Anti-semitism
Anti–Semitism is rocketing worldwide. In London, the Metropolitan Police, reported that that incidents of anti-Semitism increased 1,350 percent since October 7. Similar figures are emerging from the US, France, Germany, the Netherlands….
This is because the Israeli government has become a symbol violent oppression and far-right intolerance based on religion.
And the sad fact is, too many people conflate Judaism with Israel. They fail to recognise that there are a sizeable number of Jews in Israel who do not support Netanyahu and there is an even larger number of Jews outside Israel who do not support his Likud-led coalition.
However, a large number of people instead wrongly believe that the actions of the Netanyahu government are a mirror reflection of the views of worldwide Jewry. This is partly because Israel was created as a homeland for Jews and all Jews have the right to citizenship in Israel.
In a way the global wave of anti-Semitism is in the interests of Netanyahu. It reinforces the view of Jews as victims and allows him to claim that he is fighting for all Jews. Otherwise, why would people be attacking innocent Jews outside Israel?
It is complicated and sad. For many years – while successive Israeli governments struggled to establish the Jewish state against the odds – the link between Israel and Judaism worked in favour of world Jewry. Now that Israel is seen by many as oppressive and undemocratic it works against then.
West Bank
Spare a thought for the West Bank. In fact, focus on it, because if you fail to do so, it may well erupt into an even more violent conflagration then what we are seeing in Gaza.
The West Bank, unlike Gaza, is not under the control of Hamas. It is nominally controlled by the Palestinian Authority which in turn is controlled by the remnants of the PLO. In reality, however, security on the West Bank is in the hands of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) which means Israel controls the West Bank.
Eighty-two percent of the West Bank’s residents are Palestinians. The remainder are Jews. They are illegal because since 1967 the international community has refused to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the territory and branded most of the Jewish settlements as illegal.
There are an estimated 600,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Most of them are Orthodox Jews who claim the land as part of God’s contract with the Jews.
As the number of Illegal settlers have increased so have demands that the West Bank (Judea and Samaria of the Old Testament) be formally annexed. To help matters along, some settlers have taken to attacking Palestinian settlements, driving them out of their homes and, in some cases, murdering them.
Some members of the current Israeli cabinet are, in fact, illegal West Bank settlers. One of them, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is responsible for security issues. He has been seen in recent weeks handing out guns to settlers on the West Bank.
Since 7 October the settlers have increased their attacks on West Bank Palestinians partly because they see an opportunity and partly to pre-empt retribution by West Bank Palestinians in support for their countrymen trapped in Gaza. According to the UN, nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed in settler attacks since 7 October. The UN adds that the Israeli army has done nothing to stop the attacks.
There is little that West Bank Palestinians can do in response. There have been demonstrations in Ramallah, Hebron or Nablus, but security is tightly controlled by the Palestinian Authority working in conjunction with the Israeli military. For the moment they have a lid on the security situation. But then, they thought they had a lid on Gaza.
USA Republican Party
Insanity, Albert Einstein allegedly said, “is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
Well, if Einstein was correct, than America’s Republican Party is more than halfway to the looney bin and their ideological colleagues in Britain’s Conservative Party are not far behind.
An abortion ban has become the cause celebre for America’s ideological right. But the general voting public support abortion. In elections this week its ban was overwhelmingly rejected in the reasonably conservative states of Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Kansas and Vermont.
At the same time, Republicans lost key positions in several states and their stand on abortion is said to be one of the major reasons.
But this has not deterred diehard Conservative Republicans. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. He remains committed to a federal ban as do many Republican congressmen in the South and mid-West. They appear to be taking the line that if voters do not vote for us, it is because we are not right-wing enough.
Britain’s Conservative Party appears to be heading in the same direction. The new standard bearer of the party’s far-right is Home Secretary Suella Braverman. Her policies and statements include: sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, labelling cross-channel immigration an “invasion”, threatening to fine charities for distributing tents to the homeless; calling the pro-Palestinian demonstrations “hate marches” and accusing the police of “bias.”
Almost all the political pundits believe that Ms Braverman’s increasingly provocative statements are part of a bid for leadership of the Conservative Party.
The Tories will almost certainly lose next year’s general election and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will be expected to take the blame and fall on his sword. Conservatives will then have to elect a new leader. If the Tories follow the example of their American cousins – and Einstein’s definition – then Ms Braverman will be in pole position.
USA and China
Good news on the Sino-American front. Beijing and Washington have reached an agreement on climate change issues and President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping are to meet on17 November.
American and Chinese diplomats have been working hard on finding common ground on climate change. Not so much because climate change is an important issue (which it is), but more because it is low-hanging diplomatic fruit.
When faced with an impasse, diplomats try to find basic areas of agreement. Both sides love their children. Both sides enjoy music. Both sides want to save the planet.
Once they have established that it is possible to find areas of common interest they can move onto more problematic issues such as war in Ukraine, war in the Middle East, North Korea and maybe even Taiwan.
* Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and author of “The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War” and “America Made in Britain".
3 Comments
Tom – Anti–Semitism is rocketing worldwide. Exaggerated comments create fear amongst Jewish communities. Alistair Carmichael yesterday said: ‘The horrific cases of antisemitism that we have seen on the streets of London today’.
This description is not the same as the London Evening Standard’s which had been following the march all day: ‘Some 126 people were arrested throughout the day, with at least 92 of them being counter-protesters, the majority of which were “part of a large group who tried to reach the main march”.
The force also said it is looking for two pro-Palestine demonstrators who were allegedly marching with Hamas-style headbands as well as others accused of anti-Semitic chants’.
John the figures are not exaggerated, they are
from the police and are not primarily about the demos but about other incidents in the community.
Back in 2019 I spoke to a police officer about a Lib Dem stakeboard which had been vandalised with a swastika (he mentioned it to me, I did not see it or report it myself). I did not get the impression that he deemed that anti-semitic. The police seem to bend over backwards not to classify an incident as anti-semitic.
Focusing on the China/USA relationship as the pivotal one in world affairs is to ignore reality. Powerful as these two countries are they comprise a fraction of the world’s GDP and military power. India, the EU and other large countries and blocs need to unite to create a global international body that is more effective at solving the world’s serious challenges.