What makes a Jew stand up and be counted amongst the enemies of Israel? Is it some psychological self-hating personality? A deep yearning to tell non-Jews that 'I'm one of you, not like them'?

Standing up for Israel has never been easy, and these last few weeks have been some of the hardest in recent times. But to have a friend is to be a friend, and friends don't desert each other when the going gets tough. Even when we criticise our friends, the Torah cautions us on how to do it fairly.

All this, of course, escaped the signatories to last week's advert in the Times.

Three hundred Jews shelled out £10,000 to tell the world that Israel alone was wrong and offered advice to us all; demand action from the international community, write to your MP and write to the Israeli embassy.

There then followed a list of the usual suspects, whose advertisement failed to criticise the firing of even one single kassam rocket into Israel or one human bomber. Susie Orbach, Lynne Reid Banks, Ivor Dembina, Miriam Margolyes, Harold Pinter, Mike Rosen, Gillian Slovo and so on - they should hang their heads in shame. What interested us this time is the way the story was reported. When the Neturei Karta movement - that shameful minority of Hasidic rabbonim and their followers - demonstrate and burn flags, the opprobrium is almost tangible. Rabbis supporting Palestinians and rubbing shoulders with suicide bombers with blood on their hands. Outrageous! Disgusting! Appalling!

But, when a largely left-wing rag bag of anti-Zionists calling themselves 'Jews in Britain' castigates Israel and Israelis for activities in Gaza in the national non-Jewish press, failing to mention its context or put any sort of Israeli side, it's merely reported as another story.

When we see the Jews for Justice for Palestinians on the one side, lined up with the Neturei Karta on the other, we, the proud majority of British Jews know we're doing the right thing - standing up for Israel when it counts.
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Permanent Link posted by J @ 12:48 pm