Christmas- a season for moral cowardice?

In his Christmas message, Archbishop Vincent Nichols sees fit to criticize Israel for constructing a security barrier in the West Bank to protect Jews against terrorist attacks. No mind that dozens of Egyptian Coptic Christians are still warm in their graves after being killed by Islamists. That warrants no mention. No matter that dozens of Nigerian Christians have been killed by Islamists on the very Christmas Day when the good Archbishop’s speech was being delivered – while they were peacefully celebrating their Holy Day in their Churches. That is of no consequence to the Archbishop.

No, that does not warrant any mention. The criticism of a civilized democracy like Israel for trying to protect its own citizens from precisely that sort of Islamic terror carries no dangers for the Archbishop and his flocks. And he knows that this type of moral cowardice is a no-lose stance. One would have thought that the ethnic cleansing by the Palestinian National Authority of Christians from the once majority Christian town of Bethlehem – the focus of today’s ceremonies and whose population constituted 60% in 1990 to less than 15% today! – would have given pause for thought, especially when compared with the exponential growth of the Christian population within Israel.

No, for the good Archbishop the only game in town is criticism of Israel, the one state in the region where Christians do have full protection and equality.

But he is mistaken if he feels that this approach will curry favour with the Islamists, and will help to remove Christians in the Arab lands from danger, especially after the Arab Spring returns even more Islamists to power. No, Archbishop. You are considered a Dhimmi, an inferior person in Islam, and they expect this sort of subservience from you, as they expect you in trembling to distance yourself from anyone they consider willing to stand up to them.

In his Christmas message, the Pope too made no mention of the murder of Christians around the Islamic world, only “even-handedly” praying for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks – as if that would do anything to alleviate the situation of Christians across the Arab world.

Until the Roman Catholic Church realises that the only steadfast ally they have in the region is the Jewish state, I fear that Christians will continue to be murdered in their hundreds around the Middle East, while the the Church leaders glibly condemn Israel.

After the Arab Spring, now the Israeli summer...

Anyone watching the series of uprisings in the Middle East could only surmise that it was just a matter of time before the Israelis rose up in revolt against the oppressive regime that rules them. We marvel as the Libyan ruler Gaddafi mows down his subjects by the hundred, standing up bravely against the combined superpower forces of NATO. And the Syrian leader Assad attacks the city of Hama, where due to his restraint the death toll in the current campaign is only in the hundreds and has yet to reach the glorious total - reputedly 40,000 dead - achieved by his father in the same town in 1982. No, the Israelis have surely more reason to protest than their Arab neighbours.

Inspired by earlier protests in Israel against the price of cottage cheese, the oppressed proletariat have massed in their dozens in the main towns. And do not mock at cottage cheese; I myself am partial to the odd dollop on my breakfast crispbread. This, I consider, is one of the basic Human Rights, hitherto ignored by the United Nations (but not now by the British media). Any government which permits the price of cottage cheese to rise above a level which allows it to be purchased by the most impoverished citizen is surely guilty of - at the very least - a Crime Against Humanity. Count me among the protesters; today, I am with you - Israeli Cottage Cheese Protesters. We in the West owe it to the downtrodden cottage-cheese-less masses in Israel to mount flotillas, filled with cottage cheese, if that vile regime will allow them to approach their shores.

And it is not only cottage cheese - although that is bad enough. After having spent 6 weeks in a luxury three-bedroom apartment in Tel Aviv, I was disgusted to learn that there are even more luxurious 6-10 bedroom apartments being built in the plusher quarters of that city. Ten bedrooms! Why should any capitalist - with the requisite capital - be able to afford such a flat in Rothschild Boulevard (now that's an appropriate name) and not me? I am with you, Oh Israeli protesters, Luxury Flats for Everybody! is our slogan.

And what about the cost of raising children - another of the issues being raised? I assure you, anyone with kids will tell you that this is no laughing matter. Especially, with Jewish children who adamantly refuse to leave the parental home until they are themselves married with children. We demand free creches and kindergartens for all in Israel. (Oh, they do have State Kindergartens in Israel already? Well surely not enough. And so what if in the UK we don't have any; since when do we judge Israel by our standards?)

And it was only to be expected that violence would be exhibited by the police of that illegitimate entity. The Guardian published a photograph of a police officer discreetly standing behind an activist. It is highly possible that the activist had been ticked off really harshly by that policeman.

So stand by our Israeli protesters: Proletariat of the world unite! we have nothing to lose but our cottage cheese.

Green Jews

The other day we were invited round to lunch by a Jewish couple who had recently moved to our neighbourhood. As it was a lovely day, one of those rare English summer days when you have to take advantage of every minute of sunshine, we spent some time in their garden. My wife and I could only gaze in awe and wonderment at the sight. Lush greenery, exotic flowers and plants, bushes and trees, reminiscent of the Brazilian rain forest, or possibly more accurately of the tamed naturalness of a Capability Brown. Not, I thought unkindly, your typical Jewish garden. The hostess - the gardener in question - kindly offered us some cuttings.. "Cuttings, noch", I thought, echoing the Manchester writer Howard Jacobson's Yiddish self putdown.

And yet, and yet. The Jews' ancient history depicts them as agriculturists extraordinaire, well ahead of their time with respect to ecological questions. The Torah itself is strong on sustainable agriculture, ordaining every seventh year (Shmitah year) as an annual rest for the land. The Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus, writing around 100 C.E., rather scathingly refers to this practise among the Jews as due to their love of indolence[1]! He otherwise notes the fertility and cultivation of the soil; as does the Romano-Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus, who wrote in 75 C.E., referring to the Jews of the Galilee, “their soil is universally rich and fruitful, and full of the plantations of trees of all sorts, insomuch that it invites the most slothful to take pains in its cultivation, by its fruitfulness; accordingly, it is all cultivated by its inhabitants, and no part of it lies idle.“ and of Samaria, “They have abundance of trees, and are full of autumnal fruit, both that which grows wild, and that which is the effect of cultivation"[2].

Perhaps the destruction of Jerusalem and the subsequent dispersal, depriving Jews of their own country, and involving centuries of persecution and moving from one temporary host country to another, militated against the traditional Jewish love of land and cultivation.

But the more recent history of the Jews shows that since their return to their homeland they have once again become world leaders in cultivation and fruit and vegetable production. Due to the ever-present problem of water resources, agriculture has become a less important element of the GDP, but now Israel is discovering innovative techniques for growing more produce with less water[3].

And continuing the ancient Jewish ecological tradition.

[1] Tacitus, The Histories, Volume V, 5.4.
[2] Flavius Josephus: The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, Chapter 3.2 and 3.4.
[3] See the excellent Wikipedia article , Agriculture in Israel.

The midnight knock comes to West Dumbartonshire

24 May 2011: West Dumbartonshire , Scotland, County Council has enacted a law banning books printed or published in Israel.
Heinrich Heine "Where they burn books, so too will they in the end burn human beings." ("Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.")
___________________
Picture a small cottage in West Dumbartonshire, some time in the summer of 2011. It is midnight and there is a fierce knocking on the door. Sarah, fearfully, in her dressing gown, peers through the window.

“Who is it?”

“Nothing to worry about , Madam, just a mere formal enquiry.”
She opens the door to the two policemen standing outside.

“Madam, I am Sergeant McTaggart and this is my assistant, Hamish McGivern. Would I be correct in assuming that this is a Jewish household?”

“Well, ...” Sarah is hesitant.

“No worries, Madam, but we have information that leads us to believe that you may be in possession of illegal material.”

“Illegal material? There is nothing of that nature here.” Sarah is nonplussed.

“Well, Madam, we have reason to believe that there may be Jewish books, or, more specifically books published in “ – here the Sergeant steels himself to pronounce the word –“Israel, in your possession. No? Perhaps a Hebrew Bible, or...whatever.” McTaggart is clearly not totally familiar with what is, after all, a new area of police enquiry.

“Well, we do have an old family bible from my grandparents, but we’re really not very Jewish...”

“No problem, Madame. Could we possibly have a look at this, er, family bible?”

“Certainly, sergeant”.

Sarah rummages in a cupboard, and comes up with a large dog-eared volume.

“Thank you, Madame.” McTaggart thumbs through the volume, initially in the wrong sense, and then happens on the flyleaf.

“I see that this book was published in Jerusalem. Would that be West Jerusalem or East Jerusalem, Madame?” McTaggart has clearly been through the police Forbidden Book Section’s orientation course.

Sarah is at a loss here. “We’re not all that Jewish, you know. I got it from my grandparents and...” Her voice drops off.

“I’m sorry, Madame, but we shall have to impound this volume. If it is found to contravene the Illegal Material (Books) Statute24052011 we shall, I very much regret, have to dispose of it in the specified manner. Now – do you have anything else you would like to show me. Let me advise you that you are already in contravention of the Statute and may be faced with serious penalties if you are found to be concealing any further illegal material. “

Sarah is now trembling nervously. “I’m sorry, I really didn’t know...”

“Madame, ignorance of the law is not a defence. Please, I insist, show me any other material of this nature that you have, otherwise Hamish here will return very shortly with a search warrant, and I can assure you that we will not miss anything.”

Sarah begins to weep. “My late father left an old Hebrew prayer book...I’ll get it from the loft.”
She returns and hands a rather dusty book to McTaggart, who looks at the latest find.

“Hmmm. I see that this was published in London, so it may be OK. But, just to be sure, we will take it along in any case. You don’t want any more trouble, Madame, do you?”
The policemen make to leave, when McTaggart spots a metal cylinder attached to the doorpost.

“Would this be what is termed a Mezzuzah, Madame?” He has really been an apt pupil at the banned books section training course.
Sarah looks through her tears. “I don’t really know. When my parents passed on they left me the house, and I didn’t want to remove it – I thought it was a good luck charm or something..”.

“That’s as may be – but as like as not this contains material which was made in - again McTaggart’s voice trembles slightly before pronouncing the accursed word – Israel. We shall have to take this away. Hamish, get the crowbar. Sorry we inconvenienced you, Madame, but really, I am afraid that you should have known better than to retain such material in your possession. I hope the magistrate will take a lenient view as this is probably a first offence. Good evening.”

And with that the policemen were gone.

But that is only the beginning......

At last – a great victory for Arab heroes

The protracted military operations in Libya, with neither side yet achieving ultimate victory in spite of the great material superiority of the pro-Gaddafi forces, have proved somewhat of an embarrassment to the reputation of Arab fighting prowess. But one recent success at least has shown what the Arab fighting machine is still capable of.

On Saturday night 12th March 2011, while they slept in their beds, five members of an Israeli family were killed; the parents , two boys, one aged eleven and a toddler of three and, greatest success of all, a three-month old baby who had her throat slashed. It really takes some courage to cut the throat of a three-month-old but, as she was sleeping at the time, this was probably not beyond the ability of a well-trained Arab militant.

It is not often that our Arab friends can claim a great heroic victory, but this event showed what they are really capable of when they try. Celebrations resounded throughout Gaza, with celebratory sweets being handed out. Doubtless this epic feat will be commemorated by the naming of squares and football teams, the striking of medals, and long-lasting adulation throughout the Arab world.

Israeli babies – tremble in your cots. You have met your match!

Cameron on Democracy

By his insensitive excursion to a Middle East aflame with insurrection in an attempt to bolster – of all things – arms sales, David Cameron has shown a complete lack of understanding of feelings in that area. But worse, Cameron exhibits total ignorance of what “democracy” means, arguing that dismissing the Muslim world as unsuited to democracy amounts to “prejudice bordering on racism”.

Democracy is not the mere counting of ballots. By that measure, Adolph Hitler, who was elected democratically and – if the newsreels of the époque are anything to go by – was adored by the German people – was one of the most democratic leaders in history.

No. Democratic governance should reflect the will of the majority while respecting the aspirations of the minority. It is in this sense that democracy is indeed incompatible with Islam. The true Muslim believer can never respect the faiths of his non-Muslim fellow citizens; this is expressly ruled out by the Koran, which relegates such, at best, to ‘dhimmitude’, a subservient position with regard to that of the Muslim. That is why a gathering of two million Egyptians in Tahrir Square, shouting in unison “Together we march on Jerusalem”, cannot be described as a step towards democracy.

Arab world awash with revolt and massacre - and the UN acts at last.

During the recent rioting in Libya, a Benghazi doctor appeared on Aljazeera television, describing the wholesale massacre of his fellow-citizens who were protesting peacefully, murdered by heavy weapon fire. "Where is the United Nations, where is the Human Rights council?", he cried out.

He need not have worried. The UN Security Council has indeed been in action.

In Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria, Jordan and Iran, protests have been held, with what must now total thousands of peaceful protestors being murdered on the streets!

But the UN has not been inactive.

At last the Security Council has met - to do what?

To condemn Israel for wishing to build a few homes in its capital city, Jerusalem.

Perhaps this is not totally surprising. All the above-named autocratic tyrannies - Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria, Jordan and Iran - have been members of the Security Council. Israel has never been invited to join this august body.

So, as this eminent group of 14 po-faced imbeciles gathered solemnly around the table to condemn Israel - with the cries of the massacred citizens of at least eight Middle-Eastern and North-African regimes screaming in their ears -only the 15th member, the United States, represented by Ambassador Susan Rice, saw what a complete charade the whole shoddy business was, and applied its veto.

No surprise too that the United Kingdom voted with the condemnation; its brain-impaired Foreign Minister William Hague had already condemned Israel for "belligerency" during the Egyptian uprising. (Don't try to figure this out - put it down to congenital madness.)

The UN must collectively go down on its knees daily to thank God for Israel. Without Israel, what would there be for it to do?

Lies, Damned Lies and The Guardian

Consider the following headline as it might appear in a newspaper:
________________________
Suspect: “I killed my neighbour”
Yesterday local police interviewed Mr Joe Bloggs following the death of his neighbour. He told our reporter “ I killed my neighbour”.
(End of story.)
____________________
Suppose now that the actual words said by Mr Bloggs to the reporter were:

"The police believe I killed my neighbour. I swear to you, it’s totally untrue – I really liked the guy and would do nothing to hurt him.”
__________________________________________

Note that the first quotation, as it might be used by a mendacious newspaper, is 100% accurate – the words cited are indeed (some of ) the words used by Mr Bloggs.

If you believe that such malicious reporting is impossible by a newspaper such as the Guardian, well, think again. The newspaper would not get away with it in a court of English Law. But when it comes to Israel and the Guardian, anything goes.

Here is an account by the Guardian of the “words” of Mrs Tzipi Livni, Israel's former foreign minister, taken from the Aljazeera-leaked Palestine Papers, as reported on the 24 January 2011:

______________
'The Israel policy is to take more and more land day after day and that at the end of the day we'll say that it is impossible, we already have the land and cannot create the state.' Tzipi Livni, then Israeli foreign minister
____________________________________________________ The paper now acknowledges that the actual words of Israel’s one-time Foreign Minister were:
__________________________________
"I understand the sentiments of the Palestinians when they see the settlements being built. The meaning from the Palestinian perspective is that Israel takes more land, that the Palestinian state will be impossible, the Israel policy is to take more and more land day after day and that at the end of the day we'll say that it is impossible, we already have the land and cannot create the state."

On February 12th the paper, in a small aside, acknowledged that their selective quote, as given above the correct version, “may have given a misleading impression”. Hats off to Just Journalism for squeezing this reluctant admission from the Guardian.

May have given a misleading impression? If it is the Guardian’s intention to foster hatred of the Jewish state, they are doing a very good job. However, if they believe that anyone can now take seriously anything they report on Israeli politics - well – they have just blown it.

One, two, three, or four-state solution?

Recently the Board of Deputies, the UK's "Jewish parliament", voted on a resolution concerning an approach to the Mid-East peace process. By a large majority, they defeated a proposal by the executive which, inter alia, called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. The totally justified reasoning behind this rejection was the feeling that it is not up to Diaspora Jews to prescribe what solution should be adopted by the Israeli government to problems which, in essence, affect their own citizens.

However, an additional reason might well be offered: namely, the two-state solution seems only one of many possible outcomes - and by no means the most likely. For example, it is entirely possible to envisage 1,2,3 or even 4-state solutions.

One state solution: This is the one favoured by the Islamic world - a national entity including essentially the current boundaries of Israel and the Palestinian Authority with a single government. Demographically, this would rapidly become just another Muslim state in the area, removing what many Muslims consider a blot on the otherwise totally Islamic texture of the region. This joining-up of two different ethnic or religious groups within the one area is precisely the opposite of what was done, for example, in the case of India and Pakistan in order to avoid internecine strife. This particular end of the Jewish nature of Israel – another ”final solution” - is likely to be resisted by the government of Israel, and so it won’t happen.

Two-state solution: The mantra of a two-state solution is currently being chanted by all the pundits. This completely disregards the wishes of the democratically-elected government of Gaza – and the fact that Hamas is totally opposed to such an outcome. In their speeches to their publics in Arabic it also appears that this would not be a satisfactory ultimate outcome for the Fatah rulers in the PA. Given the situation in Gaza vis-à-vis Israel, after Israel’s withdrawal from that strip of land, it is not clear that anything other than a totally disarmed region would be acceptable to most Israelis either – and unlikely that the PA would accept such restrictions.

Three-state solution: Given the ferocity of the enmity between Hamas and Fatah, it is unlikely that these two groups could co-exist within the same national entity. This opens up the possibility of three co-existing states; Israel, a PA-ruled region -essentially what is termed the West Bank – and a Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Four-state solution: It is estimated that at least half of Jordan’s citizens are Palestinians. The “Jordan option” has always been considered as a viable one, but is mainly resisted by Arabs who see this as a reduction of their territorial claims to the whole region, if it is considered as the only state for Palestinians. But with the addition of the West Bank and Gaza, this would seem a generous area to fulfill Palestinian ambitions. Given the recent upheaval in Egypt, and the resulting echoes in Jordan, it is by no means impossible that the Palestinian residents of that state would express their desire for autonomy, as a step towards the creation of their own state.

So, with a bit of lateral thinking, it is clear that a two-state solution is not the only one, and perhaps not even the most viable one.

The Israel Pathology

As the once-great United Kingdom slips from being a second-rate power to a third-rate one, at last we have found the solution – blame Israel. Our Foreign Secretary, William Hague – not celebrated for his wisdom – has outshone himself. Rather more subtle than blaming Israel for releasing sharks on our coastal waters, at last we see why the peoples of Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, Yemen and others are revolting against their corrupt regimes; it’s because of the failure of the Peace Process! Blaming Israel is of course the magic formula for keeping the masses happy – nowhere more so than in Merrie England. And this attitude is perhaps best described as a pathology, as Evelyn Gordon writes in Commentary Magazine.

Israel, says Hague, should cease its “belligerent language” . This “language” amounted to Netanyahu expressing fears that regime change in Egypt might alter the situation on Israel’s southern border. And of course as Israel is the only country in the world which, in Hague’s view if his previous statements are anything to go by, is denied the right to self-defense, this would no doubt be considered unduly provocative.

In fact, unlike the UK and the US, Israel has largely held its counsel during the current Mid-East turmoil, much as China and Russia have done. This is the difference between statesmenlike foreign secetaries, and congenital idiots like Hague.

As Melanie Philips says, with her usual acumen, “with friends like these who needs enemies”.

Col. Kemp speaks out

Col.Richard Kemp is a one-time commander of the British Forces in Afghanistan, but perhaps better known for his testimony before the United Nations in the wake of Operation Cast Lead, ending with the statement that"based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: during operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in the combat zones than any other army in the history of warfare".
Last night (12th October 2010) I was privileged to hear a presentation from this distinguished soldier. He revealed one or two facts of which I was not previously aware. Having been seconded to the Cabinet Office, Kemp was faced with developing strategies to counter a previously unknown terrorist tactic - the suicide bomber. When he called Mossad for help, they immediately sent over an agent to advise him, on the basis of which meeting he devised what is now the working strategy of UK's Joint Intelligence Committee. After the July 7, 2005 London bombings, the only two agencies to offer immediate assistance were the CIA and Mossad. (Note: This seeming close co-operation between the Intelligence Agencies of Israel and the UK lends credence to the otherwise implausible Daily Mail story that Britain was in fact informed by Mossad of the Dubai assassination of January 2010 and the use of fake British passports, in advance of the operation; Kemp was not asked about this.)
When asked why Israel was so often singled out for unjust condemnation, he said that anti-Semitism and fear of Islamism were probably two factors. This may seem to some as being what Basil Fawlty would call the "bleeding obvious", but I am not so sure. Although the EU's "working definition of anti-Semitism" conflates some anti-Israelism with anti-Semitism, I prefer the view of, I believe, the late US Ambassador to the United Nations Arthur J. Goldberg, who thought of anti-Semitism as a virus which continually adapted; originally being religious (Early Christianity), then racial (Nazi period) and more recently Nationalistic (anti-Israel). In this current phase there would be no contradiction, for example, in the seemingly relentless hostility of the UK to the State of Israel, and the more-or-less avoidance of anti-Semitism in British public life.

Listening to Col. Kemp speak, one has renewed faith in the inherent humanity of the Englishman, and a deeper understanding of the phrase "an officer and a gentleman".

Lies, Damned Lies, and Politicians

The canard is attributed to the British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881): "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Clearly, in increasing order of vileness. However, as a politician himself, Disraeli must surely have known that the words of politicians outclass all these types of lies.

Consider the following statement:
"Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided."



Undoubtedly the words of a far right Israeli politician? Lieberman perhaps? No.

Must be Bibi Netanyahu in his more aggressive mood? No.




In fact, these are the words of Presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama, on 4th June 2008, addressing an AIPAC audience. Of course, this was before he was elected, with a not unsurprisingly huge Jewish vote - 78% of Jewish voters actually believed what he told them!
Abraham Lincoln, an even more eminent statesman than either Disraeli or Obama, once said "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."


Honest Abe - I wouldn't bet on it.

Come next month with the mid-term United States elections, Obama is putting his money on being able to fool most of the people most of the time.

And he might just be right.

The dog doesn't bark - again

The scene: Friday, 3rd September 2010. A peaceful procession in support of Palestinians on Al Quds Day in Quetta, Pakistan. Al-Quds Day is a yearly Shia event to demonstrate opposition to Israel's control of Jerusalem and show solidarity with Palestinian Muslims.

Suddenly....... mass slaughter of children, women and men - with (so far ) 65 dead.

Did the BBC report this on their news broadcasts - obsessively focussed on the Pakistan cricket scandal, even though the above event took place in Pakistan? No. No BBC broadcasts that I listened to included this "item". And of course, no report about the similar slaughter two days earlier in Lahore.

These were attacks by Sunni Muslims on Shia Muslims - and the three-figure death toll in the space of a couple of days represents only a tiny fraction of the ongoing slaughter.

In a previous blog(The dog that didn't bark) I commented on the significance of what the BBC chooses NOT to broadcast.

Why the reticence of the BBC regarding these events? Quite simply because it does not fit in with the Western world view, into which the BBC has totally bought, that all problems in the Middle East emanate from Arab hostility to Israel. This internecine killing is between Islamic factions whose hatred for one another far outweighs their love of the Palestinians.

So much for those who say that once we solve the "problem" of Israel all will be sunshine and light in that part of the world. The fact that this not the case may be categortized as an "opinion", a hypothesis not susceptible to proof in the near future, as no solution to the Israel-Palestine problem is going to happen in the near future.

But let us see what will happen in Iraq when the U.S. troops finally withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011. I would not like to be a Sunni Iraqi after that date.
________________________________________________________________________
For reports on the above events, see here, here and here.

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.

Mossad – in from the cold?

It’s a long time since an exploit by Israel’s secret service – Mossad – has hit the headlines. The assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud al Mabrouh on January 20 in a Dubai hotel has the aroma of Mossad about it, although of course the agency is remaining shtum. The usual Mossad features – forged passports, clean killing with no family or bystanders involved, quick in-and-out – are indeed redolent of that agency’s methods unlike , for example, the heavy-handed “bomb-the-lot” approach of Arab assassins.

Nevertheless, foreign commentators – and indeed the ultra-critical Israeli newspaper Ha’Aretz (Following alleged Dubai mess, the Mossad chief must go) - have been quick to seize on amateurish features of the coup. The British are particularly incensed that their passports have been used.

But do I detect the whiff of sour grapes and double standards here? Recall that the Americans have been endeavouring for ages to get Mr Bin Laden – dead or alive – and remember the pack of “assassination cards” featuring the Iraqi leaders on the US hit list.

An amazing real-life video of the “event” has been produced by the BBC here which would seem to make any future book, or film superfluous. Sorry, Freddie Forsythe.

,

Karsenty and the Mohammed Al Dura Affair

Camera image

******************************************************

Some iconic images from the Al Dura Affair

Mali Monument	Al Dura Billboard

I attended an interesting presentation in the House of Commons yesterday (27 January 2010) by Philippe Karsenty on the Mohammed Al Dura Affair, a subject on which he has expended much energy since the original incident about a decade ago. Recall that the 12-year-old was apparently shot on 30th September 2000, while sheltering behind his father, as a result of exchanges of fire between Israelis and Palestinians during the Second Intifida.

This incident has become iconic in the Islamic world, with many states issuing postage stamps commemorating it on billboards, naming streets as well as erecting statues, etc. The incident was originally reported by Charles Enderlin, a respected French-Israeli reporter, who was not present at the scene but added the commentary on the basis of footage supplied by his Gazan cameraman, Talal Abu Rahma. It should be noted that Enderlin is a journalist for France 2, the French national TV station.

Karsenty’s exposure of the incident as a staged hoax led to his losing a case in a French court following Enderlin’s writ for libel on December 9, 2004, followed by a writ from France 2 on December 3, 2005. This decision was overturned on May 21, 2008, and an Appeal by France 2 to the French Supreme Court (Court de Cassation) is currently being heard. There is a detailed account of this controversy here, while Ha’aretz has a summary, and there is an excellent account by Camera.

All of this is, of course, well known. But what intrigued me is the seeming reluctance of many Israelis and Israel-sympathizers, and prominent Jews such as Frenchman Jacques Attali, to support Karsenty or pursue the perpetrators of such an obviously staged event. Some light was thrown on this reluctance by Karsenty himself. Given the weakening of US-Israel relations since Obama’s presidency, and the outright anti-Israel hostility of much of Europe, spearheaded by the UK, it seems futile to antagonize the one possible new ally of Sarkozy’s France, which has just awarded Enderlin the Legion d’Honneur.

Makes sense!

The Dog That Didn’t Bark

In Conan Doyle's story "Silver Blaze", Sherlock Holmes has this exchange at the crime scene with Gregory, the Scotland Yard inspector:

Gregory : "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
Holmes: "That was the curious incident."

On Friday 8th January, there occurred riots between Palestinians, the British-led Viva Palestina group, and the Egyptian police at the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza. One Egyptian was killed, with several others injured. Ahmed Abul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, said in remarks published on Saturday, that members of Viva Palestina, the last convoy allowed through, had "committed hostile acts, even criminal ones" on Egyptian soil. Following this incident, the leader of the Viva Palestina group, British MP George Galloway, was deported from Egypt.

This episode understandably made headlines on most foreign and some British-based news channels. (See Aljazeera's take.) That is, on most TV channels - with the glaring exception of the BBC – for whom it was largely a non-story. One would have thought that the involvement of a British MP in foreign riots, followed by deportation, would have been headlined non-stop throughout several days.

Imagine – if you will – had the riots occurred at one of the Israeli crossing points, involving death and injury, and “peaceful” humanitarian aid workers as well as a British MP…. Questions would have been asked in Parliament, protest marches in the streets, “understandably aggrieved British youth” would have explained that this is the sort of behaviour which leads to suicide bombers, etc. etc. It is not beyond possibility that the United Nations General Assembly would have met.

So the BBC obsession is not with the Middle East – it is with Israel.

The fact that the dog did not bark, now that was the curious incident.

Intelligent profiling

The abysmal failure of US security to prevent a putative suicide bomber from boarding Northwest Airlines international flight 253 on December 25, 2009, highlights the need for intelligent profiling on passenger flights. Note I said "intelligent profiling "; paying particular attention to young males with Islamic-sounding names is not, and never has been, sufficient. The silliest comment I heard in this respect was on today's Radio 4 Today programme, when one contributor stated that particular attention should be paid to holders of Iraqi and Afghanistan passports. These are precisely the passport holders who have never been, and will never be, airline bombers. On the other hand, recall the Irish girl, pregnant by her Palestinian lover, who after profiling, that is, background analysis, was prevented from boarding an El Al plane while carrying both her unborn child and the bomb put in her luggage by her lover.

Once after a scientific visit to the Haifa Technion Chemistry Department, where I was collaborating with a colleague who was actually a physicist, I was stopped by a young female security officer. Officer:"What were you doing in Israel?"Me: "Visiting the Chemistry Department of the Technion."Officer: "Prove it."As it so happens I had to hand a preprint of a paper we had just produced on the subject of SU(2) - a technical subject in mathematical physics. I proudly produced the same.Officer: "SU(2) - that's theoetical physics, NOT chemistry!"
At this point I was so flabbergasted that I had to admit that it was a fair cop, guv. Further explanations were necessary. (The girl happened to be an ex-student of my old professor, the celebrated Israeli physicist, Yuval Ne'eman.)

Now that is what I call "intelligent profiling".

The Gaza Syndrome

Geert Wilders, the controversial Dutch politician, in a recent address to the Dutch parliament, claimed that Europe was falling victim to the Stockholm Syndrome, where a grateful captive identifies with the captors. He illustrated this by the case of a left-wing Dutch journalist, Joanie de Rijke, who in November 2008 was abducted by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. She was held captive, raped repeatedly, and released after six days for a ransom of 100,000 euros. After her ordeal, she acknowledged that her captors “did horrible things to me,” but added in several media interviews “They also respected me,” and emphasized “They are not monsters.” The efforts made by European leftist elites to “understand” Islamists – in spite of atrocities committed in cities from London to Madrid, seems to Wilders to be symptomatic of a sort of pan-national Stockholm Syndrome. Effectively, the Islamists can do no wrong; this is their culture, this is how they are.

Much as a paedophile grooms his victim, so have many media in Europe groomed their audiences towards a type of inverse phenomenon, a notable example being the BBC during the recent Gaza campaign, in which the Israelis can do no right. We might call this the Gaza Syndrome. For example, we read during that campaign that the Israelis were allowing only “minimal” amounts of aid into Gaza, instead of wondering why an army should be supplying its enemy during a war. And complaints about injured Gazans (even combatants) having to queue at the border to be allowed to enter Israel for hospital treatment; instead of wonderment that an enemy power was putting its medical facilities at the disposal of its adversaries.

The recent Amnesty Report on Gaza – equating the IDF actions in defence of its citizens with the Hamas aggression - was only too predictable. Now we will shortly have a further opportunity to see the Gaza Syndrome in action with the forthcoming Goldstone report, which Alan Dershowitz has sceptically described as a Kangaroo Investigation.

And so it goes on.

Lessons from Japan and Costa Rica

What connects Japan and Costa Rica? Apart from the fact that Japan has been one of the most successful economies in the World, and that of Costa Rica one of the most successful in Latin America?

Here is a clue: excerpts from the Constitutions of these two countries:

Constitution of Japan.
ARTICLE 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

Constitution of Costa Rica
ARTICLE 12. The Army as a permanent institution is abolished. There shall be the necessary police forces for surveillance and the preservation of the public order.
Military forces may only be organized under a continental agreement or for the national defense; in either case, they shall always be subordinate to the civil power: they may not deliberate or make statements or representations individually or collectively.

So -these two successful states are essentially demilitarized. Now let us turn to Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt,who will take over the EU presidency in July. This representative of what is arguably one of the most anti-Semitic* and anti-Israel states in the EU, in a predictably hostile reaction to Netanyahu's proposal for a demilitarized Palestinian state [Bar-Ilan speech, 14 June 2009] said "The fact that he uttered the word state is a small step forward," but added "whether what he mentioned can be defined as a state is a subject of some debate."

Well, Mr. Bildt, do you have doubts that Japan and Costa Rica are "states"?

If not, then why does the absence of an army destroy the legitimacy of a putative Palestinian state in your eyes?

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*Zvi Mazel, who served in Sweden as Israel's ambassador in 2004, told a Swedish newspaper that "Sweden is among the most severely anti-Semitic places" with "daily agitations in the media to kill Jews."