The British Jewish Community sets spectacularly low bars over whom it considers to be a 'true friend of Israel'. If somebody told you personally that 'you have a right to exist' I do not think you would consider that person to be is a friend., especially if they were cutting off your arms and legs while they said it. But apparently a politician uttering the words "Israel has a right to exist" is all it takes for the British Jewish community to salivate over that politician and consider them to be a true friend of Israel, even while they are simultaneously working to undermine the Jewish State (the bizarreness of the 'right to exist' issue - a phenomenon unique to Israel - is something I tackled extensively here).
This is no more evident than in the Jewish Community's obsequious respect of David Cameron. While Cameron offers warm words about Israel when he speaks at Jewish events (or in the Knesset) any leader has to be judged on actions not words. And in actions Cameron has led Britain's most anti-Israel government since Ted Heath in 1970-73. Every Prime Minister in between (Wilson, Callaghan, Thatcher, Major, Blair, and Brown) was a more natural - and real - friend to Israel than Cameron.
In order to have a single reference for all those who are easily seduced by Cameron I have decided to list some of the most relevant facts chronologically:
- Since 2010: Massively increased funding to the 'Palestinian Authority' which has been proven to have been widely used to directly fund terrorism and antisemitic incitement; between 2011 and 2015 the UK gave £343 million pounds from UK taxpayers, of which over £80 million has been used in the last 3 years to pay salaries of convicted terrorists. But this is just the tip of the iceberg compared to EU funding (approximately 500 million euros every year) of which Britain is a major contributor.
- since 2010: Massively increased funding to a whole host of anti-Israel NGOs whose sole objective is to delegitimize the Jewish State. Moreover, the Government has done nothing, despite repeated requests, to terminate the charity status of numerous organisations like Interpal and Viva Palestina in the UK that directly fund Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
- Since 2010: Led the EU initiative to label (and ultimately boycott) goods and services from Jewish Israelis (and only Jewish ones) from the "occupied territories". This antisemitic labelling policy became law in the UK in Dec 2015 (and note that the UK was not only one of the main sponsors of this EU legislation, but it was the first EU country to implement voluntary labelling in 2011).
- Since 2010: Although Cameron has claimed it is not Government policy, it is a fact that Britain has taken the lead in the EU in 'lawfare' against Israelis and Israeli owned businesses. Leading Israeli politicians (including even Tzippi Livni) and military leaders continue to be stopped from entering the country for fear of arrest under the 'Universal Jurisdiction' law that has been applied only to Israelis on trumped up charges by the antisemites of the Palestine Solidarity Committee. Cameron promised he would stop this happening but, despite claims that the law has been changed, it has failed to do make any difference. Indeed, in 2015 we saw the detention at Heathrow of an Israeli for 'war crimes' simply on the basis that he was one of hundreds of names of Israelis the PSC had given to the Foreign Office. In fact the PSC had simply harvested the names of every Israeli officer that appeared either in newspapers or in social media during the Gaza war of 2014. Serving in the IDF is, according the PSC, a war crime in itself. Although the Government apparently later 'apologised', it is important to note that Cameron has been promising for 5 years now that he was going to stop this legal witch-hunt against Israeli citizens entering the UK, and yet not only does it continue, but it is apparently being ramped up.
- 2010-2015: Cameron appointed William Hague - the most anti-Israel Foreign Secretary in living memory; a man seemingly obsessed with Israeli 'aggression' and 'settlements', since he was rarely heard to speak about anything else.
- Since 2000: Under Cameron Britain has been consistent in its vicious condemnation of Israel for daring to build anywhere in its 'settlements'.
- Since 2010-2015: Britain has enforced an arms embargo against Israel (set up just before Cameron became PM), while falling over themselves to sell every kind of arms to the Arabs including the despotic regimes of Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Just weeks before Gaddafi's overthrow Cameron was desperately trying to sell arms to Libya (and continues to do so to the now 'liberated' country that is actually under Al Qaeda rule in most towns).
- 2010 (In the run-up to the General Election) Cameron tried to establish his 'pro-Muslim' credentials by bragging: ‘Unlike a lot of politicians from Britain who visit Israel, when I went I did stand in occupied East Jerusalem and actually referred to it as ‘occupied East Jerusalem,’ he says. ‘The Foreign Office bod who was with me said most ministers don’t dare say [that].’And to prove that he meant it one of his first appointments in Office was Simon Fraser as the new head of the Foreign Office. Fraser had been sacked from his job in the last Conservative Government under John Major for cohabiting with an official of the PLO (which at the time was still officially designated as a terrorist organisation).
- In the 2010 election Cameron backed a candidate in Blackburn who published a leaflet that said "..the Israeli government created havoc in Lebanon and Gaza in Palestine, destroying their infrastructure and killing and maiming thousands of innocent civilians ... The Labour government did nothing, absolutely nothing, for a number of days while Israelis carried on their inhuman killing of innocent men, women and children."
- 2010: In one of his first speeches on Foreign Affairs Cameron said "Israel had turned Gaza into a prison camp.
- 2010: Cameron voiced the most bitter and irrational condemnation of any world leader after the Gaza Turkish flotilla fiasco.
- 2011 Cameron took the unprecedented step of expelling Israeli diplomats from the UK 'in retaliation' for the death of a Hamas terrorist in Dubai that was never even proved to have any Israeli involvement.
- 2011 Cameron welcomed the Hamas-PA merger and threatened that unless Israel makes concessions to them he will reward the terrorists by formally accepting the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state.
- 2010-2015: Cameron appointed the anti-Israel Muslim supremacist Baroness Warsi to multiple positions of authority, which has resulted in many negative ramifications for Britain's Jewish community.
- 2012 Cameron took the unprecedented step of threatening to break off diplomatic relations unless Israel stopped plans to build a small number of houses in its capital city.
- 2013: Cameron banned two American bloggers (Geller and Spencer) from entering the UK for "Islamophobia" and for being 'too pro-Israel' and hence 'likely to antagonise Muslims'. At the same time antisemitic Muslim hate preachers are allowed in all the time.
- 2014: Despite its very close ties to Jordan, Britain refused to issue a condemnation when the Jordanian Parliament honoured the terrorists who carried out the Har Nof synagogue massacre. and even demanded that Israel do more to 'de-escalate tensions'.
- 2014: Cameron refused to replace - or even reprimand - its Consul-General in Jerusalem Alastair McPhail (Britain's highest ranking official in the Middle East) after he was revealed to be a supporter of Hamas and wore a scarf pledging the destruction of Israel.
- 2015: Britain voted in favour of a UN World Health Organisation resolution naming Israel as the world's only violator of health rights.
- 2016: Britain was one of the five countries that was part of the deal that not only rewarded Iran with nuclear weapons, but also provided it with $150billion to spend on conventional weapons for terrorist organisations to attack Israel.
- Since 2010: Britain has consistently failed to support Israel at the UN, not just abstaining in blatant antisemitic resolutions but normally voting in favour of them. Overall Britain's anti-Israel voting record at the UN under Cameron has increased dramatically.
- Since 2010: The introduction of laws on 'hate speech' that have been primarily used to silence the voices of those who highlight the dangers of Islamic terrorism. One of their 2015 election promises was that 'Islamaphobic attacks' (the bulk of which appear to be comments and articles on the web complaining about Islamic terrorists) will become a specific 'hate crime' under new legislation. In fact they have been imprisoning people already for publishing material exposing Islamic terrorism, as well as those who have been too active in their campaign to warn against the Islamification of the UK.
- 2015: Following William Hague's 'retirement' Cameron appointed as Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond - a man with an even stronger visceral hatred for Israel. One of his first statements was the most libellous antisemitic statement ever issued by a British Cabinet member when he said that Israel wanted to spike the Iran deal because it 'wanted to maintain a permanent state of war'. In October 2015, when the Palestinians launched their murderous unprovoked intifada against Israeli civilians, Hammond said: "Israel's occupation is the cause of the 'violence by Palestinians and Israeli settlers' for the current situation"
- Since 2010: A number of trials in which the defendants who have admitted to physical attacks and destruction of Israeli owned businesses have been found not guilty and even been praised by judges for their heroic activism. While the Government has no power over judges, there has been not a single public expression of concern or condemnation of this and indeed there have now been numerous cases where violent 'anti-Israel' demonstrators have been let off on the basis of being merely 'political protesters'.
- Since 2010: the introduction of policing policies which have enabled anti-Israel 'demonstrators' in 2010, 2012 and 2014 to run riot in the streets of London attacking what they believed were Jewish owned businesses as well as Jewish counter demonstrators without fear of arrest (in fact the policy was instead to focus police manpower on confining the smaller numbers of peaceful pro-Israel demonstrators);
- Since 2010: The introduction of policing policies which enable anti-Israel 'demonstrators' to violently disrupt every public event (without fear of arrest or prosecution) in which Israelis appear.
- Since 2010: An environment of such increased hostility to Israel in all walks of life that the campaign to boycott and deligitimize Israel and to equate Israel with apartheid are more firmly in the main stream than any other country in Europe.
- Since 2010: Cameron has maintained Britain's ludicrous policy of refusing to acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel's capital and still demands that Israel 'returns' the Golan Heights to Syria (although it presumably has not decided whether this should be to Assad or the Islamic State)
- 2016: It is revealed that UK intelligence -in collaboration with the US - has been hacking into Israeli drones in one of the most serious security breaches in Israel's history.
- 2016: Cameron blasts Israel's 'genuinely shocking' illegal settlements.
- May 2016: Cameron's UK Government votes for a UN resolution, co-sponsored by the Arab group of states and the Palestinian delegation, that singles out Israel at the annual assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) as the only violator of “mental, physical and environmental health”
2 comments:
Thanks for these important links about how bad the Tories are. Your points are well taken. But the problem is that, despite all that, the Tories were and still are the least bad of the major parties likely to form a govt in 2015 or 2020. So it's either abstain (increasing the likelihood of a Labour or Lib-Dem govt) or hold your nose and vote Tory (in order to keep Labour and the Lib-Dems out of govt).
Rachel
To anonymous: I tend to agree with you, although in practice rather than words, I feel Cameron's policies are no different to what even Corbyn would do. The fact is the UK maintains diplomatic relations with Israel and trades with it to a certain extent and that is all. In every other respect the UK acts more like an enemy than a friend.
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