Skull
Platinum Member
Yes, very true and the London Times editorial agrees:
Times editorial Monday 16/10/2023
The Longest Hatred
Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi, wrote before the Jewish Sabbath on Friday: "I can hardly think of a moment in my life when the phrase 'Shabbat Shalom' resonated so deeply." He was alluding to the murder, torture, rape and abduction of hundreds of civilians in Israel, including nationals of many other countries, by Hamas. And as he intimated, these acts of barbarism have for Jews worldwide a powerful historical resonance.
The pogrom of October 7 will be commemorated for generations, but it is not a unique event. It recalls the antisemitic persecutions that punctuated the19th-century history of eastern and central Europe and paved the way for the Holocaust. Antisemitism, as the Irish historian Conor Cruise O'Brien noted, is a light sleeper. The proper response is not only warm words and sympathy for the victims but practical support for the Jewish people, and the Jewish state, in combating what is aptly known as the longest hatred.
The atrocities visited upon civilians in Israel almost defy belief but appear to include the murder and mutilation of infants. To a country and a people in mourning, British institutions have extended solidarity. The King condemned the "barbaric acts of terrorism" and held a private audience with Sir Ephraim. The Prince and Princess of Wales aptly referred to Israel's right of self-defence, as have Rishi Sunak and James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, and their Labour counterparts Sir Keir Starmer and David Lammy.
Yet these humane sentiments are far from universally held. The Scottish parliament has refrained from flying the Israeli flag in sympathy. Part of the reason doubtless lies in the participation of the Greens in the Scottish government, a party whose conference in 2015 resolved to “condemn Zionism as a racist ideology based on Jewish supremacy in Palestine". And demonstrations at the weekend across the UK, including one in London addressed by Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, pointedly depicted Israel not as victim but as aggressor.
It is legitimate to criticise the policies of the government of Israel; it is unacceptable to demand of Israel a standard of self-abnegation that no of other democracy would accept for itself. Hamas's atrocities are born not of desperation but of theocratic fanaticism. The Jewish state has not only the right but the duty to protect its civilians by defeating this death cult, which openly declares its aim of destroying Israel.
In seeking to rescue hostages, Israel's defence forces must simultaneously protect civilian lives in Gaza. And as Hamas deliberately embeds itself in areas of high civilian density, this is excruciatingly difficult. While Israel should preserve humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians, and the delivery of food and medicines, the tragic reality is that Hamas is a catastrophe for Gaza, and for the just cause of Palestinian statehood alongside a secure Israel, as well as for the Jews.
Times are bleak for a lasting peace but, if that goal is ever to be attained, some principles need stressing. Israel has numerous failings and injustices but Zionism is not some aggressive colonial enterprise: it is a project, rooted in Enlightenment thinking, to enable a historically oppressed people to survive and flourish. Its founding ethos is pluralism. Its founding figures faced down extremism within their own ranks.
Eliding the crucial distinction between criticism of Israeli policies and atavistic hostility to the Jewish state allows hoary antisemitic conspiracy theories to incubate and thrive. Democratic nations and civil society should ensure that, in confronting such toxic notions, the Jewish people do not fight alone. And in relations with Israel they must assert the words of Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg address that "any nation so conceived and so dedicated... shall not perish from the earth".
Times editorial Monday 16/10/2023
The Longest Hatred
Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi, wrote before the Jewish Sabbath on Friday: "I can hardly think of a moment in my life when the phrase 'Shabbat Shalom' resonated so deeply." He was alluding to the murder, torture, rape and abduction of hundreds of civilians in Israel, including nationals of many other countries, by Hamas. And as he intimated, these acts of barbarism have for Jews worldwide a powerful historical resonance.
The pogrom of October 7 will be commemorated for generations, but it is not a unique event. It recalls the antisemitic persecutions that punctuated the19th-century history of eastern and central Europe and paved the way for the Holocaust. Antisemitism, as the Irish historian Conor Cruise O'Brien noted, is a light sleeper. The proper response is not only warm words and sympathy for the victims but practical support for the Jewish people, and the Jewish state, in combating what is aptly known as the longest hatred.
The atrocities visited upon civilians in Israel almost defy belief but appear to include the murder and mutilation of infants. To a country and a people in mourning, British institutions have extended solidarity. The King condemned the "barbaric acts of terrorism" and held a private audience with Sir Ephraim. The Prince and Princess of Wales aptly referred to Israel's right of self-defence, as have Rishi Sunak and James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, and their Labour counterparts Sir Keir Starmer and David Lammy.
Yet these humane sentiments are far from universally held. The Scottish parliament has refrained from flying the Israeli flag in sympathy. Part of the reason doubtless lies in the participation of the Greens in the Scottish government, a party whose conference in 2015 resolved to “condemn Zionism as a racist ideology based on Jewish supremacy in Palestine". And demonstrations at the weekend across the UK, including one in London addressed by Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, pointedly depicted Israel not as victim but as aggressor.
It is legitimate to criticise the policies of the government of Israel; it is unacceptable to demand of Israel a standard of self-abnegation that no of other democracy would accept for itself. Hamas's atrocities are born not of desperation but of theocratic fanaticism. The Jewish state has not only the right but the duty to protect its civilians by defeating this death cult, which openly declares its aim of destroying Israel.
In seeking to rescue hostages, Israel's defence forces must simultaneously protect civilian lives in Gaza. And as Hamas deliberately embeds itself in areas of high civilian density, this is excruciatingly difficult. While Israel should preserve humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians, and the delivery of food and medicines, the tragic reality is that Hamas is a catastrophe for Gaza, and for the just cause of Palestinian statehood alongside a secure Israel, as well as for the Jews.
Times are bleak for a lasting peace but, if that goal is ever to be attained, some principles need stressing. Israel has numerous failings and injustices but Zionism is not some aggressive colonial enterprise: it is a project, rooted in Enlightenment thinking, to enable a historically oppressed people to survive and flourish. Its founding ethos is pluralism. Its founding figures faced down extremism within their own ranks.
Eliding the crucial distinction between criticism of Israeli policies and atavistic hostility to the Jewish state allows hoary antisemitic conspiracy theories to incubate and thrive. Democratic nations and civil society should ensure that, in confronting such toxic notions, the Jewish people do not fight alone. And in relations with Israel they must assert the words of Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg address that "any nation so conceived and so dedicated... shall not perish from the earth".
