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The weeks since October 7 have forever changed my relationship with my country.
By Tanya Gold
November 10, 2023
I am a British Jew, which means that until October 7, I considered myself one of the luckiest Jews ever born. We are the only intact community in Europe: the only one without a roll of names at Yad Vashem.
Elsewhere in Europe you will walk through empty or half-empty Jewish quarters—in Venice, Vienna, and the endless graveyard that is Poland—but not here in London. Golders Green, our shopping district in the north part of the city, bustles as it always has. From the ultra-Orthodox of Stamford Hill to the Liberal Jews of St John’s Wood, we have thrived.
For years, British Jews have looked at the tiny or lost Jewish communities in continental Europe with a preening, and now, I think, almost despicable pride. We were certain—I was, anyway—that the fabled British exceptionalism had extended to a love of its Jews.
We would not, we tend to think, have been betrayed had the Nazis landed in 1940: our neighbors would have fought for us. We are model immigrants. We study at famous schools and universities. We endow opera houses and art galleries. Our most famous synagogue—Bevis Marks in the City of London—looks like a church. Lord Rothschild is a patron of the arts, and no British aristocrat is as finely shod, housed, or spoken. Our chief rabbi is a friend of Charles III. We are conservative, slightly muted (I once called us “a pale triumph” and I still think I’m right), and loyal. We have believed, until now, that loyalty goes two ways.
In all this, we took pride. Too much pride, it turns out. Maybe false pride.
The last month has been an awakening. After October 7, when Hamas slaughtered 1,400 innocent Israelis, I have felt unsafe as a Jew, rather than merely unusual, for the first time in my life. On X, I have been told Hitler was right and that I am a demonic entity. In London, anti-Jewish hate crime spiked by 1,350 percent in the first half of October, and my pride—my relationship with the country in which I was born—has been shattered. None of us will be the same again.
I’m a journalist who writes about antisemitism, and so, when a march for Palestine was called in central London on October 28, I went. The huge crowd was an eclectic mix that included Muslim families, assorted far-leftists, the young, and the old. For some attendees, the cause seemed to be little more than a passing fashion related to a vague idea of “anti-colonialism.” For others, it was something much more serious.
Some of it was righteous concern for the Palestinians: I do not doubt that. Some of it, though, was classic early-Christian Jew hate, brought forward in time: the Jew thinks itself exceptional; the Jew can do no good. (That this belief stems from the Christ-killing but is now unconsciously imbued by secular progressives makes me laugh. But laughter will take you only so far nowadays.)
Some of this sentiment comes from elements of the British Muslim population, who suffer alienation of their own in the UK. Some of it is straightforwardly Hitlerite: a banner hung by a protester outside the prime minister’s residence read, “Zionism is the disease.” And a disease needs a cure.
People forget that at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Jews were murdered with pesticide. They shouldn’t.
At the rally, people chanted: “O Jews, the army of Muhammed is coming.” And: “Intifada.” And: “From the river to the sea / Palestine will be free.” People say that the last phrase does not call for the destruction of the Jewish state—some say it implies two states, or a thriving single rainbow state—but Hamas is clear about its meaning.
A sign showed Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding the leashes of dogs (Joe Biden, British prime minister Rishi Sunak, and EU leader Ursula von der Leyen). Puppet master becomes dog owner. There were baby dolls painted with blood and a coffin with writing on it that referred to the Warsaw Ghetto.
I saw posters with Netanyahu portrayed as Adolf Hitler and comparisons between Nazis and Israelis. Jews-as-Nazis is a popular taunt in Europe because it is self-protective. If you decide that the Jews deserved it, being Nazis themselves, you will sleep better at night.
I trust people’s words. And so I trust the normal-looking woman with a sign that said: “Resistance by any means necessary.” I am ashamed that I did not rebuke her for endorsing the torture of children. I was too frightened. I wonder whether anyone rebuked her. “Stop using antisemitism,” said one woman’s sign. And: “Stop using the Holocaust.”
The Jewish people came to these British islands with William the Conqueror in 1066. We lent him money, and he protected us. But the Crusades and other crises radicalized the Christian majority. Pogroms were carried out in London and York. The blood libel—the fantasy that Jews kill Christian children for their blood to make bread—was invented in Norwich in 1144. It was an early example of the antisemitic dynamic: the people of Norwich, which is fatally ordinary, were special for a time, because, wretched though they were, they were not Jews.
In 1290, Edward I expelled us—733 years ago last month, the first European expulsion—though some ships’ captains left us on sandbanks at the mouth of the Thames to drown when the tide came in. We were readmitted by Oliver Cromwell in 1656, but the edict of expulsion has never been rescinded.
Jews came from Eastern Europe in large numbers during the 1880s after Tsarist pogroms. Smaller numbers fled the continent in the 1930s and made glittering contributions to British culture. Britain is proud that it admitted 10,000 Jewish children from Germany—the Kindertransport—in the 1930s, but their parents were excluded. Immigration to British-controlled Palestine was limited, and, after the Zionist paramilitaries of the Irgun murdered British soldiers in Palestine in 1946–47, anti-Jewish riots erupted in Liverpool, Glasgow, and Manchester.
But since then, there has not been much antisemitic sentiment to speak of. The hatred that British Jews once felt strongly had gone quiet.
Until now. When Jeremy Corbyn, who has called Hamas his “friends,” led the Labour Party between 2015 and 2020, mainstream British Jews struggled to explain how fair criticism of Israel can easily segue into a brand of medieval-style antisemitism in which devil Jews can do no right and must be expelled, eradicated, expunged. It is obvious now that, though Corbyn was exposed and has no material power, the idea still does. It is rampaging across the continent as it has done periodically for centuries. It is a truism that antisemitism is always different, and it is always the same: in Europe, we wait to see how different it will be in the early twenty-first century—and how similar.
As news of the October 7 massacre spread, there was a race to blame the victim. The charge was led by a tiny number of young British far-left Jews, who offer succor and concealment to non-Jewish antisemites and love to do so. I suspect that this is rooted in family dynamics, but it is impossible to say, as they do not seem to know themselves why they do it. One called the massacre “a day of celebration” (she later apologized). Another said, “Shabbat shalom and may every colonizer fall everywhere.” (He did not apologize.) According to the spin, the massacres went from being appalling to unfortunate to excusable in short order. Defamation of Jews thrived online and seeped into real life.
In Germany, Stars of David are painted on Jewish houses to identify them. In France, the door of an elderly Jewish couple’s apartment was set on fire, and Jewish lawmakers require police protection. In Spain, a Jewish-owned hotel is surrounded by a mob.
In Amsterdam, where tourists flock to see the home of Anne Frank, Jewish schools closed for a day. I have wondered where the millions who have read and loved Anne’s diary have been in these last few weeks. Perhaps it was always entertainment for them, as I suspected, for I do not hear their outrage now.
In the meantime, children in London are afraid to wear blazers that make clear they attend Jewish schools. Some of this is paranoia, but we have been paranoid before, and we were right. After all, we are a community of refugees. We just forgot it. British Jews have stopped wearing yarmulkes outdoors. Families fret about the mezuzah on the doorframe. A Jewish school was defaced with red paint.
College students in Manchester, I’ve been told, were too frightened to go to a vigil for Israeli hostages; one hid his Star of David necklace. In London, students awoke to news that their teachers’ union had endorsed “intifada until victory” and a “mass uprising.” In Oxford, Jewish students fear to say that they are Jewish. Student WhatsApp groups insult their Jewish cohort; there is no discussion allowed of a two-state solution, or hostage negotiations, or peace. The word Gaza was scrawled in re paint on the sign outside the Wiener Holocaust Library in Central London. The defaced sign has been added to the permanent exhibition.
Every weekend since the October 7 attack, tens of thousands have marched in solidarity with the Palestinian cause in cities across Europe. Few non-Jews are marching in solidarity with Israelis, and to wave an Israeli flag in London is not wise these days, not without police protection. The vigils for the hostages have been sparsely attended. The vigil in London’s Trafalgar Square was muted and filled with mourning.
Now London is braced for more ugly displays of Jew hate, with a large protest planned for Remembrance Day this weekend. It will go ahead despite police pleas to avoid overlap with commemorations of Britain’s war dead.
The rallies for Palestine have felt more gaudy, with fireworks and loud music, because, I suppose, there is something to cheer. Jews are dead, alongside Israeli Arabs. That last fact is not mentioned. Nor is Hamas’s bloodlust toward its own civilians. To mention this is considered impolite. But such sleight of hand is normal. People want this to be simple. I do not suggest that everyone marching has a murderous tendency toward Jews. But their willingness to tolerate, or ignore, these tendencies in others is terrifying.
As I left the October rally, I found a homemade sign resting on a column. It said “End Zionism,” with a picture of a Palestinian flag. It was prettily done: a woman’s hand, I think, with experience of coloring in. I turned it over, on instinct. I was right. The first draft—the heartfelt one—said, “Israel is like my ex [boyfriend].” And there is it: the pull. The emotion is not so different from what the pogromists of the ages felt. The protesters are not thinking of Palestinians under the boot of Hamas—as the pogromists did not think of the Jew as they robbed and murdered him—but of themselves, and how they judge themselves against the idea of the Jew.
Free Palestine, here, means free me. And the Jews are what they have always been: a myth that expresses everything you fear, and everything you are.
Tanya Gold is an award-winning freelance journalist. Follow her on X @TanyaGold1. And read her last piece for The Free Press, “Dubai Paid Beyoncé $24M. She Gave Them Her Integrity.”
From The Free Press, here.
A swell article showcasing the best invention since sliced government cheese on Times of Israel here…
The Camozuzah is made of rubber and has two models, a large and a small one, both available in white and black. The case costs about $20 and it features a fake indication light that resembles an alarm sensor. The parchment is fitted into the case at an angle but the case stands parallel to the doorframe, avoiding the giveaway of a tilted box on the doorframe.
My favorite excerpt:
Nifty and kosher though it is, the Camozuzah prompted some criticism during its unveiling, Lent said. “When we first showcased the Camozuzah to other Chabad rabbis, some of them objected, saying it was the opposite of the Chabad message of promoting a proud and visible Judaism,” Lent recalled.
Yet the increase in expressions of Jew-hatred in Europe and beyond means that a growing number of Jews will not have any mezuzah, he said. “Of course we encourage Jewish pride and a visible mezuzah where possible, but far better to have a hidden mezuzah than not to have one at all,” Lent added.
What piercing logic: better something than nothing! (or: 1>0. QED.)
Nu, what are you waiting for? See, a (camouflaged) Mezuzah can still protect (camouflaged) Jews! So, cover your yarmulke with a baseball cap, and run out to buy it!
Speaking of protection, perhaps one small suggestion can be forgiven: Can they add the words”שומר דלתות ישראל” (in miniature font, translated into ancient hieroglyphics, of course)?
P.S., Now, “Lent” doesn’t sound like a Jewish surname, either. Hmmm, I wonder if…
… But never fully grasp or repudiate the multiple THOUGHT PROCESSES and CONSTRAINTS that led to the mistake (and will predictably lead to their next itsy-bitsy boo-boo), nor do they willingly relinquish the power to “err” destructively in the future!
Quoting part of Tom Woods’ email newsletter:
Three and a half years too late, New York magazine just published an article called “COVID Lockdowns Were a Giant Experiment. It Was a Failure.” It’s the most popular article on their site right now.
I think we’re long past the point at which we say: good for them for figuring it out, even if belatedly. The time for that has officially gone by.
We don’t award partial credit for admitting the problems with lockdown three and a half years after the policy was implemented.
These belated statements of regret do no good. First and most obviously, it’s far too late to undo the damage from the policy. But second, these tend to be the same kind of people who always, after the implementation of some disastrous policy, can be heard saying, “This was a mistake in hindsight, but nobody could have known at the time.”
Yeah, sure.
Instead, we should draw lessons from episodes like this so we don’t get snookered the next time something stupid and evil comes along.
How’s this for one such lesson: the American establishment is not to be trusted, does not deserve the benefit of the doubt, and does not have your best interests at heart.
Whatever the establishment’s current obsession is, it’s almost certainly a boondoggle based on lies, and it never makes your life better. It only impoverishes you.
Oh, and if you have a dissenting opinion you’ll be called evil, a fool, a conspiracy theorist, a dupe of a foreign power, whatever.
Just a super bunch, these people.
John McCain ultimately admitted that the 2003 Iraq war “can’t be judged as anything other than a mistake, a very serious one, and I have to accept my share of the blame for it.”
Well, that’s super. But as a result of this mistake, how did McCain look at the world differently? What new caution would he now exercise? How would his approach to future conflicts change?
We never got any answers, because nobody bothered to ask him these obviously central questions.
So again, what good does it do to admit, years later, that Boondoggle X was a mistake, if you’re assuredly going to go along with Boondoggle Y, as if Boondoggle X never occurred?
Don’t be the dolt who years later has to say, “We now know X was a mistake.” Be the person with a functioning brain who says at the time, “No way am I supporting X.”
…
End quote. (The aforementioned article is here, and well worth the read.)
For more reading, start with Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell, and… something by Nassim Taleb.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu rode to popularity on such a strong “anti-terror” platform that he enjoyed the title “Mr. Security.” With the complete breakdown of security that resulted in more than 1,300 deaths and thousands of wounded Israelis last Saturday, his critics at the Times of Israel posted a headline noting the dichotomy between Bibi’s former image and reality.
Benjamin Netanyahu used to be ‘Mr. Security’
How did the prime minister and his far-right government fail to meet Israelis’ most basic safety needs?
But did Bibi’s projection of strength ever fit his actions? Here are 8 things he has resisted doing till now, though pressure is quickly building on him to do each.
1. Eliminate Hamas leaders whenever possible
I24 News reported last year that Bibi not only blocks the military from striking the leaders of Hamas, but the current leader of Hamas was released from jail in a prisoner exchange approved by Bibi. He even received life-saving cancer surgery while serving multiple life sentences for the murder of four Arabs and two Israelis before his release:
Israel’s Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman said on Saturday that former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused proposals to assassinate Hamas militant group leaders when he was premier.
Liberman noted that Netanyahu approved the release of Hamas’ current leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar . . .
Netanyahu “was the one who prevented any attempt to kill the heads of Hamas,” the head of the Yisrael Beytenu party explained.
Liberman thus made the killing of Hamas leaders a condition for his joining the coalition during the current war:
Liberman: I’ll join government if PM vows to destroy Hamas, kill its leaders
Yisrael Beytenu chairman and former defense minister Avigdor Liberman says he will join the current government if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — together with the defense minister and IDF chief pic.twitter.com/SGnrS179sR — Vanguard Of Isreal ( The Updates ) (@Vanguard_isreal) October 8, 2023
Bibi’s refusal to follow the military strategy of “cutting the head off the snake” leaves Hamas needing only to offer high paying salaries in order to recruit new teenagers to replace the teens and young men killed in retaliatory strikes. As we go to press, an IDF [Israel Defense Forces] spokesman indicated that Bibi may have agreed to begin targeting some of Hamas leaders:
Yahya Sinwar is the commander of the campaign, and he is a dead man. [Hamas’s] military and political leadership, all of its assets, are attackable, and doomed.
Al Jazeera, however, quotes Arab former Israeli Knesset member Sami Abou Shahadeh contradicting the IDF spokesman.
Israel is not killing the Hamas leadership, they’re not getting revenge out of Hamas.
It appears that the truth is somewhere in between, with some, mainly low level officials being targeted, while the upper brass remains unharmed.
2. Stop funding Hamas
Liberman has also clashed with Netanyahu over the latter’s refusal to cut off the money supply for Hamas, as noted by the New Yorker:
Lieberman left the [defense] ministry last year [in 2018] because, he said, Netanyahu was coddling Hamas, by failing to go after the group’s leaders following missile launches and by approving Qatari money to pay civil servants in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas. Lieberman complained that meetings with the general staff of the Israel Defense Forces had become like “discussions with the leaders of [the Leftist group] Peace Now.” He has become openly disdainful of Netanyahu’s alleged weakness. . . . [Emphases added].
Those “civil servant” salaries include funding for terrorist training. Bibi also enriches Hamas by supplying the regime with billions of dollars of electricity, for which Hamas then refuses to pay Israel despite charging Gazan Arabs for the energy. In a similar funding scheme, Bibi pushed the US to fund Gazan schools, freeing education money to be used by Hamas for weapons, as reported by Arutz Sheva:
‘Bibi Pushing US to Fund Hamas Schools’
The Netanyahu administration, not Obama, is behind efforts to get US dollars to Hamas-linked UN schools in Gaza, journalist says.
Bibi cannot claim that the school funding is to moderate Gazan children, as the “textbooks openly call to destroy the Jewish State” and “roughly 90% of [the] teachers are affiliated with Hamas.”
3. Stop using “good cop/bad cop” strategy
Netanyahu authorized the transfer of weapons and armored vehicles to the PLO controlled Palestinian Authority (PA), utilizing the “good cop/bad cop” strategy with Israeli citizens. Bibi argues that PA Muslims will fight other (worse) Muslims on behalf of Israel:
Palestinian sources yesterday revealed that the Palestinian Authority received a number of armoured vehicles and weapons to support its security services; the Preventive Security Forces, National Security Services and the police.
The armoured vehicles were obtained by the PA from the Americans following mediation by Jordan and was approved by the right-wing Israeli government. This aims to strengthen the capabilities of the Palestinian security services to allow them to confront and stop resistance attacks . . .
Bibi also uses the “good cop/bad cop” scenario to directly fund the PA, claiming he is keeping more extreme groups from coming to power. He thus sent billions of dollars of customs fees collected by Israel to the PA, despite the PA not needing tax funds to pay for national defense or highways, which Israel funds itself, or other services which are funded by international donors. The prime minister even opposed a bill to deduct terrorist salaries from the transfers:
Prime Minister opposes law to offset terrorist salaries
National Security Council claims law to offset PA funds would harm Abbas’ status . . .
The law eventually passed, but Netanyahu then allowed the resumption of full funding of the PA in violation of the law. This allowed the PA to continue passing the money directly to convicted murderers, encouraging others to follow suit, as World Israel News reported:
The opposition slammed the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu . . . following reports that Israel failed to stop the transfer of hundreds of millions in tax money to the Palestinian Authority that it uses to pay convicted terrorists and their families.
A report by Kan Radio . . . revealed that despite a new law forcing Israel to deduct the amount of money equal to the “pay-for-slay” salaries, the entire amount has been transferred to the PA for the past two months.
Even US tax dollars
Bibi’s funding of Israel’s enemies as the “good cops” makes it difficult for Israel supporters to oppose US funding of those same enemies. Breitbart describes
[T]he State Department granted over $90,000 in funding to the Phoenix Center for Research and Field Studies in Gaza, a “non-governmental” group that describes itself as supporting “armed resistance” against Israel.
Less directly, but perhaps more influentially, the Biden administration has aided some of Hamas’s most high-profile international supporters. . . . Tehran most recently received word that the White House would move to allow it to access $6 billion in assets.
One effort by Netanyahu to garner more funds for the PA (which promises to destroy Israel in phases) did fail, though, when he was turned down by President Trump, as reported by the Jerusalem Post:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested that Washington allow the transfer of $12 million to Palestinian security forces, but President Donald Trump denied the request, Channel 13 reported.
“If it’s so important for Netanyahu, he should pay the Palestinians $12 million,” senior White House officials told Channel 13, quoting the president.
Joe Biden immediately resumed the funding of the PA after his inauguration, though the PA shares funds with Hamas.
4. Destroy Hamas power station and cell towers
Bibi has refused to allow the air force to take out the one power plant in Gaza. His energy minister has stopped the 120MW supply of electricity Israel sends to Gaza, though. This stoppage reduced Hamas’ energy supply by two thirds, from 180 MW to just the 60MW supplied by that plant. That’s enough to continue powering the terrorists’ communications systems.
Netanyahu has also held back on striking cell towers, which can be seen still standing on the tops of buildings next to other buildings that were bombed. Hamas leaders are thus able to continue planning strategy and communicating with terrorists in the field.
5. Stop the High Court from restraining the IDF
Bibi has long refused to allow his coalition partners to bring to a final vote bills to block Israel’s Leftist High Court justices from choosing their own successors and from invalidating government decisions. Those judges “gave” themselves the power to cancel executive decisions even when they do not violate any “Basic Law” (the closest thing in Israel to a constitution).
Some of those High Court decisions have halted IDF practices necessary to prevent terror attacks and have caused the IDF to be overly cautious in attacking terrorists.
Empty buildings
Thus before bombing a building, the air force began sending a warning, dropping a small explosive known as a “knock on the roof,” and calling and texting residents. The element of surprise is lost and Hamas terrorists have 5–45 minutes to escape unharmed.
This wasn’t a missile strike, it was what’s known as a ‘Roof Knock’ when the IDF drops a low yield device on the building to give resident approx 5 mins to evacuate before the actual missile strike. #Israel pic.twitter.
com/OKT22feZzq — Kev Thomas (@KevMonynys) October 8, 2023
This practice has led to complaints from terror victims that Bibi is just bombing “empty buildings.” Former Knesset Member Moshe Feiglin complained about the practice at the onset of the current war.
Women and children are led in a victory procession in Gaza – and our “moral” air force is still ‘knocking on the roof’.
Unconfirmed reports on X (formerly Twitter) indicate that the policy may have been suspended in the case of certain terrorists.
Eliminated this night was high-ranking commander Rifat Abu Hilal, aka “Abu al-Abad”. Since the “Akesh ba gagh” (“Knock on the Roof”) protocol is no longer in operation, no one woke him up. Twenty people were eliminated along with him.#HamasTerrorists #
PalestineIsraelwar pic. twitter.com/y8SWMEtpNG — Aurora Borealis (@aborealis940) October 9, 2023
However, with approximately 500 men killed in 1352 airstrikes, some two-thirds of the strikes are in fact on “empty buildings.”
#WaronHamas—4 days in. pic.twitter.com/evOgdRvMuo
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 10, 2023
Additionally, other rules of engagement imposed by the High Court remain in force. These include a prohibition on destroying abandoned buildings used by PA terrorists to shoot women and children traveling on adjacent roads. Muslim murderers used an abandoned building to launch an attack against a pregnant mother and all four of her children whom they murdered.
The attackers, armed with automatic rifles, then approached the vehicle and fired their weapons from close range at Hatuel and her daughters repeatedly. None survived.
The same Kissufim crossing and the road leading to it had been the scene of numerous Arab attacks on Jewish residents. The IDF had planned to raze the building that hid the killers due to its strategic and threatening position near the major road used by the Jewish residents of Gush Katif. Israel’s Supreme Court blocked the action on grounds of protection of property rights. Razing the building to protect Jewish lives was not sufficient cause. It was not “reasonable” in the Jewish State. [Emphases added].
6. Cancel strict gun control laws
There’s a popular misconception that most Israelis are armed. In fact, Israel has extremely restrictive gun control laws. These have severely limited the ability of Israeli communities to defend themselves when the IDF is not immediately available, as happened at the outbreak of the current war on Saturday.
Israel, which does not have an analogue to the Second Amendment, in fact ranks just 81st among nations for firearms per capita, at 0.073. The US has the highest rate in the world.
Israel’s strict gun laws were detailed in the NY Post:
Israel exists under constant threat of attack — and requires citizens to serve in the military — but still has much stricter gun laws than the United States. . . .
Even those Israelis who pass through extensive hoops to get a firearm permit can only own one gun. And that’s a handgun — not a semi-automatic rifle capable of rapid fire. There are also limits on ammunition. . . .
Israel limits gun permits to people who meet strict requirements of residency, occupation, or army rank. For instance, security workers, jewelers, hunters and West Bank residents are eligible for permits.
Forty percent of all gun permit applicants are flat-out rejected by the Israeli government. Gun owners must renew their permits every year and immediately report any change of eligibility status to the Israeli federal government.
Israel relies on professional members of the military and police force for security, rather than “good guys with guns” or even Civil Guard volunteers. . . .
The Israeli government has even restricted firearm access to current Israeli soldiers when off-duty on weekends.
Even a slight easing of gun regulations instituted after this war began do not change the picture, as reported by The Federalist:
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir announced Sunday in Hebrew an emergency declaration that will “allow as many citizens as possible to arm themselves.” Currently, a mere 1.5 percent of the civilian population has a license to own a gun.
[Nonetheless, t]he laws that require proving “a need” to own and carry a gun have not changed.
These strict rules on the ownership of guns originated with Israel’s first leaders, who were socialist. Israel’s 1949 Firearms Act was passed by its first prime minister, David Ben Gurion. Nevertheless, Netanyahu keeps these restrictions in place, trusting the wisdom of a law passed by a man (Ben Gurion) who eulogized Vladimir Lenin in a most complimentary fashion saying, “[Lenin was] a man of iron will who does not spare human life and the blood of innocent children for the revolution.”
7. Free Israelis tortured into claiming they attacked Arabs
Former Naval Intelligence Officer Jonathon Pollard recently explained that Bibi wants the world to know that Israel convicted a Jewish terrorist in order to create a “moral equivalency” between Jewish Israelis and terrorists from Hamas and the PLO. Bibi, he says, therefore allows the continued solitary confinement (for more than seven years) of a young Jew who lived near an Arab village in which warring clans repeatedly burned each other’s homes.
Despite continuous denials of knowledge of a deadly arson, a complete mismatch of handwriting, shoe prints and other evidence from the scene, and an absence of any actual evidence linking the Jew to the fire, agents from the “Jewish Section” of Shabak (Israel’s equivalent of the FBI) admitted to putting the young man through excruciating torture for more than 30 days, around-the-clock. They did so, while isolating him and keeping him from meeting even a lawyer, until he “admitted” to the arson:
Amiram didn’t do anything except live in the territories and conform to a certain type of Jew that both the Americans and the Israeli government, including the current one, including [Bibi], would like to use as an example of moral equivalency. The Arabs have terrorists and we have terrorists. And Amiram was chosen to be, well, the sacrificial goat.
Bibi has distanced himself from all efforts to free the tortured man, though his release would boost Israel’s image, domestically and internationally, of being a just nation differing entirely from the terrorists in Hamas.
From Frontline News, here.