Wake Up Calls

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Incredibly, some individuals and groups still believe that the Arab/Islamic campaign of terror against Israel and Jews only dates from 1967.

Michael Kuttner

That explains how and why the false narratives of “occupation of Palestine,” “illegal settlements” and “colonialist apartheid” have become the default mantras of the mindless mobs and political pundits.

A serious failure on the part of Israeli advocates to demolish these historical lies has resulted in the untruths becoming embedded and becoming part and parcel of the demonization of not only Israel but also Jews.

The terror tidal wave long predates the re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty in 1948. It is this incontrovertible fact which should have been hammered home at every possible opportunity.

Currently, I am reading a book that details the first-hand account of those who experienced the tumultuous years following the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate of Palestine. It outlines in explicit and horrifying detail the daily massacres of Jews by Arab terrorist gangs.

This extract from the book’s introduction leaves no doubt whatsoever of the lethal state of affairs that confronted the Jewish chalutzim (pioneers) as they struggled to reclaim the desert and drain the swamps of a barren land.

“Throughout the sparsely settled land of Israel, from Safed to Hebron, the Arab attackers were harassing the mostly defenceless Jewish settlers in a war of ambush and pogroms. The marauders slipped through the hills and hid on the trails, they gathered in cities and marched on murderous rampages. A Jewish car was ambushed on a deserted road; a family was murdered in its home; watchmen were stabbed in the fields. They took food, furniture and money. Often they proved themselves adept at raping or dismembering their victims. The worst pogroms were those of 1920, 1921, 1929 and 1936 to 1939. The Arabs called it a holiday, a disturbance and an uprising. To the dead Jews it seemed more like cold blooded murder…..”

 Where, you may ask, were the British authorities?

Conspicuously absent or more often than not late in arriving and then engaged in arresting Jews for defending themselves.

Three facts immediately stand out from this period.

The first is that what happened on 7 October in all its gruesome and gory bestiality was no aberration. The horrifying spectacles of the massacres and pogroms, rapes, mutilations and kidnapping, followed a well trodden agenda stretching back in time.

The second is the convulsive reaction of the rest of the world to put the blame for these outrages onto the Israeli victims instead of the perpetrators.

The third fact is the universal knee-jerk condemnation when Israel fights back and dares to make the terrorists and their patrons pay dearly for their dastardly deeds.

Much is made of the “magnanimous” act of support enshrined in the Balfour Declaration by its acknowledgement of the inalienable right of the Jews to regain sovereignty in their ancient historical homeland. What is deliberately ignored these days is the avowed intention of the Arab leadership in rejecting each and every claim that Jews had any rights at all.

The perfidious British wasted little time in subverting Lord Balfour’s intent and in 1921 hacked off the territory east of the river Jordan in order to reward the Hashemite tribe with an artificially created country. Notwithstanding the San Remo agreement and the League of Nations decision to have this territory mandated for Jewish settlement the British simply ignored all legal decisions.

When Chaim Weizmann and the Jewish leadership extended hands of friendship and co-operation to King Abdullah of Transjordan the latter was assassinated by Arab terrorists.

Subsequent actions by the British Mandate authorities revealed their true malign intentions towards Jewish aspirations. Restricting immigration, slamming shut the gates against desperate Jews fleeing Europe and denying Jews the means to defend themselves all marked increasingly hostile and antisemitic policies.

A complete cone of silence and a reluctance to “rock the politically correct boat” has meant that all these inconvenient facts are swept under the carpet today.

Backstabbing by erstwhile “friends” in the face of continuing terror is the hallmark of current realities. The leader of the UK Liberal Democrat Party in a recent interview asserted that Israel had the “right to defend itself” but then added that if his party had any influence after the elections it would ban the sale of any weapons to the Jewish State.

This piece of British hypocrisy was followed by a UK Jewish Labour MP declaring that once in power his party would enact an embargo of weapons.

Despite protestations of solidarity, it is obvious that age-old double standards are alive and well in the corridors of power at the British Foreign Office and Downing Street. Listening to the pious pontifications emanating forth one could be fooled into believing that the mandate had never ended.

I listened in vain for a denunciation of these expressions of “friendship.” In the absence of any meaningful rebuttal the lies multiply unchallenged.

This is proven by a recent survey conducted in the United Kingdom. It showed that a majority of those aged 18 to 24 do not believe that Israel should exist. Without a doubt this result can be replicated in many other countries where social media and biased media reporting combined with political double standards is the norm.  

France stands poised to possibly give a majority to the most right-wing Party since the shameful days of Vichy. Ironically it is precisely this group of politicians who have become the most fervent supporters of Israel. Thanks to an upsurge of Islamic violence, voters are flocking to those who promise to deal with this. The far-left alliance, which seems to be the only alternative, are rabidly anti-Israel and sympathetic to terror groups. Thus, French Jews face a serious dilemma. Do they support a once semi fascist party now ostensibly purged or do they vote for a collection of leftist parties which will not seriously confront Islamic threats against Israel and Jews and are in fact obsessively anti Zionist?

This situation is not unique to France. The Rabbi of a major Paris Synagogue has already voiced his opinion that there is no future for French Jews. The same can be said for many other countries as well. Some have already purchased a “bolt hole” property in Israel just in case. Far too many others prefer to pretend that it will blow over.

Leaving it too late has always been a hallmark of Jewish life in the Diaspora, very often with fatal results.

Meanwhile, those politicians in the USA and elsewhere who dream of a “reformed” Palestinian Authority should have taken note of the latest manifestations of malodorous messages issuing forth from Ramallah.

In addition to the PA joining South Africa in its war of delegitimization at the ICJ it has again reiterated its demand of a return of all “refugees” to Israel and compensation. In case that message was not clear enough, PMW reported that a senior Fatah official proclaimed “the blood spilled in the Gaza war is fuel for our return to Acre, Jaffa and Haifa; occupation is transient.”

That’s it in a nutshell. Their agenda today has not changed one iota since the days of the Mandate. In other words Jews must be ethnically cleansed from the river to the sea.

It is a wake-up call that we ignore in our peril.

Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.