Last week I predicted that Israel would be a major issue in 2017 – it was not exactly the gift of foresight, its 100 years since the Balfour Declaration and the existence of this one small state has been a major issue ever since the Second World War. But nonetheless I was surprised to see the ‘prophecy’ coming true with a week! The headline news over the weekend was of the Alan Duncan Israeli ‘sting’ where some silly remarks by a minor Israeli Embassy official have been blown into a major row. Lots of shock/horror pompous remarks about Israelis influencing British government etc.
Meanwhile there is something a little more serious going on in Israel – Four Soldiers killed in Jerusalem A Palestinian terrorist ran a lorry into a group of young Israeli soldiers killing four of them including three women.
What can we learn from all of this?
- There is still a deep-seated hatred of Israel and of the Jews. This does not mean that everyone who objects to the settlements on the West Bank is anti-Semitic, nor that the Israeli government should not be held accountable for any human rights abuses. But we do need to recognise that there is a real and present danger to Israel and it is constant. Millions of people living around that tiny country want to see it destroyed.
2. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in the UK and Europe and we must be really careful not to let it hide under the guise of human rights protests. I am intrigued that there are some politicians who were very quick to tweet their abhorrence of the action of the minor official at the Israeli Embassy, but have yet to tweet anything about the death of the four young people in Jerusalem. Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary managed to tweet about the horror of a minor Israeli diplomat talking about ‘taking down’ a Tory minister, but not a word about the terrorist attack in Jerusalem. Likewise Alex Salmond, the foreign spokesperson for the SNP who tweeted:
“The case of the Israeli diplomat is not one of idle gossip but serious…1/2 –
…He should be shown the door immediately as would happen if the circumstances were reversed. 2/2”
But not a word (at the time of writing) about the terror attack in Israel. Why? Does the killing of four young people in Israel not warrant at least some expression of sympathy from foreign spokespeople? Boris Johnson for the Tories does not really seem to tweet as he said nothing about either. Anti-Semitism has infiltrated the Labour party and it is never far from the surface in other parties and areas of society as well – even in so called tolerant, inclusive Scotland. This week a gay Jewish friend told me that he is thinking of leaving Scotland for good not because of homophobia but rather because of anti-Semitism. Here in Scotland! The only European country that has never had laws against the Jews. I have come across right-wing, left-wing, nationalist and liberals who are deeply anti-semitic. Its shameful.
Read for example some of the responses to Salmond’s tweets above (at the time of writing still uncorrected and unchallenged)..
The Israeli apartheid state get away with murder. .literally
@AlexSalmond @HumzaYousaf So true, the Jews think they invincible as the USA backs them, once they are no longer any use they will be binned
This is Anti-Semitic Scotland today.
3. The hypocrisy of much of the media, politicians and the chattering classes is noteworthy. They are up in arms (and it even makes the number one news item on the BBC) because of a stupid and dumb remark made by a minor official in a private conversation in a restaurant about Alan Duncan – but not a word was said when the same Sir Alan on public TV made a death threat against an American woman because she disagreed with Same Sex Marriage.
Of course it was a joke, his somewhat pathetic attempt at humour….but imagine if that same ‘joke’ had been made about homosexuals, or Jews or any other political group? He would quite rightly have been asked to apologise or resign. But instead Alan Duncan is knighted and is now deputy foreign secretary.
I read the following report in Middle East Eye about Sir Alan…
The British Board of Jews has described him as “breathtakingly one-sided”.
The Board of Deputies said that Duncan “characterises defending Israel as equivalent to accusing people of wanting Israel’s destruction or being anti-Semitic. This is a blatantly false allegation against the leadership bodies of the British Jewish community. It is a poisonous slur which should be retracted immediately.”
The Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitic hate crime and advises the Home Office, went further and accused him of anti-Semitism.
It said his speech “resonated with Jews/money/hidden power/alien purpose motifs of old anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, only now it was directed at Israel or pro-Israelis rather than Jews”.
Little wonder that the Israeli government is not too keen on him. That does not excuse the comments of the official but it does set them in a wider context.
Whatever our particular views on the West Bank, or the various forms of Zionism, including so-called ‘Christian Zionism’, we need to pray for the nation-state of Israel and for the Jewish people. We need to pray that there will be justice for the Palestinians and for the Jews. But lets not be naive and think that somehow if Western Liberals get their way that the threat and danger to Israel will disappear. This is a very volatile situation and we need to be careful not to either inflame it, or to give any encouragement to Israel’s enemies.
Pray for the peace of Israel.
Thank you David for your unbiased and honest assessment of the current situation regarding Isra el and the hatred of all things Jewish. They are the only nation on earth whose land has been given by divine decree. Therein fundamentally lies the source of the hatred, it is the perceived folly that anyone today should believe that there is a God in heaven who has declared a people and a land for that people in order to fulfil his purposes for his kingdom and his world. We should never forget the promise of God that those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will themselves be cursed. Any Christian with even a little understanding of biblical prophecy will discern the signs are rapidly declaring the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is at hand. Maranatha.
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Thank you for the needed balance, as generally in the UK there is pro Palestinian anti Isreal biased reporting, and it is a bias which leaches into churches.
None of us in the UK know what it is like to live under a constant threat of hatred induced annialtion of a people, notwithstanding the reality of recent European, Nazi history of “ethnic cleansing”, a facile phrase for evil in humanity.
In live in a part of the UK , geographically close to a large Hasidic Jewish population. It has a reputation within the Jewish communities for being a European Centre for excellence for Jewish teaching, say, the equivalent of Yale/Harvard. It is very much a closed community and doesn’t integrate.
As part of my last employmentI had cause to have meetings with a rabi and other community members. The community doesn’t (didn’t) have access to newspapers, the internet. One woman from New York said their main concern was to preseve families as the’d seen how exposure to the world had destroyed families. She was a bit nonplussed when I greeted her with the only Hebrew I knew “Baruch haba b’Shem Adonai” Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. and related the calling of Abraham. It was a lead into an open conversation with her.
I could walk along streets without any fear, or aprehension of danger or hostility. They would not seek nor wish my demise, or injury. Being ignored by them would be the greatest offence that may be taken, but it is no less than their ostracising of quite close liberal Jewish people and their synagogue.
Apologies for a rubbish comment – full of typing and spelling errors. Shouldn’t do it when too tired. Hope it doesn’t offend too much and doesn’t detract from the points made. I need a proof reader or post using a different search engine. Pleased not to have to sit exams any more, as I’d not pass.
I admire your honesty and humility in your post. Your spelling errors do not detract in any way from the main points.
Although originally from Glasgow, I live 8 miles due north from Stamford Hill. The Hasidic Jews get on with their lives and interfere with no one. I felt very safe and comfortable walking through their area many years ago. A bit like old Glasgow where we did not lock our house doors. Not now though. I have seen them being insulted as they go about their daily lives. It was reported recently that they are considering moving as a community to Canvey island on the Thames.
David,
good to see you back in harness – you could have taken a longer rest without anyone accusing you of abandoning the fight! Much of the pro-Palestinian sentiment in UK and elsewhere is based on ignorance, both of the current realities to which you refer and to the history of Palestine, which has never existed as an autonomous State or been governed by Palestinians whoever they may be (and a substantial number of the current Arab residents of the land do not originate from there but from other countries, attracted by work opportunities created by incoming Jews long before 1947).
A friend who was born in Bethlehem, I have more than one, told me his mother had seen four flags over the Governor’s mansion: the Ottoman, the British, the Jordanian and the Israeli. Of these she reckoned the Israeli was the best.
David Ross has the truth of it. The very existence of Israel, even as a largely secular State, is evidence that God has not abandoned His people. His purposes for them are being worked out; we are privileged to be part of a generation which can see this unfolding.
I always find it odd – no, I will call it suspicious – that the existence of Israel excites so much focus. Isn’t it a “coincidence” that the only Jewish country in the entire world (and one the size of Wales) is so demonised, criticised and hated? Funny how all the social justice warriors don’t stand in Princes Street with their stalls protesting against, for example, the various gender apartheid regimes in the Gulf, those countries that execute homosexuals, those places that actively persecute Christians and other religious minorities etc etc ad nauseam. Nope, they are far too busy handwringing and attending candlelit vigils against the only democracy in the Middle East! Anti-semitic? I wonder…..