to extend the debate I would simply state that too many people on both sides confuse the people and their governments. I find the actions of the Israeli Government unacceptable, but am a strong supporter of the State of Israel and of Jews throughout the world. Similarly I find the actions of Hamas reprehensible but have expressed sympathy for the innocent civilians who are suffering, perhaps because the Israeli Government has confused Palestinian civilians with one political party which is currently in power in Gaza.”

I understand the meaning of the comment about collective punishment and I continue to believe that a country with the most sophisticated weaponry outside the superpowers could not make so many ‘mistakes.’ My argument is with the Israeli Government which is extremist and not with the State of Israel which I respect and whose right to live in peace .

From me:

As you say, we won’t solve the conflict by email, but I appreciate your remarks.

I think the idea that the Netanyahu government is extreme rather than Right wing is not correct, but >90% of Jewish Israelis supported the recent action. This is unprecedented. There are far more extreme elements in Israel and remember, it’s a coalition with many hawks. You may be familiar with coalition politics! All previous peace agreements have been made with Right wing governments!

With regard to distinguishing Hamas from civilians, you must know that Israel daily delivers tonnes of goods and aid, provides power for free, takes in thousands of Gazans to be treated in Israel every year, for free. The blockade and restrictions could be eased but Israel must be assured that this will not simply allow Hamas to rearm.

Some of the ‘mistakes’ were not actual mistakes but maliciously misreported and misunderstood. No point in elaborating  in an email but I’m sure every single outrage will be analysed and many truths will come out. I think it’s facile to say just because a country has sophisticated weaponry it will not make mistakes. UK and US make plenty. The implication is that it is negligent or worse. With regard to the boys on the beach, this was an outrage and there is no excuse, except one wonders what sort of parents would allow kids to play in an area used by Hamas for rocket fire.

Anyway, I am grateful for your time and your courtesy. We are not going to agree or persuade each other of everything, but at least we have some common ground.

Kind regards and best wishes

Ray Cook

And:

Many thanks for the measured tone of your email. I do appreciate the conflict is not one sided and note that we do have areas of common agreement. I hope that peace talks will be at least as productive as our email exchange and that they result in real progress to a solution which recognises the right of both sides to live within secure borders.

Best wishes

Robert

From Lesley Hinds (Lab):

Thank you for your e-mail which I read with interest
Lesley Hinds

No further comment from her, but nice to reply.

Finally, from Mr Burns himself:

Ray

Many thanks for your e-mail below … I appreciate the fact you’ve taken the time to get in touch, and do respect the points you make.

Just by way of further background/information – the local Coalition Motion which was agreed, is as at 9.1 on the attached Order Paper – with the inclusion of paragraphs 1,2,3 and 5 of the Green Motion at 9.2. It was further agreed to allow the Palestinian flag for 1 day only.

A draft News Release from yesterday follows immediately below …

… and more generally, the overall wording of the local Coalition Motion attempts to focus on the humanitarian element of the crisis in Gaza, and provides a practical mechanism for providing aid to those in desperate need: not just through the ‘Disasters Emergency Committee’ (DEC) flag being displayed for a considerable time at the front of the City Chambers, but also through the website promotion that will accompany it.

Further information on the DEC Gaza Appeal can be found here: http://www.dec.org.uk/appeals/gaza-crisis-2014

And the Council website now has further details here: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/news/article/1628/gaza_flag_to_be_flown_at_city_chambers
& the DEC Gaza Appeal also now features on the Council homepage, bottom-centre here: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk

I appreciate this won’t necessarily be the response you were looking for, but can only hope that you’ll understand we were trying to find a practical mechanism for providing aid, in very contentious circumstances.

Andrew

From me:

Andrew

many thanks, I appreciate your replying, as I would guess you have had many emails and letters to respond to.

Although it is an extremely sensitive issue to criticise charities, and the Jewish Chronicle found out how contentious it can be with regard to DEC when they printed a full page ad recently, at least one of the members of DEC has alleged links directly to Hamas. This is why I would neither support them nor seek to stop others. It shows the difficult and complex issues of Gaza.

Of course, what Gaza really needs is to get rid of Hamas and build a civil society that does not wish to destroy its neighbour. Until that happens, building and destruction will repeat. No-one wishes for peace and good relations with its neighbour more than Israelis.

Practical mechanisms for aid and humanitarian relief are welcome, they do not require partisan flag-flying or political attacks on Israel. You may not know that in Israel itself there are organisations that provide aid to Gaza (which Hamas tries to refuse) and Israel sends hundreds of trucks through the crossings daily, whilst Egypt keeps its crossing closed. Hamas does not fire thousands of rockets at Egypt.

Over the weekend, Hamas attacked the Erez crossing as Israel was evacuating Gazans for free treatment in Israeli hospitals. Three Israeli Arab drivers were injured and, possibly, the Gazans, too. This was a deliberate attempt by Hamas to kill Israelis in an act of charity and to get the crossing closed so that Israel could be further condemned in the media. They did not spare their own people, which is hardly surprising.

As I write, rockets continue to rain down on the South. All fired from civilian infrastructure. I ask you to think carefully about what you would do. Remember that the maritime blockade and the current restrictions on movement are purely the result of Hamas attacks since 2006. In 2005 there was no blockade, no ‘siege’ and Israel left millions of dollars of agricultural equipment to enable Gaza to kick start its economy. This was all trashed by the people of Gaza. Hamas illegally won the ‘election’ by murdering Fatah members and throwing them off buildings. They then began their terror regime. In the last two days they have summarily executed 21 ‘collaborators’ including two women.

The flag of Palestine does not show sympathy with the civilians in Gaza any more than flying the North Korean flag shows sympathy for those enslaved by that regime. It is a political statement of support for an Islamist, antisemitic, homophobic, misogynist, genocidal regime, whether it’s Hamas or the ‘moderate’ Fatah. One day is one day too long. It is a sop to ignorance and misplaced empathy which continues to rewrite history and reverse cause and effect. Hamas has the same aims as ISIL. Building a Palestinian state is not one of them. Destroying Israel is.

I find it staggering that a local council, which has enough problems to contend with, should devote any of its time to pandering to those malign forces in this country and across the world whose real agenda is to destroy Israel and kill every Jew. Your actions, however insignificant or well-intended, add to a groundswell of ant-Israelism which morphs into antisemitism and is having an increasingly unsettling effect on the Jewish population of the whole of the UK. I don’t for one second suggest that you or anyone else on the Council harbour such views, but words and symbols are very powerful.

I shall be lobbying strongly for the banning of any flags, of any nation, including that of Israel, to be flown by councils in the future. It is divisive and unnecessary.

Sincerely

Ray Cook

It would take someone with more time and patience than me to listen to the entire debate and to rebut. I guess that would be an empty exercise. The sound of closed minds is deafening, but it is clear that these people have the views they have because of a combination of ignorance and belief in a false or edited narrative.

The Palestinian is utterly plausible and apparently moderate. His grievances are matters for discussion, but he also tells untruths and is completely unchallenged. What he says is deemed undeniable because he is a Palestinian. He is clearly an objective and reliable source as far as the council coalition is concerned. Were an Israeli to give his/her side of the story, they would not be afforded the same credibility.

The whole exercise conflates so many issues. It’s about Gaza, but they get someone from the territories. They want to show solidarity with the Palestinians but do not condemn Hamas, mention rockets etc. and when the Palestinian speaker does, he says it’s all an excuse because they do the same in the ‘West Bank’, anyway.

No mention of Palestinian rejectionism and the complete unchallenged acceptance of a one-state solution, eradicating the ‘Zionist dream’ in a cloud-cuckoo-land where everyone respects everyone else’s human rights.

I recommend listening to as much of this as you can bear. It is a calm, unemotional debate. It does not take too much imagination to put most of what is being said into the mouth of George Galloway and barely notice the difference.

Maybe this is an insight into how a Lab/Lib Dem coalition would have operated in the UK. Hardly bears thinking about.

 

 

 

An Open Letter to Councillor Andrew Burns, Leader of Edinburgh Council

22/08/2014 / / 1 Comment

I have sent this letter to Councillor Burns and every member of his council. The contents of his motion can be found at the end of this post.

Dear Councillor Burns

I am writing to you with reference to your recent Motion 9 to Council of the 21st August 2014.

Whereas anyone with the slightest spark of humanity cannot but feel enormous empathy for the innocent people of Gaza in the current conflict, and whereas it is a natural reaction for anyone so moved to want to help, i am absolutely appalled at the way the motion was framed in a way to politicise the plight of Gazans without regard to the origins of this conflict and with a totally one-sided account of recent events.

I wish to bring a number of points to your attention.

You quote the number of innocent civilians killed as being more than 1900. In fact, the number is now over 2000. However, you are parroting the lies of Hamas, who are the ultimate source of these figures. Even the BBC has recently advised caution on the casualties. Where are the combatants in these figures? In fact, analysis by several sources have revealed that there is a disproportionate number of men of fighting age in the demographic of these casualties. These analyses reveal that at least 45% of casualties were actually combatants.

To glibly represent those killed as all being innocents completely airbrushes the very people who were and continue to be responsible for this tragedy, namely Hamas.

I was astounded that your motion not only ignores the proscribed terrorist group which has spent more than a decade firing 20,000 rockets at Israel, but ignores the rockets themselves and the devastating affect that constant and sustained rocket fire has had on the people and the children of southern Israel.

Your motion implies that the devastation in Gaza has no causal origin except the malice of Israel.

You say you support a ceasefire. Hear, hear. But I have lost count- I think it’s now 12 – of the number of ceasefires agreed by Israel and broken by Hamas.

You have determined to send a letter to the President of the ‘State of Palestine’, which does not now, nor has ever existed. Have the good people of Edinburgh the power to recognise a state that the United Nations does not? It is very revealing of your prejudices that you have no intention of sending a similar letter to the President of the State of Israel, sympathising with decades of terror visited on his people or empathising with more than a million people who have only a matter of seconds to find a bomb shelter.

And on that point, the number of innocents killed in Gaza would have been reduced if, instead of building miles of terror-tunnels, Hamas had built shelters for their civilians. They would have been further reduced if Hamas had not used mosques, schools, hospitals and kindergartens to fire from or forced their population to be human shields or occupy buildings that they knew were about to be bombed.

The truth is that not a single person would have been killed if Hamas was not a genocidal terrorist organisation dedicated to Israel’s destruction. Your motion strongly implies that the people of Gaza are the victims of Israeli aggression rather than Hamas’s murderous intent to terrorise Israelis by kidnap, suicide-bombing and rocketing.

Instead you are sending a letter to the Israeli consulate condemning his country for defending itself. I wonder, but not for very long, how the people of Edinburgh would react if Glaswegians were firing rockets from civilian infrastructure, tunnelling into Waverley or popping up in St Giles to murder your constituents.

You mention Ban Ki-Moon’s outrage at the targetting of an UNWRA school when it has since been shown that the incident took place outside the school. In any case, did you not hear how Hamas uses schools to store weapons? Acts condemned by Ban and UNWRA. Where is your outrage at that?

I have no problem with your humanitarian sympathies for Gaza, but tell me, councillor, with thousands of Yezidis being massacred, uprooted, sold into slavery, forcibly converted by IS in Iraq, how many motions in council have there been for them? And how many appeals for the thousands of Palestinians fleeing slaughter in Syria?

Your council’s singling out of Gaza as your cause du jour would be more credible if far more attention, rather than none at all, had been given to far worse humanitarian disasters across the world. Why is it always Gaza? And if your council has a particular affinity with that cause, why do you use it to make outrageous attacks on Israel without the slightest mention of Hamas or its rockets.

I find it beyond reason that so many on the Left are so ready to malign and demonise the only country in the region which upholds so many of the values that you are supposed to hold dear: freedom of worship, freedom of the press, democracy, human rights, gay rights, women’s rights, the right to form unions, the right to strike. Yet your sympathies are with Palestine, where none of these rights exist at all or to anything like the extent they do in Israel.

So fly your flag in solidarity with a political entity and putative state that hangs gay people, declares that no Jew will ever live in it, spews antisemitic propaganda in schools and television, denies women equal rights and seeks the total destruction of its neighbour, and the murder of every Jew. Don’t bother flying the Ukrainian flag, or the ‘We are N’ symbol in support of Iraqi Christians, or the Tibetan flag or any flag other than the Palestinian. Well done with your selective empathy.

Enjoy that special solidarity, councillor Burns. Maybe you’ll fly the ISIS flag next month; it pretty much amounts to the same thing. Hamas and ISIS and, yes, Fatah, are branches of the same Islamist tree.

Shame on you and Edinburgh Council. The people of your great city deserve better.

Ray Cook

Here is the text of Motion 9

By Councillor Burns – Gaza – Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Appeal
“The City of Edinburgh Council:
1) has been deeply appalled and distressed to witness the recent loss of life in Gaza;
2) stands in solidarity with the innocent civilians of Gaza, who have lost more than 1,900 people, many of whom have been women and children;
3) supports an immediate ceasefire, as called for by the United Nations.
Council thus agrees:
4) to send a letter from the Council Leader, to the President of the State of Palestine, offering the City’s condolences for the deaths they have suffered;

The City of Edinburgh Council – 21 August 2014 Page 3 of 6

5) to send a letter from the Council Leader, to the Israeli Consulate in London, condemning in the strongest possible terms, the killing of hundreds of innocent civilian men, women and children.
Council also agrees:
6) to fly a ‘Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Appeal’ flag, at the City Chambers entrance on the High Street, which will prominently feature the DEC Gaza Appeal telephone donation line: 0370 60 60 900; and
7) to promote the DEC Gaza Appeal via its own external, and internal, websites.”

9.2 By Councillor Booth – Flying the Palestinian Flag from the City Chambers
“Council:
1) Notes the continued conflict in Gaza, which has lead to the deaths of 67 Israelis and more than 1800 Palestinians, including many innocent civilians, and which has included attacks on UN schools which have been labelled a moral outrage and a criminal act by Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations;
2) Notes the appeal recently launched by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), comprising 13 UK charities, to help the people of Gaza, including the estimated 65,000 people who have seen their homes severely damaged or destroyed and the estimated tens of thousands who urgently need food, water and medical care;
3) Believes the ongoing conflict is unacceptable, condemns any ongoing violence and calls on all sides to work for peace and a stable two-state solution in Palestine;
4) Agrees to fly the Palestinian flag from the City Chambers in a gesture of solidarity with the people of Gaza wherever this does not clash with the pre-existing flag flying programme;
5) Agrees to ask the Council Leader to contact the Disasters Emergency Committee to explore any further measures the Council can take to support the people of Gaza and support the DEC appeal.”

Israel Report Final Days: Then they came for the Jews?

18/08/2014 / / 0 Comments

Our last days in Israel have been spent in Jerusalem.

During this time our idyllic location and relaxed and extremely enjoyable socialising has been marred by the thought that soon we shall be returning to blighted Blighty.

Returning home after a vacation has its compensations: seeing family and friends and reconnecting with communal life.

This time it’s not just the awful Manchester weather that gives me a sinking feeling in my gut, but the sense that I am returning from a war zone, where I feel safe, to one where I feel threatened.

War zone? UK a war zone? What is the man talking about!

Well, I happen to be a Jewish man, and the news from the UK for Jews is ever spiralling downward from inconvenience, through trepidation, past intolerable into fear.

Exaggeration? I’m sorry, but my parents, and grandparents were witness to this in the 1930s when blackshirts strode arrogantly behind a British aristocrat, Sir Oswald Mosely.

The unthinkable is becoming reality and ‘overreaction’ is not paranoia but a deep understanding, knowledge, analysis and experience of history which, for most Jews, is engrained in their genes throughout the millenia.

So, whence comes this fear?

The reaction to Israel’s response to continuing rocket fire from Hamas in Gaza has torn the thinly-disguised veil from the face of antisemitism in the UK.

Whilst the mainstream and social media stoke anti-Israel sentiments, even among the most fair-minded British citizen, with hostile, misinformed and downright viciously biased reporting, on the streets, those already inclined to use anything Israel does in self-defence as a trigger for violent protest have been empowered to expose the real motivation behind their obsession.

Antisemitic banners and chanting go unchallenged at protests across Britain; Israel and its supporters, and all Zionists, are called and labelled ‘Nazis’.

Enter the emboldened BDS (Boycott Sanctions and Divestment) brigade, and those too cowardly, just as in the 1930s, to stand up to them.

In Manchester, for over a month, a rag-bag of ‘protestors’ have picketed the Kedem store on King Street in Manchester. The  Jewish community, and other supporters of Israel, soon established a counter-protest.  The owner of the store is Israeli. The company he owns is wholly British, provides employment for British people, pays British taxes, and all its products are completely sourced from Israel behind the ‘Green Line’.

So why picket it?  Why block a popular thoroughfare, jostle and bully anyone who is making the free choice to enter the shop?  What has this to do with Gaza? Or settlements?

This Satruday eight protestors were arrested. As far as I could see from videos of the event posted on social media, none of those arrested were of an appearance which might suggest they were Muslim. The violence and the refusal to obey the police came from Left-wing agitators for whom anything associated with Israel is anathema.

The owner of Kedem produced evidence to show that produce was not from settlements, and there was no connection to any settlement whatsoever. He presented this to the leader of the protest group, but it made no difference. The shop-owner, in his desperation to save his legitimate business, made a fundamental error: that error is the belief that ideologically inspired prejudice is subject to reason, logic or facts. History tells us otherwise.

But how soon anti-Israelism descends into its close associate anti-Zionism, which, in turn morphs into its alter ego antisemitism. Many of the counter-demonstrators have reported antisemitic abuse, antisemitic chanting, the ubiquitous Nazi analogies. The Kedem protests are merely an extension of the frequent ‘Free Gaza’ demos, and, indeed, banners and slogans at Kedem are witness to this.

Previous protests outside shops selling Israeli goods have had the pretence that they were only targetting ‘settlement’ goods. The next stage was anything Israeli.

The Tricycle theatre in Kilburn in North West London recently decided to give in to the potential threat of demonstrations outside its premises by attempting to blackmail the London Jewish Film Festival (held at the theatre for the last eight years) into traducing the State of Israel by refusing their £1400 of funding as a prerequisite for continued hosting.

After a storm of protest, and much more damagingly, a number of patrons withdrawing funding, they withdrew their ultimatum. No doubt, this will result in accusations of the power of Jewish money.

So a lose-lose situation for British Jews who, like Israel itself, are damned if they roll over and die and damned if they fight back. And if you think I just created a strawman, a casual stroll through the hashtags on Twitter will disabuse you.

So, as we descend through anti-settlement to anti-Israel, what do we see in Birmingham but a kind of retail pogrom where about 100 people – yes 100 – entered a Tesco store and proceeded to trash not only any Israeli goods they could find, but also anything their deep research and understanding of the conflict indicated was complicit in Israel baby-killing, like a stack of Coca Cola cans.

Terrorised shoppers cowered in disbelief.

Then, on Saturday, the farce of Sainsbury in Holborn, London where, purportedly, although it is far from clear, as a precaution, an employee, maybe the manager, decided to remove all kosher goods – read that again, kosher, not necessarily Israeli, not settlement but, yes, Jewish goods. The precaution was deemed necessary as a nearby ‘Gaza protest’ provoked fear that a Tesco Birmingham retail pogrom would descend upon the good shoppers of Holborn and nearby Gray’s Inn.

There is even an unsubstantiated report that the shelves were cleared by an employee who told a shopper that it was in sympathy with Gaza.

However, this defensive action, which included closing the store, has illicited a storm of protests from angry Jews who, rightly, have identified a new low in the UK where Jews are denied access to kosher produce because protestors, including a local MP, are promoting BDS.

On social media, a recorded phone conversation between Jonathan Sacerdoti, a prominent Jewish Middle East analyst and a delegate to the Board of Deputies, has gone viral.

In this phone call Sacerdoti asks the store’s representative whether, if he were to threaten halal goods, would they be removed from the shelves? The answer was not clear, but the poorly-briefed and defensive employee appears at first to say, ‘no’.

Thus we have descended all the way from protests succesfully closing shops associated with ‘settlements’ to the clearing, albeit reflexively and only briefly, of Jewish goods, per se.

What next for the UK? Targetting kosher restaurants? Kosher grocery stores?

This tweet of mine found resonance with a number of people in the last 24 hours:

‘First they came for the West Bank goods then they came for the Israeli goods then they came for the Jewish goods then they came for the Jews’

 

 

Israel Report Days 10 and 11: Life is good here

15/08/2014 / / 0 Comments

In Netanya, a popular seaside town a few miles North of Tel Aviv, where I am currently spending a few days, life is pretty good, life carries on as normal.

The streets are full of traffic, the shops are full of punters. Recent ceasefires and the distance from Gaza mean that the events in the South seem like a distant conflict in another country.

Yet, it is not forgotten by any means: flags fly, the odd soldier saunters through public squares, newspapers and television reports are keenly followed.

We did some shopping again today and took in the atmosphere of sidewalk restaurants and cafés. A small group of be-jeaned and hijabed Arab girls mixed with Ashkenazi Jews, Russian Jews and Ethiopian shop assistants in a dress shop.

As I previously wrote: So much for Apartheid. This is an accusation persistently peddled by Israel-haters. The same accusation is rebutted easily. Yet it persists. Accusers point to refugee camps, the separation wall, the blockade, purported Jews-only roads in Judea and Samaria.

Let’s not get into Oslo, settlements, PA autonomy or the 2005 evacuation of Gaza.

What I have often felt as I walk around Netanya, where the atmosphere is relaxed and without any sense of danger or threat, is how very different it is from Gaza.

There is a brief sense of guilt; I and everyone here is safe, people seem to have a very nice life, different races and religions mix without enmity. Everyone accepts everyone else: religious and non-religious, Jew and Arab, African and European.

In Gaza, there are no Jews. There are no synagogues. Gaza is Judenrein. If there is ever a Palestinian state, that too would be Judenrein. Many areas are smashed. There is fear and insecurity. Life is not easy.

I have frequently thought of these people, a few kilometres away, living such a different life.

But, despite my concern and my wish that one day they will live like the young Arab girls I saw in town, I remember why they live like they do, and that reason is Hamas, culturally engrained victimhood, decades of Jew-hate, rejection of Israel, abysmal leadership.

The answer to Gaza’s and Palestinians’ woes? Simple. Make peace. Stop hate. Then nothing is impossible.

Israel Report Day 9: How the West was Lost

13/08/2014 / / 1 Comment

Sitting here in central Israel, I have been thinking that it was time to enumerate the snowballing and often hysterical, often cowardly, anti-Israel events, actions and stories that are now part of a runaway narrative of lies, misrepresentations, human rights travesties and double standards, laced with a cocktail of old-school and Islamist antisemitism.

In no particular order, as they say, these include:

The Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, London has seen fit to put an ultimatum to the London Jewish Film Festival (which has used that theatre for 8 years): either refuse funding from the Israeli Embassy (£1400) or we won’t stage the festival. The theatre generously offered to ensure that the shortfall in funding would be met.

The LJFF’s reply was basically Churchillian (in the finger department).

The theatre was not the only organisation to cite the excuse that they did not want to be seen taking sides – which really means that they are cowards who fear damaging demos outside their building and/or a Muslim-Leftlist backlash. I would remind them and everyone else who put profit before principles that, in the immortal words of Basil Fawlty, ‘This is exactly how Nazi Germany started.’

In Manchester, UK, the Kedem store which is owned by an Israeli and sells Israeli produce, some of which is packaged in Judea/Samaria, has for weeks been the subject of a politically motivated picket. Initially, entrance to and exit from the shop was curtailed by an intimidating bunch of Free Gaza people. The Jewish community responded and now face off against each other regularly. The Jewish community is even providing a kiddush on shabbat to ensure that their opponents do net get a free ride even for one day.

Local police are praising the peaceful and well-mannered nature of the counter-demo.

Nevertheless, in the past, similar demos at Ahava in Covent Garden, London and Sodastream in Brighton have forced closure. In Manchester, the effect on other businesses, and Kedem itself, will mean that the shop will inevitably close.

This is intolerable. Freedom to protest is one thing, but freedom to harrass and put precious jobs on the line is redolent of 1930s Germany.

In one of my more mischievous moments I suggested that, maybe, the pro-Israel camp should shower the antis with paper rockets, a bit like the English bowmen at Agincourt against the French. These paper rockets would not carry much of a payload but the reaction of the other side to a barrage of paper would be instructive. Would they just stand there and take it. Would they have no right to defend themselves?

I can’t imagine that they would not want to retaliate ‘disproportionately’. Sadly, such an act would probably be considered incitement by the police. But I can only dream.

Meanwhile, in Belfast, where the synagogue was subject to a double stoning recently, an Asda store had its shelves cleared of Israeli produce. Surely an arrestable offence?

In that same city, the blue plaque marking the birthplace of Israeli President Chaim Herzog has had to be removed due to continuous attempts to vandalise it.

In other news, the UK government has issued a completely nonsensical policy statement to the effect that should ‘significant’ hostilities between Israel and Hamas restart, ig would not issue twelve arms export licenses. This is gesture politics writ large by business secretary Vince Cable (LibDem).

Firstly, as I and several others have pointed out on Twitter and elsewhere, this actively encourages Hamas to commence hostilities to gain a political ‘win’. Secondly, what does ‘significant’ mean in practice and who judges? Clearly, this is the result of an internal Coalition power struggle where the Lib Dem Business Secretary has legal power to make such judgements and the Conservative Prime Minister would have attempted to nix it.

Meanwhile, at the UN, yet another kangaroo court in the form of ‘Goldstone II’ is about to convene with, at its head, William Schabas.

This man has a track record of anti-Israel activity and refused to describe Hamas as a terrorist group in a recent interview where he reiterated his view that his favourite person to be tried for war crimes would not be Assad or Putin but Netanyahu. And why? Well, because of Cast Lead where he was actually the opposition leader not the Prime Minister.

When challenged on double-standards he admitted that the UN is full of them, but that should not allow us to desist from pursuing them even further with yet another show trial for Israel where the only unknown is which anti-Israel mouthpieces are going to sit in pre-judgement.

It seems that Free Gaza, pro-Pal, anti-Israel demonstrations in London and the provinces are now an almost weekly phenomenon, disrupting traffic and business and requiring expensive policing. Of particular concern is the display of lsis, Hamas and Hizbollah flags. How can any Western society allow anyone to  show support for terror groups, especially one which it is itself fighting.

In Oxford Street Isis have openly been handing out redruitment flyers enjoining British Muslims to become jihadists in Iraq and build the ‘caliphate’.

There appears to be a growing movement of terrorist chic with the black flags of ISIS flying in Tower Hamlets, for example.

Flag flying is also popular withthe Palestinian flag flying from a couple of Northern England Town Halls and Glasgow.

This avalanche of hate, antisemitism and virulent anti-Israelism, which no other minority or country has to endure, represents a watershed for Europe.

Some have called Israel the canary in the coalmine. The war on Israel and the Jews is a war on Western civilisation, culture and mores. Only the West does not realise it yet. Its blindspot, latent antsemitism along with the cult of human rights and an undue sensitivity to antithetical cultural values spell its gradual demise.

What to do?

In the UK get the Lib Dems out of government. How can any Jew who supports Israel vote for this shower.

As a lifelong Labour party supporter, I cannot see how I can continue to be so. It is also very difficult for me to vote Tory, but they are now the only option other than not to vote at all.

I suggest the following steps:

1. Make political picketing of shops and businesses illegal. Boycotts should not be imposed by active minorities.
2. Make foreign flag flying illegal except for state occasions
3. Make Isis, Hamas and Hizbollah flags illegal with stiff fines and custodial sentences
4. Crackdown on antisemitic or Islamophobic banners at demos and punish with stiff fines or custodial sentences
5. There should be better tracking of funds to terror organisations through UK banks and charities
6. Classify Isis as a terror organisation
7. Turkey should be thrown out of NATO – they are working with and for NATO’s enemies
8. Limit demos for any particular cause

If the West continues to appease and cannot see Israel as the frontline in the battle against neo-Nazi terror in the form of depraved Islamism and its apologists on the Left the results will be disastrous.

This is how the West is being lost.

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