The latest statistics of anti-Jewish incidents from the Community Security Trust are as grim as they were predictable. Largely as a result of the way Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza was presented by the media, there has been an enormous spike in Jew-hatred in Britain. In the first six months of this year, the CST recorded 609 antisemitic incidents, more than the previous record high of 598 such incidents recorded for the whole of 2006. This has caused widespread alarm. Ha’aretz reports: ‘Britain is setting a shameful new record in anti-Semitic incidents this year,’ Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne said Thursday... In response to the report, British Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis said: ‘I am deeply concerned by the rise in the number of anti-Semitic incidents as reported by the CST today.’ And what... Mr. Obama’s stop at Buchenwald and his strong rejection of Holocaust denial, immediately after his Cairo speech, appealed to American Jews but fell flat in Israel. Here we are taught that Zionist determination and struggle — not guilt over the Holocaust — brought Jews a homeland. Mr. Obama’s speech, which linked Israel’s existence to the Jewish tragedy, infuriated many Israelis who sensed its closeness to the narrative of enemies like Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. ... in the past decade, repeated peace negotiations and diplomatic statements have indicated This affair is toxic because it touches many nerves: America’s neuralgic conscience over its historic racism, the monstrously unjust over-reaction to that racism, and the election of a President who supposedly embodied, in both his identity and his approach, a post-racial New Man and an absolution... We see few signs that the current policy of non-engagement with Hamas is achieving the Quartet’s stated objectives...We therefore reiterate our recommendation from 2007, that the government should urgently consider engaging with moderate elements within Hamas.’ So let’s get this clear: to the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, the fact that Hamas refuses to abandon its core objective of exterminating Israel and every Jew on the face of the earth is good reason for ‘engaging’ with members of Hamas who might think there is a less confrontational way of achieving this aim. Terrific logic. The argument has been made umpteen... Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (34)
Tuesday, 28th July 2009
A craven response
12:20pmA strategy of political genius
10:58am
President Obama has pulled off a truly remarkable feat. He has managed to turn even the Israeli left against him and united virtually the whole of Israel behind Prime Minister Netanyahu’s rejection of Obama’s demand for a total settlement freeze. The widely respected Ha’aretz analyst Aluf Benn writes in the New York Times:
...Monday, 27th July 2009
The mask slips
10:32pm
I’ve been travelling and so have only just been catching up with the Obama race row over the altercation between Henry Louis Gates and the Cambridge, Mass. police. Strikes me this is no storm in a teacup. Look at the Fox News clip that Tim Montgomerie highlights here for some extremely sharp comments indeed, particularly by Charles Krauthammer. Even after Obama started rowing back, noted Juan Williams of NPR, he was still getting the facts wrong, claiming that Sgt Crowley had led Gates out of his house whereas this was ‘just not true’.Sunday, 26th July 2009
British MPs display their famed grasp of logic and principle
10:25pm
The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee has reiterated its view that Britain should start talking to Hamas. Says committee chairman Mike Gapes:
Readers might be interested in an exchange of views between me and Alan Dershowitz hosted byFrontPage.com. This followed Dershowitz’s Wall Street Journal article here, which produced my comment here, which produced his response to that here, which produced my response to thathere. Then FrontPage kindly offered to hold the ring. Punches were not pulled, as you can see.
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
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