Sunday, August 10, 2014

The British people are being deceived by the lies and distortions.


Visiting the UK at this difficult time is frustrating, to put it mildly. The newspapers almost universally present a one-sided  picture and it is easy to understand why so many people are appalled at Israel's perceived bahaviour. 

Clearly there is a great deal of latent anti-Semitism out there. It would be naive to think otherwise. However, I think the majority of Brits are decent folk and it the lack of honest reporting that is slanting their views so unfairly.

If for example they were to see this Australian TV broadcast, they would surely begin to think differently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=entzhLjVUZY

And if there were more like Con Coughlin, one of the very few  to unequivocally spell out the truth in a British paper, The Telegraph, that too could help.

Let me give one small example of how subtly an opinion may be influenced.

On BBC Lancashire radio, I heard a news flash. There was no follow up, no further explanation (I suspect that if there had been, it would have followed the same line ... and even if it had qualified it, the seeds were already sown, the bias implanted).

Here is the flash:
Israel attacks Gaza as ceasefire is broken.

Israel attacks.
Who broke the ceasefire?
Wouldn't you assume it was ISRAEL as it is they who attacked ? I would!

11 year old Palestinian boy killed.

Any proof? Where is the word "alleged" which is always inserted when reporting on Israeli casualties?

Now let's present a news flash without the OMISSIONS!

Hamas breaks ceasefire, missiles hit Israeli kibbutz causing injuries and trauma. Israel retaliates, killing two terrorists and allegedly also killing an 11 year old boy.


Am I right in thinking you would have a totally different feeling about the incident?

Of course you would.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

An Arab boy cowers under the gun of a brutal Israeli soldier! A pitiful sight.

If you open this link
you will find a photo of a 14 year old Palestinian boy standing with an Israeli soldier who towers over with him with a gun. The kind of photo you see all the time. There’s worse to come. There are pictures of the boy being made to strip off his clothes.

Abominable, you think. And if I tell you that as I watched and saw the story unfold I felt so sad and sorry for this youngster … well. What possible conclusion can you come to?

Shall I explain?

A poor Arab boy, unhappy, unpopular with his school-mates was exploited by Hamas. They psychologically abused him until they had convinced him it would be better to die, a hero and a martyr, than to continue his miserable life.

At one of those Israeli check-points that we hear maligned so often, an alert soldier spotted something about the boy’s behaviour that was suspicious. And discovered that he had a suicide belt strapped to his body. The boy began to cry. Surprise, surprise, he didn’t really want to die.

Did the Israelis make him walk away, shoot him from afar, “explode” him? It sounds horrible but it would have been justified. These belts are notoriously volatile. They are not meant to be taken off so are attached almost permanently. Did the Israelis take the safe option? They did not. They risked lives to help him remove the belt. (But did they sensibly keep guns trained on him? They damned well did! Hence the opportunity to take yet another "brutal" photo.)

Now the story is complete: photos of the boy, cowering, surrounded by gun-toting soldiers. The photo of the boy “humiliated” because he is stripped to his underwear.

Add a headline – Palestinian boy not allowed to play football (!) - and there we have it. 

How lack of context can twist and pervert an action into something else. This is what Israel has to contend with all the time.

The practical explanation here is simple enough, now we know how it’s done. What I cannot find an explanation for is why? 

Why does the press, which surely can’t ALL be gutter press, out for nothing but a sensational story, manipulate and fabricate the facts and allow these travesties to be published? 

They must know that the innocents like the boy in this story are powerless to stand up against Hamas. Why then do so-called responsible reporters misrepresent and debauch the truth, thereby bolstering the evil regime of Hamas? 

Why is their professed sympathy for the Palestinians so skewed that they actually harm the ones they are supposed to be defending?

And what the hell did we, the Jews, the Israelis, ever do to make them hate us so much?


Thursday, July 31, 2014

Ask not what your country can do for you ...

A young Israeli speaks up


My Name is Melkamo ... 

Student, son, brother to 6  … I am an officer  … in the Israel Defence Force ... One of the most important experiences in my life, having the opportunity to lead others, other soldiers … and to experience with them the moral and ethics of being a soldier in the Israeli army … has helped to shape who I am today.


I have been watching the news. I am saddened by what I see. The Israel that the media all over the world is talking about and trying to present irresponsibly is not the Israel I know and love. Let me tell you …

I am calling all of you. This is your call to duty. … You, my brothers and sisters, I need your support. Israel needs your support. Stop the lies and misinformation.Please join me and others to spread the truth. This is how you can take part and make a difference for Israel  …

Please watch his video and then take action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GcJSXQwJOE

Am I leading a sheltered life?

I’m British, Jewish, Israeli. My grand-father’s brother died on the Somme fighting for Britain, my grandfather served in Egypt, my father was in the 8th army, a Desert Rat who fought in all the campaigns and spent the last year of the war in a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany. My children, born in the UK, served in the Israeli army. I hate war, cannot understand why people killing each other could ever be considered a solution for anything. None-the-less I am proud of all the soldiers in my family.

My British-born father and grand-father were told on a regular basis “go back to Palestine”. I never experienced the hatred but when I announced my family were moving to Israel I heard “So you’re going home?” I didn’t take that as an insult. They were right.

I’ve lived in Israel for almost thirty years. Life on a day to day basis is good, although I’m sad that my tiny country has never know true peace.

By a weird and wonderful mistake[1] I, a chicken farmer, cake baker, English teacher, house-wife and Mum became the Secretary to the Peace Talks between Israel and  the Palestinians which culminated in the 1995 Interim Agreement (commonly known as Oslo II). Back then hopes were high, optimism was felt throughout Israel. Give the Palestinians autonomy, they will lay down their arms, self-rule will lead to a Permanent Agreement, and peace and prosperity will reign in our region. (By the end of 2005 not a single Israeli soldier or civilian was to be found in Gaza and the Palestinians were the masters of their own destiny.)

Back to the present. There’s a cease-fire but I’m back from another visit to the bomb shelter. Not everyone has a shelter so doors are left open. Anyone can come in. Today there were three under fives, two Mums, a handful of students, the “oldies” represented by me and my neighbour. On a week-day there would be a dozen babies from the crèche upstairs

Someone I know started a facebook page to illustrate Israel's Spirit of the Blitz. I'm proud to be a member! 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/bombshelterselfies/


Despite thousands of missiles from Gaza aimed at the heart of our cities over the years and intensified in the last weeks, there have been fewer casualties on the Israeli side. We are told Israel’s response is “disproportionate” (the buzz word in this latest conflict) because these missiles are supposedly harmless, their threat is down-played. Please then explain why America contributed enormous amounts of tax-payers’ money toward the development of a system designed to shoot these missiles down?

The truth is that if the Iron Dome hadn’t been so effective in exploding the missiles in the air, thousands in Israel would be maimed or dead by now.

Look at the debate to allow/cancel flights to Israel. Ironic! Isn’t Israel being condemned for acting disproportionately in Gaza because the danger from missiles aimed at cities is “minimal”? Then why stop airplanes flying to the centre of Israel?

In Israel, American aid went to a defence system. In Gaza, Hamas took American aid (and multi-millions more from Europe) to purchase the missiles that Israel defends herself from.

The list of our slain soldiers grows from day to day. I know many have little sympathy. After all soldiers are hardened professionals, who chose a job that involves killing. Being killed comes with the territory.

I cry over each and every one of them. The teenage soldiers, the older reservists; young men who leave behind wives and orphaned children. I cry, and I am not alone. A young American left his family to come and help protect his Jewish home-land. There was concern that his parents would have few to comfort them at his funeral. TWENTY THOUSAND Israelis came to mourn with them. Two days later another lone soldier was laid to rest. THIRTY THOUSAND Israelis came.  The only sound was weeping, no cries of hatred, no calls for revenge.

Our soldiers are Israel’s human shield against an enemy that also uses its civilians as human shields. The difference is our shields have reached the age of consent. They choose to put their lives on the line to defend our children. The Palestinian shields are defenceless children who certainly have no choice about being put on the firing line. They should be playing, our boys should be at college, or dancing in discos.

To return to the shelters for a moment. (I hope I can finish writing this before that has a literal meaning …) Miles and miles of intricate tunnels uncovered so far, leading from Gaza into Israel. Estimate: over a million tons of concrete! 

What does this mean? The world’s tallest tower, Dubai’s 163 floor Burj Khalifa, required 110,000 tons of concrete. Ten times that amount could surely have built a lot of  shelters! More logically, Hamas could have built homes, shops, and businesses. If the Palestinian leaders had worked towards improving the life of the Palestinians, instead of pouring all their efforts into trying to kill their Israeli neighbours, there would actually be no need for shelters!

I spoke of fewer casualties on the Israeli side. In fact that should be qualified by the word physical. The mental scars to our children are a sad fact of life here. But this isn’t a competition between “them” and “us”; who has it worst. Everyone who wishes for peace and is involved in this war is to be pitied.

However, if there is to be any solution it cannot come from pity. It has to come from addressing facts. Being distracted or worse misinformed by a one-sided view of the conflict can only mean the real issues will not be addressed.

John Kerry is already promising an enormous aid packet for Gaza. Is there ANY hope that the money will be monitored so that it will reach the Palestinian people, not their corrupt leaders?

Those genuinely sympathetic to the Palestinian cause need to support Egypt and Israel in the fight against the evil that is Hamas. The Palestinians are powerless to help themselves. To leave Hamas in power is to guarantee that not far down the line, the tunnels will be rebuilt and reach ever deeper into Israel, the missiles will be stronger, and the ordinary people will continue to be cannon fodder for a cause that no one who isn’t a terrorist understands or wants. 





[1] One day I’ll finish the book I am writing about that amazing time!

There are so many links I want to share. Let me start with this one.




You may be surprised that I choose to send an interview that is so virulently against Israel. 

But I feel this Channel 4 News man did Israel a favour. He spouted every canard, every lie, every distortion that is out there and by doing so gave Daniel the chance to refute every one. AND REFUTE THEM HE DID!!!!

Daniel - I am proud to know you!

Daniel and I worked together in those heady days of the Peace Process - Oslo II - when we so idealistically believed that we could forge an agreement that would enable us to live in peace with our Palestinian neighbours.

An addendum to the blog "Why parroting the slogan ... "


The CIA reported in 2008 that Tel Aviv is in fact more densely populated than Gaza City. They relied on statistics provided by the UN.

Many thanks to John Corre who sent me this information.

The things that you’re liable to read in the Bible. It ain’t necessarily FAKE!

Why Israel has the historic right to exist as the State and homeland of the Jewish people.


Archeologists have been systematically digging hundreds of ancient Biblical sites in Israel for about the last 150 years.

What have they been discovering?

Are all those miracles taught about in Sunday School true?

Many archeologists are sceptics. When it comes to miracles, many remain a question of faith. Yet archeological findings verify large swathes of the Bible narrative. The Bible is not just a religious tract. A great deal of it is historical.

The Old Testament is the history of the Jewish people stretching back to when they first evolved as the Hebrews, or Israelites. 

The period when Abraham arrive in the Land of Israel from Mesopotamia, around 1800 BCE is vague but once you get to the Exodus, around 1200 BCE then the historical background becomes firmer. 


By about a 1000 years B.C.E archeological evidence begins to proliferate and findings in other countries cross-reference and corroborate accounts in the Bible.

Ancient steps at Hazor, one of the Bible Cities: from the time of King Ahab 7th King of Israel c. 885 to 874 BC 

From the time of the Children of Israel returning to the Promised Land to the time of Jesus is a period of a thousand years! 



Jesus who, let us remember, was an observant Jew, worshipped at the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, remains of which can be seen to this day.The New Testament of course tells of Jesus' life in Israel. *

So I think we can safely say the Jews established the inalienable right to their one and only homeland. 

For the last two thousand years there has always been a Jewish presence in our homeland, though others were in control. 

Let us not forget that so much that is integral to Judaism came from the Land of Israel in this period. The redaction of the Mishna, the Mishna itself, the Tosefet, the Mechita, the Sifra – all tenets of the Jewish faith - developed in Palestine. And then there was the Golden Age of Sfat! Prayers, teachings, expansion of the Kabbala (Madonna would never forgive us if we didn’t mention the Kabbala) 

It was in Sfat that Rabbi Joseph Caro 1488-1575 compiled the Shulchan Aroch, laws of Jewish life which guide Jews throughout the world in their daily lives.

The increasing return of Jews to reclaim their homeland that began in the early 1800s added to the efforts of those who had never left!

*Mohammed won’t appear in the history books for another 600 years, and then only in what today is Saudi Arabia. He never visited Israel  (under its Roman-given name Palestine) in his life-time and Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran. 
The Dome of the Rock sits on the site of the Jewish 1st and 2nd Temples. 
Built in the 7th century CE during the Umayyad occupation of Israel and clung on to ever since.