Ray Cook - As I See It

Israel, Zionism and the Media

Tag: apartheid

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.

 

 

 

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 7: Wandering Jews

11/08/2014 / / 0 Comments

Sunday, a working day in Israel, was spent on a shopping trip into Netanya where we bought absolutely nothing.

Forgetting previous warnings of my wife’s cousins, I ordered lunch which would have served 6 people.

Netanya, surprisingly, perhaps, for what I call Bournemouth-in-Israel, is very cosmopolitan. Languages heard yesterday: Hebrew, English,French, Russian, Arabic and Amharic.

Walking around the Kenyon HaSharon mall once again gives the lie to accusations of Apartheid. I actually saw Arab women go into the same restroom as their Jewish compatriots, and in the restaurant there were no sign for Jews only or Arabs only seating; we all sat together. I know this will be something of a shock to European and American demo placard holders. Awful, isn’t it.

Arab women were very noticeable. They were all immaculately dressed in headscarves and flowing dresses, often beautifully decorated with colourful needlework. Some young Arab girls wore leggings and a hijab.

My wife wandered into a shop specifically catering to Oriental female fashion, whether it be Arab or oriental Jewish. Her Western dress stood out. No-one gave her a second look.

We had a bit of a logistical problem for Monday night: the relatives with whom we are staying are expecting their son and three of his children to arrive that day, and their other son arrived with his two today (Sunday). So no room at the inn, as it were, for us. We did not want to deprive anyone of a bed.

So we went into a couple of hotels to see if they could provide a room for one night. I’m not sure what they thought when they saw a middle-aged couple asking for a room for one night – didn’t really cross my mind, but the first hotel had one on the sixth floor which we were shown by a young Russian-Israeli who told us she came from that part of Russia near Alaska. Nice little room with balcony and panoramic views but it was $240.

The second hotel point-blank refused the middle-aged couple on an apparent tryst.
However, back home, we resolved the logistical problem after much discussion and a few phone-calls. We are staying.

Hopes of another 72 hour ceasefire increased throughout the day and came into effect at midnight. So far, as I write, this Monday morning, it is holding.

Footnote: my special Halifax credit card was rejected yet again! So I am giving up. It could even be it was charged without the restaurant realising it.

I received three more calls from the Sheraton (see day 2 blog) and my money has now been reimbursed although it hasn’t yet appeared on my account.

I shall be having words with the Halifax when I get back to Blighty.

The day ended with my wife and I looking at the ‘Super Moon’. It was very white and very bright. Our cousin’s daughter unimpressed: ‘Looks the same to me’.

The lies they tell at St.James’s Church, Piccadilly, London

02/01/2014 / / 0 Comments

This is a cross post from Barry Shaw’s The View From Israel

antiisraelwallYasser Arafat defied the Christian tradition in Bethlehem, which had been respected and upheld under Israeli authority, by appointing a Muslim governor and engineered a Muslim takeover of the city council. He then put his stamp on this town by converting the Greek Orthodox monastery, next to the Church of the Nativity, into his official Bethlehem residence.

At great risk to his life, Pastor Naim Khoury, of the Bethlehem Baptists Church, exposed the developing threats to Christians within the territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority. “People are always telling Christians to convert to Islam.”
His ministry is based on love and non-violence. He is also a strong advocate for Zionism based on God’s land covenant with Israel through Abraham.
Because of his views, his church has been bombed fourteen times, and he has been shot three times. He has been threatened by the Palestinian Authority to close the doors of his church which they consider as “illegitimate.”

This brave Christian priest needs and deserves the active support of church leaders worldwide. Instead, they boycott him and pick on Israel for their wrath, ignoring the human rights crimes of the Palestinian leadership whom they openly support. How twisted is that?

Elias Freij, the Christian mayor of Bethlehem at the time of the Oslo Accords in 1993, warned Israeli Prime Minister, Yizhak Rabin, to maintain control over his town. “Bethlehem will become a town of churches devoid of Christians if you transfer control to the Palestinian Authority.”
Israel caved in to international pressure, handed over Bethlehem to the Palestinian Authority and, for the middle class Christian residents, their lives became threatened, and the mayor’s warning became the current Christian nightmare.

The St. James’s Church Christmas charade failed to mention the fear that pervades the shrinking Christian population. The fear of attack by Muslim Palestinians is personified by Joseph Canawati whose sister, her husband, and three children have fled to America.
“I want to leave but nobody will buy my business. I feel trapped. We are isolated,” he complained.

But the Piccadilly church leaders turn a deaf ear to his plea, or to the fear of death at the hands of non-Christian Palestinians in Bethlehem, such as that felt by Jeriez Moussa Amaro whose two sisters, Rada aged 24 and Dunya aged 18, were gunned down by Palestinian Muslims in their own home. Their crime was to be young, attractive, and wear Western clothes and no veil.

Sami Qumsieh, the general manager of “The Nativity,” the only Christian television station in Bethlehem, has received death threats and visits from armed gunmen. He is now ready to leave.
“As Christians, we have no future here.”

How sad it is that this church, the British Methodist Church, and many other Christian leaders are blindsided in their pursuit of a perceived Jewish enemy that they fail to come to the rescue, or campaign for, their co-religionists, persecuted by those who they actively and expensively support.

Other related articles

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/4511/major_london_church_and_its_wall_for_terrorism

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-bigotry-and-lies-of-st-james-church.html#.UsXgydJdWCM

http://cifwatch.com/2014/01/01/christmas-priorities-at-st-jamess-church-israel-security-wall-stunt-cost-30000/comment-page-1/

Tesco and Israeli Apartheid debunked

17/10/2013 / / 4 Comments

I did my weekly shop in Tesco this afternoon.

There were not many checkouts free so I noticed one with a somewhat elderly man with few items who appeared to be engaged in conversation with the checkout assistant.

She happened to be of African-Caribbean appearance.

As I unloaded my trolley I could hear he was talking to her about marriage and that after 47 years he was on his own.

She was politely responding and laughing with him.

As he left she said something to me, but she had a very strong African accent and I could not understand it – something about being married. She was a woman in her thirties, quite attractive, very personable. She asked me about the weather.

I had happened to buy some kosher grape juice for kiddush.

As she checked it out she asked me ‘is this from the Jewish section?’

I thought that was a bit strange because why did it matter where it was from? And why did she not say ‘kosher’?

I didn’t really give it a second thought until a few seconds later she said ‘I was in Israel this year’.

Oh, I thought, how nice, she clearly realised I was Jewish and, therefore, assumed I would be interested in Israel.

I replied ‘where did you go?’

‘Ashkelon’.

[Packing the milk and yoghurts and fielding a rolling melon.]

‘Ashkelon? That’s a port – were you on a cruise?’

‘No, my brother lives there’.

[trying to remain nonchalant]

‘What does he do?’

‘He works for [name of high-tech company]’.

‘Sounds like a good job. Did you enjoy your trip?’

‘Yes, I went to Haifa and Tel Aviv’. I lived there for eight years.’

[trying not to look surprised].

‘Where were you before then?’

‘Nigeria’.

‘Do you still have family there?’

‘Yes’.

‘Do you want to return?’

[trying not to channel the BNP]

‘No, my children go to school here… Are you paying with the Clubcard?’.

And she gave me my receipt. At which…

‘Toda raba’

‘B’vakasha’

‘L’hitraot’

What a lovely lady. She made my day.

Never in my wildest dreams whilst I rummaged through the courgettes and the Esquise new potatoes did I ever think I’d have a short exchange in Hebrew with a Nigerian!

So there you have it. The Israel apartheid system which allows Nigerians to live there for at least eight years, provides them with job opportunities in a high-tech industry. Ok, I don’t yet know the full story but it rather debunks the Apartheid myth, once again.

I’ll be sure to look out for this lady again next time. It makes shopping such a pleasant experience to speak a bit of Ivrit at the supermarket.

 

 

 

Two Unions and a Tribunal: Or ‘how I had my Jewishness defined for me’

24/04/2013 / / 3 Comments

This article was first published in ‘Israel and the World’ April 2013

Two recent cases in the UK and Ireland have highlighted the obsessive anti-Zionism that has seeped into the fabric of academic discourse.

Those who obsess about Israel, characterising that state in in the most pejorative of terms, are part of a broader left wing coalition for whom Israel is the new South Africa; a country which, by shedding Apartheid without shedding blood, inconsiderately deprived the Left of something to gather in Trafalgar Square about;  the cause célèbre that makes them feel good about their Socialist credentials once again.

This troupe of Israel-obsessed, Zionist-loathing, self-righteous self-delusionists find support and common cause with the even more obsessive Muslim and Islamist ‘Greens’, thus forming what has been called ‘The Red Green Alliance’.

Even though the views of the ‘Greens’ are about as unpalatable as a side order of Brussel  sprouts, when it comes to their views on Israel, and even though their anti-Israelism and pro-Palestinianism is often, if not invariably thinly veiled anti-Semitism, the Reds are happy to embrace and find common cause with their green brothers and sisters.

Why the Left should find common cause against a pluralist, thriving, innovative democracy and side with those who support and give succour to some of the most obscene regimes in the world is a mystery for which I have little explanation.

In an article by Joshua Muravchik titled “Enough Said: The False Scholarship of Edward Said”[1] there is, perhaps, an explanation:

Said rolled American racism and European colonialism into one mélange of white oppression of darker-skinned peoples. He was not the only thinker to have forged this amalgam, but his unique further contribution was to represent “Orientals” as the epitome of the dark-skinned; Muslims as the modal Orientals; Arabs as the essential Muslims; and, finally, Palestinians as the ultimate Arabs. Abracadabra—Israel was transformed from a redemptive refuge from two thousand years of persecution to the very embodiment of white supremacy.

This is the background against which two absurdities were recently consecrated by academe.

The first case was in Ireland, a cold-bed of anti-Israel activity and sentiment, and perpetrated  by those who clearly believe that the Palestinians are the new Fenians.

The Teachers Union of Ireland agreed an academic boycott of Israel and, thus, aligned themselves with the BDS (Boycott, Sanction, Disinvestment) movement which comprises a motley assortment of groups and individuals who ‘BDS’ no other country, nor who are interested in so doing. This alliance’s rhetoric is often laced with helpful suggestions to the Israeli people to take part in negotiations with themselves (as the other party continues to absent itself) to bring about the end of their own country in order to allow yet another Islamist, anti-Semitic terror state to replace it, all in the name of Human Rights and natural justice, not to mention International Law.

When this group is challenged to explain why they have chosen Israel and not, for example, Sudan or China or Syria or North Korea or Burma as the cynosure of their moral indignation-cum-compass, they can come out with absurdities such as this, reported in the Jewish Chronicle (12 April 2013):

The academic boycott of Israel imposed by the Teachers Union of Ireland is a “backhanded compliment”, the union’s general secretary has claimed.

John MacGabhann said the TUI “expected more” of Israel than it did of other countries and felt a “sense of disappointment” in the actions of successive Israeli governments.

“To a very significant degree, our union and members expect more of the Israeli government, precisely because we would anticipate that Israeli governments would act in all instances and ways to better uphold the rights of others,” he said.

I would bring Mr MacGabhann’s attention to one of the clauses of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism’s working definition of anti-Semitism:

Applying double standards by requiring of it [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.

So, don’t take my word for it, the TUI decision is antisemitic. Apart from that, it’s downright stupid, which makes me worry about the future of Irish education if it is in the hands of those who try to find enough wriggle-room to excuse the enormity of their prejudices.

What is the corollary of expecting Israel to behave better than other countries? Why, it means the TUI expects less of other, unspecified countries. But don’t these inspirational academics, in the glory of their self-righteousness, realise that not only gives a free (moral) pass to Israel’s enemies, but it is profoundly racist. It also contradicts what, I would guess, is one of their own cherished principles; namely, international laws, norms of behaviour and the adherence to the principles of human rights  – which are not negotiable on the basis of ‘well, you know, we’re only Arabs, whadya expect?’ or ‘Come on, we are brown-skinned and clearly of inferior moral fibre, give us a break’.

If they can’t see how repugnant it is to expect more of Israel, and less of others, (and how pathetic an excuse for their own bigotry that is), then how can we possibly trust them to make a proper moral judgement on the rightness of BDS?

The second case was Jewish, Zionist Mathematics lecturer, Ronnie Fraser versus the University College Union.

Fraser accused the Union of harassment due to a number of incidents over the years where he felt that his support for Israel had led to his being bullied and victimised.

This is the same UCU which found that the Working Definition of antisemitism quoted above was not to their liking because it married Israel-bashing with antisemitsm and, although to be antisemitic is taboo even for a UCU academic, to be anti-Zionist is not. In other words, the definition got in the way of their attempts to fig-leaf their own prejudices. Here’s the bit where they felt an index finger pointing rather too close for comfort at their academic sang-froid:

Examples of the ways in which antisemitism manifests itself with regard to the State of Israel taking into account the overall context could include:

Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

‘Could include’, indeed. Context is all. Yet, in a judgement for this same UCU Fraser lost the case before an employment tribunal. He not only lost it, but one of the reasons he lost it was because the judge found that Jews do not understand their own Jewishness:

“..an attachment to Israel… is not intrinsically part of Jewishness”

So what is? An attachment to money and Christian blood?

As Prof. Geoffrey Alderman wrote in the Jewish Chronicle also on the 12th April:

“..I had only to consult my daily prayer book to reassure myself on this point”

Anyone who can make that statement with a straight face is either obscenely badly-educated (maybe they attended University College?) or they are malign in the extreme. Such a judgement is so ignorant that it smacks of the antisemitic form of anti-Zionism that the case was about in the first place.

So, it seems, Jews turned up in Israel because they though mosquito-infested swamps, 40°C, noisy neighbours, pitiless soil and desert  conditions were a worthwhile colonial enterprise. As opposed to, say, the bounty of Uganda or the forests of Madagascar, both thought, at one time, to be suitable dumping-grounds for Europe’s Jews.

The problem, you see, is the whole idea of ‘Jewishness’ and how the outside world cannot, at times, and often for its own ideological convenience, come to terms with the idea that for Jews the Land of Israel is not fundamental to their religion and culture – IT IS their religion and culture. It is as indivisible for Jews as the Trinity for Catholics or the Five Pillars for Islam.

To deny that connection, to divorce Jew from Judaism and The Land, is just another line of attack on Jews and Jewishness  and which leads to assaults on shechita (ritual slaughter) and brit milah (circumcision); and all in the name of animal welfare or human rights.

I’ll finish with words of author Howard Jacobson writing in The Independent[2] about the reaction  to Cast Lead (Israel’s invasion of Gaza in 2008/9) which typifies the level and tenor of attacks on Israel, which, I will remind you, is the homeland of the Jewish people:

“…the air has been charred not with devastation but with hatred…

A discriminatory, over-and-above hatred, inexplicable in its hysteria and virulence whatever justification is adduced for it; an unreasoning, deranged and as far as I can see irreversible revulsion that is poisoning everything we are supposed to believe in here – the free exchange of opinions, the clear-headedness of thinkers and teachers, the fine tracery of social interdependence we call community relations, modernity of outlook, tolerance, truth.”

Apartheid and ethnic cleansing the Palestinian way

14/09/2011 / / 2 Comments

In an announcement that gives hypocrisy a good name, the Palestine Liberation Organisaiton ambassador to the United States announced yesterday, as reported by USA Today:

that any future Palestinian state it seeks with help from the United Nations and the United States should be free of Jews…

After the experience of the last 44 years of military occupation and all the conflict and friction, I think it would be in the best interest of the two people to be separated

So opined Maen Areikat without an ounce of irony. He played it with a straight bat.

It must be true that the very best bigots are so unaware of their own bigotry that they can let drop statements like this with complete sang froid.

Such statements would be common currency in Apartheid South Africa or the Deep South of the United States in the heyday of Jim Crow.

It’s not that we hate and have spent 100 years trying to annihilate the Jews, it’s just that the very sight of them in a Free Palestine might freak the children.

Yet it is Israel that is constantly accused of being Apartheid and racist, claims which are demonstrably false. The perpetrators of this lie point to the Israeli-only roads on the West Bank, the ‘Apartheid Wall’. They don’t mention the complete equality under law of all Israeli citizens or the fact that West Bank Arabs are not Israeli citizens and the West Bank has never been annexed.

Now, as I have frequently written, I am not a fan of settlements. I do favour land swaps for Israeli towns along the Green Line that are contiguous with Israel.

I am well aware that there are ‘frictions’, that some settlers behave abominably, that acts of vandalism occur, that the Palestinians are an inconvenient reality to many Israelis and that their are restrictions and, yes, abuses of human rights.

I am also aware that the separation is necessary because of security but that the status quo is not supportable and cannot go on forever.

So when it comes to a Palestinian state, I support two states living side by side with mutual respect and co-operation. But we ain’t there yet.

But let’s go back to Mr Areikat:

it would be in the best interest of the two people to be separated

Is this not what was proposed in 1947? Have not similar statements from Israelis when speaking of land swaps and voluntary transfer invoked howls of ‘racists’, ‘Apartheid’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’?

But look at what is being proposed: a Palestinian state without a single Jew and a Jewish state with 20% non-Jews.

And what’s more, the creation of a Palestinian state would not end the claims for a Right of Return for several million Arabs to live in Israel.

If the Palestinians can ethically cleanse their land of Jews, why not the Israelis of Arabs? Of course, they have no such intention.

As Oren Dorell in the USA Today article goes on to tell us:

Such a state would be the first to officially prohibit Jews or any other faith since Nazi Germany, which sought a country that was judenrein, or cleansed of Jews, said Elliott Abrams, a former U.S. National Security Council official.

Israel has 1.3 million Muslims who are Israeli citizens. Jews have lived in “Judea and Samaria,” the biblical name for the West Bank, for thousands of years. Areikat said the PLO seeks a secular state, but that Palestinians need separation to work on their own national identity.

‘Work on their own national identity’? What does that mean. Maybe Israel had to work on its national identity in 1948, then. How can it be right to perpetrate the very acts that the Palestinians and the world at large has been accusing Israel of for the last 63 years?

This is not just double-standards it’s moral bankruptcy, racism and anti-Semitism masquerading as nationalism. Now where have we hard that before? I think Elliott Abrams in the quote above will give you are clue.

I really cannot wait to see the far Left’s reactions and justifications for a judenrein Palestine. I bet there’ll be some good’uns.

And all this in the context of the Palestinian Authority’s bid for recognition this month in the UN General Assembly.

One should also recall that the PLO was formed in 1964 before Israel’s ‘occupation’. So what was it trying to liberate? Answer: Israel. Then as now the intention of the PLO, Hamas and Fatah has been to eliminate Israel.

Today the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, announced the UK was pulling out of Durban III, a modern-day pogrom without physical casualties. A UN sponsored human rights conference starring Iran’s Ahmadinejad and a bevvy of hate-spitting human rights abusers who want to tell the world that it is Israel, not they who are racists.

So Cameron’s action sounds good, but it could be the good news before the bad news.

The bad news may be that the UK will decide to support the bid for Palestinian statehood. See Melanie Phillips for her analysis of the government position and why the bid is anti-peace.

HMG have frequently asserted that the UK will not take sides and make up its mind when it sees the context of the bid.

But the UK should take sides.

How can a democratic country support the creation of a terrorist racist state next door to its supposed ally?

The answer is fairly simple: realpolitik. The conflict is like a wound that won’t heal. The world wants to get rid of it at any cost, including the cost of Israel. There is a demented belief that the Israel-Palestine conflict is the linchpin to securing better relations with the Arab and Muslim world.

To enable themselves to agree to such a monstrosity the UK and other Western governments have to believe their own rhetoric; they must paint the Palestinians as victims who deserve an end to their suffering. Israel is the aggressor and a stubborn one. So Accords and agreements and UN resolutions which are always used to beat Israel with can now be thrown on to the garbage heap, airbrushed from history, because the Palestinians want a state without negotiating one.

The fact that the PA admits that this is just a tactic, a first step on the road to the annihilation of Israel is dismissed or ignored. The fact that Hamas doesn’t want a state, because that might mean giving up claims to Israel, passes them by. The fact that Hamas and the PA are not unified is also ignored. The fact that they want a judenrein Palestine because, poor dears, the sight of a Jew will retard their ability to form a national identity is accepted.

They will not have a state at the end of the process. They will have a propaganda victory. But worse, those amongst them for whom international law and the UN GA is somewhat of a mystery will conveniently claim that they now have a clear UN mandate to expel the Jews from their country, Palestine, even though no such country will exist any more than it does now. The result will be disastrous.

All this stunt will do is cause more killing and suffering. But that’s OK for the Palestinians and their supporters; the more they are killed the more they suffer, the more they can claim victim-hood and go with their bleeding hearts to the International Court of Justice (which their new status may allow) with pictures of dead babies and take out lawsuits against the Jewish ‘settlers’.

Israel will be further isolated and made a pariah.

Israel will truly be the Jew among states. Or maybe now I should say ‘Palestinian’.

 

From Guinean slave to Israeli soldier – the amazing story of Avi Be’eri

04/05/2011 / / 0 Comments

I have often written about the plural nature of Israeli society and how it confounds those who would label Israel an ‘apartheid’ state.

Look at this story in ynetNews of an Guinean whose original name was Ibrahim and who now considers himself as ‘a Jew in every way’.

He was sold to slave traders who smuggled him into Israel. How this worked or who benefited from his flight to Cairo and then into Israel via Eilat I cannot work out. I believe the person who had bought his air fare to Cairo expected him to send money back to Guinea. This is hardly slavery as we understand it but the obligation he felt and his fear of return were a kind of slavery.

However, he was never a slave. He found himself as an illegal in Tel Aviv and soon found other black Africans who advised him to apply for refugee status.

When this was turned down he was almost deported but a kind family took him in, sent him to school and eventually persuaded the authorities to give him Israeli citizenship. From there it was a short step to army service.

On Tuesday he is set to complete his officers’ course and will then be promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant. “I really do feel like someone who is making history,” he says with pride. “Who would have believed that I, who arrived in this country with nothing, sat in prison and was nearly deported, would become an IDF officer and serve at the IDF adjutancy helping Israelis integrate into the army?”

Please name any other country in the Middle East where such opportunities, especially for black Africans, are possible. In some Gulf states black Africans are literally slaves. Read this article about Saudi Arabia. In Libya, the vaunted rebels, are attacking black Africans indiscriminately because Gaddafi is using black African mercenaries.  See here an article in FrontPage Mag for a report on this behaviour.

Meanwhile Israel has been a haven for Somalis and Sudanese fleeing war and persecution.

As I have often said: so much for Israeli Apartheid.

I witness a terrible example of Israeli Apartheid

22/04/2011 / / 6 Comments

Yesterday, near the Kotel/Western Wall in Jerusalem I was shocked to see several hundred Ethiopian Jews openly celebrating an ancient Passover ritual.

The entire plaza near the Davidson Center was thronged with very well-behaved and very polite African Israelis.

I took several photos which I hope to post when I return home.

How appalling that the Israeli authorities seemed to be totally sanguine to see all these black people mingling with the dominant ‘white’ Israelis in a clear breach of the Apartheid laws.

Even more appalling was the complete mingling of all races and creeds in the Old City on a day when thousands of Jews had arrived to take part in the Blessing of the Priests (Bircat HaCohanim) at the Kotel/Western Wall.

What is Israeli society coming to when such mingling of the races is openly tolerated?

If anyone knows more about the ceremony I witnessed, please let me know.

© 2024 Ray Cook – As I See It

Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑