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Category: Israel

synchronised Britain Global conflict Israel 

A week of Jew-baiting and Israel-bashing in Londonistan

Melanie, , ,

Sometimes, a chilling reality is illuminated not so much by what someone says but by the laughter that it provokes. At the Cambridge Union debating society on Sunday, asked why he’d made a point of associating Jews with money, the Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, replied: “I have some Jewish friends, very good friends. They are not like the other Jews, that’s why they are my friends.” At which a great gust of laughter swept across his audience. They thought this swipe at Jewish people was funny. In London this…

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Britain Global conflict Israel 

Hezbollah UK terrorist plot kept secret as British continue appeasing rising Iran aggression

Melanie, , ,

A few days ago, Britain’s Daily Telegraph revealed that in 2015 the British authorities had uncovered a Hezbollah terrorist plot. The key point was that this had been kept secret until now. In a bomb factory on the outskirts of London, a total of three metric tonnes of ammonium nitrate was discovered — more than was used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people — stashed in ice packs. This was apparently no rogue plot, but part of an international Hezbollah operation laying the groundwork for future…

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judges Britain Israel 

Whoever becomes Israel’s prime minister, judges should be put back in their box

Melanie, , ,

Israel’s electoral crisis has put politics on hold. One important casualty is the attempt to curb the power of Israel’s Supreme Court and legal establishment. This was the policy single-mindedly pursued by outgoing justice minister Ayelet Shaked, who Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sacked from her post this week after she lost her Knesset seat in last month’s election. The controversy over judicial activism has echoes beyond Israel, particularly in Britain: who in a democracy should have the ultimate whip hand, politicians or the judiciary? Israel has been transfixed by the…

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antisemitism Britain Israel USA 

The groups who hand antisemites their get-out-of-jail-free card

Melanie, , ,

What has caused the deeply alarming upsurge in antisemitism across the West? As many have observed, there are three principal sources: the political left, Islamic culture and neo-fascist or white-supremacist cults. One further factor, though, is crucial. Never disappearing altogether, antisemitism can be kept to a low level by condign social disapproval that deems antisemites to be totally beyond the pale. If, however, that social stigma is lifted and society tolerates, excuses or sanitizes antisemitism, then it roars out of control. That’s precisely what is now happening. In America, astoundingly,…

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antisemitism Britain Israel USA 

Doing what comes naturally – the west’s suicidal animus

Melanie, ,

As around 700 rockets rained down on southern Israel last weekend, leaving four Israelis dead and many more wounded, many in Western media were doing what comes naturally to them – suspending the normal rules of journalism to distort, twist or lie. The usual, fundamental errors littered their reports – such as that Gaza was “occupied,” regardless of the fact that Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005. There was the usual reversal of aggressor and victim, with sly implications of moral equivalency between Arab attack and Israeli defense. There…

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Britain Israel USA 

Leaving Egypt to cross the (metaphorical) seas

Melanie, , ,

At the festival of Passover, which Jews are about to celebrate, the story is recounted of how the children of Israel managed to redeem themselves from slavery through their miraculous crossing of the Red Sea in which their Egyptian pursuers proceeded to drown. Plunging into the sea was a supreme act of collective faith by the escaping Israelites, involving extraordinary courage and requiring an equally crucial act of leadership. These three factors are in conspicuously short supply in the west today. In Britain, the stalled and sabotaged Brexit process irresistibly…

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Israel 

Madonna chooses freedom singing at Eurovision

Melanie, ,

The singer Madonna has announced she’ll be singing at next month’s final of the Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv before an estimated global audience of 180 million viewers. She intends to perform two songs, including a new one from her forthcoming album. Cue all the too predictable outrage from those who demonize Israel. Jewish Voice for Peace launched a “Tell Madonna to Choose Freedom” campaign, claiming that “there’s no neutrality in situations of injustice,” and calling on the star to “stay home” and “lend your voice for freedom.” Would…

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woke Britain Israel 

From the Golan to Brexit, “compromise” is a fig-leaf for surrender

Melanie, , ,

Two current sources of uproar tie Britain, the United States and Israel into a matrix of hypocrisy, double standards and spinelessness. The first was the welcome announcement by President Donald Trump that the United States will recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the strategically crucial mountain range that Israel seized from Syria in 1967. Cue horror in the foreign ministries and policy circles of the world where Israel’s annexation was denounced as a violation of international law. Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, tut-tutted: “We should never recognize the annexation…

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Europe Israel 

Is Netanyahu making deals with the devil?

Melanie, , ,

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been severely criticized for cozying up to sundry dictators, autocrats or governments that downplay or deny their country’s role in the Holocaust. Among those he has either visited or hosted are Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who boasts of creating an “illiberal democracy” and President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines who once compared himself to Hitler. The next summit of the Visegrád group, an alliance of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, will be held this month in Jerusalem.…

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Ireland Israel 

Ireland’s obsessional hatred of Israel

Melanie, , ,

There’s a particularly sweet spot in the enormous technology deal Israel has just pulled off. Over the next five years, the tech giant Intel will invest a whopping $11 billion in a new semiconductor fabrication plant in Israel. The investment will be worth around 0.7% of Israel’s gross domestic product and is expected to produce thousands of jobs. The sweet spot is that in securing this deal, Israel beat off competition from Ireland. For Ireland has become the most extreme Israel-bashing country in the West. Its Dáil, or parliament, recently…

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