Why shout when a whisper can be heard?

Having just returned from France to the UK, I continue to be amazed by the contrasting attitudes of the two countries towards Israel. This Thursday (15th April 2010) Shimon Peres inaugurated the Ben Gurion Promenade in a select area of Paris, in the presence of the Mayor Bertrand Delanoe. Can you imagine a similar event occuring in London? And afterwards President Sarkozy assured Peres that he maintains his efforts to free Gilad Shalit - whose portrait adorns more than one Paris Town Hall.

The French media never fail to have some positive little item about Israel, such an Israeli instructor teaching Parisiennes self-defence, or even the Meteo mentioning how good the weather is in Tel Aviv. My heart sinks when I hear an English station mention Israel, as it is invariably in a negative light.

Of course the French Jewish community benefits from a robust representative body, the CRIF (Conseil représentatif des institutions juives de France ), which never fails to protest loudly at overt anti-semitism or anti-Israelism, and an equally outspoken Israeli ambassador in the person of Daniel Shek; while in the UK the equivalent body (the Board of Deputies of British Jews) seems to have as its motto "Why shout when a whisper can be heard". The problem with this is that nowadays no whisper can be heard when the other side is shouting.

The result is that the UK leads Europe in anti-Israeli attitudes, such as the lamentable Universal Jurisdiction deployed against the entry of Israeli personalities, the officious labelling of Israeli produce, and now the latest outrage, the ban by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) against Israeli travel posters showing the Western wall, the holiest site in Judaism.

But this tide can be turned. The French anti-Semitic "comedian" Dieudonne - banned in France, of course - had decided last week to take his act to - where else - the UK. Loud protests lead to the cancellation of this event.

Sometimes it takes more than a whisper.