Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Friday 1 April 2016

North of the Border Up Napier's Way

Wrote Scottish political  journalist Stephen Daisley in the Jewish Chronicle last Autumn:
'It reads like the grim manifesto of a fringe group.
"We condemn Zionism as a racist ideology based on Jewish supremacy in Palestine, as well as the related ideology of Christian Zionism... We support the Palestinian non-violent struggle for resistance to the colonisation of their lands, resources and peoples by Israel and by Zionist settlers."
In fact, these words come from the policy statement on Israel and Palestine adopted by the Scottish Green Party at its conference last weekend.The document has attracted attention for its demand that Hamas be removed from the list of proscribed terrorist organisations, but there are even more disturbing provisions.
The resolution "condemns Israel's claim to be 'the Jewish State'", instead declaring it an "apartheid" society "in which non-Jews have inferior rights". As such, it demands the law of return be scrapped for Jews and a right of return introduced for Palestinians.
The party has carved out a startlingly extreme niche.
To achieve this, the Scottish Greens endorse boycotts of Israeli businesses, academics and cultural institutions, Jewish and Arab, Hebron and Haifa. And while calling for the release of Palestinian "political prisoners", they want to see the JNF stripped of its charitable status.
There is some throat-clearing about Israel as a safe haven after the Holocaust but it's tepid stuff. Even amid rising anti-Israel sentiment on the European left, the Greens have carved out a startlingly extreme niche....
In their equation of Zionism to racism, the Greens unearth the notorious UN resolution 3379 and wear it with pride. When the General Assembly carried that motion, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the United States UN ambassador, proclaimed: "A great evil has been loosed upon the world."
Despite the resolution's eventual repeal, that evil has never been contained again. It is at the root of much "progressive" anti-Zionism today. It is why a party of mild-mannered Scottish environmentalists can inveigh against "Jewish supremacy" without shame.'
Also last Autumn, as reported here, Jackson Carlaw, Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for West Scotland, was the keynote speaker at the inaugural Scottish student conference run by Israel advocacy organisation Stand With Us, held in Glasgow's Giffnock Synagogue and attended by students from the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Strathclyde.

Inter alia, he said:
"It’s true that MSPs do commemorate the Holocaust. Sometimes I think some think they have ticked a box when they do that and are free the rest of the year to be deeply critical about Israel, and at times to allow that anti-Israel expression of view to cross into an antisemitic expression of view, and not see the difference between them.
The [Jewish]community has started to feel under threat again.
I don’t want the future Jewish community to feel no longer welcome in Scotland or that they have to follow through on discussions about whether it is time for them to leave."

He added that he aimed to tackle anti-Israel feeling in Scottish Parliament with a motion for a members debate this month titled “Bridges not boycotts” which would be a positive motion about the “contribution of the Jewish community in Scotland today”, and “Israel’s place in the world”.

Mr Carlaw was the keynote speaker at the first Scottish student conference run by Israel advocacy organisation Stand With Us, held in Glasgow...

Around 30 students from the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Strathclyde spoke about issues they faced on Scottish campuses.

Noa Cohen, vice-chair of a the new Israel Engagement Society at Edinburgh University, said her group was building up support by emphasising social events rather than political ones.

The IES was formed last year “in reaction to a strong BDS movement”, she said. “The main target was people who were sympathetic towards Israel, not necessarily Jews”. The group already have a core of around 30 members, but only around 25 per cent are Jewish.

IES political vice-chair Theo Robertson-Bonds said that Israel supporters were trying to bring a different mood to the political debate on campus.
“Students for Justice in Palestine tends to have events based around letter-writing or staging a die-in. It’s not fun, it’s not engaging. Thus we’re trying to have fun and engage people through that. Our view is through building up a really rich social base where people talk about anything, but particularly support each other on issues relating to faith and the state of Israel, that will attract more people to come along just organically.”
Ms Cohen also advised avoidance of the word “Zionism”.
“There’s such negative connotations. It needs to be tackled eventually, but especially when you’re trying to build up a base, stay away from it.”
Concerns over anti-Israel members of the Scottish Parliament was also voiced. Such members include SNP (Scottish National Party) politician Sandra White, who has since apologised "unreservedly" for retweeting an obnoxious cartoon tweeted by, to quotereporter Marcus Dysch  the Jewish Chronicle, "a man called Charles Frith, who has repeatedly posted antisemitic messages and images. Ms White has previously re-posted messages from his account."

Needless to say, the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC; Mick Napier, chieftain) has warmly welcomed the Scottish Greens' stance (see here).

Recently, this has become one of the SPSC's principal campaigns, and as the accompanying images show, Mick has been in the thick of the fight.

To quote, inter alia, from the SPSC's propaganda on this issue:

"Police Scotland seem to be lining up with Barclays Bank to prevent political activity on a public street against Barclays' $25m investments in arms giant Raytheon. Barclays profits from military technology that Israel uses  to carry out its massacres of Palestinians as part of the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Last Saturday (March 5th) Police Scotland officers on Princes Street threatened to arrest SPSC members, although the officers seemed to be scrabbling to identify any crime being committed that could conceivably justify an arrest of peaceful protestors on a public street, leafletting the public as they have been doing now for some weeks.  Ludicrously, the officers finally claimed the 'grim reapers' representation of Barclays bloody investments had to go because they might frighten young children! ....
To be clear, we have been and will remain outside Barclays because the trail of culpability from Israel's massacre of children in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine leads directly to those at the top of the bank who direct investments and profit from such mass killing. Palestinian kid
The majority of Palestinian children in Gaza are being deliberately traumatised by Israeli sonic boom attacks, massacred with weapons that Barclays invests in purely for profit. Money from childrens blood, trauma, shattered bodies, destroyed homes and schools. The suits who profit from such wanton killing are even worse than the brutes who actually use the fruits of Barclays investments to destroy the Palestinian human beings...."
Blood libel stuff.

Mick's newish slogan (we all know what the end-game is):


And here's Mick's newest thrust of his claymore, referring to a vile article in Ha'aretz by the repellent Gideon Levy:


Funnily ("funny peculiar" not "funny haha") the doughty chieftain is not averse to appearing on the satellite channel of one of the world's most notorious human rights abusing states in the world, which has repeatedly threatened Israel with genocide (I'm not linking to this, his very latest studio appearance; if anyone really wants to listen to his nonsense they must seek it out):


Israel-demonising without shame, eh?

Meanwhile  ...

Anyhow, though not directly relevant to the above. let's close with the latest thoughts of Aussie Newton Gatoff:

2 comments:

  1. Nathan of Plaza3 April 2016 at 19:05

    Something Scottish you may have missed Daphne
    http://www.studentnewspaper.org/motion-to-align-eusa-with-bds-movement-passed-by-student-council/

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  2. Groan! Thanks, Nathan. It seems these demonstrators in London watch a different BBC from me - one that uses the T word in relation to Palestinian "resistance"!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZU_d-a7N7A&feature=youtu.be

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