The Times of London offers a breath of fresh air over Israel
Good sense, intelligent analysis, reason, balance and principled perspective are rare commodities indeed when European newspapers engage with Israel and its predicament in the Middle East these days. So, when a candle is lit in the darkness we should applaud.
Hats off, therefore, to the Times of London. Today’s editorial pegs off the ugly spectacle at the Trades Union Congress this week of some of Britain’s biggest unions banding together to call for a consumer boycott of Israel in the wake of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, and amid a more general hostility to the Jewish state which often seems all pervasive. At the time of writing, no decision on the boycott calls had been made. The Times, however, has put the whole sordid situation into some useful perspective.
“Israel is a sovereign and democratic state with an obligation, and not just a right, to defend its citizens from armed aggression,” the paper noted. “Gaza has for years been used by Hamas and other groups as a base for rocket strikes on Israeli centres of population.”
While paying reasonable regard to the rights of the Palestinians, the Times reminded its readers of a point that is voiced all too rarely:
“It is also a matter of record that Israel has accepted the case (and several proposals in history) for an independent and sovereign Palestine, but has not found a reliable negotiating partner.”
Quite so, though you probably wouldn’t know it if your only sources of information were the BBC, the Guardian or indeed most other newspapers across western Europe. The fact is that the conflict need not have arisen in the first place.
To cite the two most pertinent examples, UN Resolution 181 — passed on November 29, 1947 — offered to partition Palestine into two states. The Jewish side accepted. The Arab/Palestinian side responded with violence and war. In 2000, President Clinton’s proposals for a two-state solution were also accepted by Israel. The Palestinians rejected them and launched the second Intifida.
Such inconvenient truths, however, mean little to those for whom demonising Israel has become an obsession. The Times has a message for such people which, once again, we should applaud:
“The continual calls for boycotts of Israel — its consumer goods, its agriculture, its cultural ambassadors and its academies — are mere prejudice and obscurantism, and they are shameful.”
To read the article in full, click here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article6837545.ece
My book, A State Beyond the Pale: Europe’s Problem with Israel has just been published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. It can be purchased at the following link:
Tags: Israel
September 17th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Thanks.
What a contrast with today’s Guardian editorial which describes Israel as ‘the tail wagging the dog’. This reeks of the Walt/Mearsheimer conspiracy theory that the “Israel Lobby” (wink wink) controls US foreign policy.
Whoever wrote it knew perfectly well what s/he was doing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/17/israel-arabs-housing
September 17th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
And this from the cif!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/16/richard-goldstone-report-israel-gaza?commentpage=2
Whats the world coming to? Although, business as usual in the comments!
Mailman
September 17th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
“Such inconvenient truths, however, mean little to those for whom demonising Israel has become an obsession”
Mark Steyn put it best in 2006:
“For centuries, Jews were viewed as sinister wandering rootless cosmopolitan figures of no national allegiance. So they became a conventional sovereign state and now they’re hated for that. The standard defense is that it’s not anti-Semitic to criticize Israeli policies, but, as Miss Campbell’s letter suggests, what’s being questioned is not Israel’s policies but the right of Israel to have policies, especially on national security. If, say, some fellows in Mexico had kidnapped California State Troopers and were lobbing rockets randomly into residential areas of San Diego and Los Angeles, even La-La-Land libs would be demanding the US respond. It’s only the Israelis the world wishes to deny the conventional rights of sovereignty. In other words, it’s the legitimacy of the state that’s at issue. In effect, Israel has become the geopolitical version of the European Jew who’s allowed to operate a store in the town but not to exercise full ownership rights: in the old days, Jews faced property restrictions; now they face sovereignty restrictions.”
http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/?p=1309
September 17th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
At least one bit of good news in the cacophony
September 17th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
The Times is so hypocritical though, did you see how they covered the Goldstone report yesterday? Hamas rockets were “possibly” war crimes!
September 18th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
It would be useful if someone drew up a list of life-saving Israeli technologies (or those developed from Israeli technology and knowledge) that are widely used around the world to remind those ignoramuses who are clamoring for boycotts against Israel that they would have to forgo their use as well.