Israel Matzav

Darkness closing in England?

In the JPost, Jonathan Hoffman, co-vice chair of the Zionist Federation, a member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and a member of the board's International Division, attacks an article written by Vivian Wineman, the chair of the Board of Deputies, for minimizing the current threats to British Jewry.

Turning to the vilification of Israel, Wineman - ignoring vast amounts of evidence to the contrary - appeared to argue that it was merely "business as usual."

I found myself wondering whether we live on the same planet - let alone in the same city. The London where I live has become a city where every left-wing bookshop - and some that are not left-wing - has a Middle East section which stocks only books falsifying the history of Israel. It has become a city where a theater saw fit to cancel an event celebrating Israel's Independence Day because the publicity included photos of the IDF entertainment troupe in uniform - and worse still, a city where no mainstream media thought the incident worthy of critical comment.

It has become a city where BBC television wanted to give a debate the title "Is Israel a Racist State?" (after representation it added the phrase "...Or a Nation Under Threat?"). It has become a city where a member of Parliament of the governing Labor Party sees nothing amiss in hosting the launch, in a parliamentary building, of a book with the anti-Semitic title Israeli Apartheid. And it has become a city where the Royal Court Theater, having admitted it would be reluctant to show a play critical of Islam, sees nothing wrong with showing Seven Jewish Children, a play with explicit anti-Semitic content that suggests Israeli parents teach their children to hate Arabs.

None of this - repeat, none - is "business as usual." As I and many other deputies know all too well, Jews in the UK currently face the biggest challenge since our fathers returned from World War II only to find open fascism on the streets. The mystery is why some remain in denial. Israel's standing among opinion-formers in the UK is very low, and this has dire consequences for the Jewish community: Until the problem is recognized, how can there be a solution?

Read the whole thing. From where I sit and observe, Hoffman's arguments appear to be correct.

The picture at the top of this post is the despicable George Galloway on one of his trips to Gaza.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:55 PM