I agree with every word. In my case too, all this Jew-hatred — so obvious for what it is behind the casuistry — serves only to make me proud of being Jewish and determined to help and support Israel.

May I also say, it moves me deeply to discover non-Jews like Robin Shepherd, who fight a principled fight on behalf of Jews and Israel, even when it comes at a professional price. For these rare and remarkable individuals I feel an enduring respect and gratitude, just as I feel a bottomless contempt for those who hate us.

And finally, thank you for my “Miv Tucker moment” (Comment 5, August 20, 5:21pm. It had me chuckling till bedtime!

Oh please, I only gave a rough approximation of his argument. He obviously provides a number of caveats. I didn’t list them because my post was discursive enough and I didn’t wish to bore readers too much. If there is a fault here then, it is all mine. For you to suggest that any argument presented by one of the truly great thinkers in the Jewish world hasn’t been thought through properly is rather like an A level student of physics complaining that Einstein really should have got his act together.

Not only does his argument explain Israel’s defeat of both Intifadas but also the virtual elimination of Israel’s extreme left and much of the so-called peace movement. The barbarity exhibited by the various Palestinian movements only succeeded in unifying Israelis round the belief that no matter how much is offered, Palestinians really don’t want peace with Israel, or at least a peace with which the vast majority of Israelis could live. I think it also explains how the Jewish people could have come together just a few years after the Holocaust, an event that would have utterly destroyed most nations, to create Israel out of virtually nothing and in the teeth of enormous opposition.

Incidentally, I do not for one moment believe that those Jews you talk about are self-hating at all. In actual fact, I think they love themselves beyond measure.

“He suggests it is for this reason that although generally we fight like billy-o amongst ourselves, when we come under attack from outside, we unite almost as one.”

So, let me try to understand this…all the Gilead Atzmons of this world, and all those self-hating Jews for Justice for Palestine types urging economic and academic boycotts, are actually standing shoulder-to-shoulder with their fellow Jews?

Doesn’t sound too likely: I don’t think Reb Steinsaltz has thought his arguments through properly.

One of the tricks the Dutch pulled on Jews who had been rounded up was to ship them to the East in first-class carriages. Their anxieties thus allayed the Dutch Jews offered no resistance reasoning that if the style of carriage was anything to go by their fate in the East would be much less worse than they had feared. Of course, once they arrived in Auschwitz reality dawned. There are stories of middle-class Jewish matrons going into hysterics when they realised they had arrived in hell. They simply could not believe that in the middle of the twentieth century a place like that could exist. Irony in such circumstances, at least effective irony, is impossible. Similarly, I would submit that irony in these circumstances when such truly wicked charges have been made - charges that would have not been out of place in the 14th century when Jews were blamed for the Black Death - is also both inappropriate and ineffective.

I listened recently to a really wonderful lecture by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (see link below). One of his chief points is that in reality we Jews are not a people or a race or an ethnic group but a very large family (converts too who are adoped members of our family). He suggests it is for this reason that although generally we fight like billy-o amongst ourselves, when we come under attack from outside, we unite almost as one. And, the more violent the attack, he goes on, the more we come together, the stronger the bond that is created. That is why, he postulates, why both Intifadas were such failures. And that is, I suppose, why when I heard of these charges from Sweden I became more proud of being Jewish and more determined to support Israel in any way I can. And I expect that is exactly how those Israeli tennis players felt recently when the Malmo authorities in Sweden banned spectators from the Davis Cup matches because of fears about anti-Israel protests. Like those Intifadists before them, I don’t suppose the anti-Zionists at Malmo realised that their exertions would result in an Israeli victory. So I say to all those anti-Semites and haters of Israel, go ahead, give it your very best shot, because you ain’t going to win, not now or ever again.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz on Rethinking Jewish Identity at the 92nd Street Y

http://tinyurl.com/lng5b7

Irony, sarcasm …

Those who enjoyed the illogicality of this statement will find more of Miv Tucker’s priceless thoughts sprinkled liberally across the internet. My own personal favourite is the following which came in response to the news that an Arab gentleman driving a bulldozer had deliberately upended a bus and mown down several cars in Jerusalem:

“Miv Tucker
July 3rd, 2008 8:41am
The fact is, this was a Caterpillar bulldozer. If only War on Want had been able to force the Church of England to ethically disinvest from the company, thereby obliging it to cease trading with Israel, this needless tragedy might so easily have been avoided.”

http://tinyurl.com/l2nnth

I can guarantee you this: All those self-righteous types who are only too delighted to play fast and loose with Jewish security would take a wholly different tack if they and their families were the targets of homicidal maniacs. I have in mind particularly a certain prominent American professor of economics who at his blog came out with all guns blazing in defence of the Allied bombing raids at Dresden. The very next day, he suggested that the Israeli government had large quantities of blood on its hands. When I pointed out the hyposcrisy of this position, Pecksniff removed the post immediately.