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Tel Aviv, 7 November 2015 |
Sitting on beautiful Tel Aviv beach this afternoon (where sadly tourists are few and far between) I was thinking about something I wrote in June - when British tourists were massacred on a beach in Tunisia.
I wrote that the UK Government and media were partly to blame for the tourists' deaths due to the obsession to downplay and cover up the Islamist threat. This obsession is not restricted to Western Europe and the USA. The fact that 23 flights
per day from Russia to Sharm El-Sheikh were
still operating after last Saturday's bombing of a Russian plane by ISIS is confirmation of this (many flights from the UK were operating also right up until 3 days ago). The obsession not to be seen as 'Islamophobic' was surely also the reason why almost all media 'talking heads' for 5 days after the Russian plane bombing were
still insisting that this must have been an accident - despite the fact that ISIS had not only claimed it as a bombing publicly within minutes but had posted a video of the plane blowing up in mid-air.
Now we discover that the British Government has known for months about the specific threat and lack of security at Sharm El-Sheikh airport and also that a British plane was attacked by a missile there in June. Yet these facts were also withheld from the British public. It is also important to note that, while the media focuses obsessively on what happens in Israel, it has ignored the fact that the entire Sinai peninsular has been a war zone for three years. Most of the British public are also unaware of the multiple terrorist attacks specifically targeted against tourists that have taken place in Sharm El-Sheikh and the rest of Sinai in the last 10 years.
I wrote this in June:
I am certainly not suggesting people should be frightened away from
visiting places because of the threats of terrorism. But it is
interesting that, while millions of Brits holiday in Islamic
Mediterranean countries - where they are regarded as disgusting infidels
by the bulk of the population and where there is a real and imminent
terrorist threat to them - only a handful of (non-Jewish) Brits ever
visit Israel. This is mainly because of the perception - again promoted
by the government and media - that it is Israel which is the place to
be avoided for reasons including the terrorist threat. Yet, while Muslim
terrorists certainly continue to target native Israelis, attacks
targeting foreign tourists have been almost non-existent because of
effective Israeli security. Contrast this with 'security' in the Muslim
countries where, in most cases, the 'security' people have been working
with the terrorists when attacks happened.
While the government and media continue to peddle the 'Islam is a
religion of Peace' lie and the 'Islamic terrorism has nothing to do with
Islam' lie, uninformed European tourists will continue to be murdered for believing
it. And they could be holidaying instead in the sun of Tel Aviv and Eilat.
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Tel Aviv, 7 November 2015 |
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Tel Aviv, 7 November 2015 |
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Sunset, Tel Aviv, 7 November 2015 |
We had a great touring holiday in Israel many years ago. Made special by the experienced Israeli guide who was with us for the duration. Told us he was born in Cyprus because the boat that his pregnant mother was on was turned back by the Brits but he didn't hold that against us. The only disaster was when my elderly sister had her purse lifted by a postcard seller when we stopped at the viewing place which overlooked Jerusalem. As the guide said at the time " Not everyone is holy in the Holy City". Still true regretfully.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing while vacationing in Eilat and wondering what the fuck is surprising about Daish putting a bomb in a plane in a region from which they regularly try to fire missiles at Jordan and Israel. And asking myself why they don't just take buses to Israel ;the border is open!
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing while vacationing in Eilat and wondering what the fuck is surprising about Daish putting a bomb in a plane in a region from which they regularly try to fire missiles at Jordan and Israel. And asking myself why they don't just take buses to Israel ;the border is open!
ReplyDeleteThis is so true - all of it - and that makes it so much sadder.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant sentiments and all so true. The day before you wrote this I posted this on Facebook on 6th November in response to the Russian jet tragedy:
ReplyDelete"I feel devastated for the loss of lives that tragically occurred last Saturday when Islamic terrorists exploded the holiday jet over Egypt's Sinai. And I hope that what I am going to post now will not be offensive to those victims and their families. But is anyone else experiencing a frisson of schadenfreude witnessing those British tourists at Sharm el Sheikh airport scrambling to fly back to the UK? These are the same people that happily boycott Israel and refuse to holiday there, yet feel absolutely no moral questioning about holidaying in Muslim countries [eg: Tunisia, Dubai, Egypt] that have (a) dubious airport security checks; and (b) appalling human rights records. The times I have overheard people say they would never go to Eilat for a holiday as they oppose "Israel's occupation", yet happily clamber to visit Sharm, a resort nowhere near as gorgeous as Israel's Red Sea attractions. I am looking at these anti Israel Brits and smiling. They made their beds, now let them lie in it. They should have flown El Al [the safest airline in the world] to the jewelled beaches of Israel [the most beautiful country on the planet.]"
Fairbrit: while there are indeed plenty of British tourists who meet exactly that hypocritical description there are sadly probably more who are completely oblivious to the politics and choose their holidays only on price. this is probably even more true of the Russians who I believe are not bombarded like the Brits with anti-Israel propaganda. Those Russian tourists were sacrificed for Islam. They didn't have a clue the danger they were in.
ReplyDelete