Reply to London-based Writer on Middle East Politics and the Jewish World
Having just read your above piece, entitled ‘What does the world want from us?’ - I am saddened by the all too obvious inconsistencies and omissions.
You ask, ‘what do you want from us?‘ The answer must be:
· A paradigm shift in your attitude of total rejection regarding criticism of the policies of the Israeli government vis-a-vis the five million indigenous people of Palestine and your contribution towards the easing of the ignorance of Jewish communities in the Diaspora who, by indiscriminately supporting its actions, thereby encourage anti-Semitism.
· It is particularly noticeable that you have omitted any mention of the 1490 civilians, including children, killed by the IDF in Gaza, just a few short months ago, that so sickened both Jews and non-Jews alike and which is now being investigated as an alleged war crime.
· The insistence of listing (yet again) all those Nobel-prize-winning Jewish intellectuals, down the years, who have excelled in various fields of science, medicine, economics, theatre and literature – whilst furiously denying there is any claim ’that Jewish people are superior to others’!
· You then quote America’s Jackie Mason as saying, ’Jews aren’t threatening people’. Tell that to the families of the nine dead passengers on board the civilian aid ship, the Mavi Marmara, killed at point blank range on the high seas by heavily-armed Israeli commandos trying to enforce a seven year blockade of Gaza that still exists today in order to illegally effect a regime change. For this shocking, state-sponsored assassination in international waters, Israel was forced to pay $20 million in financial compensation to the families of the victims.
· You claim that the state of Israel was established with international approval. It was not. It was established by the minority vote of a newly formed United Nations in 1947 that represented less than half the nations of the world – with Britain, who held the mandate over Palestine, abstaining. (Contemporaneously, US President Harry Truman, who was against the partition of Palestine, and disapproving of its sponsor, Chaim Weizmann, finally but reluctantly succumbed to pressure from his former business partner, one Eddie Jacobson, through the Jewish lodge of B’nai B’rith in New York). Those are the recorded facts verifiable in the public domain.
· Remarkably, there is no mention of Israel’s provocative and illegal act that claims sovereignty over the Holy City of Jerusalem when the UN has specifically resolved that it be designated an international city with free access to all faiths.
· Also omitted from your piece is the disproportionate power of the Israel lobby in Washington that directs the U.S. Congress on most matters of foreign policy with the resulting threat to democratic government and world peace. Not to mention the activity of its lobbyists in London, Paris and Brussels.
· You also failed to recall the assassination of a Palestinian government official in a Dubai hotel bedroom by a gang of political assassins using forged EU passports – although you refer to an Israeli desire for peace.
· The list of omissions is substantial but more concerning is the lack of appreciation of the sad fact that Jewish communities in the Diaspora have been conditioned to accept, without question, the propaganda disseminated by the Israeli Foreign Affairs office through its embassies and consulates worldwide.
· However, the key factor, the driving force behind the upsurge in anti-Semitism worldwide, is the Israeli government itself. It knows full well that the more anti-Semitism there is in Europe and abroad, engendered by its policy of ethnic-cleansing and land expropriation – with its continued expansion of illegal settlements in its effort to abort the establishment of a Palestinian state – the more that Jewish families in France, Britain and elsewhere will be forced to liquidate their assets and emigrate to Israel, which, of course, is to its distinct advantage.
· In passing, this would, of course, seem to be a paradoxical move in that Israel is arguably the most dangerous place in the world, today, for any Jewish person to live.
· As for Mr Netanyahu. He is a right-wing politician with anachronistic views who labours under the misapprehension that he is a statesman but, in fact, has done more to increase Israel’s isolation within the international community that anyone since the establishment of the state in 1948 under the premiership of David ben Gurion – who, of course, was a statesman.
So the definitive answer to your specific question is as follows:
· What we want is for you to live freely and successfully, either within the host country of your birth, or in the state of Israel, but to cease the violation of the provisions of the Balfour Declaration, as indeed you have been – bearing in mind that this declaration – issued in 1917 by the Foreign Secretary of the then British government – was, and is, the political foundation stone for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
· If the Israeli government continues to incite public opinion by acting illegally, it will soon provoke a regional war that could very quickly become global – particularly in view of the undeclared nuclear weapons arsenal in the Negev desert – estimated at up to 400 warheads – the entirety of which is uniquely outside the inspection of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) of the United Nations.
That scenario would be a global disaster on a scale hitherto unknown in the history of man.
I hope that the foregoing facts serve to answer your question.
London 27.11.14 AB