Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Friday 17 October 2014

"The Problem Is Much Deeper Than ... An Extraordinary Animus Against Israel ... Israel Has Not Taken Seriously The Psychological War Against It"

Writes Middle East analyst Jonathan S. Tobin in the course of an article in Commentary magazine prompted by the Monday's vote in the House of Commons (about which I blogged on Wednesday), following upon Sweden's decision to recognise Palestinian statehood:
'[L]ike the “Free Gaza” demonstrations that rocked European cities this past summer while Hamas rockets rained down on Israeli cities, one has to wonder what exactly those advocating the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state think they are doing?....
[W]hich Palestine are we talking about?
Is it the Palestine of the Palestinian Authority that currently rules most of the West Bank, albeit under the security blanket of the Israel Defense Forces? ....That’s a Palestine that is supposedly ready to make peace with Israel but which requires the economic and political support of the West in order to survive.
But, in truth, that Palestine is a corrupt kleptocracy run by Mahmoud Abbas, a man currently serving the 10th year of a four-year presidential term. The Fatah-ruled West Bank is a petty tyranny that oppresses and robs Palestinians while raking in billions in economic aid from Europe and the United States. Its leader frequently tells Western and Israeli audiences that he is ready make peace on the basis of a two-state solution, but he also is adamant about being unwilling to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders might be drawn.
But since so much of the anger at Israel is about Gaza, the fact is all too many Europeans seem willing to overlook their usual abhorrence of terrorism and think of Hamas as a legitimate government of the strip, if not as partners with the PA. That Palestine is a brutally repressive Islamist regime that is allied with those seeking to overthrow moderate Arab governments. Like Fatah in the West Bank, it is not interested in bettering the lives of its people. But unlike the PA, which seems mostly interested in profiteering off of foreign aid, Hamas’s sole obsession is in replenishing its stores of rockets and ammunition and rebuilding its terror tunnels so as to be ready the next time it feels another round of fighting with Israel will be to its advantage. Hamas, which is more popular in the West Bank than Abbas and his party, is dedicated to ending the “occupation” but by that term they are referring to pre-1967 Israel, not forcing it to remove Jews from the West Bank or Jerusalem....
Were Europe’s governments or its pro-Palestinian demonstrators truly interested in peace, they would understand that unilateral recognition of independence is a way for the PA to avoid having to talk with Israel. ...If they wanted to support peace, they would tell Abbas to go back to the table with Netanyahu and to be prepared to recognize a Jewish state. They might also encourage him to get rid of Hamas, not become its partner.
[T]alk about recognition of Palestine without first requiring it to make peace with Israel must seen as not merely moral preening at Israel’s expense but a political manifestation of the same anti-Semitic invective that was so common during the “Free Gaza”'
Perversely, it already is, Rachel dear
Earlier this year, speaking in America to The Lawfare Project, the peerless Melanie Phillips explained cogently and compellingly, and with a sure grasp of the historical and political context, why Israel has become, for leftists, their central hate focus, with contributing factors including the fall of Communism, the end of apartheid in South Africa, the emergence of multiculturalism and fear of offending minoritiies*, of the the mindset that patriotism towards one's own nation is racist**, that warfare on behalf of one's own nation is unconscionable,  and that only minorities within society can be victims, and of the doctrine of individual rights as well as the return of the antisemitic medieval doctrine of Replacement Theology, which held that the Jews had been replaced by the Christians as the people of the Covenant; Replacement Theology has come "roaring back again" in the form of Sabeel and certain Western clergy (like Sizer, although she named no names) denies the Jews' rights to Eretz Israel, promoting instead the notion that the Palestinians are the rightful possessors.



* For grotesque examples in Britain this week see here
and here
** For a bizarre example in Australia this week see here

"The problem is much deeper than an extraordinary animus against Israel," she pointed out.
"It is axiomatic in Britain that Israel is the principal human rights abuser in the world .... [although it is] the one upholder of human rights in the [Middle East] region .... Human Rights ... has become a principal weapon of injustice ... the potential nemesis [of Western culture] ... "
She also pointed out that Israel has in many ways been its worst enemy.  It could and should exploit the emphasis on human rights to its own advantage, persuading a left-indoctrinated  public opinion to the truth of the matter: that far from being the oppressor it is sinned against rather than sinning:
"Israel has a compelling story about human rights ... Israel stands on very firm legal foundations in its occupation and in its settlements policy ....and ... can easily make a compelling case ... Israel [preoccupied by defending itself militarily] has not taken seriosly the psychological war against it...There is no collective endeavour ..."
Ms Phillips lamented Israel's failure to publicise the Levy Report (which Wikipedia introduces thus):
'officially called Report on the Legal Status of Building in Judea and Samaria ... an 89-page report on West Bank settlements published on 9 July 2012, authored by a three member committee headed by former Israeli Supreme Court justice Edmund Levy. The committee, dubbed the "outpost committee", was appointed by Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in late January 2012 to investigate the legal status of unauthorized West Bank Jewish settlements, but also examined whether the Israeli presence in the West Bank is to be considered an occupation or not.
The report concludes that Israel's presence in the West Bank is not an occupation,[and that the Israeli settlements are legal under international law....'
For the essence of the report in English, see here

And share it around a bit.

4 comments:

  1. I'm afraid Israel can attempt to publicize the truth but the BBC and other British outlets will not print anything that is pro-Israel. Unfortunately Ms. Phillips and others simply refuse to come to the main and basic point of why Israel is in the predicament it is with "publicity," and that is unabashed antisemitism and the Jew-hatred that has always permeated British society. There comes a time when you have to face the truth: the UK is and has always been a lost cause for viewing the Jewish people as an equal among nations and entitled to the same rights as all the other peoples of the world.

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  2. This is sick:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/10/16/goldsmiths-su-rejects-commemorate-holocaust_n_5995240.html

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