Israel Matzav

British Conservative: 'You would think common sense would prevail'

At Britain's Conservative party blog, Robert Halfon runs down a list of existential threats to Israel's existence, and then says that he would hope that common sense would prevail in the West. Unfortunately, it is not prevailing:

With all these existential threats, you would hope that common sense would prevail in the West. Not a bit of it. Organisations like Amnesty International, so vociferous about Israeli actions in the disputed Territories – have said nothing about the Israeli hostages in Gaza and Lebanon (that is why Dominic Grieve, on a recent trip to Israel with CFI, has pledged to lobby Amnesty on this issue). The Stop the War Coalition has had a ‘demonstration vacuum’ about inter-Palestinian strife in Gaza or the war on the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Feminist movements have remained silent about the real threats from Islamists to female Palestinian journalists for not wearing the hijab on TV. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign is set to hold its next rally with luminaries like George Galloway and Hamas representatives as its key speakers.

But far worse than the pusillanimity of the left has been the pro-active attempts by various organisations to delegitimise Israel. Institutions like the National Union of Journalists and the Academic Trade Unions have organised ‘boycotts’ of Israel to protest at their treatment of the Palestinians. Forget Darfur, Chechnya, Zimbabwe. It is Israel that is singled out as the one country in the world that should be ‘boycotted’. The UK government response has been muted with just a few desultory words of condemnation – Labour’s links to the Trade Union movement remain strong.

None of these attacks on the legitimacy of Israel will further the cause of peace. Whilst the delegitimisation campaign may give succour to the left in British politics, they give real encouragement to Islamists across the Middle East, just as Lenin’s ‘useful idiots’ gave legitimacy to Stalin.

And for those of you who think that common sense necessarily prevails in Britain's Conservative party, read the comments to Halfon's post. Unfortunately, there are some British Conservatives out there who still don't get it.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:54 PM