Ray Cook - As I See It

Israel, Zionism and the Media

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Queen’s Speech: Israel’s security not a factor

26/05/2010 / / 0 Comments

Am I being paranoid? This is what the Queen read out in the House of Lords on behalf of her new hybrid government:

“In the Middle East my government will continue to work for a two-state solution that sees a viable Palestinian state existing in peace and security alongside Israel.”

The peace and security of Israel appears to be secondary when it’s the peace and security of Israel that is at the heart of 100 years of conflict. This does not bode well for Israel. Bu then again, does the UK have any real clout any more in the Middle East, or anywhere else, for that matter.

Irony lost on Kaufman

26/05/2010 / / 0 Comments

No one should doubt the towering intellectual and oratorial skills and abilities of Sir Gerald Kaufman.

He has been both shadow Foreign and shadow Home Secretary.

But that was all some time ago.

At some point, Sir Gerald, never shy to proclaim he is a Jew, fell out of love with Israel and Zionism and espoused the Palestinian cause.

Well, nothing wrong there. He is quite entitled to believe that Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians is flawed, oppressive or however he preceives it.

As an MP and a prominent British Jew, and also as person of considerable intellectual talent (Queen’s Oxford), he also has a duty to be fair, reasonable and see the conflict in its proper historical context.

What he fails to grasp, it seems, (and he is by no means the only British public figure or even Jew to do so) is that he is fatally compromised by not condemning or declaring that Hamas is the root cause of the Gaza situation. By meeting prominent Hamas leaders in Gaza in 2009 he sanctions their actions against Israel and their own people in Gaza. He also ignores an essential point and it is this: Hamas want to destroy not just Israel, but all Jews; they are virulently anti-Semitic and Jews who support them are probably a source of great amusement and ridicule.

Yesterday, during the debate in Parliament on the Queen’s Speech he took advantage of parliamentary privilege to make a long (over long) speech in which he accused the (Muslim) Liberal Democratic candidate for Gorton of running an anti-Semitic campaign against him during the run-up to the General Election.

Sir Gerald accused his opponent of targetting Muslim voters and directing them not to vote for Kaufman simply because ‘he is a Jew’. He also accused his opponent of telling Muslim Labour supporters to remove posters from their windows because they should not vote for a Jew.

I have no idea if these accusations are true; only a full investigation by the Lib Dems (I nominate Baroness Tonge for the task) could find the truth.

Sir Gerald praised the vast majority of his Muslim constituents for not bowing to the bigotry of the Lib Dem candidate and on that point I can wholeheartedly agree – good on them.

However, the irony is lost on Sir Gerald. Here was, allegedly, a Muslim telling other Muslims not to vote for a Jew regardless of his track record on Gaza, Palestine and Israel. And this is exactly what all Islamists or fundamentalists or whatever you want to call them, believe: namely, all Jews must die. It’s quite simple; they want to eradicate Jews because that is what they believe their religion teaches them, because that is what radical Imams preach, because they have drunk from the same poisoned well as the Nazis. Israel must perish not just because Jews have ‘stolen’ Muslim land but quite simply because they are Jews.

I am content for Sir Gerald to fight for Palestinian rights, but I a not content for him to ignore the true intention of Hamas and support a regime who wish him dead as much as they wish to see any Jew dead, except in his case he is still useful to them.

Palestinian homes demolished – by Palestinians

18/05/2010 / / 1 Comment

Well, as they say, you couldn’t make it up. The BBC reports that Hamas have demolished at least seven, and maybe as many as forty, homes near Rafah in the Gaza strip.

So where are the demonstrators? Where the UN? Where Goldstone? Where the outrage in the blogosphere? Where the BBC news headlines? Where the anger of the Arab street or even the Palestinians on the West Bank? Where, indeed, Barack Obama and George Mitchell? Where Human Rights Watch who condemned house demolitions as ‘collective punishment’?

Hamas says the homes were built on ‘government land’ and without permits. Sound familiar? When Israel demolishes homes in Jerusalem because they are built illegally and without permits the entire world condemns Israel.

But it gets even more ironic:

Club-wielding Hamas policemen – and some female police officers wearing face-covering veils – forced people from their homes and then brought in bulldozers.

Bulldozers. That icon of Israel ‘brutality’ used against their own people by Palestinian Hamas.

It seems that Palestinians can do what they like to each other, it’s only when Israel exercises its legal rights that the Muslim world and the world at large is bothered.

Tells you something, doesn’t it?

Make hummus not war

10/05/2010 / / 1 Comment

Given their past battles, maybe making the largest bowl of hummus is a better way of settling differences in the future.

The Lebanese have just wrested the world record from Israel for making the largest vat of hummus.

Next on the agenda is the the felafel record held by Israel.

This is a brilliant political strategy by Israel; get the Lebanese to invest their resources into making very large quantities of food instead of importing very large quantities of missiles.

Rest assured – Israel still hold the kneidlach record. They can take a lot from the Israelis, but never their kneidls.

Proximity talks are a charade

10/05/2010 / / 1 Comment

So it begins. The political dance. Palestinians and Israelis have to keep the US happy.

The Palestinians need to show willing because they will get lots of aid and financial support to build a new state in the Middle East with prosperity for all (hmm) without having to concede a single scintilla to Israel.

Israel needs to be seen to want to talk because they really do want peace and they also want the US to remain on side. But they know, like the Palestinians, that this is going nowhere.

And the Americans need it to feed President Obama’s naivety like so many before him in believing that both sides want a resolution that does not include the destruction of Israel.

Yes, that is what is at stake, as ever; the world sees an obdurate Israel.  The reality is a rejectionist Palestine. Any concessions they may squeeze from Israel are merely another tactic, another ploy, another ratchet on the thumbscrew, towards the eventual destruction of the State of Israel.

Hamas have no qualms. They have told the PA not to have any dialogue with the enemy. At least they and those in the UK who support them are clear: only the destruction of Israel and the subjugation at best and the genocide at worst of its Jews will satisfy them.

Are the PA really different? There’s the rub. At the moment I don’t think so. They feed their people the same blood-libels, the same lies about Jews and their history, they glorify terrorists. Their methods may be different but their goals are the same – the destruction of Israel by all and any means.

Israel is well aware of this. The talks are like a dance of death. Unless and until the PA can produce leaders who finally accept the legitimacy of Israel there will never be real peace.

FA Cup Final to be disrupted by Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions crowd

16/04/2010 / / 0 Comments

With Avram Grant, an Israeli, leading Portsmouth out against Chelsea in the FA Cup final next month, I am sure that the BDS people will be running on to the pitch to stop the match, heckling the team coach as at arrives with the horrible spectacle of an Israeli on board.

He will be accused of representing a state that murders children, of  being a warmonger. Well that’s what happens now to Israelis in the UK going about their business be they musicians, academics, politicians, sportspersons or entertainers. So why should Avram not get the treatment?

Well maybe it’s because he represents the largest religious group in England – football fans.

Avram Grant, son of Holocaust survivors, attended the March of the Living in Auschwitz-Birkenau earlier this week. A sober reminder of the genocide Israel’s enemies want to emulate. And those nice BDS people are keen to help the process along.

Life on Mars

16/04/2010 / / 0 Comments

As President Obama announces that the United States will be going for a manned mission to Mars by the 2030’s the Jewish world breathes a sigh of relief.

At last there is hope for the Jewish people when their homeland is taken from them in a future Judenrein world.

We’ll all be going to Mars! Eventually. If we survive that long and if Olympus Mons is not claimed as an ancient Muslim holy place.

When we’re all several million miles away perhaps the rest of the human race will leave us alone.

Only possible problem will be the Little Green Men who will not take kindly to Jewish colonialism. We can always build a separation wall and if the locals expel us from a second planet the moons of Jupiter look interesting.

Hamas closes smuggling tunnels – no-one notices

15/04/2010 / / 0 Comments

Hamas effectively closed the smuggling tunnels from Egypt. No-one is sure why yet. Happened yesterday. ‘Stop using them or else’ was the order. Egypt has half completed the steel barrier which is already causing disruption to supplies. It’s very strange that the UN have not publicly rebuked Egypt for cutting off this lifeline. Maybe they are only interested in the legal crossings not the illegal ones. Maybe they just like to single out Israel. The blockade, so called, has caused the tunnel smuggling, so the story goes, and without it Gazans would starve. So that means Hamas has decided to starve Gaza and is actually working with Egypt and Israel to starve Gazans, because as we ‘know’, according to John Ging head of UNWRA in Gaza, it’s a ‘siege’, a mediaeval one, in fact.

So where is Ging? Where is the UN Secretary General? Where is Mahmoud Abbas? Why are they not crying out for the lifeline tunnels to be reopened? Simple. Because they all know that enough food gets in without them. They all know that no-one is starving in Gaza, but it makes a nice story to bash Israel with.

Like I’ve said before, it’s no picnic in Gaza, but no-one is starving either. Food and fuel gets through and all from Israel, not Egypt.

Rumour has it that the tunnels were closed because of a possible kidnapping in the Sinai of an Israeli tourist who would then be taken into Gaza through a tunnel.

So Hamas do not want a kidnapped Israeli, or I should say, another kidnapped Israeli. Why not?

And no-one has really worked out the affect of Egypt blocking these tunnels either.

One good thing to note: the BBC News website now finally admits that the ‘blockade’ is administered by Israel AND Egypt. But no-one cares about this. As the psalmist said: they have eyes but cannot see. Or don’t want to.

Polish tragedy – some thoughts

13/04/2010 / / 0 Comments

All four of my grandparents were Polish. My family must have lived in Poland for hundreds of years. But in the early 20th century when Poland was part of the Russian empire things got difficult for Jews.

Growing Polish nationalism often spilled over into anti-Semitism. My grandparents left before their situation became too dangerous.

Then, in 1939, when Poland was a free and independent nation with 3 million Jews the Germans invaded and established their most notorious death camps on Polish soil.

Many Poles were happy to wave goodbye to their Jews and took part in their extermination. Poles also happen to be the most well represented at Yad Vashem, the memorial and museum of the Holocaust in Jerusalem,  with the highest number of any nation recognised as Righteous Amongst the Nations. So, for many Jews, Poland and Poles provoke contradictory emotions.

This tragedy for the Polish people has seen the death of a controversial President who recognised the contribution to Polish history of the Jewish people and the ties of that history, often difficult, sometime murderous but also, often, mutually beneficial. David A Harris has written:

I first met Lech Kaczynski when he was Warsaw’s mayor. He was eager for the renewal of Jewish life in Poland. He felt a kinship to Jews, whom he saw as an integral part of Poland’s fabric. He said it was impossible to understand Poland without comprehending the Jewish role in its life. That’s why he was supportive of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and why he was instrumental in launching it. I later met him many times as president, most recently in February. A man of passion and principle, he seldom minced words. He knew where he stood and he didn’t try to mask his views from others. 

Poland and the Jews have a troubled history and anti-Semitism is still an undercurrent, but great strides have also been made in Warsaw and Krakow, for example, to revive and celebrate Jewish culture. The Late President was an important factor in reconciling Poland with its Jewish history.

The Polish people’s dignified and moving response to this immense tragedy has been very impressive. The new Poland is becoming a major force in Europe and the world; a pivotal nation between the West and Russia. Poland will survive these terrible events and emerge stronger and an even prouder nation.

I send my heartfelt condolences to the Polish people in this hour of distress. I honour the memory of President Kaczynski and those who perished so ironically a few miles from the scene of one of the most heinous war crimes of World War II.

International Humanitarian Law – Israel know the laws of war best – it’s official

08/04/2010 / / 1 Comment

I hope you have all recovered from a week of dietary torture otherwise known as Pesach, for those of you who observe the festival.

I almost choked on my long-awaited breakfast toast when I read this article in the Jerusalem Post.

An Israeli team from the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, recently beat out 44 universities to take first place in the 2010 edition of the Jean-Pictet Competition on international humanitarian law.

The week-long international competition, held between March 20-27 in Quebec, Canada, matched up teams from universities around the world to test their knowledge in the field of international humanitarian law (IHL) – commonly referred to as the laws of war.

Kol HaKavod!

In a nutshell, said [coach] Rosenzweig, IHL might be summarized as, “Do the most damage to the enemy [while] minimizing harm to civilians.”

Hmm. ring any bells?

He explained the four core principles of IHL as follows: distinction of soldiers from civilians; military necessity as a rule in evaluating targets; proportionality; and humanity to the enemy.

These are exactly the issues which Israel confronted in Gaza where their every decision was guided by experts in IHL which, we now know, Israel knows better than any other country.

After winning, the IDC team received a five-minute standing ovation from the other teams, including those from Iran, Lebanon and Jordan.

I’m sure these major offenders against IHL now and in the past ran Israel a close second. Nice that the Iranians applauded. They’ll probably be lynched on their return in accordance with IHL (Iranian Humanitarian Law).

Why didn’t Hamas send a team? After all they could have been sponsored by George Galloway and Tony Benn and I’m sure Gerald Kaufman would have donated one of his rugs which he bought at the British taxpayers’ expense.

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