When 1200 Jews were slaughtered by Hamas on October 7 my friend of twenty five years T did not write me an angry email saying how he supported my articles expressing my horror. He did not mind that 10 of them were British Jews or that 2 British Jews were taken into Gaza as hostages by the Hamas rapists. But today T has been in touch to slate me as being a “fascist” for supporting the Jewish State after the tragedy of Israel accidentally killing seven aid workers, three of whom were Brits. A man with a history degree does not seem able to understand that in the context of real fascism that is just such an utterly offensive thing to say. Our exchange follows and I just despair. I guess I have lost another friend.
T starts:
the onward march of fascism
I wonder whether you have taken cognisance of the lelter from 600 legal experts to the prime minister on arms sales to Israel. Among the list are three former judges of the Supreme Court including Jonathan Sumption (once Sit Keith Joseph’s speech writer).
Many right thinking Jews are appalled by the actions of the Israeli Government and IDF. Despite your fascist proclivity and desire to accept all Israeli government propaganda, might it be too much to hope that your views may now be more nuanced.
I replied:
Calling someone a fascist for supporting the Jewish state is offensive. I have Jewish friends, I have Muslim friends and relatives, I am married to a person of colour. Get back to your all white lapsed Christian world of smugness
I have seen the letter. Israel is defending itself against the hamasrapists who have sworn to repeat October 7 and the war it started & whose charter calls for the eradication of Israel and killing all Jews worldwide. We should continue to arm Israel.
All sides make mistakes in war. Israel has apologised and is holding a full enquiry. Where is the Hamas apology and enquiry into October 7. that was deliberate. This was an accident just as the UK and US had accidents in Iraq. It happens in war
T replied:
I have no time for any religion. I am an atheist but have a love of humanity decrying nationalism as the root of evil. As a Brexiteer you have brought immense harm on your country which you profess to love as well as supporting an apartheid state.
I do not believe it was a mistake nor do I have nay faith in their “enquiry”
I replied:
I do not profess to love the UK. As I identify as Irish that would be odd.
In Israel 20% of the population are arabs who serve in the army, sit in the Knesset, dominate the national soccer side, can be miss Israel, sit in the supreme court. If that is apartheid I am a banana
T replied that I am kidding myself. I merely cite facts. He insists that Israel is an Apartheid state when the facts show that it is not. He bandies around words like fascist, unaware of how offensive that is. What next? Terming the Jews Nazis or saying they are committing a genocide, no a holocaust? This is so lazy and so offensive.
Israel is paying a massive PR price for killing those aid workers. I am afraid accidents happen in war (see the Allies in Iraq) that is one reason why war is so beastly. This was a dreadful accident and Israel has apologized. The odd thing is that folks like T at one level see Jews as clever bastards always controlling everything in a devious way. Yet at the same time they see them as so utterly dumb as to want to kill aid workers knowing how badly it would hurt their cause.
The Jew haters just cannot have it both ways. But they do.
As for me I hope that we in Britain continue to arm Israel. An unarmed Jewish state would pretty soon be wiped out as Hamas has pledged to do in its charter and as the theocrats of Iran and the Houthis in Yemen ( who make those prattish marchers in London every weekend so terribly “proud”) publicly state they will do. They are not disarming, yet folks like Ed Davey and that knob who runs Scotland think that the Israelis should be disarmed. Such is the path to finishing off the work of Hitler and folks who really were fascists.
PS I see that Donald Tusk the Polish leader has now demanded that Israel pay compensation for the Polish aid worker killed. During WW2 it is estimated that between 7,000 and 200,000 Poles actively collaborated with the Germans in various tasks including rounding up Jews to send them to death camps. I suggest Israel says that it will pay Poland after its own retrospective invoice is settled. I don’t actually that would only prompt certain people to says that Jews are only interested in money. But Tusk’s comments show the zeitgeist in Europe today and it is ugly.