So I’m back in England, it’s grey and drizzly. I’ve been back a few days and so far Lou has left for a new life in Falmouth, I’ve been trying to catch up on the work stuff – just the 4535 e-mails I’ve missed by going away, and I’ve got to arrange a funeral for a cousin I was looking after. Real life. It all feels a long way from the late night heat of Dizengoff Square.
Still. I wanted to do something special for my 60th and that’s that box ticked. But, a lovely time aside, did going to Israel change the way I think about things? Was it, as My Fine Wife asked, still so black and white?
That’s more a book proposal than a question but, in short, yes.
Firstly, I’ve got to say that my interest is much more in the response of the Left in the UK than in the geo-politics of the Middle East – largely because I am woefully under-qualified to speak meaningfully about that.
I have no depth of understanding and the situation is, almost inevitably, much more complicated and nuanced than anyone here knows.
Seems that the old joke – two Jews, three opinions – applies to Palestinians too.
The Palestinian position is more complicated than I realised. While the notion of “the Palestinian land” is flawed because there wasn’t ever really “a Palestinian land” in the simplistic way that people here talk about it, the reality is that loads of people were, post 1948, dispossessed and did lose their homes. I can’t imagine what that’s like. Homes, communities, lost. Your surroundings, your life, everything that’s familiar… gone. And to what? To where?
That the Palestinian’s were used as collateral damage in the post-war period is tragic and criminal. Were they swept aside by the international community caught up in the collective post-war guilt about what had happened in Germany and beyond? Possibly. But remember that “the Jews” had been in Israel long before that – and I’m not talking Biblical times.
Does the international community owe the Palestinians? Absolutely (in my view)
Is Israel solely to blame? No (in my view)
Is the current Israeli govt doing anything to help? No (in my view)
But – and saying this isn’t to absolve Israel or defend recent Israeli govts – what’s happened to the Palestinian people is as much the fault of the Palestinian Authority as anyone else. It’s been said that there’s never been a people so badly led as the Palestinians – and that seems true. What’s happened to the aid? What’s happened to the money? Millions, maybe billions, and the people haven’t seen a sniff of it.
Similarly, the surrounding Arab states don’t support or help the Palestinians. Everyone’s using them like footballs. But, again. To just blame Israel isn’t either logical – or indeed fair – and it isn’t going to be productive. It will just make the Israeli govt feel even more boxed in and protective. As it is, every country that surrounds it is dedicated to its destruction.
As the old joke has it “They want to kill us, we don’t want to be killed, and neither side is prepared to compromise”.
I don’t like Netanyahu’s govt, but then again, I’m struggling to think of a government I do like. I didn’t meet any Israelis who supported Netanyahu, but I live here, and I’ve never met anyone who supports Theresa May (let alone Rees-Mogg or Johnson).
After I came back, I wrote to my friend who lives in Efrat, telling him how lovely it was to see him and thanking him for his hospitality.
“To be honest, I’m still conflicted about it all and, in truth, about where you live”.
“As for you feeling conflicted” he replied “Welcome to the club. Most of us do, one way or another”.
Maybe in a land where there’s conflict, it stands to reason that everyone’s conflicted.
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I’m still deeply suspicious of the Left here. Too many people have a curious obsession with just Israel.
You can look around the world and make an argument that this country is bad or that country is bad, and there are certainly enough countries – in the Middle East alone – that treat people badly, abuse human rights etc. But to only talk about Israel which, having been there, I would happily argue isn’t even in the Top Ten Bad Countries, is just silly and, yes, racist. There are internment camps in Chechnya for gays – anyone want to talk about that?
It’s the same as that picture taken at the TUC conference in Manchester where all the delegates are holding Palestinian flags.
Leaving aside the question of “Really? The TUC conference is talking about Palestine?” Something like this, it’s orchestrated – you think they all turned up with flags, turned to their neighbour and “Blimey, you too, huh?” – and odds on, most of these people wouldn’t know their Abbas from their elbow but still, you’ve got to ask “Why only Palestine? Why aren’t they talking about Tibet, South Sudan, Kurdistan and on and on?”
What is it about Israel that so energises people? It’s great that they’re concerned about human rights, justice, human dignity and suffering, but why are they only concerned about Israel? You can look around the world and make an argument that this country is bad or that country is bad, and there are certainly enough countries – in the Middle East alone – that treat people badly, abuse human rights etc. But to talk about Israel and only Israel which, having been there, I would happily argue isn’t even in the Top Ten Bad Countries, is wrong and, yes, racist.
And it all comes back to the Labour Party. Whichever way you look at it, it must appear odd that Labour is so concerned about Israel. This whole summer they should have been being an Opposition, should have been talking about Brexit. But all they did was discuss antisemitism. Seamus Milne, Corbyn’s chief advisor, said that the antisemitism issue would be “the hill I die on”. Not the NHS. Not care for the elderly. Not public utilities. Redefining antisemitism.
I’ve got a friend – he’s Jewish – who is very anti-Israel because he thinks that it makes Jews look bad, and that feeds into the insecurities and paranoias of the immigrant, those immigrants who want to assimilate, who want to not cause waves and not be noticed. “Leave us alone, we don’t take up much space and we don’t make a fuss”.
It comes down to a fear of being kicked out again, and while I don’t agree with it, I understand it.
What I don’t understand is why the far Left – a section of society that’s supposed to be dedicated to helping people and of being on the side of the underdog – clearly and really doesn’t like Jews.
Corbyn, through his actions, associations and allegiances, has allowed the Labour Party to become the waterhole, the place where the various anti-Israel / BDS / racists meet. And it’s the waterhole because he’s shown that Labour is a safe house for those people.
Every day, seemingly, there’s another example of Labour’s obsession. Today (Sept 24) is Day One of the Labour Party conference and a ballot was taken by the CLP of the most important things to debate:
There are 40,000 more votes for Palestine than Brexit.
There are 67,000 more votes for Palestine than the NHS
There are nearly 100,000 more votes for Palestine than the welfare system.
There are nearly 115,000 more votes for Palestine than climate change
This is the Labour Party. They need to have a word with themselves.
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Our society has a curious relationship with Jews. Mostly it goes like this. Your immediate circle doesn’t care. You’re just you. Wider society mostly likes Jews – the humour, the wit, the warmth. But historically – and this is a contradiction but it’s seemingly undeniable – countries don’t like Jews.
This period – post WW2 – is just about the longest period we haven’t been kicked out of some country or other. Historically, the Jews in any country will be kicked out. As unlikely as it seems, as ridiculous as it sounds to me with my English rose wife, two perfect kids, house in the country, Audi convertible… it always happens.
The only people who say things like “That could never happen here” or “But we’re not like that here” are not Jews.
Those people, those NotJews – and it doesn’t how close they are or how sympathetic they are – will never understand the fear. In the same why that, however sympathetic, I’ll never really be able to know what it’s like to be black, I’ll never know what it’s like to be a woman.
And that’s why Jews – even Jews who don’t know why they’re Jews but just know that they are – will never feel 1000% secure. That’s why there’s that “always sleep with a suitcase under the bed” line on the front page of this blog.
So if the real question is “Do I still stand by Israel?” then the answer is unequivocally “Yes”. If the question is “Will I still stand up and support Israel?” then, again, “Yes”. Do I support the existence of a Jewish state? Absolutely, because simply the existence of these questions makes it clear that we need an Israel. And until I can unpack that suitcase, we always will.
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I’d like to go back. I don’t think I could live there – I’m culturally too English, I’d miss the gigs, the cinema, that sort of stuff – but I’d like to go back. Anyone fancy it?