I note with interest a couple of items concerning our cousins from across the Pond.
Britain's Foreign Secretary, William Hague weighed in today on the hideous specter of Jews in Israel building homes on property they've owned for decades in a long time Jewish Neighborhood in Jerusalem, Gilo:
“I condemn Israel’s decision to approve more than 900 settlement units in the East Jerusalem suburb of Gilo and the retrospective approval which has been given for construction in five West Bank settlements. This is not disputed territory. It is occupied Palestinian territory and ongoing settlement expansion is illegal under international law, an obstacle to peace and a threat to a two state solution. We call on the Israeli authorities to reconsider this decision, which undermines the prospects for peace. All those who support a secure future for Israel and a future Palestinian state should be working urgently to restart peace negotiations, not taking steps which make this more difficult.”
Yes..'occupied Palestinian territory' when no settlement has ever been made, 'Palestine' doesn't exist and the area in question was Jewish owned property before the residents were ethnically cleansed by the Jordanians (with British assistance, I might add) in 1948 and has continued to be a Jewish neighborhood since 1973, when the original owners returned! Oh, and strictly speaking, it's in Southwest Jerusalem, not East Jerusalem.
No matter. Apparently the British concept of property rights doesn't apply to Jews.
But wait, there's more.
In spite of Judge Goldstone's recent recanting of the bogus report accusing Israel of war crimes that bears his name, a British foreign office spokesmouth emphasized today that just because the author has finally admitted it's a pack of lies is no reason to support the retraction of such a convenient document!
So what does all this mean? Not much. Because of the almost reflexive 'anti-Zionism' and catering to the UK's Muslim voters, the Brits have pretty much dealt themselves out of this game.
They've had a de facto arms embargo on Israel for years, even to the point of not allowing anything that could remotely be considered useful by Israel's armed forces to be shipped through their ports or airspace, not even something like parts used in the ejector mechanisms of airplanes, something solely designed to save lives.
No Israeli with any connection to Israel armed forces or security services dares travel to Britain for fear of getting arrested on a universal jurisdiction warrant issued on the say so of pretty much any 'anti-Zionist' with a grievance.
Anti-Semitic instances are becoming increasingly common and accepted in the UK, and businesses with even a slight Israeli connection are now unwelcome in many areas..too much trouble, you know.
Direct trade is becoming increasingly marginal and subject to restrictions, the UK does not support Israel in the slightest in any international forum, and constantly sides with its enemies.
About the only thing Britain hasn't done yet is to declare war on Israel,and that's probably because of the vestigial, weakened state of what's left of Britain's armed forces after years of cutbacks.
And none of it ultimately matters. The UK, by pretty much cutting almost all ties with Israel , has made itself irrelevant in the grand scheme of things where having any voice in the Arab-Israeli conflict is concerned. They lost even a vestige of any influence or moral authority long ago where Israel is concerned..or pretty much anywhere else.
Like much of Europe, the UK made a choice a long time ago about where its priorities and loyalties lie, and at this point, they'll be doing well simply to avoid becoming part of the New Caliphate.
There's an odd historical pattern involving once mighty powers that aligned themselves against Israel and the Jews.
The Brits were at the height of their power when they became quite active in trying to keep Jews out of Palestine during the period when they ruled it during the Mandate, contributing largely to the death toll from the Holocaust.
Afterwards, they did their very best to destroy Israel at its birth, arming and training the Arab armies in 1948 that were sworn to a second Holocaust. And in view of that old historical pattern, it's fascinating to note that after that, they lost their Empire and much of their international influence.
It will be interesting to see if this latest attempt to side with Israel's enemies costs them their country.
Your so stupid, then British lost their empire funding a war which you couldn't bothered to join until the end, and even then , you only did it to claim all of the glory at the end.
ReplyDeleteGee...WWII ended in early 1942? Who knew?
ReplyDeleteActually, we were in de facto state of war with the Germans starting in early 1940 with Lend-Lease and our badly needed supply convoys across the Atlantic. According to Winston Churchill, who ought to know, the Brits would have had difficulty carrying on without them.Read his history of WWII sometime.
See, unlike the Muslim world, especially the Arabs, America realized the Nazis were evil.
How you can say that Britain contrubuted to the Holocaust is a mystery. Last time I checked it was the Nazi 'Final Solution' that imprisoned Jews in extermination camps while Britain did the fighting alone until the US joined the war. Although I do accept that the US did ensure we could continue to fight through the lend lease program (which Britain finally paid back in full around 2005).
ReplyDeleteDid you not read the article?
ReplyDeleteNot only did Britain bar Palestine to all Jewish Immigration on the eve of the Holocaust when Europe's Jews were desperate for a haven thus dooming them to Hitler. They actually refused to sign off on Eichmann's offer to ransom Hungary's 500,000 Jews as well as a number of Jews in the camps in exchange for badly needed trucks in 1944,the Blut Für Ware (literally "blood for goods) offer.
The Americans signed off on it, but the Brits stonewalled it, because they didn't want these Jews in Palestine. Otherwise almost a million Jews would have been saved, including the Hungarian community.
Instead, those Jews went to Auschwitz and Treblinka.
Not only that, but the Brits armed, trained and officered the Arab armies in 1948, even though the Arabs' publicly announced goal was a second Holocaust of the Jews of Palestine.
One third of the Jews in Palestine ended up in uniform fighting the Nazis, one of the highest percentages of any allied country, while the Arabs almost universally supported the Nazis.
The Jew's reward from the UK was a continued ban on Jewish immigration, while unlimited Arab in migration was allowed during the war - because so many Jews in uniform created a labor shortage.
They are complicit in the death toll of the Holocaust, and so are the Arabs who supported Hitler, including the British appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who made no secret of his anti-semitic and genocidal views.
Simply shameful.